Sick, Lame or Lazy?

The other day on my way to a meeting, as I was pulling into my parking (there were a few around), this lady came driving into the parking lot and without much ado, pulled into the space which is SUPPOSED to be reserved to people who are movement impaired AND have a sticker stating this fact. She exited her car and without so much as a limp or a wobble, strolled to her apparent appointment with no regard for the sign or the reason for the sign.

All I can to this lazy lady and others who use these reserved parking spaces is that I sincerely hope that you never ligitimately need that parking space and if you do, that someone like you doesn't take your spot.

Justice has been served, NOT!

I know I have spoken about how much I hate peds already but here I go again...

Grrrrrr, I am really upset that convicted paedophile John Creasey is back on the streets in his home town of Plumstead after serving 4 of his 6 year sentence! This lowest of the low had been stalking, photographing and sexually assaulting young boys for more than 25 years before he was finally prosecuted and put in jail. Yet he was convicted on only the few charges he pleaded guilty to; nine charges of indecent assault on young boys and for the possession of the largest amount of child pornography ever confiscated in the Western Cape.

Creasey was dismissed from St. Joseph's College in Rondebosch (Cape Town) in 1995. He had been teaching there and taking children on hikes and running a photographic club when a parent brought it to the headmaster's attention that his son had been molested by Creasey.

The Headmaster of St. Joseph's went to Creasey's home and managed to get an admission from him. He then immediately suspended Creasey and informed the Western Cape education department of his actions.

Yet the same year, Creasey was hired as a teacher at Grassy Park High School. When he was arrested for sodomising an 8 year old boy, the students at the school were told that Creasey was in hospital. The headmaster of the school refused to be interviewed by a crew from Special Assignment while they were gathering evidence for their story. The full story can be read here: http://196.35.74.234/specialassignment/20050118script.html.

To all the little boys who will be approached by this monster in the future because we as a society have failed to keep him away from you, I humbly apologise and I am sad with all my heart. I can only hope your parents are smart enough to educate you about safety with strangers and setting personal boundaries.

Dula Purpose

This tool was specifically developed and "manufactured" for breaking car windows allowing the carrier to acquire items in the victim's car without paying for them. It serves a dual purpose though, the second purpose being much more ominous than smashing a car window; that of an sharp weapon.

This "tool" was taken from the owner during an arrest in the Lakeside area in Western Cape.

Beware the Magic Man

About 5 years ago, we attended the Hermanus Whale festival with a group of kids ranging from about 8 to about 15 years of age. We travelled there in a VW Combi and much to the disgust of the older kids, someone had brought along a Rolf Harris CD and we and had a blast singing "The Court of King Caractacus" on the top of our lungs all the way there. (I noted that even the older kids sang along.)

During the day, one of the kids started to play up and wanted to go home and within the space of an hour he had turned from this happy go lucky 13 year old into an otherwise little person who seemed hell bent on ruining everyone's day.

He became sullen and quiet and all he wanted was to go home. We couldn't understand this transformation and he and I spent most of the day in the Wimpy, away from the other kids so as not to ruin their day. Everyone was quite subdued on the way home and we were not sure if it was because of the boy's demeanour of whether it was because they were all totally exhausted.
It wasn't until 3 years later that I found out what had caused the transformation of that little boy that day. This is his story as he told it to me.

"A friend of mine knew this cool guy who was a magician and he asked me if I wanted to meet him. I was very excited and of course I said yes! Which 11 year old doesn't want to meet a real live magician? So my friend brought him to my house. He was very interesting and he and my mom hit it off right away and later became good friends. He lived quite close by and while my mom was a single mother, who struggled to make ends meet, "*magic man" lived in Marina da Gama (Cape Town) in a fantastic house and had lots of gadgets and toys and I loved going there.
He was lots of fun and a very nice guy and he soon gained the trust of my mother. He began teaching me and my friends magic tricks and he let me work with him as an apprentice and even paid me. After about 2 months, he started touching me (sexually).

<> this story is not about what sexual predators do so I will skip to the next part of the story.

Then a few months later "magic man" introduced us to a friend of his called Jay. Jay and my mother also became good friends. He was married but he kept asking me if he could photograph me without my clothes on. He freaked me out and I found him really gross, so I avoided him every time he came to our house or "magic man's house. I think they used to "work" together.

The "fiddling" went on for 6 months before I worked up the courage to tell my mom. She phoned the police and laid a complaint. They asked me a few questions then went away. I never went to court and I don't know what happened but when I asked my mom if anything had transpired, she told me that she heard that they (the police) had taken his ID and passport away.

* I have not used the magician's real name because he was never convicted and other the the the boy's story and the that of one of his friends who found himself in the same position but did not have the courage to tell, there is no proof of these terrible incidents. The young man who told me this story is 19 years old now and just wants to forget about "magic man" and his twisted friend Jay.

In my opinion, the very worst criminals are those that hurt little children and top of my list are adults that sexually prey on kids. Beware of this magician, he is still out there and could magically take away the innocence of your little boy.

Smashproof?

I have often wondered how effective the "smash proof" film on a car window really is. Last week while walking along Boyes Drive (between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay), I came across a car (which incidentally looked exactly like mine ) that seems to have passed the smash test with flying colours.
As you can see from the photos, someone was pretty intent on smashing the window which held up very well. I took a second photo of the marks left in the window rubber which lets us know that the blows were reasonably hard. The windows withstood around 50 blows.
I obviously don't know what implement/weapon was used to strike the window and results will most definately vary based on the weapon, but I am quite sure that the owner of the vehicle was thankful that they had reinforcement on their car windows.

Everyone Counts

There are stupid laws all over the world like this one from Bloemfontein (South Africa) where young people wearing bathing suits are prohibited from sitting less than 12 inches apart.
- In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk
- It’s an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down
- It’s illegal for a cab in the City of London to carry rabid dogs or corpses
- In France, it’s forbidden to call a pig Napoleon
- In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth

Like it or not, everything we do is influenced by the law. What I find interesting though is that most of us are not conscious of the laws we obey because, we just do and never think about it. That's what we were taught by the people who influenced our growing up, parents, teachers, etc.

As a rule, we are much more aware of the laws that we break and we often feel the need to justify breaking them. It is becoming easier to break laws and justify our actions because of the lack of consequence that is becoming more prevalent in our society. The feeling of helplessness and anger at all the violence and crime also contributes to our own law breaking.

The sad thing is that we are teaching our kids that its ok to break those "little" laws and do pretty much anything as long as you can justify it: - copy that CD or DVD... because the price is too high and the record companies are making a fortune; or go through the red light... Because EVERYONE does it . What you are teaching your kids is that's it's ok to break the rules as long as you have a good reason.

We might not like the law and yes, there are some really stupid ones but we need to obey the laws of our country and teach our children to respect them.