Österreichische Botschaft Pretoria - Austrian Club - Cape Town

www.techienews.co.za September 2013Dear Members and friends!Back in ZA again. Since my last article, which was conceived, born and raised ingood ol’ Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria, I have since been to Dubai where my pursewas removed from my carry-on bag, together with a host of cards, driver’s license,etc., so fun and games awaited me in renewing all this plastic back home.The fun however already started at Cape Town’s International arrival gate whereyou stand in line to show your passport (I fortunately still had that). After havingspent the better part of the previous 17 hours in the company of Miss Worlds (theEmirates stewardesses are absolute beauties!!!), we were greeted by a snotty littlefemale individual from some rural area deep in the Nigerian Delta. She insisted westand in a straight line, single file. Then her colleague, I suspect from the samevillage, walked through the ranks and straightened us out. Yo, I could still smellthe KFC drum sticks she had a few minutes earlier; no Coco Chanel, Versace orGivenchy here like the earlier beauties – ja, I’m bek in Efrika, né ? – I’m home!Anyway, my folks say ‘Howzit’ and send their regards to all that still rememberthem from the late 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s, you know who you are.After attending to some business matters in Germany, I had a few days to myself,looked at the gadget market in Vorarlberg and was pleasantly surprised that theylacked nothing in terms of what was on offer, specifically at a chain called “MediaMarkt”. You name it, they had it. Prices however, at R 13.00 to the Euro, anddespite getting 20% GST back when you leave Austria again, proved to be toodear – no point in buying anything there as you could just as well purchase theseitems at your local ‘Incredible Contraption’ or ‘Dion Stringed’. What was a pleasurethough was the knowledge of the sales people, not wanting to simply sell yousomething to make commission, but actually knowing what they are talking about.In ZA that’s a little different as the staff is simply not adequately trained.Another absolute pleasure was the use of the internet where WiFi was available.Wow, now that’s what I call speed, AND they are still busy improving it to LTE aswe know it – or 4G in their lingo. If you hit the button on your phone, iPador laptop, things happen in a flash. There is no waiting; there is no buffering whenviewing YouTube clips or online videos – magic. It’s a whole new form ofentertainment next to all the TV options. Positives for us: If it’s possible there,there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have access to a similar fast service in thenot-too-distant future, so, my dear local service providers, pull some finger and getcracking – you have a lot of catching up to do.Let us also not forget that more and more people communicate with each otherthese days, a daunting task in itself if one considers that the world’s populationpassed 7 billion in 2011 according to the official United Nations estimate, and thatthe latest projections show it reaching 9.55 billion in 2050 and 10.85 billion in 2100,based on a medium fertility assumption. Mama mia, fortunately our generation andour kids won’t live to witness the 10 B, but our grand–grand kids have some megachallenges ahead of them. I guess we’ll keep a watchful eye from where ever we’re