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Just another American idiot

Blogrolldurbaninterestinglove or hate

Ah, I love Americans. I came across this article this morning and well, I am kinda blown away at the stupidity shown here.Give this a read a see what you think…gun-glock-by-smarterlam-at-flickr-163692235_09727fcbdd

The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. “We were told the gun is the chief’s personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn’t know anything about the gun,” Lewis Walker said.

 Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked.

“Right then, I was very leery, because there’s no need to have live ammo in a gun in the class. But I figured he’s the chief, so he must know what he’s doing,” Ulm told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.

Hansen held the Glock 40 under a table to disassemble it when a bullet fired, Walker said.

The chief cried, “I’m hit,” and fell over. Students who were screaming “Officer down!” were urged to call 911.

The gun went off in a conference room Saturday at Riverdale police headquarters. Hansen was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden for surgery and released Monday, Lt. James Ebert said.

 Ebert said the findings of an internal investigation would be announced Wednesday.

Graffiti: art or crime? Part 1

Blogrolldurbaninterestingopinion

We see it everyday. On our way to work, on our walls, on bridges, basically on any available spot. Graffiti has started to take over.

There has been lots of talk lately about graffiti taking over the city of Durban. Wherever you go you are bound to find some sort of graffiti. I was asked the other day whether I view graffiti as art or crime. My answer simple, if it is done in a respectful way and not done in a way to vandalise property then it is art. If it is done without respect and purely on the basis of defacing something it is crime.

The city is now offering rewards to people who are able to give information on any of these so called “vandals”. The Durban North area has been hardest hit with churches, schools, restaurants and houses being tagged. The cost of removing the graffiti is huge and as a result of this some people can not afford to remove it from their walls so it is just left there.

So why do these guys spray walls? What is wrong with the spots that they are allowed to graffiti that are given to them by the city? Well, most of these cats are trying to send a message out to the city expressing their unhappiness with certain situations. If it is done in the right way it sends out one hell of a message.

A friend of mine gave me some insight into the whole situation and he reckons that graffiti has become so much part of the modern alternative world that we live in that graffiti is the middle classes own art collection. Think about it.

There is so much to talk about regarding this issue. I am in the process of gathering as much information from varying sources and in doing so both sides of the story can be heard.I have purposefully not included visuals fro this piece as I am in the process of collecting various forms of graffiti from in and around the Durban area. Watch out for part 2, it should make for some interesting reading

Mxit

Blogrolldurbanopinion

mxitlogo.jpgChat rooms are synonymous with all kinds of trouble. South Africa has launched its own kind of chat room and it is stirring up problems.

Mxit is a proudly South African product. It has seen millions of subscribers sign up at one hell of a rate and why wouldn’t you when you can send a message for less than 1 cent. So what is Mxit and how does it work? Well, Mxit is an instant messaging service for cellphones that uses GPRS or 3G to send messages to other cellphones or computers. Anyone with the right cellphone can download the program and use it to chat to anyone, anywhere in the world, at a fraction of the cost of an SMS.

Now where does the trouble come in?

clubs or fight clubs?

Blogrolldurbaninterestingopinion

What is it with clubs these days? Do they want to chase customers away?

Durban has a very small night life scene and when a new spot opens up it seems as though everyone over the age of 18 will flock there. The club/pub normally experiences a good first couple of months before things die off in a big way. Now over the past month there have been stories coming in all the time about patrons being beaten up, robbed and verbally abused at different clubs. I was one of those people who experienced this at a new “club” that has just opened up in Florida road.

I have been to this new spot twice in the past week and was not overly impressed. Everyone was raving about it but listen people, you need to open your eyes and see things for what they really are. This place is average at best. The only thing going for it is that it is new.wow. As you would expect this place was pumping on a Saturday night. I arrived quite late with a few friends only to be pushed around at the door in front of everyone sitting in the outside area. To say it was humiliating is putting it really lightly. My mates and I will never go back there. Well done.

Another incident that has come to my knowledge is that of a local DJ and good friend of mine being assaulted at one of Durban’s oldest clubs for no reason. This guy is one of the top dogs in the deep house culture of Durban and some over juiced bouncer thought that he could man handle my friend leaving him with a dislocated shoulder, cuts, a stolen phone and iPod. The club owners reaction…”It wasn’t us”. What the hell!

As I was saying earlier, Durban is a very small place when it comes to the social scene. Word spreads quicker than a nasty STD. The people that own social spots need to catch a wake up and take a leaf out of the book of Society in Florida Road as they have their systems jacked. You always feel safe, welcome and if you don’t have a good time there is something not right with you.

So now my options are kind of limited at the moment. Hopefully someone smart will come along and give us somewhere to party and feel safe.