John Smeddle

South Africa’s State of the Nation: Disaster!

I’m sitting in a house in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg having just heard President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address to the South African Parliament and obviously, the rest of the country on TV. The main agenda was solutions to the electricity crisis in South Africa. And I can’t quite believe what I’ve […]

Why NEOM Should Calm You, Not Just Excite You

The dazzling imagery of a ‘one building’ city called The Line. The awesome vision of a massive manufacturing and logistics hub floating on water. And the jaw-dropping moment when Trojena was awarded the Winter Olympics. These are the elements that are capturing the world’s attention about the NEOM project in KSA. And in many ways, […]

Airbus Wants Investors for Next Level Connectivity

Zephyr Goes to Market You’d think the development of an unmanned, solar powered drone capable of flying 21 kilometers above the Earth would be a hush-hush military project. You know the kind. Dreamt up and developed by ‘those freewheeling zealots’ a hundred meters below the Pentagon at Darpa and Skunkworks. Remember them? They invented the […]

Football as a World Builder: The Saudi Arabia 2030 Vision

When Saudi Arabia defeated Argentina last week, shock and elation hit every connected device in the world within seconds. This wasn’t in the Saudi Arabia 2030 Vision. Shock, because in footballing terms, isn’t it the shark that’s meant to eat the minnow?  And elation because every now and then, sport reminds us of how wonderfully […]