Spotted online earlier, this small (but very irritating) survey:
There are a number of different reasons that I think a vaccine might work better than prayer when it comes to preventing Covid infection, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t matter. If half the country aren’t going to take the vaccination (for whatever reason), then we’re stuck with this damn virus for longer than we need to be.
I do this every year. Booooooring!
But I do it because I genuinely mean what I say.
I’m not a religious person. But I don’t mind if you are.
I won’t try to force my opinion down your throat, and I’d very much appreciate it if you’d afford me the same courtesy.
I do understand that this is a very special day for many people around the world, and I hope that whatever it means to you, you enjoy a peaceful, safe and happy December 25th.
I live in a pretty crazy country. There are a lot of laws, but no-one really obeys them.
Germany also has a lot of laws, but they’re probably a lot more law-abiding than South Africans.
That will be tested (again) this weekend, though. Because it’s Tanzverbot time.
With restrictions varying across the country’s 16 states, the dancing ban, or ‘Tanzverbot’, effectively bars public dancing on the Christian holiday. In some states, including Hesse, the ban lasts for more than one day.
Now authorities in Frankfurt, the biggest city in Hesse, have vowed to crack down on anyone who ignores the ban that’s in place from Thursday to Saturday.
Bizarre. And stupid. The most irritating thing about Christian holidays here is that the bottle stores close – which is equally bizarre and stupid – but you can still dance!
“Even those who do not belong to a religion themselves should show respect for the feelings of others,” said the Uwe Becker, the CDU politician who is head of the church department in Frankfurt.
Indeed. Because there’s nothing that ruins a religious holiday more than some people you have never met, dancing in a nightclub in the city centre while you’re fast asleep 20km away in the suburbs. So disrespectful.
I’m very glad we don’t have such a silly law here.
Not that anyone would take any notice anyway.
I say this every year now, but it counts every year.
I’m not a religious person. From that point of view, Christmas means nothing to me. But as a time to wind down after a hard year at work, as a time to spend time with loved ones, as a time to reward my kids for their hard work and effort this year… well, suddenly it’s everything.
Whether you are celebrating for religious reasons, for personal reasons or even if you’re not celebrating at all, have a wonderful day today.
That’s the headline from iol this morning, and the article underneath it goes on to say that:
The City of Cape Town’s Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille will host an inter-faith gathering of various religious leaders to pray for rain on Thursday at 2pm.
Who’ll be there? Well, various religious leaders including:
representatives from various churches, the Muslim Judicial Council, the Western Cape Christian Ministers’ Association, the Western Cape Traditional Leaders and Cultural Council, the Khoisan Griqua Royal House, the Bahaí Community of South Africa, the Tushita Kadampa Buddhist Centre, and the Hindu and Jewish communities.
Inter-faith indeed. All the major food groups listed there. No atheists, which is a bit awkward in our supposedly secular society, but I guess it might have been awkwarder still (I know) were we represented…
De Lille says:
“The residents and businesses of Cape Town have made great efforts to save water but we have to do more and we especially need the rains to come.”
Right. A few issues here. And I’m not going to spend too long on going through these. I’m too irritated to elaborate on stuff. It’ll involve swearing. Even this condensed version may involve swearing. Seriously, I’m literally just about to write it, and it really feels like it will involve some swearing right now.
1. Prayers don’t work. Evidence for this includes the repeated praying for no more terrorist attacks in Europe.
2. Also that whole Angus Buchan thing on Freedom Day.
3. And the annual SA Police Service prayer day for no more crime.
4. If prayers do actually work, then why didn’t you pray for rain earlier?
5. Oh wait. You did. And it didn’t work.
6. Look, I do realise that just because you’re spending your time doing this, it’s not that more practical solutions aren’t being organised: dams being dredged, other water sources being investigated and the like. But…
7. My rates – including my (understandably) inflated water tariff – are paying for you to attend this crap. And that’s annoying, because no matter what you were doing instead of sitting on the bloody mountain with your friends chatting to their various sky fairies this afternoon, it would offer me and the rest of the city’s ratepayers a far better return for our hard earned money.
8. If, when it rains tomorrow, as it is forecast to do (and as it has been forecast to do all week), and you or your god-bothering mates then claim that your Table Mountain meeting has yielded positive, tangible results, I may just go flipping postal. In a very reserved, British way, obviously.
Very restrained on the language there, well done me.
Look, I know you’re not going to read this, Patricia.
I know you’re not going to read it because you never read my towing an iceberg from Antarctica and dumping it in Franschhoek solution to the current water crisis; a solution which I have implored you to respond to on several occasions; a solution which I made up merely for comedic value, and which – although mathematically sound – is laughably far-fetched, but which would still be a better way of addressing the drought than you wasting everyone’s time and money on shouting at the clouds this afternoon.
What a disgrace.