{"id":235,"date":"2005-09-23T11:55:12","date_gmt":"2005-09-23T09:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/wordpress\/?p=235"},"modified":"2005-09-23T11:55:12","modified_gmt":"2005-09-23T09:55:12","slug":"the-apprentice-south-african-and-us-versions-compared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/?p=235","title":{"rendered":"The Apprentice: South African and US versions compared"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South African series of The Apprentice<\/a> finished on Thursday. I don’t want much TV, but managed to become engrossed in both the American and South African versions.<\/p>\n

I was struck by the differences between the two shows. When the American version finished, I was disappointed to hear Tokyo Sexwale<\/a> would be doing a South African version. My first thought was he’s no Donald Trump<\/a><\/em>. I meant that in a positive way, as Donald Trump to me epitomises crass, tasteless consumerism – (see more of my impressions in my Donald Trump<\/a> post).<\/p>\n

I couldn’t imagine Tokyo Sexwale coldly firing the hapless failed apprentices, nor parading about showing off his version of the Trump Towers or his expensive, supposedly natural hair job.<\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised. The tone of the show was quite different. Based on the show, I’d choose to work with quite a number of the South Africans, who seemed genuinely likeable, while I would struggle to pick one of the Americans. The main difference was that the South African version did not suffer from the single-minded pursuit of money. An element of sustainability and development was brought into it, with the tasks not just being get-rich quick schemes, but projects that at least attempted to leave a lasting legacy. Tokyo Sexwale was pleasant and friendly, dismissing unsuccessful candidates with his genuine best wishes. Donald Trump looked like he couldn’t wait to send them onto the street.<\/p>\n

The final show most epitomised the differences. Whereas the Americans were tasked with running a pop concert and a golf tournament, the South Africans were tasked with assisting a small business to grow. Seeing the candidates trying to impart some of their skills, struggling to bring structure to a business that keeps its finances in the owner’s cupboard at home, was both more entertaining, as well as more heartening.<\/p>\n

As a snapshot into their respective societies, they were as far apart as, well, George Bush and Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South African series of The Apprentice finished on Thursday. I don’t want much TV, but managed to become engrossed in both the American and South African versions. I was struck by the differences between the two shows. When the American version finished, I was disappointed to hear Tokyo Sexwale would be doing a South… Continue reading The Apprentice: South African and US versions compared<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fire-social","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}