Ethics and Math in South Africa

 It's been said that the typical math and ethics problems presented in classrooms are out of touch with reality.

"Train A leaves Johannesburg at 8am while Train B leaves Cape Town at 9am..."

Everyone knows that:

1. Trains are rarer than honest politicians 

2. Even if there were two such trains, they would never run on time

Some practical, relevant ethics and math problems:

1. You are being chased by a JMPD officer. 500 Metres away lies the safety of Hillbrow. 

Taking into account the average mass of a JMPD officer and your fastest adrenaline-fuelled times, calculate your chances of making a clean escape..

2. At Zoo Lake, Gwede Mantashe, Julius Malema, Dr Ace and Jacob Zuma simultaneously get into difficulty while swimming. You can save only one.

a. Who do you save?

b. How do you justify your actions to social media contacts and friends?

3. You are part of a fragile coalition governing an important metro. While you are fiercely loyal, you also have several pressing financial / life problems. Yoour wife and mistress need urgent surgery (tummy tuck and facelift, respectively), your BMW needs repairs... These problems  can be solved if you switch sides. 

The question is not whether you switch sides (given, if you're a good politician), but whether you tell the truth about your reasons. Keep in mind that honesty is your policy.

4. You have benefitted enormously from a tender to build a stadium. Newspapers countrywide have characterized the project as major fraud. You have bigger problems. Your mother-in-law, who hates you with intense hatred, and your brother, who has never worked a day in his life, both ask for a sizeable sum of money.

Do you help one, both or neither?

How do you deal with family fallout that may follow?

5. You have one KFC drumstick left over as you approach a traffic light. A hungry-looking man lifts a hand in appeal. 

Do you give him the chicken or save it for the traffic officer who has just signalled for you to pull over and may also be very hungry?

6. You want to start an ice cream business and employ five people. Calculate how long it would take to get your business off the ground on a R350 per month grant.

6. Your municipality has sewerage, water and pothole challenges. Given a budget of R500 million, calculate the number of functions, meetings and best-practice visits to foreign countries that you can fit in during the financial year before running out of budget.

7. Your friends are expressing their admiration for a politician whom you regard as slightly lower than the belly of a puff adder. You wish to keep the peace but also be true to yourself. 

Choose the most appropriate response;

1. Eish!

2 Ja well, no fine!

3. What do you think of Pirates?

4. Cough, cough, choke

5. The scuffle continues.

8. You are selling your latest best-seller from the boot of a Mercedes. Taking into account the space available, book dimensions and the insatiable demand for good literature in South Africa, calculate:

1. The time it will take to clear the boot.

2. The interval of time before you can fill the boot with your next best seller.

9. Your comrades are disrupting a city council meeting with tuneless singing and vigorous gyrations. You are horrified.

Do you show leadership and set the example by:

a. Stepping in and taking up the correct tune?

b. Showing off your own dance moves?

c. All of the above?

10. The Gautrain leaves Johannesburg for Pretoria at the same time as the Youth Minister's blue light convoy leaves for a critical, life-changing, nation-shaking luncheon. 

Calculate which course the minister and bodyguards will be tucking into by the time the Gautrain arrives.

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

1378565477

O Tichmann 

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