The ramblings of a Caucasian African American
Thanks to David Fisher for pointing me to this brilliant article by Barney Mthombothi.
I urge all South-Africans – in or out of the country – to read this. You have to make your own judgements on this, but I found it encouraging. To hear Barney Mthombothi, a black author, uttering these words makes me feel less isolated in my own country.
David Fisher from Wozafriday also blogged about this here.
The Springboks were given their 2nd worst drubbing in history today. They were absolutely smashed by a Wallaby side that was murdered by an All-Black side last week.
The Wallabies were good, but the biggest reason for today’s loss was how bad the Springboks were. I was at the 53-3 loss against England and I have to say that today we were as woeful.
To me the main reasons for South-Africa’s demise are as follows.
Jake White: He has dropped the ball (pun intended) this season. His financial needs have overshadowed his commitment to the team.
His team selections have also been very suspect this year. It seems as if being Jake’s mate is more important than being on great from. His personal vendattas against players like Luke Watson and the deceased Ettiene Botha are cases in point.
He also has to take responsibility for the lack of basic skills and defence.
In essence, he is not doing his job anymore. In the workplace if you don’t do your job you get fired. Thus I now think it is time for Jakey to take his big mouth somewhere else.
John Smit: He has a one-dimensional approach – only knows how to bash into people – and he is about the third best hooker in SA after Schalk Brits and Gary Botha.
His basic skills are also notoriously bad. Smit’s knock-ons are not acceptable for a player at this level. How can you expect the rest of the team to have basic skills when you as captain struggle in this department?
As a captain he is the exact opposite of his predecessor, the dreadful CornT Krige. He smiles alot and everybody thinks he is nice. The problem is that no-one respects him. This is evident in the bad discipline that has crept up again. On field discipline is a captain’s responsibilty.
History shows that John Smit has simply not delivered.
Political Interference: The Springboks are still expected if not required to give black players & administrators free rides. Alastair Coetzee (who coached EP for god’s sakes) is just one example of someone that probably would not have been involved if this were not the case.
At the time of writing it feels like this year is going to have a long Tri-Nations. Stranger things have happened though. I will never forget one year the Sharks beat the Bulls 57-15. Everyone thought that was the Bulls’ season over. Naas Botha had other ideas though. The Bulls destroyed the Sharks in 63-6 in the return game and, if memory serves, they went on to win the Currie-Cup that year. But then again you don’t find a Naas Botha under every tree!
I finally found the time to test my new Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens. I went to the Wimbledon Common, one of my favourite places in the world, at magic hour (1 hour before sunset) and played around a bit. Although there is much to learn, I am very pleased with the initial results.
See the Wimbledon Common photos.
Also notice the difference between the luscious greens from a few weeks ago and the present tawny colours. Both are beautiful, but you can see why they say this is London’s driest summer in 30 years.
18 year old Christopher Lees was “detained” for animal cruelty today after repeatedly throwing a cat from a fifth storey.
Whilst I’m glad this piece of shit has been caught I can’t help but wonder what “detained” actually means. I doubt it means jail (else they would have said so) so I wonder why not. Surely this sadistic behaviour is serious enough to warrant a jail sentence.
But I do have an alternative suggestion that will free up his jail spot: why does someone not throw Christopher Lees off a fifth floor storey? He only needs to do it once and I’m quite certain the f@#wit will learn his lesson.
A tragedy indeed!
Potnotas:
of laai af.
World Cup football is an absolute farce. Italy, France, Portugal, Holland all cheated to get where they ended up.
I supported Italy from the start, but after their diving exhibition against the US, I stopped supporting them. There is no other way to describe diving: it is cheating – plain and simple. Italy beat Australia by cheating. And trust me I’m not an Australian supporter.
Like any decent South-African, I find it difficult to support England, but from now on I will do just that. The players’ behaviour throughout the tournament was exemplary. I don’t know of one instance where they cheated by diving. Kudos to the Poms. Just keep it up – you’ve won many fans and you’ll win many more.
The Italian club scene is allready in serious trouble because of a different kind of cheating (match-fixing) and now they have won the World Cup by cheating. But they are not alone. All of continental European teams bar Spain are as guilty.
FIFA have been disturbingly weak by not addressing this. There has been talk of bringing in video to try and stop the cheating. I really hope that FIFA have the guts to do this because presently international football is a farce and not watchable.
I am sorry but I have no sympathy for anyone who gets hurt in the Pamplona bull run. If you want to play with fire then you will get burned.
I do feel very sorry for the bulls though. Yet again the Spanish have found a way to exploit animals to provide them with entertainment for their dismal lives.
I would much rather prefer to attend the Running of the Nudes in Barcelona. Barcelona also has my vote because they have recently anounced their intention to become a bull-fighting free city. This is outstanding news.
LenT spoiled me with a weekend away in Poole and Bournemouth in Dorset.
I am disappointed that we only discovered Dorset 1 month before we’re going home. This is now my favourite place in England. It beats the previous winner, Cornwall, by a long shot. There aren’t any waves to speak of, but the beaches are fantastic – almost as nice as in SA – and the water is lovely. The towns (I’m not sure where they stop/start) are the cleanest towns that I’ve been to in the UK. The people also look much more healthy than in London. We loved it so much, that if we didn’t go home in 4 weeks, we would have seriously looked at moving there.
The photo was taken from a hot-air balloon.
Today I celebrated (is that the word?) my 33rd birthday. I was woken up with a card, a present and a birthday song by Lené. This evening Lené took me out for a meal at a nice restaurant.
Thanks to Charles, Soma, Christiaan, Niel, Pierre, Rulan, Rhalda, Katinka, Abbie, Itanje, Thinus, Cathy, Ingrid, Fredri and the people at work for the birthday wishes, but most of all thanks to Lené for a great day!
Attie Heunis's Journey 