Well I've had to review my thinking on the police force here in South Africa, here's why. On Sunday I had to go to my local police station in order to get some documents signed. I got to chatting to the inspector (the guy what is in charge) and he filled me in on a few horrifying details.
The first thing he told me about was the disastrous staff shortages. The police station in Pinelands is manned by only three people at any one time. One of them is left at the station and the other two cruise around in their van. This isn't just for Pinelands either, they also cover Ndebeni and parts of Epping and Langa. Just three policemen! There are sometimes six of them on duty, during a shift change.
The second thing was the shocking salaries these guys are paid. The inspector I spoke with told me that he had been with the police force for sixteen year, during which time he had earned a diploma and a degree in policing through UNISA. In any corporate environment the guy in charge of a section, with vast experience and qualifications would be raking it in every month, this guy's salary: R7 500. For less experiences and more junior officers it's much less than that. That's just shocking, there is no incentive to become a police officer, and you can understand why these guys accept bribes.
Well, you say, poor pay is fine because it's really easy to become a cop, no real prior qualifications are necessary. Well that's true, in fact the third thing the inspector told me was that they had dropped a lot of the entry requirements making it even easier to become a cop. Obviously this is because the average person who used to meet the requirements could probably get a better job elsewhere. So this leads to moronic policemen.
The fourth thing the inspector told me was that the police, until very recently, used to work 12 hour shifts with four days on and four days off. During their off time they would be able to supplement their income by working for private security firms, often paying more than the police. In the four day off period it was easy to work three eight hour shifts and effectively double their income. So what does the SAPS human resource department do about this, well they stop it of course. Now policemen work eight hour shifts five days on and two days off, while this does mean more policemen it effectively prevents them from moonlighting. Also those extra policemen are all working at different times which doesn't help the staff shortage at all.
So what does all this mean to my stand point on the cops?
Well the thing is this, I sympathise with them. I mean who'd want to be over worked and under paid? We all joke about this but these guys really are. With the seriously little money these guys are paid they need to supplement their income somehow. Is it their fault that they take bribes and don't do their jobs properly because they don't earn enough? Hell yeah it is! But I still feel sorry for them. It isn't however their fault that they are under-qualified and under-experienced to do their jobs.
In short, I still don't trust the police, but I've got masses of sympathy for them.
IN THE NEWS
Well to tie into the main opinion piece on this post here is an article about how some weapons were stolen from the police station in Maitland. One Shotgun and three handguns, the perfect starter kit for armed robberies.
This guy claims he was harrased by a ghost for sex for sixteen years before an exorcism was performed. The exorcism consisted mainly of offering the ghost a groom in the form of a paper doll, to ensure that the ghost would accept the proposal a paper maid and butler were also provided to show that the groom would be able to look after his spouse. All three were sent up in smoke.
Here's one for Zen and I to be worried about. Scientists have stated that the hookah may be hazardous to your health. It may cause gum disease just like regular smoking does. Nothing fun is ever good for you is it?
Teens sells mom's home porn. Yes, that's right a teen who stole her mom's video camera and sold it to a friend didn't realise that mommy and her boyfriend had left a little bonus material on the cassette. The mother's boyfriend found out when the footage started circulating in the neighbourhood.
And to challenge your notions on prehistoric plant life scientists have discovered that dinos dined on grass! This means that dinosaurs were around at the same time as grass, which flies in the face of previously held scientific theory, the impact of this is that dinosaurs and mammals might have co-inhabited the mad ball we call Earth. Wow, if scientists are wrong about this then maybe they're wrong about that whole evolution thing too!
Some women in the Good Ol' U S of A called the 911 emergency number to complain that her onion rings were cold. The waiter had brought her food to here cold, she phoned because she wanted the police to do something about it. Well they did, they high-tailed it on over there to arrest her ass!
And finally something to give you a good scare, at least if you live in the northern areas of our country. Prez Mugabe has announced that Zimbabwe will begin to dabble in nuclear power. Yep, that's right, they've found deposits of uranium and now they want to use them to produce electricity, apparently from scratch! Hey, it's a perfect excuse for the yanks to come in a depose an undemocratic regime, a pity they don't have anything valuable like oil!
THOSE CRAZY KENYANS
I thought this follow-up story deserved its own section. Kenyan voters have declared that vitamin C is much better that potasium! or is that oranges make better juice than bananas! or is it that they are unhappy with the current president! or maybe that they didn't agree with the draft constitution that had been put before parliament, nah couldn't have been that, that's way to complicated an issue.
The democratic process was ridiculed yesterday when masses of Kenyan voters voted for fruit. I really don't understand how the complex issues that surround an new constitution can be understood by the voting public when they can't even tell the difference between "YES" and "NO". The whole thing was a sham, it ended up being a popularity contest in which supporters of various political parties (mostly organised on tribal lines) were told which fruit to draw their "X" next to. Apparently it's easier to be democratic when people do what they are told!
Actually I'm glad the vote ended up as a "NO", but it's a far cry from actual democracy.
ANOTHER AMUSING PICTURE
I'm very surprised that no one has spotted any resemblance to any one we know in the picture with the gorilla. C'mon people do I have to spell it out?
Here is an amusing notice form a newspaper, I think it's rather funny actually.
SIGNING OFF
Well not much to say in the sign off, I've said a lot already. I'm off to role-playing tonight so that should be fun, unless of course TallAndSkinny doesn't pitch, then it'll probably be majong or something.
schpat out
PS: no power failures interrupted this post!
