Dear Collins
I fail to understand the fuss over your allegedly self - awarded 350% increase. You have broken barriers and did anyone criticize Roger Bannister for running the mile in four minutes? Perhaps if you had gone for 349.99% there would have been less of a fuss.
People do not understand how hard it is to head up the rail network I have a model train set at home and therefore have some insight. I also worked as a bedding attendant during school holidays and know that life on the railways is tough. I think that’s where the expression ‘laying it on the line’ came from. By the way, I would love to come by and swap railway stories over some of your undoubtedly fine liqueur. Americans boast that any American child can become the president (I think that just happened). We can now boast that any South African child can grow up to award himself or herself a 350% increase.
The well known Paterson grading system bases job grading on the complexity and impact of the decisions made in a job. Presidents merely have to decide which babies and butts to kiss (which mothers also, in some cases - not ours, of course), which countries to invade, which cousins and sons to …I am sure that you get the general idea.(Incidentally, what an innovative move by our president when he appointed a Kelly - type finance minister to keep things ticking over) Brain surgeons must decide which bits to throw away and which to keep, which to inject with chemicals or electrical impulses and so on. You, on the other hand, have millions of switches to deal with, difficult engineers, a confusing multitude of trains and lines - I could go on, but my head is already spinning. I do not know how or if you sleep at night. Besides, I have seen the movie ‘Unstoppable’ and who knows when you might be called upon to chase down a runaway train and leap from carriage to carriage, as Denzel did. (With some plastic surgery, you could even look like him). I can hear some of you saying that that was just a movie. We know that most movies are based on real life (Nightmare on Elm Street a classic example) or so often foreshadow real life events. There are too many examples to list here.
It might be instructive to digress here and dwell on movies for a moment. The movies teach us many valuable life skills that cannot be learned even at the greatest universities. Thanks to them, I now know how to deal with werewolves and vampires and will not be found without a supply of silver bullets and sharpened stakes. Of course werewolves exist. I have encountered them in my career in the mining industry, mainly among the management types. As for vampires, I am hoping that Wolfgang Peterson or Francis Ford Coppola will direct the mother of all vampire movies based on that dread creature, alongside whom Dracula looks like a cuddly teddy bear - dare I name his name? My hand trembles even as I type it - The Taxman.
Dear Collins, please pardon the digression - it’s my passion for quality education. The thought of your saving thousands of South African lives, as Denzel did for the Yanks, makes this entire fuss over your increase seem so petty.Who does not know that essentials such as sushi and KFC are expensive, as are safe, reliable, luxury German cars? Darn it, you should probably have gone for 500%. Go big or go home (I understand you did both?) You have inspired my union branch to the extent that we will discard our piddling initial demand of 15% and go for 150% instead. And it’s all thanks to you.
Yours in the fight for a living (it up) wage.
Richard
https://www.amazon.com/Richard--J-Mann/e/B085P3QPMH?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060
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