Plan B Forum

The scene yesterday morning on the N8 as I drove in to town on a parallel slip road. Missed the excitement of seeing a gang shoot out the tires of the cash-van, order everyone out and then blow it up with dynamite. Cash all over the road and no news yet on what their haul was.

Also this morning, friend Claude sent a WhatsApp video he took in a looted store in Alexandria - things is not good here. "Civil" society appears to be breaking down.

Isn't South Africa the country where car jacking became so common place that some high-end vehicles were equipped with flamethrowers that drivers could activate from inside the car to drive off the attackers?

Lord Jim wrote:Isn't South Africa the country where car jacking became so common place that some high-end vehicles were equipped with flamethrowers that drivers could activate from inside the car to drive off the attackers?

HOT WHEELS...

You know Meade, there are plenty of heathens and poor kids right here at home you could be tending to.

You’d be a bit safer here than SA, even considering our mass shootings problem.

Apropos of nothing in particular, do you realize that it was FIFTY YEARS AGO that this movie was released?

-"BB"-

BB, I said that same line to my wife . . . yeah, BSG we're getting to the condition of body that suggests a rational health care system might be advisable in the next two years. So, USA or UK . . .

Just a few hours ago, a lady of our congregation, 60s, married, committed suicide. Not everything is about me (my wife alleges) but these "signs" are getting close to home.

Bicycle Bill wrote: Apropos of nothing in particular, do you realize that it was FIFTY YEARS AGO that this movie was released?

Who are those guys?

MajGenl.Meade wrote:BB, I said that same line to my wife . . . yeah, BSG we're getting to the condition of body that suggests a rational health care system might be advisable in the next two years. So, USA or UK . . .

Just a few hours ago, a lady of our congregation, 60s, married, committed suicide. Not everything is about me (my wife alleges) but these "signs" are getting close to home.

Do have any ideas about why she committed suicide?

Maybe because life for older people is really hard and lonely and disappointing at an alarmingly high rate?

Ages 45-54 have the highest suicide rates - next highest is after 85 and that’s likely folks choosing their final exit on their own terms in light of health issues, rather than folks in despair who can’t see suffering anymore time on this bleak rock.

Meade may have actual answers to that question, but since often the immediate loved ones of suicides don’t even know why they did it, I hope we won’t just engage in speculation about the lady.

A while back I was in Walmart and this young white man asked me where he could find peanut butter. I noticed his accent and asked him if he was from Germany. He said no he is from South Africa. He is a modern day indentured servant. He is working for a local farmer in exchange for his passage from South Africa. I didn’t realize that such things still happen. I am sure he could get out of his contract, but he has no intentions of doing so he is hoping to get the rest of his family and friends out by working hard and setting a good example. If he did get out of his contract would his work visa be revoked?

Some of them are smarts enough to see the hand writing on the wall and getting out while they can.

liberty wrote:......If he did get out of his contract would his work visa be revoked?

What kind of contract?

Indentured service is illegal in the US - even in Walmart - under the 13th amendment. I had you down as pretty much a constitutionalist, lib - did you let him know his rights?

Doubtless lib refers (all unknowing) to the H2A temporary agricultural worker visa. Lots of info here for anyone who cares (in addition to Dept of Labor website): http://www.golden-opportunities.us/employee Some highlights:

"We work with employees from South Africa, New Zealand, Ukraine and Mexico."

"The employer first has to apply at the Department of Labor to be able to employ H-2A employees. The employer has to qualify for the program. In order to quality they have to get a housing approval by the Department of Labor, and the job has to be advertised to see if there is any American employees that may be able to fill the position"

"What is the H2-A Visa? It is a non-immigrant, seasonal agricultural (farming) visa. Seasonal demand determines placement periods and can be for a maximum of ten months. H2A workers will receive reimbursement for their transportation costs from South Africa to their place of employment. The employer, at no cost to the employee, will provide a furnished house for the duration of the contract. The employee is responsible for his/her own cooking and provision of food. Hourly rate is a flat rate (minimum prevailing wage determined by the Department of Labor – differs from State to State). No taxes are withheld. Employer provides Workman’s Compensation or equivalent insurance for work related injuries"

The employer pays the airfare - half is paid when the worker has been there for half of the contract periiod and the balance when the contract ends (6 months).

lib's main point of course was in the word "white". He needed to specify so we could all "get" that black South Africans don't leave; only white ones do. Ahem . . . August 25, 2019:

The (Induku) consultancy group says in the last two weeks alone, inquiries have picked up from two a week to an average of about 20 a day. And their clients stem from all back grounds - not just those many would expect to be making a call to leave the country.

"Black emigrants exceed the tally of white South Africans leaving the country," says Trevor Thomas one of the Directors at Induku Consulting Group (ICG).

While many would think emigration was only a phenomenon amongst white professionals, this has changed in recent years says Thomas. He says this is according to "data from the Department of Home Affairs’ 2017 white paper on emigration, with Johannes Wessels, Director of The Enterprise Observatory of South Africa quoted on a number of platforms stating this".

lib will be happy that the SA government issues white papers.

liberty wrote:A while back I was in Walmart and this young white man asked me where he could find peanut butter. I noticed his accent and asked him if he was from Germany. He said no he is from South Africa. He is a modern day indentured servant. He is working for a local farmer in exchange for his passage from South Africa.

And of course you believed him.  Or did he show you the Articles of Indenture?

Can you spell 'gullible'?

Although he might have been telling a form of the truth.  It's far more likely it's an arrangement similar to the one Meade outlines above, so liberty heard that and took a running jump off a pier into the deep end.

-"BB"-

How’s that for a mixed metaphor?

Joe Guy wrote:

liberty wrote:......If he did get out of his contract would his work visa be revoked?

What kind of contract?

I don’t know; some type work contract. I only talked to him for a few minutes. He was quite open he didn’t mind answering questions. He was a lot more open than the Arabs and Hindu Indians I have met. I didn’t even get his name; I did catch the name of the farmer. The farmer has a local large operation. He used to employ blacks and whites then just blacks and after that Mexicans. It must be that the Mexicans want too much money now.

I don’t know if I blame the farmer; farming is a tough business.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Doubtless lib refers (all unknowing) to the H2A temporary agricultural worker visa. Lots of info here for anyone who cares (in addition to Dept of Labor website): http://www.golden-opportunities.us/employee Some highlights:

"We work with employees from South Africa, New Zealand, Ukraine and Mexico."

"The employer first has to apply at the Department of Labor to be able to employ H-2A employees. The employer has to qualify for the program. In order to quality they have to get a housing approval by the Department of Labor, and the job has to be advertised to see if there is any American employees that may be able to fill the position"

"What is the H2-A Visa? It is a non-immigrant, seasonal agricultural (farming) visa. Seasonal demand determines placement periods and can be for a maximum of ten months. H2A workers will receive reimbursement for their transportation costs from South Africa to their place of employment. The employer, at no cost to the employee, will provide a furnished house for the duration of the contract. The employee is responsible for his/her own cooking and provision of food. Hourly rate is a flat rate (minimum prevailing wage determined by the Department of Labor – differs from State to State). No taxes are withheld. Employer provides Workman’s Compensation or equivalent insurance for work related injuries"

The employer pays the airfare - half is paid when the worker has been there for half of the contract periiod and the balance when the contract ends (6 months).

lib's main point of course was in the word "white". He needed to specify so we could all "get" that black South Africans don't leave; only white ones do. Ahem . . . August 25, 2019:

The (Induku) consultancy group says in the last two weeks alone, inquiries have picked up from two a week to an average of about 20 a day. And their clients stem from all back grounds - not just those many would expect to be making a call to leave the country.

"Black emigrants exceed the tally of white South Africans leaving the country," says Trevor Thomas one of the Directors at Induku Consulting Group (ICG).

While many would think emigration was only a phenomenon amongst white professionals, this has changed in recent years says Thomas. He says this is according to "data from the Department of Home Affairs’ 2017 white paper on emigration, with Johannes Wessels, Director of The Enterprise Observatory of South Africa quoted on a number of platforms stating this".

lib will be happy that the SA government issues white papers.

I said “wrote” white South African because that is what he is. Of course, I could be wrong as far as I know whites might not be citizen of South Africa.

The H-2A visa which is what is normally used for agricultural workers is not translateable into a permanent green card. I think your friend was misinformed , lib.