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Part II: Moer en Soek
Where are we? In the first edition to our “Is South Africa Great?” series we unpacked the makings of the basic state, we agreed that what would then define whether or not South Africa had the makings of a great nation-state would be its performance in those areas. Our analysis came down to two definitions…
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Lost & Found: Took a Break to Get Better
It’s been exactly a month since I’ve published an entry. This isn’t due to a loss in enthusiasm. I’ve changed my process and now instead of taking a day off to put together a moderately lettered post, I’ve decide to work on multiple projects at once, and publish twice weekly. This is where we are.…
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Quickie: How a brief conversation about Whiplash helped answer a question on “Greatness”
(whiplash is a great movie) On Wednesday morning two enlightened individuals on Twitter mentioned what is arguably my favourite movie of the 2014/15 Award Season – Whiplash (I will admit to not having seen The Imitation Games nor The Theory of Everything). I’d go as far as to say the final scene might have been…
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Part I: The National Quagmire
As a South African I get aroused, as many of my compatriots do, at the mention of our country in any international media outlet, whether the news is good or bad [See Twitter]. We love the sound of our own name, and it goes without saying that there is some sense in how we speak…
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I drank some of the Idlers Koolaid.
Easy does it. My firecrotch ginger cohabitant is a budding copywriter who made me appreciate the beauty of simple speak. I’ve always perceived myself an anti-obscurantist, vehemently opposed to useful information being hidden in a web of arbitrary procedure, verbose direction and nonconcomitant complexity. I try to be funny. Perhaps there is room in our…
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No Filter : Cadre Consumption (Collaborative Consumption in SA)
“ No Filter” is a new feature in my blog that I want to use as a platform for unfettered, flow state articles. I want to publish ideas off-the-cuff and hopefully spark a conversation or flesh them out at a later stage. South Africans by in large love to consume, spend, with individual borrowing pegged at…
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Das Mensch (Human) Kapital
I recently wrote a piece on the proposed National Minimum Wage (NMW) in South Africa. Although mention of the wage floor was limited in both this year’s State of the Nation Address and the Budget Speech, it is no less a hot topic. In my research I looked at patterns of inequality, unemployment and wage…