Our Democratic Communists

Some would argue that I am easily confused. This is the case when trying to understand the political leadership in the good old Republic of South Africa.

The African Nation Congress (ANC) are the ruling party. The ANC are said to stand for democracy. Now let's define 'democracy'-
1) Government by the people, exercised either dirctly or through elected representitives.
2) Common people are considered the primary source of political power.
3) Majority rule.
4) Social equality and respect for the individual within the community.

Pretty clear. Now the waters become a little less clear. The ruling party has some friends and they form a strange alliance. The two other friends being the Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party. How many ruling political party's have a trade union (who by definition, are usually the enemy) as their best friends?

The there is the Communist party. Again let us look at a definition-this time, of 'communism.
1) A system characterised by collective ownership of property and the organisation of labour for the common advantage of the members.
2) A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authitarian party holds power, claiming to make progress towards a higher social order in which all good are equally shared by the people.

I admit I am no political brain, but I do note that these two forms of government are poles apart.
What complicates matters even more is that some senior posts in government are held by members of the Communist Party, and some senior posts in the Communist Party are held by senior members of the ANC.
Often the ANC will have a press conference, mentioning SA is a democracy and behind the speakers, you will not a communist flag.

From my understanding of politics this is a worry. A warning light type of issue. Especially due to South Africa's high poverty levels, the share with everybody Communist doctrine must look very appealing to the poverty stricken. Even from my point of view, on the face of it, I would love to share in the millions of the rich. But truth be know, Communism has not worked anywhere else in the world and there is no reason why it would work here. Despite this there are calls every now and then to nationalise everything. (Based on the state run organisations, SABC, Eskom, SAA, this should be avoided. Privatisation should be welcomed)
The big 'fight' was for democracy so everybody could have say in government. (on paper- realism is far from that-another blog entry this one is).

Our new president, Jacob Zuma, is very warm towards the other two alliance partners, and this is a worry as well. The good news though, is there have been some rather large cracks forming between the ANC and the other two. Again, we will not go into this, as it is an issue by itslelf.

All I wanted to do in this entry is try to get some understanding on how a democratic ruling party, can be so intertwined with a communist party and a trade union.

And in closing, just when you think the Communists are all bad, their booing off the stage of our friend Julius Malema, does gain them a bit of respect from me.

Dreams up in Space

Many of us have dreamt of taking a trip into space- I know I have. Well, with the release of Richard Branson's commercial space programme, my dream is no closer to coming true. With a price tag of $200 000 (R1,5 million) it is slightly out of my price range.

Branson teamed up with aviation designer, Burt Rutan to develop SpaceShipTwo -SS2. Amazing how they spend years and billions creating craft, and they can only come up with bland names-The first one-VSS Enterprise-the second-VSS Voyager, both from Star Trek
Unlike what we have become used to with the Space Shuttle launches, the launch will not be one of massive rockets jetting off from a ground base in a dramatic plume of smoke and flame-SS2, will simply piggy back upon another plane- it seems this method of launching is the way things will be heading. NASA is also looking at this option to launch its new set of re-entry craft-whenever they are ready.

But back to SS2. The craft will be attached to White Knight Two-WK2 (also named Eve,which looks like an aviation version of Siamese twins, strangely joined at the wing), which will take off like any normal plane.
Upon reaching about 50 000 feet (roughly 15km), SS2 will ignite it's hybrid rocket and detach from WK2, heading up into space. It's maximum altitude is 110 km. This is not deep space, but just beyond the atmosphere. Still it give the six space tourists a whole 6 minutes of weightlessness, in which they can release their safety belts and bob around the cabin like methane filled baloons. They will also be able to see the curve of the earth.
Then it is back down to mother Earth. The entire trip will be around two and a half hours.

This is (and excuse the pun) Virgin territory for us as nobody has ventured into the commercial space travel scene before. The aim is to make space travel affordable (very subjective word this) and allow more people to access this type of travel. Virgin plans to spend more than $400 million on a fleet of five space vehicles. The first 'space' tests of SS2 begin next year and hopefully will go commercial in 2011. Having said this, it is said that 300 people have already bought tickets.

There are other entrepreneurs  in the process of creating their own fly to space for cash craft as well. Sort of like a commercial space race.
Okay, the truth is that this is good news in general-for the sake of progress and human technology. I mean wow, commercial space travel- but the reality is that, as wonderful as it may seem, unless you win the lotto, rob a bank, write an instant commercial hit, book or song, suddenly become a holly (or bolly) wood movie star, or find you had a stinking rich uncle who is now dead and you stand to inherit his fortune- you will only read about it in the papers or watch the footage on TV. So I say yipee. As much as it means for news and the rich, is as little as it means for the man in the street. Unless it becomes so cheap that us mortals can afford it.
So my dream will remain a dream....but I am going to check my family tree quick.

Fade to Green

The debate rages on whether we are to blame for global warming or not. There are even people who doubt that the earth is heating up- despite the ice caps melting, despite the glaciers becoming rivers and despite city size blocks of ice breaking off the ice masses on the poles. I guess it is human, to live in denial.

I am not going to try to convince anybody about the glabal warming or go into wonderful statistics and so on.
There can be no argument that the human race is guilty of causing pollution on the planet. We are the only species that leaves waste everywhere, that pumps millions of tons of gas into the atmosphere, that leaves blue waters dark with waste. We are killing nature with our disgusting pollution. So, whether we want to accept it, it is us. (I will not even mention the slaughter of millions of acres of trees or killing elephants because we have made their habitat smaller-humans, got to love them)

Now, it is a medical fact that there is an increase in respiratory diseases worldwide- and most specifically those nations with the largest pollution footprint. There is also no argument that pollution is the cause of this. There are many other diseases linked to pollution in one type or another. (The toxins in thousands of waste chemicals that pollute the air, land and waters also lead to poisoning.)
The simple folk who do think the earth is heating, or that freak weather patterns are occuring worldwide, turn on the so called Greens like rabid dogs, saying that global warming is a fad to make money and so on. (I mean why would anybody want a car which has water as a by product when we could be driving one spewing Carbon Monoxide like a volcano on wheels)
Going green is not some freaky religion or some cult where one has to wear pink robes, smoke dope and participate in orgy filled rituals.(If it were I guess more people would be behind it)
 It is not something to fear. Cleaning up or reducing toxic gases or liquids from being dumped into the air, atmosphere or water, can do us no harm. It will actually be of a massive benifit to us. Instead of pumping dark masses of smoke into the atmosphere, we can get the same power from wind or water energy stations.

Some people argue that the so called windmills do not make the landscape look good- indeed, who would not prefer the massive towers spitting out smoke- much better on the beauty of the landscape.
Yes, it will take nothing short of a miracle to get everybody on board. Let's face it, not everybody will participate in this 'let's save Earth game'. We have to pray though that most people are willing to play. From electricity to transport to our daily needs, we need to look at what it is doing to us now and in the long run. Before we flick the switch, we should begin to care where the electricity comes from and the effects of us flicking the switch. (I can see this happening of course- right after people begin to care about water)
Pollution even taints what we eat and the water we drink (unless of course your idea of opening a tap comes from a supermarket in a bottle).

Then there is the argument that this is all made up so the 'greens' can get rich. However, nobody had a problem with the oil and coal people getting rich. And boy did they. Who bitches about us digging holes underground for luxury metals to sell at inflated prices so they owners of the mining houses can coin it. Somebody will be there to exploit everything- it is another human trait. Yes, the nasty greens included.

We must not lose sight of the result though. Turning to so called green alternatives will and can only help the selfish beast that humans have become. We need to take our heads out of the (dirty) sand and realise we will live in denial for too long and then it will be too late to save the only home we have. We need to wake up and see that the world is changing quickly, and we will feel the results of our actions in our life times still. Our children will bare the brunt of our selfish behaviour. Humans have the ability to be their own Extinction Event.
It is time for us to prove our love for the future humans, our children included and see how each of us, can reduce pollution and save the bit of the planet we can.