EGHADS!
I just saw now that I haven't posted since I left the UK.
I plead no interwebz access!!!
Until now.
So a quick recap since July.
Had to come back to SA since my visa expired.
Currently sleeping on my mom's Couch of Doom!
Am now saving up to go back as a student - wish me luck!
Got a permanent job and as of today, am proud owner of a little Opel Corsa Lite!
Will be updating more often from now on.
Dear Mr Brown,
Fuck you and your beauracratic, immigrant red tape in the ear.
Insano
Dear Universe,
Firstly, than you for letting me exist. I like existing. Being cognisent of my existance and being able to enjoy the simple things you provide in the hours I spend in your company.
Like chocolate, Haagen Das, good lager (Peroni and Red Stripe come to mind), music, sunshine, thunderstorms and of course, family.
I do, however, have a small complaint to lodge with you. While I enjoy the simpler things you provide, I am, afterall, human and bein that, have dreams and aspirations and even, on a good day, hope and optimism.
So, then, why, I have to ask, do you instill those things in me and then make it hard as fuck to reach them?
It's like putting a huge 70% off sale sign in the window, only to find that none of the shoes fit and all the clothes are pink. Not fucking fair, is it?
I've been really good, sending out positive karma into your world and what do I get in return?
Sucky ass jobs that pay nothing, continuous let downs and disappointment.
In truth Universe, you have decidely pissed me off. I've been working so fucking hard and all I keep getting is a big Fuck You in return.
This can't continue. Is your ultimate plan for me to end up spending a year on my mom's couch getting grossly fat, marrying some loser and popping out five kids then dying of a anti-depressant overdose? I mean, really. I have a sense of humour, but that just isn't funny. Like Rob Schieder movies - not funny at all.
So here's my offer to you, ruler of destinies and lives. In exchange for givin me a fucking well deserved break, I will never, ever bitch when I have to deal with stupid people. In fact, I will love everyone in the world and never think ill of anyone, no matter how much of a moron they truly are.
I will also sell you the soul of my first born. You can have my cat's soul too.
Eagerly awaiting your reply, in the form of something good finally happening.
Thank you,
Insano.
You all know I'm a huge Fratellis fan, so imagine my delight at thier new album!! Althoug, in this new video of thiers, Jon Fratelli looks an awful lot like early Jack White...hmmm
As Muse sang, time is running out.
I have two weeks.
in which, I have to sell my soul to a rich relative, relocate, pack, move and basically start from scratch.
In a way, I hate that I can't get an EU passport. Really hate it. Makes life difficult for myself.
Maybe, if I throw myself at Gordon Browns feet and plead my sorry ass case to him and convince him that without my EU passport, the world would be a much more pathetic place, he might heed and take pity on me before promptly deporting my ass back to SA.
On the bright side. Had an awesome dream last night: Gerard Way, Jensen Ackles 'n me. nuff said.
Went to the ULU last night to watch Seether.
Glad I didn't have to pay for my tickets cos the show kind of sucked ass. All thier songs sound the same! You can practically hear the record label twisting the knobs on thier creativity. Or maybe the lifestyle has killed thier run?
I haven't slept for 48 hours now.
But the last 12 haven't been my fault.
My bed partner snores. Loudly. And annoyingly and no amount of prodding or shushing is working. And I don't have a living room couch to escape the noise to. Living with other people sucks!
Wanted:
1 bedroom flat with small patio/roof terrace.
£80 pw all bills included.
No psycho neigbours.
Keep dreaming!
So I'm a freak of nature.
I've decided, at least.
it's 1:45am and I'm still up.
And it's raining.
I like rain. Not the pissy types that lasts weeks. More of the 'wham-bam-lightening-bolt-up-yo-ass' type of storms. You know, horror movie storms. They fucking rock!
Just thought I'd throw it out there.
I'm currently watching season 3 of Bones.
Yes, I'm that much of a geek.
Here's a little experiment.
what happens when you combine the following factors?
Ephedrine
Insomnia
Work deadline
vodka
redbull
friends
bank holiday
and
erm...red wine
A lot of shit and you can't remember why.
I had been up since Friday.
Literally.
No sleep.
I'm working on a really tight deadline and have yet to pull a miracle from my ass.
My mates invited over to a little house party type thing yesterday. I brought my computer along as I have sooooo much work to do.
When I got here, one was already drunk. The other drunk on lurve (love).
I set everything up, poured myself a vodka and rb and got to work, while talking shit and generally hanging out.
I fell asleep at my computer. At least that's where I think I fell asleep.
I woke up in a bed and had no idea why/how I got there, why my mate was pissed at the world in general and feel as though I should be apologising for something.
All I know for sure is that I had a really bad fuckng nightmare. One of those surround sound, technicolour, goes on forever and I just might die kind of nightmares. Every part of me hurts and I can't explain it.
Was it athe lack of sleep? Exhaustion? Stress? Alcohol?
I can't be sure.
I'm not sure of anything at the moment.
All I know is that I'm shaking.
And I'm not even cold.
I've never been one for the easy life. Not that I know of. I get bored, very quickly.
But the past few weeks have been just a bit too much excitement for me. I can feel it in my bones. I'm tired. Very very tired. Like, badly in need of a beach and cocktail kind of tired.
Alas, my calendar will not be open until at least 2025.
I've been kept really busy with one website that I review for here in the UK. Its a spur of the moment kind of reviewing. For example:
Last Tuesday, I had work all day, then zipped off to an exclusive launch party where I met many lovely people. One of them being Ms Spain. She doles out the tickets of gold to me. She mentioned having tickets for a Vampire Weekend show that night.
My face lit up - oh yes please!
i got the tickets, hauled ass over to Electric Ballroom and watched the riveting gig.
But I was alone. My plus one meaning absolutely nothing as all my mates have set routines and couldn't break it for an impulsive break to a show.
At least there was free beer.
The week before, I had gone to The Wombats at the Brixton Academy, Give It A Name Fest 08 at Earls Court, Melody Gardot at Bush Hall, and Flykiller at 229. And then there's the singles to review too.
Yep, its a full time thing.
But my week didn't end there.
I got an email from a very pissed friend who called me "a self absorbed loose cannon".
Now, I can take being called a loose cannon. Its not the first time. But self absorbed? Ok, maybe. Sure. A little.
So I took the line and started my own brand - Loose Cannon UK.
While I'm doing the branding for that, there's that little niggly thing called Strung Out that needs planning (well, its all planned, only the posters need to go up). There's negotiations for other gigs going on. Lots of networking. Lots of madness.
And then there's this 56 day tour of Europe I'm in the middle of putting together. I have 10 days to confirm it all.
And the cherry on my preverbial pie - I've discovered that my little sister is depressed. Badly depressed.
The only problem, is people in South Africa view depression as a self indulgent excuse to laziness. My father, unfortunately is one of those people.
My little sister has every reason to have depression. She's been through so much in her 17 years, I'm not surprised. My dad believes that therapy is a 'wham, bam, you're cured' kind of deal. He has no idea.
And this more than anything bothers me. Stresses me out! I wish I was back home just so that I can help her. My mom tries, my other sister just gets frustrated. I feel helpless. And it's the last thing I need right now. I'm already feeling the pull of the drain.
Oh, yeah, and I work in a full time job that mentally and emotionally drains me of my sanity.
Meds. Now. Please??
The weather has been awesome for the past two weeks.
So shiny and bright and hot that all you want to do is break out yoru reggae collection and chill out in the park with a six-pack.
I spent yesterday doing exactly that, except without the reggae music -it played in my head though.
I have a feeling that this is going to be an awesome summer. I'm gettin optimistic right here and now. Wonder how long I'll be able to keep it up for?
Today was a perfect day. Like Lou Reed perfect.
the sun shone wihout a cloud in the sky and a pleasant breeze throughout.
And I spent it in the park with a few good mates of mine. I dare you to compete with that! A few Heinekens, strawberries and custard later and the perfect day was done. Now back to the evils of reality!
Work, work, and did I mention work?????
I know my updating has been sparse lately, but I have a very good reason.
I'm fucking busy.
I've decided to grab the proverbial career bull by teh horns and wrestle my career out of it by myself.
Sure there isn't the comfort of steady pay, cushy chairs, free weekends and free coffee.
But at the same time I don't have to listen to colleagues bitch about thier stupid offspring, I work with people who actually know who Offspring is, no staff meetings, no performance reviews and no corporate wear.
Sure I'll still be serving pints as the back up income, but I'm not going to wait around for someone to hand me my dream job. I'm tenatious that way.
Now, between reviewing gigs for Seatwave.com and cross posting them on WickedRock, I'm also trawling MySpace for venues to book my two month tour of Europe with two amazing bands.
I'm not going to lie - its fucking intimidating. But, dude, I'm from Jo'burg. It takes more than a continent filled with morons to intimidate me.
Now if you need me I'll be over here reading smut on LJ working hard at finding bookings.
We Are Scientists
Shepards Bush Empire
24-4-2008
I know its the Monday after the show, but I've just stopped bouncing around from excess energy produced at the gig.
By the time we arrived at the Empire, my mates and I encountered teeming droves of teenies. We gulped nervously. Why all the teenies? Isn't it cool anymore for 20-somethings to go gigging? I missed that memo.
We took our places in the pit - second row from the barrier - and waited.
The opening acts were dull - to say the least. I didn't catch thier names as they didn't give them. There was a moment when Keith (Murray of WAS) joined them onstage for a song.
The lights went out and suddenly, the (now) duo hit the stage, opening with Brain Thrust Mastery's Ghouls. The Empire erupted! Swaggering through hits 'Nobody Move', 'The Scene Is Dead' and 'Inaction' just to remind us why we loved them to begin with, before injecting newbies such as 'Lets See It', 'Chic Lit' and leading single 'After Hours'.
Keith then took an ill judged jump off the stage towards the barrier during 'Tonight' to do the whole 'greet the fans' thing. Little did he know a close aquaintance of mine was a bottle of wine down and took it upon herself to grab and squeeze his ass. He had no choice but to laugh it off and quickly retreat back to the stage before the girls kidnapped him and they couldn't rip through 'Dinosaur', 'Lousy Reputation', 'Its a Hit'.
All the time, the crowd needed no prompting. Arms in the air, clapping madly away with voices raised in anthemic union. Shu!
Encore rounded off the night with 'Lethal Enforcer', 'Worth The Wait' and 'Great Escape' (which seemed to be written purely for this gig).
As good as thier albums are, seeing these boys live is a must! Smooth, professional, booming, anthemic (i like that word), swaggering and exhilerating!
Good job
I never thought I'd say this, but,
Fuck Me! I need to lose some weight.
I didn't realise it before.
tonight, that is.
I was going through my small collection of clothes in preperation for a date I'm going on...yes, a date. But nothing fit! My old black slacks (of which I have 3 pairs) and I didn't want to wear a dress. So I threw on my old trusted jeans. Now I'm heading out the door, plans brewing for my 'look good for summer' plan.
so far i've come up with:
No more pizza.
No more beer (only vodka and cranberry juice)
No more kebab runs (haven't done one in a while anyway)
No more eating anything at all. (ok, maybe i'm overreacting with this one)
Use those trainers I bought. About three months ago.
Get more exercise (athletic sex is accpetable)
Any other ideas???
I'm a fan of 'coming-of-age' sitcoms...Friends, How I met your mother, The Class etc etc etc...
My problem is, no one has made a sitcom about someone in my position. In all fairness, my sister has started to write a sitcom about my moving over, but I still feel like an idiot when I watch these shows...albeit I do liek a good sitcom.
Only...
I never went to varsity.
I haven't had a lot of boyfriends
I'm not neurotic
I'm not a size 2 either.
My mates aren't all hotties.
niether are they sub human stereotypes.
I'm not a stereotype either.
Maybe if I was, things would be easier...
I got home around 1:30am.
1 bottle red down.
spent 15 minutes looking at photos from my last vaca home.
fuck me, but I miss everyone back home. Every single person I know (except my dad's wife). I especially miss my sisters, my mom and my mates - one of whom is in the US. I feel so alone. But, according to Facebook, I actually have friends here.
guess I should stop the drinking at all hours and get some sleep.
there are other schools of thought...
Dear Makers of Bottae Vintae Pinot Grigio,
Firstly, kudos on making a wine so close to vinegar, it should be lablled - for pickling purposes only. And then getting the Pinot Grigio name out there and used by celebs who know nothing about wine, just so that you can sell your travesty of a wine at hyper inflated prices.
I don't drink your wine, but I do have to serve it to a lot of people, against my better judgement, but what can you do?
Have you heard of this new fangled invention called the 'Screw Top'. No corkscrew needed. No cutting my knuckles to shreds on the thick foil you have covering the cork. Thanks to your product, I literally bleed for my job. I don't need anymore bloodloss, thank you.
Please, go off, work on that vintage a little more in R&D before attacking the general public with it.
Thank you,
Insano 'Bloody Knuckles' Insomniac
I must, as a rule, never, ever listen to Death Cab for Cutie while drinking.
Have you ever heard any of thier tunes?
If you have, then you'll get what I mean. if not, then haul your ass down to CD Warehouse and buy every copy they own...it's only karmically right.
I'm not a fan of Sundays. Not because it's a religious day etc..(unless you're Jewish, which makes Friday your Sunday..but' I'm sure you know what I mean...)Anyways, I'm not a fan of sundays because, as a child, a Sunday always ended with a blow out of sorts onmy dad's part and a morning wasted listeneing to threats of Hellfire and Brimstone.
Now, it's purely because I finish work at 5am and spend most of the day sleepign until I get hungry...and then all teh shops are closed...fuckers!!! I'd like some yoghurt at 6pm on a Sunday.
Aside from teh supermarket's Sunday early closing rule (I got my wine anyway) nothing much has happened in my life.
Ok, so I called the ass. manager a dick. I maintain he asked for it.
I need a vacation. Very urgently. but have far too much things to do to allow for such a luxury.
missing my mates like mad.
I'll go finish my wine now...
I have a lot to bitch about:
Like people not getting back to me about serious gigging.
Like teenyboppers stealing wristbands from me by lining up from 3am so I can't get to see a band I like.
Like my job pretty much sucking.
Like me feeling the empty part of being single.
Like missing my mates back home fiercely.
Like having to beg favours from my mates because my job pays so porly i can't afford to get my posters printed up.
Like nearly getting mugged on Sunday morning (I did punch the 7ft hoodie for his sad attempt at taking my cell before jumping back onto the bus. Mind you, I was a bottle of wine and a 12hr shift down)
But today's post isn't about me. It's about all the loonies I see everyday in the city, on my bus, muttering or ranting to themselves, smelling like a toilet and looking as though they've fallen through the cracks of the matrix.
And I wonder to myself - sure, London is a tough city. It's big, intimidating, unfriendly, harsh etc etc. But is that an excuse to go off the deep end and creep out tourists and old ladies on buses by telling them that the little purple men have taken over the government and HQ is in your left pinky?
I mean, really. Jo'burg is a far harsher place to live and therefore making it easier for a person to lose thier grip on this reality. But then where are we hiding all the Jozi crazies? And why isn't Ken Livingstone (mayor of London) not rounding the crazies up over here instead of tearing down major historical music sites (read:The Astoria) to replace them with railnetworks (which we frankly don't need).
Unless of course its the weather that is that final little nudge you need to fall into the mentally unstable abyss. If that's the case, then someone, please, bring me a straitjacket. I feel the madness approaching.
As I've often confided on this blog, I'm a wuss. A coward. A complete non player.
I've been asked by a band to be thier tour manager - my dream job, only, i doubt I can pull it off. Am shitting myself at the idea that if I fuck this up, I might as well apply to work at the Edenvale Tiger Wheel and Tyre with my sister for the rest of my life.
Anyways...
Tonight I proved that I care so much for my job I shed blood for it...literally. Some genius thought they'd put a 14oz glass inside a Jamiacan beer branded glass and when i tried to free the pair, the damn branded glass shattered in my hand, slicing my thumb to shit!
So fuckface ass. manager looks at it and goes "I've had worse, you don't need a doctor" over the tim burton movie happening in my thumb. Fucker!!!!
So i now have the tip of my thumb taped to the rest of it. Hope it decides to rejoin, or else I'm going to have a wierd thumb, and that's just wrong...
So in the Afternoon, I will brave the hospital once again to make sure I don't need stitches.
wish me luck!
I have a big mouth.
And it gets me into trouble. A Lot.
I should keep quiet. I should censor my ramblings.
I don't.
I also procrastinate. Which, in this day and age is a luxury I can ill afford. I have so much to do, yet I don't do it. I guess its because I'm so scared of failing on an epic scale and being reduced to working the reception at a relative's friend's auto shop for the rest of my life.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing destroyed, no one hurt and nothing to be hassled about for the rest of my life.
Ok, I'm going to go do that to do list. Now. Right after I've figured out why my computer won't play YouTube..
I generally like people. I'm told I'm a people person. Friendly, amiable, funny etc etc. But I don't suffer fools. And because of this, I am in the wrong job.
Tonight, for example, I was so rude to a customer, I'm surprised I still have a job. Thing is, she fucking asked for it.
Stupid Customer: And I'll have a cabernet sauvignon and a pinot grigio.
Exhausted Insano: Large or small?
SC: Large please.
EI: Okie Dokie...*proceeds to pour requested drinks and places them infront of SC. She looks at the cabernet sauvignon with confusion*
SC: No, I wanted the white one.
EI: The white one? Oh! Right. Cabernet means red. You asked for a cabernet sauvignon as opposed to the sauvignon blanc...blanc meaning white.
*SC's jaw drops open*
EI: Don't worry. I'll change it for you. But, would you like the white pinot grigio as opposed to the red pinot grigio that we stock?
SC: You should have checked with me first.
EI: Yeah, because we sells bottles of white cabernet sauvignon. Listen, if you don't know your pinot grigio from your pinot noir, you have no business drinking wine.
*SC's mouth flaps open and closed, very much akin to a fish, pays quickly and marches off.*
Joe, the assistant manager whom I have no regard for tells me after work that he never wants to hear me speak to a customer like that again.
Fair enough, but she was a complete idiot.
Fine. I plead severe PMS.
And so my general opinion of the human race just fell another five notches!
I'm not a graphic designer. I imagine things, scribble them onto a piece of paper and pray that someone translates it into whatever I saw in my head.
Not anymore. With no graphic designers at hand to help me, I got myself photoshop cs3 and after spending a day trying to figure it out, I went and got Photoshop CS3 for Dummies.
Because, afterall, that's what I am.
My right shin looks like I've been playing paintball with a bunch of pygmies and lost.
In fact, I lost a fight with the bus steps. Yes, I'm the loser that falls in through doorways, trips over my own feet, drops things for no good reason and generally have the co ordination of a toddler.
A casual look will incite thoughts of me being abused by some pimp. But no, I'm doing all the bashing, smashing and tripping myself.
Is it the universe trying to tell me something?
Probably not.
Well, back to work. Got a gig to arrange and customers to alienate.
Pass the arnica oil first.
This evening I received a text that broke my heart.
Heath Ledger, one of my favourite actors, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment last night. Officials believe it was due to a drug overdose.
To be honest, I really didn't see that one coming.
The first time I ever heard of this awesome Aussie actor was when I watched 10 Things I Hate About You - a modern adaptation of Taming of the Shrew. Heath stole the movie and my young teenage heart. I have been a fan ever since. Who can forget his daring knight in A Knights Tale or the surfer in Lords of Dogtown? A Grimm Brother or The Patriot's son. His last role was that of The Joker in the lastest Batman installment. I'm sure its going to be his greatest.
My most heartfelt condolences to his family. He leaves behind ex-wife Michelle Williams and thier young daughter.
The curse of South Africa
by
Moeletsi Mbeki
Published 17 January 2008
Mineral wealth has distorted the economy for generations. Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of South Africa's president on why people want jobs not handouts
The conference of the African National Congress that was held last month was billed as a heavyweight contest between the party's president, Thabo Mbeki, and its deputy president, Jacob Zuma. The conference turned out to be much more than that. It was a complete rout, not only of the president, but also of his cabinet, the sitting national executive committee, and of Mbeki's economy team.
The December conference saw the ANC swing from the centre towards the left, if one believes the rhetoric. Jacob Zuma, the new president of the ANC, mobilised the support of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) in order to fight for leadership of the ANC.
The ANC is caught in a quandary. On the one hand, its members and leaders want to preserve the economic system inherited from the apart heid era so that they, too, can benefit from it through, for example, Black Economic Empowerment (an affirmative-action programme, initially designed by South Africa's big corporations, that favours the new black elite) and social grants from the government aimed at alleviating poverty. On the other hand, they hanker for change that will ameliorate the growing inequalities and pauperisation among black South Africans. They blame individuals within the organisation for not bringing about the socio-economic changes they would like to see, but do not dare to initiate themselves.
Much of the impetus behind the emerging instability in the ANC, however, is financial rather than ideological. The only solution would be for a leadership to emerge, from either within or outside the ANC, that has meaningful policies for building a more inclusive society in South Africa. Black Economic Empowerment and social welfare programmes do not fundamentally lead to such social inclusiveness. If anything, they entrench the inequalities inherited from the past and exacerbate new inequalities among the blacks.
The undoing of President Mbeki and his cabinet was that they failed to understand that, with Zuma's rise, a new phenomenon of populism had entered the ANC. They also failed to understand the potential of populism to appeal to the black working class, the black poor in general, and a wide array of disgruntled people associated with the ANC who felt excluded from the inside track.
Their mistake was to see Zuma as a paranoiac who didn't deserve to be taken seriously. Mbeki compounded this error by standing against the populist Zuma but refusing to engage with him in public debate. He thereby appeared to be afraid of Zuma. This encouraged Zuma and his supporters to press ahead with their campaign and, paradoxically, Mbeki's silence persuaded many ANC members that Zuma's claim of persecution was valid.
Placating the poor
South Africa is able to undertake both Black Economic Empowerment and large social welfare expenditures because of its vast natural resources, which are now selling at a premium due to the rapid industrialisation of the large countries of Asia. South Africa's fabulous mineral wealth has been seen as a blessing since the discovery of diamonds and gold in the 19th century. What gets overlooked is the curse that goes with vast natural-resource endowment.
Since the current commodities boom started in the late 1990s, the ANC government has been ratcheting up public spending on the welfare of the poor. Why? Out of the goodness of its heart, reply ANC leaders. Not so, say doubters: rather to placate the poor so that they do not rebel, but most importantly to buy their vote.
In his address to the ANC conference, President Mbeki went to great lengths to explain the good things the ANC government has done for South Africa's poor. He noted that the number of South Africans living below the poverty line fell from 51.4 per cent in 2001 to 43.2 per cent in 2006 and that the number of people receiving social grants increased from 2.6 million in 1999 to more than 12 million in 2006.
But are South Africa's poor happy and grateful to the ANC government? In theory they should be, given the largesse they are receiving. But judging by the support that Zuma and his communist and trade union allies have been able to mobilise among the poor against the mainstream ANC which runs the government, it appears South Africa's poor are very far from happy. This is where the resource curse comes in.
A country develops when it is able to harness the energies of its people and put them to productive use. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Oil-producing countries are one. For very little effort, petroleum-producing countries pump crude oil from the ground and sell it for fabulous prices to foreigners.
South Africa is similar to oil-producing countries in that it, too, has natural resources - gold, platinum, diamonds, coal, iron ore, and so on - that are valuable to foreigners, who are willing to pay South Africa top dollar for them. While it takes more people to dig out South Africa's minerals compared to those employed to pump up crude oil, mining is still a small employer. Despite employing very few people, mining, however, makes a huge contribution to the country's wealth, in that it accounts for more than half of export earnings. The value that the few people employed in mining produce far exceeds their income. The government, therefore, has large revenues from mining activity that it can redistribute to the rest of society that does not work in the mines. This is what is called a resource curse - governments of resource-rich countries think their people need not work and will be happy living off social grants.
That is precisely the trap into which the ANC government has fallen. At least a quarter of the South African population receives social grants that would not be possible if South Africa were not mineral-rich. Without mineral wealth to redistribute, the government would have to work harder and be more creative to find solutions to unemployment and poverty.
Resource wealth makes it possible for the government not to have to put an effort into redeveloping the economy to create more jobs, and instead it sustains the unemployed and their dependants with social grants.
But do such grants make people happy as the ANC government expects? Paradoxically, while social grants contribute to putting food on the table, at a broader level they make the recipients more insecure because they do not know when the government will withdraw or reduce the size of their grants. Second, the grants accentuate the humiliation that unemployed people feel from being dependent and unable to look after themselves and their families. Every time they collect their social grants, recipients are subjected to all manner of humiliations by the government officials who administer the system. The rest of society stigmatises recipients as idle, worthless and parasitic.
What do South Africa's subsidised and marginalised people do to regain their self-respect? They support demagogues who claim that they, too, are marginalised, and therefore want to replace the ruling elites with people-friendly governments. This, in a nutshell, is what happened at the ANC conference and in the months leading up to it.
Zuma, with the support of Cosatu, the SACP and the ANC Youth League, ran a campaign that told ANC members, most of whom are poor, that he, like them, is despised and marginalised by the elite who run the party and its government. Zuma argued there was a conspiracy by the elite to ensure that he, and poor people like him, are kept away from power and therefore do not benefit from their struggle against apartheid.
Zuma's message resonated with many trade unionists, such as the general secretary of Co satu, Zwelinzima Vavi, who grew up as a farm labourer and worked his way up to where he is today by fighting against discrimination and humiliation under apartheid.
Winners and losers
Did all the passion and recrimination at the ANC conference produce winners and losers? Leaving aside the rather tarnished image of the party, a few bruised egos and what will turn out to be short-lived elation by others, the conference, viewed in the context of the country's future, reproduced the stalemate into which the ANC has been locked since 1994. January 2008 is, therefore, the month in which the country has gone back to business as usual.
As for Zuma - in reality, his was a pyrrhic victory in a phoney war. In the coming months he will be back in court facing corruption charges that could lead to his being imprisoned for many years to come. The case is scheduled to start in August.
The giant trade union federation, Cosatu, which devoted so much of its energy and resources to Zuma's campaign, has come out of the melee a loser. Its leaders are at each other's throats and there were no changes made to the ANC's conservative economic policies, such as the independence of the Reserve Bank, about which Cosatu has been unhappy for many years.
Cosatu ended up as cannon fodder at the hands of disgruntled ANC and SACP politicians who used it as a proxy to fight their battles. Ultimately, under a populist regime, the masses are the main losers.
Moeletsi Mbeki is a deputy chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs, an independent think tank based at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg
Despite having a computer and mostly workin internet, I haven't blogged because, well, I haven't had much to talk about.
Oh sure I have my rants about musicians and albums and crappy jobs and the lack of good guys ou there.
But, who wants to hear me bitching about anything I care about?
Oh, wait, I finally got that tattoo I've been going on about.
It hurt like hell.
It was so worth it!!!! Now I'm part of the tattooed club.
I think I might actually be a little cool now. We'll see how it goes.
Cheers
Ok, firstly, I realise its been about a month since I last wrote anything, but to be honest, i have literally not had the time or inclination.
I thought, this being the first day of the new year, i should put something down...so here is is.
2007 was a weird year for me.
I finally finalised the career I wanted, while surprised myself by actually enjoying the crappy job I already have. I had a semi-relationship that ended with me being dumped. It was a constant battle between the need to keep as mobile as possible and my new dvd collection spawning meaning I now live out of more than two boxes.
My mother came to inspect my new lifestyle. I broke my wrist in a drunken episode. I saw some amazing bands and some really not amazing bands.
Every week I learned something new, either about myself or the world in general.
in short, 2007 was the year of discovery and decisions.
2008 will be the year of putting my choices in motion. And seeing more awesome bands.
I hope that this new year will be a pleasant surprise to you and that in a year's time, we can look back and say- wow, we made it through in one piece.
And here's to less laundry days and dreams coming true.
