Archive for October, 2008
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Last Sunday night SABC 3 featured a documentary on wild dogs. The commentator named the antelope the most hunted species in the wild.
It is certainly true for one species of antelope, the poor springbok.
The springbok emblem in South Africa must be the most hunted emblem in the entire universe!
Although I feel really bad for the Springbok out in the wild, I in all honestly do not feel the same about the Springbok on the rugby jersey.
I do not care what symbol appear on the national teams rugby jerseys – whether it is the springbok or not. I agree with what Naas Botha said on 5fm the other morning – just get it over already.
Are we going to have the same discussion every 2 or 3 years?
Why do the relevant or rather irrelevant parties care so much?
Is there really nothing more important in this country at the moment than a rugby emblem? Actually is there nothing more important in the world – like a probable recession – than a springbok emblem.
Why are some people clinging to the springbok as if their very identity is ingrained in its survival and why are other people trying to have it removed with such excessive fervor when there are children in this country who go to bed without food?
We have enough social problems yet politicians have time to change the names of places and sports teams. We might get the most morally and criminally corrupt politician since 1994 become our next president, for heavens sake!
I really don’t care if the springbok emblem lives or dies. I care even less about the egos of politicians or the rugby fraternity.
I care about the education system and I care that there are children who are having one meal a day, if they are lucky.
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
The US elections have brought us some great quotes and catch-phrases, but one in particular had me heading towards google.
It went a bit over my head a few times when bloggers spoke about the two candidates followers’ “drinking the kool aid’ – until it clicked a few days ago.
Having last had Kool-Aid as a child and loving it, I couldn’t fathom the relevance.
So I googled the term and came up with an explanation from wikipedia:
“Having “drunk the Kool-Aid” also refers to being a strong or fervent believer in a particular philosophy or mission — wholeheartedly or blindly believing in its virtues…”
Now I’m wondering whether we locals will be drinking the Jacob Zuma or Mosiuoa Lekota Kool-Aid or Umqombothi (african beer)!
I may not know who’s Kool-Aid I’ll be drinking, but I know it will definitely not be Zuma’s nor Zille’s.
Posted in election 2009 | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
South Africa have two high grossing local movies in release at the moment – one the Hansie movie and the other Jerusalema, which was submitted for consideration for a 2008 Foreign Film Academy Award.
Local film makers and even a few foreign ones can attest to the fact that few local films (outside the Leon Schuster genre) make money at the local box office.
These two in the last few weeks made R3.6 million (Hansie) and R3.5 million (Jerusalema) respectively.
Both films tell stories of South Africans, without the post-1994 self-conscious search for political redemption that no one was (and still might not be) ready to view as entertainment. Post ’94 South Africans wanted time to enjoy its new democracy and did not need reminding of a past that was still so fresh.
Americans probably relate when movies with the Iraq war as a theme, gets released.
Fortunately local movie makers have at last cottoned onto the fact that locals will go see see a local production if the film is well made and doesn’t preach.
Many of us cricket-loving citizens remember Hansie Cronje and the s
tory of how he became national cricket captain, his heroic exploits as Captain Courageous, his subsequent fall from grace and eventual death at a young age. For more about the synopsis.
( pictured actor Frank Rautenbach)
Hansie’s story is our story.
I remember being in Melbourne for the Boxing Day test watching Hansie and the rest of the Proteas playing in Australia in the summer of 97/98, being constantly heckled while practicing in the nets. They had to endure the public, a strong Aussie team, and bad umpiring decisions. I fully understood when he impaled the stump into the umpires’ dressing room door later in the series.
Jerusalema is our story also.
It tells the story of a boy who dreams of rising out of the township and poverty he was raised in. Of the criminal route – carjacking and later building-jacking – he took. Read more about the synopsis.
Again this movie resonates because anyone who has lived in a township, driven in a taxi, been carjacked or felt fear of stopping when the traffic light turns red, will relate.
Both movies feature two of my favourite local former soapie actors Rapulana Sepheimo (love this actor!!!!) and Frank Rautenbach.
Even though these movies have stories that resonate, Hansie could and should in all likelihood be a Hallmark channel movie of the week.
Since we don’t yet seem to have the culture of making made-for-tv movies (and it’s probably less lucrative financially), judging by the box office, it’s a story that people wanted to see.
Jerusalema is on a whole different level – more
Tsotsi than it is Hansie. It is also fiction and carried less baggage and expectations than Hansie.
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Monday, October 20th, 2008
I speak more to my overseas family more than to local ones who are not electronically linked.
It is just easier and cheaper to talk via VOIP, or to set up a video chat than to try and organise weekly in person visits around everyone else’s schedules. It’s also cheaper to place a VOIP call to Australia than make a cellular or local call to a family member who lives within 5km of me.
A new study has reportedly been done on family life and technology. The results were surprising, concluding that technology actually brought families closer together.
It makes sense to me! In my family we have interlinking interaction via Mxit for those without internet, Facebook, email, sms and when we can we meet up.
When we eventually see each other it doesn’t feel as if it’s been weeks since the last get together.
I can see how even more vital electronic communication can be for families with children, to co-ordinate schedules and to keep in contact throughout the day.
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Saturday, October 18th, 2008
The dictionary defines cool as fashionable and attractive at the time; often skilled or socially adept.
Marlon Brando, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Princess Diana amongst others became icons and defined the word cool for their generations.
Will we be talking about another defination of cool as in Obama cool?
Whether he intended defining Obama Cool or not, David Brooks in his New York Times column used the terms:
organized unconscious
reassuring and self-composed
calm, appreciative and didactic
Analytical
So perhaps we will be striving towards that outward coolness that the US presidential candidate has shown over the past year or so?
To be just average cool may no longer be good enough; to be Obama Cool might just become the new measure of a man and woman.
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