Since the war started, over 2 months ago, it has been a struggle to sleep at night. And this is coming from an insomniac who is hyperactive. So take it with a pinch of salt. But I am sure you understand what I am trying to say. The nights are not easy. Too much time online reading news, and just staring at stories and images on the Net, trying to comprehend how this can be happening. Aren’t we meant to living in civilized times where things like invading other countries doesn’t happen any more? Who sends in tanks to terrorize innocent people and destroy their homes? Who does this, in this day and age? Russians do this. And their leader is an evil, small, coward of a man.

I love writing, and have been involved in many story telling projects in the indie film world over the past two decades. And some book adventures, newspaper columns, blogs, public speaking, and more. I started writing a lot at the start of the war, and I keep making notes all the times of everything that we are experiencing. I don’t consider myself a good writer but I am confident and I love new ideas. I enjoy writing.

I have many friends in Ukraine and we all text/chat often. Sometimes I am inspired, frequently amazed, and constantly sad. The more I write the less time I have and I am starting to think I need to spend less hours in front of my laptop, and put more emphasis into living life. Not that life is so much fun right now, but there is a ton to be thankful for and a lot to embrace. The Bunster and Marta need more of my time. And I need to take way better care of my physical health.

I have a long list of ideas to explore and write about. But none of this is urgent. I thought it was, for some reason, but it is not that important to me now. I will write up some of the ideas as the weeks go by, but I better start getting my shit together.

There is a lot of media attention of late around Elon Musk buying Twitter. And of course, crypto stuff is in the headlines a lot as always, with the ups and downs. I see the value of Twitter was not as high as I would have thought, considering all the hype. And then, out of curiosity I looked on Google a bit more and the value of all the Bitcoins out there was also not as high as I had imagined. Considering the move Elon just made, a few eccentric billionaires could pool together and buy all the Bitcoins. Makes no sense to do that though, but it is possible, in theory.

The thing about buying up all the shares in a company is that there is an underlying value in a profitable business. But Bitcoin is not a business. It is a virtual currency. So buying it all up makes no sense. But I just had this mad thought that it could be possible. Does make for an interesting debate. The reason I compare Bitcoin to shares in a company is that people talk about Bitcoin like it is equity in the stock market. It is traded like a public company share. And yet, there is no company. There is no governance. There is no rule of law. There is just this faith, and of course hype, and a massive bunch of electricity consuming computers.

Money is a religion to so many people and the goal of the greedy is to hoard as much of it as possible. So in US Dollar terms the aim is to get all the dollars, or as much as they can. Shouldn’t this be the same then with a virtual currency. People who have a lot of Bitcoins seem to enjoy having others know this, like they are in some very proud club. So then surely, with the same logic, the aim is to have as many Bitcoins as possible. But not all the Bitcoins, right? Because if you managed to buy up all the Bitcoins then would they have any value at all. I mean, if you were the only person that had them then doesn’t it mean that they become useless. This is confusing me. But there is something to this.

I am just having some fun here, thinking out loud. Yes, I know that no one would buy up all the Bitcoins, even though again it is theoretically possible. But if there are no Bitcoins being utilized, because only one person has them all, then don’t they becoming meaningless? So this is a very strange scenario. Get as many as you can, but not all of them.

Here is something else to think about: Let’s say you buy a home, say, 20 years ago, for a million dollars. And today the house is valued at 2 million dollars. So you get a mortgage on the house for a million dollars and you spend it on cars, travel, etc. You don’t pay tax on the million the bank gives you, at almost no interest, because, well you are privileged or rich or whatever the word is.

So the rich lending money, at almost no interest, rarely sell assets or equities, and keep on living large, and pay the minimum of tax. This is all legal and the way the system works. But the poor have no assets, no collateral and so pay a risk premium every time. And they often borrow from micro lenders and pay HUGE interest, simply to get groceries each month.

Something has to give.

We are in Fancourt and it is raining and raining. The busy Bunster wants to run outside on the never-ending manicured golf lawns but everything is wet and we got our hands full for sure. Jane had to leave us yesterday late afternoon to return to Johannesburg. We met Jane about 6 weeks ago through our friend David. Jane had worked with David’s family for 4 years as a night nurse and came highly recommended. When it was suggested that we try find a night nurse, when we arrived in Johannesburg, we weren’t sure how long it would take us to find someone we liked. But we got lucky – Jane was available pretty much right away, as she had just finished with David’s family, and we met her and voila.

Jane is very good at what she does and the Bunster took a big liking to her. We had a nanny in Kyiv called Tanya, and when the war started Tanya went to Western Ukraine, and we came to SA. Bunster liked Tanya too. She is also a very cool person, like Jane. Bunster has had quite a few people come and go in a short space of time and he does act a bit confused, but he is good. So when Jane left us yesterday we were all pretty sad.

Jane has been living in SA for over 23 years. She is from Malawi. She is married and she lives in Bryanston with her husband. When I met Jane I asked her for her bank details so I could pay her each month and she told me she did not have a bank account. She asked me if I can pay her part in cash and the rest to pay into her husband’s account. I was curious as to why she did not have a bank account and she told me it is impossible to open an account as a non-South African.

One day in JHB, Jane asked if I could get her an Uber early the next morning after a night with the Bunster, so she could go to Kempton Park to get her visa sorted out. Again, I was curious. I guessed Jane did this every 5 or 10 years or something like that. I was wrong. She has to go there every 30 days. WTF ?!

I have a very close friend Akin, a humble, high energy artist, who has been in SA for 30 years, and he sometimes shares his frustration about the nonsense that is taking place in SA. Akin pays taxes and is a wholesome member of the land, so what is the problem. Xenophobia is a real issue and listening to Jane’s stories since we met her has been very disturbing.

I paid Jane well, and we are kind and warm people. I could see Jane was very happy helping us with Bunster and we were all getting to know each other. She met a few of my friends when they came to visit us in JHB, at Alon’s house, when we first got settled in after arriving from Kyiv. And now she is gone. We are not sure what the challenge is exactly that she had to go back to JHB to deal with. We are concerned now and hope that she is going to be ok, and we wonder if she will be able to fly back to George soon to come be with the Bunster again. He already looked a bit confused this morning.

I love South Africa, and it has been good to me, and my family. But I am embarrassed about many things that go on. What is with the xenophobia. Why did Jane have such a struggle on her hands. She looked so stressed this week. While Bunster napped in the afternoons, she was on the phone, and she seemed so anxious all the time. She is smart, she has money, she had good people around her to to try and help. So what then is the problem. Why can’t she even open a bank account in SA, for example? And that is just the start of the rant …