Neil Merton

Ensuring An Intelligent Government

Here’s a little joke that was just emailed to me:

President Mbeki meets with the Queen of England. He asks her, “Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?”

“Well,” says the Queen, “the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people.”

President Mbeki frowns. “But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?”

The Queen takes a sip of tea. “Oh, that’s easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligence riddle.”

The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. “Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?”

Tony Blair walks into the room. “Yes, my Queen?”

The Queen smiles. “Answer me this, please, Tony. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?”

Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answers, “That would be me.”

“Yes! Very good,” says the Queen.

Back in Cape town, President Mbeki asks to speak with vice president Zuma.

“Answer this for me. Your mother and your Father have a child. It’s not your brother and it’s not your sister. Who is it?”

“I’m not sure,” says the vice president. “Let me get back to you on that one.”

Zuma goes to his advisors and asks every one, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he ends up at the V&A Waterfront and bumps into Evita Bezuidenhout. Zuma looks around to see if anyone can overhear then whispers, “Evita! Can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it’s not your brother! or your sister. Who is it?”

Evita whispers back, “That’s easy. It’s me!”

Zuma smiles and says “Thanks!”

Zuma goes back to Parliament to speak with President Mbeki. “Sir, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It’s Evita Bezuidenhout.”

Mbeki gets up, stomps over to Zuma, and angrily yells into his face, “No, you idiot! It’s Tony Blair!

I hope that put a smile on your face.