White People Problems

As I write this, a (white) colleague rolls his eyes and says the words #WhitePeopleProblems. I don’t even know what he was talking about - could be a case of ‘hashtag taken out of context’ but I find it quite interesting how related it is to the names I’m thinking of giving to the book I’ve been reading on and off for the past few days; ‘Gareth Cliff on Everything’ by err, Gareth Cliff.

The names I would’ve come up with for this book are, ‘Diary of a Gatvol White Person’ or ‘Chronicles of the Cliffhanger’. I quite like the second one because it’s relevant to the overall impression I have of Cliff’s book (published by Jonathan Ball Publishers).  My impression is that Cliff has put together a mash-up of his blog entries, radio rants and tweetfarts; and decided (alongside his publisher) that this is sufficient to publish a book with. I personally do not feel that it makes for great reading - I like a coherent beginning, middle and end in my literature. I find it frustrating when authors (and editors who allow it) move from one thought to another (unrelated) thought. But then again, I don’t think Cliff is much of an author (unless publishing a book is all that is required to qualify as an author). I do think he’s a great entertainer though.

There was another thing that frustrated me about this book - his pessimism (I want to call it bitching, whining but he’s already used that in the book). This brings me to the first name ‘Diary of a White Gatvol Person’. A lot of the opinions Cliff shares and his choice of topics (WineX, Nigella Lawson, The British Empire, Dinner parties, Holidays etc.) scream of #WhitePeopleProblems (to borrow my colleague’s hashtag). I know about these because I listen to 702 every weekday morning and spend a lot of my waking/ working life in the Northern Suburbs.

I’ll admit there are a lot of truths to his book, especially if you’re an optimistic and proud South African citizen, who wants to be part of the change not the chain of complaints. I’ll write about these truths as soon as I put them together into a puzzle that paints the bigger picture (i.e. read through the rest of Cliff’s book). This may take a while as I constantly need to take a chocolate/ pick-me-u break between these depressing anecdotes. Look out for these in my next blogpost...

Ow, in the meantime, I’m giving away a copy of the Gareth Cliff on Everything book to anyone who is as proud of being South African as Cliff and I are. Just tell me why.

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