Oh yes. Strong is a mild adjective, in my case! 😂 No, in South Africa. An interesting place to be during these times. Africa may still be the one continent that will show the world the true way of resistance. Our energy failures, while wreaking havoc on so many fronts, may still prove to be our way of defying end-game digitalisation. Rolling blackouts have ironically rammed it home to people that having ready cash is still our main recourse, as the little people, to stay out of the clutches of central control. People draw cash now, as they don't want to be caught short with non-functioning ATMs and shop card-scanners that are offline. We sense the danger of over-reliance on digital. Not everyone, granted - the latest "tap and pay" mechanism is wildly popular - but it is starting to filter through. People talk. I certainly inject it into my conversation at every opportunity. Paint scenarios like "Imagine if they start saying you can only buy so much coffee per month, or can only have one plane trip every two years, or can only eat meat once a week, or must temporarily suspend certain expenditure because of some arbitrary carbon credits they calculate based on your purchases, or you get a small deduction off your account because a camera caught you not washing your hands for 20 seconds after going to the loo, etc etc" I try to sketch plausible scenarios based on recent history and current zeitgeist. Just to sow little seeds of disquiet. We'll see how it goes!
Oh yes. Strong is a mild adjective, in my case! 😂 No, in South Africa. An interesting place to be during these times. Africa may still be the one continent that will show the world the true way of resistance. Our energy failures, while wreaking havoc on so many fronts, may still prove to be our way of defying end-game digitalisation. Rolling blackouts have ironically rammed it home to people that having ready cash is still our main recourse, as the little people, to stay out of the clutches of central control. People draw cash now, as they don't want to be caught short with non-functioning ATMs and shop card-scanners that are offline. We sense the danger of over-reliance on digital. Not everyone, granted - the latest "tap and pay" mechanism is wildly popular - but it is starting to filter through. People talk. I certainly inject it into my conversation at every opportunity. Paint scenarios like "Imagine if they start saying you can only buy so much coffee per month, or can only have one plane trip every two years, or can only eat meat once a week, or must temporarily suspend certain expenditure because of some arbitrary carbon credits they calculate based on your purchases, or you get a small deduction off your account because a camera caught you not washing your hands for 20 seconds after going to the loo, etc etc" I try to sketch plausible scenarios based on recent history and current zeitgeist. Just to sow little seeds of disquiet. We'll see how it goes!