I enjoyed an article about a company thing in New Jersey in America that they made $56 million last year by buying and selling gift cards that people don’t want.  I think everybody has a few gift cards on the shelf that they have not used as yet and what this company does is if for example you have a $100 gift card for a company they might buy it from you for $89 in cash and then they will sell it to somebody else later for let’s say $95.  The person who has a gift card that they don’t think they are going to use can get the benefit of almost all of that money in cash straightaway, and the person who would like to use a gift card can buy it for slightly less than it costs by buying it on the exchange.  It was quite interesting to read what a big business this is, but of course it again has the benefit of the size of the American market and it took a considerable amount of money to set it up because they had to buy lots of people’s cards at the beginning and also suffered from scammers, who bought the cards using credit cards and then later claimed that they were never delivered to them.  The company is now worth more than $40 million, and while I don’t think it would make a big business in South Africa, I am surprised that there is not at least a small business doing that here.  

I was interested to hear on the radio the other day some of the statistics that have been obtained in America with regard to texting while driving.  Of course, most of these statistics come from America because with a population of over 300 million, they are obviously a far more sophisticated society, with far more researchers doing research into all sorts of subjects that we never get around to in a smaller country like ours.  They found that it is six times more dangerous, based on accident statistics, to be texting while driving than it is to be intoxicated while driving!  They also found that one’s braking reaction time is lowered by approximately 18% because of sending texts or SMS’s while you are driving.  Most people assume that they can multitask and do both things, but they are not aware of the facts that their reaction times are now slowed down, and an 18% reduction in your time it takes you to react before you apply the brakes is far more likely to lead to more accidents.  The shocking part though is to try and equate the drinking while driving with the texting, and to understand that while nobody is saying you should drink and drive, which is clearly idiotic, that it is in fact even more dangerous to send a text while driving.  The problem is we all live in a world now where our clients seem to think an e-mail should be replied to within an hour or a few hours at worst, and in a day where our friends seem to think that their WhatsApp, text or other message also needs to be replied to immediately – and worse, we have all fallen into the trap of believing that.

Gastroenteritis is one of those infections that one simply does not want. If you have young children however, you get subjected to it quite often because there is invariably a new strain that goes around at school and they bring it home to you.  It seems that teachers eventually become immune to it, but having suffered a recent bout of gastroenteritis, I was reminded how helpless our bodies can become in a matter of hours, when suffering a bad infection.  One can literally not even have the strength to walk to the bathroom, and in some cases have to crawl on your hands and knees to get to the bathroom, and the amount of weight that you lose in 12 hours, as well as strength, is unbelievable.  The most common cause of gastroenteritis for adults is Norovirus and for children it is Rotavirus but other causes include bacteria and parasites, but those are less common.  

The key, when gastroenteritis is going around, is to use fresh water, wash your hands all the time and when you are able to keep the fluids down and to take enough fluids.  Gastroenteritis kills a lot of people, especially in poorer countries and according to Wikipedia, and here is a horrific thought, is more common in areas where a lot of people spend lots of time together, like cruise ships!  This makes me think about the cruise ship a year or two ago when they lost power and their toilets no longer functioned!  The good news is that there are some vaccines against gastroenteritis that are currently being developed and so maybe the saying, “No guts, no glory” will be able to continue having the meaning it does today whereas apparently originally it related to gastroenteritis and the role it has played in many military campaigns.  

The latest employment figures indicated, when one looks at the total number of people who could be working but are not, that 35,6% of people in South Africa are unemployed.  The lower figure, which is often quoted, of 25,6% excludes people who have given up on trying to find a job.  

In other words, 10% of the population has basically given up on ever finding a job and in the circumstances, although they are unemployed, they are not included in the unemployment statistics that is usually quoted!  The real figure is thus the figure of 35,6% and it was reported that in the second quarter 93,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing.  One wonders how the ANC is going to meet their target of 6 million new jobs, given that the very first quarter since the election has already seen a 93,000 jobs lots – so now they need to create 6 093 000 jobs to make their target.  Until such time as we see overseas investor confidence in South Africa we will not get more money in and that will require the continuous strikes to be resolved, and it will require labour laws that allow companies to fire and hire people more easily so that companies are not worried about all the expenses involved with hearings and attorneys, etc before they can get rid of somebody who is wasting time.  Even when you catch somebody who is on probation, stealing from you, you still need to have a hearing and with respect, that is just absolute nonsense.  It should not be that even a thief can approach the CCMA unless you take each step carefully and with legal consideration.  Good workers have never had a problem finding and keeping employment and quite honestly it is just the lazy and the incompetent who are so insistent on making people dot the i’s and cross the t’s and do everything before they can get rid of somebody who is not performing.  

Ultimately, of course, there will be many who disagree with me, and my only hope for them is that they have jobs so that they can pay the additional taxes that ultimately this will lead to, because if you want all of these benefits and all of these safeguards, in a country with an unemployment rate of 35,6%, you must surely expect to pay for it somewhere along the line - so don’t complain when tax rates increase!

From 12 August, SuperSport is now simulcast and so the standard definition and high definition channels will display on the same channel number. So, SuperSport 1 will now be found in channel 201 and whereas in the old days you would go to channel 201 for standard definition and channel 211 for the high definition version.  

People will not have to flick between all the different channels again and again.  That means the SuperSport channels from 211 to 217 will now fall away, because you will find them where they used to be – and hopefully that will make way for some new channels.  The SuperSport website is at www.supersport.com. I would like to see the racing channel, 239, move to high definition because it is difficult these days to promote a sport if others are high definition and yours is not.

Many thought that the Arms Commission would turn into a fiasco, but those who gave it the benefit of the doubt must surely be regretting it now.  There is no doubt that no findings it makes have a chance of being credible, and one is just astounded at the goings on and the resignations of all the advocates and attorneys who were working there as evidence leaders and say they were side-lined and not permitted to use certain reports. For example, one report, which is apparently particularly damning, showed that a German arms dealer paid R300 million to various senior politicians to secure the sale of submarines to South Africa and that report was not allowed by Judge Seriti to be utilised.  

When one of the main complainants, Dr Richard Young, met with the Commission he did not get to meet with the main evidence leaders, being the ones who have just resigned and in fact met with a more junior staff member.  He supplied that staff member a disc with 1 061 documents on it being a lot of the evidence that he wanted considered.  Two advocates who have just resigned from the Commission revealed that they were never told of this disc and nor were they given a copy of it.  Richard Young has now revealed that he subsequently realised that the disc he supplied to them had a technical glitch and in the circumstances the Commission would not have been able to have seen any of the documents on the disc.  The funny part of this of course is that nobody got back to him and said that there is a problem or said anything at all – meaning that they never ever tried to see what documents were contained on the disc, or that they did, and could not care that it did not work.  Either of those options are as damning as the other and with most of the senior staff having resigned, evidence being ignored, reports being prohibited from being discussed and evidence leaders being told that they cannot re-examine certain people, the stage is set for a complete whitewash.

I was fascinated to see how dating and the Internet is evolving.  It seems that it is all about looks now, and very little to do with the personality, matching or intelligence.  The new application that is apparently booming around the world is Tinder, which lets you go through a whole lot of photographs of people in your near vicinity and either like or don’t like them.  The other people obviously get to do the same and as soon as two people indicate that they like each other, a match is made and you are notified.  It works on your location, so for example if you are based in Johannesburg but visit Durban, you are suddenly going to be shown new matches and people in Durban are going to see your photos.  

As I understand it, “like” in this case means not just that you are ready to meet, or this is according to the website itself, but that you are interested in a lot more and on a speedy basis!  I think about 7 or 8 years ago there was a similar site, called Hot or Not where you simply decided whether somebody was good looking or not, but it was not really for the purposes of a meeting based solely on two or three photographs.  I guess we can put it down to our consumer society and it is more than just goods that are being consumed at a rapid rate these days!  From what I have seen it has a good number of people on it already, but I don’t expect any comments on this blog other than, “It sounds interesting, and I’ll check it out/it is not for me” given that most people would rather not be too honest on personal issues relating to dating etc!  With social media though these days, not much that you do remains private for very long and so I think that may explain why many people don’t even put a description with their photograph, or not a meaningful one anyway – because it always gives them the chance to say they were just checking it out, or thought that it was a dating site for serious relationships!  I have also heard about WeChat being used also for dates and more on a “tonight basis”.

I am surprised at how so many people are naïve about what the cost of credit is and when they want something or want to upgrade their lifestyle, they are prepared to pay almost any price for the object of their affection.  They simply look at the interest rate, which in many cases is quite high, but they do not take into account, apart from the interest rate, that there is the initiation fee for the loan, a monthly administration fee, often credit life insurance (also at high rates) and various expenses.  When you add it all together, on top of the interest rate, in many cases people are paying huge amounts of money for instant access to cash and it is extremely frustrating that people adopt such an attitude.  

I feel the same way when clients, who have just been injured in an accident, write to us after 2 or 3 weeks, saying that they are now having terrible financial problems, which presumably cannot have anything to do with the accident, and want us to give them supporting letters so that they can borrow money from a company against their Road Accident Fund case.  Of course, banks are not interested in lending money against Road Accident Fund claims, so they are dealing with companies which charge even higher rates and even higher costs and it is just not something I can support.  People in that position always say that they have no option, they have no alternative, etc, but when they are actually borrowing money for lifestyle purposes and clearly had debts before their accident, it is very hard for me as an attorney to try and see how they link the two cases together.  I also find a tendency in the exact same people that when their case is finalised, and this has happened to an attorney colleague of mine, they then claim that the interest rate that they were charged was too high and if the attorney had any hand in assisting them with it, claim that the attorney should not have referred them to the company or should not have let them do the deal or other such nonsense.  

In some respects it is about a culture of never taking responsibility and just doing whatever suits one now – borrow money now and then at a later stage blame somebody for your borrowing the money or blame the bank for not telling you about all the extra expenses, etc that you did not bother to research and that, even if you had, you would probably have proceeded with the loan.  If they live for today and worry about the price later, and then hope later you can make a story to get out of it and I think that would also be part of the problems that we have seen with African Bank – huge numbers of people who have taken on loans that they would never ever be able to afford to pay and of course now it is very convenient to say that there was reckless lending by the bank.  There may well have been, but people need to take some responsibility for their lives.  It is similar to the smoking situation – where people absolutely are adamant about their right to smoke, and how smokers, even though they take time off for smoke breaks, are actually better workers than non-smokers and whatever else they always claim but 30 years later when they develop cancer, then they are running around to find a lawyer to help them and it may well be of some use if you started smoking in a time when people did not know of the dangers, but that is certainly not true of the last 15 years or so.  It is part of a nanny society, where you can do what you want, steal from your employer as one example and then approach the CCMA and say that you don’t think you were given a proper hearing, or that it is the first time you have stolen and people are all for it – except that most people don’t think that ultimately they are paying for it in one way or another in their taxes that they pay.  You must in this type of society be protected from your own reckless behaviour at all times and always be given a chance to explain why you did something bad instead of just paying the consequences.  If you are protecting people from reckless spending, from smoking and from everything else they do, you must just understand that society, and you via your taxes, are paying for it.

PGX is a highly concentrated form of fibre that is being used by many people to lose weight.  It has a number of benefits, according to the promoters, including the fact that it controls and balances blood sugar levels and lowers the glycaemic index of any meal for up to 50% and also promotes a feeling of being full and reduces your food craving.  It does not have any stimulants and essentially it is a powder that you mix with water which then turns it fairly mushy and you drink it followed by some more water just before you eat a meal.  

It is becoming popular in America, due to its promotion in some diet books by Doctors, and the only way you can get it at the moment is via America because it is not for sale in any pharmacies in South Africa.  The blurb says that what PGX really does is to stop your blood sugar from going up and down and basically resets your appetite control so you will not have a desire to eat too much or to continually eat.  There is no doubt that we are going to read about it in South Africa eventually – whether it is in 6 months’ time or 2 years’ times.  Some of the doctors there are encouraging their patients to have it before meals and it is a part of many proper diets.  Once again, for those of you who keep feeling that it is fine to have a lot of carbohydrates, it leads to food cravings.

Much has been made in the news recently of the demise of African Bank, with the Reserve Bank essentially helping out the bank.  What they have done is to take the R7 billion worth of debts that African Bank has, which seems unlikely to be recovered and they have bought that.  That enables African Bank to be in a far stronger position and the shareholders of the bank not to use as much money as they would have if the company was still saddled with that debt.  Much less however is being made about who ends up owning that debt and because the Reserve Bank has bought it, and we fund them, it is all of us.  

In other words, because African Bank lent money to large numbers of people, probably in a reckless way, and are now not able to collect that money, we have all paid out African Bank for that to keep it afloat and perhaps have less risk to the system and now we have to hope that the Reserve Bank or whoever is going to be doing the collecting on behalf of the Reserve Bank manages to get that money, or at least some of it, back from the creditors – the man in the street who has been lent money he could not afford to repay.  If they don’t, and African Bank would not be in trouble if it was easy to collect the money, then that is another R7 billion divided by 4 or 5 million taxpayers, we will all be paying in one way or another.  

It is just a reminder again that policy decisions or business decisions that we read about in the media which seem to boring and which generally would not interest anybody, are or great interest – because the next time you get a tax increase or fuel levy increase it is just one more of the mistakes you will be paying for and this time you are paying for the mistakes of a business and there are good reasons to ask why on earth we as taxpayers should be paying for that business’ mistakes?  Why cannot the shareholders in that business pay for it and lose their money, rather than us as taxpayers have to cough it up?

The Ebola breakout in West Africa is very concerning.  Everyday we hear of more people that are ill and dying and the disease seems to spread exponentially.  One person went to Nigeria with it and has subsequently died and already now they have 8 people who that person was exposed to who have Ebola.  If those 8 people were exposed to another 8 people each, one can very quickly work out the maths!  

One is caught between hoping that this is just the media hyping us something and hoping that it stays in West Africa or being terrified of something far worse.  The problem with diseases starting in such poor countries and which are so poorly controlled is that they get out of hand, they can spread easily and the state of emergency and lockdown may not be enough.  We have all seen the movies about global plagues and sooner or later we are probably going to be hit with one, but you always hope that it is far later and not now!  The consequences of a disease like this getting out of control would be nothing short of, apart from killing hundreds of millions of people, bringing the world economy to a standstill and essentially lead to small groups of people living in isolation, stopping work and all interaction for fear that they will die.  As it is we have been treated to photographs and images of people collapsing in streets in Guinea, where nobody will now help anybody who has fallen over in the street because if they do have Ebola it would be death for the person helping, not to mention all their friends and family.  

The news about Robin Williams was tragic.  I don’t think he got the roles he deserved in recent times, after in fairly ordinary movies, for his exceptional talent.  Above all to me he was a comedian and I have DVD’s of stand up performances by him such as “A night at the Met”.  You won’t truly appreciate his abilities and talent if you have only seen the movies on which he starred – I honestly believe his talent for comedy far exceeds his acting roles.  Amongst movies the closest he came to ad lobbing comedy genius would, in my opinion, be Good Morning, Vietnam.

True comedic talent and wit like he had is for the exceptional few and it is uncanny how so many of those blessed with such exceptional intelligence are unbalanced emotionally.  There seems to be a fine line between genius and insanity.  Robin Williams was a comedic genius and a huge loss.

I enjoyed a recent blog by Bill Gates on his blog at www.gatesnotes.com where he was describing the world’s deadliest animals.  The deadliest animal in the world was no surprise to me, because I am well aware of the dangers of malaria and the mosquito kills some 725,000 across the world every year.   Apart from humans the most dangerous animal is the snake which kills about 50,000 people a year around the world, including about 11,000 a year in India and the biggest number of deaths in South Africa from snake bites come from the bites of puff adders.  I have to say that I generally find them fairly scary creatures and I am not a big fan of snakes!  Dogs, via rabies also kill far more than crocodiles, hippopotamus or elephants with lions only killing approximately 100 people a year and less than 10 people die a year around the world from shark bites but every time there is a shark attack that of course turns into an international sensation.  In fact, 2,000 people a year die from tapeworm, so it is almost like the more you talk about an animal, the less dangerous it really is.  Mosquitoes also cause a loss of productivity, and apart from malaria, other diseases that they carry include dengu fever, encephalitis as well as yellow fever.

I recently spent some time in St Andrews in Scotland which is certainly the home of golf.  One of the many aspects that have impressed me, in what is a beautiful University town, surrounded by glorious golf courses, is that there is plenty of free, public space that is dedicated to people practising putting.  As my photograph indicates, there are various greens, where people can simply arrive with a putter and a golf ball or two and sit and put with their boyfriend or with their children and I really thought it is a wonderful way to promote the playing of golf.  

Golf is an expensive sport and there are not many places where one can simply go along, to what is the equivalent of a park but laid out as a golf green, and put from one location to another.  It was quite busy, with families, couples and various people who clearly were not actual golfers from the way they were attired, having fun and putting and facilities like this are certainly essential if the game of golf is to be spread to a wider audience.  It is of course one of the most popular sports in the world already, but there are some signs that it is not as popular with the youth as it is with middle-aged and older people at the moment and we need facilities like this in South Africa, not to mention other countries.  That of course is true of all sports – make facilities available for more people to try out your sports, by allocating some of the profits, if any, of your sport to that.

We had a fairly serious tremor today and I would love to hear your thoughts and what you were thinking when it happened?

My first thought was its just a tremor, then it intensified and got worse and I recalled how my builder said we went overboard with the safety of the structure.  In fact he told me years ago that the pilings and engineering were so robust that the offices would withstand "never mind an earthquake Michael, a nuclear strike".  I think he exaggerated a bit but it certainly relaxed me.  Then the walls started shaking more and I stood up.  I then thought (sorry to the people below) that if I fell I would probably be more comnfortable in my chair and sat down again.  Next time like my staff I will run outside!

Anyway, now that you have finished laughing, what did you think?

The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwintini has now announced that he is going to introduce a new law to ban foreigners from buying land in South Africa.  The good news, and there is always allegedly good news with these strange laws that they seem to be coming up with, is that they will not expropriate land already owned by foreigners!  It is worrying that they even had to think about that aspect and announce it – surely it would be foregone conclusion that they would not expropriate the land?  

Apparently, at a media conference, he said they might have “difficulties” making the law retrospective – which is really an understatement of our law, but that the ANC was clear that it is going to implement a resolution that in future foreigners can only lease land but not actually own it.  One wonders what that is going to do for the housing market in certain areas, especially around Cape Town, and no doubt houses in Clifton, Camps Bay and the like are going to go for much less in future as are game farms and wine farms because all but the most wealthy South Africans cannot afford those purchases.  Why they need to bring in such legislation one cannot imagine – apparently statistics show that foreigners only own 3% of the country’s land anyway.

Today is the birthday for every racehorse in South Africa.  Regardless  of what actual day they were born, after 1 August, they turn another day older today.  In other words for racing purposes if they are 4 years old and were born on 15 October, they still turn 5 today!

That ages a few of my horses – Do you Remember (who is in the UK and leaving for Australia later this month) and Master Sabina turn 5 today.  Many horses retire at that age although some can run a few years more.  Jet Jamboree who has won his last 2 races will turn 7 although he has only raced 19 times over the last 4 years.  I am hoping for him to win the biggest race on sand in South Africa, the Emerald Cup, at the end of September.  Do you Remember is my highest rated horse on the jockey club merit ratings at 105, Master Sabina and Jet Jamboree are at 104 although Jet Jamboree is rated a 109 on sand.  Horses can have different ratings for sand and grass and Jet Jamboree is clearly far better on sand.

I have had three horses who have won 6 races each – and Master Sabina and Jet Jamboree are still running so whoever of them next wins, if indeed they do, will be the horse that has had the most wins for me although that does not mean of course they have won the most money.  Sabina Park won big races for me and over R1 million in stakes in 2003/4.