an ode to the sacrifice of service - in praise of the South African Police Force

hi there

there have, ladies and gentlemen, been some rather vicious riots in South Africa this last week. indeed, look you see, this is rather more of a serious post than you are used to reading here - sorry, normal service will resume imminently. i just thought a moment from it was worth commenting on.

the "rest of world" media are of course not reporting on "domestic riots" in South Africa. this is because it is not quite so glamorous as when it happens in America, and the idea of discord or anything being wrong in South Africa does not quite tally with the idea Bono and his mates had about not playing concerts there and all would be amazing, man.

in fairness to Bono, it was, for a while - it is hardly the fault of a pop star that the great Mr Mandela was succeeded by first an alcoholic vanity case that found it easier, for example, to simply say that AIDS does not exist rather than doing anything about it, and then by a bumbling idiot of a sex criminal who, somewhere along the line, was led to believe that yes, a shower will cure you of all this AIDS thing that does not exist anyway.

i am not sure, dear reader, if the gent pictured here is the great name of Lieutenant General Solomon Makgale that i am to quote, but i would rather like to think it is. why does a police officer have the title Lieutenant General? because about 7 or so years ago, and at great expense, the SA Police decided that everything would be all more much better if they gave themselves military rankings.

what is it that the good Lieutenant General has said of these riots?

"Given the situation, we decided that we must arrest the individuals who were seen in videos looting shops."

you may want to read that again to see if it helps it all sink in, or indeed click on the link i put there too, so you can see it in context and what have you.  there isn't really too many ways to dress that up, or take it out of context. as far as i can work out, indeed ascertain, and yes i am padding this a bit so the text wraps nicely around the picture, he did indeed really say those words above.

many of you are lucky enough to live in a country where it is something of a given that the police will, as general procedure, arrest those who have committed crimes, or are at the least suspect of it. you are perhaps not used to the idea of the police being presented with evidence and taking it away, discussing it and then going "oh, go on then, let us do that job we are paid for, just this once".

followers of the Stumpie trial will, of course, be not quite so surprise. after all, the SA police have no problem at all taking a door away from a crime scene to show off to mates at home. nor do they have any problem at all with stealing items from crime scenes.

they have, presumably, arrested the individuals. it remains to be seen if they go right ahead and charge them too, or if that will prove to be a bit too much effort and something that would be considered excessive.

i love Bono. but if he turns up in your country with a class idea, you might want to encourage him to share his thinking through the goal, as well as to it.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!