“Amid economic hardships and human sufferings in Zimbabwe, ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula says he loves President Robert Mugabe for a job well done.He said this to hundreds of the league supporters at a rally in Klerksdorp, North West when introducing the youth leader of Zanu-PF, Richard Bvukumbwe."You must go back and tell Mugabe that we love what he is doing for the people of Zimbabwe. He is doing a good work. You must tell him that we love him. We love him for redistributing the wealth and land to the people," Mbalula said at the celebration rally of the league's 62nd anniversary.” – IOL, 30 October 2006
As a Zimbabwean, I find Mbalula’s statements very offensive…and just as I am about to lose my temper, it occurs to me that Fikile Mbalula is, for lack of a better term, an idiot! How irresponsible and offensive (and idiotic) can one person be?
There have been many cases where Mugabe has attended one UN gathering or other, and has received standing ovations after addressing the gatherings. His behaviour is what my mother spent years instilling in me to be weary of. She always said that when at school, other students might ask me to join them as they got up to mischief or opted to do other activities than devote time to studying, but I should always remember that at the end of the day, my marks appear on the board against my name only…and that at the end of the day, you go home alone.
Those leaders who loudly applaud Mugabe do not have unemployment levels of over 70%...they do not have economies that are on the brink of a complete meltdown…
Now we have this idiot from the ANCYL who is commending Mugabe…this is the same organisation that I could almost swear has been at the forefront of the call for tighter immigration controls to keep out the kwerekweres from coming in to take the jobs intended for the locals. Some of these kwerekweres are people who are coming from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe – where ‘he is doing a good work’ – not because they like dealing with xenophobic South Africans, but because they are desperately looking for ways to make a living.
The seriousness of Zimbabwe’s situation is not a figment of anyone’s imagination…there are no jobs…people are starving…most services are on the brink of complete collapse…these are real consequences of bad governance…and the rapid decline of the economy has all happened under the watch of Mugabe. Yes, the redistribution of wealth had to happen, as was the case of the redistribution of the land. But did this redistribution have to happen at the expense of the population it was meant to benefit?
What Mbalula has done would be similar to me standing up and applauding the apartheid government for ‘doing a good work’. While they were in power, crime levels were low…the cities were clean…services were good…infrastructure was sufficient. It does not matter how they managed to achieve this…it does not matter how many people lost their lives…it does not matter how they destroyed the mentality of generations of black people. And of course, while I am congratulating the apartheid government, I will be hosting the leader of the National Party’s Youth League!
I really can not stand this Mbalula character…if JZ does indeed become the next president of SA, and these are the people supporting him, we all need to be afraid…very afraid….
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
On pending parenthood...
I am going to be a daddy!!!
For those of you who know me well, you are probably already worrying about the well-being of the baby…that’s alright…I’m worried too!
My wife and I are overjoyed at the prospect of being parents. However, I suspect that I am not the only one that at times feels petrified by what this really means. It means that for the next 21 years – hopefully – we will be responsible for the well-being of another human being…no one to shirk the responsibility off to…all ours…that is a scary thought!!!
My dearest wife…intent on only having the very best for our first one, has identified a number of ‘must-haves’…among them, a travel system that costs in excess of R4000…a cot that also costs in excess of R4000…and a swing that costs in excess of R1000…eish!
The pregnancy has been taxing on my baby-mama…but I have been doing my best to represent…making supper when I can…taking her shopping when I can…not losing my cool when she is being emotional and irrational…always being calm…understanding that she will not necessarily end up eating everything she says she wants (I owe this particular bit to my mother who has repeatedly told me that I must get her whatever she wants, even if she only ends up taking a bite and not wanting it anymore)…I have been trying my very best…
Despite it all, I am overjoyed at the thought of being a parent…I am really looking forward to it…yes, I am looking forward to the sleepless nights…and all else that comes with being a good parent...we are going to be great parents...
For those of you who know me well, you are probably already worrying about the well-being of the baby…that’s alright…I’m worried too!
My wife and I are overjoyed at the prospect of being parents. However, I suspect that I am not the only one that at times feels petrified by what this really means. It means that for the next 21 years – hopefully – we will be responsible for the well-being of another human being…no one to shirk the responsibility off to…all ours…that is a scary thought!!!
My dearest wife…intent on only having the very best for our first one, has identified a number of ‘must-haves’…among them, a travel system that costs in excess of R4000…a cot that also costs in excess of R4000…and a swing that costs in excess of R1000…eish!
The pregnancy has been taxing on my baby-mama…but I have been doing my best to represent…making supper when I can…taking her shopping when I can…not losing my cool when she is being emotional and irrational…always being calm…understanding that she will not necessarily end up eating everything she says she wants (I owe this particular bit to my mother who has repeatedly told me that I must get her whatever she wants, even if she only ends up taking a bite and not wanting it anymore)…I have been trying my very best…
Despite it all, I am overjoyed at the thought of being a parent…I am really looking forward to it…yes, I am looking forward to the sleepless nights…and all else that comes with being a good parent...we are going to be great parents...
On what is really important in life...
I recently had a brush with death…it was a case like the story we had at least heard once before…person checks into hospital for a minor surgical procedure…and they don’t make it out. I went in for a very minor surgical procedure…and spent the next four days in ICU! As one of the nurses later told me, I stopped breathing for a while and they had to do one of those procedures you see on those hospital dramas…yeah, pretty dramatic…
What I do remember though is waking up coughing up a combination of blood and water…and I kept asking what was wrong…what had happened…and all I saw were these nurses looking at me with rather pitiful looks on their faces…then I could not breathe and was slapped with an oxygen mask, which I could not do without for the next two days…
More than how fickle life can be, my experience helped clear up any doubts I might have had on what is truly important in life…
Family… and true friends (who I can not help but consider as family)…that is what is most important in life! I am extremely lucky to be blessed with both! Those four days were really terrifying for me…and I can not begin to imagine what my wife was going through…but what made it all bearable…what comforted us…was the way in which our family and friends formed a cocoon around us…they visited us, they prayed for us, they even cooked for us!!!
I know not the words to thank everyone who spared as much as a kind thought for us during what was undeniably a very trying time…I thank them all from the very core of my being…and I wish for them to know that they can always call on my wife and I…it does not matter what hour it is…
To you all, my wife and I are eternally indebted…
What I do remember though is waking up coughing up a combination of blood and water…and I kept asking what was wrong…what had happened…and all I saw were these nurses looking at me with rather pitiful looks on their faces…then I could not breathe and was slapped with an oxygen mask, which I could not do without for the next two days…
More than how fickle life can be, my experience helped clear up any doubts I might have had on what is truly important in life…
Family… and true friends (who I can not help but consider as family)…that is what is most important in life! I am extremely lucky to be blessed with both! Those four days were really terrifying for me…and I can not begin to imagine what my wife was going through…but what made it all bearable…what comforted us…was the way in which our family and friends formed a cocoon around us…they visited us, they prayed for us, they even cooked for us!!!
I know not the words to thank everyone who spared as much as a kind thought for us during what was undeniably a very trying time…I thank them all from the very core of my being…and I wish for them to know that they can always call on my wife and I…it does not matter what hour it is…
To you all, my wife and I are eternally indebted…
On same-sex marriages...
I have been following the debates going around regarding whether same-sex marriages should be legalised. References have been made to religion…to democracy…the constitution. Debate is good. Unfortunately, in such matters, someone has to win the argument and someone has to lose. Given the details of this particular matter, there is no middle ground.
So, it has to go to a vote…I am all for the calls for a referendum…let the people decide…that is what democracy is all about, isn’t it? I can’t help feeling though that those in favour would be opposed to a referendum…because it would appear that the majority of this population would be opposed to allowing same-sex marriages.
The prospect is very scary…on the one hand, we do not hate gay people (well, personally I do not)…though having been brought up as a Christian, the Christian values do influence my thinking on the matter…and on the other hand, I find that their behaviour does not sit well with me…
My personal views…I think societies around the world are finding themselves allowing more and more ‘deviant’ behaviours…finding explanations for them...excusing them…SA is no different…the Constitution is a very nice document…it guarantees the rights of everyone, etc…the reality is that we find ourselves with a system where there is more concern about the criminals’ rights than there is concern for the victims of crime…we find ourselves with school pupils stabbing each other…we find ourselves with schools where the teachers fear their students…we find ourselves with increased cases of teenage pregnancies…
Old school (African) mentality…teachers reserved the right to discipline pupils (and there were understood limits as to how far this discipline could go…but caning was part of it)…teachers did not fear their students…if a student became too unruly, he/she was simply expelled…pregnancy was not an option for school-going children…you fell pregnant, you left school – simple and straight forward…I come from a country were we have the death sentence…and the violent crime levels depict this…a naughty child is a naughty child…and enough discipline has always gone a long way in correcting that behaviour…now, we have all sorts of names for naughty children…they suffer from this disorder or the other…it is not their fault…so we can not discipline them…the inevitable result: the current situation in our schools…
I truly wonder how much ‘black peoples effort’ went into drafting our constitution and some of the laws that we have now?...and what I mean by ‘black peoples effort’ is not the few ‘educated and enlightened’ ones who had the ‘benefit’ of being educated in the ‘good schools’ or abroad…I am asking about the participation of the teachers who are teaching in schools where they live in fear of their pupils…I am talking about the grandmothers who are looking after great-grandchildren because their 15-year old granddaughters got pregnant but wanted to continue with school…and while I am on this, I think it needs to be made law that all parliamentarians should have demonstrated abilities of literacy and comprehension of complex matters…I do understand the benefit of a person who has not finished primary school when it comes to voting on laws which are never written in simple language…I feel this explains why in a parliament that is predominantly black, we have laws that the majority of black people frown upon…have these elected parliamentarians just decided to sell out the people who voted for them, or do they just not understand whatever they have to vote for?...I strongly suspect it is the latter…
People blast the Middle East laws of chopping off limbs as barbaric…well, at least anyone can afford to go anywhere at any time and not fear that they will be a victim of some heinous crime…In SA, we, the civilised ones, have to barricade ourselves in our homes – even when we are at home!
My subtle point…the constitution is a nice guideline…but the laws should be such that they reflect our realities…our practicalities…
Think about it…this is like the government’s plan to build low-cost housing next to the affluent suburbs…of course this does not make sense as it will certainly bring down the values of the houses in the affluent suburbs…but how does it really affect me in my huge house if 100m from my gate is a 3-roomed house with seven people living there? I drive through my gate…get behind my huge wall…get into my huge house…still swim in my huge pool…the difference is perception…why should property values go down because the poor move next door?
To bring it back to the issue of same sex marriages…what those in favour are proposing is taking something held sacred by the majority of the country (and world) and ‘tainting’ it with this ‘deviant’ behaviour…the impact is in perception…at the end of the day, the fact that two women or two men are married to each other has no tangible impact on me…but the perception could get my blood boiling…
It is not that I am passing judgement on gay people…but I am indeed passing judgement on their ‘behaviour’…indeed, I uphold the freedom of association…freedom of sexual orientation…but when you call upon the state (which in turn means me) to recognise and accept and condone and induct into the mainstream what I view to be ‘deviant behaviour’, its not going to happen…I am not going to give this change my vote…I just can’t do it…
I have this feeling that my views will result in me being called ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘ignorant’, amongst others…if being against same-sex marriages is being ‘narrow-minded’, so be it…If the past is anything to go by, this bill is going to be passed…it still is not going to change my views…
So, it has to go to a vote…I am all for the calls for a referendum…let the people decide…that is what democracy is all about, isn’t it? I can’t help feeling though that those in favour would be opposed to a referendum…because it would appear that the majority of this population would be opposed to allowing same-sex marriages.
The prospect is very scary…on the one hand, we do not hate gay people (well, personally I do not)…though having been brought up as a Christian, the Christian values do influence my thinking on the matter…and on the other hand, I find that their behaviour does not sit well with me…
My personal views…I think societies around the world are finding themselves allowing more and more ‘deviant’ behaviours…finding explanations for them...excusing them…SA is no different…the Constitution is a very nice document…it guarantees the rights of everyone, etc…the reality is that we find ourselves with a system where there is more concern about the criminals’ rights than there is concern for the victims of crime…we find ourselves with school pupils stabbing each other…we find ourselves with schools where the teachers fear their students…we find ourselves with increased cases of teenage pregnancies…
Old school (African) mentality…teachers reserved the right to discipline pupils (and there were understood limits as to how far this discipline could go…but caning was part of it)…teachers did not fear their students…if a student became too unruly, he/she was simply expelled…pregnancy was not an option for school-going children…you fell pregnant, you left school – simple and straight forward…I come from a country were we have the death sentence…and the violent crime levels depict this…a naughty child is a naughty child…and enough discipline has always gone a long way in correcting that behaviour…now, we have all sorts of names for naughty children…they suffer from this disorder or the other…it is not their fault…so we can not discipline them…the inevitable result: the current situation in our schools…
I truly wonder how much ‘black peoples effort’ went into drafting our constitution and some of the laws that we have now?...and what I mean by ‘black peoples effort’ is not the few ‘educated and enlightened’ ones who had the ‘benefit’ of being educated in the ‘good schools’ or abroad…I am asking about the participation of the teachers who are teaching in schools where they live in fear of their pupils…I am talking about the grandmothers who are looking after great-grandchildren because their 15-year old granddaughters got pregnant but wanted to continue with school…and while I am on this, I think it needs to be made law that all parliamentarians should have demonstrated abilities of literacy and comprehension of complex matters…I do understand the benefit of a person who has not finished primary school when it comes to voting on laws which are never written in simple language…I feel this explains why in a parliament that is predominantly black, we have laws that the majority of black people frown upon…have these elected parliamentarians just decided to sell out the people who voted for them, or do they just not understand whatever they have to vote for?...I strongly suspect it is the latter…
People blast the Middle East laws of chopping off limbs as barbaric…well, at least anyone can afford to go anywhere at any time and not fear that they will be a victim of some heinous crime…In SA, we, the civilised ones, have to barricade ourselves in our homes – even when we are at home!
My subtle point…the constitution is a nice guideline…but the laws should be such that they reflect our realities…our practicalities…
Think about it…this is like the government’s plan to build low-cost housing next to the affluent suburbs…of course this does not make sense as it will certainly bring down the values of the houses in the affluent suburbs…but how does it really affect me in my huge house if 100m from my gate is a 3-roomed house with seven people living there? I drive through my gate…get behind my huge wall…get into my huge house…still swim in my huge pool…the difference is perception…why should property values go down because the poor move next door?
To bring it back to the issue of same sex marriages…what those in favour are proposing is taking something held sacred by the majority of the country (and world) and ‘tainting’ it with this ‘deviant’ behaviour…the impact is in perception…at the end of the day, the fact that two women or two men are married to each other has no tangible impact on me…but the perception could get my blood boiling…
It is not that I am passing judgement on gay people…but I am indeed passing judgement on their ‘behaviour’…indeed, I uphold the freedom of association…freedom of sexual orientation…but when you call upon the state (which in turn means me) to recognise and accept and condone and induct into the mainstream what I view to be ‘deviant behaviour’, its not going to happen…I am not going to give this change my vote…I just can’t do it…
I have this feeling that my views will result in me being called ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘ignorant’, amongst others…if being against same-sex marriages is being ‘narrow-minded’, so be it…If the past is anything to go by, this bill is going to be passed…it still is not going to change my views…
Crime levels...
I keep hearing this line…”…the levels of crime in South Africa have reached unacceptable levels…”. What does this mean? I guess what I am trying to get the answer to is what levels of crime would be ‘acceptable’?...Yes, 20,000 murders a year in a country of 50 million is high…but would 10,000 be more acceptable?...what about 5,000?
Having visited the security industry’s expo last year…and since learning that the private security industry employs more people than the police service, I have to admit that sadly, a crime-free South Africa will lead to the collapse of the industry and this would not bode well for the economy...that’s a lot of people out of work…nah, a crime-free SA is just not an option…just a little bit of info to help drive my point home…in 1999, the private security industry had 166,000 registered active security officers…this is not including all the support staff (technicians, call centre people, etc)…now, to put it into perspective…the four major banks (Absa, Standard Bank, FNB and Nedbank) do not employ more than 140,000 people among them now – in 2006!...
Having visited the security industry’s expo last year…and since learning that the private security industry employs more people than the police service, I have to admit that sadly, a crime-free South Africa will lead to the collapse of the industry and this would not bode well for the economy...that’s a lot of people out of work…nah, a crime-free SA is just not an option…just a little bit of info to help drive my point home…in 1999, the private security industry had 166,000 registered active security officers…this is not including all the support staff (technicians, call centre people, etc)…now, to put it into perspective…the four major banks (Absa, Standard Bank, FNB and Nedbank) do not employ more than 140,000 people among them now – in 2006!...
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