RANT: The Great South African EsCON

It's taken me this long to get over my EXTREME ANGER over a dirty little deal South Africa recently signed up...

Yet again the people of South Africa have been royally stiffed by the national electricity utility company.

Eskom or, by its rightful name, EsCON saw fit to request an international loan from none other than the IMF in order to finance what will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power station in the world.

A coal-fired power station. The fourth-largest of its kind in the world. With a loan from the IMF.

The mind BOGGLES at just how many bad angles those statements conjure up...

Let me deconstruct just how bad this deal is for South Africa and the environment:

1. Climate What?: Whilst the South African government proudly trumpets its 'commitments' to global warming and climate change, it acts as ringmaster and cheerleader for this deal it brokered between its reviled parastatal, EsCON, and the IMF. Experts agree that coal-fired power stations are the number one cause of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Numero Uno. And here we are, Africa's biggest economy, pumping more money into this dirty, filthy technology. With the name of Medupi. To the tune of USD3.75-billion to be exact.

It's greenwashing all over again, typical of governments the world over.

2. Old Hag, Will Travel: Coal-fired power stations are basically updated 19th-century technology. However you dress them and modernize them, they're still filthy and decrepit hags pumping out huge amounts of air pollution and countless other environmental impacts.

3. Renewable Que? Where the hell is this country's REAL and TANGIBLE commitment to alternative energy sources like solar, wind, wave and geothermal, all of which South Africa would possess in plentiful supply? Nowhere, of course. We'd rather shackle ourselves to a 'proven' polluting and frankly filthy energy source like coal, thereby relegating us to never-has-beens in the new global green economy. Such is the power and clout of the coal industry lobby in this country (with the nuclear crowd another bunch of thugs hogging the energy debate in SA), not to mention the collusion between the government, EsCON and major industrial entities that are known to get their electricity in this country (their DIRTY electricity, please note) for below cost. A collusion unchanged since deep in the bad old apartheid era, by the way.

Oh, and a pledge to use some of this money (about R230-million or thereabouts according to the con..ahem...agreement with the IMF) for 'renewable technologies' is frankly in bad taste. It's abit like the biggest loan shark in town loaning a heroin addict $1000 for his heroin habit and telling the addict they must set $75 aside for their rehab. Uh huh. You may call that a 'concession', I call it patronizing to renewable energy.

4. Putting out the Fires: Reading the comments of ministers and EsCON in the media one was given the unmistakable message that unless this Medupi power station is built the entire electricity infrastructure of this country would collapse by next week. Or tomorrow. In fact, make that yesterday. Where the hell does planning come into all of this, you incompetent idiots? It's the oldest, most boring political trick in the book - make a situation seem so bad, so untenable, so utterly URGENT that you will make people desperately accept any old nonsense you feed them, including making us more reliant than ever on dirty, outdated technology. At the very least it's sheer incompetence and bad management. At worst it's...well...

5. Banana Republic - Proof 1: The money has always been there, the scope of South Africa's energy needs has always been known, yet everyone runs around like headless nincompoops insisting that coal energy is the ONLY thing that has ANY chance of staving off the immediate return of South Africa to the Iron Age. And all this nonsense about "how much South Africa has grown since 1994" and "what a surprise" it's been to the government and EsCON is a pile of crap. These lies must stop. Our real GDP each year has barely surpassed 3% per annum, whatever bunch of economic data the government throws at us. This is hardly the People's Republic of China or India in terms of growth...

Yes, more people have electricity these days. Yes, the SA population is growing larger. Big deal. Boo hoo. Where was all the planning? Where were all the contingency plans based on projected demographic and economic growth rates? Nowhere, because incompetent fat cats were too busy lining their pockets at EsCON whilst the government chose to do nothing and this country's coal industry looked on rubbing their dirty hands in glee.

6. Banana Republic - Proof 2: Where there's an IMF loan, you can bet your bottom dollar there will be corruption. Or, in this instance, your bottom 3.75-billion dollars. There have been widespread reports in the country's media and abroad that the governing ANC (or members thereof) will stand to make up to R1-billion (about 2.75% of the total loan amount) what with its close ties to the chief construction company involved in this project. But, of course. Why shouldn't the head honchos in the ruling party not skim the cream off the top of this lucrative deal? It is for the 'better' of the country and they are the ones 'brokering' the deal. Right? Um...no, wrong. The ANC has been in power for too long and acts as such. In fact, it acts like most governments in power.

7. Bring in Da Mafia: Number 7 is such a magic number and so I have left the best for last. Not only does this country see fit to build the fourth-largest coal-fired power station in the world but...wait for it...we will do so with money from the International Mafia Fund! Hurrah! I think the fact we have 'secured' this money from the IMF angers me almost as much as having yet another huge polluting power station in the countryside. I put the word secure in parentheses for dramatic effect, because there's no such thing as 'security' when one is dealing with the biggest legal multilateral Mafia organization in the world.

The IMF, the most destructive, anti-society, anti-liberty, anti-democracy bunch of bastards in the post-WW2 era, has finally gotten its grubby claws right into the flesh of the Rainbow Nation. Where the IMF and its economic henchmen are let in, they never leave without huge socio-political and human rights costs to the host, never mind the ENORMOUS interest on loans this particular Mafia family always make. Just ask Argentina, circa 2002.

The South African government even had the nerve to declare very proudly how South Africa has never requested a loan from the IMF in the post-apartheid era (i.e. post-1994). Great. Thanks so much. And now, in the midst of a global recession that still doesn't let up, you choose to invite the biggest wolf of all into our lair. And you're proud of that? What a bunch of cretins.

With this deal South Africa has whored itself out to two very dangerous clients: meet Dirty Coal and the International MaFiosi.

I cannot yet decide which of these two will prove more costly to this country in the years to come.

Do you get my point?

SITE OF THE DAY: The Sea Shepherds

Making the Sea Shepherds my site of the day is overdue. It's a minuscule gesture, less than a drop in the ocean. But my praise for what this organization fights so hard to do could not be more timely, given just how under attack the ocean's whales are yet again.

Visit their excellent site http://www.seashepherd.org/

This is one of the organizations at the forefront of the fight for our oceans.

The man at the helm is Captain Paul Watson, an outspoken and unstoppable environmental campaigner for over 40 years. If you're looking for a lovable, cuddly captain of the high seas this is not your man. Captain Watson is a cantankerous, often unsmiling man. Warm and effusive are not exactly words you'd associate with him. Just watch the excellent series "The Whale Wars" on National Geographic Channel and you'll know precisely what I mean. One doesn't warm to him as a character. I certainly didn't. But who needs a Mr. Nice Guy when instead you have this man who, along with his many crews over the years, has been tireless in his courageous all-out campaigning against whaling in the southern ocean.

The Sea Shepherds have become (in)famous for their annual treks out into the frigid, icy waters of the Southern Ocean as they track and then hound as many of the Japanese 'scientific' whaling vessels that plow those waters during the southern hemisphere summer. These Japanese vessels wreak havoc wherever they go, killing up to hundreds of these magnificent giant mammals of the ocean, using hunting techniques that are as barbaric as whaling has ever been. And will ever be.

The confrontations between the intrepid Sea Shepherd vessels and the Japanese whalers has often been fraught with danger, even violence. This reality came to light on January 5th this year when the Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru 2, deliberately rammed the Sea Shepherd ultra-modern trimarin, the Ady Gil. Two days later the Ady Gil sank. The event sent shockwaves throughout the world, with images of the ramming flooding newscasts and the Net.

It was a blatant, belligerent and illegal act of violence on the high seas by the Japanese against the ant-whaling protesters. It was assuredly an act in contravention of every maritime law in peacetime. It showed the sheer arrogance and impunity of the Japanese whalers.

Subsequent actions by authorities were appalling, both by the Japanese in their infinite capacity for righteous indignation in the face of their barbarity and the Australians, as ever kowtowing in their role as Resource Whore to the Far East, Japan included, of course.

But who the hell cares in the end. The legal and financial repercussions can never be dismissed outright, of course. But the moral imperative and unyielding spirit of those who work for the Sea Shepherds continues unabated, perhaps even more fired than ever.

This organization has come under tremendous fire from different quarters over the years. Many environmentalists question their tactics, citing the opinion that their actions against whalers are quasi-violent and possibly counter-productive. As if trying to harass whaling ships compares to what the whalers are doing to the whales in terms of violence.

They've even been accused of being attention-seekers. As if being out all alone and exposed on the frigid, often turbulent waters of the southern ocean is somehow glamorous and motivated by grabbing headlines. Yeah, for sure.

Even the well-documented antipathy between Captain Watson's posse and Greenpeace is well known. And so be it - every cause has its rivalries and its factions. Such is human nature.

They may come across like a ragged bunch of adventurers out on the high seas. And the provocative pirate-evoking flag that they use on their anti-whaling forays might be more in keeping with their true persona. But their cause is deadly serious. And for all the right reasons.

Bono is a self-important, attention-hogging wannabe activist schmuck and pompous git who deserves all my contempt. Captain Paul Watson is anything but.

These activists don't only fight for the whales of the oceans. They have campaigns for seals, sharks, dolphins and the unique marine ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands. Their latest campaign in 2010 is 'Operation Blue Rage' and is a fight to stop the overfishing to extinction of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. Their flagship, the aptly named Steve Irwin, will depart from New York this Saturday, May 1st, on its way to fight their latest battle in the Mediterranean.

It will be yet another fight by the Sea Shepherds on behalf of the creatures in our oceans, a fight on behalf of the very survival of the oceans and seas themselves.

A fight on behalf of all of us.

And for all of this I salute them.

RANT: Suffer the Whales

It's been over three weeks since I last blogged. Time has just flown by. It's no excuse - I do know that. There's so much to rant about, I simply don't know where to begin. Current history is a veritable Towering Inferno of catastrophic and near-catastrophic events.

History-making, not so positive events, they're coming thick and fast at present. The times they're certainly crazy.

There is the near-collapsing Greek and Portuguese economies and the ongoing thievery by the global financial Mafia bastards to rant about, not to mention an upcoming (and silly) UK election and yet another electricity fiasco right here in South Africa.

More on some of those another time...

Yet nothing upsets me more profoundly than the growing possibility that the existing moratorium on whaling may yet be overturned in June.

It looks very possible that the current moratorium on whaling, which the International Whaling Commission (IWC) passed in 1986, will be a thing of the past in just a few weeks. Many countries, the United States included, are preparing to vote to allow whaling to be legal once again. Unbelievable.

And back we go yet again as a species.

Of course, this time around spurious 'scientific' and even 'conservation' reasons are being cited for this wish to lift the ban. There's always a godforsaken conservation reason. Guaranteed.
Give me any barbaric killing of any animal, and you can bet your last dollar that there'll definitely be sold-out environmentalist-conservationists cheering it on. It happens all the time right here in southern Africa with the ongoing 'culling for conservation purposes' that goes on in our national parks and 'game lodges' of large animals like elephants. Conservationists abound in their approval of those 'kind killings'. Yes, killing can also be very kind. Come on - didn't you know that?!

Quite frankly, I'm sincerely not interested in whatever 'scientific' or 'environmental' reasons there may be for the slaughter of these magnificent animals of whom we still have so much to learn. What's wrong is wrong...no, in fact, what's amoral is amoral.

And here we have the return to the (potentially) wholesale legal slaughter of the largest and amongst the most intelligent animals on Earth.

The Japanese must be toasting with gallons of sake, what with their ongoing massacre of hundreds of whales each year in the southern ocean. Now it will all be totally legal! Sayonara to that. As will be the Norwegian and Icelandic whaling contingencies, bunch of holier-than-thou Scandinavian hypocrites that they are.

'Save the Whales' has yet again become a necessary mantra of the environmental movement and any remotely compassionate person on this planet. It was a campaign at the forefront of the watershed years of the environmental movement back in the 1970s.

Here we are again, 35 years later, and the same fight must be fought yet again. All over again. Talk about being the most fucking redundant species on the planet.

Excuse my extreme language - but that gives you just an inkling of how angry this makes me.

Imagine being at the mercy of us?

Suffer the Whales. Suffer humanity.

Do you get my point?

NOT the Site of the Day: Facebook

Today I made the joyous decision to deactivate my Facebook account. Joyous because I cannot remember the last time a site has so annoyed me.

I resisted joining Facebook for a long time. It just seemed so trite and I've never had much patience for social networking sites. I tire of them so easily. But people kept telling me to give it a go, so in January of this year I finally did and jumped onto the Facebook bandwagon.

And it took me less than three months to bail the hell off THAT wagon.

So, why my hate for this much-loved (and, as I have also discovered of late, much-reviled) site? Well, some of the MANY reasons why I detested being a Facebooker include:

1. It's The Stepford Wives Online Social Forum! The utterly mundane and piss-boring posts by so many people about things they're doing that I would never, ever, EVER be interested in the first place. It's scary just how mundane most people's lives are - and they have the nerve to think I'd actually be interested! Not to mention the all-out chirpiness of it all. It's all so glib and so relentlessly cheery and...well...creepy.

2. Much Ado About Nothing: For all the talk about what wonderful 'networking' one can do on this site (one of the primary reasons I joined) it's all bloody nonsense. Real networking is so limited. Yes, there are some great organizations with profiles on the site and some good causes that can be spread. But they're almost an afterthought in the mental twilight world that is Facebook. And most people really don't care. For the most part, it's just an excuse for social exhibitionism and voyeurism to run rampant and without threat of prosecution.

3. Oops, There Goes My IQ!: The sheer banality of most of the posts coupled with the ENDLESS silly games that some people play on the site ('Mafia Wars', something about a damn zoo and other such mindless crap) and which one - of course - has to be bombarded with, was astounding. It gave me the distinct impression that, for the very first time in my life and barring a few forgettable social instances, I could actually feel the physiological sensations of myself getting more and more stupid...Absolutely scary.

4. The 'Who-the-Bloody-Hell-Are-You?' Game: Never before have I had so many requests from so many people that I either (a) can barely stand it if they're in the same hemisphere as I or (b) I don't have a cooking clue who they are, to simply be their 'friend'. Friend indeed - back-handed slap is more like it.

5. Is This Communication?: On a more serious note, I sincerely have huge doubts regarding the actual value and quality of the communication one gets in the online hell that is Facebook. For one, I was taken aback at how essentially dumb some of the communication was by people who I (once) thought and assumed were actually smart. It was a genuine shock to me.

For another, me listening to what a person had for breakfast or what their precious child did in the school play or how fabulous they think their God is, and which is broadcast willy-nilly to the entire world, is neither personally gratifying for me nor is it real communication. It's just tedious narcissism, quite frankly.

Put it in an e-mail and communicate with me one on one. Even if it is about your breakfast or your child or your God - I'll be more receptive. At least then it validates me as being a real friend to you, and not just one of your hundreds of Facebook 'friends'.

It's the dumbing down of society.

It's the elevation of being trite and glib to that of being smart - when it is not nor should it ever be.

It's further confirmation of the mindless instant gratification era in which we live.

It is the Big Brother TV show syndrome subliminal to one's social interactions.

It is a limited concept given too much online importance and too much value.

It's for some, and not for others.

For a far more amusing and brilliantly scathing attack on Facebook, please follow this link at the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/i-hate-facebook_b_178867.html 

The rant against Facebook by Andy Ostroy, a political analyst in New York City, is seriously funny. And seriously true. It's a fantastic diatribe.

As for me with regard to Facebook, it's a case of over and OUT!

Thank goodness.

PERSONAL/ RAVE: My 50th Post

Today I am writing my 50th post on my blog. It's actually quite a milestone for me, given that I had my doubts when I finally commenced it in January of this year that I would have the determination and self-discipline (not to mention interest) to stick to this blogging malarkey.

Well, I have I stuck to this blogging malarkey. And, quite to my surprise, I have really enjoyed doing it. I have found my blogging experience to be a really terrific means by which I can explore and write about (not to mention even vent!) on issues or stories that have meant a lot to me in the past three months.

I keep telling people how invigorating I have found this blogging experience, even cathartic at times. And that is the honest truth.

It has also been an 'intellectual energizer' of sorts. Somehow, it has forced me to do so much more research and online reading than I probably would have ordinarily done. And that has only been to my benefit. 

Writing my posts on this blog has also made me realize that I really love writing, even in this more 'opinionated, op-ed' style, which has been quite different to the mostly narrative (i.e. storytelling) style of private writing I had done up until I started this blog. 

So, for all these reasons and more, I am grateful for this opportunity to write to my heart's content online and in this format.

May I keep being inspired to write more posts, so that I soon reach another 50...and another 50 thereafter...and...well, as long as I'm enjoying this ride.