A prominent
opposition politician has suggested that a tax boycott might catch the
government’s attention. Wouldn’t it just! Already words like treason are being
bandied about – a term not once mentioned when the outright theft of public money
is the topic. We have all however, been placed in the very uncomfortable
position of recognising that probably almost 20 million citizens are now hugely
dependent on a regular state stipend and if that were to cease, insurrection
would be very likely.
800 000 American
civil servants are being remarkably tolerant of the selfish and stupid
behaviour of their employers in sacrificing their well-being to score political
victories. Not a single toyi-toyi down the streets of Washington? How quaintly
restrained. With all the talk of what computer based Artificial Intelligence
can achieve, it is time to boot out most of the world’s seated paper-shuffling tax
eaters. Those like teachers and nurses who stand when serving customers get to
keep their jobs and a pay rise.
A perfect
example of clueless government was aired this week by Home Affairs Minister
Siyabonga Cwele, who announced the introduction of a National Identity System
(NIS) which will replace the current national population register. “NIS would
be supported by a multimodal automated biometric identification system”. This
would be my sixth ID document, but the multimodal bit has me worried.
So, stuff in
December was a tad cheaper than in November? Well that’s what Stats SA says.
Particularly for the non-durable goods group which presumably is largely all
about food and fuel and on average comprises 35% of our expenditure. This and
hundreds of other fascinating figures can be found in a monthly official publication
– just one in a series of amazingly detailed and candid documents about the
nation and its behaviour, that are available. It’s a very laudable and almost
unexpected product from a government that the news reports would like you to believe
is utterly consumed with stealing from the public purse. As usual, however, the inflation numbers hardly
ever agree with what we remember happened when it was time to settle the credit
card bills.
A similar document
reveals that our penchant for imported goods is picking up again after a period
when the trade balance (the difference between imports and exports) narrowed
almost to zero. This statistic too is hard to reconcile with personal
experience and observation and on a monthly basis is astonishingly volatile. However,
when one reads that illegal gold mining volumes are now possibly on a par with
formal production, it suggests that certain mining production statistics need quite
large error bars.
President
Cyril made some astonishing claims in Davos about inward investment flows which
will have sent bankers scurrying off to check the deposits ledgers to see where
its all gone. Before he could give some more details the buffalo farmer raced
off to India for more chin wags. One idly wonders if the name “Gupta” ever comes
up in these meetings? After all, this was the family that saw to it that SAA
closed down its route to India in favour of an Indian airline in which Zuma’s
pals had an interest. Certainly, the now
ancient and increasingly irrelevant Mahatma Gandhi link between the countries is
wearing out as a discussion topic.
The tennis
coming to us from the Australian Open in Melbourne is a frenetic razzmatazz.
The organisers do battle with time zones and some incredibly hot weather to try
to reach the big overseas TV audiences when they are home from work and settled
down with a beverage. And to fill the gaps there’s an unsettling mixture of dramatic
highlights and odd scheduling. Also annoying is the obsession shared by doubles
players for continual personal contact. The game for four people is a very
entertaining format but the rapid sequence of touching, signalling and
whispering is distracting and irritating. More serious though is the Proteas’ habit
of taking the long way around to secure victory. Relying on the middle to lower
order to set batting records is very nerve wracking.
James
Greener
Burns Nicht
2019
