About Nic Haralambous

Recent Posts by Nic Haralambous

Helen Zille meets Helen Zille at the South Africa Blog Awards

At the SA Blog Awards on Saturday the lovely people from ZA News were present. Their Helen Zille Puppet was present too and yes, you guessed it, so was Helen Zille herself.

Firstly let me say that since moving to Cape Town I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing the Western Cape Premier speak in person so I was quite happy to know that she would be attending the blog awards. Helen Zille did not disappoint. From what I’ve heard she never does in fact. She was funny, humble and very switched on about her audience, their interests and her relevance to the occasion. Nice one.

But on to the fun stuff. The folks at ZA News wanted to meet Helen and moreover wanted their Helen to meet Helen. So the Helens met:

Compliments to Dave Duarte for the photograph. Nice work.

Ernie Els Selected for Golf’s Hall of Fame

Fantastic news for the “Big Easy” as Ernie is called. The man is a giant, larger than life and one helluva golfer. Not only is his golf on par (weak pun, but intended), but Ernie is also a philanthropist who does his best to help his community and those less fortunate than himself.

I’m proud to call Ernie a South African and proud of his achievement.

Congratulations Ernie.

Here’s a little snippet from Reuters:

Three-times major winner and former world number one Ernie Els has been voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2011.

The 40-year-old, whose selection in the Hall of Fame’s PGA Tour category was announced last Wednesday, will be inducted on May 9 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida.

“It was quite a surprise,” South African Els told reporters with a broad smile at East Lake Golf Club. “I thought you had to be a little bit more senior.

“You’d like to think you could have done more and can still do more, but obviously I’m very, very honored to be inducted.”

LoneRaynger in the Land of Canada

A friend of mine, Fausto, is on the road with the incredibly talented South African musician, LoneRaynger. They have made their way to Canada and have been on what seems to be quite a crazy road trip.

A quick bit of background info:

The LoneRaynger a.k.a. Raymond Connell, is a South African beatboxer and a digital marketer at SA’s leading digital media firm, Aquaonline.

His two skills culminate in a pioneering Canadian tour, titled VOXBOX SESSIONS, a transmedia experiment, which means the daily itinerary, his gigs @ venues, collaborations with other musos and whatever else it throws at him & the crew, will be documented on the fly and on various media platforms for the world to witness.

Is it possible to create an army of followers by only using social media devices and without breaking the bank? Follow the VOXBOX SESSIONS and find out!

They’ve gone from serious highs – landing in Canada, gigging, having a party – to some intense lows; their tour van went up in flames and burned to the ground a few days ago with all of their equipment in it. No one was hurt so that’s a big relief, but their stuff is gone.

Here’s a video from his most recent gig over there as well as the footage from the van burning to the ground:

You can follow their trails at the LoneRaynger website, their twitter account or on their Facebook page.

South Africa Breaks Flag-Flying Record

If you were at the Tri Nations game last week Saturday you probably flew a flag. If you did fly a flag you were part of a successful world record attempt.

South Africans smashed the previous record of flags flown at one time which stood at 6 600. The auditors are apparently still working like crazy to get the final numbers in but they are projecting close to 90 000 flags were flown at the South Africa vs New Zealand game at the FNB Stadium.

Here’s the story from ewn.co.za

Free flags were handed out at the FNB Stadium and auditors believe the final number was in the region of 90,000. The previous record was 6,600.

Deputy MD of Draft FCB, Heidi Nelson, said they were just waiting for the final official confirmation.

“We just need the auditing process to happen with Guinness and for them to actually issue out with the certificate that says we have claimed the record but for all intents and purposes, South Africans did us proud on Saturday and we have broken the record,” she said.

*UPDATE: Tinus chimed in and kindly sent through the official image being used to verify the record. Here’s a snippet:

South African Strikers and the Effects of Their (In)action

I have been asked to comment on the strikes taking place in South Africa. Obviously it’s relevant for the “SA Rocks guy” to have an opinion on something this controversial in SA right now.

I’ll give it my best go.

I think that teachers, doctors and nurses deserve to be paid a wage that reflects their value to the community and legally if they feel they are not being paid sufficiently they have the right to strike.

In my head striking involves a lack of action or inaction. A conscious decision to NOT work. Not to work at destroying structures, people, businesses and potential killing patients and babies at hospitals. This is inexcusable.

There is no problem with not going to work. There is a problem when you prevent people from entering hospitals, when you raid operating theaters and abandon other peoples’ children when you are responsible for their lives. This, I have a problem with.

Ivo Vegter has written a fantastic article on the topic over at the Daily Maverick. Read it, it has great value and one of the smartest things in his article is his calculation that ultimately what is being asked for by strikers is equal to a 20% increase. I’m sure there are many, many people the world over who would like a 20% wage increase but it just doesn’t work that way. I’m also sure there are many people who wish to resort to violence and blackmail when they don’t get the increase they desire but blackmail is illegal. Striking, however, is not illegal in South Africa.

Let me state the following as clearly as I can: I do not berate the rights of people in South Africa to strike. I am berating their choice of striking methodology and the helpless, innocent people they have been placing in harm’s way.

I also need to openly state that I don’t believe that the actions of the few reflect the state of many. I believe there are doctors, nurses and teachers who deserve an increase and are hoping for the issue to be resolved quickly and quietly. I don’t think that SA sucks because a mob got out of hand, I don’t think this is a problem that is unique to South Africa. I just think that it is a problem we are experiencing right now and it too shall be resolved and pass over like many other strikes we have experienced over many years.

South Africa is as unique as any other country, let the naysayers not be so brave as to state that we are the only country in the world that has striking civil servants, we are not. Let us not be so brave as to think that our country will never incur problems and when we do let us not be so stupid as to feel shocked, appalled and offended that we do have problems. Not every problem (however unnecessary or violent) warrants the end of days.

Athlone Towers Demolition Video

Yesterday I went to watch the demolition of the Athlone Towers in Cape Town.

Many people missed the actual dropping of the towers as the event occurred about five minutes earlier than planned. I caught the tower dropping, just barely.

Here’s the video:

POWA Advert: Don’t Tolerate Domestic Violence

What a fantastic advert that I just picked up from Jason.

The advert is a social experiment that was put together to illustrate how people in a community tolerate domestic violence but don’t tolerate noise abuse.

The Great Cape Town Fish & Chips Debate: Snoekies

Yesterday I had a massive craving for good old, simple, fish and chips.

Good thing I live in Cape Town. I sent out a tweet to get some suggestions for places to go to get the best fish and chips in Cape Town.

I ended up choosing Snoekies in Hout Bay. This is a fish and chips shop that takes me way back to being a little kid. The fish was absolutely exquisite. I went with the Snoek and chips. Fresh with some of the best batter I’ve ever tasted.

Hopefully I’ll be trying out some of the other suggestions below and blogging about them too.

Here were the responses:

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