Quickie Clothing Stat for the Day

Posted on August 14th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,238 views

According to Eighty20, 25% of South African households owe money to a clothing store.

The other 75% are roaming around butt naked.

The bad news?

They’ll all men.

Why?

Because 21% of South African women have a store card. Only 14% of South African men do.

And 44% of South African adults see no point in saving – they prefer to buy everything on credit.

Which means that 19% of that 75% men are naked and buying everything except clothes with their credit.

Tags: clothing, South African stats
Filed under Statistics | 2 Comments »

Play the game and guess the answer

Posted on July 17th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,323 views

Let’s play a little game, shall we?

I subscribe to SA Fact a Day which emails me little statistical factoids about life in South Africa every week day. I don’t read everyone of them. Sometimes I catch up in a hurry and read my backlog of them in one sitting. Sometimes I just delete or archive them without reading them at all.

I read today’s one because of the email’s subject: “Trapped at the Top”

Here is what it had for me:

81% of South African households with daily per capita income of R500 or more have debt; for those below R500, 53% have debt. (Source: IES 2005/6)

R500 per day, which is just under US$66, works out at R182 500 per annum which is US$24 045. I use xe.com for currency conversations. However, please bear in mind that even though I have converted the Rand amounts into US dollar amounts, it does not mean that the above statistic holds true in the US or, for that matter, any country outside of South Africa.

So, to paraphrase the above, it says that more of the wealthier households have debt whilst fewer of the poorer households have debt. It doesn’t say anything about the AMOUNT of debt. This statistic just counts the number of households that have some (any) amount of debt and divides them into two cohorts – those who earn above R500 per capita per day and those below that earning rate.

Now I would like you to speculate wildly as to the reasons why the richer households are more likely to have debt. That’s the game.

I hope it inspires you to leave an interesting comment. If it doesn’t inspire you, bite me.

Tags: debt, R500, SA Fact a Day
Filed under Statistics | 5 Comments »

In a perfect world:

Posted on December 17th, 2007 by Richard Catto 2,449 views

• Jacob Zuma and all the rest of his uneducated and ignorant supporters would be cured of AIDS by having a shower
• Manto would be able to drink alcohol to her hearts content without it affecting her brand spanking new liver and then heal any ailments by eating beetroot.
• Nelson Mandela would live to be 100 years old
• 3^rd degree would actually make sense sometimes and not just be a TV show with a presenter full of attitude
• Tokyo Sexwale would be voted in as president and not jump on JZ’s band wagon like he has done
• Neledi Pandor would have more of an effect on the department of education and 2008 matriculates would have a higher standard of pass rate

These things are highly likely to not ever happen. So what do we do instead? Some of us ignore the issues going on around us (like I do), some of us write political articles (such as this one) in the hopes of creating some awareness, some of us kick up a fuss and down our country at every opportunity, and a lot of us plan to make a difference, tomorrow. For most of us, tomorrow never comes.

What is the solution?

Immigration for those of us who can’t handle “third worlding” any longer. That way, you will solve your problems, and eliminate a small amount of negativity from our country.

If immigration is not for you, support our government as far as possible, without compromising our morals. Don’t become another negative statistic that aids all the corruption, dishonestly and crime factors.

Vote in the election. Have your say. Your opinion does count. Imagine if 20 000 other people also stayed at home that day and thought the same insecure thought ‘it won’t make a difference if I vote or not”.

We are South Africans. Yes, there is too much crime. Yes, rape is inhumane and unjust. Yes, there is corruption more deep rooted than even we know about. There are far too many cons of being in this country.

But there are a lot of pros too, that sometimes we overlook or dismiss as unimportant.

This is South Africa. In less than 13 years, look how far we have come. We have won two world cups, we’re hosting another in two years, black people are now licensed to be human and do what whiteys have long taken advantage of, such as going to watch a movie at ten o’clock at night, or shopping in the same malls, or drinking from a tap in a public bathroom.This is an enormous change!

When I go abroad to travel, I’m looking forward to defending my country and setting the record straight “Not only do we not have lions as pets, we also have malls with electricity, we have streets of tar, we have multi racial schools, sports events that involve every single South African citizen, we have local productions on TV that are worthy of International broadcasting, such as Isidingo, or the Oscar winning movie, Tsotsi, which was remarkable to watch”.

I am proud to call myself South African. You should be too.

Tags: Politics
Filed under Education, electricity, Ex-pat South African, Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Parliament, Sheena Gates, South Africa, Statistics, White South Africans | 29 Comments »

View this site’s statistics

Posted on November 9th, 2007 by Richard Catto 1,356 views

If you are interested in advertising on this web site (or you are just curious) you may want to see some stats on this site to aid your decision.

I collect stats in a number of stats packages, two of which are WordPress Stats and Google Analytics. Both of these packages allow me to share them with others. So if you would like me to grant you access to see the stats, please follow these instructions:

To view my WordPress Stats:

Sign up with wordpress.com. You need not create a blog, just get an account with them. Email me the email address you used to sign up with them. I will then send you an invite to view my WordPress Stats.

To view my Google Analytics Stats:

Please email me your gmail address and I will add you to my analytics viewers.

If you have any questions about this, use the Contact form on this blog to send me a message.

Tags: google analytics, Statistics, Stats
Filed under Statistics | No Comments »