“Let your soul be your pilot, let your soul guide you and guide u well. Let your be pain be my sorrow, let your tears be my tears too, let your courage, be my motto, that the life you find will be true…” – Sting

2nd last mail for the year this is, cos me on leave from the 4th Dec. till the 6th Jan. Yaay!! Yip, I know, I wasn’t supposed to send one this week, but as cruel luck would have it, late on Friday afternoon I got a call that I shouldn’t bother boarding the plane cos the deal we were supposed to be workin on in Cape Town, was off the table, at least they were nice enuff to call me at 9am on Monday morning to inform me that there was a possibility that the deal would be off. Anyway, as the saying goes everything happens for a reason!!…WHATEVER!!!

I had an email all thought of etc. then I had a conversation with my chomi Charl, and he gave me an even better mail topic and some material to work with, which I am sure most of us can relate to. What did u get up to this weekend? I’m sure most of us spent a fair amount of time “partying it up”. I know its generalization and it may well only apply to the circles in which I roam, but they happen to be most of you guys on the list. :-)

Are our twenties an extension of our teens, if so will this tide ever turn, cos I don’t see our thirties getting any easier, there are some of us like Cobbs, Jake, Mo, (Isaac), Ang, Gretchen, Rachel etc. who have done the settling thing, but the majority of us are still just jolling, going out being boys and girls, getting broken and being silly, drugs, alcohol, sleeping around, drunken driving. Yes, we are responsible during the week…(excl. Fridays in my case) and we go to work, perform, earn your keep look all respectable, then come Friday the 18 yr old monster comes and takes over.

When my folks and I am sure most of yours, were our age, they were pretty settled, knew what they wanted out of life, career wise, found their life partner, married, had a kid or 2. Now ask any of the mates about settling down, the general answer you get is what the kcuf, are you craze…me…settled, generally followed by a sarcastic laugh! Divorce and infidelity is the order of the day

Y do we have this attitude? Some people answer I want to be financially stable…ehhhh!! Wrong answer, a union that survives through the tough times more often than not will survive the good times, generally struggling through the tough times are generally the best test of your relationship. So what is it, that makes us wanna maintain a “don’t settle down lifestyle”, the fear that we will miss out on something better that may come along…better car, better place to hangout, better mates, better potential “soul mate”? The changing times? Or is it maybe just because we can?

I say ‘because we can’, because we don’t have to pay for the stuff our folks had to at our age, school fees, diapers, mortgage bonds, life insurance (for just incase), medical costs for 2/3, a lot of us are makin a fair whack of tom, which can be used to support the snazzy cars, label clothes, recreational drugs, booze, clubbing, etc. We see the freedom to choose what we want when we want it as a right rather than a privilege, we get in a huff and a puff when things that could go either way, don’t go our way. The last thing on my folks mind when we was growing up was going to Diesel, Carducci or wherever to go buy an item of clothing, more important to them was the lighties being healthy, having food, having a decent education. But not us…oh no!! Our generation is all about me…me…me…me…, what’s in it for me, how do I benefit? My time is my time…In the generation before it was about society and family, which is all intertwined, but not now, now its all about me! Ours is a selfish generation...the proverbial “my way or the highway” syndrome.

Now this may sound like I am condemning our generation, hell no, I am a fully fledged member of the tweenager club, just some thoughts I thought I’d share with u all in the hope that we would get some comments, enlighten us all!!

I have a few responses from the Mr and Mrs right email that I will send to u all sometime.

Birthdays
26th Akua
27th Julian

“a mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it” – Rabindranath Tagore

Getting back to how it used to be…Monday mail on Monday. Anyway boys and girls, take care of u, and catch ya on the flipside, expecting at least 10 replies to this mail, don’t let me down guys. As always maximum respect! Thanks Charl

Later

Y

Gimme 3 reasons why Adam and Eve were black?
1) they worked in the garden
2) they stole the fruit
3) they lied to their boss

“In my darkest hour, in my deepest despair, will you still be here, will you be there in my trials and tribulations, through our doubts and frustrations, in my violence, in my turbulence, through my fear and my confessions, through my anguish and my pain, through my joy and my sorrow….in the promise of another tomorrow, I’ll never let you part, for you will always be in my heart” Michael Jackson.

The relevance of that I have no idea I was just listening to the song ‘Will you be there’ and that whole song and especially that part got my attention so I thought who better to share it with than my chomi’s?!

6 weeks left in the year, and guess what I don’t think I have missed a single week this year, mind you I may well miss one next week, cos I am in Cape Town for the week, I no, I no, u will miss it, but come guys u will survive ;-). Thanks for the responses to last weeks email, glad u enjoyed it, it was one of those few and far between moments of inspiration, as I start this mail I have no idea what I will write about, but as the waffling continues, I hope a thought provoking topic will surface. Hmmm no luck yet and its 3 hrs later…want to tell u part 2 of my life, varsity and beyond, gave you part one already birth till matric. That will require some thought and some time so what I am gonna do is once again look for some feel good material to cut and paste, but fear thee not, if something profound happens to me between now and Friday I will let you know all about it!!

Find below a very valid thought…or 2 for the day…Once again compliments of Nasrin…beautiful messages.

Message 1
"We should strive to live by the virtues that we wish others had."
It is so easy to criticise, to find fault, to ridicule. We try to give ourselves a sense of importance by treating others as unimportant. We try to show our cleverness by trying to make others look stupid. We try to have fun at others expense. We have the attitude that "I am not stupid because I do not understand you. You are stupid because you do not understand me" Our mistakes are genuine errors and our intentions good, the mistakes of others we treat as acts of deliberate sabotage or stupidity.
Are you living by the virtues that you wish others had? Are you walking your talk? What sort of example are you?
Just for today take the time to stop yourself from criticising, from finding fault, from ridiculing, from being impatient. Ask your self. "Am I any different? Have I never done anything like this? Do I really think that this was done deliberately in order to annoy me? What example is my behaviour setting? How important is it, really?"
If we want to improve our relationship with the world then "We should strive to live by the virtues that we wish others had"
Message 2
"What one thing can I do today
that will make a positive difference?"
We have to constantly question our actions because we must realise this, whatever we do makes a difference so the question is not "Can I make a difference?" but rather "Am I making a positive difference?"
Always question your actions by asking "What problems am I, or could I be, the solution to?" or "What problem am I the cause of, or contributing to" And yes I know that there are many vast problems. Don't try to solve them all at once, just do what you can to help. Remember that every big success is made up of many little successes, so just get started. This story should illustrate this.
THE STARFISH THROWER
Early one morning after a storm out at sea a young man was walking on the beach when he saw an old man ahead of him. It looked like the old man was exercising for he was bending down then straightening up and making a throwing motion out to sea.
As the young man came closer he saw that the old man was picking up starfish and throwing them back into the sea. The beach was covered with hundreds of the little creatures that had washed out in the night due to the storm. What the old man was doing seemed like a pointless exercise to him. It did not seem to make any difference to the numbers on the beach however many the old man threw back.
"Seems like a waste of time to me" said the young man as he approached the old man. "Soon the sun will be up, and all these starfish will die. What difference will saving one or two make?" The old man bent down picked up another starfish and threw it out to sea "it makes a difference to that one" he said as he bent down to pick up another starfish.
The young man thought about this for a while then he too bent down and picked up a starfish.
Make this your motto and you will find that suddenly your world is a better place. "I shall pass through this world but once, any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any living thing, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect to do it, for I shall not pass this way again."
So today and every day ask yourself "What one thing can I do today that will make a positive difference?"
Birthdays…
21 Neelesh
22 Sanguita

For u two a quote…”I will love the light for it shows me the way, I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.” Happy birthday guys and plenty happy returns.

And to Dinah, have a great day on Saturday, hope your wedding day goes off well and it is the best day of your life!!

And to those writing part II of the QE exam, good luck to u on Friday!!
Quote…

Thanks to Thuli… Maybe God wanted us to meet the wrong people before
meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

Always remember the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you,let go of your past failures and heartache, SO LET GO.

Happy Wednesday to the masses, and maximum respect to u all, till next week then maties, I am out like the All Blacks in the rugby world cup
Y

“I see her face and I cant let go she’s in my dreams in my heart so let me know, have you seen her, tell me have u seen her, she’s a thought and a vision in my memory I haven’t met her but tell me where could she be, have u seen her….loooove oh love, love is a feeling and I need your love, oh oh oh, please be mine…” Mc Hammer

Yip Thursday once again, arb day tomorrow, then another week done and in the archives, a month and a half to year end, I know I say this all the time, but hope it serves as an indication of how awestruck I am with the pace at which this year has motored through. I guess as they say time flies when you having fun, and fun I have definitely had thus far, and many of you have been there to be part of that thanks guys and a huge thanks to the housemates and extended mates.

Otherwise, all is supercalafragalistic expialadotious! No real complaints, well none that if u don’t mind, well, it wont matter. New addition to the list miss Julie, welcome to our little rant and rave world, mostly me doing all the ranting and once in a while I get some responses, responses and suggestions are always welcome!!

Is there a mr. or mrs. Right? If so is there just one or are there many, or are those romantics amongst us, just that…romantics….dreamers…fools, only to be likened to those that seek the meaning of life?

I used to subscribe to the notion that there is that one out there for u, the one…the star in your sky, the sunshine in your day, the sugar in your coffee, the her in together, but as time goes by, I am realizing that this may actually not be, because many a time that I think I may have found the one, or one at least that resembled her, she was taken, not keen, this that and the next, there was always something wrong. Well then perhaps maybe she wasn’t the one… the one, Yaw are u still living in your dream world? Perhaps?? And how do u identify the one? No Yaw, you just know… they say, u get a smile on your face from ear to ear, every time u hear her voice your heart goes flutter splutter, then there are those butterflies in the tummy, and every moment away is like an eternity (jees didn’t know I had it in me …oh disaster ;-))…but most of us have felt that, once, twice…three times a lady…and it lasted for a week…a month….a year..10 years…but then, one morning, u wake up to the sound of I want half!!! What happened in this situation, was s/he still the one? Or the one before?…the wrong one?

Ooh but u gotta love the initial stages, u no making the first move…all the thoughts, should I shouldn’t I? Does she or does she not? What did she mean by that, OH good Lord she looked at me funny, I’m in…or am I. Initially that is all good and exciting but after a while it becomes insanely painful hey, but now when do u know when to make the move? Oh, wait the philosophers amongst us are going to dish out the “if its meant to be it will be”. But damnit I want it to Be! Always!! Many a las has slipped thru because of that debate (ofcourse assuming that there was game, but I guess I will never no), one I remember way too clearly, was pretty recent, fantastic las she was, spent plenty time with her and all the signs were there but Negroid didn’t act, he just sat back hoping she would make the move, no Yaw, you are punching way above your weight son, oh but Yaw she is hanging with u, laughing at everything u say, u funny kid, but not that funny, ooh wait she just gave me the look…there is definitely game there..but…needless to say she is living happily ever after with another. He who hesitates…masturbates…some like to say he who hesitates is lost, but I think the former depicts the scenario more vividly.

Anyway I think I am waffling, tend to do that sometimes… But I think the story with looking for mr/mrs right, is all about finding the one that completes u the most, or maybe if I can steal a line from the movie ‘as good as it gets’, its all about finding the one that makes u want to be a better person. If u find someone that has qualities that u admire or attract you, I think its worth effort to give it a go, after all how much damage can it do, possibly a broken heart, but hey what doesn’t kill you can only make u stronger, learn from it and who knows u might give those rusty ol bones a well needed workout…if u no what I mean.

I say love the one you with. By no means settle for some arb person, but in the same breath, give mister or madame X a chance, they may well end up being “mr or mrs right for u”.

Now its time for me to start following my own advice…interviews start at 4pm sharp!!

Birthdays…
9th Dean
10th Shanwynn
11th Rachel
15th Rowan
16th Bilal

“if you create from the heart, nearly everything works, if from the head, almost nothing” Marc Chagall.

Hope I got the author right this time Kgashane ;-)

Something that has been missing these past few weeks…Quotes….calm down Vaughan. These are included thanks to Thuli…

Maybe God wanted us to meet the wrong people before
meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

Always remember the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you,let go of your past failures and heartache, SO LET GO.

To those writing part 2 soon and to those awaiting results, all the best, I’m in your corner!

Boys and girls, that was just some thoughts that floated thru my head as I sat here pondering what to write, hope they made for at least a semi-interesting read. Right now tis time for work...or home. You all have yourselves a fantastic and safe weekend.

Maximum respect to the masses, ladies remember 4 o’clock ;-)

Lata

Y

Howzit chinas

Another week to the close, and i like Friday’s like this, after a big nite, still feeling the buzz of the nite before, people thinkin u crazee cos u in such high spirits, not knowing that u might well still be well vrot from the nite before’s occurances, but hey its all good, another day another dollar and TGIF!!

As has recently become the norm, i am at a loss for topics, well i was until Sash helped a brother out....

She's hot, she is 6 feet tall, she is doing this that and the other, she can play the piano blah blah blah, then they interview her and she is as thick as a plank.

Beauty contests, really now, what a waste of time and energy, i think, throw some top dollar at people because they are pretty or handsome or well built. What do they actually add to our lives? I am seeing ads about miss SA, I am reading colour fotos on plenty pages abount miss sa or miss teen SA, the winner gets plenty cash, this that and the next, whats the fuss about? That money, could be used to feed some village somewhere for a whole year. Isn’t all that stuff really degrading, prancing around, like livestock...or maybe not, sometimes it is rather lovely to watch, actually most times, swimsuit…oh my hat…digress…but u now what I mean

I dont have the answers, but what are your views on beauty contests et al? THAT MEANS I WANT U TO PLEASE RESPOND!!

That’s my short mail for the week...
Below is some thought provoking stuff thanks to Nas.

"Your mind is like a fertile garden.
Whatever you plant will grow,
so only plant what you want to harvest."
Be very careful with what you allow to be planted in your mind. Because what ever you plant, or allow to be planted, will grow. Your mind does not know the difference between right and wrong, what is good for you or what is bad for you. It has only one function and that is to do what ever you tell it to do, to create the situation that you imagine. It is like a robot that you can program to obey your every wish.
Your actions are always the results of your thoughts. The quality of your life is determined by your thoughts and your future is affected by the actions that you take now, so constantly think and act with your preferred future in mind.
Listen to yourself, do you really want to harvest the crop that you are planting. Is this really the way that you want to feel. Are the seeds that you plant going to unleash your potential or limit your potential. How will you feel if what you said was true, or came true.
Be realistic I can hear you say. No-one can be positive all the time. But, that's just the problem, you are positive all the time, unfortunately too often you are positively negative. You are quite sure that things will go wrong. Just listen to the way people speak.
I have never heard anyone say "Boy! I hope that I have a bad day today" but I have heard them say "Today is going to be terrible" I have heard them say "I hope that today is going to be OK" but I seldom hear them say "Boy! Am I going to have a great day today."
I can't get a job, not at my age, not with my qualifications. How does that make you feel. Are you enthusiastic about your chances and alert for every opportunity or have you convinced yourself that it is not even worth trying.
I am not as young as I once was you know. At my age what do you expect? Are you already thinking about the retirement home, putting your feet up and your life in storage. All you have to live on are memories of what was and fears of what will be. Is that what you want?
Ask some people "How long have you been married" "Oh far too long." is often the answer. Wow, how empowering is that. What do you normally do if you have been doing something for too long? Why, you stop doing it of course. Is that what you want?
How often have you said to yourself, "Boy I'll be tired tomorrow." How did you feel when you woke up, refreshed, energised, eager to face the day, or when the alarm went off did you turn over and go back to sleep? And when you eventually did get up you had to drag yourself kicking and screaming into the day?
From today learn to question whatever you give your mind to work with. Ask yourself, "Do I really want this to be true?" because "Your mind is like a fertile garden. Whatever you plant will grow, so only plant what you want to harvest."
Birthdays
6th Dear Sis
9th Dean

Happy happy to u all a quote for u…”Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they have stayed true to their ideals, beliefs and commitments.” – Kevin Costner

A quote or thought for the week thanks to Harps…makes for an interesting topic of discussion sometime.

The simple truth behind each and everybody
A person asked Confucius,
"What surprises you most about mankind?"

Confucius answered,
"They lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.
By thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future and they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived..... "
You all take care now u see, have a splendid weekend be as bad as all hell, but just take care of yourselves. Maximum respect to the masses

Later

Y

Guys before u read any further, please do understand that a rough nite was had b y some of us last nite so, if this mail is fragmented, and makes no sense, this time there is a valid reason for it.

Another week almost done, 63 more days till year end…y is time still flying? Aint got articles no more, all that’s happening now is a nigga’s getting older, and dagnabit, negro aint ready to grow!!

How u all this fine Friday morning? So whats going on with u all?

Today we is gonna have one well controversial email… Religion! I was born to a Presbyterian father and an Anglican mommy, Christianity is the religion I follow. I don’t identify myself to one particular church, because in my eyes tis all silly really all the different churches within one religion who in the past used to take a dig at each other…some still do. And then there is all the skandaal in the churches lately. If u r a catholic, nowadays u will struggle to find a confessional, let alone a priest to confess to, cos all em buggers are in there confessing to each other…hey Paul, u no that alter boy, u talking about Jimmy, yah the one with the tight ass, yip I did him, no…. can u just imagine the conversation!!

And no I am not mocking my religion, but lately I have been questioning it quite a bit, questions that I used to ask when I was younger keep popping back into my head, and the thing with age, is u can’t just accept it cos mommy said so no more. But its not just Christianity, in my mind all religion is awesome, cos there sure as there is snow in Greenland is a God, or a superior being, cos I for one find it hard to believe that the process of ingesting food, having teeth in your mouth to grind it to a pulp and salivary glands to assist in the process, then swallowing it into ur stomach where the gastric acids and all have their turn to show their worth, then it all comes out in the form of air poo or otherwise…u cant tell me that’s a coincidence and have me believe u.

But u know as great as religion is, I cant help but question it from time to time, well the scriptures in particular and its openness to interpretation. Most of us believe there is a higher being, so Jew or Gentile, Hindu or Muslim, we all believe in a God, the only area in which we differ is the method of worshiping and following God. Then there are the extremists who tend to interpret religion as God saying the Arians are the be all and end all, and all else is evil. Then there are those who see being gay as evil, hey gays suck…I am sure they do, but I doubt anyone would intentionally forsake all women…another reason y I believe there is a God, to go shag a hairy potbellied freak in his brownhole. Just doesn’t make sense. People walk around saying that I am better than he or she, cos God said so, yet in the teachings from which you quote, there is written somewhere, that all on are created in the image of God?

When it suits you, you are the most faithful religious person, but let someone really hurt u, we’ll see if you can forgive the person!! HELL NO! U walk around all bleak with the anger of a dozen, Spanish bulls in you, yet in the bible it states, u should forgive your fellow man 77 x 7 times…in other words, as often as it takes.
The hardest thing though for me to understand is the whole Adam and Eve story. From the great book, they are painted as Caucasian, ok lets make em whatever race, but they were both of the same race. Now how do u explain how all the other races came about…I can maybe understand from white to black, cos that African heat can burn a mutha…and there was no factor 31 back in those days, coloureds too, but Asians and orientals aikhona, I know not. Evolution has its merits too
And then there is the story of aliens, and guys and gals if u don’t believe in aliens, I will have to say u is perhaps one of the most naïve people ever. With a universe as vast as ours and to think that our little planet is the only one with life on it…
Another thing about Christianity that I am not too sure about, before the colonials hit the African soil, the brothers had no idea of the Biblical God, does that make the negroes wrong in their beliefs?

These are some of the questions that have popped in my head many a time, and perhaps the more enlightened amongst us can shed some light on this.

I believe that there is most definitely a superior being and religion is right, but what I don’t subscribe to is condemning others because they don’t believe as u believe.

There are 2 very humane religions that I have been reading up on lately, the way of the Rastafarian and Bhudism. My housemate Gayreth, has asked me to put together something about the Rasta…

Rastafari, is a movement that has its roots in the depression of the descendants of African slaves, dumped on the Jamaican Islands. Given no chance in life, plucked from their motherland, to live in filth and slime, in shanty towns that would make our squatter camps look like Beverley Hills, but from this misfortune arose a sentiment, a movement so pure, so without anger so full of love, a faith that cried out from the mountain tops the freedom of spirit, the freedom from slavery and the freedom of Africa!! As I was typing that the words…emancipate urself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds (Bob Marley)…kept playing itself over and over in my head…digress….

Rasta has its roots in the teachings of a one Marcus Garvey in the early 1900’s. His main call was for the negro to empower itself…do for itself, from this came the call for all Africans to return to the motherland. His prophecy’s were thought to be proven when Ras Tafari was crowned emperor Haile Selassie 1 of Ethiopia. It was claimed that Selassie was a direct descendant of King David the 225th ruler in an unbroken line of Ethiopian Kings from the time of Solomon and Sheba.

Rastafarians believe that Haile Selassie , is the living God for the black race, they believe him to be the Jesus that is spoken about in the bible and that the colonials tricked the negros to believe that Jesus was white. Africa and specifically Ethiopia also refered to as Zion is believed to be a Rasta’s heaven on earth. They do not believe in the afterlife or hell as most other religions believe, they do however believe that their ancestors may have wronged Jah in some way or another hence slavery and exile into the western world. When a rasta refers to Babylon, they refer to the political oppression of the western world that has kept a negro down for many a year. First it was slavery now its poverty, illiteracy and inequality…

“He causeth the grass for the cattle and the herb for the service of man”. Psalms 104:14, “…thou shalt eat the herb of the field” Genesis 3:18, “…eat every herb of the land” exodus 10:12, “Better is a dinner of herb where love is, than a stalled o and hatred therewith” Proverbs 15:17…these are some biblical extracts, that justify the religious use of Marijuana or Ganja for Rastafarians. Not only is weed used for spiritual and religious purposes, but its uses are vast. They rely on it for medicinal purposes too. Rastas are generally vegetarians, consuming mainly crop from the earth, in its most natural form, cooked but served as raw as possible, no canned food, no preservatives no salt, no mrs balls. Those that eat meat are not allowed to eat the pig, cos they are the scavengers of the earth, they may eat fish, but not crabs, lobster or shrimp cos they too are scavengers, but of the sea. The fish they should not be more than 12 inches long. Drink…only the natural stuff like tea, liquor, milk, coffee, soft drinks etc are a no no, cos they are seen as unnatural

The main colours of the rasta are green, red and black, sometimes yellow is used as well. Red symbolizes the church triumphant, the rastas church, it also represents the blood many a rasta has shed in the negros struggle for liberation. The black symbolizes the colour of Africans, the green expresses the the beauty and vegetation of Ethiopia and the yellow represents the wealth of their homeland.

Now I am sure most of y’all are wondering y Rastafarians grow dreads? Contrary to popular belief, dreads aren’t merely a way to get some tv ads, they too have a biblical beginning. In Leviticus 21:5 It says: they shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in the flesh”. The manner in which the hair grows is said to represent the lion of Judah, which has come to represent priesthood and naturality.

An interesting fact, I am well sure that u heard many a rasta say the phrase “I and I” instead of “you and I”. This is done because rastas believe no one to be more superior or more privileged than another in the basic truth of life, because all people are bound together by the one God.

Rastafarians reject the life of the west, needing no material possession, their lives are all about studying the scriptures, living a peaceful existence...tis all about the love…one love!!

Birthdays….
Pearl, my apologies for omitting u last week, happy happy for Thursday, hey but at least I wished u a happy happy in person ;-)

27th Oct – Ivy

A quote for u las….”when I let go of what I am, I become what I might be” Lao Tzu.

To all the Hindu readers, Happy Diwali for last weekend, and to the Muslim readers, all the best for Ramadan.

Well good people I am out of here u have urselves a fab week…and once again, maximum respect

Toodles

Y

Another week half way done..fcuk ass

How u boys and girls? I am so damn tired, stuck at work 9:30pm on tuesday evening fun fun fun. Now I am sitting here work done and i have realised that i need to get out my mail today cos I am not in the office from tomorrow only back on monday.

So now i am thinkin hard and tryin to come up with something to write...and all thoughts fail me and i guess its allowed seing the time so once again gonna hve to resort to a cut and paste excercise...once again compliments of Sean H...

BE THE ONE!
If it seems that the world needs a little more kindness, be the one to put it there. If you see something that needs to be done, be the one to do it.
When you come across a problem, be the one to work out a solution, and to turn that problem into an opportunity. When the time is ripe for a fresh perspective, be the one to offer your opinion.
If no one is sure of what to do or say, be the one to offer a genuine smile and a kind word of reassurance. When there is something that must be said, be the one to speak up and get it out in the open.
If everyone waits for someone else to make the first move, nothing ever gets done. Be the one to step forward and get all those around you moving in a positive direction. The world needs those who are willing to get things going. And life richly rewards those who do it.
Take the initiative and be a leader. Someone has to do it, and you can be the one.

ACCEPT THE POSSIBILITY!
The biggest successes come to those who are not afraid to fail. When you can accept and live with the possibility of failure, then you're able to create the reality of success.
Success that is guaranteed is meaningless, for it creates nothing of real value. The value of true success is derived from the obstacles that must be transcended in order to reach it.
So how do you find the courage to accept the risk of failure? By knowing that no failure can diminish the value of who you are. No failure can take away your ability to accomplish. In fact, when you fall short of the mark after sincere and sustained effort, it is not really failure but a powerful step toward eventual success.
After every success, after every setback, you will still be you, ready to go at it again. Accept the possibility of failure, and you'll surely reach the reality of success.

LET JOY FLOW!
You cannot know joy by storing it all up for yourself. For then it becomes stagnant and ceases to be joyful at all.
What if you lived in the most magnificent mansion you can imagine, yet had no one to share it with or no one to ever visit you? It's easy to see that such an arrangement would soon become unbearably dreary and miserable.
Your life is far more valuable than the most opulent mansion. And that value is fulfilled and experienced to the extent that you share the best of yourself with those around you.
Let joy flow out from you at every possible opportunity. And there will always be more than enough coming back to you to take its place.
Seek to make a better world by offering the best of yourself, and increasingly you will indeed experience a better world. Find joy in the good fortune of others and that joy will know no end.

Birthdays....

25th Karina
26th Philip

Love. Passion. Soul...You cant have any if you dont have a heart first! Hope u all have fantastic birthdays, i no its becomin a tad cliched, but tis my wish for u on ur birthdays, what else can a man say

Guys honest i will make it up in times to come, i know these emails have been lackin a bit of originality in the last few weeks, but tis been hectic and i've been lazy, but that will soon change. You all enjoy the rest of your weeks and remember, life is like a boomerang, what u give out is what u receive!! Respect to the max to all the masses

Hey all, very quick one this week

Hope all is well with ya'll things might sweet this end, how can it not be, its friday, sun is shining and my name is still Yaw, everything is fine fine fine!! 2 new additions to the list, Chrissy, Dinah and Ivy, welcome to our world of rants and raves with me generally doing all the talkin, but thats not thru preferance, just all u all is just too damn lazy to respond..except last week, where i must say i appreciated the effort shown by those that chose to respond. Ladies if u wanna leave a comment please log onto http://mondaymail.blogspot.com (blowing my own horn i guess, but the last few have been pretty interesting and long, but if u have a moment to spare, press on), should u wanna be removed from this list at any stage, drop me a line.

This week's been silly, been up and down doing all sorts of crazy work stuff, but fcuk me its interesting, job satisfaction at present for me is at a high, so its all good. Ike and Lolo, congrats on the marriage this weekend past (3rd ceremondy, but hey who's counting) hope u 2 have a blessed and fulfilling union....

Other than that seeing as i dont have time to think or write, i am gonna plagarise and cut and paste a little passage or 2 that i received from Sean H. Couple of short little things to remember...

IT MATTERS!
Every moment you are doing something that matters. Every moment you are exerting your own bit of influence on the direction of life, on the direction in which your world is moving. Even when you are doing nothing, it matters very much. For by doing nothing, you allow some of your greatest possibilities to pass by without ever being fulfilled.
Whatever you're doing right now truly matters. It will make a difference in the way your life proceeds, a difference for yourself and for all those around you. What will the difference amount to? That depends on what you're doing.
You cannot escape the consequences that will surely come from this moment. Yet you can have a very influential say in what those consequences will be, by virtue of what you do with it.
Live every moment as though it's the most important thing you can do. And soon enough you'll discover that it is.
MAKE A MASTERPIECE!
Relax and enjoy the ride. Sometimes you can control where you're going, other times you get swept along by forces beyond your control. Yet you can always control how you think and feel and respond. You can always control what you carry with you as you move on ahead.
Resist the urge to fight against events, or to become completely absorbed by them. Instead, find a way to make positive and productive use of them. There is so much more to be gained when you focus on moving forward than when you become consumed by looking backward. Rather than getting hung up on how you got here, become enthusiastic about where you can go from here.
The way will sometimes be slow and bumpy, and other times it will be smooth and easy. In all cases it will be filled with opportunities for joy, meaning and true fulfillment.
As each moment of life arrives with its unique and never-before-tasted flavor, smile and let it be. Then proceed to make it a masterpiece.
BRING JOY!
Bring joy to every moment, whatever the moment may be. Rather than taking your cue from the circumstances you find, set out to inject your own living joy into the places you go and the things you do.
There is always room for real, sincere joy, even in the most difficult of situations. And it is in those difficult situations that a grateful, joyful, positive heart can make the biggest difference.
Others may judge a particular task to be dreary, tedious, or tiresome, but that's just their opinion. When you approach that same task with joy and enthusiasm, you can add enormous value.
There's no need to wait for joy to come to you. You're perfectly capable of spreading it yourself, far and wide. During work and during play, when times are easy and when things are difficult, bring joy. If there's a reason for it, if there's no reason for it, even if there are reasons not to, bring joy.
Bring joy to every moment, and that is where you will know it.

Lemme leave u with these 3 short yet insightful messages and i hope u adopt them in your daily lives, cos trust u me it will make ur lifes journey that much more pleasureable...use it dont use it....

Birthdays....
16th Thabo H...guy appologies for the lateness, but ey better late than neva ne??? hope it was a good one! here is a quote just for u guy...."Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together" - Vincent Van Gogh

Amigos, hasta lavista babies, cos tis back to the grindstone i go, u all have a great weekend c, maximum respect to the masses, ere me now!!

Later

“When you’re down and troubled and u need a helping hand, and nothing oh nothing is going right, close your eyes and think of me and soon I’ll be there to brighten up even your darkest day, just call out my name and you know wherever I am I’ll come running to see u again….winter spring summer or fall, all u gotta do is call and I’ll be there yeah… yeah… yeah…you’ve got a friend” – Roberta Flack

“…keep smiling, keep shining, knowing u can always count on me, for sure, that’s what friends are for, for good times and bad times, I’ll be on your side forever more, that’s what friends are for….”Dionne Warwick and friends

Another week draws to a close, yaaaaay!! Trust all is well with y’all, things be well swell this end of the world. Boys and girls, I don’t ask y’all for much, but damnit u all had better post comments either on the site or directly to me regarding this topic!

Right here is the story, (not mine, but mind u the same shaite has happened to me once or twice or thrice..)…

Now here’s a little story I gotta tell about two young ladies best of mates they been since like 1985, shaite long time, very good family mates too, I mean oldest sisters were good mates and younger brothers are great mates too. But now here is the scandal. The one las lets call her “Angry” met this boy we call him “Mexican chips” last year sometime, and they got along pretty well, they “hung out” for a good 6 weeks or so, I guess u could even say they were seeing each other, or at least shared mutual interest in each other. During this period, Angry introduced Mexican chips to her best mate “War”. Well after weeks of sharing each others company, Chips had to return to his country. But he and Angry have been in touch regularly since…phone calls, sms’, etc. and every time she would yak to him, she would tell all her mates, which would include war.

Here comes the scandal…it would appear that Angry’s mate War, went to visit Chips in his country and didn’t tell Angry about it, and to make matters even more interesting, Chips is in the country again for a while and is shaking up with War, but even more interesting than that is that War and Angry stay in the same block of flats…SCANDAAAAALL!!!

Anyway, apparently this, behind the scenes affair has been going on for a while, and War has resisted telling Angry all this time, but one day, she felt it fit to tell Angry, so she picked up a phone and told her about it. There might be some more to this story that I am forgetting to tell u all but that should be enough background information. As u can well imagine, Angry is just that, ANGRY, livid might be a better description of her emotions at the moment, and War’s is like “what have I done wrong? Am I not allowed to be happy?”

Well here is my take on the situation: facts:
Angry and Mexican chips were not going out, should any other guy have presented himself to her and he ‘fit the profile’ she would definitely have said ‘how u doin?
Angry and Mexican chip will never be a happily ever after story, different countries and just too much politics.”
Angry and War have been close friends (well up to 2 weeks or so ago) for last 18 yrs or so, same school, same class most of the time, same university, live in the same block of flats, they was tight.
War chose to tell Angry by phone (which I think was a good idea, cos angry can get ANGRY) a good few months after ‘sneakin around’.

I think Angry has every right to be livid, her and War were close mates and she (War) knew how she (Angry) felt about chips (assumption), yet War, instead of telling Angry face to face, preferably before things started getting along with her and chips, chose to tell Angry a few days before Chips was to get back into the country, by phone.

But on the other hand, Chips likes War, and there is nothing u can do about that, as kak as it is it’s the truth so Angry’s just got ta deal with it.

I am rambling, so lemme cut to the chase. When I first heard the story I thought, Angry was over reacting, its not like she and chips were an item or anything, but then I thought wait, wasn’t too long ago that u were in a similar position, and u were bleak, but in my case I realised that my group of mates from school, not all but most are c*nts when it comes to their mates chicks and all, so I know that and I don’t trust em for shaite around girls, but they are still my mates and really for no girl who sees it fit to get with one of my mates will I sacrifice my friendships. I think in my case I think it was more of, damn I lost her… to my friggin mate, whats da fork, cos I would have given 2 hoots if she was with another boy..

There is this saying I got from one of the episodes of Knight Rider, back in the day, it was the Boca Colebra episode, the one bad guy said this: “Life is like a boomerang, what u put out is what u receive” and I think that is true in most cases. The world has its own laws, I think some call it Carma, so if u have done wrong, it will come back and bite u in the ass, u can even apply newtons 2nd law, which states “for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction” nuff said

Some might argue, but ur ‘friends’ are they really ur mates if they can do that?

Please shed some light on this for me, whats ur take on this and how would u react, how should one react, etc.

Birthdays…
6th Liz
11th Cousin George
In the words of Jason Donavan and Kylie Minogue…Especially for u…oh and the memories flood back, Fiifi, who was the flavour of the month when this song was a hit? I digress… a quote for u guys “our real blessings appear to us in the shape of pain, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we shall soon see them in their proper form.” – Camelia Elliot

Quotes…yea I no its been a while
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
George Washington (1732 - 1799)
Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858
Friends have all things in common.
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), Dialogues, Phaedrus ( a quote taken very literally in this instance hee hee)

Have u needed to take a piss so bad that once u finally get to it ur eyes start to water? Just had one of those now, what a pleasure…boys and girls u have u a wikkid weekend, peace, love and happiness…maximum respect!!

Y

"I know the path. It is straight and narrow. It is like the edge of a sword. I rejoice to walk on it. I weep when i slip. God's word is: 'He who strivers never perishes'. I have implicit faith in that promise. Though, therefore, from my weakness I fail a thousand times, I will not lose faith, but hope that I shall see the light when the flesh has been brought under perfect subjection, as some day it must'.

Search for truth
“To find truth completely is to realize oneself and ones destiny, i.e., to become perfect. I am painfully conscious of my imperfections, and therein lies all the strength I posses because it is a rare thing for a man to know his own limitations”

Trust in God
“I am in the world feeling my way to light ‘amid the encircling gloom’. I often err and miscalculate…My trust is solely in God. And I trust men only because I trust God. If I had no God to rely upon, I should be like Timon, a hater of my species.

“I am a man of faith. My reliance is solely on God. One step is enough for me. The next step He will make clear to me when the time comes for it”

No secrecy
“I have no secret methods. I know no diplomacy save the truth. I have no weapon but non-violence. I may be unconsciously led astray for a while, but not for all the time”

“My life has been an open book. I have no secrets and I encourage no secrets”

“I am but a poor soul yearning to be wholly good-wholly truthful and wholly non-violent in thought word and deed, but ever failing to reach the ideal I know t be true. I admit it is a painful climb, but the pain of it is a positive pleasure for me. Each step upward makes me feel stronger and fit for the next”.

Guidance
“I claim to have no infallible guidance or inspiration. So far as my experience goes, the claim to infallibility on the part of a human being would be untenable, seeing that inspiration too can come only to one who is free from the action of opposites, and it will be difficult to judge on a given occasion whether the claim to freedom from pairs of opposites is justified. The claim to infallibility would thus always be a most dangerous claim to make. This, however, does not leave us without any guidance whatsoever. The sum-total of the experience of the world is available to us and would be for all time to come.”

“Moreover, there are not many fundamental truths, but there is only one fundamental truth which is Truth itself, otherwise known as Non-violence. Finite human being shall never know in its fullness Truth and love which is in itself infinite. But we do know enough for our guidance. We shall err, and sometimes grievously, in our application. But man is a self-governing being, and self-government necessarily includes the power as much to commit errors as to set them right as often as they are made.”

Self sacrifice
“I want to declare to the world, although I have forfeited the regard of many friends in the West - and I must bow my head low; but even for their friendship or love, I must not suppress the voice of conscience, - the promptings of my inner basic nature today. There is something within me impelling me to cry out my agony. I have known humanity. I have studied something of psychology. Such a man knows exactly what it is. I do not mind how you describe it. That voice within tells me, "You have to stand against the whole world although you may have to stand alone. You have to stare in the face the whole world although the world may look at you with blood-shot eyes. Do not fear. Trust the little voice residing within your heart." It says: "Forsake friends, wife and all; but testify to that for which you have lived and for which you have to die."

No defeatism
“I have never lost my optimism. In seemingly darkest hours hope has burnt bright within me. I cannot kill the hope myself. I must say I cannot give an ocular demonstration to justify the hope. But there is no defeat in me.”

Trust
“It is true that I have often been let down. Many have deceived me and many have been found wanting. But I do not repent of my association with them. For I know how to non-co-operate, as I know how to co-operate. The most practical, the most dignified way of going on in the world is to take people at their word, when you have no positive reason to the contrary.”

My leadership
“It is a bad carpenter who quarrels with his tools. It is a bad general who blames his men for faulty workmanship. I know I am not a bad general. I have wisdom enough to know my limitations. God will give me strength enough to declare my bankruptcy if such is to be my lot. He will perhaps take me away when I am no longer wanted for the work which I have been permitted to do for nearly half a century. But I do entertain the hope that there is yet work for me to do, that the darkness that seems to have enveloped me will disappear, and that, whether with another battle more brilliant than the Dandi March or without, India will come to her own demonstrably through non-violent means. I am praying for the light that will dispel the darkness. Let those who have a living faith in non-violence join me in the prayer.”

My work
“My work will be finished if I succeed in carrying conviction to the human family, that every man or woman, however weak in body, is the guardian of his or her self-respect and liberty. This defense avails, though the whole world may be against the individual resister.”

Those are extracts from some of the teachings and philosophies of a great man of the world called Mahatma Ghandi. The main focus of his philosophies were “truth, non-violence, fearlessness, swadeshi (unto the poor), freedom, democracy, sarvodaya (unity of man), satyagraha (passive resistance), economy and labour. For a more in-depth description of these pilosophies visit this site http://www.gandhismriti.org/gp.htm

Mohandas Ghandi was born on the 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar, to Putlibai,( a traditional Indian woman, devoted to her home and family, deeply religious)…and Karamchand Ghandi, with Karamchand being Prime minister successively in 3 Kathiawar states. He was known to be as steadfast as steal and as loyal as a dog.

Gandhi was no Doogie Howser at school, no particular brilliance, played no sport, avoided company and like myself didn’t venture to read anything in excess of his prescribed textbooks. He was the youngest of 3 boys. At the age of 13 (the age at which he finished high school), he was married to Kastruba, who was aged 10 at the time.

When his father passed on, it was his older brother, Laxmidas, who sent him to England, in 1887, to pursue legal studies, but he could only leave after he gave his word to his mother that he would lead a caste and simple life (i.e. no meat, wine or women), he succumbed to the temptation of the west, but only briefly and returned to the ways which felt right to him.

In 1893, he set sail for South Africa to handle a case, his case didn’t take too long and he could return to England soon after he arrived in SA, but he chose to remain in SA for a further 21 years to fight for Indian rights. He founded and ran his Ashram settlement at Phoenix and Tolrtoy farm in Natal, (what is the capital of India…Durban…) moving on. During the Boer war and the Zulu rebellion, he assisted the government by raising Indian Ambulance and Stretcher-barer Crops which served close to the line of fire, an act that earned him certain awards and accolades for his deed. The passive ressistance in protest of the human rights violation of the Indian people was to be a long and drawn out process, which was eventually overcome soon after he led the “great march” from Natal to Transvaal on November 1913 and in July he set sail for India. Enroute, the great war broke out, instead of continuing on his merry way, Gandhi decided to pull over in England and help raise Indian Volunteer Crops, he set sail for India in December.

He received further honours for his assistance during the war, as well as a hero’s welcome on his return to India. The end of the great war brought India zero freedom, instead more strife and repression, hard work and hardly any wages…and so began the protests, the first being a country wide protest against the Rowlatt Act of 1919. This act allowed political cases to be tried without juries and allowed government the right to jail political suspects without a trial. Gandhi asked for his peeps to not co-operate with the government and plenty heeded his call. As a result of the Rowland Act, most of these people were jailed and as u can well imagine the jails were overflowing, like a toilet that has just been occupied by a sumo wrestler with diarrhoea.

Gandhi’s first act of civil disobedience, was to urge the people of India not to pay the Salt tax, a tax that the British saw fit to charge the industrious Indians who, saw the salt from the sea as a means of generating revenues that the farm owners refused to pay.

Even though Gandhi was arrested, his non-violent protest methods could not be killed, many of his followers endured harassment, beatings some even died, but Satyagaraha prospered!

In 1942, the wheels were set in motion for total independence from Britain, this was sparked by the “Quit India” resolution passed by the All India Congress Committee. The government acted within a day, arresting Gandhi and plenty other leaders in India. Then the shaite hit the fan, protests, strikes, sporadic violence, it was a mess. The British Viceroy didn’t help matters much, especially when he put the blame for the violence squarely on Gandhi’s shoulders, Gandhi protested. He sent a series of lengthy letters to the viceroy to retract his statement, but he didn’t, as a result Gandhi fasted for 21 days in Feb, 1943.

His wife, Kasturba, was with him in jail through this ordeal, she cared for him and nursed him back to health, her health, unfortunately took a dive and she suffered 2 heart attacks, Ghandi tried to save her, but couldn’t, she died peacefully in his arms as if that wasn’t enuff trauma in his life, a few weeks later he became seriously ill with malaria. The people asked for his immediate release and the government thinking he was near dead, obliged. He regained his health. In 1945, the 2nd world war was over and the Labour party was now in power in Britain, they had devised a plan for India’s independence. The plan resulted in India being split into 2 parts, a secular India and a Muslin nation of Pakistan. And we know what resulted from this, Gandhi saw this split as a spiritual tragedy….

On 30 January, Gandhi was on his way to a prayer meeting with his granddaughter after an afternoon nap, a lightie came up to him seekin his blessing. The lightie drew a firearm and let off 3 shots, all 3 hit the target, Gandhi fell to the ground uttering the prayer “Rama Rama”, and died…

Of his death Nehru, a political ally and follower of Gandhi’s, said, ‘the light had gone out of our lives.

Birthdays
1st Herman
4th Shlimky

Happy birthday boys hope it was or is a good day.

“Life is like snowboarding; u must get up every time u fall. Once u stop falling you then begin to enjoy it. If u stay down, you will never see why people love it so much” William Nepe

and another quote for u all

The distance from failure to success has never been longer than a bridge of HOPE

Later all and have a beaut of a weekend, maximum respect, aiiiii!!

Another week passes by, another week closer to the end of the year and tell me how has your year been...thus far I can honestly say i have had a pleasant year, sure as hell aint been all rosey, but its all in the mind and your attitude, whats that saying i like so much...if u dont mind, well i guess it doesnt matter, now does it??

2 new addition to the family, gosh if i charge had to charge subscription fees, a neega would be damn near a millionare...once again i digress, its thursday afternoon, which generally is my friday afternoon, cos i tend to more often than not go out on thursdays and get happy...ier....digress again focus yawzie, anyway as i was saying 2 new additions to our family Chetan, Nicole and Danielle, hope u ladies enjoy our little world, if u dont well we dont like u anyway ;-) if u dont please drop me a line and i will remove ur looser ass from the list. If u have any comments to leave please visit this site http://mondaymail.blogspot.com

Right, back to this weeks email, which was actually last weeks until i got that email from that lo-ho-se-her about the SABC ad. Guys and girls i need help finding topics to write about, i got this weeks topic thanks to Kroppies, u all think this stuff is easi, well its not, and being black and lazy well it makes it all the more difficult.

I am sure u all are well aware of the Lockerbie bombing a good few years ago, well it was announced in the papers the other day that the UN has lifted sanctions on Libya. Y?

Well here's the deal, Libya has agreed to pay $2.7 bil to the families of the victims (works out to about $10mil per family) in return the UN and maybe the US will lift sanctions against Libya and Libya's name will be removed from the US' list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Here is the story or sequence of events…on the 21st December 1988 ( i think that was the date either 21st or 11th) a NY bound Pan Am boeing 747 blew up and crashed over Lockerbie in Scotland, all 259 passengers on board died and so too did 11 unknowing passers by on the ground. In 1999 after plenty years of negotiation and the intervention of the worlds statesman Madiba, Libya handed over the 2 suspects who were believed to have masterminded and carried out the bombing, to face charges in a Scotish court presiding in the Netherlands. One of the 2, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life the other was acquitted. UN sanctions against Libya were suspended.

But that wasnt enuff. For the UN to completely lift sanctions, Tripoli (Libya's capital, if u didnt know now u no) had to agree to fulfill the UN Security council resolutions which involves compensating the victims' families, to admit resposibility and to renunciate terrorism. This was all good, until France decided to throw some French fries in the mix. They were threatening to veto any resolution to lift sanctions against Libya, because they feel that the families of the victims of a UTA air crash in 1989, in which 170 passengers and crew lost their lives, I think France is blaming Libya for that air disaster too.

Libya is being very smart about the whole thing in that they are staggering the payments. They will remit the first 40% when the UN lifts sanctions, the next 40% when the states lifts their sanctions and the last 20% when Libya's name is removed from the list.

As of this week i think it was, the UN sanctions had been lifted, but France and the US abstained from voting, so we see how this story unfolds....

Now tell me what is ur take on this whole story...the sanctions, Libya agreeing to pay etc.

Here is a bit of a thought sent by Nasrin, hope its useful to u all, (hope i havent sent it before) cos my story is well short, but i am feelin very stooopid today, very late nite/early mornin yesterday....


“Take time to enjoy life. It is later than you think.”

Busy, busy, busy. Got to get done. Got to achieve. Got to prove to the world how good I am. No time to relax. I'll sleep when I'm dead. Ever felt like that, felt that you need a 36 hour day, 24 hrs just isn't enough anymore. You just seem to be so busy that you have no time for you. No time to relax and do the things that you like to do. No time to indulge yourself. You have to take back control of your life.

You cannot manage time, but you can and should manage your activities in the time that you have. I doubt that anyone, on their deathbed, has ever said "Gee I wish that I had spent more time at the office"

When you die the first question you will be asked is "why were you so mean?" and you will answer indignantly "but I wasn't. I was generous and kind. I worked hard and supported my family and friends. I was a loyal employee, a caring employer. I was not mean."

The reply will shock you "No we do not mean, why were you so mean to others, we are asking, why were you so mean to yourself. You had so many opportunities at happiness, why did you deny yourself? You had the opportunity to become so much, why did you settle for so little? You were given your life to live as you wanted, why did you settle for what you thought other people wanted?"

We have been so conditioned not to be selfish, to consider other people first, to always take the smallest piece, that we run the risk of going beyond common courtesy and actually believing that we are not good enough, that we are not deserving, that we are second rate citizens.
There is very little benefit in that, in fact the feeling of not being good enough will permeate through your life and you will always be apologising for being here.

Enough, realise that you can only really offer a valuable service to others if you believe that you have a valuable service to offer. You will only have a valuable service to offer if you believe that you are valuable, that you are special, and you will only believe that once you start to treat yourself as special. Only when you realise the value of you and the contribution that you make can you really enjoy life. Realise that only when you take care of yourself, will you have enough energy and enthusiasm for taking care of others.

Too often we run on empty, we give so much to others that there is nothing left to give. But, just like we regularly have to refill the fuel tank of a car or we can't use it, so we should regularly refuel our own tank or we won't be able to provide any service at all.

Take a piece of paper and write down all the things that give you pleasure, no matter how small or silly you may think it is write it down. Now check how much time you allocate to these things, when last did you actually do any of them? When will you do them?
If you feel that everything you do is for someone else you will feel stressed and resentful, You will eventually burn out and then you can't help them at all. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to those you love to take care of yourself so “Take time to enjoy life. It is later than you think.”

Birthdays
15th Kuhle
18th Thuli and Chetan
21st Shareen

And oh i forgot Nix, happy b-day for the 11th!!

A quote especially for u all....

"consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about what u have tried and failed, but what is still possible to do. To live is to change"

Here’s another quote thanks to Jennifer…
Thought for the day: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that an amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
Rob Wedd, thanks for the topic, will do the research and see if its worth impartin on the masses.

Out for another week, have a great weekend all, i may well do the same, oh its gonna be silly ;-) be safe and as usual, maximum respect!!

Later

“One love, one heart, lets get together and I will feel alright…as it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end…one love!” Robert Nesta Marley.
Morning boys and girls, had my email for this week all sorted out and ready to compile it and after a long while finally get my email out on a Monday, cos i have been slippin the last few wee....months!!
Here's a joke for u all thanks to Peter K, right, a guy walks into a bar with a steering wheel in his pants. He approaches the barman and orders a drink, the barman proceeds to serve him, but before handing over the drink he asks, hey mate, whats the story with the steering wheel in your pants, the man replies, i dont know but its driving me nuts!!!
Hope u all had a great weekend, had a pretty decent one, a bit of more of the same, but hey thats better than a kick in the balls aint it? Neway as i was saying i had my topic for the week all sorted out till i read this email forwarded to me by Swati, and it is said to have been written by a certain sad soul who goes by the name "Andrew Luas Schrieder" and here it is........
" Somehow yesterday I mistakenly tuned into SABC 1 and they had this long
ad with sickening racial undertones. The ad is apparently contrasting
everyday life between blacks and Whites in SA. It shows a young White man
in the township riding in taxis, white maids serving a black family and some
black retailer summoning the police because of a white young man who had
just entered his shop, etc.

SABC grossly exaggerated things and more importantly it implies that we
should feel guilty for having what we have and blacks being where they are.
The fact of the matter is that blacks are just lazy and they want to get
things for free without working for them. Just look at their hero Mugabe
who's taking our land for free but then fail to make it productive. Blacks
have never proven themselves at anything except hijackings and rapes. They
would rather spend hours at their shebeens than a minute in the library.
SABC must know that we worked very hard for what we have and we are not about
to move to the townships because of some stupid BEE. When Oppenheimer came
to SA he was a refugee and poor, but put lot of sweat in building his empire
and mines, which this racist government now wants to just repossess or
should i say "hijack" and give to some blacks who know nothing about mining
(look what they (blacks) did to mines they were given). My son is being
refused a lucrative contract unless he "empowers" some black bum who wants
to get paid for doing nothing.

Fortunately, I don't have to take this s***t anymore since I, like other
thousand white South Africans am packing my bags to Europe where life is
valued and hard work is rewarded!!! "

This my friends is very very sad if it is in fact true and not someone trying to stir the pot.
Blacks are lazy u say, so who is it that has to wake up at crack of a sparrows fart and mission from wherever they live to come to your Sandton mansion, where this one person cleans the mess of say a family of 4, clean the floors, wash the dishes, wash the clothes, iron them, make the beds, take care of the young ones possibly cook dinner for u, so u and ur hardworking family can come home to a clean home, cared for youngsters and a hearty meal. Yes, one person cleaning the mess of many, yet this person who cleans your palace is not good enough to eat off the same plates as ur family, hell no, here is your metal plate and cup sisi… All this before the lazy black has to mission back to her family, back wherever they are, clean her house, make sure there is some food for her family to eat, clean up after them and then finally get the chance to lay her head on a pillow and just relax....(song from Tony Toni Tone...i digress)?
Blacks are lazy u say, so who is it that spends most of the hours in their day, ploughing the fields with the mighty African sun beating on their backs, so that the company's like Koo, Hullets etc. can prosper?
Blacks are lazy u say, so who is it that spends at least 8 hrs in a day working in the hell holes they call mine shafts, spending most of their working day moving mutha forkin heavy stones? Trust u me i say hell hole cos i have been down one of those things, its not somewhere u'd wanna be for 3 hrs in a day let alone 8hrs every day of ur life? And no my friends there aint no shebeens down there, one false move and its over for u? Here they are the lazy blacks a few km's closer to the earth's core, shifting rocks so the hardworking others above the ground can dot their i's and cross thier t's in another multi million dollar deal. The hard working others who close the deals in air conditioned offices, making the big tom, whilst the ones who are sweating blood close to the earths core earn a mere slap in the face. Methane gas explodes down below 15 miners die, no one knows or cares who they were, our reaction... oh well sorry for them, let something happen to Tony Trehar (the head hauncho at Anglo), like he gets hijacked or something, true as nuts it will make front page news.

On the hijackings and rape, well that i will never ever defend! But what i can say though is South Africa is a violent society, argue all u want, but embrace the truth and it shall set u free...wha'eva. Really it is. Everyone just wants to moer another, road rage, family killings, child rape, violence against women, hijackings, heists, necklacing, gang wars, its all here. I read a headline in last weeks paper that SA is more violent than the states and thats scary cos SA's population is less than half of the states. But thats not just black thing, its across all races, and u would be foolish to try and deny that.

Onto the hijackings, in more cases than not, you will find the top dog who is handling all the orders and arranging for the cars to be shipped cross border is not a negro, its just the sad fact that the only person willing, desperate and stoopid enuff to grab the gun and carry out these attacks is black. And give an uneducated, desperate and disgruntled person a gun more often than not s/he will shoot it.

U Mr. Schreider, are quick to point out the short comings of lazy, violent blacks, yet did u ever consider the consequences of the governments apartheid policies that led to the group areas act, which resulted in many blacks living in arid areas, where they were forced to farm, or make a livelihood, u show me how u can grow anything in a dessert other than sunburn? A government that made certain that the education offered to the indigenous people was so substandard in nature that they could never amount to much...a government that broke the spirit of the people and made them feel worthless and made them think that all they could ever amount to was a miner, a gardener, a servant...

No Mr. Schrieder u never did consider that, when u and your folks were rolling in your Parkhurst mansions, eating caviar and drinking Moet, whilst Vusi and Agnes were minding your kids and cleaning your gardens, cos hey life was good for u, cos u worked so damn hard. Nigga I too can go on and say I am strong and great if I am holding a gun and have education, so I say to u Biatch please!!

I work in BEE and I can say that it needs to be refined a bit cos its not working as well as it should be, cos there are just those few negros making the loot, but its a start people and a necessary one, u cant have something like 10% of the population running the economy it is definitely a recipe for disaster, and my man, the government adopting this BEE policy is far from 'hijacking' anything, if they were going to, they could easily have pulled a Zim here and who would have stopped them, the UN, well fair enuff sanctions and all, but so what, do u think Mugabe cares about that? The results may not have been favorable, but they sure as hell could have done as they pleased.

Mr. Schrieder sir, u say u are packing ur bags and going, well to u sir i say fcuk right off, cos this country doesn't need your kind! A kind so quick to flaw a process that is hoping to eventually right the wrongs of the past going forward. All u wish for is for life to be good for few, and the others to just serve u or starve. To u sir I say good riddance. What this country needs are people who are willing to make it work, enjoy the payment for your hard work in Europe boss.

Yesterday my friends is history and living in the past will help not one of us. We as South Africans (I can say that now cos I hold a damn passport!!) need to stand together to build and not be divided, cos that will only make the journey a longer and painful one! The government doesn’t have it right yet, and me workin as a pseudo govt. employee, if I can exercise a bit of patience and offer them a chance, so too can u. I don’t see a need for anyone to feel guilty, this country is all of ours, lets make it feel as though it is, in all ways! No more of people being marginalized cos they look or act or believe differently. One love!!

Birthdays for the week:

10th Leon
13th Maud
14th Will/Kyle

For u guys….”Life is mostly froth and bubble, only 2 things stand like stone, kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own”

Quotes

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins. American Indian Proverb
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. Dale Carnegie
Criticism is prejudice made plausible. H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908 - 1972)

Another week upon us, trust all is well with u all this week, if not well trust u me the worrying or doting over what could have or should have been aint gonna help matters much...not a sausage!!

Well anyway, there is nothing hugely significant for me to write about this week, but before i proceed, 2 new additions to this mailing list, dunno if i mentioned to u all that i had to start another mail group cos my first one was to full, not a bad community we got going here, i digress...focus Yaw, Focus!! Neway as i was saying, a big ol wazup to Priya and Lerato, ladies welcome to our world, should u eva feel the need to comment on anything written here, please feel free to visit http://mondaymail.blogspot.com or just mail me the response and i will post it for ya.

Another week of nothing to say, well so it started, up until yesterday when i was having a conversation with a colleague, but more about that later. Soo excited guys, just booked a ticket to Ghana for December, my mommie has decided that she is getting pretty old and she wants some grand kids soon, so she and her siblings have found a sista for yawza, apparently the girl is pretty fine, wealthy and educated at Oxford in London, i guess what can it hurt a brother to take a peak?? So if any of u are in Ghana in December, Ekua, i remember u mentioning u were gonna be there, so do drop a negro a line with your details before u leave!

Ok as i was saying earlier, now yesterday i am havin a conversation with a colleague of mine, and i cant remember what lead to it, but she utters: "This corporate world is so prejudicial against women..." (my, the punctuation, Mr Kelly my English teacher would have been proud) in what way I asked, well then she mentioned the whole story of being a mother and workin late hours just dont mix....well here is my argument..

I honestly dont think the whole hustle and bustle of the corporate world is solely prejudiced against women, i may be seen as being a chauvinist etc etc, but i think you choose your career path. If you want to be a corporate financier or an investment banker, the markets do not wait for you to go home and give your child milk, change its nappies or just to go home and play with the little one, if a deal needs to be done tomorrow, it needs to be done tomorrow, whether it means working till 4 am for a week or whatever, it needs to be done.

The truth about most career paths is out there for all to see. Your hours, the pros, the cons about the environment...not everyone is cut out to be a JP Morgan investment banker, or a Deutsche Bank Corporate Financier, cos no matter who u are, if u get in there u gonna sweat...period! And y should the gloves come off? cos after all we are all equal no?

I am definitely one for a balanced life, not that i am scared of work...all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!!

Everyone knows that if u wanna be a wheeler and a dealer, u gotsta make da sacrifice, be it your child, your wife, your husband, your health whatever. Take a guy who is married for instance and he and his wife have just got a 18 month old infant. Is it not the same 'prejudice' this man is subjected to? He has a choice to make will it be, a) go home and be with the wife and get to bond with the little guy or b) stay in the office, earn the R1mil bonus and buy the wife a little BoxterS and set up a trust fund for the spoilt uncontrollable brat?

I think we are all subjected to the same prejudice, irrespective of whether u are male or female, u make the choice, but bear in mind you should also be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions. Its pretty simple choose a) and sacrifice b), choose what is more important to you and best suits your situation is all. Fair enuff, I am aware that no person can ever know the emotional attachment you will have to your young one till the day u actually pop out a young one. I mean shaite if i have a little one and i feel this little one is it for me, i would definitely choose him or her over any damn career, honestly i would, u no that whole change of focus thing, get into something that is less stressful and gives me time to get home and be with the fam, i don's c how its any different for women.

These are just my views and i am in no way saying they are right, but i would reeeaaaallly appreciate it if someone can open my eyes! If this mail comes off as being sexist my apologies, but i guess u can make up your own minds about whether i am or not.

On a lighter note....Q: y do elephants have Big Ears?





A: Cos Noddy refused to pay the ransom

Ladies and gentlemen thanks for your attention once again, and if my mail box isnt inundated with emails or there are no comments posted on the site, a neega will be bleak!!

Birthdays
26th Charl
28th Francois

Boys for u...."If I believe i cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe i can, then i acquire the ability to do it, even if i did not have the ability in the beginning." - Ghandi... hope u had/have wonderful birthdays!!

Quotes
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
Anatole France
Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.
David McCullough (1933 - )
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
James M. Barrie(1860 - 1937)
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it: They must not do too much of it: And they must have a sense of success in it.
John Ruskin
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.
Sam Ewing

Ladies and gents i am outta here till next week, hope u all have a fantastic week... weekend and we chat again soon.

Oh ya and i was jokin about the arranged marriage shaite, just going to ghana to catch a tan is all ;-)

Later

Good morning my people what a wonderful day it is.....(scene from Eddie Murphy's Coming to America).

It looks like a wonderful day in Jhb, but step outside and u'll soon change ur mind, temperature started off at -5 degrees this am nice ne? Neway 2 new additions to our world Collin and Julius, welcome guys, should u wanna leave a comment or read any of the old ones feel free to go to the website http://mondaymail.blogspot.com. Alternatively when u get tired/bored of reciving this mail holla at me and i'll remove u, but with a heavy heart.

"Like much of Africa, Uganda acutely suffered many effects of European colonisation. During the 1800's, European nations invaded Africa, shot their populations into submission, divided it into countries, and attempted to "civilise"the continent (which quite incidentally had flourishing internal trade, highly effective medicine and some of the most skilled craftsmen the world over). While forcing God and family values on the curious Africans, Europeans broke up tribal family structures, and through a system of murder and bribery, created a a bureaucratic structure geared towards one thing: sucking out as many natural resources as possible.

After a few generations of Africans were born into this fcuked situation, and the system was permanently ingrained into African society, Europe decided there were other things more fun than subjugating people in faraway lands, and began fighting itself. The European-made African infrastructure, suddenly devoid of financing, direction and a buying market for goods, collapsed, leaving the entire continent in turmoil. Many African countries to this day are still trying to get back on their feet" - internet article.

This is the type of envionment, many an African leader was born into, Mugabe of Zim, Taylor of Liberia, Siseseko of Zaire(now Congo), a man who's personal wealth was belived to be of such copious amounts that he could cover the debt of his country a few times over, then there was the man dubbed the "Butcher of Africa" the late Idi Amin Dada Oumee. He was also known as "Big Daddy", y I dont know, he was after all only 6'4" tall and weighed in at a monstorous 108kg, which I guess aided him in becoming Uganda's national heavyweight boxin champ, a title he held for a staggering 9 years. I guess this might explain some of his barbaric acts, you cant get knocked around the head for 9 years and still be fully compus mentos(sp??). His reign of terror lasted a 'good' 17 years, but the legacy of his reign haunts Uganda and its people to this day!....and this is his story!

Idi Amin Dada, was born in either 1924/1925, the dates are unclear at this moment, well not in any of the articles I read. He was born into the Kakwa tribe in Koboko near a town called Arua, which i understand is in the Northwest region of of Uganda, near the border with Sudan and the DRC. He was a third child of eight children. His father abandoned the family and his mother became a camp follower of the King's African Rifles, a regiment of the British Colonial Army. At a very young age Amin converts to Islam.

In '46, Amin joined the Kings African Rifles as a private. He swiftly manoeuvered through the ranks and in no time he was a lieutenant, one of only 2 native Ugandansto be commisioned during British rule (the damn traitor :-)). In '51 he became the heavyweight champion a title he held till '60, round about this time, rumours were starting to fly around about him abusing his authoritative powers in the army and torturing people. ROUMOURS???!!!phah!!

In '62, the British decided that subjecting the natives to the colonial way wasn't that much fun anymore and Uganda gained independence from Britain. Milton Obote becomes the nations first prime minister and Amin is his bum chum. Obote saw it fit to overlook the claims of torture against Amin and duly promotes Big Daddy to captain in '63 and then colonel and deputy commander of the army in '64.

In '66 Amin is made chief of the army and the air force...BiiiiiG mistake, during this same period, Obote, the prime minister imposed a new republican constitution, declared himself president and abolished all the kingdoms in the country. Amin served as the chief of the army and air force till 1970, during this time he started gathering some support within the army ranks. Amin and Obote start fighting and they dont wanna play with each other anymore, Obote takes his soccer ball and goes home, things get even worse after Amins sole senior rival in the army gets murdered, this led to Amin being relieved of his position of command and relegated to an administrative position, as u can well imagine the neega was livid, but he was biding his time. In '71 word gets to Amin that Obote intends to arrest Amin on charges of misappropriation of millions of dollars. Obote being the wise guy that he is, decides to leave the country without settling the score with Amin....the time had come, Amin saw the gap, and on the 25 January 1971, he staged a successful coup which ousted Obote. He declares himself president and chief of the armed forces. Not soon after he becomes president Amin, does he set about portraying himself as the citizen all the inhabitants of Uganda should strive to emulate. His first task...to execute, no lets try slaughter, anyone who was loyal to Obote. Phase 2 of his madness came in '72, when he decided to drive out about 80 000 Ugandans of Asian decent, claiming that he had received the orders from Allah in a dream. The businesses of these people were then given to his cronies who did a Zim farm invasion on them, i.e, ran the business into the ground. The killing continues and it roughly estimated that during his reign he brutally murdered anywhere between 300000 and 500000 people. Amin was reputed to have fed the remains of his victims to the crocodiles in Lake Victoria and kept some of the heads of his decapitated political opponents stored in his fridge.
As a result of this terror and the driving out of the productive Ugandans of Asian decent, the economy of Uganda met the fate that met many African states....colapse and ruin.

The man was a buffoon, yet he was given plenty opportunity to step on the international stage, he even once addressed a UN assembly in his native tongue, instead of English, claiming english was the tongue of the colonialist, true, but bra if u want people to understand what the fcuk u r saying u gotsta use a language they can understand. He also saw it fit to award himself a few honours, mind u the man only had a grade 7 (std 5) education. He gave himself a doctorate of law, promotes himself to field marshall, he awarded himself the CBE title "Conquerer" (instead of commanderof the British and awards himself several second world war medals. In '76, the year of the dragon to those that dont know, he declared himself president for life. Also in '76, some militant Palestinians hijacked an Air France passenger jet carrying Isreali's, Amin gets involved and allows the hijackers to use Entebbe airport to land, he sides with the hijackers. Isreal was not gonna take this lying down, and they instituted a rather daring rescue raid by an ellite Isreali assult force. Plenty millitary personnel and all the hijackers perished. Anim saw his ass, u would think that maybe he'd learn and not meddle beyond his borders, but naaaah

In 1978, in an attempt to divert attention from Uganda's internal issues, he decides to launch an offensive against Tanzania. It was a joke of a fight, the Tanzanian govenment with the help of Ugandan exiles in Tanzania,they sent the already demoralised Ugandan army packing at pace. Tanzania didnt stop at that. Hell no!! They turned the tables on Uganda and counter invaded. On the 11 April 1979 they took the Ugandan capital Kampala. The writing was on the wall and Amin made like a donkeys dick and hit the road. He first fled to Lybia, where he and Ghadaffi compared notes for 10 years, he was later offered assylum in Saudi Arabia, who also saw it fitting to offer him a monthly allowance of $1,400 a few cars and a mansion in Jeddah, with the oil sheikhs for him, his 4 wives and 40 odd kids.

In 1980, Milton Obote regains the presidency, but his term was said to be as violent as Amins and in 1986 he also got the boot.

In 1999 Amin gave an interview to a Uganadan newspaper, not once did he express remorse for his crimes, instead he went on about how he and his fat ass enjoys swiming, playing the accordian, reciting from the Koran, fising and reading.

On the 16 Aug 2003 he died after spending a few days in a weeks in a coma, may justice be done to his soul!

Birthdays

18th Lerato
19th Rob Lee
21st Julius and Nhlanhla
23rd Jem

Some word of wisdom for u guys..."Speak little and do much" - Shammai, or even better "Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Lookin at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished." - Confucius

To Courts and Howard, congrats on your engagement yesterday, Courts u really sound so chuffed, hope u 2 have the best life together...ever, Mon, thanks for makin the effort to come visit yesterday after being here for a whole 9 days, great to see u though.

Quotes
sorry for u, too lazy for quotes

Guys and gals, have a fantastic day, weekend and we chat next week, oh ya, thanks for last the plenty of responses last week, I am so glad that my dimwitted deeds during my younger years brought u some laughter. And the so named Mrs G, well she was onto me, but because i didnt make a move she didint neither...well so i'd like to think and i dont wanna hear any comments on this ;-). Guys I am not gettin paid to finish my email so i sign off now, u all take care of u!! Respect!!!

its lunch time now.....

"EVERYWHERE WE GOOO....everywhere we gooo...PEOPLE WANNA NOOOO....people wanna nooo....WHO WE AAAARE....who we aaaare.... SO WE TELL THEM...so we tell them...WE ARE UMTADA(our fancy way of pronouncing UmtaTa), MIGHTY MIGHTY UMTADA!!" - one of our many cheerleading songs at school

Top of the morning to u boys and girls, hows everybody doing today, I for one am carless, aparently stressed, but still carrying a smile on my face, why cos life is just fine and dandy and hey i still have all u boys and girls as my mates...well so i claim :-), but before i progress, i would like to take this opportunity to add the lovely Sasha Müller to our world, girl, anytime u feel that u wanna be removed holla at a brotha. Should you wanna drop a comment, either mail me back or post it directly to the hugely used website http://mondaymail.blogspot.com (sarcasm ofcourse).U'all punks must use that damn site, paid good money for it!! Ok didn't pay but i like reading comments, by the way thanks for the emails u all sent paying ur last respects to Veronica, I am sure she is smiling in that little metal heaven where she is.

Speaking of mates, i have realised that I know all u all, some of u know me, but u dont reaaaly know me, like where a neega is from etc. so this is the first of a few parts series on who the f**k is this clown called yaw and y did our paths come to cross!

It was a dark day in heaven... the day that God decided to unleash me onto this earth, my mother's thoughts though were more along the lines of what the hell did I do to deserve this hell, apparently I was theee most laborious labour eva!! But once again, so she claims, I didnt think it was so bad ;-). Early in the morning of 26th Feb 1976, I was born to Enoch (pops) and Ernestina (mummy). They decided to name me Yaw, and not cos i caused my moms so much pain during labour (you know 'ya'y for joy...first son and all and o'w' for pain cos of the labour). They chose the name Yaw, cos it hails from a great Ashanti Warrior and the direct translation means "fearless warrior". I have 4 siblings, but thats cos TV was only introduced to Ghana in 1990 and the old folks needed other ways and means to entertain themselves. My oldest sister goes by the name Nana Sarpong, she works at Safmarine a shipping company, then there is Adoma, who works at Mapp Healthcare after me there is my brother Kwaku, who i am sure most of you know, he is a medical student, yes that's right, that monster is gonna be tellin ur kids coochie coochoie coo one day or tellin u if u r a woman please sit here and open wide...lately he has adopted the name crash test dummy then lastly there is my stud Nana Poku, who is the youngest and he is studying computer science. As u can tell there were copious amounts of wars in our household when we were growing up, and guess who always got blamed for it, yip thats right, Yaw the devil, sheesh if i got a rand for everytime my moms would crack a nut cos she claimed i did wrong, i would definately have retired by now. Ok maybe i may have been at fault once or twice ok maybe 3 times but thats pushing it, but i guess its their fault for making me a middle child. As u read this i can c some of u nodding ur head thinking 'that explains it', hey what do u know??!!

Oh ya before i forget my name doesnt mean fearless warior it means.... and Ghana got TV a while before 1990, my folks both came from huge families i think there were 11 in my mothers and 7 in my pops' so it may explain the reason for so many of us.

Apparently I was quite a tyrant of a kid, I used to ask for my mates to come over to the house to come and play and soon after they were there i would fight with em, I swear if i got a rand for every time my moms told me she regretted my birth, i would be on the carribean right now sippin gin and juice and smokin lots of indo with not a sausage of financial worries on my mind.

Anyway my stint in the city of Accra was shortlived cos in August 1983, we packed our bags and headed off to Swaziland to meet up with the old man. The old man used to work for the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Affairs (GIMPA) and he used to travel quite a bit, he had received a job offer in Swaziland to join the Gimpa equivalent, SIMPA, he accepted it, but we couldnt go with cos my mommy was pregnant with the little one, he had to go cos it was during the rough times in Ghana, a coup had just happened, Rawlings was in control, plenty uncertainty for a young family etc. so this was a golden opportunity, so off he went. And within a year or so we upped and joined him.

Swaziland was great fun, well what i remember, we attended a school called St Marks Primary. Learnt how to ride a bike there, got my first 'hiding' from my father there too, lemme tell u the story. there was this day, when my folks were out, and i needed to take a piss, the bathroom was most probably 10m away, but the window was a zip pull away, so i proceeded to the business out the window, it gave me such joy, well till my sister said, "i'm telling...i'm telling..."and true as bob, folks step in the door and what does she do...thats right!! so pops summons me to him...neega was angry, so i carefully headed towards his direction, then reality hit me...RUNNNNNN, so i turned and headed in the opposite direction, pops as a seasoned african, did what came naturally and extended his leg, which one, i am not sure, but I wasnt gonna turn around a take a look neither, and well i got the end of the size 8 plum on my ass, it wasnt bad at all, but hey if u had received as many hidings as i did, u'd also learn to play the game, so to the ground i tumbled, wailed like i was writhing in so much pain and away pops went, got an earful, but to me it was all blah blah blah, no bodily pain thats all i wanted.

Well anyway 6 months later which meant my pops was there for over 2 yrs and his contract had ended, he came across a great offer from the University of Transkei to lecture economics, he accepted it and so over to Umtata we moved in January 1984. We stayed in a hotel for like 3 months. I remember flickin thru the channels and seing something which i now know to be porn, had i known then DAMNIT!! My greatest fascination was the ice machine and looking at people floating on the water in the swiming pool, the latter still fascinates me :-). We found a school in Umtata, the best school ever mind u, Cape education system which was amongst the better education systems in the country at that time. We met our headmaster, an intimidating soul he was...Mr Webber. I think my first day in class I started with Eleanor. My Std 1 teachers name was Mrs Koening, i was the only brother in that class, didnt know anything then. There were some pretty little ladies in that class. Everyone was so nice to the new kids, everyone wanted u to come play with them etc. Took a fancy to this las, never told her shaite though...ya ya whats new... all i would do was giggle like a useless fcuk when she was around or make a total tit of myself, ag but it kept me busy for a while. School was an odd story, but i loved it, and all my closest mates are mates that i made back in the day and along the way.

School to me was all about the studies and the sports, my oath i loved the sports, tennis and atheletics were my favourites, maybe cos those were the ones i was hugely competitve in, loved the rugby but the folks didnt, still managed to play a game or so for the FIRST TEAM, and Ed thanks for setting me up with that try(on debut nogal!).Gotta admit i was a very slow starter when it comes to the ladies (actually everything really), sheesh there was this las at school lets call her G, i am sure everyone in the school new i had a thing for her, it was pretty useless cos, there was no way on Gods green earth that anything would ever happen, 1 cos i was a coat hanger, tall skinny ass negro, 2 cos she had a man who wa older than us and 3 well 3 cos it just was never gonna happen, I knew this yet i spent a good many weeks doting over this las, there were so many silly things i used to do and as i sit here writing all this, i am canning myself with laughter thinkin quietly to myself what a LOOOOOOOSER, u no silly things like playing cool music in the backround when u on the phone etc...yes thats right LOOOOOOSSER!! whatever, i no u okes did it too, what u didnt?! WHATEVER....O, but it was fun, definately what memories are made of, i think i have erased most of the reaaaally bad ones from memory, but here are some of the things i can remember, she used to stay close to a buddy of mine so one day we decided to go visit, so down the road we skated, bra my mate did all the talkin all did was focus on my skateboard and rode round and round like a clown, what a ripper! oh wait, in std 8 i think it was my mates dared me to do something, something very very silly, there was this song from the fat boys and somewhere in the middle they breath rap "I - LOVE - U", so here is the deal, right the boys reckon ok Yaw, here's what u gonna do, u gonna phone her tonite and tell her there is something u wanna say to her and play that for her, ofcourse there was resistance to it from me, but it was half-arsed cos a part of me wanted to do it. The plan was doomed to fail though from its inception, cos here we have this las, lovely one a that, whose favourite band was depeche mode and here i was dropping some breath rap beats...well neway... so i did it and to this day i actually dont know if she heard it...so miss, make that Mrs G, drop me a line and let me know whether or not u did hear it.

What else, oh school, sheesh i had to be one of theeee most sensitvie brothers i ever knew at school, i used to cry like a little baby whenever i was angry and u know the kak thing was that it was more out of anger than hurt, but being angry and not being able to lash out, hell it was terrible and uncontrollable, but over time I think i developed a countering mechanism, that some term wit, but believe u me, there was plenty of cheese with that!! But hey it helped get the emotional shaite under control. I now use comedy as my answer to all, its the best thing this laughter thing, it has its downsides in that no one ever takes u too seriously, but hey if i can make someone laugh i guess for me its 10 million times better than being taken seriously, those that want to know me...well i guess know me. Never boozed or smoked at school, yes u r right, looooooser, but i think i did ok, started boozing in 3rd year varsity and since then its like i am trying to catch up for years lost.

Have I ever been in love...u know like Brandy would say..."have u ever loved somebody so much it made u cry, have u ever needed something so bad u cant sleep at nite..." I would have to answer hmm to that, in lust well pleeeeeenty times, Phil, Dave, Mbumbs, Ed, how many times? Most were never acted upon though, a skill that has since been refined or at least Work in progress! Have i ever been hurt by a las, that my good people would be an affirmative, but hey what doesnt kill u can only make u stronger..."if at first u dont succeed...dust urself off and try again".

Left Umtata High School in novemeber 1993 and in January 1994, set foot in Cape Town and thats when the egg became a catterpillar, but as it stands now this mail is a mamoth one so varsity and the rest for another time when i have nothing else to write about. Umtata was a great part of my life and in all honesty if i had to do it again it would be as it was exactly!! The people I met there will are most definately the realest!

All thanks to mr Ed Hinson for 'inspiring' this email, we went to gym recently and he was reminding me of some of the fcuked up things we used to do and that sparked the idea of this email.

If anything just remember, "nothing matters until u make it (matter)!!" But enuff about me, who will be brave/stoopid enuff to tell us about themselves on the site, come on!!

Birthdays

10th Thlaleng
12th Angela and Eleanor
14th Degs

Quote "A Heart unbroken is a joyous soul, but a heart untouched is not a heart at all" and another one just cos u all are so great..."Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that" - Martin Luther King jr.

Quotes for the week
I like this one..."The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809)
In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. - John Churton Collins

Finding quotes is becoming a mission today, so i bid thee all fond adieu and as always maximum respek to the masses.

Y