Occasionally my daily trawl through the newspapers is an interesting exercise, but all too often I am reduced to wondering what collective insanity is gripping the human race and where it is going to end.

Take South Africa for example. According to reports, the South African cops are concentrating most of their resources on trying to find a lady called Vicky Momberg.  This in the face of 21 000 murders, 52 000 rapes and sexual assaults, 156 000 common assaults, 190 000 robberies, 23 000 house robberies, 220 000 burglaries, 16 000 carjackings and 238 cash in transit heists every year. Nevertheless, one missing person who said a bad word is the story making headlines and the crime that is regarded as being a priority by the South African Police Service.

Ms Momberg is an estate agent who was charged with racist crimen injuria and sentenced to three years imprisonment of which one was suspended. Momberg was the first person in South Africa to be sentenced to imprisonment for calling a black police officer Kaffir.

For those of you who don’t know, ‘kaffir’ is a derogatory term for a black person in Southern Africa. Anyway Ms Momberg was videod in the act and although she appealed against her conviction, the appeal was turned down, but instead of handing herself in to the authorities, she disappeared and has not been seen since August.

This, of course, sets a legal precedent. From now on the Momberg case will be used as a guideline for investigating, charging and punishing any person who uses terms and expressions which can be regarded as racist. But it also highlights the double standards of the law in judging such matters.

Only this week, a serving Defence Force officer publicly asked for the torture and killing of white people. He was only verbally reprimanded by his commanding officer for that. Why is he not in court next to Momberg? Why does he not serve a three year sentence? Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Front is continually calling for white people to be wiped out, but he continues to enjoy life as a member of the South African Parliament without any hint of retribution or even reprimand.

It seems that racism in South Africa, as with racism almost anywhere nowadays works only one way. As an elderly, white, heterosexual male, I fear I am definitely part of an endangered species which is somewhat ironic. I spend a great deal of my time preparing and delivering talks on the plight faced by elephants, lions and other African endangered species. Perhaps I should expand my repertoire to include we old toppies as yet another fascinating (!) species facing extinction.

Mind you, whatever one says or does nowadays leads to somebody taking offence and this is perfectly illustrated in a little spoof that was sent to me yesterday by my friend Tony Warde. I will lay it out below and even though it is meant as a joke, I fear it typifies the state of the modern world.

‘It snowed the other night and this was my diary for the following day.

8:00 am: I made a snowman.

8:10 – A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn’t make a snow woman.

8:15 – So, I made a snow woman.

8:17 – My feminist neighbour complained about the snow woman’s voluptuous chest saying it objectified women everywhere.

8:20 – The gay couple living nearby threw a hissy fit and moaned it could have been two snow men instead.

8:22 – A transgender man/woman/person then asked why I didn’t just make one snow person with detachable parts.

8:25 – The vegans at the end of the lane complained about the carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with.

8:28 – I was being called a racist because the snow couple is white.

8:31 – The middle eastern gent across the road demanded the snow woman be covered up.

8:40 – The Police arrived saying someone had been offended.

8:42 – The feminist neighbour complained again that the broomstick of the snow woman needed to be removed because it depicted women in a domestic role.

8:43 – The council equality officer arrived and threatened me with eviction.

8:45 – TV news crew from BBC showed up. I was asked if I know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I replied ‘Snowballs’ and am now branded as sexist.

9:00 – I was on the News as a suspected terrorist, racist, homophobe sensibility offender, bent on stirring up trouble during difficult weather.

9:10 – I was asked if I have any accomplices. My children were taken by social services.

9:29 – Far left protesters offended by everything marched down the street demanding for me to be arrested.

By noon it all melted

Moral:

There is no moral to this story. It is what we have become, all because of snowflakes.’

Sorry Tony, I have amended things here and there for it to read better, but in essence it captures the collective insanity that is sweeping through the human race.