i am busy reading a book called 'The Prophetic Imagination' for my Leadership in Urban Transformation studies course and this passage jumped out at me: 'The prophet is the one, who, by use of these tools of hope, contradicts the presumed world of the kings, showing both that that presumed world does not square with the facts and that we have been taught a lie and have believed it because the people with the hardware [...]
Is Forgiveness more than just a nice idea? My friend Julie asked me to post a piece on the topic of forgiveness after i recorded a Facebook Live conversation about it, so here goes. i have a friend who recently got caught doing some pretty reprehensible stuff. We weren't good friends but i have known him for ten years and his actions totally took a lot of people by surprise and a lot of people [...]
So #BlackMonday was a thing. And wasn't, depending on who you were. And was accidentally so for tbV and others who just happened to realise into the day that they had unintentionally worn black. For me it had to be a lot more intentionally as probably eighty percent of my shirts are black. So i wore my blue 'Peace to the world' shirt which felt somewhat appropriate. What i found interesting when looking on my [...]
Yesterday i shared a whole bunch of thoughts - mine and others - about the concept of #BlackMonday and wearing black to honour the lives of farmers who have died. Two statuses i added later in the day, which many may not have seen, but which i think sum up some of my thoughts on the matter were this one: People who have been murdered on farms is heart-breaking and horrific and i imagine that [...]
Today's Facebook status with regards to the #BlackMonday in response to farm murders has garnered a lot of attention. This is what i wrote: Anytime someone is murdered it is a tragedy. But, if you are concerned about the farm murders to the point of wanting to wear black for the victims, but have never considered wearing black for the black, coloured or indian victims of murder [which check your statistics, are all being killed [...]
Is it okay for us to hit our kids? Is the question a lot of parents are asking, especially in light of the new change to the law in South Africa. i was going to do next week's Facebook Live video on it, but the conversations were happening thick and fast and so i decided to actually do one today, which is worth watching and reading the accompanying comments to. Teacher Tom has some helpful [...]
It's been a week since the #MeToo tag went viral. When women across social media platforms started sharing their stories, or simply putting their hands up to help us glimpse the extent of sexual abuse and harassment that so many of them face on a daily basis. Many of you may have read The Invisible Men piece i wrote, in which one of the main questions was, "Where are the men committing these acts and [...]
What is this race thing all about? The other night a bunch of us went to go and listen to Alan Storey from the Central Methodist Mission in town share some of his thoughts as an Introduction to Privilege and Racism. Alan's dad Peter Story was at one-time chaplain to Nelson Mandela and others on Robben Island, at the request of Mandela. But Alan has continued the legacy of speaking truth and justice to power, [...]
Where have all the bad men gone? i know i'm not friends with any of them, because none of my friends have come forward with a #MeToo signifying they were the perpetrator and not the victim. In case you're not sure what we're talking about, this is a response to a Twitterer campaign that went viral after actor Alyssa Milano posted this tweet: If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a [...]
Is it okay to name and shame a person online? For example when someone has said or done something hugely sexist or racist, does the world need to know? That was part of the conversation we had yesterday. In the light of the controversial Dove ad and the Harvey Weinstein accusations. Locally, i am thinking of the Penny Sparrow incident of comparing black beachgoers to monkeys and internationally there have been the repeated cases against [...]
