New Year
Wow, the start of yet another year. When you get to my age you wonder how many more? Not the fear of the number, rather the hope of how long it will be within the capability of your mind and body. For me, the fear of loss of mind is greater than the fear of death. Do not even mention incontinence.
“As you age the fear of losing control of your mind and body functions is much greater than death.” - Peter McSporran
I suppose that is most people's fear, that and being a financial burden to your family. When we saw our pensions disappear into the coffers of Old Mutual, still in ownership of the bricks and mortar we paid for, being a burden to your children or loved ones has always been one of my biggest fears.
“After losing the farms, my main driving force was to ensure I would not leave my wife and children the burden of funding my old age.” - Peter McSporran
Following that melancholy moment, let's move on to brighter things. After many years of staying at home for New Year, we decided to attend this year’s celebrations in Nazaré with friends. What a fine evening. We went with our friends John and Margaret Tidey booking into a hotel a couple of hundred metres from the beach and the entertainment venue with the designated restaurant in between the two. Of course, there had to be at least one hiccup with all the bookings online. Hotel was fine, pre-paid, restaurant, not so but no problem really, owner took responsibility of the error and ensured we were plied with drinks and snacks while we waited for a table. What a meal! We ordered seafood platters and these were filled with a huge variety of fresh crustaceans to the extent we could not finish what was on our platters despite our gluttonous efforts. The entertainment on the beach was free, the music while loud was not horrific with the singers and dancers on a giant stage. The fireworks were impressive and the crowd, old and young, well-behaved and jovial. Surprisingly, few were drinking on the beach, many just enjoying a family outing rather than a drunken celebration found in such places as the streets of Edinburgh. Back to the hotel for a nightcap dram to awaken the next morning to a clean town and beach with the huge stage gone, dismantled when the music finished at four am. Surprisingly, even the skips and dustbins had been emptied. Obviously, no New Year celebration for the binmen.
Sometimes the world we live in pleasantly surprises you. This New Year was one of them. Stay at home was the easy option, it would have been the wrong one.
“It is so important even in your sunset years to continue doing things. While perhaps not being so actively involved as a participating observer, it sure can be fun.” - Peter McSporran
It was a great night with the forecast of rain storms only arriving after our return home. As I was not the designated driver, I was not too strong for the rest of the day. Amazing how little drink does damage now, it’s certainly a lot cheaper. On reflection, a year with less travel will be good, plus I need to look after the coins as the years stretch out. We still have so much to discover in Portugal with the furthest point only some four hours drive. Let's be honest, flying is no longer a pleasure.
Our son Selby, and his partner were with us for Christmas. He is somewhat brighter than me and is definitely what I would term a tech geek with an entrepreneurial spirit. He is therefore definitely not a nerd. When we travelled to the beach or out for a meal, he read us a book about Artificial Intelligence (AI). The gist of the book was; forget about aliens from outer space invading us, there is a dangerous alien already in our midst. This alien is in the form of AI and was spawned a number of years ago and is slowly, maybe not so slowly, but surely taking over our lives.
Selby with explanations on the narrative made it easier for me to understand what the author was trying to say. It is pretty clear AI has still got a ways to go but already so much of our life is being affected by it. Is it good or bad? Well, it seems that it depends on whose hands it is generated in and for what purpose it is used. As we know the military have always taken interest and pursued the advancement in new technology from the time a sling was made to the present drone warfare. I always thought as long as we had the ability to pull the power switch we were in control, glibly forgetting that my simple floor sweeper robot heads off to its power point when its energy runs low. Computers are already capable of beating the worlds best chess players. Computers do not gain knowledge by training or experience they can share the knowledge of any other such computing machine so much quicker and greater than any human even with access to the net. All computer knowledge is stored as data somewhere forever, unlike the limited capacity of our brains.
Some of what they are used for is already scary. I find the ability of the retailers to capture our spending habits and fix our location thereafter bombarding us with the items their algorithms say we need or desire are more scary than the weapons. Just the other day Rozanne visited a brand chain store, purchased nothing, but the next day receiving text adverts on her phone of the very products found in that very store. Unsettling to say the least. Did they track her phone? Probably.
“We keep hearing so much about how legislation is there to protect our privacy. Such bullshit. Big brother knows all about us.” - Peter McSporran
It is now almost impossible to tell real news from fake news and the few now dictate to the many on diversity, gender and the planet. We are used to questioning new theories but now we are inundated with too many answers with us subconsciously giving those that are closer to our views, both social and political more credence than they deserve. We consume so much news we have no time to check the source before we hunt down the next story. On reflection:
“AI and its use (misuse) is probably more scary than any extraterrestrial we may ever encounter. - Peter McSporran.
Commercial Oilseeds Producers Association (COPA)
By whinging enough about the marketing of my groundnuts, I found myself on the Commercial Oilseeds Producers Association (COPA) committee. This was a giant step for me, a Scotsman by birth, a foreigner, an upstart young farmer well within the bounds of Zimbabwean farming circles. Farmers in Zimbabwe during those days attended a handful of schools, universities or college (singular). Having served in the army, I believe was the biggest key to acceptance. There was a general acceptance of the integration of owners and managers socially. The war had broken a lot of social barriers. Marrying into a leading and highly respected farming family also helped me, but in spite of this, I was still very much in awe of the long-established farmers and especially the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) hierarchy. At shows and sales, they would attract as much attention from farmers as politicians. After all, they were representing our constituency, that being commercial farmers. Therefore, for the first few meetings I attended, I would just sit in awe of what my seniors had to say. At our association meetings, the president of the CFU would give a briefing on the political and economic situation, while the Vice President would report on inputs, labour etc. The professional staff of the union would be there in their support reporting in detail on labour matters, power, both fuel and electrical, economics and legislation. Hence my nervous introduction into farming politics.
In 1983 when I joined the COPA committee Warwick Hale was the Chairman, well known to me as he came from the Nyabira farming area. I probably took his place after he left a vacancy when elected as Chairman. His Vice Chairman was the ever-enthusiastic Robbie McManus from Enterprise who I also knew from my time working in that area for the Edwards and also on PATU call-ups, as that area became very hot towards the end of the war.
At that time Jim Sinclair was the President of the CFU, having taken over from David Spain who had died in a car crash. His Vice President was John Laurie, who with many others would become both colleagues and friends of mine. These gentlemen set a very high standard of integrity and representation to their members, an example to us all in office.
Unfortunately, at that time in 1983, we were losing members due to dissident action in Matabeleland so Jim was having a very tough time keeping up the confidence of farmers down there, nearly all ranchers in very isolated areas were very susceptible to attack with more than twenty farmers killed. Ranches could be bought in the south of the country for a couple of dollars a hectare, so to leave, you left only with the value of your cattle and scant else and many did. Little did we know on the Communal Lands (ex-Tribal Trust Lands) in Matebeland, genocide was taking place under the guise of putting down the dissidents, actually very few in number. Some thirty thousand men, women and children found themselves down wells and disused mineshafts, murdered often in the most horrible manner.
The purpose of the association was to promote all oilseeds, that being soya beans, groundnuts, peanuts to the town dweller, and sunflowers. Soya beans and groundnuts were controlled crops so prices for these were fixed by the government in consultation with the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA). They had to be delivered to the nearest Grain Marketing Board depot where you would receive a fixed price depending on the grade. The AMA had sub-committees within itself to discuss policy on oilseeds, grains, dairy and beef. The chairman and one other from each of the associations sat on these committees representing commercial farmers. The chairman of the AMA at that time was a canny man of Irish descent called Paddy Millar. Paddy was an ex-president of the CFU and also for a while, chairman of our Farmers Co-op before it went public. All our payments for our crops from the marketing bodies (parastatals) were channelled through the Farmers Co-op except for tobacco which had its own dedicated marketing system made up of two auction floors for Burley and Virginia tobacco at that time.
This system gave comfort to banks and the Land Bank in particular which gave long-term finance for land and capital items. The Land Bank was to become the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), other input lenders were also comforted in supplying finance by this means. Much of this money was lent with the support of signed stop orders collected at source by either the Farmers Co-op or tobacco auction floors. A wonderful system when run by honest dedicated boards and professional staff. This was proven as the years progressed after independence where corruption, inefficiencies and disorderly marketing became the norm. What we had was deemed as orderly marketing, the envy of the world. Our markets were totally different to other agricultural markets around the world, with little volatility and prices only being tweaked up or down against input inflation and to either promote or cut the production of a commodity in relation to demand. This was done on an annual basis so planning was simple especially if pre-planting prices were announced. Tobacco was an exception, although a controlled market there was no price fixed by the government, sold under an open auction although ensuring payment to the farmer within twenty-four hours. In those days, most of our crop deliveries would be paid within fourteen days of delivery, I believe payment can take six months if not longer nowadays in Zimbabwe. In my time at the CFU, I was to see and be part of the huge changes in the marketing system.
At that time nearly all the research and extension were carried out by government under the auspices of the Department of Research and Specialist Services within the Ministry of Agriculture. Up until independence, we were the envy of many countries in the world, not just Africa. Here things were changing and steady old hands along with bright young plant breeders and research workers were being replaced by political appointees who we know are corrupted by political favour and cronyism. The writing was on the wall, how do we retain this talent in the country? I will chat about that next week.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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