Continuing my series looking at how white people can be more effective allies to their friends of colour as we seek reconciliation and restitution and try to see South Africa head more towards where it should be... The title of this post might seem like a bit of a contradiction having just written one called Move to the Back, but it's not. Last night i was lamenting to my wife, tbV, that life as an [...]
We can all remember that iconic moment from the Bruce Willis/Haley Joel Osment thriller 'The Sixth Sense' and if you have not seen it yet, then be warned of the biggest spoiler of all. The face of Cole Sear peeking out from behind the safety of his blanket as he whispers the iconic, "I see dead people!" i feel like that on a far-too-regular basis on The Facebook as i read statuses of people negative [...]
A lot of people complain about South Africa or just feel completely overwhelmed by stories [and experiences] of crime or corruption and more. There is good reason for a lot of that, but if you aren’t planning on leaving the country, then it makes a lot more sense to be a part of the change. In Part I, we looked at five practical ways at which we can genuinely get involved in seeing change in [...]
There is that old joke that goes, ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’ i know, it’s NOT funny. please stop eating elephants. But the point it makes is pretty valid. i don’t know about you but when i think about my home country of South Africa and everything that needs i change i can feel completely overwhelmed and usually simply just paralysed. What can i do to make any difference? [...]
One of the signs of privilege in a country is the expectation that everyone else will address you in your mother tongue. This is typically true for white english-speakers in South Africa and not even remotely for black mother tongue Xhosa speakers. i would hate to find out the statistics for white people who can't even say the basics of "Hello" "What is your name?" "My name is..." in an African language but fortunately this [...]
Message South Africa is part of the Message family which is a worldwide movement that exists to share the Christian message with hard to reach young people through Prisons Ministry, Community Transformation and Christ-Centred Enterprise. I had the privilege of sitting down with three of the local members to talk a little bit about the impact they are having and hear some of the challenges and opportunities that have opened up. Jess is the Message [...]
South Africans are used to hearing bad news. We see it strewn across the front of newspapers, on our social media feeds and even hear it from our friends and neighbours. But is that the only story? Back in February i started a series titled, 'One person who Gives me Hope in South Africa is...' and was super encouraged to see a number of you sharing stories about someone you know who is busy making a difference. [...]
i somehow got into two Facebook argumersations yesterday at the same time. TWO! i can't remember that happening before. i usually try pick my battles one at a time, but somehow, two different articles i shared, generated two different fairly strong push backs. Which i love. i love it when people push back and are genuinely committed to the conversation and engaging and not simply being trolls or palookas. But sometimes [especially when it's people [...]
i have read some REALLY helpful articles about privilege this week. My fear is that the appearance of the word 'privilege' with the assumption of it being specifically 'white privilege' on my blog immediately drives the very people i am wanting to hear and engage with this stuff away. But my hope, which is so much stronger than my fear, is that there are people like Bob [who a bunch of us had this long [...]
So last night a group of CEO's got together in Johannesburg for the 702 Sun International CEO Sleepout which took place in Sandton [absolutely no irony there]. As i am in Americaland at the moment i only knew about it from the Twitterer and then was only able to get glimpses of what was happening from the same medium. In some ways it seemed like a good idea - i heard about R24 million being [...]