Two Bombings, One Series of Protests and Now a....

STRIKE!

Yes, a strike. With my trip to Africa coming up fast (on Friday) it's only fitting that the workers of South Africa would take to the streets and paralyze the country. But then again, when you're Todd Grandominico, you can pretty much guarantee some large, completely out of the ordinary disturbance anytime you leave the good ol' US of A.

For those that don't have any frame of reference for what I'm talking about, let's go through the history, shall we?

July 7, 2005 - Suicide bombers attack public transportation services in London. July 8, 2005 - I fly to London.

1:00 PM on February 11, 2006 - Muslims across Berlin unite in a series of protests against newspaper cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. 1:45 PM on February 11, 2006 - I almost walk straight into the middle of one of the protests before being stopped by police. 2:05 PM - I almost do it a second time...stupid maps!

9:30 AM on December 30, 2006 - Basque separatists ignite a car bomb, destroying a parking garage at Madrid's Barajas Airport. 11:00 AM on December 30, 2006 - My flight lands in Madrid.

With all of that, consider my surprise, or actually the lack of, when I came across an article earlier this evening on Yahoo that started off, "The biggest strike in South Africa since the end of apartheid intensified Wednesday as hundreds of thousands more workers downed tools, bringing large parts of the country to a standstill." Well doesn't that just beat all.

Apparently what's going on is, a group of trade unions staged a strike to demand a larger pay raise from the government. This includes a lot of transportation services, including trains and buses, so things could get very interesting on Sunday when I arrive in Johannesburg and connect onward to Cape Town.

So with that, let me start with the first in a series of apologies to the people of South Africa. I really don't mean to cause trouble, but what the hell, at least you're not getting bombed!