OPINION: Sometimes incredible results follow intense effort and we have to admit that our city is in dire need of some intense effort, writes Lance Fredericks.
WELCOME back everyone, for those who safely navigated the holiday shopping and the first few days back at work, well done. It was scary, I know, but you made it through.
Now, on to business; to test if the brains are ready for 2023, here’s a riddle I just made up (so it probably won’t make sense). See if you can guess this one.
What blows and sucks at the same time?
Don’t know? Well, here’s a clue … this item was patented on this very day 169 years ago by a Philadelphia-based inventor named Anthony Foss.
Note, for the record, that I said “patented”, not “invented”.
Still not sure? Well, if I said Nico Carstens or “polka” you’d probably guess it. Yes, on this day, Friday, January 13, 1854, Mr Foss secured the patent for the instrument. I also read an interesting fact related to this bit of trivia, according to my research, it has been suggested that having patented his accordion on January 13, 1854, Anthony Foss’ neighbours began plotting his death on January 14, 1854.
I am guessing that the neighbours must have considered that particular Friday 13th very unlucky!
But is this day, usually associated with bad luck and catastrophe, really unlucky?
Not according to the Dutch Center for Insurance Statistics. This body reported that Friday the 13th is actually statistically safer than other Fridays as there are fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft on these days.
I suppose that could be as a result of people being just a bit more cautious on this “unlucky” day, fearing that they could meet with a mishap.
But there’s another good thing that happened on a ‘Friday 13th’. Hardcore gaming enthusiasts will celebrate me mentioning this, by the way. As it turns out, Super Mario Bros, one of the most iconic video games in history, was released on Friday September 13, 1985.
I remember sitting, eyes glued to the television screen, mashing buttons for hours on end. The game was terribly addictive. I even played it in my dreams.
But, before I hop off this topic, one last morsel in defence of Friday 13th, and head-bangers will like this one. It’s reported that on Friday, February 13, 1970, Black Sabbath released their debut album and invented heavy metal.
The next day tinnitus became a thing (I am guessing).
So here’s the point – obvious and lame and it may be – no matter how threatening something may seem; no matter how challenging and overwhelming, we should not allow it to generate so much fear that we stop trying our best.
Sometimes, just sometimes incredible results follow intense effort.
And having said that we have to admit that our city is in dire need of some intense effort.
Around mid-December I was driving down Bultfontein Road, just opposite the Tourism Centre when I noticed our city’s newest Christmas lights. There were not that many, in fact there were very, very few, but what impressed me is how very neat they are.
I understand, with the country’s load shedding woes, and the economic stresses that are being felt worldwide, I suppose that investing in festive lighting would not be wise. But, all things considered, those few lights were not bad at all.
However, have you noticed how many street lights are not functioning throughout the city these days?
For a city that boasts of being the first in the southern hemisphere to have electric street lights, our legacy has taken a knock. Driving around Kimberley at night is risky – we have dark roads, potholes in the dark roads, and pedestrians who refuse to use the sidewalks and who prefer walking on the dark roads.
Night-time driving is a nightmare.
Another thing that concerns me personally about the long rows of dead street lights is that criminals can operate under cover of darkness. Some dark roads, in fact, are adjacent to where cable thieves do most of their “harvesting”.
It worries me because I believe that criminals get bolder the longer they are allowed to carry on doing crime. And I believe that this theory can be tested.
Think about it, what do you think would happen if, for example, every single ‘rogue’ shopping cart was confiscated? You know, those supermarket trollies that rattle through our neighbourhoods and through our city in droves.
It seems like they are everywhere, and no one seems to have a problem with it.
I can already hear someone protesting, saying, “but what about the rights of those using them?”
I’d answer, if those using them did not purchase them, they have no right to use them, because the items are stolen. And no matter how sentimental we want to get, it is illegal to steal.
Imagine the uproar if businesses decided to hire a company to move through the city confiscating every single “wire workhorse”?
Can you imagine the bedlam that would result?
People have become so accustomed to just “fetching” a shopping cart from a shopping centre and repurposing it for carting anything from firewood to water containers that it has almost become part of the family.
The other day I spoke to a young man in a mall parking area. He was responsible for retrieving shopping carts. He told me that they lose carts daily.
Another young man I interviewed said that when he tried, on a few occasions, to stop shoppers from leaving the mall precinct with the shopping cart, he was told, “You are not going to tell me what to do! Do you expect me to walk to the taxi rank with all these parcels?”
Can you imagine what could potentially happen to him if he did the legal thing and took the shopping cart from the shopper? Do you think he’d be a hero or a villain if the people at the taxi rank heard about what he’d done?
It’s anyone’s guess, I guess.
It’s for this reason that I have been asking, over and over again, is Kimberley a city or is it a mining camp?
Surely it cannot be both.
I ask because a city should have such a thing as by-laws and rules and boundaries; a mining camp, on the other hand, is fluid, flexible, a bit unruly and if you’d forgive my opinion, pretty lawless.
Can we honestly accommodate people who have a ‘mining camp mindset’ inside a city? Which laws do our law enforcement officers in Kimberley uphold – city or mining camp laws?
Don’t bother answering that question … It was rhetorical. So, as we stand on the cusp of a new year, many are probably wondering, is there hope for our city?
I don’t know, yet I am hopeful. But, don’t be fooled, it will take some determined, intense, consistent effort to realise the incredible results every resident is hoping for in 2023 and beyond.
