A very welcome addition to the South African internet landscape is a new satire site that calls itself Hayibo. I have no idea who runs it, or who writes it, but it’s generally pretty funny stuff. Witness its take on the South African blackouts, for example:

Eskom vows to keep lights on, will burn Zim banknotes

Embattled power distributor Eskom has won the praise of government after vowing to keep rolling blackouts to a minimum by burning Zimbabwean banknotes in some of its coal-fired power stations. […]

If you’re casting about for ways to spend a dreary (and intermittently dark) Monday afternoon, you could do worse than idly browsing your way over there.

This column was first published in Maverick magazine of 1 November 2007, lightly edited and heavily hyperlinked for your convenience. Maverick is an old-fashioned print-media business publication in South Africa that does old-fashioned things like pay writers, so if you’d consider subscribing you’d be doing me (and the magazine) an old-fashioned favour.

The nice thing about idiots and their fellow travellers is how easy they are to spot. A brilliant example is Canadian superstar, Naomi Klein.

Naomi Klein just wrote a shocking new book. It is bound to make her a fortune.

She gained a good measure of fame at age 30 by writing a sort of little red book for the Battle of Seattle anti-globalisation movement. No Logo was a bold, broad tirade against brands and their owners.

Of course, she could only “take aim” at them (in her rather aggressive term) because she could identify them. They are big-brand organisations in the first place, and their reputations make big targets for the likes of Klein. Hers was no denunciation of Maxi’s Mini Meat Market, Randy’s Rural Rod & Reel, or Sam’s Suburban Suburban Sales. She was bullying the “brand bullies”: Nike and McDonalds, Microsoft and Pepsi, companies whose very brand profile give consumers immense power over them.

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