I’m no financial expert, but I think that I can pretty simply summarise the Budget speech given by SA Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan this afternoon as follows:
There we go. I hope that’s made things clearer for you.
Have a nice day.
The City of Cape Town plans to change the City’s logo and – obviously – there is MASS OUTRAGE over their decision and – obviously – over the new logo as well.
Here’s what it is currently (wax crayons over mountain, left) and what they’re proposing (child’s multicoloured snowflake, right):
Many colours. Much circle. Very new. So round. Such different. Wow.
And here’s a video they’ve made explaining why they’re proposing the change and what’s behind the new logo:
Obviously, people don’t like change. It’s unsettling, and thus humans are naturally resistant to it. Personally, I find myself more unsettled by the city media manager’s comments last week:
The Argus quoted Cape Town city’s media manager Priya Reddy as saying that a review of the metropole’s current corporate identity and accompanying tagline – “This city works for you” – was found to be “completely misaligned to this government’s vision”.
Which, when you read it again, doesn’t sound great, does it?
Suddenly, everyone is a corporate logo design expert. All the people, with their insightful comments like: “The colours aren’t right”, “it’s too round” and the inevitable “It’s got to have a more inclusive feel and communicate with both the client and their audience, though simplicity and multi-medium reproducibility are obviously key parameters to groupthink when approaching iconic and practical corporate logo design”.
Hmm. Actually that last one might have been a real corporate logo design expert.
Of course, there have already been allegations of wasted expenditure but there’s been the usual hyperbole too: apparently the logo will cost “hundreds of millions” to introduce. Just like the new Portside building was going to be “as high as Table Mountain” and Jacob Zuma was going to be “a great president”.
I’ve always loved the way that people make stuff up to support their opinions.
As for the logo? I quite like it. The old one has been with us since I moved over to Cape Town, and, like me, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth and rather stale. Those arguing that the money could and should have been spent on something better are probably right, because there’s always something more needy than whatever we’re spending money on in South Africa. Always.
I would say that they were rather quiet when the City projected Nelson Mandela onto the face of Table Mountain with big green lasers though. Presumably because, although the big green laser money could obviously have been spent on something better, they quite liked the big green laser thing.
Understandably, too: It was quite cool.
But equally, see: summer water parks in the city, concerts in De Waal park, Christmas lights, the MyCiti bus service and traffic police roadblocks.
If this new logo is approved, then I’m willing to bet that in a decade’s time, there’ll be equal outrage when the City decides to change it again. Presumably (according to Priya Reddy, anyway) because people weren’t making progress possible. Together.
UPDATE: An expert opinion.
(But you probably don’t want to listen just in case you don’t agree with him.)
David Clarke has written a column on how to get better service at restaurants.
A couple of points spring to mind here: Firstly, that what he tells us is not rocket science. Secondly, that the list involves a combination of basic good manners and common sense, and we shouldn’t really need to be told. That said, the way that society generally behaves these days (i.e. with a distinct lack of basic good manners and common sense), maybe it’s a good thing that he’s documented these suggestions.
Here’s an example:
Be polite. The service staff are not your servants.
Service staff, just like everybody else, do not like being treated rudely – but unlike everyone else, they cannot really do much about it. Except ignore you. You are far more likely to receive better service if you are courteous to your waiter or waitress. Using words like “Please” and “Thank You” do not cost you anything – use them. Problems in restaurants get solved much quicker for people who are rational and polite.
See what I mean? Other headings include the dangerously subversive: Be on time and the frankly outlandish If you get drunk, realise you are probably annoying those around you.
Go and have a look and see if you have ever been guilty of being rude and stupid not following his simple steps.
I’m going to stop short of saying that you deserve a poor dining experience if you don’t follow his advice (although…), but I’d love to know if people posting nasty reviews of restaurants and dining establishments (Hi Chris!) have been good customers or if they’ve been unnecessarily difficult and earned the wrath of the restaurant staff.
While all the world was watching the swimming gala, I’d spotted this (not so) little guy hiding nearby, cheering from the sidelines:
Not being an arachnidologist (and not even believing that that word even exists), I’m not sure what sort of spider it is, although I am relatively sure that it is a spider.
I’ll get the full size version up on Flickr in the near future.
I don’t agree with much that Gareth van Onselen writes, but fair play to him for sticking his white, middle-class, privileged, male head over the metaphorical parapet and writing this:
Sisonke Msimang works as a senior programme specialist in charge of policy development, advocacy and communications at the Sonke Gender Justice Network. She is an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, a Yale fellow and was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
In November last year, Msimang wrote a letter to her daughter in which she said of those who say a woman is “sexy or beautiful” when she is trying to be smart, “they do this because they want to put you in a box, and you must fight them and their boxes tooth and nail”. Yet she has a box for Harris, and the only thing inside it is eye candy.
Regarding this tweet:
“If @mbalimcdust and @zilevandamme can organise private discussion on erm, DA Econ policy w Tim Harris I will abandon the IFP. @JoziGoddess?”
Regarding Tim Harris, DA Poster Boy er… Finance Spokesman.
And not withstanding that there are obviously some complex issues at play here (a point which van Onselen covers), it’s a clear case of double standards from someone who really should know – and think – better.
Two wrongs have never made a right.