Buttevant is a village in County Cork known mainly for some ancient monastic ruins. And for being the location of the most serious rail crash in Irish history in which 18 people were killed back in 1980. The accident became front-page news for months afterwards, lead to a massive multi-million pound official inquiry that resulted, inter alia, in a comprehensive upgrading of rolling stock and operational procedures. The accident even has its own unique Wikipedia page and a memorial monument at the scene. To put this accident in context the total number of rail fatalities in Ireland since the middle of the nineteenth century is 68, which equates to roughly one every three years.
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I raise this obscure information to put some perspective on the breathtaking fatality figures for the Rainbow Nation of South Africa. According to the Railway Safety Regulator (a very busy man) there were just short of five hundred rail fatalities in the year before last. Five hundred! Normalising for the respective countries' population variances SA's annual fatalities should number three or four! Not five hundred. Good God Almighty, what has become of a country that was once of the First World? I don't even need to see the figures that applied under Apartheid. I just know they were a tiny fraction of those under the current corrupt buffoons. And this from The South African: "MetroRail Cape Town has lost half [my emphasis] its fleet to arson attacks and vandalism".
Like everything else there the education system too is spiralling down the tube, exemplified by the stunning achievement of a school which boasted a zero pass rate in Standard Examinations. By way of explanation 20 year-old Matriculation candidate Kholofelo Matlou points out “I believe the problem was teaching and learning". With that kind of insight I'd say Kholofelo will matriculate with flying colours. In 2025.
Great job boys. New Zimbabwe looms on the horizon.
I raise this obscure information to put some perspective on the breathtaking fatality figures for the Rainbow Nation of South Africa. According to the Railway Safety Regulator (a very busy man) there were just short of five hundred rail fatalities in the year before last. Five hundred! Normalising for the respective countries' population variances SA's annual fatalities should number three or four! Not five hundred. Good God Almighty, what has become of a country that was once of the First World? I don't even need to see the figures that applied under Apartheid. I just know they were a tiny fraction of those under the current corrupt buffoons. And this from The South African: "MetroRail Cape Town has lost half [my emphasis] its fleet to arson attacks and vandalism".
Like everything else there the education system too is spiralling down the tube, exemplified by the stunning achievement of a school which boasted a zero pass rate in Standard Examinations. By way of explanation 20 year-old Matriculation candidate Kholofelo Matlou points out “I believe the problem was teaching and learning". With that kind of insight I'd say Kholofelo will matriculate with flying colours. In 2025.
Great job boys. New Zimbabwe looms on the horizon.