It would seem that 'white' America may not be as racist as might have been believed. Barack Obama was elected president of the USA last week and, if the Mercury of November 6, 2008, has its figures correct, 43% of white voters voted for him. These folk were clearly not voting along racial lines, and I aplaud that, but can the same be said for the 96% of black voters who supported him?
You may wonder what this has to do with a South Africa and, particularly, a Durban-related blog. The trouble is that we are also afflicted by the view that racism can only really exist only among whites [I felt guilty about this for years] but it is a view which is clearly wrong. We cannot become a truly non-racial society until everyone stops acting (or voting) along racial lines.
Anyway, America has a lot to be proud of. The best man won last week's election and it will hopefully inspire others around the world to vote for candidates in their elections on that basis in future.
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Sunday, November 9, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Diwali & Moses Mabhida
The Hindu celebration Diwali took place in Durban last week on 29 &30 November, 2008. I was in a good vantage point in Moreton Hall (on the Berea near Kensington) and the sight of fireworks going off all around was awe-inspiring. It was hard to photograph them because you couldn't predict where the next one was going be and train the camera, fixed to its tripod, onto the spot. I had a bit of luck and produced the following pic of the new Moses Mabhisa stadium with a small firework:
and this one looking towards Jacob Zuma's house, with Durban in thebackground:
and this one looking towards Jacob Zuma's house, with Durban in thebackground:
Sunday, November 2, 2008
City hall organ
Our city organ is urgently in need of repair according to an interesting mail I received from Wim Mutsaerts. His mail also has a lot of information about the history of the organ and I have posted it onthe Facts About Durban website.
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Saturday, November 1, 2008
Quite a procession
On Friday, October 31, 2008, I was driving down the M19 from Pinetown to Springfield Park and came across an mazing sight. The first sign of anything unusual were members of the city police directing traffic where the road passes under the N2 ring road. They were not wearing their usual summer uniforms, but their Number Ones or stepouts which included heavy jackets, and they were sweating like bullets. A little further down the road towards Makro there appeared a procession, the like of which I've never seen.
There were two huge stretch limousines with the logo of a funeral home on their doors and following them, the biggest collection of expensive black cars that I've ever seen. They filled the three lanes of the road in a queue that could have been 500m or even longer. I have absolutely no idea how many vehicles there were, because I had to pay attention to the road and was unable to count, but there were a hell of lot. There were Mercedes and BMW, and a wide selection of SUVs including Range Rovers, Mercedes and BMWs and, I think, Jeeps, many of them, otherwise unmarked, had flashing blue lights on their dashboards.
I later found that this was the funeral procession of anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Billy Nair, who died in St Augustines Hospital on October 23, and that all the great and the good of the new South Africa were in attendence, including the president of the country and everyone else who is anyone. I don't grudge Nair his sendoff but all I wonder is how a country with as many poor people in it as ours', can afford so many expensive black cars for its officials. As I've said, I don't know how many there were but there were enough to make the scene look awesome and, at possiblyR50000 a pop, the amount of money spent must be awesome too.
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There were two huge stretch limousines with the logo of a funeral home on their doors and following them, the biggest collection of expensive black cars that I've ever seen. They filled the three lanes of the road in a queue that could have been 500m or even longer. I have absolutely no idea how many vehicles there were, because I had to pay attention to the road and was unable to count, but there were a hell of lot. There were Mercedes and BMW, and a wide selection of SUVs including Range Rovers, Mercedes and BMWs and, I think, Jeeps, many of them, otherwise unmarked, had flashing blue lights on their dashboards.
I later found that this was the funeral procession of anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Billy Nair, who died in St Augustines Hospital on October 23, and that all the great and the good of the new South Africa were in attendence, including the president of the country and everyone else who is anyone. I don't grudge Nair his sendoff but all I wonder is how a country with as many poor people in it as ours', can afford so many expensive black cars for its officials. As I've said, I don't know how many there were but there were enough to make the scene look awesome and, at possiblyR50000 a pop, the amount of money spent must be awesome too.
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Harbour congestion
The Mercury, of October 29, 2008, reports on congestion on routes leading to the container terminals and of the long delays experienced by truckers waiting load to and offload cargo. The truckers have apparently been threatening to block the port. The truckers apparently often wait for periods longer than a day with no facilities, including toilets, available to them. Drivers were complaining that they do not get paid for time spent waiting, which should be source of shame to their employers.
The Mercury reported that they had been unable to get comment from Transnet, which runs the harbour and the container terminals. No surprises there, then! It matches up perfectly with my experience of the monolithic Transnet. The story about congestion at the container terminals has been around for years. I wrote about it at least a year ago for the publication I edit and it has been around for much longer than that. There are a couple of efforts underway to try and ease the situation, including the building of the Khangela Bridge to connect Bayhead Road to Sydney Road, but no there is a yet no decision on how to solve the problem.
One plan, which seems to make sense, is to built a container park at Cato Ridge and ferry containers there from the harbour by train. They can be fetched from there by truck which would have the effect of keeping them out of Durban. Another idea, which I described in an earlier post, is to take a leaf out of Dublin's book and built a tunnel from the harbour to the ring road, for trucks to use.
The Mercury reported that they had been unable to get comment from Transnet, which runs the harbour and the container terminals. No surprises there, then! It matches up perfectly with my experience of the monolithic Transnet. The story about congestion at the container terminals has been around for years. I wrote about it at least a year ago for the publication I edit and it has been around for much longer than that. There are a couple of efforts underway to try and ease the situation, including the building of the Khangela Bridge to connect Bayhead Road to Sydney Road, but no there is a yet no decision on how to solve the problem.
One plan, which seems to make sense, is to built a container park at Cato Ridge and ferry containers there from the harbour by train. They can be fetched from there by truck which would have the effect of keeping them out of Durban. Another idea, which I described in an earlier post, is to take a leaf out of Dublin's book and built a tunnel from the harbour to the ring road, for trucks to use.
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