So anyway this week, even though i have a pretty decent pad in Barbeque Downs, a mate of mine asked me to house sit his super styling pad in the MichaelAngelo Towers, reluctantly I agreed, but thats only cos he asked me so nicely and i didn’t want to seem an ungrateful sod by declining ;) So as i write this I am looking out of paradise in the sky at the beautiful lights of Joburg stunning.

But this my good friends is a view and a lifestyle that only very few people will ever experience. Anyway, i guess thats the way of the world, because those rich few i guess make it possible for the poor few to buy bread and milk, i mean who is going to scrub those showers and toilets, make dinner, build these lovely drapes, wall paper, the electrical and telephone cables that service these places, the front desk concierge, security and so we move on...its life i tell ya, how its been and how it will always be!

Speaking of security, I must admit, I am pretty concerned about this talk about the police being given the right to shoot first then ask. From where i sit, it looks like its giving the police the ability to take peoples lives into their hands. I am all for fighting crime. I say this fresh after having an incident at my house last week. CRIME is South Africas greatest enemy and it needs to go. Is shoot to kill the correct solution....eeeeh i think not!

And why do i think not. Lets start off with the fundamentals. I have had maaaaany a run in with the authorities, funnily enough only in Joburg. And I cant find a more polite or PC way to put this, but the majority of the police I have encountered are power hungry, bullying, bumbling idiots. I really did try find better words to describe them but this alas was the best i could do. A lot of them display the mentality of a playground bully wait better still a looser who became prefect and now he feels he has arrived, oh wait oh wait even better, a steroid filled bouncer at a night club who feels that because he bounced you from the club he has a humungous penile extension and a bank balance to match Richard Branson’s. I think you get my drift. Many of these people have a grade 12 certificate but if i am not mistaken this was recently implemented, I think prior to that, a grade 8 would do. Now lets look at the demographic of the police force shall we. Majority = black. We all know the state of affairs in an average school in South Africa.

Thats just one facet I have delved into, not in depth by any means, but education my dear friends is key in most things particularly in instances where you decide whether someone lives or dies.

But wait there is more. Now these self same people work in an insanely risky job. They put their lives on the line to save our properties and our lives. They are constantly attending the funerals of their colleagues because they were not protecting their own homes, no man, they were downstairs here in Sandton responding to a call from someone who has had his BMW X6 nicked.

Lets throw in another dynamic, these people are insanely under paid in my mind, because if they were adequately paid they wouldn’t always be looking for cooldrink ;)

Let me give you an example of something that recently happened to a mate of mine, I was in Cape Town so I called in a substitute to be harassed my the popo in my absences. Lets use an arb name, lets call my mate Tim. So Tim and some friends had gone for a few drinks on a Thursday night. It was the wee hours of Friday morning, knowing work was around the corner, Tim decided to head on home. Smart man. He stopped at the traffic lights. They turned green he proceeded. A little while on his way he hears, weee o weeee o we, weeee o weee o we, weee o weeee o we, like a cop car (Lil Wayne ;)) yup and it was a cop car. Step out the car...Mr Officer what might be the problem sir he asks, boss u just jumped a red light there they said. You must be joking Tim replies. No seriaaas. You have been drinking ne? Tim may have had one or two, possibly over the limit, but not hammered. Tim begs them to go and breathalyse him, at this stage i think its the right time to tell you all that Tim plays poker compulsively too as evidenced by his call on the Cops. He was convincing. They told him. No but my man, you were driving like a mad man and you nearly caused an accident. We are going to take you to Jail. Tim logically asks. So where is this car that i nearly crashed into, please give me an indication of the colour or the number plate because they must come and lay a charge against me. At this point the cops realised, ey this one he is not a stupid ne. So they just uprooted him and in the back of the van he was shoved. They then proceeded to drive, might i add unnecessarily, like raving mad lunatics around the block, ofourse trying to put the fear of God in ol Tim. They then stopped and tried to make like a snake charmer and extort some cash from him for a crime he didn’t commit. He refused and so to the station he went. In the slammer he was put with proper hard criminals, murderers and a rapist i think he said. Now thats no way to spend a Thursday morning. They let him out in the morning and charged him. So what can Tim do....errr nothing!! Absolutely nothing, a typical case of you damned if you do and you damned if you don’t. I mean say he had to go after these bras, your life will be hell man, Every cop will be out to get u. Especially not being a South African born South African/resident. They laid a charge against him and now he has a record of negligent reckless driving. ABSOLUTE B*** S*** if you had to ask me, but you didn’t so i take it back.

Now you give these self same people a loaded gun and a licence to use it at their discretion with no consequence. But then again how can you blame them when they earn such pitons yet their boss lives the lifestyle of the rich and famous, racking up hotel bills amounting to half a million South African, IN THE PROVINCE WHERE HE LIVES!!! Why couldn’t he have just stayed at home eh? Up until a few mths ago his house was perfect ne? I don’t understand really i don’t!!

Anyway so life in SA has been alright lately you know, a man has been trying his luck with his Caucasian sisters and you know there seems to be some positive feedback, ya know work in progress... and then comes that bra Terblanche again, eish man that bra is messing up a brothers flow i tell you!! Jusus!! You know I thought falling off the horse and spending some time in the slammer had made him mute. The ladies had forgotten that us brothers are the swart gevaar, so much so that hanging with brothers was like almost cool (so i hear ofcourse), the beats 50 cent, Jigga, Kanye, Lil Wayne, The Game, all hot right now, low hanging jeans, caps bling, funky hand shakes are the way forward. Life was becoming integrated. Then he rises from the dead and starts mouthing off about forming a breakaway Afrikaner nation. I thought we were over this now. Can’t we all just get along?

This bra is calling for a separate state because in his words “It's now about the right of a nation that wants to separate itself from a unity state filled with crime, death, murder, rape, lies and fraud." This being the same guy, who was imprisoned in 2001, for the attempted murder of a security guard and almost beating a petrol attendant to death. Errrr

Nah man, his time is done. As a nation i think we have moved on in the right direction. There are a few fundamentals that concern me most of which were highlighted in that Nedbank document last week. But on a whole we have moved forward. Economically we are stronger, as a nation we are becoming more tolerant, we had 2 of the best Currie Cup semi finals I had ever witnessed this past weekend. Dont be fooled there is much to be done still, but the signs of progress are there. I have just returned from a visit to other parts of the continent and as i look out the window right now i realise how far head we are in some respect (yet behind in the humanity side of things).

He has a point in some ways though, because crime is our biggest problem at the moment and in some ways i can see how a person can choose crime. I have to be honest, man as a nation, we South Africans just ooze violence and aggression. Take for instance the semi finals between Province and the Bulls, I am sure everyones most memorable moment was Schalks tackle on Fourie. And that my friends is part of the undercurrent of this crime filled reality we live. Yes there are those who feel disenfranchised blah blah and I am loathe to use the excuse of the past, but unfortunately the chickens have come home to roost. This aggression and crime is becoming a part of our realities its almost an institution. On Friday when i heard that we had an incident at our house, i was away at the time and all i wanted to know if my brother was unharmed he said he was and i was like ok cool. It was like it was normal. It’s almost like its normal to have an incident with crime, if you haven’t then its only a matter of time. Thats wrong man. Because what that says to me is that crime is becoming institutionalised. ITS NOT RIGHT DAMNIT AND NOR IS IT ACCEPTABLE!! But change starts with me man, the small things, gotta go man they have to G......O!

K bedtime tired as knock knock jokes 

Birthdays
9th KC
11th Nkululeko
13th Vuyani
15th Simon H
16th Anjita
17th Tshepo M
18th Sylvia
19th Mogul
20th Thandi M, Candice
21st Koo
24th Dr Phil

Just remember right now is the right time!!

Have a blessed week all

Y

So you know when i cruise the long long loooong streets of joburg, even though i don’t mean to, i tend to notice that the young ones i.e. the ladies tend to give the brother an eye, sometimes even a smile too. So a couple of weeks ago when my pops had the scare, he is by his Creators grace, doing much better, and thanks to all those who dropped us a line etc, much love..., so a couple of weeks ago I was in Jozi, right, cruising around in my folks old school Daewoo, you know what i noticed... no looks, nada, not even like a sneaky, NIKS! So much for me being hot, but you know what i dealt with it...ok dealing with it....waaaa kaaa kaaa ka

Hello guys, my name is Yaw and I live an absolutely charmed life, not throwing it in anyones faces or nothing, just sitting here and appreciating every single lemon and lemonade life has dished out to me. And to be honest and not to sound like i am trying to convince myself of anything, there is nowhere else i’d rather be than right here where I am. Its. 02.40 am. I am just about to hit the hay from such an ordinary day, yet such a blessed day. Let me explain.

Yesterday I went to the big blue, Standard Bank, you know just to say hi to my old colleagues, cos i do that quite regularly, because they truly are a great bunch and yesterday well Wednesday, i got reminded of just that. It was meant to be a quick 30min visit i think i spent about 3 hrs if not more there, just chewing the fat with some genuine decent people. I mean lets take for instance Dave King who is like the big boss of the Corporate and Investment Bank in Cape Town, not that I am trivialising anyone else who made time to catch up with me, but the man is busy, he’s got shiznit to do, but nope, he got out of his desk took me aside into one of the boardrooms and we had like a real full on conversation about life his and mine and just generally chewed the fat. To many people its like whatever, but man to me it left such an impression but i am sure you can tell. That whole 3 hrs or so, just walking around there like i was still part of the familia, chatting with the security guards receptionists the whole crew. That my good people is what this life is about. Being real and being sincere about it all.

Another illustration of some of the charm in my life is, so a few hrs ago i was like invited to go to a fashion show with a mate of mine, to be frank that place was full of phonies and the whole environment made me want to bust a gut, but my mate was a belter and we come a long way so the company made up for it, anyway from there we shot off to Jade, yup u know this, Thursday nite = Jade nite. Anyway so my mate and I are shooting the breeze, but its loud inside so we decide to head on out onto the balcony where there are some chairs to have a yarn about this and that. Anyhoo, I have developed this new habit of wearing tight jeans, apparently its sexy, i am struggling with em at the moment cos my cellphone and the pocket aren’t talking nicely to each other. So i took out my phone and put it on the table. Anyway we decided to go inside. K let me tell you in my defence, my mate is quite alright hey and she was wearing everything low cut...top...skirt...everything. I never thought i was like this but apparently I am, so a man may have had a slight touch of confusioscalitis, better known as confusion, lack of focus or rather focus on the wrong things. Totally out of character cos i never ever ever leave my mobile everrrrr. Anway I did. Oblivious to this we head off to the bar shoot the breeze order our drinks and cackle away. Then all of a sardine this very cute young lass strolls up to me and says to me sorry to disturb, but what is your name, I looked around for the candid camera cos i was like u gotta be joking me...stuff like this doesn’t happen to me ;), anyway so I say Yaw, hi, she is like hi, I found your phone...what are the chances?? She found it on the table anc called my last dialled number a mate who gave her a description of what i look like, imagine that...Its so good to see that there are still some good people left in this world i tell ya. That leads me to this weeks email

I know I sound like a nag alot, but man it bugs me. Charmed life aside, my stellar mates aside and i mean the great ones who know exactly who they are aside, the world is such a messed up place man. People aren’t for real. Its so coincidental that a mate of mine gave me this book The Catcher in The Rye, which i read this week a truly captivating read and I cant get over it. The main character to many might seem slightly disturbed, but in a lot of the issues he raises he is spot on and so in tune with how the world around him is so phony. Like the fashion show today for example, some of the items of clothing were beyond random, but there was tumultuous applause, I sigh. But worst still is how we as a people treat each other. How everyone is on such a mission to succeed irrespective of the price or who they have to do what to to get there. How we are all so deceptive with each other so we can get our way, be it sex, career, acceptance you name it someone is always looking to screw someone over to get ahead, and then you get there and then what? Are you now the king or queen, no my dear so and so, you are still the same loser you are trying so hard to hide away from. Unless ofcourse I have it all wrong, but thats not possible, this is me we are talking about here ;). I just look at the world at the moment we are in such a marginal place because, of peoples greed and desire to rule all. Zim, the USA, Korea, Iran, DRC, Angola, Bosnia, Croatia, Sudan, Guinea, Palestine, man I could go on for days, but I think you all get my drift. I look at this continent. So rich in resources, people, for crying out loud most of the western world was built on the back of Africans (slaves), natural resources, landscape, scenery, there is absolutely noooooooo fathomable reason for this continent to even be remotely in the state that its in. Many blame colonialism, dear friends that institution was gone eons ago, lets move on. I take my country of birth Ghana, 50 or so years ago we gained independence, what have we done, fair enough we are starting to gain some momentum, but man why so long and why don’t so many simple things work? I don’t understand. We have a humungous unemployment rate. Broken infrastructure or outdated infrastructure. We claim not to have money, yet we can spend millions and millions on random presidential palaces...COMEON??!!

You know the beauty about time is you have a huge opportunity to assess and observe yourself and your environment. And what i can say without a doubt is I am truly blessed, yes for what i have, but most importantly for who I have. I have a mate here in CT and he and I are trying to set up an entity what do we do....everything, mainly how do my Naija broddas say...import...export ;) but u want it we know someone who has it and thats the deal for now, very informal but we managed to close our first trade this week, happy days, bond is covered for a few months, wikkid. We have no shareholders agreements nada, ya some might say its immature etc, and i guess I should know better, but to me the soul of a man and the nature of his being is worth so much more than any piece of paper...ey oh oh ey, this tune may change when we start making millions, momma didn’t raise no fool  but the essence will remain the same. Cos dear friends whether you like it or not, one thing thats for damn sure is we are all going to DIE, yep DIE, and the only thing you leave behind other than all the millions you amassed is the impression you left on those around you...

It’s funny how when I started writing this I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write about yet a page and a half later I hope I made some sense...

I say this all the time and it may seem so put on, but if you are lucky enough to be alive and reading this, remember that your maker has given you another day to be the best you you can be, for yourself and others. Dont waste it, cos many would love to be in your shoes. Many who have walked through Heavens gates way before their time. Trust you me none of us are immortal. Ok 03.00am i must get me some sleep for my insanely busy day of nothing tomorrow 

Birthdays
28th Sept Meglic, Mohi
30th Brett
1st Oct Herman
2nd Linda
3rd Monkfish
9th KC
Good night world! Maximum respect in all sincerity. Give a damn about the world around you...

Y