Malema: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!!

I'm not sure I get it and, if someone can show me I'm not getting it, please inform me.....

The thing I'm not sure about is this: is Julius Malema for real or is he a maliciously sanctioned propaganda imp with carte blanche to sow discord? Either way, his antics and rantings won't be doing this country any favours ahead of the "Greatest Show on Earth" due to kick off in a few months. One thing is certain: if I were a foreigner and informed of this crude debacle, I would be thinking a dozen times before I boarded a plane to come and watch my country's pride play for Soccer's most coveted prize!

Surely, those in high office should be sitting up and taking note of this grotesque demonstration of soap-boxing, or are they, will they..... want to, I mean? At the moment the silence is deafening.... Why has our esteemed president not stepped up to the podium and publicly removed this man from his office. It can be done: after all, he himself, was on the receiving end of such dismissal not so many years ago!

A side note to Julius: Well done, mate. Whether you're genuine, contrived or just plain delusional, you're doing just famously at possibly derailing the best chance this country ever had of actually standing proudly alongside all other host countries of the world and, for itself, perpetuating the miracle of reconciliation it has been lauded for, for almost two decades!!!

On the other hand, we may just be lucky and you will be labelled a raving lunatic, not to be taken seriously, which could present yet another uncomfortable scenario, when one considers a certain twentieth century lunatic who once started a World War!

The mischievous Facebook page which has been labelled a hoax (and now reported to have been shut down) has done the damage all the same. Regardless of any credentials that could be attached to it, it has recreated the old animosities, irrational ideologies and strife that existed before this country came to its senses.

I have just spent six years writing a novel on this self-same kind of madness; the unjust, pointless and dehumanising era of Apartheid, because I truly believed that the story I was telling was worthy of sharing - I still do!

It is with great sadness that I take note of these malicious discourses of recent days, both by the subject of this blog and his apparent supporters. The only thing I have left to say is: all right-minded, clear thinking South Africans, regardless of race or creed, should denounce this madness in the strongest possible terms and work in unison to rid our society of such charlatans! Those in positions of power and authority should step up to the plate, muzzle and remove him, if not because of public pressure, but in the spirit of all that is sane!!

"For whom the bells toll" OR "Slave, meet thy master!"

Slave species

Who’s the slave?

We are… humans are. Apart from possessing two of the most debilitating genetic propensities, that of greed and violence, we are actually a slave species. That means we enslave and allow ourselves to be enslaved… it’s that simple.

Absolute drivel?... Really?... take a long, hard look at human behaviour in all facets of our existence and tell me it’s not so. I’m not going to expound on how we enslave ourselves to credit, ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ and the countless other examples I could dredge up… I think you get my drift!

What I would like to concentrate on, are the ‘blinding tactics’ foisted on the mass of humanity while this mass majority scrabble around frantically, trying to gain a larger slice of around 10% of the world’s wealth, while the minority of around 10% own 90% of that wealth. How do they do it? Simple….. enslavement!

Recently, I received a mail that explained how the Nazis in Germany, the Communists in both Russia and China and a host of other oppressive systems actually succeeded in their fanatic drives toward power and domination – ‘blinding tactics’ in the form of indoctrination and propaganda.

During World War 2, most Germans were not Nazi. A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to the war, commented: “….but many enjoyed the return of German pride and many more were too busy to care. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen and before we knew it they owned us. We had lost control and the end of the world had come…”

I would hazard a guess that Apartheid was successful for as long as it was, for very much the same reasons. Need we ask the question about Rwanda as well? The point here, is: If the silent majority will render themselves cowed and extraneous, then we, that majority will wake up one day and find ourselves ‘owned’!

The choice to be slave or not…

You quite rightly, may be asking: “So where are we going with this?” Bear with me. The point I am making, stems from the same principle of comfortable indifference, but the outcome remains the same, albeit from a very different angle, and that is:

While Eskom, with their proposed tariff hikes, has most people in the country blinded, SANRAL’s proposed ‘user pays’ tolling system for Gauteng’s roads is silently creeping up on the majority of the good, honest, hard working business people of the province and before we know it, they will own us, too!

The Eskom subject is a lot easier to circumvent if we all just go solar.... at a price of course, but it's possible. The roads thing? Well, unless someone comes up with a car that can fly (which, in the context of the Wright Brothers, may also be a possibility some time) we are all limited to using the roads that will play havoc with our pockets in the not so distant future.... I shudder to think!

Does this ring a few bells somewhere?

It should, because if the silent majority sit and compute the daily operational costs of such a system to businesses in the near future, we should be queueing to ring those bells ourselves! Already, we are taxed through the traditional system, through the fuel levies and, and… the list goes on. Now the proposed ‘user pays’ system could be taxing road users a third and even possibly a fourth time for the privilege of using the same infra-structure…. where and when does it end?

Maybe the silent, hard working and honest business majority should stop their frenetic scrabbling for a very valuable moment in time and ask questions about where the levies for the billions of litres of fuel pumped each year, have gone – questions like, for example: “Show us a simple accounting equation and it better balance… no smoke and mirrors, because that’s our hard-earned money you’re playing with!”

To be slave, or not to be… this is the question, I guess.

Are we awakened?

Somewhere in a small Buddhist shrine...

High among the mountain forests of the Japanese island of Honshu, a bee farmer and his friends, also farmers and men of the earth, gather to mourn and pay their respects at the demise of a hive of imported European Honey Bees. The cause of the slaughter? A very large squadron (about two hundred) Giant Japanese Hornets, the largest of all the Wasps.

“How bizarre!” someone might say. “A bunch of farmers mourning the deaths of a bunch of bees?” Someone else might say: “Serves them right for importing the European bees. Don’t they have any of their own?”

The answer: “Yes, Japan has its own Honey Bees and although they are brilliant at pollinating, they don’t produce the volume of honey that their European counterparts do; hence the importation.”

The point here?

The point is that this Japanese bee farmer and his friends did two things that make them good stewards and custodians of the earth. First, they paid homage to the bees for the benefit they and other humans derive from the bees' existence. Secondly, they mourned, taking responsibility for the destruction of the bees. You see, the European Honey Bee has not adapted to the Japanese ecological system yet and therefor has not evolved to the point that it can offer an effective defence against such an attack. These farmers know that and that is why they gather to pay their respects to their insect brothers.

Back in South Africa

I know a man who rents a large house on a smallholding. Apart from the large house, there are two cottages on either side. In the roof of one of the cottages, a swarm of bees has established a hive and have been very busy doing what bees do, these last few months. This man I know, calls up a friend, also a man who lives close to the earth and it just so happens that this friend is a bee keeper, who makes honey mead amongst other things.

This friend agrees to come and inspect the hive and tells my friend that it will cost R 500 to have the swarm removed. My friend, who realises that, although the bees are doing what bees do, their activity must eventually cause some damage to the ceiling of the cottage. My friend calls a meeting with his landlord and discusses the possibility of having the bees removed and placed in a proper hive, but the landlord, upon hearing what the cost of the removal would be, calmly says: “I’d rather get pest control in and eliminate them permanently.”

The real point

Have we so-called Westerners become so desensitised in relation to our natural world that some of us would regard a swarm of bees as being pests? Is R 500 to a property developer too high a cost, as opposed to safely relocating a swarm of man’s most under-rated friends, in the interest of a healthy ecosystem?

Something is wrong here.

Who is the more honourable custodian; the bee farmer who mourns the loss of a hive, or the wealthy property developer? I guess it’s a case of where you have your hands… in the earth or firmly gripping your cheque book!

I have said this before and I will repeat myself… we are all inter-connected and yes, Honey Bees are our insect brothers.

I received a mail today in which there were photographs of Koala Bears, suffering from the recent high temperatures in Australia, approaching cyclists for water. In another picture, one little creature, when entering a house to escape the heat, was offered a bowl of water and promptly decided to get into the bowl to cool off. The caption at the bottom of the mail read:

”Until one has loved an animal, a part of their soul remains unawakened…”

Avatar, The Movie - Some lessons in it for all of us.

If you haven't been to see James Cameron's 'Avatar', you might want to do so and soon. The reason being that to wait till it comes out on DVD, would probably downgrade the visual experience, to start with. No, seriously, take yourself off to a movie theatre and enjoy!

I watched it on the big screen during December and I came away with the definite feeling that my Clansman had done a sterling job in weaving a whole array of lessons into the story for mankind to take heed of, but before I launch into any of that, let me say that the cinematography was spellbinding, the musical score mesmerising. I even went out and bought the soundtrack!!

And the story...?

Well, let's get to that then, shall we?

The Age of Conquest

Watching, as the humans colonised the planet of Pandora, I couldn't help thinking of the Spanish conquest of Central and South America, the exploitation of the Congo, (well documented in the documentary, 'King Leopold's Ghost') and many other regions of the planet during the Age of Conquest. It highlighted man's greed, insatiable lusting after profit and gain, coupled with his wanton destruction of anything natural and beautiful to get at the perceived treasures of the world's 'El Dorados'.

Shades of man's obsession with gold...? That too, came to mind!

Disregard for cultures

The Na'vi, people who populate the planet of Pandora, are perceived as the villains, the simple race that are unwilling to relinquish the wealth of their home to a marauding monster race from another planet. Therefor, they must be eradicated, their culture destroyed and their forest home razed to the ground.

The Siritual Connection

To the Na'vi, their planet is a living thing, the forest and all in it is one with everything else.... including them! To surrender it, is to meekly kneel while the axeman sharpens his blade. Their planet is the centre of their beliefs and without it, there is no reason to live, so they do the only thing they can... fight back and fight they do!!

Pity it didn't work out with the same success when arrogant, ignorant, condescending colonialists and bounty seekers spread out across the globe in the preceding centuries of recent history and decimated almost everything in their paths to satisfy their insatiable hunger for wealth, fame and fortune.

And do you think it's any different today? Not on your Nellie!

Still we exploit the earth, ravage the natural areas of the globe, probe into her depths and then still have the audacity to spill our waste into her atmosphere and oceans... how dare we!!

Whoever created humans, did a bad job. For one, we have two destructive genes, (aggression and greed) that we pass on to every generation, as we rape, pillage and wage incessant war on each other, on our way to whatever is considered the utopia of existence. Never once do we stop and consider that the Earth, our Mother, is a living thing and sooner or later she will retaliate.

Humans beware... as I said in earlier inserts.... something has to give and when it does... Eish!

Watch and Learn

Like I said; go and watch the movie if you haven't already done so. If you have and missed this little perspective, go see it again... ten times if you have to, because subliminally, it's a warning to us. Pity we haven't already colonised a place like Pandora - sans the destruction - I'd be the first settler to sign up!

2012: Myth, Lunatic Musings or the "Dawning of the Age of Aquarius?" - Episode 3

I said there may be a few episodes to this story and so there are!



In my first entry about 2012, I mentioned that there is much conjecture around and so there is!

Dealing with the skeptics

I'm getting comments back, like: "Oh, rubbish - the end of the world has been predicted for decades and nothing has happened..." However, that particular kind of comment hasn't come via this blog, but through other routes, regrettably... wonder why?



My answer to this is: As much as there is disbelief and skepticism about the phenomenon, there is as much belief in it, so it's a case of 'whatever'.... you choose to believe what you will!



I look at the world around me and gather the media input about global issues and I sit back and think: 'Whatever anyone may think, at the rate we're going, something has to give at some point... right?' So, if something DOES give, what will it be - what is going to be the effect - what thereafter?



One little consideration I would like to throw into the mix here. It's a minor consideration; not to be pondered at much length or with particular depth.... just an insignificant thought: Do we seriously think we can continue to breed like rabbits and believe we're going to live happily ever after on this ever-shrinking planet of ours.... do we? Go think about that...

Moving on...

Anyway, so back to what this is about. At the end of the movie, I noted with interest, the particular reference to the Drakensberg and Kwa-Zulu Natal. It is interesting to note that the survivors set sail for that particular coastline and for some time, I have held the notion that, should world cataclysm be visited upon us, we in South Africa would be relatively safe. I say relatively... if you're on the central plateau area. I think it's logical that coastlines will be places to avoid?

There is a map of the world's tectonic plates and major fault lines and rather significantly, the African plate (with a few minor exceptions) seems the least vulnerable. Do the search yourself and make up your own mind, if you will.

No prizes for guessing where I will be..............

2012: Myth, Lunatic Musings or the "Dawning of the Age of Aquarius? - Episode 2

Okay, so last evening I went to see the 2012 Movie and before I continue, it must be mentioned that I will be posting my musings in installments. Not sure how many episodes it will take yet, but bear with me, if you will....

Let me say, at the outset, that I found a few encouraging aspects to the movie and the first is; Roland Emmerich didn't bombard us with the absolute darkness of 'Doomsday'.

Most of the effects that could cause global catastrophe have been scientific postulation for some time now and have even been viewed on National Geographic Channel before, like the potential eruption of the Yellowstone caldera. However, I wasn't so sure of the inordinate heating of the earth's mantle due to the solar flares phenomenon.

Another thing I thought could have been more fully explained was, since Yellowstone does erupt in the movie, the effects of the volcanic fallout don't carry through and the atmosphere clears too soon. Would such an eruption not cloud the atmosphere for several months or even years, causing perpetual winter??

Other potential possibilities, such as Polar Shift and Earth Crust Displacement have been discussed before by people like Graham Hancock in 'Fingerprints of the gods' and Roland brought those all into play. Whether or not such a global scenario would bring all these potential phenomena into action all at once, or even in the form of a chain reactions remains to be seen.... if indeed the global cataclysm portrayed is in fact on the cards - 2012, or not!

Suffice it to say, that I walked away, able to seperate what I thought to be the chaff from the kernels, but are my chaff and kernels the same as everyone else's? That is the question....

I repeat what I said before.... if 2012 is to be the event that changes the global consciousness for the better, we need to entertain the very real fact that humankind does not heed the wake-up call without a good, solid kick in the gluteous maximus...

The movie supplies a good few of those!!

2012: Myth, Lunatic Musings or the "Dawning of the Age of Aquarius?

James Rado and Jerome Ragni's "Hair", the cult/tribe musical that took the world by storm and produced such anthems as "Aquarius" seems to have come in time for what could prove to be a very interesting and, possibly profound time for the population of this planet. In fact, it's on Broadway.... yet again!!! Is this good synchronicity, or what?

All manner of theories abound, surrounding the 2012 phenomenon and, for those who don't know anyhting of it, allow me to profer a synopsis:

The mayan calendar, an intricate and convoluted labyrinth of symbols and mysterious codexes, ends on 21 December 2012. (There is a lot more to be found on the web)

Only parts of the calendar survived the Spanish conquests of Central and South America and a version of the so-called 'Long Calendar' found its way to Europe in that time. Some of it has survived till the present, notwithstanding the bombing of Dresden during WW 2, where it had ended its walk-about roughly a century before.

The calendar was divided into five periods (epochs), each lasting 5,125 years. At the end of each epoch, the world suffered tremedous and cataclysmic catastrophe, the last of which, being the 'Great Deluge" or Noah's Flood, in more familiar terms. However, this fifth and last epoch (the one we are currenlty living) apparently has no sequel and, you guessed it; it ends on 21 December 2012.

The movie "2012" premieres in South Africa on 4 December, 2009 and, if we are to understand the psyche of Hollywood, we could expect to be served with a large, copious and even abundant dose of artistic licence, but having said that, let's keep an open mind, shall we?

I have my own ideas about 2012 and, quite frankly.... bring it on!!!

Now, to some of the theories surrounding this impending 'world changer' event. I will deal with only two perspectives here, for simplicity sake:

Doomsday - utter destruction - fire and brimstone

There are those who speculate that the planet will be hit by asteroids, sudden volcanic activity will abound and cause the destruction of everything we have come to know and there are those who believe the return of Planet X (Nibiru), will be the culprit. Hey, who am I to argue? The universe has done some really radical things in the past, right... right?

It has been true that the human species only heeds the wake-up call - any wake-up call, in the face of calamity and dire circumstances. However, this time there may not be any need for that.

Like I said; there is much conjecture to be found on the web, so if your interest is now piqued... Google 2012!!!

The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius (Enlightenment)

Let's call me the eternal optimist and allow me to fall into this second school of thought, which says that the change - any change, whether it be accompanied by natural disasters of any kind, would be gradual and a lot more gentle its approach. The change, or 'Shift', as it is increasingly being referred to, will be more on the spiritual side, affecting a new awareness of the inadequacies of the material past, being money, possessions (at all costs) and replace it with a greater 'world vision', which encompasses and encourages the communion of souls on this planet.

When you've read, or if you've already read... you make up your own mind which way you're going to fall.

Whichever way the 'Shift' happens, the post 2012 consensus is the Age of Enlightenment, the Thousand Years of Peace - the "Dawning of the Age of Aquarius"!

... and I still say: "Bring it on!"