13THURSDAY OCTOBER 16 2014 Opinion

ANXIETY is a perfectly normalhuman emotion, just likehappiness and sadness. Scientists believe that moderate stress levels are

good because they spur us to take remedial action, but severe depressionand panic attacks are debilitating andmay be programmed in our genes.

Most of us wrestle with domestic,financial or health concerns, and themedia bring new regional and global dangers to our attention every day.

Humans have always felt threatened byunfriendly neighbours and natural disasters. Our Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors feared attacks by ferocious predators and found it difficultto collect adequate food supplies. They

were often on the brink of starvation andfew lived past their thirties.

Neolithic people farmed with domesti-cated livestock and cereal crops and wereable to feed non-farming kings, priestsand soldiers with their agricultural sur-pluses. Germs spread more rapidly instatic societies and the inhabitants suf-fered from a range of infectious diseases,including malaria, tuberculosis andtyphoid. Their life expectancy was initial-ly lower than that of hunter-gathers.

The domestication of horses in Asiaduring the Bronze Age and the ability offarmers to produce enough food to sup-port armies and navies led to waves ofwarfare that continue. Peasants lived infear of being chased and speared bymounted warriors (Scythians, Huns,

Vandals and Mongols), much as MiddleEastern people dread sudden death bymore sophisticated weapons in 2014.

Germs have exterminated millionsthroughout history, including the “BlackDeath” (bubonic plague), which isthought to have killed 30 to 60 percent ofEurope’s total population in 1348-50.European adventurers introducedepidemics that spread rapidly throughparts of Asia, Africa and America, decimating indigenous populations.

Colonisation was followed by a greatescalation in the number of Africans whowere captured, enslaved and exported toforeign countries to endure years of brutalforced labour – a “living death”.

Add religion to the mix and you get anew set of dangers. Jews, Christians and

Muslims have been cruelly persecuted attimes, and some South American godsrequired copious sacrifices of innocentblood. It’s sad to note how easy it is forfanatical religious groups to become mer-ciless oppressors – the Spanish Inquisi-tion, the religious wars in Ireland and therecent beheadings in Syria come to mind.

The twentieth century was marred bymass killings in two world wars, the Span-ish Flu, the Aids pandemic and a 45-yearchill while the super powers threatenedeach other with thermonuclear weapons

Looking at the local picture, we couldsay that the Nkandla upgrade is an irritation, the ongoing shortage of energyis a worry, and the unchecked spread ofEbola in South Africa (unlikely as itseems) would pose a dire threat.

Every generation is tested by danger and disease

TWO-THIRDS of all revenue earned byCape Town accessories designer Kather-ine-Mary Pichulik is from exports. That’ssome statistic when one considers Pichulikonly started her business in May 2012.

When she applied to be an “Emerging Creative”in last year’s Design Indaba Expo, her wares werestocked in just two Cape Town boutiques. The exclu-sive Emerging Creatives programme – made possi-ble by the Department of Arts and Culture – providesfree floor space at the expo and mentoring to quali-fying applicants.

“To have a weekend with R65 000 worth of acces-sories sold really allowed me to expand. AfterwardsI could up my production, buy more materials in bulkand I hired another person,” she said.

Last year Pichulik rented a trestle table in ashared studio space with six other designers. This yearshe moved her team of 10 into a 106m2 space that’sall their own.

Pichulik was one of 486 exhibitors at the expo lastyear, of which 116 other designers were also new. Forthe expo in February next year, a quarter of all con-firmed exhibitors so far are first timers. For newbiebusinesses that don’t have financial backing, andmanufacture on demand, it’s a springboard intocommerce writ large.

Accessories designer Friedel Harmsen studied jew-ellery design and describes herself as a self-taughtgraphic designer. She is exhibiting at the expo for thefirst time next year with a wearable art label she setup earlier this year called Love, Africa Studio.

“Design Indaba for me is about that magical spacebetween art and design. I like that it’s curated sostrongly, and the local and international marketthat it draws is very intermingled in the art world.”

Another first-time exhibitor, Rollin Vintage, is afour-person team that upcycles antique cutlery intojewellery. Since the products are only available in Dur-ban – where the company is based – and elsewhereup north, the expo is an invaluable way to connectwith Cape Town stockists and get the productsknown there, said Ryan Rollin.

“We started as a sideline so we didn’t really havethe capacity to exhibit before. Now we’re full-timeand it’s full steam ahead.”

In the US, the government recognises that entre-preneurs are the lifeblood of the economy. In that

Reaping the benefits ofDesign Indaba initiativesEntrepreneurial expo exhibitors create direct and indirect jobs andincome from business orders and sales to the public adds to GDP

DESIGN INDABA CREATED575 DIRECT JOBS AND 571INDIRECT JOBS THIS YEAR.IN THE PAST 6 YEARSDESIGN INDABA HASGENERATED R1.7BN TO GDP

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Tavern of the Seas

By David Biggs

There’s more tolife than glitz and celebrities

WHENEVER I pass time in doctors’ ordentists’ waiting rooms I reach for amagazine and am amazed at the trite-ness of most of the features that aresupposed to entertain or educate me.

It seems the world is besotted with rich people, whothey’re sharing beds with and what they have bought.

I believe this trend has had a very damaging effecton young people all over the western world.

A survey among school-leaving children in Britainrevealed the greatest ambition among most of themwas to become a “celebrity”.

“What do you plan to be when you leave school?”they were asked, and the answers came loud andclear – “rich and famous, thank you.”

They want to be like the people in the magazines,be seen wearing diamond-encrusted watches anddesigner shoes, arriving at fancy functions in expen-sive cars and being photographed by paparazzi.

These are selfish, shallow role models and I hopethere are teachers and parents out there to point thisout to their children. There’s more to life than blingand glitz. There are far better role models than thetinsel glitterati in the magazines.

Think of Safia Abdi Haase, the first woman immigrant to receive Norway’s prestigious Order ofSt Olav. She fled Somalia in 1992 and has been thevictim of all kinds of violence and abuse. Without anyformal education she has become the leader in thefight against female genital mutilation.

By sheer determination she put herself throughprimary and high school and then obtained a univer-sity degree in nursing. She is helping the Norwegiangovernment formulate policy against female genitalmutilation, abuse of women, and racism.

And consider Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, at17 the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

She started campaigning for education for girlswhen she was only 11 years old (supported by herfather, which is an important factor in her story).

In spite of being shot in the head by Islamic extrem-ists she continues to campaign for women’s rights, andspent her summer school holidays travelling to Nigeriafrom her school in England to campaign for the releaseof the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

There are good people quietly making the lives ofothers better, in our townships and suburbs, bravelyworking to care for Aids orphans, raising money forthe homeless, looking after single mothers, riskingtheir lives to expose corruption and crime.

People like these should be in the magazines, notthe empty glitterati who have achieved nothing butfancy watches and shiny tat. As long as the maga-zines in the waiting rooms of the world display theseempty lives as the gold standard of human achieve-ment we will have generations of young people whovalue a diamond watch more than a saved life.

Last Laugh

A CHILD asked his mother: “Where did people comefrom?” She set him down and told him the story ofAdam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.

Later he asked his father, “Where did people comefrom?” and his dad told him about evolution and howpeople descended from monkeys, via cavemen.

The lad rushed to his mother and shouted: “Youlied to me! Daddy told me about how we came frommonkeys and you said we came from Adam and Eve.”

“Yes, dear,” said his mother, “But he was talkingabout his side of the family.”

Tel: 021 782 3180 / Fax: 021 788 9560E-mail: dbiggs@glolink.co.za

Dominique Herman

The way we were

By Jackie Loos

country, small firms create more jobs than big onesdo. In South Africa, the Department of Small Busi-ness Development was established in May. MinisterLindiwe Zulu said that the key in assisting small andmedium enterprises (SMEs) was to create a supportstructure for connections to be made among them.

In the Financial Mail, shadow minister of smallbusiness development, DA MP Toby Chance, writesthat 90 percent of the 11 million new jobs in theNational Development Plan are expected to comefrom SMEs.

“The idea people are talking about in small busi-ness development circles is the ‘entrepreneurialecosystem’. By this is meant the activities, enablers,conditions, stakeholders and incentives that makeup the environment in which entrepreneurialism canexist and thrive,” Chance writes.

Design Indaba recognises this “entrepreneurialecosystem” well. It provides a prolifically marketednetworking platform with the expo and conference.Its contribution to this economic stimulus is evidentin the number of other design-oriented conferencesand shows that have emerged locally over the years.

At the first expo in 2004, there were 40 exhibitorsand two buyers. At the most recent one in February,there were 509 exhibitors and 806 buyers, 211 ofwhom were international.

The conference that happens simultaneously,and attracts global leaders in various design fields,

provides the inspiration to the expo’s perspiration. According to a report compiled by Barry Standish

in association with UCT’s Graduate School of Busi-ness, exhibitors at the most recent expo in Februaryearned R201.9 million in total income from businessorders from buyers and sales to the public. DesignIndaba created 575 direct jobs and 571 indirect jobsthis year. In the past six years, Design Indaba hasgenerated R1.7 billion to South Africa’s GDP.

These figures are not anecdotal. There are surveysfilled in by exhibitors post-expo and sales figures andbusiness orders collated.

Standish does all the analysis for conferencesheld at the CTICC so the statistic that the average visi-tor to the expo spent double that of any other expoheld there is testament to its impact. The increasingnumber of jobs created year on year, as well as visi-tors – from 8 000 in 2004 to 40 967 in this year – istestament, too.

Photographer and product designer Ed Suterhas exhibited at the expo six times. Prior to his firstexpo, he had never done a show before. “At some pointI couldn’t believe it. The interest was enormous. I wasreally basking in confidence. To hear all that praisewas the biggest motivator to continue,” he said.

From three in year one, Suter now has more than40 different products in his range. From the first expocame orders to supply a range of shops countrywide.From subsequent expos he’s had orders from Paris,Milan, Berlin, Lagos, San Diego and Namibia. He alsomet representatives from Mr Price at the expo forwhom he has designed a “huge variety of products”.

“Design Indaba is where people get to see the prod-ucts, feel them and talk to me, and that’s when theyplace orders. I think for anyone whose business is thesame size as mine, it’s vital to be there. I just don’tknow if my business would have continued withoutit. And being seen amongst other designers hasbeen very important,” he said.

Pichulik’s sentiments are similar. “It’s great if youdon’t have a flagship store: to connect with your mar-ket and understand your market. But for me whatbecomes more valuable than the sales is being partof that dialogue. It’s important to put oneself on theplatforms where the African aesthetic is underdiscussion.”

●Dominique Herman is a writer and editor andworks for Design Indaba on a freelance basis.