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"A Top Fuel dragster's engine can generate around 150 decibels of sound at full throttle. This is loud enough to cause physical pain or even permanent damage"
R85_1910
With a thumbs up from the driver, First Great Western Class 143's, 143617 and 143603, work the 2T20 Exmouth to Paignton service towards Teignmouth.
The Pacer units, what can you even say about them? They've become a synonym for poor design, cut-price investments, short sighted decisions and generally just a failure to comprehend the demands of the rail-going public. People from all walks of life, train enthusiasts or not, take a glimpse of one of these units and immediately sigh with despair.
But are they really the devil on train wheels that enthusiasts like to criticise endlessly?
To trace the Pacer, you need to go back to the late-1970's, where after rationalisation of the railways under Beeching, the few remaining branchlines were under the operation of ageing diesel multiple units from the late 1950's and early 60's, primarily Derby Lightweights and units such as Class 117, 121, 115, 101 and 105. The intention of the new Pacer was to become a cheap and cheerful short-term stop-gap to replace these older units prior to the introduction of more permanent trains such as the later Class 150's and 153's.
To create these trains, the British Rail Board turned to the assistance of fellow nationalised transport company, British Leyland, and in 1978, a prototype named LEV1 (Leyland Experimental Vehicles) had been constructed, this unit consisting of a Leyland National bus body being yoked onto the chassis of an old four-wheel Freight Wagon. The vehicle was powered by a Leyland 510 bus engine, but with the transmission modified for train use by adding self-changing gears. The problems inherent with the later Pacer units were very quick to rear their heads, largely due to the fact that these units have no suspension. On regular trains, the wheels are connected to a separate bogey, and Flexicoil suspension between the bogey and the carriage helps make the ride comfortable as it moves along the track. LEV1 and the Pacer's on the other hand have the wheels directly attached to the chassis of the carriage, and thus every individual bump or distortion in the track is felt, making the ride incredibly uncomfortable, especially on jointed track.
Nevertheless, British Rail continued to develop the concept, and even tried to woo the Americans by sending LEV1, and several other later prototypes to the United States for Amtrak to consider on the MBTA commuter services from Boston to Concord in New Hampshire. These considerations subsequently fell through, and the original LEV1 prototype was returned to the UK for more tests and later preservation, whilst LEV2, after suffering accident damage, was kept in the United States and preserved at the Connecticut Trolley Museum.
Back in the UK, BR unleashed a next-gen prototype in 1980 dubbed the Class 140, continuing to use Leyland National bus components and engines, but instead being fitted with a different cab to comply with crash safety regulations. Only one unit of this class was produced, and tested until 1981 when it was withdrawn and preserved, where it now resides at the Keith and Dufftown Railway.
With testing considered complete, the first production Pacer class was now developed in the form of the Class 141, looking very similar to its Leyland National roots, but being heavily modified to comply with railway safety regulations. These units were powered by 200hp Leyland TL11 engines, again modified for railway use with mechanical self-changing gears. Top speed was 75mph and formations consisted of two-cars. These units were launched in 1984 and began work mostly across the West and South Yorkshire region around Huddersfield, Leeds, York, Sheffield and Harrogate. 20 of these units were built, and were notable for their uncomfortable ride, squeaking panels, bus-like seating, noise, poor reliability and draughty interiors. The units were operated in the same general area until 1997 when they were all withdrawn, although 12 units were later exported to Iran to operate around Tehran. The last known operation of these units was in about 2005.
Following the introduction of the Class 141's, BR and British Leyland then developed a second batch of Pacers known as the Class 142's, these being built for much more widespread use across the UK network. In comparison to the 141's, the design was modified slightly, although still very 'Bus-Like', and engines were changed to the more powerful 225hp Cummins LTA10-R 6-cylinder 10.0L powerplant. Top speed of the Class 142's is again 75mph, and 96 of these units were built between 1985 and 1987 at BREL Derby Works. The first locations of the Class 142 operation was in the North West around Manchester, Yorkshire, Newcastle, and in the South West of England around Plymouth.
However, almost immediately the Class fell into dismay, especially in the South West. Their long wheelbase and lack of bogeys meant that on the tight branch lines of Devon and Cornwall, the units suffered heavy flange wear, as well as creating the most awful squealing sound as they travelled round corners. They were also underpowered, which meant they suffered frequent adhesion problems attempting to climb from stations with steep gradients such as Gunnislake, St Ives and the Looe Branch. By 1988, the entire class had been sent north to Leeds and Manchester, being replaced by the original Class 121's and 117's they had been built to replace!
At the same time as the Class 142's, another batch of similarly built units were also developed by Hunslet-Barclay, known as the Class 143. The Class 143's featured a highly different design, with coachwork being built by Walter Alexander. Power once again came from the same Cummins engine as that in the Class 142, and 25 sets were built in 1985 for work around Newcastle and on the Welsh Valleys. A year later, BREL Derby and Walter Alexander formed another similar set of units called the Class 144, 23 almost identical sets for use around Leeds, distinguishable usually by the addition of an intermediate trailer on some sets.
Today, Pacer units have been refurbished, redistributed and revised heavily, especially after privatisation. Class 142's have been spread to South Wales, and across the North of England, whilst the Class 143's are now prime movers in the South West for First Great Western. Class 144's have always remained around Leeds, and a major parts of the West Yorkshire commuter network. It is interesting to note that even though these units were designed to be stop-gaps with a lifespan of about 10 years, nearly 30 years later these trains continue to ply their trade.
Several of the class however have been written off through accidents, with 142059 being written off after its brakes failed to stop it from smashing into the buffers at Liverpool lime Street in 1990. In 1999 the most serious accident occurred when a pair of Class 142's passed a red signal by accident and were slammed into by a Virgin Trains Class 87 travelling at 50mph. Upon impact, the Class 87 tore apart the lightweight bus-frames of the Pacer units, coming to rest halfway down the third carriage. Thankfully the Pacer was running empty-stock, so no passengers were aboard, and only a few injuries were incurred on the Virgin Trains service, but it did highlight the sheer lack of safety these units have. The units have also been notable for several derailments, as well as the engine falling out the bottom of one unit in South Wales. Two Class 143's have also been lost, those being 143613, which was gutted by fire on October 17th, 2004, and subsequently written off, and later in 2005, 143615, which was again lost to fire damage.
As mentioned, today, apart from the Class 141's and those units written off through accidents, nearly all of the Pacer units remain in daily operational use across the country. Of the units however, the Class 143's and 144's have often been considered the favoured sons, being refurbished heavily both internally and externally for a more pleasing travel experience. The removal of jointed track across the network has also allowed for much smoother rides, but on some sections of the network the quality is still an issue. I do actually quite enjoy travelling aboard the Class 143's as after their various refurbishments they are quite pleasant to travel on as commuter trains. The Class 142's on the other hands most operators have chosen to forget, with units under the control of Northern Rail being largely fitted with the original bus-bench interiors of the 1980's, or some modified interiors of 1990's Regional Railways.
Either way, both units are slated for decommissioning by December 31st, 2019, when a Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulation is enacted saying that all trains must have full access for wheelchairs and pushchairs, a problem the Pacers have often suffered due to their step-entrance design. It is proposed that Class 143's and 144's will be modified to allow for greater access, being fitted with ramps and some units modified into 4-car sets. The Class 142's on the other hand are not being considered for such, and the desire is to see off these trains by 2020, 35 years after the first ones hit the rails.
Moscow. July 2009
All-Russian Exhibition Centre (Всероссийский выставочный центр) is a permanent general-purpose trade show in Moscow, Russia.
The "All-Russia Exhibition Centre" is a state joint-stock company, officially abbreviated as GAO "VVC", which stands for "Gosudarstvennoye Aktsionernoye Obshchestvo 'Vserossiyskiy Vystavochny Centr'".
VVC is a member of exhibition associations: IUEF (since 1991) and UFI (since 1997).
History
1935-1939 Construction
This section is based on Soviet public documents, available in Russian at www.bcxb.ru
The exhibition was established February 17, 1935 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) (Russian: Всесоюзная Сельско-Хозяйственная Выставка Vsesoyuznaya Selsko-Khozyaystvennaya Vystavka). Existing site (then known as Ostankino Park, a country territory recently incorporated into city limits), was approved in August, 1935. Master plan by Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky was approved in April, 1936, and the first show season was announced to begin in July, 1937.
However, plans didn't materialize, and 3 weeks before the deadline Stalin personally postponed the exhibition by one year (to August 1938). It seemed that this time everything would be ready on time, and again the builders failed to complete their work, and regional authorities failed to select and deliver proper exhibits. Some pavilions and the 1937 entrance gates by Oltarzhevsky were torn down to be replaced with more appropriate structures (most pavilions were criticized for having no windows). According to Oltarzhevsky's original plan, all of the pavilions were to be constructed from wood. In 1938, a government commission examined the construction and decided that it did not suit the ideological direction of the moment. The exhibition was considered too modest and too temporary. Oltarzhevsky was arrested, together with the Comissar for Agriculture and his staff, and eventually released in 1943. Later, he worked on the 1947-1953 Moscow skyscraper project.
As a result, in August 1938 Nikita Khrushchev, speaking at the Supreme Soviet assembly, declared that the site is not ready, and the opening was extended to August, 1939. It opened indeed August 1, 1939, and worked in 8AM - 11PM mode until October 25 (40,000 daily attendance). 1940 and 1941 seasons followed; after the German invasion, July 1, 1941 the exhibition was closed - until the end of World War II.
1948-1959 Renovation
Statue by Vera Mukhina over the northern entrance to the VDNKHIn October, 1948 the State ordered to renew the Exhibition, starting with the 1950 season. Again, the opening was postponed more than once; the first post-war season opened in 1954 (still as Agricultural exhibition). In 1956 season the planners set aside an Industrial area within the main territory; more restructuring and rebuilding followed. In 1959 the park was renamed Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (Russian: Выставка Достижений Народного Хозяйства Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnovo Khozyaystva) or ВДНХ/VDNKh.
Space pavillon, 1980By 1989 the exhibition had 82 pavilions with the exhibition area of 700,000 square metres. Each pavilion (including the 1939 "regions") had been dedicated to a particular industry or a field: the Engineering Pavilion (1954), the Space Pavilion (1966), the Atomic Energy Pavilion (1954), the People's Education Pavilion (1954), the Radioelectronics Pavilion (1958), the Soviet Culture Pavilion (1964).
During the Soviet times, each year VDNKh hosted more than 300 national and international exhibitions and many conferences, seminars and meetings of scientists and industry professionals. These events attracted about 11 million visitors annually, including 600,000 guests from outside the Soviet Union. The "Radioelectronics" exhibition hall for some years housed the working (and unique) prototypes of the most advanced ES EVM computers to date, which were time-shared by many research organizations right on the premises.
The most memorable feature of the exhibition site was the statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman (Rabochiy i Kolkhoznitsa), featuring the gigantic figures of a man and woman holding together the famous "hammer and sickle". The sculpture, which reaches 25 meters toward the sky, was created by Vera Mukhina and originally crowned the 35-meter-tall Soviet pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937). The statue was featured on a logo of Mosfilm, Russia's largest movie studio.
[edit] Present Day
Space Pavilion. The Tupolev Tu-154 (reg. no. SSSR-85005, prod. no. 70M005, 1970 year of production, Model 005) in front of the pavilion was dismantled on September 14, 2008. This Tupolev Tu-154 was used as a flight testbed.In 1992, VDNKh was renamed, receiving its current name VVC. It occupies 2,375,000 square metres of which 266,000 square metres are used for indoor exhibits. The territory of VVC is greater than that of the Principality of Monaco and has approximately 400 buildings. Inadequate maintenance of Vera Mukhina's statue caused such disrepair that the statue was disassembled (see 2006 photographs of what's left). It was slated to be refurbished and installed on the top of the new pavilion by 2008[1], but funding shortages lead to dragged-out restoration. Now it is to be installed back by the end of 2010.
The term "VDNKh" is still in use, including the name of a nearby subway station.
Wikipedia
This recruiting center appears permanently closed.
The Forest Fair Mall was opened in 1989 and originally featured Bigg's Hypermarket, Bonwit Teller, B. Altman, Elder-Beerman, Parisian, and Sakowitz as anchor stores. By the early 2000s, all of the anchor stores original to the mall had closed except for Bigg's Hypermarket.
The mall underwent two major renovations since its debut. One was done in the early 1990s to make the mall more of a discount-based mall and cost $8 Million. Mills later took over the mall and spent nearly $70 million renovating the struggling mall into Cincinnati Mills, which opened in 2004. Bass Pro Shops, Showcase Cinemas, Kohl's, and Burlington Coat Factory later moved into the mall to replace the original anchor stores. Mills was later taken over by Simon Malls. After struggling to keep the mall filled, Simon sold the mall off. The name was changed to Cincinnati Mall in 2009. The mall reportedly changed its name to Forest Fair Village in 2013 but never officially changed any of the exterior or interior signs saying "Cincinnati Mall".
This mall is very modern for a dead mall. I guess it goes to show that some malls just can't be saved no matter how much money is poured into them. There are two other major malls within several miles of this one that were built earlier with more stable (in the long run) anchor stores like Sears and JCPenney. This mall was also built off an exit that didn't get nearly the development as around the area's other malls. The mall still seems most commonly refered to as Cincinnati Mills. Today, this nearly 2,000,000 square foot mall has only Kohl's, Bass Pro Shops (leaving later in 2015), and Babies R Us as anchor stores. The interior of the mall is (by my estimate) about 95% empty.
Forest Fair Mall / Cincinnati Mills / Cincinnati Mall - Cincinnati Mills Drive - Forest Park, Ohio
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Blackpool PD2/5 bus 300 in use as Permanent Way gang bus 298, Gynn Square car park, Blackpool N.S. February 1973
Taken out of passenger service in February 1969 and used as driver training bus No.8 before becoming a PW bus until April 1975. It left Blackpool Transport in April 1976 for preservation and is currently undergoing a major restoration to its passenger era.
Photograph copyright: Ian 10B. Slide No. 935
Spookslot 08/03/2022 12h33
Everybody who has stood in line for the main show at Spookslot might recognise this sign on the entrance doors of the main show.
After the 2022 Summer period, the attraction from 1978 will be permanently closed and demolished. The Efteling will announce this on January 24. According to general manager Fons Jurgens, the haunted castle is due for replacement after 44 years.
"The Spookslot was, if we are very honest, perhaps ten years ago no longer of this time," he says in conversation with the Brabants Dagblad. That is why a new attraction will take its place, which will cost 25 million euros.
Efteling does not want to say anything about the attraction type yet, except that it will be a covered addition with a theoretical capacity of 1250 people per hour.
The Spookslot was the first major Efteling attraction designed by the late creative director Ton van de Ven. Later he was also at the helm of, for example, Fata Morgana (1986), het Volk van Laaf (1990), Droomvlucht (1993), Villa Volta (1996) and Vogel Rok (1998).
Spookslot
The Haunted Castle (Dutch: Spookslot) is a haunted attraction in the Efteling in the Netherlands. It was designed by Ton van de Ven and was the first attraction built outside the Fairy Tale Forest.
On July 24, 1976 the announcement on the making of the world's biggest haunted castle appeared in Brabant's daily newspaper, Het Brabants Dagblad. The article mentions that the castle would be built between the Fairy Tale Forest and the rowing and canoeing pond. This was a strategic choice, because the location of the attraction would attract visitors to the normally ‘forgotten’ southern part of the park.
The main reason for this mega-attraction was declining numbers of visitors at Efteling. Aiming for a more general public, with an attraction that didn’t depend on the weather conditions, Efteling authorized their young designer Van de Ven to start designing the ride.
Van de Ven designed the castle as a walk-through attraction and, in the style of Anton Pieck, the castle was designed to look old and decayed. It is meant to look as though it was once beautiful and majestic, but is now hahttps://www.flickr.com/photos/meteorry/unted and in ruins and somewhat romantic.
The construction took about 18 months and the castle was officially opened May 10, 1978.
On May 12 a television special was broadcast with Kate Bush singing in and around the castle. She had a big hit around the globe with "Wuthering Heights" at the time.
The waiting hall is a dimly-lit area, with several spooky items, of which an oriental ghost with a crystal looking glass is the most notable. The glass uses the pepper's ghost technique to show a beautiful woman turning into a skull. In the tower area a hairy arm stretches from the roof, holding a big chandelier. Once in a while one might have a glimpse of three horrible batlike creatures, leering down at the visitors.
Upon entering the main attraction hall, a number of scary statues and scenes prepare the audience for the main course: a look into the inner court, graveyard, and the ruins of a monastery at night. When the clock strikes twelve, a violin (also a pepper's ghost effect) starts playing the Danse Macabre of Saint-Saëns and the graveyard comes to life and a number of skeletons and ghosts are visible. One tombstone is labeled in Latin "Puella Innocenta" (innocent girl). The years on her stone (in Roman numbering) reveal that she has been living backwards in time, however it is possible that it is merely a mistake of the artist who made the stone. There is also a tombstone inside the mansion with the name "Den Hegarty", an Irish rock singer who happened to be on the radio when the stone was made. Also, it is said that the main show's appearance was influenced by the 1971 horror film "Tombs of the Blind Dead".
The maintheme of the show is a shortened version of the Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. The movements of the animatronics are synchronized with the music; the violin that opens and closes the main part of the show demonstrates this. The show itself has been adapted four times. During the opening season in 1978 the show lasted about 12 minutes. Three months later it was cut back to 8 minutes. In 1987 the show was renewed and in 1989 the final version was completed.
FACTS & FIGURES:
Opening: 10/05/1978
Design: Ton van de Ven
Costs: 3.5 milion Dutch guilders (€1,588,823)
Capacity: 800 - 1000 per hour
Show time: 6.27 minutes
Source and more information:
The Royal Courts of Justice was opened by Queen Victoria in 1882 and became the permanent home of the Supreme Court. The history of the administration of justice in England and Wales spans many centuries. By the mid-19th century‚ a number of separate courts had come into existence at different times and to meet different needs. Many anomalies and archaisms had arisen and it was recognised that this state of affairs was unacceptable‚ and‚ in consequence‚ the Judicature Acts of 1873-75 reconstituted all the higher courts. The Judicature Acts abolished the former courts and established in their place a Supreme Court of Judicature‚ the name of which was changed in 1981 to the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
The Supreme Court consists of two courts: the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. The High Court consists of three Divisions dealing mainly with civil disputes: the Chancery Division (which took over the work of the old High Court of Chancery)‚ the Queen’s Bench Division (which incorporated the jurisdiction of the three former common law courts: the Court of King’s Bench‚ the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Exchequer) and the Probate‚ Divorce and Admiralty Division which took over the former Court of Admiralty‚ Court of Probate and Court for Divorce. This last division has itself been replaced by the Family Division which was created in 1970.
When Queen Victoria opened the Royal Courts of Justice on 4th December 1882 she was drawing a line under a long and difficult effort to achieve a home for the Supreme Court for England and Wales.
Before 1875‚ courts had been housed in Westminster Hall‚ Lincoln’s Inn and various other buildings around London and pressure had been mounting for a grand new building and in 1866 Parliament announced a competition for the design.
The eleven architects competing for the contract for the Law Courts each submitted alternative designs with the view of the possible placing of the building on the Thames Embankment. The present site was chosen only after much debate.
In 1868 it was finally decided that George Edmund Street‚ R.A. was to be appointed the sole architect for the Royal Courts of Justice and it was he who designed the whole building from foundation to varied carvings and spires.? Building was started in 1873 by Messrs. Bull & Sons of Southampton.
There was a serious strike of masons at an early stage which threatened to extend to other trades and caused a temporary stoppage of the works. In consequence‚ foreign workmen were brought in - mostly Europeans. This aroused bitter hostility on the part of the men on strike and the newcomers had to be specially protected by the police and were housed and fed in the building.? However‚ these disputes were eventually settled and the building took eight years to complete and was officially opened by Queen Victoria on the 4th of December‚ 1882. Sadly‚ Street died before the building was opened.
Parliament paid ?1‚453‚000 for the 7.5 acre site. It was reported that 4‚175 people lived in 450 houses. In two houses in Robin Hood Court 52 people had their abode‚ in Lower Serle’s Place 189 people slept in 9 houses. The site also housed the Kit Kat Club.
The building was paid for by cash accumulated in court from the estates of the intestate to the sum of ?700‚000. Oak work and fittings in the courts cost a further ?70‚000 and with decoration and furnishing the total cost for the building came to under a million pounds.
The dimensions of the building (in round figures) are: 470 feet (approx.143 metres) from East to West; 460 feet (approx.140 metres) from north to south; 245 (approx 74 metres) feet from the Strand level to the tip of the fleche.
Entering through the main gates in the Strand one passes under two elaborately carved porches fitted with iron gates. The carving over the outer porch consists of heads of the most eminent Judges and Lawyers. Over the highest point of the upper arch is a figure of Jesus Christ; to the left and right at a lower level are figures of Solomon and Alfred; that of Moses is at the northern front of the building. Also at the northern front‚ over the Judges entrance are a stone cat and dog representing fighting litigants in court.
The walls and ceilings (of the older‚ original Courts) are panelled in oak which in many cases is elaborately carved. In Court 4‚ the Lord Chief Justice’s court‚ there is an elaborately carved wooden royal Coat of Arms.? Each court has an interior unique to itself; they were each designed by different architects.
There are‚ in addition to the Waiting Rooms‚ several Arbitration and Consultation Chambers together with Robing Rooms for the members of the Bar.
Jharis has been given an articulated AA Texas A&M University Ken body. He is a full repaint with a permanent wig.
The ladyboy's been wearing bras and camis for so long, she's starting to form permanent bra marks on her body. But what choice does she have? What else will hold up those pair of 32C's?
with the bra unhooked, the slut better be supporting her boobs with her two hands. Those can be pretty heavy!
This piece was entered into an exhibit at the Newberry Library in Chicago and won the Purchase Prize award in 2007. The original is now a part of their permanent collection.
This was done with sumi and walnut inks; watercolor and gouache; and gold leaf.
Mit permanent Make up sind Sie in jeder Lebenslage perfekt geschminkt!
Die meisten Frauen legen großen Wert auf ihr Äußeres und verbringen jeden Morgen nicht unbeträchtliche Zeit im Bad, um sich zu stylen. Ist dann der Tag vorüber, geht es ans Abschminken, was wiederum Zeit in Anspruch nimmt. In ...
From the vintage "sexploitation" collection of Richard Perez, relating to "Permanent Obscurity" at: RichardPerez.net
//What a disaster
William Saunderson-Meyer says the floods just another blow to a province that was already on its knees
KwaZulu-Natal has declared a provincial state of disaster to try to cope with the devastating floods of the past week.
This is normally a temporary mechanism of which the primary purpose is to facilitate speedy national government assistance to hard-pressed provincial and local authorities. It also triggers the release of emergency funds from the National Treasury.
But in KZN’s case, they might as well make it permanent. This is a province that has been on its knees for some time and it ain’t getting up any time soon.
After all, KZN hasn’t even staunched the bloodied nose it suffered nine months ago. That’s when one wing of the African National Congress government — the Radical Economic Transformation followers of former president Jacob Zuma — tried to bury the other — the so-called reformists led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
KZN hasn’t even properly tallied the body blows it suffered then. The official estimates for the insurrection were 45,000 businesses affected, R50bn in economic damage, 129,000 jobs lost, and 354 killed.
These estimates are probably on the low side. For example, the number of people who were killed in the mayhem doesn’t include the many whose bodies were simply never found and counted.
And the true economic cost is incalculable. There’s been substantially increased emigration of minorities, cancelled investment, and the loss of international confidence in KZN as a safe tourist destination. In at least a dozen small, country towns, all the business infrastructure was destroyed, paradoxically by the very people who worked and shopped in those buildings.
Now the floods. The death toll is over 300 and still rising. Some 6,000 homes have been destroyed and road, water sewage and electrical infrastructure uprooted. As I write this, roaming mobs are opportunistically plundering container depots, stranded trucks, abandoned homes and vulnerable businesses, reportedly unhindered — as was the case during last year’s riots — by the police and army.
Naturally, no disaster is complete without a scapegoat. Ramaphosa, as is his style, was quick off the mark to finger the culprit — climate change.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” Ramaphosa told reporters while inspecting a devastated Durban. “We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.”
What balderdash. Whatever role climate change may or may not have played in the larger scheme of things, it’s nonsense to pin on it responsibility for the plight of KZN. That lies with the ANC government.
First, this was not an unforeseeable bolt from the heavens. The forecasters warned months back that this was likely to be an exceptionally wet summer because of the La Niña weather pattern that occurs every few years.
There are also historical precedents for extreme weather in KZN, which a prudent administration would have taken note of.
In 1984, Tropical Storm Domoina wreaked havoc in a swathe from Mozambique, through Swaziland to KZN. Although the current downpour is worse, the scale is nevertheless in the same ballpark.
This latest storm — as yet unnamed — dumped 450mm of rain on Durban in 48 hours. Domoina let loose 615mm in 24 hours on Swaziland and northern KZN.
But the true difference between those events, 38 years apart, lies in the lack of preparedness on the part of today’s authorities. In 1984 the SA Air Force deployed 25 helicopters to airlift people to safety. In the 2000 Mozambique floods, 17 SAAF helicopters rescued more than 14,000 people.
This time, according to a News24 report, the SA Police Service and the SAAF, combined, have been unable to put a single chopper in the air. The erosion of South Africa’s military means that of the SAAF’s 39 Oryx helicopters, only 17 are serviceable.
Durban-based 15 Squadron has not a single helicopter available for search and rescue — they are reportedly primarily used as VIP transport — but two SAAF choppers supposedly have been despatched from Gqeberha to help. The SAPS airwing has only one serviceable helicopter but “the pilot on duty has been booked off sick”.
Second, throughout the province, local government is also in a state of disaster and unable to do its job. The scale of the KZN impairment can be measured in the flood destruction of homes.
Some 4,000 shanties have been destroyed, many because officialdom was too lax to forbid building on the floodplain and against precariously unstable hillsides. Another 2,000 of the homes swept away were so-called RDP houses, shoddily built during the kickback-and-steal bonanza of the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme of the late 1990s.
In Durban, the eThekwini metro is bloated and inert. It carries a rates and services debt of R17bn, of which R1bn is owed by the national government.
Durban is also infamously corrupt. Former mayor Zandile Gumede — along with 21 co-accused — is facing fraud, corruption and money-laundering charges in connection with a R320m municipal tender.
Yet at the weekend, even as the rain was bucketing down, she won the ANC’s regional leadership contest hands-down, despite the party’s supposed “step-aside when accused” rule.
The ANC-aligned Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has no illusions about the party it supports. It issued a statement calling on the government to ensure that unlike the plundering of Covid-19 emergency relief funds, the KZN disaster funds were not stolen or misused.
Fat chance. The ANC has already announced that its parliamentary constituency offices in KZN would become “hubs for humanitarian support” and appealed for the donation of relief supplies. Watch the trousering by the ANC’s public representatives of anything that the public is dumb enough to leave with them.
It’s in KZN where the ANC’s brazen indifference to the law and antipathy towards the Constitution is at its most obvious and most destructive.
On Monday, Zuma's corruption trial once again failed to take off in the Pietermaritzburg High Court when he successfully blocked the process with another round of delaying legal actions. His lawyers also had some carefully threatening words for the judiciary in a separate Supreme Court of Appeal action.
They urged SCA President Mandisa Maya to reconsider the dismissal of his latest corruption prosecution challenges. They warned that last year’s deadly July unrest was “in part, traceable to a perceived erroneous and unjust judicial outcome” that put Zuma briefly in prison for contempt of court.
“When such conceived mistakes are committed, the citizens (wrongly) feel entitled to resort to self-help…”
Floods, fires and locusts are devastating but at least happen relatively rarely. The ANC, alas, is a seemingly unending plague.
The historic tugboat 'Brent' permanently berthed at high tide amongst 'the beast from the east' ice and snow that plagued the United Kingdom during the final days of February and early March 2018 on Hythe Quay on the River Blackwater Estuary in the town of Maldon in the County of Essex (UK).
The former Port of London Authority Tugboat 'Brent' was built in 1945 and has been preserved at Maldon Hythe Quay since 1971.
Like all discerning historic tugboats, Brent has a website www.steamtugbrent.org/ and a cat flic.kr/p/iTHeuM
My Maldon and the River Blackwater Estuary album flic.kr/s/aHsk7cnJ7a
Photograph taken by and copyright of my regular photostream contributor David and is posted here with very kind permission.
copyright: © FSUBF. All rights reserved. Please do not use this image, or any images from my photostream, without my permission.
with derbies left by flood.
Excellent place for swim at a hot day after bushwalking!
Sundown National Park , QLD, Australia
I once made the mistake of tripping the intruder alarms at TQ Express. I was still fiddling with the alarm panel frantically trying to put the right PIN in when two machine gun armed Police beckoned to me through the door. But then they only had to leap round from the unit next door. They are a discreet little team (normally) with no fixed signs to show a special Police unit is based there, but today three fast pursuit cars were a bit of a giveaway. But, for TQ Express, we appreciate the additional security so close to home.
96/365 Permanent Construction
Poznan, Poland
Autumn
Not quite permanent, but it sure does feel like it since this has been being built for the last fiver years. Looking forward to seeing it not being built and I think most of the city feels the same way. Why is it taking so long?
Join me on my personal websiteErik Witsoe or on Facebook
I still think it's a hippie clothes line.
More formally, sculptor Alejandro Propate came from Argentina to hang it out at Tamarama, although according to the statement 'this installation is dedicated to the sunrise at Bondi' .
Revolta Permanent taldea, Durangoko Azokan (Ahotsenea), Kimera disko berria aurkezten. Argazki gehiago / Mas fotos
...permanently stooped, while her friends walk tall, she is the most extrovert, personable and self assured woman of them all: a portrait from the streets of a small town in Madyha Pradesh, Central India
(© Handheld Films 2014)