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05/16/2006
Back in the hotseat
Just completed an incredible month long trip to Asia - what a place! The sheer scale and scope of what is happening on that side of the globe is truly awe-inspiring. People, places, machinery, technology, focus, ambition, education, all very fitting adjectives for describing what I saw and literally felt while I made my way from meeting to meeting. Although I have made numerous trips there before, this time made a much greater impression on me for some reason. I guess when you are in SA there is a tendency to get a bit sucked in by what is happening around you and lose a bit of perspective of the bigger picture.
I see the usual suspects are still very much in play – the ANCYL calling people Lucifer (are we in the 16th Century?), Jay-Z was found not guilty and sung his Machine Gun song (the man is obsessed with phallic symbols) and of course the Prez. meditated over it all with his “Native Club” (sign me up!).
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t join the Native Club”
PS : the "Proudly South African" post was a work in progress from awhile back that slipped through the publishing software, will rework it and get it back up soon.
14:40 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: South Africa
Comments
I have travelled to China a few times and read as much as I can about their economy, culture etc. As a continent, Africa is embarrasingly far behind the developed world to the point they may never catch up or at the very least it will take a very long time, certainly not in the next 50 years, and therefore not in my lifetime.
The difficulties faced by China in hauling their population up to the "developed" status of the "west" is almost identical to problems faced by African countries. Unlike Africa though, China is committed and focused on achieving that, both its leadership and the majority of its population desire it. Africa, in my opinion does not have the consolidated drive and desire to achieve this.
Posted by: Dave | 05/16/2006
Exactly!
To me an excellent measure of what a country is like can be seen in their International Airports. The first impression you get at Hong Kong, Seoul or Osaka is efficiency, technology, PROGRESS, you can feel things moving in the right direction.
Contrasting this to Joburg International is like comparing the Olympics to a Primary school's egg and spoon race.
Posted by: someamongus | 05/17/2006
"Primary School egg and spoon race", never a more apt description of the joke that is JHB Int.
Good to have you back SAU!
Posted by: Joe Blo | 05/17/2006
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