Both the US
and our own central bank left their key interest rate unchanged this week. One
day this announcement will deliver unexpected and startling news and markets
will respond long and hard. But in the meantime it’s all rather pedestrian.
Even the claims that Brexit would trigger the end of the world as we know it
have mostly turned out to be wrong. Now the talking heads are fretting about
whether Britain’s exit from the EU will be “hard” or “soft”. Reportedly the
legions of Eurocrats who make a living from knowing the rules are ensuring that
it is all as messy, difficult and as drawn-out as possible. The ultimate Eurosceptic
position is that once Britain actually withdraws, the rest of the community
will fragment causing huge unemployment amongst the paper shufflers of Brussels.
And cries of woe from most other parties who wished they had thought of leaving
first.
The SA
Democratic Teachers Union seems to have scant idea about either democracy or teaching.
The union is very concerned by the proposal from the Western Cape Government to
send school assessors around to see what is happening in the class rooms. The
Union claims that this will take education “back to the archaic times”. Which
might be no bad thing as in the present times the teachers have so failed the
pupils that SA now languishes near the foot of all international education
ranking tables. Perhaps with a bit of prodding and persuasion from an assessor
system with the power to instil a bit of “archaic” fear in non-performing
teachers, many more school leavers will have useful and employable skills.
This in turn might
result in more young people having the self-confidence to move on without
insisting that they need to attend university from which so many of them
currently leave without any qualifications and with huge debts. Meanwhile the
students who do have places are causing all kinds of mischief. They are demanding
that universities must be decolonised. Whatever that means exactly is not clear
but it often seems to require arson. Even more mystifying was the gathering of
people looking very colonial in scarlet doctoral robes and black cow-pat bonnets
holding posters bearing messages such as “Education is a right, not a commodity.”
So far no reporter has had the courage to ask who it is that should grant that
right nor to suggest that actually education is a commodity with an easily
determined price.
A foolish
check-in clerk at SAA refused to allow Tyrone Pillay, the silver medal Paralympian,
to take his prosthetic leg on board a local flight. In trying to apologise for
this mistake the SAA spokesman made a memorable gaffe himself. He expressed
dismay that Tyrone’s “customer experience got spoiled on the last leg of his
journey back home”.
Number One presumably
had a good customer experience when he and the selected wife were downgraded
from the presidential jet to SAA for a recent jaunt to yet another
international knees-up. Now that it has been demonstrated that the national
carrier can do the job maybe the plan to buy him a new private jet ought to be
quietly dropped. Hopefully the presidential wallet-bearer paid for the tickets
quickly because that airline is in serious need of the cash. SAA’s 2015
financial results are months overdue and still some last minute calculator work
uncovered a 25% error not previously noticed. The stated loss is a breath-taking
R5.6bn.
Apparently in
the 22 years since it came to power parliament has passed 1000 new laws. But
despite being crafted by the finest socialists and communists on the planet, huge
unemployment and inequalities persist. Undeniably and thankfully of course the
standard of living for many citizens has been improved in these past two
decades, but all those laws have still failed to reduce dreadful inequalities
and unemployment. Enjoying great freedom of speech and movement is scant
compensation for most of our citizens. It time to fillet the statute books.
Thank
goodness we don’t have to watch that haka thing this weekend.
James Greener
Friday 23rd September 2016. (Happy Birthday Philip)
