Screw Caps

As you may have guessed by now I'm a great one for ritual and nostalgia (I still listen to and collect vinyl records!), and I guess having a cork in a wine bottle is one of those practices that fit clearly into that category.Like much nostalgia, the reason that it becomes nostalgic is that it has been replaced by a better technology that is safer. quicker, more functional etc. In this case it has been created by the arrival of the screw cap.

For some reason though, the South African wine market has been slow to get rid of this and as amazingly upwards of 10% of SA wine is tainted by corks. This is pointed out in this great article by Michael Fridjhon in Saturday's weekender: Wine industry corked by unreliable packaging. Fridjhon alludes to the obvious reason of marketers and industry know-it-alls assuming that consumers will not be big and brave enough to make the change, but also very interesting point that the SA market is dominated by a single monopoly glassmaker which is 35% more expensive and less responsive to the market than European glassmaking competitors.

We will adapt, though, and give it 18 months and I believe we may not be so squeamish about twisting off a wine stopper.

Given the take-off (no pun originally intended) of the screw cap in Australia I wonder what they are dangling on the brims of their hats to fend off flies these days?

Some unrelated items

Call For Rugby Scrums To Be Banned

Yes, and let us play the game with a round ball as well so that players don't get caught wrong-footed and twist their ankles. Look, I know that there are serious injuries in the game and that I shouldn't be flippant about it, particulalry where someone has been personally afflicted by such injuries, but just how far do we go in reducing risk in our society. Maybe a 120km/h speed limit at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend. Sorry, but I'm just not in an agreeable frame of mind today.

I always enjoy the debate in Spiked articles on our obsession with risk.

I also enjoyed this article.
"MEN who drink every day are much less likely to develop heart disease later in life, according to new research.
A study of more than 50,000 people found daily alcohol consumption reduced the male risk by a remarkable 41%. But interestingly, the same was not true for women."
As if I needed further justification..

And a great, rather balanced, article on one of the worst aspects of football.
"It’s not that I support diving - it’s just that there are far more important things in life to get worked up about than a few footballers rolling around in mock agony."

Not sure that I even have enough interest in the all-Kiwi Super14 final tomorrow, other than a macabre and nasty hope that there a few injuries which will offset the number of Bok injuries, which is a pity indeed.

Have a great weekend all.

The Abolition of Work

Via bru&boegie who in turn got there via Dave Duarte is a reference to this article with the above title by Bob Black.

I see it's full of the postmoderns of the mid 80's, all play & Foucault else. I've printed it out and have partially digested it. It is food for thought, but I've bills to pay.

My initial cursory reading just called to mind a quote from 60's beat poet Adrian Mitchell. I have no idea why?

Stunted Sonnet
Love is like a cigarette
The bigger the drag, the more you get

I looked up Adrian Mitchell and it seems that he is still writing some great poetry. Great stuff on the Iraq war. It seems old protesters never die do they? Wonderful thing this web, to trawl through and update old memories.

Soccernomics

This weekend a depleted Bafana Bafana football squad lost in the Cosafa Cup to lowly Botswana. Now I would be loath to link the current run on the JSE to this loss, as there are a multitude of world market influences at play, one can’t help bit wondering if this slow chipping at away at our national confidence is starting to have an effect
Two interesting analyses on the upcoming World Cup come via Paul Kedrosky .

There is a fascinating research paper upcoming that looks at the effect of World Cup soccer wins and losses on country stock market indices. In short, the authors document a strong negative stock market reaction to losses by national soccer teams, on the order of 7%. (There is no corresponding effect for soccer wins.) The authors also find a significant but smaller effect for international cricket, rugby, and basketball.

And this extract from mainstream “Soccernomics”analysis from ABN Amro.
Although the direct economic impact (higher sales in bars and cafes) is marginal, good performances on the pitch can certainly stimulate an economy. In the past, countries winning the World Cup added around 0.7% to their economic growth. And at the last three tournaments the winning country's stock market considerably outperformed the losing finalist's market. On average there was 10% positive effect in the winner and a 25% negative effect in the loser.

The ABN Amro reports can be found here & here.

I am almost certain that the 2nd Quarter BER Business Confidence index will indicate a decline in economic confidence.
And by the end of the 3rd Quarter and when interest rates have kicked up 3% and we’ve lost the Tri-Nations rugby to New Zealand who knows where confidence will be.

Who says sport doesn’t count?

Royal Protection Services

Did you know that South Africa has its own "Royal Protection Service"? I certainly didn't until I drove past a SAP vehicle in Sandton this morning indicating that it belonged to the KZN branch of the Royal Protection Services. A bit of sleuthing revealed that it is a branch of the SAPS which falls under the command on the KZN police commissioner. Quite what it was doing in JHB I am not sure. A shopping trip, for Royal wives? Perhaps affairs of State? Good to know my tax money is being well spent.

Handshake Ethics

I just reread the tagline on this blog. The one above this post that goes …Life, Philosophy ..etc . Well I have dealt a little with life, plenty with rugby and a bit about beer but haven’t written much about philosophy much at all lately other than a tangential reference to Daniel Dennett a couple of posts ago. But I should write about it more since it’s something that I’m quite well trained formally trained in. Anyway I’m currently a year & a half into reading for an MPhil in Ethics and have been devoting quite a bit of time looking at globalisation and ethics.

I have been trying to find a model of business ethics that takes into account a wide range of cultural differences and may work in the South African context. I’m leaning toward a theory called “Integrative Social Contracts Theory,” ("ISCT") developed by Donaldson and Dunfee in their book “Ties That Bind”.

I had an essay to write for last Friday and came up with this sentence:

“It is in these economic communities, and in the often unspoken understandings that provide their ethical glue, that they believe many of the answers to business ethics quandaries lie.”

I then concluded : “By understanding these ties and behaving as we would when we shake someone’s hand, and operating consistently on this basis organisations can behave ethically in a global context.”

As you can see I’d almost convinced myself that there was some theory that could work. But then this weekend I got to thinking that I don’t really always trust the bloke that I’m shaking hands with (or else I wouldn’t bother with all manner of legal backup). So I guess it is back to square one. Again.

Sporting Identity

Alerted by a great article regarding this weekend’s Heineken Cup final.

I quote one Huw Richards:
“The occasion of their 23-19 Heineken Cup final win over Biarritz at the Millennium Stadium was one whose emotion recalled Manchester United's European Cup victory in 1968, the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 and England's Ashes win last year. These were triumphs that it seemed might never happen after years of hopes raised and dashed, hard-luck tales and still harder admissions that the real cause of failure was not being quite good enough when it really mattered.

Next year will be different. Munster will remain a cultural phenomenon, driven on by an unmatched identification between fans and players. But how much of that extraordinary energy derived from unrequited passion and a sense of unfinished business remains to be seen.”

Something that has been mutilated in recent years in this country is rugby identity. Clearly driven by the need to try and appease all in the Super 10/12/14 contest and for all sorts of contractual and other reasons dreamed up by the sponsorship gurus and other regular golfers we have had a mish-mash of identities in SA rugby. The Cats being a mongrel side sired by the Transvaal Lions and the Free State Cheetahs. The Stormers being a farcical collaboration between Boland and Western Province (farcical in that Boland seemed only to there to provide the “quota” players). The Sharks flirted with being associated with the Eastern Province and Border and were briefly called the Coastal Sharks.

The Bulls are the one side that has managed to escape this charade and a visit to Loftus on any given Saturday will assure you that you have arrived amongst the most maniacal devoted set of fans you could imagine. This is good. That is what we want for sport. (There is a great article by Carl Sagan in his book “Billions & Billions” where he points out that the word 'fan' is derived, after all, from the term 'fanatic'!).

Fortunately matters are returning, slowly, to normality. The Cats will be no more from next season and will call themselves the Lions once more. The ridiculous scheme to introduce the Southern Spears (another mongrel side) seems to be dying a slow death (legal challenges aside).

The sea of red shirts and wildly waving flags in the streets of Limerick as the Munster fans cheered their team playing miles away in Cardiff was a sight to behold. That is what sport (and support for it) should be about. Not some lame and over-hyped game that runs to extra time and penalties and then still has its supporters throwing their toys. (… read Pirates vs Chiefs over this last weekend).

I will never apologise for being a passionate sports supporter. I am able to watch and appreciate good sport with a cup of tea in hand (in cases where I am neutral and disinterested in the winner) but can think if nothing better than getting sucked emotionally into the game, being so zoned in, that I am virtually on the field, with my white knuckles clutching on my beer can. Interestingly I think the same emotional strands that allow me to do this, and enjoy doing this are the same emotional strands that have me unashamedly bawling my eyes out in movies.

But this article is about identity. That is what sport must be about to be successful. To be the full package. Anything else is just a tribute game, a collection of stars singing “We are the world” or like a cover band singing pop songs. It sounds similar, has a familiar tune, but just doesn’t have a patch on the original.

Sporting identity that unites players with the Stadium and the Fans and spans a generation of fathers and sons can be stoked and fanned out of an existing ember but it cannot be constructed from nothing or by mixing up a cocktail of different dying flames.

Two great ZA comic strips

If you're not yet a regular take a trip to visit Jeremy Nell's Urban Trash (check his archive too)and a site that I've recently found, Mike Scott's Bru & Boegie . They're great in daily doses.

My Favourite Word : Awe

The Word Detective is calling for folk to send him their favourite word here.

My contribution to this is the word “awe”. Which is defined by Answers.com as follows:

awe (ô) n.

A mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might: We felt awe when contemplating the works of Bach. The observers were in awe of the destructive power of the new weapon.

Archaic

1. The power to inspire dread.
2. Dread.

Awe is my favourite word because it’s the one capacity that humans have over animals. The capacity for awe is what makes me want to wake up in the morning. It’s the ever-present knowledge that there is something out there that will excite me, thrill me or scare me.

While I felt that the word was severely abused by White House spin doctors in the “shock & awe” bombings of Iraq, this is perhaps only further evidence of the heightened conscious capacity that we have as humans and that our capacity for awe can have a destructive and evil context as well as an affirming one.

Daniel Dennett, in Consciousness Explained, neatly encapsulates this as follows:
“When we understand consciousness - when there is no more mystery - consciousness will be different, but there will still be beauty, and more room than ever for awe."

Bye-bye CA

The other big thing, over and above the house purchase, that’s just happened is that my Isuzu is about to lose its CA plates & have them replaced with GP plates. Given the debt I'm about to be swamped by I'll be stuck driving my trusty tank for a while yet and I'm not going to change the Sharks bumper stickers though, despite the events of the weekend.

I guess both of these events say quite a bit about "no going back" and being on target to look back on this year (hopefully fondly) as the year of big change.

Interestingly last year my vehicle registration cost R502 in Cape Town. The same vehicle registration in Johannesburg for this year is R240, and includes a free three hour wait in a queue of interesting people. I also see that Cape Town is again mooting an additional fuel levy over and above their high registration costs. But just as I was just getting gleeful about all the saving I was making by having a GP number plate it dawned on me that the saving on vehicle registration is negated in about two months of paying much higher insurance premiums.

Bond Originators

Hey, I’ve bought a house after scouring Jo’burg from Parkhurst to Jukskei Park. Sadly it’s not in one of the more fashionable characterful old-Joburg suburbs that really do appeal to me but in the rather middle class face brick early 80’s suburb of Paulshof. It’ll do nicely though, and for the price has plenty going for it. Anything will better than the claustrophobic cluster thing being rented at present.

Now begins the admin. Starting with financing the place. The estate agent, who also happens to be the owner of the house I am buying, gets some commission from bond originators, and since I have not too much to lose by using one I use the one she recommends.

I have no quarrel with the originators themselves. In my experience bond originators have generally provided pretty good service. It is really an ideal setup – they are commission hungry and work hard to get the “sale” from you. Once they have set you up with a bank at a suitable rate, they do not (and are not expected to) have any further contact with you. .i.e the service relationship thereafter is with the bank, not the originator.

The quarrel that I have is with the banks. Why do I need a third-party broker to go to my bank, where I have been a client since they trapped me with a cheap student loan, to negotiate a suitable terms of transaction for me. I have tried to go the direct route and it is clearly more onerous and less likely to succeed than the route of using an originator.

Yes, the originators claim “You do not pay for this service as the bond originator gets a commission from the bank that you choose for your loan”. All good and well, but this inefficiency has to get paid for somewhere. It must end up in the bank charges and other fees the big 4 banks seem to be milking from us.

My understanding is that this is not some Mickey Mouse commission being earned here. The commission rates are in the order 1 to 2% of the registered bond amount. That’s pretty steep for at most an afternoon’s work. (ie R10k to R20k on a R1m bond). And the Estate Agent who refers you to the originator also takes a cut. No wonder the origination market is so flooded. I don’t blame them – I blame the banks who are too slack to improve their own basic service levels that they have to outsource them at my expense.

If the banks offered an option to get a 2% upfront deduction from my loan if I went directly to them then I would even consider putting up with their inefficiency, but until then I will go against my logical judgment and use a service that is economically inefficient overall but more beneficial to me.

In my case I have elected to take my “prime less 2%” rate from a bank other than my own because they responded to the originator faster. This despite some subsequent pleading from my own bank (who would like my business but still couldn’t better the rate being offered). Perhaps my biggest regret is perhaps not buying gold when I was frustrated by the whole property market earlier in the year (when gold was just over $500/oz compared to the +$700 it is now).

Miracles with a sting

I'm still in some sort of shock. The miracle that I alluded to last week actually took place. However, there was a sting in this one's tail. Not only did the miracle that I wished for occur (i.e the Sharks getting sufficient points to make the Super14 semis), but the even further outside chance scenario of the Bulls getting a spot actually occurred. Sadly this entirely negated the Sharks good work.

Would it be too outlandish to suggest some sort of conspiracy here? Two top South African sides (the Bulls & Stormers) play a match where the Bulls require a margin of 32 points to proceed further in the competion, the Stormers have nothing to lose but pride, and the Bulls win by 33 points! . Maybe it's just sour grapes talking but I can't but wonder.

To top it all. In this weekend of entirely upset odds, which I had suggested were as likely to occur as me winning the lotto, I did enter the lotto and was not even close to winning it!

New faces White wants to see at Springbok camp

AJ Venter (Sharks, No 8),
Ruan Pienaar (Sharks, scrumhalf),
Johan Ackermann (Sharks, lock),
Chiliboy Ralepele (Bulls, hooker),
Andre Snyman (unattached, centre).

So reports IOL

I think this is 100% spot-on and just reward for a great season from the 3 Sharks players concerned and Ralepele deserves selection on the basis of his name alone. What a brand he has there. Think Hugh Bladen ..."and it's Chiliboy, Chiliboy Ralepele racing down the touch line, Chiliboy with the try...!"

Very little known fact. A relatively baby-faced, but no less bulky, Sergeant Ackermann taught a relatively baby faced but much fitter and no less skraal ATW to shoot with a 9mm while trainee constable ATW was briefly ensconced in uniform in PretoriaWest. I doubt he'd remember, but hell I do.

Maybe this should apply to all Joburger's not just Afrikaners

Karen Zoid has a lot to say, and the Dylan similarities do not escape me. ie Taking old folk songs and applying them to current situations, particaularly those of turbulence and change. But we are all in this turbulence together. It applies to all of us if we want it to. As Peas commented to a previous post: where the coastal folk have sea & sand to entertain themselves, Joburgers entertain themselves with each other. Really enjoyed that. Intro ms Zoid....

Afrikaners is plesierig
Dit kan julle glo
Hulle hou van partytjie
En dan maak hulle so
En dan maak hulle so…

Babe is jy nog lief vir my
Ek gaan iemand anders kry

Luister hier jou yuppie scum
Jou preconceived millennium man
Ek maak jou kwaad want ek weet ek kan
Gee my nog ‘n vatlap government plan

En die bedelaar staan met sy uitsteek hand
En vra my vir net nog twee rand
Mense vrek oor die hele land
En die res lê op Clifton se strand

En die music is vinnig
Ek raak opgepsyche
If you don’t like it, why don’t you take a hike
Almal is anders. Se maar wat jou pla
Hou net op om vrae te vra

Chorus: Afrikaners is plesierig ….

Babe is jy nog lief vir my
Ek gaan iemand anders kry

I’d like to now excuse myself
Hul sit honde op mense
Ek gaan liewer skape tel
Op radio sonder grense

Ja jy fix my krieket en miskien my rugby
Bobby Skinstad hoe’s daai been?
Ek kyk nie Currie Cup nie
Jy’s cool, jy voel ‘n veer vir global warming

Betogers moet iets anders doen
Pamflette lees is boring
Alles is affirmative,
al is jou baas verwant

Kant sou ook geen kant kon kies
So swot maar wyl jy kan
Die bank, die bank, die bank vra te veel rente
Ek speel maar eerder pinball met my 50 sente

Ek het nie pms nie, ek’s net ‘n natural bitch

Chorus:

Boogie with Betjeman

Roy Wilkinson of The Gaurdian reports: "England's DJs, however, are saluting a less familiar side of the former poet laureate. Recently, rare Betjeman vinyl LPs have been selling on auction site eBay - categorised as "funk/soul/R&B" and recommended for their "dope bass action", "exotic grooviness" and "fat, funky basslines". The time, it seems, has come to boogie with Betjeman."

I am not for one second going to suggest that I have a handle on much that makes up dope bass action, trip hop, drum 'n bass etc etc, but in a way there is something very psychedelic 70's about it. If one spins the early Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd or the likes of krautrock band Can there are clear similarities to many current genres.

Even in design there are similarities. The album cover of Can's 1969 album Monster Movie, shown here, would fit quite comfortably in the dance section at CD Wherehouse.

Like the periodic resurgence of bell-bottom trousers, music seems to also follow some viconian resurgence every generation or so.

I can seriously see myself scratching around the web to source some of 4 Betjeman albums mentioned or even one or two from the list at the bottom of the Gaurdian article.

Miracles required

By 9pm on Friday we'll know if the Sharks have managed a minor miracle in scraping into the Super 14 semifinals or whether they will have to accept the reality of a season of missed opportunity. They have played well but have to rue the chances lost.

Chances for the Sharks to rue should they not perform a miracle this weekend in order of event.
1. Losing to the Cheetahs 27-26 at home, after leading 20-10.
2. Losing 35-30 to the Brumbies away.
3. Losing 23-17 to the Hurricanes away.
4. An horrendous first half resulting in them losing 34-27 to the Bulls.
5. Not getting a bonus point against the Stormers last weekend. Perhaps the TMO is to blame for some of this as Warren Britz had clearly scored a try that should have been awarded.*

Here is how the miracle must be performed. At 9am Friday the Crusaders must set out and beat the Brumbies by X number of points. X must be greater than 7 points and the Brumbies may not score more than 3 tries. At 7pm the Sharks must set out and beat the Western Force by Y number of points and must score at least 4 tries. The sum of X and Y must exceed 39.

The Crusaders ought to beat the Brumbies, especially without George Gregan, suspended for a spear tackle last week.(How he only received a one week ban I do not know - Aussie league players have been banned for 14 weeks for similar tackles).

The Force, after a rough start have drawn 2 of their last 3 games and lost last week by only 2 points to the Cheetahs. They received a few largish scores against them at the start of the season and lost 39-8 to the Blues in Auckland but are no pushover.

There is also an even more bizarre permutation that would allow the Bulls to secure the 4th semifinal spot. I am more likely to win the lotto than that permutation. That said I'm also more likely to win the lotto than the Sharks are likely to come through in the above permutation.

* I have commented before on the gagging of players & administrators, surrounding comments on the referees in many AngloSaxon sports. I am heartened that Sharks coach Dick Muir is not one to toe this line too well and generally says enough to get his point across without getting too personal.

Mr Wendel

A post-script to the My Tribe post and the subsequent comments trail. Maybe I’m softening up, but this tune had me humming and nodding in agreement this morning.

Go ahead, man
Here, have a dollar
In fact, no, brotherman, here have two
Two dollars means a snack for me
But it means a big deal to you

Long Street

It's not the mountain (or should that be The Mountain?) that I miss most about Cape Town. What I miss most is Long Street. I spent most of the long weekend in Cape Town, sadly virtually all for work purposes, and satisfied my longing with a brisk stroll on Saturday night. Hell, that street has an existence all of its own. I've  heard that people don't walk in Jozi, although I do (but not at night!). But the walk up Oxford Road and into the Rosebank mall is pitiful compared to a brisk stroll up Long Street. Long Street is alive & interesting, all manner of folk. From Mohamed selling the best cure for the late night munchies at his stall throughout the night, to David McLennan at Select Books selling great Africana, hunting and rugby books. And the people. The crowds of West Africans queued & mingling barefoot with the locals outside mosque for Friday prayers, the tarted sophistos heading for the clubs that have heavy bouncers and a cordon of red rope, the drunken louts, the car guards, the rastas at 'Cool runnings', the backpacking tourists on the balconies dipping into the bowls of Cape of Good Dope. It's all quite real to me, not artificial. Sure it has it's commercial element, good god - Kennedy's Cigar Bar now has an Irish themed pub!, but not overpoweringly so. Is there anywhere else like this in Jozi, or the world?