Somehow I feel cheated ... I’ve been thinking back to my recent operation and, where I had anticipated such a lekker sleep after the anaesthetic, all I got was nausea... Lots ‘n lots of nausea. And pain that wasn’t controlled properly for the first 24 hours... Oh, ja, there was lots of that too.
That isn’t right... If one has to have an op, the least those medical types can do is ensure that you have a GOOD anaesthetic experience that allows you to sleep blissfully afterwards and... KILL THE PAIN people...
I have also been wondering what weird questions or statements I may have come out with when I was being ‘resuscitated’ after the op... Fortunately there’s no one who can tell me. I can remember, with a previous operation, as I came around I could hear kids crying. I didn’t know at the time that the poor little blighters had just been subjected to tonsillectomies. All I was aware of was the fact that I had just had knee surgery and, even though it was &*(#$%@ sore, all I wanted to do was sleep. You know, that lekker anaesthetic sleep that the anaesthetist for that op at least got right...
Anyway, at the top of my lungs I told anyone who would listen to ‘tell those kids to SHUT UP!’ Not once, but numerous times. I’m surprised they never gagged me to shut me up.
Did you know that ‘they’ say you are technically dead when you have a general anaesthetic? Yup, technically dead. It’s no wonder we talk such crap when we come around. I think the brain and the mouth need a while to reconnect... Strange though, if we are technically dead under anaesthetic why is it that I have never had a near-death experience? I’ve had numerous operations but not even one near-death experience. My dad, who was basically an atheist his entire life, had a near-death experience during an operation when he was in his fifties. If there is no after-life someone should explain to me why, after that experience, my dad went from being a total atheist to someone who walked with God every day for the next twenty or so years of his life.
When my dad told us about his near-death experience (he was shocked back to life after dying during the operation) we never thought he was being weird. He was totally sincere. Somehow it wasn’t strange to hear him say, inter alia, that he had seen a ‘being of light’ who told him: “Don’t be afraid. I am with you.”
Far weirder are some of the things I know that other people have said when they came around after general anaesthetic:
“Give me my panties...”
“Give me my teeth...”
“Let work know that I’m alive...”
“That doctor has the sexiest smile...”
Man, we can talk crap when our defences are down, can’t we? Sometimes we can talk crap when they’re up too...
There are a lot of truths in this posting, but if you only pick up on one bit of truth in it, let it be the fact that my dad genuinely had a near-death experience that changed not only his life, but ours as a family too...
Ciao for now.
(All rights reserved.)
About Me
- Catherine Mackie
- Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
- I am a white African. Contradiction in terms? I think not. Sometimes my blog will be serious; sometimes sad; sometimes irreverent; sometimes witty; always my truth simply written.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Water, Water, Everywhere...
When Mad Max and I moved to Johannesburg in the 1990’s, Bruma Lake was ‘brand new’ and something that everyone wanted to experience. Much like the ‘brand new’ Gautrain that everyone and his brother is going for at least one ride on at present. ‘In the beginning’ Bruma Lake was actually quite a nice place, particularly at night, with lights from shops, hotels and offices reflecting off the water. Bruma Lake was supposed to be a boating lake but I don’t think that ever really took off. Built on the Jukskei River which is, in my opinion, a stream rather than a river, Bruma Lake’s popularity soon waned.
And, it seems, as its popularity waned so Bruma Lake’s problems increased. Or is it that is problems arose its popularity waned? How is it that a destination that was quite popular some two decades ago is now almost considered a no-go zone by most South Africans? Apart from the fact that drug dealers operate quite openly in the area, on a few occasions bodies have been fished out of the lake. Perhaps the corpses were those of drug addicts, or rival drug dealers, who were murdered and dumped. Although, in fairness, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were simply the corpses of people who had been killed by the high levels of eColi that are present in the lake (and the river) these days.
It seems that acceptable levels of eColi in a water sample are in a range of 0 – 2,000 per 100ml of water. In Bruma Lake recent eColi levels were recorded as being approximately 2,400,000 per 100ml of water. That is well over one thousand times higher than the acceptable maximum levels of eColi in water. The reason for this sorry state of affairs is that, inter alia, sewerage has been flowing into the Jukskei river at an alarming rate due to blocked sewers and sewage pollution from informal settlements. This is not a new problem either. It is just a problem that has not received adequate corrective and proactive attention over the past two decades or so.
Due to the fact that the Jukskei river ultimately flows into the Crocodile River, and thus into Hartbeespoort Dam, these unacceptably high levels of eColi are now becoming present in water that is used for irrigating food crops in the vicinity of Hartbeespoort Dam. Apparently this is just one of the many sources of pollution of Hartbeespoort Dam and, countrywide, the quality of water in South Africa is declining at an alarming rate. Was a time when you could open a tap and drink water straight from it in almost any region in the country. This is no longer the case, I’m afraid. Some experts believe that by 2015 at least 80% of the country’s water supplies will be contaminated beyond the point of purification and will be totally unfit for consumption by man or beast. At least one major food chain has been cancelling fresh produce contracts due to the presence of eColi on the fresh produce.
What has led to this disastrous state of affairs?
Is it overcrowding in the cities due to a never-ending influx of illegal immigrants and rural citizens due to lack of sustainable employment opportunities in rural areas and the added strain their presence places on the sewerage systems?
Is it incompetence caused by blind implementation of Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment?
Is it due to falsification of qualifications and nepotism?
Is it lack of understanding about the importance, no the essential nature, of good hygiene practices?
Is it due to industrialisation and mining without any checks and balances in place?
It is all-of-the above, plus.
But, I think, even more importantly and the scariest question of all: Does anyone in power actually understand that our scarce water resources are being totally polluted to the point where we will not be able to use them to feed the nation? Wait till the masses are truly starving and see what happens then...
On a positive note: At least we can still drink water straight from the tap in Johannesburg right now.
(All rights reserved.)
And, it seems, as its popularity waned so Bruma Lake’s problems increased. Or is it that is problems arose its popularity waned? How is it that a destination that was quite popular some two decades ago is now almost considered a no-go zone by most South Africans? Apart from the fact that drug dealers operate quite openly in the area, on a few occasions bodies have been fished out of the lake. Perhaps the corpses were those of drug addicts, or rival drug dealers, who were murdered and dumped. Although, in fairness, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were simply the corpses of people who had been killed by the high levels of eColi that are present in the lake (and the river) these days.
It seems that acceptable levels of eColi in a water sample are in a range of 0 – 2,000 per 100ml of water. In Bruma Lake recent eColi levels were recorded as being approximately 2,400,000 per 100ml of water. That is well over one thousand times higher than the acceptable maximum levels of eColi in water. The reason for this sorry state of affairs is that, inter alia, sewerage has been flowing into the Jukskei river at an alarming rate due to blocked sewers and sewage pollution from informal settlements. This is not a new problem either. It is just a problem that has not received adequate corrective and proactive attention over the past two decades or so.
Due to the fact that the Jukskei river ultimately flows into the Crocodile River, and thus into Hartbeespoort Dam, these unacceptably high levels of eColi are now becoming present in water that is used for irrigating food crops in the vicinity of Hartbeespoort Dam. Apparently this is just one of the many sources of pollution of Hartbeespoort Dam and, countrywide, the quality of water in South Africa is declining at an alarming rate. Was a time when you could open a tap and drink water straight from it in almost any region in the country. This is no longer the case, I’m afraid. Some experts believe that by 2015 at least 80% of the country’s water supplies will be contaminated beyond the point of purification and will be totally unfit for consumption by man or beast. At least one major food chain has been cancelling fresh produce contracts due to the presence of eColi on the fresh produce.
What has led to this disastrous state of affairs?
Is it overcrowding in the cities due to a never-ending influx of illegal immigrants and rural citizens due to lack of sustainable employment opportunities in rural areas and the added strain their presence places on the sewerage systems?
Is it incompetence caused by blind implementation of Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment?
Is it due to falsification of qualifications and nepotism?
Is it lack of understanding about the importance, no the essential nature, of good hygiene practices?
Is it due to industrialisation and mining without any checks and balances in place?
It is all-of-the above, plus.
But, I think, even more importantly and the scariest question of all: Does anyone in power actually understand that our scarce water resources are being totally polluted to the point where we will not be able to use them to feed the nation? Wait till the masses are truly starving and see what happens then...
On a positive note: At least we can still drink water straight from the tap in Johannesburg right now.
(All rights reserved.)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday Morning
This morning I awoke at dawn with a ‘popping’ sensation in my abdomen. Having just had a total abdominal hysterectomy, my first instinct was that I had somehow succeeded in ripping internal stitches apart. However, as I lay in bed, slowly coming to my senses, I decided that everything was still okay and, instead of leaping from bed in distress I lay quietly, savouring the sounds of Sunday morning in my neighbourhood.
Well, perhaps I didn’t savour them all...
The predominant sound was that of a helicopter circling nearby and I wondered idly whether they were looking for a hi-jacked motor vehicle so early on a Sunday morning. In closer proximity, the intermittent sound of traffic moving along the nearby main road spoke of a lazy weekend as opposed to a pressured weekday. As someone walked along the street, the irritating dogs next door set up their awful, ear-shattering barking and I cursed not only them, but also their owners whom I have never once heard chasten them to be quiet. Not once. Those dogs bark like that day in and day out until I am fit to commit murder. Got to do something about it, but what? This is South Africa and all I know about my neighbours on that side, hiding behind their eight-foot walls and vicious dogs is that they are foreigners and there are quite a few of them living on the property. Would hate to piss them off if they are the vengeful kind...
As the dogs quieten down again I refocus my thought on the helicopter that is still circling, but further away now. Down the street an impatient foot on an accelerator revs a car engine and, from one of the many backyard rooms nearby, I hear the clatter of pots and pans, the flush of a toilet. Then, seemingly directly on the other side of the eight-foot wall I hear one of my anonymous neighbours clearing phlegm from his throat... and my stomach somersaults nauseatingly.
As the sounds of human endeavour and life increase in this overpopulated concrete jungle, where backyard rooms are mushrooming and gardens and trees are disappearing at an alarming rate, I hear the chatter of birds. I savour the cheerful, chirping, cheeping, chattering birds going about their business, just as they do every day of the week. No faster, no slower, no earlier, no later.
Curling into the foetal position, I shut out the increasingly noisy sounds of a city that is slowly awakening and focus my thought on all the little feathered creatures greeting the day. Smiling, I drift back into lazy Sunday morning sleep.
(All rights reserved.)
Well, perhaps I didn’t savour them all...
The predominant sound was that of a helicopter circling nearby and I wondered idly whether they were looking for a hi-jacked motor vehicle so early on a Sunday morning. In closer proximity, the intermittent sound of traffic moving along the nearby main road spoke of a lazy weekend as opposed to a pressured weekday. As someone walked along the street, the irritating dogs next door set up their awful, ear-shattering barking and I cursed not only them, but also their owners whom I have never once heard chasten them to be quiet. Not once. Those dogs bark like that day in and day out until I am fit to commit murder. Got to do something about it, but what? This is South Africa and all I know about my neighbours on that side, hiding behind their eight-foot walls and vicious dogs is that they are foreigners and there are quite a few of them living on the property. Would hate to piss them off if they are the vengeful kind...
As the dogs quieten down again I refocus my thought on the helicopter that is still circling, but further away now. Down the street an impatient foot on an accelerator revs a car engine and, from one of the many backyard rooms nearby, I hear the clatter of pots and pans, the flush of a toilet. Then, seemingly directly on the other side of the eight-foot wall I hear one of my anonymous neighbours clearing phlegm from his throat... and my stomach somersaults nauseatingly.
As the sounds of human endeavour and life increase in this overpopulated concrete jungle, where backyard rooms are mushrooming and gardens and trees are disappearing at an alarming rate, I hear the chatter of birds. I savour the cheerful, chirping, cheeping, chattering birds going about their business, just as they do every day of the week. No faster, no slower, no earlier, no later.
Curling into the foetal position, I shut out the increasingly noisy sounds of a city that is slowly awakening and focus my thought on all the little feathered creatures greeting the day. Smiling, I drift back into lazy Sunday morning sleep.
(All rights reserved.)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Big Five
South Africa is renowned for its Big Five: these are the elephant, the rhino, the water buffalo, the leopard and the lion. Anyone who visits a game reserve can be forgiven for thinking they had died and gone to heaven if they manage to see the Big Five during their game drives. It is actually quite difficult to see game that is camouflaged by the shade of a tree or the long grass.
There are still many people in the world who confuse a game reserve with a zoo, where it is easy to see the Big Five in their confined enclosures. In Africa game reserves are vast tracts of land where some really beautiful, and truly scary, wild animals roam free.
Over the years we have had some incidents, fortunately isolated, of tourists hopping out of their vehicles to photograph these animals. The result has been disastrous for the tourist. One thing anyone visiting Africa must remember is ‘DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE!’ when viewing game in a game reserve unless you can run faster than a hungry lion or an angry rhinoceros or a rampaging bull elephant. The water buffalo is, arguably, the most dangerous of them all. The leopard only hunts at night, so is unlikely to attack during the day unless startled.
The Big Five are magnificent. You don’t have to take my word for it, just look them up on the internet. However, soon they could be reduced to the Big Four which doesn’t seem very appealing, does it?
Sadly there are some very greedy, and extremely ignorant, people on this planet who believe that it is okay to kill a rhino for its horn, which is worth about one million south African rands on the black market (black meaning illegal and not a race group). As a result the rhino is now under threat of extinction due to the relentless pursuit of wealth by poachers and the end users who, falsely, believe that rhino horn has medicinal value.
In South Africa more than 200 rhino have been butchered for their horns in 2010 alone. This is an astronomical problem if you take into account that there are less than 10000 white rhino in South Africa and less than 2000 black rhino. White rhinos are a protected species, black rhinos are an endangered species. What may have saved the black rhino to some extent is that white rhino horn, which is bigger than black rhino horn, is more valuable on the black market. But when you’re flying in a helicopter, at night, can you see whether the rhino you are about to target is black or white. In fact, can you even see that the rhino has a horn at all in the dark? Many rhinos have been stripped of their horns, their protection against predators, in an effort to stem the poaching. However, when a rhino sans horn is tracked it is killed anyway so that the poachers are never misled into tracking it again! When I say killed I am also being kind as many of these magnificent creatures are left to bleed to death. Such cruelty, on every front. One that survived recently had nine bullets pumped into her. Seems that someone is trying to get 50 Cent (the singer) to adopt her now ‘cos of the similarity of their near death experiences...
The good news is that our government has declared war on poachers and is arresting them fast and furiously at present. However, even if the cases are proven, the maximum sentences are insignificant. A maximum of five years in jail for contributing to eliminating a species from the face of the earth?
Justice sucks, even when it works, doesn’t it? Perhaps the Assets Forfeiture unit can attach all their bank accounts and worldly possessions as a form of restitution? That would give them a bit of pain...
On my poetry blog I have posted a poem I wrote about a rhino if you would like to view it. Since writing the poem I have learned that rhino horn is, apparently, not used as an aphrodisiac but I am not prepared to change the poem as I feel there must have been some basis for those assertions over the years. You know the old adage, “where there’s smoke there’s fire...”
(All rights reserved.)
There are still many people in the world who confuse a game reserve with a zoo, where it is easy to see the Big Five in their confined enclosures. In Africa game reserves are vast tracts of land where some really beautiful, and truly scary, wild animals roam free.
Over the years we have had some incidents, fortunately isolated, of tourists hopping out of their vehicles to photograph these animals. The result has been disastrous for the tourist. One thing anyone visiting Africa must remember is ‘DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE!’ when viewing game in a game reserve unless you can run faster than a hungry lion or an angry rhinoceros or a rampaging bull elephant. The water buffalo is, arguably, the most dangerous of them all. The leopard only hunts at night, so is unlikely to attack during the day unless startled.
The Big Five are magnificent. You don’t have to take my word for it, just look them up on the internet. However, soon they could be reduced to the Big Four which doesn’t seem very appealing, does it?
Sadly there are some very greedy, and extremely ignorant, people on this planet who believe that it is okay to kill a rhino for its horn, which is worth about one million south African rands on the black market (black meaning illegal and not a race group). As a result the rhino is now under threat of extinction due to the relentless pursuit of wealth by poachers and the end users who, falsely, believe that rhino horn has medicinal value.
In South Africa more than 200 rhino have been butchered for their horns in 2010 alone. This is an astronomical problem if you take into account that there are less than 10000 white rhino in South Africa and less than 2000 black rhino. White rhinos are a protected species, black rhinos are an endangered species. What may have saved the black rhino to some extent is that white rhino horn, which is bigger than black rhino horn, is more valuable on the black market. But when you’re flying in a helicopter, at night, can you see whether the rhino you are about to target is black or white. In fact, can you even see that the rhino has a horn at all in the dark? Many rhinos have been stripped of their horns, their protection against predators, in an effort to stem the poaching. However, when a rhino sans horn is tracked it is killed anyway so that the poachers are never misled into tracking it again! When I say killed I am also being kind as many of these magnificent creatures are left to bleed to death. Such cruelty, on every front. One that survived recently had nine bullets pumped into her. Seems that someone is trying to get 50 Cent (the singer) to adopt her now ‘cos of the similarity of their near death experiences...
The good news is that our government has declared war on poachers and is arresting them fast and furiously at present. However, even if the cases are proven, the maximum sentences are insignificant. A maximum of five years in jail for contributing to eliminating a species from the face of the earth?
Justice sucks, even when it works, doesn’t it? Perhaps the Assets Forfeiture unit can attach all their bank accounts and worldly possessions as a form of restitution? That would give them a bit of pain...
On my poetry blog I have posted a poem I wrote about a rhino if you would like to view it. Since writing the poem I have learned that rhino horn is, apparently, not used as an aphrodisiac but I am not prepared to change the poem as I feel there must have been some basis for those assertions over the years. You know the old adage, “where there’s smoke there’s fire...”
(All rights reserved.)
Monday, October 11, 2010
Nationalisation
The chorus for nationalisation of the mines and banks in South Africa is becoming increasingly raucous. The logic being used to sway the masses is that if the mines, and whatever else, are nationalised then the profits can be used to finance free education.
How realistic is the call when, apparently, the only state-owned mine in the country runs at a massive loss?
Also, what is the REAL motive behind the call? In my experience there is normally the stated motive, which is trumpeted abroad for all and sundry to hear and debate, and then there is the REAL motive. The one that is discussed either in hushed voices behind closed doors or, more often than not, loudly in pubs with alcohol-soaked voices rising in direct proportion to the level of inebriation of the speaker.
What is the hidden agenda?
Could it be that many people who were given shares in the mines and banks after South Africa became a democracy, unhappy with the current value of those shares, want to cash in on them in a big way?
“They” tell us that black mine owners have no problem with nationalisation of their mines. Is that because the reserves in the mines the black mine owners bought have been virtually exhausted, having been purchased at the end of their viable life? So-called white mine owners (most mines are stock exchange listed to my knowledge so shareholders could be from anywhere, and any race group, in the world) are fighting tooth and nail to prevent nationalisation happening.
Call me cynical, but when I hear thevuvuzela, sorry, Julius Malema trumpeting about nationalisation I cannot help but wonder what the REAL reason is for that call.
Notes:
1. For those who did not get to watch the FIFA World Cup 2010, a vuvuzela is a plastic ‘horn’ that makes a very loud and obnoxious sound and doesn’t add any value to anything. It definitely does not enable meaningful dialogue to take place in its presence. Excessive use of the vuvuzlea during the world cup even resulted in a new medical condition: Vuvu lips! I kid you not!! They have no relationship to Botox lips, although I think that both the bearers (wearers?) of Vuvu Lips and Botox Lips experience the same lack of sensation.
2. Julius Malema is president of the ANC Youth League.
I decided to post the following poem on this blog, rather than on my other blog at http://bleedingmoonpoetry.blogspot.com because I feel it says exactly how I feel about certain individuals in this country.
EMPTY VESSEL
When
you speak
we hear a
vuvuzela.
You are obnoxious.
you grate on every nerve.
You overwhelm the voices
of stability and reason
with the drivel you sprout so freely.
When you speak we hear a vuvuzela.
(All rights reserved.)
How realistic is the call when, apparently, the only state-owned mine in the country runs at a massive loss?
Also, what is the REAL motive behind the call? In my experience there is normally the stated motive, which is trumpeted abroad for all and sundry to hear and debate, and then there is the REAL motive. The one that is discussed either in hushed voices behind closed doors or, more often than not, loudly in pubs with alcohol-soaked voices rising in direct proportion to the level of inebriation of the speaker.
What is the hidden agenda?
Could it be that many people who were given shares in the mines and banks after South Africa became a democracy, unhappy with the current value of those shares, want to cash in on them in a big way?
“They” tell us that black mine owners have no problem with nationalisation of their mines. Is that because the reserves in the mines the black mine owners bought have been virtually exhausted, having been purchased at the end of their viable life? So-called white mine owners (most mines are stock exchange listed to my knowledge so shareholders could be from anywhere, and any race group, in the world) are fighting tooth and nail to prevent nationalisation happening.
Call me cynical, but when I hear the
Notes:
1. For those who did not get to watch the FIFA World Cup 2010, a vuvuzela is a plastic ‘horn’ that makes a very loud and obnoxious sound and doesn’t add any value to anything. It definitely does not enable meaningful dialogue to take place in its presence. Excessive use of the vuvuzlea during the world cup even resulted in a new medical condition: Vuvu lips! I kid you not!! They have no relationship to Botox lips, although I think that both the bearers (wearers?) of Vuvu Lips and Botox Lips experience the same lack of sensation.
2. Julius Malema is president of the ANC Youth League.
I decided to post the following poem on this blog, rather than on my other blog at http://bleedingmoonpoetry.blogspot.com because I feel it says exactly how I feel about certain individuals in this country.
EMPTY VESSEL
When
you speak
we hear a
vuvuzela.
You are obnoxious.
you grate on every nerve.
You overwhelm the voices
of stability and reason
with the drivel you sprout so freely.
When you speak we hear a vuvuzela.
(All rights reserved.)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Commonwealth Games
Today I am a very proud South African.
As I write this, Team South Africa has bagged no less than 10 gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi!!! and the competition is only just past the halfway mark. This is no mean achievement considering that a batch of our top athletes dropped out of the Games at the last minute due to injuries.
What soured the entire thing a bit for me is that some people still found it necessary to jump on the racism bandwagon and criticise the fact that the team is not truly representative of the population in South Africa as it has a large percentage of white competitors.
Whatever happened to ‘may the best man/woman win’? Despite what some may think, all these competitors are, indeed, South African citizens and if they are the best the country has to offer I, personally, couldn’t care if the entire team is bright green!
I only clarify my race group in South Africa to illustrate a point when it is necessary e.g. on my blog I think it is necessary to mention it so that readers can understand where I’m coming from.
For the rest I am just a human being, citizen of South Africa.
Congratulations, Team South Africa. You have done us proud!
(All rights reserved.)
As I write this, Team South Africa has bagged no less than 10 gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi!!! and the competition is only just past the halfway mark. This is no mean achievement considering that a batch of our top athletes dropped out of the Games at the last minute due to injuries.
What soured the entire thing a bit for me is that some people still found it necessary to jump on the racism bandwagon and criticise the fact that the team is not truly representative of the population in South Africa as it has a large percentage of white competitors.
Whatever happened to ‘may the best man/woman win’? Despite what some may think, all these competitors are, indeed, South African citizens and if they are the best the country has to offer I, personally, couldn’t care if the entire team is bright green!
I only clarify my race group in South Africa to illustrate a point when it is necessary e.g. on my blog I think it is necessary to mention it so that readers can understand where I’m coming from.
For the rest I am just a human being, citizen of South Africa.
Congratulations, Team South Africa. You have done us proud!
(All rights reserved.)
Friday, October 8, 2010
Miracle?
I fully intended to write about something positive today, but just had to share this.
This week I had a dental appointment in South Kensington, Johannesburg. When I was finished I visited with some friends who have businesses in a small local shopping centre. As I was exiting the one business I noticed the owner of another small business behaving in an agitated fashion in the doorway of her party shop.
I later found out that apparently what had happened was that a woman entered the store but never pulled the security gate shut behind her. Inside the store she said she wanted to buy some sweets but just needed to check if she had enough money. Then a guy, who was waiting outside the store in a wheelchair, jumped out of his wheelchair and rushed into the store. Apparently the couple then started arguing and tussled their way right through into the kitchen area of the shop. At that point the flabbergasted owner pressed her panic button and rushed to the door to shout for help.
This was when they both exited the store again, the woman shouting that the man had her wallet and the man throwing it at her just before he hopped back into his wheelchair. The woman kept shouting that the man had 'started with me on the bus already' and that she had had R500 in her wallet which the man had taken. Throughout her theatrics she was flashing the contents of the wallet at the gawping bystanders, of which I was one, clearly showing us the money was still in the wallet.
While everyone was still trying to figure out what had just happened, and discussion turned toward calling the police to help the woman whose money had been ‘stolen’, the pair moved up the street, apart but quite obviously together, heading in the same direction, seemingly arguing as they went along.
The owner of the store had her handbag in the kitchen when they manoeuvred their way into it arguing vociferously but, when she checked the bag, its contents appeared to be intact. Perhaps if she had not been so frightened by their behaviour that she pressed the panic button they would have stolen it or actually robbed her of her takings?
Whatever their intention was, I am still marvelling at the miracle of the wheelchair-bound man who ran into, and out of, that shop! HA!!
One thing most South Africans have learned is that criminals do not belong to a specific gender, race group or age group, so we try always to be vigilant.
(All rights reserved.)
This week I had a dental appointment in South Kensington, Johannesburg. When I was finished I visited with some friends who have businesses in a small local shopping centre. As I was exiting the one business I noticed the owner of another small business behaving in an agitated fashion in the doorway of her party shop.
I later found out that apparently what had happened was that a woman entered the store but never pulled the security gate shut behind her. Inside the store she said she wanted to buy some sweets but just needed to check if she had enough money. Then a guy, who was waiting outside the store in a wheelchair, jumped out of his wheelchair and rushed into the store. Apparently the couple then started arguing and tussled their way right through into the kitchen area of the shop. At that point the flabbergasted owner pressed her panic button and rushed to the door to shout for help.
This was when they both exited the store again, the woman shouting that the man had her wallet and the man throwing it at her just before he hopped back into his wheelchair. The woman kept shouting that the man had 'started with me on the bus already' and that she had had R500 in her wallet which the man had taken. Throughout her theatrics she was flashing the contents of the wallet at the gawping bystanders, of which I was one, clearly showing us the money was still in the wallet.
While everyone was still trying to figure out what had just happened, and discussion turned toward calling the police to help the woman whose money had been ‘stolen’, the pair moved up the street, apart but quite obviously together, heading in the same direction, seemingly arguing as they went along.
The owner of the store had her handbag in the kitchen when they manoeuvred their way into it arguing vociferously but, when she checked the bag, its contents appeared to be intact. Perhaps if she had not been so frightened by their behaviour that she pressed the panic button they would have stolen it or actually robbed her of her takings?
Whatever their intention was, I am still marvelling at the miracle of the wheelchair-bound man who ran into, and out of, that shop! HA!!
One thing most South Africans have learned is that criminals do not belong to a specific gender, race group or age group, so we try always to be vigilant.
(All rights reserved.)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
It is not the same...
A friend of mine, a Hungarian citizen, made a comment the other day that gave me pause to think. She flew home to Hungary for a visit recently and, on her return, said that it was not the way it used to be.
South Africa is not the way it used to be either. In ways that count significantly it is much better since the demise of apartheid. But in other ways it has simply deteriorated at an alarming rate. As I pondered her comment, I thought about other countries and I admitted that the fabric of society across the entire world is disintegrating, not just in South Africa.
What brought on the moral decay that is prevalent throughout the world, even in ‘sanctuaries’ like the church? Criminality is the order of the day, worldwide, to a greater or lesser extent. (Sadly in South Africa it is to a greater extent ) I ask myself whether rape of women, children and, worst of them all, tiny babies, has always happened in such vast numbers, or is it just that we now get to hear about it because it is easier to act against the perpetrators of this violence? There are more broken homes, it seems, than stable and happy ones. Drug abuse in any shape and form is not only rife it is seen in many cases as being a ‘social activity’. Parents are even abusing drugs with their kids in the home, for heaven’s sake! People the world over are selling their souls for money and what it can buy and the power it can bring with it.
Since my friend’s comment, when I think about South Africa, I try to see my homeland in a global context. South Africa is not alone in its deterioration. It has simply become like the rest of the world where a lack of moral fibre, and a reluctance to get involved in anything that doesn’t concern you directly, is the order of the day.
In my opinion, the world, in a nutshell, is hell on earth… And the worse it becomes, the narrower most of our lives become as we start spending more and more time behind bars and high walls that define our own homes, too terrified to even step out onto the streets in our neighbourhood between dusk and dawn. As if the hours of darkness hold terrors that are far worse than anything that can manifest during daylight. Ha!
Whilst much of what we now experience as life is good beyond belief, a very large part of me wishes for the ‘old’ days. Those bygone days, when draconian laws kept criminals in line, and religion hadn’t been turned into an entertainment extravaganza.
No, it is not the same.
(All rights reserved.)
South Africa is not the way it used to be either. In ways that count significantly it is much better since the demise of apartheid. But in other ways it has simply deteriorated at an alarming rate. As I pondered her comment, I thought about other countries and I admitted that the fabric of society across the entire world is disintegrating, not just in South Africa.
What brought on the moral decay that is prevalent throughout the world, even in ‘sanctuaries’ like the church? Criminality is the order of the day, worldwide, to a greater or lesser extent. (Sadly in South Africa it is to a greater extent ) I ask myself whether rape of women, children and, worst of them all, tiny babies, has always happened in such vast numbers, or is it just that we now get to hear about it because it is easier to act against the perpetrators of this violence? There are more broken homes, it seems, than stable and happy ones. Drug abuse in any shape and form is not only rife it is seen in many cases as being a ‘social activity’. Parents are even abusing drugs with their kids in the home, for heaven’s sake! People the world over are selling their souls for money and what it can buy and the power it can bring with it.
Since my friend’s comment, when I think about South Africa, I try to see my homeland in a global context. South Africa is not alone in its deterioration. It has simply become like the rest of the world where a lack of moral fibre, and a reluctance to get involved in anything that doesn’t concern you directly, is the order of the day.
In my opinion, the world, in a nutshell, is hell on earth… And the worse it becomes, the narrower most of our lives become as we start spending more and more time behind bars and high walls that define our own homes, too terrified to even step out onto the streets in our neighbourhood between dusk and dawn. As if the hours of darkness hold terrors that are far worse than anything that can manifest during daylight. Ha!
Whilst much of what we now experience as life is good beyond belief, a very large part of me wishes for the ‘old’ days. Those bygone days, when draconian laws kept criminals in line, and religion hadn’t been turned into an entertainment extravaganza.
No, it is not the same.
(All rights reserved.)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Social Responsibility
Today I enrolled my foster son in our nearest high school. To my dismay I learned that, as many of the parents cannot afford to pay school fees, the school is now in the precarious situation of having to close its technical and electrical workshops and computer lab and get rid of approximately seven teachers. The government only funds schools up to a certain point.
This is just one of thousands of schools in South Africa that are suffering financially, resulting in sub-standard education for our children. According to Business Watch, The Star, Friday 20 August 2010, Azar Jammine, is quoted as saying that, in South Africa,:
• 1.6 million kidz started school in 1998
• Less than 36% of them wrote matric in 2009
• Less than 22% passed matric
• Only 3.7% passed mathematics
Our education system is in total disarray. These are our future leaders and we are throwing them to the dogs by not ensuring that they have the best education money can buy.
I do understand that the government also has limited resources, dependant as it is on a small tax-paying base. However, surely companies that have corporate social responsibility programmes should be investing more in education and less in sport? Sport is a luxury. Education is a necessity for the survival and advancement of any country. And not just any education. A high standard of education is required that allows children to move naturally into those fields where their true potential can be realized. Those very same companies that are ploughing millions into sport sponsorships will be crying out for suitably qualified personnel in the not too distant future. What good will a rugby or soccer player be to them then?
In the words of Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country.
(All rights reserved.)
This is just one of thousands of schools in South Africa that are suffering financially, resulting in sub-standard education for our children. According to Business Watch, The Star, Friday 20 August 2010, Azar Jammine, is quoted as saying that, in South Africa,:
• 1.6 million kidz started school in 1998
• Less than 36% of them wrote matric in 2009
• Less than 22% passed matric
• Only 3.7% passed mathematics
Our education system is in total disarray. These are our future leaders and we are throwing them to the dogs by not ensuring that they have the best education money can buy.
I do understand that the government also has limited resources, dependant as it is on a small tax-paying base. However, surely companies that have corporate social responsibility programmes should be investing more in education and less in sport? Sport is a luxury. Education is a necessity for the survival and advancement of any country. And not just any education. A high standard of education is required that allows children to move naturally into those fields where their true potential can be realized. Those very same companies that are ploughing millions into sport sponsorships will be crying out for suitably qualified personnel in the not too distant future. What good will a rugby or soccer player be to them then?
In the words of Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country.
(All rights reserved.)
Monday, October 4, 2010
Instant Millionaires
One of the things that amazes me about the South Africa of today, is how many people became virtually ‘instant’ millionaires over the past sixteen years. And I’m not talking about all those lucky lottery winners either.
I know, and hear of, people who have lifestyles that the majority of us can only dream about. I’m not talking comfortably rich people here, I’m talking filthy rich. And I’m talking about a starting base of zero rands in the bank.
This begs the question: Were they simply in the right place, at the right time, or are there some decidedly dubious activities lurking in the shadows? My gut —and the fact that I know a couple of these folk personally— tells me that not everyone has acquired their wealth through legal means and that not enough questions are being asked by those who should investigate. For example, the commercial branch of the South African Police Services. Or the narcotics branch. Or the serious and violent crimes unit. Or…. the list is endless.
I’m not sure of the current statistics, but at one time I heard that only 5% of the world’s population is very wealthy.
Surely I can be forgiven for thinking that most of them live in South Africa…
(All rights reserved.)
I know, and hear of, people who have lifestyles that the majority of us can only dream about. I’m not talking comfortably rich people here, I’m talking filthy rich. And I’m talking about a starting base of zero rands in the bank.
This begs the question: Were they simply in the right place, at the right time, or are there some decidedly dubious activities lurking in the shadows? My gut —and the fact that I know a couple of these folk personally— tells me that not everyone has acquired their wealth through legal means and that not enough questions are being asked by those who should investigate. For example, the commercial branch of the South African Police Services. Or the narcotics branch. Or the serious and violent crimes unit. Or…. the list is endless.
I’m not sure of the current statistics, but at one time I heard that only 5% of the world’s population is very wealthy.
Surely I can be forgiven for thinking that most of them live in South Africa…
(All rights reserved.)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Spotted ... A pig
The majority of South Africans consider themselves to be law-abiding citizens but sometimes one has to wonder what their definition of a crime is.
Do we believe that crime is only something major, such as rape, murder or fraud? Or do we understand the concept that a crime is anything that is done in contravention of a statute prohibiting that particular act?
If we look at crime in the narrowest sense of the definition I think we will find that every single one of us has committed crime to a greater or lesser degree: Littering; taking stationery home from work and never returning it; slandering others when we sit around gossiping; drinking in public places or whilst we are driving (and I literally mean the steering wheel in one hand and the booze in the other); speeding; parking illegally; plastering posters on streetlight poles, using our cell phones whilst driving. The list of ‘petty’ crimes is endless but, no matter how we might like to whitewash them, they do remain ‘crimes’ in the true sense of the word.
So, now that I’ve established that there is probably no one, other than suckling babes, who hasn’t committed some sort of crime, I ask the question: Is it a crime to warn others, en masse, about roadblocks or speed traps as does PigSpotter? His lawyer seems to think not.
I can recall the drivers of cars on the road flashing their headlights to warn oncoming traffic of a speed trap or roadblock ahead throughout my life. Hell, I’ve even done it on occasion. My understanding then, and now, is that this was an illegal act. What is the difference between that and posting warnings of roadblocks and speed traps to a social networking site?
It is human nature to want to get the better of authority, and authority figures, from time to time. But there are legal ways to do it.
I pose the question: How would PigSpotter, and his/her thousands of followers feel, if criminals who had just raped or murdered one of their loved ones used those postings to bypass any law enforcement agencies out on the roads? How would they feel if a speedster wiped their entire family out in one horrific accident? How would they feel if someone they loved had been car-jacked and forced into the boot of a car and the one thing that could have saved them was that speed trap or roadblock but the criminals, forewarned, took measures to avoid it? How would they feel?
I’m just asking what I believe are valid questions in a country where rapes, murders, car-jackings and speed-related accidents have become something of a national sport.
PigSpotter, whoever and wherever you are, you are totally naïve if you believe that only law-abiding citizens follow your postings. Your most avid followers are probably criminals. Does that make you feel proudly South African?
(All rights reserved.)
Do we believe that crime is only something major, such as rape, murder or fraud? Or do we understand the concept that a crime is anything that is done in contravention of a statute prohibiting that particular act?
If we look at crime in the narrowest sense of the definition I think we will find that every single one of us has committed crime to a greater or lesser degree: Littering; taking stationery home from work and never returning it; slandering others when we sit around gossiping; drinking in public places or whilst we are driving (and I literally mean the steering wheel in one hand and the booze in the other); speeding; parking illegally; plastering posters on streetlight poles, using our cell phones whilst driving. The list of ‘petty’ crimes is endless but, no matter how we might like to whitewash them, they do remain ‘crimes’ in the true sense of the word.
So, now that I’ve established that there is probably no one, other than suckling babes, who hasn’t committed some sort of crime, I ask the question: Is it a crime to warn others, en masse, about roadblocks or speed traps as does PigSpotter? His lawyer seems to think not.
I can recall the drivers of cars on the road flashing their headlights to warn oncoming traffic of a speed trap or roadblock ahead throughout my life. Hell, I’ve even done it on occasion. My understanding then, and now, is that this was an illegal act. What is the difference between that and posting warnings of roadblocks and speed traps to a social networking site?
It is human nature to want to get the better of authority, and authority figures, from time to time. But there are legal ways to do it.
I pose the question: How would PigSpotter, and his/her thousands of followers feel, if criminals who had just raped or murdered one of their loved ones used those postings to bypass any law enforcement agencies out on the roads? How would they feel if a speedster wiped their entire family out in one horrific accident? How would they feel if someone they loved had been car-jacked and forced into the boot of a car and the one thing that could have saved them was that speed trap or roadblock but the criminals, forewarned, took measures to avoid it? How would they feel?
I’m just asking what I believe are valid questions in a country where rapes, murders, car-jackings and speed-related accidents have become something of a national sport.
PigSpotter, whoever and wherever you are, you are totally naïve if you believe that only law-abiding citizens follow your postings. Your most avid followers are probably criminals. Does that make you feel proudly South African?
(All rights reserved.)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
East vs North
A report in the newspaper this week has had me mulling over the reasons for the perceived difference in attitudes between those living in the wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg and those, like me, who live in the poorer eastern suburbs of Johannesburg.
There was a rather horrific story about a woman who was attacked in her own home in a ‘closed’ area. In South Africa a ‘closed’ area is an area, normally residential, where access can only be gained via a gate manned by security personnel 24/7. This woman, who was not identified, was apparently attacked by one of the very security guards who were hired to give her a sense of safety. Bleeding profusely from stab wounds, she ran to the doors of her neighbours in the complex, desperately seeking help.
At the first door she met with no response. At the second door she was told, by tenants peering from an upstairs window, to ‘lie down and keep quiet, the security company is coming’. These tenants were too scared to step out of their home to assist someone who was virtually bleeding to death on their doorstep!
How different it was in my ‘poor’ street a couple of months ago. At about 5.30 a.m. we were awoken by the sound of very loud banging and terrified screaming. My husband and I both leapt out of bed, still very confused by sleep that was clouding our heads and eyes. It was impossible to tell where the ruckus was coming from. I jumped up on the windowsill in our bedroom as agilely as a 56 year-old with very bad knees and a fused spine can do, and tried to peer over the wall into our next-door neighbours property. My husband headed for the front door wearing only his sleeping shorts.
I couldn’t see over the neighbours wall, despite standing on the windowsill, so clambered down as carefully as I could and hurried to join my husband at the front door.
The street was abuzz. There were the old people who live in the house directly opposite us. Their immediate neighbours from the one side were heading up the garden path opposite me. One of their neighbours from the other side of their property was busy removing a crowbar from the bonnet of his car that was parked on the pavement. My husband was in the middle of the road. Our neighbour from the other half of the pair of semi’s we occupy was in his yard. All of us were in our pj’s and in various stages of wakefulness.
Apparently four guys had simply taken a crowbar and tried to break down the front door of the old people’s house. Fortunately they woke up and started screaming and the perpetrators ran for their lives, taking off in two different directions. The old people said that in 49 years of living in their house this was the first attempted burglary they had been subjected to.
The people who came to help and offer assistance to these old white Portuguese residents were black, white and coloured. Our neighbours were under attack and, without thinking of our own safety, we arrived en masse to help.
After reading that newspaper report about the woman in the northern suburbs I have pondered what made us react differently when our neighbours were in trouble compared to those folk in the rich northern suburbs who simply huddled behind the safety of their four walls and urged the woman to “be quiet, help is on its way”?
Is it the fact that in our ‘poor’ street we don’t have a false sense of security? Daily we step out into our streets and walk them to get to shops, taxis and buses. We know our neighbourhood. We reach out to our neighbours in friendship and mutual trust, knowing that if trouble ever comes our way the only people we can truly rely on are each other. We know that criminals do not belong to a particular race, sex, age group or creed.
I would be interested in your comments about what you think could have caused those ‘rich’ folk to react so differently when an immediate neighbour was in need of assistance.
Personally, I am totally flummoxed as to why someone would deny real help and basic human compassion to a fellow human being in need.
(All rights reserved.)
Friday, October 1, 2010
From Apartheid to Democracy
Hi there. I was born in South Africa during the Apartheid era. My parents were middle-class white South Africans and, as a result, my life was generally very comfortable, with domestic workers to clean the house and gardeners to take care of the garden. In those days these adult men and women were referred to as 'the garden boy' and 'the girl', terms that black South Africans rightly found very insulting. It is with embarrassment that I admit that until I started work at the age of 18 I never paid much attention to politics and I seldom questioned the policy of separate segregation that was applied in South Africa by the Nationalist Government.
Then the mining corporate, Anglo American, came into my life in the form of my first employer and it was like a light bulb exploding in my consciousness. Suddenly I was interacting with people from other race groups on an equal footing and whatever racist tendencies I may have had flew out of the window. I often wonder what my political viewpoint would have been today if I had not gone to work for Anglo American where we were all treated as equals.
When the 1976 student riots happened in Soweto I was in the position of traveling by suburban train to get to and from work. As I sat in the comfortable compartment one day with a stone-shattered window beside me, the thought came to me: “If I had been born black in South Africa I would have thrown the first stone.”
For me the 1976 riots were a turning point in my life, empathising with the kids as I did, that caused me to have strongly divergent political views to most of my siblings and relatives. Although I did not become an activist I certainly became a black empathizer.
As the years passed and I got older, fatter and hopefully a little wiser, change happened in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was eventually released from jail. South Africans voted for democracy for the first time in April 1994 and Nelson Mandela became our first democratically elected black president.
After the democratic elections, freedom of association became a reality for all South Africans. In 1999, as a direct consequence of that freedom of association, my husband−whom I’ll call Mad Max in my blog−and I started fostering a three-year-old black child whose mother was not able to care for him for various reasons. Here was a chance for us to give of ourselves as restitution for any hardship, directly or indirectly, that we had caused to our fellow South Africans from other race groups during the Apartheid years. Our beautiful boy has been with us for eleven years now and although he can be more than a handful at times we would not want to be without him in our lives.
The South African Constitution, which is hailed as one of the most progressive in the world, enshrines certain rights. Not least of these rights is: ”Everyone has the right to life.” Everyone, therefore, includes the most vicious and cold-blooded criminals of which South Africa has more than a few.
We are told that the death penalty does not prevent anyone from committing heinous acts of rape and murder. Supposing this is true, is it just a coincidence that prior to the abolishment of the death penalty there were an average 7036 recorded murders per year between 1950 and 1993. Since 1994, with the abolishment of the death penalty in 1995, there have been an average 24 206 recorded murders per year. Part of me screams out for the reinstatement of the death penalty and another part of me says: Would you be prepared to be the one pressing the button that results in the execution? The answer to that question is a very vehement no.
During our two decade marriage, Mad Max and I have been more fortunate than most. He once had a briefcase stolen out of his car and on one occasion we disturbed robbers who had managed to gain entry to our home when we had nipped out, very briefly, to buy some groceries. In both instances our losses were negligible and we didn’t even file insurance claims. There were a couple of other really inconsequential incidents that weren’t even reported to the police.
Our one and only encounter with ‘serious’ crime was four days after I started staying home after being medically boarded in 2000. When we could least afford it, Mad Max was car-jacked−at gunpoint− in our garage as he was parking the car. The entire incident was over so fast that it was almost unreal. All Mad Max could remember about any of the car-jackers was ‘they smelled as though they had just bathed’. That wasn’t particularly helpful to the police as they do not have sniffer dogs trained to trace that ‘freshly showered’ smell of the average criminal.
It is probably safe to say that every one of our relatives, friends or acquaintances, of every race, sex and creed, has been affected by crime to a greater or lesser extent in the 16 years since the 1994 elections.
Yet South Africa remains the country I love. The place where I feel an affinity with all it’s people (except the criminal element).
South Africa is the place where I can tell if its going to rain by the smell of the wind; the place where winter is more of an illusion than a reality; the place where the sun shines brightly for more days in the year than not and, sadly, the place where you could be killed for a shiny coin simply because you have it and the other person doesn’t.
Yes, the crime rate is high in South Africa, but so are the hopes of law-abiding citizens. And where there is hope things can only get better.
(All rights reserved.)
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