Flashback

Interesting to review my own take on things two years ago.
E.g. about this new tablet thing called iPad.

In Europe though nothing has changed - at least not for the better.

Cold again

Snow here yesterday and according to Krugman, Roubini, Faber and other pundits we may be in for a very long and very cold summer.

Now is the time for the pension fund to buy gold and sunny Greek islands.

Super Hero II

The tech turd turned out a huge commercial success. Still waiting for the Super Hero though.

Snow and Sluggish Recovery

The bitter cold and heavy snow fall around Europe and in the States seem to coincide with a very sluggish recovery indeed from the financial crisis. Greece and Spain are in great trouble for different reasons. Iceland is still struggling and others are running up huge debt. A very wide u dip.

China or Norway seem to be the places to be just now.

Remember the winter God? I say no more.

Can it last?

Just back from my first visit to Western Cape. I can hardly believe what I saw.

Very good roads.
Picturesque little towns with Dutch architecture.
Place names in Dutch, English and German.
Well run farms.
Affluent suburbs.
Good restaurants.
Excellent wineries.
Lots of busy people working, shopping.

This could be France, Germany or any European country.
But it is not. It is Africa - an Africa without black people.

Where are they?
Where do they - 80% of the country's population - live?

In Cape Town the answer is Khayelitsha township where more than two million still live the lecacy of Apartheid.
Segregated. Poor. In rickety shacks with few amenities. Hardly any transport to work and little work to be had.

There are many more like it all over the region.

Today, 16 years after the first ANC government took office there is still optimism but little change.

Why is that?

The Miser Index claims that a 1 per cent tax increase could eradicate poverty in South Africa.

Why does it not happen?

For how long will the majority be pacified by inadequate housing schemes and other morcels?

When will they claim a fair share of the land?

Zimbabwe got the redistribution of wealth all wrong.

Sout Africa must do it differently.

But they have to do it.

They are sitting on a time bomb.