| A 5 month old baby got raped.
This still makes headlines. It shows that we are not beyond human compassion
nor feeling for the little innocent ones. She survived and is making good
progress in hospital. The perpetrators are unknown and thus still at large.
The mother a sex worker, the father a computer technician - both working
with baby alone at home. In their absence the door got busted open and some
sicko's probably thought that this act will cure them of HIV/Aids. Sick
world we live in. In the meantime Tabo Mbeki is trying to solve the problems of Africa. And one master of embezzlement, one Sarafina queen (make that ex) is preaching to the nation about opening their pockets to help Aids victims and orphans. Makes sense, as government isn't doing too much except for filling their own coffers (make that own pockets). Further on the Soweto bombings - no-ones been arrested yet. And for all the 'Americanistic' outcries of 'we won't be intimidated', there's an awful lot published on the event. From analysis on who these people are and what their aim is (With their guns and their bibles - Celean Jacobson) to 'Let's not give them the satisfaction of taking their bombs too seriously' (Mathatha Tsedu - Sunday Times) to 'Today's enemy lurks within society' to comic man Zapiro. And this was only the Sunday Times! On to education - seems our educational facilities are in a bit of a mess, and analysts are blaming government. This whole black empowerment issue is being pursued to the point where the country as a whole starts suffering. After a decision by our esteemed Minister in charge of education, the 36 odd universities and colleges will dwindle down to 29. With that comes governments' requirement that more black 'educators' be appointed. Now we find that most of these 'educators' are too young, too inexperienced and simply not qualified (make that stupid) to do the job properly. This of course leads too 'under-educated' (make that stupid too) students arrive in the marketplace with nowhere to go. Another worrying aspect is the IT industry where young, freshly qualified whiteys can't find jobs. ITweb reported that no matter what your qualification, if you're white there's no job for you (simply that's what they mean). The affirmative action campaign once again putting another nail in the white mans coffin (as well as the economy as a whole). Never mind the official response from government officials about the unacceptability of the situation. If you're not a Mark Shuttleworth, you can forget it. And police still reckon that 'r00t3rs' is local. This little demon has hacked and defaced 14 local sites in the first day of operation. According to Computing SA he 'klapped' another 30 two weeks ago. His total tally stands now at 90 sites. And who do we have to thank? Bill Gates, the man from Microsoft who cannot get his people to write secure code. Those hosting on Linux and such has not been touched so far. This guy is clever and his trail leads to over 42 'launching' servers worldwide. Now we'll see how clever our cops really are! And more on technology - two bids were received on the SNO licensing issue. It looks like our favorite Telkom will get competition soon. 30% of the new operator will belong to Eskom and Transnet (make that stopnet - seeing they can't maintain their locomotives that keep breaking down when I'm traveling by rail), 19% will go to a local empowerment (make that black owned) stake holder with the remainder to the successful bidder. A consortium called Goldleaf seems to be the one who will have the (debatable) honor of forking out R10 billion investment to compete against Telkom. And Telkoms so-called Callmore promotion is a bit of a Paymore pothole for Internet users. Goldleaf has partners such as Siemens, British Telecom and local cell phone service provider MTN on their side. MTN is not surprising seeing that the other major cell phone service provider Vodacom (the biggest out of the three) has a major stake in Telkom. Can you smell a cellular war as well? I hope so. And that could be a bit of good news to the embattled South African. A study done by PE Corporate Services shows that salary and wage increases are behind inflation (old news to be honest). Looking at 1.5 million South Africans, PE discovered they (the workers) received an annual increase of between 8% and 12% with inflation at 12.5%. The CPIX (Consumer Price Index - as far as I know) has doubled since last October standing at 11.8%. With a 'stale' economy (see if government really cares) it is becoming impossible for companies to offer double-digit increases, and with a labour force which is arguably one of the lasiest in the world there is not much light at the end of the tunnel. A recent spot poll by Job Navigator revealed that 33% of respondents are much worse off (financially) than two years ago. A further 22% reckon they're worse off with the remaining 45% saying they're coping or making better money than before. As I was saying some time ago, I thought I could afford my pets (five cats, three dogs). Now I can't even afford the bullets to save me money on pet food (make that a joke). Seriously, I used to get away with spending a hundred bucks a month to feed my critters (make that beloved animals), now its costing me nearly 500 bucks a month. And sometimes they eat better than me (make that only when we don't get take-aways)! |
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