Shoo wee, another cool evening in Jozi I tell u! Trust you all had a good weekend and the week has started off, if nothing at all at least eventfully.

Mine started off deep in thought, yes that’s right I think at times even though some of my actions and words may indicate otherwise ;-). I sometimes sit… or stand… actually or even lie down and think, sheesh the world is pretty unfair don’t u think? Many of us don’t think much about it, but we must just be grateful for our lot in life. The not so well to do in this world just keep getting it! What is he on about, some might ask, well let me try and clarify.

This morning like most mornings, I woke up pretty early, contemplated gym, but decided no thanks it’s cold and I have a bit of a cold so I’ll go later in the evening (that didn’t happen neither cos it’s cold, no wait, cos I am LAZY!!) so I stayed in bed, watched Morning Live. At round about 7 am I heard our front door rattling, it was the helper Tembi. She doesn’t stay that close to us. I asked her what time she leaves home to get here, she said at about 5.30 am (yes I know some people that live in Pretoria and work in Joburg have to do the same, but that’s more a lifestyle choice)…and she has 2 kids one goes to school and the other goes to the nanny! She has to catch a couple of taxis/bus depending, if she catches a bus the walk isn’t that bad, but if not its another 10-15min before she gets to the house. What makes it worse is that she can be caught in the cross fire from warring taxi operators.

Some nights when I am driving home from work/gym late in the evening, I see old ladies carrying what seem like heavy bags walking in the bitter cold/pouring rain/sweltering heat. But you see her day is not done. After coming to our homes, cleaning up after us, feeding us and our children she must head home and her day begins. She may be a mother or a gogo (granny) she gets home and has to look after some hungry peeps. And how much do they earn? Not a helluva lot, so how can they make ends meet, well I guess like most people that need financing, they will go to a bank..eeehhhh wrong. Why because more than likely they are not credit worthy and as a result may not be granted a loan or if the loan is granted, interest rates are charged at rates commensurate to their risk profile. Enter micro lenders, who can charge some crazy interest rates, I am not sure what the regulation is currently, but I think it could be as much as 20-30% a month

{Intermission}A couple of weeks ago, on one of my rare visits to a bank branch, I stood there and started thinking. What else can I do, have you seen those queues? J Go into a bank and who is most likely to be there? The not so well to do! Why? Well, hmm who can barely afford to put food on the table? Yip, you guessed it, yet they still have to pay cash deposit fees, which is a phenomenon I have struggled to understand. You are using my money to make more money and I must pay you to use it? Hmm….

{Back to the mother/gogo}Ok so she’s gone home now, Oh darn no running water…so off she missions to go and find some water so she can cook, wash herself and the kids and some clothes. Hmm, no electricity, how am I going to cook, I guess I have to make an open fire. Fire’s done, food is cooked, showee this fire is nice, its keeping the kids warm, I’m so tired…zzzz (off to sleep we drift), something falls into the fire, oh goodness, shack catches alight, so too the next, and the next and the next and the…u get where I am going with this. In the end a couple of people killed in a shack fire, plenty left without a roof, its June in Cape Town…rain drops keep falling on my head…

Blue collared workers definitely drive the economy. As I write this I feel I may have written about this before, but anyway…

So where was I, blue collared workers…these people are in the mine stopes, digging out this yellow thing that makes the world around them go round…not theirs though. The risk their lives and die, we say oh well…rest their souls. Brett Kebble dies, rest his soul and there is a huge enquiry as to who killed him and why, a couple of miners die, is anyone accountable, are there investigations carried out? I am sure there are, but do we hear about them hell no, who were they anyway?

Civil servants ask for a pay rise they get shot down. I am not saying that I support the strike action, but I kind of understand where they are coming from. They don’t make that much money and 6% on their salaries I guess is not really that much. Eskom, a government parastatal wants to increase its tarrifs by 18% and I am almost certain that this will happen. Will this not fuel inflation? Damn right it will. Teachers, nurses etc want 6%, eish sorree bra, but we are targeting inflation to be between 3-6%. People like me will sit in front of my TV and start shouting, “demand a 12% increase, tell me what you have done to deserve a 12% increase? Crime is still ridiculously high, the level of matric pass rates isn’t all that hot? The standard of teaching isn’t that hot either.” But then should the respective ministers not be called to order? Should the ministers not be held accountable for their departments not meeting the targets? What kind of increases do these ministers get? I guess they get their 6% as well, but I guess 6% on their salaries is a whole lot more than 6% on the blue collared workers salaries!

So my job doesn’t pay too well, I have a couple of kids that I am struggling to feed, the world is just a nasty place at this time in my life, so what do I do? Yip, lets hit the bottle store. Please Mr Black Label, take me to my happy place! Yip I know what you are thinking? So whose fault is it that this person has so many children? Well did they have the opportunity to go to school?

Then there are some gifted/lucky people that are getting paid millions to kick a ball around, drive a car around a circuit. They get paid even more to wear a watch, a t-shirt, a pair of sneakers. Even though they can afford it they get everything for free, cars, clothes, entrance into exclusive places.

It’s a hard knock life! The ‘sad’ thing I guess is these are just thoughts for me, and for others it’s their lives!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you are reading this message, it means you are on a pretty decent wicket in terms of life, so whatever your BIG issue is currently in your life just remember it could be much worse, be grateful for all you have and who you have.

On that happy note J let me be off to la la land, wishing you all a ripper of a week! Oh wait before I go, the most maximum of respect to all the guys and girls that spent their Saturday morning building houses for the less fortunate in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. I’d like to come along next time so if someone could tell me before 2am on the Saturday morning it would be great ;-).


Birthdays
6th Helen
9th Rudi and Ivan

Maximum respect!

Y

Que sera sera