Let Me Have Folk About Me That Are Dumb

I am grateful for the basic, generic education that I received.

Back when I had a bank account, the bank manager called me in to ask why my overdraft was overdrawn. I'm puzzled as to why bank managers ask redundant questions. Also why, in the face of skyrocketing national debt, they are so obsessed with trivia.

Drawing myself up to my full five feet, five inches height to intimidate the short bugger, I explained that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. He was impressed, rolling his eyes and looking heavenward. 

Knowing that Vasco De Gama did some sailing around here has been useful. It's a great conversation starter in the long Home Affairs queues. 

It would have been useful to be able to select subjects just a little more aligned to the real world and one's own aptitudes. For example, languages for me, quantum physics for many of you - a better start to the world of careers. Still, it's good to know that Archimedes promoted hygiene and Isaac Newton healthy fruit.

Condoleezza Rice and some others were involved in a think tank, (inspired, I'm sure, by our own Cyril), to address the risk that poor education posed to national security. 

"What in the name of Julius are the Yanks on about?"  I thought.

An encounter with a mugger got the brain cells working a bit more briskly. It was then that it struck me (the gentleman himself having struck me twice).

Would we be a lavatory country if our education had been different? What if we'd been challenged to think independently, solve real problems, analyze information, innovate, make reasoned decisions? 

Our problem solving abilities are piss-poor.

"We don't have decent facilities. Let's burn down our library.  That should do It."

"We have a bewildering array of problems that no one party can solve. This requires some profound thought. Let's march in March and if our people are hungry, don't blame them for climbing into those kotas and chips on your shop counters."

We cannot catch dumb, brutal thugs. What hope of collaring the slick criminals masquerading as politicians, businessmen and civil servants? No wonder that we are a safe haven for crooks, terrorists and every kind of parasite.

Our decision-making is appalling. 

"The Great Liberation Movement has trashed our country. Let's vote them in again. There are still some railway sleepers, stations and cables that need proper  disposal."

Our innovative responses to some complex problems have been to  appoint a minister of electricity and to have a pathetic march. The minister gave us a foretaste of his own formidable problem solving skills. In one meeting with some Eskom staff he established that de Ruyter, journalists and others have mistaken technical problems for horrific corruption. Yes, one can see how easily that could happen. Almost twins, those two types of problems. Lord, let this man be available for president!

We are like a crew in a deep, underground mine. The roof sags. The supports rot. Managers, shareholders, miners, engineers run around shouting garbled instructions. Some dance around, their shouted slogans and foot stamping makimg the supports tremble. How long?

I see, Ms Rice. The dumbing-down of a country is the prelude to its destruction. A kind of marinating of the ox for the spit.

This may suit some. Borrowing from Bill:

Let me have folk about me that are dumb

Dull headed folk and such as sleep upright

Yond Clevas have a lean and hungry look 

They think too much 

Such folk are dangerous 

Just an opinion. I'm sure that the experts on SABC TV and in government have it all buttoned down. And we can sleep well.

My community newspaper had an article headlined "Remembering Good Old Durban". There is no good old South Africa to remember  - not for everyone. We had hoped for a good, new South Africa. We got the dumbed down version. 

The front page headline was "No-one Left Behind This Human Rights Day".

Apologies to Don McLean:

Bye bye Miss South African  Pie 

Drove my Chevy to the levee 

And got shot in the eye 

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

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O Tichmann 

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