Personally I’m curious as the rand slides down and back towards equality with the dollar, as to why local prices haven’t dropped accordingly. Oil is now cheaper to buy, yet I don’t see fuel prices dropping for the public, and ditto basic foodstuffs, which are also cheaper to transport and import.
Keep an eye for yourself on the Rand versus other currencies at Rand Exchange Rate. Rampant profiteering seems widespread, and we consumers get screwed again. The lower the Rand-Dollar, the better for us; the rich elite who play on the stockmarket are hurting, and that’s good. Let them learn how the majority of us live.
Of course you could always just shrug and Learn To Draw Like Picasso
(Notice how most of the media articles saying how great it is that the rand is gaining strength against the dollar have disappeared. This was followed by public appearances by various members of the elite, whining about how terrible this was for their business. Now, there’s a virtual silence over how this rand-dollar saga should affect us consumers and citizens in a real sense in terms of lowering prices. I assume the advertisers and media-controllers cracked the whip ahead of the profit-making frenzy they like us to call ‘Christmas’.)
Just as an example, the 10 gig iPod (MP3 player and storage device) costs around R3400 locally, but you can buy the 40 gig iPod (with four times the storage) online for R3100… Check local prices via I-Pod. Then check prices at Amazon I-Pod.
Gear change, and yes kids, its time to irritate and hurt Telkom! Sentech are about to rollout a wireless 24/7 internet access at a fixed rate with no cap, no limits and no connection to your telephone. Here’s the next cool thing to consider, especially if you have friends or family overseas. If you have a permanent connection to the Net, for around $40 (R250 a month), you can use the Net to make and route phone calls around the world, bypassing Telkom’s overpriced ‘service’ completely. And yes its ‘illegal’ according to local regulations, but it’s going to be funny seeing Telkom try and stop it. Sentech and Internet Telephone Calls.
There’s that old saying about ‘no man is an island’. Well, it may be true, but if you’ve got the finances, you can still buy or rent your own island and pretend for a while. If corruption, civil unrest, AIDS and all the things that they don’t mention in the ‘Proudly South African’ campaigns have got too much, take a look at Islands For Rent and Sale
And speaking of being South African, others have nightmares as well. If you’re one of the lucky ones who is routinely trapped in your own private horror movie while you sleep, go browse the nightmares of others, or submit your special one to The Nightmare Project.
For the obligatory adults-only link, and to make sure you’re on your toes and actually read this far, then — assuming you’re as dirty minded and cheerful about it as I am — why not take a nostalgic look through the Boogie Nights-style retro world of Adult Movie Posters of the 60’s and 70’s.
It’s appeared before but it’s too good not to point out again. The Japanese culture doesn’t really translate too well at times, at least from a Western perspective – for instance there’s a wonderful advert for a peach fruit-juice drink called ‘Coolpis’ at this next site. Mmm, yummy, I’m thirsty already. For more frightening examples of seeing mangled English worse than that idiot doing the voice-overs on eTV, head to Japanese Engrish!
(Speaking of eTV’s low grade voiceover guy, can someone please tell eTV that ‘Martin Sheen’ is NOT pronounced ‘Mutton Shin”)
‘Stuff to read about’ time. If you’re one of the minority who bothers reading books, and you’ve outgrown John Grisham and Wilbur Smith, try dipping into something a lot more challenging and rewarding. Go take a look through this site dedicated to one of the greats of modern literature: Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
If you’re one of those deluded people who think burgers or fried chicken constitute good health, then take a look at this report on the state of various fast food franchises in the US. And as you read this report, think about where you ate last. Go take a long fly-infested read of Dirty Dining.
The oil grab continues — and no, I’m not talking about Shell’s rape of Nigeria. (Just to give you an idea of how multinational companies keep corrupt fascists in power so the company can leech minerals and resources without it ever helping the citizens of that country, 15% of Shell Oil’s global budget comes from Nigeria alone. And gee, does it look like Nigeria is fabulously wealthy? Nope. But it does explain perhaps, why our President is so friendly with the regime in Nigeria. Kickbacks, anyone?
Okay, rant over. Back to the oil grab the media does tell you about, go read Stories From The Iraq War.
How many churches do you know that keep files of information provided by its members in weekly debriefing sessions, employ private investigators to follow its critics, deliberately infiltrate government and media to create positive propaganda, and whose policies include using the courts to harass and wear down any critics? A local TV show recently made the bad mistake of lumping Scientology/Dianetics with various religions. (I say ‘bad mistake’ because this cult is anything but a religion. Court judgements have referred to it as ‘a moneymaking scheme’ which basically sums it up.) Some of its front organizations have links with the Department of Home Affairs, which explains why the cult got its tax-exempt ‘religion’ status and the ability to perform marriages, some time back. Just to remind you of what Dianetics is, and to stare in amazement at its deliberate habit of making its members wear fake priest-like outfits when being interviewed, to fool the ignorant, start with Scientology’s Fight For Apartheid.
or if the link is down.
Don’t just take my word for it — a picture is always worth a thousand words. So go watch online or download and distribute the BBC Panorama TV documentary on the cult, called The Road To Total Freedom. Then there’s the ITV documentary Inside the Church of Scientology.
And for the main index of watchable and downloadable documentaries by established and reputable TV companies on this Cult, whose ‘business training technology’ scams have already been used to infiltrate parts of our Government, grab everything you can off Documentaries on Dianetics.
Despite appearing to fit in with the ideas of most religions, the core beliefs of Dianetics remain hidden (until sufficient money and brainwashing has occurred). So before you even think about trying one of those ‘Free Personality Tests’ they use to lure the unwary into their net, do some reading through the large quantity of resources at Xenu.
(The name of the above site comes from the core teachings of Scientology/Dianetics, where it’s taught in higher levels – and I’m not joking – that millions of years ago, an evil galactic overlord called Xenu, dropped atomic bombs on the original humans and split their souls into fragments. These fragments of souls, called ‘theta clusters’ and ‘body Thetans’ now inhabit our bodies and need to be ‘cleared’ and dispersed. Part of the ongoing ‘processing’ involved in Scientology’s so-called auditing, is to remove and free these ‘souls’. This is part of what you learn after tens of thousands of rands of training, processing and apparent progress up the ‘bridge to total freedom’. Welcome to the schizophrenic science-fiction reality of a cult that operates like an intelligence agency. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so lethally earnest.
It gets weirder, if that’s possible … This ‘church’ has its own prison camps, where wrongdoers are sent to be punished, called RPF’s (Rehabilitation Project Force). Watch this documentary on one of them – Dianetics Prison Camps.
For a nice collection of official government reports on this cult in various countries, try Official Reports and Documents on Dianetics.
And as with most cults, once you’re in and brainwashed, it’s very difficult to get out. Read about the death of one young woman at Killed By Scientology.
And more on the circumstances surrounding The Death of Lisa Mcpherson.
Enough of that. Gear change. Finally – and this brings new meaning to the word ‘cool’ and ‘geek’ – imagine putting a record onto a scanner, scanning in the image (of the grooves) and inputting the data onto PC, and then trying to ‘play’ the result. Go stare and download the mp3 results at Scanning LP Records.
Until the next time, if Telkom or other cults don’t get me.