Drug gangs' new technology
DRUGS gangs in Colombia have developed a new resource in their continuing war of wits with the police. They have trained parrots to act as lookouts and squawk a warning whenever cops are spotted on the street.
Police recently captured a parrot named Lorenzo, in spite of his giving the warning. Their raid also yielded two drug traffickers, a stash of marijuana (which we call dagga), weapons and two more parrots.
It turns out the drugs gangs have trained at least a thousand parrots. This report begins to read like something from Damon Runyan.
And it recalls the story of Rosie Dry, Durban's famous madam of the 1940s and 1950s, who ran a string of illegal bars and brothels in the Point precinct. She was protected by monkeys that could spot a plainclothes policeman a mile off and would immediately set up a screeching.
It's remarkable this interdependence of different species. I think they call it symbiosis.
Rail anniversary
A HUNDRED and fifty years of rail travel in South Africa will be celebrated this Friday – Heritage Day – with a steam-drawn trip to mark the country's first-ever passenger train, from Durban Point to the market square in 1860.
The train, operated by the, Umgeni Steam Railway – unpaid enthusiasts – will take passengers from New Durban Station (departure 10 am)to Point station via the Bluff and Bayhead and the Victoria Embankment. Those who are really keen can join the train early in the morning at Inchanga, the railway headquarters, meaning a round trip of something like 200 km.
Plaques will be unveiled at Point Station and in the International Convention Centre, to which passengers will be taken by bus. Passengers are asked to bring picnic lunches or buy boxed lunches at R60 per head.
Prices: Adults – R150; pensioners R130; children R120. For those who join the train at Inchanga (departure 6 am): Adults – R300; pensioners R260; children R240.
Bookings:087-808 7715 or 082 353 6003.
Stoke it, man!
WERE it not that I will be in Maritzburg at another celebration – this one of the famous Twiggy's Pie Cart – I should most certainly volunteer as a stoker.
I have experience. Late one night in days of yore, a pal and I befriended the driver of a steam train on the South Coast line and we stoked the engine all the way from Umgababa to the Bayhead. I count it as one of life's experiences.
Casey Jones - mounted to his cabin
Casey Jones- with his orders in his hand …
Yes, the romance of steam.
What might have been
HUNDREDS of politicos are in Durban with a programme, among other things, to finish what John Vorster never quite managed by limiting the free flow of information and freedom of expression. It moves Hugh Lee, of Eshowe, a former member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, to lament on what might have been. He calls his poem "Oh Africa, my Africa."
How sweet the memory of youth to me you are,
With glistening droplets jewelled by the sun god Ra.
On maidens bathing naked beside once lovely streams.
Crowned at last, we loved and lived to make our dreams,
With flickering fire and woody incense-added charm
Of fresh-turned turf after summer rains our lands to farm.
Once the hope and envy of this worldly stage, we languish now in ever-growing spiteful rage.
Where have my Father's lowing cattle strayed,
After hoped-for shepherds left their charge dismayed?
Sold cheaply for gems of gaudy city strife,
Or translucent spams that brought no real joy to life?
This new-found democracy no magic wand for me has spun,
Save for those who took the prize and wayward run.
Roll on oh wagon of my great hope, onward roll
For soon the torment in my Judge's hand will toll
The bell of truth that must surely begin to ring
To usher in a better song for all of us to sing.
A lamentation from the heart for what could have been.
Grammatical point
WHAT'S the difference between a cat and a comma? One has the paws before the claws, the other has the clause before the pause.
Tailpiece
HE FED HIS dog on garlic. Its bark was worse than its bite.
Last word
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
GRAHAM LINSCOTT
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