I’ve become too soft for Jo’burg. That’s the conclusion I am forced to reach after having been back for nearly three weeks. It’s not normal to be chugging this much rescue remedy, is it? Granted, I am feeling pretty chilled as I type this while sitting at the dining room table, a hot December afternoon […]
Sarah Britten
During the day Sarah Britten is a communication strategist; by night she writes books and blog entries. And sometimes paints. With lipstick. It helps to have insomnia.
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Emigration: rethinking plans to leave
In September I speculated on the kind of impact the global financial crisis would have on emigration from South Africa. The lead story in yesterday’s Sunday Times confirms — without any hard numbers — that things are panning out as I thought they might: South Africans planning to emigrate are having to reassess whether they […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Will we ever remember a life before Julius Malema?
(Note: I wrote this two weeks ago, before the story about mad right-wingers abducting teenagers for “hate camps” emerged. Christmas came early for the ANC this year.) Another year, another collection of South African insults. The third and final book is out in around April, but the act of compiling the chapters inevitably brings up […]
Posted inLifestyle
Unemployment: it’s not all bad
“YOU ARE AT a crossroads, Virgo, with tempting offers raining down on all sides. Yet Saturn, planet of materialism, keeps things constant, demanding you get qualified and hit the professional high road.” Yeah right. Horoscopes are amusing rubbish at the best of times, and this one, in the Sunday Life magazines that comes with the […]
Posted inGeneral
How much do you hate your expats?
Going through my collection of Australian insults a couple of days ago, something struck me. Knock me down with a budgie feather, but Australians don’t particularly like their expats either. So it’s not just Jarred Cinman comparing South Africans who leave to a cancer that must be cut out in order for the “healing” to […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
How to start a rumour with an iPhone
It struck me the other day when I read a message from a friend on Facebook. “Who’s Alan?” he wrote. Alan? I wondered. Alan? I don’t know any Alans. I went back over what I had written to him. I was explaining why I needed a polio shot and other vaccinations, according to my new […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Mortgage sluts and America’s sales culture
One of the plays I studied in Drama and Film 201 was Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet. Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1984 and adapted in 1992 into a movie starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon and Alec Baldwin, it’s a tale of a group of property salesmen frantically trying to persuade unwitting members […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Winston is my hero
When I am feeling down, or lonely, or just bleugh, I turn to Winston. Yes, dear readers, one of the most reliable sources of pleasure in my life is a fuggly New York apartment cat who sneezes, eats like a pig and gets dressed up in funny outfits. I dare you to look at Winston […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
‘Whites owe more than other race groups’
“Whites owe more than other race groups”. It’s the kind of headline you will only see in South Africa, a land where everyone — government, marketers and the media — is determined that South Africans continue to see everything, even credit card debt, according to racial categories created more than fifty years ago: “The Consumer […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Does ‘Congress of the People’ make branding sense?
When selecting a name for your new brand, you should ask yourself a couple of questions. Is it differentiated? Is it memorable? Is it meaningful? Does it fit your brand image? Does it roll easily off the tongue? If it were to be shortened or altered in some way, such as in the form of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Australia’s response to the US election
Australia is a nation of Obama supporters. Like virtually every other country in the world, Australia was strongly pro-Obama in The Economist’s global electoral college. At 905 support for Obama, Australian support was even higher than that in South Africa, where Obama scored 89%. Interest in the US election was very high indeed in Australia, […]
Posted inSport
The race that really does stop a nation
There aren’t too many other sporting events in the world that merit a public holiday. The residents of New South Wales had to turn up to work today, but office workers across the land are unlikely to be productive on the first Tuesday in November — the day when dressing up, having a flutter and […]