Mello Yello – what ever happened to that drink? I guess it got discontinued… NEWAY…How’s every one? Hey if you are alive in reasonably good health, everything will be alright.

This past weekend some of us had the pleasure of being whisked away to Sun City for a managers conference. A pretty decent affair, but one thing really stood out for me and that was the fact that our guest speaker was Sir Bob Geldof. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you are going who the @#*& is that! I’ll be honest and say that up until last year I think, I had no clue who he was neither. But this man is big! Well huge enough for the queen to want to call him ‘sir’! His address to us really stuck in my head, (not because of the use of profanity, but because of its content). It was something along the lines of he couldn’t believe that it takes a European to tell Africans about what is happening on their continent and how the west is raping us here and how we should be more vocal and those that can help should do something, anything! There is a quote from Mother Theresa, which reads something like “if you cant feed 100 people, feed 1”.

His claim to fame…Born Robert Frederick Xenon Geldof in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin. In 1975 he became the lead singer of the Irish band Boomtown Rats. Who the… remember the song I don’t like Mondays, no worries cos neither do I, but apparently its quite well known, perhaps if I heard the lyrics. Anyway, that song was written after a lady Brenda Ann Spencer tried to kill a whole lot of children in an elementary school across the road from her home in San Diego, California. As one would assume, there was a lot of controversy around this song, which in all likelihood led to its success. Apparently they are quite a famous band, a group known by many top be linked with the punk movement.

Between ‘75 and ’84 the band did very well. But September 1981 was the beginning of his charity work when he performed as a solo artist in an amnesty international concert at the invitation of Martin Lewis the producer of the Amnesty show. At this show he became very friendly with Sting, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins, musicians who would later perform with him in his Live Aid concerts. The show was a huge success and raised huge amounts of money as well as raising awareness of human rights violations. In 1984, the Rats were pretty arb if at all a feature in anyones life, one day in November 1984, Sir Bob was parking off on the couch with his daughter, thinking what a loser he had become, he switched on the telly and what was being shown? A BBC report by Michael Buerk about the famine in Ethiopia. This report had him in shock! He couldn’t believe his eyes. And from that day his crusade for Africa began. His first call on this was to Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they co-wrote the song “Do they know its Christmas?”

The next step was to put together a group called Band Aid, made up of British and Irish pop and rock groups. His target was 70 000 pounds the reality was many millions of pounds, in 1997 it even became the biggest selling single in the UK. This spilled over into the US where “we are the world” was recorded and had equally great success. He and Bono, met with Pope John Paul II to chat about their debt relief plans. The Live 8 project was made public in March 2005, it was to be aired all over the world on the 2nd July 2005, about 4 days before the G8 summit. The line up included the following:
London – Elton John, Coldplay, U2, Madonna, Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd (for their first concert since 1981)
Paris – Andrea Bocelli, Youssou N’Dour
Rome – Duran Duran, Faith Hill
Berlin – Brian Wilson, Crosby Stills & Nash
Philadelphia – Bon Jovi, Dave Mathews, Sarah McLachlan and Stevie Wonder
Ontario – Niel Young, Deep Purple and Bryan Adams
People were bleak that there weren’t many African artists involved and I totally agree with Sir Bob’s retort that to make the word heard it would require popular bands and artists, and quite frankly Europe and the US currently aren’t that interested in African artists. Perhaps the concert had an effect on the G8 summit because, many are calling it the most favourable for Africa yet, but hope you forgive my skepticism when I say time will tell!

Other than music and the quest for the world, Geldof has been involved in some rather lucrative business ventures. In 1992 he co-founded Planet 24, a tv production company that made programmes such as the Big Breakfast, The Word and Survivor. He sold the company for $7mil, but still retained the rights to Survivor. He set up an online travel business he sold for $17mil. He has a media and entertainment company, Ten Alps Communication in which he still holds 8%.

His personal life was not all that rosey. He met a groupie Paula Yates, got married, had 3 daughters with her. She dropped him for Michael Hutchence from INXS. Yates had another girl with him. He was found dead in his hotel room in 1997. He filed for custody of his daughters after hearing this. Yates later died of an overdose.

I have maximum respect for the man. He has absolutely no reason to be doing what he is doing, but he is using his fame to generate awareness of the issues facing this continent. I think his reasons are pure, but to those who doubt that so what?!! Boss he is doing and trying to do more for this country than any of us who sit on our backsides and pay lip service to the issue and or attempt to evaluate the sincerity of people that are trying to do something. We all can make a difference to someone elses life and I say we do what we can whilst we are here and able. Speakin of which I have a friend called Michael Rea, he has worked at PwC and KPMG doing corporate social responsibility work. In his own time and with his own resources he does a lot of work with Cotlands and is currently working on a project with some kids. He has a few initiatives that he is running. He has recently sold his Ducati to fund some of these projects himself. If you are in a position to assist in terms of a corporate sponsorship I am sure he will be more than happy to hear from you.

On that note I am out. Come Lent you boys and girls will be hearing from me.

Birthdays
17th Nadia
18th Sarah B and Lourie
22nd Lindsay and Victoria
24th Kirsty N
25th Abena
26th Themba, Louise and Me (eish its over)

Maximum respect and I am out for another week or so ;-)
www.modaymail.blogspot.com for comments
Y

Well happy Valentines day to you all! Well assuming u all believe in this day the 14th of Feb. It’s a ripper what a ‘scam’ this day has become. On my way to gym this morning I am listening to the radio and this presenter is on about how yesterday, she was on her way to this florist she usually goes to, to buy some flowers for a mate of hers who was having a bridal shower. To her shock and horror, the same flowers she generally buys for between R4-R6 per stem were going for around R24 a stem, she was dismayed and asked the lady in the store, if this was a joke, the lady responded best you buy now cos tomrorrow (the 14th Feb) they will cost R60 a stem. That my friends is just plain madness!!! What happens between the 12th and the 14th of Feb? are the flowers watered with Aramis/Coco Chanel flavoured water? Its plain ludicrous…but that being said, my momma didn’t raise no fool, I’ve gone out and done what I had to do, not cos I had to, but cos I wanted to, shaite, I am learning quickly hey!!!

New addition to the mailing list Anjita, been a while since we had one of these, welcome and hope u enjoy, if not holler and I will either remove you or attempt to incorporate your changes. www.mondaymail.blogspot.com for previous emails or comments

Top of the morning to you sports fans, whilst Joburg streets are becoming an extension of the Juskei River, Cape Town is drenched in sunlight, my what contrasts these are?! But hey u cant have it all now can we. I trust all is well with you guys, I haven’t heard anything to the contrary and thus I will take it to be the case. I must apologise once again for my lack of correspondence last week, I was flat out of ideas and spent a few days in PE, got delayed at the airport for 5 hours or so, but that’s a story for another day!

So last week Friday I get an invitation to attend the Premier of the Western Cape’s gala dinner, after his state of the province address earlier in the day. I thought juslike now I’ve made it, the Premiers dinner, who the man?!! Its only the who’s who that crack the nod, well so I thought till I got there…I wasn’t the only arb-o, there were plenty arb-o’s, so didn’t feel that special no more, but that being said, it was a fantastic evening. There were some great speakers, I actually have renewed respect for President Mbeki, many criticize him, but he doesn’t have an easy job by any means. They played a clip of part of his speech and the way he spoke, flicked a switch in me, there was another lady there who can run for any portfolio I believe. She is the minister of education Naledi Pandor, she was not on the list of speakers but she was called up by the Premier and she delivered a dissertation that was just so inspiring. The manner in which she delivered it, the conviction with which it was executed…bravo, bravo. But that being said words are one thing but delivery is another.

Quotes from Shakespeare were flaunted throughout the whole ceremony, but a quote that left a mark though was one of the Late Albert Luthuli, the quote was titled “a home for all” ant it read as follows: “The task is not finished, South Africa is not yet home for all her sons and daughters. Such a home we wish to ensure. From the beginning our history has been one of ascending unities, the breaking of tribal, racial and creedal barriers. The past cannot hope to have life sustained by itself, wrenched from the whole. There remains before us the building of a new land, a home for black, white, brown, from the ruins of the old narrow groups, a synthesis of the rich cultural strains which we have inherited. There remains to be achieved our integration with the rest of our continent. Somewhere ahead there beckons a civilization, a culture which will take its place in the parade of God’s history beside other great human syntheses, Chinese, Egyptians, Jewish, European. It will not necessarily be all black; but it will be African.”

Lets put this speech in context shall we, this speech was made in the early years, say the 60’s when the segregation and discrimination was rife, and for an oppressed, repressed and suppressed (stole that from one of the speakers the other day) prominent political figure of the ‘people’ to stand up and preach unity, boss all I can have for this man is the utmost respect!!

So what of this man Albert Luthuli, from whence hails he? Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli was born sometime in 1898 near Bulawayo, in the country that was then known as Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe today). In 1908 he, his mother returned to his native Groutville in KawDukuza, Natal (better known as Stanger) where he stayed with his uncle. He went to school and studied further to be a teacher at Edendale near Maritzburg. He ran a primary school in the Natal uplands for a while before attending Adams college thanks to a bursary he received from the Methodist church to further his teaching studies. He stayed on there for some time as part of the staff. Because of his financial commitments to his mother he declined a scholarship to attend The University of Fort Hare. The man was deeply religious (his father was John Bunyan Luthuli was a Christian missionary) and during his time at Adams College he also served as a lay preacher. He was elected as chief of Groutville in 1935, the following year JBM Hertzogs United party introduced the ‘Representation of Natives Act’ which effectively said: “you black? No vote!” There was also the ”Development Trust and Land Act” which limited black land ownership.

In 1944 he joined the ANC and in 1951 he was elected the provincial president for the Natal region. During this time though in 1948 apartheid became law, the pass laws were tightened . In 1946 he joined the Natives Representative Council, but the government as a result of the mineworkers strike on the Witwatersrand mines abolished this council. In 1952, he led a non-violent protest against the pass laws as could be expected the government was bleak with him and he was summonsed to Pretoria to explain himself. He was given a choice, denounce ANC membership or relinquish his title as a chief (a post paid for and supported by the government). He chose to stay with the ANC, in November he was booted out as chief of Groutville. In 1952 he was elected as president general of the ANC. The government’s response was to ban Luthuli, Mandela (his then deputy president) and about 100 other people. This ban was for 2 successive periods of 2 yrs each. In 1956 when the ban was lifted, he attended an ANC conference where he was arrested. He was charged with treason along with more than 150 others. He and 64 others were released after a year due to insufficient evidence. More banning prohibited him from effectively carrying out his tasks as the ANC president.

In 1960, post the Sharpville Massacre where 72 blacks were shot dead and a further 200 injured, he called for more protests. He even went as far as publicly burning his pass book in opposition for the apartheid laws. Once again he was called to explain himself, thereafter he was detained and placed under house arrest which restricted him from venturing further than a 15-mile radius from his home. In 1961 he was awarded the held over 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the fight against Apartheid (he was allowed to travel to Oslo for this presentation), this award was described by Die Transvaler as “an inexplicable pathological phenomenon”…somewhat like the acceptance of apartheid J.

His health wasn’t what it used to be, his eyes were failing him, yet he remained the president of the ANC. On the 21 July 1967, whilst walkin near his home, he was hit by a train, he was supposedly crossing the line a story many of his followers have dismissed as hogwash. Many believe that a third force was at play.

Birthdays
8th Kwaku, Emmanuel H
12th Garrin
14th Dennis and Barbs
17th Nadia
18th SB and Lourie

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I have been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that’s why I succeed” Michael Jordan (thanks for the quote Doug)

On that note I am out once again have a ripper day and maximum respect

Y

7 am and its boiling in the city, not sure if it’s the aircons in the building not at full tilt or its just that hot, but its getting ridiculous…ag sorry to all the guys living in the UK and the rest of Europe the cold will pass soonish J, but hey its still R10.85:1 pound. And so the year runs on, hoping it would slow down, most of us born in the year of the dragon (those born in 1976, cos there are other years that are also of the dragon) are about to hit 30 this year, it doesn’t seem too long ago that I used to laugh at 30 year olds and now here we are…youngsters are laughing at us now! As I am writing I think eureka how about we go and do some research on the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon and highlight some characteristics for y’all.

The year of the dragon refers to persons born in the following years: 1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 and 2000. Dragons are generally free spirits, quite sure of themselves, ambitious etc. here are some characteristics:
Innovative, Enterprising, Flexible, Self-assured, Brave, Passionate, Conceited
Tactless, Scrutinizing, Unanticipated and Quick-tempered.

If you fall into this star sign and are looking for a vocation here some suitable options:
Computer analysts, Inventors, Engineers, Architects, Lawyers, Philosophers, Psychoanalysts, Brokers, Managers, Salepeople, PR People, Advertising agents
Officers in the armed forces, Campaigners and Politicians.

16 years ago today (2nd Feb 2006) FW de Klerk, the then president of the Republic of South Africa, effectively declared an end to apartheid and said that Nelson Mandela would be freed.

Plenty different topics to be spoken about here, I guess it’s a reflection of the current state of my mind, all over the damn place…anywayyyyy

Sorry to harp on about this (not really) but I don’t get what the big deal is to be quite honest (and i'll get to it in a moment), yes its taxpayers money blah blah, but tell me something the deputy president using state assets to go on holiday with her family etc. is it corruption as its been so loudly touted in the media. I am not too sure about this, but lets open up the debate please. Lets say for example Dick Cheney, deputy president of the USA, do u think he takes Jetblue or American Airlines when he and his family go to Florida for holiday, I am not an authority on this but for some reason I think not, he will most probably catch a ride in Airforce 1 or some other plane/military chopper and the taxpayers will fork out for it, does anyone raise as much as an eyebrow…mmm lemme guess!!! Yes I know, we have people who have no food, people who are sick, people that live in shacks, but tell me something, had this trip not happened will any of these issues have been resolved, my guess is I think not. Does it make it right? Absolutely not, but is it worthy of clogging up every local news publication for weeks, I think not. I would not be remotely surprised if Pik in his time as deputy president did the same sort of thing. This topic bores me tremendously.

Yesterday, 2 of my colleagues and I were shooting the breeze and having a chat about basic stuff like the state of the universe, the impact of the thermonuclear-fission of the earths epicenter on the strange weather patterns we are experiencing and then we ended up on fashion and name brands…as I am sure you have figured out, those other conversations didn’t happen, we were just rapping about fashion. I would quite like to see people’s opinions on this. My take is as follows:

I am a fan of name brands cos thanks to our exposure to tv, the lifting of sanctions, and advertising, we have been brainwashed into buying into brands, and good on the marketers etc, I mean even a (in my opinion) disgusting and loud brand like Von Dutch is huge?! But I struggle boys and girls and not cos I am a miserly accountant, but I struggle to fork out R300 odd for a t-shirt, just because it has a badly stitched green crocodile on it…come-on now. Even worse still paying R400 for a tie, just because it has the name Polo on a tag stitched to it.
If I am not mistaken most if not all of these items of clothing are sourced from Malaysia, Chile, China etc. and you can never ever ever convince me that it costs even R70 to make. If I am not mistaken these same people, in the same factories, from the same yarn and textiles produce similar quality goods at a mere fraction of the price of branded goods, yet we look down on such products.

Next we move on to a story that has been getting some airplay on Sky, BBC and CNN. It’s the story about 12 editorial cartoons printed in Jyland Postens in September 2005 a Danish newspaper that depicted the prophet Muhammad, here is a link to this picture http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_drawings.jpg, its not that clear but it will give you an idea.

The drawings, one of which portrays Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban were made in 'protest' against the fact that many cartoonist or children’s book writers had to remain anonymous when they drew pictures of Muhammad in children’s books, this was done out of fear of violent attacks by extremists. The reason for these attacks was because the teachings of Islam forbid the depiction of Muhammad, particularly by way of caricature. Basically, these cartoons were printed to promote freedom of speech and expression. But this action has led to many an unhappy Muslim. There was a little murmur last year when the cartoons initially came out, but that died down until a Norwegian, a French and a German newspaper decided to reprint these stories and some more European newspapers have been reported to have followed suit. The result of the anger of the many Muslim people…Danish flags have been burnt, Danish foods have been boycotted and removed from the shelves of many stores in a fair amount of Middle Eastern countries, such as Kuwait, Saudi. There have been mass protests and marches, calling for the Danish government to reprimand the newspaper and to offer the nation of Islam an apology; even sanctions by the UN against Denmark have been called for. Apparently 2 of the cartoonists have gone into hiding because of the death threats they have received. All good and well, but I am sure Islam teaches against murder/death threats, I am sure that Islam is against suicide bombings in the name of Allah, yet I see no protests and calls for sanctions against the countries from which such elements stem. The flag of a nation is pretty sacred, perhaps not as sacred as the Bible, Torah or the Koran, but I am well sure that burning either is considered sacrilegious.

Here’s the catch 22, freedom of speech I am fully for it, but what to do when a religion prohibits you from drawing such pictures and you are not a follower of the religion, firstly how do you know, secondly do the teachings apply to you? I don’t know, comments please

There were plenty of topics covered in this weeks email, but all topics that were of great interest to me this week, hope you all have a comment on them. www.mondaymail.blogspot.com
Birthdays
27th Jan - Ingo
28th Jan - Belinda
- Gareth
29th Jan – Anna
31st Jan – Refilwe

Out of here, maximum respect and have a great weekend!

Y