the positivity of kakness*

This is beautiful!

I know you are not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but if there is one book I’ll buy based on the title alone, it is this one:
Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Kak?
The Whinger's Guide to South Africa - from AA to JZ

The co-author, Tim Richman, has just released a sequel, Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Still Kak? More than that though, he’s written an interesting post for SA Good News, on finding a way through the polar opposites of blind optimism and distrustful pessimism. If you are a South African concerned and/or hopeful about the country’s future, I’d suggest you read the short article. Here are some good extracts:

Grumpy, angry, annoyed, aggravated, disappointed, dismayed, irritated, irate, incensed, infuriated, indignant, outraged, ticked off, hacked off, pissed off - guilty as charged. When I'm stuck in traffic, standing in queues, dealing with my bank, listening to hold music, listening to Julius Malema, then I'm all of these things and more. (Who isn't? And what medication are they on?) But I'm also a generally positive guy who loves South Africa and celebrates the fact that he can call it home…

"If you scratch a cynic you find a disappointed idealist."

Cynicism has its localised appeal, there's no denying it. It can be humorous and even insightful, and when dealing with certain elements of life - advertising, estate agents, Telkom - a cynical approach is possibly the only way to stay sane. But people who live their lives as daily distrustful pessimists, always predicting the worst, are ultimately insufferable. Not to mention boring.

"Utopia" does not exist…(The word, invented by Thomas More in 1516, comes from Greek and literally means "not a place".)

So you can call me a realistic skeptic. Or a skeptical realist. Take your pick. It boils down to this: while I hope for the best, I also plan for the worst - which means I genuinely believe that our country has every chance of a bright future ahead but I'm not overly disappointed when the rand drops through the floor or Malema says something particularly stupid or the Scorpions are finally disbanded.

One thing's for sure: there isn't much humour at those outer ends of the scale, and at times like these you're going to struggle to survive if you can't see the lighter side of things.

You can find more info on the books from the publishers TwoDogs who print ‘South African books worth reading.’ They also have quite an interesting selection of books, including another catchy title: Why I’ll Never Live in Aus Again.

[*for the non-Saffers reading this, 'kak' is an afrikaans word used widely by english speaking South Africans. It's literal afrikaans meaning is 'sh*t', but when used by english people it approximates to a milder expletive, similar to 'crap', but with more emotion. (Isn't it funny how other languages feel free to use words that, in the original language, wouldn't be acceptable?)]