It is Casey (seen in the pic with Zakumi) and he has been selected as South Africa’s social media representative for the Kia Experience and also gets the EA FIFA 2010 PS3 game!

The Kia Experience for those who don’t remember is 12 blogger’s who have been selected from around the world to get together from the 26th – 29th June, they’ll be looked after in fine accommodation and attend one 2010 FIFA World Cup ™ game plus test drive the Kia Sportage.

As the excitement is building throughout South Africa with the opening game one week away I am pretty jealous of this prize… Oh well, go BAFANA BAFANA!

You can join the Kia Facebook Fan Page which continues the Kia Experience throughout the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™ or alternatitevely follow @KiaMotorsSA for updates about Casey’s experience.

The Cape Town Ballet is in a spot of bother and could possibly close down, which wouldn’t be good as I have yet to take a date to the ballet…

Think its one of those romantic things you have to do, like going to the Opera or something. Did take a date/girlfriend once to see Cats at the Artscsape which was pretty cool.

So this is something we wouldn’t like to lose here in Cape Town so if you can please make a donation AND if you do you can also win – neat hey, save the ballet for future dates plus possibly win some cool stuff! (not to mention I could win a iPad if I get the highest donations through this site…)

So, what could you win?

• One of 5 sets of double tickets to the Poetry In Motion Gala Event, to be
  held at Artscape Opera House on Sunday, 9 May 2010 [ More info ... ]

• 24 Bottles of wine, kindly donated by Michael Oliver, along with 3 signed
  copies of his books.

• A magnificent poster-size photographic print from Cape Town City Ballet’s
  current photographer, Pat Bromilow-Downing.

This is how you can donate:

Cheques should be made out to: (again Ref number is DB1)
CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET and posted to
PO Box 94, RONDEBOSCH 7701

For direct internet transfers:
Bank: NEDBANK
Account name: CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET
Branch code: 123 209
Account no: 123 200 8842
Reference: Name + Reference Number (which is DB1)

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa. We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic
safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but a insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the Youth League President.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

Bloggers who are involved in the protest:

http://thoughtleader.co.za/siphohlongwane
http://rwrant.co.za
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/munadia/
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/shafiqmorton/
http://blogs.news24.com/needpoint
http://capetowngirl.co.za
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyo
http://thoughtleader.co.za/davidjsmith
http://letterdash.com/one-eye-only
http://boyuninterrupted.blogspot.com
http://amandasevasti.com
http://blog.empyrean.co.za/
http://letterdash.com/brencro
http://6000.co.za
http://chrisroper.co.za
http://pieftw.com
http://hamishpillay.wordpress.com
http://memoirs4kimya.blogspot.com
http://thoughtleader.co.za/azadessa
http://watkykjy.co.za
http://fredhatman.co.za
http://thelifeanddeathchronicles.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/common-dialogue/
http://www.clivesimpkins.blogs.com/
http://mashadutoit.wordpress.com
http://nicharalambous.com
http://sarocks.co.za
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/stompies/
http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/
http://01universe.blogspot.com
http://groundwork.worpress.com
http://iwrotethisforyou.me
http://fionasnyckers.book.co.za
http://attentiontodetail.wordpress.com
http://blogs.women24.com/editor
http://www.missmillib.blogspot.com
http://snowgoose.co.za
http://dreamfoundry.co.za
http://www.vanoodle.blogspot.com
http://www.exmi.co.za
http://cat-dubai.blogspot.com
http://alistairfairweather.com
http://www.zanedickens.com
http://www.nickhuntdavis.com
http://guysa.blogspot.com
http://book.co.za
http://baldy.co.za
http://skinnylaminx.com
http://blogs.african-writing.com/zukiswa
http://www.mielie.wordpress.com
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/gatherer/
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sarahbritten
http://stii.co.za
http://blogs.news24.com/FSB_AP
http://twistedkoeksuster.blogspot.com
http://whensmokegetsinyoureyes.blogspot.com/
http://trinklebean.wordpress.com
http://commentry.wordpress.com/
http://matthewbuckland.com
http://blogs.news24.com/colour-me-fran
http://gormendizer.co.za

Today Big Concerts tweeted this:

Now we just need to wait and hear the official annoucement on Wednesday morning, holding fingers for The Killers!

** UPDATED – CONCERT CONFIRMED!!!

It is now confirmed that THE KILLERS will play in SA at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg on December 4 and at the Val De Vie Estate in Cape Town on December 6. Tickets range from R269 to R526 and are available at Computicket.

“We are truly honoured to be associated with yet another talented award winning band such as The Killers on their first ever South African tour.  We as a brand are truly committed to bring to our Consumers and all music lovers in South Africa the most authentic and memorable music experiences that could only be Heineken”, said Franco Maria Maggi, Marketing Manager of Heineken in South Africa.

Confirmed at News24

Here is the link on Computicket to buy, I’ve bought golden circle already.

After his recent success in the Leadville 100, Stapleton the Team Manager for TeamRadioShack said that Lance loves his mountain bike riding and would like to do the Cape Epic stage race in South Africa…

Here is the statement:
“After his success at the Leadville 100, Lance is also looking to do some more mountain bike races including the Cape Epic stage race in South Africa. “He really loves it [MTB racing] and RadioShack is very supportive of him doing things outside like that,” said Stapleton.”

Hmmm, reckon that would stir quite a few people to get out and support the guys riding around Cape Town – I would definitely be there. Read more here from Cycling News.

So today Computicket and some journalists on Twitter let slip that The Killers were scheduled to play in Cape Town the 9th December (Golden Circle R526)

Computicket even had a page up on their site for the event and stated that tickets will go on sale on the 14th, see pic below – this has since been taken down pretty quickly. View bigger image of Computicket here

After this on Twitter MyNews24 did some research and phoned Computicket who said that it was scheduled but just had some details to iron out…,

I think its more likely that they just want to have their proper press release on the 14th August when they start selling tickets! I’m definitely going to be buying Golden Circle and see them for my third time, check out the video below I took of their opening scene in their 2007 concert.

Mike attanded a lunch where Prince Mashele of the Institute for Security Studies delivered this speech that I really think most people should hear/read and that if it doesn’t challenge you to your core I’m not sure what will.

This is a must must read!

Here is the speech:
Master of Ceremonies, Mr Songezo Zibi;
The Editor-in-chief of the Mail and Guardian, Mr Nic Dawes;
Representative of Xstrata South Africa, Mr Eric Ratshikhopa;
The 300 influential young South Africans;
Invited guests;
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am humbled by the honour to address the cream of South African youth today.

To be selected by the Mail and Guardian amongst 300 Young South Africans people must take to lunch is a confirmation of the prestigious position you occupy individually in our society today.

As a collective, you are the best that our country has in 2009, and what we will have in the foreseeable future. You are to South Africa what an emerging sun represents at dawn.

I need not remind you that you are all youth leaders in different fields of our social, political and economic life. Those who are worried about South Africa’s future look at you for national inspiration and hope.

For that, you all deserve a round of applause!

While I am aware that you are here to celebrate your individual success stories, I would like to take advantage of your collective presence and pose a question I think future generations will ask later on in your lives: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

I raise this worrying question because I agree with the assertion made by Roberto Mangabeira Unger in his book, Democracy Realised, when he says:

The perversion of economic growth and its fruits begins when we attempt to make up for the scarcity of public goods by producing more private ones, and to find in the private consumption a barren solace for social frustration. (1998:7)

Who amongst you would argue that we have not yet reached a perverse stage in the evolution of post-apartheid South Africa, where the public sector is the worst preferred, and the private sector the most preferred?

Should anyone doubt if this is true, imagine how an average young South African would reply to the following questions:

• If you had a choice, would you like your mother to be treated in a public or private hospital?
• If you had the means, would you take your children to a private or public school?
• If you had a private option, would you go to the Department of Home Affairs for services?
• If you lived in a townhouse, would you trust the police or ADT to secure your private property?
• If you had to negotiate an ethical business transaction, would you prefer to talk to a politician or a private entrepreneur?

Those who would choose the private sphere as their answer to these critical questions must immediately be alerted that they are active participants in the construction of a private sub-state in South Africa!

A private sub-state is populated by people who choose to kill their conscience by conveniently turning a blind eye to the ills plaguing society. Yet the wealth and incomes generated by these private citizens owe a great deal to the sweat and toil of the suffering workers and the poor.

In his famous book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney lamented this situation in post-colonial African states, focusing on the middle class. He said:

They squander the wealth created by the peasants and workers by purchasing cars, whisky, and perfume. (1972:19)

As the South African middle class, I am not sure if you do not, as Walter Rodney observed elsewhere in Africa, “squander the wealth created by the peasants and workers by purchasing cars, whisky, and perfume.”

But I am certain that, if the champions of the private sphere were to succeed, it would essentially mean the hastening of the very social perversion that Roberto Mangabera Unger wrote about.

The tragedy, however, is that at the peak of post-apartheid South Africa’s economic success in 2007, the Bureau of Market Research at the University of South Africa estimated the size of the black middle class – the so-called Black Diamonds – at 9.3 million.

We now know the economic difficulties the black middle class has fallen into, when the Reserve Bank raised interest rates sharply and the global economic crisis began to hit home.

Even if we were to combine the struggling Black Diamonds with the entire white population, we would still have to confront the painful reality that more than half of our country’s population live in poverty and cannot afford the services provided by the most preferred private sector.

It is these objective socio-economic conditions that divide our nation into ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Those who are cushioned by the comfort and opulence of the private sphere continue to withdraw further and further into their private cocoons, while the poor are left to their own devices.

But the two worlds do, in many ways, interface in a manner that reinforces and continues to widen the chasm between the haves and have-nots. Those who have the means feel threatened by those who do not. The propertied class fortify their private spaces to protect themselves against the property-less.

It is against this background that British cultural theorist Terry Eagleton wrote the following in his book entitled After Theory:

It is not hard to imagine affluent communities of the future protected by watchtowers, searchlights and machine guns, while the poor scavenge for food in the waste lands beyond. (2003:22)

When Eagleton made this profound observation in 2003, he probably thought he was a prophet whose words would come to pass like a religious prophesy that waits for centuries to pass before it is proven right.

Little did Terry Eagleton know that, three years down the road (in 2009), a fellow like me would address 300 Young South Africans, among whom there would be those who already live in communities protected by watchtowers, searchlights and machineguns while the poor scavenge for food in the waste lands beyond.

I say all this not because I am bent on spoiling your special day, but as a desperate attempt to point out your historic responsibility towards the broader society.

• If you are a famous young writer, and you do not write about the plight of the poor, history will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

• If you are a prolific young journalist, and you say nothing about corrupt politicians who embezzle public funds, posterity will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

• If you are a flourishing young entrepreneur, and you do not contribute to the improvement of the lives of the destitute, future generations will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

• If you are a singer, and you do not sing in defence of the downtrodden masses, history will also pose a question to you: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

It does not matter what kind of work you do, there is a role you can and must play to stop the perversion of our society. Your success will mean nothing if it is not connected with the general advancement of society!

For those of you who are Black and whose success is connected to the struggles waged by the masses of our people, Frantz Fanon has an important message for you:

… we who are citizens of the under-developed countries, we aught to seek every occasion for contacts with the rural masses. … We aught never to lose contact with the people [who have] battled for [their] independence and for the concrete betterment of [their] existence. (The Wretched of the Earth, 1961:150-1)

If you do not take Fanon’s call seriously, the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ that already exists in our society will deepen its roots even further. You will fortify your private spaces without success. Criminals will not fail to reach wherever you live. ADT will not be enough to prevent the theft of your luxury sedan, the murder of your family members or the rape of your mothers, sisters and daughters.

We should indeed be wary of behaving as if the poor are powerless. When the gap between the poor, the middle class and the rich is allowed to widen its yawn, the poor always – and sometimes brutishly – have a way of outsmarting those who think they are educated and know it all.

Politically, the poor possess the disruptive capacity to disturb the untenable tranquillity of the educated elite. The destitute have it within their power to take over society in ways that leave the middle class kicking and screaming from the margins as if they are little children crying for help. As Roberto Mangabeira Unger reminds us once again:

The excluded … will not wait. They will strike back through politics, especially through the election of populist leaders, threatening to recommence the destructive pendular swing between economic populism and economic orthodoxy. (Ibid: 82)

Once this has happened, the educated class will be dismissed with derision, as if they have nothing to offer society. Society will be forced to celebrate mediocrity, and the slide into hopelessness can only be faster.

When mediocrity prevails, there will be circumstantial heroes whose heroism will be defended even if it means embarrassing society. Indeed, this hastens society’s collective descent into the abyss.

Once the poor have taken over, having been abandoned by the champions of the private sector, the public sector becomes a realm where corruption and inertia reign supreme! African and other countries that have gone down this road have, unfortunately, failed to make substantial reverse.

When the destitute strike back at the indifferent middle class and the rich, abnormality becomes normality; scorn is poured on sensibility; and rationality is subjected to demeaning ridicule.

When politics has reached this stage, the relationship between the authority of the office and the office bearer becomes tenuous. This is precisely what Herbert Marcuse refers to in his seminal book, A Study on Authority, when he says:

The dignity of the office and the worthiness of the officiating person no longer coincide in principle. The office retains its unconditional authority, even if the officiating person does not deserve this authority. (1972:16)

• Who amongst you does not know a youth leader whose authority does not coincide with that of his office?
• Who amongst you does not laugh or get embarrassed when some of our leaders speak on national TV?
• And who amongst you does not wish that some of our leaders were something close to Barack Obama?

If you have experienced this personally, it means that you agree with Unger when he says: “The excluded … will not wait. They will strike back through politics, especially through the election of populist leaders.”

If you find this situation familiar, you should then ask yourself the following question: How do I respond to Frantz Fanon when he says: “… we who are citizens of the under-developed countries, we aught to seek every occasion for contacts with the rural masses”?

If you do not ask yourselves this soul-searching question, you might find yourself unable to respond when future generations ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

I know that most of you are by now upset with me, that I have troubled your hearts and souls during an occasion where you were invited to celebrate your success stories.

I did this because I am convinced that the Mail and Guardian selected you to be among 300 influential, young South Africans because of the burden history has placed on your shoulders.

Like the Mail and Guardian, I see no person better than you to rescue our society from the yawning divide between the private and the public spheres of life.

I see no other group of young people better placed to lead me in all facets of South African life in ten, twenty years from now. And I also think you have an immediate responsibility to halt our country’s slide into hopelessness.

There is nothing magical you are expected to do that is beyond your already proven capabilities! All you need to do is to intensify the work that made it possible for you to be selected as part of 300 Young South Africans people must take to lunch.

But when you do it, keep in mind that future generations will one day ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

Congratulations, and thank you very much!

A couple of months ago I was mad and shocked, the reason? SA Rugby has just announced the price of the tickets for the British Lions Tour so SA and the cost of tickets for the test matches… a very crazy amount of R1140 no matter where you sat.

WOW

Thats around £95 if you are a Pom coming out, even when I was in England going to Twickers to watch SA play England I only payed £65 for pretty good seats and now to be home and be expected to pay more is absolutely ridiculous!

The one other thing that disappoints me more is that last night on Boots & All the guys were trying to work out why there was such bad crowd support at the games leading up to the test matches. And they came up with all sorts of reasons from the Springboks not been available to play and the understrength of the sides and other things but they all seemed to know what the REAL reason was and just didn’t want to say it (in case they got fired like Nick Mallet did back in 1999).

Now if I wanted to go watch the game vs Western Province tomorrow I would need to fork out R285 (Super 14 games were only R60)

Why these ridiculous prices? Why is the press not slamming SA Rugby more?

Us as South Africans can’t be expected to fork out these astronomical amounts for tickets even for the provincial game. Here is to having a nice braai and watching the game from home with some beers and if its crap and WP are getting smashed we can just switch over and watch the Proteas smashing the West Indies around the park.

One other thing – at least FIFA realised this and make ticket prices reasonable for the 2010 World Cup for us locals, what is SA Rugby smoking?