If you have any poo, fling it now! - Mason, Madagascar.
Hey there to my regular readers.
I'm really sorry about not posting for a while, it really is upsetting to me to just leave you in the lurch like this but I really haven’t felt particularly inspired to write much. But that has all changed now. I'll deal with a few things and then I'll get to my point.
First of all I promised you a biased budget review, well 'ol Trev has done a great job again. What? You thought I'd hate it? Minister Manual is the best minister in the government at the moment, and probably the best minister in the government in the last 20 years. A lot of people were really worried when this very young man was appointed as minister of finance ten years ago, and with only a Std 8 education if they were to be b3elived. Well it's true that he's not as edumacated as your average minister of finance, but he possessed wisdom (in fact his WIS modifier is at about +5). He has the wisdom to appoint very competent advisors and listen to them when necessary. Unlike some ministers we know *cough*manto*chough*tshabalala*chough*msimang*chough*. I point any naysayers to the 60% growth of the JSE over the last 12 months, and that's all I've got to say.
Also, it looks like Def may have something on the Lonely Finger Challenge, check out the previous comments). Only time will tell though. Until then Def, why don't you let us know a little about yourself so that I can tailor the prize, that you may or may not be winning, to your specific needs. Go Def!
If you don't like posts that rant, thank you for visiting but you can stop reading now.
What really has me fired up, in case you haven’t guessed it yet, is the Power Outages in the Western Cape. I find myself so upset that I am prone to uncontrollable fits of rage. I mean really uncontrollable! Here is a short list of things that upset me.
1. Lack of Foresight
Yes, all these problems could have been avoided. Don't take the crap about "unavoidable circumstances" lying down. The Powers That Be (TPTB) have known for years that demand was outstripping supply, and particularly emergency supply that would be used if power stations went off line. Last year Eskom posted profits of 5.2 Billion ZAR. About 1.6B ZAR of this was paid as a dividend to the government (more on this later). What is more Eskom's top 11 managers and directors collectively took home 70M ZAR in compensation last year. The CEO alone took home 13M ZAR, a 260% increase from the previous year. Now I have no problem paying people metricfuckpiles of cash if they deliver the equivalent value, these people clearly have not. Their bonuses would have been better spent laying another cable from Mpumalanga so that CPT could get more power if the nuclear reactors went down.
2. Deceit, Confusion & Incompetence. Danger?
So what caused the power failures? A loose bolt? Fictional Wild Fires? Pollution? Mist? Bird Shit? It'll only be out for a day, we mean two, um three ok seven. Don't call us, we'll call you! Are people who honestly believe that 'mist' is a believable excuse for a province wide power outage, or who don't really know how long it takes to restart a reactor, really the kind of people you want in charge of what basically amounts to a great big WMD? These excuses, we know they are nothing but excuses because they've been caught fibbing already (those fictional forest fires), are not only implausible but downright laughable. Did that bolt work itself loose? Are there suddenly vastly more birds than before? Is the mist in Cape Town unexpectedly acidic enough to eat through electrical insulation? The answer to these questions is, sadly, no. Far more likely (and I stress that the following is only the author's opinion) is that Proper safety checks on bolts are no longer performed, and that maintenance that stops mist and bird poo from impeding supply of electricity have been halted to cut costs and ensure profits.
3. Lack of Emergency Planning
Man, you think they’d have a contingency plan for these kinds of “unavoidable” situations. Well they do, they’ll just cut power randomly for a while, they call it Load Shedding. I realise that load shedding is probably the only way to handle a crisis like this, and once you’re in one ya gota do what ya gota do. But, if you had any sense you’d do it in a planned, organised and rational way. Supposedly they are cutting power to certain places in two hour bursts, so in theory nobody should be without power for more than two hours at a time. Well my own personal experience is that out of the last 40 hours I’ve had power for 16, and 5 of those were in the utterly useless time from 12:30 to 5:30. Here’s how it should be done:
a) Cut power for maximum of 1 hour at a time. This means that people’s lives will only have to be put on hold for a very short time. They will be able to make supper for their kids and wash clothes for work, even if they have to wait an hour to do so, also fridges and freezers won’t defrost causing waste of food.
b) Publish a schedule listing areas where power will be cut and at what times. Then stick to it!
c) Share load shedding equally between areas.
Currently power is cut for much longer than the claimed 2 hours at a time (last night I was out for 10 hours), the schedule that they have published is not being stuck to and certain areas are being affected way more than others (I was told this morning that Kennilworth has had about 2 hours out since Sunday). On the subject of a schedule, this first schedule published for suburbs within the city of Cape Town was only published this morning (four days in) and can be found here, but don’t believe a word! Also it’s really crap that I’ve had no power for so long and that according to the list there are no power outages planned in the entire northern suburbs.
4. Passing the Buck
It really pisses me off when people refuse to accept responsibility for their actions. It’s all got to do with avoidance of conflict. People will not admit to their actions, even if they are the correct ones, if they think the person they are talking to will get upset with them. I phoned the council to make them aware of the fact, and complain that Pinelands was being treated the same way as the industrial areas around it. It was tuned off at 5:00pm and only switched on again in the early hours of the morning two days in a row. I managed to get hold of Charles Kadalie, Cape Town's manager for public lighting, his phone number is 446 1926 by the way. He told me that no, Pinelands was not being treated as an industrial area and really it was out of their hands as Eskom was the one pulling the switches. I contacted my local Councillor, a really great guy, and they had told him the same thing.
Well, after further investigation I found out that it was in fact the municipality switching us off. If you’re interested the actual place where they pull the levers is in Laidlaw Road Rondebosch. Then this morning when they published the list of station to be turned off Pinelands is listed under the “Epping Main Station” along with the industrial area. Flat out lies, that’s what it was.
5. This Is Only The Beginning
Koeberg’s reactor two is almost out of fuel. This means that pretty soon they are going to have to shut that reactor down and chuck in some more uranium. This is probably going to be a 40 day process. Folks my only advice here is it to stock up on candles, batteries and gas, and don’t put anything in your freezers.
Well that’s all I really want to say on the subject for the moment. I’m really quite upset and getting more so. As an aside, Elisabeth and I narrowly escaped being stuck in an elevator for 10 hours, the power went out just as the lift we were in reached out floor last night. The doors didn’t even open properly, I had to force them after the lights had gone out. Luckily I’ve taken to carrying a torch with me wherever I go after dark. Now that’s planning for you!
Schpat Out.
Hey there to my regular readers.
I'm really sorry about not posting for a while, it really is upsetting to me to just leave you in the lurch like this but I really haven’t felt particularly inspired to write much. But that has all changed now. I'll deal with a few things and then I'll get to my point.
First of all I promised you a biased budget review, well 'ol Trev has done a great job again. What? You thought I'd hate it? Minister Manual is the best minister in the government at the moment, and probably the best minister in the government in the last 20 years. A lot of people were really worried when this very young man was appointed as minister of finance ten years ago, and with only a Std 8 education if they were to be b3elived. Well it's true that he's not as edumacated as your average minister of finance, but he possessed wisdom (in fact his WIS modifier is at about +5). He has the wisdom to appoint very competent advisors and listen to them when necessary. Unlike some ministers we know *cough*manto*chough*tshabalala*chough*msimang*chough*. I point any naysayers to the 60% growth of the JSE over the last 12 months, and that's all I've got to say.
Also, it looks like Def may have something on the Lonely Finger Challenge, check out the previous comments). Only time will tell though. Until then Def, why don't you let us know a little about yourself so that I can tailor the prize, that you may or may not be winning, to your specific needs. Go Def!
If you don't like posts that rant, thank you for visiting but you can stop reading now.
What really has me fired up, in case you haven’t guessed it yet, is the Power Outages in the Western Cape. I find myself so upset that I am prone to uncontrollable fits of rage. I mean really uncontrollable! Here is a short list of things that upset me.
1. Lack of Foresight
Yes, all these problems could have been avoided. Don't take the crap about "unavoidable circumstances" lying down. The Powers That Be (TPTB) have known for years that demand was outstripping supply, and particularly emergency supply that would be used if power stations went off line. Last year Eskom posted profits of 5.2 Billion ZAR. About 1.6B ZAR of this was paid as a dividend to the government (more on this later). What is more Eskom's top 11 managers and directors collectively took home 70M ZAR in compensation last year. The CEO alone took home 13M ZAR, a 260% increase from the previous year. Now I have no problem paying people metricfuckpiles of cash if they deliver the equivalent value, these people clearly have not. Their bonuses would have been better spent laying another cable from Mpumalanga so that CPT could get more power if the nuclear reactors went down.
2. Deceit, Confusion & Incompetence. Danger?
So what caused the power failures? A loose bolt? Fictional Wild Fires? Pollution? Mist? Bird Shit? It'll only be out for a day, we mean two, um three ok seven. Don't call us, we'll call you! Are people who honestly believe that 'mist' is a believable excuse for a province wide power outage, or who don't really know how long it takes to restart a reactor, really the kind of people you want in charge of what basically amounts to a great big WMD? These excuses, we know they are nothing but excuses because they've been caught fibbing already (those fictional forest fires), are not only implausible but downright laughable. Did that bolt work itself loose? Are there suddenly vastly more birds than before? Is the mist in Cape Town unexpectedly acidic enough to eat through electrical insulation? The answer to these questions is, sadly, no. Far more likely (and I stress that the following is only the author's opinion) is that Proper safety checks on bolts are no longer performed, and that maintenance that stops mist and bird poo from impeding supply of electricity have been halted to cut costs and ensure profits.
3. Lack of Emergency Planning
Man, you think they’d have a contingency plan for these kinds of “unavoidable” situations. Well they do, they’ll just cut power randomly for a while, they call it Load Shedding. I realise that load shedding is probably the only way to handle a crisis like this, and once you’re in one ya gota do what ya gota do. But, if you had any sense you’d do it in a planned, organised and rational way. Supposedly they are cutting power to certain places in two hour bursts, so in theory nobody should be without power for more than two hours at a time. Well my own personal experience is that out of the last 40 hours I’ve had power for 16, and 5 of those were in the utterly useless time from 12:30 to 5:30. Here’s how it should be done:
a) Cut power for maximum of 1 hour at a time. This means that people’s lives will only have to be put on hold for a very short time. They will be able to make supper for their kids and wash clothes for work, even if they have to wait an hour to do so, also fridges and freezers won’t defrost causing waste of food.
b) Publish a schedule listing areas where power will be cut and at what times. Then stick to it!
c) Share load shedding equally between areas.
Currently power is cut for much longer than the claimed 2 hours at a time (last night I was out for 10 hours), the schedule that they have published is not being stuck to and certain areas are being affected way more than others (I was told this morning that Kennilworth has had about 2 hours out since Sunday). On the subject of a schedule, this first schedule published for suburbs within the city of Cape Town was only published this morning (four days in) and can be found here, but don’t believe a word! Also it’s really crap that I’ve had no power for so long and that according to the list there are no power outages planned in the entire northern suburbs.
4. Passing the Buck
It really pisses me off when people refuse to accept responsibility for their actions. It’s all got to do with avoidance of conflict. People will not admit to their actions, even if they are the correct ones, if they think the person they are talking to will get upset with them. I phoned the council to make them aware of the fact, and complain that Pinelands was being treated the same way as the industrial areas around it. It was tuned off at 5:00pm and only switched on again in the early hours of the morning two days in a row. I managed to get hold of Charles Kadalie, Cape Town's manager for public lighting, his phone number is 446 1926 by the way. He told me that no, Pinelands was not being treated as an industrial area and really it was out of their hands as Eskom was the one pulling the switches. I contacted my local Councillor, a really great guy, and they had told him the same thing.
Well, after further investigation I found out that it was in fact the municipality switching us off. If you’re interested the actual place where they pull the levers is in Laidlaw Road Rondebosch. Then this morning when they published the list of station to be turned off Pinelands is listed under the “Epping Main Station” along with the industrial area. Flat out lies, that’s what it was.
5. This Is Only The Beginning
Koeberg’s reactor two is almost out of fuel. This means that pretty soon they are going to have to shut that reactor down and chuck in some more uranium. This is probably going to be a 40 day process. Folks my only advice here is it to stock up on candles, batteries and gas, and don’t put anything in your freezers.
Well that’s all I really want to say on the subject for the moment. I’m really quite upset and getting more so. As an aside, Elisabeth and I narrowly escaped being stuck in an elevator for 10 hours, the power went out just as the lift we were in reached out floor last night. The doors didn’t even open properly, I had to force them after the lights had gone out. Luckily I’ve taken to carrying a torch with me wherever I go after dark. Now that’s planning for you!
Schpat Out.
2 comments:
well, i have dark hair, brown eyes, enjoy walks on the beach....
HEHE!
just joking!
I duno hay...
I'm just ur typical geek... with special abilities ;)
If u want prize 'suggestions'... what is the budget range though!?
I laugh I'm totally wrong!
i laugh...
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