Giddy-Up!

There is a saying that goes: "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." Many people will read this and nod sagely. I have a slight problem with this saying as I fail to see how you wouldn't notice that the horse you are sitting on has dropped dead. There are a few clues to give this fact away. First off, the horse is probably not moving. That is okay, it might have stopped for a breather. Secondly, there is a good chance that the horse is on its side. Okay, fair enough, it might need a substantial breather. But thirdly, the horse is most likely partially on top of you at this point, so you have to be monumentally stupid not to notice that said horse is actually dead.

Now I understand that you will say "Yes, but this is an analogy that states that, if you are participating in a lost cause, your best chance of success is to stop doing it." Alright, fair enough. And it makes a lot of sense. But apparently not to the South African Government. They have failed to notice that the recently deceased horse is lying on top of them, and have resorted to various tactics:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And, of course...
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

While I understand that no Government is perfect, I fail to see how the people in power in South Africa can look at a situation that is clearly not working, nod to themselves, proclaim that everything is going according to plan, and then buggering off to lunch. Einstein once declared that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. By that definition our Government needs a new clothing accessory. One that you wear as a jacket, that fastens in the back, and makes you hug yourself......