Things to look out for

• I Recently watched an Afrikaans movie, Poena is koning, and it is a laugh a minute comedy about Afrikanerdom and their place in this liberal country. It examines topics like Afrikaner conservatism and sexuality, homophobia, racism and many more. And there is that Afrikaans rap song, Leeuloop, which I think is cool.

• There is a very important documentary about health care in Cuba and the world and how the Cubans contribute towards better health care for all in the world. The film is called Salud! and it is a must watch. What strikes me about the film is this entrenched phenomenon in South Africa of accumulation of wealth at all costs. There is an interview with Dr. Kgosi Letlape who uttered the famous Smuts Ngonyama words, "I did not go to university to be poor". It also compares the Cuban health system to the rest of the world and it is a must see.

• While still on Salud you must also read Fidel Castro's autobiography, it is also riveting reading. Even if you detest him you get to hear his point of view. And there is also another documentary called "Cuba: The African Odyssey" about the role of Cuba and Che Guevara in the liberation of Africa from colonisation.

• If you are a religious person visit Kara Heritage Institute on the role of Africa on things religious and cosmological. Interesting reading. It is an institute that was created by Dr. Mathole Motshekga, former premier of Gauteng, and it is also a must read.

• Also check out a compilation on Steve Biko called "Biko Lives: Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko" edited by Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexandra and Nigel Gibson. Read an interview that was done with Biko just before he was killed and you will realise that South Africa lost a giant in the mold of Sartre and Frantz Fanon. He was a philosopher of immense intellect.

Now that I have promoted material for these few people I must go and claim my share. After all the culture in South Africa is to get rich by all means. I'm off to write an invoice....

The Dullness of Radio

Radio in South Africa has become boring and even more boring. Except for a few shows here and there on different radio stations there is nothing much on offer. Radio could be used as an escape from the terrible programmes and repeats that are offered on TV but there is nowhere to run to anymore. All you get is loudmouthed presenters with no substance at all.

A considerable number of months back I stumbled into a newly revamped Radio 2000. Besides keeping me up to date on my addiction, which is sport, they played all kinds of music across the board and their shows were vibey. It was love at first listen. The presenters and their pairing was refreshing and out of this world. I know that there are those who lamented the passing away of the old Radio 2000, but I felt that they were just stuck in the old South Africa, which is none of my concern. The chemistry between the presenters was something fresh and engrossing. But alas, the powers that be at that radio station have decided to change the line up.

The first I got wind of it was listening to KG Moeketsi and Ernest Pillay. That show is so dull. Well granted I listened to it once and that was it, couldn't stomach it and switched off my radio. The worst show ever must be Bertha Charuma and Kenny Niemach, my goodness, what were they thinking giving Niemach a show, was it because of his good looks or knowledge for soccer (which is the only thing he is clued up about in my opinion).

I have since stopped listening to radio. Maybe it is also because my jalopy doesn't have one since someone decided to take it twice without my permission.

Our President needs parental supervision

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that our president in waiting, Jacob Zuma, has no appreciation of how the law works. This is borne out of the many utterances he has made about constitutionalism, the fight against crime and conspiracies abound.

He has recently stated that the Constitutional Court judges think that they are god and they need to be engaged. He has said that they cannot have as much power as they have now. He has also said that the power of the Judicial Services Commission needs to be checked. Reading this I got very scared that our president in waiting can be so blase' about things that goes to the heart of our constitution. He has said that he is unlikely to appoint Dikgang Moseneke, the current Deputy Chief Justice, because he has said unsavoury things about the ANC. Moseneke is reported to have said at a private party that he does not serve the ANC but serves the country. What is unsavoury about that I don't know.

Poor old Jessie Duarte has had to come to the President in waiting's rescue to explain what he meant by these statements (as has become the norm). It has become a full time job for the ANC to manage Jacob Zuma and his embarrassing utterances. Carl Niehaus was good at it. This started with that infamous and embarrassing interview with some British journalist who asked whether Jacob Zuma was a crook and he gave out that laugh that Thabo Mbeki apparently dislikes and said that he will have to look the word up in the dictionary.

He has said that the Constitutional Court outlawed capital punishment and this needs to be revisited while it was the ANC that vehemently pushed for the removal of the death penalty. He has said that he saw nothing wrong with his involvement with Shabir Shaik. He has said that the laws of the country are soft on crime and they need to bite. How soft they are he could not say.

Clearly our president in waiting needs to be managed tightly and he should never be allowed to give of the cuff interviews, he can be rather embarrassing by his lack of appreciation of things legal. He must always read from prepared notes and questions from journalists should be vetted first.

Unless all his embarrassing utterances are what the ANC is about. If that is the case be very, very afraid because Jacob Zuma would take out his whip ala' Jesus and whip all those who have been bad to the ANC church.

Mundane Observations - only in SA

• If you want to make a quick buck and in the process get a golden handshake, become the CEO of SAA. Just ask Ncqula, Viljoen, and Andrews how it is done.
• You can also run a healthy organisation into billions of debt, get a golden handshake for your efforts and still fight for reinstatement in court, ask Dali Mpofu how do to it.
• You can divert funds that have been earmarked for provision of water for a trip of 14 kids to Brazil worth a million and when they ask why you can tell them that we have had good rains recently, ask the Mayor of a rural Ngaka Modiri Molema in Mafikeng how to succeed at that.
• Jacob Zuma has been saying that the our laws are soft criminals and they must begin to bite. I thought you were only a criminal once it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law....hhmmm...wonder who he was referring to, definitely not Shabir Shaik and definitely not himself. Is he referring to those accused persons out on bail or in jail. he needs to be clear
• Send a crook to catch a crook, just ask the NPA on the Selebi saga. Shouldn't they ask Zuma as state witness to catch bigger fish. After all they have learnt a lot from the Selebi matter. It has always been said that Zuma is a small fish.

Anarchy - a compeling choice

I have read a bit of the Batswana history and an interesting fact is that they have never had a paramount Chief like your Moshoeshoe or Shaka. This was borne out of a fact that since they were nomadic they preferred to have loose relations and they would change their allegiance to leaders depending on their needs at a particular time. Batswana were slave traders and chieftainship arose out of people owning slaves and fights over slave trade. Slaves would be freed and they would group themselves into a tribe but these would disintegrate or get assimilated into other groupings depending on what interests the group wanted to protect. In short there were no rigid governing authorities, a group of individuals could move away from a certain authority and from their own authority. Batswana are the people who are least dogmatic about their culture.

Now what does this have to do with the topic above. I believe Batswana practiced some form of anarchy before the majority pledged their allegiance to the Queen during the wars of conquest. Because of their loose alliance practice you will find Batswana in most of the SADEC countries, though they go by different names. Here in South Africa you will find them scattered in all the provinces.

Anarchy is derived from the Greek word "anarchos", which means without rulers. Anarchist believe that the state as compulsory government is unnecessary, undesirable and harmful. Anarchist are diverse in their outlook and you have to choose which strand you identify with best. I have not delved much in which kind of anarchism I am comfortable with but this from of government is becoming more appealing to me.

Anarchy is becoming more appealing to me because indeed the state and its monopolies does not have the interest of the masses at heart besides control and exploitation. Morden states have committed a lot of attrocities in the name of national security and self determination. One has to look at the behaviour of countries like America, Israel, Russia to see how many people have been made to suffer under the banner of homeland security.

Here in South Africa apartheid is a prime example of how the state can be used to subjugate other groupings. The end of apartheid has also seen the emergence of a democratic state where people have become even poorer. Corruption and cronyism is becoming much more entrenched. Our country is facing banananisation and every day comes with new examples of how state structures are used to benefit a few. Prime example is how the state has dealt with the scorpoins, the travelgate scandal, Shabir Shaik, Tony Yengeni, corruption within municipalities, the prison department, the land bank and so forth. There are so many examples of the subversion of the rule of law by the state in pursuit of partisan interests. In the end one has to ask whether it was really worth it.

The opposition parties do not offer any alternatives from what the ruling party is offering. Elsewhere in the world we are seeing the adoption of communist tendencies by the state in order to bail out the rich and the monopolies that are struggling as a result of their collapse. These tendencies are meant to benefit the rich only, however.

I am getting more attracted to the idea of a stateless society, where people will rely on their inherent goodness to conduct relations. There is a lot of goodness in this world but the existence of a state has corrupted this goodness.

"'Twas the best of times, 'twas the worst of times"

I can't remember who uttered these words but they were said by a prominent writer I believe? Charles Dickens perhaps? Anyway that is how I can sum up the last few weeks of my existence.

I lost my father after a very short illness and this came as a blow. Seeing him lying helpless in a hospital bed left one feeling empty and gutted because he has never been a sickly person. One day it was a routine check up, one day he needed to be operated on urgently, one day he was too fragile to be operated and the other day he was gone. Very jolly person, who was content with the world and who lived for his family, my father. I was part of the delegation that went to dress him before the burial rituals and that experience is forever imprinted in my mind. Having to deal with my mother throughout the whole process was difficult and heart breaking. But I've known her to be a strong person. It is an experience one is never prepared for and words can never be enough to express the emotions.

During this time I had already taken a conscious decision that I was leaving my cushy job and was going to do my articles in order to be admitted as an attorney. It was a huge decision taken after many years of contemplation. Part of the decision involved relocating and leaving my family behind in order to pursue this dream of mine. It is heartening to know that there is a lot of support from family and friends and one will not be left in a lurch.

I have had to give up all the privileges that comes up with being in management and have gone back to using my old laptop that in my opinion belongs in a dustbin. For the past two weeks or so I could not access my emails and the Internet because of an unidentifiable problem with this dinosaur of mine. I have been advised not to do automatic updates because it seems that every time I do that then my access to the Internet is gone. Am I going to lose all my information once it crashes? I believe it is a matter of time.

In all this madness I have also registered with the Law Society and Unisa to do my Practical Legal Training through distance education and am also finishing my masters with UWC. I have already missed a number of deadlines for assignments, research proposal and so forth. My life is a right mess. So begins my life of being a student in the true sense of the word. I will conquer though, I will make it.

And in the meantime life has been happening, the elections, the never ending Zuma saga, the world cup and the world economy, and oh!, there is still that debate between me and Laura on education that I still have to respond to. I think it is a debate we need to take further.

In the meantime I enjoyed reading all my favourite blogs although I was not in a position to add tlhware logonyana....lets continue blogging!!

Am still here

The past four weeks or so have been very hectic and major things have happened in my life. Things are still hectic and it is going to take some teeny bit of time for them to settle down. In good time I will tell you what has been up with me over the period I have been away from this infant of mine called Tlhware logonyana.

The politics of the day get interesting by the hour and there is sure a whole lot that I want to say. But I am here and we will get to interact soon.