Dear Christ-following people of Cape Town, Apparently a million or more people were praying yesterday for rain. That is an amazing thing. Okay, let's go back to the checklist and see what else is there: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their [...]
Yesterday i posted a Facebook status by my sister-in-law Shana who was celebrating the fact that she had managed to combine a shower, hair wash and condition, teeth wash and leg shave all just using 5l of water. She did get some pushback as a number of people commented about how that has been their normal for as long as they can remember. And to her credit, she listened and really heard and this is [...]
"We've been doing this for years!" As we celebrate and cheer ourselves on for reducing our water to comply with restrictions [ a good thing - the reducing, not the cheering] many of our eyes are being opened to the reality that for so many people across the country, this has been their reality for always. Until we know we don't know. Should we have known? Perhaps. Certainly for those of us who have insulated [...]
i would like to introduce you to my sister-in-law Shana and her easy and doable water-saving idea combo: = = = == = = = == Guys. I did it. I brushed teeth, showered, shaved and washed and conditioned my hair, using 5L of water, and caught it all to use to flush the toilet tonight. To be honest, it was actually so easy, I'm aiming for 4L tomorrow. Here's how: 1. Measure 5L hot [...]
Cape Town has a water crisis going on. Something like 50% of families in Cape Town have done absolutely nothing to make any effort in terms of water conservation which boggles the mind as the rest of us are standing in buckets and queueing up for water and getting all sorts of creative to try and stave off Day Zero just one more day, week, month... One of the families that has been doing some [...]
Who was the first person to look at the udders of a cow and think to themselves, "Let me squeeze those and drink whatever comes out!"? And more importantly perhaps, what else had they tried before that? #RedBull [The Story So Far: Every Wednesday at 1pm South African time [6am EST] an inspired and growing number of brilliant, creative and absolutely fun people from all around the world take part in what is called a Hashtag [...]
Dear South Africa, Actually, dear white South Africans. My peeps. I love you but we can't have another year like 2017. Seriously. I've taken the liberty of writing a few New Year's Resolutions for us. I reckon we can do it. Learn an African language. Pay your domestic worker a living wage and stop calling her "Irene". Her name is Thobeka. Only read novels written by African authors. Get on Black Twitter. Look at black [...]
The last book i read was the incredible Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which i shared some thoughts about over here, but there were a couple more passages that really stood out to me when i read the book and so here they are. This first extract is another blog post by the main character, Ifemelu: What Academics Mean by White Privilege, or Yes It Sucks to Be Poor and White but Try Being Poor [...]
Dear South Africa, Increase empathy. Kind regards, Terence P.S. Sorry, I’ve just realised that you may not know what I mean. Here’s the deal - it really shouldn’t need an explanation or a justification. I shouldn’t have to show you why we need to be open to the idea that other people are complete and complex human beings who don’t deserve to be undermined, insulted, embarrassed, made to feel unsafe or treated as a sub-category [...]
Dear South Africa... Charles Dickens starts A Tale of Two Cities with this: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had [...]
