When many of us see groups of large men with bald heads, long beards and tattoos wearing black clothes going into dingy looking clubs with doof-doof music blaring out of it – it is pretty much the last place you want to go. It can’t be safe – can it? __________________________ This evening, I was…
I really didn’t want to like it. It would make life so much easier if I didn’t. But thanks to the sterling effort of a few friends, I must confess that I do like Zurich. What I do like: Zurich has character – the verges are not always neat and tidy, the buildings…
Happy Freedom Day everyone! Can you believe it really is 20 years (2 decades!) since so many of us went and voted for the first time on that April day in 1994? I thought of something profound to say, but my happiness revolves around my pride at South Africa as a country, and the people…
I know that I suffer from post-holiday blues, always have done. Especially right after an amazing 2-weeks-feels-like-a-month trip to my friends and family in Sunny South Africa. It brings up all sorts of existential questions of “what am I doing so far from home?” and the like… So I cannot decide if it was a…
This is why I am boycotting the Olympic Games in Russia in 2014. We have all heard about the “propaganda” laws, and know that homosexuals (humans) are bring discriminated against. But this Channel 4 Dispatches documentary – “Hunted” shows just how bad it is. How there are vigilante groups that systematically hunt gays and lesbians…
“How much deception was there?” he asked… “A bit”… although I prefer to call it preparation for a successful surprise. And it did lead to one of the best hugs I have ever received – I still get goosebumps when I tell the story and tears in my eyes when I look at the photos.…
On Thursday evening a group of South Africans in Munich organised a memorial service in honour of Nelson Mandela. This was done voluntarily and out of goodwill, to bring fellow South Africans together in a space to mourn and celebrate this great man. To bring us together at a time when home is so far…
The day has come. 5 December 2013. The day we knew was very close, but were somehow hoping would not ever happen. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has died. As i sit here on the couch, watching the news channels, i am shell-shocked. I am numb. I feel alone, and so very very far away from…
Most of you know that I am fairly – very – passionate about my home country, South Africa. So it will come as little surprise that I jumped at the opportunity to see the South African “Isango Ensemble” perform “Die Zauberfloete” (The Magic Flute, or Impempe Yomlingo ) at the Tollwood Winter festival. I am not…
So this is what it feels like when you sit waiting for news about a loved one. You know they are going to die, you know it is inevitable, you know it will release them from pain and suffering. You don’t necessarily want to admit that a part of you will be relieved for them…
