Category Archives: Technology & Business

IT systems within large enterprises have done wonders to improve the efficiencies, resulting in great cost-savings, yet with unquestioned social effects.

The writing site, Substack, has taken the world by storm. At a time when everyone thought blogging and online writing was dead, superseded by YouTube, Substack came along and solved the problems of discovery and monetisation. Their feed and recommendations have allowed many to discover interesting writers that they wouldn’t have ordinarily found out about. And their subscription model where writers can earn money from their writing through a paying audience has provided an incentive to people to write and build up their audiences. Except if they’re in Africa.

A few months ago, I was on a Microsoft Teams call. As one sometimes does to distract themselves from looking at their own face, I started clicking buttons around the Teams call window. I found an interesting one directing me to a “Speaker Coach”. Clicking on it, The AI^TM started listening to me talk during the call.

On the evening of Sunday 6 August 2023, my wife and I were on a flight back to Johannesburg from Heathrow Airport, London. After boarding, the flight remained on the runway for over an hour without taking off. Eventually, the pilot told us that due to the coup in Niger, the airspace over the country had been closed, and we couldn’t take the pre-planned route. Also, we were informed that we should find our own accommodation and claim it back from the airline, as we wait for further instructions by text message or email.

In mid-April 2023, Sudan was plunged into civil war. The para-military group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was formed during the war in Darfur, outside the control of the national army for “special operations”. Because they weren’t under the leadership of the army, normal war protocol was not followed, and large scale atrocities were committed, more than would be expected under normal war conditions. Over the years, the RSF has grown in power within the country, and this reached its inevitable climax in a clash between the leader of RSF Mohamed Hamdan, and the army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Loadshedding has hit South Africa in a bad way. Interruptions to electricity has disrupted businesses and resulted in unanticipated cost increases from those who have had to find alternative sources of electricity. 16 years ago, it was unimaginable that we would have some days with 11 and a half hours of no electricity on a regular basis. Personal and corporate routines were formed on the presupposition that there would be a constant and reliable supply of electricity. Yet now, if one’s area timetable ushers in darkness at 8pm, then for many it is an inconvenient early bedtime.

There are a plethora of ways to communicate online, both with people you know, and people you’ve never met. But something the makers of these tools fail to mould to, is the social hierarchy and human structures in which they are used. There are three examples that come to mind.