Those of us that may loosely be described as "darkies" know that the word box is not restricted to the description of packaging material for goods et. al. Box is often used to describe packaging material for corpses - coffins to be exact. So I do find a tinge of irony in how many lives have been lost, maimed or altered in recent times due to incidents and accidents involving a car that at launch a motoring pundit described as "a box with a wheel in every corner". Now if you are a darkie and they told you that your box has wheels you could literally be hurtling to your death. Again a tinge of irony given how quick the "the box with a wheel in every corner" is on the road. 160kW pumped out of a rather small engine and hauling around very little metal with the average driver (at least in South Africa) being a young, naive and oft drug and alcohol mind addled symbol of success in the New South Africa does quite make for ibokisi.However I digress. Driver culpability is the ultimate culprit and therefore the true villain of this piece is not the equipment but the user.
I do hope that I have not appeared to belittle the magnitude of the tragedy that has befallen the six families immediately impacted by this act of gross selfishness and foolhardy conduct. There is also the other two families who may attract little sympathy in the immediate aftermath of this sad event but will non-the-less also feel the pain of this calamity. My heart goes out to all eight families. Too to the community whose idyllic if not poverty stalked existance has been shattered by such violent deaths in their midst. My condolences my wishes and my prayers are with you all.
One week after hearing how 40% of hospital admissions in South Africa are a result of alcohol abuse and how our children begin drinking (a term I believe has sanitised the evils wrought by alcohol consumption) at the age of 9 years, this on the back of headlines proclaiming that drug abuse is on the increase in South Africa and that South Africa has become a major trafficking node; we woke up to headlines of carnage on Soweto's roads. Unrelated? I think not.South Africa has an increasingly fundamental problem with drugs and alcohol. This epidemic is increasingly compounded by the rights brigade, purveyor's of what we deem to be independence and a governing body (both ruling party and opposition) whose morals, motives and suitability to lead are oft topical issues of debate. The human wasteland that is the Cape Flats is a haven for tik and pap saks with foetal alcohol syndrome almost the rule rather than the exception, every second bill-board in Soweto is advertising the implied glamour of some mind altering substance, supposedly political headlines are liberally littered with references to the cost of the tipple that politicians prefer as they celebrate birthdays and such ( Johnnie Walker Blue, Single Malt etc etc ) is it any wonder we are where we are?
The Botswana government has put in a prohibitive sin tax. Going to the extent of imposing curfews and forcing people home. The rights brigade will spew forth righteous indignation and scoff at such were it to be attempted here I bet. Yet the question is when do we stop and realise our impending fate of doom if we carry on down this path? What has the government done to address this? Do they actually acknowledge that there is a problem? Do they talk about it? But before we get to that collective body of governance in our country - that government; what about the people. Us. You and I. Do we think there is a problem? We pat our friends on the back after a night of drunken stupor as having done well, we watch our friends take drugs and admonish them not.
There is a wheel in every corner of our boxes and we are hurtling towards our deaths collectively. While we for obvious reasons are unable to say the six boys were as sober as
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