Another day in Paradise

I am so glad that I am on pension. Today the air is clear and the sea is blue! Truly a beautiful day.

I am supposed to go through for another District Council meeting this evening - which reminds ne, I need to prepare something educational from the Priesthood Leadership Manuals!

I hope that the wind is not blowing pollution from the factories across the chapel. When it does I battle to breathe after about 45 minutes! Drives me nuts because the air is not usually a problem where I live. It is difficult when the wind blows from the west, and Mondi comes into play. From the South, Indian Ocean Fertilisers belches fumes across Richards Bay and Alusaf is also a problem. If the wind blows from the East, it comes directly off of the sea and is clean. From the north there is a problem with Richards Bay Minerals, who mine the heavy metals out of the beachsand. You can see evidence of these minerals when the tide is low and there is like a black soil after the waves retreat! That is raw titanium which they extract and smelt down, for export. Kind of stuns me that SA exports raw materials (Aluminium, Titanium and wood chips amongst them) but they imports the finished products. Then the workers strike for higher wages, just pushing up the cost of the raw materials, and then the cost to re-import the finished product! Try to tell them that higher wages means much higer inflation, and they look at you like you are stupid!