South Africa is Not Sub Saharan Africa

The improvement of the world needs to be highly contextualised. In fact, everything needs context to be relevant.The above video of Hans Rosling is mind-bending. At the 15 minute mark he talks about Africa and how we cannot provide a single solution to a problem like HIV/Aids. We need to provide a contextualised solution for each and every region being dealt with.This is true of almost every interaction that I have with businesses and individuals (local or foreign) wanting to target Africa. It's phenomenal how shallow our understand is of the vastness of the continent when it comes to culture, language, societal norms, likes and dislikes.Africa is not a country just as South Africa is not a reference to a region.Educate yourself.

The corruption of an apathetic electorate

Recently I have been staying away from politically fuelled articles but I just can't keep my mouth shut on this one.Read this article about Jacob Zuma's new mansion and where he found the funds. Here's a snippet:

Yet as his people struggle in squalor, South African president Jacob Zuma has sparked outrage by spending £17.5 million (R248m) to upgrade his rural family home.

The fact that Jacob Zuma is our president makes me angry with the South African electorate. All those people who chose not to vote. This is what you get, you bunch of apathetic arm-chair protestors.I am not embarrassed by the country, we have a magnificent country with amazing people who do incredible things. I am saddened by the people voting for this man as our leader and I am enraged by the people who do not exercise their vote when it matters.I am outraged by Zuma's actions and if these allegations are proven to be true, the people of South Africa need to rebel against this level of blatant corruption and misuse of much needed aid and our trust. 

The Dirty Skirts, Rolling Like Thunder....

The Dirty Skirts, Rolling Like Thunder. Rocking.

Cassette and South Africa say "Fuck you" to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Please reblog this, tweet it, post it to your facebooks, myspaces, email it around and get the word across. Cassette is the only band that spoke up about anything relevant and important such as the elections coming up in a few days. Lets allow Red Jumpsuit Apparatus to hear our voices.

The follow up. I was wrong. Rattex represents

This post is a follow up to: This is what is wrong with our music culture - Rattex is poison.I bought the CD. I did it. I've listened to it and I am impressed. The production is good. It's got a great sound and I stand corrected. The guy keeps it local and keeps it as close to his heart as he can.That is clear to me now and i completely recognise that I wrote the last blog post purely on what I was sent by his PR agency or whoever sent it and didn't do much of my own research. That was a mistake on my behalf that I will gladly admit to and acknowledge.I do believe that in future the PR for Rattex should be done considerably better. The Press Release that is sent out should play on his passion for his upbringing, his home, his culture and his skill. It should not direct you to a video that I believe badly represents the artist.I am not going to suggest how Rattex should create music videos because that is not a skill of mine, I have never directed a music video but when I do, I'll open it up for criticism to my readers.I am extremely glad that I wrote the previous post about Rattex. I engaged in some extremely interesting debates with some very, um, interesting characters. Luckily there were a few people who managed to keep open minds, not jump the race card and attempt to educate me.At the end of it all I have learned appreciation for an artist that I previously wouldn't have heard or listened to. I have learned more about a culture that I do enjoy (hip-hop) and learned not to follow press releases that are sent to me.Something I think that my readers should learn: Don't jump to conclusions (like I did and many of the commentators did). Don't pull the race card, it will never end well, ever. South Africa is overly Politically Correctly, we need to let go of it, move on and be who we are and want to be.So do yourself and do me a favour. Go listen to Rattex, do your research, read his bio, buy his CD and open your mind, like I did.

This is what is wrong with our music culture - Rattex is poison

I was sent a press release about this fantastic new artist breaking in to the market locally. Rattex (seriously?) is his name. I am always very open to promoting new music in South Africa so I decided to give the music video a watch:The above is precisely what is eating away at the soul of the music culture in South Africa and providing our youth with the misconception of what it is to be famous, young, successful and funky. This is a discussion that I have been having for years and years, since I was in a band back at university. We tried very hard to be local, have flavour and maintain bits of our heritage or at least we thought, as much as we could. It's tough though and I will give muso's that much, it's tough to be local.But is it really that tough? Is it so tough to be local that you mimic American artists down to the background colour of your music video, your caps, baggy shoddy denims and "bling". Why are our young rappers trying so hard to be American? Everyone hates America and the only person who could change that perception is Kenyan? African is cool, can't they see that?And what's more is that Rattex claims to be proudly South African:

Rattex is now at the forefront of the new school of proudly South African rappers who understand that Hip Hop, more than any other musical art form, is about addressing important issues and representing where you’re from. It is therefore not suprising that Rattex is one of the pioneers of the ‘Spaza’ movement, where lyrics are performed in a combination of isiXhosa, English and Cape Flats slang.Rattex has always been a true Cape Flats soldier, representing Khaltsha (Khayelitsha) wherever he performs. His music has also been on heavy rotation on community and campus radio stations (such as Zibonele, Bush Radio and UCT Radio) across Cape Town and the Cape Flats. Noteable performances include the Fire on the Mountain festival, Drudge Dialect II, the Hype Magazine Live Session and the Planetary Assault launch party. Rattex has also performed on Channel O’s number 1 rated show, Mzanzi Ridez. Most recently, Rattex supported legendary Brooklyn-born super lyricist Wordsworth on his tour to South Africa.

Read the full bio at his website. What goes through the head of an artist who claims to be from the flats, to embrace South Africanism and then puts on a music video feature his hommies, big cars, bling, scantily clad women and a distinctly western flair to it.I am sorry but I cannot believe that any artist who produces this sort of tripe can claim to be proudly South African.Have a look at a couple of "big rappers" in the following music videos from the States:Spot the difference. Just like his name, I think that Rattex and this Americanised-afro-wanna-be culture confusion is poising poisoning the music and culture in South Africa.

WeBlogtheWorld tour - get the interviews right here

On Sunday the WeBlogtheWorld US Bloggers tour of South Africa kicks off. As you might know I am fortunate enough to be tagging along (who says blogging doesn't pay?).I am/will be blogging on ±6 different platforms. Count them with me: SA Rocks, this blog, Homecoming revolution, Zoopy, possibly the Zoopy blog, and maybe TechLeader blog (but that's if I have time) as well as being supplied with some space on the Bizcommunity blog too. Phew, lots of blogging.So I have decided that it's best for me to split up the content. This trip is filled with so much stuff and so many angles that I can easily break up the content in to various channels.For this blog I have chosen to try and get as many interviews, chats and discussions with the international bloggers up here as possilble. So look out for the interviews and contact me via the comments section of this post with thoughts and suggestions on what you'd like to hear them talk about.On the other blogs I will be showcasing South Africa, the people, the places we visit an the reactions of the bloggers to the country that we are privileged to live in.

We Blog the World - A South African Bloggers Tour

I am really chuffed to be a part of a fantastic (and very smart) initiative by the International Marketing Council (IMC).The basic idea, as I like to understand it, is that 11 international bloggers who are all prominent in their respective fields will all be heading for SA for a ten day whirlwind tour of our magnificent country. You can see more about the project over at We Blog the World. So the ten day tour will invariably allow the readers of the 11 international blogs to be exposed to the wonders of SA. Therefore invoking a desire to find out more, experience SA, travel to the country or simply read more SA stuff. Great move by the IMC I think. It's social marketing. Brilliant.I have been invited to take part in the tour.Don't fool yourself thinking that I will be on a joy-ride for ten days. Big Mistake.Bizcommunity have proudly offered my a column for the ten days where I will be writing about the trip and publishing video and photo content through the ten days. I will also be double posting the trip on my two blogs, nicharalambous.com and SA Rocks. If that isn't enough I will also be posting to the Zoopy blog sporadically, the We blog the world (WBW) flickr group and the Zoopy profile/landing page for the event. I am going to be one blogged out blogger by the end of this week.But it will most definitely be worth it. The IMC have put together an incredible trip for all of the attending bloggers.Here are a few snippets of the trip, where we'll be and what we'll be doing:A heli flight over the peninsulaAn Electric Car DemoThen we head to Alexander Bay to delve in to SA's oyster culture.and then we head off to JHB for various events, viewings and museum tripsI am incredibly excited to be taking part as many of the things on the itinerary are things that I have been wanting to do in SA for ages but have never had the chance.Expect some great content.Head over to Matt's blog and see who else is taking part. Leave comments or contact me if there are specific questions you would like to see the visiting bloggers answer while they are here in SA!

I have registered to vote. Have you?

Today I went to my nearest IEC registration station and changed my registration details from Grahamstown to Johannesburg.The process was simple, the queues were managed well, the forms were readily available, everything worked perfectly.I was chatting to someone yesterday who made a really valid point, this is the first time (out of the three) that I have gone to register and have had people actually talking about politics, registration and voting, alot. It's great to hear, great to see and fantastic to know that politics is no longer one of the things you never bring up at a dinner party.

Erik Hersman in SA

Having met Erik just once a while back at one of the first 27 dinners I jumped at the chance to catch up with him this time round in SA. For those of you who know nothing of Erik he is the founder of WhiteAfrican, Afrigadget and Ushahidi among many other things I am sure.The first meeting was the "tweetup" held at Garsen's Capellos in Sandton. There I caught up with Erik and this is what he had to say:Then I attended the MobileActive08 conference and had a chance to talk with Erik again. We chatted about Kelele, the first African Bloggers Conference being held in Nairobi next year. The MobileActive08 conference was surprisingly very well organised, massive and educational. The reason I say I was surprised is because I really knew nothing of the conference before I attended. I handed out many, many, many business cards, connected with great people and learned alot.Erik, as always, is jetting of to Pop!Tech very soon so he's on the move but at least I managed to tie him down for a few minutes.

Zoopy goes local and gets fast, really fast

We've just sent out a press release from the Zoopy HQ:

Zoopy increases media delivery speed with local hostingTwo months after receiving investment from Vodacom (which now owns a40% stake in the company), South African social media site Zoopy hasstarted to roll out some of the large scale community improvementsthey hinted at when announcing the Vodacom deal.Members of Zoopy.com, which launched in March 2007, are able to uploadand share videos, photos, podcasts and blogs - both online and via achoice of mobile applications. Until now, users have been doing sousing international bandwidth to connect to Zoopy's overseas servers.This is standard practice for most medium to large online businessesin South Africa, who are often left with little option but to hostinternationally when faced with much higher local hosting fees. Thedownside to hosting outside of the country, however, is reducedloading speed of websites and, in Zoopy's case, media files likevideos and photos.According to Zoopy CEO, Jason Elk, this is now a thing of the past forZoopy visitors. "As of today, we have servers in South Africa thatwill deliver Zoopy content using local bandwidth for South Africans.The significantly slower international speeds and low bandwidth capsin SA (many users only budget for the 3gb they receive per month) haveleft us as frustrated as any other internet user in the country. Sowe're prepared to do what it takes to deliver our media at amazingspeeds, whether viewed on Zoopy.com or embedded on other sites orblogs. And for our members, an increase in upload speeds when addingmedia to your Zoopy profile will make things quicker and moreconvenient too," says Elk.Zoopy has also just increased their upload file size limit from 100mbto 200mb. Elk explains, "If we're giving visitors a quicker and morecomfortable experience over local bandwidth, we wanted to add to theenjoyment by giving them more space to express themselves as well.Members now have 200mb to play with and can upload longer or betterquality versions of their videos, for example. As always, this serviceremains completely free.""These improvements are part of a determined plan to bring the Zoopycommunity everything they need to manage, view and share their mediain all the ways they've hoped for, and more".

This is a very important step for us for various reasons. I wont go in to much detail as there is an entire blog post dedicated to the topic on the Zoopy Blog so head over and read it.For now visit muti and digg and vote up the post.

Nudjit goes live

Justin, Gregor and I have whipped together a bit of a frenzy around our new blog, Nudjit.Put simply, Nudjit is a local gadget review blog. Put in a more complex manner: Nudjit is a blog about us as South Africans trying out gadgets and allowing our readers to know how their potential purchases will work out in South Africa. This is a personal experience for the three of us about how we interact with the gadgets we review.We might not always have the latest, greatest, bestest gadgets but what will almost certainly promise is that reviews and news will be SA-Centric.We like to think that we have filled a very predominant gap in the market with this blog and are all very, very proud of how it looks, feels and what we have put in to it.Thanks go out to a long list of bloggers who covered Nudjit yesterday:3 NEW African Websites Worth WatchingNudjit.com is a geek’s dream!Nudjit … new gadget blog on the blockLocal blogging celebs launch gadget blog, NudjitNudjit. South African Gadget Review.New gadget website launchedTo everyone above, thanks for your comments, posts and overwhelming reception of Nudjit!It is fairly obvious to me now that people have been waiting, dying, anticipating something like Nudjit. Why? Because I've been moderating comments for the entire morning!!Oh, and just a headsup on this one quickly:Nudjit (n. nudg-it) Prounced as Nudge-it.

I'm late so fuck you

This morning I really did try to do a nice thing in traffic. I was over road rage and had come to terms with the extensive time spent in traffic. I was chilling.Going up towards Sandton I saw a car struggling to cross the the road and get in to my lane in front of me. So I see the robot (traffic light) up ahead is red. I stop and flash him to cross over.The little red mini (if you know this story then I'm talking about you Mr Red Mini) behind me, with his toddler in a car seat next to him starts hooting at me. And carries on hooting at me.The robot is STILL red so we are losing no time there is nowhere to go and no harm is being done. But Mr Red Mini is still fucking hooting at me.Eventually the car crosses the road thanks to me being nice (I probably saved him 10 minutes on his trip - good deed done). But as we all know, no good deed goes unpunished. And punished I was. The moron behind me continued to hoot. So the robot turned green, I pulled up my handbreak and calmly asked him what the issue was. He started swearing at me as if I had ran him off the road. He told me he was late and that I was being a wanker. I simply tried to do something nice in the traffic and I got a big "FUCK YOU" back at me.I think I even mentioned that I was trying to do something nice and he told me not to do nice things in the traffic. Give me a break you idiot.I really need to say that this sort of behaviour pisses me off for two simple reasons.1. This man's child was next to him, balling his eyes out because his father is an idiot and swearing and being aggressive. That's traumatic for a child. What if I was an aggressive steroid bunny and got out of my car and smashed Mr Red Mini in the face. What would his child have done then?And 2. Do Not make your being late me problem. Because if you were an organised human being like myself you wouldn't need to swear at nice people like me in the traffic.Dick.

Rough times

I'm Having a bad week. Everything seems to be beyond my control, nothing is really within my grasp and I feel properly bleak about things.

On holiday in St Francis

I am on holiday (not without a few calls from work I might add) and am loving the coast at the moment.I will be blogging very sporadically for the next week or two. I think it is a much needed break for me from blogging and this blog in specific. I am still blogging on SA Rocks so pop through if you want a read.Otherwise enjoy the festive season and keep on blogging!

Is South Africa not good enough for Vinny Lingham?

Vinny Lingham has recently secured $5m dollars in Venture Capital investment for his startup, Synthasite, from Compagnie Financière Richemont’s subsidiary, Swiss-based Columbus Venture Capital.He is making waves internationally, he is doing a great job of building an empire. Unfortunately that empire is moving away from it's home.Vinny is moving. Now most of you wont think twice about this, good for him making something of himself and moving on to bigger and better things. But I have an issue with all of this and trust me, I am not the only one.Setting up a fund for local companies to pool resources from (commonly known as Venture Capital - VC) is great. But taking these companies to a global market, removing them from SA and garnering credit from an international market with no emphasis on the South African nature of the product is not on.If Synthasite is anything for us to go by we can expect all of Vinny's "investments" to up and leave SA for greener, better, larger, more profitable markets. Which makes sense I suppose. But the nature of our market is one that needs nurturing and growth from the grassroots up and the inside out. Vinny could've been our man but it seems as though profit and power motivate more than development and growth for SA.Don't misunderstand me, I am not berating Vinny's success. It is marvelous that the man is set up for at least the next well, forever. Investments are great but how about giving something back?Vinny has the opportunity to hire local developers, train local people to become great innovators, developers and business people. He has the chance to make an impact. Instead he is fleeing SA for San Francisco. The money is greater, the market (I mean USA when I say "the market") is more appealing for him and SA is left in his wake. Sad situation if you ask me.He claims to be a VC but to date Lingham Capital seems to have invested in SkyRove and that's it. In fact, for someone with a site that builds sites (Synthasite), Lingham Capital's own website looks pretty dismal to me. The homepage is barren, the featured investments are empty, there hasn't been a single blog post and it seems as though the site never even got off the ground.Some might say he's been busy raising $5m for Synthasite but that's hogwash. Yes he raised the $5m but then why bother even making a massive announcement that he would be investing in companies locally?Speaking of local investments, it seems as though Vinny has no interest in investing locally unless there is massive global focus. Vinny has openly stated in the past that he's not interested in the South African money - the market is too small. He did so on David Bullard's blog where he only spoke of dollars and pounds because his company, Incubeta, only generate about 5% of their R60 million turnover from SA.Eve Dmochowska has a great post wherein she chats about a meeting with Vinny, Justin from Afrigator and others. Here's a quick excerpt:

This is how the situation panned out. Try to keep up.Vinny cannot invest in Afrigator, because it does not have immediate global appeal, but Triumph cannot invest in Synthasite because it does not have enough local focus. Unfortunately, even though Afrigator is all about local focus, Triumph wouldn’t invest because there is no cash flow. Blue Catalyst might be able to put Afrigator in touch with angel investors who might provide the capital necessary to get Afrigator to a positive cash-flow situation, but the fact that Afrigator’s creator has only had one failure behind him (and not at least five) puts him at a disadvantage in all the VCs’ eyes. Go figure.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am sure this is how Vinny is going to feel after reading this post. Unfortunately I am one of those people who believe that it's not someone else's job to make change happen. It's my job, it's your job and it's the job of whoever can actually make a difference.Vinny has openly said that he wont invest in Afrigator because it is too local. Why would he not want to invest now and help them mould their company in to one that is locally based with global appeal? Why must profit = global alone? Why can an African website such as Afrigator not make it in a VC's mind? Short sighted and naive in my opinion.South Africa needs heroes, captains of industry and leaders. Not Capitalists who flee when things get tough and the market is more lucrative somewhere else.

Mentez.com, a FB app competition and ownership issues

This sort of thing is really dodgy sometimes and thanks to the Sharepointexpert I got wind of this one.The idea that Mentez.com is proposing is immediately enticing. Especially when R40 000 is up for grabs. But at a second look the terms and conditions are somewhat concerning.The competition seems to be run in rounds. First you send in an idea, then the best ideas are accepted by judges then you have until sometime in January, 2008 to develop the app. Then, simply by entering the compeition you:

11. By submitting a registration form, each Participant fully and unconditionallya. Agrees to these Terms and Conditionsb. Authorise Mentez to use their personal data for the purposes of running and promoting the Contest this year and/or in subsequent years;c. Will be deemed to have read, accepted and agree to be bound by these Contest Terms and Conditions. Participants are advised to print and keep safe these Terms and Conditions.

The full terms and conditions are available here. But let's move on.To me, the R40 000 is miniscule when considering the potential of a brilliant local FB app. IT feels like the website is asking brilliant SA developers to write these apps. Then host them with Mentez and negotiate a contract regarding the app thereafter. Hmmm... and who owns the app? The competition winner? The writer of the app? The company, Mentez, who?

15. For the applications that are selected to pass to the development phase of the contest, the participants will have to sign a development, hosting and monetization agreement with Mentez.com. This agreement is readily available for your review and is required to qualify for the second stage of the contest.

Then it seems that if you are unhappy with the outcome of the event you are not allowed to say anything:

22. Participants must not act in any way or fail to act in any way or be associated with any cause or group which would have a negative impact on the reputation of Mentez, the Contest or the Judges.

What happened to freedom of speech? We've seen this before on the local scene with the podcast competition earlier this year and others. Now can these competition people stop taking us for accepting, naive bafoons and realise that if we are going to make FB apps, we want the glory, which probably equals more than R40 000 if the app is great. Just my thoughts.I invite Mentez.com to email me and let me know their thoughts and clearly explain the terms and conditions. I am intererested to focus on the questions of hosting the app, ownership and profit share specifically.What do you think?