Author: manqindi

Post imperial wind drift. Swazi, British, Zimbabwe-Rhodesian, Irish, New Zealand citizen and resident, now in Queensland, Australia. 10th generation African of mainly European descent. Catholic upbringing, more free thinker now. BA and Law background. Altar boy, wages clerk, uncle, prefect, student, court clerk, prosecutor, magistrate, convoy escort, pensioner, HR Practitioner, husband, stepfather, father, bull terrier lover, telephone interviewer, Call Centre manager, HR manager, grandfather, author (amateur)

Does this dress make me look fat?

Ja-nee, ask someone else maybe ….

When the truth is simple but being truthful is complicated, is a fact of everybody’s life. It takes courage….

 But as repugnant as I find the moral and intellectual corruption driving Republicans’ collective decision to lie to protect Trump’s ego and avoid the wrath of his fans, it’s worth keeping in mind that such corruption is a feature of politics more generally.1

Sadly true….!

Where are the protests?

A year ago, campus Hamasniks were occupying buildings and setting up tent cities to protest Israel’s effort to punish the perpetrators of the October 7 pogrom.

Today the leader of their own country is suggesting a gratuitous American incursion into Gaza to evict the impoverished locals and convert the land into a playground for the rich—the most grotesque conceivable expression of “settler colonialism.”—and seemingly no one cares.

Every day since January 20 this year, the press has been forced to prioritize between covering the end of the American-led world order, the probably illegal subversion of federal agencies by the richest man in the world and his band of twentysomething geeks, the appointment of comically unfit nutjobs to positions of high influence over public health and law enforcement, and more mundane stuff like a new tax-cut bill that’s going to blow another sucking wound in America’s fiscal stability.

Also …. a week after he was sworn in, the president signed an executive order pledging immediate action by the Justice Department to punish unlawful acts of antisemitism on college campuses.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” it declared, pledging to “also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”2

So the protesters show some have brains and are hiding and the media are focusing on the more important stuff.

I hope the Coalition makes the above a policy in Australia after the pendulum swings right later this year.

But getting back to answering the title question .. my answer is a confident NO!

  1. This is an extract from an article by Jonah Goldberg in The Dispatch of February 26, 2035 ↩︎
  2. This is an extract from Boiling Frogs by Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch of February 26, 2035 ↩︎

A brush with death…

Quite recently I was told that there was a snake in my vicinity which could strike at any time! If it did I should call an ambulance immediately. Also, it would be better if I didn’t move around in case it struck!

I suggested not finishing mowing the lawn. However, that was ruled out at home. “If you are going to die, you are going to die – it’s the same for all of us.”

Well, that was the best advice. No panic, no worrying … almost a secret pleasure. The prospect of imminent death was not at all daunting. Maybe a bit of regret that I wouldn’t be at my wake. I did suggest it as a possibility. Maybe I could be borrowed from the undertakers and propped up in the corner with a beer in my hands…?

That’s not exactly what really happened…

My doctor had cut off a mole and sent it off for checking. She also sent me to a cardiologist to check my ticker. He sent me for some tests.

As arranged, my doctor phoned to report if the mole was dubious or not. It was not.

But, she had the results of my CT test…

  • I was to take 300 aspirin immediately and one every day forever.
  • I was not to do anything strenuous and if I had any discomfort, no matter what, I was to call an ambulance!
  • She was booking me into hospital for angioplasty.

That’s when I asked about the lawn and the washing up.

The snake was a clogged coronary artery, which seemed to be a serious situation.

However, I saw my cardiologist a few days later and he said:

Nah, relax –it’s not a problem, we will treat it medically. It has been there a long time. If it hasn’t killed you by now, it is not likely to do so.

He is a very good doctor – he just prescribed a few pills and didn’t even put me on a diet!

So my plans for a wake are on ice.

Quite an impressive tale to tell and some of my children seemed concerned, which was heart warming.

On a slightly less jocular note, I was surprised. I was not remotely concerned by my doctor’s alarm and urgent arrangements for heart surgery.

On second thoughts, is it depressing that the thought of my death doesn’t alarm me? … I wonder if there is Beck’s in heaven? If the beer is warm, I have probably gone to hell…

Bits and pieces

These are words in my reading that resonated with me and some random thoughts of my own.

The left has long been addicted to the most desired thing in intellectual life today—transgressive edginess, hip nonconformity. … different labels and buzzy phrases: institutional racism, antiracism, anticolonialism

What they all share is a desire to seem authentically rebellious by attacking the foundations of our nation and our civilization.

The problem is that such ideological non-conformity has become so institutionalized that it’s become an expression of ideological conformity

Jonah Goldberg The Dispatch 23 Jan 2024

Is it ironic that there has been an Indian (from India) presidential candidate? There has also been a half Indian Vice-President. Additionally, there are a number of Indian Presidential advisers. Yet, there is no native American Indian in any high government post…

Not How but Why?

This is what the the leading podcaster/ influencer thinks about marketing:

“ It’s nearly always cheaper, easier and more effective to invest in perception than reality “

“Remarkably, the close button in most lifts doesn’t actually work. Lift doors are designed to close after a certain amount of time, for safety and legal reasons…. This illusionary placebo creates the impression of control, decreases uncertainty, makes you feel safer…increases customer satisfaction.”

“Do not wage a war on reality, invest in shaping perceptions.

Our truth is not what we see.

Our truth is the story we choose to believe”

We believe that we are rational

“Our decisions aren’t driven by sense, they’re driven by the nonsense created by social cues, irrational fear and survival instincts “

Stephen Bartlett: Diary of a CEO

Is he saying ‘deceive to achieve‘?

It’s not that I disagree, but that it is very sad.

Bureaucracy has swamped democracy, radical reform is the only solution. Elon Musk and the Donald agree with me.

Interesting ABC News article declaiming the dwindling  number of female ministers since that door was opened.

Maybe the Anglican bishops should implement an accelerated advancement for female ministers or seek divine intervention?

Guess who?

“One way he differs from every other president of my lifetime is that sometimes he just says stuff and no one, including some of his own aides, knows whether he means it or not. With good reason: Understanding his motives requires untangling a rat’s nest of strategic considerations, “dark triad” personality traits, anger-control issues, and insatiable avarice, all of it soaked in the logic of populist propaganda in which he’s constantly dousing himself.

Nick Cartoggio The Dispatch

This seems to be the general response to President Trump’s kind offer of refugee status for Afrikaners in South Africa: “Ik wil niet loopen, k’ben een Africaander, al slaat den Landdrost myn doot, of al setten hij myn in den tronk ik sal nog wil niet swijgen.” (Translation from Dutch: I do not want to leave, I am an Afrikaner. Even if the magistrate kills me, or puts me in jail, I will still not keep quiet.) — Hendrik Briebouw, 6 March 1707, at the Stellenbosch Magistrates’ Court. 

It’s St Valentine’s Day – love the one you are with!

Another Mad Hatter’s Tea Party?

I guess I should be celebrating, making odd Musk-like salutes ‘from the heart‘ and singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy‘ with my South African accent..

It seems there is a mighty punch coming up for the Woke way of thinking.

The Donald’s antics and gestures are very puerile and devoid of dignity. Why all the pomp and circumstance when the top billing is a clown act?

But I keep on having flash thoughts of Alice’s Queen of Hearts and Caligula and occasionally Mussolini.

The violent white supremacist thugs who bludgeoned police officers at the Capitol were among the throng released by Trump.

* Trump launched a meme coin called $TRUMP on Friday, just days before his inauguration. Is this a new way to buy influence? Market capitalization soared to nearly $6 billion within hours. Melania also has a coin, so there! (Not called $trumpet…)

Vindicatory vengeance seems to be gushing up.

Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has come up with a specific list. In Patel’s 2023 book Government Gangsters, he lists 60 current and former executive branch officials whom he refers to as members of the “Executive Branch Deep State.”

President Biden issued preemptive pardons to many people who tried to hold Trump responsible for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election and against whom Trump has promised “retribution.”

How far will Trump’s “retribution” actually go? Should Biden have granted himself and Harris and Clinton pre-emptory pardons as well?**

Trump is notoriously antagonistic to institutions that oppose him, like the Supreme Court and the Treasury and even Congress. His promise to extend the Tik Tok deadline to 90 days is contrary to a Congressional decision. Wonder if anyone will mention that to him?

I’m not squeamish about the purge.

Government bureaucracies have either been given or have usurped the power of elected representatives. They now control society by incriminating them. The rule makers are now the real rulers.

To unravel that Gordian knot will be impossible, so only an Alexandrine sword will reduce it.

I hope Musk’s purge will trim them, slim them and refocus their purpose.

The woke way of thinking is embedded in western culture and will be resistant to jackboots and muskrats. But there will certainly be a shaking up of the fashionable fringe followers, so that’s a start.

I wonder whether Trump will be constrainable or will he have to go the way of Caligula?

 *Daniel Hampton – https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/

**Robert Reich January 21, 2025 ‘That’s interesting:’ Did Trump just launch a new conspiracy theory? – Alternet.org

Empty head

… not a good way to start a new year.

But it’s Friday and my son commented on the absence of blog blather recently. It is of some solace that somebody noticed.

The real reason for the absence of new air hot year predictions is that I am a doomsayer that didn’t get it quite right.

  • Peace has not yet blessed the Middle East nor Ukraine, but it looks to be soon.
  • I did Trumpet the the new US Pres, but not the extraordinary global impact thereof
  • Covid has seen a major slowing of China’s economy
  • The swing to the right in western democracies is gathering momentum: goodbye Trudeau, good riddance
    • Who else will go? Macron? Scholtz? Starmer? Albanese? (please!)
      • The Muskimpact on technology and economics has been phenomenal; his forays in communications are redefining political dimensions and the expression of the peoples’ wishes. (Wait! Isn’t that democracy?)
      • Jordan Peterson seems to be doing Robbie Williams’ Better Man type of change
      • The influence of influencers defies imagination and logic.
      • The Wallabies could win the Lions Tests, but don’t bet too much on it.

bleak

…sterile, gloomy, almost bitter, valueless..

Do you ever feel like that?

It’s the other side of bored. It’s the inability to see flowers on the road ahead. No doubt they are there but going out the gate to see them is such an effort…

The wonderful thing is that it is quite easy to shake off. Just listen to a bird or feel a breeze cool the sweat, check out how blue is the sky, just walk out the door and into the park.

But … almost tempting to wallow or just stand and think about the mud oozing between your toes…. it’s not self pity or feeling of lack of worth … it’s just a lack of desire to do anything.

It’s the pits and I am pretty sure I am not the only one to have been there.

Fortunately I have a self-inflating ego which will bounce me out of there. I will receive complaints that Pavarotti is too loud, tut-tutted for my conservative views, be informed that a dozen lychees have more sugar than a glass of coke, on top of the mango I had for breakfast…

It’s a matter of choice … and the desire to choose. Mud is mud and it is probably harmless and seductively soothing to stay…

So winds the darkkserpent his slowly tightening coils around your mind until it really does get too much effort to move.

My tuppenny therapy is to get on a bike, sing, eat fruit, pat a dog, swim in the sea, paint a picture, talk with an infant ……….. write what’s in your heart, so you can send the beast in your mind slinking away.

Tough Love

I have just read “in Cold Blood”, a novel by Truman Capote, based on a real event in Kansas in 1959.

Two petty criminals who met in prison, agreed to rob a rich farmer in Kansas after their release.

They made preparations and an alibi and drove 800 miles, broke in late at night, tied up the four family members. There was no safe. They shot all four victims leaving with just $40 and a portable radio.

All they did leave was a bloody footprint.

They were identified by a former cell mate, who had told them of the rich farmer and been told by them of their plans to rob him

Arrested, they confessed and were tried, duly being sentenced to death.

There was a suggestion that the accused did not feel it was wrong … and that should save them from the noose.

To no avail – they were hanged in 1965 after many appeals.

As was right and just.

Many countries have now abolished the death penalty. Terrible crimes can be punishable by life imprisonment. This can actually mean as little as a dozen years in prison before parole is granted. At huge cost to the State.

I believe that a society that nurtures people who commit ghastly crimes and later releases them is eventually doomed.

If we can’t pull the trigger, we are not up for the job. Remember the Lindt cafe fiasco?

Rehabilitation is an unacceptable gamble.

At the 2021 “Summit for Democracy” President Biden said:

“Today, democracy is under more pressure than at any time since the 1930s….  Will we allow the backward slide of rights and democracy to continue unchecked? Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to renew it with each generation. […] In my view, this is the defining challenge of our time.

President Macron said: ..”… the only political model that allows us to defend these rights and freedoms: democracy” –, adding that the fight was “more necessary than ever”.

Many are beginning to believe that: …the time has come for a world dominated by authoritarian powers, that the historical cycle of freedom has come to an end…..

So we see the surge of influence by authoritarian regimes. They have no compunction in using their power to obliterate opposition.

There, criminals receive short shrift, death penalties are common for all manner of acts. At the same time the sowing of destruction outside borders is actively promoted.

The democratic Western polities struggle mightily with huge issues like the right to declare oneself to be the opposite gender and unfettered rights to abortion.

Governments are unable to say “No”. Police must wear kid gloves to restrain the dangerous and disobedient. They must do so with a compulsory delicate etiquette. Children wreak havoc again and again despite frequent arrest.

Politicians are powerless to act without being pilloried by vociferous public dissent. They seek to keep their positions through the buying of public affection with the reckless disbursement of our revenue.

No wonder we are dissolving into disillusioned leaderless mobs, changing side every week. Soon the demagogues will turn vigilante.

We need some hard leaders who can say:

  • We will act to solve our problems, despite outcry.  We did it in the pandemic, we can do it again.
  • Stop pussyfooting: squash disorder and crime quickly using the most effective means.
  • No more public protests stopping traffic. If students fail, they leave university. If they misbehave, they will be expelled. They will repay their loans in full.
  • The Review Tribunal will clear the Immigration backlog. Illegal entrants will be removed and can appeal from offshore. No more refugees/asylum seekers
  • Tax carbon emissions; incentivise clean energy systems; let the market prevail.
  • Minimise imports, maximise home grown
  • Labour disputes to be resolved by Tribunals.

These are the things I would do if I was PM:

  • Introduce nuclear power stations
  • Introduce National Service for all school leavers
  • Ban gender transition until 18 years of age
  • Bring back the death penalty for murder, child molestation and drug traffickers
  • Limit the right to silence, requiring explanations for compelling evidence. I would also dispense with juries
    • Media would be banned from interviewing witnesses or accused persons.

A Vicissitude

The word itself has an unpleasantness about it – it is about the not so bright side of life.

I must warn you that this blog discloses some conservative aspects of my personality. If you would prefer to maintain your image of me as untarnished, turn a page; if you are curious and brave, read on …

Since I left school, I have had to pay for my own haircuts – so I didn’t. I let my hair grow. Now if I still had the silky blonde curls of my toddler years, longer hair would likely have been a chick magnet.

Alas, my hair turned frizzy and wiry – Mahlutsi in siSwati; my sister’s name, so called for her thick wiry hair. No worries, Afros were almost fashionable even in the old SA! On liberal white campuses anyway.

After 4 years of untamed, occasional self trimming, I had to get a job, so went to a barber for a short back and sides. All my mates were in the Police or Army doing national service, so I was in fashion.

I honestly don’t recall haircuts in the 10 years I was in Rhodesia, but kept it quite short. I think I may have prevailed on friends’ girlfriends. (I was not a chick magnet).

After I moved to South Africa and got married I noticed that barbers seemed to disappear, to be replaced by hairdressers. Also, I started balding…

I was put off by going to a hairdresser, so bought my own clippers and did my own hair. Occasionally my wife would correct any major oversight.

About 10 years ago, I had a beard and a monk’s fringe which was getting a bit waywardly curly. Deciding to treat myself I sought out a barber. They seemed to be coming back into business again.

To my surprise, the barber was a hairdresser. Lisping slightly, he asked if I had an apointhment. I had never made an appointment at a barber shop in my life. You just sat on a bench and read fishing and car magazines until a chair was free!

He said he could fit me in in the late afternoon… I hardly heard him. I’d seen the price: Pensioner special $25!! I had never paid more than one dollar before!!

I shot out off there and have never looked back. It is clear hairdressers have taken over the striped pole and old dentist chairs from barbers…

So, I cut my own hair, I must say no-one has ever commented except my wife who likes me in curls. No major disasters … until today.

On the spur of the moment, probably to avoid writing a blog (yes, it is Friday) , I decided on a quick trim, as it is getting quite hot these days.

Act in haste, repent at leisure… All went well, but as I was clipping the middle of the back of my head, I felt a cool stripe. Then I felt something fall off the clipper. It was the attachment which sets the length of hair.

As my grandson says: Uh ohh!!

I couldn’t see in the little hand mirror, so reluctantly went to find my wife. She snorted and tears came to her eyes…

She turned me with my back to the big mirror and I looked in the hand mirror. There is a vertical bald track up the back of my head..

Ah well, my hair has not been my best feature, since I outgrew my toddler curls…

At least it gave me something to blog about!

Unalloyed joy!

Pure happiness.

It is fleeting, visceral, almost breath-taking.

I recently received good news about an almost inevitable family tragedy.

It had been haunting us for five years; frustrating us with futility, powerlessness and rage. And it wasn’t even me who was the target of impending doom.

Worse, it was one of my children and his family.

Faced by an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy, they were forced to spend over ten thousand dollars on legal advice. The threat of an unknown outcome hung over them for over 5 years.

If their appeal failed, they would have to leave their home, dogs, and cats. They would also leave their parents, siblings, friends, and careers over the last 10 years …

I ranted and blogged. I wrote to Ministers and Members of Parliament. I studied the law. I practised my address to the Appeal Tribunal weekly.

He came around last night and said “we haven’t had a beer for a while”. (It was about 10 days after all).

Then he said have a look at your email. I sensed that this was it and felt cold. It was from the Administrative Review Tribunal.

Like an automaton, I opened and read…

The Tribunal sets aside the decision under review…

Ohh Yessss!

He was so cool and calm. I was amazed. Then I realised he was still stunned. That is another emotion to add to the list.

I looked at my Blessed Michael the Archangel candle, given to me by my daughter, who had now been blessed.

My Daddy gave him to me as my guardian angel to protect me against nightmares and chase away the demons under my bed with his fiery sword…

I may still have some doubts about his Patron, but Michael gave me courage which I sent to all my children.

So I give thanks and praise.

WGEA

Workplace Gender Equality Act

Women in Australia earn 28% less than men!

This type of bite size statistic is a hallmark of the sensational disinformation used by identity politicians.

In my last blog, I mentioned that the incoming Labor government had added 26000 jobs to the payroll.

This statistic is the type of work they do

It is illegal to pay women less than men for doing the same work.

Prosecute the bastards that do that! Don’t squeal and puff out meaningless statistics.

  • More women than men choose to stay home to care for their children and parents.
  • Fewer women work fewer years than men.
  • Fewer women work in dangerous and isolated occupations than men.
  • Fewer women (only 15%*) follow STEM careers

* https://www.industry.gov.au/

Note the above Ministry also collects gender data…

Of course, I am sure that other identity imbalances have not nearly been addressed appropriately. What about the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual, aromantic/agender people ?

(Oh! don’t forget + additional identities that are not included in the acronym).

All of them should have their own departments and compliance legislation too.

Soon only racist, misogynist, misanthropic bigots will not be employed by government!

That’s what Musk’s job is going to be. He will clear out all that ephemeral, flimsy, dangerous and expensive regulatory claptrap.