Today a group of us head out to Khayelitsha to join in the vigil to remember the life of a young woman, Sinoxolo Mafevuka, who was found murdered there last week. The same week when another young woman, Franziska Blöchliger, was found murdered in the Tokai forest. Both murders are complete tragedies. The temptation is to add a 'but' or an 'and' and depending on what your context, background and connection is, try to make one seem [...]
This is a follow up to the post i wrote a few days ago looking at petrol attendants in South Africa. Before i actually wrote the previous post [or while i was writing it, really] i stuck this survey question as a status on Facebook: Monday Survey: How much [if anything] do you tip your petrol attendant in South Africa when throwing in some petrol? Which i would highly recommend you to cut and paste on [...]
You can do it! You can take one more step! i think i know to some extent how you are feeling. You're tired. You're frustrated. You've really been making an effort in terms of these race and privilege conversations and you just want to get through another day without having to feel bad about something else. You feel attacked when you've tried to give an opinion. You feel misunderstood when you have made every effort [...]
My name is brett "Fish" anderson and i am ashamed it took me so long to get here. A BIT OF MY JOURNEY i didn't grow up in a particulary racist family, in fact if anything, my parents taught us to view all people as equal and deserving of love and respect. i was very fortunate during my time at college to be engaged in race conversations through the lens of the Student Christian Association [...]
i am hope-filled for South Africa. i am not so naive to not suspect how much of a knife point this country feels on at the moment and to know that at any moment things could suddenly go horribly wrong. We have a LONG way to go still and time feels short. But being in contact and engagement with an incredible growing amount of people who get it or are working towards getting it, really [...]
A week ago i shared a piece from Sarah Bessey's new book 'Out of Sorts' on Justice and Shalom and so i want to share the second part of that with you. This is from Chapter 11 which is titled ‘Beautiful Facade’ and subtitled ‘On Justice and Shalom’: = = = = = = = = = = When I start getting mad at the facade, I peek behind it and guess who I find? The [...]
i hear that so often in conversations of race. But what am i meant to do? It sounds like an honest question and a healthy cry for help. But as a matter of fact i am starting to realise that it is incredibly lazy. You are asking me to give you the answers [which is at least one step up from the oppressors asking the oppressed for answers] so that you don't have to do [...]
This week’s Tandem Blog Title [seven writers producing a blog post from the same title] is ‘Too Much For You’ and so without much further ado about nothing, here is my version of: = = = = = = = = = = TOO MUCH FOR YOU Am i too much, for you? Is that, it? Is that what's going on here? Every time you hear the creak of my footprint on the passage floorboards [...]
When last did you lament out loud? Anyone who knows me even just a medium amount will know, when they saw that cover pic verse, that there was a huge and loud BUT on the way. We love happy endings, hope-filled verses and to quote the promises of God to each other [even when we quote them out of context like Jeremiah 29.11 - i dare you to read the whole chapter and even just [...]
Soooo, i wrote a post with my reflections on the Passion worship event on the weekend as most of you know and BOOM! Oh and then there was the one i wrote titled, 'Sodomy: A South African Love Story' which was a "great post, but please change the title because it's awkward having that on my wall" and that exploded on The Warehouse wall. The piece i shared on Equality, Equity and Reality didn't get [...]
