DCCC

This is the 800th edition of Tidemarks. This weekly personal amusement began in April 2004 as a supposedly sophisticated and omniscient end of the week summary of events in the financial markets, written by one of the nation’s most endangered species – an independent stockbroker. It has since deteriorated into a carefully crafted collection of caustic criticism and contempt heaped on pretty much anyone. But mostly on the world’s politicians, bureaucrats and other tax-eating lowlifes who so richly deserve it. Its subscription price faithfully reflects its value to the roughly 1000 readers who assure me that it improves their Friday experience. It certainly gets me through to opening time down at the Bowling Club Bar and encourages me to hunt ceaselessly for stories and examples of life as it is lived on the southern tip. And now with local elections looming the candidates are resorting to every silly idea in the book to garner votes. There hasn’t been one of those gala toilet opening ceremonies recently but there is a picture of a mayor standing in front of a lavish banner at the side of a long dusty empty gravel road stretching straight as an arrow towards a distant horizon. The caption claims that His Worship is opening the road. Well hooray. Alarmingly some of the ANC top brass including President Frog Boiler are promoting various rather technical solutions for the country’s electricity shortage. None of the gents involved have much of a clue about the topic but nice clever sounding words are being traded in the media. Load Shedding, aka power cuts, have restarted – a rather inopportune and embarrassing time for the ruling party. Dollar based commodity price indices are setting six-year highs and a nation like ours should at least be benefitting from exports of stuff dug out of the ground or grown on top of it. Maybe it’s why the runt still has a bit of value. Sadly, the government has already scared away significant amounts of human resource (smart well qualified people) capable of managing these processes. There is a squabble amongst various of our government departments about whether the very new “Vaccination Passport” is ready for release, but the fact is that it is already out there. It is fiendishly difficult to control the internet hey chaps? Two aspects are interesting. The first is that the document expires in early January. The second is that it carries a rather special looking QR code that is proudly described as “not meant to be read by anyone”. This does rather fan the flames of the conspiracy theorists who worry that the whole passport thing is the precursor to “deep state” control and “digital currency”. But the rest of us are now merely excited by the idea that we can presumably visit our overseas families and vice versa. Our national history of long being known as the bad boy of the world certainly still shows up in our suspicion that sports rules and officials always have the South African team in mind when looking for infringements. The latest niggle for me was the Rugby Championship referees not using just the jersey colour to identify a side. The use of the country name is unsettling. Now it seems that the four SA franchises now playing in the United Rugby Championship in Europe, are battling to come to terms with referees’ interpretations, especially in the second half, if the SA side is leading. Lots is being said and written about the ability of the man with the whistle to be overzealous and prevent the match from being an enjoyable spectacle. But what does Tidemarks know? After all he is puzzled by the rule in Formula 1 that penalises competitors for changing an engine in order to go faster! Which is the whole point of the race. There will be no Tidemarks next week as I am going birding for lifers in the high grasslands of Mpumalanga. A venerable and prestigious annual event attended by some of the best twitchers and drinkers in the land. James Greener Friday 8th October 2021 800 in Roman numerals or Durban Country Club Committee