This has been a week of two stories when it comes to the homeless people of Cape Town or those who tend to live on the streets. Earlier this week i was encouraged and inspired to see testimony from the St Peters microsite that has been created to take care of around ten homeless men during lockdown. Which you can and should read about over here. A number of my friends are involved there [...]
How fast are you? And how furious? A friend shared these words with me last night about a restaurant called Lelapa in Langa: The restaurant was started by a domestic worker who decided to take an opportunity to start a restaurant as tour operators were starting to do township tours. And what drove her to make the leap was finding a restaurant bill in her employer's washing for a night out that was [...]
i was given an opportunity to visit the Strandfontein site yesterday where around 2000 homeless people are being held. On Good Friday i had written this post about Strandfontein which had gained a fair amount of traction. Based on stories i had heard from people who are very well connected to some of the people who were at the site and also some articles i read and videos i watched. So when a friend [...]
Cape Town friends, and further afield [cos this is a time for us to stand together in solidarity] If you are reading this post, you likely started out by reading this one and if not maybe give it a quick look. Let me add right now that there are some conflicting reports going around and a very good friend of mine went in to visit with a delegation and produced a Live video afterwards [...]
It is Good Friday today. But very much the opposite of that in the Strandfontein sports facility where the homeless have been rounded up and moved. "It is like a concentration camp!" - these are words i just heard from a social worker who has been volunteering in the encampment where tents have been erected and none of the physical distancing that we have all been called to do is happening at all. She [...]
"Where did you two meet?" "That's easy. He [me] is an activist and I [Napoleon] am an activist. We were introduced by another activist [Nigel Branken]." That was part of an exchange that happened yesterday as i got to hang out with my friend Napoleon Webster who i hadn't seen since he was released from spending over 200 days in prison for a crime he did not commit. But let's backpedal a bit... The Marikana [...]
the alchemist i watch through my window and the rain as you dig through my trash to somehow discover your treasure [For more of my shorter poems, click here]
This is another extract from ‘Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion’ by Father Gregory Boyle which i am reading and thoroughly enjoying [and you should totally get and read] and this story i read tonite jumped out at me and begged to be shared. From a chapter titled, 'Compassion': The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place - with [...]
Would you notice if they were yours? Wow, heart tug video of the weekend... Would i have done any better? is the question of the moment... Do i look? Do i engage? Do i take the time to hear and share a story, or even a meal? Not every time necessarily... but some time. And at the very least do i at least acknowledge the person'ness of the person? Wo!
Would you notice if they were yours? Wow, heart tug video of the weekend... Would i have done any better? is the question of the moment... Do i look? Do i engage? Do i take the time to hear and share a story, or even a meal? Not every time necessarily... but some time. And at the very least do i at least acknowledge the person'ness of the person? Wo!
