Clive Simpkins

Sonjica simpers her way up the ANC's bum

Media24 excerpt alongside:

Uh-oh! Stand by for the next baby boom darlings! The sycophantic minister of minerals and energy, Sonjica Buyelwa has recommended more time in bed to save energy - well, of the electrical sort, anyhow.

Our government ministers have never, under any dispensation, been noted for their intellectual prowess, but this kind of twaddle is plumbing an all-time low.

And the virus of denial about the real causes of our energy crisis, is spreading like wildfire. Read her disingenuous explanation below (it attracted jeers in Parliament) and please note that South Africa is being compared by her to emerging economic powerhouses India and China. Maybe she should follow Thabo's example and browse the Internet more frequently. She might discover some views significantly out of synch with her own parochial perspectives.

B.T.W. She thanked the ANC (to more jeers) for their 'leadership' on the energy crisis. Well, guess that boosts her career prospects a tad.
                                                                           
 

Update 10th February 2008

You know by now of course, that this ridiculous woman tried lying her way out of ever having advised us to go to sleep early. She blamed Tony Leon of the DA and claimed she was talking only to him as a joke. Regretfully she's dumb enough to forget that Hansard in Parliament records every jot and tittle. So she's been outed by that venerable organ of state. Ain't they just all too disgusting for words? It's like that jackass Nadweni Mahlangu from Mpumalanga, years ago, saying that 'It's OK for politicians to lie.' He then claimed he 'was quoted out of context' (as they all do). But I saw him  make the statement on live TV. They're all peas in one rotten pod. Yuck.

Erwin takes 'positive affirmations' to new heights

Headline (yes, a new one!) from The Times 30th Jan '08. This despite overseas and this country's top economists saying we're losing hundreds of millions to billions per day. Whatever else he doesn't do, the smart-Alec doesn't let go of an ideological viewpoint in a rush. He and Thabo have that in common when they fixate on a dissident stance.

I think I've worked out what Smart-Alec Erwin is doing. He's using Mike Lipkin-type positive affirmations in the belief that if he just keeps repeating his mantra, reality is going to conform to his fantasy. Or do you think he's repeating, 'Persistent effort is the keynote to success' or like little Tommy the toy train, 'I think I can, I think I can, I know I can.' Sigh.

When is Jacob Zuma gonna shaft this man? Now where did I put my voodoo doll.....

Imbizo.com

Zumanomics 101 and the Econojive

Please read the first two paragraphs and then scroll down...

In a seminal interview during the Polokwane Era, Jacob Zuma said something like, "I know nothing about economics, except the economics of Nkandla (his home village in rural KwaZulu-Natal). In Nkandla economics, if you see a man starving, you give him food to eat." Fair enough. But if by your own admission, you know sweet fanny adams about economics, Jacob dear, why didn't you just sit at the WEF junket in Davos and listen? You almost made it.

Reporters indicated that you were avoiding talk on matters pertaining to filthy lucre. Hopefully not just because Schabir wasn't there to advise you. Now you go blabbing to their local varsity and put yourself in the league of liars with the 'blame the unexpected growth' cop-out, alongside your nemesis Little-Foot Mbeki and She Who Replaced You, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Sigh. Ever hear the adage, 'Silence is golden'?

No doubt Msholozi will just use his unique Econojive to shimmy his way around any future economic tight spots.
Imbizo.com

No credibility among Govt. spokespeople

Do you believe anything Thabo Mbeki says? I don't. He's the man who 'acted as soon as I knew' about the charges against National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. (Currently holidaying at our expense.)

Nyet! (as his confidant Manto would say), he knew a year before as everyone now knows. (She mutters in Russian when under duress, you'll recall.)

That means that President Mbeki lies to us and lied to the religious leaders he urged a year ago, to 'trust me'.

The Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, also lies. She had the bare-faced gall to excuse the power cuts during her homily at a Johannesburg school - delivered by candle-light - by claiming our economic growth had outstripped expectations. [Click on 'continue reading'  below to read what she said]

Que? Or should that be 'Vot?' Does Thabo and does 'Phumzie', as the Citizen newspaper persists in calling her, think we're total idiots?

This is a case of 'cry wolf' once too often. So when Mbeki, Mlambo-Ngcuka or that dolt, smart-Alec Erwin open their mouths, all they do is testify to the veracity of the old saw which goes: 'How do you know when a politician's lying? Answer: 'When  his mouth is moving.' Right....having cleared that up.

It doesn't really help for anyone to 'give assurances' that all will be well, power-wise for 2010. All of their assurances to date have come to nought. In fact the outcomes have been way worse in blackout terms than any of them, or we, could remotely have imagined.

Alec Erwin must be on hallucinogenics. First, in his economics 101 bluster, he claims that the current power problems 'won't affect the economy'. A junior-school kid reading the newspaper knows that just one affected mine is losing R 100 million A DAY. Thank God this jackass isn't Minister of Finance.

Now he says (see the second yellow bit in the article) "By 2010 there would be a far more comfortable margin between supply and demand." From where, precisely, Alec? The savings we might effect (I switch off my geyser for 20 hours out of 24 and I'm a minority) - even if we ALL got into the act - will never be enough to offset the urban growth, business development and industrial expansion until that date. Even if everyone heeded the Eskom FD's Pollyanna notion, and canned any development until 2013.

As for Sepp dearest, 'Blattering' on about South Africa being 'Plan A, Plan B and Plan C'  for the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2010 - yeah, right. Wait until his ample gelatinous butt is on the line and international soccer bodies are baying for his blood. Why? Because he still wants the tourney to go ahead in what may literally then be 'darkest Africa'. He'll no doubt whip out Plan D, for which read 'dodge', and we'll find some other country had a marketing plan in the wings as 'back-up'.

Bottom line: Mbeki, Mlambo-Ngcuka, Blatter et al should just shut up as the Spanish King Juan Carlos would say to Hugo Chavez. Whatever they now say, they're just utterly unbelievable. They have no credibilty left. Only the most naive will even bother to give their belches of hot air the time of day. 'Reputation in tatters' is approximately right for 'Little Foot'. Oh, that's Mbeki's shoe size, a seven, in soft leather - bought by Jackie Selebi, according to his close chum, self-confessed fraudster and drug baron, Glen Agliotti. God, all this is better than a script for reality TV. Sophisticates must be burbling behind their dinner napkins...

New York Times backs Hillary Clinton

Coupla blogs back I predicted that America wouldn't go with a black presidential candidate - not beyond the novelty stage of the presidential primaries anyhow. Events now look seriously like the beginning of 'goodbye Barack Obama' - regardless of traditionally black demographic support.

The highly influential and conservative New York Times has come out in support of Democratic Party candidate, Hillary Clinton. Not without a tap on her wrist here and there for unnecessarily ugly campaign tactics. Go read the article. Can't say I'm going to be sorry to see Obama left behind even if he does well in black voter-supported states. Contrary to the myth of his 'great oratory' I find him to be highly inarticulate and lacking in linguistic intelligence, when it comes to off-the-cuff speeches or interviews.

Give the boychik an autocue or teleprompter and he does better.

If it weren't for a teleprompter, US President, George W. Bush might never have managed spit out one coherent sentence on his own. Maybe next time huh, Barack? No quite ready now, Senator...

What I've found amazing to date has been the Rottweiler-like (I have one!) über-campaign-manager tactics of the former Prez, Bill Clinton. I thought he'd play a strategic background role and do handshakes and baby-hugs to bathe Hillary in the halo effect of his popularity. But he's gotten really in the way of some of the events, to the extent that the media are saying, 'Yo, back off already!' Bizarre for someone who is an icon of strategy, relationship-building and social intelligence. Hope he listens to the feedback.

The NYT has backed as a Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. He's having a tough time trying to make like the wise-cracking, people-lovin' politician when he's clearly painfully shy and from his non verbal behaviour, quite an introvert. A solid man. America could do worse than go with him if it's going to be a Republican presidency.

But my money is on Hillary - nothing to do with gender, but because I'd like to see her capability combined with the backstage impact of Bill's hand (albeit a tad more subtly) on future US policy and direction. We might have some peace around the world again.

[Apologies for the spacing screw-ups in the post. I could not get Typepad to co-operate! Grrr.]

Citizen and Moneyweb get sucker-punched

Alec Hogg's away in Davos and some genius at Moneyweb has posted an article from the Citizen claiming to have been written by a former consultant to our nationally beloved powerless utility, Eskom. He's now re-employed - hence his plea for anonymity. He lays the power-vacuum blame at the doorstep of white-skinned Eskom management in the 90s. Total balderdash.

How do I know? Simple: Neither Thabo Mbeki nor Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would ever have apologised for government's unforgivable ignoring of Eskom's plea for capex to fund infrastructure development, if Mbeki could possibly have blamed anyone else. What more evidence do you need? The ridiculous assertions made by this anonymous poster are a (clearly quite successful) exercise in disinformation. He sucked in a whole bunch of people, produced a flurry of e-mails among readers, saying, 'The truth is really as follows....' and stimulated a mini racial slugfest to boot.

Kinda wonder if David Bullard might just be winding every one up a teeny bit! ;-) just before the weekend. Now all we need to complete the canard is to have Thabo say, 'Ah, yes, now that you mention it, I do recall.....' C'mon people. The left leg's the one with bells on it. Use your brains and discriminate. Just because it's in print (worse, in cyberspace) doesn't mean it's true!
imbizo.com

Smart Alec Erwin's foot in his mouth yet again!

I've just heard the infamous 'Koeberg bolt' in-the-brain Minister, smart- Alec Erwin quoted on radio as saying that the present power outages 'Won't affect the economy'. Can he then explain the headline in the Media24 extract below?

In the time of George Bush Senior, (that's Dubya's daddy) the term 'Voodoo Economics' was flung around. Erwin is proving himself to be even more incomprehensibly stoopid and incompetent than I thought possible. What was he smoking on his holiday? His socks? 

Just as well Jacob Zuma and cohorts have gotten rid of him from the ANC NEC. Now get rid of this jackass of a Minister - period!

As a part of his retirement golden handshake, sponsor a course in simple economics while you're about it, Msholozi....
Imbizo.com

Price, power and perception

Interesting! From the Citizen newspaper. I couldn't find the original survey referred to - from either Caltech, Stanford Graduate School of Business or PNAS, but maybe Google ain't yet picked up the topic.
imbizo.com

Sumthin' light'n cute for a change

Was browsing Google Images for an addition to the Swami Shivapadananda Blog, when I ran across this. Had to share it with you!

Nationwide Airlines PR debacle continues

[Update 1st February 2008 - click on 'Continue Reading...' for the CA SAA CEO/Commissioner, Colin Jordaan's response.]

Nationwide Airline's reputation is severely dented. Remember the engine that fell off one of their aircraft recently? And their grounding over the holiday season by the CAA? Their comms on the topic were pretty abysmal. Hints of denial rather than coming clean on the sullied paper trail of spare parts. They probably hoped it would just 'go away'. But it hasn't.

I've just found the chance to upload this article (below) from the Financial Mail's 'FM Fox' section, issue of 18th January. It's worth reading if you're interested in your airline safety. The part marked in yellow is particularly scary. And look who's allegedly making the statement. What I find particularly puzzling is that the statements attributed to CAA CEO and Commissioner of Civil Aviation, Colin Jordaan, are a direct contradiction of his comments in the Mail & Guardian article online yesterday, 21st January. Did the FM screw it up? If Nationwide Airline's PR person is awake and reading, she/he better do something about sorting this glitch, pronto!