Just before tbV and i left Americaland last year August, i started reading 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness' by Michelle Alexander, a tough but brilliant read focusing on the system of mass incarceration of black people in Americaland. Then we had to leave and i had to give the book back having only read two or three chapters. But now we're back in Americaland and i saw it lying [...]
The other day i wrote a post titled, 'Do the Different Need a Disclaimer?' in which i touched on how meeting someone with a disability or condition that makes them quite different to you can be challenging or scary in terms of not wanting to be awkward or embarrass them [or yourself] and my friend Michelle wrote a long comment in response. i asked her if she would upgrade it to a post as it [...]
10 things vegetarians are sick of hearing / your vegetarian friends want you to know I became a vegetarian on my ninth birthday. This usually elicits shock and the assumption that I am vegetarian because of my family / culture / religious beliefs. But, no – I was just a child who was interested in where my food came from and when I knew the facts eating meat (read meat, fish, poultry) didn’t make sense [...]
In my quest to continue learning South African history from voices other than those i grew up with i was encouraged to read, 'I Write What I Like' by Steve Biko. Not so much a story as a collection of letters and speeches, this book is really helpful as it contains real time words, thoughts and ideas from one of South Africa's great leaders written during the height of apartheid. The Catholic Herald had this [...]
This morning i went to a prayer meeting i used to regularly attend when we lived in Oakland a year ago. This other couple arrived just behind us and so i turned around and greeted them, shook his hand and as i went to greet her i assume i must have put out my hand, and so she put out her hand and i wasn't even properly looking and so it must have been my extremely [...]
This is a much longer extract from the book 'Blood Brothers' by Elias Chacour, which i do encourage everyone to read. Both as a glimpse into the Israel/Palestine history and situation, but also as a much deeper journey of faith and wrestling with ideas of God and kingdom. This passage it helps to have read the rest of the book to understand the full story of, but a brief background is that Abu Mouhib is [...]
A couple of weeks ago we had our Spaghetti conversation about race, location and boundary, which you can catch up on over here. Our friend Babs, was one of the guests who joined us and she had this reflection to add: A conversation about where you live becomes a conversation about your life, and in South Africa, becomes a picture of what the past means to different people and how it affects how we live [...]
My friend Dre, who shared some excellent feedback to Bob's first email over here, responded to his latest response in a comment but i asked her if i could rather share it as a post cos everyone should read this, especially but not solely, Bob. Dre for president!: Bob, you didn’t respond to MY post! *sniff sniff* I feel so left out! (kidding, I’ll be fine ;) But seriously, I do appreciate your response to the [...]
About two weeks ago i published an email from a friend of mine who is white, male, South African and presently living in the UK who had some thoughts, feelings, questions and frustrations about life in South Africa and some of the conversations we'd been having on here. i shared his email under the guise of 'Bob' and invited a few of my friends to respond, all of which you can catch up with over [...]
Another guest on Friday was our mate Portal Pete who has moved with his wife, Sarah, into Manenberg and is running a drug rehabilitation program among other things, and he had these words to say: Great food etc. It didn’t feel awkward to me. It felt OK. Living and working in what some call missional community in Manenberg, I feel and cause offence on a fairly regular basis. We’re learning that offence most often leads [...]