You are probably wondering what happened to the customary Christmas greetings and thankyous I like to offer to all clients, suppliers, dealers at this time of the year. Well, I did proffer them, but the Autotrader forgot to print them. Its been that kind of year. Have you noticed how, without exception, as soon as a company becomes big enough and profitable enough, all semblance of client service gets the heave-ho. Take all the banks, with the possible exception of Investec and RMB, Telkom, large estate agencies, insurance companies, they just don't give a damn. They underpay their staff, under train them, they set hurdles in lines of communication, in fact, they don't do responsibility or response at all any more. They are all focused on the bee-line and understand that they have to cut corners to cover the grotesque packages that go with empowerment.

On another subject, it has been a very interesting week for our country. I have given up watching television because the reality we live in is far funnier. Take the ministers response to the increase in stolen and hijacked cars, that they are selling too many cars so there are more opportunities to steal them, or another department that arrests the curator for stocking too many guns at the War Museum ??? Did they have wind of a military coup where an insurgent force, obviously far left, was going to attack Soweto and wipe it out ? I tell you, there isn't a single day that doesn't go by that increasingly stupid acts or statements are made. I liked the one were it was suggested that single drivers of cars should be penalised, or the one where hijacker and victim, both shot are taken to the same hospital for treatment, hijacker gets immediate treatment cos he's in police custody, and victim has to wait for hours before his family brings the R5000 deposit requiredbefore they help him.