Month: February 2009

I don’t know who to vote for

Come 22 April 2009, we enter a new phase in South African politics. While it's not as ground breaking as the 1994 election (in which I was a few months too young to vote), it's the end of the honeymoon period of Nelson Mandela and his protégé, Thabo Mbeki. I'm talking about the newest four-letter word: Zuma.

A wise man (or woman – I forget who it was) once told me that the most powerful vote you can cast is for a strong opposition, regardless of who is in power. And, quite frankly, I can't predict the outcome of this election to the point where I want to vote for the Congress of the People. Aside from the fact that they might win (albeit a very slim chance), they don't stand for what I believe in. Yes, I'm dismissing Ms Botoz right off the bat, because Helen Zille, while a strong woman, is not a leader. The Democratic Alliance is boring. They've been the "opposition" since Apartheid South Africa, and even their recent rebranding exercise did nothing for me.

So I don't know who to vote for.

I don’t envy Obama

Even if it was the angry old white man in the White House, I wouldn't envy anyone in that position right now. The US economy is in a recession, major corporations are closed or closing, and the world is not very amused with George W Bush.

(Aside: Thank GOODNESS he's gone. I mean, seriously? How badly did he screw up?)

So now it's Obama, the …

(Aside: Sorry, my fingers are refusing to write the same clichés everyone has used to describe a man whose father was born in Kenya.)

So now it's Barack Obama, the new president, who has to clean up the mess. It's almost New Deal territory. The entire First World is broke. Interest rates are hovering around 1%. In South Africa, we've just had our prime interest rate slashed to 14%.

I don't envy Obama. Not only does he have to single-handedly convince the USA he's not a socialist (and even if he is, who cares?), but he has to sort out the nonsense in the economy, and indirectly the healthcare and education crisis in that country too.

Would you want that job? No wonder the poor guy fluffed the "faithfully" line in his swearing-in ceremony.

I think I finally understand what netbooks are for

Netbooks – I mean, what's the point, right? It's like Tom Cruise pretending (badly) to be a Nazi soldier, but not changing his accent. Granted, there is a school of acting which says you shouldn't do the accents and just be yourself, but I think I'm off on another Tomcruise Tangent (I'm copyrighting that) …

Netbooks. I think I finally get what they're about. Sure, it's a small, underpowered, notebook wannabe (notebook: (n), a portable computer). Except when you're lying in bed at 1am and you want to write something down and the pen is nowhere to be found, and the notebook (notebook: (n), a small collection of paper, usually lined, bound in the form of a book) has fallen behind the back of the drawer inside the bedside table.

So tonight, I'm thinking I want a netbook, so that I can write my best-selling novels in bed. No kidding. I finally get it. Now who wants to buy me one?