A view of the Village Walk in Sandton, South Africa.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Nine-Eleven seven years on
Today was seven years after the traggic events of September 11 2001. I remember watching the TV and seeing first one tower then the other collapse.
Since then I have heard many conspiracy theories about the events of the day. These are all plain nonsense. While the events may have suited GW Bush's foreign policy agenda, I don't believe that he would have done this to his own people.
Many people at the time saw this as a world changing event. The threat of terrorism has grown larger and more brazen. The war on terrorism has seemingly not been a success. Terrorist attacks are frequent, though none have matched the twin towers.
The world is not a safer place. In fact many more people live in fear than ever before. The war in Iraq has opened the doors to a whole collection of terrorists of all discriptions.
Osama bin Laden remains a free man. He still manages the occasional broadcast on TV. The Talliban was seemingly defeated but has risen once again from the ashes. Iran has threatened ...
Priorities change. What were once sacred rights in a Western Democracy have been sacrificed in favour of terrorism. So where is the world headed now - and have the terrorists won!?
Since then I have heard many conspiracy theories about the events of the day. These are all plain nonsense. While the events may have suited GW Bush's foreign policy agenda, I don't believe that he would have done this to his own people.
Many people at the time saw this as a world changing event. The threat of terrorism has grown larger and more brazen. The war on terrorism has seemingly not been a success. Terrorist attacks are frequent, though none have matched the twin towers.
The world is not a safer place. In fact many more people live in fear than ever before. The war in Iraq has opened the doors to a whole collection of terrorists of all discriptions.
Osama bin Laden remains a free man. He still manages the occasional broadcast on TV. The Talliban was seemingly defeated but has risen once again from the ashes. Iran has threatened ...
Priorities change. What were once sacred rights in a Western Democracy have been sacrificed in favour of terrorism. So where is the world headed now - and have the terrorists won!?
Monday, 08 September 2008
Zuma raping lady justice cartoon causes outrage in the ANC
The South African Sunday Times latest cartoon by Zapiro (follow the link to view) has caused great offense to the ANC.
The cartoon portrays Zuma (the ANC president) opening his belt while the lady Justice is held down by members of the tri-partite alliance.
The ANC, COSATU (the trade union movement), the ANC Youth League and the SAPC have all been outraged that the Sunday Times saw fit to publish the cartoon.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that since the ANC conference last December, and entirely new leadership was elected. The new leadership, together with the leaders of the other alliance parties has seen fit to publicly attack the judiciary on a number of occasions. Even the constitutional court has come under attack. The most frequent accusation is that of a "political agenda" whenever something does not go their way.
The conviction of fraudsters within the party was a result of a "political agenda" on the part of the judiciary and the Scorpions. The Scorpions are the South African equivalent of the FBI. The "New" ANC has seen fit to place the disbanding of the Scorpions at the top of their list of priorities. Why? The Scorpions were responsible for investigating the corruption case against Zuma, fraud against Tony Yengeni (he was convicted) and for uncovering the entire Travelgate scam. The Travelgate scam involved many MP's.
They fraudulently claimed huge sums of money for travel that did not take place and shared the proceeds with a travel agency that helped to facilitate this fraud. The MPs were let off with a fine following an admission of guilt. All have kept their parliamentary jobs and are now part of the new ANC leadership.
Jacob Zuma has been implicated in a number of offences including accepting bribes while negotiating the arms deal. He has thus far tried to prevent the evidence being used and has attempted to stop the trial through one court application after another. He still has more up his sleeve. He is intent on stopping the trial.
Zuma's allies have also tried to prevent the trial from taking place. They claim that it is a political trial. The leader of the ANC Youth League has threatened to kill to prevent the trial. He has promised to eliminate the counter-revolutionary forces. These counter revolutionary forces include the judiciary.
Unfortunately the cartoon is very apt. Carl Niehaus - a former ANC MP has spoken out against the new order. He finds the new trend within the ANC - of viewing parliament and the judiciary as tools to carry out party policy - as worrying. It is the first step for the party to self-destruct.
The ANC has long been a party of high integrity. The leadership had morals and values. The new leadership does not.
The cartoon portrays Zuma (the ANC president) opening his belt while the lady Justice is held down by members of the tri-partite alliance.
The ANC, COSATU (the trade union movement), the ANC Youth League and the SAPC have all been outraged that the Sunday Times saw fit to publish the cartoon.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that since the ANC conference last December, and entirely new leadership was elected. The new leadership, together with the leaders of the other alliance parties has seen fit to publicly attack the judiciary on a number of occasions. Even the constitutional court has come under attack. The most frequent accusation is that of a "political agenda" whenever something does not go their way.
The conviction of fraudsters within the party was a result of a "political agenda" on the part of the judiciary and the Scorpions. The Scorpions are the South African equivalent of the FBI. The "New" ANC has seen fit to place the disbanding of the Scorpions at the top of their list of priorities. Why? The Scorpions were responsible for investigating the corruption case against Zuma, fraud against Tony Yengeni (he was convicted) and for uncovering the entire Travelgate scam. The Travelgate scam involved many MP's.
They fraudulently claimed huge sums of money for travel that did not take place and shared the proceeds with a travel agency that helped to facilitate this fraud. The MPs were let off with a fine following an admission of guilt. All have kept their parliamentary jobs and are now part of the new ANC leadership.
Jacob Zuma has been implicated in a number of offences including accepting bribes while negotiating the arms deal. He has thus far tried to prevent the evidence being used and has attempted to stop the trial through one court application after another. He still has more up his sleeve. He is intent on stopping the trial.
Zuma's allies have also tried to prevent the trial from taking place. They claim that it is a political trial. The leader of the ANC Youth League has threatened to kill to prevent the trial. He has promised to eliminate the counter-revolutionary forces. These counter revolutionary forces include the judiciary.
Unfortunately the cartoon is very apt. Carl Niehaus - a former ANC MP has spoken out against the new order. He finds the new trend within the ANC - of viewing parliament and the judiciary as tools to carry out party policy - as worrying. It is the first step for the party to self-destruct.
The ANC has long been a party of high integrity. The leadership had morals and values. The new leadership does not.
Sunday, 07 September 2008
Freedom of Speech
In an article published in My Digital Life I explored certain aspects of freedom of speech. This topic aroused some debate.
The main discussion centred on whether there should be limits to freedom of speech. Some hold the view that freedom of speech should be absolute. It is better to know what the extremists are saying than to drive them underground.
But there is another aspect. What about hate-speech? How do you deal with speech that incites people to violence?
One example of the dilemma is illustrated in the speeches of Julius Malema - the president of the ANC Youth League, the division of South Africa's ruling party. Controversy erupted a few weeks ago when Malema stated in a speech that he would "kill for Zuma". Considerable anger was evident as a response to these words. Who would he kill? Are we on the hit list?
Malema promised not to use these words again, but followed with a statement that the counter revolutionary forces would be eliminated. It turns out that he didn't mean that either. He meant "removed".
Words are no mere words. They are powerful weapons. Sticks and stones will break my bones but words can really harm me.
In the context of South Africa which emerged from being a totalitarian state to a democracy just 14 years ago, it is difficult to support any form of censorship or prohibitions against freedom of speech.
There was very little opportunity to debate anything in those days. The media was muzzled. The population was muzzled. Books were banned. Films were cut or banned. Even songs fell victim to this tyranny.
Today, there is freedom of speech. It is guaranteed in the country's constitution. But hate-speech, racism and incitement to violence are exceptions.
But the right to freedom of speech means that we are responsible for what we say. This freedom should be used responsibly.
The main discussion centred on whether there should be limits to freedom of speech. Some hold the view that freedom of speech should be absolute. It is better to know what the extremists are saying than to drive them underground.
But there is another aspect. What about hate-speech? How do you deal with speech that incites people to violence?
One example of the dilemma is illustrated in the speeches of Julius Malema - the president of the ANC Youth League, the division of South Africa's ruling party. Controversy erupted a few weeks ago when Malema stated in a speech that he would "kill for Zuma". Considerable anger was evident as a response to these words. Who would he kill? Are we on the hit list?
Malema promised not to use these words again, but followed with a statement that the counter revolutionary forces would be eliminated. It turns out that he didn't mean that either. He meant "removed".
Words are no mere words. They are powerful weapons. Sticks and stones will break my bones but words can really harm me.
In the context of South Africa which emerged from being a totalitarian state to a democracy just 14 years ago, it is difficult to support any form of censorship or prohibitions against freedom of speech.
There was very little opportunity to debate anything in those days. The media was muzzled. The population was muzzled. Books were banned. Films were cut or banned. Even songs fell victim to this tyranny.
Today, there is freedom of speech. It is guaranteed in the country's constitution. But hate-speech, racism and incitement to violence are exceptions.
But the right to freedom of speech means that we are responsible for what we say. This freedom should be used responsibly.
Monday, 01 September 2008
The early experiences of XP were similar to Vista ...
Microsoft released the first version of XP in 2002. XP received a very cool reception. It did not capture the imagination of the public. SP2 arrived providing a radical change for this troubled operating system. The second service pack did much more than fix the bugs. It provided a whole new look and feel to the Windows environment.
I remember being warned about SP2. I was told not to install it. It was very unstable and caused major problems to machines everywhere. It was too late. I had already installed the upgrade.
SP2 proved to be a huge improvement over the original release. It solved many of the problems. As with all software releases there were some new issues, but regular updates eliminated most of these. Eventually most Windows users had changed to XP and were quite happy.
Just as XP has stabilised Microsoft released Vista. XP did not require a hardware upgrade. In fact it ran faster than the Windows 98 that I had been running. But Vista is seriously resource hungry. Get a new machine with a fast processor and 2 GB of RAM. You will also need a large hard drive. Vista uses lots of space. But with a fast machine, Vista runs quite quickly.
After three months I am quite happy with Vista. It has some great features to find your way around. On a fast machine it is fast. But its attempts to solve problems when something crashes are all in vain. I have yet to see Vista identifying a solution.
I remember being warned about SP2. I was told not to install it. It was very unstable and caused major problems to machines everywhere. It was too late. I had already installed the upgrade.
SP2 proved to be a huge improvement over the original release. It solved many of the problems. As with all software releases there were some new issues, but regular updates eliminated most of these. Eventually most Windows users had changed to XP and were quite happy.
Just as XP has stabilised Microsoft released Vista. XP did not require a hardware upgrade. In fact it ran faster than the Windows 98 that I had been running. But Vista is seriously resource hungry. Get a new machine with a fast processor and 2 GB of RAM. You will also need a large hard drive. Vista uses lots of space. But with a fast machine, Vista runs quite quickly.
After three months I am quite happy with Vista. It has some great features to find your way around. On a fast machine it is fast. But its attempts to solve problems when something crashes are all in vain. I have yet to see Vista identifying a solution.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)