“I only know revolution, …”

I promised not to use this blog to highlight the baboonistic regime in Southern Africa, but I just can’t keep my big mouth shut.

My readers from southern Africa will know what this is about, but to help those other readers, who are mainly Australians, here’s a little background to explain some of the reasons why I left that swine-infested cess-pool and decided to move my whole family to another continent and adopt a new culture.

This bloke, called Julius, is president of the ANC Youth league in South Africa. This nut does not even fill an official government position, he is just the president of the youth league of a political party. But don’t underestimate the power someone in this position has – it’s similar to the power the political officers had in Soviet Russia.

This guy is well-known for his revolutionary outlook and his hate-filled statements:

“Let me tell you my friend, I have defeated you and your apartheid regime and I'm going to defeat you again, once and for all!"

“All of you combined, you can't do anything. You are wasting your time."

“I am a child of heroes and heroines of the struggle. I am not a child of cowards and oppressors. I am not a child of an imperialist. I have defeated colonisers. I am going to defeat the children of colonisers.”

"Let us make it clear now: we are prepared to die for Zuma. Not only that, we are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma."

This bloke was born in 1981. When he was 13 years old (in 1994) South Africa was turned into a “peaceful democratic rainbow-nation”, and apartheid was abolished. When did he fight the apartheid regime, I wonder?

This dunce finished high school at the formidable age of 21, and received marks that would make even the dumbest kid in Australia look like a genius.

According to Wikipedia, “Malema told students at Walter Sisulu University, in East London, that his role in making controversial statements was that of a decoy, to “distract” the opposition while Zuma “sprinted to the Union Buildings” “

Apparently Julius is very famous throughout the world, and has even received a phone call from Barack Obama. (Hint: it’s worth listening to this one!)

Here is his TV debut:

Although it’s really great to make fun of this guy, it still is an extremely dangerous guy to make jokes of. It’s like making fun of Hitler while the gas chambers were running on full speed.

Old Julius likes to break the law and drive as fast as he can, whilst endangering other people’s lives and property. (I am not too concerned about his life, for some strange reason…)

Like a real banana republic dictator he refuses to pay his speeding fines. Like most of the “revolutionary” figures in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, he is above the law and the cops are too afraid to prosecute him for his criminal behaviour. His response to an enquiry about his speeding fines?

“I only know revolution, I don't know anything about driving.”

With people like this leading the youth of the South African masses, you can only expect the worst. It is clear that the Marxist soviet education that many of the so-called ANC heroes received during the eighties, is still alive in the hearts of these wannabe revolutionaries.

With communist-inspired comments like these, you can only but wonder when this revolution is going to take place, and against whom it will be implemented.

By the way - was South Africa not already “freed” by Mandela more than a decade ago?

A year of living dangerously

Exactly a year ago we were in Cape Town, squashing a family of five onto a plane.  (If you ever want to do something challenging, try an 18 hour flight with a 4 hour stay-over in Singapore, with three active kids and a stressed-out wife.)

I still remember walking along the airport, and realising that this may be the last time my feet touched the African continent. 

During my youth I never imagined that one day I would be extremely grateful and happy to leave this beautiful continent.

This was the first time any of us would ever see Australia, as there was no time or money to do spy-trips beforehand.  Although I had travelled to many African countries, I’d never been to any other continent before in my life.

We left Namibia on 3 September, and stayed with the family in Cape Town before we finally departed to the intriguing land of the koala and the dingo.

These pictures were taken just before we left Namibia:

( See why we had to leave?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The family gathering in Cape Town: 

Before we made this courageous decision to leave the Motherland, we heard a lot of stories about the strict customs officials at Perth airport, and we were expecting real Nazis with their big dogs sniffing at our pockets to see if we brought in any African soil or seeds or maybe even a little hungry African stow-away in a bag.  There were no dogs, and we found the people to be very friendly.

One of the greatest moments in my life was when the customs-lady stamped my passport after a short but serious questioning-session, and finally said “welcome to ‘straylia, mate!”

I was very tired after the long flight, but after finally getting through the long line at customs, I was very excited to get out and experience the lucky country.  My new boss Dennis, and an old friend of mine were there to pick us up at the airport:

At this point in time, Dewald and Sumare were the only people in Perth that we actually knew.  They were old friends of ours from Cape Town. 

Look at those glad-wrapped bags – in South Africa, you can’t trust the baggage handlers, so you have to take extra precautions.  We later realised that this is the easiest way to determine whether someone at an airport was from Africa – look at the glad-wrapped bags, it’s a dead give-away!

In these bags we apparently had everything that we needed for the next five months, as our container from Windhoek only arrived at the end of February 2009.

It’s really hard to believe that a year has gone by.  On the one hand, it feels like we’ve been living here for a long, long time.  On the other hand, it feels like yesterday when we landed, and I can still vividly remember those first days.

We started out with a circle of friends that only included one South African family.  In less than a year, this circle expanded to include (the obvious) many other South Africans, but also Canadians, Kiwi's, Zimbo’s, Poms and last but not least – real good down-to-earth local sandgroper Aussies.

And the meat is really good.  (This is an important part of my life!)

 

My Aussie mate Tony cooking at his barbeque in his backyard

 

I’m looking forward to many more carefree years Down Under.  As they say around here:

“She’ll be right, mate!”

The results of the revolution

I read an article in the Namibian which referred to one of Namibia’s “heroes whose blood has watered our freedom”.  (These words are part of the Namibian national anthem.)

Just before Namibia gained it’s independence from South Africa, a man named Anton Lubowski was shot outside his house in Windhoek in 1989.

This man was a SWAPO sympathiser, a man who supported a terrorist organisation and who didn’t bat an eyelid when landmines exploded on civilian farms, or when civilians were slaughtered by SWAPO insurgents in the name of liberation.

For those who missed this part of history, Namibia had a violent past, and the people of Namibia faced a massive onslaught backed by Soviet Russia and Cuba.  During the final negotiations for peace, part of the deal was that 50000 Cuban troops had to withdraw from Angola.  This was not a small guerrilla army.

Now although I do not condone this (or any other) assassination, the fact is that this was a war, and in a war people on both sides get killed.  People on farms were massacred by Swapo “guerrillas”.  Innocent civilians were killed by landmines and bombs that were planted by these communist revolutionaries, who turned into capitalist democrats as soon as the Berlin wall came down. 

Today their leaders milk the capitalist society while making socialist comments whenever the workers get restless.  And not one of them has yet had the guts to take Mugabe on.

There is a saying that goes: “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”  Let’s leave it at that.

Twenty years later, the people of Namibia are now reminded of this hero whose blood watered their “freedom”.  It’s interesting to note this hero’s own definition of freedom more than twenty years ago:

“Lubowski used to say that Namibia is rich and that in a free Namibia there would not be any poor person, Mrs Lubowski recalled.

 

History has so far proven otherwise, though.”

This leaves you to make one of two conclusions:

1. The land is not free, or
2. Lubowski’s argument was ridiculous.

Either way, it seems ironic to honour this bloke.  Especially if all the innocent civilian victims of this cruel terrorist war are not also honoured, and the plight of the people who were killed and assaulted on farms in Zimbabwe are completely ignored – even while it still continues.

Forty and still holding on

Unfortunately I have to admit my age.  Sunday was the big day – my fortieth birthday.

I booked a picnic shelter at Whiteman Park on Friday, even though the weather seemed to be like something out of a disaster movie.  (During last week I saw wheelie bins take off and fly down the street.)

On Saturday we watched the Trinations rugby match between the Springboks and the All Blacks at a friend’s house.  It was still raining cats and dogs, and I was beginning to wonder about this great outdoors event that I planned.

By the way, wasn’t that a great game?  It’s always nice to see the all Blacks getting beaten in their own back yard – let’s hope the Wallabies can do the same.

Sunday morning turned out perfectly however, and by the time we got to Whiteman Park we forgot all about rain and severe weather warnings.

I love this park.  Even the name of the park makes me feel at home, just because in Namibia this would have been considered to be politically incorrect.

This is a beautifully maintained park, with no baboons or beggars pestering you or looting your stuff. 

(After living in Perth for nearly a year, I still stand in awe of such simple things.  I will never be ungrateful for this wonderful free lifestyle we have here)

A tram line runs through the park, and one of the tram stops was right next to our shelter.  Anica and her grandmother signed up for a nice ride on the tram: At one stage there was a whole convoy of tractors driving through the park.  I never knew that there was such a thing as a “tractor enthusiast”, but believe me there are many of them around these parts.  Almost all of the services in the park are provided by volunteers – what a great attitude these folks have.  They even maintain and operate the tramline.

Unfortunately I neglected to take photos of the tractors, because I was running after Anica in an attempt to deny her the freedom to run right into middle of the road where the tractor convoy was passing.  She was not amused, and neither was I.  Let’s just say we had a difference of opinion…

Waiting at the tram station: 

My oldest daughter also took some photos of her own:

The barbie

Here are some of Yolandi’s great shots:

Natasha is one of Celesti’s friends, they do “Mainly Music” together:

This is one of my colleagues.  A really nice Aussie bloke:

Wayne and his family - one of the many families from South Africa who now live in Perth:

Well, that’s it.  I’m 40 now. 

I’m looking forward to the next forty years.  At least I don’t have to spend half of it going to school and going trough puberty.

Who are you trying to fool?

All my devout followers have probably heard of this black dude from South Africa who dressed up as a girl and tried to run 800m in a girls contest.  He broke all kinds of girlie records in the process, and walked away with a gold medal.

The South African authorities have now delivered “proof” that he is indeed a woman:

Please, are you serious?  This looks even worse!  This looks like a black bloke in drag – something you don’t often see on the colourful streets of Soweto. 

I suspect that this bloke could be Robert Mugabe’s son.  (Or should I say “his daughter”?)

City of Perth

We went to Kings Park on Father's day, and I took a few photos of the beautiful city of Perth.

We had a little rain, and while my family were all sitting in the car waiting for me, I took these great shots of a rainbow over the city:

Dining at Bluewater

I did the right thing today and took the little wife out for a dinner date.  After careful research and analysis of all the facts, (which actually means “after intensive Googling”,) I managed to make reservations for the two of us at the Bluewater Grill in Applecross.

The setting looked great from what I could see on the internet, and Applecross looked like it could be a nice bit of neighbourhood, with the river and all that going on.

Now I’m no food critic, but I’ll give you my report.  Who knows, maybe this can start a new career path for me, with someone else paying the bills, whilst the pretty wife and I enjoy all wonderful kinds of restaurants all around WA.

This restaurant has the most awesome setting.  The river and the city skyline in the background is a sure recipe for success. 

Once in a while it’s nice to be in a cultured environment where the down-to-earth “no-worries”, thong-wearing, sleeveless footy-shirt Aussie culture is not too prevalent.  Where the background music is just right, and you don’t see obese kids tearing down the place and screaming at their parents.

The food was great, the service was good and the price was probably not too hefty, although I had to close my eyes and swipe that gold card and pray that my limit is still far away.

But it was worth it.

 

 

We walked around and took a few photos in the dark, and realised that a fine drizzle was developing all around us.  We just got into the car and onto the road when heavens opened and heavy showers came down out of nowhere.

 

 

 I finally figured out how to work the timer setting on this camera, and managed to take some photos of the two of us.  

 

 

We took a drive around this lovely area, and were astonished at the massive palaces around the place.  The people who live around here must be stinking rich.  I hope to join that club someday.

To sum it up, we had a great evening.  If you feel like having a great evening with the love of your life in a decent restaurant , then I can recommend the Bluewater without hesitation.