Everyone,
I’ve been doing some thinking. I’m playing with real fire here…

It is hard to explain it all… but I am seeing communications again and again, quiet ones, subtle ones, from mysterious people who know all about me, and who are showing me that they know me well. They have been watching me for a long time.

I am especially concerned now about a friend of mine – a friend who was involved in Zimbabwe stuff and trying to help farmers there. I think, his sudden silence is the result of being caught in a sting of some kind. He has disappeared. Maybe he was threatened/warned/silenced. I am suspecting as much. This happened to him about two weeks ago… but I did not realise until now, the severity of the situation. I cannot disclose what he was telling me.

I think, on this very site, I came within a fraction of an inch of sharing his fate. I see now, that he might have been baited – SUCCESSFULLY… whereas, by the skin of my teeth, I managed to avert it.

However, there is a bigger problem.

I am standing on the edge of a cliff. And by sheer luck… I stopped before I stepped right off that cliff. One more step… and down I go…

I have awoken the Tiger. And the Tiger is mighty angry with us little mice, but especially with Little Mouse Jan.

The Tiger is talking to me, quietly, indicating to me, how much he knows about me… too much… The Tiger has been watching me, and I ignored his softer growls at first. Foolish me, I did not listen when he growled quietly. But now his roars are increasing in intensity rapidly.

Methinks, I could be a very dead little mouse, if I do not heed the warnings. So, being the Little Mouse that I am, I must scurry… very quickly into my little hole as fast as my little legs can take me. I must hope that if I run fast enough… and stay quiet, deep inside my mouse hole… that maybe the Tiger will not eat me… this time at least.

So I am thinking today, in the light of many things that have happened, some of which I do not want to speak of now, because I worry for my friend… that I should have heeded the warnings (from a certain Jack-friend – who happens to still be alive because he is PRUDENT – a lesson which I need to learn!), when he gave it to me.

I will stop with immediate effect posting on my site.

Except, I’d like folks to still discuss these problems on Jani Allan’s forum for a day or two – to say our goodbyes.

Jani and I played with the Tiger in 2000, and the Tiger hurt her real bad back then. And the Tiger cut off my voice back then. This time, the venue is different (website instead of radio)… and this time, their gun-sights are pointing at me. They shut her up last time. Neither her fame, nor her position saved her. This time, I had better shut up fast… or I’m going down…

I am thinking of freezing the site IMMEDIATELY. No more news posts from me. And then sealing up the forums soon. And the Website just becomes a dead block of ice. Standing there. Doing nothing. Just a memory that African Crisis once was alive.

As for me, I think I need a rest. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for far too long, and maybe I should take this as a chance, to rest, sleep and just live a normal life and have some fun. Anyway, at work I am behind schedule and have a lot on my plate. Let me rather focus on what I am being paid to do for a living.

I’ve been playing with too serious, too dangerous things for too long.

The reason this has to stop is because we’re becoming too successful – too quickly. Traffic was increasing, activities were increasing… Morale was going up… people were not fighting any more… they were starting to work together… far far too much was going on… and it woke the Tiger. The Tiger knew about it all along (from when the ANC intercepted my emails last year – and probably even longer). But… it was no concern because the activity was too little. In recent months that’s changed. Things have been snowballing… and threatening to go out of control…

Methinks, I must have the brains to know when to be prudent, and when not to be foolish. To be foolish is to try and defy a mighty Tiger that can, with its little finger, put me out of business for good – and which may already have silenced one of my friends. Maybe the Tiger is roaring warnings, and if I am prudent, I must listen to those warnings – while I still can.

I have decided, after a long sleepless night, and after reading the advice of my friends… that unquestionably, prudence is the way to go.

So, I am going to freeze the news on my site and cease posting as of now.

I will leave the forum activities for a few days, so we can say some last goodbyes. But I feel… I’m in far too vulnerable a position to anger the Tiger any more. The Tiger’s patience with me is at an end, and I really don’t want to end up as a very dead little mouse.
Jan the Mouse.