Nonqaba said ...

Doc Rivers, LA Clippers coach. After learning about how Kenosha police in Wisconsin repeatedly shot Jacob Blake in the back August 23, Doc Rivers, LA Clippers coach, said some things that reminded me of George Floyd’s murder. On 25 May, Floyd, a black man, said, ‘I can’t breathe, ’ as Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis white policeman knelt on him for almost eight minutes.  Floyd died afterwards. There was world wide outrage known as Black Lives Matter protests. What Doc Rivers said is similar to some of the messages on the Floyd placards. ‘Love us. Don’t hate us.’  The LA Clippers coach also alluded to love a few days ago. “It’s amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.” Trayford Pellerin shot and killed by Lafayette police a day before Jacob Blake shooting. Jacob Blake’s attempted murder must have resurrected painful memories for Rivers, that is why he was so emotional, but the fundamental issue is basic human rights. There is no love in the world. No

Quebec Premier, Francois Legault with Justin Trudeau, Canada's PM. Photo credit: online pic. Opposition parties in Canada peddling a jump shot election this year, because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the WE affair, are dancing in the dark. Voters are like COVID-19. They are airborne. You don’t know how and where you will catch it. Opposition parties are under the assumption that voters are so mad at the Prime Minister, they will delete him and his Liberal Party, should there be an election.   Nobody knows what is on a voter’s mind. Not all voters understand polls. Not all voters trust polls. Not all voters vote based on online opinion, social media and not all voters are ready to divorce their parties because of headlines generated by the WE probe. Opposition parties should remember that certain things cannot be measured in percentages. Some voters vote on the gut feel. 1.  As a Canadian, I’ll be proud to say he is my Prime Minister. 2.  As a Canadian, I feel that he’s bett

Nigerian director Tchidi Chikere made IN ONE HOUSE, a groundbreaking  movie about adoption. Adoption is not in the public domain because it is highly private, between hospitals, adoption agencies, adoptive parents and the kids. Laws in most western countries give them the right to know their mothers when they grow up, if they want to. Very little is known about adoption in African countries because it is not popular. Culture has handled bringing up all children, since the beginning of time. Kids have mothers and  ‘small mothers’,  their mothers’ sisters. Kids have ‘small or big fathers’,  their fathers’ brothers. All African languages have titles for these relationships. This extended family takes care of kids even when parents are alive and well. They can attend school, far away from their parents and don’t miss them a bit, because they are raised by aunts, uncles and grandparents. Madonna went to Africa to adopt David.   The icing on the cake is growing up with cousins, who become va

Kawhi Leonard, so humble. Just wanna shoot hoops, not ego .   I’m the best shooter in the NBA and beyond. I’m a Rock of Gibraltar on defence. I’m a basketball hacker by profession. I steal the ball from the guy next door.   Self esteem is great but it might be a problem for I AM players and their teams. The game stops being the priority. The I AM sticks out like a sore thumb. It borders on the ridicule that before me, there was no NBA. The I AM consumes the player to such an extent that he thinks he’s indispensable. He can get away with anything, because the team is him. The coach is nothing. Craig Robinson, National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) executive. Players do not tell stories about coaches from hell, for fear of being unemployed. Coaches are not perfect but they are there to manage logistics that will lead to playoffs and finals but more importantly, they are babysitters to keep the peace between egos encouraged by statistics i.e. the best 3-pointer in the league or

Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang When COVID-19 shut down work, school and entertainment in March 2020, parents found themselves in a novel situation, being with kids 24 hours a day, weeks on end. Some parents appreciated teachers for the first time in their lives. Others blamed them when they discovered that their kids cannot count without a calculator; don’t know that pyramids are in Egypt, Africa not on Google; don’t understand what a paragraph is; don’t know the name of the mayor; don’t know east or west when standing in the middle of an unfamiliar street and the danger of wet hands near anything electrical. Blaming teachers for gaps in knowledge is caused by amnesia, intentional amnesia if I may add, because knowledge is a circle. Teachers work with what kids have in their lunch boxes. Teachers tighten the bolts, file rough edges and iron wrinkles of knowledge kids imbibed from birth to now, the COVID-19 year. The circle cracks if home knowledge clashes with school knowledge or if home kn

Forget television advertising during hockey, the Super Bowl and NBA playoffs. The new platform is right in your face. When COVID-19 first hit town, we wore plain white or blue masks dentists, doctors and nurses have been wearing for years. Four months down the road, face masks have logos. One unhappy woman in the U.S. proudly displayed her red mask with the swastika, a symbol associated with Nazi Germany. Although we scream invasion of privacy all the time, face mask advertising will expose us, like her.   1.  Sports teams we support 2.  How we vote, political parties we support 3.  Causes we support e.g. Black Lives Matter, cancer prevention etc. 4.  Designer labels we wear or aspire to wear 5.  How we feel about other races Face mask advertising will be bad news for television and all electronic advertising because it will be cheaper. It’s good news for shoppers because they will get a free mask every time they buy groceries or medical things from the drugstore.   Like the plastic ba