Sometimes well-meaning people can say and do stupid things. Other times they can do perfectly fine and decent things, but ones that are just completely not appreciated and which might have the opposite effect of what they intended, especially in this particular moment. […]
Someone you know has just suffered the death of a family member or close friend. Or is struggling through a serious disease. What do you do? What do you say? Yesterday i wrote a post giving what i suspect were some helpful ideas, especially if you are not the closest person in the situation so take a read of them over here. But i also had some comments from some people who have been or are [...]
There have been a lot of words written this last week with regards to #FeesMustFall and it can be quite overwhelming to try and wade through them all. Sometimes pictures can speak louder than words, so here is a post with some of the better pictures i have found that help to put this past week and some of the related issues into some kind of perspective. Firstly the Ant vs Cricket scenario we witnessed [...]
With thanks to Nick Frost aka @Nick_Frost for this pic Dear Church in South Africa, i am not known for my brevity, but let me give this a try. Firstly, i hope you know just how much i love you. […]
They often say that during a crisis, to know who your true friends are, just look left and right. Actually i don’t know if they do say that, i just came up with it but i’m pretty sure if i try and claim it some dead guy is going to come forward and say, “Um actually Brett Fish, that one is mine.” Like that whole “I have a dream” debacle. Okay not quite, but still. [...]
i did my best to compile some helpful resources linked to the #FeesMustFall movement in this post i did ‘From a Number of Different Eyes and Mouths’ and this second post which shared more thoughts as well as first-hand experiences of others. But i knew that to really get a feel for what was happening and to be a more active part of it, we needed to get on the ground and so we did that today [...]
The last two days have been a blur of action and comment and conversation and reporting and trying to figure out exactly what is what and who is who in the whole South African #FeesMustFall movement. It is complicated and tricky and confusing and yet SO SO IMPORTANT and so it is up to each one of us to do the best we can in terms of figuring out our understanding and our involvement. Here [...]
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 [...]
Turning the Tide one white hand calling to another to tear itself away from the clenched fist it has become accustomed to to step away and towards the sea of black faces looking on exhibiting so much welcoming grace forgiveness patience but at the edges one can start to see the restlessness is beginning to show [For other poetry i have written this year, click here]
LET'S LEARN FROM THIS GUY A couple of different people shared this story with me this last week and it was so powerful that i really wanted to try and capture the heart of it in a blog post so it would stick around for longer. You have likely seen this iconic Olympic photograph before and wondered, like myself and so many others, what is going through the white guy's mind and possibly questioned his [...]