#FlyYourOwnFlag
In today’s day and age hashtags are second nature and they help us to express our emotion about a particular subject or even just our mood at a certain time of day.
We, as South Africans, have been using hashtags to show our solidarity on issues that we are concerned about as a nation, like the recent #FeesMustFall and #ZumaMustFall.
Being creative about a hashtag can sometimes go viral with everyone using it, or it can just start and end with the user who started it.
Hip hop musician Cassper Nyovest, last year used the hashtag #FillUpTheDome to make the public aware of his intention to be the first South African to fill the TicketPro Dome with 20 000 spectators. He did achieve his goal, and whether it was because of the hashtag or not, the hashtag was trending for quite some time on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.
Photo Courtesy of Cassper Nyovest
With the launch of Starbucks in South Africa yesterday, social media was abuzz with the hashtags: #Starbucks #StarbucksSA and #MeetMeAtStarbucks,
It was refreshing then, to see the hashtag #flyyourownflag by South African Cricketer Wayne Parnell on his caption of a photo with his first cup of coffee at the Starbucks’ store in Rosebank.
Photo Courtesy of Instagram
The #flyyourownflag is usually associated with snapbacks (the cap that he is wearing and is seen in many of his posts) and is a popular hashtag to show that you are representing your town, city or a place that you call home. With the caption "1st WORLD NORM MEETS 3rd WORLD", one can only assume that the #flyyourownflag represents being proudly South African.
There has been a lot of criticism around large international retail outlets and coffee shops coming to our shores in the past months. Articles have been written on the comparisons between price and quality with our local products and the international giants. Although we at iloveza.com love to promote local businesses we are not closed to the idea of international brands boosting our economy.
We love South Africa for all that it offers and one of the advantages of living here is the fact that we not only get our local home-grown products and talent, but are also exposed to the Western and Eastern cultures and way of life. This includes but is not only limited to, the Turkish (Nizamiye Turkish Mosque pictures below) and Chinese who are doing major developments in our country and the Americans and Europeans who are bringing their fashion and eateries.
Photo Courtesy of Nizamiye
Both local and international products and talents are equally important for the growth of South Africa. Our focus should not be to only support imports nor should it be to criticise the international brands/ talent/ investors, instead we should be welcoming these people with open arms but also remembering that we have a lot more talent and brands to be proud of, here in South Africa.
Represent your country and #flyyourownflag #iloveza
