Silly Plastic Palms

ISN’T it astonishing how many people, even in Namibia, think that no desert is complete without palm trees.

Even the Environment Ministry, who ought to know better, have planted rows of these ridiculous exotics at the entrance to Sossusvlei. But MTC’s species of plastic palm tree at Langstrand is about as silly as it gets.It is also dangerous; as any hosepipe owner knows, plastics, particularly in a hot climate, lose their plasticiser, an additive put in to make them flexible, and they are also damaged by ultra-violet radiation, common here, which breaks up the long polymer molecules, gradually weakening them until the plastic becomes hard and brittle.If I am hit by a falling palm tree leaf I expect the insurers would call it an ‘Act of God’, but if I am punctured by a falling shard of a plastic palm tree it will be an ‘Act of MTC’ who must surely stand guilty of knowingly erecting a dangerous building.We must wait and see.Andrew Clegg Via e-mailBut MTC’s species of plastic palm tree at Langstrand is about as silly as it gets.It is also dangerous; as any hosepipe owner knows, plastics, particularly in a hot climate, lose their plasticiser, an additive put in to make them flexible, and they are also damaged by ultra-violet radiation, common here, which breaks up the long polymer molecules, gradually weakening them until the plastic becomes hard and brittle.If I am hit by a falling palm tree leaf I expect the insurers would call it an ‘Act of God’, but if I am punctured by a falling shard of a plastic palm tree it will be an ‘Act of MTC’ who must surely stand guilty of knowingly erecting a dangerous building.We must wait and see.Andrew Clegg Via e-mail