My poor son failed his driver's test for the third time last Friday. He is a good, careful, safe driver BUT in the test yard, before he even got out on the road to prove that, he rolled back 1 mm on his hill start.
Instant fail.
I am so angry about the fucking system (which like so many other shitty things about this crappy country) that I could spit (and I'm trying NOT to think about Mbeki and his "What crisis?" stance on Zimbabwe). This article, from NY Times late last year, tells it much better than I, in my present state of rage, ever could:
The Road to a South African Driver’s License
In South Africa, getting a license can be far harder than driving.
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: October 30, 2007
JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 29 — “You will never drive this way again in your life,” Cullen says.
Cullen, a laconic fellow with disheveled hair and a cigarette sagging from his lips, is maneuvering a clapped-out Toyota down a suburban Johannesburg street. He yanks his hand brake up at every stop. He lowers it only after he has hit the gas and the Toyota is straining forward like a leashed Labrador after a biscuit. Cullen swivels constantly in search of cars behind him, cars in his side mirrors, cars in every alley, cars at every intersection.
Occasionally, he watches the road ahead.
“I need a drink,” he says.
Cullen is a South African driving instructor. You would drink, too. His job is to teach people how to pass South Africa’s driver’s license examination, a trial of the country’s K53 method of defensive driving. Herein lies a problem, for the K53 method resembles normal driving about as much as Snoop Dogg resembles Perry Como.
But not the only problem. Securing a South African driver’s license is not as simple as passing the K53 test, which is not simple at all. It also requires that one apply for the license, a bureaucratic process so daunting that it set off riots this year. It necessitates eye examinations before applying for a license and before the road test — and all over again, should one fail. It often demands that one game the driving examiner, who may wish to flunk the hapless applicant to meet the day’s failure quota.
It is helpful to learn South Africa’s extensive and sometimes charming traffic code, which sometimes rates children between 6 and 13 as one-third of a passenger and includes a road sign that depicts a stick-figure man astride an ostrich.
If one does all this, one can proceed to take the K53, and flunk on the merits. For the K53 is just part of the Catch-22 that faces every aspiring motorist here: To drive legally, one very sensibly needs a license. Except that licenses often seem impossible to get.
All right, not impossible. They are nevertheless very difficult. In a two-year period that ended in July, the national transport ministry says, 1.5 million people applied for driver’s licenses. Fewer than 4 in 10 actually received them. Over all, the government says, South Africa has about 8.5 million motor vehicles and 7.8 million licensed drivers. The nation’s transport minister said in July that so few motorists get licenses because they do not study hard enough for their exams, and he could be right: the K53 is hardly a no-brainer.
Based on Britain’s national driving exam, the K53 effectively requires an applicant to imagine that he is driving a live claymore mine under assault by guerrillas in bumper cars. The hand brake must be engaged silently at all stops (ratchet-clicking is strictly forbidden), and all mirrors must be checked every seven seconds. Points are deducted for glancing at the gearshift, driving too slowly, failing to ensure that head- and taillights are securely attached, failing to check the play on the clutch pedal, failing to look beneath the car for leaks and several score other sins.
There are many ways to fail instantly, including permitting one’s automobile to roll backward, even an inch, while stopping or starting.
Road safety experts hail the K53 as a textbook lesson in defensive driving. True, some of the minutiae are “perhaps overkill,” said Gary Ronald, the spokesman for the South African Automobile Association. “But it does work.”
In practice, he acknowledged, it appears that very few people pass the K53 on the first try. South African drivers tend to throw caution not just to the winds but into a deep ravine, often with a derisive farewell blow of the horn. Red lights are frequently treated like a matador’s red cape, especially by drivers of so-called combis, minivans that move a vast share of the population to and fro each day.
Even though the K53 method has been used for a dozen years — or perhaps because so few drivers have obtained licenses — traffic accidents and deaths are rising fast, to 15,400 fatalities last year, up nearly 9 percent from 2005. The fatality rate per mile traveled, the best measure of road safety, is five times that in the United States, which is in turn higher than in most developed nations.
Another reason may be that the exam is stacked against some applicants. The $25 fee to schedule a driver’s exam is split between the national and local governments. Some localities, Mr. Ronald said, have become so fond of that easy money that they are notorious for flunking applicants, apparently in the expectation that they will pony up $25 more to reapply.
And many might, were it easy to reapply. It is not. License applicants are supposed to apply by telephone, which has proven less than successful. “I have attempted to call the call center — in quick succession — 271 times. Not joking,” one miserable soul wrote in November on the Internet site drivers.com. “I have gotten though to music and voice prompts 18 times. Each time this lasts for three minutes, before you are disconnected.”
Early this year the government installed a computer system to manage auto-related matters. The system promptly broke down. In the ensuing chaos, supplicants for driver’s licenses began to line up outside motor vehicle offices before sunrise, waiting hours to get a precious application form. In July the police rushed to one Johannesburg office after throngs of furious would-be drivers tried to break down the doors to apply for licenses.
“People seem to judge by the long queues that the system is not working,” a spokesman for the Transport Ministry said at the time. He added, soothingly, “It’s not true.”
To be sure, South Africans’ licensing misery is, in one odd way, a sign of progress. “A lot of the backlog is caused by the huge upsurge in the number of formerly disadvantaged people who can now afford to buy a car,” said Les Stephenson, the motoring editor of the Independent Online Web site. “Unfortunately, the traffic department just can’t keep up.”
Indeed. In one instance sure to warm the heart of any applicant, a heroic woman recently locked herself and her two children, ages 8 and 2, inside a Cape Town motor vehicle office after bureaucrats refused to hand over her new driver’s license on the grounds that they were closed — 15 minutes before the posted quitting time of 3 p.m.
Few drivers are so persistent. With genuine licenses so hard to obtain, a growing black market offers bootleg ones, usually obtained from corrupt motor vehicle officials, for $150 to $450. In the last two years, investigators found more than 42,000 fake licenses on the government’s own computer registry, and arrested a thousand people, including scores of bureaucrats, on charges of subverting the licensing process.
That total does not include undetected scams, which are legion, and fakes sold by forgers and thieves. Among those caught in the act is the speaker of the South African Parliament, Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile, nabbed in 1997, but not prosecuted, for procuring a phony license from a government testing center.
Ms. Mbete had a ready explanation. She was, she said, too busy to stand in line.
Monday, April 14
Friday, April 4
Monday, March 31
The Book Thief
Australian author Markus Zusak is my new hero and inspiration. I'm two-thirds the way through The Book Thief, which is, as he says: " ... just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . "
This book captivates me on a multiplicity of levels. The use of words is simply outstanding - consider this from the opening paragraphs:
Where are my manners?
I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.
At that moment, you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I'll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.
The question is, what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?
These words are spoken by the book's narrator - Death. (Yeah, that Death!) Set during World War II in
This book works for me in sooo many ways. It touches on things like goodness and evil, words and literature, compassion and hatred, risk, faith, friendship, love, loss - and death. But even more than the actual story itself, as a wannabe writer, I am deeply inspired by the author, Markus Zusak.
In answer to the question of what inspired TBT:
It was a lot like finding a tap that's never been switched on before and turning it on... When I was growing up, my mum and dad told me stories about growing up in Nazi Germany - about a teenage boy who gave a starving Jewish man a piece of bread, of fiery skies and of people who didn't want to fly the Nazi flag. That world came rushing out of the tap. It was all at my feet, but then I had to organize it and turn it all into an imaginative piece of work. Fragments needed to be joined and I searched for the originality that would create not only a story but a style that was compelling for me to write.
In the end, The Book Thief took me three years to write. If nothing else, I know it’s a far different book from anything I’ve done before, which is what made it so challenging. I was also finally satisfied that there was a good sense of imagination in it. In three years, I must have failed over a thousand times, but each failure brought me closer to what I needed to write, and for that, I’m grateful.
Links to interviews: Here, here and here.
Sunday, March 16
The Solution to South Africa's Electricity Crisis
(Sent to me by a friend the other day .... too good not to share! )
My Book of the Moment
Ideas: A History From Fire To Freud by Peter Watson
In my ongoing quest to make sense of life, I found this book at the library a few weeks back. It's a thick tome (1015 pages in paperback not including the index) but taken in small bites, it is very edible!
From The New Statesman review:
It is a long and slow read, given the amount of information to be absorbed, but it is utterly stimulating and I am loving it. Read the full New Statesman review here.
In my ongoing quest to make sense of life, I found this book at the library a few weeks back. It's a thick tome (1015 pages in paperback not including the index) but taken in small bites, it is very edible!
From The New Statesman review:
" ... a universal history of ideas seems an impossibly daunting project. Yet in Ideas: a history from fire to Freud, Watson gives us an astonishing overview of human intellectual development which covers everything from the emergence of language to the discovery of the unconscious, including the idea of the factory and the invention of America, the eclipse of the idea of the soul in 19th-century materialism and the continuing elusiveness of the self. In a book of such vast scope, a reader could easily get lost, but the narrative has a powerful momentum. Watson holds to a consistently naturalistic philosophy in which humanity is seen as an animal species developing in the material world. For him, human thought develops as much in response to changes in the natural environment - such as shifts in climate and the appearance of new diseases - as from any internal dynamism of its own. This overarching perspective informs and unifies the book, and the result is a masterpiece of historical writing."
It is a long and slow read, given the amount of information to be absorbed, but it is utterly stimulating and I am loving it. Read the full New Statesman review here.
Updates
It's been a while, but I'm still in the land of the living - have been photoblogging regularly and watching a lot of DVDs, but have neglected this little bloglet! So time for a bit of catch up time! :)
In February, we moved house - see the pics here. We've been in residence for nearly three weeks now and I am happy to say that it was a really, really good move! My daughter can walk to school in 3 mins, the local library is a 10 min walk away, there is a small shopping centre over the road with a grocery store, fresh veggie market, video rental outlet, laundry, post office, second hand clothes stores, and a ton of other small shops. The flat itself is more like a small house and I have a study in which to write!
One of the benefits of having a son who now works part time in a DVD rental outlet is that he gets to take out two free movies at the end of each shift - and one evening, he brought home the first disc of Season One of 24 - and I got hooked! I'm just about to start watching Season Six, and what a ride it's been. There is so much I could say about the clever storytelling, the non-stop tension which leaves me exhausted, the amazing and incredible plot twists, the dialogue which reaches new lows at times, the wonderful snatches of humor, the alarmingly high body count and the adorable Chloe, who is far and away my favorite character now that (SPOILER!) Tony is dead. And then there's Jack. Who wouldn't want him on your side in a time of crisis? But you can't love Jack the way you can love Chloe and the late Tony!
So much for 24. :)
I'm going back to nursing full time from April, too. After all my carefully laid plans for this momentous year fell through, including my application to study Primary Health Care, I had to rethink everything again. Money became a serious issue, leading to the renting out of my old house and the move to this place, plus my resignation from all my part time jobs and signing on for a full time post with a full time salary. So that leaves me with only one major goal for this year (now that house, job and kids have been taken care of) and that is to actually write one full, complete novel and begin submitting it to agents and publishers. I have wonderful support in the form of two main people: my newest writing buddy Kells, who is encouragement personified and a cheerleader deluxe, and my oldest (as opposed to newest!) and very cherished writing buddy of many years standing, Pat in LA. Both these ladies are great, great writers in their own right - Pat is a leading light in a certain fanfiction community, and Kells has a debut novel that is currently being shopped around . You can still read it online here, if you're quick - once it's been sold, it will no doubt be taken down.
OK, more to follow soon.
In February, we moved house - see the pics here. We've been in residence for nearly three weeks now and I am happy to say that it was a really, really good move! My daughter can walk to school in 3 mins, the local library is a 10 min walk away, there is a small shopping centre over the road with a grocery store, fresh veggie market, video rental outlet, laundry, post office, second hand clothes stores, and a ton of other small shops. The flat itself is more like a small house and I have a study in which to write!
One of the benefits of having a son who now works part time in a DVD rental outlet is that he gets to take out two free movies at the end of each shift - and one evening, he brought home the first disc of Season One of 24 - and I got hooked! I'm just about to start watching Season Six, and what a ride it's been. There is so much I could say about the clever storytelling, the non-stop tension which leaves me exhausted, the amazing and incredible plot twists, the dialogue which reaches new lows at times, the wonderful snatches of humor, the alarmingly high body count and the adorable Chloe, who is far and away my favorite character now that (SPOILER!) Tony is dead. And then there's Jack. Who wouldn't want him on your side in a time of crisis? But you can't love Jack the way you can love Chloe and the late Tony!
So much for 24. :)
I'm going back to nursing full time from April, too. After all my carefully laid plans for this momentous year fell through, including my application to study Primary Health Care, I had to rethink everything again. Money became a serious issue, leading to the renting out of my old house and the move to this place, plus my resignation from all my part time jobs and signing on for a full time post with a full time salary. So that leaves me with only one major goal for this year (now that house, job and kids have been taken care of) and that is to actually write one full, complete novel and begin submitting it to agents and publishers. I have wonderful support in the form of two main people: my newest writing buddy Kells, who is encouragement personified and a cheerleader deluxe, and my oldest (as opposed to newest!) and very cherished writing buddy of many years standing, Pat in LA. Both these ladies are great, great writers in their own right - Pat is a leading light in a certain fanfiction community, and Kells has a debut novel that is currently being shopped around . You can still read it online here, if you're quick - once it's been sold, it will no doubt be taken down.
OK, more to follow soon.
Friday, January 25
There will never, ever be another 'Heath'.
Three days on, the pain is still acute, the sorrow an ever-present ache. I've run out of words, but Heath's family and friends paid tribute to him in today's newspapers in Western Australia so I'd like to post their words here.
By Lisa Pendrill
HEATH Ledger's heartbroken family has tried to describe in words the devastating loss of their beloved son, brother and uncle.
Two columns of death notices in today's West Australian newspaper begin with "How do we describe our sudden and tragic loss? ... ''
The family paid tribute to "Heatho'', "Beef'' and "Roast'' - pet names for the actor who died suddenly in New York on Wednesday - saying "there will never, ever be another Heath''.
Elder sister Kate wrote: "I can hardly breathe when I try to write this . . . we were the ultimate in soul mates. I feel both my heart and life have been torn apart. I loved our special talks, our daily chats from where ever you were in the world.
"I especially loved all the precious time we spent together. We were so fortunate to have you as long as we did. You were so many things to so many people, but to me you were just my little brother.
"There will never, ever be another "Heath'' and I think that in itself is the greatest tragedy.
"I will continue to talk with you everyday and love you just as if you were here. You will never leave my thoughts "Roast'', ever.''
A tribute from all members of Heath's immediate family said: "How do we describe our sudden and tragic loss? ... You were the most amazing individual "old soul" in a young man's body.
"You so loved us, as we dearly loved you. As a close knit and very private family unit we have observed you so determined yet quietly travelling in your self-styled path in life, nothing would get in your way ... no mountain too tall, no river too wide.
"You dreamed your dreams and lived them with passion and intelligent commitment. We have been priviledged to accompany you on a ride through life that has simply been amazing and through it all, we have loved each other beyond imagination.
"Your true legacy lives on in beautiful little Matilda, who will always remain in the greatest of care. Our hearts are broken . . . Dad and Ines, Mum and Roger, Kate and Nathan, Rori and Scarlett, Ashleigh, Olivia, Elana and Nadia.
Ledger's father Kim added: "Heatho'', "Beef'', . . . my beautiful boy, so loving, so talented, so independent, so caring, so young . . . no more chess games mate . . . this is it, couldn't beat you anyway!
"My body aches for the sound of your voice, our chats, our laughs and our life and times together.
"Your truly varied artistic skills, insatiable desire to improve and eclectic abilities set you apart from any other person on the planet . . . it had only just started for you ... and for us to further enjoy. We were one, in soul and commitment. Just . . . Father and Son. I will love you forever, Dad.''
Heath's mother, Sally, wrote: "Our darling boy, special in so many ways to all of us. You knew you were so loved. You lived life with courage and daring and we are so grateful for the wonderful times we shared. We will be there for Matilda. Your loving Mamma, Rog and Ash."
Heath's brother-in-law Nathan said Heath dared to live his dreams. "My dearest brother-in-law, my loss, my life will never be the same. Your kind nature and generosity will be something I will never forget. You will live on in my memory forever. You achieved so much in such a short time. You dared to live your dreams and accomplish so much, mate. Your sister Kate and your nieces Rori and Scarlett will be in good hands. Goodbye my friend.''
Younger sister Olivia wrote: "Heath inspired so many young actors around the world to pursue their dreams. You're my idol, my hero, but most impoartantly, my loving big brother. I'll treasure every moment we spent together. I love you Heath, I miss you and pray every night you're safe.''
Stepmother Ines asked "How do we ever recover from such a tragic loss? You have left us all broken-hearted yet filled with such wonderful memories.
"Your generosity, love and kindess you showed to me, Elana and Nadia was beyond comprehension. You are the beautiful stepson I grew to love and respect and it was a privilege to have known you during the last seven years.
"You charismatic persona will be truly missed.''
Stepsisters Elana and Nadia added: "Heath, you were the older brother we always wanted. Such an amazing person who entered our lives, someone we looked up to and admired. We loved having you around and being a part of such a beautiful family. You will never be forgotten. We promise to look out for the ones you so loved. Our hearts go out to Matilda. We love you.''
Notices were also posted by grandparents Jackie and John, aunty, uncles and cousins Sue, Lester, Jarrad, Simon and Sascha, Mike, Di, Adam, Verity, Tim, Thea, Llew, Jess and James.
Other tributes were published on behalf of Heath's school, Guildford Grammar, the Perth Training Centre, The Cobra Club of WA, Actors Equity of WA, Arts Minister Sheila McHale, Sony Pictures, John Hughes and family and friends throughout Western Australia.
Saturday, January 5
At last '08
I haven't posted for the longest time. Since just before I finished (and won) NaNoWriMo, life had been fraught with one difficulty after another and I have been kinda reeling under the onslaught.
1. My Green Card application was denied as the proposed employer was deemed by the INS to be unable to support salary payments. What a nightmare the next three weeks were as I tried to save the situation. I was told it was possible to appeal and that if I had an approved employer, things might be saved - this turned out to be not true - the appeal could only be on the same basis as the initial application.
2. As the denial had nothing to do with me, a second application stood as good a chance of succeeding. So I ditched the old agent, found a new one after hours of internet research, lorryloads of emails and several crackly transatlantic phone calls, and received a viable new job offer just before Christmas - its' with a LTC facility in Greenwich, Connecticut. The offer is good, the company solid, the benefits and starting salary excellent. So now we start the I-140 application process all over again.....
3. Complicating things is a little thing called retrogression which basically means No Green Cards for anyone at all until the INS has cleared its backlog of cases. :(( Lobbyists are working to improve things and get much needed health care professionals back on the green card track but the chances are that nothing will change until after the US presidential elections in Nov '08.
4. The sale of my house collapsed just before Christmas. :(( Which means a complete rethink of all my plans for '08, most of which hinged on having a substantial amount of money in the bank generating interest with which to supplement our monthly income.
5. On the plus side: My darling son surpassed all expectations when he passed his school-leaving exams with a B aggregate and university exemption. I am so proud of him!!
6. Also on the plus side, I've started a new blog project for '08 - the aim is to post a picture a day every single day for a year, capturing small slices of everyday life for posterity. You can see it HERE.
And that's about it for now. No writing has been done since the end of NaNo .... but lots and lots of reading and DVD viewing to offset the stresses of life. So my creative well is slowly being refilled and that has to be a good thing!
1. My Green Card application was denied as the proposed employer was deemed by the INS to be unable to support salary payments. What a nightmare the next three weeks were as I tried to save the situation. I was told it was possible to appeal and that if I had an approved employer, things might be saved - this turned out to be not true - the appeal could only be on the same basis as the initial application.
2. As the denial had nothing to do with me, a second application stood as good a chance of succeeding. So I ditched the old agent, found a new one after hours of internet research, lorryloads of emails and several crackly transatlantic phone calls, and received a viable new job offer just before Christmas - its' with a LTC facility in Greenwich, Connecticut. The offer is good, the company solid, the benefits and starting salary excellent. So now we start the I-140 application process all over again.....
3. Complicating things is a little thing called retrogression which basically means No Green Cards for anyone at all until the INS has cleared its backlog of cases. :(( Lobbyists are working to improve things and get much needed health care professionals back on the green card track but the chances are that nothing will change until after the US presidential elections in Nov '08.
4. The sale of my house collapsed just before Christmas. :(( Which means a complete rethink of all my plans for '08, most of which hinged on having a substantial amount of money in the bank generating interest with which to supplement our monthly income.
5. On the plus side: My darling son surpassed all expectations when he passed his school-leaving exams with a B aggregate and university exemption. I am so proud of him!!
6. Also on the plus side, I've started a new blog project for '08 - the aim is to post a picture a day every single day for a year, capturing small slices of everyday life for posterity. You can see it HERE.
And that's about it for now. No writing has been done since the end of NaNo .... but lots and lots of reading and DVD viewing to offset the stresses of life. So my creative well is slowly being refilled and that has to be a good thing!
Monday, December 3
Quick Update
Finally, November is over and NaNoWriMo is done!! And I did it!
It was an awesome experience, and one which has turned my writing life around. On 3oth November at 9.15pm, I uploaded my doc for the last time and with 50,042 words, I 'won' NaNo - which after failing once before was a really, really good feeling!! If you're interested, my profile page (with a short excerpt from the WIP) can be FOUND HERE.
For those who, like me, are into stats, it was interesting to learn that globally, an amazing 101,404 authors registered with 15,329 succeeding, which is a mere 15.1%. South Africa had the biggest yet contingent of NaNoWriMo participants, with 92 authors registered. Of those, 27 completed, i.e. 29.3%. Go us!!
Well worth doing, and next November, I'll be in there again, BIK HOK TAM**
Woo hoo!
Elle
** Bum In Chair, Hands On Keyboard, Typing Away Madly!!
It was an awesome experience, and one which has turned my writing life around. On 3oth November at 9.15pm, I uploaded my doc for the last time and with 50,042 words, I 'won' NaNo - which after failing once before was a really, really good feeling!! If you're interested, my profile page (with a short excerpt from the WIP) can be FOUND HERE.
For those who, like me, are into stats, it was interesting to learn that globally, an amazing 101,404 authors registered with 15,329 succeeding, which is a mere 15.1%. South Africa had the biggest yet contingent of NaNoWriMo participants, with 92 authors registered. Of those, 27 completed, i.e. 29.3%. Go us!!
Well worth doing, and next November, I'll be in there again, BIK HOK TAM**
Woo hoo!
Elle
** Bum In Chair, Hands On Keyboard, Typing Away Madly!!
Tuesday, November 27
From Up There to Down Here ...
Carol Lazar wrote this in the Star on Monday:
We are a proud democracy. We call ourselves the rainbow nation and we are the only country in the world that voluntarily changed from a tyrannical apartheid regime to a fully-fledged democracy where all our citizens, irrespective of race, creed or colour have full human rights.
With our ground-breaking Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established after the end of apartheid, we were hailed as champions of democracy, a flagship among nations, a beacon of light.
So what happened? How did we lose our credibility? And why has UN Watch, the very respected and credible non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, placed South Africa at the bottom of the human rights list?
To read the whole thing, go HEREShe concludes by saying:
I used to feel proud of being a South African.
But when my democratic, rainbow nation votes for those who practice human rights' abuses, I feel ashamed.
Will we again become the polecat of the world?
Friday, November 16
How A Country Goes Down While Everyone Stands By and Watches ...
"Jacob Zuma is your next president - and get over it," says leading political analyst Dr Xolela Mangcu. Speaking at a Bureau for Economic Research conference entitled Key challenges facing the South African economy, Mangcu said Zuma was a strong candidate for next month's ANC's leadership election conference, even though many outsiders doubted his candidacy.
"This is Zuma's election to lose," said Mangcu, to the disbelief of several hundred delegates.
I used to just shake my head and laugh at the antics of politicians in this country - I'm NOT a political animal by any stretch of imagination. But now I am reduced to tears. Tears of rage and disbelief and deep helplessness.
How can there be any hope for a country when a leading political analyst tells us that we're going to have to accept this man as our future president and that all we can do is to 'get over it already'?? A man who was previously sacked as deputy president of the ANC, who has been charged with corruption (his former financial advisor and lifelong friend is now in prison following convictions for fraud and corruption), charged with rape (acquitted but the whole thing was very dodgy AND revealed that he thought he could avoid AIDS by showering well after sex).
The sad and scary thing is that he has the support of the people who think that his behaviour is just fine! He is currently front runner in a race in which the only other serious contender for the position of leader of the ANC, and therefore future president of SA, is the current president (who, if he won, would be having THIRD term in office).
I'm so angry and so frustrated. This whole country is rife with fraud and corruption - this morning's news was about new evidence re the Land Bank scandal, where employees have stolen over a billion rands worth of funds. Today, no less than FIVE board members have been arrested in this regard! The leader of the Scorpions (the leading crime-fighting division in SA) is on trial for irregularities. The police chief is being investigated for who knows what.
It's a total fucking mess. GREEN CARD, where are you???
"This is Zuma's election to lose," said Mangcu, to the disbelief of several hundred delegates.
I used to just shake my head and laugh at the antics of politicians in this country - I'm NOT a political animal by any stretch of imagination. But now I am reduced to tears. Tears of rage and disbelief and deep helplessness.
How can there be any hope for a country when a leading political analyst tells us that we're going to have to accept this man as our future president and that all we can do is to 'get over it already'?? A man who was previously sacked as deputy president of the ANC, who has been charged with corruption (his former financial advisor and lifelong friend is now in prison following convictions for fraud and corruption), charged with rape (acquitted but the whole thing was very dodgy AND revealed that he thought he could avoid AIDS by showering well after sex).
The sad and scary thing is that he has the support of the people who think that his behaviour is just fine! He is currently front runner in a race in which the only other serious contender for the position of leader of the ANC, and therefore future president of SA, is the current president (who, if he won, would be having THIRD term in office).
I'm so angry and so frustrated. This whole country is rife with fraud and corruption - this morning's news was about new evidence re the Land Bank scandal, where employees have stolen over a billion rands worth of funds. Today, no less than FIVE board members have been arrested in this regard! The leader of the Scorpions (the leading crime-fighting division in SA) is on trial for irregularities. The police chief is being investigated for who knows what.
It's a total fucking mess. GREEN CARD, where are you???
Sunday, October 28
Jesus
This morning, as part of my getting-organized-for-NaNoWriMo (ie procrastination with a purpose), I came across something I wrote in February 2006 - ie about 18 months ago. It was part of an application to a Christian writing organization and I was required to answer the question 'Why are you a Christian?'
Briefly explain why you are a Christian.
I am a Christian simply because I love Jesus. Without Him, life has no rhyme or reason, no purpose or point. Even at my lowest ebb, those times when faith is nothing more than a daily choice to trust in a dimly and waveringly perceived God, I would still choose Him.
What's really interesting is that despite this whole deconversion experience, my intense attraction to and interest in the person of Jesus has never disappeared completely. It's still there. And that is particularly evidenced by the fact that the NaNo book I'm going to be working on is a re-write of a book I did in 2003/2004, a book my crit partners and I called my 'Josh' book.
Back in July 2003, I sat down one day and watched the remade version of Jesus Christ Superstar. It knocked me sideways ... and into a surge of creativity. I wrote and wrote and wrote for about three months and my desire at that point was to write a story about Jesus that would make him human and accessible and attractive to the reader in the same way that the movie had made him human and accessible and attractive to me. I took that completed story to a Christian Writer's conference in April 2004 and while some editors shook their heads (What? A Jesus who doubts his calling? A Jesus who drinks beer? And drives a truck? Hoo boy ....), there were a few who liked it very much indeed. One of the literary agents asked me to send him the full ms once I was back home ...
But on my return home, life intervened and I fell into a spiritual and emotional funk and I put that story away (all 120K words of it) and never followed through. And since then, my spiritual journey has taken me a long a difficult path. I've ranted and cried and been angry and been afraid and wrestled with despair and nihilism of the worst kind.
But now. Now I find in me that same attraction to Jesus that has always been there. My beliefs at present are undefined ... I'm holding onto the mystery, continuing to read and think and explore and engage in discussion .. but I'm also going to write again. I'm going to rewrite that story bringing to it all the things that have been a part of me over the last three years. I think it was Phillip Yancey who said we write not because we have all the answers, but because we have questions that won't go away. We write to try and find those answers.
It's terrifying, but in a good way!!! I'm excited!
Wednesday, October 24
November
November is NaNoWriMo time - National Novel Writing Month.
Foolish dreamer that I am, I signed up again (!) so from now until the end of November, any and all blogging that happens will be on my other blog: Write On The Edge which is specifically writing-related.
If, as has happened before, I fail in my Nano efforts, I'll be back here much sooner. So wish me luck!
Foolish dreamer that I am, I signed up again (!) so from now until the end of November, any and all blogging that happens will be on my other blog: Write On The Edge which is specifically writing-related.
If, as has happened before, I fail in my Nano efforts, I'll be back here much sooner. So wish me luck!
Monday, October 15
True Grit
This weekend, I spent a night with my parents, who are now in their mid-70s and living in a retirement village about an hour from us. My kids had gone to visit their dad and I had a sudden yen to go hang out with the old folks back home :-) I also wanted to bring them up to date on my plans for next year and its much easier to talk big things through face-to-face rather than over the phone.
And it's funny - you think you know all there is to know about your parents and then suddenly, you learn something new. Sunday morning, mom and I were talking about the past, and how we as a family nearly emigrated to Australia in 1963, when I was five. I've always known the story, about how sailing was delayed so my dad had to take a temporary job. And about how we moved to a small village an hour outside of Cape Town while we waited for the three months to pass.
But what I hadn't known was that apparently my gran (his mum) was terribly, terribly unhappy about her only son going off to Oz. And my own mum was also terribly, terribly unhappy about moving to a foreign country with two small kids and a husband with a fondness for the bottle. They were all praying that the move wouldn't happen. So when sailing was delayed, and Dad had to take a temp job, granny and grandpa started driving an hour each way to visit us every Sunday. I'm guessing they all worked really hard to persuade my dad that emigration was a bad idea.
It worked. We never went. My dad worked for that same company (and that same shitty boss) until he took a medical retirement 14 years ago at 61.
The other thing is that in his 20s, my dad was an alcoholic. He always said that when he became a Christian, God set him free from drink. But listening to my mom talk last Sunday morning, I realized it wasn't quite as simple as that.
Those first years in that lousy job must have been difficult. I'm saying this because mom told me that in those days he drank a lot. Vodka in the morning, brandy at night. Looking back now, I wonder how much of that drinking resulted from the fact that his dream had been taken away from him - no moving to Australia, no chance to do whatever it was he might have dreamed of doing over there. Instead, he found himself counting beans for a large agricultural company, working for the boss from hell, in a country town far from anywhere, with a wife and two little girls to support. Maybe he gave up, gave in to the pressure to stay in SA, pressure applied very lovingly by his own mother, father and wife. And for a man who was used to finding solace in the bottle, well - is it any surprise that he started binge-drinking again?
He also had regular attacks of the so-called Monday Morning Flu. One day, in desperation, my mom called the doctor. He came in after evening surgery. Mom was putting us kids to bed and she pointed listlessly at the bedroom, saying 'He's in there...'. The doc knew them both well and he knew what was up. That night, he put the writing on the wall for my dad. Told him that if he kept on boozing, not only would he destroy his family but he'd also probably kill himself as his liver was taking severe strain.
And my dad heard him. He stopped drinking. Just like that. Then and there. Apparently, he had one more bender in Dec of that year, but after that nothing. Mom said those early weeks and months of sobriety were hell - he eschewed any form of help, refused AA, refused counselling, refused medication. And to this day, he doesn't touch alcohol.
Now that is pretty damn amazing, I think. But the point here is that he did it alone, by sheer will power and determination. At this point, 'God' had nothing to do with it, at least from his perspective. My mum had started going to church by then, but my dad, a 'back-slidden' Christian, wanted nothing to do with it. As the years went by, he slowly started a spiritual journey of his own - reading books (including The Christian Agnostic by L D Weatherhead) and listening to church on the radio in the dark - which culminated in his eventual return to faith, some time after the birth of my youngest brother in 1969.
Later on Sunday morning, mom came to me and hugged me. "I know I talked a lot about dad and our troubles this morning," she said. "But one thing you must know is that throughout it all, we both loved our kids above everything else. You were the ones who mattered."
That story changed my mental picture of my dad a bit, not that it was a bad one to start with. Quite the contrary, in fact. And it inspires me. I may look like my mom and I share her loony sense of humor, but generally I'm a lot more like my dad - logical, analytical, intellectual, etc. And then of course there are the not-so-good traits we share, but lets not go there now. And given that no family is perfect, there are, of course, 'Issues' on all sides, some of which I know I still have to deal with.
But still. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of his grit and determination. And I'm proud to be his daughter.
And it's funny - you think you know all there is to know about your parents and then suddenly, you learn something new. Sunday morning, mom and I were talking about the past, and how we as a family nearly emigrated to Australia in 1963, when I was five. I've always known the story, about how sailing was delayed so my dad had to take a temporary job. And about how we moved to a small village an hour outside of Cape Town while we waited for the three months to pass.
But what I hadn't known was that apparently my gran (his mum) was terribly, terribly unhappy about her only son going off to Oz. And my own mum was also terribly, terribly unhappy about moving to a foreign country with two small kids and a husband with a fondness for the bottle. They were all praying that the move wouldn't happen. So when sailing was delayed, and Dad had to take a temp job, granny and grandpa started driving an hour each way to visit us every Sunday. I'm guessing they all worked really hard to persuade my dad that emigration was a bad idea.
It worked. We never went. My dad worked for that same company (and that same shitty boss) until he took a medical retirement 14 years ago at 61.
The other thing is that in his 20s, my dad was an alcoholic. He always said that when he became a Christian, God set him free from drink. But listening to my mom talk last Sunday morning, I realized it wasn't quite as simple as that.
Those first years in that lousy job must have been difficult. I'm saying this because mom told me that in those days he drank a lot. Vodka in the morning, brandy at night. Looking back now, I wonder how much of that drinking resulted from the fact that his dream had been taken away from him - no moving to Australia, no chance to do whatever it was he might have dreamed of doing over there. Instead, he found himself counting beans for a large agricultural company, working for the boss from hell, in a country town far from anywhere, with a wife and two little girls to support. Maybe he gave up, gave in to the pressure to stay in SA, pressure applied very lovingly by his own mother, father and wife. And for a man who was used to finding solace in the bottle, well - is it any surprise that he started binge-drinking again?
He also had regular attacks of the so-called Monday Morning Flu. One day, in desperation, my mom called the doctor. He came in after evening surgery. Mom was putting us kids to bed and she pointed listlessly at the bedroom, saying 'He's in there...'. The doc knew them both well and he knew what was up. That night, he put the writing on the wall for my dad. Told him that if he kept on boozing, not only would he destroy his family but he'd also probably kill himself as his liver was taking severe strain.
And my dad heard him. He stopped drinking. Just like that. Then and there. Apparently, he had one more bender in Dec of that year, but after that nothing. Mom said those early weeks and months of sobriety were hell - he eschewed any form of help, refused AA, refused counselling, refused medication. And to this day, he doesn't touch alcohol.
Now that is pretty damn amazing, I think. But the point here is that he did it alone, by sheer will power and determination. At this point, 'God' had nothing to do with it, at least from his perspective. My mum had started going to church by then, but my dad, a 'back-slidden' Christian, wanted nothing to do with it. As the years went by, he slowly started a spiritual journey of his own - reading books (including The Christian Agnostic by L D Weatherhead) and listening to church on the radio in the dark - which culminated in his eventual return to faith, some time after the birth of my youngest brother in 1969.
Later on Sunday morning, mom came to me and hugged me. "I know I talked a lot about dad and our troubles this morning," she said. "But one thing you must know is that throughout it all, we both loved our kids above everything else. You were the ones who mattered."
That story changed my mental picture of my dad a bit, not that it was a bad one to start with. Quite the contrary, in fact. And it inspires me. I may look like my mom and I share her loony sense of humor, but generally I'm a lot more like my dad - logical, analytical, intellectual, etc. And then of course there are the not-so-good traits we share, but lets not go there now. And given that no family is perfect, there are, of course, 'Issues' on all sides, some of which I know I still have to deal with.
But still. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of his grit and determination. And I'm proud to be his daughter.
Monday, October 8
New Year, New Goal, New Me ...
Following on from this post I did a ton of research and thinking about 2008 and how best to use the time we still have to wait before the emigration plans come to fruition. And the more I thought about all the options, and about the fact that next year brings with it the Dreaded 'Five-Oh' birthday, the more it seemed like a really good idea to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Take some risks, change my life radically and see what happens!!
So, with the house sale continuing as planned, my son will be moving out to live with his dad for his first year out of school, and my daughter and I will be looking for a cost-effective rental for next year. And then - I'm enrolling in January for a post-graduate diploma course in Primary Health Care. Yep, going back to varsity at the age of 49.... woo hoo! Stellenbosch University offers an ITE course in PHC - its a combination of distance education and contact hours, as well as experiential learning hours.
Primary Health Care is (sort of) the equivalent of the US Nurse Practitioner - you learn to assess, diagnose, prescribe, treat and manage a wide range of acute and chronic health conditions. I've spent the last six months working in a pharmacy-based primary health care clinic and I learned that 1) I really love working with clients individually and sleuthing out what the problem really is - and so often its totally different to the thing that they ask for when they arrive. And 2) I really don't know enough to be sure that my assessment and 'diagnosis' are accurate. Oh, and 3) I love academics and assignments and projects and learning so taking a year out to focus on that will be just plain awesome, seeing as the last qualification I studied for was my diploma in psychiatric nursing, way back in '87! :-)
Also, my research shows that it may well be possible to do some follow on study from this course which will convert my original RN qualification into an MA. But we'll see about that. One of the best outcomes of this course, apart from the new skills, is that having this qualification will open all kinds of other employment doors for me once we get to the US. Many of my US friends have said that they far prefer seeing the NP to seeing the MD!
There are also a few other things on the cards for 2008: a weekend away with my best friend (also facing 50 soon) to learn how to paraglide! A major health and fitness revamp! Etc etc....
The road ahead is looking GOOD!
So, with the house sale continuing as planned, my son will be moving out to live with his dad for his first year out of school, and my daughter and I will be looking for a cost-effective rental for next year. And then - I'm enrolling in January for a post-graduate diploma course in Primary Health Care. Yep, going back to varsity at the age of 49.... woo hoo! Stellenbosch University offers an ITE course in PHC - its a combination of distance education and contact hours, as well as experiential learning hours.
Primary Health Care is (sort of) the equivalent of the US Nurse Practitioner - you learn to assess, diagnose, prescribe, treat and manage a wide range of acute and chronic health conditions. I've spent the last six months working in a pharmacy-based primary health care clinic and I learned that 1) I really love working with clients individually and sleuthing out what the problem really is - and so often its totally different to the thing that they ask for when they arrive. And 2) I really don't know enough to be sure that my assessment and 'diagnosis' are accurate. Oh, and 3) I love academics and assignments and projects and learning so taking a year out to focus on that will be just plain awesome, seeing as the last qualification I studied for was my diploma in psychiatric nursing, way back in '87! :-)
Also, my research shows that it may well be possible to do some follow on study from this course which will convert my original RN qualification into an MA. But we'll see about that. One of the best outcomes of this course, apart from the new skills, is that having this qualification will open all kinds of other employment doors for me once we get to the US. Many of my US friends have said that they far prefer seeing the NP to seeing the MD!
There are also a few other things on the cards for 2008: a weekend away with my best friend (also facing 50 soon) to learn how to paraglide! A major health and fitness revamp! Etc etc....
The road ahead is looking GOOD!
Monday, October 1
After all the grumbles ...
So enough of the ranting and grumbling. Today I came across this joke and thought it really funny!!
A hunter walking through the jungle found a huge dead dinosaur with a pygmy standing beside it. Amazed, he asked: "Did you kill that?".
The pygmy said "Yes."
The hunter asked "How could a little fella like you kill a huge beast like that?"
Said the pygmy: "I killed it with my club."
The astonished hunter asked: "How big is your club?"
The pygmy replied: "There's about 90 of us."
:-)
A hunter walking through the jungle found a huge dead dinosaur with a pygmy standing beside it. Amazed, he asked: "Did you kill that?".
The pygmy said "Yes."
The hunter asked "How could a little fella like you kill a huge beast like that?"
Said the pygmy: "I killed it with my club."
The astonished hunter asked: "How big is your club?"
The pygmy replied: "There's about 90 of us."
:-)
Sunday, September 30
Grrrrr.......
Maybe its just me. Maybe I'm just in a really bad mood today.
I was browsing an O magazine and found a short article titled Why Am I Here? I read it and now I am so irritated that I wish I hadn't.
I'm sorry but even from inside my current disillusioned, agnostic, sceptical point of view, this reeks of New Age bullsh*t. The kind of thinking that seduces people into believing that simply by embracing their inner god of goddess, they will evolve into some kind of enlightened superspiritual being and all their problems will vanish. Its even more unrealistic than the magical thinking that pervades some branches of Christianity!
I googled the book the quote came from and found this from a review on Amazon:
How anyone can swallow such hogwash is beyond me! 22 soul lessons? Emissaries of the Third Ray? Raise our vibrations? Puh-leese! Tell that to the innocents who died in Bosnia, Rwanda and the Congo; to the child soldiers in the Sudan; to those battling cancer and AIDS ... just raise your vibrations and embrace soul lesson number 12, guys, and all will be well.
Rant over.
I was browsing an O magazine and found a short article titled Why Am I Here? I read it and now I am so irritated that I wish I hadn't.
Your primary purpose on earth is to recognize your true nature as a spiritual, creative being. ..... When you recognize that you are a divine immortal being with the power to create and master many abilities, then trouble and despair subside and your human experience becomes joyful, calm and peaceful.
I'm sorry but even from inside my current disillusioned, agnostic, sceptical point of view, this reeks of New Age bullsh*t. The kind of thinking that seduces people into believing that simply by embracing their inner god of goddess, they will evolve into some kind of enlightened superspiritual being and all their problems will vanish. Its even more unrealistic than the magical thinking that pervades some branches of Christianity!
I googled the book the quote came from and found this from a review on Amazon:
" The book is channeled by the author's spirit teacher guides, The Three Bishops, as well as Joachim and the Emissaries of the Third Ray. These highly evolved and loving guides work specifically to bring about understanding, direction, and support to all souls so that we may learn to become the creative masters of the life that we’re intended to have on Earth. The guides state that Earth is “soul school,” and that we’re here to master 22 basic soul lessons in order to fulfill our purpose. Each lesson is laid out in such a way that anyone—on any level—will be ready to follow the instructions. The guides make it very clear in this book that the timing to learn our soul lessons, open our hearts, and raise our vibration on the Earth plane is now. Negative occurrences will worsen if our energy doesn’t shift and elevate to a more loving plane. We have no time to waste!"
How anyone can swallow such hogwash is beyond me! 22 soul lessons? Emissaries of the Third Ray? Raise our vibrations? Puh-leese! Tell that to the innocents who died in Bosnia, Rwanda and the Congo; to the child soldiers in the Sudan; to those battling cancer and AIDS ... just raise your vibrations and embrace soul lesson number 12, guys, and all will be well.
Rant over.
The God Conundrum and Multi-level Marketing
Here is just one of the many things that has baffled me over the last while.
According to the evangelical, biblical point of view, God created man 'for his pleasure'. To quote the bible, Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” According to everything I was taught, God's desire is for us to freely choose to love him, not just serve him robotically, so when he created man, he also gave him 'free will' so that man might willingly choose to love God, to set aside all self-interest and serve him and him only.
But having this gift of free will from God also means that man can potentially say to God: 'Well, thanks for creating me (in your image with all these amazing attributes such as the ability to love and care and think and reason and create and all), but actually I think I'm going to choose to be captain of my own fate, master of my own soul."
So, the question is this: why then would God turn around and say: "Sorry, you made the WRONG CHOICE! You were supposed to choose to love me! Now I'm going to punish you by casting you into the eternal (eternal, mind you!) burning fires of hell?" (If you believe that hell literally exists of course!) If that's the case, then what the heck is the point of having free will in the first place? We should all have been created with an in-built, incorruptible love for God then there would have been no need for messy lakes of fire and judgement calls and God could have taken all the pleasure he wanted from us all along without having to send the billions who never 'accepted Jesus into their hearts' to eternal damnation, which must be really hard for him to do seeing as he says he loves us all equally.
And another thing: what is the purpose of punishment, anyway? To correct someone who has gone wrong, surely? Or to wipe them out once and for all, no second chances, no opportunity to make things right, to be redeemed?
And about the idea of us being created solely for God's pleasure. Isn't that kind of one-sided too? Sometimes the evangelical viewpoint makes me feel so manipulated:
You are born. You grow up and after a while you learn that you are a sinner - albeit a sinner with free will. You go along, living your life doing good stuff and bad stuff. You learn that God loves you even though you are such an ugly dirty sinner and he wants you to love him. But at some point you learn that the good stuff isn't good enough for God, you'll be going to hell when you die unless you make some major changes. And to help you along the way, the spirit of God sneaks into your most private thoughts and makes you feel really bad about doing the bad stuff. So you say sorry to God and choose to put your self to death and to live only for him. Now he's happy because you are loving him and being obedient to him and all the other Christians out there rejoice because - you've arrived! "Welcome to the club! "
Now your new mission in life is to get all the unsaved billions out there to join the club too - for their own good of course..... doesn't this sound an awful lot like multilevel marketing?
Too many questions, too many doubts, too few answers.... but the good news today is that my new book arrived! The God Theory by Bernhard Haisch. It looks like a long, slow read ... but it looks good.
According to the evangelical, biblical point of view, God created man 'for his pleasure'. To quote the bible, Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” According to everything I was taught, God's desire is for us to freely choose to love him, not just serve him robotically, so when he created man, he also gave him 'free will' so that man might willingly choose to love God, to set aside all self-interest and serve him and him only.
But having this gift of free will from God also means that man can potentially say to God: 'Well, thanks for creating me (in your image with all these amazing attributes such as the ability to love and care and think and reason and create and all), but actually I think I'm going to choose to be captain of my own fate, master of my own soul."
So, the question is this: why then would God turn around and say: "Sorry, you made the WRONG CHOICE! You were supposed to choose to love me! Now I'm going to punish you by casting you into the eternal (eternal, mind you!) burning fires of hell?" (If you believe that hell literally exists of course!) If that's the case, then what the heck is the point of having free will in the first place? We should all have been created with an in-built, incorruptible love for God then there would have been no need for messy lakes of fire and judgement calls and God could have taken all the pleasure he wanted from us all along without having to send the billions who never 'accepted Jesus into their hearts' to eternal damnation, which must be really hard for him to do seeing as he says he loves us all equally.
And another thing: what is the purpose of punishment, anyway? To correct someone who has gone wrong, surely? Or to wipe them out once and for all, no second chances, no opportunity to make things right, to be redeemed?
And about the idea of us being created solely for God's pleasure. Isn't that kind of one-sided too? Sometimes the evangelical viewpoint makes me feel so manipulated:
You are born. You grow up and after a while you learn that you are a sinner - albeit a sinner with free will. You go along, living your life doing good stuff and bad stuff. You learn that God loves you even though you are such an ugly dirty sinner and he wants you to love him. But at some point you learn that the good stuff isn't good enough for God, you'll be going to hell when you die unless you make some major changes. And to help you along the way, the spirit of God sneaks into your most private thoughts and makes you feel really bad about doing the bad stuff. So you say sorry to God and choose to put your self to death and to live only for him. Now he's happy because you are loving him and being obedient to him and all the other Christians out there rejoice because - you've arrived! "Welcome to the club! "
Now your new mission in life is to get all the unsaved billions out there to join the club too - for their own good of course..... doesn't this sound an awful lot like multilevel marketing?
Too many questions, too many doubts, too few answers.... but the good news today is that my new book arrived! The God Theory by Bernhard Haisch. It looks like a long, slow read ... but it looks good.
Sunday, September 23
Braggin' on my babies
Sometimes your kids do or say things that just make you want to tell the world what great kids they really are. This week, after all the trauma of the failed drivers license, M made us real proud of him.
He placed 6th out of his class of 32 (and 41st in his grade of 208 kids) in the mock matric exams. And if that wasn't great enough, on Thursday night at the school cultural awards dinner, he was awarded full colors for service to Backstage--he's been part of the backstage support crew for the last three years of high school.
Go, M!!!
Then my daughter. She and a friend were talking about 'big words' tonight and she says - "I know TWO big words!" (Big laugh from the friend). "Yep" she says. "Protagonist and antagonist." "Huh?" says the friend. "Protagonist" says my girl,"is the character in a story who goes through the most change during the story, and antagonist is the person or thing who causes the most change!"
Oh, she rocks!!! :-) We talked about this a while back and she remembered!!
*Insert proud smiling face picture here!*
He placed 6th out of his class of 32 (and 41st in his grade of 208 kids) in the mock matric exams. And if that wasn't great enough, on Thursday night at the school cultural awards dinner, he was awarded full colors for service to Backstage--he's been part of the backstage support crew for the last three years of high school.
Go, M!!!
Then my daughter. She and a friend were talking about 'big words' tonight and she says - "I know TWO big words!" (Big laugh from the friend). "Yep" she says. "Protagonist and antagonist." "Huh?" says the friend. "Protagonist" says my girl,"is the character in a story who goes through the most change during the story, and antagonist is the person or thing who causes the most change!"
Oh, she rocks!!! :-) We talked about this a while back and she remembered!!
*Insert proud smiling face picture here!*
Wednesday, September 19
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