* Originally posted here – Thu, 2012-02-23

Pinterest is the latest phenomenon to grab social media addicts. Its steadfast growth in popularity (and subsequently, subscribers) means that it’s currently a greater traffic driver than Google+, according to Mashable.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is the social networking site that allows you to share images that you find online, or users can upload images they capture IRL. It’s similar to bookmarking sites, such as Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon. The one advantage of Pinterest is its community… rather, a better community.

Images uploaded to the site are known as Pins. Users can place these pins on boards that they customise under relevant themes. For instance, some of my themes include photography, travel, fashion and sporting moments amongst others.

People who are following you can ‘re-pin’ your images to their themed boards. The images are linked to related websites and redirects fans to these sites when clicked.

If you’d like to start using Pinterest, I would suggest that you have the minimum amount of boards. Having fewer boards will allow you to focus them on your main areas of interest. The greater the focus, the more likely someone will start following you and share your interests.

What’s cool about Pinterest?

59% of ‘pinners’ are women between the ages of 25 and 40 years. Traffic to the site has increased by 40% in the last six months.

Currently, the leading pins are related to fashion, crafts, photography and architecture. The popular pins have a few things in common; they are all beautiful, unique or useful. Pinners are interested in the visual, and that’s exactly what Pinterest is all about.

But should my company be on Pinterest?

Reasons to use Pinterest

Social media enthusiasts may easily see the value of Pinterest, but if not, here are my reasons why you should use Pinterest:

• Discovery is the new journey: it’s easy to search (read: Google) what you want to know, but these days it’s all about discovery. Pinterest does exactly that; it lets you discover what’s out there.
• It’s all about what you see: Like they say: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
• Amplification: Content is continuously ‘repinned’. Repinning is LIKE a RT.
• Niche markets: Boards allow you to create specific niches that appeal to specific segments. Tailor your boards to appeal to various different cultures, people and age groups.
• It beats Facebook referrals: Pinterest outperforms Facebook. According to Time Inc.’s Real Simple, “Pinterest is a huge source from a referral standpoint, even beating out referrals from Facebook in the month of October (2011),” said Shannon King, GM of digital for Real Simple magazine. “It speaks to the power of engaged audience members. We view it as an important part of our social media strategy.”

Brands that are making Pinterest work for them

Seems like brands are quickly catching on to the phenomenon that is Pinterest. NGOs, Museums and global brands can now be found on Pinterest. Here are some of my favourites:

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – Museums can be dull and boring. Images of humans, aspects of the museum and even coffee get people interested.
• Etsy – Women love Etsy. Vintage and hand-made jewellery. Great images and great way to browse the store.
• General Electric – getting it right again, they have boards dedicated to science such as “bad-ass machines”, “GEInspiredME” – linked to their Instagram campaign in which people share their insta-images, and “the archives” (images showcasing the history of GE).
• Gap – pinning clothes dealing with seasons and holidays. Makes me wish that we could buy these in South Africa.

These are just a few of the many that are out there, but browse away, there is no need to only follow these. Let your mind and fingers drift in any direction.

Who shouldn’t be on Pinterest

It may have sounded like I think every brand should be on Pinterest, but like with every social media platform this needs critical thinking. No, Pinterest is not for everyone and may not work for your brand.

Reasons why it may not work:

• People and brands are not important: Pinterest is all about the image, the pin. Not the person who pinned it and not the board you found it on. The first thing you will see in a search result is the pin. And only that.
• Brands have to be visually creative: Content is not always just words. This is especially true when it comes to Pinterest. It’s easy for fashion and travel brands to be visually appealing, but what happens when you are a tech brand? Fans pin images from Apple, Microsoft and Intel’s websites. But can they survive as brands on Pinterest? Think about how you can get visually creative and what you want to share.
• And lastly, if you’re not interested in anything to do with fashion, crafts and lifestyle, and you have no time you’re just not going to get it. Tyler Reed [www.twitter.com/TylerReed] makes a good point of understanding what its about, but having no time to curate items for it, and that it threatened his masculinity, :

Find out more about using the ‘Pin It’ button in your browser and how to use Pinterest here

Side note: I have been on Pinterest for over a year now, and personally I don’t think I will stay on it for long. But let’s see how it takes off in the next year. Big things are in store.

* I have one book to give away thanks to Gareth Cliff and his team.  All the details on how you can enter at the end of this post.

Gareth Cliff on Everything

Every time I hear Gareth Cliff on his 5FM Breakfast slot, chances are my body cringes and my ears beg the question: Did he really say that?

True to form, he did. And he has half the South African population after him for saying it as it is or for saying it the way he sees it. ‘Cliff on Everything’ is just that. It’s a collection of Cliff’s opinions and essays, including his famous letters to government.

Its opinionated, self indulgent, entertaining, makes me want to slap him over the head book, which lives up to his motto of making some noise. Its not a book we haven’t seen before – reminds me a bit of Jeremy Clarkson, but its short easy reads which can be read at anytime.

No matter how much you love or hate him, one thing is certain – Cliff is an educated, enlightened individual even if he seems otherwise live on air.

My opinion: I dislike the man most times, but I admire him for being able to say it as he sees it. His book has me reading intrigued, even though some of it I have read online already. Its all him and I didn’t expect anything more or less.

Win a copy of the book

If you want it leave a comment on this post letting me know what you really think of Cliff and / or follow me on Twitter, tweet the link to this article and remember to use the hashtag #CliffonEverything. Winners will be chosen on Monday. So get moving.

Disclaimer: These a long winded blog posts. Your choice how much you read but these are purely my take on my adventures in the Middle East

Land and sea. Onwards on our journey and the true adventures began. Heading from Sharm, we travelled the rest of the Sinai to Nuweiba, passing close to but not near enough Mount Mosa, or St Khaterina where Musa (A.S.) received the Ten Commandments.

In Nuweiba we hopped on a ‘ferry’, which was more like a huge speedboat that was to carry us across the Red Sea towards Aqabah. The first of many customs crossings began. First in Nuweiba and then in Aqabah. On the speedboat trip we saw the lights of Eilat in Palestine and then the coast of Saudi Arabia. Pretty cool if you think about it. On one side Egypt, on the other Palestine, and another Saudi, while in front was Jordan. That’s four countries bordering the Red Sea.

Ferry aka Speedboat

Aqabah was a quiet night. Well almost quiet. After supper Uncle Abie treated us to the first of two lectures. The lectures were held to help us understand the history of Palestine and the so-called State of Israel. Uncle Abie’s lectures are indeed something everyone should listen to, minus the wayward jokes in-between. Not only is it informative but also captivating to know that the stories we have been fed over the years are in fact lies. Something we all ‘kind of’ know but never fully understand. I would go into his lectures here but this is not the place to start writing about it. [May do it in a total separate post from this series especially with the recent Palestinian Papers released].

Early morning start led us on the road to Petra. One of the ancient wonders of the world, no one can fully understand how people, mere people with out the tools and equipment we have today, can build such structures that have withstood time. The feeling of seeing the pyramids for the first time was about to be relived through the amazing structures at Petra.

The bus ambled along towards Petra, moving through arid land, we climbed some of the highest points in Jordan, and our guide, an amazing awesome person named Na’eem, pointed into the distance saying: “Petra is there”. “Where?” “There between the hills.”

You can imagine how I looked at him like he was crazy. How can huge structures, I had seen in movies like Indiana Jones and even Transformers, be there amongst the hills with nothing showing or even hinting it lay in that area. Na’eem did explain that the people who built Petra originally moved to the area of Jordan to hijack and steal from caravans moving along the route, and that is why their buildings were hidden from site. But seriously, I did still not totally believe him.

The bus moved through the town of Petra, which is just the town that is on the doorstep of where Petra lies. I am sure he told me a specific name, but I can’t remember it. It was a little nerve wrecking to see a big bus move between tiny streets and down into a valley near the entrance of the ancient city.

Entering the main gate, is the usual security check and then you are set upon by the guys who have horses you can ride down into Petra with or take a horse and carriage. They do mention that your entrance fee covers the ride down but not the ride back, but be warned… they will not leave you alone till you pay them something. Walking was a better idea for most of us but there were a few including the brother who decided he must ride a horse down to at least the entrance into the canyon.

[Btw walking down into Petra is easy, it’s the walk back that you should be weary of.]

Follow the road into Petra

Following the road, between shear rock faces that rose from either side, the valley/canyon was incredible. You notice aqueducts built into the rock face, chiselled out to perfection, that could have still been in use today if need be. The tools and the way these people lived left me gobsmacked.

The walk down takes a while before you even see the main attraction, the Treasury of Petra but along the way, the moment wraps around me and somehow for a short while I am sent back into history. I can picture people on horse back riding down into the city and the image is enforced by the clip clop of horses and the rickety sounds of the many carriages taking tourists down to the city and back again. The horse’s smells are even helping with the imagery and they stink!

There comes a moment when Na’eem makes us all stop, to point out various ducts and tombs in the wall, then tells us to walk on the left and of the canyon and to look ahead for our first true glimpse of Petra.

First glimpse of the Treasury of Petra

Through the rock wall peeps the Treasury of Petra, and the first sight take your breath away. The ancient city is nothing like you’ve seen before and the movies don’t even come close. To stand in front of the Treasury and take a picture and when you look at it again you can’t even make out who you are, hits home the enormous size of the buildings. The pyramids are one thing but this is unreal as people built it to live in.

Treasury of Petra

The theatre is as magnificent and we all did a bit of Shakespeare role-playing. Julius Caeser to be more specific. Your voice resonates off the rock walls and seating area and you can imagine how it must have been thousands of years ago. It can seat some 7000 people and would make any stage in the world look like mini-town in comparison.

The Theatre of Petra - Can you be the next Broadway hit?

Onwards to Amman and the Cave of the Sleepers. The Cave is one in which the Qur’an speaks about the sleepers who were persecuted and Allah safe guarded them by putting them to sleep for over 300 years. It is called the Cave of the Seven Sleepers but that number is actually unknown. It can be 3 or 5 or 7 as the Qur’an mentions. The cave is also around the Roman burial areas and structures. A mosque is situated in the area as well. If we had visited in the day we would have seen the olive trees and apparently lavender fields. Not so sure on that as we arrived in the evening and it was pretty cold.

The entrance of the Cave of the Sleepers

Amman was our final stop for the evening and also made up the final part of Uncle Abies lecture. The following day was the start of the main part of the trip I was awaiting – Jerusalem!

Uncle Abie's last talk on Palestine

Travels 3 to follow… Jerusalem

*all the pics here

Citadel Salah Al-Din

Disclaimer: These a long winded blog posts. Your choice how much you read but these are purely my take on my adventures in the Middle East

I promised to blog about my travels so here goes. No words can explain the full experience that I had, the sights that I saw and the emotional and physical aspect of the entire Middle East Tour.

My parents decided that we should do Uncle Abie Dawjee’s Middle East Educational Tour for the mere reason that we would be seeing more places and in the hope that we all would learn the history or the Middle East better from someone who understands it and reads about it extensively. The blog posts that follow have nothing to do with what he said and I hope not to preach anything much about it but just to share my experiences completely.

So we set out on December 16, 2010, to do five countries, 7 cities in two weeks. No easy feat but think about it along the lines of Contiki Middle East style.

It was exactly that. Loads of traveling over land, in tour buses and sleeping one night in places, which you would never usually book at. Those were the little things to me. In all honesty it was more like ‘sleep when you dead’.

Landing in Cairo in the early part of the morning, we were all loaded into the various tour buses and taken out immediately to see the sites of Cairo.

The land of Kings and Queens, Pharaohs and Roman Emperors, the old and the new. That is Egypt. Mythical, mystic and one that you either love or hate in a heart beat.

Khan el-Khalili Bazaar

Yes, the pyramids, sphinx, perfume shops, and bazaars as well as the “Citadel of Salah Al-Din” were our calling card on the first day of travels. Not only that but we also managed to fit in Jumuah [Muslim Friday Prayer] into that day as well. This was a tour filled with Muslims, so lots of salaah [prayer] stopovers were required.

The citadel is one of the most beautiful places. Its called Salahudin’s citadel as he prepared his armies from this and various other locations to take back the land of Palestine from the Crusaders. He is also honoured for being a leader who did so without shedding unnecessary blood and for not killing innocent women and children. It also is a mosque whose architect was a Jew. Just goes to show that Muslims and Jews can live in peace and harmony. [We just don't like Zionists much]

That night for those who wanted to, there was the Nile cruise, which included food, belly dancers, and whirling dervish amongst other things. Our family decided to pass up on that as we had visited Cairo before and have been on the Nile cruise. From other who went, they immediately proclaimed that it was indeed awesome and definitely not to be missed.

The Great Pyramids of Giza

The following morning started out true adventure around the Middle East. Climbing onto the bus, we started out journey along the route the Prophet Musa (A.S.) [Prophet Moses] took on his flight out of Egypt and then on his escape from Firaun [Pharaoh]. Through the dusty, dessert of Egypt we went, till we reached the most important canal in the world today – the Suez Canal.

The Suez was actually built by French investors to shorten the trade routes. So instead of a trade route that went around the tip of Africa from India to Europe, it went through the Red Sea, Egypt and into the Mediterranean.

You can imagine how surreal it is to see a ship moving across the desert sands of Egypt. Almost floating on a magic carpet. My imagination was running a little wild when we happened to see what looked like a container ship floating over the sands. Blinding to the senses.

Container Ship on the Suez Canal

We crossed the Suez by actually going under the canal. The Suez is one of the most important canals and the importance can be seen in the various phases of its history. Firstly when Egypt decided that it belonged to them and it should be nationalized, the ‘Suez Crisis’ ensued. Thereafter during the 1967 war between the Arab nations and Israel, due to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, which to this day still continues.

Fact: The taxes on the Suez can finance one person in Egypt $300 per day according to a population of 60 million people as worked out a few years ago. Sadly this cannot be seen amongst the population today.

Under the Suez and continuing on Musa (A.S.)’s journey we came to the ‘Wells of Musa’. These were a number of wells of which we only say about three but which originally numbered close on 20. It was in this area that Allah [God] provided the Israelites water when they fled Firaun.

The sea from these wells is approximately 1km away and, according to the Qur’an, is where Musa (A.S.) fled from Firaun. Across the sea on a clear say you can see a mountain that looks like Firaun lying dead with his hands crossed against his chest and his head lying back.

Bedouins still inhabit this area and we were able to buy a few trinkets from them.

Bedouin Women Trading

Back on the buses and we headed to Sharm el-Sheik , passing by Mount Musa, where Musa (A.S.) was given the 10 commandments, which forms one of the holiest books in history, the Torah. A book all Muslims believe in as well.

Sharm el-Sheik: Best diving spot in the world, Red Sea

Sharm was completely full of beauty and I would have loved to dive there but sadly the shark attack a week or so before we arrived changed my original plans. Still swam in the Red Sea and saw the most beautiful fish swim around my feet. Also Sharm brought with it the entire beach resort experience with night life and so on. Joined the girls and headed to a shisha/hooka/hubbly setting. Brilliant watching the so dubbed ‘Boy Bands’ do boy band moves to entice people into their shisha houses. Yah group of guys doing the exact same dance steps to the loudest music. Hilarious but also an amazing site to see. Got to also do a little desert quad biking at sunset and boy was that an experience.

Sharm Boy Bands

Desert Quad Biking

Travels 2 to follow… Crossing the Red Sea and experiencing a little of Jordan.

*Pics of first leg here

People usually tell me my life is exciting but these last two days steal the cake for this month. Yesterday, 17 November 2010, was Eid ul Adha. One of the times I love most and I love going home, Durban and spending it with the family. This year was no different except that I had all of one day at home to celebrate it. Flew down early in the morning and flew back the next morning. Exciting times!

Eid was a little different this year. Headed out to Inchanga Islamic Centre as usual to cut my Qurbani [sheep] and ended up staying to help my uncle who was short staffed. He runs proceedings at the centre and helps facilitate the entire Qurbani process. Having stayed longer it was interesting to see my cousin who normally would never get involved stay and help as well. She is really a girly girl and even though six months my junior we are like toasted chalk and cheese. So different but so together, if you catch my drift.

Then it was loads of family time and that I love most in the world. I have this motto: “Family First” and so far I’ve always managed to stick with it. So much so that at times I miss out on some pretty exciting opportunities, but family is my life and that’s the way it should be. So happens that my extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins – are so close to me that not spending enough time with them, is sometimes actually bad for me and makes me moody. Go figure!

More excitement arrived today, 18 November 2010. I managed to get pick pocketed at OR Tambo International Airport on returning to miserable, coldish Johannesburg. Sigh. Running around like a frantic chicken with out a head is definitely a sight to see. I’ve been fortunate in the past that this has never happened to me and I am grateful that the incident this morning did not have anything to do with being held up or threatened or confronted in any way. Also I am grateful that the only thing they managed to take was my cellphone and not my wallet also lying in the same bag.

Today is Thankful Thursday and I am thankful, for family, friends and moments that even though bad have a silver lining in them.

My sisters amazing Eclairs - she caters for Durban

Above and Beyond

It’s not always that I get to interview some of the musicians or dj’s that I admire. But lately I’ve been a little lucky. Scored an interview with DJ Tiesto and now with Above an Beyond [A&B].

A&B are hitting South African shores in November. A&B are the British trio of Jono Grant, Paavo Siljamäki, & Tony McGuinness. More popularly known for their albums Ajunabeats the trio can be found weekly on the airwaves on their live radio broadcast of Trance Around The World.

Smirnoff decided to change the way we usually do interviews and got us to ask questions directly to A&B on Twitter. They were given our Twitter handles [names] and asked specically to reply to only us and only if we were using the hashtag #ABTOURSA. Pretty cool spin by Smirnoff and would have worked even better if we had A&B answering the questions on time.

Either way… here is my awesome interview with A&B [replies by Jono Grant]:

ZK: Hi @AboveandBeyond, Thanks for this chance, first q: Define the sound of Anjuna in a tweet… #ABtourSA

A&B: J: @zk #ABtourSA I would say emotional electronic dance music is the core sound of the Anjuna labels

ZK: With regards to your radio show, where is most of the mixing done? On the plane, in the studio, the hotel room? #ABTOURSA@Aboveandbeyond

A&B: J: @zk we have 2 studios now because there are 3 of us, and one of those is used for radio once a week #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Could they ever see a 4th member being added ? #ABTourSA

A&B: J: @zk 4th member? No way. 3 egos is enough and creates enough fighting as it is! =) #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Would you ever have a live TATW from SA?#ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk would love to have a live SA TATW. Your place?!#ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Who were your influencers? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk influences when growing up were PSBs, depeche mode, new order, Jarre, Electronic, 80s synth pop, pink floyd, genesis etc… #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond Only 2 of you are designated per event, how do you decide who gets to go where? Rock Paper Scissors?#ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk nowadays I try to be a bit of a sponge with music and soak up as much as possible from a wide mix of genres….#ABtourSA

ZK: @Aboveandbeyond A remix was done on the J-pop artist Ayumi Hamasaki tune,a very “out of the box” scenario,wat led to this project? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk Nobby Uno from Avex records got in touch having liked our Madonna remix. Ayumi was the Madonna of Japan at the time#ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond Considering the plethora of acts/aliases associated to you,what is your “own favourite”, an alias you hold dearly? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk I can’t pick an alias as it’s all us under different names! I am probably most proud of Air For Life as a track. #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Perhaps a teaser into your studio, the software and hardware tools used ? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk Lots of hardware synths-we just bought a prophet 08 which is lovely.Sequential Circuits ProOne is also a beast.We use logic #ABtourSA

Above and Beyond will be performing at Godskitchen Boombox South Africa. You can catch them in Cape Town on 19 November 2010 and in Johannesburg on the 20 November 2010.

Godskitchen Boombox

PS: Thanks to Birdman for these awesome questions!

*Disclaimer – I was not at the launch for either MTN or Vodacom. Neither did I get an iPhone or do I have one. This is purely with regards to marketing tactics and online reception of the launch.

MTN South Africa threw Vodacom a major curve ball yesterday [21 September 2010] with the launch of the iPhone 4 in South Africa. Heres what I mean:

Firstly MTN launched the phone to selective journalists and online media people, who in turn started tweeting about it and also using the hashtag that MTN created. The hashtag fell in line with MTN’s marketing strategy – Ayoba MTN and made finding information on the iPhone easier. #iYoba rocked the twitterverse in SA during the late afternoon.

Not only did MTN beat Vodacom on that point they also were able to then share information on the phone and its availability in South Africa to the audience who would most likely want the phone – the online community.

Secondly they made sure they targeted the ‘right’ people. In other words not every Tom, Dick and Harry were invited to the launch party and neither were every Tom, Dick and Harry given the phone. It was tech journalists, online media and people who understood the capability of the iPhone and what it meant to South African users addicted to being online.

Thirdly their campaign tied in across the board. They pulled Ayoba into it appropriately with the #iYoba, they gave phones with Sims and airtime loaded and they showed that with free wifi access the phones capabilities rocked. That’s a complete campaign in one. Its your networks, your providers and your facilities all rolled up into one.

This is something all of us can learn from and the campaign left its mark with people already tweeting they moving over to MTN due to information received and also the cheaper package prices.

See some screengrabs of tweets below:

Something to learn from!

Twitter #iYoba

Samsung Wave

So I’ve been asked to write a review on the Samsung Wave. For one I am no techy person who understands the in and outs of how the phone should work and what it should do, but I am highly addicted to gadgets and generally asses them in the way I know best – Can I use them? And can it do the things I want it to do?

For a phone that’s quiet a bit. I want it to be able to connect me to my social networks, make calls; sms a whole lot and take pictures and videos, since I am addicted to doing just that.

Like any other person who receives a new toy the first thing I did was get it out of its packaging and get my sim card into it as fast as possible and start it up. “Read the manual first,” people say, “Urr manual, who needs that”, is how I usually approach all gadgets and the Samsung Wave was no different.

Samsung Wave

I did end up opening the manual though just so I could get a better grip on this little gorgeous baby. Yes baby, it’s exactly that. Smooth to touch, easy to hold, but does things you don’t know a shitload about.

Playing with this little toy, it has the most amazing surprises. The touch screen is easy to use and sensitive to touch, better then the current phone I have. I hear its all scratch proof, but I was not willing to test it out, but you can see all about it here.  Once in the App Store download ARDefender [read Palesa’s review on it here]. This augmented reality game had me shooting around for hours, not forgetting the Need for Speed. Makes me feel like I’m a kid again turning the device like a joystick almost 180 degrees.

The music player is neat as well but the one thing I did love was the camera. I am a camera addict and this one lives up to expectations. Comparing it to my current phone camera it is a few megapixels short, but good, impressive, clean pictures as well as being able to take pictures faster then my normal phone. Also the camera has is an HD quality video camera which is amazing.

On those points the Samsung Wave is a definite must have.

My disappointment lay in the social media capabilities. Facebook and Twitter Apps need to be relooked at and redesigned. Twitter had me deleting friends ‘by mistake’ and Facebook was way too confusing and did not allow other improved functionality that can be found in iPhone and Blackberry apps.

Other then that this is one amazing beauty, which I refuse, may return. Techy’s remind me its all about Bada* – the new operating system by Samsung that the Wave uses, but to me its one of the most pleasurable little toys to add to my collection, once they up the game for the Twitter and Facebook App!

Samsung Wave capabilities

*Bada is Korean for Ocean therefore the whole Wave usage.

So its been a while and the reason I never lived up to my promise of blogging at least once a week, was because for the most part I had no passion in me to blog. The other part I got swamped with work and took on more then I could handle with some freebie work I was doing. Yes say it, I know you thinking it anyway – Douche Bag I am!

So the passion to write is slowly returning and the freebie work that I was doing was actually all about writing. I was writing blog posts and reviews for some sites out there. [No I am not sharing it with you, if you find it you do, if not it doesn’t have anything to do with you.]

I’ve also been jamming up my weekends with the Football mania that is gripping my beautiful country South Africa.

Managed to make it to the opening game of Soccer City, Johannesburg. Thanks to my lovely friend Aasia for organising the tickets and making sure I got there. Was so unreal to hear about 80 000 plus [close on to 95 000 I hear] fans blowing vuvuzelas*, cheering their team and bottom line getting into the spirit of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, though it was a Nedbank Cup final between Wits University and AmaZulus.

Capacity crowds at the opening of Soccer City

Then Sunday was all about chilling but Monday brought on another bought of Football Fever. Headed to Soweto once again to see my country South Africa take on Bulgaria. I felt the stadium tremble under the feet of the supporters, I head shouts and screams and vuvuzelas from people of every colour and race. I felt a country united and I had goosebumps, not from the cold, the entire night.

I also learnt that my country will be behind the player 101% even when we know they could be doing better, much better.

I could criticize the players here but that’s for a different blog and a different audience.

Orlando Stadium, Soweto, behind Bafana Bafana 101%

Another exciting and interesting event in the last four days with regards to football was the Kia Street Soccer experience. I watched Under 13’s play with such skill that would make grown men feel ashamed. I heard the streets of Alexandra township come alive cheering for teams of 6 players which had to have 2 girls in their team play to win a trophy. Also I heard that Kia will be taking all 4000 kids who participated in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to a 2010 FIFA World Cup game, to be part of it and for these underprivileged kids to be able to say “I was there”.

Makes me realise that this world is such a beautiful place with so many great people who will always try to make a difference in peoples lives no matter what.

Winning team from the Kia Street Soccer - Soweto Young Ones

Thank you to the beautiful people out there with the biggest hearts.

PS: Did I mention I also watched GREASE at the theatro on Tuesday. Was amazing and once again Thank you to Aasia.

*Vuvuzelas: are horns or trumpets that are blown at almost every football game in South Africa. It increases the experience by 10 folds but can leave you hard of hearing or short of breath or even both . More info find it here and for pics you can find here.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa.

We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but a insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the Youth League President.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

Blog Roll

http://thoughtleader.co.za/siphohlongwane
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