Posts Tagged ‘government’

Vote smart, vote on April 22nd

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

South AfricaIt becomes increasingly apparent that the South Africa I live in is very different to the South Africa our poor population lives in. This isn’t a happy thought or idea. This is a sad, hard reality that our poor have not benefited from the so called democratic South Africa. As a white, male South African, it’s easy to look at what the government is doing and say they’re more racist than ever. And although there’s an element of truth to the statement it’s a very self centred view. After all most great lies have an element of truth in them.

I was driving my domestic worker, a politically correct word for a maid, to the front of the estate I live in. She had just been paid her wages and wasted no time in opening the envelope and stashing the cash in her clothing. Imagine driving home with the results of a months worth of work and being scared that it could all be stolen. She’s leaving a secure neighbourhood for the shanty jungle. A place where your neighbour steals from you and after recouping your belongings you have to continue living next to the thief.

I am truly privileged. I am one hundred percent against any kind of discrimination, including South Africa’s version of Affirmative Action, but doesn’t it feel stupid to complain about when you have a beautiful home and food on the table?

Elections are coming up, stop letting people brainwash you and vote for the party that’s going to make a difference for all of South Africa, rich and poor. It’s not about making a few more rich people; it’s about increasing the standard of living for all South Africans. Vote smart, vote on April 22nd.

American iTunes Store Account

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

iTunes StoreFor those countries which have iTunes Stores, setting up and purchasing items from the store is simple and easy. You just click sign in, create account, and off you go. But for countries without iTunes Stores, or iTunes Stores which only have certain content, getting the content you want is not so easy.

I doubt there will be anybody who will deny that out of all the iTunes Stores in the world, America has the best selection. So everybody wants an American account, even those that have iTunes stores in their country. For millions of people around the world, piracy is their main music and movie distributor. iTunes provides a simple paying alternative and because of the great content and ease of use many people prefer it to pirating their music. Unfortunately the studios, record labels and governments of the countries around the world don’t seem to see the benefit of making iTunes access a priority when it comes to fighting piracy. So some countries end up with no stores, and others have very little in their stores.

We found a way for anybody, from anywhere, to get an American iTunes store account and buy their music from the best music store in the world. Although what is being done does seem to be a loop hole in law and Apple’s policies, it still feels a little underhanded.

The best acceptable way to get an account is to get an American friend to create one for you with their address and details. If your credit card is not from an American bank you will not be able to register. So the way to get around this is to purchase gift vouchers for the iTunes store account and use those to pay for your music.

It sounds simple enough, but not everybody has a friend in the states, and getting gift cards on the internet can lead to scams. So what do you do? Step in tunecard.biz. A legitimate company that you can buy iTunes gift vouchers from. If you want, they will even set up an account for you.

UPDATE: tunecars.biz has closed down. This may or may not be due to Apple or dodge behavior, or maybe both. The only other way to get the vouchers is to buy them from ebay.com. If you do this, we recommend only buying from Top sellers. Look out for the Top Seller logo next to their name.

iPhoneAll you need is a paypal account and you’re on your way. We decided to give them a test run and see if this was all real. We had to set up a paypal account and get our credit card confirmed which took two days. After that we went through to their site, clicked on the amount we wanted and paid them through paypal. We were then directed to a page which asks for your details so that they could either set up your new account or put money into your existing account. After completion we received a confirmation e-mail from the site, thanking us for our payment. In just two hours we had an e-mail with our new account details. After logging on, our account had already been credited with the amount requested and we were free to download music.

It was simple, easy and the service was fantastic. If you want to pay for your music and have quality albums for great prices this service is your golden ticket. But I can’t stop wondering how legal this process is. After looking into Apple’s policy you can’t begin to deny that this process is not accepted by Apple. Their very first clause is that you must be in the United States to use the service. Here is the excerpt:

U.S. SALES ONLY

Purchases or rentals (as applicable) from the iTunes Store are available to you only in the United States and are not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the iTunes Store from outside of the available territory. Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance.

After further investigation it seems there are very different and confusing tax laws in the different countries. This reason alone is probably good enough to stop outside buyers. So, unfortunately those of us who want to obey the rules have hit another brick wall. Although I think Apple is simply covering themselves from law suits, they can block your access if they catch you. It’s back to the drawing board for those of us who are too impatient to wait for our own great stores.

You are proudly South African when…

Monday, July 21st, 2008

SA FlagYou produce a R100 note instead of your drivers licence when stopped by a traffic officer.

You can do your monthly shopping on the pavement.

You have to hire a security guard whenever you park your car.

You can count the national soccer team’s scores with no fingers.

To get free electricity you have to pay a connection fee of R750

Hijacking cars is a profession.

You can pay your tuition fees by holding up a sign at a traffic light

The petrol in your tank may be worth more than your car.

More people vote in a local reality TV show than in a local election.

People have the most wonderful names:

  • Christmas
  • Goodwill
  • Pretty
  • Wednesday
  • Blessing
  • Brilliant
  • Gift
  • Given

Now now can mean anything from a minute to a month!

You continue to wait after a traffic light has turned to green to make way for taxis travelling in the opposite direction.

Travelling at 120 km/h you’re the slowest vehicle on the highway.

You’re genuinely and pleasantly surprised whenever you find your car parked where you left it.

The last time you visited the coast you paid more in speeding fines and toll fees than you did for the entire holiday.

You paint your cars registration on the roof.

Half your mail is guaranteed to reach its destination.

You have to take your own linen with you if you are admitted to a government hospital.

You dial a toll free number and nobody answers.

You have to prove that you don’t need a loan to get one.

Prisoners go on strike.