Today was a bit lower keyed then yesterday. We spent most of the day actually at the hotel having discussion groups with two interesting people about our goals, Raymond deVilliers from Wisdom Games and Tino (not sure of his last name) a graduate from UCT. This post won’t be too long, most of what we talked about were statistical data and theories of how our game could reach out demographic. A lot of the conversation turned to games that could possibly played on a cell phone. It’s really interesting; South Africa is actually ahead of the US in cell phone technology. Where we’d think a cell phone game would be typically played one someone is bored or waiting for the bus or something, this is actually their medium here. People may be playing on their phones in their home and even before bed. I’m still unsure how effective we can be in this medium, but either way we have to make something that will reach our demographic. I think I’ll include some quotes from my notes today, rather than go in depth on everything that was discussed.
Certain black children who grow up in well off homes and typically grow up with a “white accent,” are teased and called “Coconuts” black outside white on the inside.
South Africa began a large cell phone campaign, holding the belief that “Communication builds wealth.”
There’s a large anti-alcohol campaign that promotes “no drinking and walking.”
The people in South Africa are at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy, they are merely trying to survive. Therefore there aren’t many creative or innovative people.
The last major thing that I want to talk a little bit about was that we went back to V & A tonight to do a little shopping. I felt like I spent quite a bit of money but I have to keep remembering that it’s all in Rand, and the US dollar equals roughly 7.5R. So needless to say I found some pretty interesting things, but at one point one of the cashiers gave me the wrong change back on one item… Actually giving me 50 more rand back, I went back and fixed things and was feeling extremely positive about it. Sort of like a karma thing ya know? Then when I was on my way back to meet up with the group for dinner, and I was approached by a young male asking for change. He kept talking about how he needed to buy bread, so I reached into my pocket and tried to find the largest coin I could fish out for him. I didn’t want to give him all of my change and so I pulled out a 2 Rand coin. He began to beg me for more as I tried to back away, telling me that bread is 8 Rand and how he really needed it and that he was starving. By now my friends were already ahead of me and I was desperately trying to rejoin them and I kept refusing the man. Eventually the man gave up and I was able to move on, but not really… he really stuck with me and it bothered me a lot. I could have given him more Rand, and yet I couldn’t help but ask myself if he would really spend it on bread? Yet I feel like a horrible person for thinking so, and left having a sort of tension in my stomach that wouldn’t seem to go away. I then met up with everyone at our restaurant, which ended up being incredibly fancy. Looking at the menu seeing most meals at 70-150 Rand, I couldn’t help but feel completely horrible. I turned a blind eye to possibly someone in need to return to my privileged way of living. I just felt gross… and sort of lost my appetite. Granted the meal was fantastic and I was actually able to just call my folks to wish them a Happy Anniversary! Yet this feeling has stuck with me some, and I can’t help but feel just a little bit guilty.
Certain black children who grow up in well off homes and typically grow up with a “white accent,” are teased and called “Coconuts” black outside white on the inside.
South Africa began a large cell phone campaign, holding the belief that “Communication builds wealth.”
There’s a large anti-alcohol campaign that promotes “no drinking and walking.”
The people in South Africa are at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy, they are merely trying to survive. Therefore there aren’t many creative or innovative people.
The last major thing that I want to talk a little bit about was that we went back to V & A tonight to do a little shopping. I felt like I spent quite a bit of money but I have to keep remembering that it’s all in Rand, and the US dollar equals roughly 7.5R. So needless to say I found some pretty interesting things, but at one point one of the cashiers gave me the wrong change back on one item… Actually giving me 50 more rand back, I went back and fixed things and was feeling extremely positive about it. Sort of like a karma thing ya know? Then when I was on my way back to meet up with the group for dinner, and I was approached by a young male asking for change. He kept talking about how he needed to buy bread, so I reached into my pocket and tried to find the largest coin I could fish out for him. I didn’t want to give him all of my change and so I pulled out a 2 Rand coin. He began to beg me for more as I tried to back away, telling me that bread is 8 Rand and how he really needed it and that he was starving. By now my friends were already ahead of me and I was desperately trying to rejoin them and I kept refusing the man. Eventually the man gave up and I was able to move on, but not really… he really stuck with me and it bothered me a lot. I could have given him more Rand, and yet I couldn’t help but ask myself if he would really spend it on bread? Yet I feel like a horrible person for thinking so, and left having a sort of tension in my stomach that wouldn’t seem to go away. I then met up with everyone at our restaurant, which ended up being incredibly fancy. Looking at the menu seeing most meals at 70-150 Rand, I couldn’t help but feel completely horrible. I turned a blind eye to possibly someone in need to return to my privileged way of living. I just felt gross… and sort of lost my appetite. Granted the meal was fantastic and I was actually able to just call my folks to wish them a Happy Anniversary! Yet this feeling has stuck with me some, and I can’t help but feel just a little bit guilty.
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