Some insight into the South African online dilemma... err.. be warned... the tone is a little bitter. (By Anatol)
Aaaarrrggghhh !!!!!
Two hours !!!! Two whole bloody hours. Agreements are made... and kept... the first steps to mediocrity are taken, while greatness is sought.
Two hours of land-gathering, on a connection you could sleep circles around, never mind walk or run, and all for what !! ???? A disconnect is what. The site won't respond. Pages are taking 10 minutes to load. I refresh everything... the server is not responding. The connection is officialy rigor mortis, and I had 250 turns with 52k land !!!!!!
This is as a result of what I am now calling the ZA condition. We live in a 3rd world country, but we have some of the best scientific minds in the world, or at least... we export some of the best scientific minds in the world.
It's not just about the poverty, or the crime, or the so-called lack of opportunities. It's the mentality. Think small. It should be printed under our national emblem. Everywhere you go, people limit themselves. They build their own cages, climb in and throw away the damn key. It has to be safe, and careful... ALL the TIME. Most people in this country lack true vision. That is why those few who do have vision, go elsewhere - because elsewhere, their visions may be realised.
I suppose this is true everywhere, but I feel it is especially true here, but INSTITUTIONS are by far the worst. They *pretend* to vision, while burying it... The most classic example - and the epitome of stagnation in the mind of every South African with half a brain cell, is Telkom. THE tele-communications giant of South Africa. THE tele-communications empire of South Africa. THE only bloody telecommunications ANYTHING of South Africa. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the monopoly - this disgusting worm that breeds at the heart of any so-called free-trade society. It was setup by the previous government, and propogated by the current one. Supposedly, we are going to be provided with options, the monopoly is going to be nulled, and the world will be better thanks to our beloved politicians, because they're allowing competition to enter the country. They've been doing this since... ohh.. 2001 ?... any day now, we're actually going to get another tele-comms provider...any year now, definately...this decade, without a doubt !
And for their greed, we -the people- sit with over-priced, over-utilised, and sub-standard communications media, and *no* service... How wonderful... and this is but one symptom which, on this night, hit just a little too close to home, for the umpteenth time... so I wrote this.
So much potential rotting for lack of use.... It makes me weep.
Who do I have to sleep with to get bandwidth around here !!!!
(By: Anatol)
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