Here’s a nice 2007 piece on taxi language in South Africa. If you want to catch one of the minibus taxis which usually jam South Africa’s roads and raise your blood pressure and heart rate beyond healthy parameters, than you have to know the difficult signs.

It is, by the way, interesting to hear how other car drivers complain about the behaviour of taxi drivers: The would drive rude and would not obey the rules. It might not be a surprise: It’s the same with the passenger cars.

The short documentary Afrikaner Blood depicts a camp in South Africa, where juveniles are crammed with insane rubbish from the apartheid era. All participants are Afrikaners, i.e. members of the white South African minority.

Although South Africa was proclaimed as the rainbow nation with its democratization, there are still many people who think that they could dominate others by birth. A quote of Franz Jooste, a former apartheid major and present-day camp leader, reproduces best what I mean: Let there be no doubt. Aside from the Aborigines in Australia, the black African is the most underdeveloped barbaric species of the human race on earth.

Jooste’s ambivalence is interesting. On the one hand, the racist says: The diversity of South Africa’s nature is unique in this world. On the other hand, there seems to be no space for a diverse South African people. He asks his students: Who is my enemy in South Africa? Who are these creatures? The response: The blacks.

It is, by the way, shocking but not surprising what commentaries the piece on Youtube attracts. Many suggest that the violence South Africa suffers from would come from the blacks and the whites would only be victims. Just one example: Take a look, or rather have a READ for a change, at the news, and see how whites are murdered and raped by BLACKS, and blacks are murdered and raped by BLACKS. Whites are much more peaceful than you will EVER be. It’s in your biological make-up to hate, and it’s in ours to be defensive, not offensive, and that is why whites are trained to DEFEND themselves. You know defend, right? Opposite of offend or attack.

Given such commentaries, you don’t feel that welcome as a black.

Did I mention that I love Nando’s for its great grilled chicken and its funny ads? Actually, Nando’s, which has branches e.g. in South Africa and UK, is a fast-food chain and, therefore, not suspected to be one of my favourites. But whenever I visited a store, I was amazed.

I also remember all these creative and often funny ads, Nando’s has produced. Recently, the chain shot a piece on Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean dictator. Mugabe, who ruined the Zimbabwean economy, sits alone at a table since his dictator friends are not able to come to dinner. One of these friends is Muammar Gaddafi.

By the way: I’m still alive. Soon, I’m going to publish more articles.

Dirty South African crime novel: Mixed Blood (German version)

I really thought that I already had recommended this nice piece but I didn’t found any reference to it in my blog, therefore I must be wrong. But I love to make up for the recommendation.

The piece is about the Vuvuzela, among German Word Cup spectators known as “OMFG! This is the worst World Cup of all time!”-noisemaker. The piece shows how melodic a Vuvuzela could be and you get some nice additional information.