It is hard to be a South African sometimes. As a white South African, i sit with the heavy injustices of colonialism and apartheid in my rear view mirror all the time. As a black, coloured or indian South African, they live in the consequences of colonialism and apartheid as well as a worldwide uplifting of whiteness to the detriment of everything else. As a male, we sit with a horrific pandemic of violence [...]
Val and i just celebrated our 11th year anniversary with a few days away in Citrusdal. i went with great intention of spending some time getting back into poetry. Armed with my pend and my journal. Sadly, the two pens i picked were not quite equal to the intention and i managed to barely scratch out these two short ones before they both gave up the ghost. D - droplets lie in wait [...]
i speak a lot about #NotOnOurWatch and thought it deserved a post. Interrupting Racism As a white person, i hold to a daily #NotOnOurWatch commitment when it comes to racism. This is a commitment i make every morning when i get up to interrupt racism wherever i see it. There are a few things that come to mind: Every Day - not simply when i feel like it, which is not a lot of [...]
How is your neighbourhood watch group doing? Now that Neighbourhood Watch groups are back up and running since lockdown stage 3, i decided to do a bit of a social experiment. i say 'experiment' although given the stories i have heard over the years i didn't expect any kind of response except the one that i received. This was the ask: i would love to hear from people who are or have been part of [...]
Are you ready to improve your world? We are all responding to lockdown in different ways. But some people are really using this time well, as they have the means and the capacity. So i wanted to share a few ideas for you to consider [and pass on - please consider hitting SHARE and inviting your people to join in as well]. Some you might already be doing, but maybe there is something here [...]
The summary of this post is pretty much going to be: Stay at home and wear a mask when you absolutely have to go out! There will likely be some reference to the 'Don't be a Dick' wall-hanging in my man cave that was the most amazing gift from my family-in-law a year or so ago. The two are not so far removed from each other. It will come with anecdotal urgings, such as [...]
History remembers That the Public Executioner very rarely wore a mask Why conceal your identity When everyone already knows who you are? He stood somberly Bronze Heading Axe in his hand Waiting for that precisely timed moment When he would deliver the death blow That the community had decided upon And he had been quite badly paid for The Future will sing songs Of present day Public Executioners Failing to wear masks Unaware and [...]
It's the end of the DA as we know it [or is it a realisation of the DA as they have always been?] i don't tend to write overtly political posts on here. Well, a lot of what i write is political but i mean with regards to specific political parties. But somehow that has changed during lockdown. It started with a post about a story i heard about when a crowd of homeless [...]
i would like to invite you to Race with Me. i am on a journey of anti-racism which begins in the mirror. Working on myself, checking for blind spots, looking to make sure that i am doing better at this than i was doing yesterday. Before moving on to my community and the systems and structures around me and seeing what differences can be made there. It always begins with me. i have not [...]
It's time to catch you up on the happenings of our Character Stories for Children kids YouTube channel. i see that my first post about the channel happened the day after April Fool's Day. But this was no joke. We had just gone into Lockdown and it felt like this might be a particularly tough time for parents of young children. So first up i gathered together a whole list of different activities and [...]
