PLUCKY CARIEN DU PLESSIS - ONLY ONE OF FOUR ATTACKED JOURNALISTS NOT IN HIDING

Dear Journalists everywhere,

Carien du Plessis

          It’s pathetic when journalists, who are in the business of holding other people to account can’t take it when the roles are reversed.

          Like so many people in different walks of life they often fail dismally when it comes to practising what they preach when they are cornered. You would think that as judges of our morals they would set a higher standard than this.

          They should all be man enough (sorry to a lot of you about that man reference but I can’t think of a better way of putting it) to take criticism if they are in the reporting business.

          After I took journalists Carien du Plessis, Rebecca Davies, Martin Hatcheul and Louise Marsland to task for something they Tweeted, all of them except Carien ducked for cover behind a Twitter BLOCK. They presumably felt safe in their chicken runs believing that this would ensure there was no longer a danger of me getting at them for anything they tweeted.

          It wasn’t as though I had attacked them personally or used any troll like language to malign them.

           Their reprisal was the equivalent of a newspaper cancelling the subscription of someone who disagreed with its policy.

          All except Marsland were mentioned in various posts of mine for using vulgar language on Twitter (women's sweary wall). 
I felt that as this would not normally be allowed in any of the publications they write for it was not in keeping with the way journalists as public figures should behave on an open platform like the internet.

          Carien, the City Press’ senior political reporter, was the exception in that she was big enough to just cut out the bad language and do nothing to prevent me monitoring her future Tweets. Well done Carien that’s how all journalists with any backbone should behave.

          Davis the built in dictionary scribe writes for the online paper The Daily Maverick. After my post about her she justified her language in a Maverick article (Telling it like it isn't) and subsequently closed the door to me on her Twitter account.

DAVIS HIDING IN HER CHICKEN RUN

          Unlike any of the others Hatchuel (Top Sweary Man), a Knysna freelance, directed one of his uncouth Tweets at me personally. Here it is.

          In Marsland’s case (Mommy Blog)I merely disapproved of the stance she took against Pick n Pay on Twitter and in Bizcommunity.com. The supermarket group earned her ire when it asked her to remove her tweet which gave the link to Celeste Barlow’s extremely vulgar post about its very successful Stikeez promotion.

Journo on the run

          Marsland the editor of Bizcommunity.com is a South African 25-year media veteran who claims to have been an “influential journalist, editor, columnist and public speaker.” So with that kind of background you wouldn’t have thought that she would have been so easily scared of what I might do if I was allowed to access any more of her tweets.

          Journalists are quick to go crying into print if some government or other body threatens their freedom of expression. But when this very freedom turns against them personally it can be a completely different story as this post so clearly illustrates.

          Reporting in the Maverick on the decision of Media 24, South Africa’s largest online news publisher, to cease accepting reader’s comments Davis wrote: “The announcement has already polarised opinion, with some perceiving it as part of a sinister slide towards a public discourse where only certain opinions are judged ‘correct’ enough to be aired.”

          By blocking me isn’t this exactly what these journalists are doing?

          We all make mistakes Carien (except yours truly of course), but it’s the way we deal with them afterwards that shows our true character. And this is where your score was sky high.

          Well done again Carien. You certainly showed your colleagues how to deal with criticism with courage and dignity.

          Yours critically,

          Jon, Chairman of the Keep Twitter Clean Society. 

          

MARTIN HATCHUEL IS NUMBER ONE ON MEN'S SWEARY WALL OF SHAME

Dear Sweary Females,

Martin Hatchuel's BIG JOKE

My apologies to you all. When I started this for Women,  
Sweary Women's Wall of Shame

I said that I had yet to come across
any South African men using the 
same kind of vulgar language.

          Well I now have to eat my words by starting a Sweary Men’s Wall of Shame.

          The person who prompted me to do this is none other than a freelance journalist who at the age of 59 should know better, especially as he lists as his clients various tourist organisations; hotels; lodges and even the Cango Caves on South Africa’s scenic Garden Route

          I’m sure they would be delighted to learn that Knysna based Martin Hatchuel has such a picturesque vocabulary at his command that he has just become NUMBER ONE on my new Wall.

          His Apple iPhone6 set him on a Twitter tirade of filth with blasphemy thrown in for a bit of variety.

          Then when I came into the picture warning him that I was thinking of starting a Sweary Wall of Shame for Men similar to the one I have for women, he replied with the same kind of vulgar language that had up to that stage only been applied to Apple.  

          
          Here’s Martin at his Sweary Best.

         
            It couldn't be could it that Martin's technology had failed rather than Apple's?

       
          This is what Martin tells us about himself. "Could anyone be better suited to writing about tourism?" he asks. With his colourful language he seems perfect for the job.
          What's more he claims to have once written a "po-faced paper" called "Managing Perceptions: The Care and Feeding of the Media," which he delivered at a Tourism Law and Management seminar.
          What kind of perception does he think his free use of four-letter words on Twitter creates. It makes him out to be a guttersnipe type character.

          Do you want somebody like this promoting tourism in your area?
          Anyway this is what happened when I came on the scene.

CHARMING

BELOW IS A LIST OF SOME OF HIS CLIENTS.
I WONDER IF THEY KNOW THEY ARE IN
SUCH GOOD COMPANY?

             *Apart from Martin's foul language his Client list (above) on his 'This tourism week' blog is suspect. I contacted a small sample and this was the result: Peter Wallington Chairman of

Plettenberg Bay Tourism said Martin had not worked for them for the last two years. He refused to comment on Martin's foul language or to say whether or not his organisation was happy to be listed as one of Martin's clients. Wallington is a former journalist so perhaps this accounted for his reluctance to discuss the activities of another one.
         Esther de Villiers Editor of  CXPRESS, a free Garden Route community paper said Martin should not have her paper on his client list as he "last wrote a column for us many, many moons ago." She added that social media left her "rather cold" particularly because of the "forum it creates for users of all manner of sub-standard language."
             Here is another of Martin's attention seeking rough comments from Twitter.

         And finally he sums up his own behavior perfectly with this Tweet.

        Regards,
        Jon, Chairman of the Keep Twitter Clean Society 
        (For those who don't know the test is whether 
        you would use the same language in front of
        people you do business with; your employer; 
        your wife, if you have one and small children).

EXPORTING KILLERS - THE PROUD YANKS

Dear Animal Lovers,

Here's my take on the Bloody
Americans who come killing 
in Africa for fun.

I accept that that my poem is
a bit dated but the slaughter
hasn't changed, if anything
it has got a lot worse. 


A land of dollars and of stately homes,

Of millionaires and towering domes,

That is America – the USA

A proud Yank would say.

His ancestors took the plains

At the price of bison stains on a hand

Which devastated all his land,

And little knew it bred

A flabby substitute instead,
Who would be, as their fathers were

Hunters of beasts and the fur

With which to adorn the walls

Of their massive empty halls.

But the only thing their fathers left alone

Was the common sight of bleached bone.

IT'S HARD TO THINK OF ANYTHING MUCH SICKER THAN THIS

Where hunters were there can be no more,

So these Yanks depart for a farther shore

To blast and cripple at their leisure

The very heart of our pleasure.

DONALD TRUMP'S LITTLE DARLINGS DON (left) AND
ERIC ON A KILLING SPREE IN AFRICA. 

For we are the land of sunny smiles

Where game herds stretch for miles

On our sea of thorn specked earth,

And not as decorations for the hearth.

THE KILLER BROTHERS AGAIN

There are a meagre few

Who display their expertise for all to view

In a best selling book

Or weekly editions of the Look.

But these are exceptions to the rule

Which says the novice must be cruel,

For how can a man who ne’er did start

Hit his quarry through the heart.

NOT TO BE OUTDONE TEXAS CHAIR LEADER KENDAL JONES
SHOWED SHE COULD KILL AS WELL AS ANY MAN

He is a millionaire, yet a little runt

Who comes to Africa big game to hunt,

So that he may decorate his house

With the trophies of a mouse.

On landing at the airport he is met

By a safari firm that nurses him like a pet.

All the work is done,

He scarce needst hold the gun.

NOT EASY TO MISS - A SITTING HIPPO

He has guns galore

But knows not what they’re for.

But again it matters not,

Whether he before has shot

For the hunter tells him again,

And again, just when

And where to shoot the beast,

And when the heart has ceased.

For let it not be said,

A    A lion rose from the dead

And on a millionaire was fed,

As wealthy customers are a rareish kind,

Although they’re there they’re hard to find.

NOTHING LIKE BRINGING THE KIDS UP TO BE KILLERS FROM AN
EARLY AGE

If perchance his aim is true

He numbers amongst the few.

It matters not,

If when aiming at the shoulder

His bullet strays to a boulder

And from there it flies to impale

Another animal in the tail.

For the wound is slight

And the antelope might

Run for a hundred miles or more,

And so with that in store

He’ll let that one go

And get the boy to show

Him where the others are.

A BLOODY GOOD JUMBO IS SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT

I hope the wounded won’t run far

For in spite of a luxury motor fleet

To spare his tiny limbs and feet

It’s easier to shoot or wound them there

Than chase the wounded round the sphere.

EVEN THE SMALLER ANIMALS ARE NOT SAFE FROM THIS KILL
FOR FUN BUSINESS

His trophies he can afford

To have mounted by Roland Ward.

And yet of these how many did he kill?

That secret’s paid for like the bill.

So back to America – the USA,

A proud Yank would say.

Having shot a lion

He now can shoot a line.
Regards,
Jon 
P.S.  See also Zoo hunting
and: American Dream - turning innocents into killers 
And there's also this:

BELINDA GLYNN'S BIG FASHION SCOOP DOWN UNDER

Dear Belinda Boo,

          Yippee that’s Fantastic. Congratulations   
on such a very impressive achievement.

Boo

          Your Scoop makes the best one your journalist Dad ever had look like the lead in a church circular.

          Well done again. It’s a just reward for your years of hard work.

          For those who don’t know this is what it’s all about.

          The MailOnline, which is said to be the most widely read website on earth with one or two more readers than my blog, has just come out with 15 pictures of Australian model Ashley Hart. Her stunning good looks got her the ambassador role for the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW).

          This 27 year old blonde replaced Victoria’s Secret’s Shanina Shaik in the ambassador role for Just Jeans and is the sister of Jessica Hart another Victoria’s Secret model.  

          What do you think she is wearing in everyone of those photos?

Ashley Hart

          A Harley jump suit designed by none other than our Belinda Glynn the sole designing talent behind the Melbourne OnceWas (formerly SpencerLacy) label. The name is most appropriate because she once was Belinda Abbott from Johannesburg, commonly known as Boo, now a fair dinkum sheila married to Cam and living in Melbourne.

      

          Boo has been a designing woman from birth. She would be drawing when all the other kids were playing.

          Later at school at St Teres's otherwise know as Craighall Convent in Johannesburg when they were handing out the art cup, who do you think got it year after year?

          At college where Boo studied Clothing Design she worked her but off.  She got the highest overall marks for every year of the three year course.

          She must have got her brains from her Mum because her Dad spent his entire school career banished to the corner.

          In her final year she passed CUM LAUDE with 11 DISTINCTIONS – two more than the next best student in the

class of 35.

          Australia’s Fashion Journal that highlights the Fashion Week which took place earlier this month begins with another picture of the same Boo jump suite in a different colour.

          On Page 8 the journal has this to say about our designing daughter.

          Here are some of her other creations that are part of the collection that were seen on the catwalk.

          

           Your Mum and I as well as the rest of your family 
on the South African side of the pond that divides us are 
ever so proud of your achievements. 

Boo the model
designer

    

          And so is Cam and his clan on your side.

     
          It’s just a pity that your Mum and I couldn’t
be over in Oz for your Big Week. But that’s 
the way the cookie crumbles as the saying goes.

          Keep up the good work,

          Lots of Love from all of us,

          Mum & Dad.

  

       Note: Nigel is my wife's Ex.      

BOO BACKSTAGE IN ONE OF HER JUMPSUITS

Boo again in one of her jumpsuits (Ink) with her
National Sales Manager Linda Cerny

WORKING HARD

IN HER SELF DESIGNED WEDDING DRESS

GUESS WHO SAYS HE'LL PAY BACK THE MONEY?

Dear Investors,

PEARMAN

          Work this one out if you can? It is of special interest to anyone who has invested in any of Kevin Pearman’s numerous get-rich-quick schemes.

          After my various exposé’s 
(Blue Bulls Logo Hijacked ; 
Telkom Scheme Scuppered ;
Blog that nobody reads ; 
Cell C Scheme Blocked ) 
about the many people who have lost money
with Pearman I got a series of emails from 
Mark Anthony Janse van Rensburg.

          He was clearly expecting me to write another Post about his experience with Pearman otherwise there would have been no point in him sending me what he did in various emails.

          Based in Port Elizabeth he heads Metropole Investigation Services (MIS) which claims to operate internationally from there. It deals with just about every conceivable aspect of security including “Truth verification” and “Lie Detection.”

          So the last person you would have expected to have become one of Pearman’s investors would have been Mark, especially as he handed over R325 000 in cash.

          The MIS website says this of Mark: He is a “former police special force commander with over 28 years of international experience in paramilitary and law enforcement activities during peace and war times on multiple continents. He is a Close Security Specialist that has served as a Close Protection Specialist for dignitaries of high value over the years.

          “Mark was deployed from 2004 to 2008 in Iraq providing close protection for Corporate and Government officers. One of his principals was Major General Johnson of the United States of America Core of Engineers.

          “On his return from Iraq in 2006 (this is at odds with dates given above for his time in Iraq) he went to Israel to obtain specialist training in the use of LVA 650 D Layered voice analysing designed for truth verification, employment and pre-employment screening.

          “Mark was appointed on 07.07.2008 to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Republic of South Africa as a Commissioner of Oaths.”

          He started his email correspondence with me by sending copies of ones he sent to Pearman together with Pearman’s replies. In one Pearman attached a letter in which he referred to a conversation they had a couple of days earlier.

          Pearman expressed his “utter shock” at the way Mark conducted himself considering their “friendly history.”

          “You repeatedly referred to the ‘money I have taken from you’” the letter went on. “I have not taken money from you. You, like every other shareholder purchased shares in N-tyre Solutions Ltd in the hope that when the system gets to the market there will be a substantial return for you.”

          (For years Pearman has been promising his 450 or so investors handsome returns once his “unique” tyre monitoring system hits the jackpot, but nothing has so far materialised)
          “You are well aware that the Company needed more money via appeals that were sent out to all shareholders over recent years,” Pearman wrote.

Pearman's too good to be true tyre monitoring, investment scheme
advertisement about five years ago

          “You are also aware that I personally needed money when I asked you to lend me money on no less than three occasions; which you did and I did pay you back. These were the only occasions where I was personally liable to you via my word.

          “You are now ‘demanding’ that I repay your investment in N-tyre in a three month period and issuing unwarranted threats of sending people to collect and referring me to your website in an attempt to intimidate me.”

Another too good to be true
Pearman promise

          Pearman maintained he had worked “tirelessly” to bring the system to market for the benefit of all shareholders and he stood to lose the most if it didn’t succeed. He found it difficult to believe that Mark, who had been one of the many shareholders who had supported him, had now joined the “very small” group of shareholders who were now making “shameful” attacks on him. By doing this they only hurt themselves by making the success of N-tyre more difficult.

          He claimed that details of a Shareholder Exit Strategy were given in the May 2015 Newsletter. It invited applications from those who wished to do this, but Mark was not one of them yet he called and “demanded” the return of his money.

          He maintained that “nobody has lost money.” And as he has said many times before “N-tyre is closer to completion now than ever before.” That’s when shareholders will be able to receive dividends.

Pearman emphasised that he was not personally liable to pay back Mark’s investment in N-tyre, nor that of any other shareholder. And he was not going to set a precedent by paying Mark back based on “a threatening phone call.”

      

Pearman the man of many promises

          “All my phone calls are automatically recorded and I intend to use this recording to lay a charge of intimidation against you.” he warned. “Any further correspondence with me is to be addressed to my lawyer Michelle Clarke.”

          He added that if Mark wanted to sell his shares he should follow the correct procedure and he would be put on the list “which incidentally is very small.”

In an email Mark told Pearman to look at my blog because “it speaks for itself as to what people are saying about you. Very disgusting, I am in the process of selling my shares to a group in Johannesburg with links to …..”

          It ended ominously with “Take care.”

          Pearman’s replying email was all about me. “If you believe everything that Jon Abbott says, then I’m sorry for you. Jon Abbott is an ex-frustrated journalist
who simply looks for whatever situation he can spin a negative tone 

Another one of Pearman's
worthless guarantees

to and in fact is the cause of many problems, not only for me, but for many other good people. I even know of someone who committed suicide as a direct result of his article - nice guy our Jon Abbott.
(I could hardly be credit with that. Francois Buys hung himself 
after he and Kevin Cholwich, who has worked for Pearman and 
perhaps still does, were exposed by Carte Blanche, the South African investigative TV series, as having defrauded people of millions. Buys appeared on the show in tears. Cholwich on the other hand did not have the guts to come to give his side. See:

CHOLWICH

Noseweek Exposes Dearjon Letter )

    "I am the exact opposite of what I have been painted,” Pearman went on. “But the followers of Jon Abbott do not want to hear that. I am encouraged by hundreds of shareholders who support me and these far outweigh the negativity.”

          He then contradicted what he had said in his letter with this undertaking to Mark: “I told you telephonicaly that I would buy your shares back, but I cannot adhere to your deadlines.” 

          Promises and still more promises are among Pearman’s specialities.

          Mark replied: “Hi Kevin happy you feel sorry for me you should as well to the other investors of your product. I have invested 325k in CASH WITH YOU. I AM IN THE PROCESS TO SELL IT AS PER MY LAST EMAIL.”

          After that my dealings with Mark got really bizarre.

          When I tried to clarify certain things with him by email he told me to phone him without giving me his number. Then when he did give me his smartphone number he was not available on two occasions when I called him.

          Eventually I emailed him saying that I would have to go on the information he had already sent me together with something from his MIS website. That’s when I realised Pearman was not the only person who got threaten.

          “No. You will not write anything about me or my company or the dealings I have had with Kevin until you have run it past me. Please respect my request. Regards Mark,” was what he sent me.

          As an investigative newspaper journalist I never took instructions from the people I wrote about and I was not about to start now. This was especially so as Mark’s order came without any explanation that could make it at all reasonable.

          I emailed him back saying: “As I’ve said I will go on what you’ve told. I assume that’s all correct. You knew I had a blog when you sent the stuff to me, otherwise what was the point of sending it to me?”

          “I am reverting to my last communique to you, you will not discuss me on any social media without reverting to me is that clear,” he replied. 

          This was followed by another email saying, “Let me make it clear for once and for all, you will not write anything about me or my company is that clear. Once you have run it past me I will decide, hope you understand. Mark.”

          He seems to have forgotten that he is no longer a commander when presumable everybody jumped to it when he issued an order.

          Pearman’s investors are so happy with him that about a year ago a Facebook page was set up entitled Kevin Pearman Scams Ntyre Itmakescents Community.

          It claims to have been founded by a group dedicated to getting all the people together that have give Pearman money. “He is a scammer,” it says “who has taken a lot of money off a lot of people and all of us are yet to see any sort of return.”

          Mark posted several comments like: “It will be great to get answers from him as he has been very doggy (sic). I have been an investor since 2008, uptodate no return on investment.”

          Another one was: “We need to get answers from him, he does not respond to my calls nor emails. Its time to get tough now.”

          I am not sure who I like best Mark van Rensburg or Kevin Pearman. Kevin is clearly one of my fans but about Mark I have yet to be convinced. 

          Regards,
         
          Jon, the Consumer Watchdog who does't 
                  get intimidated easily.
P.S. Sorry I nearly forgot to mention that Cholwich is also one of my biggest fans.         Here's what he had to say about me.

The Big Difference between this, the Carte Blanche TV programme and
what I wrote about Cholwich is that what was exposed in Carte Blanch and
on my post was all TRUE