The world has been struggling to shake the flu for almost 2 years. This bug keeps evolving. We are whizzing through the Greek alphabet trying to keep up. We have arrived at the the 15th letter - Omicron. At this rate we will hit the Omega variant by second quarter next year.
The discovery of Omicron heralded a barrage of travel bans. As it turns out, it’s Africa that has been seen as problematic. The first world has closed their borders on us. Other regions where the same variant was found independently did not suffer the same fate. Omicron was spreading in Europe before it was discovered in South Africa. Is anything beneath the dignity of the so called first world? We are racialising a global pandemic that doesn’t even trace its origins to blacks.
It’s another display of how Africa is not treated as a peer by the international community. We deserve more respect and we should act like it. We have all of the world’s resources. We have a great climate and a great geography. We have plenty of manpower and creative energy. We have youth. We do not need anyone. We can sustain ourselves. Accepting handouts shouldn’t be our long-term plan. I’m tired of reading about “poor Africa” from the very same bandits that are making us so. My interest is not in the approval of Europeans. I want Africa and her leaders to move like we have an identity of which we’re proud.
In addition to Covid, It seems the petrol price is also determined to make this one bitter December. If you’re not staying home because of the virus, it’s because of all the price hikes that are associated with going outside. The family Christmas tradition of big feasts may be due for a revision this year. Ngatsi the 25th will just be another Saturday🤞🏾.
Virgil Abloh Was Here
This week Virgil Abloh succumbed to cancer. He had been battling privately with this uniquely aggressive cancer since 2019. You wouldn’t have known it. He was influential in fashion, music, art and identified as a “maker” rather than just a designer. He studied engineering and architecture. He was a successful entrepreneur. Most known for his street fashion brand, “Off-white” and his highly coveted role as creative director at Louis Vuitton. The first black to have a position of this influence in high fashion. He is black excellence.
You know how we detected the 14 billion year old radiation from the Big Bang 50 years ago? I think Virgil’s impact on the world will be equally felt by distant posterity. His was a fierce luminosity of incomparable order.
Jack Dorsey Steps Down
Twitter founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey, tweeted his resignation on Monday. Twitter is a social media platform that has had the unfortunate fate of being a tech firm from the same generation as Facebook… I’m sorry, I mean Meta. Twitter can be likened to the great footballers of our time. They can never win the Ballon D’or while Lionel Messi still has an active footballing contract. This week Messi controversially picked up his 7th award for being the best player in the world. And of course he is, but some people think his runner up deserved it more, and so it is with Twitter. Twitter is a career runner-up to Facebook.
Twitter has failed to grow its user base for the last four years. It has been unable to push usage beyond 400 million active users per month. This failing is so persistent and embarrassing that the the company has since ceased to publish the monthly numbers 🤭. I’m not laughing. How do you explain to shareholders that your peers enjoy 2.89 billion users and you can’t even manage a quarter of that? You don’t. You just stop reporting the figure and hope it doesn’t come up during Q&A.
Twitter has been profitable for just 2 of the last 10 years (2018 & 2019) and last year recorded a loss of $1.1 billion. During the same period, Facebook has been profitable for all 10 years, netting $32 billion last year.
Why is Jack leaving? He said that a good company should be able to survive without its founders. I wonder what good company he is talking about because it can’t be Twitter. Twitter has been standing in place for at least 10 years.
MrBeast Owns Youtube
MrBeast has been a Youtuber since the age of 13. His channel has racked up over 6 billion views, 83 million subs and his net worth is estimated upwards of $25 million dollars. From recording videos in his bedroom to $25 million dollars. Not too shabby. He doesn’t do much recording in his room anymore, oh no, he has started recording production miracles. He recreated Squid Game for Youtube and the video did what Squid Game does. It’s well on its way to being the most watched video this year amassing 144 million views in under a week.
More News
Only 43 international travellers visited Bali in 2021, compare to 6.3 million in 2019.
What I’m Reading
I’m reading a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. I love the author’s name, Clear. As a writer, my highest ambition is to pen in clear prose. He has it in his name. I like the book title. It’s click-baity and has Atom in it.
My uni roommate whom I miss dearly was studying Nuclear Physics. He would bombard me every night with trivia on how the atomic bomb that eventually devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki was developed. He knew everything. He could name all the scientists that worked on the project. He told me about how Einstein tipped off the American government on Germany’s nuclear progress which was the true genesis of the Manhattan project. Interestingly, the Americans denied Einstein security clearance to work on the project himself. See how quickly they turn on you? Living with someone so intelligent was amazing. He was the only good thing about living in Johannesburg. I got a full year nuclear physics education. I should add that to the CV. I miss you, Tsholo.
The detective in you has noticed by now that I haven’t said anything about the contents of the book. You’re asking yourself if I really read it or if I just downloaded the cover from the internet. Firstly, shut up 😂. I started reading this yesterday. When I first drafted the sentence you’re reading I was about 20 pages in. Now, 144. I can share some thoughts.
We are unjustifiably convinced that massive success requires massive action. You think that to do well in your exams you must pull all nighters. James makes it clear that this is not the case. Small baby steps can compound into feats. What matters is whether your hourly-daily-weekly habits are putting you on a trajectory toward your idea of success. It’s not about one moment, it’s about a series of moments. You should be far more concerned with your trajectory than once-off results. You get what you repeat.
James discloses 4 laws of habit formation that are corollary to a habit’s DNA cue ➡️ craving ➡️ response ➡️ reward. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about an adjacent idea in Tipping Point. One of the books that changed my life. Habits and Systems. I’m always thinking about that. I endorse James’ message. Strong recommendation. Read it.
I’ve read too many non-fiction books this year. My next read has to be fiction. If you have any suggestions for a novel, DM me. Or comment below. Whatever is convenient.
If anything else happened this week, I missed it. Till next Sunday 👋🏾.
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