Israel goes to the polls... again!
Monday, 2 March 2020
Israel goes to the polls today for the third time in less than a year. Here's what this is about:
current affairs
My budget takeaways
Thursday, 27 February 2020
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his 2020 budget speech yesterday. Brief highlights for me:
Free speech versus the right to bear arms?
Friday, 21 February 2020
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents government passing laws prohibiting freedom of speech.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the individual right to keep and bear arms.
But what if they are in fact the same thing?
Reading into India's GDP growth
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Quite a bit of buzz today around the fact that India has overtaken the UK as the world's fifth largest economy.
India's GDP has clocked $2,94 trillion. The UK sits at $2,83 trillion followed by France at $2,71 trillion.
There's been a lot of grumbling from India's opposition Congress party who've pointed out that manufacturing has declined in its overall contribution to GDP (in spite of Prime Minister Modi's much-hyped "Make in India" campaign).
A plague on both your houses!
Tuesday, 18 February 2020
And I miss you... Like the deserts miss the rain... went the 90s track from Everything But The Girl.
Desert rains also bring chaos. An abundance of rain leads to an abundance of foliage, which encourages breeding of locusts.
These have wreaked havoc around the Horn of Africa.
A "small" swarm contains about 40 million insects, and they can eat as much food in a day as 35 000 people.
Up in my air balloon, air balloon...
Sunday, 16 February 2020
Whenever I watch "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade", I'm filled with longing for the majestic beauty of airships.
Three times longer and twice as tall as a 747 – to put that in perspective, the Hindenburg class machine was as long as the Empire State Building is tall – these magnificent machines had 25 cabins (yes, cabins) holding two passengers each, a dining room, a passenger lounge with a piano, a writing room, a smoking room.
So Ramaphosa delivered, sort of...
Friday, 14 February 2020
Yesterday, I said there are three very simple things President Ramaphosa can do today that will immediately give an uptick to our economy:
- Let SAA fail
- Take the money that would be spent on SAA and use it to upgrade Metrorail rolling stock and stations
- Hand over control of Metrorail to the municipalities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban
Here's what he said in the State of the Nation address:
My wishes for the State of the Nation Address tonight
Thursday, 13 February 2020
There are three very simple things President Ramaphosa can do today that will immediately give an uptick to our economy:
- Let SAA fail
- Take the money that would be spent on SAA and use it to upgrade Metrorail rolling stock and stations
- Hand over control of Metrorail to the municipalities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban
That's it.
I could ask for an end to EWC, NHI, cadre deployment, PIC stealing workers' pensions, but I've learned to lower my expectations.
The virus and the pangolin
Saturday, 8 February 2020
When you see one strutting along on its hind legs, you might be forgiven for thinking this is a baby tyrannosaurus.
When it rolls up into a ball, it looks like a projectile from a medieval version of pelota designed for the Spanish Inquisition.
And then it puts forward something that looks like an earthworm the length of a domestic cat, which you realize is its tongue.
Pangolins are amazing creatures. They're mammals with scales, and they can swing from trees by their tails. In the wild, they are pretty much invincible.