No penalty; a just reward?
by Evita

If I hear another plea to reinstate the death penalty, I'll kill someone! It can't happen. Fullstop. The Constitution that protects all of us also protects them. Them? Yes, those who in the past were executed because it was a quick solution to a murky problem of punishing with a final act of Man as God. We got it wrong most of the time.

I wrote this on 17 March last year, but I still want to share it with you, as so much of it is still relevant now.

I remember how often during John Vorster's 1970s regime, the Bryntirion dinnertable talk would touch on who had been hanged that morning at Pretoria's prison. How the neck had cracked and the rope had squeaked.

And then we'd lift our crystal glasses and toast the future of our country, after praying to God to remain on our side.

When I am President, I will certainly not attempt to bring back a death penalty. I know crime is the primary issue among all parts of our society.

The rich get robbed; the poor get poorer. Travelling around and living in the cities of South Africa becomes a daily round of Russian roulette.

As people now sigh: It's not if it happens to you, but when! Daily I am made aware how broadly we are spreading this word 'criminal'. There are thousands of people in jail awaiting trial who did not kill, rape, assault or rob. They took a tin of food off the shelf. Those people should not languish in prison and come out hardened criminals.

They should be fed and then work off their debt.

But what about murder? My son De Kock showed me an old film called 'Escape From New York' last year. I hated it and left after awhile. It was set in the future with Manhattan turned into a penal colony run by the inmates. I felt De Kock was insinuating my collaboration with the Robben Island policy during apartheid. But what a good idea! Prisoners
are always bleating for their rights to vote. I agree.

In my South Africa all murderers will be sent to the same prison which they will run, enjoying all the rights they once enjoyed and forfeitedin our civilized land. Let them rule themselves, and if they want to
execute each other? Foeitog. That's got nothing to do with us.

We messed up our chance to re-use Robben Island. But Madagascar needs foreign investment. Let them build us a maximum secuirity jail among thesnakes and crocodiles and we will send them cash and convicts!

A 2010 L'UGHAWE SOLUTION

It nearly drove me crazy trying to get to OR Tambo Airport last week.

Everyone seemed to be on their way to Australia. No, they were going to Cape Town for that Cycle Tour. I so admire middle-aged ( and not so mature ) people for carrying their awkward bikes all the way into a
blistering South-easter gale to create a perfect situation for that fatal heart attack as they cycle up and down the steep slopes of Table Mountain and the Twelve Apostles in order to prove - what?

Anyway, sitting in a hour-long traffic jam to park in the Parkade, I suddenly came upon the solution to the 2010 log-jam round the buildingof stadiums. OR Tambo is a mess as they try to join the three parts together to make a whole. Now there's just a hole! Cape Town Airport is a dusty chaotic building site and Durban is .. well, Durban is Durban.

Imagine if we extended the building operations at our international airports and actually completed perfect soccer stadiums in time for 2010? Then the fans could fly in from the rest of the world, get off their planes, find their seats, watch the match, board their planes and fly away. And live to tell the tale!

SKATTEBOL

It's been a week of horrors. White people have killed white children. This is nothing to celebrate. But robber-baron Arthur Brown and his group accountant Graham Maddock who are behind bars this week for Fidentia's failure to account for more than R200 million belonging to needy clients, have exposed an important fact. So thank you, seuns for
showing us that wealthy white people are also thieves and crooks, who steal from the poor and desperate without so much as a shrug. It should not just be the 'others' in our rainbow line-up who are always under
suspicion.

FURBALL

It's a tie! The Department of Justice - who single-handedly holds the most pressing issues of crime, fraud, trial etc and did not spend up to R600 million of their annual budget. If anything proves that justice is in the wrong hands, this certainly does. Then there's the South African Air Force who, after spending R13 billion on a flock of brand-new
fighter jets, has to ground them as useless, because there is no battle to be fought from the sky. And last but not least, gesture politics from Minister Jeff Radebe, now wearing the beetroot-soaked mantle inherited
from Manto, the Angel of Death.

Jeff has just announced that by 2011 one million Aids sufferers will be on ARV's! Too late skattie, te laat!

The good, the bad and the boere
by Evita

In which country in the civilized world does the bad live so close and happily with the good? And in our case,  help the good to make money and so also become bad? As far as I can remember, Dr Wouter Basson was just one of the many brilliant young scientists who tried to find the solution to problems that had paralysed our Pretoria-based civilised world during the 1970s and 80s. It was all about the need to get rid of what we then called die gemors, 'the rubbish'.

I wrote this on 10 March last year, but I still want to share it with you, as so much of it is still relevant now.

Today they are referred to as 'the people'. I'm still in the dark about the things they say 'Dr Death' did. Ja-nee, bad things happened during apartheid. There is no doubt about it now. So how come we didn't know about those crimes against humanity? We were all educated, decent, Christian, civilized people who loved Mozart, Irma Stern (even though she was a Jew)  and Langenhoven. What went wrong? How could we have ignored the fact  that our cousins and sons were involved in a genocide that removed the  next generation of leadership?

I get goosebumps when I think where would we have been today if Nelson Mandela had come out of jail angry? How would you have felt? In jail for 27 years for what you believed in? Away from your children? Your wife goes mad? Nelson Mandela could so easily have come out of jail and spoken like Robert Mugabe. He could have said: 'To hell with democracy! Take the farms! Kill the whites.' And hundreds of whites and some coloureds could have died and no one on the news or CNN would have looked in our direction. In the eyes of  the world we racists deserved to be punished after what we did to 'the rubbish'.

But Nelson Mandela didn't say those things. None of them punished us. Let us not forget that, even though we no longer have those compassionate politicians who could come out of horror and give us hope. We now have a normal breed of greedy, ambitious, cold-blooded, career-professionals who are in it for what they can get out of it. That's sometimes called democracy. We're suffering from it in an acute form and only care will help us cure ourselves. That means, decide what you want and who will protect it for you. And if you don't find anyone, do it yourself.

Barney diary
by alkie

  Dear diary 

Well, what do you know?  Two diary sessions in one week……mmm, someone is ‘up and about’!  That can only be “mother dearest”. I know, cause she has been getting up so early every morning with this ‘project’ of hers, painting the flat etc. plus going to bed in the early hours of the morning as well.  Between breaks she is ‘indulging’ in her emails and looking at some websites.

This brings me to this interesting website she has been referred to by an Author by the name of Bridget McNulty.  My mom has been a follower of her blog.  She referred to a topic about ‘good news’ and therefore she has  recommended the website www.sagoodnews.co.za – not all news in South Africa is bad.  My mom finds this website very ‘uplifting’, because I noticed the change in her ‘attitude’- much more happier, dancing around the flat, turning up the music and just being a complete different person.  (Between you and me, I trust it has nothing to do about the contents of the paint)!

Here I am going on and on about my mom but “bless her”, I will give up my space so she can “let it all out” maybe that will do her good!  My mom has a few ‘pet hates’,  and I am sure so have a lot of you in your ‘adult world’ (as long as this pet, Barney, will always be loved) – at the same time, I am convinced you can relate to some of them, I have just experienced in your ‘adult world’ you are inclined to just accept it!  My mom cannot accept “incompetence” in the Corporate World.

She worked ‘on all cylinders’ full time for a period of 30 years and once the children left the ‘nest’, she made the choice of becoming a ‘homemaker’.  As she says “I have paid my school fees”!  Nowadays, I noticed she gets hot under the collar if she does not get any response from people……..and lately it is rather a handful of people.  For a few  weeks she experienced the following:  No response from her Broker, her Bank Consultant, their Bookkeeper’s Assistant, their Letting Agent re a claim for a broken Hob and the list goes on!  My mom is not ‘pushy or demanding’ and she puts everything in writing!  That way she has ‘back up’ in everything she does. Plus she has this major task with her ‘project’ of renovations.

Have you ever had the experience about small things that get you ‘down’!  When she purchases a tin of coffee, cereal, horlicks, or for that matter anything that need to be opened and you cannot see inside, it normally is half full! She even purchased a tin of pears, which only had 1 pear in!  We will not name the Brands, out of politeness! What is it with a commodity like a plain object like a toilet roll?  The way they manufacture it, oh my, oh my, it seems they want you to spend a life time on the “throne” only to tear half of it ending on the floor……..but no, “they’ll show us…..you are going to work towards this roll, in order to start using it”! 

Telephone etiquette!  I always hear my mom speaking on the phone, because I have picked up the “dialling tone” and before she starts speaking, I would utter “hello”, and she has such a polite way of addressing people.  When she is on the receiving end, I can hear how her voice start ‘faltering’, because the person on the other end is either so ‘rude’ or ‘interrupt’ her so much, she has difficulty in explaining herself. Mom, my advice to you as your beloved Barney – African Grey, become more assertive and stand up for yourself!  Look up the word in the Oxford Dictionary that says “no more” and implement it! There you go, don’t you feel better, even though not one of the above has been solved yet!

 Well guys, as far as I am concerned, I am still a happy chap in spite of all the ‘buzzing’ around the flat!  My mom ‘shields’ me from the fumes of the paint and I get a lot of attention from them coming into my bedroom and spending quality time with me.

Ciao from a more bearable sunny Durbs and by this coming Friday this project will be in place……..or so the old lady promised.  She is just waiting eagerly for the yearly ‘sardine run’…………….watch this space!  

Barney diary
by alkie

Dear diary

 Where do I start?  This session is not really about me…….no, I have to take ‘back seat’ at the moment, which does not really ‘gel’ with me cause my mommy is really on the go! She is such a busy bee…….doing her yearly “touch up” in the flat.  Luckily she realises that African Grey’s do not take lightly to the smell of paint, but bless her, she is keeping me at a distance.  Which of course I am not too happy about, that means, no attention! 

While she and her sister (yeah guys, they call it “girl power”), are busy in the lounge with that scraping and sanding of the walls, I am making my own noise in the main bedroom to draw their attention.  I picked up a new whistle……Jesus Christ Superstar….mmm, my mom says she believes in her “younger days” it was a play that was banned, but unfortunately my mom likes the ‘catchy tune’ even though she does not know the words and yours truly has picked up the whistle!

Well, as I said, today’s session is not about me more about the activities around me!  Could not help ‘eaves dropping’ when the old folks had a sort of ‘debate’ about them ‘touch ups’.  As you well know, men do not really like ‘touch ups’…..they like to get home to a neat place. Dad told mom he hopes this “project” of hers will not  “grow arms and legs”….mom of course pacified dad and says the “girls” will be finished in one week.

Let me elaborate a bit about my mom’s sister!  Can she work that sandblaster!  Oh my, I challenge any guy to compete with her and she is so fast…….mom will upload a nice photie of her doing the hard work! Well, wish me luck and we trust that “girl power” will speed up the process so that I can get back to normal!

Just to let you know, I am taking “birdie steps” in that state-of-the-art that the old folks got me!  At least I am getting “spoon fed” from the old lady……….one good way of keeping her attention!  I will eventually get their  one “bird step” at a time! 

Ciao, from a wet and brrrrrrrrr cold Durbs and unfortunately for me, I do not sleep inside my cage, which means, the old folks trust I am warm enough!  I am all good! 

The Ghosts of Harris and Klebold
by evanlong

by Evan Long

e-mail: evanlong ATSYMBOL xmail PERIOD net
website: http://www.xmail.net/evanlong/

This is a picture of two dead boys in a high school library.  The picture, like all pictures, has a thousand words behind it, many of which have not yet been spoken.  There are other pictures related to this one as well, pictures too numerous to fit in this space of other individuals injured by the boys in the first, individuals injured emotionally and physically, and some even fatally so.  The people of the world were told many, many times that the boys shown in the first picture acted alone in harming the other individuals.  The purpose of this article is to clarify the perceptions of the people of the world regarding the events of the April 20, 1999 attack on Columbine High School.         

"He told me that there was another shooter on the roof when he was laying outdoors.  He could see a man on the roof with a gun."  -Columbine attack family member Donna Taylor on a statement by her son, Mark, who was shot at Columbine High School on April 20th

Officially, the attack began at 11:20 and ended at 12:08.  Officially, fifteen were killed, including the two attackers. Officially, they used a total of 99 bombs and fired 329 rounds.  And officially, no one but Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold participated in, assisted with, or had any specific foreknowledge about the attack. 
Almost every detail of the Sheriff's Official Line on the Columbine shooting, a. k. a. "Sheriff's Office Final Report on the Columbine High School Shootings," can be called into question by a study of the court-ordered releases of government documents related to it.  Perhaps the most salient is that of the numerous witnesses reporting three to ten black-clad shooters inside the halls of the school, many were able to identify at least some of them by name as trench coat students other than Harris and Klebold or to describe them distinctly as having been neither of the two.
According to these witnesses, the violence at the school was perpetrated by a variety of attackers who can be grouped into roughly a dozen profiles, including:

·Eric Harris

A second-tier member of the trench coat group, Harris was allegedly found dead and photographed in the CHS library. He was raised at Plattsburg Air Force Base in New York, was seeing a psychiatrist and taking SSRI antidepressants. Police knew of death threats he'd published on his web site but did not investigate further.

·Dylan Klebold

Klebold was said to have been "tied at the hip" with Harris and was widely reported to have been "goofy-looking" and socially awkward, yet had a female companion and at least half a dozen friends. Like Harris, he began to wear a trench coat in his sophomore year at the school.

·Chris Morris

Morris was the reported leader of the trench coat group in the 1998-99 school year. According to one, he was a "mean kid" who talked with regularity about constructing explosives. He was brought before a special CHS panel for pulling knives on students and was reportedly spotted in the north hall of the school with a handgun during the attack.

·Robert Perry

Like Harris and Klebold, Perry was reportedly a member of the trench coat B-team who left CHS in January 1999 but spent a significant amount of the school day on the campus anyway. He was similar in appearance to Klebold but with notably bad acne and was reportedly witnessed on the west side of the school where the shooting is alleged to have begun.

·"The Chiseled Face Shooter"

This attacker was spotted by several students in the science hall of the building with a shotgun. According to one girl, he was muscular with a "chiseled face." She even produced a sketch of this attacker, who was reported to have appeared to have been in his 30's.

·"The Camo Pants Shooter"

Named by name in one interview, this attacker wore camouflage pants and a trench coat. He was seen first bringing a heavy-looking duffel bag into the school and then wielding a shotgun.

·"The Splatterpunks"

All three of these individuals wore camouflage pants that afternoon in Clement Park, where they had gathered to watch the carnage and where, according to a bystander, they verbally displayed foreknowledge of the attack and a moral alignment with the attackers. They were "detained" but released by law enforcement that day.

·"The Blue Jeaned Bomber"

A pudgy male was reportedly seen by many witnesses wearing a white tee and blue jeans on the west side of the school, tossing a bomb onto the roof from a group of three attackers.

·"The Round Faced Shooter"

A shooter in a black trench coat on the west side of the school was reportedly described as having been 5' 9" or 5' 10" in height with a "very round face" and having been "neither Harris nor Klebold."

·"The Short Shooter"

A shooter, 5' 6" in height with ear-length hair, was reportedly spotted running through the Columbine cafeteria in a black jacket firing a weapon.

·"The Baggy Pants Shooter"

An attacker was reportedly also spotted in the cafeteria wearing a red or orange shirt and black baggy pants. According to statements attributed to one witness, this attacker spoke German.

·"Joe"

Several witnesses reportedly overheard an attacker yell, "Joe, where are you?" At least one gunman was reportedly described as a class of '98 student, and a Joe Stair, reportedly at CHS that morning, was one of the most prominent Trench Coat Mafia members of the previous year at Columbine.

·"The Rooftop Gunman"

Witnesses noted a gunman on the roof, a location to which neither Harris nor Klebold officially traveled.

·"The Weaver Park Gunman"

CHS is surrounded by an elementary school, a public library, and public parks including Weaver Park, where two male witnesses noted an attacker crouched with a shotgun on their way off of the campus.

In all, statements from some hundred individuals would be referenced either directly or secondhand in the documents indicating the presence of additional gunmen.

"They said do not talk about anything to anyone.  [...]  Because they will come after you; the snipers will come after you."  -Columbine attack family member Donna Taylor on the government officials who visited her son, Mark, in the hospital after the shooting

The interviews which constitute the sources of those profiles generally took place between April and August 1999, when almost everyone at Columbine High School plus additional individuals were interviewed by police and FBI.  The curious thing about the interview portion of the "investigation," however, was that between approximately September and November 1999, a peculiar phase was established which might be referred to as the "Autumn Sweeps."  The distinguishing feature of this round was that they tended to serve no other purpose than to take aside the witnesses who had indicated a likelihood of shooters other than Harris and Klebold and to attempt to coerce them into endorsing the official narrative.  To illustrate:

"On 10-8-99 Columbine High School student Mindy Pollock was re-interviewed at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office South Sub-Station.  [...]  The purpose for the interview was to clarify Pollock's perceptions during the April 20th shootings at Columbine High School [...].  [...]  The interview was concluded with Pollock understanding that the person she had identified as [redacted] was, in fact, Dylan Klebold.  There were no additional concerns [...]."

"On 10-12-99 Columbine High School student Nathan Anema was re-interviewed at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office South Sub-Station.  [...]  The purpose of the re-interview was to clarify Anema's observations during the April 20th shootings at Columbine High School [...].  In that interview Anema identified [redacted] as possibly being the person he saw throw a pipe bomb during the shootings at Columbine High School on 4-20-99.  [...]  The interview was concluded with no additional concerns [...]."

"On 10-12-99 Columbine High School student Leiha Murphy was re-interviewed [...]."  [...]  The purpose of the re-interview was to clarify Murphy's observations during the April 20th shootings at Columbine High School [...].  In that interview, Murphy stated she was certain that she saw [redacted] wearing a trench coat and standing near the sidewalk [...] when the shooting started.  [...]  The interview was concluded with Murphy and her mother understanding and feeling comfortable with my explanation."

A behind-the-scenes look at this scenario may be found in the news articles of independent journalist John Quinn, who wrote in 1999that "Columbine witness Chris Wisher told to [him] repeatedly that other gunmen were DEFINITELY involved; and law enforcement ["]investigators["] are coercing witnesses into making their stories conform to the two "lone" gunmen theory."
While even Wisher is reflected in his Autumn Sweeps interview as chalking up his observations of additional gunmen to a vivid imagination, not all of the witnesses are recorded as having recanted, and the summaries of the interviews with those who reportedly refused to accept the official line betray the particularly persistent tactics used against them to stamp their stories out.  To illustrate:

"I asked Ashley if she believes she could have made a mistake on her identification of [redacted] and she told me that she did not believe she made a misidentification.  [...]  After Ashley finished, she handed the time line back to me and said with the information you're providing me, it looks like I made a mistake, but she told me in her mind, she still believed that [redacted] was still the individual that she saw in Columbine High School with Eric Harris. 

[...]  At this time, I again asked Ashley if she made a mistake in her identification of [redacted].  Again, Ashley told me that it is possible, but she still believed that [redacted] was the other gunman she saw at school that day.”

"Monte stated that she was 100% sure she saw [redacted], a person known to her [...].  I advised Monte that according to other witness statements, [redacted] was at home between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm on 04-20-99.  Monte explained due to those witnesses being a family member and neighbor, those individuals could have lied [...]."  "Prior to the conclusion of this interview,  I advised Monte that there were several witnesses out on the southwest corner of the school at the same time she was and had different recollections of what took place and who was there.  I asked Monte if she could explain the differences in the stories of the several other witnesses.  Monte stated that she had no explanation for the other witness observations and reiterated that she knew [redacted] prior to the incident and that's who she saw standing over the two injured students."

"Jennifer looked at the photos and again I asked her if these are the two individuals that she saw at the high school.  Jennifer positively identified Dylan Klebold, but stated the other subject she saw was not Eric Harris.  She told me that the party she saw was approximately 25 to 30 years old, had a thick muscular neck and muscular build and that Eric Harris was too scrawny to be the party she observed.  I again reiterated with Jennifer that the still photos are of Eric Harris and it is the same description that she is giving us.  [...]  It was apparent to this ["]investigator["] that Nancy and Jennifer were questioning the credibility of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office."

"[W]hen she went to school that day [4/20/99], there was [...] three Trench Coat Mafia guys and it looked like they had guns in the trunks of their cars but she thought they were doing role playing in the school so she didn't think anything of it."  -Columbine attack family member Donna Taylor on a female Columbine student who visited her son, Mark, in the hospital

In the years prior to the attack, the CHS trench coaters were doing enough LARPing, or live action role playing, at the school that when the shooting broke out, some of the witnesses reportedly thought it was just another mock attack or a quote, "paintball incident".  Also, the senior class had reportedly been playing a running game of "Annihilation" involving a "Secret Santa"-type list of players who had to be "killed" by other players.  According to reports, the game was being played by two hundred members of the student body and one of the rules of the game was that it could not be played on school grounds or at school functions.
Some of the attack-themed videos which Harris and Klebold created, such as the relatively well known "Hitmen for Hire", were admittedly created for school, while others, which allegedly describe their motivation for the attack, have not yet been released.  By the time of Harris' and Klebold's arrest for breaking into an unattended van and stealing electronics equipment, one of the head school disciplinarians acknowledged that, in his opinion, Harris was "on the edge of (losing) control", and many of the lesser known Trench Coat Mafia members had been brought up on drug or weapon complaints. 
A series of conferences between the staff of Columbine High and lawyers hired by the school district after the attack put a damper on what would and would not be revealed about the school's knowledge of and possible hand in planning the attack but could some or more of Harris' and Klebold's alleged confession tapes, which are reportedly funny, have been not actually created in reference to the shooting, but to an imaginary plan partially encouraged or even scripted by members of the faculty in order to seal Harris and Klebold in a lie?

"If there's any way in this [******] up universe we can come back as ghosts, we'll haunt the life of any one who blames anyone besides me and [Dylan Klebold]".  -Columbine attack patsy Eric Harris

If the Columbine attack was an event pulled off with direct adult assistance, most of the sociological analysis of its causes would be fundamentally flawed, much more concrete blame than "it's society's fault" remains to be laid, and many of actually those responsible would have been found among the school staff, law enforcement and other authorities involved.  Assuming these principles to be accurate, one might ask, how aware were Eric and Dylan of the trap being set for them and if you had been in either of their places, would you have been able to sense it, yourself?  This is the kind of question we must consider if we are to survive and thwart this oncoming age of chaos, however long it lasts, why accurately determining whom to trust is important and exposing and circumventing those who serve the system is vital.  If there are ten thousand of the system servants against the billions of the rest of us, it's an easy match even with all of their technology and toys.  If we refuse to stand up for one another and act out when necessary, however, then it's not ten thousand against six billion but ten thousand against one six billion times over.  That's an easy match as well and that's what they're counting on.

Barney diary
by alkie

Dear Diary

Happy Fathers day dad!  This bird has been with you 2 years and 2 months and I have enjoyed every day of my life! The one person that is not on my x-mass list this year is mother-dearest.  The old lady is definitely not in my good books.  She thought she did me a favour on Friday, the 13^th to get me a new cage!  Between me and you, it is more for her ‘convenience’ re the ‘clean up process’. Must admit this to you it is “state of the art”…..in your world it would be called a ‘Rolls Royce’…..mmm, firstly, I do not take lightly to new things with all them stainless steel bowls and all! This would be my 3^rd cage since my arrival…..does not mean to sound ‘ungrateful’ and also I took to the second one like a duck to water but this ‘fancy one’ is a dark wrought iron colour and I am sorry to say this to my mom, it is going to take a long time to get used to it! Shame, she also got me some new toys which I do appreciate but it is too much ‘in my face’ with all this new stuff! 

Plus, we have a ‘visitor’ with us.  That is another reason why I am so ‘traumatised’.  She is cooing and ahhhing over this white bird…….called a cockatiel……….wander how long this ‘visitor’ is staying.  Plus I eaves dropped and heard the old lady say “what a sweet little bird”!  I will show her what is “sweet”!

Well, dad, us boys will have to stand up to the girls…….have a wonderful fathers day and do not work too hard.  Thanx for all my nice apples, veggies, cashew nuts and the list goes on!  I try to show you how I appreciate you…….maybe I should show a bit more!

 Ciao and all our love to our dearest dad……Barney, Blue Peter and Cheeky bek!

Honey I outsourced the kids!
by Funalaakie
You come home after a long day at work. You have a truckload of paperwork saved to disk to attend to, and find bills in the post to top it all. You find that your offspring have broken a window and realise that tomorrow is your wife’s birthday. You manage to write up a to-do list before passing out from exhaustion.

Today is your day off – thank God! You crawl out of bed at 11am and check your email in the hopes that you’ve won the lottery or a free vacation to Mauritius (one that isn’t a scam). Instead you find an email displaying the list of tasks you typed out the night before – all marked as “done.”

Before you can pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming, your wife enters the room, embraces you passionately, and thanks you for the e-card and the wonderful birthday gift that arrived that morning. “This also arrived today”, she says as she hands you a copy of The World is Flat – a book you’ve always wanted, that you so happened to include in your to-do list. There are people fixing the window in the living room and in the post are confirmation of payment letters from the municipality.

Then you remember: in your dazed state last night you still managed to send off your to-do list to your new remote executive assistant living in Bangalore.

Being rich in the 21st century

Outsourcing, which is fast becoming a popular trend in the US, is the equivalent of having a personal assistant, only these are more of a virtual breed.

Online companies such as GetFriday and Brickworks offer to carry out your routine and mundane tasks – giving you the freedom to pursue the more important things in your life. Based in countries such as India and China, these companies have young graduates in cubicles - backed by a network of professional talent, who will perform just about any task you ask of them (provided that it can be performed online). An excerpt from GetFriday reads:

"At GetFriday, we can handle almost any task, business or personal, that doesn’t require our physical presence. If it can be carried out over the internet, via email, fax or telephone, we can handle it."

There seems to be no limit to these tasks that can be done online. Booking holidays, secretarial work, paying bills and taxes, online shopping, creation of legal documents, making appointments, finding you a parking spot in another city before you arrive, employing the services of electricians or plumbers in your area, website maintenance, weather reports, chartering diet plans, ordering groceries, sending apology emails and flowers to your husband or wife, and even updating your blog, are all on the list of options.

One American outsourcer, A. Jacobs, describes how he “outsourced his child” by getting one of his virtual assistants to read his 7 year old a bedtime story over the phone. He describes a close bond between his top Indian assistant named Honey, which did away with his worry of trusting his personal affairs to someone he had never even met.

Outsourcing has become known as an online concierge service and is poised to transform every industry in America, from law to banking to accounting. However, work-driven individuals have started employing such services to perform all their personal errands, which all get done while they sleep.

The idea is that if someone else is busy plugging away on the lower-end tasks it frees Americans to work on more higher-end, creative projects. It’s a case of the rich getting richer and the poor...getting a little richer too.

The cost of outsourcing varies according to the company, yet it seems to be fixed at around $1000 (R8000) a month, which is a bargain for wealthy Americans who have are cash-rich and time-starved. The US currently has a $20 billion overseas outsourcing industry, yet management consultants and economists say it's likely to evolve into an even larger niche.

To put the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing into perspective it helps to look at maths tutoring as one particular service. In the U.S., tutoring services charge $40 to $60 an hour for tutoring whereas some skilled tutors in India are paid $2 to $3 an hour. Furthermore, $20 in India is enough to buy a week's groceries for two people.

The idea of outsourcing does beg the question of corporate responsibility in terms of working conditions and fair wages and there is obviously much room for large corporations to abuse the system. Yet do you think anyone really cares? I think not.

Wealthy Americans may have the financial ability to outsource their responsibilities to so called developing countries, yet cases of outsourcing are perhaps illustrating their lack of efficiency. It’s just a shame that the efficiency of countries like India and China is been used to serve the power elite rather than their own economies.

Now I’m not one to stereotype and label people, yet from this little insight into efficiency, I say we should have an Indian woman as president! Perhaps Honey would be interested in a promotion (if becoming president of South Africa is in any way a promotion).

Links:
My Outsourced Life by A.J. Jacobs
Outsourcing Your Life in the Wall Street Journal

My Year In Kruger National Park
by MyYearInKruger
In my opinion, most people go to KNP whenever they can and are satisfied with that, but I cannot seem to get enough! I was very fortunate to grow up in the Lowveld and my father used to take us to KNP for day visits quite often. (Thinking about it now, I don’t think he could ever afford an overnight visit)! We used to leave home at 4 or 5 in the morning and waited outside the gate for it to be opened, usually Numbi Gate. We would drive up to Skukuza, have a picnic lunch, and then drive back again, leaving the Park just before closing time. I still treasure those memories. Since I left school, got married, and live my own life, I have made a point of visiting the Park at least once or twice a year for a few days. My children’s first trips to the Park were at a very early age. They still love going to KNP and I think the fact that my youngest is studying Wildlife Management is proof of the love we share for the Park. In 1998, we moved to Qatar (Middle East) and I am only able to visit the Park once a year for a few days. My husband is not always able to get leave at the same time as me, or at all, and therefore I sometimes visit the Park with one or both of my daughters, but have never done it alone. In 2001, my oldest daughter, and in 2005, my youngest daughter left home to go to university, (both of them are studying in Cape Town), and this made it even more difficult to go to the Park as we now have to take their holidays into consideration as well. My husband is an aircraft engineer which means he is very often away from home for long periods. I keep myself occupied by working, watching the webcams, read the Sanparks forums, and planning the next trip to Kruger. Then I though-why not try and live out my dream and start planning a WHOLE YEAR IN THE PARK? I sat down and thought about it for a few days, thinking and telling my husband that I would like to do this, when I turn 50, (which is in 6 years time). He listened to my idea, my reasoning and then agreed that it would be exciting for me to do this. Don’t get me wrong, he enjoys going to the Park, but he is not a fanatic like me! I once again thought about it and then decided that I could not wait 7 years and started making my plans to go in 4 years time. My reasoning for deciding on 4 years is: First of all, both my daughters will be finished with their studies in 2 years time. That out of the way, I would have 2 years to save for my trip and make sure that we can manage on only the salary of my husband. The few days I have always managed to spend in the Park have never been enough and I can’t wait for my year in the Park to start-hopefully if all goes well I will be driving into Kruger in less than a year's time - January 2009!!!!

Your finger or your life!
by Funalaakie

Finger-scanning technologies have been a focal point of futuristic films such as Minority Report for years, yet they are currently finding their ‘footing’ in the real world. In fact they are likely to become an integral part of people’s everyday lives just as keys, bank cards and passwords are today.

A recent example of a finger-scanning technology is a cash machine developed by Hitachi in Japan, which uses a biometric security system that allows users to pay by simply having their finger scanned. The system scans and identifies the user’s veins on their finger – serving as a regular credit or ATM card.

Hitachi plans to launch an experiment in September this year to see whether it is commercially viable to introduce the system to banks, shops and other businesses. However, related technology is already being used by Japanese banking giants such as Mitsubishi to identify clients. 
 
Today such technologies can be found in police stations, high-security buildings and on PC keyboards. The pros and plentiful – such as not having to carry around credit cards, memorize PIN numbers and access codes, and being freed from the anxiety of losing one’s digitized identity as a consumer (it’s not exactly easy to lose one’s fingerprint). However, several cons exist too: instead of being asked for “your money or your life” you might now be faced with having to give up a finger instead!

The movies have already illustrated this worst case scenario (i.e. using a severed hand or finger to get past a scanner security system), yet technological innovations are finding ways to equip machines with heat and pulse detectors to verify whether a finger is in fact alive or not. However, all is not cream and cake – such systems can still be fooled by the more skillful criminal making use of gelatin or print molds over a real finger.

Although the pros seem to outweigh the cons when it comes to unleashing finger-scanning technologies on a mass scale, one can understand the anxieties of the everyday consumer. What it basically boils down to is that if “somebody steals your fingerprints, you’re pretty much out of luck for the rest of your life”.

Related post:
The Power of Thumb

Links:
www.physorg.com
www.engadget.com
www.howstuffworks.com

Digital Blasphemy
by Funalaakie

If you’re a fan of fantasy and an appreciator of digital art, then there is something you need to see. Images that allow you to immerse yourself and get lost in a fantasy place where all the worries in this world are forgotten (if only for a short while) are at your fingertips.

For those who don’t know: Over the course of the last 11 years Ryan Bliss (36), a self-taught 3D artist, has created the most incredible digital artwork.

"Tropical Moon of Thetis"


His website www.digitalblasphemy.com, which began in 1997, offers original hi-res 3D-rendered desktop wallpapers, as well as links to some of the best computer art sites on the web.

Updated fairly regularly, it currently features over 650 images (including Widescreen, Dual-Monitor, and Triple-Monitor versions of some wallpapers), iPhone wallpapers, Pocket PC themes, and PSP wallpapers.

Members are able to download new wallpapers once created and have unrestricted access to the entire collection of 3D wallpapers, which can be downloaded after paying a membership fee ($99 for a life-time membership).

There is also a free gallery available for non-members which hosts 20 wallpapers that can be downloaded free of charge.

To date over 180 mobile wallpapers have also been posted inside the Members Gallery, which have been pre-formatted to fit Blackberry and other mobile handsets.

Apart from 3D wallpapers, other products available are full-sized posters, T-shirts, and digital blasphemy mouse pads.

The desktop wallpapers are designed large and look their best at the maximum comfortable resolution on any PC. They are designed to look decent at 1024 x 768 resolution but can be scaled down to suit any desktop resolution setting.

Digital Blasphemy is by far the best digital art website that I have come across on the web. Unfortunately, the steep exchange rate between the US dollar and South African Rand prevents me from signing up as member.

However, if you’re in the same pickle jar as myself, yet would still like to keep up to date with new blissful creations at Digital Blasphemy, there is a Facebook group available where all are welcome!

Related blogs:
Witness This
Inspector Gadget

Links:
Digital Blasphemy
Interview with Ryan Bliss (2001)

Barney diary
by alkie

Dear diary

You can just imagine why the colour red. A very sad incident took place a week ago.  My mom has a very close friend in Pennington.  Yesterday, I could not help overhearing the conversation between them.

My mom's friend has a 84 year old father-in-law that retired as a Colonel from the Police Force.  He was driving back from the Bluff and as he entered Victoria Embankment (the new name is too long to remember) he had minibus taxis with blue lights flashing him.  Knowing the Colonel, he was keeping to his restricted speed and the next minute they "overtook" him in the wrong lane and a passenger was hanging out the window and shot at him. 

The bullet smashed his window, entered his headrest and went through the ceiling of the car.  Excuse my "lingo".......luckily for the Colonel the S.O.B. was a very very bad shooter, otherwise he would not have been with us today!

The Colonel went to the nearest police station to report the incident.  He was so traumatised, he could not even remember the colour of the minibus or anything.  As he was waiting his turn, two men walked in and demanded to know whether someone has reported a "drive-by-shooting"!  Can you believe that!  Luckily the Colonel kept a low profile........compared to his days in the Police Force, he knows how the "long arm of the law" operates today!

Everybody in the Durban area..............beware of 3 minibus taxis with blue lights......lets save a life!

Sorry that my diary session with you is so "morbid" today........but I do watch Sky News when my mommy does not watch me and I saw what very very bad things are being discussed about our country! 

I truly hope things will turn for the better because me as an African Grey, I am so nicely climatised in this country........mmmmm, I do not want to go back to my home country.......as you know I come from the D R C- they also have their own problems which I would not like to make mine!

Ciao .............as my dad always says, "the future is not what it used to be"!

 

 

 

 

Too hot to handle: future gaming and PC's
by Funalaakie

It's the year 2010. You've been playing your favourite computer game for the last two hours. You've become oblivious to the loud whirring sound your PC's fans have been making. Suddenly you smell smoke. The next thing you know - your trusted PC has committed arson!

Intel’s Chief Technology Officer Pat Gelsinger predicts that with the current rate of progress PC chips by the end of the decade will be as hot as the exhaust gases emitted from a rocket engine; and not long after that, PC chips may become as hot as the surface of the sun!

 Luckily for gamers, Quantum computing and biological computing are two growing technologies that are helping to prevent future risks of our PC’s setting fire to our houses. Refining techniques and computer technicians have found that silicon is just as useful for keeping computer chips cool as it is for enlarging breasts. And as far as speed is concerned, current trends show that the number of transistors on these silicon chips have doubled every two years.

Several techno-pessimists have also been worrying about the idea of future computers becoming larger than our flammable houses. In 1949 Popular Mechanics predicted that computers in the ‘future’ would weigh no more that 1.5 tons. Yet the reassuring fact of the matter is that the advance in technology far outruns such predictions, and newer computers have rather shown to be getting smaller.

One prediction that is highly probable however is that future technology is bringing us frighteningly close to producing our very own matrix – a virtual, simulated world inhabited by computer programs so complex that we think they are actual people. And with the development of Virtual Retinal Display sets, it will soon be possible to immerse oneself into this virtual world, and in a sense, live it.

It seems that the only technological innovation missing at this point is how to pee without having to go to the bathroom.

Related post:
Multi-billion dollar gaming

Barney diary
by alkie

Dear diary

Just have a look at my mom’s profile with them photo’s being uploaded and you will see the reason for my absence…….the old lady was busy with ‘one of her projects’…..yeah…..I was not given ‘the time of day’! 

To her defence, she has been doing a fine job, pulling those young artists work out from where it had been lying somewhere for sometime and I suppose as in “your world,” there apparently is something called “a budget”!  Maybe that is what she has been waiting for, I would really not know! I was thrilled to bits when she and her sister did all the hard work getting them paintings up as a ‘surprise’ for my dad!  During that time, I had the privilege of the lounge and I had the two of them in “stitches”!  I pulled out all the stops and entertained them! I went right through the menu!  “What did mommy do?”, where you going?” Barney want an apple”, “ooh ooh”, “bye-bye”,  “hellloooooo poeppies” but I am having a whale of a time, because I have combined a long sentence with such a high note, that any ‘pop star’ would be proud of and the old lady and my dad cannot work out what I am saying……let them figure it out!  Maybe that will make them brain cells ticking!

Last week  ‘mother dearest’ left me on my own till dad came home.  “Hearing through the grapevine”……and now I am going to ‘gossip’ a bit, she went to celebrate her godchild’s driver’s licence. She is actually at the stage in her life that at the venue where  she has been celebrating, they should ask her for her ‘pensioner’s card’!  Low and behold, she went to a place called Raffles!  Oh my, I overheard one lady telling her……”I thought I was the oldest person here”….bless my mom, she said the lady was a bit ‘tipsy’….and as they say in Afrikaans…..”drank verdra nie onreg nie”…..the old lady just shrugged it off.  One thing though, I have noticed for a week she did not hear so well…………..I believe it was the music! She says she truly feels “punished” this week.  We have these lovely shuttle buses taking you all over Durbs.  The conductor gave my mom a “pensioner” bus fare……..well, she really ranted and raved but it is one of those things……she has to come to terms with! After all what she experienced, I still love the old lady and my dad no matter what! 

Ciao…….hopefully, the old lady will not think up some more “projects”…..I do throw my toys and sometimes my food out my cage!  See you later alligator!

A whiff of the modern cellphone
by Funalaakie

Multi-billion dollar gaming
by Funalaakie
We are currently experiencing an historical era as the gaming industry envelopes us. Doug Lowenstein – the President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), put this perfectly in words by saying:

"Decades from now, cultural historians will look back at this time and say it is when the definition of entertainment changed forever" - Doug Lowenstein, ESA President

The gaming industry has become one of the largest contributing forces behind the growth and stability of the North American economy. Reaping in $9.5 billion (roughly R76 billion) in 2007 – according to the ESA – the gaming industry is just short of making as much money as the film industry (which made roughly $10.2 billion last year). However, computer and video game software sales have tripled since 1996, and with the rate that new games and technologies are being developed, it certain that the gaming industry will far exceed Box Office sales in the very near future.

Future Archaeology


Some other interesting figures produced by the ESA are that 67% of American households play video and computer games – the bulk of which believe that it has brought their families closer together. Furthermore, the majority of the statistical results show that teenagers under the age of 18 get permission from their parents before buying any of the gruesome R18 games. If such innocence is indeed truthful, then is the gaming industry all that bad?

I just wish that South Africa would develop a best-selling game that would wow the world. Surely we have the capability to do so? Yet I suppose our society, which is so charged with being politically correct, would prevent us from developing say a first-person shooter game based on the Anglo-Boer War. If only that were easier, and our software developers would cease emigrating overseas where they are more appreciated, we could overcome some of our other financial difficulties...

Related post:
Too hot to handle: Future gaming & PCs

Links:
Plunkett Research Ltd.
The Entertainment Software Association
Video games don't hurt movie sales if you make good movies

The Power of Thumb
by Funalaakie
Your fingerprint may soon replace your (likely forgeable) signature, and will do away with the need for usernames and passwords. Biometric fingerprint technology has already made it possible to do banking and identity analysis with your fingertip, and have now released a device that grants you unique access to your personal computer.

The Eikon fingerprint reader is a portable USB device that has been primarily developed for remote employees to gain access to corporate resources and networks with a swipe of their finger. According to a press release, this more convenient way of logging into corporate networks has resulted in increased productivity and has reduced the risk of major data breaches.

To put it simply, the fingerprint reader allows users to effortlessly swipe their finger across a device (instead of typing in usernames and passwords) to log into Windows, access password-protected websites, encrypt and decrypt files, switch users, and launch favorite applications.

The Eikon fingerprint reader


The device is a product of UPEK Inc., which is hailed as one of the global leaders in enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions. Their authentication hardware and software are integrated into laptops from the world's top five largest PC makers, as well as USB flash drives, external hard disk drives, and mobile phones from leading manufacturers. In other words you’re not likely to escape this wave of technology if you buy a new phone or laptop in the near future.

I burnt one of my fingertips (fingerprint included) beyond recognition in a freak stove-related accident when I was younger. But luckily for me (and others who have similar war-stories) we still (hopefully) have nine fingers left with prints intact. I’m just worried that one of my other fingers will get chopped of by a mugger when word of this technology hits the streets.

The Eikon works with Internet Explorer and Firefox, and is compatible with both Windows XP and Vista. It goes for $39 (roughly R300).

Related post:
Your finger or your life!

Thabo's great wall from china
by Evita

The controversial Great Wall of Bryntirion is not a R90 million import to protect the upper eschelons of our politburo against major crime. That as many tell us doesn't exist. It is now known as 'Redistribution and Culling'.

I wrote this on 3 March last year, but I still want to share it with you, as so much of it is still relevant now.

I was there when Chinese President Hu Jintao came to the Presidential kraal to have dinner with Thabo and Zanele Mbeki. It was a touch and go moment for me. I was supposed to be at my grandchildren's school where they were presenting a series of tableaux depicting the Groot Trek and the Battle of Blood River. Why they are still doing things like that I wouldn't know. I just remind myself that when I become President, we will look very closely at what our children are taught at school under the cover of truth. The legacy of apartheid history can be summed up in one word: all lies.

Happily I was spared that school performance with my two black grandchildren as boere tannies, kappies on head and hands clasped in prayer. I was in Thabo's kitchen cooking the babotie for the President of China. He'd heard about it from that mad Kim Jong-il, who'd intercepted the recipe on its way to Pyongyang and the discussions regarding North Korea's nuclear threats. The whole of Asia seems to be fascinated by my recipe for reconciliation. I even sent it to the Congo peace talks with our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosozana Dlamini-Zum