Lead, South Africa

All is not lost,  South Africa. 

The U.S.,Mexico, Kenya and other countries have been working on what they call a STEM ecosystem. They are trying to ensure that young people have  the science, math, technology and engineering skills that the future will demand. More accurately, that the present demands.

What is so great about that? We have had a comprehensive looting ecosystem running brilliantly efficiently for many years.

These countries talk of collaborating and consulting with all stakeholders. Nothing new to us. Our steakholders consult extensively,  holding their steaks and chops around braais, often sponsored by eager taxpayers. I am sure that discussion around new projects, pipelines and sharing of loo...., pardon, responsibilities, is comprehensive and detailed. Our math skills come to the fore.  'The square of the hype around a project is equal to the sum of the squares of the waiting looters' greed and spin'. Take that, Pythagoras!

They talk of collaborating with business, philanthropists, educators and government. We have been doing that for years. How else could we have gutted just about every SOE? How else could we have so effectively stuffed up municipalities, farms, construction projects and everything stuffable? Not possible without seamless collaboration.

Of course the priorities of these capitalist warmongers are somewhat confused. It seems to be about the young, about people, about the country and perhaps even mankind (personkind?).  Learn from our African wisdom, guys:

Party before people. 

Party before country.

After all one of our philosopher-

 statesmen once asked:

 

"Which came first democracy or the ANC?" 

A chicken  - egg like riddle that would have stumped Plato and Aristotle and even troubled our own ace philosopher, Dr Ace Magashule.  A friend said that we might also ask which came first, EFF or VBS. I warned him not to poke the fierce, red bear,

I suppose that these countries took seriously the notion that the  

security of a country is threatened when people are poorly educated. 

Well, here we are are way ahead of the curve again.  No dumbing down of the country here, with our challenging 30% pass requirement.  Let's remember that the 80/20 principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the activities. We surpass that with 10% to spare.  We could comfortably go for a  20% pass requirement, but hey, we're about striving for excellence, pushing that brown envelope, reaching for....something.

It seems that philanthropists also play a role in the STEM ecosystems. Thank goodness that we have the Zuma Foundation and others. So we are uniquely poised to ride the great wave of progress and technology. This is probably why we are a leading producer of intermittent electricity. Interestingly,  some of these initiatives include training young hackers for productive work. Again, we lead the pack. I'm not sure about hacking, but we seem to be able to infiltrate and penetrate anything available for infiltration and penetration.

One's heart almost overflows with the pride of being South African.

So US, Mexico, Kenya and others: who needs your STEM ecosystems?

If we were a boastful lot, we  could say: Ecosystems R Us

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O Tichmann 

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Simply A Mess

Prayer of a minister at the parliamentary inquiry into the Bester fiasco.  

To the tune of 'Simply The Best'. 

I need help, I need help, my butt's on fire

Come quickly, come quickly

It's getting wild 

When you come to me

Come with answers  that I  need

Help me explain that it's not what it seems

Speak a language of law like  I  know  what it means

Mmm, it's gone so wrong 

Help me up and make me strong 

It's simply a mess

Bigger than any mess

Any mess I've ever been in

I'm stuck from the start

Counting every word I say

They'll tear us apart

Wish I'd rather stayed in  bed

So Bester 'jumped'  but we got him again

There's so much between that's hard to explain

Oh, it's  so tough to be in this chair 

I would much rather be anywhere

It's simply a mess

Hotter than any mess

Any mess I've ever been in 

Ooh, the thump of my heart

I'm dreading every word they say

They'll  tear us apart 

Wish I'd rather stayed in bed

Each time they address me I start losing  control 

They're kicking my butt and they're shredding my soul 

Feeling so skaam, wish they'd leave  me alone 

Oh, I just want to go 

Ooh, it's simply a mess 

Bigger than all the rest

Bigger than any mess 

Any mess I've ever made

Ooh, I'm sick to my soul 

I'm dreading every word they say

They've torn us apart 

We might just as well be dead

 It's a mess

Ooh, Bester was slick

Slicker than anyone 

Anyone we've ever caught

Ooh, he made us look  dumb

Sitting here sucking my thumb 

They've torn us apart 

Wish I'd stayed in bed instead 

It's a mess!

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White Mischief

Dear Truth Seekers 

I am forever indebted to the Daily Sun, 

who opened my eyes to the shadow- world of zombies, tokoloshes and other denizens of the darkness without. 

I should otherwise have gone about my tendering business blissfully ignorant. Now, into the limelight steps another truth torchbearer, Mama Winnie Junior, equally fearless, equally relentless in pursuit of the truth. Her reprimand below of some, poor, misguided Twitteratus, who dared impute incompetence to two stalwarts of The Party.

"Clearly you're ignorant.  You think we don't see the white idiots behind Cele and Lamola that have succeeded in deliberately projecting black people as incompetent? You have a lot of learning to do and this tweets pronounces how brainwashed you are. Ai ave nidom Nic 🤣🤣"

The foghorn of truth. The lighthouse of clarity to a conspiracy-tossed nation. Aha, the sinister, hidden White Hand. But they cannot evade or elude your penetrating gaze, dear Mama Winnie (May I call you that?). 

Indeed if the ministers have been manipulated by the mysterious White Hand then one cannot charge them with incompetence. Stupidity, yes, pliability, spinelessness - all of the above. I wonder how many other comrades, equally spineless, stupid and pliable have been manipulated for the last almost 30 years. We have certainly seen our share of what at face value looks like corruption, incompetence, clowning, bumbling. Well now we know that it was actually the insidious, Machiavellian manipulation of the feared White Hand, the real power behind the fragile throne.

Now do we look to The Usual Suspects; Soros, Gates, Biden, Rupert, Hersov, or are there new  entrants in the field? Perhaps Zelensky, between skirmishes and salvoes. It's a difficult world, or,  as Cat Stevens would have said: Ooh baby, it's a wild world. However, it is a comfort to know that we have among us those who are not easily  fooled. 'Their eyes as clear as centuries', sang Paul Simon.

 just one thing puzzles and I am sure that the many eager followers of your lucidly logical, analytical approach would love to know. If white idiots are behind this rather embarrassing episode, what does that make those who were fooled by said idiots? Intellectual titans?

South Africa is a movie, say many. Truly Winnie, I believe that you could supply Netflix with a year's worth of thrilling series. The White Hand would simply be the first of many. To misquote another singer "what would we do without your smart mind?".

Yours in the struggle against the modern variants of zombies and tokoloshes,

Richard

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And Justice For All

 Dear Mr Trump

Like our own Mr Zuma, you have been hard done by. Under different  circumstances you would have been revered like Lincoln or the fellow with the wooden teeth. Those different circumstances being, for instance, If you hadn't done some weird, unpresidential stuff or been born into the Lincoln family.

 Mr Zuma faced about 800 corruption charges since about 2016. After much muddy water under an assortment of  bridges, he now faces some sixteen charges. I don't know whether some charges went into an 'all of the above' sort of general category. 

The point, sir, is that you reportedly face some 34 charges. Using the formula arising out of our enlightened approach to prosecution (112 charges 'expiring' per year), why sir, your slate would be wiped clean in just over three months. You see the method in my seeming madness, Mr  President? 

Your chances in our advanced system are far greater than those in your antiquated, medieval American system. All that you need to do is to argue that your only prospect of getting a truly fair trial is in a sh...hole  country like ours. Methinks a solid, rational argument, hard to refute. We could do a temporary swop with Zuma, a  statesman with so many similar skills and ways that many of your compatriots will not even realize that you  are  absent. And he sings and dances as well as you do.

Incidentally, Mr Zuma's playbook  of appeals and lawsuits  might be helpful to you. We have it, from unreliable  sources, that he plans to sue The Almighty next. You will enjoy our broadminded, decolonised, robust approach to trials. A lawyer once reportedly accused a judge of witchcraft. Bet you don't have such esoteric, intellectual arguments in your courts.

We do still use some Latin, to good effect. Example:

"Your Honour, I don't know what to say about this....this f@#$%d up situation."

I think you'll feel quite at home with that.

By the way, we don't  have the electric chair, but that's a moot point. We don't have electricity either.

I, for one, look forward to your wiping the floor with those (leftist? communist? pinko liberal?) legal types.

Yours in the struggle for justice for all.

Richard 

.

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O Tichmann 

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You'll Be Sorry

 Dear Liberation Movement 

'If you don't vote for us, you'll be sorry.'

So inspirational, ANC.  

Beats the hell out of insipid stuff like 'Make America Great Again' and 'Yes, We Can!' Great stuff comrades - the sort of call to the patriotic heart that makes strong men swoon. 

This will look marvellous on your election posters. You could shorten some of them to 'You'll be sorry'. Nice ring to it and an intriguing whiff of menace and mystery. Accompanying, colourful  pictures of some of your well-midriff-muscled candidates would make it a classic of election poster art. Perhaps going for six figure sums at Sotheby's.

Says a headline:

ANC’s Gwede Mantashe says South Africans would live to regret voting ruling party out of power

'At least they would live', quipped a cynical friend. I have no idea what he meant. You know how these clever blacks and colonial clerks are.

I thought long and hard about this profound message (okay, a few minutes in the loo).

We might miss the brilliant one-liners (medicine transported by head, smallanyana skeletons and so much more). 'Those flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar'.

We'll trade that for a decrease in trauma any day, as a real government gets on with the prosaic business of making South Africa liveable again.

Will we miss the blundering and bumbling (when not sleeping) of the guardian's of law, order and justice, as an assortment of villains runs rings around them? Call it a hunch; I doubt it.

And the absorbing, speculative math game of guess the real size of the looting iceberg? Looting achievements that would have left Genghis gasping in envy, the Vandals and the Goths slack-jawed in admiration.

What of the wit and eloquence of Moonwalker Mbalula, the electrifying performance of the 'what corruption?' minister of darkness, the humour of Jacob, the Laughing Cavalier, the brooding Hamlet-like soliloquies of Cyril the Silent? Perhaps on a slow day.

Yes, there will be much to regret. Mainly that we were blind enough to think that you could govern a chicken run, let alone a country. So much regret, so little time.

Nevertheless, we will bid you farewell with a hearty, sincere South African  VOETSEK.

Yours in the struggle to not miss you too much.

Richard 

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Class of 1652

 Dear Mr Mpofu

The new electricity minister has an epiphany. The stuff of Nobel prize nominations,  to wit (as you legal eagles are wont to say): 

A reliable supply of power = ultimate end of loadshedding. (I am still mesmerized each time I read this).

Now, with his hand stretched out to grasp the coveted medal, you have handed the Nobel Prize Committee a gigantic headache. You traced ALL our national problems past, present and, I assume, future, with laser-like precision to the exact date of 6 April 1652.  Two world-changing discoveries in the same year. It's almost too much to take in, even for the country that gave birth to the likes of Hlaudi Motsoeneng. Ah, wait, a simple solution: he gets the physics prize and you are deserving winner of the peace prize.

I quote from your magnum opus, first published in that leading political science journal, Twitter.

"On this day 6 April 1652 ALL the problems of the Southern tip of our beloved continent started….

It will take a monumental effort on the part of all patriots to erase  all the rot,hatred,misery,racism,landlessness and bloodshed which characterised our society since that day!✊🏾"

I agree that a monumental effort is required. No-one can accuse you of not doing your part in quenching the fires of hatred and division  on our southern tip. I think that a vital part of that effort has to be the construction of a working time machine. For many comrades, nothing short of a comprehensive moering of that damned, smiling villain, van Whatisname, will suffice. 

I always knew deep in my heart that we couldn't possibly be responsible for the horrific violence, the crime, the corruption, the incompetent bumbling and clowning. Those 1652 devils made us do it. After all, prior to their arrival  (curse the day), this land was a veritable   garden of Eden, minus snake. Now we have the ubunja philosophy: I am a thief / fraud / thug because of 1652.

.

Thabo Bester and others of his ilk do unspeakable things under the slumbering noses of the authorities. The Guptas skip blithely to new adventures in corrupto-colonialism. Zuma-numbing  amounts  are looted with gay abandon. Buffoonery scales heroic new heights.With each fresh outrage, I merely chant the calming mantra: '6 April 1652' and it is the well with my soul. You probably do not realise what a difference your sterling detective work has made. Even as music soothes the savage beast, so does your revelation soothe our troubled breasts.

Some clothing was stolen off my washing line today. Did I curse, swear revenge? "6 April, 1652", I whispered to the Durban breeze. I sensed that the universe smiled.

Just between us, sir, I think those vile, imperialist running dogs are behind your run of bad luck in the courts. May I recommend a friend who consults on that sort of thing. I think you'll find his fees as reasonable as I'm sure yours are.

I wonder, sir, why you didn't go all the way back to Adam and  Eve. They tend to get blamed for all sorts of stuff, anyway. If you tend towards the other theory, the gases involved in the big bang. Gas and popping sounds make a nice backdrop to your story.

Viva superior logic, viva!

Yours in the struggle to break historic cold cases.

Richard

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O Tichmann 

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Wonderful World Of Whatabout and Wenzeni

 A classic South African Twitter debate, fictional but as close to the real thing  as a famous KZN father - daughter team are to each other

One cannot but be blown away by the eloquence, the lucid reasoning and the ravenous hunger for truth. 

This is probably why our problem solving skills and problem solving  record are up there with NASAs. 

"He was the best president we ever had. He created jobs."

"Yes, for pals. Treasury, police etc. Security cluster became a clustermuck"

"Prove it."

'Read, man, read!

By 2014 1.5 million jobs had been lost since your hero came into power, thanks to job-unfriendly legislation. Most jobs created were in the already bloated civil service whose service remains like horse manure and water."

"As if the apartheid government didn't create jobs for whites."

"How long are you going to ride that dead horse?" 

"Easy for you with your white privilege." 

"I'm black." 

"Colonial clerk!"

"No, bloody clever black, moron!"

"IMoron unyoko!"

"So tell me. wenzenista: does a decent man, a man of integrity, run for public office  with rape charges and dozens of other charges hanging over him?"

"Where's the proof?"

"Ask the National Prosecuting Authority . Maybe if he'd stand still long enough to face his accusers in court, you'd have your answer."

"The judiciary is captured."

"Only when it's  not ruling for your master."

"House negro!"

You are supposed to be anti-American but you ape them. Anyway you and your ilk are true house negroes. All you repeat is your massa's kitchen gossip. Scared to get out into the real world  and let the winds of evidence blow some common sense into your skull."

"What evidence?"

"Thousands of pages and hours of testimony. Again man, read!"

"What about dollars in couches?"

"Oh, also an accomplished whataboutist. What school of rhetoric do all you guys attend?"

"Did your white handlers teach you that?"

"You could get a damned good price for your brain."

"What?"

"No mileage. Totally unused."

"Fuseg ms@#%%!"

"F#$% You very much!"

End of Act 1.

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

1378565477

O Tichmann 

+27 833970723