Trending on the fast lane, life in the age of #

About 10 years ago no one would believe you when you said businesses would be controlled by a simple alpha-numeric symbol on our computer keyboards that is called hashtag #. In actual fact, no one ever imagined that Social Media will grow as rapidly as it has in the recent ages. It has become hard for organisations to ignore it to such an extent that there are reputation management agencies that mainly focus on handling other businesses’ Social Media accounts and campaigns. Micro blogging sites like Twitter have went from just simple social get together sites for old friends or people of similar interest to the biggest business platforms, so much so that even the old traditional media is dying because everyone is glued to their laptop screens and mobile gadgets. All is done in just 140 characters.

The word hashtag or the simple symbol # has become a key word in the cyber and everyone who wants to be relevant or be up to date with the latest information on anything or anyone in the world only needs a device that has internet connection. A friend of mine; Era Baloyi once told me that news breaks on Twitter and that at times he does not see the need to watch television for updates such as the news or his favorite soap operas. True to his word, he has gone on to master the craft of being the local Social Media Guru, as he calls himself.

Celebrity’s command huge numbers of followers on Social Media, some accounts even go for over 2 million. Oh wait, while on that celebrity topic, just recently, in fact two days ago,  a South African Idols judge and a popular Metro FM radio DJ who is also a singer herself; Unathi Msengana was suspended at the radio station due to the heated argument she had with one of her listeners and a follower to her Twitter account. The DJ had apparently made distasteful remarks on air about a heated race argument much to the dislike of her listeners who took to Twitter and in just minutes she was on already trending in Johannesburg. Local tabloids had no choice but to run with the story and add fuel to the fire. The power of # and the 140 characters could really do more harm than good if not handled well.

The biggest challenge that most user’s struggle with though is to always stay relevant because even smallest things such as spelling error or typo, one can be crucified for ages, especially the more popular people (I am still safe for now #chuckles). On the relevance note though, one cannot help but notice that Twitter, as is the sole attention of this post, has its own set of vocabulary…or must I say a certain interest group may create its own vocabulary to avoiding committing grammatical sins especially when the 140 character restriction gets to them. Lately I have noticed phrase like Oomf, which in most cases I get to realise that it may mean “someone” based on the different contexts. One can never keep up with these things.

Back to the business part of micro blogging; organisations that do not engage with their audiences on Social Media are seen as stuck in the stone ages and the shareholders gets to see the impact on the profit margins. I learned during my years as a University student that negative trends about any brand can spread faster than the Cape Town wild fires. Unless the spokespeople are very well informed and active on any Social Media platform, they may be faced with huge damage control to do, of which it will seem like a losing battle because they will have to go back to the very same Social Media platforms and build from scratch. The difference this time around will be that they will need to have a substantial amount of budget for the new campaigns.

Just like the police always say; anything you say will, or may be use against you in the court of Twitter.

As I see it...

Rally behind the Boks #HomeGroundAdvantage #BokkeFriday

With the right support and backing from the nation, anything is possible.
www.rugby15.co.za

The critics seems to have already written off Heyneke Meyer’s boys already even before they touch down at the Queen’s home for this year’s edition of the IRB senior men’s tournament to be staged mid-September.

The Bok mentor is expected to name his final 31 man squad this coming Friday (31 August) but the ‘experts’ have already slammed the 2007 Champions based on the current preparations. What is worse is that even the latest coach to ever lift the Webb Ellis trophy with the South African giants is not giving them any chance. Jake White was under the same pressure in ’07 if my memory serves me well although the difference this time around is that Meyer has more injury concerns than White; now director of coaching at the French side Montpelier.

I have to stress the fact that in major tournaments, the inexperienced lads are able to rise to the occasion due to the under-dog tag on their shoulders. One particular incident that comes to mind is how the then 20 year old Francois Steyn helped Jake White’s charges when the chips were down and how Pat Lambie took matters to his own hands in 2011 although we did not survive that notorious quarter final match.

Yes the Schalk Burgers of this world and the 38 year old Victor Matfield still has a few litres left in their tank to ensure that the green and gold rise to the top again but let us not write off the young lads wanting to make a name for themselves. By the look of things, the Sharks speedster-Lwazi mvovo may emulate Bryan Habana or even go a little step further. 
One cannot brush off the fact that the heat-beat of the scrum in the form of Jannie and Bismarck du Plessis, and Tendai Mtawarira can do the job.

Besides all this hooo haa, I believe the only and best thing that can happen to the Boks this year at the world cup is if the whole country can back them. I am not saying we are not, but the fact that the brains in the rugby fraternity are already writing them off will eventually get to their heads and kill the morale thus burying any small chance that the boys had.  
Sometimes in difficult circumstances like these; only the mental strength can take you through. If we motivate the boys, they will surely want to fight for the nation and bring back hope. Let us unite as the rainbow nation and fill the streets with green and gold, let us have the Bokke Fridays and I can guarantee you one thing, The Springboks will sing Nkosi sikelela with pride knowing that 49+ Million people have their back.

Go Bokke

Love and respect your mother, she loves you above all

Here I find myself listen to Tshepiso Motaung’s music like my life depend on it, well doesn’t it? It has been 11 odd years since the last day I last spoke to my mother, the only person on this huge planet who understood me clearly and knew when something was wrong with me. This is the same woman who, at the peak of her life as a 20 year old had to share her breath with me even before the unforgiving world could know my name. She proudly watched her body change shape daily hoping that she will bring a new breath of life the cruel world. She took care of me until the greedy angel of death laid its eyes on her.  Shame on you death.

At the tender age of 15 my Rose was taken from me. The only person who when I came running to after a fight at school she would simply look at me and know whether it was my fault or not. She knew when I was right and when I was at fault. She was the only soul I could no matter the lies I thought I could tell, I could never lie to her and the very same soul that I drew my inspiration from, regardless of our fights. As a teenager when I was supposed to be frustrated by adolescence like “other kids”, I got full time job of looking after my two younger sisters and this is when I knew that life is nie pap ‘n vleis. It is at this period in my life I learned not to depend on anyone but the superior being and giver of life Jesus Christ, life revealed itself to be one hell-of-a roller coaster. Shame on you death.

As much as I would have liked to do the normal things that teenagers my age did, I simply could not. I had to grow up very quick, I had to mature quickly, I had to naturally learn the rules of the game by default. I had to learn the meaning of the famous phrase “eat or be eaten”. Not to say I would not have learned this skills if she was alive but it simply because I knew that I did not have a “lawyer” that would bail me from my mistakes anymore. I realised along the way that since death had decided to orphan me and sisters, the world would not give a rat’s ass whether we fell into the routine trap for the ‘most’ teenagers. The “usual life” which is drugs and alcohol or any of the related dangers of which children my age found them in, regardless of whether or not they had parents.  I realised that everyone expected it and would be just a normal thing since I was a rebel even when my Rose (Her real name is Palesa meaning Rose) was still alive. Shame on you death.

It does not matter who says what, in life the absence of a mother is just a rough ride especially if she get “absent” at an early age. She is like salt to the food, regardless of whether you are diabetic or not, if the food does not have salt it is tasteless and worthless. Just like Life without Christ has no meaning. A mother is just that one person who will understand you and know what you mean when the world has turned on you and at times wants to kill you for no reason, go read about the death of Jesus and you will know where his mother during his death.

As South Africa is still celebrating the women’s month, I have a message to the little rascals mis-treating their mothers and talking ill of them: If she did not love you, you will not even breathing at this moment. It does not matter how she is treating you or how bad you think she is, she loves you more than you can imagine. She may not be educated as you are but she knows the meaning of true-love, you are the evidence and witness or whatever. She may have done unwise decisions in the past or probably even now, but she deserves some respect; she saw the sun before you. She chose not to leave you at the hospital; she chose not to abort you. She has scarified more than you can imagine for you, the little you can do is say thank you.

Don’t wake up one day when she is not more and wish you told her how much she means to you or how much you appreciate her. After reading this, go and tell her you are sorry for being the brat you have been lately…she will forgive you, she is your mother after all.

Is it the correct time to introduce another language into our education system?

One would think that the education department would try to stabilize the situation with regards to the pass rates and the improvement of Maths and Science before introducing another subject, let alone Chinese.

It is an open secret that our current system is not the best in terms of results and a few administrative hiccups with Gauteng MEC of education Panyaza Lesufi  all over the province trying to put out the flames. What is unclear here is how will this new language be implemented and why do we as a young democratic country feel the need to burden ourselves with it. Is this a requirement for every member of the BRICS?  If yes then let us take our teachers to Russia and teach them isiZulu and see if this will get to work. Eye Witness News reported two years ago that over 400 million Chinese people could not speak the language but here we have our government willing to bring it to our shores. Will we learn a foreign language faster than our own languages? The very same language it’s natives are battling with?

I am not saying we should not try to learn other people’s languages as we already have French and Portuguese learners on the education system but my question is; Is the demand for the language that great for it to be introduced this soon or is the another reason we are not told of? Shouldn’t we try to focus on improving the literacy levels with our 11 official languages before we can add a few more other languages?

I mean, how do you explain a situation where the country has 11 official languages and less than half of the population knows a maximum of 4 languages and still we introduce an additional language to be taught at school? In the schools we are having a trouble of shortage of well-equipped teachers  which is why the pass rate is so low yet our government feels like that is not enough and they should add a Chinese (Mandarin) language to the school system. I am not xenophobic here but the same children you want to teach Mandarin are the same getting 30% for their home language at school. Even the medium of instruction, English, is not getting any justice in the education system due to the emergence of social media, the children cannot construct a proper English sentence. Clearly it is going to take us over 10 years before we can produce a 20% pass rate on the Mandarin language if nothing is changed on the current system.

Lastly, who is going to pay those teachers and the study material? The tax payers? Do they even have a say in this?  A few years ago we had text-books scandals flooding Limpopo province but I can guarantee you one thing here; the study material from the east will be all over the country like the political T-shirts at a rally once the plan has been fully implemented. And oh, this is the same language spoken by a certain Dalai Lama that has been denied entry into the country countless times like a leprosy patient during the Biblical times.

As I see it.