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 [...]
SITTING ON THE EDGE OF THE TUB - by brett "Fish" anderson sitting here perched on the edge of this hot tub half in, half out struggling to rationalise my body's capability with the extreme temperature that is bubbling back at me but i've been here for a while and this water sure ain't getting any cooler am i getting any braver? and will i finally slide all the way in? hold that [...]
A further extract from the same chapter as the last one i shared, this one looks at the history that is taught and the need for young black men and women to have stories and heroes they can relate to: One writer makes the point that in an effort to destroy completely the structures that had been built up in the African Society and to impose their imperialism with an unnerving totality the colonialists were [...]
i have a good friend called Megan Furniss and we like to make things up. a lot! Megan was responsible for pretty much bringing Improv to Cape Town in the form of TheatreSports [now Improguise: Players of TheatreSports] which quickly became Cape Town's longest running and much loved show. And best kept secret, it seems at some times, although at the moment we are doing some highly experimental and completely fun shows [different formats every [...]
I used to be a vegetarian Back in 2013, I decided to become a vegetarian. I followed a meat-free diet for a solid year. I didn’t stick to it because I never had a good reason for becoming a vegetarian in the first place. There were circumstances that lead me to the decision, but none of them were strong convictions. 1. It was my fourth year in res and I was tired of figuring out [...]
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 [...]
My journey into vegetarianism started how I imagine it did for many other people. I sat (in my case in my school’s hall) watching a documentary on chicken farming. I was horrified. I had always suspected that this sort of this was happening to the animals we eat but I had never seen it first-hand. After watching this movie I went home and told my already over-worked parents that I was now a vegetarian. They [...]