Category: politics

Infamy, infamy!

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They’ve all got it in for me. (with apologies to Frankie Howerd)

Well, JZ isn’t going to be happy anyway after my tweet appeared in today’s Mail & Guardian:

The story itself makes pretty horrendous reading, so maybe you shouldn’t.

For those outside the Republic or who have chosen not to follow the Nkandlagate thing (some people can only handle one big news story at a time and it has recently been announced that Justin Bieber is coming to SA), my tweet refers to the fact that JZ’s smart KZN pad stands on land owned by the Ingonyama Trust, the body that administers Zulu tribal land. The trust has confirmed that Zuma holds a formal lease on the portion underneath his compound, but does not hold the title deed; a fact relevant because banks generally refuse to issue loans to finance properties on such land.

I’m well aware that explaining the reasoning behind a joke immediately removes any lasting element of humour from it.

Sorry.

This should be good…

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Incoming yesterday afternoon, this:

And what was PopLeveson?
Well, Peter reminds us here:

#PopLeveson was the Twitter hashtag game played, initially, amongst the extra-mural audience to the Leveson Inquiry as they enjoyed the spectacle of ex-News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, jousting with Robert Jay QC, purveyor of exquisitely turned questions.

It being a Friday afternoon, not every boy in the Remove was centred fully on legal nuance. Wags compared Mrs Brooks’ eye-catching locks and those of the singer Mick Hucknall. From down under, a tweet wondered if “Rebekah Hucknall” mightn’t yet sing a verse or two of Simply Red’s Holding Back The Years.

Soon hundreds, then thousands more questions were picking legal holes in lovingly-regarded rock and pop lyrics. In Court 73, Lord Justice Leveson broke for the weekend … without effect. #PopLeveson was trending and enthusiastic tweets urged followers to “Stop whatever you’re doing and follow #PopLeveson”.

The game wound down and ended on Monday morning. By then over 25,000 unique tweets had been posted along with almost innumerable re-tweets.

Looking back to May (via google) I can find two efforts of mine:

and

The former works best for me, but whatever – permission granted!

Peter plans to publish on Kindle, with, he hopes “a paperback to follow”.
I’m really looking forward to enjoying #PopLeveson again.

Madness

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With a different Hillsborough whitewash out today and Julius chatting to the disenfranchised members of the SANDF, I’d rather have been far, far away from news and social media sites today. But since I wasn’t, I hid under a thick layer of music. Here is some of it.

Only a couple of weeks til The 2nd Law comes out and I’m really looking forward to it, but first there’s Battle Born to enjoy.
September might not have been a great month for news, but it promises to be a memorable one music-wise.

Leningrad

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Every time I hear Soviet Russia mentioned, I think of this song. Probably the most under-rated Billy Joel track, I think, as many from his 1989 Storm Front album were – We Didn’t Start The Fire being the obvious exception.

Extensive piano work, sweeping strings, some slightly dodgy lyrics, but most of all a wonderful triumph of humanity over politics. 23 years on, and I guess we can expect much the same when Danny K brings out his song over the recent Woolworths saga.

Long weekend ahead

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It’s holiday time in the Western Cape on Monday, at least according to the ANC Youth League.

“We are officially declaring Monday a holiday for Western Cape’s citizens. No work as we make this city ungovernable. No taxis will be in operation; those who will be on the road will be transporting people to the march… for free” said the league’s provincial chairman, Khaya Yozi.

Now, whether you agree with Yozi’s plan or not, I think we can all something learn from his announcement.

It seems to me that there should be less working and more holidays on Mondays. Coming from the UK, I’m used to having public holidays on Mondays – the holidays for May Day, Whitsuntide and August Bank Holiday always fall on a Monday, making for lovely long weekends in the rain. Compare that with a normal Monday in SA, where you’ll find us all slaving away inside while the sun beams down outside.

But not on this coming Monday, obviously. Because this coming Monday is a holiday. I think that Yozi has missed a trick by arranging to meet at Salt River Station – on the edge of Cape Town’s fetid industrial heartland – and not at the beach. I will probably try out that latter option and then get back to him to compare notes on how much fun we had.

Additionally, should my Monday plan go well, I will be declaring Monday September 3rd a holiday as well. But we’ll definitely meet at the beach. In fact, as summer approaches, I foresee myself declaring a whole lot more public holidays. Especially on Mondays.

Have a wonderful long weekend and I hope that you can all find something profitable and enjoyable to do with your free time, such as stoning vehicles on the freeways and causing R13,000,000 of damage to public property.