GREY MUTTER: With the 2024 elections around the corner, we should all pray that the promises that will be made are not like the modern receipts that fade away or are destroyed when exposed to heat, writes Lance Fredericks.
ALLOW me to come out swinging this week. I still maintain that when things started to change and ‘improve’ there was, dare I say it, the start of a gradual but steady decline in quality. Quality of life and quality of merchandise.
And I am not even of the generation that grew up before white bread. My parents and their generation are struggling with the way things are being done these days. And don’t even get me started on technology. Technology is supposed to make our lives more convenient, but I have a sneaky feeling that it’s making our minds and thought processes shrink.
Who still remembers the old till slips you used to get when doing your shopping and it was rung up by those clunky manual cash registers? Remember that purple ink used to print the receipt? I found an old, old wallet a few years back, with one of those till slips, and guess what? I could still read what was printed on it.
These days those crisp, black thermal-printed receipts – the ones you have to retain in order for your warranty to be honoured – fade away almost before your eyes. In fact, I was at a copy shop one day when a man, who had bought a few appliances somewhere, wanted to ensure that the receipts were safe. So he wanted to have them laminated. At the time laminators were new tech, so he was being progressive, or so he thought.
The problem was that he was trying to laminate one of those thermal receipts and a laminator uses heat. He was left with a perfectly laminated A4 sheet with blackened slips. It was completely destroyed. He was very, very sad; crestfallen in fact, and I really felt pity for him.
But let’s not get too hooked on the ‘good old days’. English comedian Les Dawson seems to have nailed it when he said, “The way prices are rising, the good old days are last week.”
Rising prices and declining quality makes for an unappetising buffet.
However, American sociologist Sherry Turkle touched on something else. In fact she hit a nerve when she wrote: “It is painful to watch children trying to show off for parents who are engrossed in their cellphones. Children are nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ when parents used to read to them without the cellphone by their side or watch football games or Disney movies without having the BlackBerry handy.”
Now allow me to go out on a limb and really stretch and twist this argument to a ridiculous level.
I recently read about a problem occurring in Switzerland, and apparently also in Buffalo, in Upstate New York. The problem being children four years and older – in fact, up to 11-year-olds were even mentioned – that had not been potty trained. Instead of using the school’s facilities, these youngsters rather attend school wearing diapers.
The article goes on to say that, “Teachers are reportedly forced to assist the children with their soiled nappies. It seems that many parents are delaying or avoiding potty training.”
Why? Will potty training be too traumatic? Are parents giving their children the freedom to decide for themselves what they are comfortable with? This seems to be a growing trend. Or is potty training too much of an inconvenience because parents are too ‘busy’. I would be interested to know what’s behind these nappie-wearing ‘laaities’.
However, this new trend in Swiss ‘chocolate’ can serve as a very powerful lesson on many fronts. What I am saying is that leaving things to just carry on until they (hopefully) resolve themselves is not a smart strategy.
In Kimberley, for example, let’s use something easy and familiar – service delivery issues: If parks and sidewalks are not cleared and, very importantly, maintained, then things will get out of hand. If potholes are not properly filled, the same – the infrastructure will just crumble.
Almost every house in this country – those without water storage tanks – has five and 10-litre bottles of water in cupboards, on shelves and in back rooms. We all know the water situation countrywide. And the situation cannot resolve itself.
Kamfers Dam’s water is creeping towards the N12 to Warrenton. If nothing is done to resolve this situation, guess what could happen in the next year or so?
Also, crime is not really being curbed. I came to this conclusion when, just outside the Vodacom World complex in Midrand recently, the authorities erected signs warning people of mugging and hijacking hot spots, instead of doing something about the crime.
I wonder how offended the muggers and hijackers are that the authorities are warning innocent residents and visitors about their nefarious activities. It must really be cutting into the criminals’ income.
But, as many frustrated, cynical and impatient grey-haired taxpayers are saying these days … the good news is that all these service delivery, crime and infrastructure problems give political parties fodder for their election promises in the not too distant future.
And with the 2024 elections around the corner, we should all pray that those promises are not like those receipts that fade away or are destroyed when exposed to heat.
Voter apathy is growing, and though I am not a prophet, I have a strong feeling that empty promises and poor delivery will not be tolerated indefinitely.
