Happy Birthday Tata Madiba from Represent
Tata Madiba…. Represent loves you…. We’d like to take this moment to extend a heartfelt and proudly African Happy Birthday to our hero Dr. Nelson Rolihlanhla Mandela. May your life continue to be blessed and may your wisdom live on to always be our guide. Words cannot express how much we love and thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to free our country from our past and set us on the road to a promising future. We will continue to be inspired by you and to do whatever we can to promote the virtues of love, understanding and diversity as you taught us. We will not be discouraged nor distracted for we know that our hearts are good and our intent meaningful and that we have the power to continue to make a difference in our society, just like you. Thank you for your love. HAPPY BDAY! Viva Madiba Viva! Thanks to Kelly for sharing her special photo of Tata Madiba with...
Digital solution for Zim Crisis: Mukuru.com
Interesting… an sms/cell phone service has been set up by enterprising Zimbabweans and South African’s in London that enables UK based Zimbabweans and South Africans to easily help their cash-strapped friends and family at home. It’s a voucher-based system – cash is paid over in the UK for a specific service like petrol or fuel at a garage, friends and family are sent an sms voucher to redeem the goods. So in other words, you can buy petrol for your family in Southern Africa in pounds and all they have to do is show the voucher at the garage and fill up with petrol. Author CK Prahalad talks about exactly this kind of notion, how creative digital solutions can help the developing world, specifically in reducing poverty. It’s a great concept – well done guys. Let’s not get bogged down but look for solutions instead. See Makuru here. BBC Africa has more here: Text messages from abroad have never been received so eagerly by cash-strapped Zimbabweans. The “beep beep” signals an end to hours spent queuing at petrol stations. “Hey… you have been sent a Mukuru Voucher for 40 litres of Petrol from…” reads the message. A voucher number follows which allows the recipient to swap the pin number for coupons redeemable at certain garages. This is all the handiwork of Mukuru.com – a website set up by Zimbabweans in the UK to help their fellow countrymen in the diaspora pay for petrol, satellite TV or transfer money to their friends and relatives at home. It properly got off the ground last year, and its customers are steadily growing as news of it spreads. [Click here for rest of BBC Africa article]...
More Representer’s LURVE our city of Jozi
The words just keep on flying in….there’s More and More love for Jozi. Wow – what a response. You made our day, week, our May… We’ve been showered with shimmering, glimmering, dripping words of love today – All in response to our unimportant little call for Representer’s to remind us all just why we LOVE JOBURG. You have renewed our spirit – we really needed some love so thanks. Look forward to some of our inspiring and amazing new citizen journalists on Represent… we can’t wait. Here’s a taste – we just had to share some of the words with you. SHARPILE!. (If anyone else feels like waxing lyrically, email editor@represent.co.za or write in the comments section.): Yrhiness How can I not and I bet you your R20 Gucci shades from Smal street you do too. I’ve been to China and Nigeria and back to the 1970’s to further 2010 by just taking R6 Zola budd taxi through Jozi. I came in the city naive and after a couple of back door clothing discount offers and a few card games I haven’t ’til date received any greater wisdom. Everytime I put my index finger in the air I surrender myself to the great adventure that awaits me intertwined with the culture massive that beholds this story filled city. Why I love Jozi? Do you have forever for me, to tell my love for Jozi to you? Preya I can’t say there is anything physically appealing to me about Joburg, but it’s got a pulse and soul that I just love. It is great to see how different cultures merge into sub cultures in Joburg. In just one day I can cross paths with a real McCoy Rastafarian to a koogirl all togged up in her designer wear to the up and coming business ladies who are hanging out at poetry sessions in Jozi’s Newtown precinct. “Joburgers” give this city a dynamic energy. The fast paced “Joburgers” are constantly on the move, whether they are going to work or the gym, eating out, partying till late, attending shows and the exhibitions and just moving along with the beating rhythm of Joburg. The diverse background of the “Joburgers” gives this vibrant city a culture like no other city. Leanne Jozi, JHB, Joeys, Jo’Burg, Johannesburg, Egoli, The City of Gold. This is why I love Jozi, with its multiplicity of names it also carries a multiplicity of faces. Jozi can be anything you want her to be making it easy for any person to find their niche on her busy streets and bustling sidewalks. It’s the juxtapositions of ‘walkie talkies’ available on...
View from a Watchers Point of View
Every now and then we like to scan some international newspapers to check out what they’re saying about either Johannesburg or South Africa. Often their reporters have an “outsiders POV” – so to speak- and are able to write about situations with less emotional attachment than us local journo’s. Simply put, they often tell it how it is with little or no homegrown bias, hidden agenda’s nor editorial policy at play – it’s interesting to compare. So today we’re sharing some of their stories with you… under the international buzzwords JOHANNESBURG, 2010 and CAPE TOWN. We search Reuters, the New York Times and the Times UK. JOHANNESBURG Reuters is a good place to start. Reuters is like the mothership of journalism, their writers and photographers are spread throughout the world, all sending their words or images back to the central planet for distribution to outlying stars. Their local correspondent Rebecca Harrison recently wrote a feature entitled: “Witness: Pizza and machetes: living with crime in Johannesburg” which shed’s light on the day to day motions of living in Jozi. You know how the perceptions go… I say Jozi you say crime… Jozi…?… Read more here. “One break-in, one stolen car, one gate ripped from its hinges, an attack for a slice of pizza and two men ambling through the garden with axes: do you stay until you’re killed for a cell phone? I have lived in Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital, for about 2-1/2 years and have been a victim of six different crimes. Thankfully, none was violent. But after the latest break-in at my house in broad daylight, I am starting to wonder what will happen next. Crime in South Africa is haphazard. Some people, even those who have lived here a long time, have never directly experienced any crime at all. But plenty of others I know have suffered badly, including one who was shot in the arm and another who was tied up and locked in the trunk of her car while burglars looted her apartment. These incidents pale in comparison to the murders that fill the newspapers: five small children killed and piled up in a bath of soapy water, or three women beaten, stuffed into washing machines filled with chemicals then strangled with ropes. “ ************************* 2010 The muchos respected New York Times (hope you all read the fantastic NYT supplement free every Sunday in the Sunday Times Lifestyle section) talks about 2010 with the headline “South Africa vs. Itself, in Race to Get Ready for World Cup” (you may need to subscribe to read this story). The article is written by Joao Silva and was published on the 22 April. Read full story here. “A giant...
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