South Africa

For too long the South African blogosphere has been dominated by the enemies of the revolution! The time has come to put an end to these fascists, who will be overawed by the outstanding prose of the Peoples New Poet!

Thats right folks there's a new kid on the block and he's packin'. Having overthrown the racist and anti-revolutionary Wits University administration, our fearless hero has moved into new territory to right wrongs and issue judgement on all who dare oppose him! To be sure this is not his first brush with the blogosphere, having twice before graced the pages of Someamoungus here and here. So without further ado, here's Floyd in his own words:    

Presently young, and politically active and thereof a young activist or perhaps a student activist. Lots of hope for the future and believe that distribution of resources should be responsive of sociatal needs not intended on profiteering. I know that in South Africa, the exploitative relationship between labour and capital will soon be abolished. Hence the utmost belief in establishing a strong revolutionary intelligentsia for gains ahead. On a Lighter note, I believe Mzansi has lots of young people (mostly female) worth looking at, yet we all need to play it safe. A Beer ot two isn't bad, and shouldn't defocus us from strategic visions and objectives. A picnic, soccer match, a jol, clubbing, and boozing.... it's all part of being young... Major aim is to help our broader community and society.

 

Welcome Floyd and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of you on someamoungus!

I know I have beaten this topic half to death, but whenever I see an article like this, I can't help but rehash. The article is all about the so-called "transformation" going on at the airforce and starts off in the following way :

The cockpit of a sophisticated South African Air Force trainer on a solo night, cross-country flight can be a lonely, and sometimes, scary place. Unless he is alert and informed, nature and the complicated avionics and systems can conspire to gang up on the young pupil pilot. His isolation breeds uncertainty as he realises he is alone against the elements, with only his onboard technology to see him through.

 

At the beginning of his training, he had failed to assimilate the volumes of knowledge with which his instructors had bombarded him. With intensive tutoring he managed to crack the required 40% pass mark. But now, alone at night, the pupil pilot begins to sense this was not enough.

 

And it wasn’t. His air speed is inexplicably climbing and the attitude indicator says he is in a gentle spiral. His mind is overwhelmed with information, he needs time to sort it all out. But time is up, as is altitude. He runs out of both ... and dies.

 

Now lets get into it. "Transformation" is a word that politicians love to throw around thesedays, but what exactly does it mean? From where this humble blogger sits it seems that "transformation" has basically become a numbers game, a staticians dream -

Government official A : "Now Mr XYZ, you do know that REAL tranformation means that in your organisation you MUST have 80% blacks, 50% woman, 10% whites....blah blah blah".

Government official B : "What was that, you can't fill your quota? Well that's your problem now get on with it and make a plan - we don't like having to deal with your type, you know reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries!"

 

This seems to be the just of "Transformation" to me, a government inspired checklist that is passed around and filled in to make sure you're on the right side of "social change". The reality on the ground is very different. This is especially true when you are dealing with professions and occupations that are by their very nature "elitist" and "exclusive" - but the number crunchers don't seem to see this, all they see with their blinkers on is their little mandated checklists and the forms that need to be filled in in triplicate :

Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota, in answer to a question in Parliament in 2003, said that pupil pilots in the SAAF would be allowed to fail all their exams, fail two repeat exams, and still remain on the course, in the interests of transformation. They could also fail two flying tests. Previously, trainee pilots had been allowed to fail only three subjects, and had to pass a repeat exam with a minimum of 60% — or be “washed” from the course.

 

The relaxed standards, say top SAAF instructors and former fighter pilots, are nothing short of a death sentence, especially as the SAAF gears up for the introduction of its new Hawk lead-in fighter trainer next year, and frontline Gripen fighter in 2008.

 

So while Minister Lekota is patting himself on the back, he is putting people's lives on the line in pursuit of his own "transformed" SAAF. And isn't this the dirty little secret of transformation - we ignore everything else in pursuit of that "representativity targets", even when it borders on the ridiculous (or in this case dangerous). Wouldn't it have been a better idea to hape kept standards as they were originally (and for good reason) and then worked on a plan to ENSURE that those with the right stuff would meet those standards. It really seems to be a case of misplaced priorities : 

A former fighter pilot with more than 4000 hours’ experience, who now flies airliners, dismissed the new standards as laughable. “A fighter pilot operates alone in a highly competitive environment. In combat, flying at the edge of the envelope, he needs to know 100% about his aircraft and weapons as well as those of his opponent,” said the pilot, who also asked not to be named.

 

“When fighters close at more than twice the speed of sound, you don’t have time to think. You need total awareness, a superior intellect and lightning reactions. All that will save you is knowledge and skill. This is not the place for a forty-percenter, and you can bet your enemy won’t be a forty-percenter. This is when the inferior pilot dies.”

 

This is NOT transformation! This is an artificial situation that is being sustained by those who have become so obsessed with race that they cannot see the woods from the trees. I would love to become a F-1 driver, but my reaction time and hand-eye co-ordination is not good enough. Would the "tranformists" say that because there are too many people from the Northern Hemishere in racing I should damn well get my shot anyway!!! No of course not, because that isn't true transformation.

True transformation should not be about numbers and quota's, it should be about allowing everyone the opportunity to reach for their dreams. How we allow people to do that is not by expecting less of them or giving them an easier way to get there, it is by giving them the tools they need to get where they want to be. The Defence Force's Youth Foundation Training programme and Military Skills Development programme are good examples of this.

I think the late Gabriel Ndabandaba who was a SAAF pilot and a member of the SAAF’s premier aerobatic team put it perfectly when he told the Sunday Times that there was no need to lower standards for previously disadvantaged candidates : 

“Making concessions to promote transformation is not necessary. We can do it ourselves,” 

 

Damn right!

In this post I would really appreciate feedback for reasons that will become obvious as you read on.

If the increasing number of Press Conferences at WHO is anything to go by, all things health related are not looking too great thesedays. The main reason for the spike in health related stories in the news is the "Bird Flu" Virus (H5N1). The CDC in the US provides a good summary about this virus and why it is such a concern :

The H5N1 virus does not usually infect humans. In 1997. However, the first case of spread from a bird to a human was seen during an outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region. The virus caused severe respiratory illness in 18 people, 6 of whom died. Since that time, there have been other cases of H5N1 infection among humans. Recent human cases of H5N1 infection that have occurred in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam have coincided with large H5N1 outbreaks in poultry. The World Health Organisation also has reported human cases in Indonesia. Most of these cases have occurred from contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces; however, it is thought that a few cases of human-to-human spread of H5N1 have occurred.

 

So far, spread of H5N1 virus from person to person has been rare and has not continued beyond one person. However, because all influenza viruses have the ability to change, scientists are concerned that the H5N1 virus one day could be able to infect humans and spread easily from one person to another. Because these viruses do not commonly infect humans, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population. If the H5N1 virus were able to infect people and spread easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic (worldwide outbreak of disease) could begin. No one can predict when a pandemic might occur. However, experts from around the world are watching the H5N1 situation in Asia very closely and are preparing for the possibility that the virus may begin to spread more easily and widely from person to person.

 

Yeah okay, but why should this worry us? Well :

An influenza pandemic is a global outbreak of disease that occurs when a new influenza A virus appears or “emerges” in the human population, causes serious illness, and then spreads easily from person to person worldwide. Pandemics are different from seasonal outbreaks or “epidemics” of influenza. Seasonal outbreaks are caused by subtypes of influenza viruses that already circulate among people, whereas pandemic outbreaks are caused by new subtypes, by subtypes that have never circulated among people, or by subtypes that have not circulated among people for a long time. Past influenza pandemics have led to high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss.

 

Some recent historical comparisons :

• The "Spanish flu", 1918-1919. Began in August 1918 in three disparate locations: Brest, Boston, and Freetown. An unusually severe and deadly strain of influenza spread worldwide. The disease spread across the world, killing 25 million in the course of six months; some estimates put the total of those killed worldwide at over twice that number.
• The "Asian flu", 1957-58. Estimates of the worldwide casualty level vary widely, from one to four million people
• The "Hong Kong flu", 1968-69. Casualty estimates vary: between 750,000 and two million people died of the virus worldwide.

Currently the H5N1 strain has a mortality rate of over 50%. However, what makes it so deadly for Southern Africa is our high rate of HIV/Aids infection :

"Many of the problems faced by people infected with HIV results from the failure of the immune system to protect them from certain opportunistic infections"  

 

If this virus did evolve into an easily transmittable virus it could prove to be the "Grand Slam" of opportunistic infections. The majority of the people who have succumbed to the virus so far have been healthy - imagine the effect on a person with an already weakened immune system?  

So what do you all think, do we in SA need to worry more than other countries this thing makes its final evolutionary step? 

Our first new fighter has arrived :

Linköping, Sweden: South Africa’s first completed Gripen fighter was unveiled today in a roll-out ceremony as it left the production line. The aircraft, which will be the first of 28 Gripens delivered into South African Air Force service from 2008, will now be prepared for a rigorous and thorough flight test programme to integrate South Africa’s customized avionics and mission systems.

 

You can see more photo's of the ceremony here. I also found an interesting link with a comparison between the F-16 and the Gripen here - for all the real guru's. (Hat tip to Commentary for the info.) 

From News24 :

France - Curiosity - or maybe it was a scurrying mouse - almost got the better of a cat which found itself accidentally shipped off to France from the United States on a three-week journey at sea without water or food. But Emily, a striped one-year-old feline from the US state of Wisconsin, somehow survived being locked in a container for the long trip and was discovered, thinner but in healthy form, when workers at a French office supply company opened their sealed cargo box on Tuesday.

 

An identification collar with a veterinarian's US telephone number allowed them to trace the hapless animal and contact its owners in the town of Appleton...the US owners sent a photograph to confirm it was their Emily, as well as her vaccination records. In the meantime, the cat was being kept in quarantine, where it would stay for around another 30 days before being sent back home.

 

Of course this begs the question - if we put Manto in a container and sent her to France, could we convince the French to keep her...?

From the M&G :

A South African student who attacked his sleeping roommate with a baseball bat told a judge on Wednesday that he was surprised to learn he was acting illegally in New Zealand. Artur Kalauov (19) was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of assault with intent to injure his roommate at an aviation college near the South Island town of Nelson.

"He didn't even realise what he had done was a criminal act," Kalauov's lawyer John Sandston told the court. "In his culture they deal with things in a much more robust fashion." But Judge Tony Zohrab said he found it hard to accept that even in South Africa, people would find it appropriate to resolve personal differences by hitting someone with a baseball bat. "You could have killed this guy," he said.

Love the "even", like we're all a bunch of savages or something. Why, I remember when I was back in University and my roommate was making a noise while I was studying, quick as a flash I grabbed my AK and emptied an entire magazine into him! Or the time some guy was talking loudly on his cellphone in a restaurant - ticked me off - so I went outside and blew up his car! Man I love South African 'culture'...

But then again all New Zealanders shag sheep cos its in their 'culture'... 

The Spin Merchants at "The Friends of Jay-Z" were no match for the fearless Mr Incredible AKA Billy Downer

This post is dedicated to Hunter over at Daily Kos who is a personal inspiration. Paraphrasing heavily from his latest post "The Criminalisation of Politics" I'll remix the article for an angle on our Jay-Z saga :   

Icon over country. You can hear it in the exhortations of Zuma apologists; you can read it in articles by the likes of Fikile Majola and Moe Shaik; you could see two weeks ago all around the Durban Magistrates Court. There's something beyond mere politics in all of this. Politics, one would hope is not sufficient reason to damage the country. This is different. This is the cult of power and of corruption that is not just defended but celebrated by pundits and politicians alike. The Zuma spin machinists wail and wag their fingers and are shocked by the investigations, depositions and prosecutions and call them the "criminalization of friendship".

Most of the rest of us call it crime, disguised as friendship. Crime, disguised as friendship and defended by crooks, cowards and blowhards.

In The M&G Moe Shaik provided the following :

The Bill of Rights and our constitutional democracy also provide a useful frame of reference when looking at the past week’s Mail & Guardian editorial headed by another awful line: “Be afraid -- be very afraid”.

This headline reminds one of the racist and backward propaganda that we were subjected to in “an earlier and darker age” of our history, which warned of the dangers of majority and democratic rule in our country. It is also not dissimilar to that used today by the neo-conservative administration of the United States (“Axis of Evil”) to wage war and to impose regime change on those whom it perceives to be against it. Needless to say, this kind of sensationalist propaganda is designed to -“pander to the basest instincts of ordinary people”, and mainly to the human instinct of fear of the other and the fear of the unknown. But what is the basis of this irresponsible sensationalism? Why should South Africans be afraid of an African National Congress-led government under the leadership of Jacob Zuma? We are told that we must fear this because, among other things, he was escorted to and from court protected by the South African Police Service’s VIP protection unit, disrespectfully described by the editorial as “bald-headed toughs”.

While Fikile Majola offers this :

Behind factions and personalities there are always class politics. And Hartley has brought them to the fore. He and others in the media, right-wing politicians and big business fear that a mass-backed Zuma election victory could shake the foundations of the neo-liberal, capitalist system. The kind of people that Hartley mixes with - big business and, to an extent, the middle class - were happy to live with an ANC government which brought political stability and put an end to the civil and industrial strife of the apartheid years. They were grateful for the pro-market policies which provided business with the opportunity to amass bigger and bigger profits.

 

That is why they warn that the country will face ruin if Zuma gains power. But the workers and the poor will not respond to his clarion call to stand up and be counted because "your country is facing ruin". The reason is that, economically, workers and the poor face ruin now. Our wages have stagnated, more of us are being casualised and 40% are unemployed. The share of wages in the national income has fallen to 45% from around 57% in 1991. In Hartley's world, the wages of the top echelons are on the rise, profits are rising, confidence is at a historic high and inequalities are rising faster than ever. For the millions of poor, however, any prospect of a change to address their economic marginalisation is welcome.

 

From a typical liberal standpoint, Hartley dismisses Zuma as "a populist figure", claims that he "poses a grave risk to this country" and says the campaign in his support "ought to frighten those who cherish... democracy".

Oh, boo-friggin-hoo. I've watched Moe Shaik and the hangers-on at COSATU (Fikile is General Secretary of Nehawu and a member of the Friend's of Jacob Zuma Trust) do their wide eyed oh-my-goodness brand of commentary on the Zuma saga for some time. Shaik long ago got his card stamped for membership of that class of people who think that standard operating procedures of the Press and Scorpions are outrageous!, simply outrageous! but are quite content to smear people like Bulelani Nguka by accusing them of being apartheid spies when it suits them. 

What's particularly galling is while Shaik and Majola bemoan the breaches of the Bill of Rights or the "persecution" of a "working class hero" in Jay-Z we find the antithesis of a working class man who respects due process and the rule of law. Witness his attacks on the judiciary and hints of a vast conspiracy against him after his recent appearance in court in Durban. Do his expensive palaces, top of the range cars, spend-money-like-a-drunken-pirate shopping habits really square with his "working class" connections? Or does "working class" these days simply mean whatever principles COSATU deems convenient during their latest recruitment and publicity drive, to be revised as needed by the latest Zuma spin-doctored talking points?

These Zuma Acolytes, have their talking points set over their cups of coffee in accordance with whatever the Zuma-focused needs of the day prove to be. Give him his day in court, don't give him his day in court. The rule of law is important, except when it's no big deal. Always put the poor first, but never mind. Our constitution is important, except when applied to "Our Boy". Mbeki is the greatest president ever, but that bastard stabbed us in the back! The media can be used to spin our stories, but not their's!

Blah, blah, blah. Cult of the personality and ass-kissing with the predictable pattern and spray of automatic lawn sprinklers. If the Arms Deal turned into the much-predicted fiasco most observers expected it would, it's because the media didn't trust enough. If Tony Yengeni was found guilty, it's the fault of the damn South African white opposition which is still dominated by racists!  And if a member of the chosen clique commits a crime, it's Big Business's fault for suckering him into it.

No. No dice, pundit and acolyte class. Don't give us vapid, amoral, blastfaxed crap about how horrible it is that everyone-on-the-planet-but-the-involved-Zuma-and Shaik-brothers are responsible for a certain collection of corrupt practices in the Arms Deal. Is this the best face that the "Friends of Jay-Z" can put on? Is this the best defense against scandal after scandal - to ignore the sentenced, defend the indicted, blame the investigators, and howl at the injustice of it all?

Honestly, what farce.

Politics in SA whatever it may be is hopefully not this. I may not like everything Tony Leon or Cyril Ramaphosa says, but nor do I fear for the nation if they come to lead the Country. Men of integrity can disagree on the principles of government; men whose sole moral compass is directed by what they can technically get away with, however, aren't political men. They're just crooks.

But for every politician of questionable honesty, for every underling there's a hundred desperate Moe Shaiks and Fikile Majola's willing to prostrate themselves and their own morality in exchange for another perceived half an inch towards their own movement's elusive prize: some nebulous faux-worker utopia that always turns to a deficit-riddled, pork-choked, crony-laden hell within the first years their chosen leaders try to implement it. And then, the political cycle repeats.

No, Movement "Zumists" are people who not only are willing to overlook advantageous crimes, but celebrate them, if done in service to the of the clique. Successful cheerleaders include Chippy Shaik and Tony Yengeni - people who, in any movement with the integrity of week-old tuna, would have been drummed out not hired on as posterboys for the movement. Only a jackass could write an entire column in response to the scandal after scandal after scandal dogging every single person close to the Shaik brothers, and come to the conclusion that the Press was being too reactionery and biased or that the Bill of Rights was being "trampled" on. 

So, to Fikile Majola and with an honorary mention to Moe Shaik :

Go to hell.

With the Zuma trial coming up soon, I thought it would be good to go a bit retrospective and take a look back at what started it all - The Shaik Trial. The following are a couple of links which I thought would help anyone who is trying to understand what exactly happened in the Shaik trial and how it got the ball rolling with Jay-Z -

a) First off there is the extremely comprehensive and well written Wiki entry, nearly any information you may need is here.

b) Next take a look at a more intimate view of the trial "How we nailed Shaik" from the perspective of lead Prosecutor Billy Downer. 

c) Last off there is the now infamous "encrypted fax" and other incriminating documents that sealed Shaik's (Zuma's?) fate.

Hope this helps, any other interesting links please post in the Comments section.

The conclusion of the Hlope incident is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Firstly, in a country like SA, questions of race need to be met head on and dealt with in a transparent manner. This is especially true when the controversy swirls around people in positions of authority where the respect and confidence of the public is of paramount importance. Without a satisfactory conclusion to the allegations and counter allegations that were made, the public will always have reservations towards Judge Hlope and the Advocates involved.

Secondly, this sets a bad precedent for how similar problem will be dealt with in future - ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away. Chief Justice Langa may have dodged the bullet this time but these kinds of problems have a tendency to fester and get worse, not better with time. Witness the lastest salvo which has come from Judge Siraj Desai who has claimed the General Council of the Bar (representing advocates) has repeatedly nominated “backward white men” for positions on the Bench who were not properly committed to transformation.

One hopes that Judge Langa's new mechanism for dealing with such incidencts will be better than the approach taken so far -

The report was drawn up by five judges, mandated by the Judges President, in the wake of the first round of racism claims made by Judge John Hlophe, head of the Cape Town High Court. The committee had to consider Judge Hlophe’s allegations but extended their brief to other provinces also.

 

The report, approved by the heads of court earlier this week, notes that a formal mechanism to deal with complaints against judges by the public should be passed by Parliament. Until then, any complaints by the public or the legal profession should be directed to the Judicial Service Commission or to the Judge President of the division in which the judge concerned works.

 

To me it sounds a little too much like passing the buck, but we'll have to wait and see what comes out of it...