The World's view & our Fake Interpreter Dude

The government ANC has spoken.

In recent news regarding the whole fake-interpreter mess at Nelson Mandela’s memorial on the 10 December 2013, I read how the government had released a statement apologizing for the use of the ‘allegedly’ fake interpreter.

I had many different reactions to this, first of which was a laughing ‘relief’ because they finally found him.

If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t this fake-interpreter-dude missing for a while after the memorial was concluded?

During which time the ANC had continued to state through their various officials, that they did not know who this ‘Thamsanqa Jantjie’ was or even where he could be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHF20okcv58

Then of course the company he worked for seemed to ‘vanish into thin air’, making it impossible to track who it was that hired him as well as the company’s screening processes. How luckily unlucky….

Eventually Mr. Jantjie was found and a new spin to the story was added with him revealing that he had suffered an ‘attack’ and was someone who lived with Schizophrenia, a mental disorder that can only be managed through medication but ultimately has no known cure. The plot thickened as voices were heard and angels suddenly entered the picture, all to most likely solidify his claims of mental illness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dt-d5GvYso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c33Omwka0A

So now we not only have this fraudster making a mockery of the hearing impaired, but also insulting the issue of those with mental illness. Because in effect that is what this is. Countless voices[the 'for-real' type] have spoken out and called him out as a complete fake with absolute no knowledge of sign language, and I somehow strongly doubt schizophrenia suddenly takes away your ability to sign. That assumption is made by someone who is not fully aware of what a true sufferer of mental illness goes through.

But I guess our government has fallen that far that it’s okay to do that now. It doesn’t matter that the Deaf community were insulted, they’ll get over it. It doesn’t matter that people with mental illness will now be judged more harshly because of this moron, they’ll forget about it or better yet just leave it be, it’s not like people listen to them anyway, right?

Suddenly Thamsanqa Jantjie was found and the ANC remembered they DID know him, but it was ‘the government’ that hired him, not the ANC party who just so happens to hold three quarters majority [excluding favors]. An official statement was released and an apology given, not that it would matter or change anything. Unless they plan to re-do the WHOLE Mandela Memorial… again.

http://news.yahoo.com/africa-apologizes-fake-signer-vows-reforms-093612938.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDe9CilqzGo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2-jQZ6VE3U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGmaIQEcM4A

[I really would like to see these ‘civilized’ deaf people she refers to, simply because I have yet to see an uncivilized deaf person…]

But the icing on the cake, or maybe the nail in the coffin of the ideals and beliefs that Mandela fought for, is probably the international media coverage of the whole debacle.

One thing our shady politicians and corrupt ladder of officials don’t understand is the magnitude of the effect that such incompetency has had on the world’s view of South Africa and inevitably the people who run it, as well as the unfortunate dye the rest of us are cast with simply because we are seen as ‘allowing’ them to run the country as is.

http://news.yahoo.com/sign-language-snl-video-153841985.html?vp=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StEFnh18zRk  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-DxGoIVUWo – [What Thamsanqa Jantjie ‘REALLY’ said (apparently)]

Look anywhere on the internet and you will be greeted with growing images, gifs, videos and other forms of social media art portraying ‘The Fake Sign Language Interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s Memorial’ accompanied by all sorts of mockery at his conduct, even others that just honestly don’t make sense to me.

Personally, I have found myself conflicted as I watched the videos and browsed the art. While it does have its moments of hilarious content, it still leaves me feeling slightly saddened.

Is this how the world now sees South Africans?

In a time when we had a chance to be remembered for producing one of the greatest and most influential leaders of a century, we are relegated to the status of a laughing stock, a bunch of clicking illiterates who couldn’t even provide the basic services of security and screening for those attending the memorable event. How heart-wrenching!

But on a sadistic high note, at least it served as a representation of how low the quality of service ‘the government’ is willing to let loose on those they serve. A perfect example of the long rusted holes in a stunted democracy that has been dying a slow agonizing death long before the once in a life time event of our greatest achievement now a titan to the ages lost in our history books.

If we’re lucky, maybe that changes something somewhere.

'Mandela's Document...' & The Militant Malema

It can be seen within the various factions of religious organizations and now we see it seep into politics.

Truthfully, I’m not overly surprised. Some individuals see politics as a form of religion, how else do you keep giving to an institute that feels entitled to it because, by some odd thought, they view themselves as gods.

Now before you preach to me on how ‘Anti-Christ’ or ‘atheist’ I am, save it. I’ve heard it all and all of it is wrong, I am surprisingly very religious. I just happen to separate GOD from any form of ‘INSTITUTE’, something that allows me to appreciate the diversity of every culture and their own beliefs.

In my appreciation of the world’s diversity, I have come to many intriguing discoveries; some saddening, some ironic and some downright ridiculous.

One of them is something I’m sure many others have already picked up on, and that is within any religion/faith/what-have-you, etc. where there exists a ‘document’, you’ll find that multiple sections that separate various beliefs, rain down from that one document.

It was as if the God in question had shed a tear on that document and the single droplet had multiplied as it rained down, drifting in different directions.

As man have few ‘rain-men’, obviously a translator had to come forward, whether he was hired by any of the God’s councils, we’ll never know but there he was, writing away the translation for the rest of us. Noting it down onto paper in languages we mere mortals could understand.

Now whether the rain-man was on his meds that day is a mystery left to the ages. But histories have already been written and I doubt any God could change those words in today’s society, even if they were to come in person.

In my opinion, I rate that little detail to be irrelevant.

Why, you might ask?

Think of that saying you’ve heard before, of how a preacher or even a random individual can read ONE
line in any part from that document and each individual listener will take something  different away from it. You would be surprised how contradictory their lessons proved to be.

I imagine this is how those drifted rain drops landed where they did and created the different factions the way they did.

In the past week, it has become quite scary how deeply people have praised Mandela, some going so far as to call him ‘their lord’ and professing him as something close to that of a God. A position I think he wouldn’t feel comfortable being put in, considering the man chose to serve ONE term as president.

Mandela expressed his enjoyment of being a man, a FREE man. Yes he was flawed, but that was just something that confirmed his humanity.

How uncomfortable he must have been to watch as people turned him from an icon to a God. And like we’ve seen with gods, his tears, suffering and words became Document.

Who has not quoted the man OR learned something from him? Hated him or loved him? Been inspired or riled by him?

Then on a rainy day a rain-man was summoned for translation, but as we’ve come to be told, this one was NOT on his meds that day…

Whether that affected Malema’s actions and proclamations, I can’t say. But it makes for an interesting coincidence, don’t you think?

Like those factions born from drifted rain, probably having each read one line of their own respected Documents and taking from it different things, Malema chose to take what has become Mandela’s Document and instead of taking from it the man’s legendary humility or even the icon’s humble disposition.

Malema chose the ruthless militant.

I dread to see where this new faction is heading and the destruction they cause on their way there. 

Random Acts of Kindness caught on film

Ode to Madiba -_-

As we watch 2013 draw its curtain, we see it close the chapter of not just another year to add to the timeline, but also separate us from loved ones, be it family or friends, through sudden tragedy and sickness leaving behind just one less light to brighten an ever darkening earth for us to admire.

Nothing can be truer than the most recent media news outcry of Madiba’s apparent passing at his home in Houghton on Thursday, 5 December 2013. It was an ending the country could not have ignored any longer after Madiba’s long struggles in and out of hospital, until the warrior finally decided it was time to go home and leave the rest to us.

Nelson Mandela was and is the very example of what a fighter is built of, and not just because he lived to see the age that he did. He was a man who not only fought for himself and HIS freedom, but the freedom of those around him and those that would come after him.

I have never had the privilege of meeting the man, but I have met others with his calibre, that fire of will that allows them to fight against all odds for what is right and equal, for what is not ‘beneficial’ or ‘advantageous’ but instead just and humane.

I have no delusions that he was a man without fault, but he became the man who changed the world by not only embracing those faults and facing them, but showing us that we are not just animals defined by singular actions that define our race, our culture and that by taking responsibility for our actions and accepting not only our own culture, but that of the people around us, we would be both better people and a better nation, a UNITED nation.

In an early article I wrote, I emphasised strongly that apartheid was not our [The youth’s] war to fight or rehash or complain about. I stand by that statement; HOWEVER, I do not mean we must not learn from it. Because that is OUR history and Madiba made it a part of our history we must not only learn from, but embrace and carry within us for as long as we exist as a species.

As young people we may not have anything to do with that struggle, aside from being the descendants of those torn by it, but we have more than we will ever know to be grateful for because of the sacrifices made by those lost in that struggle and Madiba’s imprisonment in his fight to end it.

The youth must never forget that it is because of them that we walk freely, not just on the streets, but besides the vast diversity of friends we stand next to. Friends whom we might never have been allowed the same breathing area back in the day, let alone hold hands and flirt with.

The youth must be thankful to our lost titan for his sacrifice and to those whom we will never know and how they fought for the right for you and I to marry someone not from our own race or culture, giving us a nation where most of us and to our future offspring are no longer born a crime.

The youth knows nothing of the true meaning of apartheid and they hopefully never will. It is not our struggle to fight and we have Madiba and long lost faceless soldiers to thank for that. They deserve our utmost respect and gratitude and I salute them for giving me the freedom I have today.

My heart goes out to the Mandela family and I hope they take time to appreciate the treasure they had and then lost, something too few families do in this day and age. I truly hope they don’t allow what is now the ‘ANC’ to take the legacy of this great man and drag it into the mud.

The reason for my harsh words are quite simple, we still aren’t stupid ANC.

Call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever you want, but this world doesn’t function on coincidence – or at least not like this. That the ANC have gone so low as to shift focus from the snowballing problem of Nkandla and all the other tumbling cards that are making their little charade look bad, isn’t even something I want to call disappointing, it’s flat-out sickening.

But the skies don’t cry for you today.

Rest in Peace god souls lost on roads and all those in homes may the angels ensure you are not alone.

My Ode to a Great Leader,

A Titan to the Ages

Now scripted for History’s pages

Rest well dear leader from troubled cages

-          Tracy-Lee van der Haar

ANC warns Public Protector... ♦.♦

I found an interesting article, written by Baldwin Ndaba, published on: 

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/nkandla-anc-warns-thuli-1.1616351#.UqBH7dKmiBI

The article covers a warning that the ANC has apparently issued to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela concerning the leaking of certain aspects in the provisional document covering expenditure in Nkandla.

Frankly, it all boils down to a blame game of he said, she said and somehow now the EFF said something... in any case you get the idea.

What interests me most however, is the questions stated in the article that is supposedly posed to the public protector by the ANC, who seem very eager for the whole Nklandla thing to be over and done with.

I find that the ruling party are asking some pretty specific questions, the type you ask in a court of law where the words you use aren’t really the words you mean but the words you want the people to think you mean, while actually really being the wrong words to ask…

O_O

ANC’s questions to the Public Protector:

1.    Did President Jacob Zuma ask for any security upgrades at his homestead?

Did Mr President, at any point in time, refuse the installation of these upgrades as they were being installed?

Doing nothing is the same as conceding is it not? Unless of course, you are drugged and handcuffed to some dungeon or immovable object, forever alone

2.    Did the ANC president spend more than R200m in state money on his homestead?

I think this question is redundant by now. Shouldn’t we be looking more along the lines of, ‘How much more state money has he spent on his home?’

Just to be clear, differentiation between ‘state money’ and ‘his money’ is a bit senseless considering the president is paid by the money gathered from the state and thus anything he makes is and always can be classified as ‘state money’.

3.    Did President Zuma request that a swimming pool and a kraal be built and that his wife’s tuck shop be moved from its original position?

Did Mr President or said wife complain of such changes? No… well moving on.

4.    Did President Zuma request that bulletproof windows be put on particular windows and did he ask for the building of a waiting room at his homestead?

Truthfully I can see how this can be a security risk question and bring some people’s G-strings and Twinkies in a fuss, but on the other end of the jam stick: did he pay for it?

Anybody can ask for anything, nobody will complain […within reason…] but come time for checkout and the bill arrives, that’s when things REALLY matter.

As for that ‘waiting area’ mentioned… Comrade, for what..?

At home, we normal peoples like to call it a ‘lounge’ or ‘sitting room/area’. But maybe that’s a journalist’s typo, still….

5.    If not, who made those decisions and who is accountable?

I got nothing here accept to ask if JZ isn’t doing the signing of things, then who, in effect is doing his job. O__O

6.    The ANC wants to know which projects were built on state land and who decided on this.

Last year Zuma stated in parliament that ‘the government’ had come to his land and found his own construction people there and just added onto that. He went on to clarify that he didn’t know what they wanted to do or in fact were doing.

Am I wrong in assuming that ‘the government’ he spoke of is the ruling party which just so happens to be the ANC, of which he is president… @_@? Why would they want to know something they already know…?

7.    Was it the ANC president?

Wasn’t this indirectly already asked, like three times?

…Is it just me or do these questions seem repetitive and completely non-explanatory of the situation that the people would want the actual answers to…

8.    How much was spent on the security upgrade at Nkandla and how does this compare with the expenditure on the homes of other presidents?

More importantly, why does that kind of comparison matter?

There is no way you could pin the cost of half a million on a ‘fire pool’ because of ‘inflation’. Spending close to R 200 million on a president’s home is beyond ludicrous and in no way comparable to any past presidents.

Anyhow, that’s my take on those questions. Can’t wait to hear what the real answers will be, THOSE will most likely be much more fascinating to read.

To the holidays then and remember: Nkandla needs your funding, so be safe on those main roads, maybe even take a detour and visit the Nkandla road we paid a nice hefty R 290 Million for, see how the other half lives with no potholes, you know.

Web of Lies... ☼o☼

Back in 2012 we employed a domestic worker for a while and in her time of service, aside from cleaning us out, we learned something very interesting and I find it quite funny that our dear President seems to be teaching us this exact lesson about a year later.

To keep a short story shorter, there was this one week in particular… well it was her second week to be honest – where our dear worker had decided that one week was enough to show us that she could clean, though what she did clean to this day I would never be able to tell you, except if you were referring to my mother’s jewellery, the linen cupboards, our wardrobes and kitchen cupboards, those she cleaned out pretty nicely...

Anyway, in this second week of being employed she had decided that a go slow(er) was due and after having been in desperate need of someone to help around the house to clean and keep everything in order as everyone else was out working and trying to ensure there still existed a house to return to, as well as a new mouth to feed with her entry to the household, you can imagine frustration was starting to boil.

So as the week dragged on and realization began to grow at missing objects and other things, along with tenth layers of dust growing on things, tensions strained, but work schedules that lead to the situation still existed. Eventually, in the middle of the week tempers flared and the woman was given an ultimatum, step up or step out.

Come Friday, it had seemed like the woman had taken the warning seriously... and the next week, same thing. Of course things still seemed to go missing, but it was just brushed off as ‘misplaced’ or ‘old age imaginings’ on my parent’s part. But that all changed on the Monday of the fourth week.

You see, over the weekend my mother had moved some chair by accident and came across the biggest spider web any one of us had ever seen. This thing had literally become part of the furniture and wall. It was the type of thing you only saw in movies and there it was, just chilling like it was part of the decor.

I will never forget the day my mother confronted the woman about it the next time she saw her. The response was unbelievable.

‘It must have grown over the weekend…’

Seriously… that was her exact words.

Now I’m no expert in spider webs, but I’m pretty sure that thing took at least a few weeks of work, maybe even months. But like I said I’m no expert.

But those words… I can’t help but think if this is what JZ is thinking when he spins his own web of lies trying to cover up all those scandals hovering around Nkandla.

I mean how do you not know what’s happening around you?

Just like that woman was supposedly ‘cleaning’ our house, while completely unaware of this giant spider web being constructed, was JZ also just signing away laws to dig deeper into our salaries while completely unaware that right outside his window big-ass cranes were building stuff that he may or may not have asked for?

I’m sorry, but if someone started digging a giant hole and making it look all fancy and stuff, I’d start questioning why, way before someone else brought that up, especially when I wasn’t sure if I was footing the bill or not.

I really hope JZ has a better comeback than his previous statements made in 2012 of ‘I don’t know what the government came to do’ or ‘where these plans came from’. 

Last I checked Mr President, you were part and ruling parcel of the government and things don’t necessarily happen without you not knowing.

Nothing just happens ‘over the weekend’.

Why the Youth of South Africa don't Trust the Police

As children, most of us are told to trust the men and women in uniform with badges and as we grow up we soon learn to both fear and respect them, this authority that is both our protectors and our teachers placed within our society to make it a better place.

But as the years have gone by it seems this ‘authority’ has lost its true meaning over time. As a result we have the young of today looking at them with suspicious eyes and harsh judgement and to be honest, can we blame them?

Looking back at this year, 2013, we see a staggering amount of police cases involving their own people in charges that have them acting against their call of duty. According to an eNCA article, about 13 000 criminal cases are said to have cop involvement and I’m guessing those are just the ones reported.

Now I don’t know about you, but if I saw this on the news just before I was about to go out with friends after exams I sure as hell would feel the same as those PandaTeens*.

Any female driving alone at night would already [should already…O_O] be on their guard as they travel those dark pothole-riddle roads. They shouldn’t, however, have to worry about having to protect themselves from their protectors.

I’d rather get a high speed fine than stop in that situation, granted I wouldn't want to end up like the dearly departed Paul Walker [R.I.P] and his friend, Roger Rodas, but I’d honestly still choose that over the fate of having the ‘authority’ that I was raised to respect, fear and honour be sullied by some moron along with any sense of actual safety in the world being destroyed.

What about all the males driving home from a long day at the office, stopped over by the police at that good old festive road block […you know just helping out their traffic comrades in these busy times when pickings just so happen to be ripe…] to do the mandatory yet seemingly random checks, that just so happens to involve every sun-tanned, young, wealthy-looking or even all of the above individual for any misbehaviour.

Should these guys really be shoved to the ground like criminals? Simply because they refused to grease some dirty palms after they just spent a whole day working so that a percentage of their hard-earnings could be taken into the country’s wallet, that’s already meant to be paying for their services and dedication not some ‘fire pool’ that’s only ever going to extinguish bruised ego.

All this happening and we should question our youth’s distrust in the police? I'm still surprised they listen to any elders at all, at this rate, though it would seem they are learning quickly to abandon that trust too, but again, can we blame them?

Personally, I don’t think we’re giving them much to look up to. We’re allowing this crap to happen, so of course they’ll rebel and reject it, before conforming into it –only then just to survive.

The youth are constantly exposed to the unfortunate failings of our justice system and that can’t be changed without the justice system being, itself, changed for the better.  Older generations can argue out their hair follicles about how the children should just accept it as it is, but we so often forget who the labourers are that push things forward.

The youth don’t trust what they can’t see. The same goes for everyone else. The only difference is that anyone older has probably had the lucky chance of seeing the good the police has done in the past and knowing the good such an authority has on a society and a country.

The young people just need to be taught that and the police that aren't attacking women in the night or harassing men on the roads should start stepping into the light and showing the youth ‘WE EXIST!’

*Panda Research survey done on teenagers*