Hogsback Media Networks - Mario Olckers, Founder

It has been a very long time since I updated this blog of mine with any posts. Life takes so many twists and turns and one forgets about all these different blogs and profiles all over the Internet. I am back in Cape Town after two years in Hogsback on the mountain, it has been a wonderful, magical time in my life up in the mountains with the forests and waterfalls and monkeys and birds reminding me of The Lord Of The Rings scenery everyday. In fact, a lot of the local people have named their properties or establishments after entities from The Lord Of the Rings books: Hobbiton, Lothlorien, Rivendell, The Shire; there's a local pub called The Hog & Hobbit even...!

I have been doing mostly computer related stuff, web development mostly and graphic design and video editing projects inbetween, all in all very much enjoyable work. I have been learning a lot and developing my skills base and also lately getting into serious web development with WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. I have a couple of reference works on XHTML, CSS, LAMP and PHP, Drupal, Joomla that I am wondering where I will ever find the time to read all of it between client projects and deadlines.

Currently I am working on the Social Media Press Release strategy for a Cape Town based PR company and building their WordPress based CMS and social networking profile integration. It is time-consuming and very detailed and needs a lot of concentration to keep track of everything. But I am happy doing it, it is what I do on the internet all the time anyway, might as well get paid for doing it for a living.

I have put up some recent pictures of mine, some of it I messed around with filters in Photoshop a bit


I am also very pleased to announce my own personal domain, all toward the goal of establishing a more serious professional profile online with the aim of having a central repository for all my scattered web identities and as an easy place where prospective clients or business partners can go to view my profile and portfolio and to get a sense of me as a person through seeing my interests and style of writing etxc etc
I am not sure how wise such a pursuit is, but hey, we can all just try and try again, can't we

So when you have a moment, please head over to my personal blog and portfolio website and let me know what you think in the comments. Thank you for visiting, hope to be updating more from now on

A commentary on recent news events and the implications it has on morals, values and personal integrity in a “democratic” South Africa.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a very disturbing development on the international front with North Korea testing their military strength by shooting missiles over the Sea of Japan. In the aftermath of the diplomatic scurrying about, we witnessed a very puzzling development. Japan came and asked South Africa to intervene since South Africa has diplomatic relations with North Korea. We seem to be only one of a handful of states who officially have any ties with a totalitarian dictatorship that the rest of the world has chosen to isolate. Why, one might be tempted to ask, do our government and the Dept. of Foreign Affairs under the guidance of Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma, who had a disastrous and controversial stint as Minister of Health, insist on pursuing such an unskilful and ill-informed course of action? Is it because North Korea enjoys behind-the-scenes support of big brother China, who supplies them with weapons and the motivation to play bully on the world stage knowing that others will be too scared to openly confront them?

Not shortly after that, we had the conflict in the Middle-East spiralling out of all control with Israel and Hezbollah involved in a month long war in Lebanon. Iran and Syria made very disturbing noises from the sidelines, and the whole world held it’s collective breath for fear that these two states joining in the fray would pull in big boys China, Russia and the US, UK, France, Germany (P5+1) in to what could develop into World War 3. This seems to be what the rogue states like North Korea and Iran want, one can only wonder at the motivation that a country like South Africa has in having ties with these states.
And yet, we see Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma having high-level talks with the Iranian delegation and very vocally motivating with the international community for their right to nuclear technology. The same Iran who openly supports and supplies arms to Hezbollah, and who are baring their teeth at Israel and openly readying themselves for a major conflict in the Middle-East.
Her deputy Aziz Pahad is also very enthusiastic in being seen with the Iranian delegation. This speaks of an ominous behind-the-scenes radical Islamic element infiltrating the South African government structures.

Recently, in the violent aftermath of the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we see Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma on television appealing to the UN for their help and intervention. Surely this cant be the all-powerful South Africa, who were going to head an African Union Peace Force, who now appeals to the UN for assistance? Does South Africa not have the necessary clout, political will or competence and resources to be up to the task?

The South African ambassador to the Congo got on a plane just in time to miss Pres. Joseph Kabila’s troops opening fire on the place where diplomatic talks were being held (Jean-Pierre Bemba’s residence), the ambassador of the Congo to South Africa now blames it on the kidnapping of some soldiers and policemen and the sexual harassment of some female worker. Apparently that served as sufficient provocation to set off this amount of forceful intervention and putting the lives of foreign diplomats at risk. Apparently they were trying to free the kidnapped soldiers in the cemetery near Jean-Pierre Bemba’s residence.

The African curse of not being able to accept the outcome of democratic processes and an insistence on violent conflict and the ensuing misery of economic and social disasters that inevitably follow such conflict, now also seem to be on the horizon for South Africa.

We also saw a couple of months ago the bilateral trade agreement with China that the South African government seem fit to enter into, despite the fact that the local textile industry, amongst others, is crippled by cheap Chinese textile imports. The irony surely was not lost on all when COSATU (one of the tri-partite government partners), at their national conference, openly burnt the bags and t-shirts made for delegates after someone pointed to the “Made in China” labels on these items.

But wait, that is not all, we also see Health Minister Manto-Tshabalala Msimang being accused of losing the plot and all logic by a UN official, after her prescription of a regime of lemons, garlic and beetroot for AIDS victims in South Africa. The government is also being asked to relieve her of her duties by the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) members, because of the government’s refusal to make ARV’s available to sufferers. The government, and Manto by consequence, insists that there is no link between the HIV virus and AIDS; one only wonders, apart from the dubious merits of such an argument, what it is that people are dying from exactly, and why the scientifically researched medicine that have been proven to help relieve the suffering, are not being made available by government. They do after all have a responsibility to those suffering masses that voted them into power in the first place…

The Minister of Correctional Services, Ngconde Balfour, has also seen his head being demanded by angry TAC protesters after it has come to light that prison authorities does nothing to help sufferers of AIDS in prison, many of whom have died already.

As if that is not enough, recent news reports brought to light the horrible state that the Correctional Dept. finances are in, not because of it being spent on improving the services and correctional facilities, but because of extravagant compensatory practices in the Dept. and because of questionable spending habits on anything from hotel and travelling costs, to unnecessary overseas travel and loans not repaid that no-one qualified for in the first place, to just plain theft. This amounts to more than R160-million, and yet Correctional Services are appealing an order by the High Court that forces them to immediately supply prisoners at Durban’s Westville Prison with access to ARVs.
Why, if they have such amounts of money to spend on perks and salaries, is it now a problem to supply prisoners with these medicines, or is all the money that could have been used for this, already stolen and spent? Maybe that is why they resort to legal stalling tactics like their appeal against a judgement that has already been handed down. They also insist on alleging that the case is sub-judice.
But who can really blame these people when they see Pres. Thabo Mbeki’s annual salary now clocking in at nearly R1,2 million?

We see the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, in similar dire straits. Outcome Based Education (OBE) is not understood by those who are supposed to be implementing it, recently in the Western Cape we saw the terrible rate of failure amongst pupils who were forced to undergo this new system, and we see the MEC for Education, Cameron Dugmore, defending this ineffective and disastrous policy, without in any way addressing the level of skill and competence amongst the teachers to be properly trained in implementing these new directives.
Recently, in a panel discussion with Dennis Davis on Judge for Yourself, we see him once again defending the ineffective policy of mother tongue based education, when clearly everyone with a mind to think, can see there is no money or skills or will to implement something so ineffective and costly, when the whole world and the whole of the business community and everyone who aspires to take part in the 21st century information revolution with it’s cellphones and laptop computers and Internet know that English is the language that everyone wants to learn, and should be proficient in.

Public schools all over the country are struggling in such a confusing climate, with the level of skill, training, expertise and competence of teachers in general, and the political leaders in the Dept. of Education in particular, being very questionable.

The Minister of Public Enterprises, Jeff Radebe, also came under fire for the poor state that the public railway system is in, with suburban train services in a terrible state of neglect and Metrorail trains wide open to criminals running rampant and murdering and robbing commuters on a daily basis.
And yet, the government is readying itself to spend R20-billion rand and more of the taxpayers’ money on a GAUTRAIN that will serve no-one any good purpose but the enrichment of the government officials and the private contractors involved in the whole affair.

We also hear of the +/- R12-billion rand necessary to get the country ready for the 2010 Soccer World Cup (upgrading and building of soccer stadiums and infrastructure, specifically airports, roads and telecommunications). Once again, when the Ministry of Health is desperately complaining of the lack of funds to pay nurses and supply medical equipment to under-resourced state hospital facilities, the mind boggles at such lunacy. The brain drain of skilled medical personnel who flee South Africa and the poor working conditions for greener pastures overseas also is an indication of the ineffectiveness of government in creating an environment conducive to keeping skilled and experienced people who are willing to stay on and help alleviate South Africa’s dilemma.
Why can people not see through the rainbow-nation hype and realize what a terrible waste of public resources the incompetent ANC regime is about to embark on?

The recent ongoing and controversial trials of Jacob Zuma and Shabir Schaick, the imprisonment of Tony Yengeni, and the whole controversy with Thint and their French parent company Thales and ex-government official Penuel Maduna getting overseas trips and shares in companies etc etc, is enough to make any thinking person alive in South Africa today squirm in disgust. R60-billion of South African taxpayers’ money squandered in a controversial arms deal and the subsequent waste of legal and state resources in these trials as well as the public spectacle and the fact that the world is watching this Vaudeville circus for the freak show that it is, would have been quite comical, were it not for the tragedy of scarce resources being wasted on such drama, when the nation is suffering from all the ineffective policy decisions of the incompetent ANC regime and their network of advisers and consultants with sinister interests.

Recently, after the terrible floods in the Eastern and Southern Cape provinces, which left many people destitute, the government refused to declare emergency disaster measures and also refuses to compensate the farming community for losses running into millions of rands. Apparently the declaration of these places as disaster areas would hurt tourism and investment. The motivation for not compensating the farming community, who are the lifeblood of the South African economy, is also very puzzling.
We also see the recent flooding and destruction of peoples homes in the Southwestern Cape towns of Riversdale and Swellendam, but these people did not vote for the ANC and are not sympathetic to the ANC at all, so their suffering and misery would not be very high on any government agenda of priorities.

A recent report on 50/50 paints a bleak picture about the South African National Parks. Everywhere we hear sad stories of parks falling into disrepair, nobody maintains the infrastructure; in fact it is positively being stolen and broken down and vandalized. From the highest level down to the practical implementation of policy measures by officials, the incompetence and lack of political will to make the heritage of our natural and environmental assets a priority is indeed sad. Everywhere, whenever one looks at the reports on the news and actuality programs and other media, it seems that we are heading for a national disaster; only incompetence and mismanagement seem to be the order of the day. When one enquires as to the where and the why and the howtofores, one is met with arrogance, ignorance and aggression. How can this be the way that people prefer to live? How can the citizens of the land just sit and be content with this inertia of gradual decay and the breaking down of everything good that was created before and built up through years of dedication and hard work?

We see the SABC populated by people and presenters with no English proficiency skills at all, the young presenters on TUBE and Yo-TV in the afternoon are loud and obnoxious, with no manners and no sense of etiquette, one gets the feeling that all they are interested in is making noise and feeling good about being on television. The sometimes overly racist and vindictive and spiteful slant to their behaviour, gestures and manner of interacting with fellow presenters and callers and guests, speak of an unprofessional and uneducated mindset.
The SABC and it’s programming are tasteless and unbalanced, we sometimes have a situation where all channels are showing local dramas, the content of which speaks not of a multi-cultural society trying to live in harmony, but a society dominated by a vindictive and shameless minority of people who want to force the majority of people to watch dramatisation of scandal, slaughter, corruption, incompetence and criminal behaviour being glamorized.

What good is it to speak of values and morals and have a loud-mouthed campaign about it on television, when the SABC broadcasts nothing that really instill any positive values and a sense of integrity in our young people. We see the television channels and public media being flooded by worthless hype and the glamorizing of criminal behaviour. Whole night on SABC1 we see music videos of thuggery and the degrading of women being portrayed as cool. The sense of wasting money on jewellery, flashy cars and as many women as you want is being made out to be ‘cool’.
How can a nation expect it’s youth to grow up with any sense of morality, personal integrity and a sense of ethical behaviour if this is the type of imagery being flashed at them on a continual basis? We seem to move towards a situation where people are being taught to be cowards, taking refuge in the anonymity of a swarming mob, and drowning out all and any opposition. Anyone who dares to excel at anything are shouted down and a mean standard of mediocrity has replaced all sane standards and rewards for excellence.
Recently we see convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni receiving a hero’s send-off from ANC functionaries at Pollsmoor prison, and as if that is not enough, he proudly addresses the crowd saying that those who speak bad of him “must be forgiven, for they know not what they are doing”. Jesus certainly did not have a corrupt politician in mind when he uttered those words before being crucified, and the insult to the Christian religion cannot be overemphasized by such blatant and shameless presumption.

South Africa today stands at a crossroads. One way they can choose to walk, is the way of celebrating and glamorizing mediocrity and misery, with an uneducated and incompetent portion of the population making very unskillful choices and policy decisions. Choosing to have ties with those who have proven themselves to deal only in terror and the misery of those not agreeing with them, and executing the type of policies and legislation we have seen so far leading to large-scale corruption, mismanagement of finances and squandering of public resources. A president who quotes Marx and Engels (Mbeki) and an ex-president who excuses China’s poor human rights record as their own internal affairs (Mandela).

The other way they can choose to walk is the way of excellence, placing people with skill, experience and the necessary level of competence in positions of power. People who are chosen simply on the basis of merit and ability, not on the basis of any superficial criteria like party affiliation or ties to sinister interests with questionable “struggle” credentials.

But that is just a Utopian dream, the world does not work like that, anyone who has read Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, will see many of her characters and plot mechanisms at work today both in South Africa and the world at large. One of these days all the skilled and competent people will have moved elsewhere and South Africa, like the rest of the African continent, will become a nation of corrupt politicians, criminals running wild and the infrastructure falling apart, with all the socio-political ills that result from such a miserable situation.

One wonders how plans are coming along to colonize and terra-form the planet MARS…