29 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Tonight its our State of the Nation Address by our president

It will much of the same, well meaning promises and goals and our media and political commentators blaming the president for all our woes when in fact not many citizens take personal responsibility for  our numerous societal shortfalls and not supporting government when they want to fix things like critical retrenchments in the public sector and SOE (state owned entities ) which have become one big hole requiring yearly bailouts amounting to billions of rands 

And then some political  commentators talk about how terrible the  SA government  is and how bad our economy is....they clearly havent seen the quality of life in many other African countries or the ME 

"If other countries have it worse, we should not complain about our country" is a pretty terrible line of reasoning. Reminds of a neighbour I once had, who said her son was a good kid because he had never mugged or killed anyone. 

4 minutes ago, Pidesco said:

"If other countries have it worse, we should not complain about our country" is a pretty terrible line of reasoning. Reminds of a neighbour I once had, who said her son was a good kid because he had never mugged or killed anyone. 

You right, whataboutism is never really helpful

But in SA these political commentators say we are worst country on numerous levels like we are the most unequal society in the world and thats demonstrably untrue and ignores things like free housing, services and social grants that our government provides and tries to provide and all these social services are almost non-existant in most African countries 

So when you criticize your government you shouldn't base that comparison on inaccurate information about the state of other governments. Just base your negative views on the proven facts and or failed policies  within your own country 

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

 

@Hurlshot You teachers should protest and demand corporal punishment is allowed, that will address many problems 

When I was in elementary school corporal punishment was a thing. They gave you a choice: three licks or a one day suspension. Buddy THAT is a no brainer. Paddling is over in less than a minute and you don't have to tell your parents about it, nor explain why you are not going to school the next day. It was NOT a deterrent. 

20 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

When I was in elementary school corporal punishment was a thing. They gave you a choice: three licks or a one day suspension. Buddy THAT is a no brainer. Paddling is over in less than a minute and you don't have to tell your parents about it, nor explain why you are not going to school the next day. It was NOT a deterrent. 

We had corporal punishment up to grade 12 and you got canned up to 6 for various things like fighting, being disruptive and rudeness to teachers

I never got more than 3 and it was all related to being noisy in class and similar things. But we had a sense of fear and respect for the rules of the school. And its a good fear because it teaches you consequence for your actions 

Nowadays the kids beat up the teachers. Or shoot or stab, depending on your location.

Someone needs to remake Class of 1999.

@Pidesco

Good news, the SONA speech had some worthy  ideas. Amongst other things government is going to continue to decriminalize cannabis and  ensure it becomes more business focused , I have always said this should have been done years ago 

The British FM Liz Truss and Russian FM Lavrov had a meeting today. It was... interesting, apparently*. I'd say it was pretty much exactly what you'd expect when one of the more experienced international diplomats meets, well, an idiot trying to look tough for domestic brownie points. Most of the damage done was self inflicted.

Truss didn't know how translators worked, and spent the first part of the meeting speaking over them before being told to shut up and be patient. How you can be a FM and not know that basic level of etiquette is difficult to understand. It's not even a power move, it just makes you look stupid, and as if you simply couldn't be bothered with even the basics. Which was kind of a recurring theme.

She also managed to say that Britain would never recognise Russian sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh. Which are internationally recognised parts of Russia; again a sign of being hopelessly underprepared and worse, it plays perfectly into the Russian narrative. She had to be corrected by the British ambassador, and it wasn't even a trap question since the context was pretty obviously whether Russia was allowed to move troops around Russia. That she apparently thought they were regions of Ukraine was indicative of being hopelessly underprepared but also kind of irrelevant, if you have any pretensions towards competence as a diplomat you always use a generic non answer like "We recognise Russian sovereignty on Russia, but not on Ukraine" for such questions since getting them wrong doesn't make you look tough, but like a moron. It also makes it hard for other diplomats to take you seriously.

(Not her first rodeo, she also somehow managed to say that Baltic Nations were on the Black Sea)

*there's a more detailed take from the FT, which I'd have used but thought would be be paywalled when it isn't.

Politics... the gift that keeps giving!