Guys I lost My phone

 I Lost My cellphone
Yep, Loyal Pr Weekly readers the words you are currently reading off your screen are true it's not a cruel joke.I know what your thinking how are we ever going to manage without being able to contact me for advice or more importantly what does this have to do with the Pr communication angle well... In the bigger scheme of things cell phones do get used to communicate so yea that's my communication angle

 Wherefore art thou mr celly
OK back to the phone for a Lil bit I think I lost it yesterday (Saturday 6th October 2013) when a sat down to watch a six aside soccer game, and when I got up it fell out my pocket I thought I'd left it in my room when to my horror a few hours later I searched around in my room and couldn't find it...huh well then i started thinking my friend recently lost his phone in a altercation with a criminal minded individual who happend to be in possession of a fire arm. The communication angle I'm trying to play around here is whether or not we as Pr students can survive without our cell phone and if so for how long and if not why, how was Pr done back in the day?
Well I've been asking around for my phone with no luck thus far I've been trying to call my dad and let him Know we'll see what happens

Not Another Marikana Post

Not Another Marikana Post

I titled this post "Not Another Marikana Post" because I believe that's probably the first thought your thinking as you read through it. Well please bare with me. My dad is a nursing Manager at Lonmin in Marikana. I went home this weekend and just chilled as usual with the old man, and we talked about random father and son stuff.  He spoke not as the nursing manager from Marikana but as a father speaking to his son about how the situation affected him, and we where just talking. I found it interesting to hear what he had to say about the media. Phrases like "I've learned not to like the media" This made me think because, as a PR P, My best friend is the media. I need to build relationships with the media, it's my job description

Striking mine workers making sure their actions do the talking

Mine-worker sympathizers letting the voices be heard

Two Sides To Every Story

What he didn't like was the way the media had covered the story. The people that had died where people he knew, people he greeted on a daily basis. An individual in particular who would take pictures around the mine was  killed  by being in the wrong place at the wrong time from the way he spoke he knew the person personally(I feel it's best not to mention names) it's a tragedy that things got violent it's disappointing that the very same nurses that tried to help the wounded got bad publicity but as the saying goes "there's your side of the story my side of the story and then there's the truth." I'm quite sure many other people either agreed or disagreed with the way the Marikana Massacre was framed named and a whole organization shamed but

Real News vs Sensationalism

Real News vs Sensationalism

Ladies a and gentlemen loyal readers of the PR Weekly blogposts.I want you to ask yourself if you can identify the difference between Real News and what the media might convince you is newsworthy but is not, for example A seventeen year old girl being gangraped by seven boys, what ever happened to that? How did we as a society react to this unaxceptable incident. Oh! yea, we accepted it. We didn't even bother to follow up on the matter.On the other hand we have "The Spear" that caused national outrage so much so that the artwork had to be banned

Useless news

• Lady Gaga's weight gain
• Lindsy Lohan Health scare
• Kanye West and his sex tapes
• Myley Cyrus and when she decides to get married
• Psy performing topless

Trust me guys all the above mentioned stories are neither newsworthy nor worth your time, if you don't believe me read up on any of them. These stories can best be described as sensationalism on steroids. News is supposed to empower you, give you an understanding of what is happening in your society.

What about

• The war in Iraq. What ever happened to that people are dying everyday! For what?
• The Marikana Massacre, Why did people have to die before dialogue could take place?
• The rape of a seventeen year old disabled girl, where is the humanity?
• The HIV pandemic we always get told of the sensational stuff what about the honest news?

The Marikana Massacre

The Marikana Massacre



Police at the Lonmin Marikana mine in the North West

 I write this blog at the risk of sounding redundent.
I am an individual who was born and raised in the North West province.
My father is a Nursing Manager at the Lonmin mine in Wonderkop near Marikana ,where the murder of 34 unarmed miners took place, and when I first heard of the Marikana Massacre I was shocked, not just because it happened, but because it happened soo close to home.
I've always had it in the back of my mind that South Africa is violent, but never did I think the violence would follow me home. My public relations angle is pritty simple. Could the public relations department in charge of LONMIN the SACP have covered this story any different? I write this having read in the Businuss Day that South Africa is being reffered to as "just plain dangerous" and a place to "stay away from" by foreign media. The Public Relations of a country is very important and I believe South Africa needs to work harder to maintain a good image in the eyes of the rest of the world and also to it's citizens.

• To avoid a crisis in future the govournment should tell both sides of the story
• Avoid having foreign media framing issues according to their agenda
• Issue statements before the media can release their own findings
• Issue apologies and media objectives ahead of time

Obama vs. Romney

I guess it’s been five year since Obama was inaugurated as president because there are two and a half months left until November elections take place in the United States of America. Obama is the candidate being presented by the democrats and a man by the name of Mitt Romney is representing the republicans. According to the Fox News national poll Obama has 49% of the votes and Romney is at 40%, A CNN poll had Obama at 52% (The New Age Monday 13 August 2012). It seems to me like Obama is still quite popular, but is it because he is the right man for the job or is it because of his popularity. We all know the popular kids in school they spoke well had confidence they might have even been attractive but

1.       hard work isn’t always their strongest attribute

2.       Nor can we honestly say that they were good decision makers

3.       The biggest problem about popular kids, they’ll say and do anything to be popular

 

Barack Obama made a few promises when he began his campaign

1. He promised to end both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively
2. He promised to keep lobbyists out of the cabinet

3. He promised to get workers out of Naphtha and Gat

None of these promises where kept and his term is almost over. Whether he wins or not does it really make a difference? Romney has painted Barack Obama as “a job-killer bent on making the country worse.” Which leaves me with the questions what was the big difference between Obama and Bush? What stops this Romney guy going back on his word? My belief is, we should not vote on what people say they are going to do but on what they’ve done and what they are doing or else politics will remain a popularity contest.

Snoop Dogg vs Snoop Lion (Can a dog become a lion)

Snoop
Can a leopard change it's spots, or in our situation can a dog become a lion. One of the slogans of the University Johannesburg at some point was reinvent yourself, where those just words or do we as people
believe in our ability to change, Is the only constant change? is this bold new step that snoop lion is taking a step in the right direction.

The question that I believe arises from Snoop Dogg aka Calvin Braudus' decision to move from gangsta rap to reggae, Is the question of whether we as a society believe in the ability of our people to change and whether we accept individuals who've changed their way of life whether it be for the good or better.

Is our society one that can accept a hardend criminals decision to become a pastor, a drug dealer who wants to become a police man a prostitute who might want to become a social worker or a guidance councellor do we as a society believe in second chances.Snoop Lion has a song out titled la la la I'm not sure what to expect but I plan to keep an open mind.

• Cashious Clay converted to Islam and became Mohammed Ali
• Malcolm Little converted to Islam and became malcolm X
• P diddy has changed his name but not his lifestyle a few times

ANC vs DA

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I invite you the the one, the only, 'Political Party Face Off!' presented to you by yours truly, Phemelo Dibodu. Who is your money on? Is it he ANC; the liberator of the opressed, the breeding ground of revolutionaries, the peoples champ? against. The Party vowing to reduce poverty, improve service delivery, and do everything the ANC is struggling to accomplish.

Ok, on a serious note is the competition between the ANC and DA neccessary, both parties are trying to expose each others inadequate service delivery with regards to the toilets Saga.Their campaign budgets run into the millions. Their mandate seems to revolve around doing better than the other wether it be service delivery or just winning votes. Would it not be more beneficial for the country, if the best minds from the DA and ANC where put together to come up with ways of improving the country. In the famous words of Mr king "Why can't we all just get along."

• Since the ANC came into power unemployment in 1994 26 percent/2012 23,6 percent
• Murder rate per 100 people in 1994 66.9/ 2012 39.1
• Life expectancy at birth in 1996 61.4 years / 2012 49.3 years
• Children in secondary education 1994 58 percent/ 2012 72 percent

Helen Zille the leader of the DA party



Jacob Zuma the president of the ANC and South Africa



         

Piracy vs Creating a Brand

Piracy isn't going anywhere

Guys we all know somebody who's commited piracy. We've walked by somebody who was selling pirated meterial, as if it was normal, because deep down inside we believe it's ok. None of us have the guts to go up to a guy selling pirated DVD's and tell them, "Hey dude  that's wrong put those away or I'll call the cops"  first of all we are too scared to, what if he's a hardend criminal or he can kick your but, second of all we make it right in our minds "the musician will make up the money through concerts or the movie star is already famous, this guy selling this merchandise is probably undeducated, poor and this is his only choice aside from robbing people..." and come on lets face it would you rather be robbed at knife piont or be offered a bootleg video or album?

Now my suggestion is that the govournment do the right thing and turn these bootleggers into official salespersons of the album just like in a concert you get normal tickets and then you get golden tickets you also get the normal CD's that will be sold at Black market prices( R5-R20) and the golden album that will be sold at the store prices(R100-R200) this way we rebrand piracy and everybody wins.

campaigns can never stop piracy saying "buy original stuff" and getting a celebrity to support that message won't make the problem go away.

Top Ten Most Pirated Albums

1. Watch the Throne-Kanye West and Jay-Z

2. The Carter 4-lil wayne

3. 21-Adele

4. Where Them Girls At-David Guetta

5. Party Rockers- LMFAO

Are We The Hero's




Che Gauvara the revolutionary

 Where are our leaders?

The 21st century has come with a lot of technological advancements, the boom of social media a lot of cool stuff. I wonder, whether or not our leaders are up to standerd.The standerd set by leaders who in my opinion where willing to die fo what they believe . Self-less leaders who cared about others, more than they did themselves.Leaders of the previous generations.

When I look at a leader like Jacob Zuma (A Leader and a breader, a term affectionately coined by Zapiro) or even Thabo Mbeki can we compare their impact to that of Mandela? Can we compare the impact of Barak Obama to Martin Luther king? I would say, in my narrow minded view, Martin Luther King did more for humanity as a preacher than any president has done in their capacity.  It seems that as a society we have dropped our standards, do we have Leaders who inspire like Ghandi who organised protests by peasants and farmers to oppose British domination. Che Gauvara who fought against American imperialism in Cuba and stood up for what he believed in. Mother Teresa who dedicated her life to helping the outcast of Culcutta, India.



The Black American president



Martin Luther king giving a lecture
26 March 1964



We still have problems and challenges so why aren't there people standing up and saying no thats wrong! I believe the 21st century leaders are not inspiring the youth. They are not trying to work towards enriching humanity but themselves. Leaders used to be people who practised what they preach now it goes down to who can make the best speech. who can we look to in our lifetime as an example for our generation? Or maybe the question is do we need a hero or are we the heros!


These will be my parting words.Mandela the face of the new South Africa. Ghandi opposed British dominance. Che fought American Imperialism,what will you stand for? -Phemelo Dibodu-

Is it too late for South Africa ?

Is it too late for South Africa? Recently a gangrape video of a 17 year old girl went viral on the internet, bear in mind for this video to have gone viral it means that a lot of people had to have watched it and enjoyed it so much so that it became popular.That's what needs to happen for a video to go viral.

• According to the world press view during the 2011 year 1,2 million people where raped everyday of this number sixty of them where children
• Janine Rowly of the organisation woman against rape (WAR) says that "A woman in South Africa gets raped every 9 to 23 seconds
• South Africa is said to have twelve times as many rapes as America whic is second on the list of counties with the highest rape cases making us the leading country when it comes to raping woman

Which brings me back to my question is it too late for us, is crime, rape and corruption so much a part of our culture that we should legalise it and make it a national sport? If not what can we do, bring back the death penalty, enlist more policemen, mob justice what? South Africa is often said to be a beautiful country but if we don't stand together it wont be, I don't want to live in a country where my child can get raped and everyone is fine with it. We must stand together and find salutions in our lifetime lets not let the woman and children who've suffered  thus far to have suffered in vein.Often words of wisdom or warning fall on deaf ears until it's late let our generation not fall into that trap.

Are Black People Losing Their Culture?

Are Black People Losing Their Culture?

What are we afraid of

Is it possible that one day we could wake up and the South African culture has dissapeared, that we've forgotten our music, no longer speak our language, don't practice our traditions and don't even know the meaning of our names? Is it a worldwide phenomenon that with globalisation caltures that are not depicted and promoted on  television, in movies and through social media die out?If this is true what's the big deal? So what, we become westernized, Americanized isn't that what being civilized is all about?

The South African Culture

what do we even mean by losing our culture. I still respect my mother and father, my elders. I speak Setswana when I'm at home.I might not know our traditional dances and songs but what's the harm in that, does knowing how to dance and sing guarentee me a job, or will it make me a better husband, how does knowing any cultural rituals help me become a better human being. Don't get me wrong I'm proud to be black, to be Tswana not really to be South African because I don't know what that means yet, but apart from sentimental value what is the point of a culture.
Disadvantages of Globalisation

• A lose of calture in poorer less competitive countries
• difficulty for 3rd world countries to compete
• An identity crisis is created in the youth
• The braindrain as people immegrate in search of new jobs

Human Trafficking

Human Traficking

Byproduct or Symptom

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise targeting vulnerable people for labour and sexual exploitation.My only question is is human trafficking inevitable, is it a byproduct of a capatilist economy where money will come first ahead of human dignity and moral values or can it be stopped through effective policing?

The Victims
People that migrate to and fro internationaly or locally are vulnerable to social or political pressures or crises. In order to seek for better life opportunities, they are willing to be smuggled across borders and suddenly find themselves in a trafficking network Time and time again its poor people that are victims often from rural villages they are lured into these situations through the promises of better jojs and a better life, the incentive for financial security often outweights their safety and well-being.

• There 2.5 million people being trafficked every year around the world 80% are woman and 50% are children, these statistics aren't always reliable due to the nature of the problem. 
• Every year 50,000 woman and children are brought to the United States to work as slaves.
• The average price for individual slaves is less than that of a  cell phone,anything from R100 to R500.
• Every year more than 1 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade.
• After drug dealing human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms trade as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and it is the fastest growing.
• Human Trafficking is estimated to be a seven billion dollar anuall businuss.

Conclusion
With these statistics I believe that Human trafficking much like drug trafficking brings in too much money into economies all over the world for it to be eradicated, although people in power might say it is wrong I believe deep down the are for it, due to its economic benefits, I stand to be corrected but modern slavery is frowned upon but either than that little else is done.



Racism is The Future

South Africa and Racism

Immanual Kant has been quoted as saying: " Humanity  is at it's greatest perfection in the white race." and that  "The yellow indians do have meagre talent, the negroes are far below them, and at the lowest point are a part of the American people."

"Blacks are more likely to be ill treated on race grounds, but blacks are more likely to treat other blacks worse than they would treat people of other races." Sifiso Falala, Chief executive of plus 94.

The issue of race is South Africa is one that I would describe as a blessed curse, throught our tragedy we have salvaged a sense of humanity.With soo many defferences between people race seems to be the difference we identify to cuase the greatest conflict. to a certain extent it's understandable, gender can be seen to compliment the other we have different genders in order to procreate, homosexuallity is treated with hostility because it's not understood. Race to a similar extent is not understood no one can explain to this day why we are racially different. and to theorise about this without questioning our motives can be dangerous. Darwin once said: "...at some future period, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world." what where these savage races he was talking about, what would happen to the many people who would read his books, what conclusions would they develop.
Recently a Right-wing racist group Afrikaner Bloed won a first prize at a World Press Photo 2012 multimedia contest for showing pictures fof a training camp of young teenage boys. These pictures where shown to Dutch photographers Elles Van Gelder and IIvy Njioiktjien. The pictures showed boys being taught to hate the idea of a new South Africa, of a multiracial country and to not see themselves as South African citizins. I just don't feel comfortable knowing we can be soo casual about such a potentially destructive idea. Adolf Hitler was seen as an idiot he wasn't taken seriously until he rose to power, no-one would of been able to fathom what his plans where for the jewish people, we cannot wait until extremism and murderous ideology is killing millions before we act we must fight these ideologies before they become deadly.                                                  

Capitalism And Obesity

 Capitalism and Obesity

Simple but Hard
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is not the same as being overweight, which means weighing too much. A person may be overweight from extra muscle, bone, or water, as well as from having too much fat.

I stand to be corrected but fat people need no prefferential treatment. Apart from a clinically diagnosed disease such as hypothyroidism which is the condition of having an underactive thyroid which can lead to a slower motabolism meaning at takes longer than it would an average person to be broken down, Obesity is caused simply by a lack of excersise and over consumption of food.

There are children who die from mulnutrition, hunger and starvation yet we as a society give soo much attention to obesity invest soo much money on getting people to lose weight there are even television programs such as "The Biggest Loser", which is about contestants competing against each other to see who can lose the most weight, why isn't there a game show called "Feed the Children of the World",which can be about which countries can eleviate poverty the quickest and maybe educate the poor communities while they are at it .

Medical proffesionals everywhere will tell you time and time again the treatment for obesity is and always will be healthy eating and regular exercise that's it, simple. It's hard to put into practice but a simple concept none the less there is no miracle diet. When it comes to starvation on the other hand there is no food available that people can eat, and thats the problem, more money needs to go into agriculture people can't starve to death while money is wasted on getting fat people to lose weight, does this even make sense.

I believe that we are treating symptoms not the root causes here, there is an imbalance of recources countries with more recources that are overconsuming overusing and abusing recouces will have citizens with health problems but it will always be easier to make a gameshow about fat people because somehow we can tell ourselves we are trying to help improve the world, but making a gameshow about starving children with exposed ribs or inflated bellies and flies around their mouths trying to see which ones will gain weight the fastest is a different idea altogether, because then we would be facing the real problem the world would see how truly greedy and selfish and inhumane we are.

3rd world vs Developing

THIRD WORLD OR DEVELOPING

"The Third World is not a reality but an ideology." - Hannah Arendt

Who is Right

I had a brief dicussion with my lecturer where we where trying to define South Africa as either a third world or a developing country. I said third world and she said developing, but before we can say who's right or who's wrong we need to understand what the difference between these two concepts is or if there even is a difference.

The Difference

Countries such as the United States of America, Britain and Japan are seen a developed countries they are characterised by a strong economy,thats growing,they are self-sufficient, they have good infrustructure and a strong currency.

What about us, where do we fit in? John F Kennedy said: "The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning."

Lets Not Lie To Ourselves

Hey we are in the Southern half of the globe, we seek to end injustice tyranny and exploitation, we seek a new beginning, i really think thats us, we can all agree we are not developed so developing or third world that's the question.

The platinum produced in South africa accounts for 80% of the world's output, but still we are not developed. We produce the largest amount of one of the worlds most in demand minerals, and still we are not developed. Isn't that a characteristic of a 3rd world country? take Sierra Leone for example it's a country rich in diamonds, but it is still poor, to me there are no developing countries if a country has natural recources and it still is poor its a third world country.We can't change what we dont acknowledge. i'd love for South Africa to to be a first world, developing or even developed country but we just aren't lets not lie to ourselves.Just because we aren't living in poverty it doesn't mean a large majority of our people are not.



Developing countries don't burn people,

our people are frustrated and disillusioned.





South African citizens drinking stagnant water, very unfirstworld.



 

Overcrowded Prisons

The crisis our prison systems face

Overcroded Prisons in South Africa

THE IDEAL

Among the provisions in the South African Constitution is the right of "Every individual who is

incarcerated, including every sentenced inmate to conditions of detention consistent with

human dignity, including; The provision, at state expense, of suitable accommodation."

THE REALITY

this unfortunately is the ideal not the reality. According to the South African institue for race relations(SAIRR) South Africa has the second highest overcrowded prisons in the world. Society has been conditioned to believe that if you are in prison you deserve to be there and that the more crowded the prisons are the less criminals there are roaming the streets this is a misconception. Kerwin Lebone, a researcher at (SAIRR) says South Africa has the highest number of detained prisoners awaiting trial most due to the lack of funds needed to apply for bail. with an unemployment rate of 24,9% est.2010 and most of our inmates being unemployed and poor what do we expect.The magnitude of the situation might not seem that large but these potentially innocent individuals can he forced to join gangs for fear of losing their lives and end up taking part in illegal activities within the prisons, so even if they where innocent after enough time in the prison they'll be guilty. 

PRISONERS ARE PEOPLE

there are many dangers to having overcrowded prisions such as rioting, the spread of disease, a lack of food and sleeping space. In Honduras a fire killed 350 inmates the problem was attributed to overcrowding which didn't allow for a speedy enough exacuation.The questions we need to ask ourselves are first of all are our prisoners still human beings? If so why do we treat them like animals? and if not then lets all agree to not use the term correctional services but detention centres or concentration camps, are our correctional services just a excuse to to get rid of individuals that don't fit into society?



South African prison life



Source: http:www.csvr.org/docs/correctional/prisionovercrowding.pdf

http://index mundi.com/south_africa/unemployment.rate html

morrisworldnews.com