Micropoem: their pain
their pain no words just empty-feeling niceties exchanged after the service has ended and possibly a small plate of scones. [for more Micropoems, click here]
Taboo Topic: The People who Work for Us – Intro
This is a complex one. We don’t presently have a maid/domestic worker but have spoken about the possibility of employing someone in that role. And this is not a witch hunt to try and make anyone feel bad [unless you need to be feeling bad and then don’t feel bad but just change how you’re living!]. A number of months ago i was chatting to a domestic worker at a friend’s house and just hearing [...]
Rugby World Cup 2015: Some thoughts from the Fish
Those who know me know i’m not the biggest fan of rugby. i will watch if the Springboks are playing and get a little more excited when it is the World Cup. Throw me into a Superbru game [although a round late so desperately just trying to catch up] and it comes a little more alive and meaningful. And after a couple of rounds of games, with the quarters for the most part locked up, [...]
Why i Love Being Rich
Mumford and Fish These are three of my best friends: Dunc, Majay and Rob. And missing from that pic is Reegs who is also one of my longest life buddies. And of course my wife, the beautiful Val [aka tbV, which so many of you keep thinking stands for The Lovely Val because of, um, the B, obviously] who made this photo [taken at my 40th after these clowns performed a satirical rendition [...]
Learning Xhosa: Your move.
In August, i invited you all to Come and Xhosa with Me. After two weeks i shared a post called Xhosa and Effect, highlighting some of the things i was thinking about as we were busy with the course. […]
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Starving Affluence
i have just started reading this book by Ron Sider who we got to hang out with a little bit during our time at the Simple Way in Philly a couple of years ago. Recently he visited South Africa and i got to hear him speak and thought it was high time i got hold of this book which has influenced so many people. This part i want to share is just from the Foreword [...]
How to be an Ally: Hand over the Mic
We caught a glimpse of this in the #IAmStellenbosch campaign where a group of well-meaning students drew up some posters highlighting something about them that made them unique or different to the stereotype that their skin colour or background might typically suggest. It received a huge backlash from the media and people of all races across the country for a number of reasons. Possibly the biggest one was that once again we saw a race problem [...]
Sitting with people: Intro
One thing tbV and i have in common is we both love people-watching. [Who doesn't!] Sitting in a coffee shop or a bench at a popular tourist attraction or in a restaurant and just watching the people around us. Trying to imagine stories, attitudes, experiences, fun things about the person from the little bit that we see. But there is something even better. Later this morning my friend Nicky Lloyd and i will be heading [...]
I am Stellenbosch [and other stories we tell our kids before they go to bed]
So this past week a picture appeared on my Twitterer of a white girl with a statement written on a board that made me cringe: Suddenly more and more of these pictures were popping up all over Social Media and turns out there was an #IAmStellenbosch group inviting students at the University to write statements about themselves which challenge the stereotype of a typical Stellenbosch student and highlight the differences and individualities of each student. [...]
Breaking Bread [with Trev]: Finding the Words
Following closely in the footsteps of, 'Breaking Bread [with Trev]: Changing Your Mind' comes 'Finding the Words', the second post in a Tandem Blog Conversation piece which sees a conversation of 5x100ish words each, this time on the topic of the languages we speak [or don't]: = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Brett: My wife and i started learning isiXhosa just over a month ago which is [...]