The good news thread

[sias]

https://www.enca.com/news/iec-deregisters-blf-as-political-party

[scotty]

Not that I watch Netball but this deserves a well done, much better performance than the team that plays with bats. 

 

 

Cape Town - The Proteas have made history and progressed through to the Netball World Cup semi-finals, as they edged a spirited Uganda at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool on Wednesday.

South Africa won 67-40 and booked their place in the semi-finals for the first time since 1995.

Norma Plummer's charges edged the first quarter 19-10 as they eased their way into the match.

The Ugandan's came back strongly in the second quarter as the Proteas led 31-23 at half-time.

 

The third and fourth quarter saw the Proteas beat out their African counterparts and ensure a historic victory. 

Lenize Potgieter managed a 94% shooting record on the night, converting all 46 of her 49 attempts while Maryka Holtzhausen managed to slot 21 of her 23 attempts.

The Proteas' final preliminary fixture is against England on Thursday.

 

The Proteas join England, Australia and New Zealand in the semi-finals

 

https://www.sport24.co.za/OtherSport/South-Africa/proteas-make-history-by-reaching-netball-wc-semis-20190717

Edited July 17, 2019 by scotty

[Andrew Steer]

Really good read and nice break from all the current doom and gloom...

 

https://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-opinion/we-survived-zuma-but-can-we-survive-the-prophets-of-doom/?fbclid=IwAR0CA_uLWAJubDczcYglGvQlYZ9rn1vTf2J9mzjO3QdUXD_1korYoLeukqQ

 

Definitely worth sharing

[Fruity]

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/in-random-act-of-kindness-man-pays-couples-restaurant-bill-then-finds-out-its-their-50th-wedding-anniversary-20190813?fbclid=IwAR3mqDtlHdx27ktgXnA0DVgGGrchQOMU3qHdvTNhVWlAO8ZAlsWgbGKsiTk

[Slowbee]

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/in-random-act-of-kindness-man-pays-couples-restaurant-bill-then-finds-out-its-their-50th-wedding-anniversary-20190813?fbclid=IwAR3mqDtlHdx27ktgXnA0DVgGGrchQOMU3qHdvTNhVWlAO8ZAlsWgbGKsiTk

I also posted this on the awesome thread.

 

This is just awesome.

 

Like the idea that the company has that when awarded a contract they have to do something random. It does not have to be big - but just random.

[Chris_]

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/in-random-act-of-kindness-man-pays-couples-restaurant-bill-then-finds-out-its-their-50th-wedding-anniversary-20190813?fbclid=IwAR3mqDtlHdx27ktgXnA0DVgGGrchQOMU3qHdvTNhVWlAO8ZAlsWgbGKsiTk

 

Maybe I've been wrong about PE all this time...

[Andrew Steer]

I also posted this on the awesome thread.

 

This is just awesome.

 

Like the idea that the company has that when awarded a contract they have to do something random. It does not have to be big - but just random.

Funny enough, it's always been the small things that count... 

I've always tried to pay it forward a little, but this reminds me I want to do it more.

[Blackbeard]

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/in-random-act-of-kindness-man-pays-couples-restaurant-bill-then-finds-out-its-their-50th-wedding-anniversary-20190813?fbclid=IwAR3mqDtlHdx27ktgXnA0DVgGGrchQOMU3qHdvTNhVWlAO8ZAlsWgbGKsiTk

I always find that it is more meaningful when the donor elects to remain anonymous. 

[Andrew Steer]

I always find that it is more meaningful when the donor elects to remain anonymous. 

Pet hate of mine... these Facebook videos where someone takes a homeless guy for lunch etc

Do good things to help others, to make this world a better place and to make your self feel better - don't do it for hits and likes

Because if that's why you're doing it, if I am honest, I am not even sure you're a good person

[Blackbeard]

Pet hate of mine... these Facebook videos where someone takes a homeless guy for lunch etc

Do good things to help others, to make this world a better place and to make your self feel better - don't do it for hits and likes

Because if that's why you're doing it, if I am honest, I am not even sure you're a good person

The recent one I found offensive was the instance of the attorney and advocate who splashed their names all over the local media by offering free legal services to the unfortunate car guard who was run over while on duty in Stellenbosch. That offer could have been made in private or without disclosing the lawyers' names.

[Fruity]

https://www.news24.com/Video/SouthAfrica/News/watch-crocheting-pair-knit-their-way-off-the-streets-with-help-from-an-angel-20190815?fbclid=IwAR2zq2X-qkcN-FrGIXkJzLebkBXUE8jkB1etVFFg8mQl8cGsg1Kp_a5X98E

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Both of those stories... Excellent. The one about the crocheted toys, though... That's what we need more of, desperately. That extra lift for someone who would ordinarily be kept down in the dumps if not for just that teensiest bit of support for their entrepreneurial spirit. 

[Andrew Steer]

Mike Abel

 

Being part of a meaningful and vibrant solution for South Africa can truly make life much richer, happier and far more fulfilling 

There seems to be a particular conversation, going on more often than not right now, about weighing up the advantages and emotional, if not financial, costs of living in South Africa - versus following others to notionally fairer pastures across the seas.

Having spent a short part of my life living and working in another country, and now hearing many of these conversations of late, I want to offer a perspective.

When I went to run the M&C SAATCHI Group as CEO for their Australia operations it was at the same time as Jacob Zuma had unceremoniously ousted Thabo Mbeki at Polokwane together with his ANCYL henchman, Julius Malema.

Being a dad to 3 young boys, and having grave concerns about Zuma (all of which played out - and more) the offer of running the best and biggest ad agency in Australia and based in magnificent Sydney, held huge appeal.

It was also an exciting new opportunity for change, as although I was extremely happy co-leading the agency group I was at in South Africa, I had been at Ogilvy from age 25 to 41 and I felt I needed a totally new challenge.

And so, as I read the daily papers and watched the news with the prospect of leaving, all the news I read validated this decision, as that was the lens through which I was viewing the country.

My obsession was solely what Zuma and Malema would likely do to the country and not on what incredible opportunities lay wide open and in front of me, in a place I deeply love - and my family have called home since the late 1800’s. Let’s not forget it was the evil of anti-Semitism and prejudice that had forced all my great-grandparents and a grandmother to move to South Africa from Russia, Lithuania and Poland.

So, looking through a lens to validate our decision to move to Sydney to run this incredible company, the daily news corroborating this view, was overwhelming. Remember, bad news sells… Newspapers scarcely report the good stuff…

Sara and I weren’t looking through possibly a far more important lens. A small part of the head was overruling the entire heart. As parents to young boys, our entire obsession was their personal safety, as they’d been exposed to a very scary house robbery whilst staying with their grandparents in Nelson Mandela Bay.

So, the prospect of Zuma (corruption) , Malema (extreme racist rhetoric) and crime (the robbery) was our myopic lens.

In the job market I have always said to people “never leave - only go to”. By that I mean one should make a career change if there is something that excites them more and is an opportunity for real change and challenge, as opposed to simply leaving a company you know because you think the grass may be greener on the other side.

Madiba said it far better : “may your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears”. Our decision to leave at the time, and taking nothing away from the incredible company I was privileged to lead in Australia, not taking anything away from Sydney, which is a magnificent city, was mostly fear based. It did not entirely reflect my hopes.

I hadn’t internalized how important South Africa is to me. The opportunity to continue to make a profound difference to people lives, which has always inspired me. To contribute to job creation and economic growth. To solve exciting problems through concepts and ideas. I hadn’t internalized the importance of the smells, the sounds and the timbre of home. I realized this most profoundly when my wife and I went to watch Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Sydney, and sad tears were pouring down our cheeks throughout the happy show.

I hadn’t internalized exactly what leaving grandparents, siblings, cousins and dearest friends actually meant. Shabbat suppers without them, planning late night or early Skype calls to cope with time zones, wanting to dive through that cold monitor and warmly hug them tight.

So when I was asked to set up the M&C SAATCHI ABEL Company in South Africa (but to start it remotely from Australia) we leapt at the opportunity to come home. I reached out to a number of my closest friends and most trusted colleagues, living in Australia, the UK and Kenya to also come home and start the company with me, which they did.

We started the agency in 2010, just 18 months into the Zuma “presidency”. And it has been, and is, the happiest and greatest thing we have ever done - despite the incredible economic headwinds we have faced since inception.

Why? Well firstly, this is home. We know, understand and feel it, intuitively and innately. We have had the opportunity to create and shape our own company and now, companies, employing a few hundred people. We have the opportunity to work with some of the best brands in the world and to do truly meaningful work. We have had the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to society through our numerous M&C SAATCHI ABEL Initiatives for Good, like The Street Store.

We are home. Amongst our own. A rich, vibrant and diverse people with warmth and soul. The smells, sights and sounds are those we know and love. I have Shabbat with my family, my sons got to spend the last 4 years of my wonderful mom’s life knowing her better - and we are back with many of our lifelong friends.

Now Zuma isn’t the president anymore. Cyril Ramaphosa is. The man that our great Madiba saw as his worthy successor. Sure, he has significant challenges on his hands, and still needs the space to lead as he’d wish, but when I hear some of his ideas for the country, when I read the draft plan just proposed by Tito Mboweni, and the positive perspectives of exceptional entrepreneurs like Adrian Gore, I remain filled with hope. I believe South Africa will, as Nando’s said in an ad we helped create last year, “fix our ****”.

It all depends on the lens you choose to look through. If it’s one of being on home ground, around family, enormous opportunity and helping to make a significant difference, there is no better or more exciting place to be. If the lens you are looking through is the myriad of real problems that confront us, you may we’ll be tempted to leave.

This is not remotely a judgment on anyone leaving or who have left. And many have settled overseas very happily. Many have come back. Life is fluid.

Having done both, my advice is to be led by the heart and not the head - to hopefully stay, contribute your immense skills and live a purposeful life. As the philosopher Blaise Pascal said “the heart knows reason, reason knows nothing of”.

Let’s get behind hopefully creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of incredible renewal for this magnificent country we call home.

[Slowbee]

https://www.w24.co.za/Work/Jobs/i-quit-my-it-job-to-sell-chickens-and-ive-doubled-my-salary-heres-how-this-28-year-old-did-it-20190827

 

Following your passion!

[Tromp]

Can one of you clever quys please explail all the changes i.r.o. Perskor shares . I can't even keep track , let alone the ramifications thereof. Seems like good news , in any event.

[scotty]

Not an easy task to get to the final of AGT. 

 

Cape Town - Ndlovu Youth Choir have made it into the finals of America's Got Talent!

The group performed a powerful and localised rendition of Whitney Houston's Higher Love on Wednesday and received a standing ovation to reach the end of the reality competition.

https://www.channel24.co.za/TV/News/hitting-the-right-note-ndlovu-youth-choir-are-in-the-finals-of-americas-got-talent-20190905