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Habibti dragged me off to the “Fanwalk for Peace and Unity on Mandela Day Sunday 18th July 2010” and in typical Cape Town shoowa style it took forever to get started. This was actually very cool as it allowed us to meet up with some great friends and family before things got moving. Personal highlight was the Caramel Popcorn that I got from one of the stands, the fact that half the Cape Town police force rocked up to escort a few hundred people and the singing of our national anthem at the end. The only down side was the fucken vuvuzlias that pfaaaaped next to me head.

What I find amazing about the whole things was that it started off as a Tweet from Charly’s Bakery and grew from there. People took it up and expanded the idea to Facebook, blog posts and news articles. Much as I hate the whole social media thing, this just underlines the power and potential.

Walking for Peace with Habibti, the Noodles (3/4 of them in the above photo), Brother-In-Law, my NBF and her mom was worth the wait and a great way to spend a Sunday in Cape Town.

So this has become another dead end on the web, it’s been a battle to keep being motivated by blogging. Some people can do it, others can’t. I obviously can’t. So this site will be retired soon. I’ll keep the domain and maybe revive it as something else at some point.

If you’ve found this site, and before you click away to something else, please do yourself a favour and visit Playing for change. It’s about peace through music, and the music is amazing. Grandpa Elliot is my new music hero. Here he is with Clarence Bekker doing “Change Is Gonna Come”, they did “Stand by me” without even meeting.

I’ve watched both videos so often that I’m going to get capped way before the end of the month, but what the fuck, these people rock. After the disappointments of Obama and Cope I’ve given up on politicians, and people who should be making a difference.

Check out the site, join up and play for change.

The world needs an enema ~ The Joker

COPE was launched last year as a serious challenger to the ANC in local politics. The DA is never going to gain enough support to really make a difference, no matter how much Botox they inject into their image. They will always be seen as a white middle class party that nipped at the fringes of the ANC behemoth. COPE managed to ride (unintentionally I’m sure) on the hope raised by Obama for change, and more and more people started to think “Yes we can”. Habibti and I both became very excited about COPE and the tone the leadership set. We thought that there was real chance for change, for a true non racial and untainted party to vote for. We spoke about getting involved and taking ownership. We love our country and it’s people and the 3 Poesketeers are still able to shock and amaze us. We are not anesthetised.

But the last while things are starting to look and sound the same no matter where you look, same plot different title. When we started hearing rumblings of Alan Boesak making a comeback on the COPE ticket we hoped that it wasn’t true. Alan Boesak was the man who was jailed for defrauding charities of R400 000.00 while being a man of the church FFF, and Cope are on record stating “No cronyism, corruption”.

Today I read “Allan Boesak has accepted the nomination as a candidate for premier of the Western Cape for the Congress of the People”. Do they really think we are this stupid?

I go to coda.co.za every few weeks just to see what Damien is up to and for some inspiration. Every once in a while he’ll do an insightful post about the local digital industry, and I also love what he’s done with WordPress.

So this morning I was clicking around while Thelma vacuums and I sit here schwitzing like a pudding in my jean pant, when I found his post “James Nachtwey’s one wish to change the world”. Before the 3 minutes 44 seconds where up I was crying all over my keyboard.

This got me digging around for more information of James Nachtwey. What a remarkable man and what a skilled photographer.

It got me thinking about how a company that produces this

can qualify for billions of dollars in aid while this
 
is happening?

Damien’s post is a lot more effective than mine, but I just had to make my point. Simplistic as it may be.

More on XDR-TB and James Nachtwey.

I have been a witness, and these pictures are
my testimony. The events I have recorded should
not be forgotten and must not be repeated.
-James Nachtwey-

Habibti is incensed by the Carl Niehaus story. Oops, should that be Dr. Carl Niehaus? She didn’t like him from the start and called him for what he is long before the M&G story broke. “Dr.” Niehaus is a complete tosser who seems to be schooled in the Religious Right’s method of admitting wrong doings, just burst into tears and blame everybody else for your character flaws. This is something that most people grow out of after about their 13th birthday, but not the people who are wanting to run this country. The ANC should just change it’s name to TTP (Tyrannical Tots Party). Zapiro beat me to the punch to this conclusion. This seems to be the way for our political leaders the last while. Zuma, Malema, Niehaus et al seem to feel that there is no accountability, and this is sad. Sad because there are any number of politicians and government workers who do a good job, who are honest and truly serve the people to the best of their ability who we never hear about. But as they say in the publishing world “kaka sells”.

So anyway, I was sitting here this morning early nursing my second cup of coffee when I was struck by inspiration. Zapiro should draw a cartoon titled “Send in the clowns” and draw Zuma, Malema and Niehaus in clown outfits and makeup. I think that would be a funny one. Should Jonathan Shapiro ever be hit with illustrators’ block and happen across this post while trawling through the internet in search for inspiration he is welcome to this idea for a cartoon. Use it, don’t use it.

It was while looking for the lyrics to “Send in the clowns” that I remembered another song that could also be applied to South African politics. “The Lunatics have taken over the asylum” by Fun Boy Three, which would also be a perfect description of the 3 Poesketeers. In reading the lyrics of the song I was struck by this:

i’ve seen the faces of starvation
but i just can not see the points
‘cos there’s so much food here today
that no one wants to take away

the lunatics have taken over the asylum
the lunatics have taken over the asylum