Cape Town, wake up!
by Fred on 16/07/07 at 7:44 pm
5 comments
Ever heard of a myclonic twitch? It’s when you experience a sudden movement while dreaming, like a fall or trip or punch, big enough to wake you up.
Shane and I went to a breakfast seminar the other day that made me realise that Cape Town, my adopted city, the place that I love most in the world, is about to experience something similar. The seminar, hosted in sumptuous serenity at the leafy Newlands Vineyard Hotel, was lead by Guy Lundy, the CEO of a new organisation called Accelerate Cape Town. The surroundings belied the content of the talk, which was both inspiring and disturbing.
If you live in Cape Town, ignore this post at your peril because this is important.
Guy’s message, essentially, is: ‘Cape Town, catch a wake up call because the world is moving ahead without you…!‘
Cape Town was nominated one of the top 8 most creative cities in the world by Newsweek magazine; one of the top 5 destinations by Conde Nast; and voted best place to work in by the Ideate team. Recently though, Cape Town has fallen asleep on the job. Right now, Cape Town’s peers, including Melbourne, Barcelona, Glasgow and even Port Louis in Mauritius, are innovating their way into the world’s consciousness and leaving us in a trail of silicon dust.
Wrap your mind around these scenarios:
If we don’t address the migration of talent north, Cape Town’s educational institutions will begin an inexorable slide into obscurity – UCT, Stellenbosch and UWC will form a sad wasteland from what were once proud images of South Africa’s future.
If we don’t learn to work together, the city’s multiparty leadership coalition will splinter and fall into crisis. Corruption will become not just common-place, but essential for political survival, and any hope of a united vision to uplift the city will be shattered.
If we don’t sort out our infrastructure, pollution from traffic jams will cause the skies to turn a Hong Kong grey, and our beautiful air will be become thick and murky.
If we don’t meet the growing need for jobs and housing, the ‘Ring of Fire’ as Clem Sunter called it – the million or so people living in shacks surrounding the microcosm of slumbering suburban homes – will eventually encroach and suffocate Cape Town.
If we don’t provide viable opportunities for the increasing numbers of hawkers, illegal traders and other would-be SMME’s, we will see the street corners and traffic lights of the CBD, Waterfront and Atlantic Seaboard overrun by people desperate to eke out a living. Property prices will tumble and slum lords will return to areas once thought rehabilitated.
And, finally, if we don’t take our economic image seriously, our peers in South Africa – Jozi, Pretoria and PE, all of whom are undergoing exciting revivals – will see us as a retarded business backwater falling sadly into economic decline.
‘Unrealistic,’ I hear you say.
‘Surely that’s a bit farfetched!’ a voice from the back row.
Well, not really. Consider that this has happened before to numerous cities around the world. Even New York, with all its wealth, experienced a 20 year dark spell through the late seventies to the mid nineties before eventually pulling it together – and nobody saw that coming.
The likelihood of this happening is not a far-fetched rant; it is a very possible result. Furthermore, it is not merely a Capetonian problem, it’s something that all South Africans should be concerned about. We’re not talking about a revival here; we’re talking about a massive reality check. Cape Town needs to acknowledge its problems, face them square on, hold hands and then talk about it. ‘Self awareness leads to self mastery’ as they say.
Sometimes, I get the feeling that we Capetonians feel that it’s our birthright to be a destination of choice for the rest of the world. ‘After all, we have the mountain, the beaches, the vineyards!’
The way we’re going, all we’ll have is an African basketcase.
So, what do we do then?
Ok so, we know the problem, what’s the solution? Well since, this a blog, and I’ve run out of time, I’ll keep it simple.
Step one: Face the facts and admit it. Cape Town has been asleep for a while. Either we wake up or we will be woken up – harshly.
Step two: Support Guy Lundy and his initiative.
This is a case of practicing and preaching:
Practice by getting behind the vision for Cape Town that Guy and his partners are developing. Preach by telling everyone about it.
A wide awake Cape Town is a force to be reckoned with – believe it.
Watch this space for updates on Accelerate Cape Town and the projects that they are busy with.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. He runs a web marketing company called World Wide Creative and loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. View more articles by Fred.
Capetonian
Jul 17th, 2007
I agree with a lot of what you say, but in the end there are only certain things which are in our locus of influence – the best we, who want to make our home a better place, can each do is to try and deliver high quality in whatever it is that we do.
Fred
Jul 17th, 2007
Hi Capetonian,
I agree that we must certainly improve our service delivery and ensure that we are more competitive – especially from a small business point of view.
All this is much about an attitude. The point I’m trying to make is that the awareness of what is going on is very important, and that there is danger afoot. If we don’t start working together on a common vision (which is what Guy and co. are working on) then we’re going to be left behind – or even worse, we’re going to fall into a social and economic slump.
In the meantime, another action point (besides upping our standards of delivery) is to start evangelising and telling people about accelerating Cape Town. Ignite your own discussions, and start galvanising people into action.
People upcountry refer to Cape Town as ‘Slaapstad’ and we have to decide, is that a title we want to be saddled with?
Rafiq Phillips
Jul 18th, 2007
The website for Accelerate Cape Town will be launching soon. You can join the Accelerate Cape Town group on Facebook by clicking here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2614905915
Will be keeping all intersted parties updated there pre-launch.
Simon de Haast
Jul 23rd, 2007
Just posted this wall comment on the Facebook group, but for those not Facebook’d, here it is:
Something I wrote about a few years ago can act as a useful lens to extend this conversation – scroll down to “Creative Cape Town” post. It’s all about Richard Florida’s Creative Class model as applied to CT.
http://www.ideafarm.co.za/blog/cape_town/
PS: this is a useful way to re-perceive creativity in business and how that force is a key driver of economic growth…it’s not just the traditional ‘creative industries’ development models that are currently being applied by the city agencies that count…
rafael
Sep 18th, 2009
as fotos são lindas maravilhoas que poderia pensar que em um lugar com tanta gente sofrendo a tantas coisas bonitas