Damned if we do and damned if we don't.. Who to vote for?

The challenge we face this time around come South African election time, is damned if we do and damned if we don't.. One may elect to vote for the DA (despite Mmusi's unfortunate 'mess'), in order to strengthen the official opposition which may be admirable.

One may be seeing 'red' however and decide that red overalls and berets are the latest in your choice of this Season's fashion statement. That may be good if you're unemployed, short-sighted if not mentally challenged, however representation in an 'organised' Parliament may be better than revolts on the streets (better the red devil you know..).

There of course is the legacy of the old Right Wing in the form of Vryheidsfront (sideburns and beards sonder moustaches only brigade). That may attract similar short-sighted, propaganda induced excitement amongst some who still wish Apartheid was alive an kicking (no pun intended), despite, like the EFF, the occasional wise political input, but sadly only rarely.

But when one gets down to it, normally voting for a strong opposition is an admirable strategic intent, however in this particular election, if the ANC loses ground, Ace and his fellow hyenas may just have the excuse they need to oust Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the party and therefore the country, along with his honourable stooges, putting us squarely back in the doomed Zuma dark ages. All efforts to right the wrongs and put those guilty of State Capture and other pillaged jewels will become the 'new' leadership, and that would be the end of that. Quite literally.. 

So, we have a choice here as I see it. Vote for the party you want to lead your Province and City in terms of what works and has been proven to do so effectively, and vote nationally to allow Cyril to clean up.. I'm really not sure how I feel about it all this time around, but be damn sure to have your say, or be prepared to shut up forever more..

Another 'Man-Made' Bible Version To Suit Yet Another Agenda - But Do Women Have A Point?

Ah, good.. Another Bible version with its own 'interpretations'. Having been passed down via fireside word-of-mouth stories around the Middle East for over 1000 years pre-Jesus, before being written down piecemeal by believers in Archaic Hebrew into Aramaic (the language Jesus allegedly spoke which ironically became Arabic), then into Ancient Greek, into Modern Greek into Latin into 'Ancient' English (Anglo-Saxon), and much later 'Modern' English, of which there are dozens of selective translations down the years, none of which relate to the original texts and meanings.  So perhaps it's time for yet another version?

Whilst they're at it, perhaps they aught to 're-interpret' all the narcissistic, arrogant, self-serving, attention seeking, racist, "sing and go down on your knees to Me" Godly Commands. Not to mention incitement to murder, rape and plunder (including instructing numerous wars against all but a 'chosen few').  Directives for fathers to sacrifice their own sons on alters of fire, bizarrely and macabrely having His own son nailed to a cross for the sake of all 'our' sins (ironically his own creations in his own image..)..  This is the stuff of a blood thirsty horror movie!

OK, having said that, perhaps The Bible should be banned altogether for inappropriateness or at least rewritten entirely by real peace loving, truly compassionate, non-sexually inhibited, non-self serving, non-xenophobic, non-racist, non-sexist, non-agenda enslaved poets and writers..?  I think the time is nigh.. 

https://www.enca.com/life/theologians-join-forces-draft-womens-bible

The Non-romance of War and the Irony of Celebrating It

With all the past weekend's 'celebrations' of war (WWI in particular), it brought to mind the fact that perhaps the non-romantic realities of war are still all too fresh in the minds of my generation of South African men, who not too long ago were fresh-faced 18 year olds finishing Matric, and about to have a rifle shoved in our hands, with the chance of never coming back. Many didn't, and many more who did, were never the same again..

I don't see war as a celebration in any make or form, and this poem by Siegfried Sassoon puts it rather succinctly for me:

"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye - 
Who cheer when soldier lads march by -
Sneak home and pray you'll never know -
The hell where youth and laughter go."

The author during the Angolan and Cold Wars 1985 / His Great Grandfather Nathan McLeod circa 1920 who served in both WWI & WWII

The big Facebook farce

Six years ago I sat in a room with a group of 'clever' people all punting Facebook as the next 'Tech whizz kid on the block', much like those who were punting the Bitcoin con not so long ago. People love false hope and things that are just too good to be true. They fall for it time and time again. Much like sitting at a slot machine in a casino. As if we were so naive as to have forgotten the 'Tech Bubble' Financial Services con of the late 90's, the Financial Services property overvaluation con of the early 2000's.. So-called 'highly respected' Financial advisors where now trying to persuade poor, naive investors to buy extraordinarily overvalued Facebook stocks as the next big flyer.

Meanwhile the young marketing 'wizards' in the room attempted to persuade the who's who of Global Marketing that this Social Media platform was going to be the big advertising alternative to waning traditional media and literally "fly".

I was the lone voice of, in my view, simple logic and reason in the room, as I could just not get my head around their valuation justification, nor understand how a Social Media (emphasis on the word 'social')  provider thought that they could make money out of users, without having to bastardise their free communication model and commercialise something people used for socialising and sharing amongst friends and family, by bombarding them with highly annoying advertising banners, whilst using their database to unscrupulously abuse loyal users to the point of losing them altogether..

And that now appears to be exactly what has happened.. 6 years down the line.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-07-26-facebook-in-freefall-as-weak-outlook-stuns-market/

Life can be short - Begin with the end in mind

I've tried to live life from relatively early on by my own mantra of 'Life can be short, so begin everything with the end in mind'. Not in a melancholy way by any means, but merely to try to make the most out of this life, as there is no other, and "don't dream it, be it" (to coin a phrase from The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

That means, I stopped or never even embraced chasing things that just don't matter in the end - to me, (e.g. climbing taller and taller corporate ladders, playing business politics, accumulating material wealth for the sake of it, befriending and even entertaining pretentious people, stressing about what other people think, living to work as opposed to working to live life, sweating the small stuff, not saying what you honestly think, getting caught up in a group of negative political propagandists, not having enough time to do the things you truly want to do and places to see, not eating food and drinking wine that feeds a ceremony, etc. ). Rather I have done the opposite, in attempt to chase and do things that really do matter, do things and visit places that feed my 'soul' and surround myself with those who really mean something to me, challenge me, impart wisdom, thrive in vociferous debate covering.., at times, controversial subject matter to many who prefer the PC, 'rather not go there' approach.

That makes life rich to me, as much as a game ranger friend once remarked to me years ago, that he didn't earn much money by what he did, but got paid in sunsets instead. A profound comment that said so much about him and what 'life' truly meant to him.

Sometimes I forget however and need reminding, sometimes other people's experiences help put it all into perspective too..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgnREvtTdew

Partnering with the largest, professional Business Coaching firm - ActionCOACH

https://youtu.be/OZyLpnun_xs

Ramaphosa - a time for renewed patriotism

There's euphoria abound, and rightly so.  Cyril Ramaphosa is an impressive man, no matter his country of origin.  Despite being my preference to succeed Nelson Mandela's one and only term in office in the late 90's, sadly he was sidelined by a more internally politically astute and aggressive Thabo Mbeki at the time. 

So it seems that it has taken the ANC a while to come around, but better late than never for the country as a whole.  Now the mountain of work stands before him, starting with a cleaning up of the rot and dead wood within his inherited Cabinet.  There is no doubt that the turnaround has merely begun, but that's the beauty of it all, we've only just started to show what we can really do here.. This is going to be a very exciting ride..  Already the exchange rate is reflecting a positive outlook (at R11.66 as I type). Never before, in my opinion, has there been such a positive time in SA politically to be a South African right now,  (even compared to the early uncertain, Nationalisation rhetoric days of the Mandela regime).

I may sound like the eternal optimist, but perhaps we needed to hit such a low in order to realise exactly that which should never be repeated again.  As I type, the Gupta family members and their henchmen are being rounded up, and this is merely the start of weeding out the rotten and corrupt relationships that have underlined the Zuma era, starting with the Shaik affair.  But for it to really work, we all need to play our part in speaking the right speak to encourage foreign investment and unlock the more than a Trillion Rand of local cash awaiting positive business sentiment and investment.

Next step is is a serious focus on education and support for Small & Medium sized Enterprises to encourage growth and boost the much needed employment, which in-turn will turn around the social ills of crime and grime. 

Why would you want to be anywhere else right now??