Scary shit!

The ANC is currently finalizing plans to implement a National Health Insurance scheme in South Africa. Offhand this seems a good idea: too many people cannot afford private medical aid. However, the question is what we're going to use instead of money in order to finance this caper.

I often listen to Classic FM while driving, and between 6 and 7 in the evening they have a one-hour program on business and economics, in which leading business people and economists comment on recent developments. Just now (before I came home) I heard one of them mention some figures that are downright scary. I have no links to use as reference right now, so you'll have to take my word for it.

• South Africa has more than fifty million citizens (that's not counting the illegals of course which are estimated to run into about ten million or so) but at the same time there are less than five point one million tax payers.
  
• For every tax payer there are two point five people on welfare.
  
• Less than 40% of the adult population works.
  
• The Rand is over-valued, which hampers our economy and in turn seriously hurts tax revenues, but nothing is being done to curb that problem.
  
• South Africa has the second highest interest rate in the world, yet two out of three people have debts and are unable to pay for them - during the last quarter the number of foreclosures and liquidations has increased by 38% compared to the same period last year.
  
• The costs of the NHI plan will run into hundreds of billions of Rand per year.

Yes, I really have to see how the tax payers (including your's truly) are going to cough up this money.

Yet there is little chance that the NHI plan won' t be implemented. It has been made public, which generally means that it's already a done deal.

We'll see.

Sometimes we humans are a sorry lot

The image if the Great White Hunter is considered sacred in some circles. Unfortunately these days this is little more than an image. Well, where there's a problem, there's a commercial solution. Come to South Africa, and we'll fix you up!

The deal is simple. We'll breed lions in captivity, keep them in a cage, feed them and protect them all their lives, and in general make sure that they know nothing of the Great Outdoors and how to live there as a lion. Then we'll take that lion, release it in a "hunting lodge" (a small park several acres in size with high and often electrified fenced around it so that the Dangerous Wild Animal has nowhere to go and can't hide). Just pay us a lot of money (say, between $25,000 and $40,000 depending on the arrangement you want) and we'll drive you in there so you can dress up in your camo gear, blast a lion to kingdom come with a Very Big Gun, pose for a photo, and have the carcass sent off to a taxidermist so you can hang a trophy on your wall at home. And if you want something else than a lion (say, a buffalo, or a zebra, or even a giraffe) that's no problem: we've got lots of those, too. Elephants and rhino's are reserved for poachers protected, but everything else you can blast away with any sort of artillery you fancy, as long as your money is good. After all we're here to make sure you have a great time!

Needless to say this was a rather popular package deal during the soccer worldcup games, but this form of "hunting" (for lack of a better word) is nothing new. Protests against it have been an on-going process... without much success. Which is a pity.

Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against hunting per sé. Very few animals die of old age in nature, especially in Africa. Eventually they are eaten by something bigger, faster, more fit and/or more healthy than they are. And such a death is seldom quick, painless or what we like to all "humane" - a zebra that's being taken down by lions would be much better off with a well-placed shot from a proficient hunter. Nature simply has no concept of mercy or cruelty - it is merely a continuous statistical process of survival and selection of the fittest. Man has always been part of that process, and even though we are well past the eat-or-be-eaten stage, some of the hunter/gatherer still lives on inside us all. And let's face it: most people who protest against ethical hunting don't flinch at buying the products of the bio-industry in their local supermarkets. The development of an egg into a vacuum-packed piece of chicken is simply a production process, and nothing more. Even the fact that it still requires a chicken and an egg is simply considered annoying but inevitable overhead.

So hunting, if done ethically and skillfully, is not necessarily a bad thing if seen in its proper perspective. I'm even prepared to consider that if the prey has a fair chance of escape (be it through flight or through hiding) you can find some element of sport in it, if you're so inclined.

But this... This isn't hunting. I don't know what it is, but hunting ain't.

Movie producer Kevin Richardson has made a film about it. Maybe it will help... but I doubt it. :-(

Human rights in South Africa - what human rights?

No matter how you look at it, no one can deny that South Africa has a great future behind it. Back in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa, all was rosy: everyone was free, democracy had been unleashed to shower down its blessings upon the huddled masses of the oppressed, and the culture of inequality in which a small minority grew rich and fat by ruthlessly exploiting the rest of the population was at an end.

What a beautiful dream.

So where do we stand, 16 years later? Well now, let's see. No, I'm not going to bore you again with all the things that regular readers of these pages have heard many times before: the combination of corruption and insanity that has turned South Africa's government into a circus where the biggest clowns are in charge; the dodgy deals and the shameless looting of the country by grinning ANC heavyweights who consider themselves above the law (and in fact they are); the way the roads crumble and the energy infrastructure is being run into the ground by politically appointed managers who are both incompetent and uninterested (in anything but how much money they can get into their own pockets, that is);  corruption being common in the public sector and nepotism having become the norm higher up; unparallelled economical mismanagement, municipalities in chaos and unable to deliver basic services, et cetera ad nauseam, while ANC heavies live the good life and have fights about who can throw the biggest party.¹⁾ No. We've been through that many times already. Instead, let's just look at the human rights situation in South Africa: where we have been, where we are now, and where we are headed.

When Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first (albeit reluctant) black president in 1994, he was generally regarded as a human rights activist. Freshly laureated with the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize (which he shared with his white counterpart F.W. de Klerk) he faced the task of giving black South Africans what the ANC had promised them for decades. No one could have done more than scratch the surface of that virtually impossible task, so considering the circumstances Mandela didn't do all that badly. Granted, there are issues (such as HIV/AIDS) that he could have handled differently but, on the whole and within the context of the times, he was a fairly good president.

Most importantly however, and something that is perhaps not sufficiently recognized, is the fact that his personality and his reconciliatory attitude were instrumental in preventing the atrocities that many whites feared would follow the end of apartheid. These fears were not without justification: there were many who sharpened their knives (literally) for the moment when all old wrongs would be set right in truly African fashion. However no lynchings and killings ensued, and that is in no small part due to Mandela's success in moderating these vengeful sentiments. Today Mandela's reputation as a human rights activist is even acknowledged by the Chinese government which, ironically, is not known for its high regard for human rights.

But then Mandela finished his five years of presidency and made way for Thabo Mbeki. At that point things began to deteriorate rapidly. While South Africa's neighbour Zimbabwe wiped the floor with human rights, Mbeki ensured that South Africa never even spoke out against dictator Robert Mugabe's reign of terror. (As an interesting aside, when you search on Google for 'Robert Mugabe', the list of suggested related searches includes 'Idi Amin'. Go figure.) During Mbeki's administration the response of the South African government firmly remained limited to "peaceful talks" between Mebeki and Mugabe, which accomplished exactly nothing - mainly because they did not include any apparent intention to make a difference. When Mbeki was ousted from the presidency and summarily replaced with Jacob Zuma, nothing changed with regard to South Africa's stance on Zimbabwe - the deplorable human rights situation just north of the border isn't even mentioned.

South Africa's first stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2007 and 2008 was even more shameful. South Africa repeatedly sided with Russia and China and helped them to block Western-backed resolutions against Myanmar, Iran and Zimbabwe, among other things. The reason for this shameless squandering of South Africa's emerging reputation as a nation that respects human rights is simple: both Russia (or rather, the former USSR) and China were firm backers of the ANC during the Apartheid years. In other words, the pay-off of political debts and the covering of political assets prevailed over human rights.

Nor is this surprising. The simple truth is that the ANC has never championed freedom and human rights. True, the ANC opposed the Apartheid government which was in power at the time, but mainly because the ANC wanted that power for itself. The rest was just incidental. The struggle against Apartheid was, ultimately, never about freedom for the people. It was about freedom for members of the ANC top to do as they please, and about their personal power, wealth and prestige. These days this is typically expressed in the form of expensive cars and a lavish life style for members of the ANC top, while the many promises made by the ANC during the days of the struggle against Apartheid have almost invariably left empty.

Jacob Zuma's presidency has brought little change. Zuma prefers to completely ignore the existence of any human rights issues. He seems as comfortable in the presence of dictators as Mbeki was, and as oblivious to the atrocities they commit. He has carefully avoided to even mention the subject of human rights in public. He has also been carefully silent about the recent row between the Chinese government and the Nobel Peace Prize commission following the awarding of the peace prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo - even though Xiabobo thus joins the company of Mandela and De Klerk.

South Africa has also consistently failed in its own obligations to address torture and other "irregularities' in South African police cells and prisons. While South Africa did sign the United Nations' Convention Against Torture in 1998, it never got around to making  torture a criminal offence under South African law. Let me repeat that: torture is still not a criminal offence in South Africa! Nor is anything being done to change that. Under international human rights law South Africa is obliged to report periodically on what it has done to prevent torture and to respond to allegations of torture, but so far it has not done so. One report was submitted in 2005, five years too late, but that report was sent back by the UN with the request to urgently clear up a number of issues. South Africa has yet to respond. Ironically it was the death of Steve Biko in a South African cell that prompted the UN General Assembly  to adopt the UN convention against torture in 1984 in the first place. Biko must be spinning in his grave.

While this does not bode well for South Africa's future as a country where human rights are respected, recent events are even more worrying. For starters there is the much maligned "Protection of Information Bill" which is set to be signed into law any moment now. This bill, which is generally considered to be a Protection of Corruption Bill, will allow members of the government (and to all intents and purposes that means the ANC top) to arbitrarily classify anything as 'secret' and to suppress any information thereon in the press. A "media tribunal" will be instated to restrict the freedom of press on a day-to-day basis, and to arbitrate ex cathedra on what may and may not be made public. The bill does not specify what can be considered secret and what not, or on what grounds such a decision should be made. It is left solely up to the ruling politicians, who are answerable to no-one, and as a result can get away with anything. The bill simply hands them the power to keep anything and everything secret, out of the media and out of public view. Investigative journalism will no longer be possible, as publications in the media on subjects that the government wants to keep under wraps will now be punishable by law. The ANC's State Security Minister has even gone as far as stating that the public interest should not be considered in the implementation of this bill, as that would "tantamount to shredding it". Go figure! Even presentations dealing with the bill itself have been designated as "classified".

Many protests from the opposition and freedom-of-information activists notwithstanding, the bill is virtually a fait accompli and will soon be made law, according to statements made by president Jacob Zuma, who said that the ANC "will continue processing the resolutions of both [the] Polokwane [conference] and the NGC [National General Council] ... in this regard" and that South Africa must "redefine" freedom of press. But even now, before the bill is in effect, the publication of details on dodgy dealings or other embarrassments involving government officials, law enforcement officials or ANC heavies is routinely suppressed. State broadcaster SABC, meanwhile, had been fully under ANC control for 16 years now, with the net result that it has not only been reduced to a party mouthpiece, but is also a financial and operational disaster area.

To make up for the deficit in news reaching the public, though, a new newspaper has been launched. It is funded by the Gupta Group, which has close ties with the ANC and with president Jacob Zuma personally. The paper promises "more positive" news, and will "highlight the accomplishments of the ANC". The editor and four senior staff members resigned hours before the paper was set to be launched, with the general impression being that they did so in response to fears about media freedom, although they have not come out and admitted this in public. When the launch went ahead a bit later, the first edition did not do much to raise expectations - about the best that critics have said about it so far is that at least it contributes to the diversity of voices in the country.

One of the first things that will undoubtedly disappear from the free news channels as soon as the Protection of Corruption Information Bill comes into effect is South Africa's continuing emergence as a dodgy arms dealer. While not the largest arms manufacturer and exporter in the world by far (the US and Russia will continue to head that particular list for a long time yet) the arms business in South Africa continues to grow. Give it some time - especially since South Africa has taken to supplying arms to whomever has the money, with no care whatsoever as to the way in which these weapons are likely to be used. A good recent example is South Africa's arms shipments to Somalia in clear contravention of UN rules that South Africa (itself now a senior member of the UN security council) agreed to uphold. And that is just one example. According to lobby group Ceasefire, fully half of SA's arms exports in the past decade have gone to no fewer than 58 countries that failed to meet at least one of the criteria required by the National Conventional Arms Control Act. This is further supported by a report from South Africa's own Auditor-General.  Why this is a violation of human rights should be obvious: especially in Africa, arming the wrong people invariably to large scale suffering.

In the film Lord of War (which I heartily recommend) Nicolas Cage states that there is currently one firearm on the planet for every twelve people, and he wonders how to arm the other eleven. What Cage does not mention is that these firearms are not evenly distributed across the globe, and that in some regions (especially West Africa, although not just there) the average is much, much higher than one in twelve. The fact that this part of the world is also known for its frequent eruptions of war, massacre, slaughter, genocide and other forms of prolonged, intense, large-scale human suffering is of course not a coincidence. Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Congo are only some of the better known examples, but they are only the tip of the iceberg. Supplying militant groups in these and other countries with weapons practically garantuees that countless numbers of civilians will be mowed down in a hail of bullets sooner or later. It's become a way of life in those parts.

Another thing that will conveniently be disappeared from public view under the Protection of Corruption Bill is the apalling things that have been going on in the mining sector lately. ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who somehow manages to spend around three times as much as he officially earns (this will undoubtedley become "protected information" under the Bill as well) is currently campaigning fiercely to have the entire mining sector nationalized by 2012, in order to pry the country's resources from the stealing hands of the white colonials and put them into the hands of the oppressed black population, where they belong. Does that sound familiar? It should. South Africa's land reform policy is already underway, with similar results as in Zimbabwe, and the ANCYL only wants more of it. Now they're gearing up to do the same with the mines. And if recent events are any indication, this should be even more fun.

For example, let's take a look at the Aurora Mine at Grootvlei, which is owned by none less than a nephew of Jacob Zuma and a grandson of Nelson Mandela. Illegal mining and other forms of theft is a real problem in South Africa, but the response of Aurora's security staff seems just a tad excessive: when they discovered 20 trespassers on their property, they simply shot them dead and buried them. This did not happen just once; there are several more incidents in which trespassers were summarily executed at Grootvlei, and we can pretty much rule out that this is an isolated accident. So far Mandela Jr. and Zuma Jr. have not even been approached by representatives of the law, let alone held accountable for what goes on at their mining complex. Meanwhile other parts of Aurora's mining properties are being neglected, and the miners living there continue to succumb to inhumane poverty.

I could go on here... but it gets kind of ugly and depressing. I think I'll leave it at this.

So. Where do we go from here?

¹⁾ Update: OK - maybe I goofed just a little bit here. Kenny Kunene himself is not really an ANC heavyweight (although he is up to his eyeballs in ANC connections, you bet your Gluteus Maximus) and Robert Gumede, also referred to in the linked article, does rub shoulders with Zuma, Sexwale, Malema, Cele and the rest of that particular clique. Thanks, Leslie!

Catching up

OK. Where were we?

Let's get the mundane stuff out of the way first. Early spring has sprung. The trees are beginning to blossom here and there, and the bees are out in force. So are the August winds, and because everything is still bone dry after months of no precipitation at all, dust is everywhere. But at least the cold is gone - we've had a relatively mild winter this year, but with a few cold snaps that were downright spectacular: the aging water heater in the car port burst from the cold, and black frost killed off quite a few plants in the garden.

My vegetable garden is an out-an-out failure as a vegetable garden (the sum and total of the harvest was one cabbage the size of a golf ball) but as an experiment intended to find out what's what in this garden, it was a success. I now have learned that the veggie patch is useless in winter because it hardly gets any sun at all; that the soil is useless, and that the weather is something to be reckoned with. Five minutes down the road is a large(ish) estate where they have horses and vineyards, which means the soil is excellent (the gray/black stuff that I need, rather than the reddish clay that I have) and manure is available in abundance. What this garden needs is a load of crap, and new soil for the veggie patch, both of which will arrive shortly. :-)

I have sown most of my herbs in seeding trays - but being penniless, I used the plastic trays that my local supermarket sells tomatoes and other fruit and vegetables in. Which is fine, except that I now have the nagging suspicion that some of them may have been treated with some kind of fungicide to keep fruit from molding - and incidentally my seeds from germinating. So far some of it (dill weed, leek and thyme, for example) has started to sprout, but coriander, chives, parsley and basil have been in there for over three weeks now without any sign of life... except for two or three runty green pinheads in the center of the tray. Fortunately I haven't put all my eggs in one basket seeds in one tray, so I've re-sown some of that stuff in real seeding trays (i.e. ones sold for that purpose) that I managed to borrow.

The garden needs a lot of work. First, as soon as I have a bit of money to buy a few simple plumbing fixtures, I'll put in an irrigation system. Not the fancy stuff that you buy at garden centers; I'll make my own. :-) Then there's the usual cleaning upping to do after the winter. In spring the pine trees start growing new needles, and the old stuff is coming down like rain - along with green clouds of pollen, because how they're blooming and everything gets covered in this green stuff. :-) Then the grass needs some fertilizer, but that will have to wait until the growing season starts again. I'm hoping to get rich later this year and start building a garden shed, and some outside lights for the patio, and maybe an umbrella there and an electrical outlet, so that I can work outside in summer. We'll see.

Work-wise, things are quiet. A few weeks ago I did a small website for a deep sea fishing charter company in Shelly Beach, just south of Durban. It was a referral from a friend who has family there, which meant I could get a ride out there for free. They fetched me at four in the morning on a Friday, we drove out there, arrived just past noon, had a meeting, I made the website, and on Sunday afternoon we drove back. It's not great money but it all helps, and maybe it will generate some more business in that part of the country.

My permanent residence permit is still in the works - and the wheels turn slowly here. My police clearance is in, having been delayed by several months due to the Soccer World Cup games, and now I need to get another affidavit from a chartered accountant and a company valuation, I need to draw up a revised business plan, and I need to make a case for the fact that I'm not hiring large numbers of Africans and otherwise creating economic opportunities for the downtrodden masses.

Well, at least that last bit is easy - the downtrodden masses have once gain risen up in their might, with the soccer world cup out of the way and the eyes of the world safely turned elsewhere, and once again demanded more money. They do this at least once a year, for no specific reason other than that they want more, and more again, with quite arbitrary demands. This time it's the public sector again, and strikes here mean violence and vandalism. Striking hordes march through towns and across highways, overturning rubbish bins, breaking windows, setting fires, and wreaking general havoc and destruction. Striking hospital workers intimidated their working colleagues, dragged a nurse out of the operating room during an operation, and at least seven patients have died so far, including babies who were left without food or care all day long. Even emergency patients are denied care. And it's not just hospitals - similar atrocities happen in other sectors: government offices, schools, municipalities, and what not.

But at least we still know about all this. That may soon change... because the constitutional freedom of speech is about to be abolished in South Africa. The ANC is about to sign into law two draconian proposals intended to muzzle the free media in South Africa, following a spate of publications in the media on the excesses of various ANC heavies, including systematic abuse of power, conflicts of interests, hijacking of government tenders, nepotism, corruption, fraud, embezzlement and outright crime. These "fabrications" and "obviously false allegations" have outraged notonly the ANC, but also the ANC Youth League and the SA Communist Party (SACP); with an uncommon degree of co-operation they have labeled the media a threat to democracy, and accused some of the more daring investigative journalists of treason because their "lies" have "undermined security in the presidency" and constituted "a direct attack on the State and its people". At least one Sunday Times  reporter has been arrested. Meanwhile the new Protection of Information Bill is about to be summarily signed into law, which will give the government the authority to keep under wraps whatever they want, in what is nothing short of a revival of Apartheid-era secrecy and censorship, and a Media Tribunal which will adjudicate over "wrong reporting by all media". Guess who will decide what constitutes "confidential information" and "wrong reporting"? Exactly.

So my long silence in this weblog might be a taste of things to come...

Update:
Freedom of speech and freedom of press aren't the only things that will go out the window when the Protection of Information Bill comes into effect. It will also seriously hamper (or rather, defeat) attempts to hold the ANC and its members accountable for their actions. In fact it will make it virtually impossible for anyone, from the Public Protectorate to the Human Rights Commission to the Directorate of Public Proscecution, to adequately respond to any lawbreaking committed by the ruling party of its top figures. All the ANC has to do, as soon as embarrassing questions are asked or condemning evidence surfaces, is to declare the Bill applicable to whatever issue is being raised, and the whole thing will immediately disappear behind a screens of secrecy, not only safely out of view of the public, but also out of reach of any judicial representative, right up to the high court itself. How convenient.

Maybe it's time we all learned Chinese...

Sigh

Let's have a quick look at the main goings-on in South Africa. I haven't done that for a while, because it was too depressing. I guess I was right to avoid it.

The enfant terrible of South African politics, Julius Malema (a regular in these posts and known for his many dodgy dealings with government tenders) has thought of something new. After trying to revive the struggle against Apartheid, attempts to copy Robert Mugabe's way of handled the Zimbabwean economy, and an ongoing campaign to nationalize all assets that contribute to the South African economy, he now claims that the oppressed masses of South Africa are being looted by banks, "which are all owned by white males". He also believes that nationalization of the mines could pay for university education. Riiiighhtt... Ehm... Which planet did you say you're from, Julius?

A new batch of proposed changes to the Immigration Act will soon force me to jump through even more difficult hoops. Foreigners will now personally have to visit offices of the department of home affairs or a foreign embassy to apply for permits to enter the country. Read: you will no longer be allowed to go through an intermediary such as an immigration service company or an attorney or lawyer. Needless to say, this is an unmitigated disaster. Most Home Affairs offices are in a terrible state, and one can expect to stand (not sit) in queues for literally days on end - I once spent a total of four whole days standing in the Home Affairs office in Germiston just to get a three month extension on a three month tourist visum. Also, it will make "no difference whether the applicant is the chief executive of a multi-million rand company or a student wanting to study in South Africa". In other words, if Bill Gates or Richard Branson wants to come and work in South Africa, he must stand in line with several hundred hopefuls (none of which have had a shower recently) from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mozambique, Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia and who knows where else. Well... if that doesn't encourage them to invest in the South African economy, I don't know what will... :-(

With the Soccer World Cup over it's now time to pay the piper - as we all knew (or should have known) was going to happen. The Green Point stadium in Cape Town, built to the tune of 4.4 billion Rand because FIFA didn't consider the existing stadiums fancy enough, will cost R46.5 million Rand a year in maintenance, management and operational costs. Because the stadium is "underutilized" (read: it's just been sitting there since the soccer final a few months ago) there's no way that the stadium will generate enough income to cover even a fraction of that, and there are no commercial parties interested in leasing it - the last one just pulled out. So it will be up to the tax payer to finance the ownership of these white elephants - because the Cape Town stadium isn't the only one. The stadium in Nelspruit, for example, hasn't seen more than a few soccer matches and (if memory serves) one minor sports game in the week following the final, and the lights haven't been on ever since. In fact some stadiums have already started to fall somewhat into disrepair.

As usual, South Africa is a circus... and the biggest clowns are in charge.

Let's hear it for a strong South African tradition!

Recently I have been exposed to another part of South Africa's great cultural heritage. It's called mampoer, and it's much like the alcoholic equivalent of a hand granade, coated with a thin layer of sugar.

The origins of mampoer are somewhat lost in the mists of time. Just about everyone claims to be the inventor of mampoer, from white settlers to descendants of the first peoples lving on the continent. Personally I suspect that mampoer was mostly discovered by, or at least thanks to, elephants. When the fruit of the marula tree, which is indigenous to Southern Africa, ripens, it quickly starts to ferment. The sweet odor given off by the fermenting fruit attracts elephants (and also baboons) from miles downwind. They feast on the fruits and occasionally eat so many of them that they become intoxicated, especially the baboons. (It takes a lot to intoxicate a three ton elephant.)

This was not lost on the people of Southern Africa, who used the spontaneous fermentation of various fruits to brew various mildly alcoholic drinks.  Then the white settlers moved in, armed with a knowledge of distilling and a religion involving a deity who changed water into wine and not the other way around. It was about then that mampoer was born. The principle is simple: you take a large vat, fill it up with fruit, mash it up, and leave it for two weeks or so (judging how long it should be left to bubble is a bit of an art - too short and you don't get much alcohol; too long and it all goes bad). The fruit will ferment spontaneously, and all you then have to do is distill it. The result is a very fruity and very potent brandy, known as mampoer in Transvaal and as witblits ("white lightning") in the Cape.

Mampoer is produced and distributed somewhat discreetly, so as not to upset John Law, and comes in many different varieties. The variation is mostly due to the difference in fruits from one season to the next and one area to the next, as well as the climate during growth and fermentation, not to mention regional influences on the spontaneous fermentation itself. In short, no two batches of mampoer are ever alike - except by sheer coincidence. It also comes in a variety of strengths, typically from 50 to 65% or so, but occasionally even stronger - much  stronger. (The varieties stronger than 50% are not really meant, or recommended, for imbibing undilutedly!)

So. I have obtained, as part of a deal I will not discuss, from a source I shall not mention, a few free bottles of 50% Fig and Mulberry mampoer. And I can report, ehm, I mean, I have been told, that it puts you to sleep very nicely. :-)

More than anything else, though, I wish I could have let my grandfather taste it. He's spent most of his life as a master distiller of the well-known Dutch gin (properly known as Genever or Jenever) and he would have found it very interesting indeed.

So.. here's to you, grandpa. Cheers!

A witch! A witch!

There is no denying that the soccer worldcup games of 2010 have been a great success, especially where South Africa's new and improved image in the eyes of the world. No stone has been left unturned to keep the problems that continue to plague the country (such as crime, poverty, miserable living conditions, dysfunctional municipal and governmental services) out of sight. Soccer fans are very enthusiastic, and return home convinced that South Africa is a modern country with an infrastructure and society that are on par with the best ones found in Europe and the US.

Apart from a slight case of witchcraft, that is.

Artist Yiull Damaso, who feels that art should provoke an emotional response, has created a modern version of Rembrand's The Anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. In Damaso's version the knife is wielded by the late AIDS orphan Nkhosi Johnson, while the cadaver is that of Nelson Mandela. The onlookers are political figures such as de Klerk, Zuma, Mbeki and opposition leader Zille.

Whether or not this is within the limits of good taste is up for debate - which is not unusual for daring expressions of art. But the ANC has slammed it for entirely different reasons. Not only do they call the painting "racist" (because everything that displeases the ANC is considered racist these days) but the real problem is that we're dealing with a typical manifestation of witchcraft: "In African society it is a foreign act of ubuthakathi (witchcraft) to kill a living person..." according to the ANC's statement.

Witchcraft is not uncommon in South Africa. Every now and then people are killed because they are suspected of witchcraft. Even more people (especially children) are being killed and slaughtered for muti - a form of traditional healing that uses human organs for certain rituals and treatments, and even (if desperate measures are required) human sacrifice. Yes, we are talking about South Africa in the year 2010 - the country that currently hosts the soccer world cup.

There is even a "Witchcraft Suppression Act" in South African law. This bill states that:

6 Any person who conducts himself in the manner below shall be guilty of an offence:-

1 (a) Imputes to any other person the causing, by supernatural means, of any disease in or injury or damage to any person or thing, or who names or indicates any other person as a wizard;
(b) In circumstances indicating that he professes or pretends to use any supernatural power, witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or disappointment of any person or thing to any other person;
(c) Employs or solicits any witchdoctor, witch-finder or any other person to name or indicate any person as a wizard;
(d) Professes a knowledge of witchcraft, or the use of charms, advises any person how to bewitch, injure or damage any person or thing, or supplies any person with any pretended means of witchcraft;
(e) On the advice of any inyanga, witch-finder or other person or on the ground of any pretended knowledge of witchcraft, uses or causes to be put into operational any means or process which, in accordance with such advice or his own belief, is calculated to injure or damage any person or thing; and
(f) For gain pretends to exercise or use any supernatural powers, witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment.

There is no denying that South Africa has done a brilliant PR job. It's a bit of a shame, of course, that all this money and effort has gone into hiding the country's real problems from the world, rather than solving them, but that's politics for you, I suppose...

Soccer World Cup: winners and loosers

Nobody can deny that so far the Soccer World Cup games in South Africa are a huge success. Of couse, here and there a few foreign visitors have been robbed (or shot), ticket sales continued to be a shambles, and there has been a considerable amount of ticket fraude, but such things are to be expected anywhere when such a large event takes place. Meanwhile South Africa leaves no stone unturned to polish up its image in the eyes of the world. Which makes complete sense - who wouldn't? And so far soccer fans are very enthusiastic about what they have seen of South Africa, and South Africa is even thinking seriously about 2020 and hosting the Olympics. The mayor of Durban even goes as far as stating that the world has finally realized that South Africa is a very safe country with modern infrastructure and little crime, where everyone is nice and tourists are being treated honestly.

So why could anyone have any justifiable criticism on South Africa's hosting of the world cup games?

Well - one good reason is that there is more than just soccer that makes the world go around. And the question is whether or not the money and resources spent on hosting the world cup games are being spent wisely.

Although the ANC optimistically expects a 0.3% economic growth as a result of South Africa hosting the world cup games, the average South African won't notice anything about it. It's mostly other countries that profit. FIFA, which makes off with most of the proceeds, has been amply discussed in recent previous posts in this weblog, so we can be brief about that. But there are many more cases of the money going right across the border, never to be seen again. Even that oh so very South African symbol of soccer frenzy, the vuvuzela, is made China, while the trainer of South Africa's national team Bafana Bafana is a Brazilian, who takes a fee of a whopping 1.8 million Rand per month (!) home to Brazil. (To put that into perspective: that is roughtly five hundred to a thousand times the average workman's salary in South Africa.) Also a significant portion of soccer fan's spendings go into flights to South Africa, which have been booked abroad and are only a small part of which reflects in revenues in South Africa.

Domestic spendings also rarely benefit the average South African. For a few weeks hawkers have done good business selling flags, caps, shirts and other soccer paraphernalia (made in China) but the market suddenly (and predictably) colapsed when South Africa was eliminated from the games in the first round. Soccer-related business on a larger scale (the building of stadiums, urban renovation, catching up on a decade and a half of road maintenance, t cetera) has been left to only a few companies (the ones with the right political connections) and meanwhile government officials have a ball with what was left of the taxpayer's money.

Meanwhile the bills continues to add up. While the soccer craze has caused many South Africans to spend way more than they can afford, many government projects have been shelved and especially the building sector (which is very much dependent on government orders) is in dire straits. Even worse: in Nelspruit (which the ANC insists on calling Mbombela these days) the municipality has spent so much money on hosting the soccer matches that they now have no money to pay wages and municipal workers will have to go without. Nelspruit, little more than an sleepy agricultural hick town with ambitions, has spent more than 140 million dollar (note: dollar, not Rand!) on a brand new stadium, but after having seen a handful of soccer matches and a few days of fans filling up the local bars, Nelspruit has gone quiet again and nobody really expects that the stadium, or Nelspruit, will ever see a major, well-visited sports event ever again.

While the proceeds in terms of goodwill are difficult to calculate, it didn't take accountants firm Grant Thornton very long to work out that of the $5.5 billion dollars that have been spent on new stadiums alone, no more than $1.7 billion can ever be expected in return, and that South Africa itself won't benefit significantly from any of it. Of course, the soccer matches have caused a huge peak in visitor figures - but there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. The 32% extra visitors are mostly from Lesotho and Swaziland (independent kingdoms that lie within South African borders) and from neighbouring countries Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana - people who traditionally don't have much more (and often less) to spend than South Africa, and often lodge with friends or family. Worse: during the world cup games the regular hospitality industry has only suffered - hugely. Discouraged by noisy soccer crowds and hiked prices regular tourists and business travelers  stay away in droves, and the soccer fans themselves come to watch soccer and little else, and show nlittle interest in other tourist attractions, let alone in spending the night at tourist hotspots that are not in the immediate vincinity of a soccer stadium. And even there, during the soccer visitor peak, a significant percentage of the hotel rooms (which have been built in vastly overblown quantities) is left standing empty. After the world cup games are over this will only get worse, as the current soccer-related occupancy is of course totally insustainable.

Which brings us back to our initial question: can South Africa afford this extravaganza? The country has a considerable foreign debt which, for the moment, shows little sign of being under control - although the situation is stil far better than in, say, Greece. About half of the population has to live below the poverty line (defined at an income of $1.25 per day). Estimates of the actual percentage vary, because there are no reliable exact statistics, as many people living on the streets, in corrugated iron shacks or in cardboard boxes aren't registered anywhere. Official unemployment figures are over 25%, but here the same problem plays a role: literally countless people in South Africa do not appear anywhere in any official records whatsoever, so on paper they don't exist. Estimates of the actual unemployment rate vary from 40% to 60%. And not only black South Africans are affected - these days there are white shanty towns too, and they're not good. Other than that, South Africa has a record number of about 5.7 million people infected with HIV,
and while soccer fans have not been slaughtered by the dozen as some feared, the country is all but save and crime is a huge problem. The infrastructure (from roads and railways to the power grid and telecommunications) are in the process of collapsing.

So there is a lot that needs doing - important things; urgent things; things that South African citizens badly need. But during the past six years little has happened (except for the soccer venues and related visitor hot spots) because all attention and effords have gone to preparations for the soccer world cup. And there's no money left to do any of them now, either, because of the astronomical cost of hosting the games. And by now even the most naive have realized that the world cup is not going to bring in any money (recent estimates predict a loss of about 27 miljard Rand) and that the lasting economic benefits that the soccer world cup games were going to give us all is nothing but a fairy tale.

Yet again England have scored a brilliant result in the World Cup (not). I wonder what causes world class players to suddenly lose all the excellence they have in their club games and turn them into a bunch of opportunity missing jessies!

It looked like the star play Rooney was home sick and missing his baby, and the rest of them clearly couldn't support the rest of the team. I may not be the expert, but if a formation aint working then the simple solution would be to change it wouldn't it?

Still onwards and upwards to the next game - England V Slovenia let it be 5 - 0 - I'd like to win one of my free bets on Opinion World!

The vuvuzela's are quiet

Oh deary me. South Africa's national pride Bafana Bafana got clobbered with a three-nil score last night by Uruguay. What a shame. South Africans are heart-broken. Many fans honestly believed that Bafana would do well in the World Cup matches, and even (dare one say it) have a chance to win the World Cup.

Right.

Bafana Bafana are, what, (Eighty-fourth? Eight-seventh?) on the world ranking list? And these people honestly think that they'll now become world champions? If South Africa hadn't been hosting the game, Bafana wouldn't even have qualified for playing at all. I mean, really, guys.

But at least the vuvuzela's are a lot quieter now...

Update:
To add insult to injury, a power cut following the disastrous match stranded some 2000 mourning fans who were on their way home. Having responded to the general call to use public transportas much as possible, fans were stranded in a crippled commuter train (without heating at several degrees below freezing) for two to three hours, with the last fans only arriving at 03:30. Train operator Metrorail finally had to resort to steam locomotives to get the fans to their stations.

I shit you not. Steam.

Slaves of football

Soccer is not a game anymore - and it hasn't been for a very long time. Non-profit organization FIFA alone raked in 3.2 billion dollar during the Soccer Worldcup 2010 cycle (2007 - 2010) and has budgeted for an income of 3.8 billion dollar for the upcoming cycle. With that kind of money it is only a matter of time before criminals step in and try to take their share - which they have, in plenty.

For starters there is of course FIFA itself, with its doubtful methods of protecting its income. For example, sponsor Budweiser is the only beer allowed at soccer worldcup venues. So when a group of Dutch women tried to attend the games dressed in the orange mini skirts bearing the brand name of small Dutch brewer Bavaira, they were summarily arrested and jailed through a law that had been drawn up for the occasion in response to demands from FIFA. Seeing as about 30% of FIFA's income is derived from sponsorships, FIFA will stop at nothing in order to protect its sponsorship deals. Which is easy, because when politicans smell money and glory (both of which come with hosting a soccer world cup event) they are happy to bend over if that will help them to join the fun.

Another important player is the so-called "betting mafia" which has prompted FIFA to establish an early warning system that monitors around 400 major bookmakers world-wide for signs of match fixing. And then there are the small traders who try to sell merchandise that hasn't been bought from FIFA wholesalers at ridiculous prices, which FIFA also counts among the criminals.

But that is by no means the worst - at least not in terms of human suffering. Much more misery can be found in West Afrika, something that has increased during recent years thanks, in no small part thanks to the soccer world cup games being hosted in Africa. Countries like Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana, to name a few, appear to offer an excellent soccer climate: they have provided the world with numerous brilliant (and promising) players. African soccer prodigies are a popular import product with European clubs. Soccer players are merchandise - merchandise with considerable value. For the merchandise this trade doesn't always end well. But even more serious is that in West Africa, where there is trade, crime is never far away.

In the slums of West Africa you will find no jobs, no food, and no plumbing. What you will find is thousands of young men who, for lack of a better occupation, spend their days practicing with a football, and drreaming of being discovered by one of the prestigious Europan clubs. Deep down inside they know that it takes more than some agility and ball handling skills to become a big soccer star, but in the face of the misery that is their daily lives they are more than happy to ignore that reality. As if to to attend that shortcoming, there are countless "soccer academies" around who promise to train up these aspiring young football talents into full-fledged players. At a price, of course... but often families are willing to give up everything, spend whatever savings they may have and sell what little they own, in order to give one of their children a chance for fame and glory, a decent future, and an income that would feed them all and then some. But the sad reality is that the "football academy" always turns out to be a miserable slum that the aspiring hopeful young soccer talents will never leave. Technically one may not call it slavery as such, since the victims are not property in a formal sense, but de facto it is, and at the very least this is to be classified as human trafficking, - although "inhuman" would be a better term. Criminal fraudsters usually pretend to be talent scouts representing the best European football clubs (especially British clubs seem to be popular) and promist a golden future in European soccer - as long as the "expenses" get paid up front. But instead of a golden future the victims end up in apalling conditions where most of them are stuck for life.

An interesting documentary on the subject is "Soccer's lost boys" (of which, unfortunately, I can only find a trailer on the 'web (suggestions, anyone?) and Aljazeera is currently running an episode of their series "People and power" on it, which can be viewed online (at least at this time of writing) and which I heartily recommend.

Update: A full version of "Soccer's lost boys" can be seen here.

The downside of the Soccer World Cup games

Currently nothing happens on this planet - except for the Soccer World Cup games in South Africa. At least, if we are to believe the South African press. So it's time for another Soccer World Cup update! The party is in full swing, vuvuzela's won't be banned and everyone is happy. Right?

Wrong.

The first cracks are beginning to appear in South Africa's official image of soccer success. Security staff in at least four stadiums are  on strike and demand higher wages. In accordance with tradition in South Africa, such a strike comes with considerable mayhem; blocking roads and emptying rubbish bins into the streets is part of the fun. In Durban a few platoons of riot police joined in, with tear gas and rubber bullets, which contributed to the festivities no end. Security in the stadiums has now hastily been taken over by the local constabulary. Security staff has been sent home, but on their way there they found the time to pause and set fire to their employers' offices.. Today more protests followed as 3000 people marched in Durban to protest the Soccer World Cup spending, and its negative impact on their livelihoods. One protester has been killed.

National electricity supplier Eskom is gearing up for a strike as well. Trade unions believe that this is a good time to demand an 18% wage increase and if they don't see money soon the lights in South Africa may very well go off. And heaters, too, while this winter in South Africa is unusually chilly.

The bus strike has been resolved, but not before whole bus loads of soccer fans on their way to a match were dumped by the side of the road rather than delivered at the stadiums. Transport is a problem anyway. Although FIFA has released huge quantities of "category 4" tickets (at prices starting at R20, which is about 2 Euro's) in order to fill up the stadiums at any cost, there are still huge empty spaces during many matches. FiFA blames distribution problems and wholesalers who have made off with large numbers of (unsold) tickets, which in part is true, but everyone knows that large numbers of fans were not delivered to the stadiums until well after the matches.

South Africa is also waking up to the fact that the Soccer World Cup won't net South Africa one cent. The heaps of gold that wre promised turn out not to exist (now there's a shocker!) and most of the revenues are going straight to FIFA in any case. Of ourse FIFA (a non-profit organisation) did demand free hotels, hospital reservations and a tax exemption. Meanwhile accounting company  Grant Thornton has calculated, on the back of a napkin, what we all have known for a long time: of the $5.5 billion that were spent on new stadiums, we won't see more then about $1.7 billion returned. Meanwhile nobody has any idea what these expensive stadiums will be used for after the games are over, and the Institute for Security Studies points out that even the money spent on the Cape Town stadium alone could have housed about a quarter million people who currently live in corrugated iron shacks. Incidentally, the Cape Town stadium was built when FIFA decided that a renovation of the existing stadium was not good enough.

Meanwhile 36 Dutch fans have been arrested and detained for wearing dresses sporting the Bavaria beer logo, and told that they faced a possible 6 months imprisonment. Today two more arrests were made in Roodepoort. "These women, who have been part of a larger group, are suspected to be involved in organised acts to conduct unlawful commercial activities," police spokesman Col. Vishnu Naidoo said in a statement. The two women have been released for now, but (as is usually the case with serious criminals like these) they had to pay R10,000 bail each, and surrender their passports. They may not leave South Africa until their case is brought to court.

Now the scary part is that any transgression of FIFA marketing rules has been made into a criminal offence in response to FIFA's demand that the South African government do so. Yes, Sepp Blatter rules the nation - in a very literal sense.