BruceVC

But Gorthfuscious can you agree and commit to it now that if Morrison wins we can discuss each and every point, remember Im not married. I have lots of time of my hands But on a serious note, it will be interesting to see the final Oz outcomes. These types of elections can never be predicted with accuracy I imagine? And I always watch the ladies, I dont question anything they say. They could even convince me that socialism makes sense

https://srtriallawyers.com/blog/will-i-go-to-a-high-security-prison-after-committing-a-violent-crime/ He will probably end up in a maximum security US prison for the rest of his life and from what I understand the Aryan\white supremacist influence in US prisons doesnt have the same levels of automatic protection in all prisons and all states So its not guaranteed he will be fine, not that I care. In fact its a form of justice if he isnt fine

I wasnt suggesting that you and anyone else on this forum is saying SA " is the worst country in the world " , I should have clarified This is something that comes up more internally within the SA economic and political narrative and what new policies or laws some people want to implement. And I am sensitive to it and aware of it because some of these " ideas " to address " we are the most unequal country in the world " are driven by pseudo-socialists and the radical left and they include mass nationalization of banks, land and mines which is going to destroy our economy and we will end up like Zimbabwe But I find SA generally gets favorable coverage from the international media and Cpt is often rated one of the best tourist destinations in the world. Here is one example of this https://www.sapeople.com/2021/10/22/cape-town-scoops-africas-leading-city-destination-award-table-mountain-top-tourist-attraction/

Gorthfuscious if Morrison wins this election you are going to have a lot of explaining to do because I am going to insist we go through this list so we can discuss each and every item and the broader point " but why would people vote for him if accusation xxx is true " The nice thing about that is I will have the pleasure of your company for years to come

Im glad the surviving soldiers from Mariupol are being evacuated, they can go back to the Ukrainian lines and continue the war. Very brave soldiers. After Putins War the Ukrainians must create a statue in recognition of their fortitude and the stand they made

Elerond if I said to you 4 months ago, " Elerond, Finland is going to vote to join NATO and the vote in your parliament is going to be over 90% to join " Im sure you would have said " No chance BruceVC, why would we do that " ? Its amazing how the security of your country can change things I watched this documentary on CNN about these miles of underground tunnels under Helsinki. Their is enough space to house 900K people and their are pools and ice-hockey rinks. Incredible feat of engineering...have you been into these tunnels? https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-do/underground-helsinki

So you raise a good point here, I would argue it can help but it can also create a culture of dependency and people less likely to look for a job or be as motivated to look for work I wouldnt look at SA as a model of economic success or prudent social services but our government tries and without these services people would be immeasurably worse off

I do, I hold every journalist to very high standards of journalistic integrity Thats why you can trust every link I post is the truth

You have outdone yourself with this link, its definitely the best example of propaganda and Putin War alternative facts I have ever read. Dont you love the Ukraine was never about a military win. What is being accomplished is the slow, painful destruction of the European Union (EU) economy, coupled with extraordinary weapons profits for the western military-industrial complex and creeping security rule by those nations’ political elites. Its so true except for the fact the EU and NATO are more united than ever before with a country like Sweden close to joining NATO after being militarily neutral for the last 200 years or so. I was just expecting the article to say something like " and we all know the Moskva was not sunk and sails proudly on the Black Sea " The end of Putins War will not be decided by the West but the Ukrainians who are emboldened by the Russian military incompetence and war crimes. Because they have the military advantage at the moment it will take more for them to agree to peace terms than in the early days of the invasion where many of us assumed Russia would defeat the Ukrainians in a few weeks But thanks for the link, it provided a great laugh

double post

Im not sure how relevant that point is to the reality of countries that arent first world? So in other words your financial remuneration in most companies or public sector entities is based on what you are able to invoice and or do you meet your target in a sales driven role or how much do you personally bring in towards the yearly target I realize this doesnt apply to certain jobs because you sometimes cant quantify a persons job because of the nature of the job like a miner who works in a mine. How do you calculate what a fair salary is? So in SA you cant pay people a high salary if the public sector school system has failed them and the young person doesnt have the required basic skills to get a good job. So yes this reality exists in SA and that person cant afford to buy cake but where do we attribute the blame to? It should fall directly on the public sector school that is not administered properly but blaming inequality is not going to fix the core problem. And this doesnt apply to all our public sector schools because many of them do deliver on their fundamental mandate

Great post and thanks for doing some research The question you ask about the Gini coefficients is also its biggest flaw, its a statistical analysis on salaries and wages and ignores factors like the numerous social services and massive financial cost to a country like SA. But our government does a lot to address numerous societal imbalances and Gini doesnt consider this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient So it creates the wrong impression because many people think " SA is the WORST country in the world " because we the most " unequal " and this is based primarily on metrics that ignore all the " free stuff " we give out Secondly I will maintain overall we are the best country in Africa because we have the following free and fair elections a government that accepts election results we have an independent judiciary our government respects and adheres to the rule or law and order a strong and globally recognized financial sector more social services than any other African country But yet we are considered " the most unequal country in the world " And then going back to the original debate despite all the things SA does right we still have the highest levels of crime in the world. So Im not convinced that "inequality " is the main reason for crime because of the reality of what SA does well

Yes, we have some of highest levels of crime in the world. Thats my point and yet we provide more social services like free housing, social grants, free electricty free public sector healthcare and free public sector schooling. Now much of these services are not first world but compared to other African countries these services at least exist I am not going to post links because I would expect you guys to do your own research if you disagree with me. But I can guide you on what to search for because I will respond. Search for any African country and look for social services like free housing and social grants and then crime rate And then make the comparison

I dont know who teaches most people their moral compass and that breaking the law is wrong, I guess family structures? I just know their is much less violent crime and the type of social unrest we see in SA than basically every African country, outside of conflict areas., and as I said the levels of poverty is much worse and social services much less in these African countries So the inequality argument is unconvincing as a justification for most criminality ?

Not sure but it looks very violent....I hope it was banned

Absolutely. Its much easier to make constant excuses and justify various social ills and levels of crime in countries like the USA, and other Democracies like UK and SA, than for citizens to take real responsibly for their lives Its always the same argument ..." the system is against me, I had no choice ". And what makes it worse is you have these " experts " with their university studies and big words who use the media to tell us " this is exactly correct and is a societal outcome of inequality". This is the common argument in SA for high levels of crime and violence and our SJW and liberals always repeat this spurious and ineffective approach to addressing much of our social woes But their is never any personal responsibility and yet in the majority African countries who have much worse poverty and much worse true inequality there is less crime

No Malc, never forget " hope springs eternal in the human breast "

It depends on what you want to achieve when people commit heinous crimes, many people want the person to feel consequences for this type of mass shooting So this 18 year old man will spend the rest of his life in jail as opposed to " suicide by police " which is quick So I agree with you that execution is not the right type of justice for this type of crime

That is also a good point and also considering the influence of African American gangs in US prisons I cant imagine he would have a great time

Nah, it makes people feel much better who live in countries that are beset by crime to know people are incarcerated for breaking the law and committing serious crimes

GD I have mentioned to you that you mustnt think Crypto is a real alternative investment to safe and normal investments like equalities or commodities like gold. Crypto has its advantages but dont ever think about it as a " replacement " to normal currency. Stay with what you know has worked for you like gold and property ....its much less potential risk https://news.yahoo.com/crypto-market-loses-200-billion-181412696.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

It will be interesting to see what Oz voting outcomes reveal, will Morrison win? If he does win that will raise some questions I will ask you and Gorth which will be along the lines of " he cant be that bad if voters keep him in power " ? So I would be interested in what he is doing right if he wins but lets wait and see

A pity, they should have let him shoot himself or " suicide by cop "

I thought he surrendered? Do the US police normally shoot people who surrender? Its a pity he surrendered because I have noticed a global trend in several examples of mass shootings where a gunman will shoot innocent people and then quickly surrender when the police arrive. It demonstrates his cowardice amongst other things I would imagine most committed ideological warriors would die for their cause....if they were true believers You take most ISIS fighters and jihadists during the last days of the Caliphate, they didnt surrender and died in Mosul and Raqqa. They were brutal and barbaric but brave when they made their last stand Its reminds me of Dylan Roof, he was " man " enough to shoot unarmed people in a church but couldnt somehow get killed when the police arrived

Absolutely, thats really my point and it applies to all ethnic\racial groups in the world But we still tend to say " white or black" because its simpler but sometimes this is used inaccurately in a generalized pejorative way