I've got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say, What can make me feel this way? – The Temptations

Very apt song for me at the moment I tell u. If this were Facebook (see what I have become) my status would be - Yaw is quietly confident. Why? I ask myself the same question, cos health-wise I am most probably in the worst shape I have been in since my wrist op in ‘99, both my knees are horribly shot, so too my shoulder, they will more than likely need some sort of intervention (damn doctors), developing a bit of an over 30’s buldge around the midriff due to a few weeks of inactivity (laziness) and the eating hasn’t been curbed. Work - still excited about it when I wake up in the morning but shooowee, it ain’t easy, such a slow start to the year. Canned boozing for a few weeks not fun…but good!

BUTTTTTTT last weekend I was back on the tennis court, far from flash, got taken out by my 62 year old pops, but at least I managed to hobble along, back in the gym a few times so far this week, tide is turning and work, lets not jinx anything so I’ll just plead the 5th. I don’t know, I got happy little butterflies floating around, not the kind I used to get before a 100m race, these aren’t nervous butterflies at all, it’s more like the ‘I can’t wait tomorrow I am going on a long vacation’ kind a butterflies, sheer content(ness), it could be a whole lot of nothing or it could be something we wait and see. All I can do is thank my maker and ask ‘long may it last’ J

Enough about my butterflies, I just thought I should tell u all that I am very disappointed. Not that I am trying to force you into doing anything but sheesh only one proper response to my call last week to try and make a difference, I know there is more than one person who wants to try and do something. If you didn’t read last weeks email, please do have a squizz at it and let me know, cos I am useless really I am.

Don’t really have much to say this week, other than to ask all of you amongst us who pray in any way whatsoever to say a little prayer for this world of ours. Something has to give. Just some things to spare a thought for:

1) Zim is going to the polls on Saturday. I may be speaking from an ignorant position, not ever having visited the country personally, but as well as he may have meant when he did what he did, he has now made his point, well at least to himself…I honestly doubt that there are many people with any sort of nous that would believe that Zim can survive another year with Bob at the helm. He is trying hard to make sure the decks are stacked in his favour, but I really hope the will of the people prevail and hopefully it will be the will of the people that he chucks!! Certain independent media have been banned. Apparently the permits of the independent observers from the SADC region expires before the count takes place, come now…100 000% inflation, we have 10% and we are struggling! Something has to give.
2) Tibet, some of the footage I have been seeing on the telly is rather disturbing. The brutality of the armed forces on the unarmed Tibetans is brutal! The funniest thing I heard was a Chinese ambassador being interviewed and he made a comment along the lines of we say there have only been 8 deaths and they were innocent bystanders and police, those people reporting that there are over a 100 people dead should support this with some fact, well that my dear man would be difficult cos the media has been shut out? My question is if you have nothing to hide, why stop me from coming to see?
3) Somalia which is being seen as too dangerous for international aid workers to assist the plenty million destitute and in need of help
4) Iraq need I say more
5) Morroco cos they are losing their status as the worlds best producer of cannabis….

This email started off on such a positive note but alas, enter the real world, and all is not so rosy all the time…everywhere. The lesson in that I guess is to be grateful for what u have, and trust u me we have plenty to be grateful for! But I’ll save you all the preaching this week

Birthdays
23rd Glenda, Funmi
25th My good man Anthony Odama (Damsie)
26th Jani
27th Mandla, OG, Feds, Linda, Carlin, Thuli
28th Nigel, Ref Moloto
29th Marc W, Paula and Philip R

And that’s a wrap folks. Maximum respect and have a great weekend!

Take it easi

Y
‘Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you’

“There's a log on the fire, And it burns like me for you, Tomorrow comes with one desire, To take me away....it's true, It ain't easy to say goodbye, Darling please don't start cry, 'Cause girl you know I've got to go, Lord I wish it wasn't so

Save tonight, And fight the break of dawn, Come tomorrow, Tomorrow I'll be gone

Tomorrow comes to take me away, I wish that I......that I could stay, Girl you know I've got to go, Lord I wish it wasn't so”- Eagle Eye Cherry

Following on to my emails I sent on Friday, you know what I is thinking? I is thinking talk is cheap. This weekend I decided I am committing (and shoo wee that’s a massive thing for me) BUT right here in front of you all I commit to make a difference. Not sure how, what, when, where, but I will no matter how small.

There’s another BUT though… I need help! I am pretty darn average at follow through and organizing stuff, so guys and gals please do assist! If u have been feeling and thinking the same, please drop me a line and we can make something happen. We don’t have to save the cheerleader (…save the world) for those who that phrase was lost on my bad. All I am asking is that we who have the means, and trust u me if u are alive and reading this you have the means J, lets see what we can do, cos believe it or not we are the next generation! It’s our time…The older dudes sorted out the hard part regarding our freedom and democracy etc, all we have to do is make sure we keep the wheels in motion. U remember that “Never and Never again” speech? Our time…

Some of the ideas I have are around education, be it spending a few hours of our weekends, once in a while at under privileged schools teaching a subject, or clubbing together some money I don’t know say 20 of us put together a grand each and help someone pay for part of their first year at university or school or even we club together some money to help put our domestic worker’s kids through school, these are some of the ideas floating in my head.

Ok moving along, I think I am just a walking coincidence I tell u, and I think I have mentioned it before. On Tuesday I went to go and watch a movie “Why did I get married”, quite enjoyable it was. If you are in a relationship or married or you are contemplating getting out of one or love’s on the rocks, u and your significant other should go and watch it. Some pretty good humour and most importantly a decent message. One line in particular stuck in my head and its holds true for not just marriage but many other things or situations we find ourselves in nowadays.

It would definitely be hugely selfish of me to keep it from you guys and I am trying not to be break that habit. J So a whole lot of guys are gathered having a boys chat u know, and the one of them tries to reprimand his one mate who has been playing around behind his wife’s back. The dude mentions the 80:20 rule. The explanation in the movie was something like this, in marriage you will only ever get 80% that’s the bottom line. Along comes little miss thang in her glory, she will only ever offer you 20%, so before you leap, is the 80% really worth giving up? You can substitute marriage for work, relationships, emigrating whatever, I think it was quite apt, I didn’t get the words verbatim, but I hope I captured the gist.

So yesterday (Sunday) I decided to go pay a visit to Pastor Ray and made a turn at church and guess what they were talking about? Relationships! I smiled, and realized I am supposed to be writing about this to you all this week…even if I may have written this or something similar sometime waay back when.

Dudes, if you are going through testing times in anyway, the bottom line is embrace them. Relationships of any sort, need to be tested, they should be tested. You have to go through pooh in life! It’s the only real way you find out what the makeup of your partner is or even more positive, its the best way to get to know yourself. When everything is going great, everyone is happy, butterflies are singing, violins are playing happily in the background, but let the pooh hit the fan, then u’ll REALLY know. It’s the same when you are at work, everyone is chilled and chuffed with life, enter stress, exit the fun and games in some people

It’s also a great opportunity you know to throw out the junk as it were, clean out the closet start anew, be it in the situation or out of the situation…a line that was mentioned that stuck in my head and it can serve as a mantra for many of us, ‘you may have a set back, but you will come back. The best thing to do is not to dwell, cos life definitely goes on, all in good time you will bounce back!!

An apt quote for this week “happiness is a state of mind”!! I hope all my Irish readers and those living in Ireland had a great St Patrick’s day. Happy Easter to you all remember what its all about... no not the eggs and bunny’s…

Birthdays
16th Zaheer
18th Nasrin, Sheryl
21st Mike Cross
22nd Emily

And that’s me for another week, if you are traveling over the weekend, may the force be with you.

Maximum respect

Y

Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika God bless Africa
Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo, May her glory be lifted high
Yizwa imithandazo yethu, Hear our petitions
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo. God bless us, Your children

Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso, God we ask You to protect our nation
O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho, Intervene and end all conflicts
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso, Protect us, protect our nation
Setjhaba sa South Afrika - South Afrika. Nation of South Africa, South Africa

Uit die blou van onse hemel, Ringing out from our blue heavens,
Uit die diepte van ons see, From the depths of our sea,
Oor ons ewige gebergtes, Over everlasting mountains,
Waar die kranse antwoord gee, Where the echoing cliffs resound,

Sounds the call to come together,
And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom,
In South Africa our land.

A couple of welcomes, Miss Leyya and Miss Cheryl (gr8 catching up with u during the week) …hope u find this email useful, if at any stage it loses its usefulness either let me know how I can make it relevant to you or ask me to remove you from the list. Comments and suggestions are always welcome, either by mailing me or going to www.mondaymail.blogspot.com

Racially charged times here in SA I tell you! To be honest I don’t think we’d have half the problems we have today if everyone had the pleasure of attending Umtata High School, all UHS peeps can I hear an Amen…

Anyway so last week I am having a chat with a good friend of mine and our conversation finds its way to BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) for those who don’t know. BEE is not working…when is it going to end…BEE is a method to attempt to rectify the injustices of the past. Is it working? Not perfectly but I think it is let me state a few examples.
• Banks are fighting hard to finance transactions such as housing projects for the less fortunate.
• A friend of mine has been facilitating a pretty big development project in the underdeveloped parts of the Eastern Cape. It’s a project that’s been funded and initiated by one of the big mines.
• Large corporations are looking to assist the less fortunate in terms of their corporate social responsibility
• Corporates are looking to maximize their BEE points when transacting with other corporates
• There is a huge middle class that’s developed which is fueling the South African economy at the moment
• At the risk of blowing my own horn, I am receiving calls from Afrikaans institutions which I dealt with in my past, asking me to consider a financial director position (dust to that, but thanks though)…
• Patrice Motsepe is on the Forbes rich list
• Sim Tshabalala has taken over as the head of Standard Bank’s South African operation

My question to my mate was if it wasn’t for BEE would any of these things actually be possible? Would people be given a chance to show what they are made of? Call me a skeptic, but for some reason I strongly doubt it.

The system is hugely far from perfect, but something had to give and I think it’s a decent enough base to build from. What we all need to get our heads around is the fact that BEE is more than ownership, it’s about assisting your community, empowering women, training your staff, recognizing members of your staff that have shown what it takes etc. Yes the average man on the street may not be directly benefiting in terms of moving out of the townships, but they are benefiting from job opportunities, they have the opportunity to get access to funding for some great (bankable) ideas they may have, they have the opportunity to get bursaries to further their studies, they have the opportunity to study in schools built from funding from the large corporates, they have access to books donated by these self same corporates.

Even if it’s just one day, one weekend, larger corporates donate their time to build and paint schools, feed kids, hand out books etc. Is it working, maybe not perfectly, but its sure helping some. If not this then what’s your suggestion? Its very easy for us to criticize but lets find some alternatives.

Dovetailing onto this is this thing called racism, both this and BEE are a result of that animal called apartheid. I really try and steer clear of this topic as much as I can but it’s the reality that is South African, and I am not painting everyone with the same brush. I am fortunate in that a great number of the people that I surround myself with (notice I say a great number, unfortunately not all, but alas its your choice), are enlightened enough to see a person for who they are and not restrict themselves as a result of fear. As I write this I realize I may have sung this song before, but in my mind it’s a song that needs to be sung over and over again. I say thank you to those 4 students in the Free State, I say thank you to Mr Lebo M too.

Lets start with those Free State 4, I don’t think that what they did warranted airtime on BBC. What they did was silly but none more so silly than what we pay Leon Schuster to do. I saw bits of the video on Carte Blanche last Sunday and from what I saw the workers looked like they were having fun. It was silly boys being boys, and I can bet my last rand that if that self same video was put together by Leon Schuster we would have all had a chuckle. What really exacerbates the situation are the trade unions saying that the workers were mentally and emotionally traumatized etc. Puh…lease…
Video aside, (and this may come as a contradiction but be that as it may…) I am convinced that those boys are racist (noun: a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others). I believe and fair enough its only from what I’ve heard and read, but the Reitz hostel at the University is being exploited by a political party called the Freedom Front +. This was very evident when members of the residence were interviewed in the television documentary. They all sounded very angry and full of hate. They were all against integration. In my view it’s a standpoint based on fear!

My take on integration is simple. There should be no segregation whatsoever. Group areas act is a thing of the past and that’s exactly how it should stay. There should be no university residences that are all white, black, Indian or coloured! That just makes matters worse. I don’t think we can force each other to like each other, just like…and excuse my crassness, but you can’t force someone to like someone they deem fat or ugly or unappealing, its what makes them who they are. I do however strongly believe in that we should integrate and interact more, engage in dialogue. From the outside I see that Muslims and Jewish people are very similar in how they believe not necessarily in what they believe, yet they are the ones that have the fiercest fights. No doubt if they actually put their guns down and started speaking to each other they would find more in common.

Then there is Mr Lebo M, who is telling the world how great he is and that he shouldn’t have to sit in the back seat. Firstly who is supposed to sit in the back seat? Secondly Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa (rest her soul), Martin Luther King, JFK, I didn’t once hear them telling the world how great they were or what they had achieved in this life yet the world held them in high esteem. Humility my good man, there is much to be said for humility! I heard bits of his acceptance speech and never once did I hear him acknowledging his co-producer Pieter Toerien, maybe there is beef there but still boss…Granted the Lion King was a great production possibly worthy of more than it received, but ey that’s awards, I think American Gangster should have received some nominations at the Oscars, but I don’t think it did…My man…give the man a hug when you see him. I need a bit more substance behind racist claims boss, you cant just go mouthing off cos u got a bad seat boss!

Just some thoughts…

Birthdays
10th Steve M
11th Bontle and Tebo

Take care all and have a smashing week, looking forward to mine 
Maximum respect

Y

Carpe Diem