SNIFFER BLOG

Our Marxist government has for the second time in so many years sent an unambiguous message to the skilled people of this country. Last year it was medical services, now it is engineers. In both cases a team of specialists from Cuba has been called in to perform the tasks. Our local graduates in these disciplines are clearly not trusted, respected or valued by their government. Incredible. It’s a fair bet that money is flowing in unusual directions as well. At last, there is a nice story that has come out of the Covid-19 drama. It is reported that dogs are being trained to sniff out individuals who are infected by the virus. Not only is this way more pleasant (and indeed quicker) than the “probe up the nose and wait 24 hours while someone cultures the bugs and counts them” method. Hopefully it is also less prone to yielding the false positive result which bedevils the so-called “gold standard” PCR test. Even a brief browse through the literature on this topic soon submerges one in a morass of maths in trying to understand the impacts on the models of incorrect results. It’s not simple. It has already been noted that government have not published any updated vaccination counts for some time. It seems that we are in a so-called “pause” phase similar to what other countries have imposed, perhaps in reaction to doubts about the jab. In our case it may also be that we simply do not have the doses of the vaccination required to begin a full-blooded campaign. As has happened many times during this pandemic the truth and the facts have gone AWOL. In fact, everyone, including the Cabinet are increasingly behaving as if the virus is no longer a deadly serious threat. Which is great, because for most of us it is not. So far, the tussle about pay increases between Minister Senzo Mchunu and Reuban Maleka, an Assistant General Manager of the Public Servants Association has been peaceful and gentlemanly. In particular, the minister’s 500-word speech to deliver the message “we are broke – forget it” is a gem of its genre. AGM Maleka, however, is very conscious that his own job depends on negotiating highest salaries and best working conditions for his 235 000 members. There is no small irony in Maleka’s complaint that “Public Servants can no longer pay the price for the country’s economic woes fuelled by rampant fraud, corruption and mismanagement.” For surely it is the civil servants who are largely responsible for these three ills when it comes to the use of public resources? His other difficulty is that if a great number of his members do go on the threatened strike, most of us wont notice, as service levels are already awful to non-existent. Starlink is the name for Mr Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet connectivity project. As usual with most ideas from this African American who recently but briefly enjoyed the rank of being the planet’s richest person, it cuts straight to the nub of the problem of providing ubiquitous affordable internet connectivity. Seems like a good plan. But here in South Africa, the race police are vigilant and have pointed out that the company’s ownership profile does not meet this nation’s required mix of blacks, women, disabled and youth. Musk is therefore unlikely to get the required licences. And once again ideology drags us all down. As does a most peculiar and alarming squabble that has broken out among C-list nonentities about “tribalism”. Which seems to be a subset of racialism. It’s all too silly. Africa is really not ready for many of the new toys available to the rest of the world. It seems that only some 1500 electric cars have so far been sold on the continent. The problem I would guess is that electricity itself can sometimes be scarce while the network for delivering liquid fuels for transportation have been developed over the last 100 years and are rather good. It was rather nostalgic to come across Rhodes playing in the Varsity Cup on TV the other day. Certainly a great deal rarer that Sharks v Bulls which is getting tedious. James Greener Friday 23rd April 2021