Nonqaba said ...

Students are home, enjoying the summer but they are also preparing for college in the fall. Some of them don’t want colleges in their states or provinces, although they are cheaper. They want to spread their wings far, very far away from mom and dad and the interrogation. “But son, Media Studies! What will they teach you in college that is not on Twitter?” It is a valid question but Media Studies or Journalism is more than just the video camera or the reporter’s notebook. Delete that, cellphones are the new notebook. Media Studies are more than pointing a microphone at someone. They are also about the collaborative nature of news gathering and filtering, because the radio or television station needs only two minutes of the 15 minute interview. Media studies teach college students about expectation. They must not be racist or gender insensitive. In fact they must know a little bit of everything: ethics; producer’s role; the constitution; how city and provincial or state governments work

Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang. We are  not superior to animals. We think we are   because we contain them, keep them in the zoo and game parks. We even have the right to kill them if they have more babies. I was shocked when I first learned that zoos kill ‘surplus’ animals and unwanted pregnancies. They should not be in captivity in the first place.  We contain animals when they are an obstacle to development.  Despite all that, they have survived. Can we? COVID-19 is making a mockery of money. We killed the buffalo and other animals because we need the land to make money. It was going to take care of everything. We even made movies to demonstrate what money can buy: smoking, bars in the house, automobiles, mansions in the Caribbean and White House tenancy . That same money cannot save us from COVID-19 because we don’t know what it is. What we know is that there’s something in the air, or something missing from the air. We cannot write a cheque to get rid of it. We voted out politicians wh

Photo Credit: online pic. On Friday 29 July, CBC News reported the outcome of a condom use case that played out in British Columbia courts and went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. A man and a woman met online. They arranged to see each other, eyeball to eyeball and had sex in March 2017. The woman had a condition, he must put on what is called the raincoat, in other countries. They had a go at it with full protection, but later on at night the man pretended he had put on protection, when he didn’t. The Supreme Court in its ruling said sex without a condom, when it had been a condition, can be sexual assault.  "A complainant who consents to sex on the condition that their partner wear a condom does not consent to sex without a condom." Source: CBC News. Lawyers and the whole legal fraternity will analyze the implications of this precedent. The complainant, whose name is protected, took Ross McKenzie Kirkpatrick to court for the deception. Now there will be a new tr

Embarrassment card declined. Cashiers are broke like the rest of us.  So please, don’t give me attitude when my card is declined.  It also happens to cashiers when they are shopping somewhere outside their comfort zones. They are cashiers here, but customers with bad credit somewhere else. My card is declined for a variety of reasons.  Let’s say the item is $22.27 including tax.  I might have $22 in my bank account.  This means the cashier is mad at me for being 27 cents short, only 27!  I know she’s angry because she says, ‘I’m sorry, your card is declined.’ Sorry my foot!  She’s fuming.  She’s looking at the line that is swelling behind me, swelling with rage that this woman cannot manage her finances.  Me!  I’m a pro at cutting and pasting, move a few dollars from this account and paste in another, to keep cell phone and cable people off my back. Did I say I was a genius?  Maybe not, because my card is declined at the grocery checkout when cut and paste fails, due to let’s say ‘ ins

Colonization was a lie. We were told that although we were born and raised in Africa, England was our ‘mother country’. Parents longed for England. That is why they hoped we would go to there one day, to see the Queen. Overseas is called ‘phesheya ’ in Zulu, a great honour indeed, to have a child educated across the oceans. The child finally took the plane, and landed in a British university. She was shocked that white people delivered milk in the morning, cleaned her room, were cooks in the canteen, were window cleaners and swept city streets like in the movie Secrets and Lies ,   directed by Mike Leigh. The problem was communication. The child whose language Zulu was labeled barbaric, could not understand what all those cleaners were saying. They did not use proper grammar and intonation. To the child from Africa, they were not educated. She later learned that white people who did those menial jobs were working class, which was difficult to comprehend because we are born to work, toi

City removed a bus shelter to make these bike lanes. Some cyclists make the pavement a dangerous place for pedestrians, especially during the summer when people try to walk as much as possible. Cyclists get preferential treatment from the provincial government because they are a powerful lobby. The Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation (MPI) spends taxpayers’ money on ads about how drivers should be courteous to bicycles, but I’m yet to see ads about cyclists walking their bikes in major bus stops and busy pavements. The government indulges cyclists in more ways than one. There are bike lanes at major intersections, around parks and every summer the city guts out roads to install bike lanes. Recently, it removed a bus shelter to make bike lanes to The Forks. WALK BICYCLES The Forks, in Winnipeg Manitoba is an outdoor family entertainment place where you walk every where, along the river, around the skateboard park and forest trails. It has security guards inside and outside the main bu

The world is an open plan thanks to the internet, but habits die hard, especially writing. I use language and situations mainly understood by Canada, where my desk is and its twin sister, the U.S. The two countries are not identical twins by any stretch of the imagination, although they have the same wide streets, automobiles, anchor stores that sell anything from baby food to guns and sports stadiums. Sports. Pause right there. Boys in Canada grow up chasing pucks with hockey sticks, while in America, they look forward to the first baseball mitt or a basketball. Interest in basketball surged in Canada after Toronto Raptors, the only NBA basketball team in the country, won the 2019 championship. I should explain what the NBA is and not assume the reader knows. That is what my profs at Columbia University drilled into me. They were right but like most bloggers, I’m country egocentric. Example. I should explain why I’m mad at the federal government or a premier. Not all readers understan

Trevor Noah, and producers of The Daily Show  sometimes take cameras to the street and ask voters about the state of America and why they will vote for this candidate and not the other one. Some answers are funny. Others ridiculous, but what lingers in one’s mind is the sadness, that during elections, people voluntarily surrender common sense. Common sense is how mothers bring up kids. Don’t touch the kettle or heater with wet hands. Electricity will zap you. Look left or right before you cross the road. Wash your hands before you touch that hamburger. Kids grow up and they embrace common sense. They even threaten younger brothers and sisters: I’ll tell Mom you didn’t brush your teeth . Therefore, it is baffling when adult voters over 25 years have no common sense, when it comes to voting, a process that might find their sons and daughters in another part of the world, guns and drones ablaze fighting TikTok creators. Common sense is embalmed. That is why politicians on the campaign tra

Photo Credit: Marvel Studios. Wakanda Forever Trailer. Looking good! Looking good! Nice tribute to the departed Black Panther but life goes on. Voices that say Chadwick Boseman’s character should be re-cast are quite vocal. Other voices that say let’s move on and support director Ryan Coogler again, should also be heard. Entertainment media is one reason why Nate Moore, the Marvel producer and Ryan Coogler, director of Black Panther decided not to have another T’Challa to replace Chadwick Boseman, who died 28 August 2020. If they do replace him, entertainment media and podcasts will flog him with one question: Do you think you play a better Black Panther than Chadwick Boseman?   Very insensitive. Good thing Marvel won’t replace him. He’s irreplaceable. The trailer is out but we don’t know what will be in Wakanda Forever when it is released in November 2022, but there is one good reason   why Chadwick Boseman should not be recast, as they say in the business. In the original 2018 movie

Forest Whitaker and Cuba Gooding Jr. in Lee Daniels' The Butler.  Let's drink to the cinematography. It’s Friday. We’ll do dinner and catch a movie. Not anymore. Just open the computer. Millions of people also watch movies on their phones. This post was triggered by Bimbo Ademoye, a Nigerian actress in one of her movies. She said she was going to see a movie, but climbed on the bed and opened a laptop. What was I expecting? Grab her handbag and car keys? Movies on the laptop. It’s not the same. Something is off. There might be somebody at the door, pizza delivery or the next door neighbor from hell. Rice might be burning on the fire. Hit pause, nature calls so I must visit the bathroom. Too many distractions that interfere with the whole rationale behind movies. It’s a world of make-believe. The cinema is dark. They ask us to turn off our phones. We feel guilty about crunching popcorn because it interferes with that make-believe. The biggest drawback is the screen. Movies are m

Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang. Summer is here. Some people are confident enough to shuffle in airports waiting for flights to where oceans are blue and palm trees fan a welcome. This means foreign currency. Yes, we swipe and tap plastic cards but, we must still know what a peso or shilling is. It doesn’t matter to me because I can’t count. I don’t question change from cashiers for the following reasons: ·            They are mad at me for using cash because the whole world is swiping debit cards and cards with future cash (credit cards). ·           Cashiers are techies, or new school.  They don’t know how to count old school.  They give me the evil eye when I give them $20.05 if the bill is $15.05.  I just want $5 back and not silver coins that will dig another hole in my wallet. ·           Cashiers do not have enough change in the cash float because management does not expect many customers that use cash money, a blues singer in Georgia, U.S. once sang. ·           People behind me in t

The bus stop florist has relocated. That is why I hadn’t seen him for a while. I saw him on Garry today, a quiet street, just two blocks south, from where I last saw him in 2020, the Covid-19 year. He had a different product today, plastic flowers. He used to sell withered daisies and wild lilies at a bus stop mostly populated by students, that go to one of the two universities in this town. Maybe selling is the wrong word because when I met him today he didn’t give me a price. He just thrust the flowers in my face, and of course I jumped out of the way, like any upright citizen who doesn’t want to know. It’s the government’s problem not ours, right? He didn’t give me a price today, the same way he didn’t give me a price the last time I saw him almost two years ago. He is a beggar then. Not really, because of what happens at that bus stop. It is next to a coffee shop, where beggars sit outside the entrance. Some are bolder. They go inside and approach you while you are in the line wait

Judgement day. Christians believe in it, particularly poor Christians.  Millionaires are too busy enjoying the life money buys, to worry about after-death dinner parties in heaven. The internet is also unique as a judgement forum because it bypasses lower courts and zooms to the supreme court. It is also the most lethal revenge weapon because it destroys lives. When love turns sour, some women are on record for, ‘I’ll destroy him on social media . ’ Judgement was here long before the internet. It will always be here because of opposites. Right and wrong. Judges are guided by law of the land found in big books and precedents, especially in English common law, but not human beings. The judge is right, the judge-ee is wrong. Judges are right because of their lives which they want to impose on others.  A common example is church. Friends that don’t go to church are not living right. That’s someone’s judgement. Worse still, are judges that used to do unconventional things with their bodies

Canada's Justin Trudeau visiting then U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. The famous London address 10 Downing Street, where prime ministers of the United Kingdom live currently has no tenant, after Boris Johnson resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party. There’s a two-way race for the position. Liz Truss wants to be prime minister, so does Rishi Sunak. But we are forgetting a little detail, as tiny as a speck of dust. What is it? The title. The full title is Honourable Prime Minister. It is part of British parliamentary tradition to use ‘honourable’ which is ironic really, because there’s nothing honourable about politics. What is honour? Scout’s Honour? On my honour? The honourable thing to do? India honour killings? Honour is subjective. It depends on who is talking. I swear on scout’s honour because I want you to trust me. Most likely, what I stand for is far from being honourable. Bollywood has made many movies about fathers and brothers in India killing women in the nam

The 8th of July '22 is memorable in Canada because data thieves hacked Rogers, which provides wireless services. There was no email. We couldn't buy milk and tomatoes and pay with bank cards. Bank machines could not spit out dollars, after we punched in our codes.  It was also a reminder that we are brain dead, hostages of digital landlords. We need a brain app. There is an app for everything, right? Many people continue to make money online because they oil their brain regularly. They identify problems and come up with apps to solve them. This puts Meta Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on an acquisition high, because he snaps them up for his stable. We might not be aware that we are brain dead, until we see a toddler crawling about, encounters an obstacle and comes up with a plan to work around it. It brings a smile to family members, but it also reminds us that we under-fund the brain. Trending. This is a good example of under-funding the brain. We rely on others to think for u

It is quite common to see camera crews in Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver making movies. Some of them are American production companies because it’s cheaper to shoot in Canada. The next step is editing. It’s faster and much simpler now because making movies is all digital. It’s not like years ago when films like Gone with the Wind , To Sir With Love  or Saworoide  were cut with a splicer and joined with transparent film tape. Editing is a director’s prerogative although some producers want to have a say on how the final movie is sewn together, because they  invested heavily in it. Scenes that the director felt were useless, were literally cut out, sliced out on the editing bench. That is why they are called out-takes. The director sat next to the film editor, who did the actual work. Out-takes fell on the floor like hair in a barber shop. Digital editing studios must be clean because out-takes don’t end up on the floor. They are stored in the computer. You can also become a film editor

Theresa May, previous U.K. Prime Minister, her own party sabotaged her efforts  to leave  the European Union after the country voted YES to Brexit. They call it the United Kingdom, which means Britain, a small country that has always had kings and acquired colonies to expand the kingdom. Now it is in limbo, waiting to see if a man or woman will be Prime Minister after Boris Johnson resigned. He had no option, after the resignation of prominent ministers like Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak. Parliamentary tradition does not allow a prime minister to be housekeeper if there is no house to keep. The resignation of the 30 ministers was decided in gilded backrooms but the reason given, was concern for the nation. Johnson was the bad guy, whose misdeeds and lies can be found in BBC archives. That is neither here nor there. Lies and exchange for favours are the pillars of politics. They have nothing to do with the nation. Backroom shenanigans are the reason why Johnson became prime minister in th

"It’s hard when being Native means different things depending on who’s asking and why,” he says. “And to some people, you’ll never be Native enough,” I add.   Page 55, Fire Keepers Daughter, by Angeline Boulley. I hope they gave the Pope some books, like Fire Keepers Daughter because when he goes back to Italy, his staff will probably ask him about ‘those people.’ What do they want? It’s not only Rome that thinks like that. Canadians ask the same question because we don’t want to know really, despite all the information out there, including Treaties. Identity is tied to the land, humanity and its languages, and animals on that land. Therefore, stolen land results in stolen identity. Identity is like coins. It has two faces, the interior and exterior. The interior is the most important. It’s the foundation, the bullet proof vest or parka to shie l d the child from the exterior onslaught. Having said that, we must admit that the exterior can be a blizzard that threatens to erode the

The advantages of in-your-country vacation by bus is the scenery. If you take the car, the driver cannot admire the change of scenery in Alberta as it prepares you for nature’s artwork called British Columbia. Well! I suppose it will depend on which direction you’re coming from. The primary driver and relief driver in long distance trips concentrate on well maintained but unfamiliar roads, therefore careful is the word. They cannot share the enthusiasm from the back seat.  Mummy look , a deer ! But families take the car out of habit. They drive to the supermarket to pick up milk and laundry detergent. They take the car to fetch suits and other clothes from the dry cleaners. They also drive to the gym during the summer, when the house is six blocks away. Therefore it is second nature to load home into the car and take it on vacation. How? We take toys, feeding chairs, coolers, all hair and face creams, pillows, blow dryers, favourite shoes, duvet covers, own clocks (phones have clocks)

The pot is king of the stove. The lion needs no introduction. You know it is king of the jungle, although the leopard disputes the claim because it is lighter and faster than lighting. Kings of the road are idiots that want to kill somebody, so I move off the lane. Because the pot is king of the stove, it has two handles. That is why it has 2 potholders, but something wants to dethrone it. No, it’s not the dull microwave. It’s the one-handle pot. It is synonymous with television cooking shows, which are online now. Cooks, sorry hosts love it because they are always belly dancing something in the pot. Stirring too, hold the pot and stir. I usually take the escalator to the kitchen department of the big store around here. I love to admire table displays all dressed to kill but nowhere to go. This department also has sets of pots and guess what? Three pots have one handles. I don’t count frying pans. They are an aberration. Believe it or not. If pots with two handles go out of fashion, wh

The Godfather is loosely based on poor Italians that took the ship to America. They had many children because contraception was forbidden in the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church was for the poor in Italy and Ireland. The script was typical Christianity. Suffer in Dublin and Rome but don’t worry. You will inherit the kingdom of god. The script changed in colonies like Canada. The Roman Catholic Church had a formula, declare indigenous people as half-animal, then treat them as such. That justified taking their kids and locking them up in residential schools. They are called boarding schools in South Africa, but we went home during Jesus related holidays like Easter and Christmas. We were not totally removed from parents and our languages like in Canada, but we were given ‘civilized’ names like Mary, Sarah, Peter, Paul, Solomon, Joshua and other biblical names. To coincide with the Pope’s visit, we will shelve the forced names for the time being and concentrate on Christianity a

In their determination to sell as many newspapers and magazines as possible, editors seldom think about the repercussion of headlines that misrepresent the story. A good example are headlines and British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, who has won seven championships. Certain clicks in motor racing don’t want to see him winning again, so they have been fanning retirement flames. That is their problem, but it’s wrong to make headlines as if it is a fact.  You read the article and it’s all opinion. We see that a lot with the NBA especially where Kevin Durant is concerned. Headlines should say he might go or he might stay with the Nets. But some commentators are kind enough to say upfront, that it's a rumor.  The misleading headline might lead to the people the reporter interviewed, to lose their jobs.  Buildings might go up in flames as religious protesters vent their anger at the headline.  Diplomats might be recalled.  People might die.   Except for blogs where the blogger is th

Nigerian Catholic bishops ONLINE PIC. Getting married in Africa is expensive  because of two parts: the traditional wedding and church wedding. The Pope is in Canada to acknowledge the role of the Roman Catholic Church in clearing the ground for land theft in Canada. Rome had a formula, declare indigenous people as half-animal, then treat them as such. That justified taking their kids away and locking them up in residential schools. They were called boarding schools in South Africa, but we went home during Jesus related holidays like Easter and Christmas. We were not totally removed from parents and our languages like in Canada, but we were given ‘civilized’ names like Mary, Sarah, Peter, Paul, Solomon, Joshua and other biblical names. To coincide with the Pope’s visit, we will shelve the forced names for the time being and concentrate on Christianity and so-called purity. The ‘native’ had to cleansed, purified from himself, way of life, dress code and the land, although the Catholic C

Home is a strange place. Pull push comes to mind. It is the beginning when the sun rises and the end, when it sets. It defines humanity. Being homeless is our greatest fear, but we avoid home between these two sun habits . That is why we go to work, gym, sports and eat out. We even wait 30 minutes for a table. It can be more, because the couple that finished eating 30 minutes ago dread going back to their $4M home with a designer kitchen, better than the restaurant’s. Restaurants are home away from home. There is someone to serve us. There are little weapons on the table like knives and forks. Glasses remind me of my first trip to Geneva. Why three on the table? My hosts told me they are for white wine, red wine and water. We are willing to wait for a table because of room noise. We are conscious of it no matter how many people at home. We live under one roof which can be two or five sub-roofs. Restaurants have human noise, although it is subtle. Waiters (servers) have their own Off Of

Novel about two sets of grandmothers. We post photos of grandparents on social media to give the impression that we care. They might not like it, but mum is the word because they are grateful for the little time we spend with them. If only they can blog. Mama was close to grandmother. She said if I care for her, I should also care for her mother. I did and got love in return. It was grandma’s  smile just for me, despite having more than 20 grand children. She wasn’t a Hollywood grandmother that said ‘I love you’ every time I sulked. Mama whipped my you know what ,  every time I went off the track. Not grandma. She had a way of looking at me in a way that made me ashamed of my young ignorant ‘ I think I know it all’ self. ‘Ngiyaxolisa Khulu.’  It means I’m sorry grandma. Grandmothers don’t blog because words cannot describe the pain they feel when they see their kids, our parents on a suicide mission. They hurt more when our parents try to hide the pain using orthodox and unorthodox pai

Power is no longer in an old building, so managers might be extinct. The internet removed the crust from words such as boss, manager, accountant, professor, chief engineer, psychoanalyst, medical doctor, head chef, editor or producer, because knowledge that used to be exclusively theirs, is now in my phone and computer. The crust is gone. What is left is the food inside the bread: power. These titles are about power, power to nurture, hire or fire. Some NBA coaches who hate new talent at first sight have destroyed young lives. Deprive a player minutes or tell him not to score, then claim he cannot deliver. If you have been fired unjustly, you know how managers frustrate and fire workers who know the job better than them. In colleges and other educational institutions, power came from academic knowledge. The dissipation of hierarchy must be taking its toll on university professors because of shifting sand, from real world to the online world. Students are experts in the digital world. T