Nonqaba said ...

  BREAKING NEWS The Independent Pres s Standards Organisation (IPSO), a U.K. media watch dog has concluded that what Jeremy Clarkson wrote about Prince Harry’s wife is sexism. It received about 25 000 complaints about Clarkson's hatred for Meghan Markle. Here is an old post (26 December 2022) about the matter. Jeremy Clarkson, a British broadcaster, hates Meghan Markle so much he wishes her dead. In the December 16 column published by the Sun media group, he said he has sleepless nights. “….. dreaming of the day she is made to parade through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant “Shame” and throw lumps of excrement at her.” The Trump Connection Jeremy Clarkson and Donald Trump have something in common: platforms. For two years, Trump denied that he had lost the 2020 election. He told his followers to do something about it on 6 January, with the directive that it will be ’wild.’ It came to pass. Jeremy Clarkson also has a platform, which puts Meghan Markle’s li

Instead of all the sugary soda, chop apples and other fruit into small pieces for the kids. They never finish soda cans, putting more stress on the environment. You can also buy dried fruit. Clean up after yourself this Canada Day.  July 1 is Canada Day so we’ll be outdoors having picnics, BBQ and playing games in the park. We’ll get thirsty and drink from plastic bottles we’ll leave behind to stain the environment. Let’s decide no plastic tomorrow as we load food and drink in cars. We can chop fruit into little pieces as snacks, instead all that soda we don’t even finish. In June  last year, Canada announced it will stop manufacturing and importing all plastic things we use and throw away (single-use) . You know what single use is, plastic grocery bags and drinking straws for your lemon tea and coffee laced with cream. They are a problem to the environment, but they should not be the fall guy. We are the polluters because we don’t think about the environmental implications of what we

Hollywood is limping and the so-called ‘red carpet’ is an attempt to keep afloat the glamour, glitz and make-believe. Hollywood made money on our need to believe that love exists and that we can live happily ever after. Happiness doesn’t exist. Co-existentialism does. Two people under one roof and sharing the same bed try their best to exist together, if that makes sense. I don’t know about the bed. My grandparents had twin beds. Prince Charles and Prince William and Prince Harry’s mother had separate wings in castles. Before colonization, men in Kwa-Zulu lived on their land and had separate houses for their three or four wives. Hollywood crushed that co-existentialism, merged the two beds into a double bed, created a ‘master bedroom’ and threw in some roses to perpetuate the illusion of love.  That is why most Hollywood movies have a happy ending. Thanks to YouTube, you can make your own movies. You can invest in a good camera and the hardware store has different sizes of lights. They

There is no theft online, except for hackers that crack a bank’s security system and siphon off money. Not only banks. In 2018, they hacked a British Airways data system and stole vital passenger information especially credit card numbers. Hackers are specialized thieves, but generally there is no break and enter online because we provide information on our own free will. The internet is a house with no doors, windows or garage doors. We don’t carry around a bunch of keys clipped to our belts like building maintenance guys. You’re wrong, you say. We have passwords to keep thieves out. Yes, passwords to enter the internet open house and drop off things we give out for free. There is no theft online because we give away tweets, blogs, opinion, photographs, ideas, and other ‘content.’ Let’s admit it. There has been instances where we feel we have been robbed. It happens to all of us: a tweet that was not LIKED or RETWEETED, but suddenly has a new owner. A whole blog paragraph re-engineere

Keke Palmer, an American actress, comedian and TV show host heard rumors that she was pregnant. She confirmed it online with the statement  I AM , then showed her baby bump.  Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, former Miss World and Bollywood actress ignored calls that she should show her baby bump. For what? For her internet family. She did not, because the internet is not family. Keke Palmer did, out of choice. She is comfortable with things that begin with internet practice and graduated to so-called ‘culture’. My apologies to Americans but because of pop culture, what American celebrities do, end up being the compulsory norm. Nigerian movies for example. If American movies are about cancer, surrogacy and marriage therapists, Nigerian movies will run that for the next 50 years, at the expense of indigenous African stories the whole world can relate to. My Childhood Internet culture includes confessions about family, especially parents. Fame comes with certain internet obligations like dogging p

Made in China. The only foreign interference is trade between the two countries. In true Trump fashion, Canada’s Conservative Party claims China interfered in the last two federal elections, causing it to lose. There was no foreign interference for the most common sense reason, that it’s immaterial to China who is in power in Ottawa. Whether it’s the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, or NDP, the cash register in Beijing will always ring because of things Canada buys from China. The real foreign interference will be on display on 1 July, the federal holiday called Canada Day. All flags that will fly on top of buildings, hotels and children’s heads are made in China. Therefore, foreign interference is in the China-Canada import and export business. How? The two countries exchange confidential trade information when they buy goods from each other. Call it a bill of lading, if you like. China supplies the whole world with basic goods. Don’t complain. You did not, when the U.K. was the ric

Parents think their kids are safe in school. Are they? Being bisexual is a choice. It is something certain men want, to have sex with wives and girlfriends when they feel like it, and with other men if the mood guides them in that direction. It’s their body. Another body is involved here, the wife’s or girlfriend’s. The whole LGB … alphabet is about sex elasticity and it happens between two consenting adults or more, if they frequent places called baths or parks at night. I came across gay men ‘crawling’ for the first time in Geneva, one summer. I was on a ‘romantic’ stroll with a boyfriend after dinner.  I felt uneasy seeing many men standing against trees. I told him we should turn back. He laughed and said I was safe. They were waiting for other men who would give them sex. It is a personal matter. Grown men do what they want with their bodies, but how about women in their lives? They will unknowingly get diseases such as HIV/AIDS. They don’t know anything, but the bisexual in the L

  Castrating boys, the fall of the Roman, no American empire, which Canada is a part of. Two people fall in love, get married and have a child. Somewhere down the line, the marriage breaks down. There’s a separation and finally divorce.  What happens to the child? It’s a rhetorical question because we all know the court decides what is in the best interest of the minor, after hearing evidence from both parents. The divorce will only be final, after the minor’s future is settled. Why not let the child decide? Maybe it prefers daddy to mummy. The child is a minor.  It doesn’t have the capacity to decide its future, until it is 18 years old. The court makes a decision, then the shuffling begins, summer here, Thanksgiving over there. It is therefore baffling that the U.S. government bypassed parents about sex education in the name of ‘equity’ which includes teaching boys that they can sleep with other boys and old men who profess to ‘love’ them to the extent of boys chopping off their thin

The tipi is a mobile home. Indigenous people fished and hunted what they needed, then sailed on, leaving resources to replenish. In the background is the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The Canadian flag has one colour, red against a white background, therefore you can’t miss it on 1 July because it is Canada Day. Tiny hand-held flags or medium flags will be fluttering in block parties, public parks, stadiums and cottage country. But the people who live in Canada come in many colours, like sunrise and sunset. Don’t ask them what they like about their adopted country because you might not like the answers. Free. That would be my answer. I know freedom because I never had it. Generations of the 1940 immigrants would not understand because they were born free in Canada, so they’ve never experienced anything else. Their great grand-parents do though. Absence of freedom made them leave Asia and Europe. More recent immigrants from countries where religion is the compass for all activity do

Summer means long days when it only gets dark around 10 p.m. Strangers smile at you on the road and farmers show case their produce. What is your favourite fruit and vegetables? Mine are peaches so juicy, I need a baby’s bib around my neck, and tomatoes? Don’t get me started on garden tomatoes. Besides being juicy, they taste better that supermarket tomatoes we’re forced to eat all winter. Then comes eggplant, which is called aubergines or brinjal in other parts of the world. Let’s try this salad. 1.  Steam potatoes or boil them if you don’t have a steamer. It is highly recommended though. You’ll never boil sweet potatoes, carrots, snap beans or broccoli again, once you have a steamer. 2.  Cook onion, tomatoes and garlic in olive oil and Jamaican jerk sauce or seasoning for 6mins. It’s no train smash if you don’t have that sauce. 3.  Cut eggplant in half, and chop one half into small pieces and drop them in the pot. Add half, of one small red chilies. Cook for 8mins. 4.  Serve eggplant

Job losses everywhere. Small business owners don't have money to rent stores in the mall, so they try their luck online or go under. We don’t know what tomorrow looks like, but what we know for sure is that the LGBTQ+ will add another letter once they decide to make public, another sexual experiment. No problem. It’s their bodies but they cannot force the world to deny that the ‘world’ is male and female. I hope I won’t be tried for treason. What do they say about lies? When you hear a lie long enough, you end up believing it is the truth. I was shocked at myself the other day. I saw a woman with a very pretty dress with blue and white stripes. We don’t wear dresses anymore. Jeans and pants are more practical and you don’t have to worry about bags and shoes to match. I complimented her because besides Kate Middleton, the next queen of England, few women have pretty dresses. She said thank you and said she was pregnant. How wonderful! I was just about to ask her if she was expecting

There are sports and entertainment billionaires now, but original billionaires are the ones that exploited ‘free’ gold and diamonds in the British Empire and paid miners slave wages. The goal was limitless profit, so that they can buy an island somewhere, private jets, yachts and visit the north pole and  outer space. Billionaires closed down plants in America, Canada and U.K. and sent jobs to China and other Asian countries. Cats have nine lives. Billionaires have two: as an industry and as a foundation. I’m no mathematician but this is the formula. Slave wages + profit + tax  cuts  = foundations Billionaires collect wealth through different strategies, like paying  gold and platinum miners in African currencies, but trade those minerals in dollars. Billionaires also make money by robbing the poor, paying them peanuts. Workers are not poor by birth. They’re poor when billionaires don’t pay them a living wage. Workers need it more because they pay cash for food and shelter, unlike bill

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

This is data, not baby green tomatoes. I miss me. Data does not care about the historical, family circumstances and synergy between my mother and father that led to my conception and birth. Forget the unique name my grandfather gave me. Now, I’m just data. Name, address and credit card number. “Your credit card won’t be charged. We need it to verify your true identity.” Right! And my name is Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. You expect me to believe that? I’m quite depressed actually, because I wanted to vote for my favourite online chef. In fact, Pam not only cooks, but has tips about food preservation, kitchen appliances, how to read food labels and kitchen foil, as well. I finally remembered to go online and vote for her. There were two options, make a donation or free vote. The second option still wanted a credit card, so how free, is free? The bottom line is: there’s no free lunch   in America,  sentiment is alive and well. I bought into the idea that we should honour self-made ch

Manitoba monument for missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls. Contribution. I had an uncle who didn’t go to church because of ‘the plate’ ushers passed around after the sermon. Rich church members put paper money in an envelope. What is my contribution to society? None, because it’s rather difficult to contribute to the world at large, when you don’t know how you’ll contribute to the pot and hydro. We associate contribution with money, not stones.  A heap of stones is called isivivane in Zulu. You say it like see, Victoria, vane and neck. There’s a proverb which says contribute to the heap. You still find them in the country side where ‘development’ has not arrived, and hopefully doesn’t. Nobody knows who started these heaps, but obviously, there was a first stone. There must have been a second, third and fourth person who made the contribution. What is fascinating is that it is inherited knowledge. Two friends stop talking when they see a heap of stones. Each throws a stone a

  Don’t stare. It’s rude. Mama and grandma were right, but sometimes I can’t help myself when I see tourists taking pictures of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights  or dancers during National Indigenous People’s Day. They have cameras with zoom and wide angle lenses, not me and my Mickey Mouse cellphone. I had such camera hardware once, before I believed the hype that digital cameras will bury film rolls. What happened to my first camera, a Nikon I bought with wages from a housekeeping summer job in a London hotel? My second camera was a Canon. I don’t remember the models. Why must cameras have numbers e.g. Nikon EE45 or Canon EE75? I kept them in the same camera bag until, the Fuji film processing laboratory I was using went out of business. I cannot forget Fuji colours, a deep green and yellow lines. Other labs followed suit and we lived in a big city. They said business was down because of digital cameras. That is when I got rid of my analog cameras and lenses. Therefore, I was sur

Death, six feet under ground. Only sailors know the probability of ocean graves.  The sinking in southern Greece, of the boat carrying migrants from Pakistan and the Middle East and the Titanic expedition is a reminder of what we don't want to talk about. Death. The overloaded boat was carrying poor people. The Titanic submersible had passengers who paid $250 000 each, to be on board. Here is a piece I posted 30 May about fear of death. ‘Wake up! Honey, wake up.’ “Ooh! I’m still alive!’ ‘Again?’ ‘Yeah. Same nightmare. He tried to kill me.’ We don’t want to die because we’ll miss personal debt or millions of dollars in the bank, traffic jams, floods, fire, the boss, COVID-19, the government and the people who shake us when we have nightmares. I’m not laughing, just thinking about why talking about death is taboo, when it’s inevitable. Ask ghosts. They have the inside story. Do you buy old houses/apartments, renovate and rent them out? There is dirt cheap real estate in Europe. Castl

The National Hockey League (NHL) has banned ‘specialty’ warm-up jerseys and the LGB …. alphabet is crying foul. Language is a means of communication. It is also a mask, like the movie   Mask of Zorro .  It informs to mis-inform. The woman on the bus and man who drives the bus don’t understand compulsory gay activity called pride month. The woman on the bus lugs a sports bag full of skates, helmets and other hockey gear because her son wants to play in the National Hockey League (NHL) one day. She doesn’t have a car so the bus is the only option. Mother and son get off at Union Station and walk to The Forks’ skating rink. Her patience and career sacrifices pay off and her son is one of the few hockey players that make it to the NHL. How many years and how much does it take to raise and train hockey sons and daughters? Ask hockey parents. The NHL organization knows and understands. Because of her son’s success, the woman on the bus now has a car. He tries to update her on all things hock

What is a flag ? It is a symbol associated with countries. We are reminded of its importance when there’s a national tragedy such as, the discovery of children’s graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The Canadian flag was lowered, flew at half mast. In some countries, the U.S. is so unpopular, protesters burn the American flag. What is the Pride flag ? It is a sex flag, a symbol of men who sleep with other men; women who sleep with other women; men who are bisexual (they sleep with their wives or girlfriends and with other men); and men who wear make-up and call themselves women. The flag is now found in schools, because kids are taught that they too, can sleep with other boys, and men who prey on small boys. The LGBTQ+ alphabet is sexual activity that is happening behind closed doors and places called baths as you read this piece. It is not national policy. It is private and men have the right to do things to, and with other men, but not the righ

  I can’t wait to move out. Mum and dad drive me crazy. What kids don’t know is what parents do as soon as they arrive home, after leaving their now independent son in his new apartment. In fact, he nudged them out to prepare for the after-party with his friends. The feeling is mutual. Parents also uncork their supermarket champagne.  What a relief! The YouTube star, I’m an adult mom  is gone. They are also celebrating his first lesson, Budgeting 101. He used to resent Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. He took for granted meat, fish or chicken on the table. Budgeting 101 kicks in and he stops at the food mart rotisserie and stares at that juicy chicken, reminiscent of mom’s  handiwork. Budgeting 101 makes food shopping pure torture. He walks aimlessly in grocery store aisles with an empty basket, with only macaroni n’ cheese boxes as a tenant. He didn’t know food was so expensive. What’s up with soap to wash dishes? He has never washed a plate in his life. That’s why he is clueless w

Foreign students need a Social Insurance Number (SIN) if they want to work in Canada. It’s a government thing. It loves taxes. You work, get paid, the government wants a cut. Both local and foreign students work for the same reason: extra cash. However, they are in college for different reasons. For Canadian and American students, it is the next step in preparation for employment with substantial benefits. Foreign students also have a rosy future in mind because of the perception that a degree from the University of Manitoba or Columbia University in New York, is better than any degree from Africa or Asia. Parents in these continents still hold foreign degrees in high esteem. It is just a perception because there are only 24 hours a day and a student has only one body. Therefore, if part time jobs are the priority, they don’t have enough time to study and absorb all the book elements, supposedly exclusive to a Canadian or American university. Universities in Africa and Asia are foster

Save boys. Pierre Poilievre, who heads the Conservative Party, is the happiest opposition party leader in Canada today. Why? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is doing the unthinkable. He is campaigning for Poilievre by accusing him of not attending the 2023 Pride flag raising in Ottawa in honour of the LGB …..alphabet. It is campaigning for the enemy because it will backfire. He says Poilievre did not attend the event for political reasons. It’s a matter of the kettle calling the pot black because Trudeau himself does not believe in the LGB … alphabet agenda. That is why he stumbled when saying those letters in 2021, and still stumbles in 2023. Trudeau cannot issue a blanket statement that the majority of Canadians support the castration of boys to make them girls. He knows that it is the root of the anger and rising intolerance he kept stressing in his speech on 8 June. There was never a referendum on a life threatening issue like denying that we are boys and girls, male and female. If n

Men say women don’t know what they want. Women say men don’t know what they want. The verbal table tennis goes on, generation after generation. However, marriage and relationships are much easier because there are expectations that depend on culture, religion and class. Not with friendship. In the absence of paper maps or GPS, maintaining healthy friendship is a road fraught with pot holes, sink holes, cul de sac , two lane roads turned into one way without prior notice and roads closed altogether. Marriage vows are broken on the regular but at least they exist. She promises to do this. He promises to do that. Not with friendship. You assume that somebody who is your friend or ‘ my guy ’ - as men call their friends - would tell you they are getting married. You don’t expect this scenario. My guy. I need a loan. Wedding expenses are going through the roof. Whose wedding? Nomusa and I are doing it man. Oh!! This is just an example. Because friendship has no rules, the penniless groom is

Make-up is temporary. We wipe it off at night. Make-up does not make a man a woman.  We cannot destroy humanity - male and female - because of make up. Clever make-up is very effective. It makes actresses very beautiful. That’s why it’s a big deal on the internet, that Actress X  posted pics without make-up. Apparently, it indicates bravery and confidence on her part. However, make-up will never turn a man into a woman because of the knock on the door early in the morning. He answers the door and the visitor sees a man, since the trans man washed off the make-up, before he went to bed. I grew up not wearing make-up. Never thought about it because it was not around. Mom, aunts, older cousins, sisters-in-law, grandmothers and other women in the community that helped bring me up, did not wear make-up. The more I travelled, the more I realized that some women have no alternative but to wear make up because of skin problems. Competition among cosmetics companies is fierce, but they all have

Keke Palmer, actress and film producer, posts a lot of original content that is pruned or re-worked. YouTube is asking us not only to subscribe to our favourite channels, but buy them as well. There’s a monthly fee involved. Before we whip out credit cards, YouTube must define the product, especially channel ownership. Who is the content creator? For me, it starts with the introduction:  Hi guys. Welcome to my YouTube channel. 1.  If that voice-over is laid on top of a video, actress/comedian Keke Palmer posted about her baby, it is opinion, not content and I will not buy an opinion channel. 2.  If that voice over is laid on a scene from a Mary Igwe and Frederick Leonard movie, it is opinion not content. It is stealing from Nigerian producers who take financial risks to make projects. Some pull out their movies from the internet, to avoid content vandalism. 3.  If that voice-over is laid on a video Prince Harry and his wife posted, it is opinion not content, especially if the voice-ove

How do you know a country is 'developed?' It plays with water, use electricity to make decorative art. Water is free like the wind, but they doctor it with chemicals and seal in a bottle. This is an old piece I posted on,  12/1/2019.   Smart phones. Smart food now smart water. What next? Smart brooms?   The dictionary should admit defeat. It has lost the battle to what is trending and ‘smart’ has replaced sugar-free, fat-free, organic, vegan, chemical free etc . It won’t be long before we see ‘smart’ feeding bottles that ensure that kids don’t cry when mummy is on her phone laughing at GIF’s. Using smart in any marketing campaign guarantees attention like this empty bottle, a sibling of five other bottles, in a six pack. I thought the push and pull was between the merits and demerits of both bottled water and tap water. Little did I know that the game has been upped to: smart water?   What is the dictionary meaning of smart? I believed the digital hype and got rid of my hard co