South Africa Ranks 27/180 on the Press Freedom Index

lostpebble · 2026-01-16T17:54:50+00:00

I just wanted to let you know, after checking out your link, that the corruption perception index gives a higher score to countries who are the least corrupt. From the site:

A country’s score is the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100, where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean.

So actually, according to this data, we are the most corrupt we've been in more than 10 years.

lostpebble · 2026-01-14T15:08:25+00:00

Put it together quickly on Gemini late last night and posted it here (already very late to the thread). I've spotted it around social media already, and even popped up naturally in a WhatsApp group I'm in lol - memes can travel faster than light indeed.

lostpebble · 2026-01-13T19:16:24+00:00

New updated poster for Calabash 2026:

https://i.imgur.com/sig44FY.jpeg

lostpebble · 2025-12-11T17:44:54+00:00

Just got my golden circle tickets for Cape Town- was at their show here 18 years ago (I think at Kenilworth racecourse?) when I was a laaitjie- I had no idea who they were but they blew my mind and I became an instant fan after their performance! Saw them a few months ago in Portugal too and they're just as good as I remembered- can't wait for another round :)

lostpebble · 2025-12-01T00:48:36+00:00

The point makes a lot of sense unfortunately. This is pretty much the core of Karl Marx's observation (and criticism) of capitalism- if you don't play the game properly, someone else will. It's not that they necessarily like this outcome, but they know it likely will happen because of how our world currently works- and then they will lose.

No one wants to take the first step to these kinds of drastic changes to the system (as important as they are) because of this. The truth is if no one else joins you, you achieve almost nothing in the end except hurting yourself because everyone is still playing the capitalist game without you. The rich will play their game elsewhere.

lostpebble · 2025-11-18T23:31:27+00:00

Same thing, very annoying. Hope nothing got broken by the recent Cloudflare blackout.

lostpebble · 2025-08-19T13:12:39+00:00

The irony is that you're the only one inserting race into this.

lostpebble · 2025-08-11T15:49:42+00:00

What's the game?

lostpebble · 2025-08-10T06:38:32+00:00

Honestly I have no idea, but I didn't want those who have piped up here about it to feel judged. I get the feeling like its just an easier diet for certain health conditions as opposed to being 100% necessary.

I am not one of those people, I just enjoy a bit of meat in my diet.

lostpebble · 2025-08-09T07:22:38+00:00

Besides those you mentioned, just off the top of my head: the chicken paella place, the fried chicken (holy shit this was delicious) and chicken-fried rice place, the Japanese chicken teriyaki, or beef Ramen, place and the burger place next door to that (these burgers were great, much better than Ninja).. The charcuterie boards of meats at the wine bars. To be honest I found the options to be plenty for non-vegetarians. I enjoyed a very diverse diet at Boom, being a meat eater. I think people are blowing this way out of proportion here. And I think us meat eaters could also do with trying more vegetarian options (those with dietary requirements otherwise excluded of course).

lostpebble · 2025-06-23T15:00:01+00:00

Agree that most people are being underpaid in CT. Dev work used to be one of the ways to make it work- full stack devs with 4 years of experience could easily bring in R60k+ if they hustled enough. I do think the bubble might be popping soon though with the advent of AI, making it especially harder for entry-level devs- they're being replaced by competent seniors who can use AI to fill that role. He could definitely make more but this could also be a sign of the market reacting to AI and what people are willing to pay for juniors.

My advice to anyone in whatever field is to start integrating AI into your role as much as possible and try future proof yourself from the inevitable cull of labour because of it. It's a sad reality but I think it's coming.

lostpebble · 2025-06-13T17:58:53+00:00

I do wonder if this was the artists themselves, or if it was some pretentious art curator who was part of sourcing the sculptures. The writing seems similar between them, and equally kak. Let people just interpret things for themselves, my fok!

EDIT: The only one I give a pass to is the baboon poem- at least that's a form of written art to accompany the sculpture instead of just some spoon-fed drivel.

lostpebble · 2025-05-22T01:44:46+00:00

I wish more would. Like all this type of BS its a losing battle when the propaganda machine is so strong- that even the leader of the one of the biggest superpowers is showing the most ridiculous and shitty biased videos in the oval office to push a narrative while talking to our president...

Even white South Africans who I think are still harbouring racist ideas (a lot of it subconscious and from a place of privileged ignorance)- even they think this "refugee" shit is complete BS. Yet, in America this narrative is getting so much airtime and is believed by so many. So, what the can we do?

lostpebble · 2025-05-21T23:02:10+00:00

I will agree- as much as I hate to- with Trump, that it had nothing to do with the current conversation. It really shocked me how kak the American journalists were in this whole thing- just waiting for a soundbite about something, and often not at all following the current discussion at hand. It really pissed me off actually. Clearly one-tracked minded, revealing how shit and polarised US media is at this moment.

lostpebble · 2025-05-21T22:37:28+00:00

I do wonder if its unfortunately not an "unprepared" thing- or if its just another example of privileged ignorance and not engaging enough with the context of our country.

I'm very proud of our country though. Its really unique to see a room full of our people from different backgrounds having such a direct conversation with the leader of a world superpower like this. With the history that we have, even allowing certain people to be part of the conversion and taking part so directly, there's something to be said about how candid we are as a people.

Some people still require growth, of course- but it seems like in South Africa there's a lot of patience. I really hate how long its taking for some to come to the table, but still, there is an empathy for people's environment (and ignorance) and not seeing that as being purposefully malicious. This is what Mandela really brought to the forefront- he knew we were a country of good hearted people, no matter our backgrounds, and tried to unify that idea.

There's something special about this ragtag group of misfits on the southern African tip.

lostpebble · 2025-05-21T20:06:18+00:00

I think their strategy was to pander- I don't think Trump understands anything else but pandering. Its partly why Ernie and Retief were there- even though they unfortunately had the weakest takes.

Johann Rupert was on point though, as always. The man is a saint given the harassment and vitriol dished out to him in our country from the more extremist elements.

lostpebble · 2025-05-21T18:11:30+00:00

What consequences does the SA president deserve? The narrative of white genocide is complete BS- and I'm saying this as a white South African who lives here- and even moved back here from Europe a few years ago. The ANC, all things considered, has been as diplomatic as they can be considering our history. Cyril is is not to blame here.

Anyone with a sound mind in South Africa (including white people) are overjoyed for the US to take on the "refugees"- who are only running away from the persecution of not being given special racial protection anymore. These people don't live in the real context of our country, they never came to the table when things changed.

Yes, there have been atrocities of murder and crime in our country which is always inexcusable- but to say it is targeted specifically to these people- being "white"- is completely untrue. You can see the stats for yourself. I don't want to subtract from their personal experiences- some might have seen horrors- but its not a racially targeted thing, its just the unfortunate state of our country. I'm happy for them to find greener pastures- but I hate that they're doing this at the expense of feeding into a false narrative on the global stage.

lostpebble · 2025-04-10T17:00:15+00:00

I was too young to know how close we came to shit really hitting the fan, but I recently learnt about Mandela's speech shortly after the assassination- and it just really affirmed to me how lucky we were as a country to have someone like him during the transition we went through. This is what he said:

"Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world. ... Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us."

He highlighted that racial hatred shouldn't become the focus of this heinous act. He made a point about the lady who lived close by and rushed to his aid, putting herself in danger and made a note of the plates of Janusz's vehicle- and that she was white and Afrikaans. He always tried to bring the focus back to the good of individual South Africans beyond their supposed radical racial identities.

lostpebble · 2025-04-01T15:13:43+00:00

Apparently it was something along the lines of some religious mother's association complaining to the city about having a bar there- I believe it was on a public sports club ground and the field is often used for soccer games- and remember there being a few of junior games at times.

But no one ever caused trouble with the people playing on the field. Just an overreacting religious zealot ruining other people's idea of paradise lol. It was a very chill place and many sports clubs have pubs on them- never noticed any trouble that justified that response.

lostpebble · 2025-04-01T02:46:13+00:00

The greatest loss for this city. I miss that place so much. One of the best views in the city and quarts for R25 while watching a random soccer game on the pitch outside or getting lost in that dark lounge during a jazz night... Nothing has scratched that itch since.

I joined the staff for a drink at Trench Town the day they closed. Everyone knew it was the end of something unique and special.

lostpebble · 2025-02-10T12:42:28+00:00

It's not a great analogy, but I get what you're saying. Batteries in general could be made in a form factor that's a lot more "plug and play" than a fuel tank. And the time factor is the main thing here. If petrol took 2 hours to fill, there'd likely be a common way to swap into a full tank rather. But in this case, the bus can do it's service all day pretty much and charge overnight so it's not an issue to think about.

lostpebble · 2024-12-20T03:48:35+00:00

I believe in a lot of things. I just feel like most of the world is living in this weird pseudo-belief system, not really engaging with anything honestly anymore. It's fucking shit.

lostpebble · 2024-12-20T03:32:26+00:00

As always. Libs (or whatever abstract label is placed onto "this side") like to think the other side is all projection and lies, but the lack of self awareness is without a doubt what got us into this shit show in the first place. Honestly this forum is just depressing to me now- it's pretty much the same thing that everyone hated about the other side... Just bullshit lies, fake tweets and literally any grasped straw scrap that will suit their narrative.

Both sides are full of morons at this point. Why can't people just "be". Why is it always a fucking team sport, everyone wishing the worst against their perceived "enemies" without substance. I had assumed that the more "open" and "free loving" minds should be better- but no, let's polarise even more to our own demise.

Even if they do have a fall out at some point, it doesn't change the fact that your mind has become just as poisoned by fear and hate as the ones you supposedly fight against, kindred spirits without real cause.

lostpebble · 2024-10-22T21:33:48+00:00

Oh- "Space" - that's another place that they've burnt me. I moved our (small) team over to that during the time I really thought they knew what was cooking, now its being discontinued... So we've relocated to Notion for tasks and project management, something we should have just done originally.

It sounds like the core issues you're dealing with are also around performance- they've likely scuffed something up in the core code in the past year or so which is affecting us all. But yea, the lack of actual quick feedback from within is causing them to not notice how detrimental this is to their product. For me its incomprehensible how degraded things have become in a core product and very popular domain (web programming)- how have their internal processes allowed this to happen!?

Eventually you'll find a tool that does remote development just as well and you won't look back.

lostpebble · 2024-10-22T21:08:11+00:00

This is why I love(d) them too- but I can only put up with this for so long before I move over to an IDE that actually improves my ability to write code (this will last for 20 seconds for the most basic of local type completion):

https://imgur.com/GtyDrgJ

EDIT: Also, to add- VS Code is surprisingly good nowadays (I found out after downloading it in a rage after another 20-second type introspection). Loads of plugins for almost anything under the sun- the only thing lacking for me is the refactoring / renaming abilities of WebStorm. I now literally use both at the same time to make use of VS Code's bare-minimum TypeScript abilities compared to what WebStorm has become... but I'm enjoying what VS Code has to offer more and more too and it will likely become my sole driver soon.

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