World Leaders - Intelligent Approach

 The (re) arrival of the Donald as POTUS and seeing what he is doing (or getting Elon to do it), allows one to reflect on styles of leadership.

Many laws and regulations are being done away with, resulting in hardships on a personal level worldwide. This is due to the influence of the USA worldwide. Programs for aiding citizens in the poorer African countries have lost their funding. Aids sufferers have lost medication, health and aid workers, their jobs.

Reflecting on the actions taken by Trump with his "executive orders", it seems he is trying to do what he said he would do. However, what he is undoing has taken decades of fine-tuning, diplomatic negotiating and smart thinking by experienced White House staff. He is a bit like the proverbial "bull in a China shop", breaking what has taken ages to put together. Much like what our ANC has done to our beautiful South Africa. His short sighted actions are having quick results, with the dumb MAGA supporters unable to work out the long-term effects.  

 

Any countries population has a smaller percentage of very intelligent people, and mostly average intelligence people. The best way to run a country is to get some of the intelligent people with integrity, honesty and competence elected to form a government. Sadly, social media has come to have such an influence on the average voters thinking, that they are easily swayed by short-term actions and promises. In this case, by a really dumb Donald Trump. His skills are not what is needed to run a country that is the most powerful one in the world.

This is resulting in many satirists having a field day at Trumps expense. Some are shown in this article.  

The appointment of Elon Musk to rationalise the government departments may have been a master stroke, or a huge mistake, or maybe somewhere in between. Many are saying that Elon is the de-facto President. Others say that he will only last until he steals too much of the limelight from the attention loving Trump. We only know that this South African born billionaire, is a real achiever, with questionable moral ethics, and a vision of the world that only he can know. His power and money to do what he envisages, affects us all, now and in the future.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist (pun intended) to realise that the clearly very intelligent Musk, must be manipulating the average intelligence Trump (that is my opinion and I have seen no evidence to contradict this) in some way to further his own ambitious projects. As we have no way of influencing Musk's thinking, we can only pray that  he will work for our good. This will unfold as time passes.

Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Reflections - Turning 65

 Well now - isn't this a surprise? I am going to be 65 years old tomorrow, 9th April 2022.

One cannot approach this milestone without some memories coming out. After all, one  has memories of being a child, a school kid, a university student, a graduate, a National Serviceman in the SADF, a company employee, a Provincial sports representative, a boyfriend, a businessman, a company Managing Director, a husband, a step-dad, a Harley owner and HOG member; amongst other things. Each of these memories brings different people to mind, so many emotions, and many sub-divisions of the above. 

Some people have stuck around, some come and gone, but all have been important to who I am today.

Before this becomes a boring waffle, I am going to impart some of what I consider important: Any words of  wisdom? 

Yes, just a few. 

I’ve learned that people will treat you the way you allow them to treat you. Respect and love yourself, and others will do the same. 

There is no such thing as mistakes, only lessons to be learned. I have learnt a lot. I have lots to pass on, but people prefer to make their own lessons.

If you don’t believe in yourself, chances are that nobody will believe in you either.

You have to have courage to make a difference in life. Courage is not the absence of fear, mind you. It’s feeling the fear and making the decision that you’re going to persevere anyway.

Your reputation is everything, so you must guard it carefully because it’s the key to power. Once you lose it, you could lose everything,   

Any last words?

Yes, this Saturday, is my “special day.” I will spend the day with my precious wife, talk to my sons, play music from the era in which I was born, eat the food I love, watch some F1, and sit back and enjoy all that God has blessed me with so far. I will think about my late Mother, Father and brother, who all played such a big part in my life. My sincere thanks to my family (especially my soul mate, Lila) and friends who have stood by me during my 65 years.            

Ukraine "invasion" by Russia - February 2022

 Our world is reliant on stability and understanding "the rules". What makes headlines and disturbs us is disruptions to this stability. Roll in Putin!

Rules are not for him. However he is acutely aware of what will be written by the historians, and has put in place the excuses that history has taught all to use in these types of situations. He is not fooling many.

The consequence of his "supporting" those who want "independence" from Ukraine, has been the imposition of some sanctions. Economic, mostly, which includes blocking of the purchase of gas from Russia by Germany. It seems this is not enough to subdue the ambitions of the pushing Putin.

Which brings me to my suggestion. Sports boycotts have already been supported (the Euro Cup for instance) and I would suggest Formula 1 should not allow the race in Russia to take place later this year. I would also suggest looking at the Team which has a Russian company as it's prime sponsor....and a Russian driver (Nikita Mazepin) who is doing his national service in the Russian Defence Force while studying and racing. As a fan of F1, who has had to endure the mixing of politics with the sport (in the form of taking a knee before races to support racial enforcements), I find this unacceptable.

Feel free to comment or support - my twitter handle @JohanHarleyDude  

Testing BlogJet

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Obama Wins - President Re-Elected.

Mitt Romney has conceded defeat in the race for President of the United States of America to Barack Obama. It will be four more years for President Obama. This South African thinks the better choice won. Mitt Romney might have better credentials if Obama wasn't the incumbent with four years of experience in the job. That, for me, is the big deciding factor. Obama has had four years of doing this job, during one of the most difficult periods to do the job. The choices he has made in the last four years have not yet had a chance to play themselves out, and, I believe, he deserves the opportunity to see the results. Some of them are already starting to pay off - unemployment figures are coming down. The gaffes made by Romney were exploited well by Obama (who won't kill off "Big Bird"), and had Romney wasting time and effort on covering them. Voting was very close (less than 1% overall difference), but the state electoral votes gave Obama an easy victory from the dense population areas.

Congratulations President Obama - remember that your actions and decisions have world-wide repercussions. Osama Bin Ladin is dead, now pursue the rest of the Al Quada terrorists.

European Team Retain Ryder Cup

I managed to see quite a bit of this 2012 Ryder Cup, and had to see myself as a European Team supporter (being a South African with links to the Commonwealth). Saturday night was disappointing, with the You Ess Ay team leading by four points when I dozed off.

The amazing golf, team spirit and dramatics by some of the members are made for TV. A slick presentation with a commentary team well aware of the size of the viewing audience are watching in an enthralled state at the ebb and flow of the leader-board.

Which brings me to the only irritation of the presentation. The unsportsmanlike boo-ing of the European players by the very partisan American crowd every time they addressed the ball. The uneducated masses are, no doubt, the ones responsible for this boorish behavour. Even more disappointing was that the American players seemed to be encouraging it.

Winners in the face of unpleasant crowds - Ryder Cup 2012 Champions.

Once again the publicity hyped characters in USA, like Mickelson, Woods, & Bubba Watson were found to be wanting when faced with righteous passion and drive from the likes of Justin Rose, Ian Poulter & Sergio Garcia. Freedom, Liberty and Equality for all, indeed.

 

Malema hands himself in to police.

Julius Malema has handed himself in to the police prior to appearing in court on fraud & corruption charges. The average comments on this matter seem to think that as soon as he appears in court, the judge will pass judgement on evidence provided. Our system of justice doesn't quite work like that. The news reporters know this, but lead the public on in order to extend their news on the matter. They are every bit as responsible for "inciting the public" as are Julius Malema & our South African Police Service.

What will happen, is that big Malema's top legal team will do all the talking for him, and will ask for the case to be remanded to a later date in order for them to build up a defence for the case now that they know what the charges are. They have not been given this opportunity yet, as the charges only became available yesterday. As Julius Malema is not going to be considered a flight risk (seriously, where would he go to?), there is no reason to not grant him bail.

So, he will be walking around, drumming up public support using his biggest asset (the rhetoric from his arrogant mouth) before his next appearance in court, probably some time around the end of October or beginning of November. Even if he is eventually found guilty of the charges, a first offence invariably ends up with a fine, suspended sentence, or some combination of the two. So he will probably not be behind any bars in the forseeable future.

Pity, because it means we are in for some very vocal slanging of our ANC led government leaders from him before the end of year voting for the next ANC leader. As an average non-political South African, I just want a leader to be elected who aspires to peace, justice & progress in our potentially wonderful South Africa.