Front page of my piece on the Pirelli Calendar for Wanted magazine

My latest freelancing piece was recently published in Business Day’s “Wanted” magazine –  a profile on Mario Sorrenti, this year’s photographer of the infamous Pirelli Calendar. The piece also has a brief exploration of the history of pin-up calendars, which was quite fun to read and write about.

You can download the piece using these links:

• Wanted Contributors Page
• Sorrenti Piece Page One
• Sorrenti Piece Page Two

From the New York Times (I’ve never read the phrase “points up” before, I’m wondering if it’s an American thing.)

Fatal Stampede in South Africa Points Up University Crisis

“We need to change the perception that universities are the only way to go to succeed in life,” Mr. Nzimande said, urging students to apply for diploma programs at technical schools, known as Further Education and Training, or F.E.T. colleges, instead. “At the moment, we are sitting with 50,000 vacancies at F.E.T. colleges with diploma programs students can follow.”

But such diplomas do not get much respect from employers, said Julius Mandlazi, a 22-year-old student who was among those who lined up to try to apply at the University of Johannesburg. He had failed to win admission on his first try and attended a training college to earn a diploma, he said. But he has had little luck finding a good job with that qualification.

By quoting education official Blade Nzimande and a student next to each other, the writer makes a strong point about technical universities in SA, which could provide viable alternatives to high school graduates (the aim of the ANC) if they improved their standards (the desire of the graduates.)

I’ve heard it repeated several times; in interviews, in speeches, in conversation – if South Africa doesn’t sort out its public education system fast, we’re in trouble. Political liberation may have happened 17 years ago, but the empowerment offered by education (whether a diploma, degree or basic training) is what Nelson Mandela described as “the great engine of personal development.” In his authobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, he wrote:

It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are give, that separates one person from another.

These developments have lead to greater media attention and exposure for the startups which hopefully will translate into more seed money for small tech businesses. In 2012, writes the author:

Where we stand now is an order of magnitude beyond what we had just a few short years ago. In 2006 if you stated that you want to be a web or mobile entrepreneur you weren’t taken seriously. Five years later and it’s a legitimate position to take. We now have some successes to point out (think mPedigree, Mxit, PesaPal, Sproxil and Ushahidi etc), which make it a lot easier for the new breed of startups to get started.

This is what we’re aiming for: a playing field that allows more entrepreneurs to startup, get some seed funding and fail fast if necessary. The ones who make it, the ones who get beyond the startup phase and become real companies with cashflow and employees, are why this is being done. This will make some people a lot of money, and it will make millions of others lives a lot better because they have better and more relevant products locally.

Read the full blog post here.

One part of the review that I liked in particular discussed the players behind this growth. Miguel writes:

Radelet also looks beyond government decisions, describing how individual Africans have accelerated these transformations, often at great personal risk. He profiles such visionaries as John Githongo, Kenya’s fearless anticorruption crusader, and Patrick Awuah, a Swarthmore College graduate who left a lucrative career at Microsoft to return to his native Ghana, where he founded Ashesi University, a liberal arts college that aspires to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial African leaders. There is finally enough oxygen in these increasingly free countries for talented Africans to reimagine and rebuild their societies.

I strongly believe that the most inspirational people on the continent are not the politicians nor the powerful, but the entrepreneurs, small businessmen and innovators who prevail against politics and power to enact change.

Democratization is the most important signifier behind the growth, says Radelet. Miguel expands on this, arguing that that the growth of education on the continent is equally as responsible for Africa’s “impressive economic and political recovery.” adding:

“… if education does make societies more democratic, it does not necessarily do so by making people hold more pro-democratic views. Rather, it makes them more politically knowledgeable and more willing to challenge the authorities.”

“Increasingly educated populations, democratic politics, spreading technologies, and improved economic policymaking have combined to create a new Africa that bears little resemblance to the caricature of a “dark continent” that still rears its head in the media.”

Perhaps my favourite part of the article is the related articles that follow it: a 1926 essay titled “The White Man’s Task in Tropical Africa,” a 1970 piece by Guy Hunter called “The New Africa,” and lastly, a 1992 essay by Marguerite Michaels: “Retreat from Africa.” As journalists, aren’t there inherent problems in generalizing across a continent comprising 56 countries, with a population of over 1 billion?

You can read an introduction and brief of the book at the Centre for Global Development.

Front page of the Rights and Regulation booklet

It took a lot of writing, editing and coordinating, but the booklet from the Rights and Regulation conference is finally here! I reported on the event, wrote the content for the booklet, gathered the bios and intros and helped co-ordinate the editing process.

During the conference, which took place at Wits University in Johannesburg on March 9 and 10, several panelists spoke about the responsibilities that come with media freedom and the right to freedom of expression. The line between sensitivity to issues such as privacy and active self-censorship was also debated.

The conference came at an interesting time for South African journalists in particular, considering the current conflict between the media and the country’s ruling party, the ANC, over the role of the press in a democratic society.

Some journalists warned that the choices made in the coming months by government over media freedom, in cases such as the Protection of Information Bill, were likely to influence other African countries.

You can read more about the conference (and the Declaration that sprang out of it) at journalism.co.za and you can download a copy of the report here.

Right now we have almost 230 followers, and we’ve only been around for about a month. I consider it a great source of information about events, media news and story sources – as well as trying to get into touch with people (for some Twitter is the new e-mail). But I’m still struggling to convince a few others about the usefulness of the profile. I never really liked the idea of Twitter when it first came into being, and I do sometimes think it’s a venting platform for people to voice the most inane thoughts, but I think that like most things on the Internet, if you use it judiciously, it has wonderful advantages.

I get a lot of my reading material from the lists I maintain on my personal Twitter site (@jaxbischof) and the lists we have on @Journ_SA help us keep tabs on news from the media industry in Southern Africa. My boss considers it an added burden on him because he has such limited time, but I think that for its news curating value alone it is useful. Following people on particular events, or around particular themes and hashtags is also a fantastic way of keeping up with things. I’m hoping if he (an entrenched news journo with a long history in print and broadcast media) gives it a go he might become hooked…that truly would be an achievement for digital media!

I managed to find a great free design on WordPress (yay for free blogging platforms!) and have had fun filling it with content … not so much chasing down people to submit content! I’m also getting more and more into the potential of Twitter and have started using it more frequently to send out notices and info for jocoza (@Journ_SA) and now for the conference (@PowerReporting). The accounts have different purposes, which makes tweeting interesting. Jocoza’s Twitter feed is more about the latest news and analysis pieces on the site, awards and opportunities and information sharing and gathering, while Power Reporting is obviously tied to the event and the tweets are more really more light in content and fleeting. It changes the way you tweet as well as the general flow of information shared, depending on the goal of the account.

It’s been quite a bit of fun and the next project will be doing something similar for the Wits Justice Project … this will also have a unique twist on it because it is a reporting project with long-term assignments that will need updates. There’s a lot of potential for multimedia in the assignments (audio slideshows, videos etc) and it should be interesting getting that content.

Why aren’t there more hours in the day?!

A surprising tale from the Daily Sun

I had to pick up a copy of the Daily Sun when I saw the headline “Leave our Somalis Alone!” in the June 29 issue. The story describes the ordeal of a few Somali shopkeepers who were harassed by a group of teenagers in the community of Makhaza in the Western Cape. The community has decided to take a stand against xenophobia and after a meeting, ordered the boys to apologise for their poor behaviour and to leave the shopkeepers alone.

The Daily Sun is South Africa’s largest daily newspaper and is aimed at the black working class. A tabloid that sells for R2,30 ($0.30), around 300 000 copies are circulated amongst 2-million readers every day. The paper highlights sensational stories in local communities: Grandmothers argue over boyfriend! Sangoma ordered to return tortoises! Some of the stories are quite bizarre, but they are also interspersed with short stories on missing children, local charities and the efforts – or controversies – of community leaders and politicians.

The story describes the xenophobic attacks as "disappointing"

I found this story particularly interesting because it’s not at all what I would’ve expected from the Daily Sun – and the last time I picked up a copy was in June 2008, so I’m a bit out of date. It highlights a small community’s decidedly anti-xenophobic stance on Page 1, at a time of renewed fear that xenophobic attacks might spike after the World Cup ends. In 2008, violent attacks against foreigners reached a frenetic high when a number of riots, apparently motivated by xenophobia, left 62 people dead. It did appear that some of the attacks were opportunistic, as 21 of those killed were South African citizens.

In 2008, the Daily Sun was criticised for irresponsible reporting during the violence, and for failing to provide neutral coverage of the attacks. The Media Monitoring Project laid a complaint against the paper for its use of the word  “aliens” to describe foreigners. Towards the end of 2008, the Daily Sun published a statement saying it would desist from using the word “aliens” but it did not apologise for the reporting.

The concern is that after the World Cup ends and the number of labour and construction jobs decrease, unemployed South Africans who are desperate for jobs and resources will once again target their frustration at foreigners who are more than willing to take on jobs that are at or below the minimum wage. South Africans fought so hard for the end of apartheid, for the chance to have access to the formal economy and to jobs with fair pay and benefits, that their anger is really at an ineffectual government that has failed to deliver substantially on jobs, housing and basic resources.

Other stories from the day's paper

Having the Daily Sun report on stories that discourage xenophobia is a great thing and will hopefully have an impact on readers. As for the next few months, hopefully we have moved forward since 2008 and will prove fears of attacks to be unfounded, as we have with so many reports of excessive crime and disaster over the last six weeks!

x–x

German Community in Jo’burg Delights in Team’s Performance

Some pics from the day:

German fans celebrate their team's 4-0 win over Argentina

A little boy peeks over a foosball table (the regular man's football pitch during the WC, they're scattered all over malls and centres in Johannesburg) in "The Trailer Park" installation at the Goethe Institute

A faux-seaside setting with pimped out trailers provides an innovative setting for the public to watch the football

Sadly I’ll miss the next major exhibition by the Institute, “X Homes,” which will have 14 international and local artists guiding participants through houses in Kliptown and Hillbrow, exposing them at 8-minute intervals to performances pieces or works of art. The aim of the exhibition is to counter the perception of the area as places of high crime; to expose people to the more positive aspects of the area, such as the four star hotel in Kliptown.

I'm not sure I want to know where those feathers came from ...

Let it never be said that Americans do not take their sports seriously. Even soccer! The fans supporting the U.S. team in Pretoria on June 23 were passionate, intense, involved throughout the game and incredibly excited about the win. Sadly, some were also rude, drunk, fond of cursing and eager to spray beer over the crowd when the U.S. scored a goal in the 91st minute.

It was fantastic to be at the game but I had mixed feelings about the crowd. I’m not a fan of crowds to begin with, and even less of a fan of people using a sporting event as an excuse to get rowdy and forget all the rules of civilized behavior. But this is the World Cup, and of course people are going to get insanely excited during games, so it’s tough to criticize.

Prior to the game I went with an American journo to check out a gathering of U.S. fans at a local restaurant in Pretoria. It was quite early in the afternoon and the crowd was drinking quite a bit and hanging their arms around each other, singing golden-oldies with the lyrics changed for the occasion – as one tends to do before games. However some of the fans seemed to have lost their sense of personal space – I got slightly knocked about in the crowd – and they seemed very fond of inserting expletives into their songs, ruining the effects in my mind!

My friend explained to me that a small portion of the fan base likes to use the matches as an excuse to get a bit out of control, and often support for the U.S. team provides a good reason to express extreme patriotism and national pride in a way that Americans haven’t really been able to in the last ten years overseas. But the majority of the fan base are proud, polite and ardent supporters of the team, while a minority are an American version of British soccer hooligans!

All that being said, U.S. v. Algeria was the only game I attended when I was actually in the crowd, with the fans, so this post could probably apply to almost any team.

I really hope the U.S.  improves its game and advances – and that their nicer fan base is there to support them all the way.

And in other news, happily, another post for The New York Times Goal blog! South Africans Vow to Continue Celebration