Nonqaba said ...

Halyna Hutchins is dead. She was a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust , starring Alec Baldwin. On 21 October 2021, he accidentally shot her because the gun they gave him was loaded. Things actors use to act out scenes are called props in movie production. Guns are main props because movies are violent. Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter of Halyna Hutchins. Her death raises serious questions about the presence of guns in movies. Must producers always approve screenplays with guns? They will probably say it’s not possible to tell stories without guns. Atlanta movie producers also write stories about guns. Even the character Madea intimidates people with her bulk and gun. Movies are put in marketing boxes called genres. There are ‘westerns’ where cowboys opened up America by shooting Indians and established ranches on their land. World War 1 and 2 movies are guns all the way. Action movies are a Hollywood staple, so are murder she wrote dramas, drug wars and

One of the things i miss about Toronto are film crews on the street.  Remember Hollywood shoots there because it's cheaper than the U.S. Movie extras have put out a press statement. They want a new designation. They want to redefine themselves like the rest of the world. Waiters are now called servers. Hotel cleaners are room attendants.  Nurses are medical practitioners. Divorced people call themselves  FF , finally free. Drunk drivers are called ‘impaired drivers’ from pairing alcohol and driving, I suppose. Movie extras want to be called ‘essential support’ because movies need people moving about in street, coffee shop, wedding, synagogue, market, bookstore, or restaurant scenes. They do, because movies are not one-woman Broadway plays. Movie extras feel that ‘extra’ puts them in jeopardy. It means something you can do without, something superfluous you can cut out when you edit the movie. They don’t mind that when the director says ACTION, he is calling them as a group and not

Interested in someone and she’s ignoring you? Be careful, she might finally say yes to a date, because Valentine’s Day is two weeks away. She might be part of the block vote of women who associate love with material things. For them, love is not a feeling. It’s a business transaction. Goods and services change hands for a price. In the year 2023, certain services will not be rendered without Valentine’s Day goods like dinner for two in a linen and cutlery eating establishment. Remember the line in the movie Diary of a Mad Black Woman ? The woman played by Kimberly Elise said:  I have food at home , when the man asked her out. Dumb girl. In real life, girls want Valentine’s Day goods like phones, handbags with an Italian name, trips to Dubai and cars. It’s hard being a man, no goods no services. That’s why you must avoid that girl you’ve been chasing. She might remember Valentine’s Day is 14 days away and say YES. Call her in March, when the storm has settled. By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Kitchen foil used to be a dollar. What happened, somebody foiled the plan? Ha! Ha! Things that cost a dollar before tax are disappearing from shelves. That’s why dollar stores must change their name. Sometimes change of circumstances require a change of name. Some women get married just to have an an extra surname. Example. Call me Jada Pinkett Smith or Hillary Rodham Clinton. What happened to plain Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Zulu? If dollar stores are now 2-dollar or 3-dollar stores, they must change the signage. Prices have gone up and we can’t blame inflation. They went up long before that. Dollar stores were never just one dollar because of the greedy government, always wants a cut on everything. That’s why a one broom handle ended up being $1.07. Dollar stores must come up with a name that will accommodate the future, which is uncertain. What is certain is that prices will go up. Right now, walking through the store aisles, feels like we were cheated. We thought the one dollar price is ca

May 6, 2023 will be a day of mourning for British colonies. That’s why they will not attend the coronation to make Charles 111 officially king. It will remind them there will never get back the land British kings grabbed through the barrel of a gun, with the bible and plain deceit, like chiefs putting a thumb on a piece of paper. Land is wealth because it has money generating items on top and underground. Indigenous people never thought of desecrating mother earth with excavating and drilling machines in search of coal, gold, diamonds and platinum. British kings did, because they were ‘civilized.’ King Charles does not regard his coronation as a day of mourning. Surely, it is a day for celebrating the on-going exploitation of the former British Empire through the British pound. The table below is an example of the true nature of colonization. The size of a country is meaningless if its natural resources still belong to Britain and its affairs are bought and sold with pound sterling. CO

Burglary, also known as breaking and entering someone’s property is a criminal offence. Charles 111 is not a criminal lawyer but at his coronation on 6 May, he will define burglary and how colonization was not breaking and entering. A man’s home is his castle, says the proverb. We don’t have to break it down for him for obvious reasons. He owns the language. He owns castles. He’s a man. What is a man? Charles 111 and his brother Prince Andrew are men and that is not what the Royal Navy found in colonies they invaded. They found half-naked sub-humans. Not naked like bikini naked which is ‘civilized’, but naked as kids with no Bata shoes on. Because they were not men in the British sense of the word, the king’s armies killed them and enslaved the rest. They took their land and divided it into residential and commercial property. The rest was ‘crown land’ named after the royal family’s crown jewels. After rejecting the fact that colonization is breaking and entering, Charles 111 will expl

Prince Harry married the woman he loves like his father, Charles the man to be king after the coronation in May. Camilla, the woman he loves will be queen. Like father like son is admirable. It means the son is following in his father’s footsteps in doing good for the family, the community or the world in general. Prince Harry married Meghan Markle, a single woman because he loves her. That’s why it’s confusing why he should be persecuted for that. His father loved Camilla, another man’s wife but the British accepted it because he was HRH the Prince of Wales. Prince William and Prince Harry grew up without a mother’s love because she was inconsequential. The royal family needed an heir to the throne, without sacrificing Charles’ love for Camilla. Diana Spencer was brought in and delivered two baby boys, an heir and a spare. She never mattered. It was a classic case of breaking eggs to make an omelette. Diana Spencer was the egg. And Charles and Camilla lived happily ever after as king

I just want to relax. Forms of relaxation are as many as black seeds inside a paw paw. Online videos are one form, but different colors. Tik Tok and YouTube Shorts are either like the beautiful fish on the seabed or rubble after a building’s demolition. One delightful creature is the little girl who says ‘hi baby girl’ to her mother. Her name is Ali, if I’m not mistaken. Her eyes, smile are tonic for the soul, especially one like mine that gets polite letters from creditors.  She gives me inspiration when she  greets herself and says ‘ hi baby girl .’ I must baby-girl myself more often. Give the self-confidence a boost, a pep talk, but society frowns upon pride, conceit, selfishness. Be kind to others, sacrifice for your family and community. That is how we are brought up. That’s why we’re so poor. Have you ever heard of a billionaire that got to the top of the bank by being kind? Forget about their foundations. They formed them to get the taxman off their back. They exploited workers,

The difference between men who have shares in oil exploration and those that work the oil rigs is morning sounds. Oil barons do not live where they source wealth, under the soil or ocean.  They live on acres of land with trees and flowing streams, so they wake up to frogs croaking, birds mating and water caressing slippery stones. Their workers in downtown Toronto or Vancouver wake up to fire engines at the crack of dawn, wailing police cars, a woman in the top apartment crying because of domestic violence, drunkards singing off key on the pavement and snow crews scraping the white stuff from dirty streets. Billionaires have the best of both worlds.  They buy shares (on bank credit), make profit on that credit and walk away when oil, gold, diamond, clothing factories and car manufacturing stop being profitable.  Poor people are left holding the baby, inner city decay. Profits they make enable captains of industry to enjoy peace in serene suburbs, summer houses, and Mediterranean island

Pathan, SRK's new movie. This blog is about one of Bollywood's classic movies. Karan Johar’s Indian film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is about forbidden fruit.    Only two people know whether it is kiwi or mango.    The fruit salad situation hurts other people when they found out.    It is not fiction.    It is my story and yours but is it worth all the pain?    Hollywood calls it a crime of passion. It is quite simple really.    Maya (Rani Mukherjee) marries Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan) out of gratitude because his family took her in when her parents died.    Rishi’s father (Amitabh Bachachan) loves her and Rishi has loved her for years, but she feels otherwise.    She finally gives in and agrees to marry him. What is the point of waiting for true love, something that doesn’t exist?    Rhea meets Dev (Shah Rukh Khan), who is ‘the one’, but is already married to Rhea (Preity Zinta).    The two strangers sit on a garden bench and discuss love and marriage.    Dev convinces Maya to marry

Education went digital many moons ago.  Kids look down upon teachers because they have more followers than them, the prime minister or the Pope. That does not change the fact that education, or learning is hands-on, human to human. Kids in Europe, Canada, U.S. and Australia look forward to their first car. In fact they demand it from parents, as if it’s necessary like the air we breathe.  Digital superiority over parents deceives kids that they don’t need them for anything. It’s all online. That’s all they need to pass the learner driver’s test. Parents should ignore the bravado and take them for a walk. No car. Just ten toes around the block. Cars on the right, zoom by while cars on the left wait patiently. Why dad? This is so boring. Because of road signs Einstein. The road is a jungle. All the beasts want to zoom by. They are in a hurry to go somewhere not important. Stop signs, one-way streets, speed limits are all part of the jungle. Drivers are conceited bastards but they don’t w

Using credit cards to buy books on Amazon, groceries, paying for internet services, buying cellphone covers, sneakers or bed sheets was a gentleman’s agreement. Credit card companies charged stores a little something for allowing me to use the credit card. Now stores or merchants are fed-up. They complained, spearheaded by Telus, a Canadian phone company. Why should stores or businesses where I buy things with my credit card pay for the gentleman’s agreement? Merchants have won. That is not surprising because as the African proverb goes: when elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Consider me the grass. Now that  the  gentleman’s agreement has shifted to me the customer, what are my options? 1.  Choose which cellphone companies I want to deal with. Obviously, Telus is not one of them because of the 1.5% add on, if I use my credit card. 2.  Less sales for phone companies and all stores that agree that the gentleman’s agreement should be shifted to me, the customer. 3.  More dilig

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou under house arrest in Canada from 2018 to September 2021. Why? Trump administration wanted to extradite her for a crime allegedly committed in 2013. Despite credit cards, humans try to stick to monthly budgets and this includes the Ambani brothers in India, Meng Wanzhou Huawei CFO, Melinda Gates and Andrew Tate, who is currently incapacitated in Bucharest, Romania. Because we live from hand to mouth, we cannot accommodate surprises. This is real life, not movies where somebody says: Surprise! Surprise! The next thing you know, you must fund that surprise by going out to celebrate or buy extra food because the surprise is a long lost uncle come to stay, until he gets himself sorted out. We cannot afford unexpected joy or sorrow because we’ve already stretched the budget to accommodate iceberg lettuce which is now four dollars. We cycle to work not because we care for the environment. We don’t have money for gas. We don’t live in Oil Producing and Exporting Countr

The modern bookshop looks like Sears, the departed department store that went out of business. They sell almost everything. I looked like a crazy person yesterday when I did a double take, looked left and right scanning the space for books. I was in a bookshop after all. You either enter the bookshop from the shopping mall food court or the open air car park. Either way, you land on the main floor full of bed sheets, pyjamas, disposable morning slippers, ladies hats, bags, scarves, casserole dishes and coffee mugs. At least the shopping mall entrance has a royal indication that you are entering a bookshop. SPARE, Prince Harry’s book is on a tall display. The bookshop also has a children’s clothing area which used to be a reading area. They had chairs where book lovers sat while they listened to authors talk about their books. Authors loved it. It was a chance to sign their books. Some readers loved it because it is a big deal to have the author’s signature on the first page. Is there v

Andrew Tate, life in tatters in a prison in Romania. Brittney Griner. Andrew Tate. They are high profile so we know about their detention in foreign prisons. Griner was tried, sentenced, did time in Russia and was released last year. Tate is not a tourist as such because he told his followers he lives in Romania. Did he apply for citizenship? We don’t know. There are hundreds other tourists in prison in foreign countries because they broke the law. The usual response from Canada and U.S. is standard. They are innocent. U.S. President Joe Biden said Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained. Some tourists end up in foreign prisons because of delusions of grandeur. I’m Canadian. I’m American. I can do what I like in this ‘banana republic’ or poverty stricken country. Some tourists go on vacation with the sole intention of luring kids into sexual acts for money. Such tourists are putting their own life in danger, if locals catch them. Granted, Canada and U.S. have a more transparent system

Photo Credit: Online pic. The internet spoilt weekend fun, Sunday papers. Twitter usurped breaking news because it tweets them on the hour, every hour. Besides, the few papers that survived the internet flood are online, in very emaciated form, begging for subscription. Sunday papers had a vibe on their own, except for parents and grandparents who went to church. There were rituals about going out to buy Sunday papers, how to read them, what to eat while reading them and other miscellaneous stuff  In some countries husbands went out to pick up papers and didn’t come back until supper time, something about the car breaking down. Women had better things to do back then, than to worry about grown human beings. Sunday papers were obese, with different sections. We grew up kwa-khulu’s   (grandmother’s place). She read the Bible 24/7, while grandfather and our uncles read newspapers. They started us with comics and graduated us to lifestyle and news sections as we grew up. Sunday papers were

Are we safe in planes? Who is the passenger sitting next to me? We used to be scared of take-off, when the plane finally lifts itself up. Fear of flying in this century also means being scared of something similar to road rage.   In November, Indian media reported that Shankar Mishra, allegedly peed on a woman, who was also in business class in an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi. He is in custody in Delhi. What the media has dubbed ‘pee-gate’ is one example of how some passengers are getting dangerous. Because of cellphones, we see passengers attacking airline staff and other passengers. We leave home angry and transfer it to passengers next door. We can fly business class I guess because folks in there are calm, since they eat different food, use napkins and real forks and knives, not plastic cutlery like us. I know. I was once bumped. No. Wealthy folks are also angry. They just manage it better because they have shrinks. On the plane rage should not happen. Passengers on

Austrian Airlines JERUSALEMA video one of the best on YouTube. Going to Austria? Not any time soon but if I have to, I’ll book a seat on Austrian Airlines. Why? Because they embrace the current means of advertising which is dancing online using Tik Tok or YouTube Shorts. YouTube ignored Tik Tok for a long time, then Tik Tok punched YouTube where it hurts: viewers. That is how YouTube Shorts was born, to retain viewers Tik Tok was poaching. The Austrian Airlines video on YouTube is well-made. It’s like a short film, starting with pilots and stewards on the bus. You can’t miss the logo on their plane. Colours are vivid, with red as the dominant color. Pilots come into the screen and tone things down a bit with their traditional black uniforms. Maybe I should have started with the brief. The advertising company came up with a script that could work in many ways: as an ad on a leisure magazine, as an ordinary video and as a exercise video. I don’t mean exercise as in workout, but exercise

Where’s your mum? Where your mom at? Kids know why daddy asks that question. He misses her. At what age do they realize that? Hard to tell. They don’t think about it, because they are too busy with kids’ stuff, which is playing.  Subconsciously, it also teaches them how to relate to the outside world. Kids give innocent answers because they are not old enough to have a database of lies, like us. Is your mom in? Yes. She said I should say she no here. Kids bask in parents’ love. Delete that. Let’s use adoration. Every time someone says I love you, run for your life. He or she wants something. Kids are not hackers but they understand code. They know why dad keeps looking through the window. It’s because mum is unusually late. Kids protect that adoration from the world. Are your parents in? Yes, they are resting. The visitor smiles and remembers it’s Sunday afternoon. Thou shall not disturb resting folks. However, kids also feel the other side of sunshine, when parents fight. They cry. By

They have something in common. You better believe it, although Romania is in Europe surrounded by Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, while South Africa is in another continent Bani:  they call money “bani” in Romania Bani:  in South Africa “bani” is a Zulu and Xhosa word for who? This brings us to  Andrew Tate. Who is he? He has put Romania on the map because they have detained him for human trafficking and rape. He denies the accusation. Andrew Tate says it’s because of his bani . The world knows about it because he was a permanent resident on YouTube telling us about his wealth. He showed us his cars, and he had women around him in some posts. Tate said many things behind his dark glasses, which Romania might use against him. What I remember is what he said about women. He noticed they walk around alone at night. Was it safe? Somebody responded with something like,  why would anyone want to hurt them? Women of the world thank Romanian men, for loving other human beings. By: Nonqa

Every U.S. President has a bullet-ridden teddy bear, in the form of a foreign war. It is a requirement for the job. World War 3, playing out in Ukraine is Joe Biden’s baby. It’s a world war because it involves all 30 NATO countries, under the tutelage of the U.S. There were high hopes that Biden might be the first president without a foreign war because he pulled out of Afghanistan. Delete that thought. Killing people in far away lands under the pretence of safe guarding democracy, is the Wi-Fi of U.S. foreign policy. Ukraine is a World War 3, with a different villain, Russia. Adolf Hitler is dead and gone and Germany is now in America’s pocket, as a member of G7 countries. Russia and the U.S. are traditional enemies but were friendly enemies because of nuclear weapons. Remember high school history lessons? The two countries signed SALT treaties where they allocated weapons of destruction. You can have so many nuclear weapons, I’ll have this many. Ukraine: If their sons and husbands ar

It rhymes. Toddlers are taxpayers. They think they have the world at their feet, as they toddle about, running away from parents because they are rushing off somewhere. Where exactly? The government is the only institution that knows their destination. Toddlers want to grow up quickly to flee from car seats, strollers and high chairs. The government relishes the thought because it has a problem. It has run out of babies. Women in countries like Canada are having less kids and getting pregnant later than before. Statistics indicate they start having kids around 30, when their grandparents used to start around 22 years. Why is Canada worried about the falling birth rate? The economy, the financial god that justifies everything including destroying the environment. The economy is money exchanging hands. The government needs consumers, to replenish those in old age homes. More babies means more future consumers that will buy goods and services. Canada is an ageing country and retired senio

Google is cutting down staff. The hemorrhage in the tech industry began last year. But that doesn’t change the trend towards virtual jobs.   Great excitement, the interview was successful and you got the office or warehouse job. The week is almost over  but still no action because you have five folders on your desk to introduce you to organizational culture. Policies are also on the company’s website but some employers still print and bind them. One folder is from the staffing department with various headings, including discipline. It doesn’t take long to realize that certain employees do not adhere to the dress code: they proudly announce that they will be on Oprah again; go to the salon on company time; wear what they like; regularly arrive late and have more than two smoking breaks. Other workers just shrug when you ask them about these special employees. They are protected workers. That is the answer to your question. The folders you are currently reading is the company’s way of sa

They pulled down the Queen's statues in Canada.  Why is Meghan Markle blamed for the royal family's self destruction? Jeremy Clarkson, who has Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime Video is a hero. He called for the murder of a human being, Meghan Markle because she doesn’t know her place. She is black. She should be grateful for being in royal company and not voice any discomfort. Jeremy Clarkson was supposed to be arrested for inciting mobs against a woman, a black woman who is part of the royal family. But Clarkson, like the majority of upper class Brits does not regard her as royal, whether she married Prince Harry or not. The British royal family has a tradition for everything, from cradle to the grave. That is quite obvious with the coming coronation. The cradle tradition is naming kids. That is why names like Charles, George and Charlotte are passed down generations. That does not happen with slaves. The master gives them names that denote ownership. That is why millions of g

The British have a proverb: a man’s home is his castle. It is so precious, some ancient castles have moats around them for extra security. Africa and the Pacific did not have any moats, so the Royal Navy sailed in. It was followed by ‘red coats’ which killed indigenous people in battles like Impi yase Ncome , (Battle of Blood River) in South Africa. A man’s home is his castle, but not for black and brown people. The British monarchy is white. It came across ‘uncivilized’ people. That is the reason why British kings stole their land and made them slaves. Britain has a body of law which applies to its citizens. It did not apply to ‘barbarians.’ That is why Britain regarded all those Commonwealth countries as ‘free land.’ Britain will have a coronation in May to perpetuate white supremacy that led to the invasion of half the world. Britain is a poor country. It got its riches from free natural resources, free because the owners of the land were ‘half human’ and therefore not entitled to t

Cook green beans (snap beans) red onions, 2mato in olive oil for 3m. Add quarter cup water and simmer for 5m. Serve with steamed pumpkin and potatoes mashed with low fat margarine. I’m sorry, but I have a confession to make. I always say mama taught me how to cook. She didn’t. She would come home with a bag of corn meal and ask me to empty it in a tin. She also had a rice tin. She never taught me how to make hard porridge. She just asked me to boil water and put a little salt. She would ask me to scoop out two cups of corn meal from its tin and add it to the water. She would stir it a few times in low heat. Mama never taught me how to cook vegetables. She’ll ask me to pluck out red chilies from that little plant in the backyard. She would ask me to cut a cabbage in half, chop it and onions too. “Mama, they make me cry.”  She cooked the chilies, cabbage, onions, tomato in oil and we’ll eat it with the hard porridge. They call it coleslaw in Canada. Mama never taught me how to cook meat.

There was so much travel pandemonium during the pandemic, banks decided to remove travel insurance from credit cards. Double check that, before you fly to Bora Bora.  Banks are shopkeepers. They sell things. That is why they should tell us upfront how much. They are always peddling one product or the other and the sales pitch is the same: they want to help YOU the customer. Don’t let ads fool you. They want to help themselves. The competition is so fierce, they poach customers from each other. You’ve seen ads that entice you to leave the blue bank for the red bank. What do they call it? Consolidation. Don’t try it. The blue bank will be so mad, you’ll leave many dollars short, punishment charges if you ask me. Banks are shopkeepers. They must keep their shops open at all costs. Delete that. They must keep making a profit. That is why they constantly waylay us with new ‘products.’ There’s no place to hide because they have our emails.  COVID-19 is one example. Credit cards are mainly fo

Stephen A. Smith, First Take host on ESPN. Photo Credit: online pic . It’s either we don’t have time to listen to the whole TV interview, read books from cover to cover, or we just have a pea brain. Stephen A. Smith is used to it, because of his work on ESPN’s First Take . He makes a comment. We don’t get ESPN at home but because we have a pea brain, we choose one phrase and run with it. The latest controversy, which is not a controversy at all, is his appearance on Sherri the TV talk show. He said something about two singers, Rihanna and Beyonce. Pea brains don’t have the capacity to listen to the prelude so he is the bad guy who dissed Rihanna. I won’t repeat what went down. You are not a pea brain so you listened, really listened to what Stephen A. Smith said. Last year, he was also misquoted in the Boston Celtics + suspended coach Ime Udoka + HR policies in sports, non-controversy. He stood his ground and repeated what he said. The more he explained, the more the pea brain rejected