The News…or not.

Newsroom! One of my favorite things on telly in a very long time. It’s fast paced, it’s ‘real’, dramatic, intelligent, funny and and and. It has a lot going for it. Because it is so good, it makes a lot of us feel like the intellectual snobs we are not. So I got my head out of my ass today.

It’s clear that it’s subjective to have something qualify for ‘news’ in our respective opinions.

In high school, I’d sometimes catch a taxi to go home, this one time, while I was waiting for it to get full, the newspaper boy came selling Daily Sun. After he left, these two girls went on about how dumb that newspaper is and how ridiculous the stories were, how no one needs to read that. A part of me agreed. Daily Sun does have questionable articles. A few minutes later they had a fat chat about JLo’s love life. Suddenly the air reeked of hypocrisy.

My friend had this to say on the tweet machine today : “@Queen_Wel: I don’t see how Rihanna and Chris Brown’s relationship is news? Like afternoon drive news? -___- these are dark times children! Dark times.” Apparently this was on Highveld’s (a reputable radio station) 5pm news. Wel’s gripe was that this was reported in a ‘news’ slot.

Honestly I don’t know what counts as news anymore. I just know this, if you care, it’s news. If people talk about it, it’s news. That said, it doesn’t have to be about global warming or interest rates. It just has to matter to people. Even if it’s Chris Brown and Tina Turner.

As the counting draws to an end. ByeBye Local Elections

These election have opened my eyes to a few things that I guess I’ve known for a long time. The ANC is running our country and spending our taxes. They’re capable and they have resources. We give them power, we are the people. We must have opinions and we must voice them. I’m feeling like a bit of a heretic tonight. So most of the following will not be in my humble opinion. And again I say, I am not anti ANC or pro DA.

Our people are still shaken by apartheid. We’re still crippled by it. In the way we think, in the things we say, in how we act and more importantly how we fail to act.

Riding on what Allister Sparks calls “The gatvol factor”, isn’t going to win votes. Opposition parties are, and reasonably so, under the impression that people being gatvol of bad services will win them votes. The ANC has a weapon that surpasses the gatvol factor. Its called devotion.

Today someone  tweeted “Not about race? why do all white voters PROUDLY vote DA and black ppl r made to feel stupid for voting ANC w/ words like blind”. I replied to this tweet by quoting what an ANC supporter said on telly, “If u are ANC, u stay ANC. If u my brother , u stay my brother. YOU DONT JUST CHANGE AND BECOME A WOMAN”.  I can’t speak for the man who said this, but I can’t help but doubt how sober his thoughts are, drunk on devotion. People are not stupid for voting ANC, they are stupid for such utterances. The ANC is aware of such banter and does nothing to discourage. I’m willing to go as far as to say the ANC encourages it. ANC supporters are not in good company, and the ANC has no qualms with this. Don’t even get me started on the violence that nearly broke out in the Midvaal when the DA won.

The socio-economic status quo of the ANC strong-holds speak volumes of why these places are ANC strong-holds. I wonder how much the DA has done to actually try to win over these constituencies. So much effort goes into winning the money constituencies (the big metros). Does the DA really care about:

• The ANC is leading in Aganang [Moletji/Matlala] with 86.5%.
• The ANC is leading in Ba-Phalaborwa [Phalaborwa] with 82.72 %
• Blouberg The ANC is leading Blouberg [Bochum/My Darling] with 92.08%

Granted these are small municipalities, but how much does the DA care about them? I deliberately chose from constituencies in Limpopo because it’s the furthest province from the Western Cape, a DA strong hold.

Last word

A question that I should have asked myself at the beginning of the elections: How do you win votes and influence people? I have no idea. Hoping that I’ll be blogging in the next elections, I’ll open with this line.

P.S. Every election the DA gains ± 2% of votes. So in roughly ±27yrs (national and local election, ±9 elections) Jesus is coming. If you believe the words of your president. Hehe.

Politics should never be about brand loyalty.