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