GIVING MAKES YOU WHAT YOU ARE - Tuesday 31March 2009

This story was originally posted in March 2007.
I decided to post it again, because the lesson is still very dear to me.

It has been said that ‘It’s only the giving that makes you what you are,’ but in order to reap the benefits of giving, we need to understand what giving really is.
When you give and expect something in return you are not really giving.
You are trading.

This was best illustrated to me many years ago.
Our band was playing in Luanda when the civil war hit the capital of Angola.
This resulted in chaos and there were no flights going south so we couldn’t come home.
At this time, we were approached by a very tall gentleman, who, through an interpreter offered us a dream job to play in Morocco and then Paris.

Now this guy was dressed in a pink suit with a matching pink shirt and red tie. To top it off he drove a pink Jaguar.
The next time we met him he had on a lime suit with the entire colour-coded accessories and yes, he drove a green BMW. So we did not doubt him at all.
We signed the contract and jetted out to Libreville in Gabon.
This was to be our first stop on the way to Paris.

We were booked into the 5-star Hotel Du Dialogue.
Two weeks later when we came into the lobby we were called to reception and informed that our bill had not been paid.
They kept our passports and luggage and put us out in the street.
To get our passports and luggage we each had to pay US$12 000.00.
This was a fortune at the time.
It is still a fortune.

To cut a long story short, we met Monsieur Gandoor, an Arab who decided to adopt us.

Now the drummer in the band had his wife and two children with him. His son was about 2-years-old at the time, and his daughter a 3-month-old baby.

A week after meeting Gandoor he came to my friend and handed him a wad of Central African Francs saying, ‘Buy flights for your wife and children to go home.’
My friend said, “ Thank you very much Monsieur Gandoor”.
Gandoor responded “ Not much”.
My friend continued “ One day I will give this back to you”.
Monsieur Gandoor, whose English wasn’t very good said “ I give it you, you give it me it make no sense. I give it you. Is finished”.
That’s giving.

By the way, the last time we saw Monsieur Nebou, that was his name, he was wearing a matching short-sleeved pink shirt and shorts with black arrows on it.
The uniform of inmates at Libreville Central prison!

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SLUMDOGS TO REMAIN SLUMDOGS - Monday 30 March 2009

The future ecertainly looks bright for Slumdog Millionaire stars Dev Patel and Freida Pinto.

The movie has grossed £70million worldwide, made British director Danny Boyle the darling of Hollywood and turned lead actors Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto into big names.

But, can the same be said for the real slumdogs who appeared in the movie?

Freida Pinto, who was already an acclaimed TV personality and model before Slumdog, has been signed to appear alongside actors Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts in a new Woody Allen movie.
She has also turned down an offer to be the new Bond girl.

Dev Patel, who lives in Britain and had never seen a Mumbai slum before Slumdog has already starred in the Tv series Skins, and he is also a black belt in the martial art Taekwan-do.
His performance in Slumdog has seen his demand as an actor skyrocket.

But, what about the real slumdogs?

Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubiana Ali, both aged 9, played the young Salim and Latika in the movie, and they are apparently still living in squalor with their parents, amid rat-infested rubble, in the slums of Mumbai

Azharuddin at home

Rubiana Ali at home

The two were the only real impoverished slumdog kids of the movie’s six main child actors.

Refusing to disclose the exact amount paid to the child actors, director Boyle and producer Christian Colson stated that the two were each paid the equivalent of three times an annual adult salary in India for their roles in the movie.

The average annual salary in India is less than $1000.
Does this mean that the two were paid $3000 each.

Many feel that Azharuddin and Rubiana were the real stars of the movie.

Are the slumdogs destined to share the fate of Shafiq Syed, who was acclaimed for his performance as a street kid in the 1988 Oscar nominated movie ‘Salaam Bombay’, but today earns $3 a day as a rickshaw driver?

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DO IT YOURSELF THERAPY – ONLINE - Friday 27 March 2009

The term catharsis has been used for centuries as a medical term meaning a "purging." Most commonly in a medical context, it euphemistically refers to a purging of the bowels.

Using the term "catharsis" to refer to a form of emotional cleansing was first done by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work Poetics. It refers to the sensation, or literary effect, that would ideally overcome an audience upon finishing watching a tragedy.

The term catharsis has also been adopted by modern psychotherapy, particularly Freudian psychoanalysis, to describe the act of expressing, or more accurately, experiencing the deep emotions often associated with events in the individual's past which had originally been repressed or ignored, and had never been adequately addressed or experienced. Catharsis is also an emotional release associated with talking about the underlying causes of a problem or seeing a dream.

In laymans terms, during therapy, catharsis can be explained as ‘getting rid of negative baggage.’
The common belief is that the only way to rid the mind of the negative baggage is by vocalising it, or reduce it to writing.

We are all familiar with the term bottling up emotions until the bottle explodes.
I am sure that we all realise that in the current world economic climate, everyone is saturated with negative baggage.

But, who would have thought that this presented a sound business opportunity.

French entrepreneurs Maxime Valette, 20, and Guillaume Passaglia, 27, did.
15 months ago the two launched a website called Vie de Merde- which roughly means life sucks.

The principal is simple.
It is a site where users post, and in this way cathart their daily worries and stresses.
The changing mood across the globe, hit by waves of belt-tightening and soaring unemployment, has seen the sites users quickly grow to 200 000 a day.

But its founders were unprepared for their runaway success in the English-speaking world, where FMyLife.com ranks in the 100 most visited sites and has generated a huge Internet buzz in the United States.

"The English version took off so fast we are having trouble keeping up," said Passaglia "And we've received tons of emails from people saying how much better the site makes them feel. It turns out people all over the world share the same small miseries and huge moments of embarrassment."

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THE PRESIDENT THAT SOUTH AFRICA NEEDS - Thursday 26 March 2009

With elections looming, political parties and their respective presidential candidates are in full swing, trying to win the votes that will give them the power.

South African politicians, fully aware of the fact that it is the uneducated and largely ignorant masses whose vote will win them the election, seem to be going all out to demonstrate that the candidate is one of them, like them, for them and no different to the ordinary man.

Zuma is still singing Mshini Wam and does not miss an opportunity to remind the masses that he, like them, is uneducated.
Dandala is handing out pamphlets at the traffic lights to show that he is no different from the annoying trader or beggar hustling to earn an honest penny, and even Zille has taken to dancing on stage at rallies.

No doubt, these antics will win them some votes, but are votes what determines their ability to lead.

South Africa is in a shambles and we need a great leader to lead us out of the darkness.
So what makes a great leader?

Great leaders have the ability to rise to the occasion and to encourage others to follow them.
They have the courage to take decisions without flinching, and then lead the way in that direction without hesitation.
They will only follow the rules that are moral and just, and they will strive to change the rules that are not.
They have the ability to recognize the humanity in every person, they understand the true cause of hatred and fear and know the course of action that serves the greater good.

Great leaders not only have vision, but a clarity of direction on how to realize that vision, and they possess an emotional intelligence that is free of distracting emotional perturbations.

A great leader is not the ordinary man in the street.
A great leader is competent and equipped to, through action and achievement, lead the nation towards liberty, equality, fraternity and prosperity. Thus motivating and encouraging the nation to follow him.
Joyously and with enthusiasm.

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THE DALAI LAMA VISA FIASCO - Tuesday 24 March 2009

The objective of the 2010 World Cup Peace Conference to be held in Johannesburg this week is to discuss ways of using football, and the hype around the World Cup, to fight racism and xenophobia.

South African Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela, FW De Klerk and Desmond Tutu invited The Dalai Lama to speak at the conference, where the line-up included the Nobel Peace Prize committee from Norway and actors Morgan Freedman and Charlize Theron.
But our government said ‘Hayi Ndlela’......'No Way'.

The South African Government’s refusal to grant a visa to The Dalai Lama is another display of their arrogance.
The reason given for the refusal once moreconfirms their disrespect for the South African public’s intelligence.

"At this time the whole world will be focused on the country as hosts of the 2010 World Cup. We want the focus to remain on South Africa. A visit now by the Dalai Lama would move the focus from South Africa onto issues in Tibet," said President Kgalema Motlanthe's spokesperson, Thabo Masebe.

Bullshit!!!!!!!!!

It is common knowledge that the Chinese government has told the ANC ‘You grant visa, we pull investment.’

The ruling party did not hesitate.
Fok de Klerk, Tutu and Mandela. Fok the public.
We can live with racism and xenophobia.
Just please don’t mess with our money.

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R1.5 COOLER BOX - Monday 23 March 2009
My Faith is Restored

A few days ago I wrote about the R1.5m that became R1m, discovered in a cooler box buried on a construction site in Edenvale.
My words were. “Jeez. One can’t even depend on the corruption in South Africa any more.’
Well, my faith has been restored.
The money has now completely disappeared.

Roger Nkuma Discovered the box, and thinking that it was bomb, he called the police.

Ekurhuleni metro police spokesperson Inspector Kobeli Mokheseng told Beeld that the money had been handed over to the Edenvale police.

Edenvale police spokesperson Inspector Jean Olckers said the money was given to the Reserve Bank.

But the Reserve Bank does not have the money, said its currency management head Mzimkhulu Twala, adding that it was not the bank's job to search for missing money.

Corruption has become the norm in South Africa.
It has been proven time and time again that the guilty will not be brought to book.
Even when a crime docket is opened, we can depend on the police and justice system to botch it up if it does even get to court.
There is no doubt. Crime does pay in South Africa.
The message is clear.
Viva ANC Viva.

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YOUR BEST FRIEND: PART ONE - Friday 20 March 2009

It is the duty of the parent to prepare the child for an independent and productive life, with a reasonable chance at happiness.
It is not the responsibility of the parent to ensure that the child lives a productive life and attains happiness when the child is older.

This responsibility is yours, and yours alone.

You are, or should be, your own best friend and the sooner you realise this the better.
Nothing in life comes without effort, and it is not reasonable, or practical, to expect others to consistently put effort into ensuring your success.

We often hear the phrase ‘the labour of love’ and we accept that love is a verb, a ‘doing’ word.
If love is the essence of life, and true happiness lies in the process of loving, let us then take an in-depth look at this ‘process of loving.’

There are those who talk of ‘accepting yourself’ as being a prerequisite to loving your self.
Accepting your self is dangerous ground.
Accepting yourself is an obstacle that may prevent you from truly loving yourself.
If love were simply an emotion, then it would be beneficial to accept yourself, but love is a verb and loving yourself entails putting in the effort to improve your life.

If you were obese, would it be beneficial to accept yourself.
If you accept yourself for what you are, or the ‘way God made you’, would you never cut or brush your hair again? Would you stop trimming your nails?

Loving yourself is all about doing everything in your power to improve your self, and this includes your appearance, your financial status, your social status and everything else that living entails.

The key is to find the balance. The key is to aspire to greater things while being grateful for what you have.
It is not the situation that determines who you are. The way you handle the situation is what determines this, and the secret is that true happiness is rooted in the process.
Not the end result.

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BAD GUYS STILL ROCK - Thursday 19 March 2009

Not only do hot chicks prefer bad guys, it seems that everyone still loves a rogue.

From Attila The Hun to Jack The Ripper, the public’s clamour for bad guys have been keeping Hollywood ticking over since the dawn of film.
Bookstore shelves offer testament to the lingering interest in real-life monsters such as Stalin and Pol Pot.

Recently, historians and academics in the UK acknowledged that, much as we admire those advancing the cause of humanity, it's the dirty rotten scoundrels, rogues and madmen that really capture our attention.

One would have thought that Wacko Jacko’s career as a pop star was over. The singer himself thought that it was over.

But, his scheduled 50 shows at London’s 02 Arena due to start in July, has sold out in less than five hours.
At R700 and R1000 each, the million available tickets sold at a rate of 333-a-minute.

The ‘This Is It Tour’ is billed as his last ever performance in the UK.

It has been rumoured that His Weirdness is planning plastic surgery in preparation for his comeback, but his representatives deny this.

He is reportedly particularly concerned with fixing his crumbling nose, which the singer claims he has had just two operations on ‘to improve his voice.’

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CO-INCIDENCE, ULTIMATE FREUDIAN, OR PURE RACISM? - Wednesday 18 March 2009

The video game Resident Evil 5 is raising eyebrows.

The Resident Evil saga began in a small Midwestern town, where experiments by the ruthless Umbrella Corporation turned people and animals into ruthless killing machines.
By 2005 Resident Evil 4, the infection had spread to Europe.

Resident Evil 5 moves the action to a fictitious African country called Kijuju, where the (white) American hero has been sent to investigate a bioterror outbreak.

This is where the problem starts. Most of the residents have been infected and have become zombies with machine guns.

Because the setting is in Africa, the hordes of zombies are all black people.

The statement by the creators of the game ‘It is obvious that a zombie creating virus unleashed in Africa would naturally lead to hordes of black zombies,’ makes me wince.

The aim of the game is obviously to eliminate the entire zombie horde.
The aim of the game is to kill all the crazed, infected, machinegun wielding villains.
The aim of the game is to kill all the black people.

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MAPUNGUBWE: HIDDEN HISTORY - Tuesday 17 March 2009

One thousand years ago, Mapungubwe in Limpopo province was the center of the largest kingdom in the subcontinent.

Mapungubwe is an area of open savannah abutting the northern border of South Africa and the borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana. It thrived as a sophisticated trading centre from around 1220 to 1300.
Read More……..
Mapungubwe was home to an advanced culture of people for the time – the ancestors of the Shona people of Zimbabwe.
The site was discovered in 1932 and has been excavated by the University of Pretoria ever since. The findings were kept quiet at the time since they provided contrary evidence to the ideology of the apartheid regime.

The information was only made public after the 1994 elections.

According to the University of Pretoria website: "People were prosperous, and kept domesticated cattle, sheep, goats and dogs. The charred remains of storage huts have also been found, showing that millet, sorghum and cotton were cultivated.

The university now has a rich collection of artefacts made of gold and other materials.
These finds provide evidence of the early smithing of gold in southern Africa.
The most spectacular of the gold discoveries is a little gold rhinoceros, made of gold foil and tacked with minute pins around a wooden core.

The rhino is a symbol of leadership among the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

Findings in the area are typical of the Iron Age. Smiths created objects of iron, copper and gold for practical and decorative purposes – both for local use and for trade. Pottery, wood, ivory, bone, ostrich eggshells, and the shells of snails and freshwater mussels, indicate that many other materials were used and traded with cultures as far away as East Africa, Persia, Egypt, India and China."

The Iron Age site has been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

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DREAM YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS - Monday 16 March 2009

It has been stated that we only use 10% of our brain capacity.
The 10 percent statistic has been attributed to the pioneering psychologist and philosopher William James (1842-1910).
In his work The Energies of Men (1908) he states, "we are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.
The anthropologist Margaret Mead supposedly said we used 6 percent. Similar numbers have been mentioned by various lesser known parties.

Ther is no scientific proof that we only use such a small percentage of our brain, but scientists generally agree that we do not use the full capacity

The rest of the brain, supposedly the part that we cannot yet access or utilise effectively, is referred to as the subconcious.
What is accepted is that the brain records everything. Like a video camera.

When the concious mind is asleep, the subconcious replays footage randomly, and this is what our dreams are.
But the subconcious not only records real events, but also our thoughts, our wishes, our goals and our aims. And yes our imaginings. And snippets of these are also used in the random replays.

Now…..
Elias Howe invented the lock-stitch sewing machine based on a dream that showed him where to place the eye of the needle. A dream by D.B.Parkinson led to the invention of the M9 Electrical Analog computer, a precursor to the guidance system used in antiaircraft machine. A scientist identified the physical structure of atom through a dream. Otto Lewi won the Nobel Prize in physiology for an experiment that he first devised in his dream.

As regards the works of art, Robert Louis Stevenson conceived the idea of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a dream. The opening notes of Tristan and Isolde were dreamt by Richard Wagner. Samuel Colerige, composed the long poem Kubla Khan in its entirety, in his dream.

So is it possible to use the random replays of our dreams to our advantage?
I suspect so, but I am not conciously aware of how to do it yet.

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AN UNLIKELY END FOR A COOL MILLION - Friday 13 March

[ South Africa ] The Reserve Bank has decided what to do with the R1-million found in a mud-covered cooler box this week. Full Story...

This was the headline on IOL today.
So what do you notice that does not make sense. Oh shit. I forgot this is South Africa.
It does make sense after all.

After posting the story about 25-year-old Rodgers Nkuna who discovered R1.5-million in a cooler box I noticed another report on the story.
In this report the amount was a bit vague - ‘more than R1-million.’

Then today I saw this one stating clearly ‘R1-million.’

This is easily explainable. Maybe the initial count was an estimate. Maybe the second count was wrong.

Nkuna reported the find to the police and the SAPS took possession of the cooler box.

Gauteng SAPS spokesperson Senior Superintendent Eugene Opperman has now stated that the R50 and R20 notes were all stained and soaked in mud.
"It was not counterfeit money, but it was totally damaged. The wet ground and the mud have made it impossible for the notes to be re-used. We will hand over the money to the Reserve Bank and they will destroy it," he said.

What?.....stained and soaked in mud? All the notes? In a closed cooler box? Hand it over to the reserve bank? All of it? Destroyed? All of it?

I know exactly how R1.5-million became R1-million.
Don’t you.
Come on.
SAPS? Used R50 and R20 notes? No one knows who it belongs to or where it comes from? No paper trail?

After writing this story I clicked on the IOL link to read the full story.
Just to make sure that I got my facts right, you know.
I was disappointed to see that in the actual article it is stated that ‘the notes were worth R1.5-million.’

Jeez!
One can’t even depend on the corruption in this country anymore.
Or maybe they meant ‘were worth R1.5-million’ but ‘now worth R1-million.’

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AND THE FREE LOTTO MANIAC - Thursday 12 March 2009

I am sure that you have all received at least one of these emails.
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International program held on the 12th MARCH, 2009. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 220982217413-7240 with serial number 34708-325 drew lucky numbers 3-34-28-13-41 which consequently won in the 1st category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of
US$2 000,000.00 (Two Million United States Dollars) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I admit that a few years ago I was once fooled by this and responded. Until they asked for money upfront, and that was the end of that.

In this day and age though, we are all familiar with this scam and I did not think that anyone would still fall for it.
But then again, the emails keep coming, so somebody somewhere is still gullible enough to fall for it.

A 66-year-old man from the south of Taiwan takes the cake.
Identified only by his family name, Chang has fallen prey to fraudulent lottery scams 11 times in the past two years.

He has paid out 3.45-million Taiwan Dollars – about R1.2-million.

Chin-Lan, spokesperson for the Taiwanese anti-fraud hotline says that Chang reports the scam every time, but he actually believes that he will get it all back if one of the prizes actually pays off.

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THE PRETORIA DRUG MULE - Tuesday 10 March 2009
Part Two

· Prison guards raped Zenolia in the police van while she was being transported to prison in Los Teques.
· She has been assaulted several times in the prison.
· Her ribs were broken when she was thrown down a flight of stairs.
· Last week she was attacked and stabbed in the bathroom.

She said women who "talked" were killed and gang members made it look like suicide.

According to her sister, Du Plooy suffers from systemic lupus erythematosus, an incurable disease that can be treated with the right medication. Without treatment, it can be fatal.

"Other countries' embassies regularly bring their people toiletries. Ours isn't interested. They were last here seven months ago and then every South African only got a bottle of shampoo and a roll of toilet paper," said Zenolia.

Not surprisingly, she said the South African embassy in Caracas, the capital, had basically abandoned her and seven other South African prisoners, of whom two have babies. They don't even bring her her medicine, which her family sends to her from South Africa.

At least we know that one can expect nothing less from our diplomats. There is no chance of personal gain in supporting prisoners. If the family are prepared to pay - read bribe - for it though, it would be an entirely different matter.

Friends and family are trying to petition for her release on humanitarian grounds, but of course this takes money.
They have started a Facebook group for donations or any other kind of support.

I am bemused that Zenolia has access to Facebook in this prison, but I sent her a message anyway, telling her that I would be posting this article in the hope that it could muster up some support for her plight.
Her response:

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HONESTY CAN BE REALLY STUPID SOMETIMES - Tuesday 10 March 2009

When I first saw the news snippet about the construction worker who yesterday found a large amount of money in a cooler box, my initial thoughts were ‘it’s on the news, so he must have reported finding the money. Good lord. Are there still people in this world that are that honest?’

Then I delved further and was not surprised to find that it was not honesty that motivated him to report the find.

The construction worker was digging a six-metre hole for a drainage system in 10th Avenue in Edenvale when he found a medium sized blue and white cooler box buried deep down.

The box appeared to have been hidden underground for a very long time.

Now who, in their right mind would bury a bomb in a cooler box on 10th Avenue in Edenvale?
But, this is exactly what the construction worker thought, and in a panic he alerted the police.

When police opened the box they found R1.5m in R50 and R20 notes in the box.

I suspect that someone who had pulled off a cash heist buried the money there.
This person was arrested afterwards and is probably serving a prison term, content that he will be a rich man when he has done his time.

Would you have opened the cooler box?

Would you have reported the find to the police after opening the box?

Come on.
Errm……I am an advocate of honesty, not stupidity.

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WOOLIES NOW A GLORIFIED BABBIE SHOP - Monday 9 March 2009
TIME TO MAKE MY OWN PANNA COTTA

Since Woolworths started selling mostly their own brands, the stores seem to have turned into glorified babbie shops.

Well, our local one has. (Belvedere Road anyone?)

The only real difference between this store and the corner babbie shop is that the babbie shop does not take store cards.

click to enlarge

There is hardly any place to move in the aisles and all the good products have disappeared off the shelves.
The passage to the tills, supposed to entice you with various luxuries as you slowly make your way to the cashier, is filled with Cadbury’s and Beacon chocolates, cheese puffs and Niknaks, peanuts and lollipops. They even have Smarties and Sweetie Pies.

Soon they will be selling half bottles of cooking oil and paraffin and loose cigarettes.

My favorite dessert, Italian Panna Cotta is but a vague memory at Woolworths in Belvedere Road, and none of the other local shops sell it.

I was forced to Google Panna Cotta, and was pleasantly surprised that its easier to make than pie. Which reminds me, I should post my steak and kidney pie recipe here sometime.

In the meantime, click here for an unbelievably easy and deliriously delicious Panna Cotta recipe.

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3.8 MILLION NOT VICTIMS OF CRIME IN JOHANNESBURG TODAY - Friday 6 March 2009

British motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson recently wrote a column for the Sunday Times, claiming that Johannesburg was not as dangerous as it was made out to be.

South Africans are up in arms about this article and have been insulting Clarkson left right and center for his ‘irresponsible’ reporting.

They actually seem quite pissed off that anyone could have spent time in Johannesburg without being raped, robbed, highjacked or murdered.
Come on. Our reputation is at stake here!

The current population of Johannesburg is roughly 4-million.
Allow me to exaggerate to the extreme and say that 200 000 people are victims of crime in Johannesburg everyday.
Would we ever see a headline like the one above?

No.
The media has created the perception, and with it the fear, that every second spent living in South Africa is a second spent risking your life.
And, we are so proud of this perception that it infuriates us when someone claims to have spent a few hours/days in our country and enjoyed it.

Read Chris McEvoy’s article, and the public’s comments by clicking here.

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AND IF THAT ISN’T PROOF ENOUGH -Wednesday 4 March 2009

Last week, Jan Rabe, a 42-year-old Blaauwberg businessman was convicted of child-sex charges after admitting in the Cape Town High Court that he was guilty of producing 861 images that showed children engaged in sex acts.

This man was not guilty of possession of the material.
He was guilty of producing the material and the material involved children partaking in sexual acts.

His sentence?

Pay R30k each to NGOs Rape Crises and Cape Mental Health, 175 hours of community service and five years suspended for five years.

Jan Rabe, you are now free to roam the streets and prowl on our children again.
We hope that you have now learnt your lesson and that you won't get caught again.

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LIZARD BECOMES A DAD AT 111 - Tuesday 3 March 2009

Ok, this is not really a lizard, but rather a reptile that is indigenous to New Zealand.

The Tuatara descends from a distinct lineage of reptile that walked the earth with dinosaurs 225 million years ago.
On Friday this captive chappie, named Henry, fathered 11 Tuatara babies at the ripe old age of 111. This after he had undergone surgery to remove a cancer that made him hostile towards prospective mates.

Henry was at least 70 years old when he arrived at the museum, "a grumpy old man" who attacked other tuataras—including females—until a cancerous tumor was removed from his genitals in 2002, said Lindsay Hazley, tuatara curator for the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

Henry was thought well past the mating game until he was caught canoodling with a female named Mildred last March—a consummation (pictured below) that resulted in 11 tuatara babies being hatched on Monday.

The rare creatures, which are estimated to number about 50,000, can reach up to 250 years of age.

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COPE NOMINATES 'THE ANTI-ZUMA' - Monday 2 March 2009

When I first heard that Cope had nominated a virtually unknown Methodist minister as their presidential candidate I thought ‘That’s the end of Cope.’
Who in their right minds would vote for a relatively unknown minister with almost no experience in politics to lead the country into a brighter future?

Mvume Dandala, is a man who has dedicated his life to religion – first as the Presidency Bishop of the Methodist Church of South Africa and the president of the South African Council of Churches and then as the General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches.

When he accepted the nomination he was obliged to give up his role as a minister.

So why would he willingly give up his vocation for a political role that may very well never reach fruition? And more importantly, why would Cope choose this man as their presedential candidate?

In his acceptance speech, Dandala said:
‘My fellow South Africans, the reason I am standing here before you today is because I stand with men and women of goodwill, to help our nation return to the dreams and hopes that we as a nation cherished back in 1994.
‘Those dreams, our hopes, were for efficient government, freedom from hunger and better lives for our children… This is the time for us to ask the question 'Have those dreams come true?'

Suddenly, a light bulb flashed in my head.

Albeit at a high risk, Cope had administered a brilliant move.

Imbued with moral stature, educated at Cambridge University (a Masters in theology); married to one woman (only) for 35 years; and a voice of reason on the topic of HIV/Aids (he took a public HIV test to encourage testing and petitioned Mbeki on HIV/Aids policies), Dandala is the anti-Zuma.

South Africans are tired of the legacy of the ANC, and South African political parties in general.
Corruption, lies, scandal, undelivered election promises, criminal records, the blatant pursuit of personal wealth and a perceived disregard for the plight of the masses.

Dandala represents the opposite of everything that we have ever complained about in terms of our politicians.

Unfortunately, Cope only has eight weeks before the election to sell their candidate as the moral alternative.
But, a massive marketing campaign could well bear fruit.

 

Kader Khan
Editor
info@yummie.co.za

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