The major US
share indices are busy tracing out what may turn out to be a classic “dead-cat
bounce” pattern. That is a long precipitous fall followed by a sharpish but
teasing recovery before resuming the crash. Judging by the bond prices the “smart(?)”
money is heading that way and the US yield curve is all but “inverted”. This is
an unusual phenomenon where short term interest rates are higher than long term
rates and which provides an excess of material from which economists make grave,
but inevitably wrong, forecasts. Suffice to say it is getting interesting and it
will be tougher than ever to make and keep money. In SA the politicking ahead
of the election will dominate everything
South African
politicians must be the envy of their fellows all over the world. Not only are
they never booted off a payroll no matter what indiscretion, misconduct,
misunderstanding, incompetency or crime they are accused or even convicted of,
but further they have access to public money to fund their hobbies. Durban
ratepayers are about to support a venture by Jacob Zuma – our recently ejected national
president – to record him singing songs. Supposedly these “struggle songs” will
be used to bolster his popularity among the voters at the forthcoming general
election where JZ, despite manifestly being terrible at delivering services to
citizens, has been placed on the party list of candidates. Many of these songs have
as their theme the use of ordnance to kill fellow citizens. Hardly nation-building
stuff and a dreadful misuse of state funds. It would be interesting to hear the
ANC Chaplain’s view on this matter.
Readers who
have not been paying attention might be unaware that that Reverend Vukile Mehana
is in the news because a recording of a chat between himself and a chum was inadvertently
(oh yeah?) leaked onto the internet. In that recording the Chaplain allegedly expressed
somewhat old fashioned views about female clergymen and offense has broken out.
It’s a great surprise to learn that a
political party like the ANC has such a position amongst its office bearers.
Not only is there a heady whiff of colonialism, it also doesn’t exactly chime
with the notion of having an animal sacrifice to ward off the racist demons
which were recently sighted on Clifton beach in Cape Town.
Those of us
who remember why “dial” is the verb used to describe punching buttons to contact
someone by phone have much sympathy for others puzzled by the dangers and
pitfalls of so-called social media, much of which is rather more anti-social. For
example, a parameter of success for anyone “posting” one’s innermost secrets,
inane thoughts and pictures of lunch and cats, is a count of how many followers
one has. Now the smart-phone equivalent of a hissy fit when annoyed by a
follower whose responses to your “posting” is displeasing, is to “Block” their future
access to your contributions. Which reduces one’s number of followers. Which
lowers your score in this non-existent contest. Weird or what?
Anyone who
has recently supported an adolescent through the last few years of school will
probably have noticed the subtle change in emphasis that takes place as the
schooling progresses. In the early years the focus is on the pupil’s welfare
and achievements for the good of the pupil. In the final year the roles of schools
and systems as competing service providers reaches a crescendo at the time of
the release of the matric exam results. Rather pointless and possibly
meaningless aggregate results are wafted about in a media frenzy. This year we
have been treated to noisy claims that South Africa does NOT have the worst
education system in the world. As if second or third worst is somehow better. A
few years ago, the term “bachelors pass” replaced the phrase “matric exemption”
as a cynical and cruel ruse to make school-leavers believe they had now all but
graduated. This year, the “A grade” pass has been replaced by “Level 7” thereby
making this country probably unique in rating excellence in reverse numerical
order.
As I write,
the Proteas are making heavy weather of the Pakistan bowling at the Newlands
Test. I am informed, however, that this is not as important as Liverpool losing
its unbeaten status in the Premier League. The fun part is that a year of
sporting fixtures looms ahead and it’s great fun tracking down the calendars
and loading them into the phone.
James
Greener
Friday 4th
January 2019
[btw I
estimate that maybe 2000 readers see Tidemarks every week.]
