i stole election posters

First, I became angry at the amount of paper wasted by elections in south africa. We're talking hundreds of thousands of 1mx0.6m of posters all over the streets (i measured). Then the ridiculous 55 million ballot papers! The 2009 election showed no regard for the environment. I think we missed a great opportunity to show our awareness of environmental issues, and how they are intricately connected to the way we go on about our lives. When talking about the environment perception is often reality, and for me our reality in south africa is warped! (is that even a word?). Some would argue that all that paper created employment for the printing press operators, poster boys and all the people who will eventually clean them up. I disagree on the basis that if we want to show that we are modern forward thinking people, then environmentally friendly methods should have been adopted for this eletion. I mean its already 2009! We need to green our election! I became really angry at this election...

Secondly, after being swamped by election talk for the last few months, it suddenly hit me that now that its over i'm going to miss all the bantering and bickering from those hot-heads we call political leaders. I also realised that some time in the future, someone might be willing to pay money for a fat-face jacob zuma on a blinding yellow poster. How about the the timeless 'stop zuma' produced by the opposition, surely that will be worth money in the future?

So i took down a few posters...all in the name of recycling. I'm an ecological believer, bite me!

donald is out of the picture now

I never thought i'd see the day, but this coming thursday my workmate donald (in the striped shirt) will leave our office. I remember clearly when he first arrived, he almost immediately wanted to leave. Since then we have gone through many field investigations, work applications and boardroom teas. He didn't enjoy his early days, but his style and attitude changed pleasantly over the months. His boyish laugh became more and more animated (as his photo seems to suggest). He made a great effort of staying out of the bosses' way, and to date i do not recall a single altercation between him and the goblins. Ah, and his reports were amazingly always on time! That's an achievement worth some bubbly in my neck of the working woods! Tallyho donald, I suspect your friend in the green shirt will miss you most, and we will remember you for being crazy enough to drive 120km to work and home everyday! I dug every moment!

why i didn't vote for zuma

I'm 26 and i'm inspired by change. But jacob was not the kind of change I wished for.

I know the meaning of 'bribe', unless it means something else in this country. It takes 2 to conclude a bribe, one to offer and another to receive (or turn down). Not our jacob though. On the balance of jacob's past, it seems in my mind that he is guilty of receiving certain bribes. Except, the current reality, as the recent election results have shown, 2 of every 3 south africans want jacob to be the leader for the next 5 years. So to them he is neither guilty nor tainted.

I chose not to vote for jacob. He simply does not inspire me. He scares me a little, his look, his body, his dances - those violent zulu dances. No thank you. I'm a soft sotho, they say! I say my rejection of his ways is based on this principle....'where there is smoke there's probably a fire' and 'the appearance of evil is often linked to the same'.

Now I wait, with some questions, to see what the next 5 years will bring. Where his commitments will lie, to what will he devote his energy.

In the mean time I'm going to find a zulu to hug!

verbal flogging by max machedi

hello jacob, i am max and i don't like you very much.