Pesach

What better way to celebrate Passover and our friends employment than with some cracking Lebanese food? Was pretty funny actually, Talya and i trying not to say any Yiddish words, or give any indication that we were Jewish (Jews not really welcome in Lakemba...). These fallafel are good, but they're not as good as the ones in... the holy land. Amen, and cheers to that!

following in Al's footsteps...

Who says the unemployment rate is increasing? OK so it is, but thankfully not among us anymore... I got a J.O.B and I start Tuesday. Wooo Hooo!! Ok so it is only a 5 month contract but it is a foot in the door with a reputable NGO (http://www.beatit.co.za/home/index) in a fairly senior position as the project manger for a new PMTCT (that is preventing mother to child transmission) training program. It is a national project that has potential to go beyond the 5 months. I am happy :)

And back to Zuma

Yes yes I'm hearing you say quit it with the bladdy politics already. Whatever! JZ just won't stop.

I have always maintained that there can be no real reason to be genuinely worried about one's future in our beautiful SA until one or both of the following things happens:

• You or someone you love is harmed by crime. Such an experience fundamentally alters your outlook on life in SA.
• The independence, legitimacy, and authority of our courts come under attack from the ruling party, which has the power to change or at least seriously undermine the constitution. See I avoided saying 'rule of law' again.
  

The former hasn't really happened to me so I've never been genuinely worried.

But last year Gwede Mantashe, Sec. Gen. of the ANC, started hurling abuse at Con Court judges, questioning their objectivity in the Zuma issue (via the Hlope issue). No specific action plans, but a fair amount of emotion and anger. Ok, so Gwede was caught on a bad day. The incident was sort of brushed aside.

But now that Zuma is 'free', he's gone a step further:

"In an astonishing attack on judges, President-in-waiting Jacob Zuma has blasted the conduct of the judiciary and questioned the supremacy of the Constitutional Court as the highest court in the land, saying it is ‘not God’. According to a Cape Times report, he also accused Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke of declaring war against the ANC, and harshly criticised other judges who ruled against him in his corruption court appearances. Zuma said he wanted a review of the status of the Constitutional Court, because its judges were capable of committing mistakes. ‘If I sit here and I look at a Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, that is the ultimate authority. I think we need to look at it, because I don't think we should have people who are almost like God in a democracy… Why are they not human beings?’ The report notes that he said the JSC should review the status of the Constitutional Court. Zuma added that the impression had been created that Constitutional Court judges could not make mistakes. ‘That's why I am saying they are almost close to God…’"

Just who the fuck do you think you are Jacob Zuma?

Gliklech Pesach

Apparently "gliklech" means "happy" in Yidd. So ya, happy constipation to all my furry little Jewish friends!

and now for a giggle...

Can't stop obsessing about JayZ

"On whether Zuma would reveal where he was on the weekend of March 10 and 11 2000 -- his former financial advisor Schabir Shaik during his corruption trial confirmed that he had set up a meeting with Zuma and Alain Thetard, former head of Thompson CSF’s (Thales) South Africa division to facilitate a R500 000-per-annum bribe on March 10 -- Zuma responded by saying: 'Where I was on the 11th and 12th … this question has always been asked wrongly and everybody has been following it. It is an issue that relates to the substance of the matter and I answer this question all the time in Parliament … it has always been asked wrongly and that is not my business, to help people ask the correct question. Some people have even won an award on this wrong question.'

"Such opaqueness may work in personal defence of an individual who increasingly refers to himself in the third person, but whether it will facilitate the accountable governance of South Africa is doubted."

From M&G

NPA se moer

Ok so the dust is settling a little, and at least four things stand out.

1. The merits of the Zuma case remain untested in court. Mpshe stressed that the evidence he has still provides the basis for a strong case against Zuma, and that his investigative and prosecutorial teams have done little wrong. So Zuma is off the hook but the cloud remains. The cloud is, however, a little less dark, since Mpshe promised the NPA would end its Zuma dealings here.

2. There is nothing in the Leonard McCarthy-Bulelani Ngcuka conversations, which were mainly about the timing of the re-instatement of charges (after Polokwane instead of before) that seem to fatally wound the investigation. Mpshe took pains to single out this one issue as the only problem in the EIGHT YEAR investigation. This seems like a tiny problem to most people, including my hero Steven Friedman. It certainly doesn't seem like enough of a reason to drop everything. Why? Because although the conversations should never have happened, Mpshe presented no evidence showing that these conversations in any way dilute the strength of the evidence against Zuma. See point 1.

3. Thint gets off the hook too, which is especially galling since the issue raised in point 2 cannot in any possible world apply to Thint. Will the NPA open a separate case against Thint? Might that be a backdoor for re-opening the Zuma investigation? I hope so.

4. If the NPA has already suffered illegal political influence, can you imagine how compromised it might become under a President that retains a strong interest in seeing lots of evidence disappear? Some lawyers have argued that because of this conflict of interest it is ridiculous to allow Zuma any say whatsoever in the administration of any aspect of the criminal justice system in South Africa. I agree.

Lots of good coverage in Business Day today. This whole thing sucks. Zille is applying for the NPA decision to be reviewed in court. Let a judge decide if the NPA should stop its prosecution. For once I agree with the DA.

Oh ya one last thing - who else's phone conversations is the NIA recording? Jislaaikit, I work for government too!

Hold the phone

I didn't read the M&G piece that closely. The taped conversations between Ngcuka and Leonard McCarthy (former head of the DSO (Scorpions), which means he was basically deputy head of the NPA under Pikoli and Mpshe, and is currently head of the World Bank's Integrity Unit), which formed the core of Zuma's representations to the NPA, will be released today. Mpshe actually quoted from them during the press conference this morning. These conversations show that the NPA didn't act independently - that there clearly was political meddling in the Zuma case. That doesn't mean Zuma didn't do anything wrong, but it does mean the NPA can't be trusted to prosecute him in a constitutionally fair manner. Zuma's rights have been abused.

This is explosive stuff. Presumably once these tapes are out there anyone can mount a case against Ngcuka and McCarthy. And maybe others? How the tables have turned.

Full Mpshe statement

As expected - all charges dropped

A great pity. This tells people that politicians can be 'too big to stand trial', and that political advancement is all about identifying the next hugely popular politician and giving him lots of stuff. That's always been the case, but now it seems you can give him stuff illegally too. Because, if he becomes popular enough, he will be able to do no wrong, literally.

I don't know what to think. So we've avoided a short term meltdown and potentially violent elections, but long term I don't think this does us any favours. All I know is that I've done two posts on this issue without saying 'rule of law' once. Oh yes, and that the Shaik judgement definitely does mean that Zuma is guilty of something corrupt. That is fact. If it weren't, Zuma's assertions that he is innocent should have led him a long time ago to opening proceedings against the NPA. He didn't, of course, because it was useful to run around claiming victimisation, knowing that right at the end, just before the election, you would get off scott free.

What's next? Zille has said she would force the NPA to defend its decision in court if it did this. We'll see. I just want to see written reasons. The NPA promised us they would provide some.

So the NPA hey

Wow. The National Prosecuting Authority is supposed to be announcing today its decision re. the Zuma charges. This is a really big day in our country's history. Who would want to be Mokotedi Mpshe? Will he drop the charges or not?

He will drop the charges. Duh.

It concerns me. Not because I find Zuma distasteful or unfit for office. Whatever man - most politicians are rubbish manipulative unscrupulous people who had to resort to politics when every other respectable profession kicked them out.

No, this whole thing concerns me because South Africa has quite clearly, in the space of 5 short years, developed a class of untouchables. Everyone with any sort of power and something significant to lose now has a good few skeletons in the closet. So no-one rolls over on anyone else, and corruption becomes something that is not just tolerated but is a means of political survival. The dirtiest sit on top doling out enough cream to keep enough powerful people on sides. Those perceived to be clean or incorruptible are forced out to let the rest of the dirty little monkeys carry on throwing their poo at South Africa's institutions.

Maybe Zuma only came to understand this recently. Maybe his lawyers have been delaying for so long because they needed more time to dig up more dirt on people like Comrade Thabo. Maybe.

I think Zuma has always understood the rules of the game. I think his difficulty was that the NPA's top brass changed after he was booted out of government. The old guys (mainly Ngcuka) were as tainted as anyone by the arms deal, meaning that Zuma would never get into court (why else would Ngcuka claim a prima facie case against Zuma but then refuse to proceed with laying any charges? Look, he's guilty, but I don't want to have all his dirty laundry aired in court, because some of it's mine.) .

The new guys (mainly Pikoli) probably were mostly clean, and probably did have a genuine desire to implement the law. Which is why they never got anywhere, and why Pikoli was eventually axed for no (objectively) good reason. Who axed him? Mbeki. Why? Because Mbeki was worried about what might emerge if Pikoli's investigations, which were connecting to the arms deal all sorts of dots that no-one thought possible, continued.

So here we are waiting for the NPA's decision. It has been receiving 'representations' from Zuma's lawyers for about 2 weeks now. We already know their main argument: that they have evidence implicating lots of other powerful people in the arms deal fiasco. The NPA should simply take the evidence and open lots of new dockets. The NPA should be able to do so, since the current NPA leadership should (I hope) have no skeletons of its own to worry about (especially none connected to the arms deal). But I guess there's more to it than that. Can you imagine the chaos when Zuma, by then sitting state president, has to appear in court this August? The country would go nuts.

Seen in this light the COPE sideshow is slightly more interesting than being completely boring. Lekota (defense minister after Modise), George (Lekota's deputy), Shilowa et al either didn't get any arms deal pork, or are confident that a court wouldn't find them guilty of anything related to the arms deal-Zuma saga. If not there's no way they would have run off saying all those bad things about the ANC and Zuma. Or maybe they did and were prepared to do the right thing when the NPA came a-knocking? Ya, not really.

I really really really hate what the the arms deal has done to (political) South Africa, and I will blame Mbeki for all of it unless he writes a bladdy book telling me that it was someone else's fault. Such a book would be a super best seller, no doubt.

I am employed!

So the bad news is that I would like to tender my resignation as group personal secretary. I will no longer be on hand to organise birthday presents, accommodation etc on a permanent basis. But the good news is that I have a job as InVenFin's Research Analyst! (http://www.invenfin.com/) They are a venture capital company, invest in great, innovative new companies, are a group of nice people, they are organised and want to pay me a decent salary! Amazing but true. My job will be to assess new investments and opportunities, make recommendations and assist with managing their investments (2 signed and 3 on the table). Start on Wednesday so the life of leisure is over, but then again the bank account is looking very sorry for itself.

Miss Universe is, like, so smart, and stuff

And like, so well informed and politically aware.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7976207.stm

who has the cutest nephew ever.............

i bought jakob his first anorak.. a swedish stylish number.. oh so cool.

Tshwane nightlife

Rocking! Not an April 1 story either - see here if you donbelievit.

Man threatens fiancee with bazooka

Pretoria revellers had a close call when an enraged man allegedly threatened to blow up his fiancee in a late-night pub with a high-explosive anti-tank rocket.

The 27-year-old Centurion resident is believed to have flown into a fit of rage following a heated argument with his girlfriend outside Firkin Fun Pub during the early hours of Saturday morning.

It is believed that the man became upset with his fiancee after she began flirting with several other revellers in the pub, and stormed out into the parking lot.

Running to his car, he opened the boot and grabbed an Armbrust anti-tank grenade launcher, which is also commonly known as a bazooka, and a .303 hunting rifle before charging back to the pub.

The disposable recoilless German-made rocket launcher, which is specially suited for urban conditions, uses high explosive ammunition that creates a high-velocity jet of metal that can pierce solid armour.

It is not known how the man came into possession of the military-issue weapon, or how long he had it in the boot of his car.

Police from Gauteng rapid response unit and Lyttelton police station arrested the man after they received calls from revellers who spotted the man with his weapons.

Information from police is that the man, who had no rounds for the launcher, apparently just wanted to threaten his fiancee.

"When we came round the corner and saw what he had, we got a hell of a fright. There is no ways our bulletproof vests would have been able to stop those things," said an officer.

He said that if there had been rounds and the man had fired at the pub, he would have destroyed more than just his fiancee.

"There would have been some serious collateral damage. He probably would have destroyed half the block," he said.

The policeman said the man had apparently got the device for a Halloween party in 2008, and had apparently forgotten to return it to the person he borrowed it from.

"At this stage we are trying to establish where the weapon came from, especially as it is not a grenade launcher that is used by the South African National Defence Force," he said.

Decisions Decisions....

For those who are still undecided which way they are going to swing come April 22nd and are looking for a bit of inspiration... Here is a little electioneering fun. Gives some interesting results :)
http://elections.mg.co.za/pollpredictor

is anyone out there...?

so it's been me on this blog. me?
where is everyone? did the internet connection in south africa suddenly just die?
come on people!

okay.. this could be because I am procrastinating big time. i admit. I'll give a little, and i mean just a little bit of rope for this fact.

I, Talya chalef, am meant to be writing a budget. ugh, budgets.. and applications and money and more money. Why can't people just see that experimental artsy shit is worth funding and just throw their currency at me? It doesn't need to be dollars or australian dollars. it can be pounds, euros or any other. I'm partial to pounds but won't be too fussed either way.

So I have an exciting residency of my work in July. whooop whooop. I get to have a season and redevelop my previous work "in other words". it's not out there" in the "announced world" just yet, so i can't go and say it in full (I.e. details of venue etc etc) -but I'm kind of saying it, kind of... :-)

- greggles, if you didn't get to see it last time, here's your chance.

And because of this..we're going full tilt on the funding drive to take us over to Argentina in October. Yes, my birthday month. Think I'm keen to be in a salsa club with sexy Latino men when I turn the big 3 0

Ok people, that's enough rambling for now.

I'm having a party this Saturday in Melbourne at my house. If you feel so inclined, come along!
xxx

Macgyver is making a comeback!!!!!

i wrote to him when i was six. he didn't reply....

the giant mosquito is back in town

Am i getting old, or just less tolerant?

What the fuck is up with Twitter? Seriously, is that the best new 'social media' phenomenon we can manage? Their angle is that they 'keep you connected in real time'. Why do i need to be connected in real time TEXT? Why don't i just phone the person i need to be connected to? Oh right! So they dont mean stay connected with my friends, they mean stay connected like a pop-consuming sycophantic leech to the arse of my favourite pop star? What a load of kak. 

I know this little rant against Twitter is going to do nothing to its popularity (despite me being a techological tastemaker and futurist of note). In fact, I'm sure someone said the same thing about text messaging, and look at them now, little packets of communicative wonder, they've spawned their own retarded language. It wud b gud to spk like a 5 yr old, but i'm 2 old for that 2 i reckon. 

The thing is, i think i get why Twitter is so popular. I'm sure that a fair proportion of subscribers use it for following the bowel movements and marketing plugs of their favourite stars, and i'm also pretty sure that people use it as a legitimate means of keeping in contact with news items, or new products or interesting tidbits that their friends might post up, but i am willing to bet my favourite t-shirt that the majority of users just like the idea of broadcasting their voice into the ether. It like a handjob for the ego. Its like a Facebook status bar. It does for your intelligence what a comb-over does for your appearance. Maybe your ego swells a little when you read your tweets back to yourself, but look at yourself in the mirror again... your witticisms aren't very clever, and truth be told, nobody gives a fuck, because they're all too busy tweeting at each other with their own hackneyed insights.

A few twitter facts :

• Its old (like years old)
• Nobody gives a fuck that you enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire
• It has been making headline news in Arse-stralia because a clever blogger has been using it to parody a right wing politician, intent on keeping the internet in Australia free of anything that might pollute the mind of its pure Christian youth.
• Its not even 1 zillionth as cool as icanhascheezburger as an internet phenomenon (not quite a meme), but hopefully it dies a lot faster

i can't take the credit - tari's sending me these links -but they're cool!!!

Sheep Art in Wales

Congrats to Mez and Lara!

Happy marriage ladies. We all had a great paahty, and we all wish you the very very best for the rest.

Out in May, in probably very few good book stores

melbourne's - The Herd

they're like melbourne's moodphase five!

not a new one - but i like it :-)

I finally agree with a labour union

Because I dislike SAA more than I dislike greasy union bosses.

SAA board should be fired - union

In other news, the Proteeee-is are handing the Arsetraaaaiyyins asses to them. YES PLEASE.

Zuma vs. Mbeki, round 57

Ok ok so it's looking increasingly likely that Zuma's charges will be dropped. We kind of always knew that would happen; the chances sky-rocketed after his court date was pushed beyond election time. There's no way the ANC would ever let a sitting state president stand trial for graft.

But that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is the media's half-baked guesswork as to why the charges will be dropped (apart from the rather non-specific meta-reason above). The M&G claims, in a story entitled "What Zuma told the NPA," that charges against Zuma ought to be dropped beacuse Zuma has evidence that could bring down lots of others. His principal target is of course Comrade Thabs. If I were a fearless state prosecutor able to operate beyond the reach of grimy politicians, I would not drop charges against Accused Number 1 just because he shows me there should be Accussed Numbers 2-48 on the charge sheet (which we all knew should have been the case from the start).

Would you?

Dans

My current favourite dance track:


Solid Gold - The Golden Filter from golden filter on Vimeo.

I have a thing for breathy sexytime vocals and obvious synthesiser sounds.

The Night of Burning Blazes

Woke up to call from Dan at 01h45 this morning informing me that the mountain was ablaze... Couldn't believe my eyes - those firefighters had their work cut out for them, still amazed to see the vredehoek towers standing in the morning light. Was a very eerie sight with a bank of cloud hanging over the mountain and the sky all orange in the night.

More pics at http://www.news24.com/News24/Gallery/Home/0,,galleries-1-7438,00.html

Hello Sailor!

A few good Women (& 1 token gay boy)

Rubber Duckies floating in blue water

Sitting on the deck Champagne

Top Gun soundtrack

Boob cupcakes

Hello Sailor panties

Lube anyone?

Robbie who can't be photographed as he has a day job at a big SA Bank

Hot Dogs

Champagne

Passed out naked girl in my bed. Where must I sleep?

Fuzzy head

Sticky table tops

Sunday sleep

Elections

Well the electioneering is in full gear, and is trully uninspired on all fronts. But for those of you living abroad, you may be interested to hear that the ConCourt has ruled that you'll be able to vote in the upcoming elections if you have registered to vote in any previous election, and you inform the chief electoral officer by March 27. Not sure how you are supposed to inform them, but best bet to phone the embassy. The KISS party is still on the register, so it shouldn't be a difficult choice.

Happy Birthday Kenjamin!

Hope its a rad year.

Recommendations

I was reading a music blog the other day when i came across this tasty Amazon marketing ploy that lists your artists favourite artists. Naturally, i tracked down Tunde Adebimpe's (from TV on the Radio) entry, as i am a shameless whore to pop culture, and I MUST own EVERYTHING ever touched by ANYONE from TVOTR. What? he thinks Deerhoof are the greatest band in the world??? Well I had better find their album then, hadn't I? Its a pretty obscure band, and a pretty obscure album and wasn't nearly as easy to get hold of as i had expected, and to be honest, i wasn't nearly as entertaining as i had hoped. I mean, its not bad, but the shrieking J-pop vocals are a bit much after a while, and frankly, they are not a patch on TVOTR. The punchy guitar work is pretty cool though, and its worth a listen, just don't spend sleepless nights cursing yourself for not even having heard about the band that Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio thinks is the best band in the world.

I rarely take music recommendations from other people anyway, because i usually find the music tainted by my view of the person that recommended it (shallow, i know). That's not a problem if i really like the person who recommended it and respect their taste in music, but if i know they know dick about music and own even one of the 'Now that's what i call music' tapes, then I'll only be disappointed, even if the music they are recommending is really good.


ANYWAY, this whole situation reminded me of a comment DJ Eli made on his blog a few months back about a Tears for Fears album that he reckoned was 'flawless'. Yeah, i laughed too, until i managed to pick up a copy (mint condition - $8!!) a few weeks back, and gave it a listen. It's awesome. Perhaps not flawless, but definitely worth owning in whatever format you can get it. That's a recommendation from me, but don't let your dislike of my changeable and snobbish views on music influence your decision to listen to (and love) the The Hurting by Tears for Fears.

Sorry for all the videos, but this one couldnt go unposted

From the TTL Blog - telling it like it is...

We all make mistakes Rob

a visit to pinelands

i've written a sphiel on my blog..

Best song out right now, in my opinion.

The rest of the album is a yawnfest, but i reckon this song is a CRACKAH! Of course Animal Collective includes Panda Bear, so Pitchfork have been creaming their shorts over this for a while. I wonder how much Roland paid for that product placement?



Come on Stormers! Moer those Blou Bulle!

cape town is just cool

leaving on monday... sad.

Book Review: In a Different Time

As I am one of the few girls who do not belong to a book club (I am trying to boycott book clubs and start a much trendier knitting club ;) - I thought I would do a book review on the blog. Besides I think this book will appeal to you politically minded boys too. It was recommended to me by Paula - mainly because she kept having to leave things early - she had to get back to the next chapter to find out what was happening to the Delmas four. I really enjoyed this book and since we were thaughts such a KAK version of SA history in school - I am now on a mission to educate myself of what happened in SA from the 1940's onwards. So scary that this happened in our lifetime and the distorted public perceptions of what was really happening. I want to go back to school to redo history (kids learn such cool stuff now!) - check out this site if you have any more SA history questions - http://www.sahistory.org.za/

Description: In a Different Time is set in a South Africa gripped by unrest and political tension, when the ANC was in exile and repression at its height. It tells the story of four young South Africans who, in 1987, embark on a mission that will ultimately take them to Death Row. Jabu Masina, Ting Ting Masango, Neo Potsane and Joseph Makhura form a highly trained and experienced assassination squad reporting directly to Chris Hani, commander of Mkonto we Sizwe (MK, the anti-apartheid resistance movement). The narrative details their infiltration into the country, their operations, arrest and subsequent trial – showing these men to be the foot soldiers who have sacrificed everything. As their trial unfolds, with their attorney fighting againsts impossible odds to save them from the gallows, so too does the story of their own lives and the choices they make. Into this storyline Peter Harris, the attorney to the four and narrator of the book, weaves another strand of narrative: the construction of a bomb and its deadly journey towards its target. The result is a tale of bizarre coincidence and tragedy, a riveting courtroom drama, and a real-life political thriller that tells of the acts people will commit to preserve the status quo, and the extraordinary lengths to which people go in order to fight for what they believe.

Salman and me, we's TIGHT!

Salman Rushide slams Slumbum Millibum, and tells it like it is here.

In other news... I'm moving! This might not seem like huge news for those that dont have to find accomodation in the retarded Sydney real estate market, but to find an ok place for a price that doesnt cripple is something of an achievement. I have a garden now, so i can finally have a braai! SHITYEAH!

Check out my charming cottage here (it loooks better in person). Oh, and the only way we managed to secure a lease was by offering the blood sucking leeches, AHEM, real estate agents, more than the advertised price. If it keeps people out of Sydney, bring on the recession I say.

Shalom.

Grek

FORK FORK FORK

We're gonna lose. Kinda wishing the rain would come now. Dammit. I dislike losing to Australia.

Fun in the Sun

Silvermine is my new favourite thing! Eating and swimming and then doing it all again - all afternoon :)

Bday fun at Silvermine 09

KOM AAN PROTEAS!!!!

If we beat Australia today we will smash the world record for a successful test match run-chase. We still need 276 runs today, which is huge. But we have also still have 8 wickets in hand. I was there at the game all weekend. So depressed after Saturday, when we played kak, but now I believe! Maybe Jacques can at last get his moerse big hundred against the Australians.

At the very least we have no more weather like this on the horizon to ruin everything.


P.S. Peter Siddle is a wanker.

Join the Goth Scene!

Do it now. It's the #1 alternative community on the Net.

Drinks at Bakoven

Yip - this is why we live in Cape Town.! We met for drinks on the rocks at Bakoven on Saturday evening, even though it was cloudy there wasn't a breath of wind and was amazingly beautiful.

Sorry Kezzah!

Don't mean to rain on your parade (i know you were going to post something), but seriously, what a load of kak! Can't say i agree with a single award, total populist nonsense! Why don't they just call it the 'Top of the Popscars', or amalgamate it with the Teen Choice Awards?

Why doesn't anyone have STANDARDS anymore? The Oscars is turning into a Miss South Africa - style beauty pageant.

My naam is Daan Dennis, en jou aangename kennis.

OMG OMG SAA again!

After everything, confirming they are the second worst company on earth after Telkom (actually I think they are now the worst), SAA have threatened Parliament with claims that they cannot survive without a massive capital injection. The depth of their problems should provide Carl Niehaus with some comfort. The audacity! The hubris! The *&%I*&)(*&(*^(*&%$&^IRFYUK AAAAAAAAAAH.

Read the story here - it's a helluva thing.

Jesse Duarte is a muppet... and Joost has a seks-video! (haai man nee wat?!)

Jesse Duarte is the worst spin doctor on earth. John Robbie cornered her so easily this morning over this Carl Niehaus story - she got kakked on by a short irritating Irishman while trying to defend someone she apparently doesn't like very much. What a muppet. She basically admitted that the ANC, in failing to make public the fact that it had explicit knowledge of Niehaus's corruption while at GEDA, supports the idea that being corrupt is OK as long as the papers never find out. You'll still find a job in the ANC, even if you are corrupt and the the ANC knows you're corrupt - just don't tell anyone else. She didn't even half deny Robbie assertion to that effect. It was all um, errr, I'm not a lawyer but we believe... aaah. And then she said the ANC is committed to uncovering and exposing corruption within its ranks. Useless.

In much perkier news, apparenly Joost van der Westhauzen (for our British readers) het 'n seks-video gemaak (for our native readers). Heat magazine think's this is the biggest thing ever in the whole world. Their cover story has been "UPDATED X4!". Fokkin uitstekend werk mense!

Randoms

This website is fokken funny; giving advice to those girls that date the now-not-so-rich NYC bankers.

And quite a cool 4AD sampler for free download....
..shit, doesn't want to embed, so here's the link

4AD also just released the Dark Was The Night compilation this week. It can't really live up to the hype, but should be pretty good if you're in a country that can get it. I know Phil's been waiting for the deep meaningful tunes.

SAA is a disgrace

Twice in two months. TWICE IN TWO MONTHS! At the same airport! Same offence! Ok this time the drugs were different. 2kg coke instead of 50kg dope. An SAA crew member phoned 702 this morning saying that this sort of thing has been going on for a while, and not just to London. After the first incident SAA promised, *promised* to improve security checks for SAA crew leaving ORT (apparently SAA does this on its own - ACSA's normal procedures have never been applicable). This guy says precisely nothing has changed, and that he is pulling himself off the London flights to avoid being arrested (they tend to lock up the entire crew over there).



SAA has received taxpayer money every single year since they lost a squidgillion betting against the rand. This year's budget gave them another R1.6 billion. When will SAA return to profitability? I'm not even asking overall - just operating! How hard can it be? Yes fuel is expensive and demand has collapsed, but the reverse was true 5 years ago and they were still making losses then. Africa is the least competitive, most profitably airspace in the world. Risks are fairly high but margins are much higher. They should be creaming it, because as rubbish as they are, only Kenya Airways sort of touches sides with their coverage and service.

SAA's long-standing CEO is some kinda megalomaniac corporate gangster who seemingly had to report to no-one but Crazy Alec Erwin. But he has now been suspended by the SAA Board pending the outcome of an internal investigation into his "gross mismanagement". I forget who the new Minister of Public Enterprises is, but praise be to that person for forcing some accountability of Don Khaya.

The Springboks and Proteas don't fly SAA. Government officials shouldn't, because the Public Finance Management Act requires that the cheapest be used. But some okes have some weird patriotism thing going where they feel they have to fudge their requirements to make the SAA quote the right one for them. They just have to spend more taxpayer money than they need.

I hope the new finance minister stops giving them money. I hope they are allowed to go pop, Lehman-style. We don't need a flag carrier. Especially not if it regularly embarrasses the country like it did yesterday, and last month, and all those other times before.

went to a gig today... this girl is AMAZING... for once i know a muso you all don't.. and trust me.. she's going to be huge.

Some random thoughts i've had lately put together in no particular order to make up a blog post

The Australian bush fires are crazy, and that people died is really awful, but the way the commercial television stations here have hammed the whole thing up into some international catastrophe, you'd think it was more important than a fucking war or something. Really, it makes me want to be sick all over my Wallaby jumper - Luke Watson style. Some Australian troops killed five children in a gunfire exchange with the Taliban this last week, but we'd all rather not talk about that WHEN SOME TRUE BLUE FAIR DUNKUM AUSSIES HAVE SAVED A DEHYDRATED KOALA!! Chill the fuck out, really, the fires suck, but the fact that you're living in a state with a really sound social safety net should ease the pain. Oh, and i don't own a Wallaby jumper - what do you take me for??

I saw The Wrestler last night, and goddamn! its sad, but its also excellent. It makes a big, runny, lamb vindaloo pooh all over Slumdog Millionaire, which i thought was a big pile of arse. That Darren Aronofsky guy is a genius. He made me cry. 

I was also thinking the other day how Asako Kishi is really the only judge on Iron Chef with standards. That snivelling Shinichiro Kurimoto always panders to the Iron Chefs, and Mayuko Takata just giggles and loves anything the chefs put into her mouth (ANYTHING!). 

Anyways, I'm tired and pissed off. Its been a long week. 

Shabbat Shalom.

Does anyone else find this Carl Niehaus story weird?

So the current ANC spokesman, former spokesman for Mandela, ANC stalwart, one of the few good whites from back in the day, etc etc blah, is worse than his big boss Msholozi at managing personal finances.

Thanks to the M&G the whole country now knows the extent of Carl's problems/sins/crimes. Carl claims he will likely lose his job now that these things are in the public domain. He has not denied them (although continues to spin some details), and has tendered his resignation at Luthuli House, even though he claims the ANC has known for three years the full extent of his financial difficulty (read fraud, corruption, bad debt, Brett Kebble, you name it).

If the ANC have known for that long, and would only consider firing him if details became public, why hire him so close to the most important election in the country's history? What are the chances of keeping so many skeletons inside one closet for so long? The story was bound to break at some stage, and appointing him spokesperson would only have increased the media's interest in doing so.

He must have consulted ANC leaders over the M&G's request for an interview, and what to say if one were granted, well before these stories were written. They must have told Carl to do it. [They also presumably must have indicated what would be the consequences of doing it, making all Carl's fuss about his handing in his resignation odd. He must have known before talking to M&G whether or not the ANC was going to kick his ass out.] So it isn't surprising that the tone of his quotes in the M&G articles appear heavily scripted. As were his comments on the two radio interviews he did this morning. Poor me, I'm not so bad I just made mistakes, I didn't know how to say no to my second wife, I thought you had to pay for love to keep it, but rest assured I will fall on my sword in the name of my love for the ANC and South Africa. Because I am such an honourable guy. What kak. He's fallen on his sword or been kicked out of: the Presidency, Delloitte, and the Gauteng Economic Development Agency. If you love the ANC and South Africa so much why are you running around constantly trying to wreck it in the name of big houses and shoes for your wife? Another one who didn't fight the struggle to be poor, it seems.

I really can't think of a logical set of reasons why this might have been something the ANC has planned and arranged, unless someone on the new NEC really fuckin hates Carl. I can't see how this helps the ANC's election bid. Their President still isn't clear of corruption charges; now their chief spokesperson is blubbing on national radio about his own corruption. And the other spokesperson, Jesse I don't need to obey traffic laws at all if I'm Gauteng Safety and Securiy MEC Duarte, apparently hates him. Will be interesting to see what one spokesperson has to say about the other - no doubt later today!

Viva South African politics Viva! It is never ever boring.

Fatboy Slim was the bomb....

... and Sony pushing figures in your face is strangely thrilling!

My Sister-in-Law

Is a writer. She wrote a book about her childhood and early adult years a short while ago, but i wont post that on the blog, because you should buy it rather (click the pic!). I don't feature, in case you're wondering. In fact, I've only met her once.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you that you can read her new little story on McSweeney's here. She also wrote a naughty sestina a while back for McSweeney's, and you can read that here. For Free!

All my love,

Greg

Armageddon in Melbourne - come on.. say it quickly...

HOTTEST DAY IN HISTORY...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/city-swelters-records-tumble-in-heat-20090207-80ai.html

I live in town that became an oven today. 46 degrees celcius.. hottest it's ever been in recorded history.......
trees lost their leaves, black smoke billowed over the houses, people stayed indoors and stared out of their windows, which if they looked anything like mine, had foils over them.

We foiled our windows to keep the heat out as much we could. My housemates and I ventured out, despite warnings not to leave our houses by our State premier, to go and get vidoes and iced coffees - a girl has her addictions..;-) not going to stop for some weirdass hottest day in history nonsense, now is it?!

So we sat in our darkened house under fans with iced ginger water, spray bottles and took turns with cold showers.
All of us felt nauseos at some point in the day and reminded each other to just keep on sipping from those water bottles.

And then I had to go to a theatre and perform. Thank #$%#$% we have air conditioning at La Mama.
After the "don't leave for anything, don't go on public tranport, don't just don't" messages today in the media, I was suprised to see we still had an audience rock up. I think they were pleasantly suprised to walk into a balmy 25 degrees, which felt quite cool after the day we had.

What is going on in the world that we have these weird ass fire raging crazy days down here in down under whilst up there in the land of the north there are blizzards going on?

Can anyone tell me if this has something to do with the tilt of the earth? The ozone hole? The global warming effect? Someone..must know something..?! Come on.........

Hey Tals..

Hot enough for you???

or not...?!

ok, so I was trying to put the link in for infecting the city festival... no love.

check out

http://www.infectingthecity.com/

check it out....

Eclipse

I understand Jozi was a little cloudy making it difficult to see the magic this morning. So here is my only vaguely decent picture taken through an xray of Dan's foot :) apologies for the quality.

Apparently the next one is in 2016 :)

HAPPY BIRTDHAY PAUL

Sorry we couldn't celebrate yesterday properly with you and all the crew in jozi but hope the picnic was great!