Nonqaba said ...

Poor printers! Every dog has its day. From black board to electronic board.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  No. The printer is not broken. It’s out of paper. The office printer is lonely these days because of e-mail attachments, and technology such as Cloud. There is nobody waiting in line to use it. Well! It depends where you work. Some offices are still paper based. For example, courts and lawyers need copies of evidence and other kinds of documents. Real estate contracts must be signed before houses can legally pass from sellers to buyers. Government wants you to sign on the dotted line before they give you money for being laid off. The office printer might be lonely because it is not churning out documents but, what it misses the most is human drama. Workers used to huddle around it and gossip about the boss, his haircut, kids and wife. They also consoled each other about not getting the promotion or retrenchment. What the printer doesn’t miss is the push pull about replacing paper. I

Georgia Republicans are so predictable. I did this post a few days ago, because I suspected Trump loyalists in the state government might try to remove Fani Willis from her position as Fulton County District Attorney (DA). BREAKING NEWS: Brian Kemp, Georgia Governor just cleared the air and said such a move might be  unconstitutional. End of story. See 25 August, 2023 post below. Georgia might abolish the office of the Fulton County District Attorney (DA) whether Trump + 18 are found guilty or not. That is how Georgia Republicans do it. They remove ‘problems’ because they are in charge. They control both the House and the Senate. The current ‘problem’ is Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA, for indicting Donald Trump + 18 for trying to overturn the 2020 election. That is ridiculous. They cannot do that. It is in the Constitution. They cannot erase the DA’s Office just like that. District Attorneys are custodians of state law. A crime has been committed, they step in to find the needle in

In certain jobs, checking phone messages on company time is a no, with the capital letter N. We are wired. We are online and at work. That is why we check our phones before the staff meeting, during the meeting, during a Power Point presentation and during question period. We don’t know that management or people who pay us are watching and might use our phone use to curtail future possibilities, like promotion. What kids should be taught at an early age is to be their own boss. Some YouTube content creators are already doing, just that. The post office is no longer an option. The car plant where dad worked before he was laid off, is definitely no longer an option. To be your own boss is a dream, but not a reality for most people. That’s why they have a job, which must be watered and weeded at all times. Cellphones are one of the weeds. You don’t know who is watching. Example. City Hall hired a security company for an open air event in June. Some security guards were glued to their phon

Some NBA stars and indigenous men in Canada and U.S. braid their hair.  It doesn't change their gender to them/they.  Do I look like a man? No I don’t, believe me. It’s because of men. They tend to look at me. Strange creatures. You don’t know why they look, especially because I shave my head (it’s cheaper). Dulcie, the American stand-up comedian put it succinctly when the cashier man checked her out: “because I’m pretty. ” Is my voice thick? Maybe it is over the phone, because service providers sometimes say YES SIR. Gender is the reason why some strangers think I am a man. I am a woman. I didn’t have a choice, just like my brother did not have a choice in being male, but I like it. I like being me, which brings me to the English language. I was colonized by the British and they told me I am a she. My brother is a he. Fine with me. It’s their language so they know best. I have no allegiance to the English language but I will not call a man them/they, even if they are wearing all t

If a cat can transition into a mouse, we need a referendum,  unless Canada and U.S.  are now communist Russia and China. The U.K. had a referendum on Brexit, because it believed it will affect a major pillar of their structure. That is what referendums are for. LGB TQ+ is a personal choice, a sexual choice. That is what the first three letters of the alphabet mean: lesbian, gay and bisexual. It’s not a problem in free countries like Canada and U.S. but the bad news is that they are not free after all, because more letters are being added to LGB, and it’s now LGBTQ+. We need a referendum because this alphabet is forcing their experiments on the majority. Experiments? Yes, because the alphabet is elastic. It accommodates sexual experiments that happen behind closed doors, online websites for grown men that sleep with boys and in baths. The alphabet can accommodate married friends that exchange wives and husbands or people that have sex with dogs. Anything sexual goes. No problem. Except

Her children and grandchildren cry their eyes out, but they are not crying for her. They are crying for themselves, because they know that it’s the end of the home. They have their own homes in major cities but it has always been understood that ‘home’ is grandma’s walls and roof. I don’t mention grandfathers because they tend to join ancestors earlier. Grandmothers are called something else in Africa. Judging from Bollywood movies, grandmas have special names in India. They are called something else in Brazil, France, Japan and Canada where indigenous people still live together. We become orphans when grandmothers die because they represent a place and a space. We never talk about it, but brothers and sisters call each other and pose this question. Why haven’t y ou been home for two years? Grandma always asks about you . Grandmother’s place is devoid of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, journalists or the repo man. She doesn’t ask questions when daughters return home eyes all bl

Yes. It's possible. He will plead insanity, using his mugshot as evidence. Children. Once upon a time, in a country called the United States of America, there lived a man called Donald Trump. He became the 45 th  U.S. President in 2016. Time rolled along and there was a presidential election in 2020. He wanted to be win so badly, he asked the state of Georgia to give him 11,780 votes so that he could beat Joe Biden, the candidate from the other party. He lost the election, but claimed it was rigged. Children, fast forward to August 1, 2023. His country has just accused him of the following: 1.  Conspiracy to defraud the United States 2.  Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding - the January 6 joint session of Congress held to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory Insanity Plea Yes children, he can use the insanity plea common in American movies. Yes he can, because he is Donald Trump. He does not respect the  American the legal system. He has disdain for election proc

I weigh my aggravations. I can't fight them all. I let others slide. Photo Credit: online pic. Yes I was reprimanded. I had to get a haircut. I had procrastinated long enough because of financial constraints and my barber’s decision to move to the United States. I entered the hair salon and the new barber had me situated in a chair. I asked him about the price. It’s one thing that doesn’t stay in one place. I then told him about my preference, smooth as a bottle. He said that was no good. I had options, he could cut clean or zero, new terminology because the barber who defected to the U.S. never mentioned them. He knew the drill. I had been his customer for more than two years. The new kid on the block - my new barber - showed me photos to explain the two options. I wanted to put my foot down and remind him that the customer was always right, but I desisted. There are so many aggravations that jump start palpitations in this world, I decided long ago to use the scale. If an aggrava

Canada. Pat King, one of the Freedom Convoy leaders. Trump thinks he's above the law (above the mugshot). He is a testimony of how you love your country and everything it stands for, no matter how flawed it is. But how? By destroying the constitutional and legal framework. Worse still, by fermenting a culture of do-what-you like-there-won't-be-consequences. Contrary to Trump thinking he is above the mugshot, the legal system system works.  He must not 'dare' it.  He's an old post about Canada and America, 2/10/2023. Justice denied. That is how families who lost their loved ones feel, when the accused is not found guilty of murder. Sometimes on a technicality. The legal system is not perfect but it still works when we look at two cases where the crime committed had an element of ‘ dare .’ We'll do this. We dare the government to do something. Canada :  On 28 January 2022, truckers who called themselves Freedom Convoy parked their rigs around government buildings,

People seem to be more conscious of what they eat than before, judging from the increase in Tik Tok and YouTube Shorts. This is an old post 2/22/2018. Food label claims. Eggs sold as grain fed.   Are they? I can vouch for them because I grew up eating eggs at my grandmother’s farm.  The egg yolk is sunflower yellow, not opaque yellow like most mass-produced eggs.  Otherwise, I have no way of verifying food label claims. How would I know that a pizza dough for the  ‘bring your own dough’  party is organic or vegan?  My bad!  I must explain. You bring the dough and the host supplies the toppings.  Nutrients?  I don’t know them.  Bad guys like calories are Spanish to me.  I wouldn’t recognize a calorie even if it was staring me in the face.  What is gluten or who is gluten?  I ought to know because it is all there online, but I’m usually too hungry to Google food before I eat.  I try to read labels but they are scientific.  I only learned recently that sodium is salt.  Maybe I should beca

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors. One of many players  that gift parents when they become successful. Some parents are lucky. They reap the fruits of their labor when kids grow up. Every other kid wants to play in the NBA, NFL, MLB and Major League Soccer, the new kid on the block. It’s for the fame and fortune. Others want to buy their parents better houses and cars. That’s why newer NBA players follow the tradition of older guys (O.G’s) and do just that. It’s usually a surprise filled with tears and hugs. However, it leaves a bitter taste when a gift turns a parent’s life upside down, without consultation. Showing up at a parent’s workplace and telling her that it’s her last day because you got a fat contract, is over the top. She will be happy for you obviously, but unilaterally demanding that she retires on the spot is insensitive. The intention is good but it is one example of how far removed we are from parents. We forget that they still have dreams and aspirations. They are happy

Elon Musk grew up in apartheid South Africa in Pretoria, which was like the U.S. South, because of the way it treated Africans. He spoke Afrikaans. I don't know why he decided to ditch its accent.  What is common law? Ask British lawyers and subsequent law fraternities in the British Empire. Let me take a shot at the definition. It is something that has been done for so long, it is regarded as law. Not good? Never mind. All I’m sure of is that Elon Musk is ursuping common law by changing his little acquisition from Twitter to X. It is in the public domain. When Americans and Canadians enter the voting booth, they tick X to their fancy. The letter X is common practice when filling in bank forms, census forms, school forms or an other piece of paper that has questions. Most of them have gone digital but you still tick X. American spies in Ukraine are called "X." They were called the same letter in Vietnam, Korea, Libya, Iraq or Afghanistan.  This letter gave England the tit

  Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang. “I saw your brother yesterday.” “Where?” “Grocery store car park.” “No. It must be a look-alike. He can’t return and not call me. ” “He was pushing a cart piled up with food.” “He lives in Toronto, remember? “I saw him in these United States of America, this city, Philly.” You go home and think about it. Is it possible that Seizure (fictitious) is back? You can’t call him because he changed his cell number and is not on Instagram, Face, Tik Tok and other social media playgrounds. He never provided a physical Toronto address. Family is everything right? Maybe in highly religious societies and old money families where the family name and business must be protected at all costs. But we fight with family because we are adults now and no longer have that strong bond, that made older brother defend younger brother in the schoolyard. Meals are part of growing up. They are also the initiation school for what is right or wrong and what ought to be. It is no longer g

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. America and Canada declared citizens of  Japanese descent enemy aliens. This book is a story of one family. How many times do you say because, in a day? Come to think of it, life is because of it. Yes. I eat because I’m hungry.  We take bathroom breaks because. We stop to fill up the car or charge it because fuel or electricity is low. The new mother feeds the infant because it is hungry. Need I go on?  Because is ngo-ba in Zulu. It’s very easy for you to pronounce because it’s like lingo and oba , which means aunt in Japanese (I stand corrected). We never think about counting the number of ‘because’ we use in a day because it is a given, it is life itself. Every breath you take is because, of because. Ngoba explains night and day, leaving the house for school, office, workshop or harvesting. History is ‘because’ especially because, it is written by conquerors. 1.  What happened to Jews in Germany, Austria and Poland: ngo-ba. 2.  How Africans

  He’s just a little boy. She’s just a little girl. Pedophiles want to have sex with children. That's why they don’t see the stage called childhood, present in all animals. They see sex objects, the reason they are called child molesters. That will change because of trans gender kids. Their mothers give birth to them as boys, but they decide at an early age, that they are girls. Pedophiles are happy about it, because if an eight year old boy takes such a life changing decision at that age, he can also decide how and with whom to have sex. It will be two consenting adults. Society cannot accuse them of being child molesters. The Los Angeles Superior Court granted Zaya Wade, the right to change himself into a girl, despite legal objection from Siohvaughn Funches, who carried him in her womb for nine months. He is legally a girl now. But what is she, in the eyes of the law, a minor or an adult? The American legal system protects children from outsiders and their own families. That’s w

A father helping his son. Is that hate speech? Will boys be taken away from parents if teachers say they are girls, not boys? The lifestyle that started in private between two consenting adults spilled over to the public domain to such an extent that more letters have been added to what started with L and G: lesbian and gay. The alphabet is getting longer and governments in Canada and U.S. want to provide funds for doctors to cut off the organ that differentiates boys from girls. Doctors’ Hippocratic Oath What is the medical profession’s position on dismembering boys who feel they are girls today and might change their minds down the road and want to be boys again? Can they sue doctors or hospitals that performed the surgery? Doctors took the Hippocratic Oath that they will do everything in their power to save lives. Their opinion is the last bus stop because parents have lost the war. Governments do not care because of the lesbian and gay and subsequent alphabet letters’ vote. Parents

"We're coming for your kids," shouted marchers in a LGBTQ+ rally .  Americans don’t read, a wrong generalization because the whole world doesn’t. The advent of television put a stop to it. Maybe it’s high time Americans went to the local library and found books about communism in Russia and China, because it is happening in their country. The government funds LGBTQ+ education for little boys and girls. Trans gender is communism. The world envies America’s freedom of speech, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. It doesn’t exist in countries like North Korea, Middle East and some African countries. Therefore it is baffling how Americans are in the grip of trans gender communism, and nobody is admitting what it is. Communism. Ne Yo is just one example. The American musician was asked a question about trans gender. He replied as a parent. He wouldn’t let  his child change his gender. He didn’t say castration, but that is the LGBTQ+ gospel. It believes there’s nothing like male

Farmers' markets are still open. Get those lazy juicy garden tomatoes  to dampen the dry turkey.  Alternatively, eat with a green salad. Turkey left-overs? What a challenge. Turkey is dry before the oven, in the oven and definitely after the oven. That’s why the British make sauce for it but that has never been my forte.   So, I decided to improvise after all, that is what cooking is all about, joining bits and pieces to make a quilt on a plate. No Name Recipe 1.  Chop left-over turkey into pieces you can eat with a fork. 2.  Steam potatoes for about 12 min. 3.  Boil spaghetti until al dente , roughly 13 min. depending on quantity. 4.  Drain and fold in some margarine. 5.  Cook garlic in olive oil for 2 min (if you have it). 6.  Add onion, tomato and tumeric and cook for 6 min. 7.  Add a half teaspoon of Jamaican jerk sauce (if you have it). 8.  Add potatoes and spaghetti. Mix with shredded cheese. 9.  Turn off heat but leave on stove to allow everybody in the pot to get acquainted

Avoid touching people you work with, and definitely not women. You don’t know how it will be received and perceived. You don’t want to be accused of sexual harassment. If possible, there must be a third person in a room, when a man and a woman have meetings. Better still, they must be conducted in open spaces. No touching. You must also learn how to anticipate being touched and move away. Isn’t that extreme? We all want to be seen as friendly, promotion material. Talking about promotion. That’s why you must avoid being clamped on the shoulder by the boss. You were not promoted despite your long hours and innovation that generated millions of dollars. They have moved you from your office to prepare it for the new guy. The boss is telling you something when he clamps your shoulder. It’s not a friendly gesture. It is a rubber stamp. The company made the right decision to hire somebody else. The boss might even predict you’ll like him. Translate that into he’s African American or he was bo

American embassy, Ottawa Canada. Photo credit: online pic. The Trump 18 indictment has left outsiders confused because they thought all Americans agree what is good for the Republic, what is not. They live far away but feel it is clear as daylight that the attempted coup on 6 January 2021 was a criminal act, so was denying that Donald Trump, the incumbent lost his White House seat. Criminality has consequences, hence indictments. What is confusing is how Americans have cut the identity river in half. Americans loyal to the former president believe the indictments are a Democratic Party plot to prevent Trump from ascending the throne once again. They don’t see the criminality against the entity called the U.S.A. Therefore, it leaves foreigners with one conclusion. America is two identities, hence the different definition of criminality. That’s why Americans abroad should shed some light on their identity, when it comes to criminality vs political party allegiance. They should, they must

In Soul Food the 1997 classic, Mekhi Phifer plays Lem, an ex-con  who could not  find a job because of the criminal record. Donald Trump + 18, be warned. You do crime. You do time. But do kids listen to parents? They don’t.   Prisoners look forward to going home but dread inevitable unemployment, because most places do not hire people with a criminal record. The same corporate policy should apply to the Trump + 18, if they are found guilty in Georgia. Most of Trump supporters that stormed the  Capitol Building on 6 January 2020  are already behind bars. They’ll find it difficult to find jobs at the end of their sentences. Whatever political stripes on your shoulder, 6 January was violence  on a building which is for all intents and purposes, a 'person' in its own right. Not only that, the intention was to do grievous bodily harm to people inside and take over the government illegally. It is a crime. Therefore if found guilty, the remaining 6 January perpetrators should do time.

Fani Willis, Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia, U.S.A. Georgia might abolish the office of the Fulton County District Attorney (DA) whether Donald Trump + 18 are found guilty or not. That is how Georgia Republicans do it. They remove ‘problems’ because they are in charge. They control both the House and the Senate. The current ‘problem’ is Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA, for indicting Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. That is ridiculous. They cannot do that. It is in the Constitution. They cannot erase the DA’s Office just like that. District Attorneys are custodians of state law. A crime has been committed, they step in to find the needle in the haystack. That’s the point right there. Trump is a whole haystack and Republicans believe he did not commit a crime. That is why Georgia was the first state to enact voter suppression laws based on his lie that he was robbed in 2020. That resulted in an avalanche of such laws, in 19 states. For example, Arizona, Arkan

NBA star Jimmy Butler, who plays for Miami Heat, my second choice basketball team provided my first good news for the day. Toronto Raptors is #1 because of domicillum , excuse my Latin. ESPN reported Butler was a ball boy yesterday, at the US Open charity event for Ukraine humanitarian aid. The video is hilarious because he became a kid, all excited about the responsibility of being a ball boy. Butler also ‘beat’ Carlos Alcaraz, the tennis surgeon that is the current U.S. Open Champion. Kids are the only pure thing we have in this world, before we poison and pollute them. That’s why they give us so much joy. They laugh when we laugh, and cry when parents fight or when they are hungry and there’s just no food. Jimmy Butler’s tennis antics with the ball kids and Carlos Alcaraz is a reminder that the daily anthem: “I’m an adult. I do what I like,”  is just plain air. We miss being kids, to be carefree and not pay taxes. Delete that. I must not spoil the Butler mood with that government ha

Artificial Intelligence (AI) dictatorship is a pest. I cannot write like a duck, bobbing up and down the river trying to get to my destination: literary excellence. AI guesses my moves, my motives, my moods. Just let me be. I trip over stones when I’m writing. Sometimes I fall flat on my face, pick myself up and delete a whole blog, if it has no gas. However, I need a little favour from AI. Arrest the fall for trespassing. I suspect it wants to steal the shine from summer. I’m noticing some fallen leaves and I think it’s too early for that. I know they are pretty but I’m not in the appreciation mode yet. I still enjoy wearing tops and shorts, not boots and jackets lined with fake fur. AI, I’m not paranoid. I can also read the air, when it becomes fuzzy and loses its moisture. No. I’m not a meteorologist. I happen to live in one of the coldest places on earth, which is not a problem, but it is if some seasons want to jump the queue. Very rude, like some immigrants that are not used to l