Apparently, the Cuban government is a little short these days and have been round at Cyril’s place shaking the slotted tin. He has promised them R50million. With local provisional tax payments due at month end, this provides a perfect opportunity to see how popular this idea is with South Africans who are not President Frogboiler. Just ask taxpayers to make their payments directly to Cuba and keep a running total. We might all learn a great deal about socialism and solidarity. An extra dollop of irony accompanies this topic since much discussion is currently taking place in SA about the need for a Basic Income Grant.
This is also the season when claims are made by young people who believe that the various models of how to provide free post school education are sustainable. This of course can not be true and disappointment and protest are imminent. It is all so sad because this grievous utter waste of human resources will in all likelihood just roll over year after year while talking heads and egregiously overpaid “elites” fail to provide leadership and reality.
The second volume of the Zondo Commission report has been released, and a weighty tome it is. Based on the squawking being posted on the internet, there are two classes of readers who are actually wading through it. The first are those who are mentioned in the report and their responses are mostly along the lines of “See! I told you I wasn’t doing anything wrong”. Umm. Perhaps not! The second group are the more diligent, curious and hopeful. They expect to find the information needed to put people behind bars. Experience suggests however, that no one, especially President Cyril will do very much. As Tidemarks has long observed, he is a very disappointing national leader, seemingly too timid and compromised himself, to dare offer any goose more than a mild and conditional booing.
Tidemarks has never been to anything as grand as an Expo so my reaction to my nation’s exhibit at something called Expo 2020 Dubai is probably churlish. But pictures that have been published do suggest a display which is not much more than the back wall of a particularly well stocked Spaza Shop. It’s certainly wonderful to see how many grocery items we as a nation manufacture and how colourfully they are packaged. Exciting stuff and for everyone’s sake I do hope huge and ongoing orders have been written. To ensure true authenticity I hope that they arrange for a shoplifter to call at the exhibition stall regularly. The signs warning people not to touch are rather grubby and amateurish though. Maybe my disappointment arises from the fact that we do seem to be attending an event dated 2 years ago.
The BBC website sports pages are hosting fascinating, droll and quite lengthy articles which pretty much covers all one might want to know about the imminent Winter Olympics in Beijing. Two-man luge is an especially bizarre sport. Understandably the BBC pieces are a bit top heavy about the prospects of GB athletes, but particularly interesting snippets are that very little, if any, real snow will be used for the games. Odd that, you’d think there should be plenty of the proper stuff now that climate change is so common. Secondly, since the world has decided that Grade 8 biology is incapable of distinguishing between boys and girls, sporting codes have given up on deciding how to arrange equitable competition. The development is that more events for mixed teams are on the program. There is no one yet wise enough to separate the genders for single sex events so controversy is still inevitable. The USA team have been advised that it is not a good idea to discuss politics with the hosts. Indeed.
There is something rather disturbing about watching rugby being played in weather conditions which mimic the surface of the sun. Money of course is the reason, but it is still unpleasant. What is fun however is watching the Bliztbokke rack up the silverware in the Sevens Tournaments. What’s that you say? Fiji and the All Blacks are in quarantine. Well shame.
James Greener
Friday 4th February 2022
