Column: The brilliance of Alec Erwin
- This column was first published in ITWeb Brainstorm, a South African business technology magazine, on 1 May 2007. If you’d like to help them pay me, click here to subscribe. It looks better in print anyway.
Ever stared at a problem so long you just know the simple answer is right there, but you just can’t see it? That’s why we have politicians. To be brilliant for us dumb shmucks.
Take telecoms. I mean, here’s a conundrum. Despite all the hard work of Dr (don’t forget the Dr) Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, telecoms prices are way high in South Africa. While the world raced ahead, South Africa went backwards. We’re stuck deep in the last decade, at 1997 or so.
Thabo Mbeki blames Telkom. After all, it didn’t bring down prices, and it could have. It’s only concern has been for profit. How evil. I mean, who among us is ever motivated by profit? You? Anyone? I’m not. I’m a journalist. But Telkom is. Bastards.
