SA Rocks

The below video was posted on YouTube a few days ago by someone called ProRSA.

It made me smile, it gave me hope and it made me believe that we will manage, we will be OK and we live in an incredible place with an amazing history and a bright future.

See for yourself:

Get the picture?

Popularity: 2% [?]

WOW!

This is absolutely rocking. Johnny Clegg is already a hero in SA and now he has pulled together South Africa’s top artists to record and remake “Spirit of the great heart”.

The song is a classic and has now been cemented as a great!

Top South African artists band together to support orphaned and vulnerable children

A remake of the Johnny Clegg classic featuring 17 of South Africa’s premier artists. All to benefit the Starfish Greathearts Foundation. produced by michael canfield.

I have blogged about The Starfish Foundation before. This project is in aid of the self same project. What a fantastic initiative by Clegg.

Watch with pride and enjoy:

Here is the massive list of participating artists:

Johnny Clegg, Arno Carstens, Karen Zoid, Josie Field, Chris Chameleon, Danny K, Proverb , Cito (Wonderboom), Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse, The Bala Brothers, Kahn Morbee (Parlotones’ frontman), Louise Carver, Dr. Victor, The Holy Cross Choir, Brenda Burnit & Michael Canfield/ RhythmSectionAfrica feat. Alistair Coakley.

‘We are simply astounded by the generosity and passion that everyone involved in this project has shown. By using their time, talents and resources the South African music and filming industries have helped us to inspire thousands of South Africans to stand up and make a difference to the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children,’ says, Kelli Givens, Resource Development Manager for the Starfish Greathearts Foundation. ‘This amazing effort will show the global community that citizens from all walks of life are indeed stimulating a bright future for South Africa.’

Popularity: 3% [?]

Rikus sent me an email a few days back. He runs a project/website called Charity Wines. The concept is a simple one and one that I like. You buy wine, they deliver and money goes to charity. Easy huh? Yep it is.

You can have a look at who benefits when you buy wine here.

Let’s have Rikus explain things a bit more:

Hi Rikus, Welcome to SA Rocks. I love the idea behind Charity Wines. Tell me a bit about where the concept came from?

Thank you. As you might know, there are a number of grassroots charities out there doing fantastic work. Time and time again we find that their greatest concern is financial stability. They simply do not get enough funding and support from the government and therefore they are forced to make applications to corporate South Africa for their survival.

My partner and I were driving through the winelands of the Breede River valley after a visit to one such organisation when the idea occurred to us to create a sustainability model for charities in the winelands. We simply decided to ask the wine producers of our country to make some of their marketing wine available which we then sell to the public. The funds raised are then made available to organisations in the fields of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and severe learning difficulty. We approached the governing bodies of the Wine Industry for their endorsements and then we set out to build the infrastructure needed to pull this off. Before long we accquired the services of Mondi Packaging, The Vineyard Connection and Cluver Markotter Lawyers who all pleged their support pro bono as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.

Engelbrecht/Els got the ball rolling by sending us some lovely wine and the rest is history. We have close on 50 farmers pledging wine to the Trust on a monthly basis and more are joining all the time. It is important to notice that the farmers are donating their wine free of charge.

Do you deliver outside of Western Cape?

We deliver to every corner of South Africa courtesy of The Vineyard Connection and Cross Cape. Westen Cape deliveries take approximately 24 hours and deliveries country wide can take up to 3 days.

How many people are involved in the project?

The Charity Wines Trust has 3 trustees whilst we acquired the services of a retired partner of Wine of the Month Club pro bono who manages strategic parts of the operation. Then there are the Industry’s gurus, the wine farms, implementation partners, media partners and a whole host of individuals who support the project in some way or another.

Is it purely an online venture?

Although buying online is the easiest, it is not purely online. People often call us once they learn of Charity Wines and order over the phone. Most customers simply join on a monthly basis by means of a debit order.

Can people get involved more than simply a donation? Is there an option for hands on assistance?

We often take guests to some of our beneficiaries but essentially Charity Wines is a fundraiser for charities and not a grassroots organisation per se. Having said that, we are working on a volunteer program whereby we would like international volunteers to stay on the beautiful wine farms whilst giving their time to interact with the community and talk to the people about the benefits of healthy lifestyle choices and the dangers of alcohol use during pregnancy. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a HUGE problem in South Africa, worse than anywhere in the world and the more prevention campaigns there are, the better.

What are the growth plans for the project?

We are aiming to grow our Farm Members pool significantly whilst building our sales to approximately 500 per month by October 2008. Upon achieving this we will be in a position to make charitable grants of R1 million annualy.

How well is it all doing? How many bottles of wine do you deliver and registrations do you get per month, for example?

We are pleased with the growth of the brand. We started trading last year and sell between 80 and 90 boxes of wine per month currently. I find that at least 3 farms join per month.

Let’s summarise things clearly for potential “buyers” of Charity Wines. When you buy a box of wine for R250 you are essentially making a donation to a charitable trust which is governed by legislation to implement the funds according to the objectives of the trust. The wine, which gets delivered to your door (in SA), is of top quality and always exceed the amount paid by the customer. This is the perfect gift for Father’s day, Mother’s day, Valentine’s, any occasion really. Your folks receive superb wine and your money goes to very worthwhile and transparent causes.

Please go to our site, see who’s donating and where your money goes and support this project.
Send us a mail at rikus@heartofhealing.org.za and reception@heartofhealing.org.za, order online or call (021) 442 9600

Thanks for taking the time out to chat with me, Hope that the project takes off!

Thank you very much and thanx for your website! SA really needs all the positivity we can get because, as you allready know: SA Rocks!!!

Popularity: 6% [?]

This is something that has been on my mind alot. Driving to work today a Golf GTI kept harrassing the road, not me, everyone. She was driving fast because she had a fast car. She ended up nowhere with a beat-up-skedonk driving past her slowly.

Now this brings me to my point. The only reason she was driving that fast was because she was in a GTI. If she didn’t have the GTI she probably wouldn’t want to drive that fast. In the same breath I firmly believe in a gun-free world/South Africa.

Yes people kill people, but damn guns help hey!

Does having a million Rand mean that one should be using it, spending it, driving a fast car? I don’t know. But I think that extravagance is fast becoming a way of life in SA and I am not so sure I like it.

I am all for having money, spending money and using money. But extravagance that is blatant and “showy” really grates me. Arrogance is something that I struggle to deal with, like the woman in the GTI this morning. She strikes me as the type who if she had a gun she’d use it because she had it. And that worries me.

I have often pulled out of debate, discussion, fighting, arguing or swearing at motorists because it’s never just a simple throwing of words or gestures. There is always that possibility of more.

Is a gun-free SA possible? Is it necessary? Should we be taking a harder line on this topic? I think we should. How can you hijack someone without a gun? It’s possible, I’m sure, but much more difficult.

Popularity: 5% [?]

There are many recruitment websites in SA and the world. Job Farm is a new addition to this long and not-so-decorated list.

They emailed me and asked me if I could help them spread the word. My interaction so far with the guys from Yellow Lama have been fairly solid. I browsed the site and noticed a lack of media representation. I let them know and they responded and are looking in to it, nice touch.

So for now, here is a little interview I conducted with Mark from Job Farm:

There are alot of job networks out there. Why start another one?
Yes, there ARE a number of existing South African job portals. However (excuse me for saying so), most of them are pretty crappy. They’re lacking in their design and in the functionality they offer. That’s why we decided to change all that with a job listing portal that is as good to look at, as it to use.

How is Job farm different from the others?
The Job Farm is easy to use: Companies can have a listing added in minutes – seconds, if they type fast J.
The Job Farm is good to look at: A clean Web2.0 design that is simple to use, yet effective.

Are you trying to attract a new, different market? Or capture the same market but move them across to your platform?
The latter. We’re trying to show people who use these types of sites that they don’t have to settle for a site that is substandard in any way. We’re confident that we have an awesome product and if users of other job listing sites move across to the Job Farm, well it’ll be for good reason.

What sort of background do you have to be qualified to do this sort of site?
I run a web design studio based in Port Elizabeth, The Yellow Llama. We’ve been involved in web design, development and application building for about 5 years now. Personally, I am South Africa’s only accredited Adobe Community Expert for Dreamweaver and Photoshop and a number of my designs have received awards on various CSS showcase sites. We take pride in developing websites that not only LOOK good, but that WORK well too. Every job is personal and the Job Farm is no exception. I am working along with Norio de Sousa of Maxiware: a coding and development guru. Together, we have big plans and goals for the Job Farm – we’re going to make a powerful site that people will love to use.

What do you think are the most sought after jobs right now?
Definitely nothing at Eskom J. Based on the Google Analytics of the Job Farm over the last 7 days, the IT Sector category has been most visited. I think that with the way the web has been transformed over the last 2 years with Web2.0 designs, and coding technologies like Ajax, XML powered Flash and others, IT is an industry that offers endless possibilities. It’s an industry that doesn’t pay attention to race, culture or ethnicity. In my view, it’s a field that will never lose its appeal and I’m confident that we’re still going to be wow’d by online developments and advances.

Do you plan on making use of your blog extensively in the project?
Most definitely yes. Every development, change, update and noteworthy fact is going to be blogged on. I want people to feel like it’s a project that they can be a part of, albeit perhaps only as a spectator. The blog will cover as much of this detail as possible and I’ve opened commenting up to the public so that I can get a feel for what people think about the project.

Are there the regular web 2.0 aspects to the site, comments, networking on the site, friends etc?
Job Farm is currently in its initial phase. We released a ‘base’ version of the site so that we can start growing the site’s traffic and job listings whilst we work on phase 2. The Job Farm blog’s developments category goes into more detail on what’s in store on the Job Farm. Phase 2 will offer companies a full admin system where they can manage their own profile, their listings and their applicants. Freelancers will be able to create accounts with all their personal & skill set details and can apply for jobs with a single click. At the moment, user networking is not on the cards for the Job Farm. It’s not really a feature that we feel will work in an environment like this. If however, we receive a lot of recommendations for this kind of functionality, we’ll definitely look into it.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We’re really confidant of the success and growth of the Job Farm. Right now our main aim is to let as many recruitment type agencies know about the Job Farm. We want word to spread quickly because we know that as soon as people try the Job Farm, they’ll love it for its ease-of-use and its aesthetic appeal. Norio and I are going to be working hard on this project and we hope that we’ll have the support of the South African blog community in helping to spread the word about this awesome new product.

Now for my impression of the site itself. Continue Reading

Popularity: 2% [?]

Yes, you read it. There are three SA blogs nominated for Best African Weblog this year at the 2008 Bloggies.

Tertia
ShaunOakes – Who I am a bit confused about.
GladToBeAGirl – Who I’ve never heard of till now.

Either way, right or wrong, up or down I think it’s a fantastic acheivement for the SA blogosphere to have three blogs nominated from one country in one category. Africa is a huge place with a lot of bloggers – believe it or not – and if we can win in the category then even better for us all!

Congratulations to all three. Now get over to the Bloggies page and VOTE VOTE VOTE!!

Popularity: 3% [?]

The post below is a letter that I received regarding a post that was written by Jason Von Berg. I appreciate these sort of letters and must admit that they don’t really come along very often.

The post ‘I want to stay,please give me a reason‘ spoke to me,but for me, its more sort of ‘I want to go,give me a reason’.

My parents are black South Africans who left during apartheid. I was born and live in England. There’s many things I love about England, but recently, I decided I want to move to SA. I am at the point of going to university and considered I could stay here. Or I could listen to the voice telling me I love South Africa, and feel I belong there,and make the move.It hasn’t been a simple choice, I keep up with South African papers/blogs and am aware of the problems facing the country (crime/aids etc) and whether I am imagining it or not, since I made my decision the news seems to be getting worse! With people ominously talking about South Africa becoming a banana state since Zuma, the load-shedding, Selebi etc.

This stuff can freak me out but then I consider that if you go on any british newsite, and a lot of the stories are also negative/about crime. I’m not trying to suggest that England and SA have a similar amount of crime, but, that is the nature of news anywhere, to report the negative over the positive.

I think of the things I love about SA, the people, the accents, the contrasts; visiting my grandmother in her quiet village in the north, then going out with my cousins in the fast-paced, vibrant Joburg, the beauty of the country, the chance to learn all those languages, or attempt to! And i cant wait to see how the world cup will turn out. And I know I’m generalising, but in the UK I sometimes feel that everything’s bought up, already done, a kind of sense of complacency about things, whereas in SA I feel a sense that things are still new, there are things that people are passionate about, want to fight for, and contribute to.

I’m sure you get a lot of mail from the ‘SASucks’ type of people who love to tell you about the negative and say you’re stupid for talking about the positive. I don’t see why your site offends them so much (you must be doing something right!) as for every positive site on the net about SA, there’s about 20 other negative ones where they can go and grumble. Also I am yet to read an article on SARocks that says ‘South Africa is perfect, there are no problems blah blah blah’. You don’t deny the problems, but instead of indulging in pointless rants about how rubbish everything supposedly is, you encourage conversations about how to possibly solve these problems and are unashamedly proud of the great deal of positive there is in South Africa as you should be. Since when did acknowledging the positive automatically mean you are ignorant of the negative???

I hope you’re aware that sites like yours mean a lot to people like me, who appreciate hearing the good news as well as the bad, keep up the good work, hopefully I’ll be joining you guys in SA soon!

Anon

Popularity: 3% [?]

What better way to start off the New Year than with a glass of bubbly? And for many people seeking to impress, the bubbles simply have to be French. OK, so they did come up with the original idea of champagne, but why are people still so obsessed with French champagne and the idea that it is automatically better than anything else? I’m not saying that we should all be drinking cheap carbonated fizz, but there is middle ground, people! But it seems that even in South Africa, our own premium sparkling wines seem to suffer from a PR problem a dose of that particularly South African malaise – “if-it’s-imported-it-must-be-better-ism”.

Because many of us (me included…) grew up on Cinzano Spumante and 5th Avenue Cold Duck (sticky sweet cheap bubblies), a lot of people of my generation and older still seem to think that this is as far as the South African sparkling wine repertoire goes. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We make some top class stuff that can compete with the best in the world (not to say I don’t like the occasional bottle of Cold Duck…!). The “foreign is better” delusion is even worse as fas as I’m concerned. I was at a restaurant in Johannesburg towards the end of last year and we wanted something sparkly fpr a tpast. On the menu, we had a huge choice of… two sparkling wines. Coming in at an affordable R65 was the bog standard JC Le Roux Le Domaine (sickly sweet and carbonated). And in the opposite corner we had… Moet & Chandon for a jaw-dropping R650. And in between? Tumbleweeds blowing in the breeze. Nada. Zip. Nothing.

Now this kind of wine list seriously annoys me. It seems to say “you can spend your money on South African crap. Or you can pay top dollar and get Real French Champagne, thereby showing off your urbane sophistication”. And the worst is that my companions were seriously thinking of ordering the Moet to share between a dozen people! For a start, Moet NV is a pretty basic French champagne and certainly not worth spending that sum on, if you ask me. Secondly, if you like sweet sparklers, you are going to pay a lot of money for your snobbism and not enjoy the wine one bit. (Besides, I would bet money on the fact that many champagne snobs who go around saying “oh, I ONLY drink the real thing!” would not be able to pick out the champagne in a blind tasting of top quality bubbly from around the world….)

But most importantly… where are the premium South African sparklers on that menu? They should be there providing the fine quality normally associated with the French stuff, without the “uh-oh-time-to-sell-a-kidney” prices.

The one thing that you do have to look for in a sparkling wine, if you are moving away from Champagne, is the way it’s been made. Cheap fizz can be made either like ordinary wine and then carbonated; or by tank fermentation, meaning that the wine is left to ferment and form bubbles naturally and then bottled. Premium sparkling wines, on the other hand, are bottled and then allowed to develop their bubbles in the bottle. After this process is complete (takes several months of painstakingly moving the bottles gradually from the horizontal storage position to a position where the cap is pointing almost vertically downwards. This makes the spent yeast from the fermentation process gather in the neck of the bottle, which is flash-frozen before the bottle is opened and the frozen cap of yeast debris removed. Each bottle then has to be topped up to its correct level of liquid and sealed. Think about all that the next time you are tempted to complain about the price of Champagne!

Strict regulations mean that only sparkling wines made in this way from grapes in the Champagne region of France may be called Champagne, but there is nothing stopping winemakers from around the world using the technique described above. And it’s an indication of this technique that you should look for when you want to explore premium sparkling wines from outside Champagne. These wines will variously be labelled as Methode Cap Classique (South Africa), Cremant (France, outside Champagne), Cava (Spain), Methode Champenoise or Methode Traditionelle and as far as I’m concerned, particularly in the New World, represent excellent value for money. The same grape varieties, method and subtleties of taste as French Champagne, at a more reasonable price.

For my money, I’ll go for any sparkling wine by Graham Beck. Graham Beck Vineyards was started (unsurprisingly!) by entrepreneur Graham Beck in 1983 when he purchased the Madeba farm outside Robertson, South Africa, the the ambition to establish a world-class winery in the region. Nearly 25 years later, the estate’s reputation has been cemented with a cabinet full of awards, both international and local, and winemaker Pieter Ferreira (who is reputedly obsessed with getting the mousse of his sparkling wines just right) is still steaming ahead making wonderful sparkling and still wines. The estate itself is well worth a visit as it represents a radical departure from the traditional Cape Dutch homestead, and being able to taste a range of their excellent sparkling wines is always a pleasure.

The estate produces a Brut (non-vintage, classic mix of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes); a Blanc de Blanc (vintage, 100% Chardonnay), a Brut Rose (non-vintage, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), and a Demi Sec (non-vintage, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir). Pictured above is the special Brut Cuvee 2000, made specially for the millennium celebrations, bought at the estate in 1999 and saved till recently. It’s a full-bodied sparkler with a creamy mouthfeel that’s at least as much due to the very fine mousse as to the Chardonnay grapes, with yeasty, lemony notes and is very, very appealing. Although you are unlikely to get your mitts on the Cuvee 2000 any more, look out for more recent vintages that are, I’m sure, equally delicious.

Other premium South African bubbly to look out for includes Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel, Cabriere’s Pierre Jourdan, Pongracz and Twee Jonge Gezellen Krone Borealis. And even the much-maligned JC Le Roux also produces a premier range of MCC sparklers that are worth a taste.

Cheers!

A version of this post has also appeared on my blog CookSister!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Not a bad start in the Group Of Death (GOD – strange that).

All the teams in the group now sit on a single point and at least we are not bringing up the rear in the group.

I watched majority of the match but just missed the goal. The main problem that I found when watching was not the team, the feeding of the ball in to the goal box, the defense, passing, keeping or basics. Our problem is scoring goals. This might sound fairly obvious but it’s not.

Every great team features a great goal scorer. Maradona, Pele, Cantona and the like. We have or had Benny but he’s not with us anymore. What a pity because it seems to me that we just cannot manage to score when the opportunity arises.

Players scrabble for a shot, rebound or anything we can get our hands on to. If only we could just put it in the back of the net.

A positive start and a start nonetheless. Let’s hope we can build on the performance.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Seems like Cape Town is really in the SA Rocks sights this week. I found this one via Facebook.

Cape Town is one of the Cities that you can vote for to become a city on the World Monopoly Board.

What a great idea in general. We’ve almost all heard of or played monopoly. I would love to see a South African city represented on the World Monopoly Board. And let’s be honest Cape Town is not just a South African great it’s a continent and world great that deserves to be on the list.

Here is how the Facebook group explains the voting:

Firstly visit the site.

Then follow these instructions:

1. REGISTER
2. LOG IN
3. ADD CAPE TOWN TO YOUR CITIES BY CLICKING “ADD TO MY CITIES.”
4. GO TO “MY CITIES”
5. CLICK ON VOTE
6. ENTER THE NUMBERS THAT ARE ALWAYS SO STUPIDLY HARD TO READ
7. VOTE EVERY DAY UNTIL 29 FEBRUARY!

And you’re done.

I really think this is a different and interesting topic to rally some votes for so let’s get on it!!

Popularity: 39% [?]