This week (I thought it was today, but the first post was on Tuesday 24 June 2007), marks the first birthday of the spike. It’s been a fun ride, so far, with lots of interesting discussion, entertaining fights and illuminating argument. Some 30 000 unique visitors have come by, of which 20% constitute a hard core of regular readers. The average month entertains about 4 000 unique visitors with around 8 000 unique page views. This is more than I’d hoped for, from such an eclectic, general-interest one-man-show such as the spike.

I have readers in 160 countries, including the Faroe Islands, Congo, Rwanda, Kazakhstan, Grenada, Montenegro and Guam. South Africa accounts for about half my visitors, followed by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway, India, Ireland, France and the Netherlands.

Of the 510 posts to date, the most popular were about the David Bullard affair. If anyone doubts his claims to popularity, don’t. He’s more popular than teen sex (see below).

Another ongoing favourite is the collection of cool computer mods posted back in August last year, and augmented by another brilliant steampunk job in April this year.

Other popular posts have been about teen hanky panky (who’da thunk?), why I don’t buy orthodox global warming alarmism and the case of the non-endangered polar bear, a controversial view on child labour in China and what, if anything, we should do about it, as well as a tribute to Kevin Carter’s photojournalism. And who can forget the charming personality and intelligent discourse of Miss South Carolina? She was just a silly segue from a serious piece on George W Bush; who would have thought anyone could be more popular than the Chief?

Though one of my core interests, economics, is further down the list if you rank individual posts, it does turn up in the search terms used to find the spike. Other than my name, popular search words include “public perception nuclear”, “gold stuff site:ivo.co.za”, “rising oil price inflation”, “al gore investment company”, “zimbabwe failed state”, “food inflation + underlying causes”, “resolution recycling”, “global warming”, “arguments against global warming”, “100 scientists bali”, and, of course, “david bullard”.

I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the 1 153 comments received to date, and the many sites that have discussed or linked to my posts. Many great points have been raised, and much healthy debate fostered. They have broadened my thinking, honed my arguments, and generally been a lot of fun. Thanks for taking the time to have these discussions. This toast is to you.

PS. It seems the WP-Footnotes plugin does something evil with character encoding in Safari, or spews out garbage upon returning to the body copy. It works on Firefox and Opera, which is where I usually preview posts. Sadly, the plugin author’s wep-page doesn’t render in Firefox 3.0. I’ve removed the footnote and added a paranthesis in the first sentence to resolve this problem, and won’t be using this very useful feature in future. Annoying.

Now why would anyone want to think South Africa is in deep crisis? If yesterday’s open letter to Jacob Zuma by Alec Hogg wasn’t enough to convince you, how about a deadly shootout between opposing police forces?

It appears there is now open warfare between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD). The former is the national police, run by fat-cat gangsters. The latter are a bunch of glorified traffic cops, most related to each other, who spend their days getting fat, extorting bribes, and beating up girls in bars.

Writes the Sowetan’s Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi:

Members of the South African Police Services (SAPS) fired rubber bullets during a stand-off with their Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) counterparts on the M2 Highway in Johannesburg last night.

“Metro police blocked the flow of traffic on the M2 and when police intervened they fired live ammunition and police returned with rubber bullets,” police spokesman Julia Claassen said.

The entire city centre came to a grinding halt, as bystanders fled for their lives and hid under their cars. The Times reports that a police spokeman couldn’t get to the scene, and couldn’t get a report on the gun-battle because police officers had switched off their cellphones. Its coverage, by Werner Swart and Thabo Mkhize, also says one cop may have died in the stand-off:

Protesting Metro police caused chaos yesterday when they sealed-off the Johannesburg CBD, preventing thousands of motorists from leaving the city centre and sparking a deadly clash with the South African Police Service.

The violence may have resulted in the death of one metro officer, but the SAPS were unable to confirm this last night. Seven metro officers were injured.

The clash came after hundreds of metro policemen, in full uniform, blocked access to highway on-ramps and off-ramps ringing the city last night, in protest over a salary dispute with their employer.

SAPS officers fired rubber bullets to disperse their unruly metro colleagues, said spokesman Supertintendent Eugene Opperman.

He said the metro officers returned fire with live ammunition. The police are now investigating cases of attempted murder against the metro police officers.

Terrified motorists told The Times how officers had threatened motorists and brought traffic to a standstill. At some intersections, officers used concrete bins to block the path of motorists trying to make their way home.

Here’s the Mail & Guardian Online’s take on the story:

Protesting metro police officers fired live ammunition at South African Police Service (SAPS) members in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

SAPS Gauteng police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said the police had been forced to fire rubber bullets at metro police members who had blockaded the city, causing traffic gridlock.

Seven metro police officers — three women and four men — were injured during the police action, Opperman said.

The exchange occurred in the Eloff Street/M2 highway area.

The protests were triggered by complaints over salaries and nepotism. Strikers said they would not return to work until their grievances had been addressed.

Major roads and highways were blocked, causing traffic havoc.

Said Opperman: “The SAPS deplores the conflict-seeking type of protest by the Johannesburg metro police.

Come foreigners! Come football fans! Welcome to our fair land, and bring your euros with you! (Dollars can be exchanged for real currency or a flack jacket upon arrival at OR Tambo International Airport. Even Metro cops won’t accept dollars for bribes.)

If I were an honest cop in that department, I would resign in disgust, today, and publicly announce this fact. Anyone who doesn’t, deserves the stigma of being a Johannesburg Metropolitan Pig Thug.

More than that, this appalling behaviour calls for the immediate disbandment of the Metropolitan Police. Arrest anyone who took part in the protest, and lock them up. Make sure they never work in a position of responsibility again, lest innocent companies (such as private security firms) accidentally hire disgruntled homicidal maniacs.

The concept of a Metro police force is a good one. A national force isn’t very good at local policing, traffic management and by-law enforcement. After all, they have police commissioners to catch. But when local police start shooting at national police, something appears to be somewhat wrong. I don’t mean to whinge, you understand, or sound pessimistic, but perhaps someone over at SA Rocks can explain how else one should feel about this sort of thing, or exactly what we should do about it. Other than grin, bear it, and send Nelson Mandela birthday wishes.

I’ve sent him a wish. It read, “Sorry, Madiba, that you had to live to see this.”