South Africa *is* trying to get rid of its provinces, according to Politics.za.

However, its not in the way that I had hoped in my previous post from last night.

The Democratic Alliance, the official opposition in South Africa’s parliament, feels that districts are an unnecessary fourth tier of government (and, as a result, taxation) and should be should be scrapped.

In South Africa, there are four tiers of government – the national (based in Pretoria), the provincial, the district, and the municipality.

To be blunt, the provinces were inherited from the pre-1994 regime, recarved (from 4 into 9), and renamed so as to somehow separate South Africa from its former system of government.

But why?

To me, the provinces seem to be the most removed, and the least necessary, tier of government, nothing more than continuations of the old regime.

So what if South Africa followed Nigeria’s example, abolished the provinces, and established a federal republic with 52 districts (states)?

Then the ethnic czars which held power both before and after 1994 (yes, be they in the now-defunct Afrikaner-dominated National Party, the Xhosa-dominated ANC, or Zulu-dominated Inkatha) will be stripped of their powers or monopolies over local politics.

UPDATE: Hell, even the DRC is recarving their country into 26 provinces within the next two or three years.

Then the local districts, based more upon their regional/cultural/religious experiences, could form their own policies regarding such touchy issues as land reform, crime, education, environmental deprivation, and AIDS/HIV.

Then the world will be able to see a South Africa that is more, and offers more, than just ethnoracial pity parties and deplorable infrastructural conditions.

‘Cause ever since Thabo Mbeki became president, that’s all I’ve been seeing.
That’s all that the world has been seeing. A South Africa with two faces, two solitudes, two worlds; one looking westward, the other one walking blind.

What happened to the “Rainbow Nation” that Tutu spoke so glowingly about?

If there is one structure of government which could effectively show South Africa and its people as such, it would be a federal system with 52 districts, not a gratified unitary monolith with ethnoracial tendencies and biases.

I’d like to see an Indian face, a Muslim face, a Jewish face, a Khoisan face, a geek face, a cowboy face, a gay face, all types of faces represented in South Africa.

The world would like to see all those faces. This system isn’t letting any light to shine on them.

That’s why its got to go.

http://www.wikimapia.org/

Has the collaborative feel of Wikipedia, I’ll give it that.

According to this, you have 25 furry conventions in the United States, 3 in Canada, 1 in the UK, 4 in Germany, 1 in Austria, 1 in the Czech Republic, 1 in France (so that’s 7 in the EU), 2 in Russia (one of which whose schedule is tentative because its based upon the scheduling of a solar eclispe), 1 in Australia, and 1 in Japan.

According to Scificonventions.com, there are 59 conventions in the United States, 5 in Canada, 3 in the United Kingdom, and 6 in Australia.

According to the Wikipedia list of anime conventions, there are 34 conventions in the US, 5 in Canada, 2 in the UK, 3 in Germany, 1 in France, 1 in Spain, 5 in Australia, and 4 in Japan.

There are close to 0 genre/media-based conventions in the Southern Cone of South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay), or in China, both of which, no doubt, have their own very large fandoms, ranging from the amateur flash shorts of China’s Flash Empire to Brazil’s Fauna Urbana.

So what’s the deal here? Are genre or media conventions just a Western concept, or can they be integrated into other developing cultures with a good bit of restructuring?

There are alternatives to the traditional convention structure, such as unconferences (also known in Sci-fi parlance as Relaxacons), in which people get together without any central comittee planning, no guests of honor, no professionals, or anything like that.

So maybe annual get-togethers should just come closer to earth?

Maybe.

From the Pop Occulture Blog

Compare to this post from October 20 of last year.

Should I take this as an isolated coincedence or a confirmation of some kind?

I mean, I was much more introspective at that time, so ideas were flowing out of my head onto the keyboard, making a bloody mess. But I still think it to be so, just on a much less pronounced basis.

So that someone else could come to a similar – or same – conclusion on his or her own…..I’m lost for words to describe the reaction which I just had.

I barely have a sense of humour.

Well, unless its British.

Pluto is no longer a planet, according to the IAU.

Now for some robot wrestling.

Notice how the red one flips the first one’s lid….literally.

From Digg

Well, how are you going to tell baggage in front of your Mom that you use one of those?

This may be the crappiest excuse for porn ever concocted.

Continue reading Youtube’s back up, and oh my damn! →

Damn, this is the third time in two weeks that this has happened.