Spread the Word, folks...

South African citizens....tired of all those annoying email and cellphone marketing messages you get? Try this...

Register on the NationalOptOut database to have your details removed from ALL direct marketing companies' databases. Apparently, BY LAW, they have to check this database regularly to see who does not want to receive marketing information.

Here's the link: https://www.nationaloptout.co.za/

Please sir, I have a valid reason for not going fishing...

The plan had been to head to Cemetery for a fishing session with Sparky and the gang but in the end, I couldn't make it....here's why...

Over the last couple of weeks, we'd noticed that our large sliding door was becoming harder to open and finally, yesterday, the runners just about seized solid and the door was a pain to open and sounded like someone was turning a Bowie knife inside a pig's belly.

So off I go to the Penny Pinchers (should be Megabuck Stealers with their prices) and buy the last two runners they have in stock, thinking "Kewl, now I'll sort this puppy out and be on the beach at 6pm."  Ha-bloody-ha!!!

A quick call to Swartland Doors, who made the slider, and I know what I need to do. This is sounding easier all the time...should be on the beach by 17h30!!

I quickly remove all the screws holding the frame border with my new cordless screwdriver (replaced the old one following the burglary we had last week) and prepare to remove the plank. It's wedged in a little tight because of old varnish and contact with wet plaster some years ago so I wiggle it a bit.

Then things started going pear-shaped.

A couple of weeks ago we'd also noticed that a section of the plaster on the reveal had cracked away from the lintel and I was careful that I didn't want to bring it crashing down as I wiggled the plank. The only thing was, as I was wiggling away (holding onto the loose section of plaster), a section about a foot away (and about a foot long) comes loose and crashes to the floor instead!!!! I stare at the pieces of plaster in incredulity and then start pissing myself laughing. At least now I don't have to worry about not bringing down the first piece and I tear it off with less than a worry.

Once I'd stopped laughing, I unscrewed the track holding the top of the door to the frame and the whole door comes loose in my hands. I really do not want to drop this thing as I would never be able to find all the glass pieces if I did, so I enlist the help of SWAMBO (Sy Wat Altyd My Bakkie Oorlaai) to help me stand the door on its side to allow me access to the runners.

The old runners merely slide out as they had no screws in place on the older doors (the runners just wedged in snugly) and I immediately see they are different in size to the new ones. Not only that, they are smaller and I would need some carpentry to make them fit.

Anyway, to make a long story short, SWAMBO had to leave for her afternoon "Loop en Val" class (Run/Walk for Life) so I was on my own to finish the door ("Ja, I'll be fine, don't worry about me").

It's also in times like this that you find that there is no such thing as a straight line in the building industry and door frames are almost never square.

I needed to wedge some offcuts into the old holes and use the power file to sand the slots into the right size for the new runners, but it took me three occasions of fitting the door onto the rail only to find that the depth of the new runners was different to the old ones as well and that I needed to recess the new ones deeper to allow for the difference. Without doing this, the door was too high for the frame, so it was a case of take it out, take some more off the slot, refit it, curse and swear, take it out again, chisel some more off the door, refit the runner, refit the door, curse and swear.....you get the picture.

After about the third series of cursing and swearing, the door finally fit into its position and I could get the top track on as well. Have you ever tried to balance a 60kg door on a rail, while fitting a screw into a hole, while trying to get the posi-bit onto the screw head, while trying to not run the screwdriver too fast so as to make sure the screw goes in and doesn't fall to the ground (happened twice), while cursing and swearing at the screws on the floor........

Somewhere around 7pm, I stood back and admired my handywork and declared the pub "open" as I needed a drink after what I'd just been through. I was tired, sweaty and covered in fine meranti dust, so I also need a shower.

When SWAMBO came home at around 11pm, I made sure the door was closed so that she would immediately declare me her hero as she slid the door effortlessly on its new runners. Job done.

Now, all I have to do is work on my plastering skills so that I can close up the reveal under the lintel...

Live by the sword, die by the rifle

It's world news now and is on Sky, at least. Yesterday, about 30 miners died in a hail of bullets fired by the SA Police Services (SAPS) during an illegal mine union gathering in Marikana, North West Province.

There are all sorts of speculation as to why the shooting took place, who fired first, was it provoked, et cetera, but the primary reason seems to be that there is a new union trying to make its presence felt. This new union is supposedly an off-shoot of the existing National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and is apparently not happy with the passive way the NUM handles its members' grievances or interests.

Personally, I think that's a crock of shit and is just propaganda, with the new union trying to create a membership base. The underlying reasons for the massacre (as it was called on Sky News) will be political, but it is unlikely that this will ever be brought to light. It is well-known that the black population as a whole are not happy at the lack of "progress" since the inept ANC took over, almost 20 years ago now and this new union is trying to use this to its advantage.

The upper management (note I didn't say "leadership") of most organisations in the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) space, are very politically- and power-driven, doing whatever they can to progress their own agendas, even, in extreme cases, at the expense of their own employees' or members' lives. Basically, the power-hungry have not moved out of the 15th century, believing they can still rule, and progress, by fear and death.

What Dingaan and Shaka did in their time was simple. You fucked with them, they killed you. End of story. Today's black management does not think much differently, except that they will get someone else to do their dirty work for them. Even the SAPS, so that the managers can be seen to be squeaky clean and can continue their political rhetoric, unharmed by the bullets killing their members, accusing the government agencies of sticking to apartheid means. Playing to the listening ears of the majority vote. Playing to long memories.

The other thing that contributes to the death toll of these people is the fact that they are still allowed to carry "traditional weapons" around with them. Assegais, pangas, shields, knives, knobkieries, you name it. It forms part of the list of "traditional weapons". And do they really think that the SAPS are going to retaliate with the same weaponry? Are they fuck. Automatic rifles are the weapon of choice for the SAPS...and so it should be.

Imagine 3,000 people, armed to the teeth (yes, including some with illegal guns that were hidden from view earlier), charging at you and your mates down a hill in a cloud of dust. As a SAPS officer, are you going to (a) run away and maybe get caught in the stampede, have your weapon stolen and face the wrath of the SAPS, or (b) shoot to kill, following the orders of your commanding officer and self-preservation? I know I would empty my magazine into the first fucker that came near me with a panga.

On the bigger picture side, it's time this country, and Africa in general, got out of the "victim" mindset that it's in and has been since Imperialism died. Stop blaming old systems and idealisms for the current failures it has created for itself. Take responsibility and accountability seriously. For fuck sake, half the world was colonised at some point or other by a European nation, but you don't hear South American countries complaining, do you? And look at Germany and Japan following the second world war...they pulled themselves out of the shit they had created for themselves, rebuilt their nations into the global economic powerhouses they are today. Yes, they had problems, but they sorted them out and didn't victimise themselves. Unlike Africa, which will always be victimised by itself. "Oh, poor me. Help me", you can hear it cry out. Fuck off, I say, and help yourself. For a change. For the better of everyone on the continent and the world.

If only the politicians would read this...

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Julius Malema's Nationalisation would work and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Julius Malema's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A....(substituting grades for Money - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2016 elections. Plant the seed now.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.