The Banana Republic thread

StarPhoenix · Post by **StarPhoenix** » 02 Apr 2008, 08:04

I see that the National Education Department is proposing a five-week long school break during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

What are your thought on this?

DeanMF · Post by **DeanMF** » 02 Apr 2008, 08:23

Thats pathetic.

Then they should give all workers off on all game days too.

StarPhoenix · Post by **StarPhoenix** » 02 Apr 2008, 08:57

Link to article

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 02 Apr 2008, 08:59

supertwit wrote:I see that the National Educatio Department is proposing a five-week long school break during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

What are your thought on this?

Wont happen.

StarPhoenix · Post by **StarPhoenix** » 02 Apr 2008, 09:58

jamin_za wrote: Won't happen.

May sanity prevail.

Samaya · Post by **Samaya** » 02 Apr 2008, 10:08

jamin_za wrote:Wont happen.

Of course it will. They don't NEED to do load shedding yet it is still happening, Electricity is going up 50%, we can't afford it but it is still going to happen.

When people can't pay their electricity bill at the end of the month and Eskom can't get the money from you or the other 20 Million people, how are they going to still be able to pay for maintenance if they are not getting money in? Government grant? What if I or the company I work for, can't pay taxes anymore? Rot in jail, Jails will be full, build new jail, with money from where?

The snowball is starting to roll faster

DeanMF · Post by **DeanMF** » 02 Apr 2008, 23:06

Dont even get started on the 60% increase in property rates

StarPhoenix · Post by **StarPhoenix** » 03 Apr 2008, 07:27

Is that a good thing for those of us who have money in property?

DeanMF · Post by **DeanMF** » 03 Apr 2008, 08:09

I doubt that very much. Personally, I think its a bad thing for everyone.

Belix · Post by **Belix** » 08 Apr 2008, 14:51

24.com wrote: David Moseley

There is much in South Africa to induce a wry smile. Just right now I got up to make myself a delicious cup of coffee, not the freeze-dried stuff, but the gourmet stuff and - naturally - the power was off.

Eskom can't supply us with the only thing they're on this planet to provide, but they're quite happy and seemingly serious when asking us to pay more for something we don't get. Petrol goes up by 60c every week - and to add the cherry to the motoring cake the government wants to put a toll-road on every highway, freeway and gated-community cul-de-sac to "improve" the roads they say. Sure.

You have to laugh, otherwise you'd be the next one out on a Qantas flight to Australia (where the only news of late has involved a man rescuing his wife from the jaws of crocodile - s'truth - or the story of the happy couple who've been living in bliss for 30 years, only to tell the world recently that they're father and daughter - blimey) or, at the very least, crying yourself to sleep with your gun nestled snugly under your pillow.

Never discount the propensity of this land to provide good humour - particularly when the ANC Youth League is involved. No here is a comedy troupe that could put Monty Python to shame. First of all, their initials (ANC YL) sound like a fabulous rejoinder to the classic YMCA disco hit.

Further, their activities are shrouded in mystery. They're like the secret, shadowy organisation that we've never had - just with a helluva lot more front page exposure. What do they do, where do they come from and do I qualify automatically for selection to the Youth League if I'm already in the ANC Under-19 Division?

These guys know how to ride the gravy train. They even have their own conductor. Such is their absolute and resolute ambition to be useless that they even kept Jacob Zuma waiting three hours on the weekend before the big man could talk. That's right readers, the all-singing, all-dancing marrying man of the ANC barely managed to get a decent struggle song in at the ANC Youth League conference over the weekend. Oh the shame.

Delegates having a barney

Why, I hear you ask in muted tones of mirth? Because the delegates (another fine word to describe 'people who are mostly **** at what they do and so end up becoming politicians') at the conference where having a barney - water bottles were allegedly sent flying to and fro - for three days to actually determine who should be at the conference and who was gate-crashing the austere event. Bless their little souls.

I imagine during the struggle the Youth League played a pivotal role in providing the Senior League with wise leaders who promoted universal suffrage and peace in our land (Nelson, in fact, was a founding member along with legends Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo). I imagine this now because I can't really think of what else the bunch of clowns ruining their good work could possibly come up with if takes just three days to realise a heap of strangers are attending their conference.

Personally, I'd like to see more Youth Leagues. Wouldn't it be great to watch a whole bunch of English-speaking white kids in cardigans demanding more booms in the suburbs for the DA YL, or how about little Afrikaans kids re-enacting highlights from the Great Trek for the FF+ YL, better yet, why not turn Zimbabwe into Little South Africa and let the various Youth Leagues flex their political pecs there before mucking everything up here.

At least they won't have bottled water to fling at each other north of the border.

Belix · Post by **Belix** » 26 Apr 2008, 13:18

Property24 wrote:
Estate agents confirm trend

Estate agents are also reporting an alarming increase in the number of people offloading properties for emigration purposes.

Seeff Properties chairman Samuel Seeff estimates that 25% to 30% of current sellers are planning to leave SA. "Not all of these properties will sell so many people would end up staying in SA. But the general sentiment is not positive. If people were not planning to emigrate, we would never have seen such a surge in sales stock."

Sotheby's International Realty chairperson Lew Geffen echoes a similar sentiment. He says he's seen five recessions in his lifetime, but never before has emigration been so widely cited as the key reason for selling.

Surprisingly, says Geffen, it's not only South Africans in the big-ticket suburbs that plan to go overseas, but also those in middle-income areas.
Industry players say that the increase in emigration could not have come at a worse time for an already depressed residential property market.

While most estate agents have seen a 40% to 50% rise in sales stock since January this year, sales volumes have simultaneously plummeted some 30%.

Prices are also starting to fall in certain areas Standard Bank's latest housing index indicate that median house prices are down 5,2% in March (y-o-y).

If the market continues to be flooded with houses for sale, prices will no doubt come under further pressure. - Joan Muller, Finweek

Holy chipmunks. No wonder the rand is taking such a knock. Seems plenty cash flowing offshore...

lancelot · Post by **lancelot** » 13 May 2008, 10:27

source

A few weeks ago, international headlines were made when students of the University of the Free State gave some hostel cleaners a concoction to drink, apparently containing urine. Shortly afterwards, the continuous public outcries about racism and human rights began.

On the subject of racism, please read the story of Nico Bruwer (25).

Nico was arrested in Polokwane for reckless driving on the night of 6 January 2008. After he was arrested, he asked four times if he can call his family to tell them where he was, but they refused. (According to SA Law, you are allowed one phone call when you are arrested..)

He was thrown in a dirty cell with 25 other inmates. His arms were held and his head shoved in a dirty pillow, so his screams couldn’t be heard – while he was repeatedly raped and assaulted. Later he lost consciousness from shock. The policemen on duty didn’t once come to check on what was happening in the cells.
The next morning he was harassed by one of the rapists. Hours later Nico was released on bail after his family finally found him. He broke down and they rushed him to hospital where he was admitted and tested for HIV.
Nico and his wife, Rose-Mary (24) was married on 1 March 2008. Nico also have a son (5). He and his whole family is traumatized by this experience.

What you may not know is that this is the ** second ** time this year a young white male was raped in the Polokwane Police cells.

Tthis is also racism. This is crime in its worst form.. Yes, what happened at UFS was despicable, but nobody was PHYSICALLY hurt. But because it was ** WHITE ** students doing it to ** BLACK ** workers, everybody made a huge deal about it. Now that a white male was raped by black criminals while in police custody, virtually nobody knows about it. No big cries from overseas condemning this absolute disregard for human rights or basic human dignity. Nico Bruwer’s whole life will be forever influenced about what happened that night. But because he is ** WHITE **, nobody cares.

But you should care. Think about your husbands, sons and brothers.

I was going to post this in the thread that PC had started about UFS but decided against it, this is not a ( . ) for tat situation but yet another indictment regarding black racists in this country. We have the diabolical situation of racist killings in Alex near Sandton but I see no mention of it here, we have become a sad and sick society in South Africa, the land of my fathers.

Firestrm_ZA · Post by **Firestrm_ZA** » 13 May 2008, 10:32

Spot on there lance...... all this is what has been coined as **reverse apartheid**. but thats just my 2c.....

rustypup · Post by **rustypup** » 13 May 2008, 10:41

Firestrm wrote:all this is what has been coined as **reverse apartheid**...

dompas, or it didn't happen...

something tells me you have little to no knowledge of what the prior system of seperate devloment was about... i can suggest a book or two...

i'm sure what you meant was "reverse racism" which is impossible, as you're either racist or you aren't... in this context, "reverse racism" means you have supper with the devil just after tea and scones with the pope....

still, a shocker of a story and, sadly, par for the course where our 'justice system' is concerned. not surprising that there's no public outcry, purely because 'white guy gets done by black guys' doesn't sell papers... the white guy isn't the underdog... yet...

Firestrm_ZA · Post by **Firestrm_ZA** » 13 May 2008, 10:49

rustypup wrote:
Firestrm wrote:all this is what has been coined as **reverse apartheid**...
dompas, or it didn't happen... something tells me you have little to no knowledge of what the prior system of seperate devloment was about... i can suggest a book or two...

i'm sure what you meant was "reverse racism" which is impossible, as you're either racist or you aren't... in this context, "reverse racism" means you have supper with the devil just after tea and scones with the pope....

still, a shocker of a story and, sadly, par for the course where our 'justice system' is concerned. not surprising that there's no public outcry, purely because 'white guy gets done by black guys' doesn't sell papers... the white guy isn't the underdog... yet...

what i meant was in certain light we are viewed as the oppressed now.... which is true allso only in certain areas.... but time shall tell how bad this country gets..... and you are right rusty.... we arent the underdog.......... YET

chez · Post by **chez** » 18 Jun 2008, 08:41

South Africa
Amazon blacklists Post Office
2008-6-18 08:06
Johannesburg - Rampant theft by Post Office workers has infuriated internet retailing giant Amazon so much that it will no longer send goods to South Africa by post, Business Day has reported.

Anyone wanting to order directly from the US-based website must now pay for a private courier service adding about R420 to the price of a DVD.

No one from the Post Office would comment.

No other African country's postal service had been blacklisted by Amazon, Business Day said.

*sigh*

D3PART3D · Post by **D3PART3D** » 18 Jun 2008, 08:44

*sigh*

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 18 Jun 2008, 09:16

Samaya wrote:
jamin_za wrote:Wont happen.

Of course it will. They don't NEED to do load shedding yet it is still happening, Electricity is going up 50%, we can't afford it but it is still going to happen.

No more load shedding in KZN

Also, no more news about the 5 weeks off for 2010... proof that it's not gonna happen.

I enjoy it when I am right and others are wrong

lancelot · Post by **lancelot** » 18 Jun 2008, 09:48

chez wrote:South Africa
Amazon blacklists Post Office
2008-6-18 08:06
Johannesburg - Rampant theft by Post Office workers has infuriated internet retailing giant Amazon so much that it will no longer send goods to South Africa by post, Business Day has reported.

Anyone wanting to order directly from the US-based website must now pay for a private courier service adding about R420 to the price of a DVD.

No one from the Post Office would comment.

No other African country's postal service had been blacklisted by Amazon, Business Day said.

*sigh*

This is a travesty of justice, Amazon have no normal tracking system, how they can blame it all on this end I have no idea. According to IOL, Nigeria is also blacklisted.
In my opinion, Amazon can go and get stuffed, my last order, 8 weeks ago has caused me grief. One book, second hand , was sent from a third party, it arrived within three weeks, the one sent by Amazon has still not arrived. They are now going to resend, it is their problem that they use such crappy freight agents, with no tracking how do they know it is not on their side. Some fool there, who has a grudge against SA could well be pilfering. KCUF AMAZON!

Demoraliser · Post by **Demoraliser** » 18 Jun 2008, 11:31

chez wrote:South Africa
Amazon blacklists Post Office
2008-6-18 08:06
Johannesburg - Rampant theft by Post Office workers has infuriated internet retailing giant Amazon so much that it will no longer send goods to South Africa by post, Business Day has reported.

Anyone wanting to order directly from the US-based website must now pay for a private courier service adding about R420 to the price of a DVD.

No one from the Post Office would comment.

No other African country's postal service had been blacklisted by Amazon, Business Day said.

*sigh*

i was about to place an order for the Millennium box-set from the .com site last night, just before i confirmed the order i found out that the postage and handling charges were R417... This on a DVD set that was priced at R700 odd! I was pretty confused. Needless to say I didn't proceed with the order.

I placed my order for the same item on the UK site, the total with shipping and handling came to R800 odd, compared to R1077 on the .com site!

Lets hope the UK site doesnt adopt the same ridiculous policy...

FTB_Screamer · Post by **FTB_Screamer** » 18 Jun 2008, 12:12

Amazon.com sucks, the .uk is much better. I ordered an item the other day from uk, paid 3 pounds p&p and it arrived in 9 days(weekend incl.) I waited for over a month for an .com package to arrive.

Hex_Rated · Post by **Hex_Rated** » 18 Jun 2008, 14:30

jamin_za wrote:
Samaya wrote:
jamin_za wrote:Wont happen.

Of course it will. They don't NEED to do load shedding yet it is still happening, Electricity is going up 50%, we can't afford it but it is still going to happen.
No more load shedding in KZN

Also, no more news about the 5 weeks off for 2010... proof that it's not gonna happen.

I enjoy it when I am right and others are wrong

Enron did a similar thing in California. Load shedding, than a 50% price hike and the load shedding disappeared. It's winter now, surely energy consumption has gone up?

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 18 Jun 2008, 15:03

No, I remember what happened in California - back in 2001 IIRC...

It was not scheduled outages. Those mofo's had rolling blackouts. I believe at it's peak 2 million households were without power.

Nice!

sinner777 · Post by **sinner777** » 18 Jun 2008, 15:54

so then, what are we going to do about the way things are?.....

DeanMF · Post by **DeanMF** » 18 Jun 2008, 16:50

Local is lekker?