Yes, I've decided to start this week with something that belongs on the jokes page. Truth be told, one can only shake ones' head in disbelief.
I know what he's trying to say and I also know it's not really what he's saying, but he just cannot explain himself in any sort of logical way. Does one feel sorry for this Floyd Shivambo, or does one feel an anguish creeping up ones' spine for the people of South Africa?
Makes me think of this cartoon by Zapiro -
Where would our Floyd end up then? What's that saying about a shark and the bottom of the ocean? You know what I mean. I reckon it's the closest we've ever came to proofing the evolution of mankind (in reverse).
In the meantime our government is having a tough time. The people have spoken and now that their party is in power, they speak again. The Johannesburg city council had a strike on their hands. Bus drivers demanded a pay increase. Seems that that one has been resolved for now. Cosatu organised a strike, again wage increases and they've now thrown their weight behind the doctors strike.
Seems things are a lot worse than we expected with our government hospitals. Doctors work horrendous hours on end, no syringes, no gloves and very little pay. And of course, it doesn't help that the patients have a tendency of "borrowing" linen. Then again, not only the patients are to blame. It's very easy to justify theft in exchange for low pay. But that's not the whole story.
Equipment is in dire need of replacement. Millions of Rands invested in top class equipment have been squandered. A total waste if there's no money to maintain this equipment. Outstanding bills, contractors that are inapt and un-qualified for the sake of BEE and jobs for buddies have all contributed to the total collapse of our health system.
Milking the middle and upper class to pay for the masses. My goodness, was it like this in the apartheid years? Can one honestly say that the people were worse off during apartheid? Did we have the death rate we have nowadays then? I thank the Lord I can still (barely) afford some sort of medical insurance because without that you could die of a common cold in a state hospital.
Job losses have risen by another estimated 30 000 this past month. It hit us like a bomb last night when the SABC be cried the fact that SOuth Africa is officially in a depression. Come on, these things don't happen overnight! Since the beginning of the year the signs were clear that we're already in a depression. Luckily our financial hotshots have made their plans and rightly so. It had to hit us at some stage or another, yes? The only thing is, this is South Africa. This is a third world country and we don't have the millions for any sort of bail-out plans. Suffer we will suffer with food prices still at a all-time high.
The fact that our black South African comrades have been showing us the door since 1994 also didn't help. Some educated and extremely clever people have left a long time ago and more are leaving in spite of the world economy.
In our little town I've noticed the changes. Since the beginning of this year more and more of my regular customers walk in to purchase communication tools. I'm talking Skype and with that computers. It's easy to explain, they whiteys are doing contract work in dark Africa and need to stay in touch with their families. Times are indeed tough. They would rather bribe an Algerian and earn Dollars than sit and suffer at the hands of the powers who'd only use BEE contractors.
Funny thing that. Insurance companies that is..., for the sake of staying legal, they spend more money on getting a second contractor to fix the BEE contractor mess-up than what most claims are worth. They'd rather use so-called "approved" contractors to do crappy jobs in outlaying areas than use local white contractors and pay the additional travel and lodging expenses.
There's a lot wrong in this country, and a lot needs to get done to fix it. One can of course not forget that our parliamentarians are still showing the world how things should be done - Britain being a prime example of how to apply African logic in government.
