It’s been a blast

Change. In a blink it’s here: people you love are gone, new ones you’ll grow to love are born, a former tourism minister is appointed again (welcome back, Derek Hanekom) and Zuma no longer has a job, probably not having ‘saved’ what he thought he should for this day of unemployment he thought he could sidestep forever. I read about another example of hubris, a man in Japan who thinks his genes are so exceptional that he’s fathered 19 children with different surrogates across Asia. This litter is his gift to us, the rest of humanity, a gift we didn’t ask for and don’t want. Frankly, a man of 28 who has done very little in the world besides inherit obscene wealth and thinks his genes are superior to anyone else’s sounds to me like the very definition of bad genes, and bad manners. However, the problem about hubris is that often it’s a blind spot, and we simply don’t see it. As I didn’t when I started as Getaway editor, with a pack full of smart ideas. No other magazine has taught me as acutely that an editor is merely a custodian whose task is to listen to what a community wants, and what an incredibly valuable gift that is. As a community, you’ve supported this magazine hugely. Thank you. Other gifts have been the enriching journeys all over our gorgeous country and continent, and working with an exceptionally smart and talented team whose stories fill this issue: read deputy editor Tyson Jopson’s wild and funny ‘Ben 10’ success (page 44), Welcome Lishivha’s winding exploration of a rejuvenating Eden (page 74), and Melanie van Zyl’s blissful island holiday (page 84). In Pringle Bay, Matthew Sterne discovers a town wholly committed to being plastic free (see page 117), a sign of how environmental awareness is gathering momentum. Did you know, for instance, that in London milkmen and women are returning with their familiar clink of bottles as millennials eschew plastic? Of course, the issues of waste are far bigger than this, but it’s important to celebrate the small changes; they signal the big ones. And on that note, I’ve met you on these pages every month for the past four years and am now moving on. To the wonderful Getaway team, past and present, I’ve met you almost every day of that stretch. Thank you for that time. It’s been a blast. And to close a perfect circle, welcome to your new editor, former Getaway photo-journalist Justin Fox.