TEDx Table Mountain 2015 Videos Playlist

Ladies, gentle-Sirs and beautiful puppies, as an update to my last post, I present to you all of the TEDx Table Mountain 2015 videos in one nifty playlist. These are hot, right off the presses!

Check out the playlist HERE!

Enjoy these wonderful journeys of African excellence.

TEDx Table Mountain 2015 Videos

My original piece on Quicket.co.za

I attended the 2015 TEDx TableMountain event at the Artscape Theatre here in Cape Town on 25 May, which is Africa Day. The event's theme was Journeys of Excellence and showcased some of the great work being done by Africans to create a better society for all of us.

Here are some videos of some of the speakers and performers of the event.

Whispers of Wisdom (@Whisperzofwiz) delivering a performance that inspires Africans, especially the youth, to dream bigger than is expected of them.

Dr Tindile Booi’s talk/performance was my favourite of the evening and her way of telling stories, singing and dancing is a thing of beauty to behold.

Dr Gubela Mji spoke about her experience working as a researcher collecting data about how to improve the lives of disabled people but then seeing that research just being stored up in shelves and never being used for anything.

Shadreck Chirikure is Associate Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Archaeological Materials Laboratory at the University of Cape Town and he addressed the negative view that people have of Africa as never having produced any technology.

Dr Llewellyn Padayachy, a paediatric neurosurgeon spoke about his research into non-invasive techniques to diagnose and guide the treatment of critical conditions affecting the brain.

Derek Gripper (@derekgripper) translating great African composers whose music is passed down for generations but never written down.

The evening saw a powerful performance by the Ikapa Youth Dance Theatre (http://ikapadancetheatre.co.za/trai/youth-dance-theatre).

Joseph Wamicha, a young man after my own heart, spoke about how the idea of deeper space exploration and eventually colonisation is not just the stuff of science fiction but something we can work on right now.

Paul Mesarcik (@paulmesarcik) showed a device that he and his team created to detect shack fires before they spread and leave many people homeless.

TEDx Table Mountain

My original piece on Quicket.co.za.

Africa is the continent that gave birth to the human race, it is a place of abundant natural wealth and it is a place of great beauty. By rights Africa should be the Eden of our planet but, alas, it is not. When the rest of the world thinks of Africa they think of war, poverty, laziness and people who are late for appointments. The rest of the world either looks down on us or sees us as some sort of charity case. South Africa, like many African states is a place of vast wealth and crippling poverty all in one place. TEDxTableMountain, like all TEDx events all over the globe, is an independently organised event that looks to get people together in the spirit of nurturing ideas worth spreading. TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to spreading good ideas. It started as a four-day conference in California some 26 years ago and has since spread to the rest of the word, even darkest Africa. The idea is that thinkers and doers are asked to give a talk in 18 minutes that will share a great idea. Independent events are organised under the TEDx name with support from TED. So although Africa has many problems there are many individuals working hard and working smart to address our problems. TEDx TableMountain hosted their second event on Monday night, 25 May and the theme was: Journeys of Excellence. 25 May is also Africa Day so what better way to celebrate the continent than listening to a great line-up of speakers explore ideas that can help ease some of our problems or at least start a conversation that will pave the way to solutions.

This year’s TEDx TableMountain event took place at the Artscape Theatre and curator, Candice Pelser (@CandicePelser) and her team did a great job organising the event. I’m a super nerd for any event where people share ideas and dragged my ever suffering girlfriend with me to the event. We were welcomed with a ‘passport’ to the talks each and some other cute freebies and it was all rather cool. The crowd was massive and everyone looked excited to be there as they stood around chatting. We had to wait a bit longer than expected to be seated because the previous Africa Day event ran a bit longer than anticipated. Once everyone was inside the theatre and seated we were ready to go. Some important and somewhat familiar looking people could be seen in the front rows, the most recognizable being Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille. I made a mental note to take a selfie with her later.

Our Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening was the beautiful, delightful and super enthusiastic Chi Mhende (@chi_mhende). The evening saw some powerful performances by the Ikapa Youth Dance Theatre (http://ikapadancetheatre.co.za/trai/youth-dance-theatre), Derek Gripper (@derekgripper) translating great African composers whose music is passed down for generations but never written down and the group, Whispers of Wisdom (@Whisperzofwiz) delivering a performance that inspires Africans, especially the youth, to dream bigger than is expected of them. The overarching theme on the evening was that even though South Africa and the rest of Africa are facing serious and very large problems Africans can step up to the plate and through individual and collaborative journeys of excellence we can rise above those problems.

The speakers were made up of Dr Gubela Mji who spoke about her experience working as a researcher collecting data about how to improve the lives of disabled people but then seeing that research just being stored up in shelves and never being used for anything. She formed a network with other researchers and like-minded individuals to take all the data just sitting around and started exploring ways to make the date accessible enough so as to actually be useful in improving the lives of disable people. Paul Mesarcik (@paulmesarcik) showed a device that he and his team created to detect shack fires before they spread and leave many people homeless. The device is called Lumkani, which loosely translates from Xhosa to English as everyone beware. Dr Llewellyn Padayachy, a paediatric neurosurgeon spoke about his research into non-invasive techniques to diagnose and guide the treatment of critical conditions affecting the brain, especially in poor communities in which many people can’t afford expensive surgeries for diagnosing such conditions. Dr Tindile Booi is a qualified medical doctor and now works in a psychiatric context and helps children from difficult backgrounds and teenagers affected by HIV cope with their situations and helps them believe that life is worth living. One of the ways she does this is interactive storytelling. Dr Tindile Booi’s talk/performance was my favourite of the evening and her way of telling stories, singing and dancing is a thing of beauty to behold.

Shadreck Chirikure is Associate Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Archaeological Materials Laboratory at the University of Cape Town and he addressed the negative view that people have of Africa as never having produced any technology. He explored some old findings to the contrary and showed that Africa has produced some advanced technology through its history. Continuing with the technological trend Prof Robert van Zyl showcased the CubeSat he worked on with his students. The CubeSat is a nanosatellite in the shape of a cube that can be sent into Space at relatively low cost. Joseph Wamicha, a young man after my own heart, spoke about how the idea of deeper space exploration and eventually colonisation is not just the stuff of science fiction but something we can work on right now. The Earth’s resources are finite, as we know very well here in Africa, but if we could look beyond the Earth and tap into the bountiful resources of the universe we could solve many conflicts here on Earth.

What I took away from the evening is that Africa is more than just a place of darkness and backward thinking. Yes, we have problems but Africans are more than capable of surmounting those problems with the wealth of resources we have. Not resources in terms of gold of silver but rather our human capital. Africans know hardship but this is also what makes us more resourceful and think outside of the box. Africans can be excellent and be a force of good change in the world. Events like TEDx TableMountain are very important because they provide us with the platform to get together and discuss our problems and our ideas for solving them.

A Little More Kindness

"More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness." - Charlie Chaplin

A few weeks ago a friend challenged me to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and this got me thinking about how everyone can do something around them to make the world a brighter place. I won’t lie, I’d never heard of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) before seeing all the videos of people pouring buckets of ice-cold water over their heads on my social media feeds. You’d think I’d know that Stephen Hawking suffers from ALS at least but nope, total ignorance on my part. ALS is a disease very far removed from my centre of attention.

The people behind the Ice Bucket Challenge, the ALS Association are looking to create a world without ALS. This, of course, requires money for researching cures for the disease and supporting people already living with it and affected by it. This is a noble cause and they used the power of social media to come up with a fun way to raise the funds they need for this good work. I commend this and it’s great to see a charitable drive gain so much momentum and create a stir. This is the sort of cause that people should donate money to or invest some of their time in whether they do it with a video or not. But you should always know exactly what it is that you are supporting.

The interwebs are a vibrant place where people vehemently share their opinions and very soon memes were making the rounds that people are wasting water whilst many regions in the world don’t have enough drinking water. Some celebrity personalities also declined the challenge on the grounds that there are reports stating that the ALS Association is involved in animal testing. Both these points are valid: wasting water is foolish and supporting an organisation that runs tests for cures for diseases on animals is not something everyone can agree on (and that’s a whole different and important argument).

The former issue made me think of my beloved mother warning me not to waste food or drink as a child because children in China are starving . . . but how would my not wasting the food ease their plight? I always thought. We live in South Africa and there were children starving in our neighbourhood that I could have given that food to. As far as animal testing is concerned, I don’t know whether the ALS Association is involved in this or not but it highlights the point that people shouldn’t blindly donate to organisations. As someone trying to ease the burden of other human beings you must go a bit further than just giving money to an organisation and invest some of your time finding out whether it shares the same values as you. This is also another reason I like the idea of volunteering because it gives you a first-hand experience of work being done by charities and other such institutes.

I took up the Ice Bucket Challenge but I did not support the ALS Association because I felt that there are causes closer to me that I can focus on. The world is in dire need of a lot of cleverness to solve many of its issues. Children should not be starving in China, South Africa or anywhere else when there is more than enough food to go around. There are enough resources for everyone on our planet but the problem is access. Clever minds are needed to enable such access but kindness is also needed. I am intelligent but I doubt I will be figuring out how to solve the issue of a child in China’s hunger anytime soon (sorry, mom) but I sure can give a hungry child who is right down the road from me something to eat. I took up my Ice Bucket Challenge in a spirit of being kind to all my fellow humans and helping where I can. I love food and I am the sort of person who packs a lot of it for work and sport so I will pack just a few more sandwiches and fruit to give to people.

Stories were my refuge as a child.

Giving sandwiches doesn’t solve the underlying problems though. I don’t have much money to give but I also don’t think that would help as much as me giving of my time. I love books and when I was growing up my family was poor (we’re only a little less so now) and stories were my refuge; they comforted me and taught me some wisdom. In addition to my grandmother and mother I was raised by stories and our local library was my second home. I can share that with children and will do so. I am privileged to work at the Children and Youth editorial office of one of South Africa’s largest publishing houses and to volunteer on the executive board (this is a whole lot less fancy than it sounds) of an organisation that seeks to get rid of the problem of illiteracy in South Africa. These are wonderful platforms from which to help nurture a hunger for learning in children and thus equip them with knowledge to support themselves as they grow older. I pledge my efforts and time to these ventures because that is a role I am most equipped to play in trying to make the world a better place.

I think most people are looking for opportunities to be kind but miss them in their daily lives because they think their acts of kindness may be too insignificant or they are daunted by the really large acts they really want to be doing. Look at all the opportunities on social media that are wasted! People will like and share the crap out of a status highlighting conflicts across the world and how we really should be doing something. Sometimes people even emotionally blackmail each other with posts about how you support something heinous like rape if you don’t share some picture. I hate stuff like that but it shows that people want to be kind, there is a spark of it albeit somewhat misguided. This whole Ice Bucket Challenge proves that social media can be a powerful tool to create awareness of issues and even to raise money for them but you still have to go out and be kind and generous in your daily life. Do small things for people and if you can, do big things. Just try and extend a helping hand whenever you can. That is my challenge to you.

The world is full of injustices like hunger, rape, murder, sexism, racism, corruption, war and many issues like disease and natural disasters. Lend your support wherever you can. You don’t have to be Superman or Wonder Woman (unless you can, then totally do that) but your small acts of kindness and even your cleverness can go a long way.