Getting older is such a painful experience that some people make comedy out of it to soften the blow.

Getting older is such a painful experience that some people make comedy out of it to soften the blow.

A quarter of a century ago, I was full of beans and vinegar. The world was my oyster. It owed me a living and I was going to claim every penny of it.

I remember standing on the hill of the great Pilanesberg mountain outside Sun City, taking in the sky, the great expanse, and confident that Mandela would soon walk out of prison and South Africa would be free.

But that's not all young minds of the time thought about. There were dreams of how we were going to drive the white tribe of Africa into the sea. There were mansions, yachts sailing the waters of the world and personalised golf courses to think about. And then of course, there were beautiful women to dream about.

From whatever television footage of hungry, fly-infested and dying generations of Ethiopians I saw, I remember thinking: "But, ah, their women are beautiful!"

I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But is there any virile, South African man who has never, ever uttered these words under his breath ... "but, ah, their women are beautiful"?

A product of colonial South Africa who grew up paying allegiance and dog taxes to the Empire, I fantasised about entering Ethiopia like a conquering hero and returning home with at least two beautiful virgins.

Time has passed and the memory has dulled. But then I went to an Eastern Cape coastal city not so long ago where the beauty of young Xhosa maidens sent electric currents through my loins.

And out in Mozambique, lying on the sun-drenched beaches of Costa do Sol, I saw beauty that was as captivating as it was intoxicating.

The point I'm trying to make is that our women, the women of the African continent, are beautiful beyond comparison.

If we discount small issues like greedy wives sending their hubbies to an early death so that they can cash in his insurance policies, we begin to understand the wisdom of God and His creation.

Imagine the world peopled only by bearded beasts whose only idea of progress is to crack each other's skulls and wage wars across the seas against people they have never heard of or seen before?

Imagine, just imagine, what a lousy lot we men would be if we were the sole inhabitants of the world?

Civilisation as we know it today would have progressed at a far slower rate.

And yeah, guys, this is my personalode to all the women of the world.

You don't have to wait for Women's Month later this year to sing the praises of the women of the world.