Killings that divide a nation

 Dear Animal Lovers,

         The British Government plans to murder my friends on a huge scale. But there just might be enough of you to stop this.

         It’s taken centuries for the Brits to become mature enough to realise that killing animals for fun is not on.

         They outlawed fox and deer hunting with dogs in 2005. That was for the amusement of toffs and the idle rich, so with their influence they managed to keep their sport going a bit longer than the poor man’s equivalent – badger digging. That was made illegal in 1992.

         It was an even more barbaric form of murder.

         More than half a century ago when I was a reporter for an evening newspaper in Exeter I tagged along on one of these hunts.

      

   In the midst of a wood our hounds, two little Jack Russels, located a badger burrow or sett and fearless disappeared underground. When their owners heard them barking they began to dig. Eventually the fluffy badger that was exposed was shot at point blank range.

         When they pulled out the body of what turned out to be a mother or sow three helpless, pink cubs that hadn’t yet open their eyes appeared.

            I felt that one was all I could hope to save so I took it. To begin with it had to be fed with milk every two hours and later this was extended to every four. As my wife was working it went with me to the Express and Echo in a cardboard box. The box was put on top of a radiator in the copytakers room to keep it warm and in between typing stories from reporters Joan Pond and Rosemary Sims became its foster parents. After 10 weeks it was still being fed every four hours and Badger’s high pitched squeaks had become part of the scene in the editorial department. With some trepidation I introduced it to our dog Chaka and the two became best of pals. Eventually when it got too much of a handful for us to keep any longer I passed it on to the presenter of a TV animal show.

         The other two were killed by the intrepid hunters.

         Badgers are delightful, lightning fast little animals with an impressive bite. Mainly nocturnal they weigh about 24 kg and they feed on rodents, insects and bulbs. In their own environment a Jack Russel is no match for them. And when one of the dogs on my hunt came up with part of his face hanging open his owner stitched it up there and then.

         He had hardly put him back on the ground when this gutsy little dog was down the hole once again.

         Now farmers and some experts have convinced the Conservative dominated coalition Government that the badger protection law needs to be bypassed so that thousands of these animals can be shot in various parts of England.

         They are being blamed for spreading tuberculosis in cattle which resulted in 28 000 having to be slaughtered in England last year.

         A 10 year Government study that cost 50-million pounds is conveniently being ignored. It concluded that badger culling was unlikely to contribute to the control of cattle TB.

         The opposition Labour Party is against the cull and after a four hour debate in Parliament it lost the vote by 250 to 299. 

         But more than 250 000 people are determine to stop the slaughter. They have signed a Save the badger petition which has the support of celebrities like Queen guitarist Brian May and naturalist TV presenter Bill Eddie.

Brian May leading the protest

         They were joined by hundreds of people, many with badger masks or with their faces painted black and white, on the streets of London when the petition was handed in at the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street.

         The move has divided the nation – animal lovers in the towns against farmers in the country.

         This animal is so much part of English life that Mr Badger was one of the characters in that timeless children’s book Wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame. Since it was first publish in 1908 there have been a host of different versions over the years and it has been made into films as well as a BBC radio series.

         It is hard to think of a more ridiculous plan. There are an estimated 300 000 badgers in Great Britain and as a pilot scheme the Government intends to have 5 000 of them shot over a four year period in parts of just two counties.

         Even if they do spread TB in cattle how will this drop in the ocean possible help?

        So all you animal lovers keep up the pressure on the British Government until they abandon this hair brain idea.

         The only practical answer is to stop wasting money on trying to eradicate badgers and to put a lot more resources into developing an effective vaccine again TB in cattle.

         Regards,

         Jon, a Badger Lover who knows first hand just how cute they can be. 

Lindiwe Mazibuko - fighting way above her weight

Dear Lindiwe Mazibuko,

         You’ve really got South Africa’s ruling party the African National Congress (ANC) in a twitter, especially its male Members of Parliament.

         They can’t stand the fact that you are cleverer and more articulate than they are.

Worse still you are a Black woman who is supposed to know her place as subservient to them.

         Worst of all at 33 you are the Parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the ANC’s main opposition party and its sworn enemy.

         It’s a sure sign of mental inadequacy when a person has to resort to insults in a debate when they are being outwitted by their opponent. And that’s just what has been happening to certain ANC members who have found you too quick witted for comfort.

         How many of these loud mouths would have dared to appear on BBC’s Hard Talk. None of them I bet, least of all South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. It’s not called that for nothing as you know because the interviewer pulls no punches.

         Yet you came through the cut and thrust of that encounter superbly. Nobody, except your brainless ANC opponents, could have been anything else but impressed by your self assurance and political nous.

        You must have been delighted with all the praise you got on social media.

         Of course it’s nothing new for you to be personally insulted by members of the ANC. One of the first was that uneducated upstart Julius Malema when he was President of the ANC’s Youth League.

         As you know he delighted in saying of you, "She’s the tea girl of the Madam, and her role must remain there." He was talking about your relationship with Helen Zille, the White leader of the DA.

         But while your star has continued to rise higher and higher in South African politics he has been kicked out of the ANC and is struggling for recognition in the wilderness.

      

Lindiwe with the Madam by her side

         More recently, when you were highlighting the many flaws in President Zuma’s leadership during his budget speech in Parliament, some of his underlings felt they had to come to the rescue of Number 1.

         The best John Jeffery could think of was, "While the Honourable Mazibuko may be a person of substantial weight, her stature is questionable."

         Encouraged by this Buti Manamela piped up with; "Honourable Mazibuko has bad fashion taste and has been arrested by the Fashion Police. Blame Zuma, everything must be blamed on Zuma."

         I accept you could improve your dress sense but what you were wearing – a red jacket over a black and white dress with black tights – was by no means the worst fashion crime in the house. In any case all that the dress code stipulates is that it must be in accordance with the dignity of Parliament, something that would be hard to fathom at times.

         The ANC subsequently refused to withdraw its claim that you were inappropriately dressed but apologised for saying you were overweight.

       

No Books Angie

  No wonder, it has had heavyweight problems of its own. And boy did the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga and her ANC get their knickers in a twist when a very large pair labelled Angie’s knickers was carried through the streets by protesting teachers.

         The members of the South African Teachers Union were threatened with "the full wrath of our justice system" (Toothless at the best of times). Quite justifiably they want the Minister, who is in charge of the worst education shambles in the world, to resign.

         It was ironic that in a letter to the Union she wrote that the panty protest "signified that women cannot be fully human and so society has every right to poke fun at women in very denigrating ways."

South Africa's new National Flag

        Of course that’s exactly what the two faced ANC has been doing to you.

         Ever the optimist Angie maintained, "Not only do they owe an apology to me, but the rest of South African women."

         Lindiwe there are lots of other ANC members who would tip the scales in their favour with you on the other side. But when it comes to well articulated, intelligent debating ability they would have a job finding someone in your league.

         So laugh off these ANC barbs because far from diminishing your stature they are actually enhancing it and getting your name up in lights, which is just what you need in politics.

Inappropriately dressed

         Keep punching well above your weight and those ANC smart alecs could have egg on their faces if your Star performer and Black, young and gifted tags eventually help to ensure that your DA becomes the champion that governs the entire country.

         Best wishes from a Huge Admirer,

         VIVA LA DA (I speak isiZulu)

         Jon 

P.S. I see you went to St Mary’s that posh school in Durban. Isn’t that another one of the ANC’s gripes, that you speak English too well to be one of us Blacks? St Mary’s schools produce real class. I should know. I am lucky enough to be married to an old girl (she’ll kill me for saying that) of the Johannesburg St Mary’s where Helen Zille went to school (Nothing like name dropping to enhance my career).

Advertising Standards Authority's bungling, bunglers

Dear Investors,

CEO Msibi

         The South African Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is there to police the advertising industry. But in my experience it is a toothless and an extremely incompetent organisation, staffed by people who haven’t a clue about what they are doing.

         What’s more it advertises its inefficiency on its website with an out of date 2007/8 Annual Report.

         My complaints to it were relatively simple. I will deal with them in two parts.

         Part 1 concerned three small ads that appeared in the Sunday Times towards the end of 2011. They contained unbelievable, get-rich-quick promises that so often dupe pensioners and the less well off into losing their life savings.

         Since 2009 I had been campaigning (See: Noseweek exposes Dearjon letter) to get this paper to stop running these ads (see example) as I believed that by doing so it was helping crooks to fleece people. 

         But as my efforts had so far been unsuccessful I decided to try and get the ASA to rule against these ads.

         I had every reason to have confidence in the ASA as it maintains that it regulates all advertising and that all advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.

         Another of its impressive claims is that no advertisement should bring advertising into disrepute or reduce confidence in it.

         What happened after that was hard to believe. The ASA itself blew my confidence in it sky high and made nonsense of its boast that it was there to ensure that all ads are honest and truthful.

         30/1/2012: Leon Grobler: Manager Dispute Resolutions confirmed he had received my three complaints and added that if an ad appeared in a newspaper they were empowered to have it removed even if the advertiser refused to do it himself.

I'm sure you've heard the expression, 'If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.' Well in the investment world, I say, 'If it sounds too good to be  true, it definitely is.'
                                                                                 1997 Washington Times

         3/2/2012: Phumzile Mhlonngo: Adminstrator Complaints Assessment, emails me with these reference numbers 19581, 19581 (should have been 2) and 19583 and this nonsensical statement: We note that your complaint refers to a Sunday Times advertisement. Please note that the ASA deals with and investigates specific advertisements.

         She went on to say they couldn’t investigate my complaint because I had not made it clear as to why I thought the ad was misleading and not true. I then sent a revised complaint.

         7/2/2012: Lindiwe Hlatshwayo tells me they are proceeding with their investigation.

         29/2/2012: A very official letter arrives signed by Puseletso Mahlangu, Consultant: Dispute Resolution, telling me among other things that my complaints, with the same numbers as I had originally been given, had been sent to the advertisers for written comment.

         Part 2: This concerned the Sunday Times’ own WARNING ad (see example) that it carried next to the get-rich-quick ads.  I felt it was

hypocritical of the paper to tell readers to carefully scrutinise ads offering investment opportunities as the paper could not vouch for the claims made by advertisers, when it continued to carry ones that were clearly dishonest.

         That elicited more ASA gobbledegook with Clinton Chetty: Administrator Assistant replying: Please note we do not deal with Business practice issues or ‘warnings’. We can only deal with content of a specific advertisement. We suggest you address your concerns with the newspaper directly.

         I then asked Grobler for the email address of his Chief Executive Thembi Msibi and he gave it to me. But when that didn’t work I went back to him and he replied that that was the only one he had, but I could try her PA Rebecca Motubatse.

         I asked Rebecca to pass on the email I had been trying to send to Msibi. It said, Some members of your staff don’t understand certain complaints and dismiss them out of hand on the grounds that they do not comply with your mandate when they clearly do.

         After several requests for an answer Rebecca replied a month later saying she will investigate my complaint tomorrow with the relevant individuals before giving it to the CEO.

         I don’t know if it was ever given to Msibi, but if it was she did not contact me. I got an email from Mahlangu on 17/7/2012 apologising for lack of correspondence. She told me that they had to contact the advertiser before they could make a ruling and these cases often took a long time to resolve.

         It hadn’t dawned on anybody at the ASA that if crooks are involved they will never get a reply.

         She added that they had approached the newspaper for a response and that they held the advertiser and not the newspaper responsible.

         So with their crazy system a crook can go on promoting a dishonest investment scheme in a paper while the ASA takes no action if the advertiser hasn’t replied to a complainant’s allegations.

One investor was Veronica Diedricks , a mother of two, who put her R250 000

Diedericks

pension pay out into Whoopee (see advert above) and lost the lot.

         Nobody seemed to have realised that one of my complaints concerned the Sunday Times’ own ad.  So in that case the advertiser and the paper were one and the same.

         My complaints were then misfiled, ignored or lost for almost a year. I had forgotten all about them when suddenly, out of the blue, I got an email dated 22/5/2013 from Mahlangu.

This took the ASA’s gobbledegook prize of the year in spite of stiff competition.

         She once again apologised for the delays and blamed them on changes in staff and misfiling which resulted in some of the files loosing time.

         Her other excuse was that they had not received a response from the advertiser.

         She then came up with these gems that showed that if the ASA has any standard at all it is at rock bottom. The letters of complaint clearly identify the aspects of the advertising that you find objectionable however; you offer no grounds of complaint as far as the advertising is concerned.

         In each case you highlight the areas where you believe that the advertiser’s operations are untrustworthy. It is for this reason that we cannot rule on the matters and our files will now be shelved.

       

  In desperation I complained to Kate O’Regan, the former Constitutional Court Judge who is now the President of the ASA. I said I had come to her because I had found that to get any joy out of the CEO is hopeless.

         She replied that she had no effective executive role in the ASA but she would pass on my email. And she certainly got some action.

         Grobler replied to me full of apologies saying that because of the delays they were unable to procedurally finish what we started.  He said my experience was the exception rather than the rule and as the buck stops with him he was left with my foot and a healthy slice of humble pie in my mouth.

         And while Grobler must be lauded for his frank admissions and determination to see that this does not happen again I can’t agree that the buck stops with him.

         The buck stops with the Chief Executive Officer Thembi Msibi. I’m not sure if she was told about what happened, but if she wasn’t then her role as CEO needs a lot to be desired. And it’s even worse if her PA told her about it as she promised.

         Yours,

         A disgusted Jon, the Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman & Consumer Watchdog. 

P.S. The ASA is a self regulating body, but when you have the police, policing themselves it is most undesirable. 

P.P.S. In spite of the ASA’s total incompetence it looks as though my campaign has worked, although the Sunday Times will never admit it. I haven’t seen one of those dubious investment ads in the paper for ages, but the ridiculous WARNING is still there. 

Spineless Britain asking for terror

Dear People of Britain,

         Incredibly there’s still a semblance of backbone left in spineless Britain. And it’s taken an extremely brave woman to show us what real strength and guts are all about.

         Public spirited Ingrid Loyau-Kennedy did what most of us would not want to be involved in. She jumped off a bus near London’s Woolwich army barracks to see if she could help what she thought was an accident victim lying in the road.

         The young soldier turned out to be the victim of a particularly gruesome crime. Initially Ingrid was unaware of this. She was intent on doing what she could with her Cub Scout leader, first aid training. But having felt the man’s pulse she realised she had come too late.

     

    As she stood up the full horror of what had happened came terrifyingly to life. There right next to her were two black men who had just butchered Drummer Lee Rigby, 25 in broad daylight. In their blood covered hands they held knives, a meat clever and a pistol.

         Fearless Ingrid decided to speak to them to attract their attention to prevent them killing somebody else before help arrived as a crowd had gathered.

Ingrid & killer

And so began her bizarre conversation in which the one admitted he had slaughtered the soldier because he believed Rigby had killed Muslims in Afghanistan and he wanted to start a war in London.

The Telegraph reported that she said to the one, It’s only you versus many people so you are going to lose.

She was still not deterred by his chilling reply, I would like to stay and fight as she turned her attention to the other murderer.

Well, what about you? she asked. Would you like to give me what you have in your hands? I didn’t want to say weapons. I thought it was better having them aimed at me rather than everybody there and children were starting to leave school as well.



Second bloody murderer

There must be a medal for this kind of bravery.

Soon afterwards the killers were wounded in a shootout with the Police and taken to hospital.

         Britain then went into panic mode. Prime Minister Cameron cut short a Paris meeting to return to London to attend a national crisis meeting. And the Police issued a statement branding the killers as terrorists.

         If they were what I understand terrorists to be they were terribly bad ones. They were more likely two crazy blacks just trying to make a name for themselves.  Do real terrorists walk around next to a body inviting people to photograph them?

         But it seems your Government’s panic attack has given these two, who turned out to be British citizens of Nigerian origin, just what they wanted by upgrading their criminal act to one of terrorism.

         So as your country has now made Muslim world heroes out of these nobodies watch out for lots more copycats. 

         You only have your nation’s increasing weakness to blame for what’s happened to a once great country. Having let all kinds of so called asylum seekers and other riff raff into your country over the years, you mustn’t be surprised if amateur terrorists pop up all over the place with some real professionals in between.

         As a nation you are now so pathetic that you can’t even get rid of the obvious bad eggs that should have been given the boot long ago. It’s hard to believe that your little island once ruled half the world.

        

Take Jordan terror suspect Abu Qatada as an example. This sly cleric has cost you a fortune in extradition court cases over more than a decade.

But he’s still in Britain even though a Judge said of him, There’s no doubt he’s a national security threat. He’s also been dubbed Asama bin Laden’s right-hand man and was convicted of terrorism in Jordan in his absence.

Your unbelievably, criminal friendly courts keep him in your country fearful that the poor chap might have evidence obtained by torture led against him if he is returned to Jordan.

One minute he’s in jail the next minute this danger to the nation is out on bail and the next minute he’s back in prison. He’s making a complete fool of all of you.

Then there is Shrien Dewani (33) who can’t be extradited by soft Britain to stand trial in South Africa for the honeymoon murder of his wife, because he has conveniently developed depression.

Dewani wedding

Described as a British businessman he has been in an out of court since December 2010 once again at your expense.

And while the courts hem and haw South Africa is being asked to give assurances that he will be given five star hotel treatment in what seems to be the unlikely event that he will ever end up in a South African jail or even in that country.

Both his case and that of Abu Qatada are just two examples of how utterly pathetic your country has become.

And my bet is that if the killers of that soldier survive they will get a sentence that by no means fits the crime and once again shows how weak-kneed Britain is now.

Tragically there are not enough Igrids left to put the Great back into Britain.

Regards,

Jon - in mourning for a dying country from where my ancestors came from, when it was a nation to be proud of.  

Save Dusty, the most loving, gentle dog ever

Dear Dog Lovers,

         HELP, HELP.

         If you live anywhere in the Cape Town area PLEASE take Dusty, the most loving, gently dog ever. He would be absolutely perfect for a family.

         He badly needs to be rescue for the second time in his young life.

         As you can see in his picture he’s a sort of Maltese crossed with your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine. He has been spayed and has had all the right jabs so there are no costs involved.

        It’s so terribly sad. My wife and I got him from an animal rescue organisation a couple of weeks ago and we’ve become very found of him in this short time.

But we’ve found his youthfully enthusiasm too much for us old fogies. It’s not fair on him and we now realise we couldn’t give him the kind of life he deserves.

         So on Saturday I will be returning him to the place where we got him unless we can find someone who will take this extremely friendly little chap.

         He will enthusiastically lick you all over as a thank you that’s for sure.

         PLEASE HELP DUSTY,

         Thanking you in anticipation,

         Jon & Gayle
*FRANCES COBBETT WAS DUSTY'S SAVIOUR AND HE IS NOW VERY HAPPY IN HIS NEW HOME
      

Man's Best Friend - Working Women

Dear Kajal Singh, BCom Marketing & Management (UKZN,Howard),

         I don’t know if you are the originator of this huge libel on me and my male relatives, but as your name appears at the bottom I think it’s fair to blame you entirely for compiling this and putting it on the internet.

         You can imagine how upset I was when this turned up on my computer. I can’t bear to think how my other relatives feel about it. It is particularly depressing as our family was originally split up by wars and other catastrophes and were forced to flee to all parts of the world.

         Just because I haven’t seen some of them for years it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel deeply hurt to have them publicly ridiculed like this.

         For readers of my blog who don’t know what I’m talking about I feel duty bound to repeat your insults against our family, so that they can judge for themselves how shameful your actions have been. But I must emphasise that this does not mean I condone what you have done and nor does it mean that I will be reducing the substantial claim for damages that I intend instituting against you. 

         It was entitled: HUSBAND OF THE YEAR AWARDS and then continued as follows:

         The Honourable Mention goes to The United Kingdom.

         Followed closely by the United States of America.

      

And then Poland in 3^rd Place.

         But 2^nd Place must go to Greece.

         It was very, very close with the Wooden Spoon being awarded to Serbia.

The Winner of the Husband/Partner of the Year is: IRELAND.

Ya gotta love the Irish. They are true romantics. Look he’s even holding her hand.

         And then you’ve got the cheek to add: Remember you don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.

         I and the rest of my family don’t think this is a bit funny and I have instructed my lawyers to locate you and then we will see who has the last laugh.

         Disgustedly yours,

         Jon