“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” - Albert Camus…

Woke up this morning, went to gym, shooowee, it was cold and wet, so after gym I made some breakie, hit the shower jumped back into bed and switched on the telly and put in a DVD Mississippi Burning. Hectic movie which invoked some thoughts.

Anyway so whilst watching the DVD snug in bed and listening to the rain, I started to wonder Kliptown where the freedom charter was adopted in 1955, how many people in this area have a non-leaking roof on such a day? How many people have electricity, running water (not running rain water)? 16 years later and how free are we really? Politically, very much so. The will of the people has shone through in all the elections post 1994. Whether its always an informed and educated will, it doesn’t matter, it is what it is. But economically and socially sheesh, man im not convinced.

I have recently just had to put up burglar bars and security gates, you drive around any neighborhood and the order of the day is high walls, electric fencing. I wouldn’t be surprised if security is one of the best performing industries in south Africa. How free can one really be if someone can equate a persons life to R50, or a Cellphone, or a TV, or a car? The shaite doesn’t make sense to me at all.

I did a quick read of the Freedom Charter and below are the headings

• The People Shall Govern!
• All National Groups Shall have Equal Rights!
• The People Shall Share in the Country's Wealth!
• The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It!
• All Shall be Equal Before the Law!
• All Shall Enjoy Equal Human Rights!
• There Shall be Work and Security!
• The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be Opened!
• There Shall be Houses, Security and Comfort!
• There Shall be Peace and Friendship!
For the full charter and a description of these points go to http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/charter.html

So all these major headings seem all good and well but I’ll try to give my personal encounter and commentary on these headings as an ordinary citizen of this land.

People governing, the people have their government in place but I am not too sure about the people governing though. It seems that the ruling party is more concerned about the noise being made by the different factions within it with the much publicized power struggles, the youth league prancing around as if it is running the country, the public spats within the tri-partheid alliance. That noise seems so lound that the voices of the 64 odd percentage of people who voted them into power seems to be reduced to nothing but a whisper. Please winter is coming I need shelter, I need water, schooling for my children, electricity so I don’t have to use open fires that could lead to me wiping out the possessions of a whole community…can u guys hear that, sounds like an annoying little mosquito, ok back to you Julius, Gwede, Bekhi, what do you want? Spend x million on a hotel, new cars worth x hundred thousand, sure, Jake another wife the state must pay for? Sure!

National groups have equal rights, I think that this is the case most this is being achieved, I do believe that more can be done to regarding schooling in the not so well to do areas, but instead of proposing that the standard of education drop id rather more be invested in the teachers both in incentives and training

People sharing in country’s wealth, well lets see. Sharing in the countries wealth, some of us have had an opportunity to, particularly those with political affiliation. BEE was and still is a good idea but its execution may be a little flawed. The BBBEE codes seem to address this to an extent. I used to smile at times looking at some of these deals we were asked to finance. At the end of the day the main winners at the time were the original white owners as they would want to sell their businesses at ridiculous prices. The black buyers would be willing to buy at these high prices because it was going to be bank financed and so their risk is minimal. But now with the way the markets have turned values have halved if not more. And who won? The sellers ofcourse, they got their price. Buyers are saddled with debt and a fraction of the value they bought in at. And that’s only some of the people, the majority of the people in the rural areas, still have to wake up at the crack of dawn to hit the mines, dragging out the coal, gold, platinum, etc. for a couple of thousand a year where a handful of executives take home millions…

Land shared amongst those who work it, is being worked on, and hopefully it will be resolved in a way that is not detrimental to the nation ala Zim. Giving back farmland to a displaced community is one thing but making sure production is not affected, well that there is a whoooole other Tyrannosaurus…a monster mate and it has to be carefully thought out and executed.

Equal before the law they say, but I guess some are more equal than others. Some get harassed on suspicion of being an illegal somebody based on looks etc. show me how that differs from the past laws that discriminate based on that. Fair enough it may not be law, but its still practiced by those in positions of power so it might as well be law no?

Equal human rights, bar the point raised above, I think its largely upheld.

Work and security, this is one thing I believe they have really tried hard on. That’s regarding the work part. There is a minimum wage in place. Things like the Soccer world cup. Many of us protested vehemently against the construction of new stadiums etc, but what it did do was it created copius amounts of jobs. New roads or roads were upgraded, airports were built. There are new electricity power plants in the pipeline. Many such things, even though they result in a short term solution to the employment problem, in my mind its better than no solution. Ideally a longer term plan would be better, but my thinking is if these short term projects are successful and we as a nation show that we can deliver, there will be a many more of these short term solutions which will become a long term solution…call it optimism. We’ll speak about security later.

Open doors of learning and culture, free education…not quite, quality education…not quite, access to tertiary education, yep its there…if you can afford it, and man university education is insanely expensive. Now that’s the basics, lets step u the game a little and look at integration of society and cultures and willingness to learn about each other. Well if I look at people my age, we are trying but its really not so big eh. I guess it’s the old adage of teaching an old dog new tricks. Over the last few months I have attended a few weddings and birthdays, been to a few clubs in CPT, Jozi etc, and its still quite evident how polarized things really are, but then again how can 16 years change something that most of us have breathed for most of our lives and has formed part of our society’s DNA, in the words of Tupac, It aint easy…but we can overcome that, government cant really do much to help here we have to want to and be willing to, what they can do is remove the laws that prohibit intermingling, which they have done, now its up to us..

Houses, security, comfort…FAIL, FAIL, FAIL. Slums are still a dime a dozen. There are RDP houses, but not enough and the quality of some are disgusting, but that’s the doing of some unscrupulous people, but still someone should have been overseeing this. Security, as I sit here, there is a 1 year old fighting for her life after being beaten by robbers in her own damn house. I just heard that there has just been an attempted heist a few km from where I currently sit. Mates are getting followed to their homes, laid on the floor with guns pointed at them, robbed clean. What bull is that? Why must i work, pay tax, only for the state to fail me and I work like this?? I lock all the inter-leading doors in my house when I am not there, or even at night. Have burglar bars. Live in a complex with a security guard and electric fences. I drive a car with tinted windows and a protective covering on the windows. I am a prisoner living in discomfort whilst those that do wrong or plot to do wrong roam freely with the knowledge that if they do do wrong, their chances of being caught or prosecuted is minimal…with those odds, if I was criminally minded id also take my chances.

Peace and friendship, well one thing that has happened is the powers that be have worked hard to ensure that they assist in resolving many of this continent’s conflicts, even to such an extent that the leadership was criticised for spending too much time on the worries of the continent and not spending much time at home. Regarding peace and friendship internally, well that’s up to us, if we want to we can, its that simple.

The tone of this email may seem a little negative, and in my mind that’s fine. I have such high hopes for this nation. If I compare it to the plight of other African nations that gained independence before we did. But it concerns me to see some of the ills that plagued those nations and continues to do so, is starting to rear its ugly head here. Greed, corruption, the widening gaps between the haves and the have nots.

We just don’t seem to be getting right. We get something rights like getting things done once we actually start it, but its getting it started that is the problem. What we have against it is that the majority of its population has substandard education add the violent nature of its people, but what we have going for us, is our resilience as a nation, our willingness to succeed, the fact that we have such a head start on all the other African nations that went South, the fact that the powers that be, and some of us through reading and observation have see what lead to the downfall of our brother and sister nations.

But alas interesting times nowhere else id rather be and I think the same can be said for many of us so what do we do? Sit back and point fingers or try, whatever it is…just try???
The question though is Freedom, are we FREE or are we DOM ☺

Birthdays
25th Shaka, Lizelle
28th Bianca
29th Melody
1st Nicolas Plianthos

That’s me out for another week.

Respect
Y

Almost 9 months in Cape Town, and the only interaction I had with the police was a greeting or a fat chat at the robots about random things, back in Jozi one week, one week, and I am harassed, pulled over searched, wasting my time. And how is this for foolish the bra was going the opposite direction to me and I flagged them down to ask them if the municipal strike was over because I need to go and renew my drivers licence. The bra answers no, but pull over we are running a random search. I am like dude, what kind of an idiotic criminal would I be to stop you if I was guilty of any crime….aaah Jozi!!!

But those issues aside man, there is some other kind of energy here, lets not fool ourselves it doesn’t have the sights and sounds of Cape Town or my Buttercup ☺, but it definitely does have its own vibe. People all hustling to do things.

A few weeks ago in my blog where I spoke about racial tensions etc. I wrote something like lets move on, and it seems as if people misunderstood me. I am not saying lets pretend its not there, on contraire , what I am saying is we all know the problem, hell we’ve been stuck on the problem for how long now, lets find a way to solve it, find a way to live and let live, work with it u know…sigh it tires me so we move on.

Hey maybe you guys can help me with this, but whats the whole hoo ha about the dude saying don’t touch me on my studio…is it cos he said on my studio as opposed to in my studio? The way he said it, cos the joke flew riiiiight over my angular head.

So how has the world been so humbled? We as humans think we are sooo powerful, soo great, we know best, but last week boy were we showed that Mother Nature and our creator have power over all. A mountain spitting out a few rocks glass here and there into the sky, then the wind decides to gooi it down south, oooops no more flights. Gotta feel for those people who don’t have the financial means to support an extended holiday, and I guess happy days for those who had an extra holiday they can afford. But have you thought about the impact the grounding of flights has had on the worlds economy? Airlines are going to take a fat hiding in an already tough environment for them. Still have to pay staff and other cots but getting zero revenues. Oil prices should have been affected, people selling jet fuel sorry for them, those supplying food and services for flights….etc but on the upside though less carbon emissions thanks to flights being grounded, and those people stuck in those countries where tourism revenues is their lifeblood or a large part there of, well happy days for them cos they have the tourists for that much longer, oh wait maybe not, because they could have had more who may have spent more but may end up not coming because of their leave window period elapsing,…oh whatever

Todays topic is one that is quite close to me. I look at the world at the moment and in particular the youngsters. And man, I am really glad that even though I still have a whole lot of growing up to do, I am well pleased that I am not a in my prepubescent and pubescent stages, some might argue otherwise but lets leave that convo for another time. This thought was re ignited by an article I read today in the Times. Man kids are poked at the moment ey, shoo wee. Maybe it was because we didn’t conduct these surveys in my day, but the amount of kids wanting to commit suicide, members of gangs, drink on a regular basis, have fallen pregnant or fathered a child is insane. Now I guess I wasn’t the model student cos back then it was about sport and books, ladies and boozing didn’t feature much, but when I did observe it, it was soo discrete. We had, whats that term respect! Why was that? Was it because of corporal punishment? Discipline from home? Just the fact that the parents were home a lot of the time to watch over us and teach us right from wrong??

Now I have an idea how many of my mates were raised cos it was similar to how I was raised. But I will speak for myself here. When I was younger id get faaarked up!! Luckily or not so much it was only my mother, pops never hit us thank goodness cos the man was large when we were growing up. But Moms on the other hand anything goes, ladle, pot, shoe, hand belt, we even got to a stage where we’d fake the double clutch cry, so moms would feel sorry for us and let us be. But dare you cry when she leaves u be, yoh yoh yoh hell would rain down on you again. And I don’t think I was such a bad child hell I had no idea what a girl was, nor booze nor drugs, but my mother had a great pet name for me…DEVIL, me? I mean really??!!

Anyway so what I was getting at was that u did wrong you knew there was hell to pay, not just sit in the corner and think about it or think about ways to not get caught the next time, nah man. Even if they thought you did wrong, they being teachers or parents, you got an uppercut for making them think that you could have done wrong.

There was no such thing as bringing a knife or a gun to school. No such thing as back chatting a teacher, who remembers Phils and Mr Le Roux ☺. You were scared of being late for school, even though its not your fault, you had to stand in front of the whole school during assembly, not cool . We had discipline. Why because we had parents who were parenting. Our parents were there. I am no parent now nor do I have any authority to pass these comments but I speak from a place of observation and it just doesn’t seem like its the same, but then again the types of parents our parents were is not exactly the same as how it was when they were growing up, but I digress…Parents in my time were there.

It wasn’t all about chasing tin, well at least not for my folks. During the day we could watch Joe Perkins and Kelly Capwell, Cruz Casteel (that’s Santa Barbara by the way), but at night but at night dare we try and watch Blake, Krystal and Alexis Carrington or JR, Bobby and Sue Ellen Ewing….woooow watch out now, flying uppercut headed your way. Reason, its not for children and you must go to bed because you have school tomorrow…didn’t stop us from trying to sneak a peak though. But parents man, we could learn from them in terms of how to treat each other, relate to adults and people in positions of power. You knew your place. There was no we are all equals speak to me pops, don’t just tell me what to do, ask me what id like to do…..watchout upper cut. Extremes of any sort are no good but a good balance, proper roles as to who is in charge. That goes a long way to building a society of functional people.It goes a whole lot further too If you are ‘man’ enough to impregnate a woman, you are more than man enough to make sure the child grows up knowing and having a present father. Parenting from my experience of being parented, does not start at school or out on the streets but at home man. At school even though I fell foul of the rules a few times I’d do anything I had to to get a good report or to make sure my folks don’t catch wind of what I did wrong if anything. I’d want to do well in class not cos I wanted to be a hero, ok that too but mainly cos my old man, 60% was like a fail. May sound like my parents were tyrants and all, far from it man, they slaved hard so we could have every opportunity and most of all they were there inspite of whatever hardships that may have befallen them, they were there to make sure that we had a foundation and once I left home man they knew they had done a good enough job…shame ☺

Whats going on now man? I don’t know mate. Simple things like hair cuts, girls skirts not more than 2 fingers above the knee (haated that rule), simple rules that were there even though random, instilled much discipline in pupils as well as the sense of right or wrong according to rules. Now man, it looks like anything goes. 16 year olds cruising the malls looking like 25 year olds, all dolled up mammaries protruding, made up like porcelain dolls, smoking, I mean really that shouldn’t be cool. Kids should be kids, I mean what will you have to look forward to at third year varsity if you are already doing this stuff? Paying pre-primary school fees?? Nah man!! Nah man respect, that’s key, yes it has to be earned etc, but man If you respect another you tell me if you will try and harm them, speak ill of them, try and plot their demise or waste their time etc etc. I think not, its an integral part of this hear society I tell ya!

So where the problem is? Ahh boss, its us as parents and would be parents. We don’t raise our kids man. Agnes does. We don’t discipline our kids because they can call child line. We throw money at the problem, to make up for our absence. Late nights at the office, travelling this that the next. Hoping that money will make sure my little girl or boy doesn’t grow up smoking tik.

I hope if I am ever blessed with a little one, I am that guy who teaches him or her to play tennis, takes them to the library, oh wait that wont happen only dinosaurs go to the library ;), the guy who she comes to speak to when that little boy pulls her afro puffs, the guy who says dude, what’s this nonsense, what happened to the other 40% the dude who makes sure that damnit rules are rules irrespective of how silly you might think they are!! Cos man if that distinction isn’t there, every rule is breakable!!! I don’t want to be spending my Saturday afternoon going to visit anybody in jail boss, I have S15 to watch man!!

Birthdays
19th Patrick, E-man, Bron
21st Anthosh, Ravi, Ronelle
24th Kirst Goldby, Tasneem
25th Shaka

Ya man, a ripper is my wish to ya’all!!

Bags of love, wait truck loads man and maximum respect.

Dry skin, polluted air, aggressive drivers, warm winter days, diverse population, driven people, aah Jozi, yep home sweet home! But man what a country we live in. Took a cruise along the N1 form Cape Town, stupidly I might add, because its looooooonger going back than it is going there (psychologically ofcourse), but as I was saying what a country, just watching the sun rise over the picturesque Worcester mountains, watched the sun set over the fields in the Free State, cows standing motionless in the fields. Even the Karoo has its own beauty and the roads, nah we’ve got a good thing going on here. Lets get back to the cows for a second, how dof do they look, their whole day in a field just standing there eating grass and staring into nothingness for the whoooole day?? How random an existence ey? But then again they might be thinking humans always moving up and down fast and slow but always running around, where are they going, they should stop and smell the roses, cos after all this they end up dead like us…sorry when you drive for 14 hrs or so u have loads of time to think about random things ☺

Moving along, you know I always try and impress upon myself and others that nothing in the world happens in isolation, Newtons law of motion (for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction) holds true in all facets of life. We are living such a truth right now. Let me try and provide a clear illustration which we in South Africa are living at the moment. For many years the old school segregated us and put in place a system where there was an ‘importance tiering’ of the countries people. Whites were better than Indians who were better than coloured who were all better than blacks. It’s a living truth which is still evident to this day. Following onto this the education system followed suit. So called white schools were better educated than Indians, then coloureds and then bantu education for the natives.

Right. But we know all this so whats your point Yaw?

Ok so now we have a situation where particularly the old school whites, Afrikaners, feel they are under threat in the country, from where I sit I think we should all be a little weary, but I don’t think the situation is that grave at all but still needs to be noted. Anyway so we have a situation where there is this young man right who seems to be commanding the stage at the moment, he seems to be wielding some power and he seems to be dictating terms as to who or what will be happening to who or what. We all say sheesh listen to this ‘fool’ etc etc, but why is he a fool etc etc? We have municipal workers striking at the drop of a hat vandalizing property and causing mayhem, what they don’t realize is that the amount of money they lose whilst striking may not cover whatever increase they actually do end up getting because it’s a no work no pay policy.

So how why is Julius and these municipal workers operating in a manner that we, who were fortunate enough and hugely privileged to be educated, consider foolish and idiotic? Well lets see. I know what I know to be right and wrong thanks to my upbringing and also education, but lets look at people like Ju ju for example, what kind of education was he offered? Well one that would result in him being no more than a gardener or a cleaner of sorts. Well you got your wish his education was just that effective, what wasn’t factored in was the fact that that perhaps the day would come when Juju was the president of a party whose parent runs the country. How he got to where he is now, matters not, reality is it is what it is.

Now we are so reaping what we sow.

Isnt it funny just how life seems to work itself out ey? We always float around doing what we feel saying what we feel, never once thinking the chickens will come home to roost, well cock-a-doodle dooo!!

56 days till the world descends upon South Africa. Looking so forward to proving the doomsayers wrong. It will be a great event, if not we learn and move on right? But if it isn’t, well I still got the Gautrain, bus rapid transport, styling airports and wider and better roads, cant win them all can we??

Outta here

Birthdays (if I missed yours, well that’s cos I don’t have it)
13th Debbie, Jonty,
15th Zuko
17th Louise

And that’s me for another week, and remember IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU!!

Have a great weekend

Y

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It's the only thing that there's just too little of, What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No not just for some but for everyone…”

Such an apt song for where the world is particularly where we as South Africans are nowadays.

Anyway watched a movie called The Green Zone, very interesting it was, but what is so clear is that the whole world seems to know for a fact that America (and its allies) lied about WMD in Iraq, or the lack there of) knowing full well that this was an exaggeration of the truth. Sent peoples kids to go and fight a war under false pretences. Innocent civilians awoken to the sound of mortars and gun shots. Many killed, displaced. The saddest thing is that the whole world knows of this blatant disregard for protocol and any country’s right to govern itself. The US led invasion of Iraq was no less unjust as the Iraqi led invasion of Kuwait which lead to Dessert Storm, Iraq got bombed Saddam was the enemy, but what happened to the US and its allies, nothing, George Bush and crew are sitting nice and comfy retired on their farms. The ordinary people of Iraq cant go to the market without the real risk that it could be the last trip they take to the market?? And where are George Bush and Tony Blair, parking off nice and cosy living La Doce Vita, nah man.

Anyway so on Sunday I wake up yeah. Day started off pretty well. Easter Sunday off to church got home, lying on the couch u know whiling out then a ‘friend’ ;) sent me a message to go onto e-news and I did. And there it was…Eugene Terre’Blanche murdered. I shook my head. There was a press conference with the minister of safety and security and the police commissioner. And in so much as they couldn’t really answer a lot of the questions regarding the case, still being under investigation and all. I think much needs to be done regarding the safety and security of the people of this country. I say this in all earnestness. A few weeks ago 2 very good mates were held up in their home. They were followed home overpowered the security guard. Asked my one mate to go inside with them, they took his car, laptop, suits, money u name it. Now u tell me ne, why do I work hard to make money, pay taxes, buy all these gadgets when some fool, some forked up fool can sommer just waltz into my house at gun point and just take it and dissapear like a fart in the wind…after some time. Man that shaite anit right. Here we are saying guys at least they didn’t kill you. Which is true, but man, that’s some forked up pooh! Bra if you want what I got go work damnit!! Yes yes yes, imbalances of the past and it will take time to sort out I so fully understand and empathise, but if no one puts in a clear plan of how to address this situation I see the gyre widening. My folks are pretty old yeah and they still go out there to try and make a difference, and ofcourse still make a living and maintain some sanity, think my mother would go dilly if she had to stop working, well if she didn’t we’d definitely go bonkers ;) anyway whilst they are away our house is desolate. They have been burgled fork knows how many times, but my old man like a true African stubborn as all hell, its ok they don’t take much, we are insured blah blah. But last week they came at night, now there is where the jokes and laughter ends, cos you have know idea what they could do next.

Ok so now to this weeks email. Mr Terre’Blanches slaying. All I could think was oh oh Chris Hani again. We were on a knifes edge back then and there weren’t any inflammatory songs being sung to incite the violence or at least provide an excuse for someone looking for one, oh no at that time we were a nation in building with all parties striving hard to make it a better place for all. Now it seems like the powers that be don’t give a flying hoot. Now I am not saying that this is the case, but perception is strong.

I didn’t like the guy much, but what happened to him is utter nonsense, and I am finding it difficult to see the link to a wage dispute as the investigators are alleging. Doesn’t make sense, u pay me kak I leave its that simple no. U abuse me or my family or something more, then the case gets stronger…but that’s just me. I think it was another typical violent crime that is soo prevalent in this here society we live in. Now we inflame it by having a maverick chanting such outdated songs like kill the boer. Now to the uneducated which unfortunately is a large sum in this country it can be taken very literally, and even if its not someone oh someone tell me what good it does in this day and age?? Please, someone, help me am I blind? Am I stupid? What good on Gods green earth will chanting such a random song as well as umshiniwami or de laray what good does it do?!! Undazi mina (me I understand not). Anyway so this man has mouthed off this song. He got told its not right and constitutional to mouth off such rhetoric, yet mr above the law continues in his ways unrestrained. Now lets see right if I am a father, right and we are at a shop right and my kid says to a stranger, you are a stupid mofo. Right now if I say nothing it implies to the kid its cool carry on boss, I approve, but if he catches a p**s klap right and I reprimand him in public and apologise it says to the offended person my bad, he shouldn’t have I don’t condone such behaviour and it will not happen again, because if it does there will be hell to pay, the kid knows that ey ey ey man this aint on don’t do it again else there will be consequences and repercussions! All parties slightly wounded but steps to rectify it and prevent it have been put in place.

Now let me start off by saying this. NOT all Afrikaans people are right wing AWB members, just like not all black people are Julius followers and I believe that there will be a little wave as a result of this murder but it may not amount to much in terms of further racial polarization of this country. But I really think we as a nation need to move on. We have to find something else man. Last weekend I am home right next thing I hear my neighbours having a misunderstanding. One of them shouts something like, because you are white you think you are right, why don’t you go and live with your whites in their areas, I am going to kill you…all respect for that said neighbour is now where?? LOST. I don’t know the nature of the convo, but I am sure it was because he was making a noise. But irrespective, you start or include race in an argument where its not warranted then all credibility is lost. If you fell asleep on the job and the boss says you are fired, an argument starting with is it because I am black wont really hold much hope! If I said you are fired because you are a stinky, stupid curly haired black different story… We have to move on!!

Now to make matters worse, I am reading that Julius is in Zim and is allegedly saying that there will be a Zim style land take over here in SA. Hmm have you seen what happened in Zim. I am not sure if you remember a few months ago South Africans were killing a whole lot of Zimbabweans amongst other people, because they were living in SA, not because they hate the colour of the evening sunsets in their country, no fool, because they cant afford to feed themselves or their familia. Who in their right minds would leave a life as a doctor to become a freaking car guard…if they weren’t hooked on tik or have a chemical imbalance? Next thing we will be hearing genocide in Lesotho or Botswana, South Africans fleeing the strife in their country are taking jobs from sotho or tswana nationals…and trust me that’s not too far from a reality I remember it was only in 1996 when my friend Eddie used to mock us, because their country was in a much better situation economically than we were. 14 years man is not a long time. Owning land isn’t the end of it all. Boss how many farms were taken over, how many of them are actually producing anything at the moment? Owning land is one thing, knowing how to add to the economy that’s what being a farmer is all about and people when you get a farm there is no instruction manual that says plant here, water then, harvest this way and sell there, no bru, no!!! We don’t even have to go as far as Zim, right here under our own noses. On the second of March 2010, the minister of rural development and land affairs said that 90% of the redistributed farms are unproductive now you want to give more to people who have no clue?!! I am all for land back to its owners, but sheeeet man give it to people that wont make the nation go hungry.

Nationalising of mines. You think mining is a joke? You just sommer take a pick axe and off u go and out comes yellow metal that will make you colourfull??! Its expensive bra, if you ehh don’t have credibility the banks will not give you the money, eish then it’s a problem ne, and then if you don’t have the money then you cant fulfil the orders ne, then your buyers they go to Australia and then we don’t get any of the money ne. Then we can’t build roads, airports stadiums, cant even borrow because our ratings will go out the door, no revenue for tourism.

Now I’m just a simple soul, but even I can see some of these potential pitfalls with allowing people to mouth off at will. Yes fair enough he isn’t the president but many of his prophecies have come true…

I love me Afrikaans people, I love me all peoples, slumos, negros, jewish, charos ☺ (that was for you silly people out there!), u name it! What I cant stand are IDIOTS and RACISTS!!

Lets move on man, lets move on. It will be sad for us to spoil a good thing cos this can be a good thing, we have our flaws but they aren’t insurmountable, provided we all have a common goal. Love man, love, tolerance, respect!

Birthdays
4th Asha, Nini
5th Cousin Yaw, Kirst
6th Jen Sale
8th Lisa Nzama
9th Gontse
10th Tania, Kojo, Sunshine
And that’s a wrap people, and let me reiterate, this life on this earth…its waaay too short to worry about who you are because of what you have instead of who your soul says you are…cos in the end when you go, all you have stays here!

Week over…almost! Beeg love and maximum respect to all!

Y

See from his head, his hands, his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down, Did ever such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown…

April already, why oh why is death in such a rush to come and get me huh? Another week gone by, Easter is almost upon us then SWC 2010, then Christmas, where is this time going, wake up its Monday morning next thing its Friday…why the rush I ask thee, whyyyyy?

Watched 2 beautiful movies last week. Precious and Blind Side, almost made a grown man cry and I cant remember the last time I shed a tear, far cry from when I was younger and you wouldn’t have been too far off calling me a big baby ☺

A couple of weeks ago a mate of mine Graham was in town, good man that guy, anyway we went out for a few ice creams and it was a lovely night and we spoke about plenty things and one of the topics we really discussed in depth was the existence of God in this world and also humans as a race. Last nite I was out having a few ice creams with my mate Edmund, good man that one and I mean this man is a smart somebody, helped set up a new insurance company etc, anyway he decided to pack it all in and head down to the Cape to lecture at UCT. Anyway so we was chillin ne, tuning stuff about stuffs and we found our way back to the whole story about God and this world and also what this chasing paper is all about. It gave me such peace, I even broke out in song…you are not alone…I am here with you… Some might consider it a mid life crisis but ig uses its more a story of trying to find out what works best for you in this little time we have on this lovely planet which we are doing a good job of destroying…

Anyway another glorious day in Africa I tell ya, took a nice leisurely drive along the coast to Hout Bay, best I take full advantage of this whilst I am still here because a return to the big smoke is imminent even if for a brief stint its gonna happen…cos its going to be raining here soon ☺ even managed a walk up Lions Head this week, something I have never ever ever done in the 9 yrs or so I have lived here, man what a night to walk. Walked up and as I got up…and man my body weary, but sheesh as I got up the sun was setting absolutely beautiful. Then I came down with a full moon rising wa wa wee wa

Before I get into this weeks email, just thought I take a moment with it being easter and all and the prevalence of death and illness nowadays. Now is as good a time as any to take a bit of a pause smell the roses, tell people how you feel for real and also realize what really matters in this short time on this earth. Izzy so sorry to hear about your mom, thoughts are with you and the family miss.

So this weekend I was chilling out being cool, taking it easy like I do. Picked up the Sunday Independent and whala a hot topic of discussion and food for thought…whats that you might ask? Well lately with all the goings on in our political circles, the infighting, scandalous tenders, criminals doing what they feel they can. I have been thinking the only real way to get the ANC to sit up and take note is for there to be a super opposition not so?

Imagine a party made up of the DA, COPE, UDM, ID, IFP, PAC, ACDP, wheew, man!! It may not be no-where near strong enough to wrestle away power from the ANC, but that’s perfectly ok in my mind, but just as long as they are accountable. Because right now it feels like a bit of a free for all and its been a long time coming

Then reality stepped in, hold it, hold it hold it! Imagine Shilowa, Lekota, Zille, De Lille, Bantu, Mangosuthu to name a few being in a party together. First things first, there is a power struggle in COPE already between Shilowa and Lekota, that’s in a party that they together formed. Now lets throw in the other rather strong minded leaders into the pot…all I see is a melting pot of chaos to be honest.

IFP, COPE, UDM, ID were all spun out of former ANC members who got disgruntled along the way and decided they wanted to take on the big machine. But that in itself even though it whittled down the ruling party’s power base it really didn’t hurt them too much. To be honest with the COPE splinter that happened a little over a year ago I was convinced that this would have been the wedge that would wound the ANC. In a way I think the party is slightly wounded. Since Polokwane a few years ago it hasn’t been the same. The struggle for power is becoming more prevalent and I guess more public. In the past if there were spats and disagreements it was kept at home in the family now you have the likes of Yaw Peprah, passing comments and making judgements about disagreements that in my mind should be settled within the party but alas, its good for us and transparency.

Moving along, so say they decided to form this super opposition…what would they stand for? Who would lead them? I just cant for the life of me see all those egos and strong personalities working together.

Then I sit back and think. If I ever decided to go into politics, it wouldn’t be about me, it would be about the voiceless masses who they want to provide a voice for, wouldn’t it. So, logic would say I step back and think what would be the best for the people I want to represent, the people on who’s behalf I speak and the answer would/should determine my actions isn’t it?

But imagine a 2 party state like there is in the states, where we have elections to determine who would run the party and based on that the leaders of the parties go on to stand for the elections. I suppose in a way that’s what does happen here. Polokwane gave us JZ, COPE and the others elected their leaders and they ran for office and the man called JZ prevailed with flying colours, but I would love to see a South Africa where elections go beyond struggle credentials and dancing and focus on substance and what you will do for me when you get into power. Then based on that I grade you over your term in office. This grading will determine whether I vote for you or your party in the future.

Anyway for those of you who don’t know there are mutterings of this super opposition. I think in September we will get a clearer vision of if this becomes a reality. It would be fantastic to see it unfolding and becoming a reality and the best thing about it….there is talk of Dr Mamphele Ramphele leading this opposition party.

I guess time will tell, bit of food for thought and political excitement for some of us.

Anyway that’s me for another week.

Birthdays
28th Nigel
29th Marc, Paula, Franklin, Philip R
30th Randall Woodman
31st Mbere, Fats
1st Carnita Low
2nd Gorata Mugudamani
3rd Shannon

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend, travel safely and be kind to each other and you know what and this may sound so self promoting and self righteous and I guess you have every right to take it as such but its not the intention at all. Over the last few days right, I have been doing the whole giving thing for Lent, man and on Monday night I went to gym and after gym I remembered why I did it. So I am leaving and I see a group of guys outside KFC waiting for whatever, so I called em over and gave them a loaf of bread. A loaf of bloody bread, what no more than R5 cos its on special ;), the way they were so thankful man, it really made my day. Shows man that you don’t have to move mountains to change somebody’s world. It was nothing special, just a bit of a wee effort to sidestep to Pick n Pay. I should carry it on post Lent but I most probably wont, cos it is what it is but its given me much pleasure man and somebody has received some nutrition for a day, hour, whatever…it doesn’t take much at all

Anyway that’s me again

Maximum respect to you all

Y