THERE really are times when you need to take a big breath. An albatross flew in last week and suggested I check some stats he left in an untidy pile. So I did and, given that it’s Friday, it’s a good day to share them with you.

As I write this column the world’s population clock clicks in at a net 7.2-billion. Of this number, China hosts 1.35-billion or 18.8%, followed closely by India (1.24-billion or 17.2%).

China consumes 58% of the world’s cement, 52% of the seaborne trade in iron ore and is responsible for 40% of the world’s demand for finished copper products. Last year it produced 716.5-million tonnes of steel, roughly eight times more than the US, the world’s biggest economy. And China will make and sell nearly 19-million motor vehicles this year.

I always knew the Chinese are fond of pork. It turns out it is the porker capital of the world with more than 437-million piggies, 51% of the global total. If you’re statistically minded, it means there’s roughly a third of a pig for every Chinese person. Denmark outranks China on a per capita basis — it brags 2.3 pigs for every head of population.

China has outdone every other country in a number of areas: it has the world’s fastest train, the Shanghai Maglev with a top speed of 430km/h and an average of 251 km/h. It also boasts the world’s most extensive high-speed rail network of more than 10,000km.

It has 620 coal-fired power stations in operation and is expected to build another 160 over the next four years. Over the same four years India will build another 46 plants, so between the two they will put into operation one new coal power plant every week. China is also the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide (Australia is the biggest per capita).

China produces 80% of the world’s solar panels (that’s what the recent trade row with the European Commission was all about) but installs less than 5%. And the country controls 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements. It has only recently installed the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Tianhe-2, which performs quadrillions of calculations per second (33.86 petaflop/s, if that means anything to you).

Chinese male smokers consumed about 2-trillion cigarettes in 2009 or about a third of the world’s total consumption. There are an estimated 350-million Chinese smokers.

China also holds the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, estimated at $3.66-trillion at the end of the third quarter.

And we think we’re saving the planet. Whatever is done in Australia (which has chucked out its carbon tax legislation), Canada, the US, South Africa — or anywhere else for that matter — won’t make much difference.

All South Africa’s politicians are doing is inconveniently raising the cost of living, making our manufacturers uncompetitive, with plenty of help from the trade unions, and imposing a carbon tax while countries such as China and India grow, consume and emit at extraordinary rates.

...

LAST week a silk at the Johannesburg Bar, Ross Hutton, watched a man being stabbed to death in front of the South Gauteng High Court. My information is the police were less than helpful.

This has propelled the Johannesburg Bar Council into action. The security situation around the court is now one of crisis. Pick-pocketing, theft, robbery — all have become commonplace.

Mayor Parks Tau faces the untenable situation that the very heart of what is proclaimed to be a "World Class African City", is becoming a no-go area for the highest ranks of the judiciary. I have to presume that if pedestrians can be murdered in full view of the high court, then no one is safe, and that includes the judges.

Short-and long-term solutions are being sought as a matter of urgency, but perhaps the truth is that the Johannesburg central business district doesn’t deserve to host the busiest high court in the land.

...

Recklessness behind accidents

YET another road accident involving taxis, this time with six dead and eight injured near Diepsloot, Sandton. We have become inured to the country’s appalling road accident death rate, among the highest in the world at more than 200 deaths per 100,000 vehicles (14,000 dead last year).

The authorities continue to target speed as the single most important cause of road accidents. And it is true, of course, that excess speed leaves drivers with little time to respond when things go wrong — animals darting across roads, pedestrians appearing from nowhere, tyres bursting, oncoming cars suddenly skidding, the list is endless.

But virtually no attention is paid to the much more important need for discipline. It is common cause among urban commuters that their most hazardous occasions frequently involve those ubiquitous minibus taxis. There are 150,000 of them and the driving standard is often appalling. They career through red traffic lights or depart ahead of any change in the lights, drive over kerbs, barge into queues, drive down the wrong side of roads, stop to pick up or disgorge passengers wherever they feel like it — right bang across intersections if it pleases them.

There are rarely, if ever, any police around on these occasions. No, they are out there collecting speeding fines, much of which, apparently, is applied to secure their own comforts.

This entirely laissez faire behaviour is now finding resonance among drivers who previously wouldn’t have given a thought to behaving in such a manner. Only yesterday I drove alongside a 4x4 piloted by a cell-texting mother whose child was buckled into the back seat. At least she got that right.

The conclusions are many: there aren’t sufficient police properly schooled in traffic law; they are lazy, anyway; their primary job is to fulfil cash collection quotas; they are afraid to confront taxi drivers.

Until iron discipline is restored, motorists are advised to remember that in South Africa traffic light colours are recommendations, not commands.

Motorists (should) remember that in South Africa traffic light colours are recommendations, not commands.