COMMENT
SIN CITY TRUMPS
THE RED BERETS
T
here will be no hugs and kisses
in Las Vegas between the 10th
and 14th of March this year.
Even handshaking will not be
allowed. Strange but true for a place
known as Sin City, where French kisses
are usually dished out more lavishly than
peppermints in large exhibition halls.
The reason: fears of a flu-like virus
called COVID-19 or the coronavirus,
which, at the time of writing, decimated
global markets. At a time when posts
about pandemics on Twitter and
Facebook spread quicker than the actual
virus itself, and the doomsday clock
keeps ticking, Plant Equipment & Hire
will join more than 130 000 equipment
enthusiasts at the 2020 Conexpo-Con/
Agg in Trump Land to bring our readers
as much news and information of what
is happening in the global equipment
market as possible, even if it does mean
a few days without sleep.
President Trump has dismissed
COVID-19 in the same way as he has
teenage ecowarrior Gretha Thunberg and
Leon Louw
[email protected]
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
her ‘perennial prophets of doom’. And it
appears that attendees to 2020 Conexpo-
Con/Agg agree with Trump. They are
descending on Vegas in bigger numbers
than ever, despite a ban on the shaking of
hands and of course, elaborate kissing.
Fear of the coronavirus has resulted in
there being more hand-sanitiser stations
on the show floor this year than models in
skimpy OEM bikinis – a story worth a front
cover on its own.
According to the Association of
Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), more
than 4 000 new registrations for ConExpo-
Con/Agg and IFPE were made in the last
week of February with just days to go
before the opening of the show on the 10 th
of March. Advance registration is said to
be well ahead of the 2017 show and AEM
is holding to its projected attendance of
more 130 000 people to interact with more
than 2 500 exhibitors. “Registrations are
on track to make ConExpo-Con/Agg & IFPE
2020 one of the largest in show history,”
Dana Wuesthoff, ConExpo-Con/Agg show
director, told Plant Equipment & Hire.
While South Africa grapples with all sorts
of challenges (thankfully up to now the
coronavirus is not one of them) the Plant
Equipment & Hire team will be wandering
the aisles of one of the biggest shows on
earth, breathing in the energy of bustling
Vegas (and hopefully nothing else) between
hordes of mega equipment and thousands
of people – if anything, a welcome break
from watching amateurish showmanship in
parliament, red overalls and EFF berets.
If we sat at a Roulette table and I had
to put all my chips on wearing a mask
and watching the Can-Can in Vegas,
or listening to an ever-expanding Floyd
Shivambu in red overalls bursting at
the seams trying to lecture our finance
minister about the economy, I’ll put all my
money on the former any day.
Hopefully, whatever virus international
visitors carry with them to Vegas, stays
in Vegas, and we don’t bring it back with
us to South Africa – and if we do, that
our President keeps his cool. President
Ramaphosa was dealt a dead man’s hand
three years ago, and he can hardly afford
something like coronavirus to add to his
woes. Afterall, COVID-19, a dividing Ace,
a threatening Joker wearing many berets,
an ailing but dangerous former king, an
overweight, looting red diamond and a
highly intelligent queen of hearts is just
about a royal flush that would make even
the best poker face think twice before
he folds.
As the plane takes off, I think of
South Africa, and of poker faces, and of
Vegas, while Elvis Presley’s famous song
reverberates in my ears over and over:
“How I wish that there were more
Than the twenty-four hours in the day
Even if there were forty more
I wouldn't sleep a minute away
Oh, there's black jack and poker and the
roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on every deal
All you need's a strong heart and a nerve
of steel
Viva Las Vegas! Viva Las Vegas!
The article was written days before we
left for Las Vegas on 9 March 2020. At
the time there were no COVID-19 cases
reported in South Africa, Floyd Shivambu’s
red overall was still two sizes too small
and he has yet to change it for a pair of
orange ones, and ex-president Zuma just
returned from a trip to Cuba for treatment
of an unknown illness. Strange days
indeed.
Leon Louw
APRIL 2020
1