Feeding the three-mouthed baby
Durban POISON
IWENT to Teazers once to get my nails done. The Thai manicurist didn’t do a very good job, even though hired a private booth so she could work without the other manicurists distracting me. I left feeling quite frustrated.
I doubt State Security Minister David Mahlobo had the same experience when he visited the Jin Lu Massage and Beauty Salon in Nelspruit. The Chinese are experts when it comes to giving even the most faulty of nails a damn good seeing to.
A lot of famous people use manicurists. Charlie Sheen, for instance, has the best nails in Hollywood. He stopped going, though, after picking up a nasty infection from a dodgy nail file.
Turns out that the owner of the establishment, Comrade Guan Jiang Guang, dabbles in a bit of the old rhino horn trade when business is slow.
Who could’ve guessed? Not Mahlobo, obviously. He’s only responsible for providing the government with intelligence on organised crime. Perhaps he didn’t think Comrade Guan was all that organised, what with the odd stray horn being swept up with the end of the day’s toenail clippings.
In other news from the department of pork pies, the government is forging ahead with efforts to make good on the bribes paid by Russia to build our nuclear power stations. Okay, fine. Alleged bribes.
This week the Department of Energy briefed Parliament’s energy portfolio committee on matters nuclear. In keeping with the government’s commitment to transparency, the media and members of the public were barred.
Committee chairman Fikile Majola said the meeting to discuss forensic reports into the R14.5 billion “impairment” suffered by PetroSA on its investment in the Ikhwezi offshore drilling project would also be held behind closed doors.
“What? You’ve lost all our money gambling at the casino?”
“Relax, darling. I didn’t lose it. I suffered an impairment.”
The nuclear build plan is a one, possibly two, trillion rand project and the deal is none of our business. Rightly so. We’re not qualified to have an opinion. The World Bank says 10 million South Africans struggle to meet their monthly debt repayments.
We’re complete idiots. No wonder they can’t trust us to behave like adults when it comes to finance.
“Sir, this money has been allocated to the nuclear power programme.”
“Ja, but I just need a small las, my bru. Gooi a 10 mil there. I’ll pay you back. I swear.”
You can’t expect people to understand splitting the atom when they need help splitting the bar bill. You also can’t expect people to care about the cost of Project Nuke when their only reaction to the news that the government irregularly spent R46bn in one year is to roll their eyes and order another round. And, quite possibly, vote for the same sorry sack of weasels in the next election.
Like my hero Donald Trump, I’m a big fan of fossil fuels. Fossils burn better than anything. Just one vertebrate from the spine of a brontosaurus will keep your braai going for a month. And if you chuck a couple of them trilobites and chillibites and whatnot into the Jetmaster, you’re sorted for winter. What’s not to love?
I’m an even bigger fan of nuclear power. You know where you stand with this stuff. Don’t talk to me about renewable energy. You can’t trust the sun, much less the wind. The sun will give you skin cancer, while the wind will blow your cap off and you’ll chase it into the road and get hit by a taxi.
Like politics, uranium mining is a filthy business, especially if it gets down your shoes or under your nails.
You’d then have to go to the Jin Lu Beauty Salon and run the risk of being seen as a metrosexual fabulist with an unhealthy interest in the keratin-rich pointy bit on the snouts of certain odd-toed ungulates.
The production of 1 000 tons of uranium fuel generates 100 000 tons of radioactive tailings and 4 million litres of liquid waste containing head-banging heavy metals and yummy arsenic.
But it’s okay because you only have to store the waste for a quarter of a million years before it’s safe enough to let the children play in it.
The best thing about having a nuclear programme is that we can help out our other buddies in Central Asia.
Vladimir can do the power stations while the Stans (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) can handle the armaments side of things.
It would be silly to have nuclear power stations and not nuclear weapons. Our North Korean friends would laugh at us.
Besides, when President Trump phones in the codes, we don’t want to be standing around like Swaziland with our hands down our broeks not bombing anyone because we don’t have any nukes.
I’m not suggesting we make anything on the scale of Fat Man and Little Boy, here. I’m thinking more along the lines of pocket nukes compact enough to be fired by unskilled labourers using rudimentary catapults.
The Speaker of Parliament could use them to shut the DA up. We could even make baby bombs for personalised use. Take Julius Malema, for instance. Slip a tiny one down his trousers and he won’t be so quick to call for the slaughter of us white devils, I can tell you.
We’ve taken a few shaky steps down Fission Road already. Remember the government’s Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project? Of course you don’t. You barely remember where you were last night.
The PBMR frolic, which came to a shuddering halt six years ago, was the equivalent of pouring petrol over R10bn and putting a match to it. Eight hundred employees were retrenched and the company’s assets mothballed.
Then again, the project was in Centurion and, if there is one city that could do with an invasion of giant mutant moths capable of sucking up entire buildings through their enormous hairy probosci, Pretoria is it.
That doomed venture could have paid for two billion bottles of Windhoek Lager.
Finally, here’s a short guide that might come in handy should the government go ahead with this berserk project that has more to do with meeting the financial needs of the alpha wolf and his ravening pack than it does the country’s energy needs.
At some point, there is likely to be a nuclear disaster. Don’t worry that you might mistake it for a car backfiring in the street. It will be louder than that.
Once you have heard the blast, resist the urge to rush outside and see what happened.
Refrain from sexual activity. This is not a good time for a woman to conceive. Unless, of course, you can afford to have another three mouths to feed. And you don’t mind if they’re all on the same baby.
If a reactor near you blows up before you can reach an underground shelter, put on a floppy hat and a pair of decent sunglasses. The flash is very bright and could damage your eyesight. The flash is also very hot and could leave you with a nasty burn if you’re not careful. If this happens, smear a little butter on it right away.
The detonation of a 300 kiloton nuclear device releases 300 trillion calories within a millionth of a second. If you are in the habit of watching calories, you will need to have your wits about you. Get behind a wall or down on the floor and make yourself as small as possible. You really can’t afford to pile on more calories.
The energy of the blast will also create a giant fireball. This won’t be so bad if it happens in Cape Town in winter, but if you live in Durban and it’s midsummer, the additional heat will be unbearable and you’ll probably want to call in sick.
Waves of thermal energy will ignite fires across the city. If you are having trouble lighting a braai, you will welcome the extra help. Very hot high-speed gales will also spring up, so you might have to postpone the kite surfing.
Once the blast wave has passed, have a shower to wash off any lingering radiation and put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea. But be quick because the rising fireball will create a suction effect and a lot of stuff will start heading back towards ground zero. If you see cars, trees, animals and so on flying past your window, hold on to something until the winds die down.
There will be a lot of dust and other debris in the air, so if you suffer from hayfever you might want to take an antihistamine.
The streets will be quite warm from all that hot air passing over them and it’s best to put on a sturdy pair of shoes before venturing out. Things will look a little different and it’s important that you remain positive. Take the opportunity to relax and enjoy the quiet.