is south africa "finger lickin' good" at equality?

i've been trying to work up the energy to write a new blog entry for a couple of days now, but every time i sit down to the computer i feel like being completely useless and click on random buttons on wikipedia/facebook.

i thought i could score myself an easy #1 for my 101 things in 1001 days challenge on new year's by having my first "real" kiss (that is, one with an actual boy) at the stroke of midnight. unfortunately, his brother popped up around 11:59, and no one kissed anyone else at that party anyway so it would have been awkward if he and i had. long story short, this challenge is going to be harder than i thought.

spent some more time over these past few days researching studying abroad. the rents (even mom, surprisingly) are actually on board with me going off to south africa, but they seemed a little anxious about the de facto social situation post-apartheid. in response, i did a little research, which led me to finding these videos on youtube:



this virgin mobile commercial (advert, in south african english) characterizes the black man as the one in power when the recently deceased white man reaches heaven, seemingly answering to him. i think this exemplifies an interesting role reversal following the severely white-dominated society in south africa throughout the apartheid.

to this, i thought: "how nice of the commercial actors of south africa to be acting in accordance with the country's new pro-equality legislation." however, unsure of whether this applies to the public in its entirety, i pushed on.



what's notable about this coca-cola commercial is the young man referencing his enrollment in university. during apartheid, blacks were all but completely banned from attending universities and other first-rate educational institutions, citing the reason as that since blacks are bound to take up working class jobs, it would be a "waste of an education" to provide them with first-rate academia. (looking for a proper citation for that quote.)

the university of cape town serves an integral role in the equality-based post-apartheid society with its equal racial distribution of students. (i'm definitely against affirmative action, but in south africa's case, this is more than worthy of praise.)

however, it wasn't until this commercial that i truly felt confident in the notion of fairness in south africa:



now, i can't even begin to understand this kfc commercial. why does the black man in the luxury sedan give the white street musician the sandwich? are they married? that would explain the love notes that the white man posts. if that's the case, why is one of them on the street while the other drives the nice car? and in any case, why doesn't the black man share his kfc with the white man? how does this commercial make me want to buy kfc any more? and most importantly, why in the world does kfc exist in south africa?

bottom line: if a corporation as slimy as kfc is willing to air a commercial that depicts such fairness for blacks, then it must be true and de facto in south african society.