The Real Jenty

A rhino at the Krugersdorp Park was killed by poachers during the night.

Lance and I were discussing it this evening, when Bradley asked about what we were talking about.

So I told him.  He asked how they killed the rhino.  I said that they used poison.  He asked why, did they want her skin?  I said, no, her horns.  They cut her horns off once she was dead.

He says “Oh ja, for the chinese people because they think it’s makes them clever”

Then there was silence.

And he said “That makes me sad.  Where am I going to see rhinos now?”

Ja thanks a LOT Mr Poacher… you selfish git!!

It’s not just future generations that you’re depriving of beautiful animals… it’s my kids!!!

And I’m so not happy about this!  It doesn’t only make me sad.  It makes me very very angry.

Some people still have the flags on their cars, but what are you doing with all the flags you bought for WC2010?

I know of some people who bought flags from every single country that participated.

Well, don’t throw them away quite yet.  Firstly, there’s a Keep Flying campaign going on trying to encourage people to carry on flying them for the next month.  And in fact, there’s an entire Keep the Flag Flying website that’s been set up too!

If you do insist on not using them though, here’s an even more brilliant idea! Donate it!

That’s right it’s not that ludicrous… there’s an organisation in East London called Recycled Inc that’s wanting to use the old flags to make bags and shirts etc to sell to support vegetable gardens in their  local schools.  I like that idea!!

And they have a blog too… check it out, and send them your flags

It’s the morning of the World Cup, and last night I watched the opening concert broadcast from Orlando Stadium at home in front of the fire with Lance. The boys stayed up to watch a bit of it, but it’s a massive pity they didn’t get to see the big songs like the flag song… I was actually crying at many parts of the concert…

I can’t remember when last I’ve felt so proud to be a South African. It was awesome sitting there watching the tweets about #wc2010 and chatting on FB and Twitter with friends at the concert and in their living rooms around the world all experiencing the same thing as us.

Oh and that speech by the Arch was phenomenal! Mike Stopforth described him so perfectly on Twitter “Archbishop Tutu is a precious little black Yoda”

This morning Connor even got into the spirit. As he woke up the first thing he said was “It’s the World Cup!”.

I feel it… it is HERE!!

The place is really buzzing now about the FIFA World Cup 2010.

The DJ’s on 5FM are talking about it all day. Twitter is abuzz with tweets with #WC2010 attached, especially when teams or players are spotted or like today, where some daft cameraman was seen in Sandton City wearing a bullet proof vest.  Almost every second car on the street has got flags on their side mirrors and flags sticking out of windows.  There are so many people wearing soccer shirts or just shirts with South African flags on them.

The office is talking about who’s taking leave on Friday to watch the game, and what time we can leave the office; while some people in other offices are scheming how they’re going to be able to watch at the office (our company has everything well organised for everyone to be able to watch).

Everyone is talking about it.

A friend of mine in the US spoke about it on FB just now, and said I need to take photos of it to capture the excitement; and I realised that I should.  And I need to blog about it more.  It’s something I’d like to remember, and would be nice for the kids to read one day.  So, I think my focus for the next few weeks should be soccer related on my #365.

First thing happening is the street procession on Wednesday that I’m there for.  Not sure what I’m going to do on Friday.  We have a half day, and I’m going to have to let Beauty go home early too.  The roads are going to be bedlam.

Lance is watching at work… he started a new job this week and he has to be there.  Maybe I should watch the opening ceremony and the match with my mom at their house with the kids…  hmmm… think that’ll be my plan for the day.

What are you doing?  Where are you watching the game?

I attended an interesting meeting the other day, and one of the guys that were in the meeting was telling us about the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and a little bit more about how it works.  I cannot help be impressed by what he said… I had no idea that…

1.  When a child get looked after by the fund, it’s a holistic funding.  A foster family is found.  They get money from the fund and instructions on how they expect the child and his/her siblings (cos they’re never split up) must get looked after.  The funds pay for everything including all the schooling until the age of 18.

2.  When the child reaches 18, they then get educated further by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

3.  When they’ve finished studying they have to go back into the community where they grew up, and work there for the first 3 years to uplift the community.

Impressive hey?

Then, you know those 46664 bracelets?  Well, I didn’t realise that the serial numbers on them were so important.  I knew they were serialised, but had no idea what the reason was… it’s so that you can track where your money went.

Cool hey?!

I like what I heard

I got a SMS from Hannah a few weeks ago to say that they needed help with winter uniforms.  I haven’t been able to help with that, but I have got all my kids old clothes from last year, and Louisa has kindly given me all of her old baby clothes too. I’m going to take them on Friday as I planned.

Then, I got thrown! I just spotted the latest update on the St Jane de Chantal page on Facebook, saying that they’ve got a new baby and they need help because they’re going to have to try and get the baby treated privately.  This isn;t the first time she’s had to do this, the last baby she got in was treated this way too… because the government hospital told her that time that she baby was too sick, and there was no hope, and she refused to give up.

I really need to go there on Friday!!  If anyone can help with the treatment, I’ll find out more details and post the request here.

They fixed it!!

They arrived yesterday to fix the water problem.  I didn’t actually realise that they were also striking… that makes sense then.

And then they also went above and beyond duty a little.  The main tap inside our garden had also been leaking, and Lance had fixed it, but not covered it up yet, because he was waiting for them to fix the problem on the road so he could stop the water for a while, while he sorted it out properly.

They looked at what he had done, and asked where the cover was for it.  He told them that there had never been a cover, and the one reason he’s left it open was so he could put a bigger pipe around it to protect it.

They proceeded to go the truck and get him a proper meter cover!! How cool is that?!  So now it looks proper too

Today is Earth Day 2010, and I should really be blogging about what I’m doing to help the environment, and to encourage everyone else to do the same.

However, I’m too irritated with Joburg Water… and the subject matter is actually related!

We have a leak at our water meter on the road, and Lance reported it 3 days ago… do you think anyone has bothered to come and fix it?  Of course not!  When he logged the call, the guy couldn’t even tell him how long it would take to fix.

And it’s not a trickle!  OK, it’s not a fountain either, but that’s not the point, it’s SUCH a waste of a precious resource.

We only found it because we had a leak at our main tap, and we needed to turn it off at the meter to fix the problem.  So, until they fix the leak at the meter, we can’t actually replace the fitting that’s worn out inside our garden walls.

I wonder how much water has been lost with the leak so far?  It makes me mad even thinking about it actually.

Not only that.. but when Lance opened it up, he had to scoop out the muddy deposits on top of the actual meter to get to it.  Which leads me to the next question… when last did they actually read our meter?

And it’s not only ours, Lance went to check our neighbours meter too… and it’s even worse.  His is completely covered in hardened soil!!

How the hell are we being charged?

And also… if they’d freaking bothered to read the meter more regularly they would have found the leak sooner and less water would have been wasted!! So much for their banner on the home page of their website talking about being a water warrior – if you start some kind of campaign like that – you should start with your own employees!!

Every single little girl grows up learning about the gracefulness being a ballerina.

Every single little girl, at some point in her life, yearns to dance.

Every single little girl wants to wear a tutu and a tiara and prance around on tippy toes and dance to her hearts content.

Every single little girl dreams of dancing to audiences on a stage and getting praise and applause for being beautiful and graceful and perfectly girly.

Dancing to me, is an essential part of growing up.

Dancing is an essential part of human culture.

I got the link to the Save the Cape Town City Ballet site yesterday, and I think it’s a crying shame that the company is not getting the funding that’s needed to develop and bolster all the little girls in Cape Town’s dreams of being a ballerina.

Basically the Ballet company will close down if it doesn’t receive urgent funding.  We cannot let that happen.

I don’t have a little girl, but I have a niece.  A little girly girl, who learnt to walk on her tippy toes, before she walked on flat feet.  She has just turned 3, and is forever twirling and dancing and prancing around.  The thought of her not being able to go to that prestigious company, if she ever gets that good, just because a few bureaucrats were shortsighted, makes my blood boil.

So, lets all pull together to do something about it.  Please tell your companies.  Please tell your colleagues.  Please tell your friends.

If you donate something, you also stand a chance to win one of the following:

• One of 5 sets of double tickets to the Poetry In Motion Gala Event, to be
  held at Artscape Opera House on Sunday, 9 May 2010 [ More info ... ]

• 24 Bottles of wine, kindly donated by Michael Oliver, along with 3 signed
  copies of his books.

• A magnificent poster-size photographic print from Cape Town City Ballet’s
  current photographer, Pat Bromilow-Downing.

Please use the reference JV1 for your donations:

Cheques should be made out to:
CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET and posted to
PO Box 94, RONDEBOSCH 7701

For direct internet transfers:
Bank: NEDBANK
Account name: CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET
Branch code: 123 209 (Please note: Some banks will require 2 extra 00′s at the end, eg. 123 209 00)
Account no: 123 200 8842
Reference: Name + Reference Number (JV1)

If you make a donation, please send an email to win@savecapetowncityballet.co.za and with details of  your name,
contact details and the amount donated. All emails received will be placed into a
random draw, to be held on Tuesday, 4 May 2010.

I’m a little late, but my freedom of expression was curbed at work today, because Websphere has decided that my blog is a games site… but anyhoo… I cannot be stopped

There was a call a few days ago for all SA bloggers to unite against the threat against freedom of expression in South Africa. Now I don’t normally get involved in political issues on my blog… but this time I feel strongly enough about it, so I’m joining in the fray.

Expression of my thoughts is why this blog has been going for so long. Yes, some thoughts have been tempered over time because there have been huge ramifications about what I’ve said in the past, but in essence, my blog has remained about my thoughts about what happens to me and affects me and my family and friends.

From my blogging, I know how difficult it is at times to stand by what you write… there are very often times that a lot of people disagree with me, but it’s important to get those thoughts out, I think. If I think about something in some way, guaranteed someone else will think the same thing but not be able to put it into words. And by getting those thoughts on my blog, I get to properly explore my feelings and get to rationalise them too (well hopefully anyway)

Anyway, this was a very long preamble, and hopefully you’re still awake but because of the reactions to some of things I’ve blogged about in the past, I take my hat off to investigative journalists. I really do! They play an extremely important role in our society and even though, I don’t necessarily agree with the tactics they might employ to get the story… get the story they must!

And so, that is why I join Chris Roper and other SA bloggers in this campaign, and post the message as written by Sipho Hlongwane

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC YouthLeague spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa.
We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.
The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to
silence them in their legitimate work.
We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but a insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information
about the Youth League President.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

See the blogroll here

Ooh and an update… the ANCYL has responded