ED’S LETTER

Each generation has its own set of cultural references, related to the entertainment we share while growing up. As a kid of the 1970s and early

’80s in suburban South Africa, my friends and I thrived on Bud Spencer and Terence Hill slapstick, Spaghetti Westerns and badly dubbed kung fu movies.

The adrenaline would flow for days after watching Bruce Lee demolish a triad of baddies. An older sibling with a yellow belt who knew just enough about karate to sound authoritative would lead our scrawny bunch through a poorly choreographed version of a kata.

Then we’d practise our moves on each other. Never a good idea.

It was far more educational, and less painful, to see if we could quote Bruce Lee by heart: “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup… Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

Many years after we’d forgotten our katas, we’d still console each other with these words. “Be water, my friend,” we’d say after someone lost their place on the rugby team or after one of us got dumped by a girlfriend, or after an exasperated maths teacher had sent us to the principal’s office for six of the best.

This was also the golden age of South African boxing: Charlie Weir, Kallie Knoetze, Gerrie Coetzee, Elijah “Tap Tap” Makhathini, Brian Mitchell… They were our sporting heroes, for sure, but not exactly philosophers in the vein of a Muhammad “the hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see” Ali. Even the brutal Mike Tyson, the man who later convinced me I never wanted to get into a boxing ring, had better quips than our guys: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face,” he said. That’s what’s happened to many of us in 2020. We had a plan for the year, and then the Covid-19 pandemic punched us in the face. The media industry is no exception. Many of our most-respected and loved publications have been knocked senseless. Some of them won’t get up again.

The exchange rate is another body blow since our paper is imported. (There is no local substitute.) Printed magazines are now premium products, and when we add an additional magazine like we have done this month with Take Your Pic, we have to ask money for it. That’s why this month’s double issue costs R85. Next month, the cover price will revert back to R70. Like any good boxer, we have to roll with the punches if we’re to stay standing. This is one way to ensure we can continue to deliver a quality product that contributes to your lives and your travels.

We think this special issue is loaded with value and worth the extra R15. Please let me know your thoughts. Be water, my friends!