Jingles

Two jingles sung on TV at the moment:

'Reliable Music Warehouse' and 'Pharmacists who care'

Who are the people responsible?

Sugar Packet

Rather an apt saying on the back of my sugar packet

Happiness is a direction...not a place

Not sure I agree at the moment.

Its very hot here and I'm insisting on coffee after lunch.

Crime & a poll

This is always the big topic of conversation in South Africa - it was when I lived here in 1998 and even more so now. The concern is that with the 2010 World Cup the country's reputation is being tarnished. But really whether the football comes here or not it's a major problem.
Mbeki and other top dogs including the police chief say crime isn't out of control and crime figures are down. But talk to any South African anywhere and they'll say the opposite.

A recent poll printed in today's paper has the following findings:
What South Africans think:
Crime going up: 81%
Crime dropping: 15%

and then
What S Africans feel:
Proud South African: 96%
Happy: 59%
Well: 61%
Unsafe: 75%
A failure: 6%
Depressed: 10%
Anxious: 6%

What S Africans have:
Work: 48%
Indoor water: 55%
No clean water: 6%
Flush toilet: 57%
Electricity: 88%

How S Africans live:
Households: 12.4 million
Houses: 9.4 million
Shacks: 1.3 million
Huts: 1.7 million

Education:
None: 12.5%
Primary: 10%
Matric: 27%
Diploma: 8%
Degree: 3%

It's believed that Mbeki doesn't want to open the can of worms labelled Crime because he's stepping down soon and it could be problematic for his successor and could lose precious votes. So instead people grumble and worry.

Dakar Impressions

The Paris Dakar race came to town - lots of men in lycra or khaki outfits, bikes and trucks revving their way through the streets. In the Cafe de Roma which is supposed to be a pretentious Dakar hangout, they had invaded. I asked the waitress why there were so many men there, forgetting. She reminded me and then suggested I sit with my back to them which is apparently a Wolof phrase translated, I thought it a good idea but it looked like I thought I was better than them with my dusty clothes and sandals. Which I did.

It's funny how this belief in being superior to others kicks in so easily in Africa...

I spend a lot of time in taxis and the street life passes by slowly. Flashes of gold jewellery, the indigo stained hands of a tailor sitting at his sewing machine, piles of pots and pans, wheel hubs for sale hung on walls, men selling ear buds and lights and cashew nuts to drivers in traffic jams.

Oprah

The big story here recently was that Oprah opened a school for girls near Jo'burg. She'd invited lots of her friends to donate a book to the school's library and some were even there to see the opening.

She was interviewed at the event and explained she'd been involved in the whole process from building to hand-picking the girls herself. She knew them all by name.

I wondered why people only talk about African dictators.

Will she sue me for saying that?

Dakar

After a week of meetings, meetings, meetings with Anna in Jo'burg I sneaked in a trip to Senegal. It's about as far from South Africa as from Europe it seems. But I felt I deserved it.

Dakar is hectic and almost a 24 hour city. I was treated to seeing lots of Senegalese musicians, sight-seeing in the traditional way and hanging out with Katharina and her family and then Damian coming down from the desert.

Here are some pics from the trip....