Do you have a permit for that Pyramid?

Two points today:

First, a retroactive commentary on the Government's ludicrous "No car day". Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea - or rather, it's good to see they are responding to the problem, but the response wasn't great.

You see, it's the simplist response to the massive overcrowding of our roads: too many cars on the roads - why don't they use public transport instead. And that's where the idea falls down.

I was going to go into an indepth examination of the whys and wherefores, but to put it simply: the main problem with public transport is in Joburg, where the combination of no non-taxi transport networks combined with Joburg's massive suburban spread has reached proto-LA status (eg. bad).

But their solution was, well, daft. Nevermind that it was mostly ignored, but that they encouraged people to use the minibus taxi system. (In Joburg, you can't use anything else, really.)

Nevermind that the taxi industry is not public, and only services the most profitable routes to the exclusion of all others. That's crazy enough as it is, but you see: the government's "No car day" encourages crime.

To start with: something like 50% of drivers in South Africa don't have licenses, and a scary number of those that do, bought them. (Unfortunately I can't link you to the appropriate article, I hate IOL's search engine, and it hates me.) And then add in the totally unfounded opinion that the Taxi industry is more likely to have illegal no licenses than your run of the mill motorist.

And the government knows this.

Then you have the taxi's themselves, they're falling to pieces. Take the steering wheel out, whatever. They're unroadworthy in many instances. But it's okay, you can bribe the police and keep rolling. Again, the government knows this.

And the taxi industry? They take in millions of rands of profit a year (they are cited as the most impressive most apartheid business story). And they pay no taxes. The government knows this too.

So basically, "No car day" was asking you to aid in a plethora of different illegal industries (for the slow: the driver license fraud, bribery of police officials and dodging of taxes. Not to mention that rather "curious" justice the taxi unions exert on any rivals.)

All hail our wise and noble leaders.

Right, and now to totally break from crazy theories (warning, sarcasm), I bring you Europe's first pyramid. The dating proposed sounds a little weird, but hey: cool.