A CONTINENT OF INCOMPETENCE

By Robin Hind

Surely it is not possible, you will be entitled to say, to make assumptions and generalisations about anything as large as a continent, let alone a nation, or even a group of people?

Well, it is possible to generalise in some ways, and it can be said that most who live in France speak French. The arguments against generalisations will always be that there is a wide spectrum of capabilities and behaviour in any group, and that it is improper to try to match the best against the worst.

However, there may be sets of circumstances by which, using a limited number of parameters which are carefully defined and reproducible, to shown that one group can have entirely different capabilities from others.

An example is the airline safety. The aim of the endeavour, safety, is an absolute, and will not be debated. The training and maintenance protocols used in operating aircraft are close to universal, and are therefore applicable across large domains, even domains as large as a continent. The number of flights is large and highly statistically significant.

Therefore, given the limited number of variables permitted, aircraft safety should be equivalent throughout the world. Is this the case?

In fact it is far from the case as is demonstrated by the accident statistics for 2009, recently released by The Flight Safety Foundation, which listed 757 airline fatalities. The overall number of fatalities was below average, although the number of accidents was on average. Five out of 30 airliners involved in fatalities were on the European Union “Black List”.

However, what is of concern is that the accidents in Africa reflected a condemnable and ongoing adverse trend. About three percent of all world aircraft departures occur in Africa, but thirty percent of all (worldwide!) airline fatalities occurred in Africa.

Naturally, there are airlines flying in Africa with excellent service and safety records, such as Ethiopian and South African. However what is of concern is that airlines are not independent of the countries over which and into which they fly. Some, such as Nigeria, have demonstrated appalling air traffic control and other lapses of safety on the ground.

One can therefore say, with statistical assurance, that one's chances of being killed whilst flying by airline in Africa are 10 times those of the other parts of the world. Light aircraft, unscheduled flights, and "occasional airlines" have demonstrated deficient safety far worse, even, that the statistics recorded above.

DNA Database. Do we need it?

I see that another murderer has been identified and convicted on DNA evidence after 27 years. It has often been suggested many times on here, that a DNA data base should not be allowed as it conflicts with people's civil liberties. And of course there is always the possibility of abuse by conniving governments, politicians or civil servants, including the not so civil police.

Our progress on the road from small hunter/gatherer society to modern civilised society, over the past 10 000 years, has always had to contend with inhibiting the criminal conduct of some of societies more deviant members. The bigger the nation state became, the greater was the need to introduce more methods and rules to control the criminal element. This has always led to concerns about the limiting of individual freedoms that a free society should have.

Technology has always provided deviant individuals with the additional means to carry out their various crimes, but at the same time, it has also provided those we appoint to protect us from the waywardness of criminal individuals, with better means of protection and apprehension such as, fingerprints, blood tests and DNA.

Technology has of course introduced other fears into society, such as the prohibitions by the Christian churches on scientists, such as Galileo. And then there were the famous red flag legislations to control first the speed of steam locomotives and then the speed of motor cars. Eventually common sense prevailed and these prohibitions were dispensed with.

Now of course society tends to split on how to manage many of these newer technologies e.g. nuclear energy, IVF and cloning being just a few. If however, one looks back in history, one will note that many of the technologies which were feared by our ancestors, don't even warrant a thought by the younger and more modern generations.

Here are a few of the more recent DNA criminal cases.

Father of three convicted of first Crimewatch murder 26 years on... thanks to his son's DNA.
A father of four yesterday admitted the abduction and murder of a teenager 26 years ago. The case of Colette Aram, whose naked body was dumped in a field in October 1983, was the first killing to feature on BBC's Crimewatch. But it was not until this April that Paul Hutchinson was arrested after being trapped by DNA taken from his son.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237493/Father-admits-1983-sex-killing-16-year-old-hairdresser-Colette-Aram.html#ixzz0dhJIsJiC

A man who served two-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl has walked free from court in Edinburgh.
A previous trial heard that Desmond Uttley, 35, had found the girl collapsed in the street after sharing a bottle of cider with a 14-year-old boy. The girl claimed she had later woken up to find Uttley having sex with her. But appeal judges quashed the conviction after new DNA tests showed he had not had sex with the girl.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8418369.stm

Prisoner has murder conviction quashed after 27 years
Appeal court corrects miscarriage of justice as new DNA evidence quashes Sean Hodgson's conviction for rape and strangling of barmaid Teresa de Simone in 1979.A man who spent almost three decades in prison for crimes he did not commit had his conviction for rape and murder quashed by the court of appeal today thanks to a DNA analysis that could have established his innocence a decade ago.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/18/prisoner-hodgson-murder-quashed-miscarriage

Rape conviction 'backs DNA case'
A rapist jailed 19 years after his crime might never have been caught if time limits on DNA retention had been in place, it is claimed. Under the latest proposal the DNA of people arrested but not convicted should only be held for six years. Last year, William Bates was convicted of raping a woman in a Sunderland park in 1990, after he was traced using DNA taken in an arrest for assault in 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8354817.stm

Post-Conviction DNA Analysis
For some individuals, however, the post-conviction release has been a bittersweet one given that decades have already been spent behind bars. Still, these cases highlight the value and importance of DNA analysis that occurs after a person has already been convicted of a crime. Most of the post-conviction DNA analysis has occurred in the United States. Since the late 1980s, there have been more than two hundred people exonerated as a result of DNA evidence.
http://www.exploredna.co.uk/post-conviction-dna-analysis.html

DNA – conviction and freedom
Happily, DNA evidence in England now seems to be fairing much better after the suspension of Low Copy Number DNA evidence in 2008 following the spectacular collapse of a major trial against a man charged with one of Northern Ireland’s worse bombings – the Omagh bomb in 1998 (DNA test halted after Omagh case).

A man was recently cleared of rape (after he’d been sentenced in 2002 to six years’ imprisonment) as the result of DNA evidence that showed he had not penetrated the victim but that there was evidence of the DNA of three other males on the swabs from the complainant and another man was convicted after a random “hit” on the DNA database. http://forensicscientist.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/dna-conviction-and-freedom/

World Cup 2010 Transport

For those wishing to visit us in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup and were worried about insufficient transport need only look at the attached picture to see how inventive we are.

World Cup 2010 News

South African Police have vowed to track down and arrest two criminals who threatened to murder and rob foreigners during this year's World Cup in interviews broadcast on local television channel e.tv.

Lashing out at e.tv. which broadcast the interviews on Friday evening, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa accused the station of "reckless harbouring of criminals". But group news editor Ben Said claimed it was e.News' duty to inform the public, and Mthethwa was shooting the messenger.

The footage had both self-confessed criminals' identities hidden - one with a stocking pulled over his head, the other filmed loading a firearm - and contained comments that they intended to commit armed robberies and murder during the football showpiece in June and July.

They justified their intentions by saying it was repayment for colonial wrongs.

THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA OR THE EMERGING ZIMBABWE

The Durban public bus service was run and operated efficiently by the Durban City Council from 1912 until 2007. The bus service has now gone insolvent and has had to close down, leaving thousands of daily commuters with no way to get to work and back.

How on earth did that happen?

In 2007 the City Council (now ANC controlled) decided the bus service had to be run and operated privately by someone from the previously disadvantaged community. The City then sold the public bus service to a BEE (Black Economic Empowerment, also known as affirmative action) company, Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd for R70 million. This sum included the route operating licenses, all the vehicles, equipment and buildings in Alice Street where the buses were garaged, serviced and repaired.

Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd immediately sold off the buses, (mostly new vehicles), one by one, to independent BEE "owner-operators" contracted to Remnant Alton. An owner-operator would drive their bus over their allocated routes, collect the fares and use the bus garage in Alice Street as a facility for maintaining the bus.

Less than two years later at the end of 2008, most of the buses were in such a poor condition they were unsafe to drive. This degraded the service to commuters to a shambles. To overcome this problem, Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd approached the City Council for help in March 2009, and the City Council lent them R40 million at a very low interest rate to restore the bus service.

Less than a month later at the beginning of April 2009, Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd went into liquidation and ceased all operations. The R40 million was "gone", so the City Council seized the company.

The 1,500 "owner-operators" who had failed to maintain their buses and therefore the bus service to the public, then took the Council - as the new owners of the business - to the labour court for loss of income at R8,000 per month each for the four months left on their contracts, and won their case. The total, R48 million, comes from Council revenue, paid by the ratepayers of Durban.

Now the Council, spends a fortune on buying new buses and restoring the bus service to its former state. Nobody yet knows what this has cost - the bills are still coming in. It is estimated to be in excess of R100 million.

But suddenly there is a "whoops".

The Council can't run the buses, because it sold the licenses to operate the routes to Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd. No problem. Just buy them back. There is however a teensy weeny problem, Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd had sold the licenses to its Managing Director, Mr J Singh. After negotiations the council beat Mr J Singh down to R45 million. Yes, that's right. R45 million.

Final Reckoning.

OK. On the income side, the ratepayers scored R70 million when the bus company was originally sold.

Now, on the debit side;
they have an unrecoverable loan of R40 million.
the cost of restoring the company to a good operating standard - say another R100 million.
the cost of buying the route licenses back - R45 million.
the cost of recompensing the owner-operators R48 million.

So the total cost to ratepayers is R233 million less R70 million = R163 million.

Now here is the real kicker.

The Council says it doesn't have the capacity to operate the bus company, so it will be looking for a privatecompany to operate it in the future - and they have found the perfect candidate.Yep. You guessed it. They are GIVING it away, lock, stock and barrel, completely FREE, to.....

Wait for it......

Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd.

I kid you not.

Now, the Durban Council is overwhelmingly ANC, and they got VERY upset when an opposition Democratic Alliance Councillor asked if they knew that the Managing Director of Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd had in the past been found guilty of fraud and served jail time.The response? No, we didn't know that.

After more questions - Well, actually, the City Manager did know, but itwas some time ago, and the "gentleman" concerned had served his time and paid his debt to society, so we didn't think it was important....

Meanwhile, the buses haven't begun running yet. Nobody has a clue when they will operate again.

But the citizens of Durban can take solace in learning the new and unpronounceable street names as they walk to and from work, hoping they won't step in the turds and filth, or get mugged. They may even see their City Manager sweep by in his fancy luxury car, with a cavalcade of body guards, as he makes his way to his new luxury penthouse, valued at several million, at the Point Waterfront - smiling as he goes because the area has been declared, BY HIM, as a rates-free zone until 2014.

Effectively he is totally unaffected by this huge cock-up. He doesn't even have to pay his share in his rates bill.

Isn't Africa wonderful? Why don't you rush back here.....