Public Schools vs Private Schools

I read an interesting article today about the number of kids now studying at Private Schools as opposed to those at Public Schools. A massive 50% increase in those attending Private Schools between 2000 and 2009. I'm almost certain the 2010 and 2011 school year's saw that number increase.

The full article can be found here.
The most interesting bit of the article though was reading Zwelinzima Vavi from the Congress of SA Trade Unions calling the Private Schools "bastions of class inequality."
Is this not the same Zwelinzima Vavi who lives in this plush Morningside home?

                                

Looks like a classy bastion to me.

I'll admit there was a time not too long ago when I defended the Public School system and honestly felt that it still had tons of merit to it.

Then Government decided to step in and lower the standards across the board, and insisted that Universities lower their entry-requirements too. Suddenly our learners were studying to become Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers and Rocket-Scientists with matric standards that were so pathetic, you would think all they could hope to achieve was a life in Politics.
I guess we'll start seeing these learners filtering into the workforce in the next 3 to 5 years, when we may inexplicably have a sudden upsurge in the number of bridges collapsing, patients dying of toe-infections, life-sentences being handed out to jaywalkers and ultimately, rockets not making it out of backyards let alone out to space!

I hope I'm wrong, I seriously hope I am.
However, since I live with reality and not hope, I guess I'll keep sending my kid to a decent Private School with a rather high standard and a consistent 100% matric pass rate, comfortable in the knowledge that when she enters either the local workforce or decides to ply her trade internationally, she will have the confidence of knowing that she measures up to any standard.

I shudder to think that we build these kids hopes up by leading them into a false sense of academic achievement in secondary public schools, then dangle the carrot at tertiary institutions with lower-than-average  international standards, and when they travel abroad to compete in an open playing and paying field, they end up looking like dunces. I don't blame the learners. I blame Government who seem misguided in their attempts at churning out degrees and diplomas at any cost.

Jackie Selebi & The Mafia Link

I just wanted a really important title to this post.
I actually don't have anything to say about Jackie or any Mafia links.

What I do want to know is why we don't have any cool South African/ local Mafia names?
Names like Jimmy Two-Toes; or Tommy The Shooter; or Vinny The Kid.
Instead we're stuck with characters like Glen Agliotti, Clinton Nassif, Schabir Shaik and Jackie Selebi.
So uncool.

Makes me want to start my own Mafia with some of my homeboys from back in the day.
Guys like Two-Tone Moodley, who was more purple than he was dark-skinned.
Or Sugarcane-Bobby. I thought they called him that because his folks worked the sugarcane fields in Tongaat Turns out they called him Sugarcane because he liked his cane with 2 blocks of ice in a tumbler every Friday night.
Then there was Moeghamat "Dash" Abrahams. He could smell a cop 2 blocks away with a downwind and a stuffy nose. Of course once he got a whiff, he ran like the devil. Hence, Dash. Most times he ran without having done anything wrong. He just ran. Smell a cop, and run. Growing up, I remember hanging out with these characters because it was like a free circus, and we ended up running a lot. If Dash ran, we all ran. Four blocks later when Fat Faizel was having his weekly heart-attack and couldn't keep up anymore, we'd stop and ask Dash why we were running. Of course he never knew.

I grew up with my gran and she frowned on nicknames. She said they had a way of sticking to you long after you outgrew them.
I never really knew what she meant until I got on a bus one day in my 2nd year of college, and found myself face-to-face with Vishnu "Tubby" Patel. Of course the first thing out of my mouth was "Heeeey Tubby, long time no see."
My mouth was evidently on the fast lane of a four-lane highway.
My brain however, was still parked in my garage.

"Tubby" was about 6ft2, with more muscle and neck than a bull in heat.
Obviously he'd lost all that puppy fat, and then some.
He towered over me, and I got a distinct whiff of vanilla power-smoothie and maybe some fish curry.
Needless to say, the name "Tubby" was no longer appropriate.
His girlfriend however, looked like she could squeeze right into the name perfectly.

All this writing about nicknames brings me to a few that I've been called growing up.
The most memorable being Lewis.
I used to be able to run like the devil back in school.
Remember the episodes with Dash? That may have had something to do with it.
Anyways, they called me Lewis because of the famous sprinter Carl Lewis.
Fareed Kaloo. Kaloo. Kaloowis. Carl Lewis. Lewis.
And thats how you get a nickname.

Funny thing is, anybody from back in the day who see's me now and calls me Lewis must either be high on crack or blind.
I'm more closely related to Fat Albert. Not that i'm fat. I'm just more meaty than your average long-distance runner; and by average i'm referring to guys like Barry Ronge and Luciano Pavarotti.
Ok so maybe i'm exaggerating, but I like the body I have :)
Some day i'll write more about it.