This is Bad!

This is bad.....no, in fact terrible! I have not been on these streets in a while, and I can purely blame it on.....on....on....errr....*sigh*....I have no excuse! This is bad! *hangs head in shame*

I'm watching 2011 coming to an end, and starting to recollect on all my achievements and failures. Here's failure number 1: I never got around to writing my resolutions for 2011. I wanted to, really I did.....but I somehow never got to it. So now as we step into December, I need to retrace my steps and see if I achieved all I had set out to.

It's been a great year - a lot of ups and downs, but all round good year. And now I can safely look to next year, and hopefully set (and write down) my resolutions for 2012. I will do it this time....I promise! :)

December is silly season - have fun, live it up, laugh it out....but most importantly, stay safe!!

Happy December!!!!

(A little something I came across on the 'interweb'....loved it!!)

Happy Weekend!!!

It's the weekend!! My favourite time ever! And the first free weekend I've had this month....I plan on sleeping all the way till Sunday!

A quote from one of my favourite women alive, Kimora Lee Simmons: "You can do anything you put your mind to, and you can do it in stilettos."
(err, if you are male, feel free to draw motivation from this also....hehehe)

Happy Weekend!!!!!!!!!

Eat. Pray. Love......my non-review

I’m not much of a reader (feel free to read that as ‘I don’t read at all’). The best I can do is a soccer magazine, and sometimes I don’t finish reading that either. As I write this, I have two magazines, both half read, which have been sitting opened on my bedside table for the past few weeks. I think we have ascertained that I don’t read – at all!

About a week ago I watched the movie adaptation of Eat. Pray. Love – a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. That is normally what I do – wait until they turn the book into a movie, and that’s the closest I get to reading. I don’t write reviews....of anything....ever! It might be because I don’t read reviews – I like to form my own view on a subject, and reading someone else’s opinion may alter and bias me even before I get the opportunity to judge for myself. So let’s get this straight – this is NOT a review.

XXIV

Accept the things I cannot change! That right there!! And just a day before my birthday, I remember the one thing I can not change -----> 24!! I sat down and googled 24...trying to find all the good things associated with the number. Naturally, the first thing that popped up is that television series - for once, google was not my friend! So I took it a step further....to wikipedia! Yeah, that's how I roll! As i scrolled through all their references of the number 24, I got more and more disheartened! Not one cool fact or inspirational story surrounding the number 24! Bleak! So I decided to let it go...and just be!

This year has whizzed by so quickly, it's amazing! Not too long ago we were staggering home from new years celebrations, and we are now already planning the next! I have been blessed with so much, the world just keeps looking more beautiful everyday! So today, a day before my birthday, I'm gonna take a moment to be grateful for all my blessings; for all the beautiful souls in my life - some I've met, some I 'know' but haven't met and yet I can proudly call friends (the power of social networking), and for the most amazing family a girl could ever ask for!!

I look to 24 as another challenge....there's still so much to achieve before this year comes to a close, and even more before I'm sitting here, same time next year discussing 25! Okay, 25 neh....let's not get excited, I'm still coming to terms with 24! For the entire week I have been doing a lot of thinking.....questioning some of the things I do, wondering of the difference, if any, that I make in others' lives, and taking decisions that will impact my future. This brought back a chance meeting a while back with a stranger that made me carefully assess the person I am now.
A few months back I was out with friends, indulging in some serious post-match celebrations (I wont start babbling about soccer, I promise)....Orlando Pirates had successfully made their mark in PSL history by lifting their third cup of the season - the first team to achieve that feat since the inception of the PSL. Now I was out to party - that was worth a celebration - and judging by the number of people at the spot where we were, it seemed many had the same idea! While waiting for our drinks from the barman, I was chatting to a male person who was also waiting for his drinks, when another guy just out of the royal blue turns to me and says 'I know you'. Taken aback, and being my silly self, I told him stop lying, asking him where he knew me from. He insisted he knew me, and told me where I used to study. Now this guy says to me 'you gave me R2.00....I know you, you gave me R2.00'. I was stunned....I couldn't even remember him from a bar of soap!! Apparently, while catching public transport to varsity, I gave him R2.00 because he didn't have enough money to get on the taxi. Now this brother was looking good.....well dressed, smelled great, and oh he knew it. "You gave me R2.00 to get to varsity - and I was so broke. Look at me now', he said tugging his jacket. That was the most humbling moment for me....that an act I did without putting much thought (or I was just annoyed and wanted to leave, I dunno) could have made such an impact in someone else's world! Since that day, many years back, he remembered me. That night I understood the true value of R2.00. Now I've been questioning whether to write about this or not - it was, after all, one of those experiences just for and about me - but now, holding a R2.00 coin in hand, I felt I should share it, mainly because of the lesson that I learnt from it: be kind, always....you could be changing a life. For me, that is the value of R2.00 And that is the person I strive to be - one who makes a difference, no matter how small!

24 neh.....24! I guess I must do more than just accept it because I can't change it.....I must embrace it, because with it comes grace, maturity, humility, and coming into my own as a young, independent, ambitious and focused woman. Yeah, 24!
Here's to another 24 years of stiletto shopping, weave-flicking, coffee drinking, loud laughing, and insult hurling during soccer matches! Yeah, here's to 24...and another 24, and another 24 and another freaken 24!!!
Now let the party begin.....after all, its my freaken birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, tomorrow! Hehehehehe!

That good old quarter life crisis!

I dated a motivational speaker once - yep, I did - for about 2 weeks. He was such a bubbly character, so full of life - probably why I got sick of him. He'd wake up in the morning and want to 'go, go, go', 'get out there', 'reach for life', 'grab that dream'.......all I wanted to do was 'go, go, go', 'get in the shower', 'reach for that toothbrush', 'grab that bar of soap'. Its freaken 6 in the morning.....who has that much energy so early?? So two weeks later, I had to end it - he made me feel inadequate.

This got me thinking though about where I am in my life - a young woman in her 20s making decisions that will impact her future. So many questions - where am I going? What do I really want out of life? Where do I see myself in the next 5 years? Am I happy where I am currently? What's the name of that vegetable that looks like a baby cabbage? Okay, scratch that last question! As a young woman coming into her own, I've been faced with many realities about myself, and the world around me - many of which I have been well shielded from because of constantly being surrounded by friends and family. I guess always having friends around meant conforming to a certain way of life - a way of life which isn't necessarily your own. And then came the moment of truth....when each of us had to live our own lives, and just be real with our true selves. So here I am now, looking into a mirror and reflecting on the person I see - I guess, for once, I'm looking at the real me, and in as much as I see a fabulous young woman who is incredibly in love with life, I also see some other bits that I'm not too proud of! It's an intersting journey of self-discovery, and and i'm learning so many things about myself, the world around me, and all that comes with being a young woman. It's called the quarter-life crisis, and im learning so many things as I go and grow:

1. Fake nails break – and it hurts. But it’s not a physical pain, no...it's more of an emotional one. The trauma that comes with not having a nail file within quick reach is the worst – I have scratched myself with those jagged edges one too many times.
2. Winter isn’t excuse enough to not shave. As it turns out, there are many warm days in an African winter, so keeping legs silky smooth is a must – just in case they have to come out and play! (speaking of winter, can I just say hip-hip hooray, happy days are here again....hello spring!!)

TOLERANCE: the sugar of life

I was clearing up some stuff that had been sitting on my desktop since forever; putting it in folders and making sense of my workspace when I came across this poem - to say I was moved is an understatement. It brought to mind what I have always viewed as the root of many evils - racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and all other forms of discrimination - a lack of tolerance. This goes for the workplace as well, and all other aspects of a person's life. I know it's not easy to love everyone, and as much as I try (seriously, I do), some people just need a kind of love that comes from a higher power - really beyond my efforts! I could go into a whole song and dance about my experiences and blah blah blah (like old folk who always have a real-life experience for every tall tale and all folklore), but I'd rather have you read this poem, and see exactly what I mean!

Six humans trapped by circumstance
In black and bitter cold
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs-
The first woman held hers back.
For on the faces around the fire
She noticed one was black.

The next man looked across the way,
Saw one not of his church
And couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes,
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was the chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group
Did nothing except for gain.
‘Giving only to those who gave’
Was how he played life’s game.

The logs held tight in death’s still hands
Were proof of fatal sin.
Because, you see, they didn't die from cold without,
They died from cold within.

Poem: The Cold Within by James Patrick Kinney

Protest...Uprise....blah blah blah!!

I have been trying so hard not to write about the sudden widespread uprisings sweeping through Africa. One day there is peace, the next, violence, beatings, bloodshed, and even loss of lives.

My biggest interest, naturally, is the uprising in Swaziland. The amount of media attention has caused me to kick off my nonchalant I-couldn't-be-moved attitude, and pay attention. Sorry, did I say media attention? Before you get it twisted, I meant SOUTH AFRICAN media attention - the international folk have been a bit preoccupied with Libya, Ivory Coast, and whichever other country is kicking their leader out!
So this uprising happened exactly as I expected.....the 'uprisers' came (12 April), took to the streets, were met with baton-wielding police and water cannons, and they ran for dear life. Word on the ground from yesterday (13 April) is that the streets were quiet and it was business as usual! Shocked? Surprised?? I’m not...

I've got many questions to the pro-democracy people (or can I just keep calling them 'uprisers'...I kinda like that word)....questions I have failed to get answers to without people getting personal, or getting emotional. So I will reserve my questions and comments, sip on a cocktail, and shake my head.

I read an interesting article on Times Live.....well, it was very much like the rest of the articles and comments I have read on twitter from South Africans calling for change in Swaziland (makes me wonder why it’s mostly the South Africans speaking and not the SWAZIS themselves....anyway, another story for another day!). The interesting bit of this article is a comment by a reader, Smindlo. He brought on a different light to the situation in the country, and showed ‘the other side’, and why Swazi’s are sitting out of this revolution. I couldn’t help but nod time and again.
As I said, I have been trying not to write about the uprisings...so I won’t! I’ll just let his comment do the talking, while I get a refill of my cocktail.......

WARNING: It is long! For the entire article, click here.

I was in Swaziland during the weekend of the 1st April 2011. My in-laws live in the rural hinterland, as subsistence farmers. They are well in their early eighties. No one has died in that part of the world generally at age 32 as the stats say. There is tap water and electricity, (all over rural Swaziland),thanks to the Chinese govt . The standard of living is generally ok. There are no hobboes in Mbabane and Manzini begging at the robots like in South Africa. The highway between oshoek to Manzini right up to Piet Retief is tarred and has street lights and has no single pothole. All the major South African chain stores and franchises are well represented in Swaziland. The social investment in Swaziland is one of the best.Their tourist industry is one of the best especially around the Ezulwini valley and the Malkerns areas.

There is a political system called Tinkhundla which is non-democratic and not representative of all swazi people and abuses the traditional chieftainship structure.

The Swaziland described by the pro-democratic groupings is very unreal. In my student days in Swaziland we marched and I was suprised when students and police started chatting together and forgetting to fight each other. i was soon taught that Swaziland is a homogenous country with one King, one set of traditions and one language. A far cry from the violent confronatational and divisive politics of South Africa.

Infact the pro-democracy group must remember that Swaziland while hosting refugees, was very much involved with the South African government and most ANC MK operatives were literally picked up by the Specail Branch police and frog-marched through Oshoek border psot with open Swazi police co-operation. It is the calibre of OR Tambo's l;eadership that the ANC did not use that in a destructive childish confrontation that would have cost us a set back of many years in the struggle.

Swazi have always had Kings dating back in the 1600's and they can all be accounted for name. It's not a modern contrivance but is a deeply embeded spiritual and cultural institution that all Swazi's unanimously love and cherish. So telling the world that you will destroy this institution in three days is not politically naive but sadly opportunistic. We South Africans failed to "destroy" the Boers in our struggle. And there is no repression of the kind of the Apartheid state in Swaziland. There is no franchise and it is the intellectual poverty of the opposition leadership to fail to grasp that and instead start using the "
Egyptian political script" regardless of the objective facts on the ground.

I dont want to criticise the Swazi activits but I cant help thinking they are using an old "struggle" script that will eventually work against them. having said that they must find ways and means to agitate for political freedomn and reforms in their country.

Not a single Swazi was killed during the "police brutality" while in South Africa scores of people were injured in Ficksburg just yesterday and one killed. Not a single name was given of the Swazi activists of their leaders detained.

The opposition will find it very difficult to convince everyone about their agenda. In fact there is a potential danger that the conservative rural masses of Swazi's may be unleashed to deal with them when they push too far about removing the King; an agenda that is divisive and naive and has the potential of causing civil war which the few middleclass civil servants mnay not win or may win at a terrible cost.

I often visit Swaziland and I am always amazed at the almost 100% airtime used on TV and radio to promote a virulent conservative superstitious kind of religious fundamentalism. You cannot win popular minds for a popular insurrection in that kind of climate. Essentially this is a bourgeosie struggle pushed forward by an educated midle class elite. I think some kind of honesty and integrity is needed on the part of the protesters to really come up with a new script. The credible goal is not to rubbish the Kingship but to work with it in order to find a new constitutional dispensation based on mutual respect and trust. The Brits got it right many years ago. Queen Elizabeth is also on the Forbes list of rich people and it is naive to expect Britons to stage a popular insurrection just because of that. In fact the difference between thwe quality of life enjoyed by Swazis can be seen by visiting neighbouring Mozambique which is still left behind by a solid 70 years of underdevelopement. Mozambicans have the vote but not the economic benefits. Swazi's have the economic benefits and not the vote.

King Mswati is not ranking with Bagbgo, Gaddafi or Mubarak. Swaziland circumstances are unique. And propaganda is a double edged sword it also cuts your own credibility if used indiscriminately without wisdom.

Having said that there is a strong case for political reforms in Swaziland and also Botswana where a single party has always held sway and intimidated others into submission and deliberately under- resourced the opposition.

I was in Mbabane and I almost thought I was in South Africa. Everyone was wearing bafana-bafana t-shirts , the political rhetoric was essentially South African, in churches, in pubs and infact one must be forgiven in thinking Swaziland was the 10th province of South Africa. It is not surprising for Swaziland protesters to "wait" for a political comment by Zuma on their political situation. They seem to have conveniently forgotten that both Zuma and Mandela are connected by family marriage bonds to King Mswati. I can bet my last two-bob that that comment will never materialise from Zuma.
While it is good for Africans to admire South africa any form of political-struggle colonial imperialism by South Africa will definitely be bad in the long run.