Yes, I understand that.

However this model is often trotted out as a reason why Windows would have a superior security record to linux had linux similar desktop saturation levels. In other words, if linux was as popular as Windows then, because the source is freely available for any hacker to study, it stands to reason that linux would be far easier to design malware for.

I have honestly heard this argument put forward on a number of occasions but until now I had not been aware that the Windows source was, in all probability, not quite as safely under lock and key as I have been led to believe.

Are you sure?

If this is true then it rather drives a coach and horses through the security-through-obscurity closed source security model.

Lack of education is one of the main hindrances to combating HIV and poverty for the population at large.

However the ruling party is less interested in helping it's population at large than it is about maintaining control over that population.

The ANC have seen the result of the raising of education standards in Zimbabwe and the subsequent loss of control by the ZANU-PF ruling party

ZANU-PF have managed to regain that control, largely by brutal oppression coupled with the dismantling of the education system and what should have been the cornerstone of Mugabe's legacy.

In an attempt to bring this post back On Topic, let me just conclude by saying that the Biometric data included in the new passports is more an attempt to appease the British so that they might relax current visa requirements on South African citizens rather than any significant action in the war against terror.