Ah-wehhhh

Not so good a morning I tell u. So here I am taking a cruise to the office, thinking about life, love and everything else, where out of the farthest lane comes a taxi, merely centimetres from Betty’s fender and it sommer brakes, because there wasn’t any space between myself and the car in front of me. Thank goodness, there was no one approaching in the slow lane which allowed me to manoeuvre otherwise it would have been tickets. But I was foaming at the mouth, steam out of the ears. Closest I have gotten to getting out of my car to ask another driver if he was crazy or not, but that seatbelt just wouldn’t let me go, I tell u he was lucky! Ok there was also the thought of possibly getting shot, which also ran through my mind! Stereotypes I tell u. Just cos he is a taxi driver means he carries a gun?! Speaking of stereotypes…I am sure many of you have met my brother. A rather large lump of meat of a man (if that makes any sense), I tell u if the slave ships sailed past he would be a first draft pick. Well anyway, he came to visit 2 weekends ago. He went out to this Camel (cigarettes) function, but he forgot to take keys with him. So I went to drop them of. I asked him how it was he said “bra, these people (at the event) break me!” I ask him what’s up, he says “bra, just like everyone else I am at the table getting some food, and some little chick tells her mates, gees, these guys are so nice, they even let the bouncers eat”. I though that was a bit of a ripper. So now he is telling me this outside and not knowing we are standing next to a taxi (cab). No sooner had the spit dried from his last sentence, some young man comes to us and says “Ok lets go?” None of us know this lighty from Adam. So he says it again “Lets go” and begins to open the door of the taxi. My brother (who is a doctor by the way) folds his arms and looks at this kid and says in a rather loud slightly annoyed voice “Do I look like I am a fu c king taxi driver to you”? Should have seen the guy’s face…

One more story, so on Sunday my mate Rowan comes back from London for a visit, so a group of us go to Caprice to catch up. Amongst this group is his ex boss and his wife, lovely couple they were. Anyway, get to talking to this elderly lady, dropping off the charm u know what I mean (Thash only have eyes for you tho ;-)), so she asks me, so how do you know Rowan I said I know him from varsity, the IS Labs and when I used to work at the gym, poof away with the ‘met him at varsity part’ the only thing that stuck in this womans mind was ‘work at the gym’. So she asks, oh so how is work at the gym going. I hate doing this, but I had to this time, it had to be unleashed. “eh, eish sorreee my mrs, but eh…I am a chartered accountant, her eyes popped, she leaned back in her chair, kind of had this embarrassed smile on her face (lovely to see) oh really…Damn friggin straight!! Sister this ‘model c’ accent is more than “give us us free”, its for real! Full time job this.
One more addition to the mailing list Duncan, welcome to our little community. For any comments or feedback, positive or negative, visit www.mondaymail.blogspot.com. Or just mail me.

On Saturday, I went to see the Movie ‘Tsotsi”, really enjoyed it I tell u. My initial thoughts were sheesh this movie is glorifying our already violent society, but as the movie wore on, my mind was changed. Good movie and maximum respect to the IDC for financing it as well.

U know the way things have a peculiar way of coming together?! Last week I was glancing over an article about how Tom Cruise, Kirsty Alley, John Travolta and some other people are Scientologists, I was curious as to what this Scientology is all about, then on Friday, after comedy nite, I saw me mate Dangerous Dave (but he’s not so dangerous no more, think he is in love or something, or the age has caught up, so wives, daughters, mothers u safe, well from Dave) and Smally and Smallz starts telling us about the fact that Isaac Hayes (also a Scientologist) has pulled out of South Park, cos they wanted to make fun of Scientology, lets not forget the fact that this same Isaac Hayes has been part of South Park for years and no one has been spared ridicule, and I doubt he batted an eyelid, but talk about my belief, and it’s a no, no, but we can laugh at everyone other than me and my peeps. Hypocrisy makes me go dilly. In Sundays newspaper what article do I see. Isaac Hayes leaves South Park cos they want to ridicule Scientology. No prizes for guessing what this weeks email is about…

This religion called Scientology, from whence cometh it? Where do I start? I guess I can start with where it started from. An American philosopher and humanitarian Lafayette Ron Hubbard (known as L. Ron Hubbard), born on the 13th March 1911 in a town called Tilden in Nebraska, was the founder of the religion. He was a man of many talents ( I say was because he passed away in 1986). He was a captain of Navy Corvettes during World War II. Not only was he a writer, but he was also an explorer, fortunate enough to be a member of the prestigious Explorers club. It is documented that the man had 21 professions he could put on his CV.

Being an explorer, his travels were plentiful, but it was not until he set foot on Asia that he realised the deep misery and suffering that could be endured by man. It got his mind racing. This resulted in his first major discovery about the existence of man, it also outlined his theory that “life is composed of 2 things: the material universe and an X-factor…that can evidently organize and mobilise the material universe”. Well anyway he carried on with his work, trying to understand and get around the existence of man etc. and on the 9th May 1950, his first major work on the subject was published, he only had 6000 copies printed but it is reported to have sold in excess of 21 mil copies to date and has been credited as being the best selling self-help book of all time. The name of the book is “Dianetics: The modern Science of Mental Health.” It sounds pretty interesting this concept called Dianetics. Basically what it is a deeper understanding of what the soul is doing to the body. It is a methodology to relieve the body/mind of unwanted sensations and emotions, irrational fears and psychosomatic illnesses (“which are illnesses caused/exacerbated by mental stress”). I guess you know your book is the business when its been translated into 65 languages not to mention selling over 21mil copies.

From this the religion of Scientology was born. The religion deals with the maintenance and the upkeep of the human spirit. It teaches that an individual is more than a body, a mind, a lump of genes and cells, more than what s/he is materially ‘worth’. An individual is a spirit, a ‘thetan’ (from the Greek symbol theta, the symbol of life and thought). The word Scientology is said to mean “the study of knowledge or truth”. Its beliefs are that all humans are inherently good and its only through experiences and observations that evil actions and thoughts are borne…which makes sense. Peoples attempts to solve problems and issues taking only their interests to heart and ignoring those others who may be affected by the actions taken is what leads to interpersonal conflicts. The goal of Scientology is to raise an individuals intelligence to such a level that s/he can address and alleviate all their problems themselves an better their own lives. At this level, the thetan is said to be exteriorised which means that the spirit leaves the body and is able to see without the body’s eyes, touch with out hands, hear without…ag u get the picture?! and observe all that is around him/her. Once they have reached this level, they are also able to reach out to family friends and society.

There are 8 dynamics (urge, drive or impulse towards survival) of existence on which Scientology is built and they are as follws:

1st Dynamic: urge to survive as oneself
2nd Dynamic: survive through family and sex
3rd Dynamic: survival in various groups such as a company or with a group of friends
4th Dynamic: survival of mankind
5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Dynamic: survival through other life forms such as animals, the physical universe, the spiritual universe and infinity or Supreme Being respectively.

Another concept of importance in this religion is the principle of the ARC triangle. ARC represents Affinity (degree of liking or affection or lack thereof to something or someone), Reality (agreement of the solid things of life) and Communication (interchange of ideas or objects between 2/more people). These 3 factors are represented as a triangle and the principle is when one corner of the triangle goes up, automatically the other two corners go up too conversely when one goes down. These three put together make up understanding. So say u and I like something, clearly affinity has been achieved, it must have been communicated otherwise how would we have known we both like something and the reality is there was definitely something there that made us like what we do. Using this principle people can learn how to interact with each other better, deal with life situations, build and create strong interpersonal relationships assist people in dealing with societal ‘ills; such as drug abuse, illiteracy, crime etc.

Very interesting I thought.

Birthdays
1st April Carnita
2nd April Gorata

On that note another email ends. Trust you all are having pleasant weeks, if not, its all good, cos it’s the challenges that we face that makes us know we are truly alive. Till next week, hopefully

Maximum respect!!

Y

I was asked to run a marathon. I said, "Piss off".They said "come on, it's for spastics and blind kids."Then I thought........f*ck, I could win this..........

Ya I know not so funny, but made me chuckle leeeetle leeeetle bit.
Top of the morning to ya! Remember those interesting times I spoke of in last weeks email, those interesting times ‘metamorphosised’ at a rate of knots into extremely bleak times indeed, I would have taken disappointed over this feeling anytime, but this was way beyond disappointment! iYo! iYo! iYo! If I had to tell u my bonus etc. after 16 months of service, you would all roll over and die of laughter, and u guys are my mates and I don’t wanna kill u ;-). Lets not talk about the salary increase (once again after 16 months) shall we…inflation related, now lets see, price of petrol shot up at ridiculous levels and more to come, medical aid went up more than 10%, property prices 20 odd % year on year, even went to the shop to buy my el-cheapo Pure Joy fruit juice, used to cost R5.99 this time it was R6.49 that’s up about 8 odd %, common now…but hey I can still have a chuckle at myself… we take it in our stride boys and girls, university of life, it’s a beautiful thing…moving swiftly along…

This story may be a tad disjointed, but please bear with me, its taken a good 2 weeks or so to get it together…

News making headlines 2 weeks ago that caught my eye was the passing of Slobodan Milosevic. Born in Pozarevac, Yugoslavia on the 20th August 1941 to a Deacon in the Serbian Orthodox church and a mother who was a teacher. Soon after his birth, his parents separated. In 1962 his father committed suicide and in 1974 his mother hanged (I think that’s how u say it) herself. May explain the man.

He apparently studied to be an orthodox priest but was never ordained. He attended the University of Belgrade where he studied law. He went on to become the head of the ideology committee of the Communist Party’s student branch. Whilst at university, he made friends with a gentleman called Ivan Stambolic. This relationship would prove very key in Milosevic’s rise to power. You see Ivan Stambolic’s uncle was prime minister of Serbia. His uncle took a liking to Milosevic and sponsored and guided his progress through the communist party. He left university in 1960 and he became the economic advisor to the mayor of Belgrade, post that he worked in Tehnogas, following in the footsteps of Stambolic, once again thanks to Stambolic, in 1978 Milosevic became the head of Beobanka, one of the largest banks in Yugoslavia. In 1984,once again following in the footsteps of Stambolic, he became elected as the president of the Belgrade City Committee of the League of Communisits.

The defining moment in Milosevic’s political career was in 1987 when he stood in front of an angry crowd of Serbians protesting against alleged police brutality (most of the police were Albanians) and vowed to them that no one had the right to beat them and this action would never be repeated. From this speech, his support base developed and expanded. His campaign had taken a twist he was now seen as a Serbian Nationalist, instead of a proponent of communism. From all parts of Yugoslavia, he gained Serbain support. The Serbs now felt they had a voice. In 1989, he did a Judas, and deposed Stambolic as President. Nationalism in Yugoslavia grew and the communist party collapsed. The result of this was in 1990 the Serbian Communist party changed its name to the Serbian Socialist party. What this meant was a call for new elections for a president with more powers. This election took place and Milosevic’s party won 80% of the votes. The Albanians in Kosovo boycotted these elections that meant that the opposition was not an issue in the elections. In the early 90’s communism was becoming a thing of the past in the whole of eastern Europe and nationalism in all the former Yugoslavian republics was becoming more prevalent. Slovenians elected Milan Kucan as their leader and the Croatians did the same with Franjo Tudman. 3 ethnically based parties took over the rule of Bosnia and Hertzegovina.

It was only a matter of time before the collapse of Yugoslavia. In 1991 the inevitable became a reality. Pro and anti-Milosevic camps couldn’t agree and on the 16 March 1991, Milosevic’s patience was worn. He stood up in a televised address and stated that Yugoslavia was done and that Serbia would no longer abide by any rules/decisions set by the Federal presidency. The dissolution of Yugoslavia had begun. In June 1991 Slovenia (the result of the 10 day Slovenian war) and Croatia were the first to fall, followed by Macedonia in September, then Bosnia and Herzegovina in March ’92.

Milosevic’s mind was completely set on a Serbian state, but this was sure to bring nothing but violent conflict, because the Serbs were by far the minority and they have for time in memorial lived in ethnically mixed communities. War one Croatian war, where the Serbs together with the Yugoslav Peoples Army waged war on the Croatian government. War two, 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina, their war even started before they were officially granted independence. In no time, as much as 70% of Bosnia was captured by the Bosnian Serbsm, driving out and or killing the non-Serbs.

In 1995 the Croatian war was brought to an end thanks to operation Storm. Almost all of the Serb population was driven out of Croatia, and where did they go to? Serbia and Bosnia. A mere month later Nato strikes along with a joint Croatian and Bosnian ground offensive saw the end of the Bosnian war (why it took so long for Nato to act, who knows? This led to Milosevic concluding the Dayton agreement which finally ended the Bosnian war, but this agreement gave no pardons for war crimes, hence why Milosevic had to stand trial.

Milosevic stood for 2 terms as president of Serbia, then he became president of Yugoslavia (which was now only Serbia and Montenegro) in July 1997. In 1997 a war against Serbian rule broke out in Kosovo. Hundreds died, many more were left homeless. NATO embarked on a 7-week strike which eventually led to Milosevic standing down and handing over Kosovo to the UN, through the Kumanova agreement. This was it for Milosevic. In May 1999, he was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Other than those charges laid against him in Kosovo, his charges included Genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Croatia. His trial began in Feb 2002 and continued till his death in March 2006. His trial was prolonged due to his increasing ill health – high blood pressure and flu. This resulted in several adjournments etc.

“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” - Henry David Thoreau

“If you use disappointments as sort of mid-semester exams, for learning, you will learn that every disappointment you overcome makes you stronger-and wiser. The greatest success stories have been lived by those who had to grow strong and wise in that very way.” - Loretta Young

Ah well so endeth another week I guess. Hope all is well with you lent ‘sacrifices’ roughly 17 more days to go. 17 more meals to give. I cant lie to anyone, I am getting immense pleasure from getting food and giving it to another. Anyway boots and all calls. Maximum respect as always!!

Y