FIRE: an acronym for Financial Independence Retire Early. The question is whether the daily grind/rat race is getting to you and whether, in the long run it is really worth it? Google Fire+ retire early.
The land expropriation debate is driven by irrationality and, rational comments, like the following, will undoubtedly have little impact: Reference
The term esq. was used much in the past for landed gentry; I have a friend, whilst not quite a gentleman ?, is certainly a landowner of note. He tells me that privately owned blocks are subject to rigorous safety standards, including booster pumps for fire prevention and the like. Failure to comply would render one liable to injuries that occurrs as a result. Would the same standards apply to the state? I look forward with some anticipation to the fallout of the disastrous fire in Gauteng which destroyed the Civitas building owned by the State. Virtually immediately thereafter, the state announced that it would be complying with safety standards for all its other presumably non-compliant buildings? Only then? One wonders who will take responsibility for the damage/deaths which resulted from a building that was only 21% compliant with safety standards?
I am a self-confessed fan of Jonathan Jansen, who now writes for Times. This week, he takes on what he refers to as a culture of academic disregard evidenced by a report that students, at a local university, walked out as they felt that the exam was too hard. He seeks the explanation for this in the student activism of the 1980s and a refrain of Pass one, pass all and the progression of learners in schools (we are all supposed to pass). I cannot pass the content on as this is restricted. Marketplace discrimination by University is not new – in the early 90s I conducted a statistical exercise which showed that then black students would not attend certain universities as they felt that the standards were not up to scratch. Not that easy when one does not have a choice.
Peer pressure: I have always been discomfited by membership of anything which requires secrecy. Consider the Parktown Boys school and the breaking of the Code of Silence. No decent man should belong to any grouping of which you cannot speak openly, be that the Broederbond or a private shool with ingrown toenails.
