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.