RICA registered with no address

Do I need privacy?

Today closed off the start of a brand new season of embarrassment. I just joined the ranks of mass who cast our votes in favour of surveillance legitimised. We will have connectivity at the cost of privacy.

You have to RICA or we disconnect your phone, beams the message from the ether. And I don't know what to believe in this crazy world. That does not sound like a reasonable message to me. It is tirranically imposed! I have no say in the matter and am completely deprived my privacy. Since I had to tell the enemy I may as well tell you this tale too.

Now feel this. In my shoes for a moment. It was new years eve when I received an SMS: "Please move out of my house." Nice way to start the year. Since then I have not found permanent accommodation for various reasons and excuses including these.
Once my telecommunications service was deprived me I queried their customer service with an embarrassing email along the lines of:
"Dear Vodacom, I am jobless and homeless and unfortunately cant afford any accommodation anywhere which leaves me without an address to use to RICA with. The potential penalties for fraud in this regard dissuades me from asking a friend or family member to pretend on my behalf. What do you suggest I do?"

To which they respond to rub it in even deeper "To register, you will need to produce your name, surname, ID number and your residential address."

To which I am compelled to get even deeper into my embarrassment with "My darling, I am a bum. I do not have an address. I sleep in the forest illegally. I have no desire to let the authorities know about this because they will come and kick me out"

Finally, me swallow my pride and off to the police station to report myself to them as a bum. Just so we have it officially.



I'm mortified. A taxi to the nearest place to RICA cost R30 there and will cost the same back. R1 to the kilometre is a great exchange. But I don't have it. So I hitch there with my affidavit, simcard, ID and thank goodness for generous Zulu people in cars who got me there soon enough.


The girl who helped me was wonderful about it all. "So you have come to get your pass? It used to be only for us, now everyone must have it. Hi, hi, hi..." I am at a loss for words and just smile at her.

After all this dreadful exposure, I want my privacy back please. I want both communication and privacy.

I owe you something brighter

We have to accept responsibility for our privacy. RICA, What a load of sh*t

The South African government's incompetence and inability to make sense of modern realities finds expression in this whole RICA mess they are so committed to. What a load of sh*t. As if it will amount to anything. DO you know what will happen? Innocent people will suffer just so they can justify their embarrassing position to their immediate environment. They will destroy more useful lives just to save face. So be careful.
Fortunately for anyone who cares about their privacy we recently hosted the world cup soccer and our opportunistic friends in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Bloemfontein and Capetown used the opportunity well to register a substantial amount of sim cards which are available in the streets at wonderfully cheap prices. That's the one lot. Then there is the masses of extremely poor people who are just too happy for the extra few pennies a RICA registration brings to them.
Fortunately we can also bargain on the absolute incompetence we have been subjected to for so many centuries from government. One can easily join a service provider like blackvpn.com and encrypt communications. Then simply Skype via the encrypted channel from your Android or Iphone, which accentuates the ridiculousness of it all. We have been using the VPN in any case for all the other great features it delivers and you can read more about that on their website.
I would like to encourage you to give the finger to the bullies and to support our dear friends who go to extremes to help us preserve some privacy and some human dignity. We have to accept responsibility for our privacy since the bullies with their control issues only grant themselves a right to privacy and no one else.
According to the UN internet access is a basic human right: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/internet-a-human-right of which I have just been deprived by the afore mentioned government and it's cronies.

RICA, No job, home, bank account and now no phone.

So I am not allowed a job in South Africa because I am a white man. This unfortunately leaves me pretty much homeless since I can not afford accommodation without a job. I am not allowed a bank account because I have no fixed address. And today my mobile phone was disconnected because I have no address. What does 'human right' mean? Where do we draw the line between personal private and herd? What comes next? Legal secrecy from government is being drafted as we speak. So they must know everything about me and I am allowed to know nothing about them. Perhaps not having a job, money and address disqualifies me from the human race?

The South African law like so many other places is a construct to widen the gap between rich and poor. Apparently the rich are safer with the poor further away.

And all I can do about it is to tell you about my interesting fate. Perhaps I should try to get to know these criminals myself. The argument for RICA is that they can use it to protect people from criminals by intercepting the calls. So big brother will now record all calls and process it electronically looking for certain patterns and probably arrest you before you can commit your crime. Do you feel safe now? Privacy is really over rated isn't it. Why don't we just broadcast everyone's calls? Most of our parliament members have been involved in some crime or other. So they are passing a law to protect other South Africans from themselves. Ha, ha, ha and they are doing the protecting. And most South Africans believe them! They condone it by participating! Just so they can keep on using their phones.

Do they realise the extent of their problem? That you may be fined up to R2 000 000 if your phone is stolen and they don't believe your reason for delay until reporting it. Failing that you may end up in prison for up to 10 years. You may also incur these penalties if you upgrade your phone!

Human beings, do you believe in the LAW? Have you lost it completely? It is an oppressive force abused by bullies and we desperately need a better way of dealing with our group to individual interaction. Give me a break please.

I am hanging on to idealism with teeth and nails hoping and praying that there is a human person somewhere in the other side. With a mind and heart. May I have the airtime that was on that balance returned to me please. I will need it in cash of course.

Dear CEO and leadership of the amazingly profitable Exxaro,

I plead with you to please abandon this façade of the brutal vehicle in favour of a new façade, that of the gentle giant, the benign powerful entity.

Just because engineers happen to be the main drivers in your organisation does not mean that we all have to abandon our value for aesthetics. Beauty is important. It is important to me. I'd rather be a bum in a beautiful place than a prince in a city. What pours into my eyes, ears, mouth, skin and soul is as important to me as how much money my time acquire. I may never be able to acquire property in such a beautiful place, but I do value it's existence and am compelled to contribute generously towards it's continuation.

Right now, your machine is threatening the beauty in Fairbreeze and Mtunzini. Not just the beauty, but also the precious lives of other living creatures who's very existence as species is being threatened. You had access to these reports and other important facts regarding your destructive force before most of us. Not only destructive to the physical immediate consequences but also utterly destructive to our generation's legacy and the ideas we propagate. Ideas fuel wars and I do not wish to set our next generations up for more of that pain as inheritance. Here is much worth preserving.

Offering to do the minimum required by associate politicians is not enough. Not benign. The beauty must be restored to it's former state after you were at our place. Please leave the place in the state you found it or better. Just because you use a big machine does not justify abuse to our environment.
Please do not destroy precious habitat of waning species. Please do not destroy any more valuable life and life forms. This gross approach to getting profits from a market who pretends to be oblivious to their consequences is harmful. They have to accept responsibility for the effect they have on reality and you have access to them at a level where you can educate them about it. Like the Rhino horn traders who can educate those fools with Viagra if only they developed some personal integrity. Will you develop a personal integrity for your organisation? Can you imagine the long term benefits?

I mean come on! Please help us here in Zululand. The minerals are not going anywhere. There is more than enough time to develop ways to go about this that is beneficial to everyone. And i hold you responsible because you are the people who drive that brutal machine. Please rather contribute towards the idea of care rather than gross mindless destruction.

love
/e

Smoke!

Say I. And encourage everyone to smoke.

And stop persecuting smokers who are really doing everyone a big favour. Just think for yourself.

How does a human being deal with problems? We take the bull by the horns and we keep at it until we win. This is one of our key aspects that prove something of evolution. We conquer amazingly well and efficiently.

What do you think about pollution increasing? And industrial giants China and America not willing to reduce their pollution? While the poor countries believe it necessary? Does the divide between rich and poor also have this quality, other than money, that the one side care while the other don't? I like the idea of non-cynical realism and do not foresee less pollution anywhere in the near future. I refuse to underestimate our ability to conquer the unfortunate side effects of our being human here and now.

The offspring of smokers have a better chance at the future than the non-smoking strains. To become more familiar with someone or something I need to get more exposure to her him or it. As our familiarity increase our understanding improves and eventually we assemble enough knowledge to make something part of us or to deal with it in another way. We pass this onto our offspring, genetically or educationally. We evolve, have no doubt about that. Which leaves the smokers with lungs fit for worse air in the long run while others will choke on the schmog.

So lay off the smokers, persuade your friends and family to smoke especially your kids. In stead of taxing, subsidize smoking please. Our offspring needs it! Our species needs it! SMOKE!

And please smoke more Gauloises Blondes. It is awful that there are so many shops without it on their shelf.

OK, perhaps I'm being a bit demanding. At least smoke as much as you can until you have kids. And please remember to persuade them to do the same.

Dreaming out loud.

Imagine if we could actually use technology to make the world a better place. Imagine if we actually start using our shared nervous system in a way that is beneficial to the species. I mean, isn't it possible to better manage the resources available to mankind? I somehow expect the internet to be the ideal tool for some such.

It somehow seems like all it really does is separate the rich from the poor even further. Do I really want to be part of such a problem? I don't think so! But perhaps I can utilise it to some good. So let's find a real problem.

We have too many children suffering for our mistakes. Children should not suffer for our neglect and mistakes. I mean really. Today yet another child did not receive medication in the way she/he should have. Another child died for similar reasons. We expect the uneducated grandmother of an HIV+ orphan to administer medication and to understand the written instructions. Is our expectations reasonable? Do you know how to persuade grandma to not give all the pills to the poor baby in one go? And to rather administer prescribed amounts daily?

If I can find a real need then I can apply myself to fulfilling it and hopefully amount to some really usefulness with this sadly short life. And here is a real need I have learned about. What if I could find some sponsors to make a difference? How will we address these problems?

If we had a half way house where we could catch sick and or abused children that would take allot pf pressure from the over burdened care facilities. With the right people and resources at such a place these kids could get another lease on life.

With some horses we could get out to the ones at home and care about their state while educating by example. Regular house rounds have various other advantages for these remote and disadvantaged people. The horses may also be used therapeutically to improve a child's state of being.

So where does technology come into this? Well this post for one will hopefully raise enough awareness to get something real going here. Hopefully the message spreads to the most appropriate nodes who have enough sway to move this need into a satisfying state. Who knows? Let's try.