The bull got just 4 days into the New Year before stumbling a bit. I have been fretting for a while that he was way out of range, but probably the lure of setting a new high in 2011 will return to dominate sentiment before too long. The event that caused the pullback was an alleged strengthening of the US dollar which did indeed bounce versus the euro, but only just back to early December levels. The USD must inevitably slide while that government spends freshly minted dollars in an apparent attempt to coax its citizens into returning to their spendthrift consumer habits.
The big developing theme in world markets would seem to be the rise in commodity prices – particularly food. With this country now sadly a net importer of food and not obviously opposing the shocking incidence of often fatal violence against successful farmers, this is a very worrying development. There may indeed be investment opportunities that will arise from the situation but social strains and unrest are possibly more important factors to keep an eye on.
That Sepp Blatter chap has plenty of things to answer for. Not least is his cutesy trick of pulling the winner’s name out of an envelope. Basic Education Minister Motshekga used the stunt yesterday to disguise the fact that her department had failed to get a third of the nation’s school leavers to even a remotely useful level of education. Because most of us have at some stage whiled away many hours in a class room we are naturally all experts in the field of education and how it should be run and so the professionals are never short of free advice. Nonetheless, the sad fact is that already a large number of the two thirds who did “pass” will have discovered that their country has little need for them or their proud achievements. The state’s example of promoting inexperienced and unskilled people to positions of authority has done the youth a huge disservice. They are now loath to believe that substantial effort and time are required before one can truly aspire to the corner office with company credit card and car. They would probably also be appalled to find out just how hard the people in the private sector who deservedly fill those posts need to work to keep both their own job as well as those of their employees. Even a distinction in “Life Orientation Studies” does not, I suggest, provide adequate preparation.
The large number of people who have been killed by lightning during this summer’s storms is indeed very regrettable. I suspect, however, that after taking into account population increases, that this cause of death remains proportionally very low. Certainly less likely than being killed by a politician speeding at 235km/hr. Nevertheless Local Government and Traditional Affairs MEC Dube should be admired for her trips to visit and comfort the bereaved. Less easy to praise is her announcement that she would be asking the government’s Science and Technology Department “to conduct research on ways to prevent lightning strikes, especially in rural areas”. While she may not be aware that the country has long been at the forefront of research into understanding this awesome natural phenomenon, I am worried that the MEC seems to imply that urban lightning is somehow less significant. Hands up all those who have had their modems and fax machines fried by a bolt from the blue.
The research that really needs urgently to be done is how an off stump can be knocked half a centimetre off line by a speeding ball and the bail doesn’t come off? Jacques Kallis deserves all those man of the match awards but that miserable piece of wood deserves to be burnt and its ashes stored in an urn.
James Greener
7th January 2011
