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Strikes and democracy
Let us indeed look at Greece. Greece is today where the UK was in the 1970's - in a process of liberalisation after the oppression of dictators so we can expect a swing to the left which, as this new democracy finds its feet, will normalise, just like the UK has done. The same goes for Spain, now considered a mature democracy, and Portugal, still a work in progress. Like Europe, the South African unions are busy flexing their muscles and pushing boundaries in the process. Let's hope that they don't go as far as the UK where a once proud automobile manufacturing sector, was destroyed by Harold Wilson and Nationalisation. Maggie Thatcher turned HMS Brittania around with her nonsense attitude. She too got long in the tooth and a mature Labour Government took over with good effect. We still need to go through the travails of this painful process - but it will be shorter due mainly to the Chinese factor. Sooner or later the Unions will wake up and realise that all the manufacturing jobs will migrate to the Far East and we will be reduced to a nation of service providers - tourism perhaps? I hope not. Some countries just take a bit longer to mature than others seventies. Personally I feel that the right to strike is a paramount democracy. I'll bet that all the negative comments have come from pen pushers and office workers like me.
by Quidditas
26 August 2010 11:33
Jan Smuts and the strikers: shoot ‘em dead!
Strikers who stop hospitals working bring out the worst in me.
JOHANNESBURG - My grandfather used to say of General Jan Smuts: "He was rootless, my boy, rootless!"
Grandpa was Smuts' dispatch rider during the war, and stayed with the Smuts family on their Irene farm for a while after it.
20 August 2010 09:54
Harvey Tyson's impassioned plea to us all
What can we do about the ANC's plans for a media tribunal?
JOHANNESBURG - Friend, colleague and my former boss at The Star, Harvey Tyson is now in his 80s. He edited The Star for 17 years.
Harvey still cycles with us on the Tour de Farce each year, and is so incensed by the ANC's plans for the press that he penned a viral e-mail. I agree with every word and can say it no better:
12 August 2010 11:02
What is a fair wage?
Should my electrician be charging more than my cardiologist?
JOHANNESBURG - An electrician came to my home this week and spent 20 minutes fixing a quadruple light switch. He charged R850.
"That's more than my cardiologist," I told him.
"Ja, well he does the same sort of thing, just with veins and arteries instead of wires," he replied smugly.
08 August 2010 07:10
SA's media under attack
Peter Sullivan asks why the Press Council has been ignored in the debate.
Why do government and the ANC not use the Press Council (PC) to discipline newspapers?
It is to some measure the fault of newspapers themselves.
Instead of giving the Press Council huge publicity, editors ignore it.
29 July 2010 10:58
Now there's a problem with R100 notes
Peter Sullivan reckons we might need to ask the cleverest person in the land to help.
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's Mint is having some trouble. We all know about R200 note problems, now it appears there are problems with the R100 note.
Details are thin, but an employee hinted that his dismissal appeal should not be in camera as the Mint requested, because, his attorney said, the Mint merely wanted to stop the public hearing about problems with the security of the R100 note which his client had highlighted.
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