It is not raining today. Well, the day has barely begun. It might change suddenly.
We are living in a strange world. I am fortunate to live long enough to
experience how society [societies] have changed. When I was at school, I was
always taken aback at the school essay assignment with a title similar to this:
“How do you see yourself 50 years from date of your birth?” Being born in 1950
it meant that I should have had a look at myself in the year 2000. Of course, a
lot of things happened that changed the world: Dr Chris Barnard’s heart
transplant operation at Groote Schuur Hospital, Western Cape; the moon landing
and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and how many subsequent human visits to the moon. There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one
unplanned lunar swing-by. Apollo 13 had to abort its lunar landing due to
technical difficulties. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene
Cernan (1934-2017) and Harrison Schmitt (1935-) of the Apollo 17 mission, left
the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.
Do you recall the international frenzy and hype around the turn of the
century? The turn of the millennium? What is going to happen to us? All the
computers world-wide will crash! The aeroplanes will not be able to take off or
worse still every aircraft will come tumbling down just like Humpty Dumpty.
And it came. And it went. Nothing at all of all the predictions were fulfilled
Nothing. The Truth About Y2K: What Did and Didn't Happen in the Year 2000? –
that was the BIG question. It was really a big hype about nothing. A big ballyhoo!
To refresh your memory, follow these few links.
And we are living to tell the tale! I can recount countless “prophesies”
that were not worth anything at all. Not even ballyhoo! Maybe B.S? Politicians
and the guys standing around at a braaivleis with a drink in their hands!
I recall two elderly Afrikaans gentlemen talking about the imminent “demise”
of the Dutch Reform Church – the death of this Church was so seriously
discussed and they were so sure of themselves that it would happen within a
couple months. That is some years back. And I, and they, still attend the same
Church – their “sure” predictions, were also B*** S***. The very same negative “predictions”
of the end of this Church circulated in the media shortly after Prof. Dr Johan Heins,
was brutally and callously assassinated in front of his wife and grandchildren
inside the sanctity of his home. It was not the end of the Church.
There is this other instance when I sat and listened with growing
irritation and incredulity about the secession of the Western Cape to become an
independent country. That was also on the cards within six months from that moment
we were having a braai. It was so “well planned” that even the borders of that
new independent state were published: it included Pretoria, parts of Randburg,
parts of Alberton and it excluded specifically Johannesburg inclusive of
Sandton and surrounds. Wow! That is detailed planning! And it was really imminent.
“Everybody was waiting for this wonderful event to take place. This is now
almost two years ago. And I am happy to state categorically and without fear of
contradiction that it was totally and utterly false and just a ruse. I tried to
get the internet links to publish it on my blog to this lot of rubbish
especially the so-called “borders” of this new born state but was not successful.
It was taken down.
Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za
