Nonqaba said ...

Religion is not the only vehicle for swaying the mind from left to right or vice versa. War and physical occupation of defeated countries also lead to the realignment of the mind through what is falsely called education. That’s all gone now. TikTok and YouTube are the new school principals. Education was a means to an end in the British Empire and colonizing countries that came from the sea such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy.   They could not communicate with nations they conquered in Africa, America, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand so they branded local languages uncivilized and instituted English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and other European languages. In the case of southern Africa, education was mainly about learning English. English was commercial. Conquered nations had to understand what the new rulers were selling and buy tea, salt, sugar, condensed milk, jam and butter.  British kings took their land and introduced the head tax. They had to pay it by

Keep quiet or shut up is thula in Zulu. Thula ni , which means many people should keep quiet is also a popular boy’s name. Maybe there was a family misunderstanding when he was born. The family is hoping his birth will bring peace, people will shut up and reconcile. Please note that - ni at the end is plural, many people. Kawhi Leonard, who plays for LA Clippers, an NBA team should have a second name: Thulani . He’s so quiet, a breath of fresh air. Thu-la-ni  can also be used in politics. During elections, polls interview a few people over the phone, then publish blanket statements about winners and losers. Polls are outdated measurements that have been replaced by social media, Twitter in particular. Anyway, when the underdog party wins, it tells pollsters, thu-la-ni  (keep quiet). Death is inevitable but we still cry when a loved one passes on, to the next life. Friends and neighbors come to the house to console the grieving family, asking them to thu-la (stop crying). Thu-la . You s

Selling or buying a house. What you tell the estate agent determines the price. For example, an agent told me that owners were in the middle of a divorce. I found that unfair to them, because the agent was telling prospective buyers that they were desperate to get rid of it. Who is the agent working for? The owners who trusted them to sell their home, or the buyer who will dumb down the price as much as possible, after getting that information? Truth is, agents work for themselves, for the commission they get from telling you the obvious: This is the kitchen. This is the bedroom . This is the garden. Agents who tell prospective buyers that you relocated to Germany are  not helping you. They are indirectly encouraging buyers to take advantage of that information and put on the table, a lower offer to purchase the house/flat/apartment.   Be careful with personal information you give agents, although there are questions you cannot avoid like: Do you own your home or renting? There’s a rea

Oppression. Where does the noun come from, pressing too hard? Let’s have a Zulu lesson about it. To oppress i s   cindezela  in Zulu. We will deal with the verb today because the noun  incidezelo , will injure your tongue. Oppression, which can be blatant or latent, is part of life. Capitalism, apartheid, slavery and religion are quite blatant. Wife abuse is latent until women have swollen eyes or die at the hands of their husbands. Some mothers tell daughters to grin and bear because they tolerated it, so did their grandmothers and great grandmothers. Oppression can also come from grown up kids who regularly extort money from ageing parents or force them to sell the family home, pocket the money and send them to old age institutions. In townships, some unemployment grand children demand pension money from grandparents. Born to shop is oppression, self oppression that is. Ci-nde-ze-la .  The first part is pronounced as the expression Ci! Ci! Ci!  The second part is pronounced as in end

Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming seat because she is independent. She is not a slave to a political leader. Testimony at the 6 January Committee indicate that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions and omissions, questioned democracy. Is it the will of the people or political slavery to a leader? Steve Bannon, a Trump adviser, was found guilty of contempt for refusing to testify before the Committee, a good example of the Nigerian proverb: a stubborn fly follows the corpse to the grave. Politics is a group event that takes place under an umbrella, which is the party. At grassroots level, voters exercise what is regarded as the will of the people by choosing the party that promises to deliver their financial and social aspirations. Members win and they fly to Washington, where priorities change. The president takes centre stage. They hang on to his every word and his wishes and utterances become sacrosanct. What’s wrong with that? It is party loyalty. It becomes political slavery when

Government warning about smoking pot. Honey don’t forget the weed/pot! Cannabis, marijuana, pot or whatever you call it is legal in Canada. The Cannabis Act was passed on 19 June, 2018, which means you can pick up the groceries, loaves of bread from the bakery and small parcels of weed located, in the same strip mall. Justin Trudeau, the current prime minister campaigned on making weed legal.  He won and it is now an over the counter purchase.  What is not recorded is the number of U.S and overseas visitors to Canada who had a good time in hotels, being happy, before the legalization. However, cannabis law in Canadian provinces differs, but the underlying intent is to keep it private. Don’t smoke or vape it in public.  Do it behind closed doors. POT IN THE ZULU LANGUAGE Weed is known as  i-gu-du  in southern Africa.  This is a reference to the pipe that is used to smoke this piece of grass. Weed might be associated with young people fooling around in Canada and the U.S. but it was an o

Estates. I used to think that they’re c rop and animal farms; sugar cane plantations in Africa, Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba; cotton plantations in the U.S.; land for grazing horses or cattle; vineyards in   France; Buckingham Palace and related mini palaces; and homes of the rich and famous like Oprah. That was my idea of estates. Then mother died. A jewellery store where she bought her kids and grandchildren wrist watches called telling us to pay what was owing on the account. We said the person who was their customer had passed on to our ancestors. They said her estate should settle the bill.  What estate?  I said we were not rich enough to have an estate. The jewellery store then explained that it was not only about wealth.  Estate meant possessions, what a person had when she died including debt.  What estate could a woman born black in a white country like South Africa have? She was legally not a citizen and therefore could not buy a house. I therefore learn ed the hard way what es

  This blog also has Zulu lessons, a language spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Old handbags are good for safekeeping stuff. Safekeeping is   thu-ku-sa  in Zulu.  Thu-ku-sa  is for both hiding money from the tax man and putting away things for safekeeping.   Hiding is more obvious, like a child hiding a chocolate slab behind his back.  What are you hiding? Nothing mama. Show me your hand . The chocolate gooey trickles down his fingers. He licks it. Cute, premium cute! Hiding is also hiding from the police and flying to Pyongyang, hoping North Korea doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Mama used to  thu-ku-sa , hide money and things she will use in future. Oops! Sometimes she forgot where. We used to  thu-ku-sa  things in savings accounts for a rainy day. Credit cards destroyed that. What rainy day? It is spending  waya waya  (all the time) as they say South Africa. Thu-ku-sa  is also hiding a full human being because polygamy is illegal in most countries. Some rich men i

Photo Credit: online pic. Prince Harry the author. We’re super excited that SPARE, Prince Harry’s book is coming out 10 January, 2023. I’m the last person to be excited because royalty is not my cup of tea. I was born and raised in a colony of the British Empire so, I know the practical side of the royal family. Having said that, I’m excited because SPARE will put ‘royal biographers’ out of business. How does one become one? Is it being born in that tradition that persecuted Prince Harry’s mum until her demise, or anger that he found in Meghan Markle, happiness his mum never knew? By the way, when Prince Harry was born, his mother Diana Princess of Wales said she now has an heir to the throne and a spare. Meghan Markle is the Spare’s wife. Talking about memoirs, the book might inspire you to write your family history. Forget it. No publisher will touch your manuscript. You are not remotely related to the royal family and you’re not a former U.S. President. Have you considered self-publ

Juice shopping. I can’t find my favourite brand. No problem. I’ll take another one on the store shelf, provided the price is the same. Consumers are the tail. Companies that make the things we buy are the head, so they are in a better position to say why they change food and soap labels. I’m using soap as the generic for all products on store shelves. Changing their labels is risky because I have many options if I cannot find my usual product. Guess what? It’s right there but I don’t see it because it has a new label. I’m just a consumer but I think they change labels to increase sales. But how is that possible when they change the label completely, colour and font? What do I know? Not a lot, but I know the basics. The aim is to: 1.  Retain present customers that know the label’s colour and graphics. 2.  Attract new customers without losing the tried and faithful. Time. They want to change a product label. Fine. It’s their prerogative but do they consider the time factor? Time is a dwi

Cook apples, onion and tomato in olive oil for 5m (to preserve crunchy crunchy).  Brush sirloin steak with black pepper. Fry in butter in high heat for 5m max. The feud between vegetarians and meat lovers is not necessary, because we all food.  You got that right, we all food.  It’s not a matter of us and them.  It is ending the life of a cucumber or rabbit so that we can eat.  People don’t eat meat for a variety of reasons: religion, how animals are raised and how they are prepared for slaughter and subsequent marketing.   It should also be noted that there are many people around the world who eat meat for religious reasons and even offer it to their gods. Beetroot, broccoli, yams and spinach routinely lose their life to make a vegetarian meal.   They lived happily in the soil until someone harvested them for the supermarket or farmer’s pot.  Moral superiority.  Vegetarians cannot claim that their choice is morally superior because they eat dead veggies.  Equally, meat lovers cannot d

  I’ve lost my appetite. Cook ginger, onion, tomato in olive oil for 5m. Add pumpkin and cook  in low heat. Pumpkin has its own water, but you can add one spoon if you like. It might be for medical reasons or frustration after receiving bad news, such as there’s no Wi-Fi. It’s a serious matter which stops life in its tracks. It happened on 8 July ‘22 when data thieves hacked Rogers the giant Canadian wireless service provider, resulting in the collapse of the banking system and left us with no access to e-mail. I’ve lost my appetite. It is a sign of plenty, abundance, affluence. It is a lost and found situation. There is confidence that food will be available when the appetite returns. That is why we walk away from the table at home or restaurants, leaving food half eaten. I’ve lost my appetite. That statement is a declaration of independence. It says I can overcome the present circumstances that made me lose my appetite. I will eat again. It is a forward looking declaration, past the

All societies blame women for daughters, as if they are not human beings. What American women feared has come to pass. The Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling affirming a woman’s right to access safe abortion. Is it possible that in the year 2022, certain states in the U.S. still regard women as property?   The highest law in the land says yes. They are men’s property if they have no say in what goes in and out of their bodies. It is  deja vu , when women could not open a bank account without male permission. However, the right to abortion is not a banking matter. It is a right men can relate to. Vasectomy for example. A man’s decision not to have kids is his decision. It is not criminalized. States that vote Republican cannot stop him. Indeed, he doesn’t have to wait years for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the matter. The Supreme Court’s decision on Roe vs Wade demonstrates remnants of hypocrisy. What took maybe 30 seconds for the sperm to land

Aaradhya Bachchan with her parents Abhishek and Aishwarya. Fans have no right to tell actors, actresses and other famous people what to do with their lives. They follow and be-friend them on social media, but that does not give them the licence to dictate. Social media doesn’t change the following: 1.  Fans are faceless strangers 2.  Fans have no good intentions about people they follow 3.  Fans make comments for selfish reasons, to get more page views 4.  Fans have a right to their privacy. Nobody tells them when to get pregnant. Two Examples Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, whose husband is Abhishek Bachchan, both work in Bollywood films. They have a daughter Aaradhya. There are photographers in Mumbai India whose sole assignment is to snap them at the airport. Aishwarya is always seen holding her daughter’s hand. Pseudo fans hate the motherly gesture and they constantly demand that she should let Aaradhya walk by herself. It is mind boggling that they believe they have the right to tell a mo

Municipal elections in Manitoba today, to vote for mayors, school trustees and other folks that are part of the machinery that governs cities. Other Canadian provinces like British Columbia and Ontario have done their municipal elections. Prince Edward Island will go to the polls in November. We must walk to voting venues to do our civic duty, choose the best from what is available. We can’t complain and say all candidates are not worthy because we didn’t join the race. You want to change things, run for office. Why Vote in Local Elections? It’s where the action is, what concerns us the most like public transport, summer construction all over the place, money for libraries, snow removal, COVID-19 and schools, over-crowded hospitals because of the virus, garbage collection, everything. Unfortunately, voters prefer the photo shoot (Prime Ministers and Presidents). We know more about them than city mayors, unless they cut ribbons somewhere officially opening a building. What we overlook i

I’m running for Mayor. Maybe I should not put the cart before the horse. For starters, what does a mayor do? No, I won’t Google it. Let me use my experience in living in cities. For starters, mayors love big scissors, not small like kitchen scissors or a dress designer’s pair of scissors. Mayors use them to cut ribbons. They must be quite big so that television and cellphone cameras can see them when the mayor officially opens a shopping mall, school or hockey stadium. Mayors also deliver opening remarks, speech writers prepare for them, for the opening of multicultural festivals and national celebrations like Canada Day and Veterans’ Day. In a nutshell, they attend community events with the potential of high velocity media presence. There’s money involved so I guess mayors oversee the housekeeping budget, cut and paste here and there, rob Peter to pay Paul, or permanently rob somebody. It won’t be cyclists for sure because the bicycle lobby is very strong, which means more bike lanes.

If Republicans lose, they'll say the election was 'stolen' and will resort to violence, like the 6 January attempt to overthrow a duly elected government. Voter suppression laws southern states enacted in 2021 after Trump’s attempt to take the election by force, will be tested for the first time this year. Early voting is in progress for the 2022 Midterm Elections. Some Americans don’t want to wait for the actual date, 8 November. They believe in the proverb, the early bird catches the worm. The voting process is also infested with worms from voter suppression laws in states such as Georgia, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa and Utah. The 2022 Midterms will be the test kitchen because Republicans in the South passed them in 2021, after former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ from him. VIOLENCE AFTER 8 NOVEMBER Why pass laws to discourage people from voting? It’s because of Trump and his sense of entitlement as Fame the T.V series song goes, ‘Fame, I’

What is the media? The question is directed at Columbia School of Journalism in New York, where I was told the media is subjective. Such schools teach the same thing all over the world. If I could be a speck of dust in a college lecture hall, I would listen to what retired journalists teach students, about the craft of news gathering and dissemination. No. I don’t think Journalism modules include Twitter. Students have that in their phones. What is the media? Reporters who work for established media houses want an answer because they are maligned, wrongly accused of every photographic, digital and printed misdemeanour. They correctly point out that tools of the trade such as microphones, cameras and  typewriters are no longer exclusively theirs. The cellphone is the current DW, CBC, BBC, SABC, DW, Agence France Presse or Al Jazeera. What is the media? Is a blog a packet of news? Is a podcast news? To their followers, FB, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms are pregnant