f*** the po-po

first the good news:
- happy 7th month anniversary to me. i've now been in sa for about 7months, and this is only significant because i meant to post a happy 6th month (1/2 yr) anniversary to me and i forgot, so this will have to do. 7 months seem like a long time, but it really hasnt felt that long, and i still consider myself a newbie.

- mama okunade (i.e. my mom) is coming to visit. tomorrow. so looking forward to seeing her and getting some good home cooking. finally. um, not that thats the only reason i love my mum. don't be offended, feminists!

- congrats to madiba (i.e. nelson mandela) on being 90. well, he's not really 90 yet, but the celebrations are under way. the huge one in london was very good, it was broadcast here as well. looking forward to seeing whats planned for when he's back here. on a tangent...sometimes its sad to look back at the man/icon and see what he's been through and accomplished, and then look at where sa seems to be headed now. im holding out hope tho. another tangent, kudos to madiba for rebuking bob mugabe (i'll get to him later); take a hint, mbeki.

now the crazy stuff:
- back to mugabe; or bobby as i say, cuz we tight like that. congrats on the sham election. the man is ancient anyway, he's gotta decay soon, ne? you know some "christians" apparently were all upset that he said that only god can remove him from office. now why would you be upset at that. first, you have to ask which god he's referring to. then instead of crying foul, tell u what you do: get on your knees, arms in the air, and pray day and night that mugabe's wish comes true, and that god does remove him...and, i mean, this can be in the form of a sniper, or the nigerian style "heart-attack slash food poisoning slash old age". god works in mysterious ways, i say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/opinion/29kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

- a wk ago i filled up the tank in my tiny car. it cost me 500 rand. thats close to $70. and thats after the guy tried to top me off and i had to stop him at 500. 500! even in the US, 70 bucks is a lot of money. but this is south africa. average incomes are about 50-60% of the avg in the US. and we're paying so much more for gas. further, its been announced that prices will go up again on tuesday or wed by 12-15%. moh-fugga wha??! so yea, quit ur b**ch'n americans and go ride the damn bus/train.

caveat: this post has and will likely contain more french. I want to apologize now. I'm only foul when I'm pushed to it!

- last week wednesday, some people here decided to hold a protest/strike on the highway in johannesburg central, where i work now. this protest not only disturbed the flow of traffic at the time people got off work, it actually completely halted traffic on the highway and on some of the local roads. so here i was heading home, feeling pretty good, cuz u know, i was done with work for the day. all of a sudden i notice that what is supposed to be the on-ramp to the highway that i take has somehow become an off ramp and i can't get onto the highway (in hindsight, it was probably very well that i didnt, as traffic was stopped for 3+ hours on the highway. completely stopped, not just slow).

problem #1, the highway is the ONLY way i know how to get home. seeing that i couldn't get on, i decide to do what i've learned to do now when i'm lost: follow the car in front of me. so i did that for a bit. then decided to call some people when i realized i had no idea where i was. that helped for a bit (like a block and a half). then more traffic. in about 2 hours i had managed to move about 2 blocks away from the office building. when i managed to look up and see my office building i decided to just go back to the office and wait the stupid thing out (esp. after hearing on the radio that everywhere was packed). getting back to the office, 1 block away took me another 30 minutes, and that was that short because much hated and antagonized taxi drivers actually got out of their taxis and helped traffic along in the streets of town.

so on my way up the elevator from the parking lot, i, very coincidentally, ran into my client, who had been on the top floor of the office building apparently planning is route out of town. after unsuccessfully describing to me how to get out of town and skip the protests by using some route through the infamous nigerian, drug-dealing district, we decided that i would just follow him. thankfully, he eventually got me out onto another highway, free from protests and i got home. throughout this adventure, i must admit i went from thinking this was pretty funny (haha onramp becomes onramp, ladiladi-har), to being kinda frustrated, to being utterly pissed off and wanting to get out my rifle and go shooting some game (sorry, animal-lovers, but as a card carrying member of the NRA, i have my god-given rights!).

here's a pic of what the craziness looked like, but this doesnt really do it justice; it was much worse than this:



so who were the perpetrators of this bedlam? the f**king police. thats who. the decided to protest their salary by holding up traffic, like kidnappers holding down their hostages. now, i used to really hate protest, but my stance has softened a bit. and i do realize its a way of life in places like south africa or france. and i can understand u demanding better pay (don't we all). BUT, what the hell, do I have to do with you getting a pay raise. my point is, a protest/strike must be well planned out, well target, and well executed to be fully effective. why piss people off that have no effect on your situation. there were people that urgently needed to get home or to their kids, or people like me who had no clue how to get around that were stuck on the highway or in the streets of the city. why not go hold up your employees in their offices? the people actually empowered to make these decisions. and their actions created such madness in the city. criminals could go wild, cuz the cops weren't gonna stop them; they were busy doing their own criminal acts. at one point another police unit was dispatched to quell the craziness on the highway, so they decided to use rubber bullets to scatter the cops that were protesting. and what do the protesters do? they bring out their real guns and start shooting. hah, this is almost comical. if it wasn't so bloody ridiculous.

my argument i guess is kind of moot, as now the protesting cops have reached an agreement with their bosses which im sure includes some pay raise. still, im pissed off.

random post 328950: today, my church announced that one pastor was leaving the church and that another one would take over. the importance of this is the one taking over is a black african (s africa has made me reallly color conscious, sorry). this is really an interesting move, as this church is mostly white and trying really hard to get involved in the black community. this black guy is an awesome guy tho and now he will be heading the leadership team at the church. he's been at the vineyard for 20+ years and preaching at this vineyard on and off for something like 3+ years and very much respected by all members (as far as i can tell). i cant help but wonder tho: how many whites are gonna start leaving the church now?...