SA Rocks

We all knew that.

What most of us don’t realise is that he’s not stupid.

I quite enjoy listening to him go on about touchy topics, call a spade a shovel and create conversation.

I’d love to say that I have read Gareth’s book yet. I haven’t. I’m looking forward to reading it once I’ve downloaded it to my Kindle. Can’t figure out why the PR company didn’t send through the Kindle version of the books to those of us with Kindle’s.

Here’s the product description on the Kindle Store:

Some people think it a very bad thing to have an opinion about anything. Blend in, don’t make too much noise, just be happy with what you know and do. I can’t do that.’

South African DJ personality and Idols judge Gareth Cliff likes to shoot from the hip. Whether on air or judging a trembling Idols contestant, he’s always quick with a point of view. In Gareth Cliff on Everything, Gareth throws caution to the wind and writes about all those subjects that make him glad, sad or simply mad.

And here’s what a friend of mine, Robyn, wrote:

Almost everyone who has seen me with this book has passed a sarky remark and then expressed shock at the absolute cheek of a man filling a book with his own opinons… and then publishing it. I mean how dare he! The irony is that most of them have never heard Gareth on air [I asked them] but along with the Parlotones and Bryce Lawrence, it seems Cliff has been added to the SA Haters list of things to Hate on.

I’m about halfway through, I’m enjoying it and I actually agree with several of his points… some of them have had me in stitches. The chapters are short, it’s a light read and he doesn’t sugar-coat anything. But be warned, if you’re easily offended, highly sensitive or incredibly pretentious, then this book is definitely not for you.

You can buy the Kindle version of the book in the Kindle Store now.

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There is an event and it is mental. It is called the Red Bull Xalps event. The premise is a simple one: Go from Salzburg to Monaco. The difficulty lies in the details; you have to race non-stop through the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea, with just a paraglider and a pair of hiking boots to help them, their every move tracked by advanced technology and broadcasted to an audience of millions.

Here’s an intro video to the Red Bull X-Alps event:

Sounds easy. It’s not and a South African is one of a very select few people to compete. Pierre Carter is a Johannesburg Father who is 45 and crazy… about extreme sports.

Pierre has his own website for the event too, http://blog.7summits7flights.co.za/. Head over there to get more information on our local extreme superhero.

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Today while expecting new business cards I was presented with a package that included a new cellphone, pre-loaded with airtime, a Nando’s flashdrive and instructions from Kagiso, the “New CEO”.

Here’s a photo of the package:

I think this is a fantastic campaign for a few reasons:

1. I was expecting something else (my business cards) so this played in their favour
2. It is a well-executed campaign filled with customised goodies like a cellphone box and cover inside and out, customised flashstick and instructions to call a number on the cellphone you are given.
3. Having worked at Vodacom SA, I know how difficult it is now with RICA, to do a campaign of this kind.
4. Neat execution.
5. I was not contacted by the PR firm to ask for my details. They found them and sent me the package. Impressive.

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The incredible part about this story is not that DJ Black Coffee set a new record, ’cause he did. That part was seemingly easy for the man. The tough part for me to comprehend is that he did it with one arm.

DJ Black Coffee set a new world record for spinning by doing his work for 60 straight hours.

From the Telegraph:

Nkosinathi Maphumulo, 34, completed the challenge on Sunday at a charity event in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The dance music DJ, who lost his left hand in an accident aged 13, hopes video footage of the event will win him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

He said: “I stayed strong. The music kept me going. I’m going to be a better DJ as I was doing it for a greater reason.
“At some stage I held back tears.”

Nkosinathi, who uses the stage name Black Coffee, started his record attempt in a shopping mall at midnight last Thursday.
Under the rules of the record attempt he was allowed a 20 minute comfort break every four hours.

But his manager told South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper he finished in style by playing the final 15 hours without stopping at all.

Wow. What an amazing achievement.

[blacknotes / Telegraph]

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In case you haven’t heard the 5FM adverts I though that it was valuable for me to alert you to the 1 in 100 000 campaign.

DJ Fresh is trying to meet 100 000 people in 1000 hours. That’s a big call and it’s all to raise awareness about Leukaemia.

Here’s some background information:

A person suffering from Leukaemia has a 1 in 100 000 chance of finding a bone marrow stem cell donor match.
That’s 1 match for every 100 000 people.
Most of us won’t meet a 100 000 people in our lifetime!
In fact, if you lived to be 90 years old, you’d have to meet 1 person every 8 hours, from the day that you were born, until the day you die,
To illustrate these odds The Sunflower Fund has challenged DJ Fresh to try and meet 100 000 people online in the 1000 hours leading up to The Sunflower Fund National Bandana Day on the 12th of October 2010.

Once on the website visitors can ‘meet DJ Fresh, send in sms donations as well as sponsor some of DJ Fresh’s meetings on our sponsor page.
It’s for a really good cause and every bit of media mileage will help.

So spread the word, visit the site and raise some awareness.

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At the SA Blog Awards on Saturday the lovely people from ZA News were present. Their Helen Zille Puppet was present too and yes, you guessed it, so was Helen Zille herself.

Firstly let me say that since moving to Cape Town I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing the Western Cape Premier speak in person so I was quite happy to know that she would be attending the blog awards. Helen Zille did not disappoint. From what I’ve heard she never does in fact. She was funny, humble and very switched on about her audience, their interests and her relevance to the occasion. Nice one.

But on to the fun stuff. The folks at ZA News wanted to meet Helen and moreover wanted their Helen to meet Helen. So the Helens met:

Compliments to Dave Duarte for the photograph. Nice work.

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If you were at the Tri Nations game last week Saturday you probably flew a flag. If you did fly a flag you were part of a successful world record attempt.

South Africans smashed the previous record of flags flown at one time which stood at 6 600. The auditors are apparently still working like crazy to get the final numbers in but they are projecting close to 90 000 flags were flown at the South Africa vs New Zealand game at the FNB Stadium.

Here’s the story from ewn.co.za

Free flags were handed out at the FNB Stadium and auditors believe the final number was in the region of 90,000. The previous record was 6,600.

Deputy MD of Draft FCB, Heidi Nelson, said they were just waiting for the final official confirmation.

“We just need the auditing process to happen with Guinness and for them to actually issue out with the certificate that says we have claimed the record but for all intents and purposes, South Africans did us proud on Saturday and we have broken the record,” she said.

*UPDATE: Tinus chimed in and kindly sent through the official image being used to verify the record. Here’s a snippet:

For the full, impressive image click here.

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I have been asked to comment on the strikes taking place in South Africa. Obviously it’s relevant for the “SA Rocks guy” to have an opinion on something this controversial in SA right now.

I’ll give it my best go.

I think that teachers, doctors and nurses deserve to be paid a wage that reflects their value to the community and legally if they feel they are not being paid sufficiently they have the right to strike.

In my head striking involves a lack of action or inaction. A conscious decision to NOT work. Not to work at destroying structures, people, businesses and potential killing patients and babies at hospitals. This is inexcusable.

There is no problem with not going to work. There is a problem when you prevent people from entering hospitals, when you raid operating theaters and abandon other peoples children when you are responsible for their lives. This, I have a problem with.

Ivo Vegter has written a fantastic article on the topic over at the Daily Maverick. Read it, it has great value and one of the smartest things in his article is his calculation that ultimately what is being asked for by strikers is equal to a 20% increase. I’m sure there are many, many people the world over who would like a 20% wage increase but it just doesn’t work that way. I’m also sure there are many people who wish to resort to violence and blackmail when they don’t get the increase they desire but blackmail is illegal. Striking, however, is not illegal in South Africa.

Let me state the following as clearly as I can: I do not berate the rights of people in South Africa to strike. I am berating their choice of striking methodology and the helpless, innocent people they have been placing in harms way.

I also need to openly state that I don’t believe that the actions of the few reflect the state of many. I believe there are doctors, nurses and teachers who deserve an increase and are hoping for the issue to be resolved quickly and quietly. I don’t think that SA sucks because a mob got out of hand, I don’t think this is a problem that is unique to South Africa. I just think that it is a problem we are experiencing right now and it too shall be resolved and pass over like many other strikes we have experienced over many years.

South Africa is as unique as any other country, let the naysayers not be so brave as to state that we are the only country in the world that has striking civil servants, we are not. Let us not be so brave as to think that our country will never incur problems and when we do let us not be so stupid as to feel shocked, appalled and offended that we do have problems. Not every problem (however unnecessary or violent) warrants the end of days.

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Yesterday I went to watch the demolition of the Athlone Towers in Cape Town.

Many people missed the actual dropping of the towers as the event occurred about 5 minutes earlier than planned. I caught the tower dropping, just barely.

Here’s the video:

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And the winner is (after a random selection process)…

Yolleen

She will be contacted by one of the producers of the Gary The Tooth Fairy show and tickets will be organised!

Congratulations to Yolleen and thanks to everyone else for entering.

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