Too pleasant a banking experience

I am not sure if I am the only one, but whenever I am queuing at the the bank, the Post Office, or even chaotic traffic department in Greenpoint, I cannot help but always notice the inefficiencies in the logistical processes in these service places and in my boredom and irritation while waiting on the queue so I always conjure in my mind better ways in which they could improve the way they do things in to serve the customers (who they always claim come 1st) more efficiently.

I do not understand for example, I have to wait on a long queue for 20 minutes to buy a stamp at the Post Office, or to wait on three queues at the traffic department to replace a lost drivers license.I went to an FNB branch (my bank) this afternoon to collect a card and withdraw some cash ( that was 2 queues) only to be told that I could not withdraw the money yet as the money was still pending clearance, that in all, was about 45 minutes, my precious lunch hour gone!

From FNB (with a mild irritation), I had to go to a Standard Bank branch again to deposit some cash and was already pissed off thinking I might have to spent at least another 20 minutes. To my pleasure, that was not to happen, I was in-and-out in less than 5 minutes. In that 5 minutes, I had filled in the deposit form, queued and was assisted.

Too good to be true? Yes. You see, at Standard Bank branch I visited, they were doing a 'service-time measurement' survey, so when I entered the bank, I was given a magnetic card at the entrance and was explained to drop it off on exit. The card would be able to tell them how much time I would have spent at the branch. I took the card and looked at the clock to do my own counting.

After filling in the deposit form and joining a queue, a pretty lady wearing a well-fitting knee-length skirt with white high-heels was going around the queue and asking people how he can help them, when my turn came, I told her I had just come to do a simple cash deposit and was taken off from the queue gently escorted to an 'Express' till. The lady behind the till asked for my card (the one that I got at the entrance), scanned it and started helping me. After she had finished helping me, she scanned the card again on her side to record how long she had taken and gave me the card back so that I could hand it over at the exit. I was done!

When I left the bank, besides the fact that I was impressed with the technology they employed, I also left with a pleasant feeling that Standard Bank, or at least the branch I visited, cared about people who visit their branches. A few people in the branch too could not help but comment at the 'sudden' improvement in service delivery.

With the advent of online banking, teller banking took a big knock in my opinion as there became visible staff declines in branches. It felt good to know that Standard Bank was at least doing some formal research into how they can improve their branch banking. Perhaps your Post Offices, other banks, Traffic departments and most definitely Home Affairs would do well to take a leaf out of Standard Bank's book.

Big ups to Standard Bank!

Being on the safe side of the law....

I had a nightmare a few days ago. Here I was, in a very hazy mood, being arrested by the police for carrying something that is, lets say err... "illegal". I hardly remember my dreams but for this particular one, quite unfortunately, the memory still recurs.

Solidarity.

A necessary form of materialism?

According to Wikipedia, US marketing tags Valentine's day (a tradition that started in the Middle ages) as a Hallmark holiday, i.e. "a holiday that exists primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a truly significant religious or secular event. The name comes from Hallmark cards, a company that presumably benefits from such manufactured events."

While business obviously makes a killing out of these days, one can only hope that the victims (in context) also salvage whatever feel-good sentimental little that they can out of the day.Whatever little, its fine, it does not matter.

Very soon we will be hit with Mother's day and Father's day posters in our shopping malls, both also Hallmark holidays, also accompanied by similarly concocted short-lived sentimental crap.

Friends & Lovers: Happy St. Valentine's!
Disclaimer: Sweetie, this posting does not apply to us :-)

Lala Ngoxolo Robert Kirby

It was with a lot of sadness that I learnt of the passing away of Robert Kirby, whom I had got to know and like through his M&G satirical political column Loose Cannon. While I had not met him, through reading his column over the years, I almost felt like I knew him very well, so much so that I felt like if we were in the same room, I would approach him and discuss a variety of issues.

Besides being a newspaper columnist, I learnt (with delightful surprise) that he had also worked in broadcasting, was a novelist and playwright. He died on Friday evening, apparently from a heart related disease.

Satirical journalism is almost non-existent in our print media, so it is in this vein that I feel Kirby will certainly be missed by his fans, mostly for being witty, comical and cynical.

May The Cannon retire in peace.

Look, if it's not yours, don't dare touch!

Over the past two weeks, my thoughts have been preoccupied with the sexual harassment and victimisation claims levelled against Professor Malekgapuru Makgoba(vice chancellor of UKZN) and Dr Vincent Mapahai (UKZN council chair). The claims are made by a colleague of theirs, Pumela Msweli-Mbanga (former dean of the Faculty of Management Studies).

What has become a trend is that in cases where high profile individuals would be accused of sexual harassment, there it always seems to be an opportune time against them, so it would seem as if the sexual harassment claims are purposefully intended to discredit them.

For ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe (charismatic but shady, I think), he cited the fact that it was a deliberate attempt to lambast his character ahead of some ANC provincial conference. In the case of Jacob Zuma, he cited the fact that it was a political conspiracy.

Professor Makgoba and Dr Maphai are extraordinary academics whose work has certainly contributed positively to our country. Both are actually rank high in my list of favorite academics in South Africa. Msweli-Mbanga is an accomplished academic as well. I do not know much about her to be honest though.

Makgoba says Msweli-Mbanga awarded a masters degree to a colleague, Professor Kanthan Pillay. who did not deserve it. The masters degree has since been nullified by the university council.

All egos considered, Why would such respectable men in the face of the public connive to sexually abuse, victimise and frustate Mseli-Mbanga? On the flip-side of the coin, why would Mseli-Mbanga falsely accuse Makgoba and Maphai? For me this particular case is a difficult one, and whichever way this case goes (currently under investigation), I would still be torn apart by the outcome.

Even though both Makgoba and Mapahi have stepped down from their positions while investigations take course, I would be utterly disgusted should the claims against them be true. They would be perpetuating the sick mentality that men in positions of power can solicit sexual favours from their subordinates. Basically thinking with their testicles.

Equally disturbing would be if Mseli-Mbanga's claims are manufactured. She would also be riding of the wave of women, who use sexual harrassment claims against their superiors, in an attempt to destroy their images, thereby using their vaginas as a source of power (the Iwe-we mentality), effectively undermining the fight against women abuse.

All-in-all, I think men and women in all levels of society should be extra careful with respect to how they relate to each other in the workplace.

16 Days of Activism!

Mango Mango Business - Going Bananas

The introduction of low cost airlines has really brought some form of excitement to the airline business. Mango, an SAA subsidiary is a new player in the business. Other low cost carriers include Kulula.com and 1Time, so Mango airline competes directly with those, and to some extend Nationwide airlines. The introduction and price competition amongst this airlines has obvious spin-offs for customers. Flying is much cheaper and therefore more accessible than a few years ago.

Last week Thursday, I had my first Mango flying experience(Cape Town to Jozi to attend a friend's wedding). I had attempted to book a few weeks earlier in an attempt to get an cheaper ticket. As most would know, their website was not functional due to high traffic volumes. An excuse that I am not buying as I think given the strategic time of their launch (Obctober 2006), they should have expected that or should have fixed that swiftly. I somehow excused them, and finally managed to book, I chose to pay using a bank deposit as I was not willing to use my credit card on a site that was unstable.

Anyways, flying to Joburg was a typical flying experience, even though I had to pay for beers(R12 an Amstel) on the flight and obviously did not get to Joburg as tipsy as I typically prefer as drinks were not for free. I had anticipated that cost though, so was not complaining.

Flying back was another one. My flight was scheduled to leave Jozi to Cape Town at 20h30, so by 20h10, I had checked in and all. Came 20h30, 20h45, 21h00 the baording gates had still not open. Generally patient myself, I began to feel a bit agitated. So I asked the gentleman at the boarding gate what was going on and he admitted he was not very sure. I went to the News Cafe(close to the boarding gate), had a double shot of whiskey and chilled a bit.

Come 21h15, we are told the plane had just arrived so we would be boarding soon, by the same gentleman at the boarding gate. We could see the Mango staff running up-and-down. 10 mins later, we are told that there will be another delay as the Cape Town cabin crew went into the wrong plane (the one to Durban). At that point, I thought how unproffessional. More so, it was not communicated to us why we had to wait for more than an hour to board.

Low cost carriers are cool when one is on holiday and/or in no immediate rush, where waiting for an hour will be an irritation but not a massive inconvenience. Also inform the people who are picking you up to expect such unexpected delays. If you are flying for business purposes or going for an interview for example and time is critical to the tee, take SAA or Nationwide. Low cost carriers boast about being on time (78% in the case of Kulula), so that sends the message that they are not always timeous.

Mango Airlines flies to Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town using Boeing 737-800s leased from SAA. The cheapest flight is claimed to be R169 and the most expensive just under R1000.

Solidarity.

Capturing The Black Imagination

I popped into the Iziko National Gallery this afternoon during my lunch break. I still do not get over Ira Aldridge's bronze and white marble bust as Othello (1872) by Pietro Calvi. The bust is part of the gallery's permanent collection.

I was reminded of the Ngugi wa Thiong'o's title of his 4th Steve Biko lecture: "Recovering our Memory: South Africa In The Black Imagination".

The title of this post is stolen from the title of that lecture.

Solidarity.

You know it's summer .1.

Traffic to the V&A Waterfront.

Last friday it literally took me 25 minutes from the the city to get to the V&A and another 15 minutes to find parking. Local and international tourists are flocking the city where the sun sets after 8.pm. I took the picture in irritation.

The Cape hosts the best summer in the country.

One Love.

Web sites that should work, but don't! Part I

My main source of information is the internet. I become very frustated and pissed off if I go to a web site looking for something and discover that it has broken links, not as informative, has not been updated in a while or is just plain and useless.

I have a feeling that corporate South Africa does not really appreciate the web as as tool of disserminating information. I really hate that! It seems like Some companies just want to have web presence and that becomes the end.

Below is a list that I will be updating regulary and posting it on this blog to vent my frustation. I use Mozilla FireFox version 1.0.7.

1. Wits Business School. (www.wbs.ac.za) on 24/11/2006 - All links are broken and do not work. Unbelievable!
2. The Bassline. (www.bassline.co.za) on 24/11/2006 - Gets updated regularly, but site is plain and boring, they could do better. Tourists, hello...
   
3. 
   

Uuurghh!!!

Desperate Housewives Season Three!

Yep, I have been indulging in the first eight episodes of season three. Just keeps getting better and better! It reminds me of how I used to love the Cosby Show is the 80's. Carlos and Gabrielle remain my favorite.

Escapism.

Noma award for Special Commendation

After all the riff-raff that was created by the Sunday Times and other envious journalists about Mervin Gumede's excellent book being a product of plagiarism, Gumede has gone on to win the Noma Award for Special Commendation for the book.

I remember how almost embarassing it was when Mervin Gumede had to defend the allegation that he had committed the worst crime by an writer at this year's Cape Book Fair (sponsored by the Sunday Times). It's always a warm feeling when sanity prevails as it seldom does.

This year's winner of the Noma award is another Lebo Mashile, A black South African female poet for her poetry anthology In a Ribbon of Rythm.

The Noma award is the highest literary award an African writer can recieve. Previous winners include Mariama Ba, Mamphela Ramphele, Chenjerai Hove and Mongane Wally Serote.

One Love.

Not sure whether to agree or disagree

Celebrating Bheki Mseleku

I attended a concert last Friday at the Nassau Centre in Newlands. The concert was in honour of Bheki Mseleku and a celebration of his music. Bheki Mseleku is an amazing composer, piano player and vocalist.

Paying tribute to Bheki Mseleku on the day amongst others were Dizu Plaatjies, Feya Faku, Kyle Shepherd, Emile Bruce, Winston Mankunku, Ezra Ncukana and Robbie Jansen.These are some of the artists Bheki has worked with in his musical career.

There was a strong presence of Bheki in the auditorium, in the music. I also liked the concept of celebrating a legends musical career while they are still alive as we typically wait for people to die before we pay tribute.


"I once saw Mankunku Ngozi blowing his saxophone. Yakhal'inkomo. His face was inflated like a baloon, it was wet with sweat, his huge eyes huge and red. He grew tall, shrank, coiled into himself, uncoiled and the cry came out of his horn. That is the meaning of Yakhal'inkomo."- Mongane Wally Serote

Solidarity.

To Lebo: We got the message

After the sad and untimely death of pop diva Lebo Mathosa (may your sweet soul rest in peace, I learned to like you), I could not help but notice how most of my passengers would immediately wear a seat-belt as soon as they jump into my ride.

I always wear a seat-belt (a habit that I got into a while ago due to a chaotic lifestyle) and the front seat passenger would always ask if I do not mind if they do not wear a seat-belt and I would always say it is up to them. I do not get that question anymore. I have also been told more often that I am a fast driver.

Why did it have to take a Lebo to get us to heed the dangers of the road and appreciate the value of life?

Youth.

Biko's children

Love this picture. I took it on one thursday evening at Pig & Swizzle, a cheap hangout spot for UCT students with few going-out alternatives because of modest bank balances. SAB beers go for R5.00 each on thursday evenings.

One Love.

What does 'metrosexual' really mean?

Photograph by Lebz.

I am very confident the gentlemen pictured above can be reffered to as metrosexual by many.

I have been labelled 'metrosexual' once by some young girl I flirted with about a year ago and was uncomfortable with the labelling even though I knew there would be spin-offs from the fact that she had percieved me as 'metrosexual' as it is packaged as open-minded, modern and progressive.

A couple of weeks ago, I did some informal research on the subject and learned that the term "metrosexual" was coined in the early/mid 90's by another Mark Simpson, A british journalist, social commentator and somewhat chauvanist.

Simpson defined it as follows: "The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis -- because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference."

I am more uncomfortable of being percieved metrosexual, and there are very few people I know who see themselves as 'metrosexual' and adequately fit Simpson's description. I also wonder how many metrosexuals would agree with Simpon's definition of the term.

Peace.

Who Cares?

On my way back from work, I saw this billboard. It seems the Cape Argus ran an article about what the president of the country reads. I made efforts to read the article but could not find the paper at some restaurant I went to afterwards, and I was not willing to buy the paper only on account of the advertisement.

I am always fascinated about why people take interest in what one reads, more especially what they are currently reading at a particular point in time. I personally do not think one can tell a lot of what one is currently reading, or has even read.

The Sunday Times once featured a profile on some successful black business personality who was reading Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and then I thought, every Tom, Dick and Harry has already read that book.

I wonder how many people would have bought that edition of the Cape Argus motivated by wanting to know what the president reads, and whether that knowledge would make one to understand why he makes certain policies etc..

If you care to know: I am reading Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth, some UNISA textbooks and the May edition of Hustler magazine.

Solidarity.

Not Your Number One Supporter

I ran into this piece of ranting on my lunch break at Mr Pickwicks on Long Street. One of my favorite restaurants.

Solidarity.

My favorite people

Towards the end of year 2004 Dave Chappelle threw a party in Brooklyn and invited his friends to come and give performances. A documentary was made out of the the occassion and is on dvd. It was also shown in this years Encounters film festival.

Chappelle says its the best thing he has ever done in his career. I think the event was a historic moment for contemporary hip-hop.

I also found the sentiment of throwing a block party and getting the best Hip-Hop artists to perform, for free, or for almost close to nothing, better then Ms. Oprah Winfrey's (may the gods bless her little soul) splashing of money disguised as an act of misguided philantrophy.

There was definitely a form of collective pride amongst the black people who had attended the Block party on the day. Attendance was free. One would wish for black people to use their wealth (for lack of better words as Chris Rock believes it is the white man who signs Oprah's cheques who is wealthy) for such causes.

The dvd is essential viewing for black people, very inspirational, witty, entertaining, funny! Make sure you see it, buy the dvd and watch it over and over again!

Celebration!

Hello World!

Hello World!

The sole mandate of this blog is to document some of the things I sometimes get up to. I will also share what I think is cool and what I think is not.

Solidarity.