SAA Stands To Lose R62mil Per Day!

Yet again our national airline finds itself with trouble on its hands. A strike by workers which started yesterday threatens to cost the airline R62 million per day. Almost a quarter of the airline's staff are expected to down tools across all departments.

The airline has stated that it has a contingency plan in place but I am less than confident in SAA's ability to manage itself. The cause for the strike appears to be apparent unilateral changes made to employment conditions. If this is indeed true I am left to wonder whether those in management at SAA do not understand the trade union movement or whether they in fact care! A strike in 2006 cost the airline R150-million!

In court papers SAA stated that it was concerned about the image being portrayed to the international community with the Confederations Cup in 2009 and the FIFA World Cup in 2010 just around the corner. A little late in the day for concerns about international image!

Is it time for the national airline to be privatized? Even in this economic climate this may be just the change that's needed.

Makhaya Ntini's new record

As an avid cricket fan I was delighted to see South African fast bowler, Makhaya Ntini, become the highest Test wicket taker for South Africa in home test matches. With the dismissal of Bangladeshi batsman Imrul Kayes, he broke the previous record of 235 held by Shaun Pollock.

Another interesting record worth mentioning from the latest Test match against Bangladesh was that South Africa had 5 ducks in their innings and made the highest Test total by a team with 5 or more ducks!

Further up-to-date info on Makhaya Ntini can be found at CricInfo : Makhaya Ntini profile

Kids Views On The Election - very funny!

With the President-elect busy preparing for the day he finally sits in his chair in the Oval Office and with the all the noise of the political pundits starting to die down, it is fun to take a look at what children thought of the election and the new president.

Enjoy this! ...

Another reason not to emigrate to Australia

I was amazed to read the following on a post entitled "Top 10 Countries Censoring The Web":

Bonus: Australia

The rundown :
Discovering that countries like Iran or Yemen are censoring the web is not a big surprise. Most forms of independent media are already restricted there, and their levels of human rights are among the lowest in the world.
But what if we told you that Australia, one of the richest countries in the world, is also trying to censor websites inside its borders? Now that is scary!

How does the censorship work?
In 2007 a bill passed giving the federal police the power to block the access to any website. They already had a filtering system is place, but it was very limited in scope.
Many privacy groups and critics from the around the world claimed that this decision will directly threaten the freedom of speech on the Australian web.

What kind of content is blocked?
The government claimed that the police will be blocking mainly phishing and terrorism related websites. The problem is that the law brings a much broader definition for the potential targets: basically they can block any content that encourages, incites or facilitates criminal activity.

I always knew that Australia was a nanny-state but this seems to be taking things a little too far in a country where freedom-of-speech is espoused.

You may also want to take a look at the No Clean Feed site from Australia.