Change is inevitable – embrace it

This is what Benjamin Disraeli, British politician who twice served as Prime Minister, once said.

How true.

In this life, death and taxes are a certainty. Just like change.

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw also once said: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

For some change is scary, because it holds the mystery of uncertainty, yet without change, as Shaw said, there is no progress in life.

In 200AD, nobody in the geographical region that would become Europe thought that the Roman Empire would ever fall. And many said this also of the British Empire, and some probably think the same of our current government.

But things change and, these days, things are changing rapidly. Nothing is certain and this we have to accept.

When I started out in journalism, it was the dark days, meaning developing film in the dark room – you know that musty small room where you had to load film onto a spool, where you had to develop black and white pictures, all the while inhaling all kinds of weird and wonderful chemicals.

Those were interesting days, when newspapers were spliced and laminated on big old machines.

No one back then could have imagined the days of digital cameras that have quickly made the dark room obsolete. Now you stick a memory card in a computer and, voila, you have the photo that you can edit to your heart’s content.

Today we also sit with online multi-media platforms. Basically, an interactive visual world.

And things are going to change even further in the media world – this is inevitable.

This is, after all, a world of fast-paced advances in technology and, just like the big leap forward from dark rooms to digital cameras, print media is about to change as well, and quickly.

Take my word for it, it is coming very soon, even to the Advertiser, when print media will become alive, like dinosaurs made to live in Jurassic Park.

So watch this space, because such a change is virtually going to become mind-blowing.

Yes, change is inevitable – we cannot stop it because mankind craves progression. Just so the world needed to accept the radical changes that was brought about by the invention of electricity, the television, the phone and of course, the computer.

Change is also inevitable in politics. This is why we celebrate April 27 every year, because, in 1994, a huge change happened in South Africa, when democracy was truly celebrated against all odds.

And change will come again to South Africa’s political landscape. It simply will happen because change is constant, so, unfortunately for the current government, they are very optimistic to think they will rule until the coming of the Lord.

With 1994, it was inevitable that change would hit at the heart of sport as well, with transformation being the key strategy for progression.

Yet, in 2016, it seems change has not happened fast enough according to Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, who has made waves by announcing that he has revoked the right of Athletics South Africa, Cricket SA, Netball SA and the SA Rugby Union to host international tournaments, because of their failure to reach the agreed transformation targets.

Quite harsh you would say, but the pressure on the sporting bodies was inevitable, because change is constant and it needs to happen.

This has, of course, drawn out a myriad of arguments regarding playing on merit and players leaving for greener pastures, but the reality is that change is part and parcel of South Africa and will continue to change its landscape.

The dire situation of our economy will also change, it is inevitable, for any economy undergoes cycles of good and bad periods. So, take heart, not all is lost.

At the end of the day, change can, indeed, be frightening, but there is hope intertwined with change, for the constancy of change instils a hope that there is a silver lining to every dark cloud and the sun will shine after the storm.

For this reason, there is a still a bright future to believe in for our citizens, because no one is exempt from this change and, personally, I would like to believe the progression that change brings is a progression towards good.

And this is the progression on which the media will inevitable embark, and it will be a journey for the adventurous at heart.