I received this email in my inbox this week and it just makes you think. Not a very good thing if you think about it.

it’s a longish read so grab a coffee and be thankful you have already finished matric and hopefully have a good job.

Opinion Analysis
Prof. Jonathan Jansen
Vice-Chancellor and Rector: University of the Free State

If I had to make the choice with my own children today, I would seriously consider not sending my child to school in South Africa, for one simple reason: I do not trust a system that makes it possible for a child to pass Grade 12 with 30% in some subjects and 40% in other subjects. I would be filled with fear when I discover that you can get 32% in mathematics and 27% in physical science and still get an official document that says you can continue to study towards a Bachelors degree at university. I would worry myself senseless when I enrol my child in Grade 1 knowing that she could be among the more than half-a-million children who would not make it through to Grade 12. I would be horrified at the possibility that the principal might force her to do mathematical literacy because someone decided she could not do pure mathematics, because it would make the school’s pass averages look bad. And I would be angry when I find that she is guaranteed to be among the 96% pass rate for Life Orientation when all the other subjects in the national Senior Certificate have pass rates way below this number.
It is extremely difficult to fail Grade 12 in South Africa today. You have to put in a special effort, miss your classes, deliberately provide wrong answers to questions, and hand in your paper early during an exam session and maybe, just maybe, you will fail.
But you would not sense this crisis in the Grade 12 examinations because the major newspapers, with one or two exceptions, have swallowed the lies from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) that more than 70% of our children “passed” this national examination. Never before have there been so many distinctions, we are told. More children are qualifying to study at university, we are informed. Education is getting better and better every year; we should all be happy.
There is nothing to be happy about. How do I know this? First of all, a large percentage of the students who passed Grade 12 will struggle to pass in the first years of university, not only in fields that require mathematics and science. University lecturers will tell you that in their experience, students over the years have gotten weaker even as the matriculation results on the outside get stronger.
Second, all universities, as a result, spend huge amounts of management time discussing the problem of what in my business we call ‘throughput rates.’ We worry, as university leaders, about the large numbers who drop out or repeat courses and years, simply because we made the mistake of believing that a pass in Grade 12 means a student is qualified to study at university. We are penalised in the government subsidy for high failure and drop-out rates, and we scramble every year to improve the throughput rate. We fail to do this effectively.
Third, students graduate from weaker universities with the same conceptual and skill limitations with which they came through school. Where does this deficiency show up? In the workplace. Talk to any employer in business and industry and they will tell you the same story: today’s graduates are weak, even incompetent, in the basic skills of reasoning, writing, and computing; they cannot work in teams; they are inarticulate in public; they cannot solve complex problems; they lack the rigour of hard work; there is, in other words, a huge gap between what the school or university diploma says, and what graduates can actually do in the real world.

This is the reason why many universities set or participate in other admission examinations to find out what students really know before they select them. Medical schools, for example, take the National Benchmark Tests very seriously as an additional measure of student knowledge in mathematics and languages. The greater the inflation of the NSC marks, the more ridiculous the selections for medicine. That is why you find students easily obtaining 7 distinctions with averages in the 90s with hundreds of other students from our top schools. The point is this: the more you push up student marks from below, the more you push the top-performing student marks into the ridiculous 90s.
What can prospective university students do? If your average mark in the NSC is below 70%, you should consider not going to university and, if you do, be prepared to work very, very hard in order to survive if you go to one of the top 9 universities in South Africa. In other words, do not take your school marks too seriously; you will be disappointed. It should be completely normal for you to obtain four or five distinctions, because the level set for passing is so low.
What can parents do? Be happy with you child about his or her top marks in school, but keep their feet on the ground. Be realistic about your own expectations. Seven A’s is no longer a guarantee of a place in medicine or architecture because there are simply too many students doing well at that level. Ignore completely the marks in Life Orientation—virtually everybody gets more than 70 or 80 percent, unless they spent time in prison. In other words, encourage your child to think of distinctions as completely normal and no longer as the exception.
What should universities do? At the University of the Free State we have increased our admission standards. We will not participate in this fraud that transfers the failures of primary school into secondary school (note how many students receive automatic promotion), and the failure of secondary schooling into university education. I have asked my senior colleagues in some disciplines, like Medicine, to consider going beyond familiar paper-and-pencil tests and interview the top students. We have taken our marketing efforts to the top schools in the country, of all colours and classes, so that Kovsies stands out as a top academic university among its peers. We have introduced more demanding courses for undergraduate students, and we have hired more top professors to join our excellent team of academics. We require class attendance in more and more modules, and we do not spend funds on students who fail a course or module. We have tightened the rules for progression so that a student who repeatedly fails is gently coaxed out of the university.
If we do not do this as universities, it is only a matter of time before ALL 23 institutions of higher learning become like our schools—good on paper but weak in reality. It is then also on a matter of time before this country with its still enormous potential becomes yet another failed African state.
We dare not let this happen. We must push back against mediocrity. We must measure our success not by the results of the students who pass well, but by the results of the hundreds of thousands who fail and pass poorly every year.
9 January 2012

I know I am a bit late on the bus for these trailers but better late than never.

I am looking forward to these movies when they reach our cinema!

Terry Crews at it again!

3 new Old Spice adverts! Still brilliant as ever!

PPP P P P POWER!

So January has seen some transfers and loans but nothing extraordinary happend. It’s usually the case with the mid-year transfer window.

Here are some of the major players who went where from the English Premier League:

I received this email yesterday and was like, really?

It’s a long read but well worth it.

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Ai… Ai… Aikona!

I hope you don’t mind me mailing the following story to you, but this came across my desk this morning and I think this is a matter of national interest. I have no idea who the author is, but it is good enough to be shared. Here goes:

“I think, and I am sure that many of you are the same, that the tolls are a disgrace, both the extortionate toll fees themselves and also the widely published fact that we are expected to pay up to R18 BILLION over the next 10 years just to collect the toll fees. I wanted to share the clarity of thought in this mail and agree that I will not be installing anything on my car.

They are not going to have easy access to my bank account – they say they want a debit order – forget it. Send me a bill (by registered mail) every time.

Together we can make this whole thing fail – as it should. Let the toll gates stay there, not working, as monuments to people power. Let’s call this the start of the SA Awakening, look what the normal people are achieving in North Africa with the Arab Awakening.

I hope this goes around at least a billion times.

Taxes and Open Road Toll Fees

People should not install the transponders but still use the highways and force the government to issue accounts and summonses to all motorists until such time they drop the prices. The government will be forced to send out millions of accounts every month and they don’t have the manpower to do it. This is the best and easiest way to boycott the system.

What is the government going to do about motorists from other neighboring countries that don’t have these transponders? South Africans are too complacent and its time we fight back.

WE have paid for these roads. Now they are also proposing a 1% tax to fund the SABC.

Circulate this to all your friends!!!!!!!!

Has anyone thought just how much tax we are already paying?

a. 35% on your salary

b. 14% on everything you buy (bar fresh produce) and services rendered.

c. Carbon tax if you buy a new car (besides the 14% VAT you have to pay)

d. Tax on the fuel you put in your car to run it.

e. Toll on our roads –

For some it is going to come to a whopper of 10% of your salary (If you earn R10 000.00 a R1 000 would go toward tolling if you migrate between PTA and JHB every day.) – Bully to try and pacify me with the idea that I can claim it back from my income tax!!! I have to fork out the money first. Going on holiday to DBN? Remember to save up your R1000.00 for tolling.

To say the least – For every R10.00 you earn, the government is already taking approx R6.00 and still they want more. Are you happy with the R4.00 you are getting?

NICE!!!!!

When are we going to get up and do something about it? Where is all the money going to? It is definitely not being spent on what it should be – our hospitals are in a state of disrepair, our schools in shambles, our roads full of potholes, our water contaminated, sewers not working, left in the dark because Eskom failed to do their upgrades, the poor are poorer still, municipalities on the brink of collapse, and so the list goes on.

Heard about the youth day celebration that cost R100 million?

Mmmm… did you pay for it?

Oh yes sir/madam you did! R100 million that could have paid for a couple of things our country needed more.

And to put the numbers in perspective:

The next time you hear an SA politician use the word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about whether you wanted the ‘politicians’ spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its press releases:

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion Rand ago was only 27 hours and 12 minutes at the rate our SA government is spending it. (a billion rand a day??!!)

Building Permit Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporation Tax

Income Tax

Value Added Tax

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel License Tax

Petrol/Diesel Tax

Hunting License Tax

Luxury Tax

Property Tax

Service charge taxes

Capital gains Tax

Social Security Tax

Securities Transfer Tax

Road Usage Tax

Local Tax

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Worker’s Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Hardly any of these taxes existed 20 years ago…

And our nation was one of the most prosperous in Africa.

We had absolutely no national debt…

We had the largest middle class in Africa and Mum stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?

ANSWER:

The Government is ‘running’ the country INTO THE GROUND – on YOUR and MY ‘billions’!!!

I hope this letter goes around at least a billion times….”

Volswagen has brought out a Game Day commercial teaser and how cute is this.
Dogs barking the the Star Wars theme!

Keep an eye out for their 2012 Game Day commercial. It will all make sense on the 27th January appartently. http://vw.com/star-wars-invite

Check the teaser here and I was in tears at around the 48 seconds mark!

How awesome is this sport? Combine a number of sports into one and you get this!

Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and is thought to be the world’s fastest field team game in terms of game play.

The object of the game is for players to use a wooden stick called a hurley to hit a small ball called a sliotar between the opponents’ goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for one goal, which is equivalent to three points.

For more info check out the Hurling Wikipedia

Check out the video of what hurling is and how it is played.

Who is Heavy Mustache?

Catch the final episode of the Fact Checkers Unit as the duo check facts for the last time and face their toughest adversary yet… themselves. Watch to find out if FCU and Samsung GALAXY Note make it back to the office party in time.

I just saw one of the most kickass, bestest, epically awesome game on the internet!
BE MIND BLOWN!

Abobo’s Big Adventure

Check out the trailer right here first before you start playing because trust me, once you start, you will not be able to stop! addiction of note!
I am surprised I even had the time to post this up to share.

So it’s that time of the year for the Golden Globes and what will it be without the one and only Ricky Gervais. Yes, he killed the opening speech again.