Shame on Us South Africa...Shame on Us

I am utterly disgusted at how we have let things be in this country. After such a long struggle with one system of oppression, we seem to be at the edge of building another one. We as South African's, at the hands of the "leaders" we have elected into power, have seemingly let ourselves become a state that is on a free-sliding slippery slope. We are sliding into a state of utter dysfunction as one speaker has so poignantly stated.

On one hand we are building a nation whose resources seem are shared among the few elite groups and none to the people whose hands have worked tirelessly to build them. On the other hand, we seem to be quite OK with the way our "lady justice" has been raped...

The first point relates to the fact that on a daily basis the gap between the rich and the poor seem to be increasing at an alarming rate. The poor are getting poorer and richer getting richer. I am no proponent of Karl Max but I wonder if he had an important point to make when refuting the capitalist system of the day and predicting its demise.

CEO's of companies are getting fat bonuses for a job well done, and this job well done entails retrenching staff in thousands to cut cost... So this is where we are at, Let's pay this fat bastard a R10 million bonus because he managed to fire people to cut costs for us...That is our picture South African.

Our parastatals change CEO's faster than I change my underwear, and here is another appalling picture, we give them a golden handshake for inefficiency and squandering tax payers resources. Meanwhile people are going to bed on empty stomach's and more retrenched due to this corporates malpractices.

We build bridges to make way for the rich to travel without hindrance, but fail to put a roof over the poor's toilet, let alone building them proper shelters. We built useless toll gates instead of creating infrastructure in townships so that people don't have travel far for jobs.

Our priorities seem to be at best stupid and at their worst fucked up. Come on...

On the other hand, we are dingling our short digs and raping "lady justice" in full view. We have no shame that our justice system is at the helm of collapse and dysfunction.

Shabir Sheik...let me not even waste my time on this one...

But I would like to paint a picture at our own injustice... If I go and rob a bank for a couple of thousands so that I can take my kids to government schools ( with their 15th grade education system) and feed my family with whats left, I will be seen as a menace to society and thus needing the guillotine. But let some government official steal billions of our hard earned tax ( that needs to be distributed to the poor) they get a pat on the hand and are sent marching back into society to steal some more...

Problem: We are slowly building a society that is biased towards the rich and famous at the expense of the poor and the working class. We are creating a divided society prevalent in Karl Max's philosophical writings. A society of a few rich elites and multitudes of starving paupers.

This is a very fragile society we are building for God knows that there is nothing more dangerous than a starving man, whose dignity has been stripped by poverty. The society we are building is one that Max concluded that it will bring with it revolutions where the working class will say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

I concur with Moeletsi Mbeki when he predicts that by 2020 South African will have it's Tunisia Day and I say, Moeletsi maybe you stretched the due date a little more than you should have...I give a lot less time than that. This will be the period when all of us watching with disgust and no action would say: WE COULD HAVE AVOIDED THIS. This would be the time when us with no private jets would not be able to flee the country and we'll be left to clean their mess.

I say South Africa, let's avoid this more dramatic revolution and start a subtle one by now demanding what we voted for. A just and equal society...where all men are equal before the law and no one is beyond reproach...

THE STRUGGLE MUST END!!! LETS BUILD OUR FUTURE BACK...

JUST LET GO!!!!!!!!

I try as much as possible not to make my life a public entity but sometimes the best cure for most of our issues is to simply share knowing very well that someone out there will benefit from your experiences of life as you go on. The recent turn of events in my life have left even me, the eternal optimist speechless, humbled and filled with a gracious and thankfull heart.

2010 had it's fair share of dramas, lessons and but most importantly it taught me so much about myself. It reinforced my absolute belief in the working hand of God in my life and reinforced my knowledge of His underlying love.

The year was marked by loss after loss, life spiraling out of control and emotional turmoil only dealth with by heavily acredited shrinks. In just one year I saw life as I have known it go from good to bad to worse and jump straight to great, all in a small period of time. What time did I have to deal with the emotions that come with all of these.

Towars the end of last year, the only thing between me and my rock bottom, was a little faith that someday it will all make sense. After filling buckets with tears, countless couch sessions with shrink, self-destructing behaviour, I was hanging on only by a threat of hope that there is a God out there and somehow He was looking down on me with a heart of grace and a willing hand. I spent countless hours in prayer, wishing that it can all go away. Felt like God had taken everything away from me. Relationships ended, friends departed and everyone looked like a curious bystander.

( I am trying very hard not to divulge or give the description of my situation. No amount of words can ever describe it all perfectly). Dealing with loss in all areas of one's life is not an easy task but one that is worthwhile.

I had a life changing conversation with a friend that made me realise that sometimes loss can represent gain in such a profound way. We sometimes hold on to things, tightly with both hands and never really let go so that we can receive. We limit the power of God's provision with our inability to let go.

As I tried to hold on to everything, I lost so much energy that I had no choice but to let go....I LET GO AND LET GOD....I LET GO AND LET GOD. The best decision of my life. When you let go and let God, you allow yourself to be free and be on the receiving end of His love, grace and blessings.

After all this, His hand became evident to me in such a profound manner. My best friend quit a job that will become mine in just a few weeks of his departure. I got blessed with great friends in my life and restored the friendships I had neglected. Got blessed with a wonderfull relationship, after battling with a loss of another...It took me years of bad decisions and wrong choices to "destroy my life" and only took God a few months restore all.

I have no idea why I feel so compelled to write this blog...Nothing I am saying here seems coherent to me and I am not sure if I am making sense but one thing I would want you to walk away with here is this...LETTING GO IS THE HARDEST THING FOR A HUMAN BEING TO DO, BUT IT COULD POSSIBLY BE THE BEST THING FOR YOU.

When letting go, you give God a chance to work in your life. To manifest all the great things He has promised. Letting go can be the greatest way to gain it all back and even more. OK...Just Let Go

I hope you got me...Just Let Go.

The State Of Stupidity...

As I was writing my exam today, I realised that as a people we have become incredibly stupid or rather too reliant on technology and quite frankly, I started asking myself too many questions about our state of stupidity...

Years ago I went to Dion Chang's seminar and he was talking about "the state we are in". Without going too much into details, he basically analysed our reliance and constant need for tecchnology and how this has made us "stupid".

With a click of a button we can simply get the answer we are looking for and more. With google,Wikkie and all these fancy site, one does not really need to know and remember everything when you have access to them. and the fact that we can now simply BBM the experts without any cost on our side, we don't really have to dig for the truth and knowledge.

What technology was suppose to do, it has done and in the process taken our inner need to know. I am reminded at how easy it was for me to do my work during the semester because all I need was to type the question in the google bar and I will have some brainiac out there give me all the answers, and writing my exam today, I realised that brainiac forgot to tell me that I should know this answer and more strongly, I should try to remember and recall it when needed.

This may sound like irresponsibility on my part, but I ask how much of your brain do you use these days; to analyse, ask probing questions and finally come to a well researched conclusion that will form the basis of your knowledge. Frankly, the truth abiding self in you, will remind you that you never think these days because the need to think has been taken over by technology. We have simply become the medium of data transfer.

This is even scarier because we don't even have time for quite contemplation and small thought. That period is gone when one had time to think about something before they can respond to questions or comment on something. Now when you read the news, the first instinct is to comment on what is being reported without even thinking about it.

While at Dion's talk, one of the things I came to realise is that technology no matter how great it is, has made the human race very lazy and unthoughtfull. We hardly even have time alone with our thoughts, because if you are not busy googling, you are are responding to endless emails, texts, fb messages, or simply commenting about Britney Spear's PuJUjU...

We are forver busy with information and never have time to process that information, analyse and quetsion it's authenticity.

I miss the days of reading a book and getting absorbed in the story, use my mind to create pictures and spark my creativity. I miss the days of sitting under the tree with your one litre bottle of coke and simply listening to the sound of my breath if not the humming birds and singing "gogoitjies".

I miss the time when responding to something meant taking pen in your hand, pulling out a piece of paper, then writing your responce, knowing full well that after you have written it, you would have had time to think about it and re-draft your response.

I miss the time when I missed people in my life and when I saw them, I had something to say and we had so much to catch up on. the mystery and intrigue of getting to find out what they have been up to and which direction they have been taking. I miss the time when I did not need to constantly answer to everyone because I was out of reach.

But most importantly, I miss the time when I was alone with my body, mind and spirit, and we were all in one accord and in the same space, because none of us was responding to the everyday demands imposed on by societal need to know about you constantly or your need to probe.

P.S. I am not in any way trying to down-play the conveniences that technology has brought to my life and billions of other people, I am simply weeping for the time when I felt in control of the information that I absorbed...but then again I have the responsibility to sit back and not constantly be in "the know all".

CAN ALL THAT GLITTER BECOME GOLD ALREADY!!!!

I just checked deGorgeous's fabulosa blog and of course he is always the bearer of all thing glitter and Joburg Fashion Weeks promises to be exactly that. If the pictorial campaign and video promo are anything to go by, this year promises to be one for the records or at least that's how it has been positioned. Having been to more fashion weeks in this country than I have visited the dentist I thought I should voice my concerns and bitch a little.

I know I moan and groan more often than I should and quite frankly do think my opinion should be the only one that counts ( on my blog at least). I have a couple of problems that I have battled to deal with, and since I can't talk to my shrink about my issues with all these fashion weeks and the state we are in, as South African fashion industry, I though maybe this would be a perfect opportunity. Here is my list, in no particular order... and if you can answer me or share some knowledge, please do so remembering that an opinion is like an ass and we all have one.

• Issue number one, when all this parading ends after three days of air kissing, sipping champagne and speaking Prada or David, where does it all start with the business of fashion. I always get so puzzled that so many talented designers work their butts off just to show at fashion week and hardly make ends meet trading their craft. Who exactly should we attribute this little phenomenon to? Is it the lack of business acumen on their part or is because South African market is unwilling to support this industry?
• Secondly, I have massive issues with the crowds that are attracted at these fashion weeks. Young little pretty things, with R20 in their bank balance and no intention or means to buy the fashion. Yes, you know them. they are cute little things and wear the most craziest of outfits but quite frankly can't afford to buy the clothes that are showcased at fashion week. They hog the front row and seem to get all the best tickets and invites that should be given to Corporate South Africa, who by virtue of their bank balances come to Fashion Weeks to see what they can buy and not what they can gossip about. How many of those corporate junkies go overseas to do their shopping and they never get invited to these fashion weeks, and don't you dare tell me it's because they don't want to. Let me bring a friend, unknown in this interesting but stupid circle and they will hardly be given a seat, when in actual fact they have more potential to either buy or invest in this industry.
• How many of our designer have a client database of unknown people in corporate but have a huge database of celebrities who don't even buy the clothes. The most frustrating thing is when you have to order the clothes from these fabulous designer and you are paying with your hard earned money but you get your clothes late because some pretty young bimbo on tv has an award ceremony to go to and they, of course get first preference.
• Then comes the other issue that irks me from the core, designers who come to showcase some last season Milan Fashion Week or the likes, are we so starved for creativity or are we simply trying to jump on the bandwagon that 'Africa is a dumping zone so let's just dump our crap there'. Quite frankly, my knowledge of fashion is as bleak as my experimentation with quantum physics, but there is only a handful of designers who have and continues to stand out because they break the boundaries and are merely not victims of Parisian/Western dictates.
• With these fashion weeks, come the discussion forums where they would discuss forming the South African Fashion Council or something remotely similar, but are they decisive enough to actually bring it to fruition. Every FW, you hear the same moaning and bickering but no one is actually taking the lead.
• I sometimes wonder if this industry is sustainable and if it will ever get off the ground and what exactly is needed to achieve that. with so much unprofessional behaviour and a sense of entitlement, I will not be holding my breath.
• The last one I went to, some old lady had bought tickets and was taking her family to one of the shows to find out that it was delayed by three hours and that meant she had to spend more money to entertain her entourage before she can view the show.

I know that most of you reading this will think that my observations are without foundation and merit but I dare you to ask and talk to most of the designers and you will be surprised to see that all the glitter is not gold and that rusty goose ain't laying a golden egg anytime soon.

I am going to make my way to Fashion Week and I pray to God that the advertising campaign is not selling me a gold plated rusty nickel...

Please wow us, not so that we can be proud of you and your talent but so that we can be compelled to buy your stuff...