Another year has virtually come to an end and this yet again leaves me with the “looking back” part that seems completely unavoidable for some weird and strange reason. No matter how hard I try, each year this happens. I try and avoid it purely because I am not the type of person that believes in dwelling on the past and what has been. There’s after all no chance to change that which has been or happened. I firmly believe the only thing we can change in life is the right here and right now otherwise known as the present. Amazing how we call it “the present” don’t you think? Maybe the dude or dudette that decided to call it “the present” had some ulterior motives? I mean a present is a gift right, so that means the right hare and right now is a gift we have and should cherish it? Right, I think I might be over analysing a word right now so I will simply stop right here on “the present” and continue with the blog I intended to write in the first place.

The year that’s been for me has had its ups and downs, that’s for dam sure. Something that we all have in a year, however the decisions we made during year has plotted our course of life through the year that’s been and decided on the amount of ups and downs we might have had. I’ve made a few bad choices this year, they are completely over shadowed by the good and yes brilliant choices I have made though. This year will most certainly be filed under the “amazing years” in my life’s memoirs. The upturn in this started with the move back to Durban, my wife wasn’t the happiest person while we were living in Windhoek, Nambabwe and who could blame her? She was stuck in a house 24/7/365. None of the idiots in that stupid country was willing to go that little bit extra and try and help her out with a work permit. They were all quick to say her skills are in desperate shortage but no-one was willing to do anything about it, had she had some sort of employment, I’m almost sure she would have been a little happier there. Either way, that over and done with now, we are back home were we belong with the help and support of family and great friends.

The move back to Durban also made it easier to go back into a rotational position and earn a little more money to be able to provide a better life for my family and my unborn child (back then). Yep, the only thing Nambabwe did good for us was the fact that we were going to be parents! Something I’ve been wanting to be for a few years now, but everything happens when it’s supposed to happen and it seemed this year was when it was meant to happen. I was working on a 6 and 6 rotation in Nambabwe for a little more than I was earning working on the road, but still kept my ear on the ground for anything in the oil and gas industry. I knew I’ve lost my passion for the medical field some years ago and never truly regained it, I do however have the qualification and will keep it as something to fall back on when it’s needed. It’s always good to have a back door just in case. Although it seems there are people in this world that’s determined to close these doors, good thing about it is that they never succeeded this time. “Send us proof or we will scrap you from the roll and inform other registration authorities”. HA! I decided to keep the back door open and send the “other registration authorities” proof and let the threatening one remove me.

Then Zia was born, the pinnacle of human existence in my humble opinion. The one thing that both man and woman life for, we are programmed to leave a legacy, part of this legacy involves becoming parents. Zia was born on the 18^th of August 2010, the perfect (yes, yes, I am biased I know) little girl. Which had me rethink life as it stands now, it brought me to the realisation that I will not be able to provide everything her heart desires on my current income, it also brought back the nagging knowledge that I have reached the roof in my current job and company. There was no promotions, no change of advancement and certainly no chance of an increase in the very near future. Things in the oil industry was still flat thought with no decent offers coming along, then suddenly out of the blue I get a phone call asking me if I would be interested in taking of the position of Safety Engineer on a new built 5^th generation deep water floater. I was interested, it meant tax free salary, quite the jump in salary to. The negotiations started and concluded to me being back on a 4 and 4 rotation and earning a little more than double than my current salary. The only snag, I had to start within the next 2 weeks. This being less than a week before I’m due to fly out to Nambabwe. It was a hard decision to make which resulted in me phoning everyone I look up to and discussing it with them, simply because it’s not me. It’s not something I do, I have always prided myself in being professional and doing the right thing. This time however, being professional and doing the right thing seemed to be on a collision course. I had to do the right thing for my family, so I resigned without working notice. It’s something that still bothers me and weighs on my conscience, but such is life I suppose and back to the Oil industry I went.

As this year draws to a close, I can say that it’s been another truly memorable year. With us (my wife and myself) being blessed with a bouncing baby daughter being the highlight of it. Next year poses to be an even more memorable year as I start on a new adventure in a position that many people with 20 – 30 years worth of experience are yearning for and never manage to get.

So in closing, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and blessed Christmas, may it be filled with the love of family and the hearty laughter of loved ones sitting with each other while we reminisce over the year that’s been. The good times we’ve had and the dreams we have for the future.

In recent weeks it has emerged that the KZN branch of SADTU (The South African Democratic Teachers Union) called on teachers to mark the matric (grade12) final papers "carefully" asking for "biased marking in favour of black students. This after they went on strike in protest of low wages and low housing subsides. While I perfectly agree that teachers and all other essential services in South Africa does not get paid enough for the work they do and supported the strike, I will not and can never condone the call made by SADTU.

I am sure you will sit back and say "yes, that's because you are white", should this have been your assessment on the first paragraph. You are sadly mistaken, the issue of race did not even enter my mind when I started writing this. Looking at this realistically, SADTU as the unions calling for this type of marking has done a disservice to those students they are referring to. With this call being made public as it has, they are creating a huge problem in job hunting for these studies.

As the union, they've now called on this type of situation which will leave prospective employers in the coming years wondering whether these studies did "enjoy preferential marking" or whether they've actually passed on merit. Putting yourself in the shoes of an employer, what would you be doing in this case? Will you employ the candidate or will you rather look for someone else? Sadly this question is one that only the person sitting in that chair will be able to answer. South Africans (no matter their racial background) are not stupid.

The calls for this will also result in the lowering of educational standards in a country that's loosing professionals on a daily basis. In the long run this will do nothing to improve on the current situation, it will only make it worse. Lowering the educational standard will show a marked improvement in the pass rate, however it's just cosmetic, underneath it all we will still have bright and hard working students with a substandard education. I do not and will forever fail to see the logic behind this type of move. Maybe that's where my problem lies, I look at situations with logic. I doubt there was ant sort of logic involved when this statement was made by the KZN branch of SADTU.

Statements like this is unbecoming to teachers, those people that we trust to train and prepare our youth for a future in South Africa. Those we entrust the future leaders of our country to, stop saying stupid things and try and make people believe that South African youth (in this case black youth) are stupid. They are not, every South African has the mental capacity to compete on the international stage with great success. I think it's about time teachers start being teachers and stop trying to convince the world otherwise.

As a final thought, I would venture as far as saying that should the pass rate of this years grade 12 students declined from previous years, unions might want to take a look at themselves in the mirror. Your decisions led to a country wide strike, knowing full well the impact it will have on the student that's about to finish their school years. I will fully lay the blame at your door should the pass rate be as abysmal as it is expected to be this year. I hope you are proud of yourselves, statements like the one made by your KZN branch just goes to show the levels you would stoop to in avoiding taking the blame for decisions made for the right reasons, but at the wrong time.

Again I am stuck out here on the rig relying on the internet and the so-called printed media to keep abreast of all the news worthy happenings back home. So it was while browsing through the News24 website that I came across the latest utterances of one of our "public protectors" his Honorable National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele. While I am fully aware he should be addressed as "General Cele" I am referring to him as Commissioner for a reason.

A General in my view commands a military unit that does the job and follows orders to the very last word, no matter what it takes the job get's done. Thus far, the South African Police Service (Force) only seems to succeed in two things, one being wasting the hard earned tax payers money and two, reacting and solving crimes when it suits them. Case in point being the amazing response and record setting arrest times during the FIFA Football WC held a few months ago in South Africa. Hell, the managed to arrest an armed robber in less than 24hrs after holding up a guest in a hotel! More recently though, the tragic murder of Anni Dewani while on honeymoon in Cape Town shows yet again the height of the problems we as South African citizens face with the incompetence of the SAPS to solve violent crimes. According to the last statistics made available by the same SAPS, South Africa has a rate of 46 murders a day or 0.496008 per 1,000 people, most of these remain unsolved. Yet, they managed to apprehend a suspect in the murder of Anni within 7 days!

All this just proves that it is entirely possible for the police to pull their stomachs in and push their chests out and do what they are paid to do. Protect the South African public, solve crimes and ensure perpetrators are brought to book for their crimes. They've proven that they have the capacity to do this, but again after the WC has come and gone they resorted back to their lazy ways. As a citizen of South Africa, I can do nothing but laugh when I see a police officer walk get out of his police vehicle which his stomach hanging ore than just a little over his belt. How the hell is he going to chase a suspect? He will make it half a block and collapse from a heart attack.

I think it's high time that "General" Cele stops shunning the pertinent questions put to him by "spinning" a story and pointing the finger at the UK citing and I quote "I'm saying to you, you act as if you are crimeless where you come from," "You are not crimeless." Everyone knows crime is an international problem and I am in no going to dispute this. What I am going to say is that it's high time the General start acting like a General and not a spoiled little puppet and command his troops. They first need to put on a diet and a mandatory exercise program.

As South Africans, we can no longer allow people like "General Stomach in, Chest Out" to keep our lives in their hands when clearly they only have time for those with money and power. What then will happen to the normal man on the street? I can tell you, so can the crime statistics, your crime will most probably end up in the rows and rows of unsolved crimes that will be forgotten before long by those who are mandated by the constitution to protect lives and protect property.