All hail Julius, the Caesar of the economy

Julius Malema, President of the ANC Youth League, devil-child of the ANC, should be the undisputed twit of the new millennium; but considering their aspirations to rule until Jesus returns, I suppose it’s not inconceivable that they’ll produce a few other dumb-asses.

Julius has been mouthing off again; nothing unusual for a blow-hard of this magnitude, but this time he’s surely gone off the deep end.

Remember how he grabbed every opportunity to tell everyone what a big-shot revolutionary he was? And how together with the other ANCYL brats, they were going to transform South Africa into la-la land by banishing imperialism and implementing the ideals of the antiquated Freedom Charter.

Well, it seems that we’ve seriously under-estimated this lard-arse. He’s been hard at work, not at improving his woodwork grades, but at adding some new words to his stunted vocabulary. Julius now has pretensions to becoming an economic freedom-fighter too. He’s now taken to threatening the owner’s of mines with seizure of 60% of their shareholdings. Last Friday while spewing the usual clichéd rhetoric at a gala dinner about political freedom being useless with economic freedom, he stunned everyone with this ripper:

We’re now economic freedom fighters. The revolution started to get food. We don’t have to apologise, or be shy about this struggle.

But that’s not all. It’s been reported that he went on to encourage people to keep the revolution going by having as many babies as possible. Apparently:

Having babies is a revolutionary thing. You must reproduce!

Some logic! I guess these ANCYL bright-sparks figured that 60% of all the mines in South Africa should be enough to feed, clothe, educate and keep millions of new babies happily on Social Welfare…until Jesus returns. I wonder if they’ll run this show from Luthuli House, also known as Loot Freely House by ANC detractors; or as Julius likes to call it Revolutionary House? Maybe they’ll even consider renaming it Treasure Island.

Off course, it’s a no-brainer why Julius didn’t bother to explain to the masses ever-eager to hear his vitriol, why he and the rest of that scummy lot in the ANC have temporarily delayed the “revolution to get food,” to help themselves to fancy cars, houses, liquor, clothes and other bling.

So for now we render unto Caesar that which he thinks is his, but real revolution is not far on the horizon to start the next chapter in the history of South Africa…

Does our school system kill creativity?

South Africans are all too familiar with our very own wretched schooling system which is the direct result of government ineptitude. However, according to Sir Ken Robinson (don’t worry if the name does not sound familiar – what he has to say is more important), schools all over the world may be failing our kids, perhaps not as badly as South African schools at the moment, but bad enough nonetheless.

Ken introduced the idea of creativity-killing schools way back in February 2006 at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in Monterey, California. Instead of trying to retell you about it, why don’t you watch his often funny, yet very thought-provoking Talk for yourself? I promise it will be approximately 19½ minutes of your time well spent:

At the TED conference in February this year, Ken Robertson followed up the theme he introduced in 2006, with another awe-inspiring Talk, exhorting us bring on the revolution in education. I hope you’ll find this just as enjoyable, funny and off course thought-provoking, as his previous effort:

If these clowns were not so damn funny…

You’ve gotta love this country. No matter how much our politicians screw up (and cover up), South Africans always manage to see the funnier side of it all. Take this cartoon in an on-line newspaper for instance; it’s fucking hilarious.

In fact, it’s so damn funny, I can’t resist having a go at the military theme myself:

• Transport Minister – Major Pothole
• Arts and Culture Minister – Private Parts
• Communications Minister – Major R & R
• Housing Minister – Major Billet
• State Security Minister – Rear Admiral Snoopy
• Justice Minister – Major Injustice
• Finance Minister – Major Money-spinner
• ANC Spokesman – Major Bullshitter
• Rest of cabinet – might as well be AWOL

We’re so busy laughing, we’ve postponed the revolution to reclaim the country…for now.

Whatever happened to government of the people, for the people…

For most ordinary people, democracy has come to mean government of the people, by the people, for the people. Those iconic words by Abraham Lincoln, contained in the Gettysburg Address of 1863, remains a source of inspiration not only for Americans, but many other nations around the world, and has even been incorporated word for word into the French constitution.

Most modern governments however, pay scant respect to the vision those words are meant to portray. I watched a YouTube video yesterday, titled Sai Baba Exposed – Part 1-4 (also available here as a Google video in one complete segment), and was completely astounded at the self-important retort made by a former Indian Cabinet Minister to a British journalist, interviewing him about sordid allegations concerning Sai Baba, a cult leader who thinks he is some sort of god. The Minister’s openly intimidatory remark toward the journalist which sounded like “do you know my status,” made me wince, not because it came from a member of the world’s largest democracy, but because it sounded so familiar. I could have sworn I was hearing it from one of our very own Government Ministers, right here in South Africa, or our President himself. You see, it’s become common-place in South Africa, for elected public officials, Executive,  Senior and Junior, down to the lowest clerk to show utter disdain and contempt for the ordinary people who are responsible for them holding those positions.

The culture of entitlement has permeated every sphere of public office. Even organizations such as the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), which are aligned with the ruling political party, and CEO’s of state-owned Utilities such as Eskom, the power supplier, have become accustomed to displaying a total lack of respect and contempt for the ordinary citizen, while openly enjoying the patronage and protection of the parent body, the ANC. And just as Sai Baba evidently enjoys both Police and Government protection in India, the ANC’s minions, who are regularly accused of fraud and corruption, do so here in South Africa as well.

But, this self-serving culture by public officials is not limited to India and South Africa. Until only recently, the great United States of America, that bastion of freedom and justice, the apparent model of democracy, had a President who could fit the mould of a common dictator quite easily. And just a few hours ago, I read an article Jamaican Bureaucrats Do Not Serve the People, by a retired cardiologist, Basil Waine Kong, returning from the USA to his home country, about his displeasure and disappointment at what he found there. It was chilling, because he might as well have been writing about South Africa.

Even though this is a world-wide phenomenon, I am concerned more with South Africa and our immediate problem. The great Nelson Mandela must surely be highly aggrieved at what has happened to his beloved ANC. This organization is a ghost of its former illustrious self. The ANC of today is a rotting carcase, populated by slimy maggots who pose as leaders of the people. For years they have fed off the largesse of the people who put them into power, but now that the rotting carcase that was once the great ANC no longer gives them the cover of virtue and honour, they are openly feeding on each other too. In-fighting is tearing apart the ass-end of this carcase from the head-end, but you would be hard-pressed to know which maggots are inhabiting what end at any one time.

What recourse does the ordinary person have to fight this scourge of governmental disparagement? I turned to the only true god of enlightenment, Google, for answers and asked the question What can people do if government does not serve the people? And guess what? I could not find any reasonable answers. In fact Answers.com has this to say: This question has not been answered yet. Does this mean we are doomed to suffer government tyranny for ever? Does someone have an answer, which does not involve revolution again?