Sounds like a plan to me. I am unbelievably disappointed with the officials involved in this.
Springbok scrumhalf Ricky Januarie was arrested on Sunday morning in Durbanville, Cape Town, for drunk driving.
This article was written on September 15th at IOL. Guess what? Ricky Januarie is playing rugby on Saturday for Western Province.
What is wrong with society that sports people (celebrities) are allowed to go free in spite of an arrest? Surely Januarie should be suspended until his court hearing? Surely the Western Province board doesn’t care that much about winning? Surely it is more important to create a sense of responsibility among the idols of SA rugby?
I am going to say it again, I am exceptionally disappointed with the situation and believe that Januarie should be indefinitely removed from professional rugby. This is not his first offense either and that should be even more cause for concern. No, not in our rugby ranks. Here drunk driving is an acceptable crime. Placing other people in danger on the road is seen to be an acceptable way of existing in society. Well I think not. What if Januarie had killed someone? What if he had rammed his car in to someones wall, car, child, mother or grandmother? What then?
It seems that Ricky Januarie will be able to play the rest of the year since his driving under the influence of alcohol case has been postponed to 29 January 2009.
“Januarie, who was arrested by police in the early hours of Sunday morning in Durbanville near Cape Town, has been named to play for Western Province in a Currie Cup match against Griquas at Newlands on Friday. WP coach Allister Coetzee confirmed this week that he will continue to select the player, despite the scrumhalf’s off-field troubles.” – source
But instead January walks free and gets to earn more money and play more rugby all the while, leaving a great trail for the youth to follow. Well done Januarie, well done.
Wheelchair rugby. It’s big apparently. There was a movie made about the USA Wheelchair Rugby team at the Athens Paralympic games. I kid you not. In fact it has a nickname: Murderball.
Watch this and you’ll know why:
Now SA has a Murderball team but for some reason we aren’t competing at this years Paralympics. Either we didn’t qualify or our team didn’t make it over there? Strange but intense anyway.
Bored. That is what us bloggers must be. Why? Because we seem to be so preoccupied recently (a phenomenon that has coincided with some interesting arrivals of late) with who is who and doing what and how often in our wondrously massive local blogging community.
Those who are mentioned “seem to not care” but care enough to blog about themselves being blogged about. I have been mentioned a fair amount and I am now partaking in my own condemnation (oh the irony). I am blogging about blogs by bloggers on blogging and bloggers and who’s the bestest of the best and whose daddy is bigger than whose mommy and who has the nicest fanciest shmanciest housiest home or rather, blog, and who is more influential than who and how often they influence those that influence others.
Can I just chime in here and say that I actually think it’s a load of rubbish. In spite of my participation in Mandy’s “Top Ten bloggers” post over at MoneyWeb I honestly think it’s irrelevant. Mandy asked on twitter yesterday: “Who has more influece?” and listed three bloggers for others to compare. Link. Bait. It’s link baiting. Not journalism. It’s irrelevant in my opinion (and only in my opinion). What does matter is that its time we refocus our energy on relevant content for the every day reader. Not the bloggers who blog about blogging.
Has content become so drab and non existent that we have turned to each other, looked one another in the blog and decided that we are the only content relevant enough to blog about? Are you kidding me?
I reiterate that I grasp the fact that I am doing the same thing right now that I am condemning, do not point it out in the comments, I get it, I know that I am doing it but occasionally it is unavoidable.
What I am getting at is that people like to stir the pot, we like to back rub, we like to have our backs rubbed, we all do and we all know it, we just can’t help ourselves. It’s the old adage that people like to see themselves on TV, look at America’s Funniest Home Videos. That show has never gone away and it’s because there are regular people focusing on people like themselves. That doesn’t make it good content though. It just makes it long-lasting.
Maybe it’s time I shift my focus to writing for readers, not bloggers. Writing for people and writing about things that people like to read. In my opinion readers don’t like to read about bloggers blogging about blogs and other bloggers egos and ranks and pages and pageranks and technorati and lists and links… see I’m bored already.
Just a short post to alert whoever it is that cares that I haven’t been blogging very much because I have been KO with Bronchitis. I’ve been off work for 4 working days tomorrow but am off to the doctor yet again because I am not better.
Have a look at the pictures below. I have seen pictures of the digging, burying, building and more at the Gautrain sites but I have yet to see images of the actual train that people will be using.
