He who controls the courts...

One of the key elements for a functioning democracy is to have an independent Judicial system. The judicial system needs to be fair, represent the law and protect citizens, independent of the government of the day.

President Jacob Zuma (JZ) proudly announced that he sees 'a need to review the Constitutional Court's powers'. For those who do not know, the Constitutional Court (CC) is the highest court in South Africa and passes judgment of very sensitive issues. Once it has ruled, that is it for the legal process and the Judgment is set in stone. 

One of his concerns is split decisions and because of this, he argues that a majority judgment cannot be correct, because 'the judges themselves have different views.' The 'walking brain' goes on to say 'it is after experience that some of the decisions are not decisions that every judge in the Constitutional Court agrees with.' This seems a rather obvious statement as it seems not only obvious, but expected that people would disagree. Judges are no different.
By this statement we could assume JZ would like to appoint judges himself that would agree with each other and of course, him and his supporters. 

He also claims that judges were influenced by what's happening in general and by the media- and that if decisions of parliament and the executive could be questioned, then he sees no reason why the judiciary cannot also be questioned. This is a fair statement in that that judges are human, and thus would find some type of external influences. Having said this,to stop judges being influenced, Mr Pres would have to appoint a set of identical robots to the bench to do his bidding. It is going to happen as it does worldwide. We have to have faith in our highest judges to be fair-there really is no other option. 

JZ reminded the judiciary last year that their powers were not superior to the executive, who were elected by popular vote. During December last year, the ANC led cabinet decided, in their infinite wisdom, that they would assess judgments handed down by the constitutional court. This in itself to me is unconstitutional. Almost like a student marking his own exam without the correct answer sheet. 

It must be noted, that our brilliant President denies his attack on the CC is due to judgments going against himself and the presidency of late.
The presidency, in defense of their Boss, have stated that this step is needed 'to assess the trans formative nature of the court in the land in promoting equal, non-racial non-sexist and prosperous society' and is in line with the aforesaid cabinet decision.

This is a worrying step for a country that once looked like it would be the beacon for a working democracy in an otherwise dysfunctional Africa. The Constitutional Court is there to protect the citizens from laws and moves that will harm them and the country. In JZ's view, 'the executive, as elected officials, has the sole discretion to decide policies for government.' This is where the court's come in- to set a platform to challenge those that prejudice the country and the voters. Mr 'I will only serve one term' it seems has warmed up to the power presidency holds and is rallying his supporters, so we can be lucky enough to have him on top for another 4 years. We witnessed how his once loyal supporter, Malema, was cast to the wolves because he turned his allegiance. This indicated that Zuma is consolidating his support and doing what he can to secure another term.

Control over the media and the judiciary would be a Joker in his and the ANC's pack of evil playing cards. We, as the public would be at their mercy. We appear to be walking down the path that led China and Russia to be the great anti democracies they are today. To read into their statements, the ANC would like a state that they control on their terms, where they can continue wallowing in the money trough, carry on the lucrative corruption business and get filthy rich while the citizens suffer- all under the safe blanket of non accountability.
This may seem extreme, but it is the sad truth. The move against the judiciary together with the famous 'Media Bill' will hurt South Africa in ways we cannot imagine. Our official opposition will fight it with all they are, but they do not have the power to fight the ANC and should the courts be in the ANC pockets, then there will be no recourse.

We as citizens need to wake up and see what is happening. Thousands fought and died for the freedom we now enjoy. However, maintaining freedom is also a fight and we need to fight to preserve what we have because the JZ led government is going to snuff out what it can.

Changing face of bank notes

It was announced by the South African president, that Nelson Mandela's face would grace the South African banks notes henceforth. This has obviously started huge waves for and against the move.

Those for contend that Mandela has contributed so much towards a 'free' South Africa and our 'esteemed' President, JZ claims it is a fitting tribute to Mandela who was a symbol  of South Africa's struggle for freedom and democracy.
On the other side are those who argue that many other leaders contributed just as much to the struggle and thus, should also be honoured.

In my view, just the fact that there is disagreement, should be enough to just leave the notes as they are. Mandela has graced coins before and perhaps we should leave it at that. Granted Nelson has done lots for the progression to democracy but he has not been the only one.
Money is handled my millions daily and as petty as it may seem, the public's voice should be heard on this. As usual our ANC  led government have gone ahead with their own agenda for their own reasons. We as the public have little say, despite the fact that we pay them and they should be listening to us.

Back to the notes- with humans people will never agree with who should grace bank notes and which one should grace whicvh denomination. Leave the animals on as they represent South Africa's natural heritage, a heritage we need to be conserving and honouring. Our animal notes are very South African and I would see it as a disgrace to change them.

Politicians should come back down to earth.

Watching the people rolling in to hear Ol' JZ give the State of the Nation speech last week made me think back to one of my pet hates -politicians.

The first thing you notice are the million rand cars that deliver the so called VIP guests, all dressed in fashion that probably costs thousands of Rand. It was almost like watching the Oscars, just with more glitz and glamour. It is no secret that the food that is served at their get togethers rivals that of royalty and the booze they consume is nothing other than ridiculously expensive.

As it always does, it set me to thinking why politicians had to live such a high life. In a democratic country, we vote in a party and they pretty much work for us to run the country. These people are paid by us from our taxes. In essence, they work for us, to make our lives better. Or rather they are supposed to.

Why do they assume and act as though they are so important and that they deserve the 5 star treatment including VIP protection? Is there an assassin out to wipe them all out or is it just that it makes them feel untouchable when they have a legion of body guards? Sadly this is not limited to South Africa, or Africa, but is a worldwide phenomenon.
Look at the States, where senators and congressmen fly above the average Joe, expecting the red carpet treatment and unreachable unless it is election time.

In my most humble view this is rubbish! We as the public have allowed this behaviour to continue for so long, it is now not only accepted, but expected, of our so called leaders.

Firstly, to be a politician, it is a choice. Nobody is there by accident. Secondly, in my opinion, one should go into politics to help the nation and it's citizens. You should not go into it as a get rich scheme or for the power of the position. Sadly it would appear that this is what it is about.
If we look at our leaders, they pull massive salaries, live in palatial houses, are driven in luxury cars, followed by a train of other cars, full of VIP protection guards, fly the best classes, stay at the best hotels and so on. Unless it is voting season, trying to secure an audience with one is another story.

How wrong is this? I repeat- they work for us and should be answerable to us. Us, as the employer, should not allow them to waste out tax money on so much self indulgence when there is so much unemployment and poverty. I am sure they could live comfortable in a 5 bedroom house, drive a R500 000 car, fly pleb class around the country, stay in 3 star hotels and so on. Why do they honestly deserve to be treated like gold?
Half, if not more, do not even do all they are paid to do anyway. We need to accept that they are humans, like the rest of us and nothing really special. They do not deserve the platinum treatment they are receiving. The money they waste, could be much better spend in helping our country build and assisting the poor. They should be humbled by the fact that they are working for us. They should be grateful that they have an opportunity to make a difference.
Instead they live on a pedestal, out of touch with the reality that they are not as special as they want to think.
We as the public should make our stand.

Our Silly World

To get away from the seriousness, I am going to relate some real life but daft stories today. Let's face it, some things are so bizarre, you cannot make them up.

In Iceland a chap call (wait for it) Stanislaus Grzeskowiak, of the North Pole, was charged with extortion and threatening harm and was out on $2 500 bail. Now Mr G wound up in this situation by demanding $85 000 from the state. This money was apparently due to him, as the state and certain companies failed him and were responsible for his financial situation, his lack of education and of course, his marital problems. 

He had a brilliant scheme up his sleeve as well-He threatened to 'teach crackheads how to make electromagnetic distortion devices.'

In his conversation to State Troopers he claimed these decides would block police radio, computer and cellphone communications. He also promised to cut off the communication of credit card companies as well as oil companies, unless he received his due $85 000. 

Naturally he is being defended by the public defenders office because he did not get his money, he cannot afford an attorney that will keep him out of jail. 

We think Americans and Australians usually go over the top. Here is some stiff competition in the over-kill stakes. 

The story goes- a suspect fled police in a car with stolen number plates. The police obviously gave chase, but were hampered in their pursuit when the suspect cleverly drove over soggy terrain, making it difficult for police cars to follow.

So, the police requested and army jeep, that was a match for the terrain, to assist them in their pursuit.

However, as one apparently does in Holland, they sent two F16 Fighters to assist in the chase. 

And even after using the Air forces' best, a lead from a suspicious neighbor brought the suspect to his well earned arrest. 

Lastly we go to France. We are all aware of the freezing weather gripping Europe, with temperatures around minus twenty degree Celsius and even colder in some places.

SO, in this situation, Junior minister of Health Nora Berra decided to give people some of her brilliant advice on her blog. Her wise advice was that toddlers, the sick, the elderly and the homeless 'should avoid going outdoors'. Seriously - the homeless must stay indoors. 

She since corrected it, but some stupid things cannot be unsaid. 

Murder versus Road Deaths..and the winner is....

There is a saying that South Africa is not for sissies. (Softies in other words). The latest study by the South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) goes to prove this.

Previously I have discussed the excessive number of people who perish on South African roads and that the figure pretty much put the rest of the world to shame. In fact, we have the highest road fatality rate.
However, South Africa do it again and buck the trend. The latest study has found that more people are murdered in South Africa than die in motor vehicle accident. The ration is-Murder : 100 000: 32 & Accidents : 100 000:28!

Researcher Kerwin Lebone said that the international trend is that twice as many people perish on the roads as opposed to murder most foul. In the USA, three times more people die from road deaths than are murdered. In sunny South Africa, we have it the other way round.

The information for the study,was sourced from the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Road Traffic Corporation over the period 2010/2011, so it is pretty current. With this in mind, it is of little comfort to know our murder rate has declined 7% over the previous year and halved since 1994. Despite this, we are in the top two countries for murder rates, so still, there is nothing to celebrate. We also need to be a little cynical because it is believed that the SAPS often downplay the murder statistics, to make their success rate appear better, so it is not beyond belief that our murder rate is slightly higher than the figures supplied.

Both these figures are nothing short of startling and need to reduce. The reasons and ideas to reduce either constitute another article and therefore, we will not touch up these.

Watch this space for more weird and wonderful stories from my exiting country.  I still love it here though.

Our ancestor was a Sponge.

We all know that some people are called sponges. Well this discovery could be an explanation- it may be our earliest roots. Perhaps our connection with the first animal on earth has defined some humans today.

Let me explain. Bob Brain (cool name for a scientist) and Anthony Prave published a paper in the South African Journal of Science, announcing their amazing find. The amazing find occurred in The Etosha National Park, Namibia. 

A sponge like, multi-cellular creature called, Otavia antiqua, which lived some 750 to 550 million years ago. Our little predator was a puny 1-5mm in size, but still had the ability to 'eat' bacteria (First pic) and Algae (Second pic), which shared it's aquatic habitat, thus qualifying it as a predator. It is thought to have drawn water and it's 'prey' into it's gutless body through microscopic holes on it's exterior. After digestion, it expelled the waste product the same way, it is thought. 

Otavia lived in the earliest oceans, but probably in the quieter water environments like lagoons or pools. Earth was a different place then, there was considerably less oxygen than we enjoy and the temperatures were higher than today, therefor little O must have been a tough little guy. Further evidence of it's toughness is that it survived at least one Snowball Earth event. ( A Snowball Earth event is when the entire earth's surface was frozen and the seas iced up)

Brain (above) had dedicated his retirement to finding the earliest evidence of predation - or the earliest predators in other words. Prior to this search, he worked extensively with cave taphonomy (study of decaying organisms over time) and hominids. The predation thing is described as a hobby by Brain. 

Brain believes that our early ancestor set off an early 'evolutionary arms race' and this led to man dominating the planet as 'we have done it (predation) better than others' -Brain's words. 

A microscopic predator

Once in a while I come across something that sends shivers down my spine. I previously have written about sharks- and this piece will prove that sharks are the least of our worries.

This little killer was thrown into the spotlight recently when a Dr Peter Breedt went off for a bit of surf-skiing off a beach on Durban's (KZN) coast.
Six hours after exiting the water, he began to feeling ill and a black area developed on his foot, where a scratch had been. Being a doctor he pumped himself of antibiotics and landed up having 3 operations to remove the dead skin as well as skin grafts. This happened in November 2011 and the wound still has not healed.

The diagnosis was the dreaded Vibrio Vulnificus (VV), a flesh eating bacteria that grows naturally in warmer (15-35 degree Celsius)  sea water where salt concentrations are high. It also grows in estuaries and brackish pools.It is a cousin of the causative agent of Cholera, Vibrio Cholerae. (Nice family this one)

This little darling of a bacterium can be welcomed into your body by ingesting- eating contaminated seafood or from it entering through wounds and scratches.Ingestion will cause severe vomiting and diarrhea.
When exposed via a wound, it causes septicemia and shock as well as terrible skin lesions.
If it enters you bloodstream, your condition will worsen dramatically. In normal wound infections, 25% of patients do not make it. Through ingestion and should the bacteria enter your bloodstream, the mortality rate shoots to 50%, most dying within 48 hours of the exposure. Normal death rates for treated patients is a worrying 33%. So, VV is some serious bug to contract.
85% of men entertaining this bacteria, proceed to shock. This is because it has been evidence that estrogen (female hormone) has a protective effect. It follows then, that women who have surgical procedures to remove one or more ovaries, suffer higher mortality rates.

At present, although it is treated with drugs, there is no optimal medication for it's treatment.
Due to the large ulcers caused and the flesh dying, operations are usually necessary to remove dead tissue and even amputations are not rare.

So, the best way to deal with little V.Vulnificus is to avoid exposure to it.  If you have open wounds, Do not swim in the sea. Also, stay clear of dirty water, swimming close to or in river mouths or storm-water outlets. This is especially relevant within 24 hours of an island or coastal storm.
Another troubling fact, is that despite strict measurements of E.coli and Enterococcus, V. Vulnificus is not measured when checking water purity by the municipalities. (This appears to be a world wide trend.)

It is difficult to tell how common or rare contracting VV is, due to doubt that not all cases are reported. For me the threats I cannot see are even more dangerous that the odd  shark. It sends chills down my spine knowing each time I am in the ocean I could be bombarded by these unseen invaders.

19 year old Anthony Blue of Garland seems to enjoy robbing banks. He admitted to three in fact.
Okay, let's go back a little.
In June last year our robbing hood robbed the Garland branch of the State Bank of Texas by slipping a note, politely reading, '50's and 100's and nobody gets hurt. Sorry.' (Turns out, he is into recycling because he later admitted to using the same note, on the same day to rob a Community Bank in Rockwell. Turns out he did the same at the American National Bank in Quinlan.)
Unbeknownst to our passive environmental hero, his image was captured on tape and the FBI promptly placed it Bandit Tracker Website. (bandittracker.com)

Sadly for Mr Blue, his honest mom is  a great fan of the website and when she recognized her son, did what all honest mothers do- she sold him out to the feds. Now, thanks to motherly love, he faces 25 years or a $250 000 fine on each account. (suppose if they did not recover the money- he can afford the fine if it is an option)

This one is also pretty funny, notwithstanding the charges. It takes us to Clarkston, Michigan. During a child sex sting operation, Daniel Everett, 33 years old,  was arrested. What makes this story both ironic and amusing- at the time of the arrest, our underage sex pervert was proudly wearing a t-shirt proclaiming that he was the worlds greatest dad. Yip!

Patricia and Quentin Deshong were arrested in January 2012 to trying to blow up their car, in Metal Township, Pennsylvania.These Macgyver wannabes were setting fire to tampons, which they decided to drop into the petrol (gas) tank and thus causing the car to explode. The reason so far is not clear and both the pyromaniac geniuses are presently out on $25 000 bail.

Another T shirt related crime. During January of this year, an illegal immigrant was arrested for Child Molestation charges- this daft alien was wearing a T-shirt stating he was hiding from the cops.

Most of us have seen the legendary Star Wars films and many secretly wished they could be Jedi Knights.
For David Allen Canterbury, 33, from Oregon, his dream became a reality for a while.
While brandishing two lightsabers, he attacked three people in the Toys R Us on 14th December 2011.
He then proceed to use the Force on policemen outside the store. Sadly the Force was not strong with this one and cops managed to wrestle him to the ground after attempts to taser him failed. Nobody was injured by our Jedi Knight in his daring attack.

Darth Judge sentenced him to  45 years behind bars and not surprisingly, to undergo mental evaluation. It was not documented if Yoda was asked to testify.
In a surprise move, the Toys R Us have banned him (and presumably all Jedi) from their store.

The COO and the False Matric

There is a saying that sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. Often in South Africa this is the case. For those of you who do not know, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster- it sends out television as well as radio media. 

It goes without saying that this is a big entity with billions of Rands flowing through it and a large responsibility to provide good programming for the money spent. It would then seem obvious (well in my logic anyway) that those placed in charge of such a massive entity, would be well qualified to do the job.

Well, this is where our train jumps off the rails somewhat.

Now, the SABC needs a permanent Chief Operating Officer (COO). This is a position that is ranked second in the whole operation. A high ranking job, with loads of responsibility. It would follow then that the person for the job would be appropriately qualified and have the relevant experience. 

The SABC is said to have launched a 3 day internal recruitment process, tailor made to fit the acting COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng. (Pictured above)This is where it gets interesting. 

For the post, educational qualifications are irrelevant! Indeed, this is because the acting COO does not even possess a matric (grade 12) certificate. Not only this, but Motsoeneng has been complicated by auditing firm KPMG in a probe. It is said he lied about having a matric certificate when applying for the job at the SABC in the first place. Having said this, Motsoeneng is a proud and open supporter of Jacob Zuma, which in itself is a kind of qualification in those circles. 

I am not judging him on the job he is currently doing as a temporary COO, but lying about qualification is an offense that usually gets you fired, not made permanent. It is a reflection on your character. 

The communications minister, Dina Pule ( see above), has now jumped in and stated that the COO must be appointed by proper process-placing this 'push through' appointment process on hold. In the end, she makes the final appointment. 

Another classic- the Communication Workers Union (CWU) agrees with the proper appointment process, but still insists on Motsoeneng for the job. They will also, in time, 'name and shame' people who spread 'destructive stories' in the organization. 

Then we wonder why there is nothing to watch or repeats on our TV sets every night. Or the programs we watch are so old, that those acting in them have long retired. 

Double Wave Whammy

Who can forget the massive Tsunami that invaded Japan in March last year, following a magnitude 9 earthquake off their coast.

It has now been established, thanks to unrelated research conducted by NASA and Ohio State University, that the massive wave was a result of two Tsunami's that merged, forming a super tsunami that did not lose it's power while being able to travel long distances.
By some twist of good luck from the researcher's side, satellites were in the right place at the right time and detected the two fronts merging far out at sea.

Scientists labelled this as a 'in in a million' chance of capturing this type of data and it shed's more light on the super waves that are formed after earthquakes (and out of space body collisions for that matter). Scientists think that this will help them understand the mechanics of these destructive waves and may go a long way to assisting forecasts in the future.

This is the first evidence scientist have of the merging of super waves, although it has been in theory form for a while now.