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The Blue Crane (Anthropoides paradiseus), also known as the Stanley crane, or the Paradise crane, is the national bird of South Africa. I think it’s time for a change.
From Wikipedia:
Since 1994, there have been a large number of places in South Africa which have been renamed for political, ethnic, or even economic reasons. These name changes were at first to remove politically motivated, incorrectly spelt or offensive names (such as those named after Apartheid leaders) from the South African landscape. However, since 2000 these name changes have targeted places of mostly Afrikaans but also English-speaking origin, with many places now named after anti-apartheid activists.
From me:
At first I objected to all the name changes. But, as time strolled on, I became used to it, and even welcomed them.
I have no objection to Pretoria being renamed Tshwane. After all – Pretoria was a clean, well managed, world-class city – nothing like the cesspool which makes up its CBD these days. And this is true of just about every single renamed street, building, park, airport, and hospital, here in the Arse of Africa (RSA).
And our once beautiful small towns! Gone to pot; with bankrupt municipalities and infrastructure that has collapsed. Squatters and squalor. Weed infested sidewalks. Sewerage in the streets. Potholes. Polluted water supplies. Luckily, they too, have been renamed to spare us – the people who knew them in their heyday – the shame and humiliation of their decay.
Lately, it would seem as if the ANC have run out of names of struggling heroes. The renaming process has ground to a halt. Just about every town now has a Mandela Street, a Mbeki Street, and a Sisulu Street. It must be really hard if your heroes are so few and far between...
But what I really want to say is this:
Open up a newspaper; listen to the news on the radio; watch news on telly, and every single day there are reports about crooked ANC politicians and officials. There will be denials and counter-denials; claims and disclaimers; spin doctors and doctors with fraudulent qualifications; the story will feature in the news for a couple of weeks, and then the dust will settle and all will be forgotten. Never to be mentioned again.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Jacob Zuma, drunk judges, Malema, Cele, Paul Ngobeni, Angie Molebatsi, Selebi, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Shaik... Jeez! The list is too long – I’ll run out of ink long before I’ve finished naming half of them.
The point I’m trying to make is this: Who reminds us of the crimes that these criminals have committed? Who keeps track of where we stand? Who checks to see that all of these crooked comrades get their just deserts? Are there any statistics available?
I think not.
So here’s my suggestion:
The Blue Crane has always been a very quiet bird. What we need is a bird to remind us to take stock of the true state of our nation – a bird with a distinctive call.
Is there such a bird?
Yes, there is, and it’s called the Fukawee bird. The Fukawee bird lives in tall grass, and every now and then, it stretches its long neck above the tops of the grass and gives its mournful cry: “Where the fukawee? Where the fukawee?” Hence its name.
We need this bird to remind us that the comrades are destroying this godforsaken country, and getting away with it.
Scot-free.
