The data dilemma

Are you addicted to your smartphone? Are you reading this on a mobile device right now? Have you totally learned to take data for granted the way I have in the US?

For the average South African, a smartphone is a huge luxury and data plans are prohibitively expensive. So I found one tech start-up here that's trying to work with that.

Most tech start-ups you hear about, especially in the mobile world, are focused on going more advanced, more hi-tech, more hi-def, etc. Cinemo, on the other hand, is trying to develop something super low-tech. By simplifying streaming and reducing the resolution of videos to the smallest file possible, the Cinemo app is allowing South Africans to watch videos on low-end cell phones for the first time. For a lot of people, that could mean much easier access to media.

Here's a video I made about it.

Watch this video on News24.

Wine tasting

Guess how much it costs for a flight of six delicious wines at a beautiful, idyllic vineyard in the winelands outside of Cape Town. Two dollars!

If that didn't make you salivate, check out the pictures.

(You should see a photo slideshow here. If you don't see it, update your Flash settings or click here.)

Two potrayals of townships

Here are two musical portrayals of South African township* life.

The first, by Dr. Malinga and DJ Vetkuk, is a song I've actually heard played whenever I've been into a township. It seems to be extremely popular. It makes township life look pretty festive, if a little difficult.




The second song is by the controversial Afrikaans rap/rave group, Die Antwoord. The band has an international cult following and they are known worldwide for being really freaky.

A month ago I would have just thought this was a weird song starring some creepy people, but my time in Cape Town has taught me enough about South African gang culture to pick up on some of what they're talking about here.

The American flags scattered throughout the video have little to do with the actual USA, and more to do with the biggest and most notorious gang in Cape Town who call themselves "The Americans."

You'll also hear references to the "26's," "27's," and "28's," in this song. Those are the three major prison gangs in the area.



*Townships are a communities on the outskirts of South Africa's major cities. Townships have their roots in the days when the laws of this country dictated who could live where according to race and/or social status. Those laws are gone, but the communities, and the systematically created racial divisions largely remain. Townships can be nice, middle class communities, but oftentimes townships have third world conditions. Some townships near Cape Town are especially notorious for gang violence and drug trade.

South African New Jerseyans

Ain't globalization funny?

Living in the US, it's so easy to start thinking that there's nothing outside the borders of our country. We turn on the TV and see American actors, we get our coffee from an American chain, we shop (for products made in China) at American stores. I end up spending so little time thinking about other countries while I'm in the US, that when I do travel abroad I always feel surprised and a little guilty when I find out how much time the rest of the world spends thinking about us.

I arrived in Cape Town shortly after the country's first Burger King opened just down the street from my office (past the McDonald's and KFC) and a month later, people are still lined up out the door waiting to try their first Whopper. I have had conversations with South Africans about Paula Deen, Kim Kardashian, and Sarah Palin.

"Yeah...when I hang out with you guys I feel like I'm in a TV show," our Australian friend, Erin, remarked to me and my fellow Yankees the other day, when we were talking about the presence of American media overseas.

Yet, for the ubiquitousness of most parts of American culture, it's always interesting to find out which things don't make it overseas. A South African I talked to could quote Jon Stewart, but had never heard of Stephen Colbert, for example.

How different would life be if the majority of the media you consumed was produced internationally? When I turn on my little TV here, on one channel "Master Chef: Austrailia" will come on, followed by the American sitcom "Two Broke Girls," followed by a very intense and emotional-sounding Afrikaans drama series. The commercials in-between will often advertise American or other international products but will be voiced by a South African.

I spend a lot of time pondering this stuff, so it was a little surreal, but not necessarily surprising, when my boss spun around in his chair on Tuesday and asked me if I wanted to go take photos of a new Broadway show that had just arrived in Cape Town: "Jersey Boys."  As is often the practice with Broadway, the producers of the show shipped the concept overseas, but hired a local cast. So the show I saw was the same script, music, choreography and technical design as one might have seen on in New York in 2005, but it was performed by South Africans. So I was a Californian journalist, sitting in a Cape Town opera house snapping pictures of South African performers in a New York production which tells the story of an internationally famous singing group from New Jersey.

For the most part, the show seemed to be well received, though I did notice I was the only person who laughed at a line in the play about a 1960s model Cadillac. "It's a great car! It gets almost eight miles-per-gallon." Since they use neither miles nor gallons as forms of measurement in most parts of the world, that joke gets lost in translation.

Most of the rest translated though...even through the South African actors' slightly awkward-sounding attempts at New Jersey accents.

See the rest of my photos from the production on News24.

The climb

Today is Wednesday and yet my legs are still tired from the events of Monday.

Blessed with a beautiful, sunny day and a day off from work for the national holiday Youth Day (commemorating the Soweto uprising in 1976), my comrades and I decided it was time to do something outdoorsy: conquer Lion's Head.

Lion's Head is a very steep rock (seen from the top of Table Mountain in this picture)  that protrudes out of the earth from the center of Cape Town.

It is, indeed, as steep as it looks.

The hike begins on a relatively flat trail, but one quickly finds oneself having to climb ladders, chains, and enormous boulders. It's a good thing I wore relatively stretchy pants. If I been faced with such a rock climbing challenge by myself I probably would have sighed and turned back saying to myself, "Oh well, it simply can't be done."

But I wasn't by myself, in fact, being a holiday, there were quite a few people around to witness my lack of rock climbing skills. While I kept pausing to divert my thoughts away from the image of tumbling to my rocky demise, I was being passed on the trail regularly by young kids, their white-haired grandparents, and Graham, who was making the ascent with a bottle of wine in one hand.

A sympathetic boy no more than about 11 years-old, who was scaling the rocks with the nimble-footedness of a mountain goat, reached down to give me a hand at one point.

We did eventually make it to the top. Unfortunately, Graham's wine was warm by that time.

(You should see a photo slideshow here. If you don't see it, update your Flash settings or click here.)

The Garden

South Africa's Western Cape is full of natural beauty, so it isn't very surprising that Capetonians are pretty proud of the scenery. One place that is very treasured by the locals is the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, a lush, beautiful park just on the other side of Table Mountain. It so happens that Kirstenbosch Garden is celebrating 100 years this July, so I jumped at the chance to make a video about the anniversary for News24. It took a few weeks to find a day when I could get to the Garden with my video equipment when it wasn't too rainy, but last Wednesday I finally made it. Cherise, Kirstenbosch's senior horticulturist, was very helpful in telling me about the Garden's history, and showing me all of the prettiest spots for filming.

Watch the video on News24

The post about food

I wasn't really sure what the food would be like in South Africa before I came here. I had never heard of a "South African" restaurant, and guidebooks don't delve too deeply into details about the country's cuisine. I realized quickly when I arrived here that that probably has a lot to do with the fact that "South African" food is a lot like "American" food; that is, it includes a little of everything. Like the US, South Africa spent a long time as a colony of another place, and much of the society is made up of people who immigrated here from a variety of places, and all that is reflected in the food.

Like any former British colony, South Africa seems to have a fondness for fish n' chips and spongy desserts described as "puddings." But the cuisine is far more international than just that. In Cape Town I've eaten wood-fired, thin crust pizza, great sushi, dirt-cheap Indian food, Turkish meze sampler platters, Thai curries, American style  burgers, French pastries and fresh Greek salads. Usually I scoff at the idea that good Mexican food can be found anywhere outside of Los Angeles (illogical, I know) but the grocery store here even carries guacamole and salsa that aren't too shabby.

Only when I have stepped into the super cheesy tourist magnet restaurants have I eaten anything claiming to be "African."

There is one food item that I have seen consistently in almost every single restaurant in Cape Town, however. One food that seems to unite all forms of South African food.

That thing is butternut squash.

I have eaten more butternut squash in the last four weeks than I think I have eaten in my entire life. I have eaten it in pasta, on pizza (surprisingly great!), in salads, in sandwiches, on veggie burgers, as a side dish, as a soup, and as a main course served whole and stuffed with other vegetables. For the occasional meal when I don't eat butternut squash, it's usually just because I've grown tired of it and pick the rare vegetarian menu item that isn't butternut-based. 

I like butternut squash, but whoa...South Africans LOVE butternut squash.

The odd thing is, they don't admit it. I've asked several people if butternut squash is the national vegetable or some kind of mascot for the ANC political party, but the most insight I've heard from anyone seems to be, "Huh, yeah, I guess it is pretty popular."

No one seems to admit, though, that the orangey vegetable seems to be about as popular in South African restaurants as plates.

I guess there's a chance I've gotten this all wrong and I've somehow gotten a very skewed impression of Cape Town dining, but I don't feel that bad about it--mostly because I know that Capetonians have a hilariously skewed view of American food too. There are no Starbucks here, they only just got their first Burger King, you can't get black or pinto beans anywhere, but on every other street corner of the city, one American chain is very popular and as a result is bearing a disproportionate amount of the responsibility of representing American food to South Africans: KFC.