Andy Warhol said, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” You can’t choose the 15 minutes but why would you be world famous?

Warhol’s prophecy has been realised in a million ways recently. Think back to the recent racism outbreaks on the social media space.

Now, can you remember all these incidents in detail? Can you recall the names of the perpetrators? No blame on you if you can’t – their fiften minutes of world wide fame are, well, over.

A Gay Movement with a twist

Pic source: kyivpost.com

Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with a long time friend of mine. He was telling me about some of the really “weird” situations that he has been encountering since he stepped out of the closet.

Prior to taking this brave decision, he was worried about the negative perceptions that his community would have on him and all the rejection that he would have to face.



But to his (and partly mine) surprise, his coming out has rather been a platform for a lot of people to express their not-so-negative sentiments on homosexuality!

He even got a few guys confessing their undying love for him. The response got so overwhelming to him that he is considering becoming some sort of an activist so he can encourage other closeted homosexuals to live their lives openly. Well, let’s just say my friend tends to be a bit too enthusiastic sometimes.

As I listened to him going on about his newly found vision to let it known to the gay nation that the world is not such a harsh place, I thought it would not be a bad idea for me to also embark on a similar endeavour. However, I have no interest convincing gay people that our society is not such a mean bunch – I have already told them the opposite, which, in all respect, is true.

My activism would be against gay people. Yes, I would like to fight all the negativity amongst gay people. It is my utmost desire for all gay people to stop living up to the society’s expectations; for them to stop proving the truth in some of the stereotypes out there. There is a widespread belief that gay people are promiscuous and sadly, quite a lot of them are.

Try flipping through a gay magazine and all you’ll see are pictures of half naked men in seductive poses and ridiculously sexualised articles. Attend one of their events and you will sure to find them parading around practically naked and displaying pornographic public affection. I know a lot of them will hate me for putting this out and call me a traitor but truth has to be told.

I have a few gay acquaintances who have admitted to being most passionate about sex. And let me tell you, they do feed their passion – thoroughly.

So the Gay Rights Activist in me will not fight for the recognition and acceptance of gay people in society. There are already a lot of people pursuing that farfetched quest. Shout out to them. Instead, I want to urge my fellow gays to ease up on the sex craze.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not generalising. We do have some good gays out there. I, of course, am one of them.

A skill set called leadership

I am not shy to admit that I have always been quite a forward person. I like taking initiative, taking charge and ensuring that tasks are completed on time and with utmost efficiency. I am a firm believer of the old phrase, “If you want something to be done perfectly, do it yourself”.

I am guessing this is the trait that led to me being recently elected as the team leader for one of my varsity big projects. For the project, I and my class mates are required to plan and organise a posh Gala Dinner as a token of appreciation to a group of students representing the university on an international motorsport event.  If you ask me, this is quite a big deal!

Prior to accepting this responsibility, I have never really considered myself as a leader. To be quite honest I absolutely had no idea what a strain it would be. My idea of a good leader has always been someone who makes sure that everything is completed on time. I never thought about the tactics to use in order to make sure of that.

So as I have learnt from my experience, these are the set of skills required for good leadership:

·         An amazing ability to make convincing threats,

·         Veeeery high tolerance of nonsense,

·         Willingness to accept responsibility for other people’s faults,

·         A sharp voice to shout (you do that quite a lot),

·         A semi permanent fake smile,

·         And most importantly, willingness to do the work when someone simply refuses to do it.

*sigh*

But I am a lucky leader; I have such an amazing team! Sometimes I do not have to implement all of the above mentioned set of skillsJ.

Getting your foreskin chopped off will not make you a man. Actually, it might kill you!

This year’s traditional manhood initiation season, has seen shocking numbers of deaths as a result of botched circumcisions. But what’s new? This is almost like an arranged annual massacre whose victims are naive but proud volunteers driven by dim societal pressures. For an epidemic as hostile as this one, you would expect a lot of education around it, but still some matters related to it are treated like a top state secret.

We all know that through initiation, boys are supposed to be taught good principles of manhood, but can we all agree that this objective is often met? I mean a lot of our criminals, runaway daddies and drug users are, in fact, men. That is not an official statistic, but I have seen them. I know they are men because they have missing foreskins. Not that I have seen their penises, but once in their lives they wore khakis and carried sticks wherever they went. This was after they had been gone for a few days to claim their manhood.

Source: fubustyle.blogspot.com

Call me deluded but my interpretation of a man is that of a Xhosa child brought up in a culture respecting household. However, the repercussions (if I can safely call it that) of this tradition – death and foul behaviour - are driving me up the wall! I am sick and tired of having to tip toe around the traditional circumcision ritual issue.

To this day, I am still in the dark as to what really goes on at initiation schools besides the actual circumcision. That is a result of my elders’ choice to keep mum about these details despite my tireless attempts to find out. Being the inquisitive creature that I am, I have never been comfortable with basing my knowledge solely on hearsay. So I have conducted a few informal interviews with some friends that have been through initiation but all they have been able to provide is limited information, which I can sum up as, well, stupid.

In the modern day, what really is the point of traditional manhood initiation? It definitely can’t still be a measly attempt to instil good morality in young men. We all know that takes years of good parenting, not a few days of lectures and getting one’s foreskin cut.

You see, we as humans, were not lucky enough to be blessed with a mind that complies from a single instruction. Unfortunately, losing a piece of our skin does not change our outlook to life either. Instead, it has a potential of killing us, as we have seen on the recent news reports.

Don't I look right at home behind the lens?

“Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read” - Frank Zappa

This must be one of the funniest and equally confusing quotes ever! Whoever this Frank dude is  clearly has a bit of some hate for music critics.

Affirmative Action - a politically accepted form of discrimination

In the years of democracy, the social patterns on discrimination with access to education, employment and economic wealth, predominantly in the public sector, remain intact. The only difference in that now the tables has been turned around. 

Affirmative Action is supposed to be a programme designed to end the unfair balances in the public sector, but is it not justifying racism by its own actions? Its policies judge people solely on skin colour and gender; that’s discrimination in its self. 

Discrimination can’t be a remedy for imbalances caused by our past. No programme can be considered as good when it hurts others. Affirmative Action strives to help minorities and women to be recognised more in the public sector, but in the process reverse discrimination has taken place. 

For that reason, Affirmative Action shows ineffectiveness in the public sector because the aim of this sector is to cater for the entire public, not a certain group of people within the public. 

This cannot be an affirmative programme if there is a form of discrimination involved. Instead of choosing a candidate for a job or for school admission based on their skin colour or gender, only their capabilities and qualifications should be taken into consideration.

Why should some people get special preferences over others? It is just not correct. There should be no special treatments and no special preferences given to certain individuals. Everyone has an opportunity to advance in this country; you just have to take the initiative.

Yes, this comes from a young black professional from a "previously" disadvantaged background  

A very Gaga Thanks Giving

Totally love this!

My top 200 achievements

As you might know, I am also running this blog as part of the requiremets to obtain my BTech Degree in Public Relations Management. On one of the courses, Media Studies, we are required to create a prominent online presence, which of course includes establishing and maintaining a good blog (surprise!).

We are given veeeeery random topics to blog on every week. Fortunately we also have absolute freedom to be creative around those topics and interprete them in anyway we deem suitable . This week, we were given this topic: My top 200 achievements.

No! I’m being for real!

I accepted this with a mega sigh and a dramatic panic attack; the first thing I thought about was that I will have to make a list! I H.A.T.E lists!!!

I just had to find an excuse to get out of this rather dreadful task, not that I am not proud of my achievements and not dying to make a brag list. So after a long while of thinking, I did not find a an excuse to dogde this, but I found one good reason!

My Media Studies, Marian Pike, always encourages us to not always stick by the rules but find ways to stick out while maintaining good standards. So this week I am doing just that! I will not list my top 200 top achievements. After all, my entire being sums up all that I have achieved; I have lived and I continue doing so.