The very entertaining but actually deadly
serious standoff between those who think someone else should pay and those who
have no interest in being the payers roils on in euroland. Forecasting the
outcome of this tussle and then in turn the market response is keeping the
talking heads burning the midnight oil. One can be fairly sure that almost no one
will guess correctly how the whole shebang unwinds. On the basis of the “follow
the money” rule – only in this case there isn’t any – the likely outcome is
that the Greek in the street is going to be disappointed and markets will
continue to behave erratically. Even the rand has strengthened against the
euro.
The news that Arts and Culture Minister
Nathi Mthethwa is leading a state delegation to Moscow
to repatriate the mortal remains of two struggle stalwarts who died in Russia in the
1970s is rather dispiriting. Firstly it
shows that there really is no proper job for this ministry and its minister to
do and like the department of sport needs to be closed down immediately. These
are areas when the government needs neither to have any expertise nor to interfere,
especially not with full-blown and costly ministries. Secondly it makes one
wonder just how many renowned South Africans there are buried elsewhere who are
going to be dug up and returned to the southern tip. Is this an appropriate
moment to suggest that maybe we should enquire where Jan van Riebeeck is
resting and see if he might like to be returned to the shadow of the mountain?
There is something very odd and rather
mysterious about this alleged “rogue unit” operating inside the South African
Revenue Services. What on earth can they be up to? Surely the only thing a tax
collector does is ferret out both people and monies that are hiding from them.
Does going “rogue” mean that the fellows in the unit had changed sides? Were
they deliberately not looking, or perhaps they have unearthed some juicy prey?
Will we ever find out or have they summoned that junior official to make
another error and operate the jammer / shredder in order to secure the no-fly
zone around the president?
Now
that parliament is underway, the MPs
will at some point be asked to debate and approve something known tortuously as
the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge
Bill. Sadly, whatever it is, indigenous knowledge does not encompass how to run
a power utility, create an effective education system, pilot a motor vehicle
accurately or bowl a decent leg-break. On reflection the largest body of such
knowledge probably occurs mostly in the realm of botany and has long been
researched and recorded by the appropriate academic departments and drug
research houses world wide. So now are they about to be accosted by platoons of
bureaucrats with forms and orders? Cue a serious misallocation of resources
when the politicians find out that Petri dishes are not indigenous.
Losing the first game at the start of the
Super 15 season is invariably dismissed as “not a serious problem”. However,
the lack of points early on has a sneaky way of applying extra pressure at the
end when it’s all death or glory time. With both the Sharks and the Lions
seeking their first win tomorrow at Kings
Park, its going to be a
horrid evening for me and I shall watch from the couch with a medical team on
hand to open bottles and even switch off the TV if necessary. And then it will
be a few snatched hours of kip before resuming the position for the Proteas vs.
India match from Melbourne. This will not
be a relaxing weekend. Thank goodness I’m not Duzi paddler.
James Greener
Friday 20th February 2015
