South African Sago Pudding

 
I don't know what brought this on. But I was filled with huimwee (Did i spell that correctly?) So I turned to food and made some sago pudding. This is an eternal favorite with my sons. And this recipe works well:

South African Baked Sago Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 c milk .
• 1/2 c sugar (extra) .
• 5 tbsps butter .
• 5 tbsps apricot jam .
• 1/2 tsp salt .
• 4 eggs .
• 1/2 c sugar .
• 1 c sago .
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon .
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

• Step #1 Oven: 325F deg F/160 deg Celsius.
• Step #2 Grease a large pudding dish lightly.
• Step #3 Heat milk to nearly boiling, then add sago, salt, & nutmeg or cinnamon.
• Step #4 Simmer over very low heat until sago is transparent.
• Step #5 Add the 1/2 c sugar, butter & vanilla, & stir in the well.
• Step #6 Remove from heat.
• Step #7 Separate the eggs, & whisk the yolks.
• Step #8 Add yolks to the sago mixture, whisk or mix through well, & pour the mixture into the prepared oven dish.
• Step #9 Put blobs of the apricot jam all over the pudding mixture.
• Step #10 Whisk the egg whites until stiff, & add the extra 1/2 c sugar slowly, whisking until incorporated.
• Step #11 Spread this meringue over the sago pudding.
• Step #12 Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 - 45 mins, until set, & the meringue is light brown on top.
• Step #13 Serve hot, warm or cold.
• Enjoy the South African Baked Sago Pudding recipe

Okay..., I copied it from here.

I think I am going to arm myself with a single malt and watch District 9 one more time. Just to hear those guys swear.

My wife says the soldiers look more more intimidating than any American actors she's ever seen. I replied that it's our European heritage tied in with lots of brandy and coke...

 

The Price of Power

And so it's come to this. Years of poor or no planning and no apparent concern for maintaining or improving infrastructure (specifically the power grid) ... and now South Africans face a 24.8% increase in the price of electricity. From the BBC.

South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%.

Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, unions argue.

And it gets worse...

However Eskom has also been permitted to increase electricity prices by a further 25% next year and again in 2012.

Well, this is obviously not good for the economy. This is the point of the article. But what about the average consumer who suddenly has to pay an extra 1/4 on his electricity. And who faces a future of further  price hikes. When I was just starting out in Cape Town years ago, this would have killed me.

Who's running this show?

Khaya Dlanga at the Mail and Guardian says that SA "prisons have a propensity for creating greatness".  And he refers to Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela all of whom spent time in an SA prison or some form of captivity (Churchill) and then went on to be a great leader somewhere.

Okay, let's not forget current President Zuma was also in jail. And Julius Malema probably should be.

But what about that guy, Skollie? From Vyfster. I think he was great and the way things are going now he'd probably do as well as or better as SA president.That guy could organize! There would be electricity that everyone could afford. Not just Malema to light up his houses and Zuma to keep his platoon of children and grandchildren in functioning PlayStations.

 

POWER TO THE PEOPLE.... Yeah, right!

Can this be right?

 
This has very recently come to my attention...
 
As a former South African national serviceman, I know that it is the duty of each soldier to support the government of the day. As I recall very few conscripts were jumping up and down from excitement at the prospect of joining the army. We went because we had no choice.

And then the next government comes along and basically says that it wants nothing to do with its own fallen soldiers..?

This is from the Voortrekker Monument website.

The Wall of Remembrance has been erected on the VTM Heritage Site to honour members of the SA Defence Force who died on duty. Members are honoured who died between 1961 (foundation of Republic) to 1994 (change to the SANDF). The Wall was erected without any state finance and the VTM raised all the funds through donations. The Wall will be inaugurated on 25 October 2009.







... without any state finance...?!?!?

South African Security

 
It would appear SA cyclists also have to prepare for crime...

 
Thank-you to Gerhardt for this.

The Battle of Rensburg

 
Here's a bit of history from the Second Anglo-Boer War. The narrative sets out to praise the courage of the British and Australians which is not to be denied. But it is quite clear that the South Africans' superior shooting skill and tactics held the day.

On February 13, 1900, at Pink Hill (also known as Hobkirk's Farm) , in the Cape Colony, the Battle of Rensburg was fought. Australian and British troops were attacked by a superior Boer force resulting in the deaths of 7 Australians and the wounding of 22 others.

The following account of the battle was given by a Boer prisoner to a correspondent from the Daily Mail:

I saw a long row of their dead and wounded laid out on the slope of a farmhouse that evening - they were all young men, fine big fellows. I could have cried to look at them so cold and still. They had been so brave in the morning, so strong, but in the evening a few hours later they were dead, and we had not hated them nor they us.

It was a cruel fight. We had ambushed a lot of the British troops - the Worcesters, I think they called them. They could neither advance nor retire; we had them penned in like sheep, and our field cornet, van Leyden, was beseeching them to throw down their rifles to save being slaughtered, for they had no chance. Just then we saw about a hundred Australians come bounding over the rock in the gully behind us. There were two great big men in front cheering them on. 

We turned and gave them a volley, but it did not stop them. They rushed over everything, firing as they came, not wildly, but with the quick sharp upward jerk to the shoulder, the rapid sight then the shot. They knocked over a lot of our men, but we had a splendid position. They had to expose themselves in order to get to us, and we shot them as they came at us. They were rushing to the rescue of the English. It was splendid but it was madness.

On they came and we lay behind the boulders, and our rifles snapped and snapped again at pistol range but we did not stop those wild men until they charged right into a little basin which was fringed around all its edges by rocks covered with bushes. Our men lay there as thick as locusts, and the Australians were fairly trapped. They were far worse off than the Worcesters up high in the ravine.


Our field cornet gave the order to cease firing and called on them to throw down their rifles or die. Then one of the big officers -- a great rough-looking man, with a voice like a bull, roared out "forward Australia! no surrender!" These were the last words he ever uttered for a man on my right put a bullet clean between his eyes and he fell forward dead. We found later that his name was Major Eddy, of the Victorian Rifles.

He was as brave as a lion but a Mauser bullet will stop the bravest. His men dashed at the rocks like wolves; it was awful to see them. They smashed at our heads with clubbed rifles or thrust their rifles up against us through the rocks and fired. One after another their leaders fell. The second big man went down early, but he was not killed. He was shot through the groin, but not dangerously. His name was Captain McInerney.

There was another one, a little man named Lieutenant Roberts; he was shot through the heart. Some of the others I forget. The men would not throw down their rifles; they fought like furies. One man I saw climbed right on to the rocky ledge where big Jan Aldrecht was stationed. Just as he got there a bullet took him and he staggered and dropped his rifle. Big Jan jumped froward to catch him before he toppled over the ledge, but the Australian struck Jan in the mouth with his clenched fist and [he] fell over into the ravine below and was killed. 

We killed and wounded an awful lot of them, but some got away; they fought their way out. I saw a long row of their dead and wounded laid out on the slope of a farmhouse that evening - they were all young men, fine big fellows. I could have cried to look at them so cold and still. They had been so brave in the morning, so strong, but in the evening a few hours later they were dead, and we had not hated them nor they us. 

Right-clicked  from here

"I am the Old Ghost of the Shangani Patrol And the last bullet will be mine..."

I found a reference to this battle quite by accident a few years ago. As a South African I find this kind of history fascinating. And the truth is - much like Zimbabwe - South Africa also has great stories like this but time and politics have meant that few know or care much anymore.

The Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland (now in Zimbabwe) in 1893.

During the First Matabele War, a column of soldiers were despatched to attempt the capture of King Lobengula, leader of the Ndebele nation. The column camped on the south bank of the Shangani River about 40 km north-east of the village of Lupane on the evening of 3 December 1893. Late in the afternoon, a dozen men, under the command of Major Allan Wilson, were sent across the river to reconnoitre. Shortly afterwards, Wilson sent a message back to the laager to say that he had found the king, and was requesting reinforcements.

The commander of the column, Major Patrick Forbes, unwilling to set off across the river in the dark, sent 20 more men , intending to send the main body of troops and artillery across the river the following morning. However, on their way to the river the next day, the column was ambushed by Ndebele fighters and delayed. The Shangani Patrol, numbering 34 men, were cut off by a rising river and they faced three Matabele impis alone. None survived.

Then came the development they had all been expecting and dreading. In the half-light they heard the clicking of rifle bolts and from behind a tree stepped a warrior wearing the induna's headring. He fired his rifle. It was the signal for a scattered volley which intensified as more warriors came running through the bush. More here.

There were no survivors, and this is the proud epitaph on their memorial. No one knew of their fate until two months later, when James Dawson, the trader, was led to the spot by a party of natives and found their skeletons. The trees all round were scored by bullet marks. The Matabele spoke of them reverently and had been so impressed by their bravery that they had refrained from mutilating their bodies and had left them where they fell. Dawson dug a large grave and gave them temporary burial close to a tree on which he cut a cross and the words, "To Brave Men". Their bones were later interred at Zimbabwe, since they had all come from Fort Victoria, and in 1904 removed to the Matopos, to the hilltop "consecrated and set apart for ever for those who had deserved well of their country."