21 posts tagged “south africa”
i'm yet to write about my tokyo experience. till then, i have been thinking
more about elections and voting and having the power to change our world.
if anything the recent US elections should do, is inspire citizens of
countries like South Africa to vote in their upcoming elections.
And yet I find myself trying to convince people to register this weekend to
vote. it is insane and sad and concerning how apathetic people are in this
country and yet so feeling that they are deserving of everything without
putting in anything... without trying to make things happen for themselves
or as a collective as a community, as a nation. i was trying to explain to
some of my colleagues that if there are millions of others who think the
same way as they do (that their vote doesn't matter) and that there will
never be change, then there won't be any change.
also that... we may not have strong leaders to vote for, but we do have the
power to spread ruling power from the majority ruling party to opposition
and minority parties simply by not voting for the ruling party and voting
for opposition parties. but by voting nonetheless. but if we don't vote at
all... then we are just giving power to the ruling party... and enabling
them to carry on their crap..
I had a fairly good week. There were no lows, some highs and overall positiveness. I published my website and have been getting some good feedback and support from friends and family.
Last Friday was a work dinner/function and was held at Hazeldene Hall which is just around the corner from where I live. I did not realise this and a driver was sent to chauffer us to the venue and back again (which was literally less than a kilometer away). The venue was lovely, the food was superb.
I cooked steaks for dinner last night for Nani and myself. Rare steaks. Nani was eating in her room, left her food unattended went to the bathroom and when she returned, after a moment's confusion, screamed out in realisation that the Charlie & Igby stole her steak off her plate and were chewing on it in the corner of her room. She was not impressed.
My mom asked me what were my highs and lows yesterday. I replied that one was the shower I had when I woke up which defrosted me and kept me warm till I got to work. The box of chocolates that one of my colleagues left on my desk to say thank you for getting her a new laptop battery. There were no lows, but I don't recall anything else standing out as a high.
The gym at work is closed for a week while they relocate from the basement to the 10th Floor. I am feeling lazy already.
Side note:
A week or so ago I noticed a poster stuck on several of the street light poles which was headed
'ABORTIONS' and to this effect 'Affordable, Painless and Quick. Call Doctor xxx-xxxx'. The poster was one of which you would possibly advertise a car for sale or that your pet was missing with little strips of paper on the end to take a phone number. Downtown Johannesburg, the lower end of Harrison Street near the Home Affairs building.
The week started out crazy busy and stressful but by mid-week it just got real slow and quiet and crawling towards the weekend. A few people at work and some friends are either in London this week or going to be in London soon, I've been watching the tennis and watching Secret Diary of a Call Girl (with it's fantastic London scene shots) have been making me pine more than ever since being back. I really enjoyed the London summers (short as they were), somehow the sun shining there is a lot more special than it shining here in SA.
I went to a hawan last night. This was due to my cousin Shavern moving into a new house with his fiance. I had not been to one since my grandfather died some years ago. Childhood memories of sunday temple, not knowing the words to the bhajans, just the tune and melody engraved in my brain, familiar smells, running away from hindi school in the afternoons. Shavern cooked up a fantastic spread of vegetable and soya dishes (with butter ghee being the 'secret' ingredient), there was even roti and vermicelli for pudding. We were all impressed.
Headed out to Natal this weekend past to the central drakensberg to meet up with my family. This was the view from the cottage we were staying in at Champagne Lane. The weather was great on Saturday, sunny and cool, perfect weather for a hike. Unfortunately there were no trails around the property we were staying at due to developers buying and fencing off the land. So we drove to the national parks board about 8km away and set-off on what we had not anticipated to be a 12km hike. Took us about 3.5 hours round-trip with the destination being Nandi Falls, which was totally worth the effort!
So after several months of being back in South Africa and adjusting to life without on-demand, unlimited downloads, 4MB ADSL broadband, I decided to just go-ahead and get telkom's 2GB, 384kbps, ridiculously priced ADSL (compared to the UK and the rest of the modern world).
Telkom's telephone support service remains inconsistent, and depending on your luck, you can speak to a consultant almost immediately, or you can hold on the line for 30 minutes before you speak to a human being (no exaggeration). I ordered the ADSL line last week Thursday and found the telephone service on that day to be excellent. I was told that the ADSL takes 2 - 6 weeks to be activated and so on Monday morning I was surprised to receive a call letting me know that the ADSL line is activated. Not having expected the line to be ready so soon, I had not decided on an ISP. Later in the day I called up 2 different ISPs but was put on hold for way too long so I decided that I would select telkom as my internet provider. It was getting clear that it was a bad day for telephone support. I was on hold for 25 minutes before I spoke to a consultant. Admittedly the consultant was very helpful and arranged for her colleague to call me back to give me my login details. An hour later I received a call from a telkom consultant who gave me all the relevant details I needed to setup my adsl router. Later in the evening when I was home I tried to get the adsl working but was not coming right, so I call telkom's home dsl support line. I wait for another 20 minutes before I speak to a very helpful consultant but who did not manage to solve my problem. Afterwards I figure out that I was missing the correct filter for the telephone (which was causing a lot of noise on the line). Faizal helped me with the filter which got me connected! The line speed last night was decent.
So overall I have been happy with telkom's service. The consultants have been helpful, activation was quick for both the adsl line and the ISP. Telkom just needs more people, so that the time holding on before speaking to a consultant is not more than 5 - 10 minutes.
Perhaps South African State President Thabo Mbeki needs to read his "I am an African" speech again which he delivered on 8th May 1996.
earlier this year i put an ad out for a housemate to share my flat with me. i was not completely taken with the idea because i have had my fair share of difficult, crazy housemates. i had the ad out for about a month and interviewed a handful of people. at some point i got a call enquiring about the flatshare and the voice was softspoken, sweet and had a foreign accent that i could not quite place. the voice belonged to Nani who has now been my housemate since March.
Nani is congolese, is french speaking, completely strange and wonderfully interesting. she is also brilliant and entertaining and her laughter is infectious. it took some time for Nani to open up and share a bit of her life and self and stories and insight and take on life in general. i feel that we are friends and i am completely embarrassed and disgusted with my countrymen's behaviour towards african foreigners.
Nani, her family, friends and other foreigners in her situation are forced to be here in fear and for what when all they came to South Africa for is study and in some way create a better life for themselves which may not be possible in their own countries. Now they are forced to flee this place that could be said to be the 'land of the free'? Africa's equivalent of the once upon a time USA. A country where you can have a better life.
where is the respect for life, for your fellow human beings, for people who are in no better situations than the next South African, who are also surviving, trying to make a living, working hard and taking care of their families. where is the humanity. where is the love.
1st January 2008 was spent at the beach near Tongaat north of Durban. It was an incredibly hot day but thankfully there was a breeze and we had shelter from the sun.
I was supposed to be driving up to JHB today but at 2am this morning after trying to fall asleep without any luck, I decided to extend my stay in KZN. So far the family has been getting along fine and it has been a fairly pleasant visit.
My sister left this morning, most of her belongings in tow to start a new chapter of her life in JHB with her boyfriend and a new job. This means that I have been upgraded to the penthouse suite... he he. Ahhhh, air-con... it is wonderful.
My brother the fitness personal trainer has started me on a fitness plan which so far has been great. He is excellent at this.
Been visiting with my grandmothers, trying to coax their fast fading memories about our family history, our ancestors. One find was that my great great great grandfather was a white dude on my mother's mother's (father's side - I think) *shock horror!* Explains the freckles.
Here is a pretty picture from my day at the beach. There are more on my Flickr site.
