Putin looks cocky
TV FOOTAGE of the G-20 gathering in China captures Russian President Vladimir Putin looking uncharacteristically buoyant and cheerful. The newsreaders have remarked on it.
But why should Putin not be buoyant? One of the participants is engaged in an exercise which could end in the evisceration of the European Union – a process comparable with dissolution of the old Soviet Union more than two decades ago.
Another participant – a senior Nato member – is in a state of political upheaval.
Another participant's chancellor has received a stinging electoral slap in the face over her open-door immigration policy.
And in yet another case - a participant which calls itself the leader of the free world – the presidency could very soon go to a buffoon of astonishing ignorance.
Given that the stable two-party system has meanwhile all but collapsed in both the UK and the US, "western democracy" seems to be in a kind of melt-down.
Putin has reason to be feeling bullish.
SAA
INVESTMENT analyst Dr James Greener notes that SAA has placed a newspaper advertisement inviting anyone interested to oblige with a loan.
"It really was a very modest little notice wondering rather diffidently if there was anyone out there who might be interested in lending them some cash. Well R16 billion actually, so quite a bit more than 'some'.
"As yet there has been no word if they have raised anything more than eyebrows. It's rather well known that the airline is bust in everything but the law and that it's run by folk with scant idea of what they are doing.
"So aside from the fly-by-night unregistered and unknown financiers with very dodgy friends, principles and principals, no serious lender is likely to reach for the phone after reading this pathetic little cry for help.
"In all likelihood it is the taxpayers who will be hoisted back aboard the tired old splay-footed white steed and made to gallop to the rescue of the flag carrier yet again."
I wonder, perhaps SAA could station their agents at traffic lights to raise a little that way.
More threesomes
LAST week we mentioned the case of threesomes – two men, one woman – of various nationalities being shipwrecked on an idyllic tropical island.
Now a reader who calls himself NDC says there were also Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans.
"The Australians set up a professional rugby league competition funded by their bar and casino. The Chinese spent most of their laundry money at the Casino. The Australian woman -- a glamorous model - was the main prize at the casino -but- no one has yet won the main prize - the Australians know how to run a casino business.
"The New Zealanders built a Maori canoe and left the Island with their woman on a rugby recruitment trip to the surrounding islands.
"With the departure of the New Zealanders and with the Australians focused on their rugby league competition, the South Africans contemplated being the rugby union champions of the island but got beaten by the two irishman. The Irish have been partying ever since.
"The South Africans have spent their time re enacting the game to work out how they lost to the Irish. They have even tried to contact their overseas based players by sending messages in a bottle.
"As for the Englishmen - they have raised their flag on the island and decided their difficulty in engaging with the English woman is because there are too many foreigners on the island, disrupting the English character.
"They have taken a Brexit vote requiring all other Europeans (except for one Irishman) to leave their island and return to the continent. The Chinese have been invited to remain on the Island and continue with their laundry. The Australians and South Africans have been given visiting visas.
"The surviving Spaniard turned out to be Argentinian and has been expelled from the island by the English after he attempted to name the island Las Malvinas."
Tailpiece
PADDY goes for a medical examination. The doctor is astonished to find banknotes stuffed in his ears. He takes them out and counts them.
"There's exactly R1 950 here. What goes on?"
"Ah, dat's right. I wasn't feelin' two grand."
Last word
He has Van Gogh's ear for music. - Billy Wilder
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