Some more ‘Chinese Maths’

rpm - great article!

i had a good laugh at "Chinese mathematics" when i heard him use it -it is actually a compliment...

i imagine that it is derived from the term "Chinese wall" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_wall - which would make more sense in terms of what they are trying to argue

//looking forward to seeing the "Indian maths" used by the SNO :)
 
If i understand correctly, a "Chinese wall" is meant to keep business units separate - like SAIX and Telkom for example. If so, we need one of 'em.
 
rpm... you make me happy with your articles :) Let's hope this gets as much publicity as possible.
Such a pity that big newspapers don't owe us a couple of favours :)
 
Telkom is simply failing it's customers. I mean they contradict themselves at every opportunity they get. Whenever anyone compares them to somebody, they will give you some other country to compare them to. If you do compare them to that country, they will turn around and give some other excuse. They keep shifting their goal posts.
 
Chinese Maths

MyADSL Member Rooijan quoted this source, entitled, "rise and fall of debit-credit bookkeeping in China: History and analysis".

East and West followed different paths in the development of accounting until the early 20th century when Western debit-credit bookkeeping was introduced to China. By that time, Chinese accounting had already enjoyed a long and distinctive history.

Initially, a single-entry system was used to record transactions with ru, indicating receipts of revenue, and chu, payments of expenditure. This single-entry bookkeeping only accounted for changes (either increases or decreases). A full-blown, double-entry bookkeeping method did not surface in China until the mid-17th century.

The Opium War of 1840 forced the Chinese government to open its doors to Western commercial interests. Foreign businesses were the first to apply Western-style, double-entry bookkeeping in China.

Debit-credit bookkeeping gained ground in China in the early 20th century, but the road it traversed thereafter was by no means smooth. It underwent several decades of turbulent development due to various political and socioeconomic reasons. During the 1920s and the 1930s, traditional Chinese bookkeeping coexisted with the Western method.

After the founding of the new China in 1949, the political climate was filled with antiWest, anti-capitalism sentiment. This enmity was fueled not only by ideological considerations but also by the international Cold War environment and by the concern that the new government was in danger of subversion by Western-backed forces. To mobilize the country, the government called upon the Chinese people to destroy the old political and socioeconomic establishments and to build a new, socialist China. Originated from the West, debit-credit bookkeeping was a natural target for destruction. Replacing it with some type of indigenous Chinese bookkeeping method was seen as something larger than bookkeeping itself. It carried a symbolic meaning with political, ideological, and cultural implications that Chinese socialist accounting was fundamentally distinct from Western, capitalist accounting.

The extremism, misconception, and confusion surrounding the debate over bookkeeping methods in China vanished gradually after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
Click to expand...

More a case of Accounting Methods?
Single as opposed to double-entry accounting?
Does South Africa still use GAAP? Been a while since I studied all that stuff?

Ah Well?
Does it really matter.
One hardly needs to be a mathematician/accountant to know that we are being screwed. :D
 
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rpm what a great article. Concrete proof ! We all know what Telkom's reply will be - some lengthy bull**** that completely sidesteps the issue, yet stalling for time and thereby further waisting our time and energy. If Morocco of all places can do it, we should be able to provide even cheaper access.

Unfortunately I have this sinking feeling - we'll still be 1000% more expensive ten years from now.
 
Hi AntiThesis

Thanks for the kind words.

This issue was all over the press, online, print and radio. It was main news on News24 and Fin24 and it is also in today’s Business Day. It should hit another few papers next week. I don’t think we can ask for much more :D

Regards,

RPM
 
I have been looking for details of the information that IS gave to the ICASA hearings about their estimated cost of providing the local loop and bandwidth, but I can't locate it. Does anyone have a link to that info?

Thanks, Ken
 
wohoooooooooo, im going overseasfor a year at the end of the year :)
It'll be cheaper to buy a laptop and get high speed broadband than jst get broadband here in SA. Do u know the kind of prices in the UK and germany? lol....Something crazy like 10 Euros for an uncapped 20Mbps line.......WOW!!!
Its worth it to get out of this country just for better internet!!
 
rpm you have a unique talent. That is the ability to completely decimate, destroy and disprove other people's statements in such an undenyable way, yet you always sound so 'nice' about it - and there are no <cough> racial slurs in your statements either! That is true diplomacy. Well done!
 
Well once again I have to say.. I hate this. Sitting here at work again, laughing so hard I ended up crying, and everyone else in the office thinks I have gone mad!

RPM, As stated by everyone else, That piece of work was (once again) a masterpiece, I can not wait to see if Telkom has the guts to respond to that article like they did with the previous one
 
I wonder what their response is gonna be esp wrt sat-3.. I remember last time they made the exuse that existing sat-3 contracts was expensive or something but no-one will believe them when everything they offer is expensive and covering a older product they try and sell. If icasa does nothing as always well then we know where their bread is buttered.
 
I have a few ideas as to what they are going to say.. Of course I'm not going to put them up here since then Telkom will just use them. Or Maybe we should put them up here so they can be taken apart before telkom has a chance to use them?
 
A response from Telkom needed!

Dear rpm

It really annoys me when I read feedback like this. Steven Hayward, as spokesperson for Telkom, has made sweeping statements regarding the intelligence of their consumer base and how easy we believe maniacle utterances from yourself and the other ADSL activists, going so far as to use derogative terms like "Chinese maths".

You have now responded to his argument, with what I assume is well researched fact, highlighting the errors and assumptions in his statements regarding comparisons. I would be interested in a response from him regarding this new information and whether he would like to rephrase his earlier statements. I think that, as an executive within the Telkom marketing machine he should be held to task for his statements. I hope that we can rely on you to pressurise him to respond to the South African public.

At the same time I would like to remind him that as an executive in a marketing environment he should be well aware of the fact the organic growth of Telkom relies heavily on the acquisition of NEW customers within South Africa. These new customers would typically be from the previously disadvantaged population group, a group that probably does not currently have a landline. It is with this in mind that I must remind Steven that his "chinese mathematics" theory is in fact erroneous and that the findings of myADSL are in fact correct as ADSL cannot exist without a line rental portion.

So from one marketing guru to the marketing guru of Telkom let me summarise, for organic growth you need NEW customers, new customers have to pay new line rental and new installation costs, therefore the price reduction is in fact lower than what Telkom proclaim.

In closing, rpm, I would also appreciate it if Steven could please justify his title, by posing the questions, "Why would a monopoly require a marketing division?" and "What is it like trying to market an inferior product to unsuspecting consumers?"
 
Fantastic article, give them some of their own medicine.
 
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