This Week I Thought – 16 January 2026

Because prepping and hosting Nova Sunrise; running Urban Friction; filling in on Future Media News whenever there is a need; trying to stay fit, active, and healthy; finding time to read; keeping up on current events, making sense of the latest pop culture trends, and being a parent clearly isn’t enough to keep me busy (he said sarcastically) I decided that this year I wanted to write something at the end of each week – a look back at the week and some of the stories that stood out for me and made me think, be they things I discussed with you on the show, stories from the news, things I read away from the radio, or even things that may have happened to me. I thought I would call it “This Week I Thought” – so let’s get to it.

This week I thought a lot (as I think many of us did) about the ‘end of the world’, the doom and gloom that is dominating the news cycle what with the Ukraine war still ongoing, Gaza, Iran, Greenland… the list goes on. But this week I also thought a lot about school leavers.

One of those stories was about South African matriculant Siza Gule, who scored nine distinctions including in maths, advanced maths, English, French, physical science, advanced programming, and life orientation and was accepted to Harvard University to study law, politics, and theatre. Sadly Gule very soon went viral on social media not for his achievements but instead because so many people only picked up on the theatre part of his studies and had very strong opinions about what a waste of his talent that was.

There are two parts to this story: firstly how sad it is that the arts are disparaged by so many people, especially when the vast majority of those people rely on the arts to make their lives more meaningful on an almost daily basis. Whether it is someone performing on a stage, acting in a movie, painting, sculpting, singing, or taking beautiful photographs, the arts contribute to our lives and improve them in countless ways so why do people still think that those who do them are somehow ‘less’ than those who have different professions? Why should a high achieving pupil not be able to pursue the arts without people thinking they’re somehow ‘wasting their lives’?

The other part of the story, which does tie in with the first though, provides a real-life demonstration of how when our basic needs are met, we are able to pursue our dreams and passions. Siza attended the exclusive private school St. John’s College and by all accounts comes from a relatively well-off family which, while it is not definitely the reason he is able to study the arts, it is likely that were he to be from a less well-off family he may likely have felt more pressure to pursue ‘more sensible’ subjects (which of course he is, but you know what I mean). How many people stuck in desperate situations wish they could be singing, dancing, acting, or writing rather than working all day just to meet their basic needs and not having any energy left when they’re done.

 The other stories about school leavers that I thought about a lot were those about the pupils who didn’t get the results they were hoping for, and especially those about the pupils who in their desperation took their own lives. I have complicated thoughts about suicide and have probably spent a lot more time thinking about it (in an academic sense, though I’m willing to admit, in an effort to break stereotypes, possibly also in the more traditional sense) than most people and I know that there is very seldom a single reason someone commits it. Still, while I’m not prepared to say outright that there is never a good reason for someone to end their life (a law lecturer once told us to be careful about holding on too tightly to ‘principals’ because you never really know how you will act in a situation until you are in it!), there are so many reasons not getting the matric results you hoped for should not be seen as the ‘end of the road’.

Jobs are scarce, the cost of living continues to increase, and there is so much pressure put on so many young people to ‘break the cycle’, that you can understand how they do though…

Anyway, those are just some of the many, things I’ve thought about this week.