A Shocking Discovery

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As each new batch of Bruce Sutherland’s superb work is released onto the web on the City of Cape Town’s 2010 Gallery page, the images circulate around Cape Town and the broader environment by email and make their way onto blogs, usually without any credit for the photographer.
But that’s not all. In addition, there are the usual snide remarks about the costs incurred and the disruption caused by the construction going on around the city.
“CaptainNull” and his posterous blog is the perfect example:

 Wow….  I think our water rates is going to go up along with our electricity rate, but it sure looks purty.

That’s exactly right. At the Cape Town Stadium they are *shock* watering the grass that they are growing on the flat bit between the stands and what’s more, they have fitted lights so that people can play football – even if it gets dark!!! Like… at night, for example, I would imagine.

What on earth are they thinking????

Don’t they realise that we, the Cape Town ratepayers, are paying for that water and that electricity?
How dare they? This is an outrage worth several exclamation marks!!!!!

But that’s not all. Being the investigative sort that I am, I dug further into this issue and quickly found other places in Cape Town get watered and lit up using our money as well! Even other stadiums.
But that’s not all. I also discovered that the Council was paying for city buses to be filled with diesel using the cash we give them and the they (the City Council) are facilitating such diverse activities as road-sweeping, provision of healthcare, housing and even policing – (almost) directly from the ratepayers’ pockets!!!!! I was aghast.

I realised that suddenly, what started out as a mini-rant on potential copyright infringement had snowballed into something bigger than I could ever have imagined. When I look at it now, it seems so obvious, but for years, people – myself included – just haven’t seen the wood for the trees.
These so-called “services” “provided” by the City Council are actually paid for by the city ratepayers.

But that’s not all. I can officially reveal that I have discovered the same practices appear to be taking place in several other cities (well, one was a village) across South Africa, with unsuspecting citizens literally giving their hard earned Rands to their local councils each month, only for those same councils to splurge the money on education, parks and road maintenance.

There’s more to come on this story, I’m sure. But I felt that it was time that people learned exactly what their rates are being used for. If I disappear or don’t blog again, assume that Dan Plato has caught up with me (perhaps using shady henchmen also paid for with my money).
In that eventuality, someone else must please carry on the fight against this heinous injustice.

Hang on a minute!

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Cape Town‘s Integrated Rapid Transport Strategy has hit another snag ahead of the World Cup next year:
Fare dodgers.

Apparently this guy got on without paying a cent.
Fortunately, the police were quickly on the scene to arrest him.

hangeron

This one has been doing the rounds here for the past couple of days, but I think it’s only fair to share it with my overseas readers as well. As we say here in Africa: Only in Africa!

Bovine Blockage

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Incoming from The Tall Accountant:

I turned into Upper Buitengracht St this morning in front of our building (in the CITY CENTRE) and had to drive around 2 cows!
I kid you not – photo on the way.

And here it is, with the cattle safely removed from the dangerous traffic flow.

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It looks like Sheffield on a Friday night. But without the vomit and the fighting.
“Leave ‘im, Buttercup – ‘e’s not worth it!”

For those of you who don’t know where Upper Buitengracht Street is (let alone how to pronounce it), here’s a map showing you just how close this is to the actual centre of the city of Cape Town.

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As The Tall Accountant says:

This tops the goat that was loose about a year ago.  

Absolutely. And that thing with those chickens.

There’s talk of emigration in the air

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Remember when we used to hear that at all the dinner parties, the braais, on the television and in the papers?
The ZumaRumas™. The dangers of another ANC government. Chasing the whites out of the country. Murdered in our beds. How South Africa was going to become “another Zimbabwe”.
I never did get a firm date for any of those unfounded scare-mongering stories.
When I asked, I usually just got a hard stare over my wors and some mumbled excuse about needing another Castle Lite.

Sure, South Africa does have its problems. Many of them, in fact. Which is surely all the more reason for not adding more silly ones that you made up on the way to the party.
But why the exceptionalism? Because nowhere is perfect and everywhere you go, you’re going to face challenges. The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the fence. And if it is, it’s probably because of all the s**t that’s around over there.

So – back to the talk of emigration in the air:

There’s talk of emigration in the air. It’s everywhere I go. Parties. Work. In the supermarket.

That’s Jeremy Clarkson in this week’s Sunday Times. He’s fed up with the UK – particularly the way it’s being run – and he wants out:

It’s a lovely idea, to get out of this stupid, Fairtrade, Brown-stained, Mandelson-skewed, equal-opportunities, multicultural, carbon-neutral, trendily left, regionally assembled, big-government, trilingual, mosque-drenched, all-the-pigs-are-equal, property-is-theft hellhole and set up shop somewhere else.

The rest of the piece is a wonderful rant about the amount of control and red tape that is exerted over those in the developed world. And a highly amusing list of the problems with each individual country that he considers emigrating to. And – while it is, of course, written with tongue firmly in cheek – at least Clarkson acknowledges that it doesn’t matter where you go, things won’t ever be perfect. Because that’s really not how life works.

I often think that immigrants to a country are better at seeing the good in it. I certainly think that I have a much more positive opinion of South Africa than many of those who have lived here all their lives. And that goes for a lot of the other ex-pats I’ve met here, too.
I’ve done my best to educate myself on the substance behind the stories, taking opinion from all sides – like The Political Analyst and The Guru amongst others – and I’m finding it easier and easier to recognise nonsense emails and stories earlier and earlier, because – like all lies – they really don’t stand up to any degree of scrutiny. I now regularly have friends emailing me with stories of crime and politics and the ANC, with online petitions and the like, asking me if they are true.
And they never are.

And while I’m happy to set records straight, I find it sad that people still willingly believe all that they read in their inboxes and in the newspapers. And sadder still that there are individuals who will prey on this gullibility to push their agenda across. Thabo Mbeki did some things right and he did some things wrong (and this really isn’t a post about that), but he hit the nail on the head with this line:

It seems to me that the unacceptable practice of propagation of deliberate falsehoods to attain various objectives is becoming entrenched in our country.

Ironically, it now seems that he was behind some of the propagation of those deliberate falsehoods, no matter how unacceptable he found the practice. But it’s still a great quote.

What I’m saying here is that you can’t allow yourself to be dragged down by only seeing the negative side of things and you have to make the best of what you’ve got.
Because you’re never going to have it all.
A lot of people in South Africa fall into that negativity trap and their lives, their outlook and the mood of whole country in general are detrimentally affected because of it.
Positivity costs nothing and it makes you feel a whole lot better.

As for Clarkson – his column has now been removed from the Sunday Times website – probably something to do with his plan to strap Peter Mandelson “to the front of a van and drive round the country until he isn’t alive any more”.
Fortunately, I got there first and have a nice small (35kb) PDF of it for you to read. Enjoy!

Photo fuss

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A couple of my photos from the “Wet Weekend” set seem to have caused a bit of a stir, which is nice.

I’m referring to Patio Splashes:

and his singular brother, Patio Splash.

They were the result of some playing around with various settings (Exposure 0.001sec (1/1300), Aperture f/5.0, Focal length 26.7mm), while lying on my stomach in wet sand. In the rain.
I’m not claiming that they’re brilliant, but they certainly mark a step forward for me, if not a huge leap for my t-shirt.

I’m really enjoying my “new” camera, even if I am still only able to use about 10% of its functions. However, since my dad has now also bought himself one (on my recommendation), there is added impetus to learn. Because obviously, there will be no competition to see who can get the better photographs. Obviously.