Testing Google Chrome

Well, that’s what I am doing now.

Ike Jakson

ikejakson@gmail.com

Africa 21 years ago Today Part One

It was Tuesday April 27^th when the clock struck 12 at midnight that the entire Africa was Free at Last; the legitimate black owners of the entire continent were freed and every baby born after midnight that night entered the World as a free person; it is estimated that approximately 1 360 free young ones were born all around the country in the 24 fours that followed; in the first 100 days about 136 000 of them, giving us about half a million new free people by the end of one year after freedom.

At 07:00 AM the next morning the polls opened for all colors and by that night the freedom fires were lit all over the country.

They partied for weeks and the World partied with them. I did too because I had supported the move towards Freedom for all our people for my entire adult life up to that point; that morning I had made my cross on the ballot paper to become a free man too.  It was a time of joy for most.

In Part Two and the others to follow on that we will take a look at Freedom today and how it altered lives of millions in the past 21 years and beyond.

PS: Late off the press but to complete the picture with a visual presentation of the truth, see:

 http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-04-27-jerm-happy-freedom-day-south-africa/?utm_source=Daily+Maverick+Mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=First+Thing+with+John+stupart%3A+Tuesday%2C+2+September+2014&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymaverick.co.za%2Farticle%2F2015-04-27-jerm-happy-freedom-day-south-africa%2F

 ikejakson@gmail.com

 

Practice whistling Dixie through your ass but …

Black Africans, I have just had to learn and realized they are right, cannot be racists. The reason is so simple I cannot understand how I missed it even through my extreme liberal years. They are black and black cannot possibly be racist.

 On the other hand and conversely, it is now perfectly clear to me that my mind was previously out of kilter. It was malfunctioning, wrong, skew, just plain dumb.

 White people are by their nature all racists. Read it all and follow the logic of commenter Graziella Mali right in here:

 http://www.fin24.com/Entrepreneurs/Opinions-and-Analysis/Am-I-a-racist-20150417

How can I make such a statement? Easy; with a white skin according to Lady Mali you can stand on your head and if you practice well and long enough you will eventually be able to whistle Dixie through your white ass but you will remain racist by the color of your skin.

Get that? Go on practicing with diligence; sooner or later you will manage a melodious fine rendition of Dixie but you still won’t get the race thingie. We are doomed by the color of our skin. Stupid White Men, as Michael Moore said.

 ikejakson@gmail.com

 

An Interlude about some People in Money

A brief Article in a large local financial e-paper reminded me of what a beef cattle farmer once said about coincidences.  “If you drive out to look at your 100 price herd in the large grazing area on the escarpment and found an open gate and one dead cow down in the bottom of the ravine it may be a coincidence,” he said, then became whimsical and went on with, “but if you get to the enclosure and find the entire herd gone with 200 yards of a strong well built fence down it cannot be coincidence and it’s time to call a posse together and issue live ammo.”

 If you want to, you can read the Article by pressing HERE

An immediate glaring coincidence in the Article is the short length [heck it fits well to describe it in this manner]; it offers not much more than a cursory glance at the events.  A large institution name of Standard Bank had offered to borrow some well known shares from a Union Pension Fund; the Fund having agreed to lend them the shares and in this way a deal was made for shares worth 160 million smackers in 2002.  Both Parties honored the agreement and it was fulfilled when Standard handed the shares back in 2007.

 There are too many coincidences for someone who worked in Pension Funds for over 40 years as I have told you before.  Shares had reached a bottom in 2002 at a time when interest rates were relatively high; then the share market went sky high from end 2003 and back to the bottom in 2008.  Some fools went on to buy shares in 2008 and still haven’t got their money back though some other shares have recovered while interest rates have been tumbling to an almost all time low.

 No other details are provided about the glaring coincidences in the foregoing paragraph or on what happened in 2012; another glaring coincidence that the Article merely states that someone from the Union recently came forward and claimed that if the 2002 deal was not done the Union could have made anything between 500 and 700 million on the shares.  An arbitration Court ruled in favor of the Union and Standard was fined 528 million.

 All nice and quiet like gentlemen, no argument or dirty laundry; the Bank remains quiet; it seems as if everyone is entirely happy; like in end of story happy, you know.

 It’s time for the posse, boys; this can’t be a coincidence, and it must be the equivalent of one thousand price beef cattle that we are talking about at this time.

 I have never heard of a large institution or a bank borrowing shares that they are asked to do by any Pension Fund, even a Union one.  Standard Bank like all other major players in money have a lot of other people’s money to buy shares on the Stock Exchange; heck they buy and bundle them, package them together with options and derivates on the same share; they give out mortgages then package and bundle them too; they sell and package derivatives and futures, shucks, even future options on derivatives; for more money to buy some more shares without ever using one penny of their own money.

 Why did they borrow those Union shares and on what basis? How much grease was used?  Which hand carried the grease, or who held out the hand to be greased?

 Why do they all act as if they hope that this story will die?  In America this would be Front Page Stuff in Bold in every Newspaper including the New York Times.

 My next Post will be on the Demise of Money to complete my Trilogy on The Origin, Evolution and the Inevitable Demise of Money.

The Foundation of Money

What money, you may ask? And that will be a good question; yes Good Sir, a good question indeed and I will allow discussion on that. Let us have a look at this thing called Money.

There used to be a time when Governments vowed to exchange a one buck note of money for its value in solid gold but that time … well, it’s a long time ago. There have been many good stories about money including one of my favorites about the fellow in Germany long time ago, stacked all his money in a suitcase and went to the railroad station to spend it because it had become almost worthless, all his savings over a lifetime, but when he turned his back on the suitcase for few minutes he discovered to his amazement that his money was scattered all around the platform but the thief had taken the empty suitcase.

Way back then when money was still real one’s wealth was usually measured in terms of hard assets, land or other real estate; stock in trade in the business was visible in concrete and steel and, if you, for instance, owned a bicycle factory your inventory would include steel, leather, bells and whistles of the actual hardware through the various stages of manufacturing.

The natural thing any wise bicycle manufacturer would do in those days would be to keep an eye on the vacant lot next door with a view to buying it to enlarge his facilities when the time was right and when it came he would call the bank; a manager would come over and look at the lot and advance him the money.

Those days ended I would guess around 1990, about the time we got a thing called The Webby or as they would have us all call it The Mighty Internet, the Space Highway some call it and we all rise up in rage when any effort is mentioned to curtail or lessen our Freedom in Space.

You guys will argue with me now but I wish you to think about it. Who owns the Internet? The robbers, thieves and the drug cartels, ole friend, they own and operate it.

But what does that have to do with the Foundation of Money, you will ask?

Good Sir[s], you really think that the woes of the Financial World are over? Well, you had better think and have another guess, Good Sir[s], and think well, mind that. It ain’t over Sir; in fact, it has only just started.

The Webby and its owners have converted your money to entries on a computer chip.

Oh yeah, better watch your suitcase; spend the money that you have now; spend it and borrow as much as you can and spend that too. Debt is about the wisest investment anyone can have these days because The Foundation of Money exists no more.

The Webby is about to take over. Freedom, you ask? It’s a myth, good Sir[s]. Read all about it in the Euro Barclays Bank Scandals and what will happen to Greece/Spain to mention a few as things unfold over the next few weeks.