Marion's Chat

GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATORS WHO CAN'T COMMUNICATE

2008-06-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

GOVERNMENT NEEDS DRASTIC TRAINING IN COMMUNICATING
They have an entire department dedicated to it. They have thousands of employees paid to do it. Their public are waiting to hear it. The media are dying to be part of it. But unless it has anything to do with where, why and how a particular minister spent his day or which country our president is visiting – if it’s Wednesday it must be Japan – then they don’t do it – COMMUNICATE!
A perfect example is the communication around the xenophobia issue. One minister says xenophobia doesn’t exist it’s all down to criminality – whilst her colleague ten minutes later in the same building refutes this by saying ‘xenophobia is live and well and living in South Africa’. Another minister says if only they had known something about this problem beforehand they could have taken action – whilst our information minister says ‘yes, of course he knew something about it beforehand’. Pity he didn’t tell his boss Thabo, before he went on television and even smiled (a rare occurrence) when he said ‘If we knew about nobody told me – shame someone should tell him’.
This will be my third year taking part in the Wits Business School’s Government Communicators Course – teaching them about dealing with the media. It’s a little depressing facing yet another group of these people, when I know that despite what myself and other trainers teach them, they’ll probably be blocked by red tape a mile long within their respective departments anyway. At least that’s what they tell me.
But perhaps I should take hope because during a conversation I had with the CEO of Government Communication and Information Systems, the genial Themba James Maseko he did assure me that things would change. But then again a colleague said he made the same statement two years ago…

A POSITIVE VIEW OF SA FROM A YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

2008-05-13T03:21:00.000-07:00

AWESOME SA
Yesterday I had the amazing experience of interviewing 28 year old Durbanite Julia Holley, a brand manager at Unilever SA. From the minute she came on the phone I could feel the energy and enthusiasm she has, not just for her work, but her life.
I was interviewing her for a piece I’m doing to go with the June 16th commemorations by interviewing different young professionals and how they see their lives today. Julia told me how, quite soon after finishing her studies, she landed a job with SA Breweries as international marketing manager and found herself living and working in London, being sent around Europe to promote such trendy brands as Peroni and Brutal Fruit and of course Castle. For a young girl in her early twenties this should have been paradise – but was it?
“From an experience point of view it was amazing, but the life there… I felt in London you live for your holidays whereas here your life is like a holiday! Here’s an excerpt from an article she recently wrote for the website: www.homecomingrevolution.co.za.
Whilst I had a great time, I missed the sunshine, the smiles and the generous spirit of our people. I missed Pronutro, Ouma Rusks, hadeda’s and the simple freedom of space. I missed giggling at the physically disabled beggars at the robots who occasionally forget their disabilities and run with ease to the side of the road to count their collections! Most importantly I missed the opportunity to be an active part of a country the rest of the world is eagerly watching. It is a known fact that the brain drain is a big problem in South Africa. I came home after a year in London because I didn’t want to be another skilled South African who chose to leave our country and criticise the government and talk about the atrocities of crime from a million miles away.
The truth is that South Africa is not the same country that it was in the past. Gone are the days when people could scrape past in school and university and then expect a top job at the best corporate. It’s a competitive market out there and there are thousands of previously disadvantaged individuals who are really hungry to make it big. I can guarantee you there will always be jobs for talented and ambitious individuals, no matter your skin colour. If you have the right attitude, with energy and enthusiasm there will always be opportunity for you.
South Africans have chutspa and vavavoom. South Africans love life. We are not afraid of laughing at ourselves. South Africans are innovators and adventurers. We challenge convention and are not afraid of standing up for what is right.
What a pleasure and inspiration to meet such a young woman – I really needed to share this with others.
www.mediamentors.co.za

Cape Town's short power crisis

2008-04-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

CAPE TOWN – WHAT DID THEY DO RIGHT TO ESKOM?

I’m currently at my Cape Town flat and this morning had what us Jo’burgers are getting used – a power outage. But this was different to Jo’burg ‘cos it went off at 8am and came back on at 10am. And we did what most normal Capetonians would do in such a situation. Find a café that has gas to have a long breakfast and wait ‘til the lights come on before going back to work.

Now when you think about it this is ironic ‘cos everyone knows that Capetonians don’t work as hard as we do in the city of gold – so how come they have shorter power cuts? Is it to do with the proximity of the sea and much loved mountains? Or is it just that most of our politicians are down here? And that brings me to a pressing question – do they have blackouts in parliament? Noone’s asked that – or perhaps they have and it went in a David Bullard column for this week’s Sunday Times. Anyway the power’s back on, the sun is shining and with a two hour breakfast behind me I’ve kinda lost the urge to work. That’s what probably happens to our politicians also – again the ocean and mountains could be to blame. After all take them away and what’ve you got – Capetonian drivers!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS

2008-03-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

Being blessed to be a mother to one of each sex has been an interesting journey. From the minute they're born you notice the difference - not just the obvious biological one! Little boys reach out to toy cars and go brum, brum before they can even say mama and little girls will pick up a doll and hug it to their chests lovingly, while muttering unintelligble things in its ear. Then as they grow up the differences grow - little boys don't mind being dirty, in fact the dirtier the better, whereas little girls like to be clean and care about what you dress them in. I thought this would change as my son got older but taking, my now 20 year old son shopping, I realise nothing's changed. We wonder through Edgars and I say "Isn't there anything you need". Giving a cursory glance around he answers "No, not really." This is repeated in about three different shops - we were in fact looking for flip flops which is his general shoewear all year around, along with his tatty shorts. What struck me as so different is if I'd had my 18 year old daughter with me and taken her through the same shops my credit card would have been seriously damaged. He did give in to some new underwear, which was odd as I'd bought him some quite recently. "Where was it," I enquired? Not in some girl's res room as I was wondering, but "with all the lost socks - wherever they go". Girls would never lose their underwear - at least not in this way...

www.mediamentors.co.za

COOKING BY PHONE..

2008-03-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

It had to happen - son moves from res to digs at UCT and the inevitable phone call comes. "Mum, how do you cook mince?" Now this, as any self respecting cook will know, is a tricky question. After all having grown up on school lunches in the UK, until I was around 20 I thought all mince was grey... It turned out he was making his six housemates tacos, so at least he had some vague instructions on the box, together with a packet of herbs and some sauce. "Ok, Rob chop up three onions and cook them slowly 'til they're brown." "That's easy," came the confident reply. "Good - then when that's done add your mince, turn up the light and cook 'til it's brown and then add some chopped tomatoes, tomato puree".. and I gave him the rest of the recipe. An hour went by before my phone beeped with a 'please call me' - students don't actually make phone calls to their parents, just please call me's. "How do you know when mince is brown?" came the question. Now to most people this would be obvious, but unfortunately my son inherited my father's colour blindness. "How long have you been 'browning' boy?" "Quite a while," came the reply. I could almost see the greyness before me. I then advised him to immediately chuck everything else him, turn it down after it had come to the boil and hope for the best." A while went by before the next phone call "How do you know how much salt to put in". An emergency light went on in my mind with a vision of him adding it by the tablespoon - I quickly asked "You haven't put any in yet have you?" "No, not yet". He was quite surprised when I suggested adding it very slowly. A couple of hours later I got an sms "Dinner worked out well" luv yu, Rob." Can't wait for the next lesson - hope it's not curry.

Jargon - the curse of the 21st century!

2008-03-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

Just recently I gave a workshop to the communications department of one of SA's top companies. Before the course they sent me a sample of their in house publications which I ploughed through - ploughed being the operative word here. Apart from the usual dreaded 'hatched, matched and despatched' there was a collection of jargon second to none. When I went through these with them they were rolling about laughing - but when I told them I took them from their publications they looked a bit surprised. Is it because we've got so used to using these ridiculous expressions in our everyday lives that we don't even notice them anymore? Here's just a sample of some of them.

•deployed – exacerbated – full complement of – interventions – channel contributions – integral – culture of inclusion – sustainable – diversity - inclusion on a global basis – meritocracy – embedded – impacted severely – non-conformances – tasked with – economic imperative.

Can you imagine if we all talked this way. You'd say to your partner 'So darling, do you think we should have a little diversity tonight and have the Jones's around - or maybe we should just stay embedded at home, but this could severely impact on our economic imperatives and lead us to a culture of inclusion - so maybe we should look at something more sustainable...

Doesn't anyone speak English anymore?

The silly season

2007-11-30T02:02:00.000-08:00

THE SILLY AND COSTLY SEASON

Ok – so we all know about the silly season – but how do we let it happen? For a start it was definitely the wrong time for me to go on diet for a start, but hey, who’s perfect? But apart from going to wall to wall ‘end of year’ parties – not Christmas anymore, that’s politically incorrect (read Primedia aren’t even having a year end party for fear of offending religious minorities) what about the money spent on pressies? Now I’m not talking pressies for family here – just gifts for clients and people who do services for you during the year. The problem here for me is there just doesn’t seem to be anywhere between a classy Carol Boyes gift and Mr Price Home and Clicks! My poor credit card has motion sickness and I’m scared to go online in case when I ‘log on’ to my bank site it starts flashing red at me…

I don’t know if anyone saw this snippet that was taken from the Bus Times Money Club section a few weeks back but I thought someone might like to use it:

“I have received your rather stern letter demanding payment from me for the last month. I would like, however, to inform you that I have many such organisations to whom I owe money and am unable to meet all these payments each month. I therefore place all my creditors’ names in a hat and draw those out for whom I can pay that month. I wish to advise you that, due to the rather rude tone of your letter, you will now not be included in the next three draws.”

For more on Marion go to www.mediamentors.co.za

MY FRIEND ZUMA

2007-11-29T01:38:00.000-08:00

OK – so it looks as thought no matter how much we can’t comprehend how anyone can actually want an ‘alleged’ rapist and fraudster as our next President the chances are quite strong that this could happen. So being the eternal optimist I tried to look at the positives here. Firstly what does JZ have going for him? Well, for a start his passport doesn’t have as many exit visas as his current boss. Secondly he values education – after all he would even ‘borrow’ money from a friend to send his 19 children to good schools! He appreciates the finer things in life – and his investment in homes, cars and bodyguards – not to mention Hugo Boss clothes all go towards our GDP!

He also smiles a lot – and is not frightened to get involved in a sing along, especially if the topic is machines guns. He also likes young people – especially entertaining them in his home and will even be willing to tuck them up at night!

So maybe we must suck it up and wait and see how it goes? But then ‘my sources’ assure me he won’t get past the Courtroom and these sources have never been wrong yet…

More about Marion at www.mediamentors.co.za

'JUST WHO WINS?

2007-11-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

I can’t resist it – spend x amount on your credit card this month and you’re in line to win…. Send the following numbers in to this cell number and ‘win a luxury stay at …. Enter the draw for this car now and drive away tomorrow…

The thing is do people actually win these things or are they just set up for us gullible few? A friend of mine a few years ago worked on ‘below the line’ marketing, his speciality being setting up competitions. This was pre email days and he told me that very often people don’t enter because they think they’re going to be one of millions entering, when in fact only a hundred or so do enter. And so who wins? He said in those days they’d often pick the envelope or card that looked the best – stickers and stars adorning it. But how do you do this with an sms or how does your account get drawn out.

Mind you a friend of mine did win her groceries free at Woolies the other day. Now that could be great couldn’t it? But how much had she spent? R153 00! She did tell the cashier her other trolley was coming now…

I want to know if you know anyone out there who’s won lately?

Marion
www.mediamentors.co.za

GLITTER IN THE MORNINGS

2007-11-21T21:05:00.000-08:00

Now everyone knows the famous poem about wearing purple when you get older, but what about glitter in the morning I ask? The other day I met an interesting lady at the hairdresser and whilst we were both getting rid of tell tale grey hairs – her going jet black and me my usual browny, reddy look, we chatted amiably about: my forthcoming trip to Cape Town and her grown up grandchildren. “Grown up grandchildren?” I enquired - thinking I hadn’t heard right, after all she looked about 50. Turns out she has a son of 43 who was born when she was a mere 20 year old, which even with my journalist’s maths meant that she was 63. Now this is where the story becomes interesting – she took off her black plastic hairdresser’s gown and revealed a silver beaded vest to go with her dangly silver earrings and silver sandals! And we’re not talking delicate tiny beads here – but massive circles of plastic silver! Quite a few heads turned in the direction of her dazzling display – some disapproving at such a show of glitz at 10 am on a Thursday morning – Ok, I’ll admit it, I was initially one of them. But then I thought about it and came up with the assertion that she had guts and the style to carry it off – and maybe that was the secret to looking 13 years younger than you were!

I mean who was it anyway that decreed it fashion suicide to wear glitter in the mornings? Why should we only sparkle at night? Then this morning it all came together for me. I was buying fish at Dunkeld West Shopping Centre when I walked past a shop called Prazzelle which stocks dazzle clothes – in fact there’s so much sparkle in this shop that you could probably light up a small country with its contents.

But the question is – did I rush in and buy beaded jeans and a top? Well no, not yet – but I’m working on it…

For more on Marion go to www.mediamentors.co.za

VIRGIN BLOG

2007-11-21T01:18:00.000-08:00

So ok, it’s taken me a while to get around to blogging but I’m finally here. The thing is what to write about? I spend my life writing – it’s what pays the bills, but it’s usually what my editors or companies want me to write about. This is weird – here I am, for the first time in 20 years of journalism and I can write about anything I like. Moan about anyone or anything I want. Go off at the world or just stick to good old Zuma and Manto, with a rant about SA rugby and the price of petrol thrown in… Nah – I’ll leave that to other journos.

I could write about being a mum to a 20 and 17 year old – a whole story in itself, but people without kids particularly find that more than a bit boring. Then again there’s useful tips picked up on a daily basis – really useful stuff like how to get dog pee out of carpets or where to get a really authentic Margarita. I could also write endlessly about acquaintances who are getting divorced, got divorced or are simply sleeping with additional partners – but if you don’t know the people concerned then also -not so interesting.

Looking at my life in the last week I do think, if anything, it’s a bit of a comedy – not at the time, but looking back… Monday was no internet – which lasted ‘til Wednesday, meaning Telkom is improving. I have to say that as they’re clients of mine. Then Tuesday no cellphone – battery problems and as it’s a newish cell phone didn’t want to fork out for a new battery. Wednesday – 3G card which I had to use as I didn’t have internet, wouldn’t let me send emails, only receive them – bummer when you’re trying to put a corporate newsletter together. Thursday – things started to look up – even went to tea at The Westcliff Hotel – great view, rip off on the food. Then TGIF – a drive to the hairdresser and boom, a silly woman (being polite for the sake of minors who may read this) went right thru a stop street and into the side of Polly – my new Polo! Her words of remorse were ‘sorry’. Sorry! Does she know the hours she cost me trying to make sense of what the woman at Outsurance was trying to tell me – another rip off for a separate blog. Then the drive to be ‘assessed’ and of course five days no car…

Oops, this has become a rant – kinda like it though. It’s therapeutic. Maybe psychologists could recommend it as part of psychotherapy – share your random feelings with anyone bored enough to listen. If that’s you then watch this space.