Category: this is south africa

Crowdfunding the Urban Turbine

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OK, let’s get the full disclosure out of the way before we begin. The project I’m about to punt is the brainchild of a friend of mine. But that’s where it ends. I have no financial ties to him or to the project. I’m just putting this out there because I know he has been working damn hard on this for several years and because I think  it has really positive implications for the local environment and the local economy.

The Urban Turbine is a a vertical wind turbine project that is designed to offer an alternative power source to homes and businesses alike, schools, hospitals and business parks. 100% locally manufactured and supported.
We are in final prototype phase and need to get raw material and a factory setup (once operational we will employ full time staff – job creation of 10-50 people).

With this crowdfunding request, Brian is looking for “just” R10,000 ($1,200/£750/€975) in order to help set up production of the units. There are incentives for those using the startme page to donate, with various discounts on future UT purchases.

Who knows? In a few years, we might (should?) all have one of these in our back garden or on our roof – saving us money while Eskom’s prices keep increasing way beyond inflation and way, way beyond your paycheck. Schools would be able to teach through power cuts (assuming they had textbooks). Hospitals wouldn’t have to worry abut loadshedding and the effect it had on ICU patients.

And wouldn’t it be great if everyone’s turbine was produced in South Africa? Locally-sourced parts and materials being assembled by locally-trained and locally-employed individuals.

With the current state of the economy and high rates of unemployment, what’s not to like with that vision?

You can read more about the Urban Turbine and get in touch with Brian on his Future Power Solutions website.

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9 more eyes

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We covered this back in February, but if you should want to waste a bit of time in an enjoyable manner, then go back and look at the updates to Jon Rafman’s 9-eyes project featuring unusual and/or interesting photos from Google Street View.

I’ve spotted a couple of pics from Cape Town in there (the one above isn’t one of them), but they don’t have to be local to enjoy them. The best bit for me is that there are no captions and no explanations attached to any of the images. It’s up to you to make your own stories to explain exactly what is going on.

Please note that the ones with prostitutes plying their trade don’t need your stories. We can all see what’s going on there, thank you very much.

Get Real, V&A

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Oh dear. Someone is unhappy. And it’s about this:

Do you, like me, see a smiling sculpture made up of several thousand plastic crates, constantly updated to represent the Cape Town Zeitgeist? Or, maybe like Chris Andrews of University Estate (via today’s Cape Times’ letters page), you see a

…crass assemblage of Coca-Cola crates at the V&A Waterfront… a monument to mediocrity, global exploitation and humankind’s dysfunctional health and disregard for our treasured eco-heritage.

Wow. Steady on, Chris Andrews. I recognise that this could be classed as “art”, and therefore there are no right and wrong answers here. And I also completely respect your right to express your opinion.

But seriously? I’m really not sure how you managed to get from a friendly looking heap of red plastic to blaming the V&A Waterfront for all of mankind’s worst traits. A stretch of note.

I sense that you don’t like the crate man. Does his Olympic gold medal really scream “mediocrity” to you? Does the way he sits so jauntily between the fishing port and the dry dock make you honestly make you wonder about how we’re collectively not looking after our bodies? Or is it perhaps his smile that invokes a sharp sense of injustice regarding our alleged lack of respect for the planet?

Look, I know where you’re coming from. Art is emotive. It is meant to challenge. Why, the first time I saw Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in 1988, I was immediately hit with intense and disconcerting feelings over society’s treatment of the poor, the exploitation of dogs working at Singapore Airport, the appalling lack of praise afforded to Kylie Minogue and extreme disappointment at the average life span of a standard 60W incandescent light bulb.

And yet, when I voiced these feelings, I was shouted down. People said I was reading too much into 0.4081 square metres of oil on canvas. Looking back, I don’t really blame them. They were right.
I guess some people are saying the same to you about your views on the crate man. And I don’t really blame them either.

Your letter continues:

So not cool. Away with this eyesore, V&A – in the Design Capital of the World, what were you thinking?

I hate people that begin sentences like that with “So”. So unnecessary.

For your information, Chris Andrews, Crateman was revealed just ahead of the World Cup in 2010. South Korean capital Seoul was the World Design Capital in 2010. Additionally, a quick check of any sort of reasonable fact book or interweb site (I suggest www.google.com or www.worlddesigncapital.com) would indicate that the Finnish city of Helsinki is the current (2012) World Design Capital.

From your statement, am I to therefore understand that the V&A have installed an equally hideous (in your view) monstrosity somewhere in Finland? What on earth would prompt them to do that? Is that where my car parking cash is going?

Suddenly I can understand your anger.

But no, Chris Andrews. Cape Town will become World Design Capital in 2014, when sculptures made of Coke crates and the like will surely be de rigour.

I know. So not cool.

UPDATE: See anib’s comment below and look at her Helsinki pics.

Band to play in South Africa

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A local events company yesterday announced that they had booked a band to come and play some concerts in South Africa early next year. The announcement, which was widely expected and had already been leaked last week, prompted a mixed reaction from twitter users across the country.

Some people immediately rubbished the announcement, saying that the band had not released anything worth listening to for many years. They informed their followers in no uncertain terms that they would not be attending the concerts, although they omitted to tell us what they would be doing instead on each of the evenings in question.

Others were obviously excited by the news, stating that they would certainly be trying to get tickets for the concerts and that they couldn’t wait for the date of the concert to arrive. While only a small percentage of these individuals rated the band’s latest offerings particularly highly, they expressed the hope that some of the band’s bigger hits from earlier on in their career would also be featured on the concert playlist. Additionally, some of this group managed to get tickets through the pre-sale function on the band’s website, which annoyed those who didn’t manage to do so.

Finally, there was a third group who expressed relatively little emotion over the announcement. From this, it could be deduced that they were probably not huge fans of the band in question, but also that they understood that other people probably have different musical tastes to them and that they respected this fact, not feeling the need to mock or belittle those individuals who do actually enjoy the music of the band in question.

All the groups did, however, agree that the ticketing process would probably not go particularly smoothly.

Facebook is expected to hear about the concert later today or early tomorrow morning.

Analogue

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The Southern Cape (and I’m talking specifically of the Overberg, Theewaterskloof and Cape Agulhas municipalities here) is so beautiful right now. Lush, green farmland full of blue cranes, fields of bright yellow canola flowers, rolling hills and the all the fun of the fair with the R316 dipping and curving through the landscape.

There are other great driving songs out there, of course. But a-ha’s Analogue was playing as we headed past the infamous Houtkloof turn just north of Napier, and it needs sharing.

For the UK viewers out there (presumably in… the UK), I think the video should come with some sort of warning about setting off fireworks in an oil refinery; namely – don’t.