The nice thing about having my own blog is I really can express my own opinion about someone who I think is acting like the back end of a cow in a less than diplomatic maner. In this case the simpleton I wish to expose is a journalist by the name of Lennox Mabaso.
In a recent article on IOL (The Independent online), Lennox played the all popular and over used,'Apartheid card'. The Apartheid card is a lot like the Hitler card, and is only really used in arguments today by journalists with diminished mental capacity, and almost always by a black supremacist racist with no real argument.
Th article written by Lennox was titled, "Apartheid planning resulted in blackout"(4), which is a lie. What Lennox is trying to do here is use racism to try excuse the incompetency of the ANC government for its direct roll in the energy crisis South Africa is experiencing today. Lennox is so blinded by his racism that he seems to have completely missed Mbeki apologizing (1) for the lack of energy which he was warned about several years ago!
The ANC were aware of the looming energy crisis since the early 1990`s and in 1998, the Department of Minerals and Energy released a detailed energy review. It explicitly warned that unless “timely steps [were] taken to ensure that demand does not exceed available supply capacity”, generating capacity would reach its limit by 2007.(2)
This review was completely ignored by the ANC government and not a SINGLE power station was built from the end of Apartheid till 2004. In fact, to make matters worse, a lot of the competent, experienced white staff were racially purged from Eskom.
At the time Apartheid ended South Africa was producing excess energy. So much so in fact that the ANC government decided to mothball a lot of the power stations as they did not believe they were necessary at the time.
Now, as predicted by so many organizations and people... South Africa has run out of energy. However, to blame Apartheid would be naive and ignorant. The power stations built during Apartheid are still the same ones powering the country today. The people who built the power stations during Apartheid did a good enough job that their creations powered the country effectively until 2007. The racial purges, the ANC government and a corrupt Eskom is the reason we dont have power today.
However for people like Lennox... its easier to blame the 'whitey' instead of accepting the truth of the situation.. that the government HE voted into power is responsible for hospitals (also mostly the same ones built during Apartheid), schools, business and residential being without energy today.
Lennox is so blinded by his racial hate that he is unable to see any of this. Instead he seems to use Robert Mugabe as a roll model and blame the white man.
For those of you reading this in the future, the reasons why we have this energy crisis is as follows:
1) Bad governing and planning by the ANC government
2) Racist purges of competent skill and experienced staff from Eskom simple because they are white (due to AA and BEE).
3) Corrupt Eskom officials mothballing any private attempts to produce energy capacity
I think Lennox should follow the advice of Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and go to bed earlier (due to the power cuts)... so he can get "cleverer" and perhaps contribute an article to the news media that actually has being thought out. (3)
1- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080205062606498C840787
2- http://energycrisis.co.za/?p=63
3- http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=695349
4- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080205062606498C840787
Leetest form of linux there is. The primary OS I now use. Kubuntu, Dapper Drake, 6.06 LTS. I really think people should use this as their default OS
For those of you who dont know, I run Kubuntu OS as my desktop OS. With all the queerness of Microsofts Anti Piracy campaign, I have decided to completely leave the MicroSoft world. Sure, I loose windows media player and some gaming choices. However, you do get awsome games like warsow that are completely open source, and LOADS of fun to play. If you are in South Africa, there is a South African warsow server gracefully hosted by Web Africa. When in the game just type "connect warsow.webfafrica.co.za" And you will connect to the server to be able to jam with the rest of us.
I consider this a book that every South African should read to get perspective in their lives. Its honesty is most refreshing and Al Lovejoy`s ability to capture in words the essence of a culture and history of a generation of south Africans is amazing. Al Lovejoy has earned a lot of respect from a generation of youth who appretiate the truth. Thank you Al.
Other reviews:
‘Acid Alex is quite simply one of the most shocking autobiographies I have ever read. It is also well-written, addictive, excellent.’
– Sue Blaine, Business Day
‘Heartbreaking! Entertaining! Intelligent!’
– Erns Grundling, SL magazine
‘Nothing I have read has sketched the scorched social landscape of South Africa’s last half-century with such intensity and honesty. Read it.’
– Charles Thesen, Marie Claire
‘There are elements of Hunter S Thompson, Herman Charles Bosman, William Burroughs and William Wharton. But in the end it is an amazing story told in a unique voice. A voice moulded by pain, a voice honed by a government reformatory..., whetted by the SADF, and sharpened by Pretoria Central.
It is the story of a man who went to hell and came back, a morality tale, a Bildungsroman, the narrative of a f*ckup who found redemption, and the anthem of a lost generation.’– Caspar Greeff, Sunday Times
‘Truly, as Koos Kombuis says, this is “an astonishingly breathless story” … Besides being a great read, Acid Alex is an invaluable record of a type of mania that gripped a certain type of South African in the last quarter of the 20th century. It’s a book that’s going to appeal to many young South Africans who currently have to turn to the United States for their myths of pointless excess, and it’s going to inspire them. Not necessarily in a particularly savoury way.’
– Chris Roper, Mail & Guardian
This book is more than just a suggested read.
In what has to be a remarkable show of insight into the power of social networking, a British Indie band is offering their album free to download off their website. This is one band, that seems to have googled it. It looks like the older corporate models are failing and hopefully the world will not have to tolerate the insanity that is RIAA much longer.
I love artists with scope.
South Africa needs science and South Africa needs prominent scientific voices. Unfortunately, like the media in much of the rest of the world, South Africa's media is not nearly welcoming enough to the skeptical and scientific views of the world. Luckily, we have great examples from the United States and elsewhere of how self-publication through blogs can affect public discourse, promoting science and acting as a counterweight to indifference, ignorance, and gullibility. However, unlike our comrades elsewhere, South African science bloggers are unconnected and not organized. I propose to change that...Read More
Really funny flash video depicting the end of the world as the result of a nucleur fall out.
For those of you who dont know, I am South African. Im a born and bred white native african, and damb proud of it. However, I will often use words that you may not understand, local slag u wont pick up on. Click on this link to learn a little more about South African slang, aka, Safrikan!
The entire catalogue of information from 1,800 courses at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be available free online by the end of the year. Once uploaded, it will represent one of the internet’s most important resources.
MsDewey.com
I never have never used a search engine this cheeky before :) Its great fun for about 10 minutes.
Seaward.co.za for South Africa`s best coastal real estate.
In what has to be classed as bizare, a clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.
I came across this site by Anup Shah that has a detailed look into the causes of poverty. I found some of the statistics he shows to be very embarrassing and a shameful reflection on humanity today.
* Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
* The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
* Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
* Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
* 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
Anup Shah shows us the institutions, policies and people behind many of today's causes of poverty.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp
Haha, these poor lil bunnies. A bunch of pictures of bunnies trying to come up with imaginitive ways to kill themselves.
The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. A most excellent link for those of you wanting access to some amazing science.
A really nice Travian signature generator
Ever wondered how many babies are being pushed out every day, or how many people are dying every minute? Well this is the place for you then! This meter currently records those tpes of things, and with a population of 6.5 billion, there are lots of interesting stats for you to check out.
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