Category: economic issues

Is a minus number a good thing on SARS efiling?

Posted on

Riveting stuff, especially for those overseas (not), but there really needs to be a website devoted to these sort of things. An SA FAQ or something similar with straightforward answers to simple questions. I’m not going to do it, but I am going to do this one. And maybe one about what time the booms at Kenilworth Station are closed each day. That would also be helpful.

But anyway, without further ado:

YES!
A MINUS SIGN on your IT34 Notice of Assessment from SARS
MEANS THAT THEY OWE YOU some money.

Woohoo!

Look for the line:

Net amount refundable under this assessment                          -1234.56

to see how much they’re going to pop into your bank account.

Of course, the converse is true if you don’t see the minus sign there. Sorry. You owe your bit towards a new gold plated bog roll holder for the 78th guest loo in Nkandla.

Today, I bring you…

Posted on

Those photos I was promising yesterday, via this link and including some (or more) startled ostriches:

And my oh my, how I still despise the new flickr.

Also, because 62 photos of my wonderful week away are probably not going to sate a desperate (come now, you must be if you’re still reading this) 6000 miles… audience, here are 21 amazing beach houses for my next trip away, via Buzzfeed.

grid-cell-20473-1372776337-2     grid-cell-20473-1372776338-5     grid-cell-20473-1372776338-8

While it’s unlikely that I’m going to turn any of the properties down were I offered them for mahala, I’m plumping for number 14 as my particular favourite.

Does it come with the motor launch thrown in? I’m thinking yes.

And while we’re talking about fishing…

Posted on

(Because we were talking about fishing here.)

How’s this for a headline?

“Seal Harvest Would Create Jobs”

Yep, that’s the plan of ANC MP Meriam Phaliso:

The government should consider allowing the harvesting of Cape fur seals as a means of job creation to compensate for several fisheries that have collapsed through overfishing, says ANC MP Meriam Phaliso.

During a briefing to the National Assembly’s portfolio committee by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, about renewed rights allocations in eight fisheries, Phaliso said the only point of concern was to find a humane way of killing the seals.

Cue inevitable outcry from environmentalists, greenies and the armchairs of slacktivists everywhere. But, in actual fact, it’s not a new idea:

In 1990… a five-year concession allowing a Taiwanese businessman to kill seal pups was cancelled at the last moment by then environment minister Gert Kotze following a huge outcry.
The concession would have allowed up to 100 000 pups and a number of bulls to be killed and processed for pet food, leather and aphrodisiacs in a Port Nolloth factory that had already been built.

Wow. You can get a lot out of a seal, hey? Almost as good as a whale or a rhino. It all sounds like a splendid plan. If only they weren’t so lovely and fluffy and… awww… just look at his whiskers!

Hang on… I got sidetracked by his cuteness. Damn it.
Right, here’s Phaliso’s reasoning for the sickening bloody massacre of the sweet fluffy seal pups with their puppy dog eyes:

Seals are “the biggest poachers of some of the fish and nobody is arresting them… seals are a job-creating mechanism that can put food on the tables in some areas”.

Well, nobody is really arresting human poachers either, are they? But to be honest, Meriam, though your cull idea is a bit on the harsh side when compared with simply “arresting” the seals, it might be a more pleasurable end than being locked up in Pollsmoor overnight.

Meanwhile, just up the road in Elgin (a thankfully seal free inland town), fruit flies were ruining the local apple crop. This was costing food, jobs and livelihoods. In fact, many people in those fruit growing areas called the fruit flies “the biggest poachers of some of the apples”, yet remarked that “nobody is arresting them”.
At first, I put this down to the fact that it’s really difficult to get handcuffs small enough, but then I realised that there was no need to arrest the fruit flies, because we humans are already massacring them with insecticides and genetic modification.

Innocent lives were lost. And yet where was the outcry? Where?

Could it possibly be that because fruit flies don’t bask on rocks around False Bay looking lovable, and instead merely go about eating their natural diet and destroying human livelihoods – i.e. just like the seals apart from the rock bit?

Yeah. It’s damn hard to love a fruit fly, isn’t it? And you need loads to make any decent volume of pet food.

For the record, and belatedly because you’re already on your green high horse, I’m not necessarily suggesting that the seal harvest idea is a good idea. It came from a member of parliament and those two things rarely go together. That said, it would provide jobs, money, and increase local fish stocks. Thus, I am suggesting that a bit more thought than just, “Seals?! OMG! No!” be put into your response to Ms Phaliso’s scheme.

I’m also willing to bet that the rate of objection will be far higher among those who can easily put a meal on the family table for their kids each evening. That’s because there are plenty of people out there who can’t afford to do that and would surely jump at the chance to put a seal on the family table for their kids each evening.

Safe Haven

Posted on

We have a huge problem with homelessness in Cape Town, but obviously, people’s thoughts are concentrated more on the plight of these unfortunate individuals when we have weather like we have had over the past few days.

If this weekend has made you feel that you want to do more than just remind us via social media how lucky you are to have a roof over your head, you could support The Haven night shelters across the Western Cape. They will happily take blankets, warm clothes, sleeping bags and non-perishable food items at any of their shelters across the city and Cape area or their Head Office.

Additionally, you can purchase Haven “Passports” to help homeless people get a night in their local shelter:

Rather than giving your R5 or R10 to a person on the street, there is a better option; The Haven ‘Passport’. It gives the homeless person entry to one of our shelters and includes a hot shower, a clean set of clothes, a nourishing meal and a bed (if available). Passports can be purchased from The Haven Head Office or at any of our shelters @ R10 each.

Please share this post and give whatever you can to help someone out – especially with winter only just beginning.

“The New Flickr Sucks”

Posted on

Not my view, although I am coming around to that way of thinking. I thought that my initial disappointment was just a natural reaction to a sudden change, but slowly, I’m realising that actually, New Flickr isn’t as good as Old Flickr.

But that quote in the title belongs to @NewtonGimmick, here. And why? Because he believes that that they are chasing the wrong sort of customer by attempting to compete with the wrong competitors:

Yahoo’s new vision of Flickr is to try and be a cool site like Tumblr and Instagram. Yahoo is furious that Instagram has so much of the market share. What Yahoo failed to realize is that Flickr doesn’t share the same market with Instagram. Flickr wasn’t ever about posting the latest photos from your iPhone. And no, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t people who did that. Flickr welcomed those people with open arms. They were part of the community, but they weren’t the basis of it.

The new Flickr is supposed to be a place where you post up all your random, pointless photos. The original Flickr gave you information on the camera used, aperture, shutter settings and allowed you to interact with the photographer to learn more. These options still appear in the new and “improved” Flickr, but they’re buried away because they aren’t flashy enough.

The thing is, I’m usually quick to ignore people having a go at web-based services; those who don’t like the new features on Twitter or the latest layout on Facebook. The difference there is that those services are free (yes, yes, I know that there’s “no such thing as a free lunch”, and that “the users, are the product”). Whatever – we don’t pay money to use those services.

Flickr is… was… different in that respect. While there was a free option, there were also many, many thousands of users (including myself) who paid their $25 a year for the Pro version. So, while we’re not party to Yahoo’s business plan for Flickr, surely it’s fair for these people to have their say on the changes.

Having a Pro account didn’t actually make me a Pro photographer, but there were benefits (no ads, stats, unlimited space). Now, any new “Pro” accounts (except they’re called “Ad Free” accounts) will cost $49.99 a year. And all you get on top of a free account is no ads. You’re still subjected to a size limit (albeit a big one). If it hardly seems worth it, then that’s probably because it is hardly worth it.
It’s clearly designed to price people into taking the free option. Why? Because yes, it’s aimed at that quick and easy Instagram crowd. The crowd that Flickr doesn’t really have to compete with.

Far be it from me, a microbiologist in South Africa, to question the motives of Marissa Mayer and her people at Yahoo. But I, like the writer above, find myself concerned about Flickr’s longevity in this easy come, easy go, instant gratification world:

After being around a decade and still going strong, it always seemed like Flickr was going to be there. I never really worried about Flickr going away. After all, it had millions of users and a large portion of which, paid for the service. But now? Flickr suddenly feels uncertain. I am less trusting of investing my time uploading photos to Flickr, because I get the feeling that in a few years, Flickr will be going the way of MySpace.

Flickr was never a “social network” for me. I liked looking at other people’s photographs, of course, and I like them looking at mine too, but it was primarily a method of archiving my photos rather than displaying them or sharing them. I’ve still got that – and I’ll still have got that on a free account now too – but how safe will it be? So must I download the photos and store them somewhere else? I have 5,228 images on there as of today – many of them linked to other places (like here for example). It’s a big ask.

Aside from those concerns though, what am I to do with my Flickr account? Downgrade it? Upgrade it?
For the moment, I’m going to sit back and watch what develops. I’m paid up for another 3 months or so anyway, and although I’d get some money back, I don’t want to rule myself out of anything by hurriedly overreacting.
The feedback that I’ve seen thus far has been overwhelmingly negative and who knows, maybe that will instigate (another) change of mind.

Watch this space.
But while you’re watching it, have a look at my Flickr space as well. While you still can.