Pussy Riot pitch invasion
IT WOULD have been easy to miss the Pussy Riot pitch invasion during Sunday's Football World Cup final in Moscow. For an instant there was a diminutive figure in some kind of uniform, in among the players. Then the camera switched away and nothing more was seen of the incident on TV.
What actually happened was that three Pussy Riot gals and one man ran onto the field in police uniform, in protest at the lack of civil rights and political freedoms in Russia. They were pounced on by the real cops and whisked off to be charged with violation of spectators' rights and the wearing of police insignia.
Watching from the grandstand were President Vladimir Putin, President Emmanuel…. Macron, of France, and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, of Croatia.
Pussy Riot have form. Three of its members went to jail for disturbing a service in Moscow's main cathedral with a raucous song against President Putin.
Sunday's incident – the instant swivelling away of the camera lenses – recalls SABC policy at a time there was a craze of streakers invading the rugby pitch. Radio commentators would ignore it. TV cameras swivelled away – as in Moscow last weekend – and their commentators also ignored it.
Then came that needle Currie Cup match between in Bloemfontein between Free State and Western Province. Province needed to win to get into the semi-finals. A streaker ran onto the field – not entirely naked because he was still wearing anklet socks.
The SABC ignored it. And then drama. Province were going for the Free State line. It looked a certain try. And suddenly a radio commentator on the Afrikaans service broke standing policy on ignoring streakers. He had no option. Suddenly listeners all over the country, in dorp and on platteland, heard the astonishing words: "En hy word deur die kaal man gevat …" (And he's tackled by the naked man …).
Yes, the streaker tackled the would-be try scorer into touch. It kept Western Province out of the Currie Cup semi-final. Had Free State Stadium ever known drama like this? The streaker's wife was quoted in the newspapers saying she recognised him by his socks. The streaker got hauled before court for public indecency (I don't think he was charged with keeping Western Province out of the Currie Cup semi-final) and a Free State beak observed strict impartiality in dispensing justice.
What will happen to those Pussy Riot gals and their male companion? Maybe the Russians need to second a Free State beak to ensure strict impartiality.
| Political storm
WOW! What a foreign sortie this has been for President Donald Trump. Aggro at the Nato summit; a virtual firebombing in Britain of his host, Theresa May's, Brexit manouevrings; and then a billing and cooing in Helsinki with President Putin, simultaneously repudiating his own security establishment.
Huge anger back in the US, John Brennan, former head of the CIA, describing Trump's conduct as "treasonous". And it's not just from the expected quarters. Captain America – the hooded hero of the films based on the old Marvell Comics - calls Trump a "moron, puppet and coward". Well, that's Chris Evans, the actor who plays Captain America. His full Twitter post:" This moron, puppet, coward sided with Putin over our own intelligence agencies! On a world stage!! BASED ON NOTHING MORE THAN PUTIN'S WORD! Why?? Can ANYONE answer that?? What the hell is happening?
Then The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger): "You stood there like a little wet noodle. Like a little fan boy". Also a rebuke from Newt Gingrich, a leading Republican and former Speaker of the House of Representatives: "President Trump must clarify his statements in Helsinki on our intelligence system and Putin. It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected – immediately." This is what you call a political storm. But Captain America and The Terminator? It's getting ugly. |
Burglar
A WOMAN in Harrow, London, heard strange noises downstairs in her house late one night. Terrified, she dialled 999 and told them she was being burgled.
The cops got there fast, according to Huffington Post. But all they found was a squirrel that had somehow got in.
No charges.
Tailpiece
WHAT has eight guns and terrorises the ocean?
Billy the Squid.
Last word
If living conditions don't stop improving in this country, we're going to run out of humble beginnings for our great men.
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