Category: economic issues

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However, if you then have to resort to intimidation and violence to prevent people from circumnavigating your withdrawn service, then that does rather undermine the message that your service is irreplaceable.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

It’s been a while…

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It’s been a while since we did a pub quiz. 4 years was one estimate. I’m not sure that it was quite that long, but it was certainly pre-pandemic – BTV.

And so we re-mortgaged our houses and headed off to the Fireman’s quiz last night.

Fireman’s markets itself as a true English-style pub, and I had always thought of that being more because of the traditional ambiance rather than the ridiculous prices for beer and food.

Now it’s both.

Thankfully, it seems that we haven’t lost it. Some good general knowledge, a shot of educated guessery, some excellent groupthink moments and a couple of fortuitous gambles:

Oysters?!? Wrapped in bacon?!?! Oysters??

Related.

…and we finished in a creditable second place out of the 30+ teams playing on the night, a mere 1 point behind the winners.

And we couldn’t really fault ourselves for any of the three questions we got wrong on the night.

So that’ll do, pig. That’ll do.

Will we head back again soon?
Probably, but we’ll need time to save up a bit before we can buy another pizza.

This will not end well

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With the economy as it is at the moment, unemployment rife and actual inflation a whole lot more than the figures say it should be – R52 for a litre of fruit juice: WTF?!? – you can’t blame South Africans for wanting to try and save a bit here and there.

But there are things which you should try yourself, and there are things that you shouldn’t. Lest we forget that during lockdown, homemade pineapple beer became very popular. But homemade alcohol can be dangerous. Pineapple beer killed at least two people and another homebrew killed 19 more.

So, one can only imagine where this idea is going to lead:

Honestly, what could go wrong? I mean, I can’t be alone in seeing ruined engines, garage fires and yes, some people drinking the stuff “just to see how it tastes”.

Biodiesel is produced through a multi-step process called transesterification that requires the mixing, heating, cooling and filtration of the oils or fats combined with methanol and a catalyst.

Methanol is what killed those 19 people.

Common catalysts are caustic potash (potassium hydroxide) or caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).

Ah Jesus. Caustic soda is called “caustic” for a reason. Potash is what dissolved Desmond Tutu’s body.
I’m just saying.

The process is quite intricate but does not require higher-grade chemistry.

While this line is clearly meant to indicate just how straightforward the process is, I can’t help but read it and think that we’re going to have people who only got to Grade 7 in General Science having a pop at making gallons and gallons of this highly flammable liquid in their homes.

Several websites provide guides on the process,

Oh, well that’s ok then. As long as the loadshedding doesn’t take the internet out at some vital stage or other.

Despite the alleged savings which could be made, I’m putting this article – and the whole idea of homemade diesel – down as a really bad idea.

Don’t do this.

Get the balance right

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Quite a few decisions are still to be made about the trip up North. And many of those decisions rest upon the quandary of balancing spending money and having fun. It seems pointless to spend a huge amount on flights and accommodation going overseas on a break and then have a crap time not doing stuff because you’re forever just watching the pennies. But then equally, it’s dangerous to overspend: something made far easier thanks to our weird government stance on Putin and Russia, and the scary amount of inflation in Europe.

And so we’ll do our best to have all our ducks lined up in advance, and then maybe adapt our decisions once we’re actually there on the ground and can see what things are really like.

One big decision is around the last Saturday of the trip, which was all organised in London, but now maybe a trip further North might be required. That would require sorting some accommodation, changing flights and making several (or more) train trips, none of which would likely be cheap, but then do you just choose to splash the cash and enjoy the experience on this one thing? I’m leaning towards a yes, but a final costing of that 24ish hour diversion might point me the other way.

Lots of calculations to do. Lots of decisions to make.
Must get the balance right.

Off again – and that font?!?

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The issue with our ailing power utility – so we were told – wasn’t the years and years of rampant corruption, but rather the guy who was in charge. He was in the process of stepping down when he gave that bombshell interview about all the corruption and was politely(?) asked to leave immediately.

So, now that he has gone, everything should be ok. Right?

Wrong.

Weirdly, it seems that he wasn’t the issue. So we have no idea what the problem could actually be*, but there clearly is a problem of some sort. Because I’m sitting here for another 10 hours without power today, because of the ongoing demand and supply problem. We want 31.3MW, they can only give us 24.7MW. And if you don’t cut the power to cover that shortfall, everything falls over and it’s a very bad thing.

Those figures come from this tweet from last night:

And I actually love the way that they’ve done their best to cushion the blow by using a whimsical font. Who do we think came up with that idea?

“Not looking great on the grid figures tonight. We’re dangerously short and we need to tell people.”
“OK. Send the twee… no… wait. Do you have a kind of handwritingy font we could use?”
“What?”
“You know. Something a bit fun and disarming.”
“But we’re the official state power utility. Shouldn’t we be using the official state fonts?”
“Well, yes. But let’s show our human side. Just something a bit playful and quirky to take their minds off the awful numbers.”
“Well, I mean, I have got this one…”
“Like, actually Oh Em Gee! It’s So frikkin perfect! Look at the devil-may-care lack of connection on the loops! Observe the mildly curved downstrokes! The capricious overshoot on the Es and Ms! Do it!”
“Er… right. The numbers are still bloody horrendous, though.”
“Who cares? It’s so pretty! Quick, just click SEND before the boss comes back!”

I imagine that’s pretty much how it went, anyway.

Sadly, using my scientific brain, I was able to see through the eccentric and unprofessional choice of typeface, and I’m actually pretty worried about just how bad the situation is. But hey, it’s so easy to get bogged down in bad news. I guess that we should take solace in the fact that they haven’t used Comic Sans yet, so maybe we’re still somewhere just above rock bottom.

* although there is still that years and years of rampant corruption thing, but… surely not?!