Africa: the kept-in-the-dark continent

[rpm]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1253.html

 

[ic]

Poison Ivy, of course, has no serious addictions (that we know of, at any rate)

Two addictions that Poison Ivy has, which IMO are quite serious, are:

• Power: Poison Ivy is addicted to power, and in particular has asserted unconstitutional control over !CASA, completely removing any independence that !CASA should have had from guavamint
• Tsunami-Shares: according to Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who is Poison Ivy's primary mouthpiece [considering that Poison Ivy only opens her mouth to utter annual unclarifications], the DoC controls shares in Telkodemonopolies [as well as virtually all other telecoms entities in SA], in case of Tsunamis, while I'm sure there might be some people that might believe that twoddle from the DoC, I suspect it has a lot more to do with A&B shares and self-enrichment than anything else...

It is also suspected that Poison Ivy is completely addicted to doughnuts and Solitaire, and is somewhat Xenophobic on account of not liking anyone that has the misfortune of not looking like her.

 

[AdLo]

It is also suspected that Poison Ivy is completely addicted to doughnuts and Solitaire, and is somewhat Xenophobic on account of not liking anyone that has the misfortune of not looking like her.

There is an interview with Poison Ivy somewhere on the web in which she is asked what her what her favourite food is. Her answer was is that she is too ashamed to answer the question.
I can only imagine it must be something with a high sugar content.

 

[friedpiggy]

erm with regards to her not wanting to fire her deputy for doing the job they were hired to do, wouldnt that mean the deputy would need to be doing the job first? so in a sense lyndall is just acting out of job security when she doesnt do anything. i mean if she did she might just get fired.

 

[bwana]

It is also suspected that Poison Ivy is completely addicted to doughnuts and Solitaire

Solitaire - when does she find the time to play with herself, she's far too busy screwing the nation. Perhaps after telkom is sold off Ivy, and her likewise inept cronies, will simply retire.

 

[ic]

Solitaire - when does she find the time to play with herself, she's far too busy screwing the nation. Perhaps after telkom is sold off Ivy, and her likewise inept cronies, will simply retire.

I'm not nearly as optimistic about the retiring of Poison Ivy - I fully expect Poison Ivy to chase Mbeki out of the dozzy-seat of power and run for president - Ivy reminds me of that Elfish princess in LOR that turned into Telkodemonopolies when she got near the doughnut ring...

 

[antowan]

A very good article by Rodney Weidemann. Compliments are due! I personally think the government sees telecommunications as a good way of taxing the white population for the sins of the past. It is mainly white people that use Telkom and mainly white people who can afford broadband as the majority of people in this country cannot afford the exorbitant Telkom fees that trickle down to other services like mobile data etc.

If they make it cheaper then the masses will be the majority users and then she/government cannot get away with ripping off white folks. I know some people may take offense to this, but there it is.

I honestly think government is looking trhough racist spectacles at the telecoms pricing issue.

Naturally lower prices across the board will benefit the country as a whole, but I think that comes a distant second to nailing the whities.

 

[bekdik]

Apart from revenue, can anyone list a ministry which has been successful?

 

[Tanarri]

Personally, based on my knowledge of our minister’s reign - from falling asleep on the job to insisting that she only wants the IT industry to be staffed by people that look like her – I’d plump for the former.

I'd also go with the former, since a blob of slime has never been seen to be 'competent' in any regard.

I also believe that you need a certain IQ and hand-eye-coordination level to effectively move a mouse cursor across a computer screen to achieve something. So I do not believe that Poison Ivy is capable of something as complex as solitaire.

 

[risingtide]

I think it is a pathetic article. Is there anything in it that is new? Is there some deep analysis of the impact of not landing EASSy in SA would have? Does he reveal a hidden agenda of the government, the inner (non-)workings of departments, or show how disastrous insistence on local ownership has been in other areas?

No, nothing of the sort. He simply uses some common knowledge to throw dirt at a minister specifically and government in general.

The minister may well not be competent and the department not function as good as we wished, but this article is of no value at all. If it would be the print media one might suspect that they had to fill the page somehow, but that does not apply here.

How on earth can this gentleman make an appearance in the headline news over and over again?

 

[Roman4604]

Dunno, I reckon there is merit in the systematic & repeated exposure of incompetence. Compounded pressure usually has a way of altering the course of things over the long term, so I say the press should keep plugging at those not worthy of their position.

 

[AirWolf]

@autowan, I think you've hit the nail on the head. Also the government is using public money for their broadband costs so they couldn't care less about how much it costs. Ministers earn huge salaries so to them the broadband costs might actually seem "cheap" . With this cable issue, I somehow suspect that the DoC are waiting for some sort of golden handshake

 

[rpm]

Hi Risingtide

We asked Rodney to write a weekly column, to be published each weekend. It is therefore not meant to be a well researched article, but rather an opinion piece about something related to the telecoms or IT space. Maybe it makes more sense now…

I think it is a pathetic article. Is there anything in it that is new? Is there some deep analysis of the impact of not landing EASSy in SA would have? Does he reveal a hidden agenda of the government, the inner (non-)workings of departments, or show how disastrous insistence on local ownership has been in other areas?

No, nothing of the sort. He simply uses some common knowledge to throw dirt at a minister specifically and government in general.

The minister may well not be competent and the department not function as good as we wished, but this article is of no value at all. If it would be the print media one might suspect that they had to fill the page somehow, but that does not apply here.

How on earth can this gentleman make an appearance in the headline news over and over again?

 

[mancombseepgood]

Well, a good way to get oneself back in the limelight is to suggest that the Department of Communications (DoC) could potentially block the landing of the East African Submarine Cable (EASSy) project in South Africa, due to the fact that its current structure reportedly goes against the government’s principle that cables landing here must have an element of local ownership.

I wonder who is to blame for not getting involved and not allowing anyone else to get involved in the first place.