People are the Worst

Studio Bob
Welcome to tonight's edition of Inside the Lens on BBC 4, as always we are interviewing people to see their viewpoints on the hot topics. Tonight is no different and we are taking a look at the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The first country we are visiting is Australia.

Interviewer
Thank you Bob, I am standing here in Brisbane with Steve, who does crocodile farming. Steve, what are your viewpoints on the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip?

Steve
Well, I would say that it is pretty hot up there, what with the desert and all.

Interviewer
And the conflict between Hamas and Israel?

Steve
Not so sure about that, but if it is anything like here, things can get pretty het up when it comes to grazing rights. Didn't know they had sheep, thought it was just salt lakes and sand?

Interviewer
Indeed.

Studio Bob
Not much of a viewpoint I am afraid, for a different perspective we are crossing live to America.

Interviewer
Thank you, unfortunately I have been unable to find a someone to interview, they seem to be under the influence.

Studio Bob
How is that?

Interviewer
They are acting erratic and to be honest, rather odd. Whenever we point a camera they scream 'woohoo' and disrobe.

(Woohooohoooo!)

Studio Bob 
Not a single person?

Interviewer
I am a  bit disconcerted, we are on a university campus, I was looking for a young voice, but so far no luck.
(Woohooohoooo!)
Switch off, switch off!

Studio Bob
When you say disrobe..?

Interviewer
I am standing with my back to the wall now to protect the broadcasting code, the ladies seems to think we are from a different kind of show, where they get money for 'flashing the tatas' as they put it.

Studio Bob
Thank you, er, lets switch to South Africa.

Interviewer
Thank you Bob, I am standing here in Cape Town on the docks and are talking to Gatiep, who runs a small fish and chip shop.

Gatiep
Is it on? Am I on Camera?

Interviewer
Yes, what are your views on the ongoing Gaza conflict?

Gatiep
Gamsa? Is he in trouble again?

Interviewer
The Gaza-Israel conflict, in the Middle East.

Gatiep
Jissus! But dey can travel! Djy see, ever since Gamsa and Israel were little boys dey was mos friends, right? But then Gamsa got mos pissed and got too loose with Israel's cherry, so then they started this thing, what you call it, sounds like feet?

Interviewer
A feud?

Gatiep
That's it, so they been going since forever, maybe standard nine. Of course when Israel then married Gamsa's sister it got worse, cause he did it out of spite, but now they got mos a kid so he is feeding two mouths.

Interviewer
I am not so sure I follow..

Gatiep
Ny man, he must work hard, but he is mos from a poor family, so he works on the same boat as Gamsa for Gamsa's dad and dey try to kill each other all the time. But then Gamsa's sis gets mad at him and den he must apologise to Israel and Israel is in the dog-box until it happens again.

Interviewer
A fascinating story and the allegorical similarities are probably the best explanation that we have heard.

Gatiep
It's not allegorie nothing, it's true!

Overwhelming Majority a bit Iffy

Fascinating reading, provided you don't mind the numbers, but we made it easy.

"1994: Of the 23 063 910 eligible voters, 85.53 percent (19 726 610) voted while the remaining 14.47 percent (3 337 300) stayed away. The ANC received support from 53.01 percent (12 237 655) of the eligible voting population.

1999: Of the 25 411 573 eligible voters, 62.87 percent (15 977 142) voted while the remaining 37.13 percent (9 434 431) stayed away. The ANC received support from 41.72 percent (10 601 330) of the eligible voting population.

2004: Of the 27 994 712 eligible voters, 55.77 percent (15 612 671) voted while the remaining 44.23 percent (12 382 041) stayed away. The ANC received support from 38.87 percent (10 880 917) of the eligible voting population.

2009: Of the 30 224 145 eligible voters, 59.29 percent (17 919 966) voted while the remaining 40.71 percent (12 304 179) stayed away. The ANC received support from 38.55 percent (11 650 748) of the eligible voting population.

2014: Of the 31 434 035 eligible voters, 59.34 percent (18 654 457) voted while the remaining 40.66 percent (12 779 578) stayed away.

The ANC received support from 36,39 percent (11 436 921) of the eligible voting population."

The will of ‘the people’? Not really - Pretoria News | Opinion

Guptaprinzip

It appears that a new bread of ideology is being developed in South African politics, one where you are not responsible at all for any actions of your underlings, provided you didn't know.

Even if close to 200 of those same government officials were involved. 

The following from our friends at Wikipedia:

"The ideology of the Führerprinzip sees each organization as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his own area, demands absolute obedience from those below him and answers only to his superiors. This required obedience and loyalty even over concerns of right and wrong."

Maybe what worked for Germany does not work for South Africa, even though the same '...obedience and loyalty even over concerns of right and wrong.' seems to have taken hold, but in a different, warped way.

We can call this the Guptaprinzip, and define it as blind faith that your underlings will do the right thing, and if they don't then you are not responsible, if you didn't know.

Thus you don't have to take responsibility or admit that your department is broken, so long as a scape goat can be found that is responsible.

What really makes for fun reading is the government claim now that the Waterkloof Air Force Base is not a national key point, but a strategic military base. It is the busiest SAAF airbase in the country which hosts 21 Squadron responsible for VIP transport - including the presidents own jet. But no, that means it is only strategic, whereas his house in Nkandla is a national key point.

How does these two disparate facts agree in any ones mind? The Guptaprinzip applies once again, because we said so.

Because we allowed the Gupta family access and provided transport and protection without telling customs, it does not mean that they were given preferential treatment or that we are fallible or make mistakes, or that there will be any repercussions, because we didn't know, see?

I am reminded of a Shaggy song, that can apply even in this situation, it wasn't me, I didn't know, I wasn't told - therefore I am blameless.

The Guptaprinzip.

Calvinistic Tribalism

The Marikana tragedy and the ongoing strikes in the mining industry has highlighted a recurring issue in South Africa.

If you read the history of Southern Africa, there has always been wars and arguments over land and resources, the Mfecane lasted 25 years and resulted in an almost complete depopulation of large areas of land.

Then the missionaries came and further fomented and ingrained the tribal identity/hate in the region to the point that we now have smaller tribes of a much bigger variety.

Whether along the traditional ethnic, linguistic, racial or the newer political or trade union lines; we still have the same tribal mentality which was fucked up beyond repair by the silver-tongued missionaries.

I blame them for their misguided attempts at stamping out the traditional beliefs and the results that we are still experiencing.

I cannot be bothered to look up the verse, but you know the one: 'If you are not with us, you are against us.'

This ridiculous black and white mentality has been taught so that it is no longer a sin to take up arms and kill those that oppose you in any way. That is why we have fights and arguments, violent strikes and killings.

Coupled with the traditional tribal beliefs, is it any wonder that people get murdered?

In Marikana the police were opposed to the strikers, they instantly became enemies due to this stupid and idiotic 'us versus them' mentality. The strikes that turn violent do so for exactly this same reason. Once opposed, even if you are in the wrong, you have to retaliate.

Without a huge, concerted effort to recognise and accept differences, I doubt that we will make any headway and the killings will continue.
 

No Pay, No Porn

'An ANTI-porn activist has expressed dismay that a 24-hour satellite sex channel is planned for SA early next year.

The channel will be titled PSat. The P is for porn.

Errol Naidoo, a long-time opponent of porn and the director of the Family Policy Institute (FPI) in Cape Town, said yesterday: “We will vehemently oppose this.” '

And the article from iol.co.za goes on, explaining the detail.

Go to google and enter 'Porn Subscription', it returns over 8 million results.

This fucknut is worried about one channel that you have to pay for to get? That you cannot access on your phone or tablet where ever you are? That you actually have to go home to watch?

A Channel that will be pretty mainstream and not as extreme as the stuff you can find on google.

Really! Can you be more ridiculous?

There is a thing called freedom of choice, which if you choose to exercise it and go through the effort of setting up a debit order and paying money every month, should not be an issue for anyone else but you.

Click here for more detail: http://www.africansatellite.net/astra_4_top_tv.php

Can, but will?

The latest campaign posters of the ANC seems to be hinting an equal bit Obama and desperation.

Together We Can !

Notice how the Comrades have moved from a specific promise (better life for all) to a more generic 'We Can..'.

But based on their track record, will they?

Anyone can do anything, but will they? And can does not imply being good at it either, as has been proven more than once.

And we cannot help but be a bit cynical about the 'Together build better Communities' bit either.

'Comrades, if the people do not vote and complain about little things like electricity and water, then we say to them: You did not vote, so we can not build your better community, because we were supposed to do it together, see?' 

But when the communities want their own representatives, or less corruption in the municipalities, more service from the people they elected, the ANC comes back and says, that 'The Honorable Comrade is being deployed, we do not work together to see what you want, we tell you because you voted and gave us the power, see?'

(We suppose they had a few extra letters left over from chanting A-N-C at the Scrabble meetings to decide which ridiculous excuse they will use for the next corruption/spying/powerplay expose and thought to use them on the posters, the rest came easy...)

Bheki 'Foot in Mouth' Cele

The decision to ban SA Roadlink buses from the roads was justified in order to save lives, KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC Bheki Cele said on Friday. In an interview, Cele pulled no punches in his criticism of the national bus operator, which has a history of accidents in the province, with several of its buses being declared unroadworthy by provincial authorities over the past two years. "They are just troublesome and everything about them stinks. Their owners' attitudes stink, their buses stink and their [compliance with] labour laws stink," he said. - from iol

but also...

The KwaZulu Natal Legislature is set to debate whether the province's social welfare MEC should be dismissed. This comes after his VIP driver was arrested for allegedly shooting out the tyre of a motorist who was too slow in moving out of the fast lane. It will also discuss whether being late for a meeting constitutes an emergency. The Democratic Alliance has tabled a motion in the provincial legislature demanding that it condemn "the assault, intimidation, insult and shooting perpetrated by VIP members of the cabinet".
Keys also asked the province's Transport, Safety and Security MEC, Bheki Cele, to retract his statement that being late for a meeting constituted an emergency, which allowed him and his colleagues to disregard the rules of the road. In May 2007, Cele said in a statement that he was late for the launch of a pedestrian safety campaign in KwaMashu, after his flight from Johannesburg to Durban was delayed by more than an hour. This, he argued, turned a "well-planned and scheduled meeting" into an "emergency", and therefore entitled his VIP drivers to use their blue lights. - from iol

so the only question i have: why the fuck did he act so fast this time, but does not care or give a shit when he happens to be running late?

(by the way, the High Court dismissed the licence suspension.)

different master, same sambok

Macambini residents near Mandini do have cause to be upset, even if the government does not wish to admit so.

what really makes the story interesting is that there are laws protecting people from forceful removal and more laws that allow people to claim their ancestral land back.

but in the name of progress, development, Dubai billions and 'the best interests of the people', the residents may lose their land.

i fail to understand how a government that is outspoken about taking farms away for restitution is also planning to remove people to make way for another rich playground? is this because the deadline for applications has lapsed, so if the planning goes ahead against the will of the community they will not be able to use the same law to protect themselves?

if the project does go ahead, how long before we find out that one of the official's wife's sister's daughter was a director of a company that supplied 'documentation/support/consultation/insert favourite euphimism for kickback here' to one of the preferred biders?

on a final note, the residents are free to burn tyres and protest but pelting innocent travellers with stones and damaging their cars is taking it a bit far, i would suggest rather to take that protest to the government buildings or they should take aim at the blue light brigade when next it passes. perhaps then the premier will stop and listen.

away in a manger?

or mangling the religious beliefs of many?

of course Zuma is like Jesus, except for the hipocrisy of being the chairman of a 'moral regeneration' committee while admitting to adultery, wasn't there something in the ten commandments about that? and maybe what he meant with the shower fiasco was turning bad blood into wine and not washing the nasty aids virus off?

according to his dear friend Magashule of the Free State the comparison is based on Jesus being '...called names and betrayed. It's the same kind of suffering Mr Zuma has had to bear recently...'.

unfortunately for mr M, this was because Jesus was sacrificing himself for the good of mankind and we all know that the only thing politicians ever sacrifice is their morals, the voters, the will of the people if it is not in agreement with their planned rise to stardom and anybody else that drives in the fast lane when they are late for the next meeting.

i don't see Zuma sacrificing his claim to the throne as he should, considering the cloud of suspicion hanging over his head.

now that would be cause for a comparison of this magnitude.