So things have been on a relatively even keel lately. Home life is as content as can be and work is…well work.
I’ve not even used my earphones all that much at the office in the last week.
However…
Being content and even happy makes for rather slim pickings on the blogging front. Who wants to read about my lovely visits to the lavender garden every day. Or about my relaxing baths or even about the birds humming outside my bedroom window every morning.
Once in a while is okay. But every day?
While I enjoy being in that good space, I yawn just thinking about writing about it.
I’ve even back-burnered my colleagues to unimportant in the grand scheme of things in my life. Other than being people I have to work with daily.
Did I mention I passed three of my four UNISA subjects? I decided to just focus on the three I passed instead of freaking out about the other one.
Some irritations have started showing through though. So this contented blogger might have a high horse or two to saddle soon.
For example…
Helen Zille and Patricia de Lille – need I say more? Regular readers of this blog know my opinion on those two.
Jacob Zuma and his nepotism that continues unabated…
The new Information Act law…
Fairlady Magazine’s August issue so disappointed me with their fashion pages! Pretty much the only reason I usually buy the magazine. That and the crossword puzzles.
You magazine and their international celebrity covers! Even in the aftermath of the most locally is lekker month and a half.
The Springboks!
But then this morning I received an email from UNISA giving me an extension on an assignment, so even that irritation has somewhat dissipated.
It was with a great deal of sadness that I heard of the death of Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert on e-tv news last night. He was 70 years old (very hard to believe!)
If ever there was a politician and then later political analyst/commentator I admired, it was that man. There are few enough of those who speak with seemingly little bias. Now there will be one less.
When he spoke about the country’s problems, which he seldom glossed over, he gave the impression he was speaking without hidden agendas or criticising just for the sake of it – unlike other other opposition politicians.
He made sense to me a lot of the time – even for someone like me who generally supports our current government.
I admired him for his fight against apartheid, for not remaining in the apartheid government - and for the establishment of the Institute for a Democratic alternative in SA ( IDASA).
Dr van Zyl Slabbert has defintely made a difference in South Africa’s history and he certainly made a huge impact on me.
It came as a surprise to me that Julius Malema got any real punishment at all from the ANC, but it seems he had gone too far with his taunts and other outrageous behaviour.
However he was more than just reprimanded this time. Apparently the ANC hierachy have decided to lay down the law. And the worse of his punishments could turn out the be the two year suspended sentence, which might result in him getting suspended from the ANC.
Just watching Malema try to be quiet for 2 years should be entertaining enough.
He might think going to leadership and anger management classes is beneath him, plus we know he isn’t the world’s best student. Or he could think paying R10 000 (of the R20 000 he claims to earn per month) is a heavy price to pay.
Now that the punishment has been dished out (and we hear there was a plea bargain of sorts) will Malema be able to tow the line?
Does he have it in him to not offer an opinion or not allow himself to be provoked by the media?
Or will he use someone else in the ANCYL to be his spokesperson or rather mouthpiece.
Somehow I doubt that Julius Malema will remain out of trouble for any length of time. He is supposedly giving another press conference later today.
President Zuma goes from one blunder to the next. Now he’s gone and declared his HIV/Status, supposedly his intention was to encourage people to get tested.
When I heard him on the news say that he was HIV negative, my first thought was disbelief.
Because we all know he knowingly had sex with a woman who is HIV positive.
Other than the fact that the woman did not willingly agree to being intimate with him, the president made matters worse by testifying in court that he hadn’t used a condom, but showered afterwards. Implying it was enough to avoid contracting the disease.
We also know that the president has three current wives and a fiance. And he had an affair with Irvin Khoza’s daugther, resulting in a pregnancy.
While knowing how sexually irresponsible Jacob Zuma is – how can he be the spokesperson for safe sex or anything around HIV/AIDS?
The man has just been lucky that he hasn’t contracted the disease and passed it on to his wives and girlfriends.
Lesson 1 anyone can learn from the Zuma situation is that you can go around and have irresponsible sex, take a shower afterwards and move onto the next woman.
Get tested and continue on your merry way while some other random person can have sex just once and contract the disease.
Lesson 2 we can learn from our President Jacob Zuma my fellow South Africans, is to grow a thick skin. It protects you from political enemies, courts of law, as well as from HIV.
