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And I Don’t even know your name.
But I Know how you died and I know when you died and why.
And I Don’t even know your name.
But I saw the spot where you probably lay when you were flung so high from your bike that you landed with a thud that ended your life.
And I Don’t even know your name.
But I know I feel pain at your parting. What an undignified way to go. What an undignified way to die. You died. You are dead.
And I Don’t even know your name.
And not many people do. But your family does. I know they got that phone call and inside they couldn’t believe it or process it yet it happened and I knew before they did.
And I Don’t even know your name.
But I know the sight of the bits of your bicycle still lay on the grass forgotten. the shards of glass from the car that hit you haven’t all been removed. Some curious passer by will look disinterestedly at it all and walk by where you died.
And I Don’t even know your name.
I feel like a failed you and knew you but i never even saw your face
And I Don’t even know your name.
I will never call you my Queen yet you reign supreme.
I will never kneel before you yet I’m at the alter of your nation each and every day.
Sleepless restless nights thinking of your greatness
and equally Loathing it.
Queen. Queen Elizabeth. My anger is directed at you.
Bumbling budding native girl I am i do realize that it is not your fault yet it is?
You are not blameless so you must be blame-more
is that not so?
oh how your language confuses me so!
But i cannot resist its power and i cannot resist you.
I walk like you
I talk like you
I eat and think like you knowing fully well I will never be you.
How irksome!
Again I must bring your attention to the fact that I am indeed angry with you.
Will you ever acknowledge me as your subject?
Just so you know- even if you did i would never acknowledge you as my queen.
I am an outcast everywhere,in your kingdom and mine.
Pray, do tell, did your forefathers foresee this?
How I wish to own you as you own me.
How i wish to honour and protect you and hurt you as you hurt me.
Queen oh Queen!
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
“Blackberry needs to come up with a technological ‘wow’ factor”
Khulekani Magubane
Despite challenges Blackberry remains popular in the local smartphone market.
A survey by an Avusa journalist last week showed that Blackberry was the preferred smartphone device by 55% of participants over iPhone, Android and others.
“The phone is cheap and user friendly. It has all the best social network applications. I have one and I love it to bits.” said Terence Hlongwane, a Blackberry owner from Midrand.
RIM’s newCEO, Thorsten Hiens will have his work cut out for him as he takes the lead in the parent company of Blackberry after a difficult year in 2011.
He spoke in Europe, Amsterdam on how Blackberry aimed to stay relevant in the smartphone market.
Blackberry suffered setbacks in the 2011, including an international reception interruption last year, the exit of co-CEOs and releasing a tablet PC without an email application.
Nokia has released the acclaimed Lumia 800, a positive stride in the smartphone market for the Finnish giant.
Chris Moerdyk, marketing analyst says the convenience of the Blackberry product is the secret behind its success in the local market.
“The interesting thing with Blackberry is that it’s more popular inAfricathan in the rest of the world. Emails and pages on the Blackberry are faster than on many other smartphones.” said Moerdyk.
Moerdyk noted the Blackberry was cost effective compared to other smartphones.
“The phone bills one would get from using a Blackberry could easily be half of those from the use of another smartphone.” Moerdyk explained.
This doesn’t mean all is well for Blackberry in the smartphone market. Moerdyk believes that Blackberry’s simplicity may close it off from a niche technology market.
“Two years ago in an airport most people would have Blackberrys. Now schoolchildren are using them and iPhones are in the airports because iPhone is the business phone of choice.” he said.
While Blackberry Messenger remains popular, Blackberry will need to do more to maintain its place as business phone, especially against the Apple iPhone.
“The brilliant thing about Apple is the variety of devices and how they work with each other. The iPhone syncs with the Macbook Pro and other Apple devices as accessories. Blackberry is a hassle when trying to team it up with Apple products and also cannot be used as a data modem.
“Smartphone consumers now need a phone that can communicate with other devices and Apple offers just that. Blackberry needs to come up with a technological ‘wow’ factor aside from the handheld device on its own.” said Moerdyk.
Although all eyes are on Blackberry, Moerdyk warns this is no reason for Apple to get complacent.
“Nokia has just released a smartphone that techno journalists are raving about. Samsung and Nokia are now beginning to be spoken of in the same way as iPhone.
“Apple is actually under the most pressure to maintain the lead in innovation and market dominance. The fact that most Apple users refer their device problems to online forums created by clients rather than the Apple website says a lot about their regard for the client’s voice.” he said.
Blackberry handsets are purchased in high numbers from cell phone network stores inSouth Africa.
Nomsa Thusi, Executive Head of Corporate Communications at Vodacom says that Vodacom has over 1.9 million Blackberry devices on its network.
Blackberry is Cell C’s biggest seller in the smartphone market. Other phones like Nokia, iPhone and Samsung are also gaining momentum as smartphones. Regan Mdluli a store manager at Cell C said no corporate challenge will change the demand for a good product.
“Customers want convenience. The Blackberry meets users’ needs and that is why it’s so popular.” Mdluli explained.
Techno-fundis can expect the smartphone wars to heat up in 2012 with the release of Blackberry 2.0 later in this year, the iPhone 4s released in December of 2011, and Nokia’s newly released Microsoft supported Lumina 800.
Fact box:
| How Cell Phones Work: | How Signals Go Bad: |
Above is a basic gsm/cell phone structure, and how it works:
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The cell phone signal can be interrupted by many factors. Below are the common ones:
|
Sourced from Paseka Maleka of ICASA
How BB Works:
Sourced from Paseka Maleka of ICASA
| BET YOU NEVER KNEW: |
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[Sourced from Dr. Pierre Cilliers of SANSA Space Science Directoriate]
Who’s the Smarty Pants Now: A poll done in Johannesburgasking participants which smartphone is best:
iPhone- 20%
Blackberry- 55%
Samsung Galaxy- 15%
Other- 10%
We remember Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and author of the book, I write what I like. He was brutally killed while in police custody on the 12 September 1977 .
Here is a rare television interview he did sharing his vision of South Africa.
South African rappers Slikour and Kwesta have remixed the massive hit Otis, a song originally done by The Throne duo Kanye West and Jay Z off of their new album Watch the Throne.
It takes a lot of guts to remix a Kanye West and Jay Z song, especially one like Otis . Naturally, the first thing anyone will do is compare the two versions.
Personally, I don’t believe they could ever match up to, let alone eclipse the original. They tried to escape this comparison to the original by attempting to localise the song making reference to Ekurhuleni and using vernacular language, I still don’t think it worked though.
One thing that hit me about the remix however; are Slikour and Kwesta trying to draw parallels between themselves and the American rappers Kanye West and Jay Z with the song? Are they trying to say they are South Africa’s version of the throne ? I am not sure.
Take a listen to the song here and tell me what you think of the song.
While writing this piece, I racked my brain trying to think of some prominent South African female entrepreneurs. Powerful, wealthy women who have achieved immense success in the business world, but I struggled for the most part. It then dawned on me on how the vicious cycle just keeps repeating itself: our lack of female entrepreneurs is not motivating, encouraging and inspiring enough young women to pursue businesses. I could think of a lot of American female movers and shakers (thanks largely to reality television), but not enough female South Africans.
According to a “State of Entrepreneurship in South Africa” report released by Endeavor in conjunction with FNB last year, most female entrepreneurs in South Africa seem to be lifestyle and not high-impact entrepreneurs. The assumption that the report found is that men entrepreneurs can focus on their businesses more than women entrepreneurs who tend to have multiple commitments to balance in their lives.
Some of the reasons mentioned in the study for the gap between men and women in entrepreneurship are women’s propensities to: want to spend more time with their families, want to avoid the stress of employing too many people, have less education, and experience more difficulty accessing capital due to marriage contract formulations.
Dr. Joe Rubino, who is an internationally acclaimed self-esteem expert and success coach, believes that self-esteem could also get in the way of business success. He believes that self-esteem is the cause for success, although he does have dissidents against him who claim that self-esteem is the product of success – but that’s new-age rhetoric.
When it comes to entrepreneurship, I have to agree with Dr. Rubino to a certain extent. It takes a lot of courage and self-belief to start a business and keep it going, and living in a patriarchal world has robbed some women of their self-worth through the amount of emotional, physical and sexual abuse that women face every minute of the day.
Not to be a complete downer, females are making inroads – but is that enough? Earlier this year FNB and Wits Business School released a White Paper on female entrepreneurship and found that up to 38% of all established businesses are owned by women and that more than 25% of these are making in excess of R750,000 a year. The research also found that the general age of business owners was 35 and most of the start-ups businesswomen were black. The research also showed that a lot more women were choosing to start a business even though they had other options. So, clearly there is hope but there is still a lot more to be done.
But it’s not all doom and gloom – in Part Two of this piece, I look at my favourite female entrepreneurs. Who are yours?
