I think perhaps togabutton said what I was trying to say a little better. Contraxdog, I wasn't attacking you at all. In fact, agreeing with you, sort of
.
What sparked this whole debate was this bum-in-the-butter boy who couldn't hack living away from mum. This bloke is clearly not disadvantaged in any way. While I fully support the fast tracking of genuine, needy, flying-mad township dwellers into training programs these things tend to get hijacked by the private school crowd. Means testing is clearly required. It works at Wits, why can't it work at SAA Cadets?
I work in a completely transformed industry and there were plenty of idiot placements in the early days but there is no doubt that after a while, the market evened things out and generally, everything seems to go on merit now, with a bias to PDI if there are two equal candidates.
I would say that it is still easier to operate as a white male in this country than as a member of any other group. For me, english fluencey, networks and an excellent education all stand me in better stead than what is on offer to 99% of the PDI's out there. For that reason, I have to support any program that gives people a helping hand, even if not all of the people deserve to be there.