🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika, Yehla Moya Oyingcwele

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

RIP Dolly Parton

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@BarneySimon Montagu-u-u-u-u
Ek drink jou muskadel
Ek sit hier op my rusbank, my voete op die springbokvel
Die klein Karoo-o-o-o
Of 'n Kannaland
Die son steek die Langeberge aan die brand

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@Jonathan_Witt Recording the next episode of The Overton Pod with @KanthanPillay?

[Jared Wright @jaredwright17]

Day 2 476 as WORLD CHAMPIONS 🏆

[Acclaimed Journalist @Jonathan_Witt]

The debates around medical costs in this country are amongst the most misinformed.

If you’re employed and don’t have medical aid and then go to a public hospital your bill will usually be HIGHER than what it would have been in private.

If you have medical aid here are a few tips:

- Make sure you’re on a medical aid which is appropriate for you. Lots of people are OVERINSURED but then complain about the costs of their coverage. A very very small percentage of people can on a health basis justify being on a top tier plan. Middle tier plans cover the majority of things that could happen to you, and many of the schemes have so many doctors signed into their network that they too are fully covered. If you can’t figure this out yourself find a good broker who can.

- DO NOT go to the emergency department or any medical facility after hours unless it is absolutely necessary. Just like everything else the costs for such services are inflated in order to ensure that there are all the necessary and qualified people to take care of you in the middle of the night. This is a good way to burn through your savings if you’re not actually that sick.

- Take some of the money you saved from moving to a more appropriate plan and spend it on a GAP COVER. You did not hear this from me but you should never buy this cover from a hospital network or the scheme which runs your medical aid - diversify. Also only disclose that you have gap coverage when there is a bill to pay or a stated shortfall.

- ALWAYS negotiate. Everything is negotiable. Hospitals would rather fill a bed then leave it empty and medical professionals want to help you. There are very few instances where you will not get a discount if you ask.

- Use GENERIC/CLONES where possible. Without getting into a deep discussion on the issues with generics for certain drugs it usually makes no difference. If your headache tablet is not the original but works 80-100% as well it’s probably not worth paying a premium for a name. Aspirin is aspirin. Same for many other drugs. Apply common sense.

- Lastly, STOP whining. In general the private medical care you receive in this country is equivalent to that of the care in first world countries like the USA, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Singapore and the UAE, amongst others. The only difference is that like for like the care here costs significantly less than in any of those places - sometimes by many multiples.

The iron triangle of healthcare is quite simple:

- access
- quality
- cost

You can have/control any 2 simultaneously but never all 3. If you want it on the cheap which seems to be all anyone wishes for then be ready to sacrifice the quality or the access - exactly the situation in public healthcare.

(All of the above written in my capacity as a journalist and is not medical advice or opinion)

[Phumlani M. Majozi @PhumlaniMMajozi]

I personally think News24 should just be bought by a sane successful person - as Elon Musk bought Twitter - and turned into something useful. I don't think it would be expensive.

Currently, News24 is a propaganda spreader and that's damaging to our country.

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@ErnstRoets Those looking for reasons to be offended on behalf of others.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger @Schwarzenegger]

I was a bricklayer.

It was how I paid the bills when I first moved to America. Even the biggest title in bodybuilding, Mr. Olympia, only paid a thousand dollars back then. 

It makes me proud that in March, the winner of our Arnold Classic and our Arnold Classic UK took home more than a million dollars. He can focus on bodybuilding.

But in our day, that wasn’t an option. Some guys were teachers. Some sold insurance. Franco and I laid bricks.
We put an ad in the paper and sold ourselves as European craftsmen. We figured if people heard the accents, they would picture old-world masonry instead of two bodybuilders with a wheelbarrow. 

It worked. 

The phone rang. And then we had to go out and actually do the job, which was the part nobody could fake. Luckily, Franco knew what he was doing.

The work was simple. Mix the mortar. Set the brick. Tap it level. Scrape the edge. Then do it again. And again. Nobody claps for you. There is no crowd, no music, no trophy. There is just the next brick sitting there waiting for you.

You can still find some of the walls we built in Venice.
That’s where my lesson today comes from.

One brick doesn’t look like anything. Ten bricks don’t look like anything. A hundred bricks, you’re starting to see something, but it doesn’t impress anyone.

You just keep laying bricks until the job is done.

And you know what happens after four or five hours on a wall?

You are so damn tired, or you feel so great that you stop measuring.

You are not standing back every ten minutes asking how far from finished it is. You are covered in mortar, your hands are raw, you’re schvitzing, and you are happy. The work took the question away from you.

That is the part nobody tells you about hard work: It doesn’t just build the wall. It terminates the voice that keeps asking when the wall will be done.

[Ernst Roets @ErnstRoets]

Afrikaner parents teaching English to their kids.

(Credit: Desiré Gardner)

[Jared Wright @jaredwright17]

Day 2 473 as WORLD CHAMPIONS 🏆

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@Metro_Fibre we were really impressed with restoring the cable close to Hetzner late on Friday. I thought it was going to be without Internet the weekend, but your people pushed through. Thank you.

[WSM @TheJaundicedEye]

The Anthony Fauci spectacle before the US Senate is a reminder that as yet in SA there has been no attempt at Covid accountability. Who did why and what? On what evidence? At what cost? WSM’s column on @Politicsweb.
https://t.co/xB95R6EzRD

[Jared Wright @jaredwright17]

Day 2 470 as WORLD CHAMPIONS 🏆

[Philip Lymbery @philip_ciwf]

So sad to hear of the passing of Monty Roberts
His understanding and compassion for horses changed the lives of millions of people and animals, from all walks of live and from all over the world
He had an extraordinary humility, talent and empathy for animals - helping traumatised and rescued horses with gentleness and kindness
Thinking of his family and all those millions he touched with his softness and teaching
RIP Monty, ride high across those plains

[Racing Post @RacingPost]

Monty Roberts, the renowned "horse whisperer" who bought and sold a dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner and became a friend of the late Queen, died at his farm in California on Saturday. He was 91.

[Jared Wright @jaredwright17]

Day 2 465 as WORLD CHAMPIONS 🏆

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@Jonathan_Witt And yet, unsolicited marketing phone calls is worse than before POPIA!

[Jared Wright @jaredwright17]

Day 2 462 as WORLD CHAMPIONS 🏆

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@AlexJayZA @jacarandafm

[🇿🇦 Danie Loots 🇿🇦 @lootsd]

@Jonathan_Witt Not nearly enough.