The equipment at Kimberley’s Trim Park has deliberately been broken, dismantled and probably sold for scrap. If this trend continues, this city could soon be headed to the scrap heap, writes Lance Fredericks.
EXPERTS recommend that you update your CV at least every six to 12 months, others disagree saying that a résumé should be updated every three months – every fiscal quarter.
Elsewhere my research revealed that a CV should be updated after any one, or a combination of the following five events take place: When you start a new job, when you get promoted, when you complete a big project, when you get laid off or when you acquire new skills.
OK, to be honest, the “experts” I am referencing are all found on the first page of a Google search result. However, that being said, it has become necessary for me to update my CV and add to my ever-growing list of skills.
The latest expertise I have acquired is the ability to swerve – an ability that is vitally important in our city these days. In fact, on Wednesday afternoon I had to swerve to avoid knocking down a schoolboy who seemingly had not learned to stand on the kerb looking in both directions, making sure there are no oncoming vehicles, before crossing a busy city street. He just calmly walked into the street, not even looking around.
On Tuesday I was driving down Beaconsfield Main Road when I pointed out to the passengers in my car that as far as you could see down the road all the pedestrians (I counted 15) were not using the sidewalk. Every single one of them was walking in the road.
Cars – obviously also being driven by fellow swerve experts – were veering and weaving to avoid the perambulating chicanes.
The reason I was so hyper-aware of Kimberley pedestrians’ use of the tarred road for their walkabouts is because there had been an ‘incident’ between your’s truly and a pedestrian on Sunday that resulted in me – in my huge, heavy, imposing five-door hatchback – coming off second best.
There I was in Homestead, heading home with my family after a pleasant lunchtime visit, when I noticed an obstacle up ahead. What I assumed was a family – a man, woman, baby and two children both under 10 years old – were walking four abreast in Lynch Street. They were walking toward me, the sidewalks were wide and clear so I assumed that it would be OK for me to just keep driving.
I drew closer and there was no indication that they were going to give way to my car. Now I was interested to see what was going to happen. Who would win this game of chicken? Don’t worry, I wasn’t going fast; I was crawling along at 20 or 30km/h so there was no danger that the family would be flattened.
However, things escalated quickly. The adult male started remonstrating, indicating quite angrily that I should drive into the next lane and drive around them. He became so angry that he almost dropped the bottle of beer from which he was drinking.
Shaking my head I said out loud, “A guy illegally carrying an open alcohol bottle, illegally drinking in the street, illegally walking in the street obstructing traffic has just made me illegally drive into oncoming traffic … welcome to Mzansi!”
I reminded my family that they have to be careful because in South Africa these days the so-called ‘laws’ are apparently not cast in stone, but rather they seem to be open to interpretation. These days, it appears as if the more aggressively you make your stand or your protest, the more right you are – at least that is what more and more people seem to believe.
We have become a scary society. The presence of speed humps around schools and devils fork fencing around monuments tells a story of people who do not know to drive cautiously in the vicinity of a school, or that defacing and stealing bronze plaques off a monument is appalling.
This past week I also took a trip to Kimberley’s Trim Park … what a disappointment!
Don’t get me wrong, the Park itself is in a fantastic condition. It is clean, neat and well maintained, even though it’s a bit dry because of winter’s withering hand. However, on the east end of the Park, there’s some outdoor gym equipment – robust and sturdy gym equipment. But not sturdy enough to stand up to Kimberley’s vandals!
It was heartbreaking to see that the apparatus for doing sit-ups was unusable, as were two of the three ‘air-walkers’. The equipment had deliberately been broken, dismantled and probably sold for scrap. If this trend continues, this city could be headed to the scrap heap.
Something has to be done to save our city, our country and our society, and yes … teachers and parents have to teach our children how to cross a road safely. Yes … traffic officials have to start reminding pedestrians that it is neither legal nor safe to walk in the street. Yes … the authorities must enforce laws prohibiting public consumption of alcohol, and finally, yes … something has to be done about Kimberley’s vanishing metal and the epidemic of vandalism that is destroying our once beautiful city.
But that reminds me of a story I once heard, a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
Oh how prone we are to expend energy blaming instead of – using our resources, abilities and talents – working toward contributing to a possible solution. In fact, I once heard someone claim that placing blame is a universal human characteristic that makes individuals feel better even when they are not.
Yes, we can blame so many people for the mess in which we find ourselves. But if we need someone to blame for our steady downward slide, perhaps we only need to look in the mirror where we’d meet the one person that has the most under-utilised potential to uplift our fragile society.
