For What Does It Profit...

 Call me naive (I prefer 'innocent').

I hear persistent, ridiculous rumours of our country having been sold for a plate of vegetarian  curry. That's absurd. No meat! For a mutton curry, one might momentarily consider trading a very small piece of unused municipal land. 

There has to be a logical explanation. Here's my best shot. The gentleman in question was reportedly made a pastor by some men of the cloth. Moved, no doubt, by, if not the spirit, then some spirits. In the enthusiasm of the moment, he may have read of Esau's giving up of his birthright to Jacob, in exchange for a meal. It's possible that he merely got the direction of the transaction slightly wrong. A perfectly understandable slip twixt cup and lip.

Such trade-offs are nothing new in South Africa. For all the talk of socialism and dialectical materialism, hated capitalism and the despicable profit motive are alive and well. Indeed, fat and flourishing. We are a world leader in futures trading. Even now, while election promises fly like great flocks of Kimberly flamingoes, some continue undeterred to trade our future for gourmet meals. Or sushi and tripe.

Our politicians are deeply concerned for the poor. I imagine that it hurts each time they chew on another morsel of the fat of the land. I bet it irks to have  bodyguards, free travel, expensive accommodation and other irritants thrust upon them. They're probably muttering in their restless  sleep: "That money could have gone to development" It's tough up there. No, more accurately: it's agony.

In the courtroom scene of A Man For All Seasons, a former friend betrays Thomas Moore for advancement to Attorney General of Wales. 

"For Wales? Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ... but for Wales!" 

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

1378565477

O Tichmann 

+27 833970723