Go Polo

Do you have to be a king, or even as wealthy as one, to play polo? Nick van der Leek pokes around Polo farms from the Free State to the Underberg to find out.

I’m curious. I want to know more about Polo, and in particular how to get involved as a South African. It’s a sport with the same highbrow appeal as yachting or fencing – but neither of those sports seems to me to be accessible. I wonder if Polo might be any different. My first stop is Franshoek farm, about 25km from Ficksberg, 14km of which is on a grinding dirt track. It’s the same road to Rustler’s Valley and not far from the Thaba Thabo Nature Reserve. After following a number of white signs I come upon a thatched cottage Tolkien might have invented. I’m instantly under an enchantment.

Franshoek is an Anglo African mishmash. The sandstone interiors are warm and homey. I meet Tom Cinderey, an affable Englishman with a Prince Charles-sish accent. He and his wife Suzi are recent partners, running the Afrikaans sounding farm with original owner, Roz Evans. Rod Gutridge, her son, is a legend in Polo circles. He once played with Prince Charles, and is now a respected coach on the farm. Before I head out to the stables I meet Lily, a Thai pig. The resident cook specializes in Thai food, but Lily is off limits. The attention to detail at Franshoek is charming. I find a toilet seat filled with floating seashells, and a beautiful wash basin built into a sandstone shelf. Even though I don’t play Polo, I’m thinking of excuses to stay over.

While I take in the beautiful Polo grounds, and wander around the stables, a British guest offers me the low down on polo. Each match consists of 6 chukkas. A chukka is like a set in tennis. There might be 7 depending on a draw in the score, as occurs in tennis. A chukka is an intense effort lasting 6 minutes. At a professional level, a new horse is used for each new chukka, but beginners might use just 2 or 3 horses for a match. A match might last an hour or more. Committees decide a player’s handicap, and teams are matched with similar handicaps. The best players in the world are from Argentina, and the best players in South Africa, are from Natal.

Two days later I am on Ericsberg Farm, just outside Underberg, in Natal. My host, a tall, keen farmer and polo player called Brian Hein informs me about the who’s who in South African Polo. He plays for the strongest rated team in South Africa, and their club is the Underberg Polo Club. He has a beautiful farm, but unlike Franshoek, it’s a private residence.

Over a cup of tea he enthusiastically imparts his wisdom. I’m told Polo ‘ponies’ are ex-racehorses, and therefore not ponies at all (ponies are a few hands shorter than horses). They’re called ponies, as I understand, out of a sort of fondness. Gavin Chaplain is South Africa’s best Polo coach, according to Brian. He also makes and exports polo mallets.

Later, when Brian takes me to the field where he practices at the end of every day, he says to me, “It’s all about the horses.” I get inklings now, that to love Polo, you have to love the whole atmosphere, the full spectrum of everything involving horses. And it helps if you’re part of the local farming community. “All the players around here are farmers,” he says. There’s something artistic and mystical about it, which is why rich patrons pay so much to be part of the experience. Sponsorship is private, and a lot of money is involved. Brian tells me it can be prohibitively expensive if you don’t own a farm and have to pay for the stabling of 3 or more horses. So if you’re thinking about going Polo, first make sure you have a farm, or a friend with a farm.

I leave Ericsberg farm, feeling quite envious. Imagine playing on that field with the sun
setting over those magnificent mountains. What a way to end a day!

On Brian’s instructions I head south, towards Swartberg. 10km from this tiny dorp, I see the sign Jurassic Park Polo. It’s owned by a teammate of Brian Hein, Selby Williamson, who has just returned from playing Polo in Barbados. Once again it is a short drive over rough roads. And once again I find a lovely setting with a
beautiful green field, and horses shining on it. I sit in my vehicle and gaze down at the dreamy scene below me. I’m tempted to join them, aren’t you?

Franshoek Polo School: 051 033 3938
Jurassic Park Polo: (Selby Williamson) 083 262 6893
The Captain of the South African team is Russell Watson, who owns plenty of land in the Underberg.
For information related to Polo, or Polo events, he can be contacted on 033 702 0902

Going Big, Getting High

Ficksburg, 10:33. The town feels like a frontier sort of place, and I’m expecting to see cowboys heading for the OK Corral at any moment. Looking up, I can already see what’s in store for me: very tall mountains, the Maloti’s, rising to an ominous blur of blue and purple. I’ll be travelling solo through Eastern Lesotho, crossing the roof of Africa in a single day.
Story and pictures by Nick van der Leek

At the border post of Maputsoe, I get a taste of what’s to come. Nobody knows anything about my intended route. No one knows whether the roads are still impassable due to heavy rains, or how long my route might take. Somehow this distills my nerve, restores my wits. I’m heading into the unknown and there’s nothing else to it. I’m expecting to flash across the mountains in a blur of silver, and to emerge on the other side, at Sani, in the late, perhaps even early afternoon. Silly boy.

Out of curiosity, I’m taking an unusual route. It looks something like an upside down ‘5’. This means it’s a much longer road to the other side of The Roof. Instead of going via Oxbow, I’m turning off at Hlotse and heading past the Katse Dam towards Thaba Tseka, before turning sharply towards Mokhotlong, where my road meets the conventional one, and passes right beside Southern Africa’s highest point. After that, I will descend down a road too steep for most vehicles – the Sani Pass, with a gradient of 1:6. After only a few minutes, my cellphone loses it’s signal.

At Hlotse (a name reminiscent of Lhotse, the peak adjacent to Everest), I pass the turn off to Thaba Tseka. I could easily have gone on, but I turn my sleek vessel around, and head towards rougher country, and even rougher roads. Meanwhile, the scenery around me is changing. The first thing I notice is how different this landlocked country is to my own, South Africa. Lesotho immediately feels different. There are no fences beside the strip of tar that shoots and swings across muscular green countryside. This already gives an impression of freedom, and vertigo, and exposure to the outdoors. Looking at the houses, you notice roofs are held down with large rocks. But more charming than anything else, are the people. Children all over Lesotho shout, “GIVE ME MONEY!” as you pass by. I drive past a flock of blue frocked schoolgirls, weeding a vegetable garden. Then I encounter a shepherd boy with a painted face, dressed in vivid red. I find the same dress code repeated over and over: gum boots, a colourful blanket, a shepherd’s staff and a winter hat. This pattern is found across this mountain kingdom, and it soon becomes clear why. My road suddenly flies steeply upward, along the dragon’s back.

Pitseng, 11:40. If I had any doubts about my road, they were eclipsed first by a pair of intrepid and strong cross-country cyclists. The pair – one from Canada and one from Holland – had cycled (and walked – pushing their bikes) the route I’d mapped out, in reverse. They said the rivers were coming down in spate, but they managed to get themselves and their bicycles across the worst, using a small ferry. They pulled out a map, warning me, “Don’t get lost!” and showed me a possible alternative 4x4 route I could take if the Senqu (one of the sources of the Orange) was still roaring over roads. More than anything, their confidence and joie de vivre fused into me. And secondly, when I was lifted high on the shoulders of the Mafika Lisiu Pass (3090 m) knowing their travails had taken them over these self same roads, I was fully inspired to follow this road to its end.

The Mafika Lisiu Pass gets you higher than Sani, and the road offers equally stupendous scenery. Forget using the aircon at this altitude, the air is fresh and cool enough, and will remain thus for much of the remainder of the journey. Now, I found very few huts or vehicles for miles and miles. When you turn off the engine your ears ring. You can hear the tyres of your vehicle crunching on rock, and your own feet crush the hard bristles of some hardy mountain grass. It’s very quiet. A single bird chirrups through crystal clear air, the sound ringing like a bell. Every now and again you drive through a tongue of silver water that spills over a road. Stop there and listen to the gurgling song – it’s better than anything you’ve got on the radio. I give two small boys 50 cents each, and they jump up in triumph in the cloud I leave behind. I see flecks tilling the fields way down in lush green valleys, and teenagers riding donkeys.

The next pass is Laitsoka, at 2650 m, but I only reach it at 13:57. The tar road has long since fallen behind, and I get glimpses of the Katse Dam. I have a hitchhiker on board, a young shepherd wearing rags – looking like a lost Jedi out of Star Wars. Now the road becomes tough, and the scenery increasingly wild and beautiful. There are fewer and fewer people, and all that seems to live up here is grass and small birds. I reach Ha Seshote at 14:09 and Nkaobee Pass (2510m) at 14:18. I notice storm clouds moving in. I know if they open up I have a long drive back. I’m determined to stay ahead. At times I’m hitting 60 km/h, but mostly I’m between 40 and 50. That means, literally, 40 kilometres in an hour. It’s not much. The scenery swooping around me is rough and gorgeous. I reach Thaba Tseka at 15:55. I’ve been on the road for over 5 hours now. At times I felt like I’m sitting on a bucking bronco.

The fun but arduous drive takes me along ribbons of unfenced road, with chasms falling around me. I cross a huge river, which I take to be the Senqu (or Orange) River, and it’s already mighty, frothing and foaming, churning mud and pieces of mountain on its way down. The end of the bridge is underwater, but with the bakkie’s good ground clearance, I easily make it across. I also spot two boats pulled up against the hill. I’m glad I’ve had a good night’s sleep, because now, with darkness descending, I need good reflexes. I am driving rapidly but not recklessly through the mountains that give birth to our mightiest river. In the gloom I notice a sign for a self-catering guest house called St. James. I cross a steel bridge at 18:43 and get out the car to check my map. Have I gone through Mokhotlong, or Thabang? If so there was no sign to tell me. I haven’t seen a sign in a long time. Later I ask a local if I am on the right road to Sani. He points in the direction I’m going. The mountain is wearing different jerseys, and then clouds cover them and all I can see are the lights of the Isuzu probing the cold fog. It’s cold and lonely. I see a jackal slinking away from the road as I approach. Some parts feel like Seweweekspoort up here. There’s sandstone and the continuous chuckle of a stream over rounded rocks at high altitude. I can’t see it, but I know Thaba Ntleyana is looking down on me.

I see a sign – SANI PASS – in the gloom. And then a closed gate. The Sani Pass closed at 16:00, and it’s now 20:10. I’m at the Sani Top Chalet, the highest pub in Africa, at 2874m. But I’m home, and what a cozy and comfortable place it is, after such a hard and uplifting day.

Sani Top Chalet, tel: 082 715 1131 or 033 702 1158.

My First Feature Article

I published 5 articles in this edition of Heartland Magazine. It was my first feature article ever. You can read Mountain Madness here.

How does Korea do it?

And the lessons (in broad strokes and bands) South Africa can learn

“We … will further strive to become the world’s most advanced IT power. To realize this goal, we will push ahead with our e-government initiative, develop the software and content industries, and educate the public to make them the most computer literate citizens in the world.” – Minister of Information and Communication, Dr. Seung-taik Yang, 2001

If South Korea was an actor, the country would be someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman. A lot of people wouldn’t know that they know this talented performer, but they would have seen him in everything from Mission Impossible III (opposite Tom Cruise) to Charlie Wilson’s War opposite big hitter Tom Hanks). Why this obscure reference to South Korea? Simply because in terms of brand, South Korea is so obscure for a country so small and successful, it beggars belief.

To test this theory, try to answer these three simple questions:

1) Where exactly is South Korea?
2) What shape is the country (have you ever seen the country on a map?)
3) What is the capital of South Korea?

See? How did a nebulous country half the size of California, one tenth the size of South Africa, become part of the trillion dollar club? In 2005, South Korea’s economy was 11th, but was overtaken by Russia in 2006 and by India in 2007. How has a country with as many people as South Africa, hopped to just outside the top 10 most successful world economies? And how come South Korea - a country that remains only half of its whole true self - is projected to be the second wealthiest company per capita by 2050? How is all this possible for a small peninsula that pokes delicately out of the Chinese bubble somewhere above the islands of Japan?

Korea’s WWW Story

One of the factors underpinning South Korea’s meteoric rise is that South Korea is the world leader in terms of broadband internet penetration in the world. How did South Korea become the most wired nation on Earth?

The Internet story starts with telephone penetration. South Korea’s telephone penetration in 1960 was less than 10% of the world average, at .36 per 100 inhabitants. 21 years later Korea reached and exceeded the world average, and 21 years after that (2002) they achieved a teledensity of 48.8 (three times the world average). Currently Korean households with fixed line telephones have reached 92%, 79% have mobile phones (double South Africa’s figure of 40% mobile phone penetration, and exceeding the USA’s estimated 75% penetration).

As recently as 13 years ago, Korea’s internet penetration levels were less than 1 per 100 inhabitants. In 1999 South Korea overtook the average (for Developed Nations), helped to some extent by the release of the Baek Ji Young sex video in the same year. 7 years ago Korea emerged as the world’s fifth largest internet market with 26 million users (South Africa has less than 5 million) and at the same time South Korea reached number one for Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable modem Internet access. Today Korea is the world leader in broadband internet access penetration. Less than 10 percent of Americans have high-bandwidth connections compared to over 50% of Korean households. Korea is currently piloting and rolling out connections at 1,000Mbps (the UK averages 4.6Mbps). South Korea also aims to boost wireless data speeds (to mobile handsets) with WiBro, also known as WiMAX. Of all the OECD countries, South Koreans pay the lowest rates for broadband connections capable of downloading movies in minutes.

How to explain Korea’s exceptional internet penetration?

High levels of Internet penetration are not strongly correlated to Korea’s income level, however the high penetration levels have stimulated Korea’s income capacity. For a country not particularly well suited demographically to high internet penetration, what then explains Korea’s unique preponderance of internet users? The answers to this question are both simple and astounding:

First: Koreans have their own language, so there is very little ‘recycling’ and ‘lifting’ of content from outside sources. While the Korean alphabet is not ideally suited to computerization it remains a simple, scientific language.
Second: The Koreans love to read. This is evident in the fact that newspapers continue to grow unabated despite the growth of online news sites. Korea’s literacy level is 97.6, the highest among the Asian Tigers.
Third: The Koreans are compulsive, hard working and attentive students. Tertiary level enrolment is just under 70%. Discipline is high partly because parents can watch and evaluate classroom activities through streaming video sessions on their home computers.
Fourth: Population density helps. Seventy percent of Koreans live in the seven largest cities.
South Africa can follow Korea’s leading example of a country’s rise from a low level of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) access to one of the highest in the world.

How?
1) Local is lekker. All of the top 10 web sites accessed by Korean users are Korean. Local content differentiates and puts together local communities.
2) LAN. Korea’s internet resembles one gigantic Intranet (or local area network) where most users only access local sites. An aggressive investment needs to be made in internet infrastructures in South Africa’s urban centres.
3) No place like home. Home-based portals like Korea’s Daum portal (a local version of Google or Yahoo) attracts 450 million page impressions and is a world leader in pages per user and session time. Daum offers news, e-mail, instant messaging, shopping, music, videos, etc and earns revenues e-commerce transactions, advertising and site segments dedicated to members-only. It is able to earn money because it holds a captive market that it is Korean, and does not risk ‘diluting’ its content from outside sources. News24 is South Africa’s Daum, but we need more home-grown portals based on our local parlance.
4) Culture. Korea has an internet culture. Korea has over 26 000 internet cafes, a lively gaming industry (65% of visitors to internet cafes are gamers). Almost half - 43% of South Korea's population –have a blog, while almost every Korean twentysomething uses a social network on a daily basis. Internet culture can be inculcated at school, home and business level,and access can be developed by rolling out internet stations and cafes at airports, shopping malls and other public spaces.
5) Lifestyle. The internet is part of the Korean lifestyle, and part of family commerce: Brits spend 4 hours a week on average on the net, Americans spend 10. Koreans average 16 hours a week on the Internet (internet addiction is a common problem. Housewives generate 45% of domestic traffic shopping, buying and selling shares, taking classes and surfing online. Online banking, and other forms of technology adoption needs to be encouraged in South Africa.

Understanding Korea’s Portals

Naver and Daum are default community sites that enable the web savvy and very gregarious (and at times nationalistic) Korean people to engage in everything from dating to chatting to gaming. “Advanced" web applications (for example programs using Flash) don't hinder functionality since broadband is ubiquitous. Google is not considered a portal in Korea; traffic to Naver and Daum is also not related to just a search function. Naver and Daum customers use on site search as a "value added" feature; for them there is no point going to a foreign non-community search engine that has virtually none of the features that they already have in their online community.

So now we know how Korea wired itself. What are the implications?

An increase of 7 percent broadband adoption would mean $134 billion for the US economy -Connected Nation (a non-profit group)

South Korea’s largest conglomerate, Samsung (2006 revenue totalled $158.9 billion), is the global market leader in more than 60 products. Is it a coincidence that the country with the world’s highest internet penetration levels is also a world leader in electronics?
In April this year while visiting Samsung’s offices in Seoul I had a conversation with a Business Reporter (Kim Yoo-chul), I had an epiphany. The main difference between the USA and South Korea, I realised, is that the USA makes software, whereas South Korea builds things: Semiconductors such as DRAM, SDRAM, Flash Memory, Hard Drives, LCD Displays, Plasma Displays, OLED Displays, Blu-Ray players, Home Cinema Systems, Set-Top Boxes, Projectors, Mobile Phones, MP3 Players, Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Monitors, Laptops, UMPCs, CD and DVD Drives, Laser Printers, Fax Machines, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Microwaves, Ovens, Vacuum Cleaners, Air Conditioners…Samsung even builds ships.

Interbrand rates Samsung as the number one consumer electronics brand in the world, a position it overtook from Sony almost 3 years ago Samsung is behind Nokia as the world's second largest mobile phone maker. Koreans replace their handsets more often than American consumers, once again reflecting this oh-so Korean characteristic: exceptionally rapid adoption of new technologies. The downloading of video clips and music on one’s mobile phone is already a common practice in Korea.

A Country of Early Adopters

In a world where each country is aiming to be an Information Technology society (this the information age after all), South Korea has already (and uniquely) achieved this. They have much greater access and utility of internet technologies than anyone else. As such, the Koreans are always the first to develop a slew of homegrown gadgets to enable their domestic users. This makes the country one of early adopters, a trait that in itself is revolutionary for the fast paced world of managed information flow. Korea’s ‘hit’ products are identified, rolled out and modified for world markets that are always behind Korea, because their level of internet utility is always less than South Koreas. South Korean products flow out into world markets already tried and tested, and gather tremendous momentum (and of course, revenues). In this way South Korea is able to stay ahead on the crest of the technology wave (as it applies to developing the latest and most functional electronics hardware).

Like the pharmaceuticals industry, initial Research and Development costs are staggeringly high, but ‘hit’ products earn Billions. Korea’s pre-emptive massive investments into internet infrastructure have paid off handsomely. E-commerce in Korea is already 1/5 of the entire economy, worth an estimated $200 billion. The country with cutting edge hardware is now seeking to extend its competitive advantage to a domain that has long belonged to the USA: software. 4G cellular technologies based on high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) will see deployment in Korea in 2010.

Sources:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2003/01/56525
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/17/robots.korea
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/korea/material/CS_KOR.pdf
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/korea.html
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2000/1225/korea_video.html
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;18916991
http://www.samsung.com/za/aboutsamsung/companyprofile/timehistory/CompanyProfile_Electronics2006.html
http://www.rukorean.com/baek_ji_young
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gklqRd2x4pLm_rsfXk_S8u9nOT1Q
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3576260.stm
http://www.korea.net/news/news/newsview.asp?serial_no=20050401004
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2008/gb20080430_178487.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business
http://archive.laptopmag.com/Features/The-Seoul-of-the-Cell-Phone.htm
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705030011.html
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200804/200804240010.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120899000796939715.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aYGGE.Ob03ew&refer=japan
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/construction_and_property/article1906938.ece
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805020018.html

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Upfront Man: How Badass is Badassed Enough?

What happens when Nice Guys reform themselves…

Bad Ass is the road Nice Guys who’ve finished last choose to take once they’ve dusted themselves off. Question is, do they graduate to the low road, the medium road, or the high road?

Alvy Singer (Woody Allan): Hey listen, gimme a kiss.
Annie Hall (Diane Keaton): Really?
Alvy Singer: Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna go home later, right, and then there's gonna be all that tension, we've never kissed before and I'll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we'll kiss now and get it over with, and then we'll go eat. We'll digest our food better.

That’s the Woody Allan version of being a badass. Take it from me, Woody gets laid a lot. Woody of course couches the badass stuff in a seemingly weakassed approach, but that’s how he left foots his prey. It’s intellectual sex followed by the real thing.

Guys are very conscious that by approaching a woman in the first place, they may be seen to be ‘conceding’ power, and power for guys is paramount. One way we offset the Nice Guy Power Shed is by introducing our power negatively. So we might say, “Those shoes look great; it’s just a pity about the color.” Power distribution is important to keep a relationship healthy. And power distribution always starts by knowing what we want. Do we want a series of shallow encounters, or something halfway serious, or the big tomalley: a serious relationship?

And within these commitment dynamics, are other dynamics. Let me explain. For me, I prefer a relationship where the girl loves me more than I love her. It’s the best way for me to more easily maintain the power dynamic in the relationship. And power is real. Guys want it, and girls want guys to have it. Most guys who were once ‘Nice Guys’ have learnt this lesson.
The converse is of course the guy who gushes, who can’t wait to give his power away. Needy is a turnoff and Needy begets needy. I’ve been there and it’s not pretty. In its worst form it becomes attraction to flawed individuals to give ourselves a better chance, and better control. So if you're Woody Allen, be Woody Allen. If you're Vin Diesel, be Vin Diesel. What doesn’t work is Woody trying to be Vin, me trying to be someone I’m not. It’s simple: When I want to hook up I’m not afraid to go for it, I say what I want, and I rarely get rejected.
Trouble is, it’s easier to win women over with manipulative behaviour that amounts to deceit and callousness. It’s because women are attracted to men who are socially talented, men who know who they are, and know what they want. It’s a confidence thing. In some ways women encourage deceit by seeking a strong independent man who isn’t fawning over her constantly. Men aren’t always that, and don’t always want to be that, but they’re clear that that’s what women want. I’ve gone through phases – most men have – where I’ve had to learn to pay less attention to someone I’m attracted to, and I did this by paying attention to other women, first by flirting then by actively ‘playing the field’. It’s scary how the narcissism of being involved in several relationships simultaneously can provide women with the amount of attention from a man that they need, but at the same time, the man, seeing several women, also gets the sort of attention he wants. But this is where badassed behaviour backfires. Even if I am practising George Clooney styled serial monogamy (rather than cheating), once I get the girl I want, it’s still hard to be happy, it’s hard to turn down those opportunities that drift into view…and when the time comes for commitment it is especially hard to put those ‘bad habits’ to bed, so to speak.
I’m not alone in gauging how bad assed is bad assed enough. I recently had breakfast with two hunky friends, PJ a wealthy, well-groomed lawyer and Mike, a handsome engineer and guitarist, both professional lady’s men. While chatting to them on a Sunday in Rosebank over steaming bacon, eggs and toast I had something of an epiphany. The conversation started off as typical male posturing: congratulatory tales of conquest, occasionally pointing out hot babes sauntering by our table, but then I discovered our rapacious appetites for seduction have a common thread. Both PJ and Mike had been the original Nice Guys, idolising their wives, gushing with compliments, both paid painful prices in their marriages for being such doting husbands. Their wives first walked all over them, then dumped them. Mike says, “If I knew then, what I know now, I would still be married.” PJ, mouth full, waves his knife: him too. I’d also fallen heavily, deeply in love with a girlfriend once upon a time, and likewise, my scars ran deep.
I say, “So we’ve fallen off the horse called Big Love, we’ve been riding out the bruises on a few donkeys ever since. Now isn’t the lesson here to apply what we’ve learnt since then and try again, get back on the horse?” PJ says it isn’t worth the risk, that ‘You can control everything, but you can’t control someone else’s emotions’. Duh! PJ’s response to his Nice Guy phase is that he now refuses to give up his power; he’s a control freak. Mike has gone further, but not much: he has one foot in a relationship, but is finding it hard to commit.
Between the three of us, we represent the three levels of bad ass. We’ve dusted ourselves off and found a new road for ourselves. For PJ it is the low road: swearing off long term relationships altogether. For Mike it is a mixture of freedom and commitment, and for me (granted I never crashed and burned in a marriage), it is being who I am in a committed relationship. I’ve discovered that the most bad assed I can be, is by being myself, without all the issues and crap my parents taught me, just me loving the way I am meant to love. There is nothing more liberating than being utterly oneself, and finding that someone loves me completely for that. That my attentions are enough, and so are hers, and that both people being genuine provides enough sexual fire and fun and excitement. Love, real love, is a bad assed bucking bronco sometimes, it’s the ride of a lifetime, and always worth the risk.

KOREA/IT: Wired for wealth [FINANCIAL MAIL]

By Nick van der Leek

South Korea is one-tenth the size of SA, far removed from the largest markets and, until a couple of decades ago, was ensconced in an agricultural economy.

Yet the country is part of the trillion-dollar club and one of the world's 15 largest economies. It is projected to be the second-wealthiest economy per capita by 2050.

Korea - All connected

How is all this possible for a small peninsula that has as many citizens as SA?

The key factor underpinning South Korea's meteoric rise is that the country has over the past decade emerged as the most wired nation in the world, and is now the global leader in broadband Internet penetration.

The Internet story starts with telephone penetration, which at a teledensity of 48,8 is three times the world average.

Almost 80% of households have mobile phones, (compared with SA's estimated 50% mobile phone penetration, and exceeding the US's estimated 75%).

As recently as 13 years ago, Korea's Internet penetration levels were less than one per 100 inhabitants. In 2001 Korea emerged as the world's fifth-largest Internet market with 26m users, and today it is the world leader in broadband Internet access. Less than 10% of Americans have high-bandwidth connections, compared with more than 50% of Korean households.

Korea is piloting and deploying connections at 1 000 Mbit/s (the UK average is 4,6 Mbit/s). Koreans have the highest speeds and pay the least for broadband connections, capable of downloading movies in minutes.

How to explain Korea's exceptional Internet penetration, when these seemingly don't correlate with the country's income levels? In fact, it works the other way round: the high levels of IT access have stimulated Korea's income capacity.

Local experts list a number of reasons:

* Koreans have their own language, so there is very little "recycling" and "lifting" of content from outside sources.

* Koreans love to read newspapers, despite the increase in online news sites.
[This has been edited and doesn't quite reflect my meaning. The point is Koreans are voracious readers. Thus books, newspapersand online all do well. Part of the reason for this is a very strong focus on both education and work ethic.]

* Koreans are hard working students. Tertiary-level enrolment is almost 70%.

* Population density helps: 70% of Koreans live in the seven largest cities.

Korea's connectivity has had a huge impact on the economy, which until a decade ago rested on its chaebols, a few large family-controlled conglomerates.

Research firm Connected Nation estimates a 7% broadband adoption, such as Korea achieves in a year, would mean a US$134bn boost to the US economy.

In Korea it has allowed the corporate sector to expand globally at a faster pace than would otherwise have happened.

South Korea's largest conglomerate, Samsung, with 2006 revenues of almost $159bn, is the global market leader in more than 60 products. Samsung and other Korean groups are leaders in building electronic devices ranging from semiconductors to blu-ray players and from home cinema systems to mobile phones. And there is a whole range of traditional white goods, such as microwaves and washing machines, in which these companies first made their names and which still contribute a large portion of profits.

They are forced to adopt new technologies because their domestic market changes so rapidly and consumers adopt new technologies so quickly. Koreans replace their cellphone handsets more often than US consumers do.

Korean companies invest billions of dollars in research and development. Their home market becomes their testing ground before they expand these products to the world market.

Korea is a country of early adopters because its citizens have such a high degree of access to Internet technologies. Its companies are always the first to develop a slew of homegrown gadgets to sell to domestic consumers - via the Internet, of course.

E-commerce in Korea is already 20% of the economy, worth about $200bn.

Korea's "hit" products are identified, deployed and modified for world markets. By the time they reach the globe they have been tried and tested, and have gathered huge consumer momentum.

Korea's success holds numerous lessons for SA.

Firstly, Korea relies heavily on local content. All the top 10 websites accessed by Korean users are Korean. Local content differentiates and links local communities. Home-based portals like Korea's Daum portal, for example (a local version of Google or Yahoo), attracts 450m page impressions [per month] and is a world leader in pages per user and session time.

Daum is able to earn money because it holds a captive market that is Korean, and does not risk "diluting" its content from outside sources.

The Korean websites also keep it local by offering a wide range of services - everything from dating to chatting and gaming - which prevents users from using overseas sites like Google.

In SA, more home-grown Web portals like 24.com will attract a greater number of users to the Internet.

Secondly, a vast investment in SA's urban IT infrastructure is required. Korea's Internet resembles one gigantic Intranet (or local area network), where most users access only local sites.

It is also crucial that SA develops an Internet culture similar to Korea's, which has more than 26 000 Internet cafés and a lively gaming industry (65% of visitors to Internet cafés are gamers).

Almost half - 43% - of South Korea's population have blogs, and almost every Korean twentysomething uses a social network on a daily basis. It's an Internet culture that is inculcated at school, at home and at business level.

And it isn't limited to business and education. Housewives generate 45% of domestic traffic doing shopping, buying and selling shares, taking classes and just surfing. Online banking, and the adoption of other forms of technology, are well ahead of those in SA.

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Colosseum Story in The Times