South Africa – Brave New World of Blogging

Home. Choices. Or not.

WELCOME: SHALOM: AHLAN WA SAHLAN: DUMELA:

GOEIE DAG

This is heavy.

This is serious.

This is long.

This is challenging.

This is a conversation that roars in my head so so often.

(See “Home” below written in 2016.)

But I notice, I only raise with very very selective friends.

Fearful of the backlash. 🤐

It seems to me we live now in a world where the fear of ‘saying something someone may not like’ means we say nothing, about anything that isn’t mundane and ‘safe’

Long gone are the days of my youth in South Africa where politics

(and the other taboos of sex and religion🤣) was a constant topic.

A debate round dinner tables, in the street, everywhere.

We talked, shouted, railed,

but we also listened.

I remember clearly Desmond Tutu talking, cajoling and shouting out for us to hear, reminding us;

Share the Joy- Desmond Tutu : admired and loved by many

to remain silent in the face of injustice is to take the side of the oppressors

(See “Cry My Beloved Country” below)

Hiding behind ‘what if I offend’ is to compromise who I am and makes me feel like a sheep being led to the proverbial. 😏

So I Lean on the courage of a remarkable woman, Claire Thomas,

whom I am lucky enough to call a friend; and share one of her posts.

It is long; it will take commitment and time to absorb,

perhaps shared with a coffee or stronger.

It may challenge a perspective, or not.

That’s okay.

It may open a conversation.

That’s great.

It may highlight how we condemn and condone.

That’s good.

It may make your eyes glaze as you pass by it.

That’s sad.

Regardless, I am sharing.

Acknowledging that my bravery is only partly mine,

I ride on Claire’s shoulders

(I was going to post this to a global privacy setting,

and at the last minute, didn’t.)

Not THAT brave 🙄 – anticipating a backlash.

So in a safer space, I share it with my friends,

who know me,

in the hopes it helps us all with perspective. 🙏

P S, And of course if you don’t open the link

this will mean nothing,

so thank you Claire Thomas

and to my friends – have a read. 🙏

SILENCE AND BIAS IN THE FOG OF WAR

Silence and Bias in the Fog of War

Cry My Beloved Country

“Home”

There’s more to The Bush

There’s more to The Bush than the bush.

There’s more to The Bush than the big five, or even the little five, or the birds, or the snakes.

The Bush is about the smell, the sound,the Feel.

In this instance, the wind, the rain.

First fierce and dominating so that speech is pointless as words are carried away with the hustle of the storm. Water cascading down, flooding every corner of the land and disappearing quickly into ground parched and thirsty to drink.

And then, spent, the heavens seem to rest and the rain falls gently, so gently my clothes don’t get wet yet I can see the drops still falling on the water hole.

On this day, most holy day of Good Friday it seems appropriate that the sky is black and angry and the storm rages down on us.

And it seems also appropriate that as I turn to look to my right, I see the light through the clouds, not yet shining, but with the look of a promise of what is to come; sun and renewed growth.

And the rainbow to remind me, on this holy day, most holy day of Good Friday; not of our covenant with Him, but His with us.

“When I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.” (Gen 9)

There is more to The Bush than the bush

Fairest Cape ….

A day of rambling out and about in Cape Town. Sundays are busy days on the glorious Cape Town roads so that driving alone, as I was, it was difficult to stop and take photos that do this magnificent city justice. You will just have to visit and see for yourself – this is just a ‘toe in the water’ so to speak