by David Biggs
There’s a big difference between knowledge and intelligence. The possession of a matric certificate may indicate that you have accumulated a great deal of knowledge during your school career, but it doesn’t necessarily show any increase in your level of intelligence.
I read recent reports of post-matric “raves” that took place recently in the Nelson Mandela Bay area (Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch) and I shuddered with horror.
Literally thousands of school leavers gathered in party venues in the area to drink and shout and celebrate, packed shoulder to shoulder, and not a single mask was in sight.
At one gathering an estimated 1 000 young people were squeezed inside the venue and another 500 celebrated outside.
Photographs show none of them wearing masks.
The report said there were at least four similar gatherings in the city. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
There have been no shortage of warnings. We are told daily, in every shop and on every notice board and newspaper, to keep social distances and wear masks. We are sanitised in every doorway.
Most public buildings (even my little local fish shop) have lines drawn on their floors indicating how far apart people must stand. And yet thousands of “educated” school leavers think it’s okay to crowd into pubs and clubs, maskless, and breathe and shout into each others’ faces.
Now the holidays are here and those school leavers will all return to their towns and villages filled with knowledge (and coronavirus, probably) but empty of intelligence, to spread the illness among their less “educated” family members and friends.
When a new wave of infections is announced, and we are subjected to another total lockdown, won’t it be comforting to know that we owe it to our newly educated youth.
Recent headlines complained that South Africa was last in line to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Perhaps we’re waiting for someone to develop a stupidity vaccine.
Last Laugh
Johnny came home after a visit to the doctor.
His wife greeted him and said: “You look worried, dear. What did the doctor say?”
“He told me I’d have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life.”
“That’s not too serious, dear. Lots of people have to take pills every day.”
“Yes, I know,” said Johnny, "but he only gave me five pills.”
* "Tavern of the Seas" is a daily column written in the Cape Argus by David Biggs. Biggs can be contacted at [email protected]
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.