I live in a country where our local musicians, media, politicians, creatives and the blogosphere share something in common; the abject celebration of mediocrity. I believe that this perpetuates a prosaic environment in which many do the minimum to get by. After all – there is little incentive to be excellent at what you do when you are praised for being average. My intentions are not negative or pessimistic in addressing this issue, however. I want to see clever, creative and ingenious South Africans celebrated and acknowledged on the world stage, and back at home. But this can not happen if we continue to focus on self-reference, think locally and applaud bland and uninspired performances. Criticism is a vital tool for improvement and one that is not employed with enough frequency in SA, as is the case with our environment of generally apathetic consumerism that has led to a generally unacceptable service industry. (more…)

My wife has accused me of two things:

• Applying unnecessary intricacy to simple processes. Which is silly.
• Having the worst hand-writing this side of the TUKS medical campus.

The first point is moot as far as I’m concerned. As for the second… well I have trouble reading my own notes. But I’ll let you be the judge: