Tag: Synthesis Technologies

The global Coronavirus pandemic has led to a cataclysmic shift in the way that many organisations do business. With mandatory nation-wide lockdowns, organisations have had no choice but to allow workers to work from home. These drastic changes in ways of working have led to several new cyber security risks and threats.

This has been a year of disruption, confusion and now a new ‘normal’. COVID-19 is here for the foreseeable future, and that means humans need to adapt to new circumstances like Working from Home (WFH). Almost every industry has embraced this as an effective way of keeping staff safe, remaining operational and controlling costs during global economic downturn.

When planning around COVID-19 was first catapulted into the boardroom of organisations, there was tremendous readiness by most tech companies to adopt this new way of work. For the most part, teams were well equipped with the relevant mobile infrastructure such as laptops, personal smart phones, data/home internet to enable teams to continue working with limited disruption.

First they came for the Tempo, and I did not speak out — Because I wasn’t crazy about Tempo. Then they came for the Lays Salt and Vinegar Chips, and I did not speak out - Because I was always more of a 'Lightly Salted' man.

It is little wonder that we no longer sleep. Who in their right mind could drift into peaceful oblivion, when the person next to you in the bed could be the person who is harboring the virus that could see us shuffling off this mortal coil?

Whereas I am not a Corona Virus expert, I have been a hypochondriac for some years. I am also am a radio talk show host, author and a social commentator, which perhaps qualifies me in some way to speak of social impact of this illness,

Remember when we were young, and we would complain for no real or fathomable reason? It was before the days of parenting books, and before being told that we are not allowed to smack our children. It was likely then, back in the day, that one of our parents would, in a fit of frustration and despair, raise a threatening hand and say, 'I’ll give you something to cry about!' This is the story of COVID-19 in 2020.

On first blush there is ample reason to be miserable. The economic data released earlier this week has once again confirmed that South Africa is in a recession. An investment downgrade is more likely to happen than not to, and the lack of tangible progress in South Africa gives little reason to cheer. Add load shedding, crime and the fact that the Corona Virus is around the corner, and one must wonder why more of us aren’t medicated. I imagine it’s partly because we can no longer afford it.

Every family has a culture. That culture is reflected in the way that communication takes place, how they dress, what they eat and the type of humour that resonates for them. Any stranger entering that home for more than a few hours, will need to make it their business to read the environment so that they don’t offend anyone at worse case, or look strange at best.

Promoting his seminal book, South Africa’s war against Capitalism, the economist Professor Walter Williams averred that “The solution to South Africa’s problems is not special programmes, it’s not affirmative action, it’s not handouts, and it’s not welfare. It is freedom. Because if you look around the world and you look for rich people, diverse people who have the ability to get along fairly well, you are also looking at a society where there are relatively large amounts of individual freedom”.