Posted on 03/04/2005 10:47:11 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Navy must be all at sea over new submarine
A WHOLE box of expensive new toys and not enough boys qualified to play with them. That’s the poser facing the South African Navy as it prepares to take delivery of the first new submarine bought in terms of the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal.
News 24 reports that while the navy put in place a policy of training three black submariners for every white one a couple of years ago, in preparation for the imminent handover, a lack of experienced black crew members has left newly appointed navy chief Vice-Admiral Johannes Modimo in a bit of quandary.
The sub will either have to be manned by a demographically unrepresentative, but experienced crew when it is launched in Germany, or the navy will have to suffer the humiliation of having its new toy delivered on a freighter. The alternative would be to send S101, as the unnamed but fully equipped sub is called at present, into international waters under the control of a crew with a largely theoretical knowledge of their jobs.
Puts the whole “racial quotas in sport” debate into perspective, doesn’t it?
I’d rather be Elswhere
THE sacrifices you have to make to earn megabucks as an international sports star.
Reuters reports that the Big Easy, South African golfer Ernie Els, experienced a reality check this week after being forced to fly economy class for the first time in 10 years to ensure he arrived in Europe in time for the next tour event.
“I flew in the back of the bus,” the burly Els complained.
“I was in the middle of the row. You really appreciate the better things in life now.”
Insider sympathises. There’s barely enough legroom in cattle class to squeeze in a golf club, let alone the space to swing a cat.
If it ain’t broke …
GIVEN the spate of errors Business Day has had to grovel over lately, Insider thought readers might be successfully distracted by a reference to the opposite phenomenon, known as hypercorrection.
This is characterised by overzealous editors “fixing” errors that are in fact correct. A prime example was when author Anthony Burgess submitted a manuscript entitled A Clockwork Orang to his publisher. He was living in Indonesia at the time, and “orang” was the word for “man” in the local language. But his editor knew better, hence the title of the cult classic we know so well today.
And, author Anne McCaffrey’s collection of stories was supposed to be published under the title, Get of the Unicorn, “get” in this case referring to progeny. Her editors, in their wisdom, changed it to Get off the Unicorn. In a similar vein, the movie The Madness of King George was based on a stage play called The Madness of King George III, but the producers feared an American audience might assume it was a sequel, and wonder what had happened to The Madness of King George and The Madness of King George II.
Quirky quote
“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.” — Count Otto von Bismark (1815-1898), Germany’s first chancellor.
E-mail: insider@bdfm.co.za
as the unnamed but fully equipped sub is called at present, into international waters under the control of a crew with a largely theoretical knowledge of their jobs.
Fascinating. Somebody needs to expound.
economy class for the first time in 10 years to ensure he arrived in Europe in time for the next tour event.
“I flew in the back of the bus,” the burly Els complained.
“I was in the middle of the row. You really appreciate the better things in life now.”
O My God. He has been enlightened by an economy class seat.
proportional representation in the military??? on a submarine?? Are these people nuts??
He could be enlightened daily by wearing tighter underwear
The Madness of King George III. Well if the III one is good enough then I and II are farily unimportant?
Just look at Zimbabwe, SA is a sinking ship and anyone with advanced technical knowledge should get out while they still can, im sure we will gladly accept 'em.
No useless seamen jokes, please.
A black day in South African Navy history.
"No useless seamen jokes, please."
There's a vasectomy joke in there somewhere, waiting to be found.
Do all third world nations get their subs from germany?
If you rate the militaries of Israel,India,South Korea,Greece etc as third world,you are probably right!!
South Africa's military is world class by African standards.They do have substantial maritime interests so subs make sense.
PS-South Africa has a very very competent arms industry with everything ranging from tank upgrades to SAMs to stand-off munitions.
Those subs will come with torpedoes for now,but could probably be outfitted with anti-ship missiles like the American Harpoon or the French Exocet.
Ja, und the movie Das Boot is the training film.
India can't make it's own subs?
And this still continues.
For example, the book (and movie) 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' was changed to 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' in the US because publishers feared that American kids would not know the legend behind the Philosopher's stone (according to mythology able to turn lead into gold, and grant long life to its holder). Thus, in Britain, the British Commonwealth and most of the world it was H.P and the Philosopher's Stone, while in the US it was H.P and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Last I read Israel had three German submarines that can be outfitted with nuclear tipped cruise missiles. Unfortunately their (missiles) range is only 90 miles. Plus only three nuclear warheads per submarine due to radiation concerns.
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