Too Patriotic For Your Own Good

There's a new statistic claiming that deep down all South Africans were really happy to be stuck at the south end of Africa. This stat proved to be so popular that even the media picked up on it.

It even had politicians dancing in the aisles. They patted each other on the back for the great job they have been doing, and promptly forgot that the travel gate scandal ever happened.

Now everyone else might be happy about this, but I see no reason to cheer our new found patriotic pride.

By now those of you that stop by often, know I hate these public opinion pulls, there are just too many variables to take into account when working with data like this. This is another one of those surveys that were presented to the media and the public without anyone looking into the merits of it. Instead of claiming that we all felt warm and fuzzy, it should have stated that only people questioned felt that way.

My question is: Are we not becoming just a tad bit too patriotic for our own good?

Lately every product we buy that is manufactured in South Africa has a Proudly South African sticker on it somewhere.

Although the PSA campaign claims to only award this stamp of approval to the best of South Arican products, one can not but wonder, how many of these products are really as good or South African as the sticker claims.

But we don’t care, some of us watch, buy or listen to these products, just because we believe we are supporting our country. Even though there may be better imported product on the shelf, we pick SA, because it might be crap some times, but at least it is our crap.

This new patriotic attitude does not encourage an economic environment of independence and progress, since it becomes easier for companies to rather just brand their products as South African to get the consumer to buy, then to actually create better products.

To my knowledge the best example of this industry stand still, is the South African version of the popular game show Weakest Link. Some of you might have noticed that, this British created show also bears the PSA symbol at the end of each episode.

The only truly South African thing that this show can boast of must be Fiona’s bad acting abilities. Everything else was thought up by some big wig at the BBC, not at the SABC.

What are the producers of this show so proud about? The fact that they manage to produce a perfect imitation of the original? “Hey people, we didn’t create it, but you have to award us for trying.”

That is what I find worrying about the PSA campaign and our need to proof that we are South African enough. We are starting to award any and all ideas. It no longer matters whether they are good enough or not. As long as we get warm fuzzy patriotic feelings when we hear them.

Med Students: Who You Goin' To Call?!

I always knew the medical students, on this campus, were a shifty bunch. Never looking you in the eyes as they walk by. All alone, over there, on their little campus, tucked away from the rest of us. We should have known they were planning something. The white lab coats were a dead give away.

I can proudly announce that I have uncovered their diabolical scheming and will now present it to the world. I stumbled onto the medical students online homepage and guess what it was called? Can you guess? (No, really, go ahead and guess, it is more fun that way)

It was called HORDE!

Horde? A horde of what I ask you? Evil, deranged, sleep deprived, med students maybe? Or maybe it is what they call the people they kill to experiment on! I knew those dead bodies didn't come from the morgue. It could even be the horde of apocalyptic demons they are going to unleash upon the world, as soon as they discover to what, the leg bone is really connected! (Turns out it is not your knee bone. like the song says, it has some weird Latin name)

But on a less mentally deranged note. Can we all agree that, HORDE, is the worse name ever for a med student homepage or for any page for that matter. I am going to look into this! I want to know the secret meaning behind the name HORDE.

PS. I am also looking into uncovering the horrors of the DUNG BEATTLE LAB!

PSS. If you don't know, who you goin' to call, you need help my friend.

Religious Mud Slinging

Did anyone hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s little rant about the new Pope this week?

I support his views on the AIDS crisis in South Africa in every regard, and his believe that affirmative action isn't reaching the goals it was set up too, but I can't stand behind him in support, when he very nearly insults the leader of another church. To have an Anglican Bishop want to comment on the affairs of the Catholic Church is very dangerous territory. These two fractions have never shared the same campfire and never will, especially not if they start slinging mud at each other.

I'm not catholic, and I might not agree with the new choice of Pope, but frankly it is none of my business whom they choose. If the Catholics don’t like the guy they can sort it out themselves with their representatives. Like it or not, he was chosen by a counsel of that churches leaders and as many Catholics believe ordained by God to be in that position.

Yes, the Bishop is a human rights activist and even if every word he said was true, he should have made it clear in his speech whether he was speaking as religious leader or activist, unfortunately one cannot always claim these two hats at the same time.

There is not doubt in anyone's mind that this Pope will not support condoms or gays marriage, he is conservative. But for a well-known South African figure to critic him on that, is just not on. I think, right now, all Catholics would prefer to know that they have the support of the whole country behind them, while they get use to the idea of a knew man in charge.

The Sins Of The Father

How do you look at the world? With cool, rosy shades, or maybe you prefer you glass half empty with a healthy dose of negative energy. What ever you believe, you might find that you started to look at the world in this fashion, long before you understood the meaning of the words: optimist and pessimist.

Studies have shown that the way we perceive the world around us is formed at ages as young as three if not younger. During these years we are at out most venerable, the dogma and rants of a parents or teacher, become the reality of what we perceives there to be lurking in the world. Many of these held believes are never displaced by our own and even though we know better, they hang around in the back of our minds, tainting for better or worse all that we encounter in daily life.

Many parents complain that their toddlers or teens are unruly and stubborn, but many fail to question the role they played in shaping that personality. What is often seen by parents to be, rebellious behavior might actually just be the unwillingness to recognizing yourself in that little bundle of hell spawn.

I’m sick of parents phoning in on the radio help programs and blaming every living organism on the planet for their child’s behavior. They rarely take any responsibility, blaming it on friends, television and society in general. Maybe it is time that they realized that behind every stubborn child, there is a stubborn parent.

Don’t dismiss this post with aiming to do some unofficial parent bashing. The importance here in lies in each of us, releasing that, the silent crimes we
commit against those some much younger then yourself, will inevitable come back to haunt us in some form.

Contemplating The Template

Had a really busy day today, working on the new layout for this site!

Now don't get to jumpy, almost everything stays the same. Just with a tweak here and there. Its just didn't feel right anymore using the Blogger Templates, the site needed a personal touch.

Don't ask me when it's going to ever be done. Till then every thing stays much the same around here, partner.

Drawn, Appreciation Without Alienation

Being one that has always loved strip and comic art, Drawn, a webblog that, highlights the best of these, is going on my reading list.

This is the way a blog, or indeed any form of writing about art, should be written. It informs one about the subject without making you feel like a hopeless, art school drop out. It is not just for the art critic, but also for the man on the street.

Dawn encourages the appreciation of art, without alienation.

Destination To Where?!

Can somebody please inform the Destination SA presenters to: A) Stop giggling like a bunch of adolescent guppies and B) Stop talking over one another, we can’t hear what the hell your a saying.

Now I don’t care if you’re only a teen, if you want to be on the television and present, (and you have to only show on, in the afternoon, that is not a soapy or some Pokemon annoyance) I expect you to do a better job!

The Mobile Mugger Blues

Three weeks ago, while out on trip to the library with my mom in broad daylight, we were mug by two guys. The one tried and failed to grab my mom handbag, while his partner manage to hank, with some force my (please note) not so new mobile phone from me.

It was not his lucky day though, I ran after him for two blocks, yelling and screaming as I went that, someone should stop him, and a few good hearted Samaritans, that heard my frantic clatter, helped me to corner him. I walk right up to him and took my phone out of his hand.

Now even though I got my phone back, imagine my anger to hear today that mobile phone companies have had to ability for ages, to render a stolen phone inoperable, but never did it, simple because they where making money off these hot phones. The criminal that steals the phone or the person he sells it to, still buys prepaid credit and so remains a valued customer, criminal or not.

These companies, who make billions anyway, sat back and watch people get mugged, shot at, stab and murdered, just because they didn’t want to loose a lousy bunch of corrupted mobile users.

So now I’m not entirely happy to hear that they suddenly decided to now instate this policy. It is just too little, too late. If they had done it sooner, maybe I would not have had to go through, the traumatic experience of having been mug for an ancient mobile phone.

Blogging Newcomers

Recently there has been an upsurge in the amount of South Africans getting into the blogging mood. With so many newcomers dipping their toes into to pools of the commentary, there seems to be some criticism over the quality of what is being posted.

Now quantity, we all know is not always better, but is it not an essential part of improving the quality of the writing?

I know from my own writing that there are some pretty dismal parts, but by writing those pieces (and in some cases rewriting) I find that I have learned from my mistakes. As I do more posting I hope to see a decline on the amount of those pieces, which I consider, deserve a fate of never seeing the light of the blogging empire again.

The important thing is that those post are there and I refer back to remind myself of where I started. They remind me what my roots are, and why I started to write in the first place.

In my opinion this is why newcomers in the blogger sphere are important. They remind every experienced blogger, where they started all those many moons ago. More importantly it also prevents a stagnation of ideas. We all know we are not posting in a vacuum. By reading those words of new bloggers we our self grow as writers and commentators, which at least in some forms enriches our own thought processes and ideas.

Six Mil, Down The Crapper

Since all the posts lately have been all about Death, the Pope, and the meaning of life in general I decided it was time for a bit of some what disturbing comic relief.

Ever wandered where all your tax Rands are going? To mend the Grand Canyon potholes in the roads maybe? Or maybe, to build some old lady a nice comfy home? Nope, it would seem that it’s all being flushed down the local outdoor lavatory in more ways then you might expect.

People where stunned a few months back, when the Rapport, in a surprising spurt of journalistic flare, revealed that from the six million Rand given to a black economic empowerment company at the being of democracy in 1994, to build outdoor lavatories for the townships, only five loos had been built to completion, or close to it at the time the article was written.

Is it just me or are these the world's most expensive crappers? Nearly a million spend for each one. Well not really, the five loos actually didn’t cost them nearly as much, as you might have guessed. So what happend to the rest of the cash? The company declined to comment only hinting that the rest of the cash was still somewhere floating around. That somewhere being, if you ask me, their own Swiss bank accounts.

The big question of course was, what was our beloved government going to do about it? They only shook their heads, told the press that they would set up a committee to look into it and then discuss it till the end of time.

The people in the townships aren’t complaining though, it is not everyone that get to take a piss on a cool six million.

PURE FRUSTRATION!

If you ever wanted to know what pure frustration was, I welcome one and all to
spend a day at the Pretoria University Library Computer section.

If I ever found the idiot that thought it would be a good idea to merge the e-mail PCs and the word processing ones I’ll KILL him. Cause no not only do you have to stand in a 20 minute queue to send one e-mail, but you have to put up with stupid pricks that have never used a pc before asking you questions about what button they have to click to, for example, Bold their font on word. It takes them hours to type out their assignments! While we’re stuck waiting even
if we just want to send ONE LITTLE E-MAIL!

I don’t care if you don’t have a pc at home, you should go to the bloody PC Lit classes to learn how to type and format and not invade my personal little bubble of space.

The bigger problem now is, that only some of the computers are USB enabled, which means that even if there’s and pc open we have to wait for one of those to open up so we can use our flash drives. And then of course you have those geniuses that have to use those computers even though they don’t even have an USB Drive or know what the bloody hell it is for that matter.

It was fine when we could work in peace on the top floor where only the Politics students ever go, but now our mailing rights are down the tubes, along with my nerves. I mean how is a girl supposed to blog in these circumstances, damnmit!

The Pope Is Spinning

The hypocrisy surrounding the Pope's death is making me sick.

For years we have heard how many a world leader critique him on his conservative stances, but suddenly everyone is all teary eyed and snotty nosed, over a man they couldn't really give a gnomes nose about.

Take my favourite (insert sarcasm here) person President Bush for example, who couldn't we know was non so pleased about the Pope's words on his was in Iraq, but right the next day his was one of many adding his condolences to an every growing pile. Really if you couldn't stand him in life, don't go on live television and pretend, that you all of a sudden had a sudden change of heart and now you adore him.

I must say that each time I see one of the press conferences where this takes place I have this strange sensation that the Pope is spinning in his grave. Oh wait his hasn't been buried yet, changed that to where he is laying in state.

I don't think any Catholic is buying this either. I would feel down right insulted if all these people that didn't like the Pope in life, now wanted to cash is with some future voters, by showing solidarity with my believes.

Look I'm not saying that no leader should send out a message of condolence, the ones that supported his views can praise him all they want, they've earned the right.

Post Format Problem

I have to apologise for the weird way the posts are being formatted right now. It turns out that my university e-mail account and blogger are not really compatible with each other! I blame it on the university mail system!

I'll fix it as soon as I can get near a PC, which is fully web friendly and that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for to use.

And if these posts look fine to you and you have no idea what I'm talking about, you have my dear MacDara to thank for that.

Should be all fixed now - MacDara

Interview? What Interview?

Did anyone watch the interview with Mugabe last night? Not that it should really be called an interview the journalist didn't seem to really want to challenge the so called president on any of the points he made. It struck me as free propaganda time, in a prime time slot.

It's no good boosting that you have an interview with a figure of dispute if you don't do anything really in that space of the interview. Just working on the basis that now that you have the interview, you don't want to ask any real questions that might upset your guest, isn't what should be wear the label of good or in depth journalism.

I mean Mugabe found and was allowed to nearly side step every question that came his way. Even when ask about some journalists not being allowed to report on the election did he go on at length about how there was some plot going on with the BCC trying to bring observers not just journalist, instead of answering the question. It seems to me the BBC wasn't the only news organisation that was refused for some unexplained reason. Why wasn't he ask why some of the more liberal South African news stations weren't allowed to cover his elections

I was going to comment on how I expected more in depth coverage from a program that was at least tonight hosted by an Ex-702 journalist, who I at one point really admired as one of the better newsreaders on radio, but I am not going to comment, cause I think the shame that person should feel for hosting this shambles of an interview, should be enough.

A Case Of The Giggles

Courtrooms in the USA must be a pretty dull places, cause when there was some witty banter between a witness and the prosecutor in the Jackson trail it made front page news.

Journalists, of course, could not lead with that headline. Not even they could lead with "Jacko witness gets laugh", even though I'm sure it crossed the editor's mind at least once. No, they chop and changed it into a few pages worth of dribble about what these smirk's of mirth had to say about the justice system in the USA.

I can solve there conundrum for them. What does it say about the court system in the United States? NOTHING. A judge had a laugh, it is not the next step in evolution of man.

But these headlines do raise a few interesting insights into the profession of journalism in the States.

I'm a great fan of finding a new angle to a story, but there is also a point where this gets to be less of an angle and more of an attempt to fill pages without having to put your foot, out of the newsroom. What is more convenient then taken a blown out of proportion case and just tagging any old thing at the end of it. You get home early and the hubby and wife are not mad at you. Isn't it all in a days work?

Does any of us think that a headline about the giggles would have made a frontpage if it happened in another child abuse court case? HELL NO. It become a headline cause in some way it could be linked to a celebrity, even if it was just in some pointless, trivial way.

Roy Peter Clark, of the Poynter Institute for Media Sudies, in his comments to the Baltimore Sun said it best: "Journalists have a responsibility to make the important interesting rather than to just continually try to make us believe the interesting is important."

Bahrain: A Rather Dry Experience

After watching the first session qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix this afternoon, it stuck me again just how much I disliked this circuit.

I had the same feeling last year, but decided to delay judgment until this year to see if the conditions would improve any, but still we are faced with the same desert induced problems, such as sand, dirt and and an overall very unappealing setting.

Although Alanso's qualifying one lap, wasn't bad, watching the car maneuvering around corners and breaking, it still seemed to be at an almost stop start pace.

All the drivers out on the circuit today, seemed to struggle a bit finding a good line or had slight trouble on the breaking. The cars just didn't seem to be able to flow as well as they would say on the Spa circuit. Now I know some might say that this because the 2005 cars are still in their nip and tuck stages, where the drivers and cars are only starting to get the feel of each other, but still this is no excuse for the lack luster racing that we've seen so far this weekend.

They designed Bahrain to have several different racing lines and to be spectators friendly, but in the end it seems all they achieved, is a track, that offers the spectator a front row seat to how a driver tries to figure out, which one of those many racing lines to use.

I understand that in the world of motor racing promoters tend to go where the money is, but really does this mean we have to build a racing circuit wherever there is a rich or influential Formula One fan?

Frankly if I wanted to see racing through desert terrain, I would watch off roading and not Formula One.

In Need Of Divine Clarification

Heres a question for all the Catholics out there.

If the Pope is placed on life support and is technically still alive by the fact that his heart is still beating, can the Catholic church go ahead and vote for the new pope or do they have to wait for him to be officially dead in every way and form?

Certainly they cannot expect everything to go on as before if the leader of the church is on life support. They would have to pick a new one, right?

Miracles Do Happen

I can't believe, the MDC is set to win this election. Against all odds they have come out on top. Now we know that miracles do still happen in this day and age.

Now I don't want to rain on anybody parade, but this does not mean that everything is as right as rain in Zim once more.

There are no reasons to believe that the Zanu-PF government will listen to a parliament made up mostly of oppositions party members. A good basis for this assumption is that in the past they have chosen to igonore not only thier starving supports pleas for food , but also gone against rulings instituted by their own appointed judges when those decision were not to their liking. I doubt it if they are really going to care what a parliament has to say. My best bet is that the Zanu-PF government will most likely practice selective hearing when is comes to parliamentary rulings and will only listen, if these rulings fit their views of what a modern Zimbabwe should look like.

Other worries are that already strained relations between opposing camps in the rural areas might finally burst into full tribal war. I mean the more radical factions, often found within the rual areas, of these two parties are not known for being level headed to put it mildly. And I hardly trust the Zim police to keep law and order if there was to be certain disruptions in areas.

These are, of course, all worse case scenarios. Lets hope they stay that way.