I PREDICT that many a disappointed would-be pilot will be digging in your dustbin 20-odd years from now.
My prediction is based on a visit to a rural pre-primary school late last year, where the little ones were asked what they want to be when they’re grown up.
In total there were 58 ‘pilots’, 21 ‘aeroplanes’, two ‘doctors’ and an ‘army’.
It baffled me why so many wanted to fly but a teacher explained they were shown the Disney movie, Planes, earlier and it gave wings to the youngsters’ imaginations.
While I wish them all a flying start in life, the odds are against them because, if Statistics SA doesn’t employ a bunch of retards and has its numbers in a row, almost a third of SA’s population of 56.72 million people are under the age of 15.
That’s a procreation rate which makes rats look spectacularly useless, and simply boils down to supply being greater than demand. Far greater!
Peanuts and sweet potatoes
Already, here in SA, we have jobs which exist mainly for the sake of not having some folks sitting at home searching for signs of life through their nasal channels the entire day.
I’ve been to countries where you pack your own shopping in bags and fuel your car yourself.
I’ve seen it. It can be done.
As for the informal sector, well, I’ve seen places where you can walk on pavements without tripping over 500 people selling roasted peanuts and sweet potatoes.
And in some parts of the world the people are so smart they find parking for their cars themselves, but not here in SA.
Whichever way you look at it, we are running out of ideas to keep our rapidly expanding population busy and out of mischief.
All that’s left is your own security guard at home, standing at your gate 24/7.
But that’s not going to happen, ever, because dogs don’t demand a ridiculous minimum wage and also don’t belong to unions.
Falling dreams
What’s happening in SA as well as the rest of Africa, reminds of a joke someone made once.
He said: ‘When I’m really hungry, I ask for my pizza to be cut into 16 slices instead of eight.’
That’s exactly what’s happening right now; the pizza which is SA’s economy has to feed more and more people.
But it’s not a joke because a lot of folks will be going hungry.
It’s inevitable because numbers don’t lie.
I feel sorry for those little ‘pilots’, because without them even knowing it yet, their dreams have already begun falling out of the sky.
