Category: annoying people

Different approach

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After the disaster that was yesterday: least said, soonest mended, although there are a couple of points that need to be made. Namely that while it was a great effort, it’s the W-D-L and Pts* columns that matter, because there is no “Played against a Top 6 team and almost got something from the game” column, and there never has been.

And worth saying that there is – and there never will be – any excuse for the racist abuse and threats against his family that our goalkeeper has had to face from the Spurs keyboard warriors online. Utterly disgusting. I will enjoy every moment of those “fans” being found and banned for life (noting that much of the stuff I saw came from overseas, especially SE Asia).

Anyway, in a 24 hour break from real sport, I’m going to head to a warehouse in Retreat (yep, seriously), and watch South Africa’s rugby union team play out what should be a really tight and competitive game against Romania.

Rugby is a big deal in SA, and I’m not sure that the locals understand quite how much it isn’t a big deal in other countries, like Romania. Even less so (I’m guessing) in Moldova, who one local estate agent seems to think are taking on the Springboks in Bordeaux this afternoon.

(I know Moldova isn’t far away from Romania. But I know it’s not Romania, too.)

Anyway. Whoever they’re playing. Let’s give this a go, and then I can get back for some proper sport from Liverpool and Spain a bit later on.

* incidentally, our PTSD column will be huge after yesterday

I read a thing

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I read a thing. I can’t bring myself to admit upon which website I read this thing, because it’s deeply, deeply embarrassing. Think Daily Mail (see 6000 miles… passim), but maybe – somehow – even worse.

I know, right?

Anyway, my reason for being on this site was genuine enough. Simply to marvel at the bizarre and desperate opinions of one of the columnists, having spotted an excerpt on a rather cryptic link on social media. And yes, the opinions were pretty awful, the piece was unnecessarily vindictive and unpleasant, and it made me feel that my time in hoping that I was probably going to read some hateful rubbish, wasn’t wasted. I probably got some endorphins from (rightfully) feeling that my opinions on that subject (and probably every other subject) were better than theirs, too.

Then I made an error and I clicked on a link. It took me to another opinion piece on the same site – equally obsequious and obnoxious – but at least this one had an amusing paragraph in the middle:

I like to think that I am a pleasant enough house-guest. Often when going to stay with friends I ask if there is anything I can bring that my hosts don’t have in their neck of the woods. When visiting friends in Scotland, for example, I might offer to take with me some fresh fruits or vegetables. When visiting friends in Norfolk, it might be someone not related to them. But if ever my hosts suggested I should bring my own poop bucket, I would find a way to escape the event: call in sick, cite a spot of ‘the old trouble’ or remind them that getting out of London is always so difficult.

Because whatever your idea of fun might be, it cannot possibly include a scenario in which you carry a bucket of your own stools. Even the most ardent readers’ letters will not persuade me otherwise. On this matter I am strict.

I’m not sure it needs context. It’s probably even funnier without.

But then I’ve been inwardly giggling at a very childish London Underground pun all morning after our Curry Club dinner last night, so I’m clearly in a very silly mood.

But silly or not, I won’t be visiting that website again.

Meanwhile, in South Africa…

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Here’s today’s news:

> Stage 5 loadshedding: meaning an average of 10 hours without electricity each day.

Here’s our local supermarket’s tongue-in-cheek repsonse:

Yes, those are candles. A huge array of many different types of candle.
And yes, that light top right was being powered by a generator.

> There’s a massive fuel price increase this week because the government has f*****d the Rand:

“Motorists are in for a shocking fuel price increase from Wednesday. The price of petrol will go up by R1.71 per litre, diesel by R2.84 and paraffin by R2.78.”

> The President is attending the inauguration of Zimbabwe’s President, even though the entire world knows that the election was more rigged than a particularly complex 19th Century tea clipper:

…the elections were marred by controversy – including issues with the voters’ roll, the banning of opposition rallies, reports of biased state media coverage and voter intimidation.

> Cyril will then be heading home to “address the nation”, and tell us that the enquiry by the SA government into whether the SA government supplied arms to Russia has found out that the SA government didn’t supply arms to Russia, but the SA government can’t show us the SA government report exonerating the SA government, because that would “jeopardise the work of the SA armed forces”.

> And all this is being rubbed like salt into an open wound as the ANC shitterati dance with each other while the country falls apart:

“The mood [fire emoji] [fire emoji]”?
Is it,? That’s weird, because the mood is very different across everyone else in the country. But then I guess that it’s easy to be happy and dancey when your continual mismanagement, gross incompetence and widespread corruption only negatively affect other people.

Ugh. Trash.

Sunshine, Moonlight, Good Times, Cape Town Taxi Strike

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As I mentioned yesterday, the Cape Town taxi strike has been – and continues to be – hugely disruptive to the whole city. At the supermarket this morning, staff numbers were low, service was even slower than usual, and there were several (or more) empty shelves.

These are genuine effects of the taxi strike, and that’s annoying for all concerned: for the people who want to work, for the people who want to shop. But for every incident of someone being honestly inconvenienced by the recent (ongoing) events, there’s another of someone using them to excuse something otherwise indefensible.

“I think I might need an extension on my maths homework because of the taxi strike.”
“The maths homework I set last week, before the strike began?”
“Yes, but there was always the danger that it might begin, and that has actually proved to be the case.”

“Sorry, I can’t do that spreadsheet for you this week. The taxi strike, you know?”
“But don’t you work from home? In London?”
“Yes, it’s had surprisingly wide-ranging effects.”

“We’re going to sell Sander Berge.”
“What? Our rangy, Rolls-Royce Norwegian midfielder? But why on earth would you want to do that?”
“Wish we didn’t have to, but it’s collateral damage from the Cape Town taxi strike. Very unfortunate.”

The taxi strike is due to end on Thursday morning, when the guys who have been shooting guns at people, stoning cars and burning out buses choose to risk the lives of civilians in a different way: by driving minibus taxis again.

But the effects and pseudo-effects will run on for a good while yet.

Strike One

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Of course, the intended effect of a strike or any other industrial action is to demonstrate the value of the service that industry provides, simply by withdrawing it. And there’s no question that the taxi industry in Cape Town (and South Africa) provides a very valuable service.

However, if you then have to resort to intimidation and violence to prevent people from circumnavigating your withdrawn service, then that does rather undermine the message that your service is irreplaceable.

And not allowing individuals to make their own decisions about how they choose to get around has implications far beyond the apparently spurious reasons for calling the strike in the first place.

But it’s all become a power game now, and the taxi bosses don’t care that hundreds of thousands of breadwinners aren’t able to get to work, get paid and put food on the family table. They’re happy to overlook the fact that kids can’t get to school with exams just a couple of months away. They have no qualms about healthcare facilities for the most vulnerable being closed. And they might pass lip service about “peaceful protest” in open letters, but the fact is that they are more than happy to sit on their thrones while their underlings fight each other and everyone else.

If it’s a battle for hearts and minds – which so many of these disputes seems to come down to in the end – you’d think that maybe they’ve lost this one. But with the alternatives too sparse and too risky to use, it’s not like it won’t just be business as usual anyway when the strike ends (allegedly) on Thursday.