{"version":"https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1","title":"JungleFeed","home_page_url":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog","feed_url":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/.json","description":"RSS Feed for Jungle George","author":{"name":"JunglGeorg"},"items":[{"title":"Apathy and other ways to undermine democracy","date_published":"2026-09-23T19:12:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/apathy-and-other-ways-to-undermine-democracy","url":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/apathy-and-other-ways-to-undermine-democracy","content_html":"

The bitter irony is almost too much to bear in South Africa, a nation where people once fought (and died) for the right to vote, less than 59% of registered voters bothered to cast a ballot in the 2024 national elections, and this figure is expected to fall further in this year's local government elections. <\/p>\n

\n

\"Democracy is not a spectator sport. It\u2019s a collective act of faith\u2014 in each other, and in the idea that a better future is possible.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a far cry from the 86% turnout in '94 that marked the end of apartheid, a hopeful time when the stakes of democracy felt visceral, immediate, even non-negotiable. Yet today the hard-won freedom to shape the country\u2019s future is met with a shrug by a growing number of citizens. The decline in voter turnout since 2009 feels like a quiet betrayal of the sacrifices that secured democracy in the first place.\nThe question is how did we get here? And what does it say about the health of our democracy when so many choose to take a shot left and just opt out?<\/p>\n

\"image\"\nImage source: Carnegie Endowment
Man holding election ballot papers<\/small><\/p>\n

I'd wager that a part of the answer lies in the mirror. Democracy isn\u2019t just something that happens to us, it\u2019s something we do, every day. Every uncast ballot, every dismissive \"they\u2019re all the same\", every refusal to engage is a brick in the wall of our own disempowerment. We can\u2019t lament the lack of change if we keep handing the same people the same mandates, hoping for a different outcome. As the saying goes, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result isn\u2019t just naive (or insanity) it\u2019s a form of self-sabotage. If we want a democracy that works for us, we have to show up, not just with our votes, but with our voices, our scrutiny, and our willingness to demand better. And not in an antagonistic way, we're such a diverse country we need engagement and conversations, we need patience and understanding with each other and the empathy to realise at the end of the day we want the same basic things, even when we disagree on the roads to get there. <\/p>\n

So let\u2019s start there. Let\u2019s show up for the conversations, the debates, the tough questions, and yes, the votes. Let\u2019s remember that democracy isn\u2019t a spectator sport. It\u2019s a collective act of faith, in each other and in the idea that a better future is possible. But it only works if we do. \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6<\/p>","date_modified":"2026-09-24T07:32:14+00:00"},{"title":"Rediscovering the Peer-to-Peer Web with Webmentions","date_published":"2026-09-22T13:53:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/hey-webmentions","url":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/hey-webmentions","content_html":"

I was scrolling through Mastodon earlier today and came across a post from Konstantin pointing to his article, Webmentions: The nice things we have<\/a>. It served as a great reminder of what makes (or used to make) the open web fun and why relying entirely on closed social platforms misses the point.<\/p>\n\n

What actually is a Webmention?<\/h3>\n

At its core, a Webmention<\/a> is a W3C standard that brings cross-site conversations back to personal domains. <\/p>\n

In the modern corporate (and enshittified) web, leaving feedback on someone's thoughts usually means logging into a centralised silo or embedding a privacy invasive third party comment widget like Disqus. Webmentions flip that back to a decentralised model:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You write on your own domain:<\/strong> You publish an article or a note on your site and link to a post on mine.<\/li>\n
  2. Your site sends a ping:<\/strong> Your server sends an automated, lightweight HTTP POST request to my endpoint saying, \"Hey, this URL linked to that URL.\"<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. My site verifies the backlink:<\/strong> My server inspects your page, confirms the link exists, and extracts your author details.<\/li>\n
  4. The conversation federates:<\/strong> Your comment, reply, or link appears directly below my original article.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You own your content, I own mine, and neither of us has to hand our interactions over to an algorithmic platform just to have a conversation.<\/p>\n

    Taking Back the IndieWeb<\/h3>\n

    Setting this up requires a bit of wiring under the hood, getting discovery tags in place, validating endpoints, and parsing payloads but the result feels distinctly like the web we were promised. <\/p>\n

    If you run an IndieWeb enabled site, link back to this dispatch from your own domain and let's see the handshake in action.<\/p>","date_modified":"2026-09-23T16:58:20+00:00"},{"title":"Second first post","date_published":"2026-09-22T11:53:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/second-first-post","url":"https:\/\/www.georgestevenson.co.za\/en\/blog\/second-first-post","content_html":"

    A second first post, the first, much like a pancake, was a mess. This is a new post in an item template. Adding more fluff to test the line wrap and alignment.<\/p>\n

    Check out my previous thoughts on Rediscovering Webmentions<\/a>.<\/p>","date_modified":"2026-09-22T12:56:35+00:00"}]}