this week in the news

shoooooo!!!, can't say i'm unhappy that this week is finally over, manto tshabalala msimang (our health minister) has been raked through the coals in the media this week, i think she even made the mampara of the week column,..since her deputy got fired, manto moved into the firing line (from the media and opposition mp's)her medical records are in the newspaper, since she bumped herself up the list for her liver transplant, then proceeded to drink away the new one, (speculation or fact. with the media who knows?..)

our president is standing by his "man" though :), she is one of his camp, as in all democracies,the man in power will stick by his loyal supporters,...i believe what is truly unethical is the exposing of her medical records to the public, hey i'm all for transparency, but this was down right wrong, and illegal,whatever we might think of the health minister, she surely has a right to legal recourse.

our pres thabo, was doing, the, i am really stupid when it comes to the aids issue , claiming that he really didn't know anyone that had died from hiv/aids, only to have it pointed out that aids had taken a couple of parliamentarians, and an assistant in his own office, what essop pahad his spin doctor, is doing one wanders,...surely the president should be apprised of issues correctly, so that he doesn't come across as an ass in public.

but than essop, spends a lot of his time entertaining the Indian aristocracy,..from bollywood to the state capital and everything in between, i believe he spends more time dining with anil gupta, and anand sharma then he does paying attention to keeping his boss from saying stupid things, hey what the heck do i know about politics, it's a dirty game i'm told.essop has been referred to as bumptious, he has one claim to fame, that would be coining the idea that india gave us mohandas karamchand ghandi, and we gave india the mahatma, a saying made quite famous by our own madiba.

but i digress, we shouldn't really hold up the standards of the local press on these issues,...as they are still controlled by the white liberal elite, who's job really is to make us believe that the anc government are incompetent, and not any better than their predecessors when it comes to nepotism/stupidity/bribery/corruption...

in defence of our government though, these are the same people who have implemented a violent free democracy,...10 years is not the measure of any government, and to their credit, we have accessible education ,..free if somewhat incompetent health care, housing,freedom of religion, better jobs, etc. the country has not become another Zimbabwe,( to our credit), however Mugabe has had twenty odd years to destroy a perfectly good country, and send his homeless/jobless/starving people over the border,..the result is that Zimbabweans have become party to crime,hijacking, stealing from guests in hotels, following travellers from the airports, house breaking, this has become a business in south africa, crime is the one issue, that i believe our president and his men should be doing more about.

i believe that countries don't require governments to run them,..take Italy as an example, it functions without much of a government, what is needed are structures to run, the infrastructure of a country, roads, electricity, water the basic needs, the rest we are quite capable of doing for ourselves, failing that, bureaucracies could be downsized,they employ 20 people to do the job of one, and the job never gets done, take the id, issue that i've mentioned in previous posts, after pulling a few strings, and employing the card of family in government, my mother got an id book, a 10 year wait, 1o years because we refused to draw on the we know somebody card, which eventually had to be utilised. not everybody is that privileged, these are the issues that government should address. but they never do,...so frustrations rise, while we seek to build a union of African nations, hob nob with the UN, and elites of developed countries.

what should be happening is working toward a more efficient, economical running of the country and tax revenues, once we have that under control, we could work on building the rest of Africa,..wishful thinking really?