In Guateng there's a chap named ANDRE SNYMAN (email ryfsny@yebo.co.za). He's a businessman in the transport industry. I've chatted with him on the phone and we've exchanged several emails. He's a pretty ordinary bloke whose enjoyed a degree of success in business. Only, he's taken a heap of his money and has decided to do something to help South African's deal with crime. Why? Because he can - and he cares. He started eBLOCKWATCH - see www.eblockwatch.co.za. 

And then, there's a fella named PIETER BOSHOFF (email info@missingchildren.co.za) down in the Cape. A few months back a little seven year old girl name Sheldean Human went missing. The media had a field day; it was front page news for days. Shaldean was found a week later, murdered. Pieter was incensed and moblised entire communities to search for Sheldean - and after her body was found - to protest against such a terrible evil in our society. So he launched MISSING CHILDREN SA - see www.missingchildren.co.za - and has amassed resources to assist families to help locate their children if they go missing. And like Snyman, it is his own money he has invested to achieve this objective.

There is nothing exceptional about either man other than they seem to give a damn and have found it in themselves to invest their resources in helping others, with particular reference to the scourge of crime that robs South Africa of its standing as one of the most beautiful, amazing countries in the world.

There's another bloke trying to add himself to the mix; yours truly, WILLEM JARDINE, who in the world from which he draws his salary, is a frustrated private/forensic investigator; frustrated because he is weary of applying his skills to the invesitgation of matters that at the end of the day mostly translate into one party trying to get one over another party for the purpose of justice most often expressed in the form of financial gain. Only, WILLEM JARDINE is also this biker nut, writer and would-be publisher of RHYDAR'S RIDER'S RAG, who you know as LOONE RHYDAR. However the person who is embodied in the characters of RHYDAR and JARDINE finds ever more increasingly that the divide between these two characters is blurring, merging.

So where is this going? What if the private/forensic investigator-biker-writer-publisher can use the foundation of the efforts of Snyman and Boshoff to mobilise the organised biking community to further their objectives and - simultaneously - secure for bikers greater resources to secure themselves and their families?

What if? "What if" is the point of this article.

eBLOCKWATCH is the virtual equivalent of a Neighbourhood Watch. Only the persons that comprise the eBLOCKWATCH version of the Neighbourhood Watch can be, literally neighbours, or an interest group scattered across the country. How does is work? If you join eBLOCKWATCH they will create for your "Neigbourhood Watch" a unique panic button on your cellphone. Hit you panic button and they will immediately circulate your call for help/announcement by SMS to your virtual "Neighbourhood Watch" to mobilise response and assistance to your call for help. There is a small charge of R 10.00 per month, which, says Snyman, goes a little way towards off-setting their SMS bill. I believe him. No one is making money from this - except perhaps the cellphone service providers.

eBLOCKWATCH claims a current subscription base of some 50 000 individuals - and growing.

And MISSING CHILDREN SA claim that they are becoming know as THE resource to approach if a child goes missing.

eBLOCKWATCH appoints coordinators for each of its virtual Neighbourhood Watches. They appointed me as the overall coordinator for KZN.

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Now, every bike club/biker organsation I know of has some sort of outreach programme, from merely participating in an annual toy run to complex and targeted fund raising efforts for the upliftment of the less fortunate. 

What if we can harness this attitude of bikers in respect of the less fortunate and apply it to the initiatives of eBLOCKWATCH and MISSING CHILDREN SA? To achieve this we would have to:

Think of the benefits:

Any LOONE RHYDAR'S role in all this? 

The greatest deterrent to crime is making criminals aware that if you do crime, the resources are there to make sure that you do the time!

So what about it? Why can't ordinary Joe's like you and I do something extraordinary like the Snyman's and Boshoff's of the world - and for no reason other than we can? We are not re-inventing the wheel here. These resources already exist. So why not put them to greater use for the benefit of all?

And of course, missing children is not the only crime/ community need issue to which bikers can lend support. I've tagged this issue only because the thought of my child going missing terrifies me. And because much of the community work of bike clubs/organisations is already directed at disadvantaged children. Kids, it seems, naturally occupy a special place in the hearts of bikers.

Interested? Care to comment? Do you have other ideas along similar lines? Hit the EMAIL BUTTON now and let me know. 

Please.

There is much more to tell you. The above is just "nuts and bolts", a teaser, if you like, to gauge your interest.

Ride safe...ride awesome...and THINK BIKE
LOONE RHYDAR