Apparently the new governor of New York limits his e-mails pretty much to the words “call me”. It is something that I try to emphasise to my staff all of the time and that is, that you get very much less done by e-mail or SMS compared to either meeting a person face to face, or picking up the telephone and having a phone call with them.

I love the recent article in the New York Times about Cuomo’s style in terms of making phone calls, that he is never rushed, that he very seldom keeps you on hold with his secretary but calls you directly and he never puts you on hold. If the governor of New York has time to do that, the rest of us should make the time. Sometimes staff tries to rely on e-mailing things, and hoping that the other person will reply or trying to sort out their problems by continuous back and forth e-mails. At a time like that, I normally jump in, pick up the phone and sort out the problem. Mr Cuomo in an interview said, “I am not an e-mail person, you don’t get context, you don’t get emotion and you don’t get a connection.”
 

I took the subject for this blog from a new billboard for Liberty, and it is an appropriate one, particularly when one looks at the Road Accident Fund legislation and how little cover one receives now. I wonder how many people out there fully appreciate that if they are killed in an accident tomorrow, the maximum their dependants will be able to claim, in terms of loss of support, is about R18 000,00 a month and the same limit applies to what they can claim if they are serious incapacitated and can never work again. 

I appreciate that probably 95% of the population earns less than that, but the 5% that do earn more than that and pay the vast majority of taxes in our country, need to appreciate that they need to get proper and adequate cover in the event that they are injured in an accident, or worse, killed, because with the law changes, they can no longer rely on the Road Accident Fund. There are of course plenty articles about the Road Accident Fund on my firm’s site – www.accidentclaim.co.za 
 

I see that Playboy will be re-releasing in South Africa, with a print run of a 100 000, in April. I am not a media specialist, but I do think there are far too many magazines, and I don’t think that Playboy, which flopped when it launched in South Africa 13 years ago, is going to succeed a second time around. Playboy these days seems to be better known for programmes like the girls of the Playboy Mansion, which incidentally is apparently far more popular with women than men. So I am not sure exactly who is going to be buying Playboy until we see how it targets the South African audience. Apparently now, because we are a little more conservative, local models will not appear totally nude, but topless.

Tiger Woods’ first tournament for 2011 is one that takes place in San Diego from 27 January, namely the Farmers Insurance Open. It will be interesting to see what form he is in, having ended last year in far better form, but without a win. There is no doubt he is going to win in 2011 and with all the swing changes that he has made, the 10 weeks between tournaments may well assist him.

I was chatting to one of the sales people in the Dion Wired store who told me that one of the biggest sellers at the moment were the different Media Players that plug into your TV and allow you to play via your TV whatever movies you have downloaded to your hard drive. Certain brands were selling as many as 15 units a day at the one store alone during December and what that means to me, although the store said that that is “not necessarily the case” is that more and more people are downloading movies that have been ripped from Blu-Ray and watching them.

I think that the factor that has allowed this to become more popular is increasing Internet speeds as well as the various unlimited bandwidth options we now have in South Africa, albeit at ridiculous prices. What encourages piracy is the lack of a viable option, such as Netflix in America and the fact that many movies are released in South Africa months after they have been shown in America, so that for example, with the Blu-Ray version that has already been launched in America, while the movie is showing for its first week in our cinemas. The Town, for example, was already released on Blu-Ray by the time it started showing in South Africa and one of this year’s big Oscar contenders, The Black Swan, which will only be showing in South Africa in the first week of February, whereas it has been showing in America since December already. Delayed releases, the absence of a legal downloadable solution such as Netflix and the like are going to encourage more and more people to take this approach and one wonders why there is not a South African Netflix already?
 

There are quite a few shopping centres, particularly in the Fourways area, that have really been designed without too much thought for the consumer with the result that the tenants in particular look like they are struggling terribly.

Design Quarter, for example, does not have lifts to the upper floors, requiring people to walk up huge numbers of stairs – something most lazy people are not going to do. The front of the centre always seems to be doing well, where the restaurants are, but the rest is pretty much deserted and perhaps they should have put the restaurants more to the middle of the centre to spread the traffic widely. A visit to Cedar Square, another shopping centre in Fourways, reveals more shops with very little foot traffic, although the centre comes alive at night on weekends with a busy night life. That does not seem to help the boutique-style stores that are not doing much business during the week, and the fact that it has no roof means there is water everywhere and you get soaked if you happen to be there any time during the rainy season! Another centre in the area that is not doing well is the Lonehill shopping centre and one wonders why there are so many poorly designed/located shopping centres all in the same area. Trading conditions must really be tough for a lot of the tenants.
 

I am becoming more and more concerned about reporting standards. During this December break, for example, I read an article which was quoted in quite a few newspapers that the international site, Bloomberg, had predicted that Anglo American shares would go up 33% in 2011.

When I went to the Bloomberg site to read this wonderful prediction, with regard to a share that I do have an interest in, I was astounded to discover that there was no article, but a simple three line report that Absa Bank had in fact predicted that Anglo’s share would be up 33% in 2011. There is a vast difference between Bloomberg making a prediction and Absa Bank making a prediction and ever since Absa Bank Unit Trust was selling Foschini’s shares at R6,00, at the same time that Allan Gray were recommending the shares to buy, and it subsequently rose to R60,00, I have not had any time for any predictions that Absa make.
The reporter, instead of saying that Bloomberg had suggested that the shares would rise 33%, should, if they wanted to mention Bloomberg at all, have mentioned that Bloomberg simply quoted an Absa prediction and Bloomberg themselves have said nothing of the sort.
 

The Oscars are a little over a month away, and round about now all the holiday flair at the movies is replaced with some of the best movies of the year, and so I try to catch quite a few. Amongst the movies I have particularly enjoyed recently is The Town which is directed by Ben Affleck and in which he stars and while it is a long movie, it is well worth watching and superbly acted.

My children loved the latest episode in the Narnia Chronicles and I thought it was a well put together movie of the adventure-type that a child cannot fail to love. Megamind is another one that really pulls out all the stops for the children and has a lot of laughs for the parents, although taking the whole family along to watch in 3D, together with the obligatory popcorn, is an extremely expensive exercise.
 

Finweek, in its 23 December 2010 issue, had a survey of the suburbs with the biggest percentage annual increases, across the provinces and nationally. In Johannesburg for example, two of the five with the biggest increases of golf estates, including Dainfern and the others included the classic suburbs like Hyde Park.

Of course, statistics only tell half of the story and if, for example, the statistic is a median sale price in a golf estate, then it is really going to depend whether they are still selling plots in the estate or selling houses, because if they are selling plots, the averages should be much lower as a piece of land without a house is understandably going to be sold for less money than one with a house on it. So, for example, Blair Atholl is the 8th most expensive golf estate in South Africa, with a value of R5,48 million and it beats Dainfern in the 14th spot, which has a value of R3,89 million. That only tells half the story, because Blair Atholl, out of approximately 330 stands only has about 50 houses built, with about another 50 on the go, whereas Dainfern with approximately 1 300 stands has virtually no empty stands available in the entire estate. In short, a piece of land at Blair Atholl is going to cost you more in some cases than a fully built house in Dainfern and obviously the gap between Blair Atholl and Dainfern in this example will only grow as Blair Atholl becomes more developed. This is an example of why one must always be careful when going through averages and statistics, to make sure that you understand what you are comparing, because otherwise it might just tell you a very different story to what you may think.

In this case, the story came out right, and that is that Blair Atholl properties cost much more than Dainfern, but the statistics certainly did not illustrate the real gap between the two estates. Similarly, I used to live in a suburb called Atholl, and the average price in Atholl is always brought down considerably because on the fringes of Atholl there are a number of townhouses and apartments which understandably sell for less than larger properties with bigger houses on them. Of course, estate agents love all of this because they can produce statistics however they like, depending on who they are trying to persuade – the seller or the buyer.
 

Obviously the rain puts a lot of robots out of working order, but it is astounding that at certain times of the year they simply cannot fix them. It is almost as if all of the municipal workers are on some permanent holiday and while it is not a problem for one or two very quiet days of traffic, the day all the roads start getting hectic in the second week of January, it is really unacceptable that some traffic lights which have been out of order for two or three weeks, should still be out of order.

I have found that the cricket coverage, which I have not watched in recent years, has improved immeasurably. A former Zimbabwean cricketer heads up the commentary team and at the lunch break, they can certainly make the commentary more entertaining and the discussion more interesting than most of the cricket I watched immediately before the lunch break! The commentary itself, while the cricket is on, could be improved but certainly the presentation by the presenters at all the breaks, I think, is outstanding.

Around this time every year, the Department of Transport releases its annual death toll during the December time frame and usually it takes credit for a reduction in figures. Since I raised questions about this, starting two years ago, I notice that a number of other organisations have also jumped on the bandwagon and started attacking the statistics that are released.
In short, and I don’t think they fully appreciate that yet, what the Department does is every single year it compares the previous year’s final death toll with the current year’s provisional death toll which is about 30% lower and then holds a “celebration” while taking care to carefully mention somewhere that these are provisional figures. In other words, when they get trouble, they can then say that they did indicate that it was provisional figures but my point would be don’t take the credit in the first place and have a huge press release if you know that what you are releasing in the first place is probably 30% out! 

The figures are generally wrong because they rely on accurate reporting from police stations, some of which are still to report and of course, it goes without saying that many people, and very sadly, pass away as a result of their injuries some weeks after the accident. In other words, it is quite impossible on the 10th or 11th of January to give a final figure for all of those who died in December because some of those might only die in February or March, but certainly there will be many who will pass away in mid to late January or may even have passed away the day before, but that information is not yet with the local police station who then in turn has to pass on the information to whoever collects the data. If the Department wanted to compare apples with apples, it could then compare the provisional figure that they gave the previous year, at their special press release, to this year’s provisional figures, because then at least they will be comparing inaccurate figures with inaccurate figures and one might have a much better idea as to whether or not road safety has improved in South Africa. The way the Department reports its figures is that it has been able to announce, every single year, for more than six years, that there has been an improvement over the December period while annual figures show that over this period the death toll, on an annual basis, has at least doubled! What is the chance then that there really is a reduction in the December figures?
 

The coverage given, after the Road Accident Fund constitutional case was lost, to what Jeremy Cronin had to say, was a great example of how to tell a story so that it suits you. He essentially said that it was great news, because now more money will go towards the injured victims than attorneys. If you think about that, his statement is probably quite true, but what he is not telling the members of the public is that while they might be getting a higher percentage of the money in future, they will not be getting as much money as before!

To give you an example, a person who previously might have a case for relatively minor injuries, of let us say, of R20 000,00 for pain and suffering and R1 000,00 for past medical expenses, will now have a claim for R1 000,00 only for past medical expenses. Because no attorney will help that person, if the person goes through with the claim process, which is doubtful in itself, since it is complex even for attorneys, they will receive R1 000,00 without any legal costs because no attorney will take on the case. So 100% of the money will go to the injured victim. In terms of the old Act, the case would have been settled for R21 000,00 and not R1000 – so even if the attorney may have taken a fee of R5 000,00 from the capital the member of the public would have received R16 000,00 instead of R1000 now. The member of the public is certainly not better off because attorneys are earning less fees!

There is no doubt, to my mind, that with attorneys’ involvement reduced, a higher percentage of the money will be paid to the injured victim – what Jeremy Cronin should just have said you will be getting a higher percentage of nothing.
 

I enjoy my Financial Mail every week, but I particularly enjoy the annual Ad Focus supplement where they deal with the various advertising agencies as well as public relations companies. I’ve always had a keen interest in advertising and marketing and the supplement is always worth reading with articles on such topics as advertising in 3D and all the latest new frontiers in terms of advertising. They gave the agency of the year to The Mediashop.

I thought the advert for the Rhino Fund who is sited at www.rhinofund.co.za  was quite good and it has a picture of a Rhino, as well as the Rhino on the R10,00 note and asked the question as to how many of these green notes you can afford to save Rhinos. It is clever on quite a few levels, but also obviously appealing to people to make donations starting at R10,00 is also good, but somebody can donate a small amount and still feel that they have contributed to the cause. It has been quite a hot topic this year and it is great to see conservation and our wildlife getting more coverage aimed at keeping them in a good condition.

Every now and then my blog doubles up as a product review column, and this time I am telling you about something you probably would not expect to read about here and that is the Dysan vacuum machine. I have always been interested in it because it is advertised in all the technological magazines in America and they always go on about its technology, the simple way it fits together and operates on a ball, so that no wheels are needed and it certainly has futuristic looks – looking a little bit like a mini robot.

It is claimed that the air that it expels is cleaner than the air that any other vacuum cleaner expels and that is quite important for asthmatics, but what really impressed me, after vacuuming a floor already vacuumed by my existing vacuum cleaner, is how much more dirt it picked up. It certainly comes at a price premium, but it made my other vacuum cleaner, which cost half the price, look like a fourth-rate machine.
 

I had quite a hair-raising experience at Serengeti Golf Course, which I have written about quite favourably before on this blog, when playing a round of golf recently with friends. In short, their lightning system failed, and so it did not automatically trigger the sirens that usually go off around the golf course, when a storm starts approaching, with the result that we had a lightning bolt land approximately 100 metres away from us, terrifying the life out of the American friend with whom I was playing.

Worse still, when we got to the Pro Shop and tried to understand why the siren had not gone off, we were told that the automatic siren was broken, and the person working in the Pro Shop could not turn on the system manually because he was under strict orders that he is never to leave the Pro Shop and he had nobody else to help him because the golf director was playing a round of golf. So, instead of running upstairs and triggering a siren that would let people know immediately across 18 different holes and stretching over approximately 6 kilometres of golf course, that they should come in because it was certainly not safe to be playing, he came up with a new plan. The new plan, and this obviously satisfied the requirements for the Pro Shop, involved risking another employee’s life by sending him out on the golf course to drive from one hole to another to warn everybody on the golf course – a job which must have taken him at least 20 minutes, because that is how long it took for all the golfers, who were on the course, to stop arriving at the Clubhouse. In fact, by the time most of them arrived at the Clubhouse, the storm already passed over.

I don’t think Clubs, and perhaps the employees that they have at the Club on a Sunday afternoon when they are probably short-staffed, appreciate the financial risks that the Club would face in the event that the lightning struck the wrong four-ball, with for example, successful businessmen with young children, and killed them. You could quite easily be looking at payouts in excess of R100 million if you took out the wrong two golfers, and I am not sure one’s insurance policy would cover you if you had safety devices but you did not make sure that they were operational and your employees decided not to trigger them manually, because they had to keep the Pro Shop open and nobody was allowed to leave it. Whatever the risks of loss of profit of sales of 5 minutes on a quiet Sunday afternoon, or of a dishonest golfer or staff member running in and stealing a few items, or indeed the entire contents of the till, they would pale into insignificance compared to having one of your clients die, because you cannot be sensible.