Corruption Destroyed Art

When we build wealth, we build value. Reward should never be divorced from merit because that is a form of corruption. And everyone suffers. Human progress historically has been built on the back of exceptional talent. The great European classical works, the great African American works with jazz, the pyramids, the Taj, and the architecture of Japan. I could go on, all of it without exception, represents the best of the best of that era in those fields. Today, we have a very contrived hand behind every field, including music and fashion. Mediocre artists holding top positions. Funded so well that if they fell, they would still not touch the ground. 

You ask yourself what song by Taylor Swift is so notable to earn her top bucks?  Dont ever underestimate capitalism and what it does to make wealth. We go to the cinema and spend our money on a film that has RAVED reviews, but the film sucks. All the critics are in on it. Or the film is amazing, and the pro reviews suck. In the case of Chappelle, maybe he offended the wrong minority group. But that has nothing to do with the quality of the work. You might be pro-genocide, but that is not going to make a good documentary like Israelism a bad documentary. Not if we are rating art. But over time, as people are fed rubbish after rubbish, they lose their taste, and even the ridiculously poor can be sold to them as amazing– they know nothing else. But I digress. 

The Mediocre oppress the gifted — Middle Nation

Photo of Maxhosa of SA-promoted subsidized brands floating a very unique aesthetic that represents authentic SA vibes *maybe Ndabele*. But sponsored/endorsed brands like this fly under the national flag, and even if private, have all the diplomatic cover to get into international fashion events. With simple shirts selling for $600 US dollars, it is hard to see who in New York would be interested in this market. But the move might be more of a brand placement move than a fiscal move. 

The danger of national pride is that no one really cares what they must surrender to see their countries represented at some European award show. They don’t care about the low quality once they can feel that sense of national drug pride. So makes no difference if for every R1 the pigmented human makes, the pale human makes R20 on top of it. And in these modern coliseums, the distraction of the games allows for failures in education and service delivery to go unchallenged. Victory for Tyla means victory for all those Black kids who passed with 30%. It worked for Rome, it worked for the African American community, it worked for the Labor Party in the UK, and it worked in South Africa. National branding keeps the mob content. You can starve them, but let them have their games, and they will not rebel. 

There are people (with politics and money) who sit down and say “South Africa needs a designer label like Gucci “, or “South Africa needs artists like Ariana Grande” or SA needs a Spike Lee and a Quentin Tarantino, and then they go about and MANUFACTURE these people to represent BRAND ZA. Merit is not required. It shortcuts critical development processes to get to a specific political objective. Unfortunately, you cannot do that for heavily merit-based fields, and it never develops you long-term. Not that SA was ever looking for long-term development. Just the appearance of development. Ocacia is different. We said Africa needs a luxury range, and we went about making an actual luxury range based on merit.

These types of deals go down. Since 1998, branding has been a major strategy of SA’s foreign policy. So sure, Trevor Noah is actually very talented, but it did not hurt that he was of mixed heritage. He is more acceptable as a representative of the rainbow. 

This Talentless girl is their Grande, but she cannot sing like Grande. Handpicked because she has the right look for the Western Markets, Black, but not too black. 

I would not get specific with some of the “brand SA” I am referring to you can figure that out for yourself. But there is a fashion company that displays no natural talent, unless who you know is a legit talent that is allowed to be “the Versace of SA” all handpicked by corporate greed. Politicians and investors working together. But you still not Versace, or Gucci. So when you check out these stores, they are artificially keeping the lights on by bottomless funding, not bottomless talent. It is not only SA they learned it from America.

I saw it many times. American liberals sit down and say, “We need a Black woman, from Africa (aka an African) who is 25-30, who can be our darling in cinema. We can use it here to represent her country while selling our politics. I know this person personally. They did it with music from West Africa (a woman, not too dark, who we can use for our Western audiences). Again, I know this person personally; they sat next to me in my house not too long ago. Here is another plant that I will expose for their BS work. From a notable family, is not too black (so she can be sold to a European audience, speaks French, is a female, and can be manipulated to serve our interest.

DIRECT SOURCES WITH RECEIPTS

This is not hearsay, this is Kat William-level info. I know because I was there. I know some of these people on a WhatsApp chat level. They sit next to me on my sofa and come to my yard, I know their kids’ names, I know their moms.  People in power look at the field and see who is greedy enough or stupid enough to be used. They might watch a young writer who is Pan-African and realize this guy is heavy on ego, let us get him away from Pan-Africanism and lure him by his ego to do something that serves our interest. If I speak too much, someone might put it together. Like we were at a specific film festival awaiting an award that there is no way we could not win (remember we did films before fashion). One of the top-top organizers whispered in our ear that they would not let you have it no matter how good your film is. It is politics and South Africa has invested so many funds into this event that they have to return the favor. That was not the only time. An identical incident happened when the same person told us this is a political game, I will create a special award where I am the only judge, because that is the only way good films will be rewarded. He admitted the flaws of the very system he was in charge of. In not so many words, “this is what I have to do to keep the lights on so I can screen films like yours”. (end quote). 

This is not accidental. 

So someone like an emerging hip hop artist doesn’t need to worry about being a good rapper; they need to secure $250,000  and get a famous artist to feature in their new video. They are not friends. And with the decline of music sales, this is how you make your money. What spoils it is traditionally TALENTED artist would be spotted and brought to the fore. So all talented artists had to do is sit and wait to be discovered. (We hope they did more than that. But today talent is not a requirement, which shortens the entire process. Art loses, and the consumers of art lose. No wonder there is no more Prince and Stevie Wonder. 

If this trend was around in the 70s and 60s, do you know we would miss out on all those classics. Tyra and Taylor Swift are not Tracy Chapman or Diane Reeves. Drake is not LL Cool J. There would be no Mozart, Chopin, or Beethoven in this scenario. Back then, it was talent and talent alone that was responsible for your notability. And how do we know this? Very easy. Just listen to Prince or Debussy. This is why sports seem to remain the last pure form because Serena Williams, famous or not, rich or poor has to beat her opponent fair and square to win. She can sign a trillion dollars in deals, it will not help her on the tennis court against her rival, only her acquired objective skills. Her opponent will be homeless it will come down to skills. And the best prepared will win. 

CORRUPTION

Imagine a fashion conference where Ocacia is called to speak about what advice we should give emerging designers and talented filmmakers? Work hard, master your craft, and find your unique contribution to your chosen craft. Or should we tell them the truth that none of that matters? It is all about your connections. Which corruption scheme can you get into? When we think about corruption why do we always limit it to something politicians do? Here in SA, they seem to limit corruption to a policeman taking a bribe. Honestly, that small stuff is not destroying us.

What about the big corruption where a person without any talent/skills takes money for a job they can’t do, while the capable person is at home, broke?