Digital Citizen Indaba

It's cold in Grahamstown, and I am still recovering from smoke inhalation and one whiskey too many.

Last night I met delegates and speakers in the legedary watering holes (like The Rat) dotted around Rhodes University campus. I also met a Dutch woman (I'll remember her name in a minute) who represents one of the sponsors of the conference.

Many of the delegates are bloggers - people who actively write and update their web logs on a daily basis.

We're here to talk about New Media, and blogging is just one of the topics under discussion. It's been interesting listening to the articulate opinions going round. I also heard a new term last night: Splog. It's a Spam Blog (filled with pieces of everyone elses blogs!)

Another interesting person I've met is the writer of a blog called Mushy Peas on Toast (http://mushypeasontoast.blogspot.com/), an award winning blog by its mysteriously invisible writer.
If you visit her in bloggerspace, be sure to wish her a happy birthday.

I hadn't even heard of Mushy Peas until arriving in Grahamstown, and there has been an almost celebrity vibe surrounding her. She's asked us not to reveal too many personal details - she's given her name - but I'm not sure if I can repeat it here. Have a look at her blog to see what all the fuss is about.

Meanwhile, I am attending the first of two days at the Media Africa Matrix, and will report on what is interesting.

I've also asked Mushy Peas, over breakfast, for an interview, so watch this space.

Memory Loss and Near Death

On Monday night I was about to pedal towards a green traffic light when a truck barrelled in front of me - missing me by the width of the wind slipstreaming alongside it.

Also discovered in PE, that the R350 memory I bought at Kloppers had picked up pouch climbing, because it found a way out of my camera pouch. Will be in Grahamstown from now on and might be quiet for a bit.

Mixed messages

go!

Hi Nick

Could you please send me an invoice for your story? We'll pay R2500 (for words and pictures all in). Please send us your banking details as well as ID No. and address.

Many thanks,
Andrea


Andrea Weiss
Deputy Editor: Weg/go!
Tel (021) 4171155
Cell No 0829205993

YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE

SHAPE

Thanks, I managed to open it. Please let me know if you have a positive response regarding any “snapshots” taken.
I have e-mailed the website and am awaiting response from them. We are going to print early next week, so we are pressed for time, unfortunately if we don’t have pictures for this article by next Monday we wont be able to use it. Please let me know how things progress.
warm regards

STEPHEN WOLF . DESIGNER & PICTURE EDITOR. SHAPE MAGAZINE . SOUTH AFRICA .(021) 4083914

Hi Nick,
No, I've just received pictures. Plse can you send the text.
Thnks
SONYA NAUDE
EDITOR, LONGEVITY MAGAZINE

Tel: 011 280 5418/35
Fax: 011 280 3860
Mobile: 082 377 1219
Email: naudes@johncom.co.za

LONGEVITY - THE POWER OF HEALTHY LIVING!


Quintiles:

Howzit Melda
Caroline called me this morning at about 9am asking me to come for a secondassessment. Unfortunately I had to catch a flight to PE (departing10:50am) so was unable to make it.I will be here until the weekend, so would appreciate an opportunity to dothe assessment next week. It's important for me to pursue this opportunityso I hope you can make an exception for me.

Thanks
Nick

No problem, we'll slot you in when you come back.

Regards
Melda

DCI

Dear Delegates,
As the countdown to the DCI begins, we have a couple of important announcements to share with you.

Firstly, Rhodes University abides by The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communications-Related Information Act (RICA) which in our case means that they won’t issue any anonymous Internet logins. The agreement we have come to is that each delegate will receive a temporary account to access the University WiFi network and computer labs on the condition that an End-User License Agreement is signed and a copy of your ID book or Passport is presented at the registration desk. It would therefore be greatly appreciated if you would come prepared with the later in order to speed up the registration process.

A map and details of where and when registration will take place have been placed on the DCI homepage (http://dci.ru.ac.za). In addition to receiving your conference badge and Internet login, you will also be able to sign-up for Friday’s workshops and participate in one of the exciting ‘Speed Speaking’ sessions taking place after lunch.

We have setup a conference Wiki (http://dci.ru.ac.za/wiki) where speakers will post their notes and resources and a summary of each panel for anybody who wanted to attend but couldn’t make it. There is also a conference Blog (http://dci.ru.ac.za/blog) which will hopefully capture the DCI in true blogger fashion.

I wish those of you who will be travelling in the next couple of days a safe trip and we look forward to meeting you in Grahamstown later in the week.

Sincerely, Colin Daniels

DCI Coordinator

Image courtesy topleftpixel.com

"I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream "

- Vincent van Gogh

Feeling Switchy

Number portability kicks in next Monday

Tired of your cellular network operator? On September 18, all subscribers will have the option of changing networks, whilst maintaining the use of their original cell phone numbers. The UK have enjoyed this privilege since 1999.

Studies have indicated that about 20% of subscribers would like to switch networks, but only about half that number will go through the rigmarole. It is likely to be a one-off fee of R75, but it’s not necessarily going to be cheaper to change networks.
Here’s why:

It’s important to remember that if you change networks, and your number remains the same, other callers thinking they are calling network to network (intranetwork) actually are not.

The real value of number portability is by consolidating groups onto the same networks. This means that a family (or business) who was originally on a number of different networks can agree to join the same network. There will be real cost savings involved here if most calls are done between the members of this group.

Number portability is likely to benefit the smaller networks (such as Virgin Mobile/Cell C, and MTN). Vodacom, with the largest subscriber base, is likely to lose relatively more subscribers than other networks.

One Crazy Canadian

About a year ago I was on my bike and my companion (also on a bike) casually suggested cycling across Canada. Having done 3 1000km cycle tours in South Africa, I thought my friend (who hadn't cycled more than 100km at a time) was naive, to say the least. Today, after 3 months of virtual silence, I heard from him again:

I* have safely completed a coast-to-coast bicycle ride from Victoria B.C. to St-John's N.L. The complete distance was 8929km, and that included the Gaspe Peninsula the (very hilly) Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia,and the complete island of Newfoundland.

I lost 17lbs, with some of that gut going down to my legs ;-)
It took me about 79 days(including 20-25 days off) to complete.
I wore through 3 tires, 1 rim, 1 seat post, 5 flat tires, 2 pair of gloves, a pair of shorts, 3 chains, and many layers of skin from my butt!!

I feel great with no serious side effects from the ride, sore knees being the worst thing. I met some fantastic people along the way, giving me a new and rejuvenated feeling about Canada and Canadians.

I cannot thank my family and friends who helped me and friends who showed interest before, during and after the trip.

*David Glashan - I met David in South Korea and did a couple of wintry cycles along the cement paths that snake along the massive Han River through Seoul.

Excerpt out of Sons and Lovers

Lawrence begins by sketching his own description of the universe that surrounds us all. He describes our human will as great horizontals; unfolding fields of land and sky, while the soul is depicted as arches, repeating as life after life leaps across the horizontal space. And then the divine: a vertical, perpendicular space governing the space below. It is in these broad dimensions that he places Paul and Miriam.

Paul had compared himself to a Norman church and Miriam to a Gothic cathedral. By doing this he communicates how convoluted (sometimes even ugly) Miriam is to him, but also flatters her that she might find ecstasy (with her fingertips reaching into the heavens like a steeple). Paul meanwhile identifies with the dogged, struggling, repetitive attempts of the Norman arches to reach something, to persist in his desire-filled fumbling even without a clear strategy or direction. It is perhaps a strange pair of ideas to suggest, but given Miriam’s religious mindset, perhaps Paul has made a desperate effort to reach her in terms that he feels she will best understand.

Lawrence creates his intended effects by adding details to the ‘sweeping shore of sand’. It was warm and sandy, and soon, dark and still. The sea is also a soothing presence: foam hisses softly and water whispers. Now Lawrence uses light and shadow to create perspective and depth: the moon rises over land and sea (once again a trinity is expressed). This moon is orange, and enormous. The moon represents Paul’s passionate soul: when his blood bursts into flame the moon’s appearance does too.

Juxtaposed beside this theorizing is the reality of two young people walking on a balmy evening on the sand beside a beach. He feels a flame inside of him, but her face is dark and brooding. Despite the fire inside of him, he cannot make a light in her. He feels impotent when facing her impenetrable piety. He feels humiliated and ashamed, and finds feelings of hatred and dislike rising inside himself for her. His feelings of love and lust transform quickly into shame and fear. Her fear resonates in him making him feel hesitant and unnatural. It is interesting to see how powerful emotions can be so easily colored into their opposites.

Now, contrasted against this pleasant and sensual environment, is Paul’s humiliation, like death. Paul is natural and free, and sensitive, but also filled with the passionate lust of a young man. It is not necessarily immoral – it is a natural need to engage one’s desires, and Miriam’s thinking and analysis are the killers of his romantic impulses. He wants a practical physical experience with Miriam, but her religious dogmatism makes this impossible. For her intimacy is in the abstract understanding and communication of it, which, understandably, constantly frustrates and interrupts Paul’s desire and physical momentum.


The moon, suspended over this picture, first waxes, then wanes. It appears enormous and orange initially, but one imagines by the end it has become silver and small. The moon that draws the tides, demonstrates the immense forces at work in Paul, and first making his waters roar and then crawl quietly ashore in shame.

Paul, who is natural, free and impassioned, finds himself stuck in Miriam’s fear and hesitation. The darkness Paul sees in her embodies his confusion. She wants a theoretical knowledge of the world – she wants to look at the world, not touch it. Paul wants the full experience. This conflict, this stalemate, is a source of profound pain for Paul.

There is the sight of the land, dark and still, and the sound of the sea, whispering. While they walk on their path, the shape shifting moon hovers over them. Their path takes them on their road through the universe towards a yellow light in a cottage. It a place where Paul hopes to find comfort, a home for his heart. But in a moment the light of the moon has changed, and the house on the hillside is no longer a home.

Kunstler: Glandular Energies

Sept 11, 2006 This was the day five years ago that war began between the US and Jihad, an unincorporated combine of Islamic nations, gangs, sects and tribes united in a campaign to harm, disable, defeat, and exterminate "infidel" Christians and Jews. There are various explanations for why this started. I have my own.

It's essentially an ecological crisis, conveniently pegged on an old religious beef. The population of many Islamic nations, fed by oil wealth, has reached critical overshoot. In particular, there are too many young men with no positions, no incomes, no prospects, and no hopes. Their glandular energies have been enlisted to act out the righting of real and imagined grievances against their"infidel" enemies. Their actions range from the sheer sadistic thuggery of small gangs to the strategic geopolitical maneuvers of major nation states.

We will be fighting with them for as far ahead as anyone can see, because our society can't function without their leading (in some cases only) resource, oil, and we are used to getting regular supplies from them. To aggravate things, the world is in a peculiar situation with this resource. The shorthand phrase for it is "peak oil."

Peak oil means that the oil-producing nations have reached their all-time maximum output and now face a certain relentless decrease in this resource and the wealth derived from it. This is especially problematical in a global economy based on steady incremental growth. Peak oil promises only incremental contraction in everything from industrial activity to available food. The people of the world will fight over what's left and they will divide into teams to do this. Right now, two teams facing off in the arena are the US and Jihad. Perhaps a few years from now Team China, Team Russia, Team Europe, and Team Japan will jump into the contest. Anything can happen now. Peak oil has the capacity to drive the world crazy. It is certainly driving the US crazy. Last week, Chevron announced the discovery of a major oil "play" in the Gulf of Mexico, a collection of deep-water fields code-named "Jack." The announcement was uniformly greeted by the news media with headlines that said, in effect, ENERGY PROBLEM SOLVED.

There are reasons to be unpersuaded. Chevron's "Jack" has been estimated to contain as little as 300 million barrels and as much as 15 billion barrels of oil. Nobody really knows yet. It will be years before we find out. During those years, production from the other oil fields of the world will decline by an amount that will cancel out any purported gain from even the best estimates of "Jack." The world uses about 30 billion barrels of oil a year. The US alone uses about 7 billion.

The oil from "Jack" will be expensive and difficult to produce. It is more than a mile underwater and another four miles under the rock under the water. It will require a lot of pipe and a lot of pressure to move that oil up, and the seabed in these deep-water operations is too far down for pipelines, so the oil will have to go directly into tankers. If oil's future is in deep-water, then its future is expensive and precarious.

It was interesting to see the price of oil on the futures market plummet down into the mid $60 range last week. I take two conclusions from that. One is that the psychological stress of peak oil has increased the emotional dimension of the trade to a dangerous degree, i.e. driven the traders crazy. The intense wish to solve the energy problem has momentarily overcome the reality of it not being solved. The second is that the US economy may be in greater trouble than the news media realizes, especially the economic "engines" of "home" building, real estate sales, and the associated mortgage rackets, with their spin-offs in the financial markets. There may be a hell of a lot fewer 18-wheelers shlepping chipboard and sheetrock around the nation this fall, fewer family trips to the WalMart, fewer Di-tech Mortgage customers dredged out of the sub-prime muck, and fewer bundles of interest-only ARMS passed through to the hedge funds.

Thus we would have a profile of exactly what oil geologist Colin Campbell and other peak oil opinion leaders have predicted: roller-coaster-style economic activity pegged to up-ratcheting oil prices, with increasingly deep economic troughs and ever higher oil price peaks. In short, massive economic instability.

Meanwhile, in the deep background of all this looms Jihad. We will have to be resolute in the face of Jihad and much more adaptable at home. So far, on the home front we have done nothing but defend and rationalize a stupid mode of existence -- suburbia -- and an insane economy based on building more of it -- the housing bubble. We have no leadership in politics, business, science, news media, or education informing the public that we have to make other arrangements for daily life -- not ten years from now, but right away.

Five years after 9/11/2001, the "progressives" want to wish away Jihad and the "conservatives" want to wish away the need to change daily life in America. Real political leadership, if it emerges at all, will have to come from some place off the normal political scale.

5 Year Plan

This looks like JM Marie exiting the Water Matrix, and entering our world.

While invigilating I came up with this:

2006 (October):

Write: Philippines story, paper on Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
Coaching (assistant to Simon Gray)
Proathlete - spending most time training to win local cycle races, and gradual preparation for Ironman next year
Also work for local student paper (Irawa) and continue to submit material to the bigger publications.
More focus on newspapers like The Star

November/December - Mozambique/Swaziland/learning to surf JBay

2007: Argus, Ironman (serious attempt to qualify for World Champs), Comrades, World Champs in Hawaii
From Hawaii to Alaska/Amazon
Study Masters in English
Teaching English at university/some coaching

End of 2007-2008: Japan/Taiwan - teaching (to recoup dollars spent in Hawaii)
Olympics

2009: Work on non fiction Energy book: HIGH AND DRY and begin work on fictional version: THE CASTLE (Study Honors in English - Journalism)

2010: Soccer world cup - work as tour guide? Surfing?

2011 and beyond: marriage, start an energy farm (something like in Star Wars), sell bike to pay for trip-into-outer-space. Hang on, what will I really do in 2011?

Coup

I managed to survive 3 days in prison. I managed this partially by breaking out twice, both times for a cycle - oh, and I also went to Euro Cafe to soak my brain in a small cold glass of J&B.

My relationship with the students seems to be improving. Possibly because - with the end in sight - I've become a lot more lighthearted and jokey.

Today I heard that I won't have to mark BE exam papers. Consideration because I am going to a conference for a week, or lack of trust? Who knows? I do know the computer course which was touted as ADVANCED was just a roadtrip through the internet and MSWord, so it would probably have been pretty dull. Glad I unintentionally missed that.

As I said I got two excellent training rides in over the weekend. Just like last term, in exam time, I find myself fighting off some kind of infection. Just need a good night's sleep tonight, and I think a week at the sea and being observant (in new surrounds) should stave off the bug attack. I think I am in dire need of a bunch of fruits and vegetables. (Over the weekend I ate a pile of chips and downed a few litres of soda pop - not good. My boep now weighs about as much as a bowling ball.

Cycled 63km on Friday and 82km yesterday. Since I had to squeeze both workouts in I'm quite happy I went as far as I did. I trained a total of just under 8 hours last week, which averages to just over an hour a day. Want to build - from here - on these totals.

Shape has been calling and emailing for pictures (which I don't have) of Eco Primal Quest. The actual competitors doesn't know what high rez means, and the website photos are apparently unusable. Wonder whether this will be sorted out by the end of the week.

I'm looking forward to being airborne again, and even more, being covered in the hiss of seawater.

Image above is Jean Marie Neethling

Above: These are the guys I cycle with on Sundays. Jacques Greef, in front, is one of the Free State's top riders. He sometimes also cycles with a Spinergy in front (as I do), but didn't today. I took this photo on my way back from Clocolan early Sunday, then raced home to change and joined them on the climb up Lucas Steyn Road, through Heuwilsig.

The Lore of Swimming

Get into the swim of things

Summer’s coming, and by the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’re going to want to swim in a pool. There, I’ve warned you.

I know what you’re thinking. Swimming is a bit of a misnomer, right? In fact, swimming is as natural for us as it is for otters. We start life as sparks swimming in a see-through soup. And in this amniotic soup we grow and multiply until we burst into the world covered in bloody slime. Then we slurp up some white liquid. Meanwhile our bodies are 70% water and waitaminute, the body of our planet is 70% water too. What’s with that?

If you’re still not convinced, let’s go into the folklore. Let’s look at the terms we use: Sink or swim. ‘Swim’ is an epithet for living.
Going against the flow. ‘Flow’ is the flow of life, the forces of nature.
The Ocean of truth. The ocean symbolizes the immensity of subconscious, and that we can swim in it, and that it can swim through us.
Born again. This implies, well, when you think about it literally at any rate, that we are re-liquidised into amniotic fluid and birthed back into the world, simple and fresh, shining and new.
Fishers of men. This implies that men must be ‘fished out’ the ocean of their truth.
Drowning in work. This is a negative epithet, but we’re only drowning if we haven’t mastered the skills to stay afloat, to surf the waves.
Surfing the internet. It implies an effortless motion along the leading edge of information (and technology), driven by the rising tides and truths of the ocean-universe.
Walking on water. The implication that one has achieved mastery over all things.
People are also capable of the following:
Making waves. Gushing. Storming off. Wet kisses.

We notice that something is:
A drop in the ocean.
Or someone is:
Wet behind the ears
Or something has:
A ripple effect.

This is because life is fluid. DH Lawrence captures the essence of this by writing about the fluid relationships that we see in life. Some of it washes and mixes, and some of it spreads over dry sand and dries.

The psychology in swimming training is powerful for our era. There is plenty of monotony in the sterile bathroom environment. We can easily be dazzled death by the bouncing arrays swining and swooping around us. There is the crash of arms in the water. If our motion is unconscious, and for every single wingbeat, every kick done in ignorance, we catch our wingtips and our toes on a sharp triangular edge of water. It slows us down, it wears us down. But if we’re conscious of our technique, aware of the angle of our elbows, the entry of our fingers, the pull of the wrist, and feel of the water, we begin to move effortlessly and powerfully. We can feel the pressure of the water over skin – a signal that we are moving fast through the water.

In the process of doing endless sets, the body yearns to be dry and warm. And yet the dedicated swimmer completes each session, endures each session with all its discomforts, and emerges, through grit and discipline and determination, when the job is done. The swimmer doesn’t react to each impulse to escape his discomfort, his loneliness, his cold environment. And herein lies the secret: the swimmer has an incredible workethic, and tends to outlast all those around him because he knows how to do the work, and knows he can simply work harder and longer and those around him. Outwork, outlast.

And after all this time in the water, the subtleties emerge. The flow through the water is perfected. The body grows lighter and the skin tighter. The body is able to whip quickly through the silver. Sometimes there are flashes of flying, or bright skies filling the eyes, crashing childhood recollections suddenly into place. In the end, the water carves the body: Softly making it hard, quietly making it tough, and brown and strong.

The breathing is primeval. The movements might be from a dream, or inklings from time in utero. The light and arms and waves and water come together to produce a music of motion. Practise makes the crashing cacophony into music and much later, after hundreds of hours, after the hundred cold shower, the body moves as a symphony of light through a silver sea.

The Lore of Swimming, in the end then, is about having the resilience and temperance of steel. To swim means to thrive in the clear sparkling waters that crawl and dance under the sun.

Rush hour in Clocolan.

de TERMINATION

There is magic in the water, and that's where I need to be. I've been kicking through the dusty desert for far too long. Well never mind, on the 4th I received a beige brown envelope and in it a short message on the Brebner letterhead. Just an officious statement to say that work (pay really) won't continue beyond this month. Reaction? Ambivalence.

That has turned to relief and even flights of happiness.
Today I was thinking about flying to the Amazon and staying in a camp with Natalie Seddon (a doctor of Zoology who studied at Cambridge). What better place to experience the fullness of life. Do I dare to provide the other half of that sentence. In our TUT today, on Waiting for the Barbarians we discussed the real possibility of the ending of the Empire. It's imminent, and it;s likely to be associated with a holocaust. Each day that it does not happen is a day to be treasured. And I wonder whether it is not the best place to be spending these days in forests teeming with soon to be extinguished life. To see the sky filled with parrots, the soil thick with leaves and worms and monkeys and snakes.

I'll be moving out of my slot in the Circus that is Brebner hostel by the end of this month. My training will go up a gear, and I will be able to dedicate myself to my studies and more particularly to my writing. I have 2 immediate job offers, one from a Chinese school and one from Quintiles. I would really prefer to be a free agent for all of October, but then I suspect that might be the beginning of a long jobless summer.

Learn to surf in Bali, or Jeffrey's Bay and write about it.? Go on a tour of Swaziland (somewhere I have never been), or Mozambique, or Kozi Bay, or some desert backwater.

I have piles of tests and projects to mark, and the deadline is much earlier this term. I've also been told today that my name was not copied from a handwritten list to a typed shortlist for advanced users (I am probably the most advanced person at the school in terms of computer literacy). But never mind.

After this weekend I will be flying from one coast of the country to another and it will all be behind me. Now to embrace what is right here, before me.

A braai on Saturday night and delirium in between.

A trip down 7de Laan

Why is this soapie so popular?
by Nick van der Leek

Soapies, as part of modern media culture, are very popular. So what are the ingredients of the more popular soapies? The answer lies in the ideology behind these soapies, and the degree to which they reflect or cathect with the modern (and often beleaguered) television audience.

7de Laan is the most popular soapie in South Africa. Interestingly it is nothing like the dozen or so soapies out there that explore contemporary themes such as good versus evil (Generations), or tackling relevant social issues (Backstage). These soapies are about conflict and drama. 7de Laan presents a utopian community, a coffe shop scenario that unfolds with a fairy tale quality which appears to meet a very specific need in audiences: the need to escape, but it is beyond mere escapism. It is a pleasant mixture of feel-good entertainment and light-fantasy. 7de Laan works because TV audiences want a break from bad news and heavy melodrama. The modern audience it seems (certainly in South Africa) want positive and lighthearted escapism.

In 7de Laan the assumption is that people drink a lot of coffee, and seem to spend most of their lives in coffee shops! 7de Laan presents a utopian South African scenario, where all races seem to seamlessly merge with one another, and the more pertinent questions are not race based, but centre around the forces of attraction and family relationships between the characters.

Another assumption is that someone who is blind can easily regain their sight. A blind blonde girl and a sensitive sweet man with a scarred face form a distinct dyad in 7de Laan. The people who seem most likely to win a contest do, although a little intrigue is thrown in to keep things interesting. There is also an assumption that internet dating is okay, a perfectly reasonably way to meet people. Finally, the maid in a household of some particularly old and peculiar people seems perfectly happy working where she does, and they have a relationship that seems like ‘couple and familiar guest’, not ‘employers and employee’.

The assumption that blindness can easily be cured brings about a ‘wish fulfillment scenario’ which may capture the interest of people who might be unhappy with their reality. This obscures the obvious reality that a) the person she can’t see has a terrible scar across his face and b) this person finds her (the blind girl) attractive even though she is married. There is also the distortion that racism in South Africa does not exist.

The power relations are quite subtle in 7de Laan (unlike many other soapies). The owner of the coffee shop has more power than most, and to an extent, the husband of the blind blonde woman (Dezi) also has power (over her, preventing her from doing what she, perhaps, wishes to do), but this appears to be a limiting, frustrating kind of power, almost an oppressive power. Negative aspects that are excluded have been referred to above: the atmosphere in each episode presents an absolute absence of racism. All races seem to get along perfectly, and other issues (jealousy, love, insecurity, desire to win something, desperation) take centre stage.

The blind Dezi and her guitar playing friend (played by Chris Chameleon) puts the blind girl in a privileged position (based on her beauty) and the guitarist lurks around in the shadows (as a sort of beast).

The poor (as a group) are ignored, and there is very little serious stuff to disturb the utopian mindset. Aids is not mentioned (as it is in Backstage), and racism is virtually non-existent. Also, serious infidelity (adultery) is hinted at but rarely plays out. This is possibly because the audience of 7de Laan is a conservative Afrikaans one with fairly high moral values.

Interestingly, it is not only the Afrikaans segment that appears to enjoy 7de Laan. African High School students (ages 14-16) when quizzed demonstrated high levels of interest and enthusiasm, predictably for Generations (63 votes) and Isidingo (46 votes), but a large proportion were very enthusiastic about 7de Laan (41 votes). The Lab and American soapies reported far lower levels of interest, which goes to show the power and impact of socially relevant (or essentially cathartic) TV content.

It’s also interesting to note that while 7de Laan is a sort of melting pot of coffee slurpers, the Asians are completely left out of this mixed race utopia.

The Dezi-Guitarist binary is a fairy-tale like depiction that elicits mythical themes out of Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast. Oubaas and Hilda also present an almost idealized pair of ‘grandparents’. Their precious epithets (especially from Oubaas) are a type of sentimental crooning that is somehow sweet and disarming (rather than cheesy or saccharine).The coffee shop is also a very mythical place. Everything seems to happen there, people arrange to meet there and there seems to be only one restaurant and 1 coffee shop in 7de Laan land. There are also no real interlopers – strangers passing through as we encounter in real life.

The style of 7de Laan is very homey and safe. The context of a coffee shop also presents a harmless environment for a utopian scenario to be set out. Much of what happens is not earth shattering. Dezi recovering her sight is not a significant or socially relevant moral challenge. Much of the style supports this feel-good formula, and the content often focuses on food, and indulgence, and wish fulfillment (there always seem to be competitions). The folksy gatherings and performances by musicians also enhance the theme styled around safety and community.

The kernel at the heart of 7de Laan appears to be this: that somewhere in South Africa there is a street where everyone, no matter what their disability or skin color or station in life, has their place in the sun, everyone gets along most of the time, and everyone gets to live happily ever after – well, happily until the next hiccup emerges in the next soapie which again, is resolved without unsettling utopia.

7de Laan’s value lies in the safe place it provides (in TV land) for audiences to go to get away from the patently unsafe and frankly hostile place that urban and rural South Africa is. So we see that 7de Laan’s simple and hopeful optimism presents an ideal to which South Africans can aspire towards. This is a subtle influence, but a powerful and invaluable stimulus to a population that evidently needs it.

Her arm flashed, her shoulders in a pool of liquid silver - DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers

World Oil Woes Over?

Chevron hits the jackpot in the Gulf of Mexico
by Nick van der Leek

At record depths and pressures, a consortium led by Chevron successfully struck oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The well exploded with 6000 barrels of crude a day.

That's a hit which is on par with what the guys are hitting off the Angolan coast.

Meanwhile it has recently been announced that vehicle sales in South Africa hit a new record of 60 000 per month. I wrote a magazine article about a year ago indicating that South Africa's monthly volumes were then at 30 000 (and said that this national figure matched the car production for one Chinese city.*)

This means that in South Africa alone, we're seeing the number of cars flooding our roadways and city arteries doubling year on year. Countries like India and China are experiencing similar growth. Is one 6000 barrel per day well going to save us, when the world consumes more than 84 million bpd and accelerating fast?

Meanwhile Tropical Storm Florence has flowered in the warm waters of the Atlantic, thankfully hundreds of kilometres from land.Investors and citizens all over the planet have congratulated themselves over the news in the Gulf, and forecaster have also confidently predicted a 'calmer' storm season** for this year.

Like my friend Jim Kunstler, I predict we'll see rough weather in the financial markets stirring up trouble as South Africa enters the height of their summer driving season, and America advances beyond the Labor Day weekend*** into unknown weather, and further turbulence.


*Beijing - China's biggest city.
** "Slighty below average, with just 6 hurricanes."
*** See www.kunstler.com for James H. Kunstler's daily observations pertaining to all things oil (and geopolitically relevant).