When your family has no food you forget about politics, the cost of transport, the petrol price, sport and everything else. Starvation is the most powerful drive of all!
Recently, in a rural area close to Plettenberg Bay, a homeowner in a residential area went outside to put some refuse in his dustbin found three families looking into his dustbin in search of food. When he politely asked them not to leave too much mess around the dustbin he got into conversation with one of the people surrounding the bin, only to be told that they had just walked 9 kilometres from their township in order to reach the town. They were starving and desperate!
This episode just illustrates the desperate plight that rural people have to face every day, just to stay alive – and the dire situation citizens find themselves in must be laid squarely at ANC cadres’ feet, where patronage for cadres, their family members and their buddies take precedence.
(A little bird just told me that a container full of ANC regalia, t. shirts, flags and pre-election posters is stuck at sea and can’t offload the containers; which is why there are so few posters up on poles around the country – WHOOPEE! SERVES THEM RIGHT FOR DRIVING THE COUNTRY INTO THE GROUND – TALK ABOUT BEING HOIST WITH THEIR OWN PETARD!)
To change the subject radically; If graduates think they can FAKE THEIR WAY TO AQUIRING A DEGREE BY USING AI PROGRAMMES LIKE CHAT GTP TO CREATE AND WRITE THEIR THEIR ESSAYS, DISSERTATIONS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES THEN THEY ARE MAKING A FATAL MISTAKE!
Unfortunately, this mindset of simply not caring at all about the citizens, and only looking after the interests of the cadres and their buddies has trickled down through the ranks of government, councillors; bottoming out in the townships where destitution, poverty, joblessness, drug abuse, gang membership and resultant family problems reign supreme.
Unfortunately, some of those who somehow manage to break out of the township trap and get some form of sponsorship to assist them to get a tertiary education still remain infected by a ‘DOG EAT DOG’ SURVIVAL ATTITUDE, and hence have no compunction about taking shortcuts and cheating the system wherever they can.
I have no problem with software creators who create platforms using AI to write software such as CHAT GPT that assists writers to improve the quality of their writing. NEVERTHELESS THESE PACKAGES ARE SIMPLY TOOLS USED TO ASSIST AN AUTHOR TO PRODUCE A BETTER DOCUMENT.
Software packages like CHAT GPT assist users to write better English. AI cannot create good writers. Such programmes are misleading users into believing that a software package can make you into an author. That is impossible because there is no substitute for the human brain. Being a good writer demands imagination, interesting life experiences, a natural ability for using language to create meaning, a great deal of research, as well as an ability to stimulate the reader’s imagination.
Although I have the greatest respect and enormous sympathy for people who can’t get a job and thus are forced to stand at robots, wearing their academic gowns – that they acquired legitimately during years of academic slog, I have zero respect for students and graduates who faked their way up the ladder.
If you somehow manage to obtain a degree by taking shortcuts, copying other people’s work without acknowledging its authorship or by paying someone to write your thesis, you will be found wanting by prospective employers; you will not get a job and you will end up standing at a robot in your academic gown, begging for a job – and rightly so!
ERNEST HEMINGWAY DID NOT USE CHAT GTP TO WRITE THE GRAPES OF WRATH OR TORTILLA FLAT. SHAKESPEARE DID NOT HAVE THE BENEFIT OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY TO WRITE THE TIMELESS PLAYS THAT ARE STILL REVERED AND PERFORMED TODAY.
STOP PRESS!! THE ANC IS SO DESPERATE TO HANG ONTO POWER THAT ‘RAMAP …’ IS NOW BLACKMAILING THE POORER MEMBERS OF THE ELECTORATE BY THREATENING THAT IF THE ANC LOSES POWER ALL SOCIAL GRANTS WILL BE STOPPED.
Wow! Desperation indeed! Unfortunately for you the President and the cadres; The best chance for the governing body of this country to continue providing social grants is for the criminals in Luthuli house to be chucked out; so a new government can start fixing the system, so corruption is minimised and new capable leaders are installed. The economy can then be improved, small to medium companies will be able to operate efficiently without BEE and cadre deployment, unemployment will be reduced and hence there will be more money available to ensure the continued existence and even increases in social grant provision.
Mike Sham, leader of the Social Research Foundation recently analysed what he deemed to be possible outcomes of the election and the aftermath during the coalition negotiations; and he expressed his hope that the ANC, together with the array of opposition parties would come to the realisation that a loose coalition between them was the best solution to get the nation onto the right track. Given the inevitable shock that the ANC will experience when they realise that their 30 years of autocratic rule under a dominant president under the ANC were over; one can only hope that they will not resort to desperate measures to retain outright power by force or by joining forces with the EFF. The centrist portion of the electorate can only hope that such an outcome will not be possible.
(P.S. to quote Rob Hersov – non – verbatim); An alliance between the ANC and the EFF, in a bid to keep the ANC in power will not work because the EFF will very quickly take over the reigns of power from the ANC; and then the ANC CADRES will run away like rats from a sinking ship!!)
REVIVE THE RAINBOW OF 1994 – VIVA!!
Recent Comments