COP 27! The levels of wilful ignorance and Olympian hypocrisy on display at these regular jamborees for the opportunistically green and allegedly good leaves common sense, reality and plain scientific fact bleeding in the gutter. Even the full name of the shindig -- The Climate Implementation Summit – reveals the spirit-sapping arrogance of the idea that mankind can significantly alter the processes of nature. This meeting was held in the posh Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a venue doubtless much to the liking of those delegates from countries where winter is starting to make itself felt. There’s some irony here but as usual it will be lost on the Global Warming zealots. It did allow the South African delegation to skip their iconic rainbow-nation coloured scarves. Reportedly the SA team won considerable admiration from other delegates for its particular contribution to proceedings, the sole real detail of which is a funding “gap” of R700 billion! This announcement even occasioned a photo op which reveals the shallow pseudo commitment of everyone to the whole event. Our very own President Frog Boiler is apparently entertaining three very high-ranking co-attendees, starting with John Kerry from the USA who clearly wanted very badly to be somewhere else. His body language has not gone unnoticed by the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who obviously is also keen to bolt for an exit. Both “gentlemen” (?) are prepared to leave Ursula von der Leyden, European Commission head honcho, to her fate and Cyril’s tale of how to make money from rare cows.
Or was he perhaps boasting that the richest province in our nation has decided to scrap the annoying micro-tolling system that attempts to milk the massive traffic flows on the major roads around Joburg. Ursula can be forgiven for having no interest in this topic but many of us are intrigued. If only as an offshoot from some major juggling of state expenditure in the recent so-called “Mini Budget”. It seems as if those in charge of SANRAL (the national road network operator) and the 10 year old Gauteng e-Toll fiasco don’t have a working calculator or even a used envelope (what’s that?) to scribble down a few simple sums. And what about the Austrian vendors and operators of the dozens of unsightly gantries. Has the change in their cash flow been discussed with them? Maybe the problem with the e-tolls was that mini bus taxis were exempt and the national vehicle registration records are reportedly seriously dysfunctional and incapable of tracking toll bilkers.
Old and boring sceptics like Tidemarks are however, supposed to be pleased with the other transport news that public money has been used to design and build a range of “donkey carts” for sale to new entrants to the business. This is no laughing matter and the story of the “karretjiemense” was the topic of a sad and successful book (my Children have Faces by Carol Campbell) a decade ago. However, as always, when bureaucrats get involved, the already fabricated carts have numerous shortcomings long ago ironed out in the wooden platformed carts based on the back axle of a scrapped bakkie. Remember the ridiculous single patient motorcycle sidecar ambulances?
It is hard to ignore the fact that the soccer world cup is about to begin. Advertisers are pumping up their presence even on non-soccer channels. Most alarming however was the appearance of the ex- and thoroughly disgraced previous boss of FIFA. Remember how easily we allegedly bribed him to award us the 2010 event? Now Septic Blather is cheerfully admitting this week that the choice of Qatar as hosts for the imminent 2022 tournament, was all a terrible mistake and, “Hey, sorry to all concerned!” This may not be a wise taunt to issue to men who carry sharp swords, but the guy seems to be immune to decency and integrity.
The ‘bok selectors have an unenviable task of finding someone who knows to kick a rugby ball. It’s quite interesting just how fast a talent pool can empty. Even at the national level. The French match this weekend may be as miserable for us as the Irish one was last week. At least the Proteas know their fans don’t expect them to win major tournaments.
James Greener
Armistice Day 2022
