SA Rocks

This post was originally and brilliantly published on Ideate’s blog a few days ago. They have graciously allowed me to repost the blog here!

1. We have the best names in the world
Some examples: Have-A-Look Dube, Naughty Mokoena, Scot Scott… and my personal favourite (from M&G’s ‘100 People You Must Take To Lunch’) Psychology Cebekhulu. Beautiful.

2. We have the highest commercial bungee jump in the world
Don’t argue this. It’s not in New Zealand; it’s in South Africa. Any debate on this is kind of like a Kiwi arguing their rugby team is the best i.e. ‘We’ve only lost 4 games in 4 years…’ So what? We’re the world champions. Deal with it Fitzpatrick.

3. The news headlines are compelling
We’re the only country where The 7 O’ Clock News has more cliff hangers than Days Of Our Lives. I mean, just look at our Chief of Police. Here’s a guy who also happens to be in charge of Interpol and he has a worse rap than Tony Soprano. Compare this to say, Holland, where the lead story is probably a guy overdosing on mushrooms and falling into a dam.

4. We have colourful leaders
Ask yourself this: if England won the World Cup rugby, do you think Gordon Brown would’ve allowed the team to lift him up on their shoulders and parade him around the ground? And Mbeki’s one of our more demure guys…!

5. You can buy coat hangers at every traffic light
Did the marketing guy at the coat hanger factory go: ‘You know, our target market is ‘people’. So, people drive cars… hey! ho! Why not sell ‘em at traffic lights?’ 

6. The biggest provider of internet insists that you fax everything
You’d think that Telkom would allow their multitude of forms to be emailed, or even, Lord help us, filled in on their website. The biggest provider of broadband internet in the land wants us to fex the form because that’s protocol, doll. It’s humbling, which is a good thing.

7. Everyone in the country knows what ‘loadshedding’ means
We have a power provider that takes out full page ads in the Sunday Times to tell us not to use their product. Huh? Eskom must really be in the dwang if they’re willing to blow millions of rands on ordering us not to fire up our kettles during the week. This is great because it reminds us that we’re in Africa.

8. You can become a millionaire selling kak music
I picked up my mom’s YOU magazine and saw pictures of Patricia Lewis’ home. It’s like Liberace’s come back to life and built a house, except he’s now Koert Liberassie. Consider that we also had the Springbok Nude Girls, Fetish, The Usual and many more who were great, and yet didn’t really break the bank. Pick up an accordian in 2008 and go for it man.

9. We’re the Rugby World Champions
The best thing is, this will be on the list for 3 more years.  

10. We have a promising future
According to the Fact-A-Day information portal, there are 13 million children in South Africa aged between 6 and 18. 93% are currently attending an educational institution. 

11. We have a supercharged internet community
Social media is kicking in and the online community is thriving. We’ve got new names in the mix, young cocky connectors who are taking the SA online world by storm. Folk like David Duarte, Charl Norman, Adii, Mark Forrester, Vincent Maher, Matthew Buckland, Max Kaizen, Justin Hartman, Eric Edelstein, and of course, my colleagues here at Ideate, Shane and Andrew from Yuppiechef.co.za, Jon Cherry, Claire and Rui. You probably wouldn’t have heard of many of us if it weren’t for social media. Traditional marketers are taking notice. 

12. We have the mountain
No, just kidding, this post is about SA, not CT.

(We do have a pretty big kickass mountain in Cape Town though. Did I mention I can see it from my desk? No? Well, in case you were wondering, it still looks pretty good…)

13.  We rock!
A bonus reason ‘cos it’s a leap year, and if you have any doubts about this, go to sarocks.co.za.

Have a great year folks!  

I think that I am going to try to add on a couple of my own reasons why it’s great to be South African.

1. Ubuntu – not the operating system, the concept. The tie that binds us all whether you know it yet or not.

2. Johannesburg late afternoon thunder storms.

3. Power Cuts that unify the nation – because we all know we can be unified when there is a common cause.

4. Hindsight – is a wonderful tool that South Africans are mindful of.

5. Our groundbreaking Constitution.

6. Our Wildlife.

7. Our coastline.

8. Braai’s in 2008 will be fantastic.

Please try to contribute more, I would love to know what is going to motivate you in 2008 to be a contented South African

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