I'm liking this guy...

R

RetroBok

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I've just recently found a blog and the guy makes some sense, it seems to be a pretty newish blog I'm hoping he doesn't give it up after the elections:

After all the recent news coverage of Jacob Zuma and his trial I decided to find out exactly what the fuss was ll about. I got a little side tracked. The whole case dates back to 1999 and an arms deal that cost the tax payer $6 billion*. What the hell? Interested in finding out just how much this was in Rands I found an online currency converter** and let it do the maths for me. At today's Rand/Dollar exchange rate (R9 to $1) that equates to R54 billion. If you're having problems understanding that number that's 54 million millions.

This is where I got side tracked because as far as I'm concerned this is a huge amount of money. It got me to thinking about a few things. Again, I'm analysing in numbers here as it's easier for me to understand. As previuosly stated in an earlier post:

Population of South Africa: 47.9 million
Amount spent on arms deal: R54 billion

That money in other words will have been enough to make each and every person in South Africa a millionaire! Now I'm not insinuating the government should have given each and every person a million bucks that's madness, however what I am insinuating is that they had enough money to build a home for every South African that didn't have one and to clear the debt (or at least contribute a significant amount towards it) of those that already had one!

Obviously the population is not all old enough to have a house so there would be more than enough change left over to employ the unemployed who would then build the houses. Jobs and houses for everyone? Not to mention a boost in the economy as all materials could have been sourced locally. No ****ing way!

The current government missed a trick here, which is a bit strange as this idea borders on communism, and as we all know they are pretty open to communism. This will not only have fulfilled their original promises to South Africans but will have exceeded them too!

Obviously it's not that easily implemented but, I'm sure after a good think they could have used some qualifying criteria. For instance some qualifying criteria:
Only open to South African citizens over the age of 21.
Only open to Citizens who have completed their schooling.
Those who have not completed their schooling, the government will send them to college/school so they can qualify. The help will be made available to them on receiving their certificate.

Yes pipe dreams and in an ideal world etc etc. However have a think about it. At the same time as housing the people of South Africa, they will have been educating them at the same time, as well as employing the unemployed, and boosting the economy! Not only that, I'm sure the crime rate will have been affected poitively too.

So South Africa, look at your current government, point at them, call them a bunch of lying idiotic fools. Vote them out. If not this election, the next will do! If you don't there will be many more missed opportunities like the one above. Go out and educate the people who may not know how the government has screwed them over. It's time to undo the brain washing they have undergone.

Jesus wept! R54 billion in arms and South Africa isn't even at war!

*Amount spent o arms deal:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1382432.stm
**Online currency converter:
http://www.currencyconverter.uk.com/jump/ggo.html
Click to expand...
 
Those numbers are unfortunately incorrect...

We use the metric system exclusively in this country, so a Billion is actually a thousand million....

and at the time of that bbc Article the exchange rate was 7.5 to 1.. so it would have been R45b rand... or R45000million. and at the time of signing the deal it was 5.89 which would have made the total of the arms deal : R35b or R35000million.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Those numbers are unfortunately incorrect...

We use the metric system exclusively in this country, so a Billion is actually a thousand million....

and at the time of that bbc Article the exchange rate was 7.5 to 1.. so it would have been R45b rand... or R45000million. and at the time of signing the deal it was 5.89 which would have made the total of the arms deal : R35b or R35000million.
Click to expand...

Oh... :D

Maybe I should let him know :-) Apart from that he does make some sort of sense.... IMO anyway. He is an ex-pat so I can see how he made the mistake. I've done eactly the same thing though. Doh!
 
He does make some sense, but mostly by mistake.

His conclusions are based on limited knowledge and flawed starting principle.
 
Well he hasn't claimed to be a genius this much I know. Cool sentiment though anyway.
 
eh, SA uses both systems though but he is referring to the wrong one.
1 billion for the short notation used by the english SA population aka 1000 millions
the long notation used by the Afrikaans population it would be referred to as 1 miljard
 
Millions? Billons? Thousands of Millions? WTF I'm confused :D

I've just converted 4.8 billion dollars to rands I get (at current rates)
$4800000000=R 42,856,320,000

So in shortened notation it's what?

Anyway apart from his figures being messed I think his point is that the money could have been spent elsewhere.
 
By making 1000 people million aires, you have reached one billion, so times that 5 and this oke needs maths lessons or do i?
 
killadoob said:
By making 1000 people million aires, you have reached one billion, so times that 5 and this oke needs maths lessons or do i?
Click to expand...

No not sure if he needs maths lessons, by all accounts I think he messed up by using the US/UK version of billions where a million million makes a billion, but don't ask me I just confused myself :D
 
US uk have a conversion where a million million make a billion, dude WTF are you sure that is true.

In any currency 1000 million is a billion, Surely? 1000 million dollars makes you a billionaire in dollars.

1000 million euro's/pounds make you a euro/pound billionaire.

This is not making sense to me.
 
If that were true (mil x mil=billion)... then those Brits & Americans not only confused us... but have been robbing us for way too long :D ... or themselves :eek:.. Eish :)
 
killadoob said:
US uk have a conversion where a million million make a billion, dude WTF are you sure that is true.

In any currency 1000 million is a billion, Surely? 1000 million dollars makes you a billionaire in dollars.

1000 million euro's/pounds make you a euro/pound billionaire.

This is not making sense to me.
Click to expand...

Like I said I've con***ulated myself.....:D
 
I looked it up.

Short scale: 1000 mill = bill
Long scale: 1 mill mill = bill

The UK used to use the long scale, but abandoned it for the short scale decades ago.
Short scale is the standard.
 
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Well done to you, but if you read his blog carefully......

He didn't say you were all millionaires.... he said you could have been, yes he got the maths wrong deffo no disputing that (took me a while but I figured it).

The point I think he's trying to make is that money should have been spent on the people of SA and not on arms.....

His argument is flawed, but the sentiment is good.

Edit: Um that was in response to post that has since disappeared......
 
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Nobody is disputing (except the politicians) that the the money should have been spent on SA ppl.. but R1000 once off doesn't go very far
 
A billion, a million, a thousand or a hundred. Fraud is fraud and corrupt is corrupt, the amount does not really serve as a mitigating factor does it?
 
2 scales : SA is one of 2 countries in the world who have not made up their minds on what scale to use,
we have 1 scale for the Afrikaans speaking people and 1 for the English speaking.

Afrikaans
10^6 = 1 million
10^9 = 1 milliard
10^12 = 1 billion
10^15 = 1 billiard
10^18 = 1 trillion

English ( the most widely accepted one since 1970 when Britain accepted the American scale)
10^6 = million
10^9 = billion
10^12 = trillion
10^15 = quadrillion
 
Yes but regardless of the system used, he got this horribly wrong lol.

Man o man how do you get something like that wrong? we spent 50 billion on arms that would not make our entire country millionaires. If you have a blog surely you should make sure of the shyte you write?
 
killadoob said:
Yes but regardless of the system used, he got this horribly wrong lol.

Man o man how do you get something like that wrong? we spent 50 billion on arms that would not make our entire country millionaires. If you have a blog surely you should make sure of the shyte you write?
Click to expand...

A blog is a blog, you need nothing to back it up but your own opinion. Thats the idea of it, you giving your opinions in a public forum. Agree on the inaccuracy though but thats probably just his misconception and not the goal of which is that the money could have been better spent on the people.
 
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