A simple life

Realization - Actualization.

2009-12-01T01:41:00.000+02:00

‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work.’ Thomas Edison

The quote helped me answer some questions I was having a dilemma on. Below is a brief note on some highlights as my blog is long overdue on an entry.

Opening facebook account
Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
Watch the above video and get familiar with the World of Socialnomics.This is the title of the note Luca sent me in his persuasion to make me join facebook, after much contemplation I succumbed and this is the email exchange I sent him:
“I have resisted facebook because I prefer my life private - facebook presented itself to me as a virtual gossip column hence I have not joined ever since I heard about it 4 years ago. I still refused to join because all people I talked with always spoke about pics of people drunk or in awkward positions, etc…and that is not for me. I do however acknowledge that my block is insufficient to keep up with new acquaintances & current friendships…so to put matters to rest I will join facebook but keep it discreet - It has taken you almost 2 months to convince me to join and so you get the acknowledgement for breaking my unwillingness & stubbornness.

Eid
As some of you will know it was Eid and a long weekend for the Muslim world, this means family time as the streets are dead and everyone has gone to their home town – only us who do not have family here would be bored to death, luckly I spent it with a Turkish Family. A couple of months I had made a pact with Berker that I will spend Eid at his house for the cultural experience, having completely forgotten about it he texted me a day before asking if I am still coming – remembering I had made a bet, I said yes of course I am coming.
Meeting the parents at the door was a bit of a surprise for them - having no house gift to salvage the situation it was a bit awkward to try and feel at home…but they were overly nice after the initial shock and extremely hospitable.
The same night, I got preparation on how to behave and pray for the following day when we would be at the mosque for morning prayer – it was a fun exercise and I was paying a lot of attention not to fart as I bend & pray :)…having slept 4 hours we went for the morning prayer (a bit of a shock for the people at the mosque – the children could not stop staring at me), then went back to the house to prepare to visit relatives (it’s a time reconnect and share moments with family and friends ), at the same time the house ended up receiving guests aswell…it was kinda strange but interesting to be introduced to the guests of the family, I am sure they must have had to make a lengthy explanation of who I was and what I was doing there – it was in Turkish so luckily I escaped the interrogation :D. The most fascinating experience was when everyone had to leave we would stand around in a circle from the oldest to the youngest and would kiss and momentarily place the hand of the eldest member of the family on our forehead as a sign of respect…I did it for Berker’s grandmother and that was humbling.
Once we visited some other family members, I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep and activities of the day that I kept on dozing-off during the conversations, I could not help it and it was embarrassing! Imagine the first time I come to your home I keep on dozing off (even if the conversations was in Turkish and I didn’t understand)...it’s just rude – I am sure my first impression was not very impressive, but I apologized.
Besides my little moments, I really enjoyed my time at Berker’s house…thanks Berker, these are the kind of experiences that make my time in Turkey tolerable and memorable.

Morocco
I went to Morocco 2 weeks ago, the second country in North Africa and it was incredible. I landed at the airport, the declarations people stopped thr row of people from Istanbul because thez had caught a women who didn’t declare anything and she was being dramatic and making so much noise. Next to us was another row of a flight from France – since I was carrying a package on behalf of my roommate for her house in Morocco, I jumped into the row of people from France, while I proceeded to exit I noticed I was holding a plastic bag written ‘duty free – Istanbul’…I just ignored it and continued walking – if they had stopped me I would acted very dumb J. I got out of Casablanca airport and caught a train to rabat thanks to the guidance of a moroccan guy who came to visit family from france – I always feel humbled & overly thankful when i meet helpful people in times of confusion and misdirection and they don’t want any kinda of compensation for their help.
Arrived in Rabat, met really cool people and chilled at a beach house, with a nice beach, blue/white cold Atlantic Ocean watching the sunset on the horizon…I had not had that in a very long time. The first two days I spent it with Amine’s family and it was a hospitable environment…thanks Amine – say hi to your parents for me, they finished the cookies before I even finished unpacking.
Then I was chairing a motivational/leadership conference of AIESEC in Morocco for 4 days i.e. 3hrs sleep max, innovations, adjustments, frustration and good conversations…thanks you guys for having me – I am still waiting for my sugar cubes.
I am definitely going back to Morocco, too much unexplored!!
On the flight back, an Italian and Moroccan guy decided to go at each other in the middle of the flight i.e. have a loud verbal fight, which almost got physical but thanks to the flight attendants’ intervention it never went that far – that was interesting. Due to my exhaustion I took a nap but was woken up by three guys in front of me praying themselves with some strong cologne…OMG that shit was strong – I had to breathe through my scarf to survive for a good 5min…tell me what the hell would you need a cologne for when you still have 2 hours before your destination – you wanna cut the oxygen supply on the flight?
As always the Turkish Airlines was late to & from Morocco but I have miles with them now… atleast I get a return on my investment.

Garanti Bank
I bank with this bank not by choice, incompetence is an understatement.
Can you believe it took them 6weeks to find and bring back MY money they had misplaced in angogold (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/) – it’s the third time they are so generous to Anglo and now they are charging me $37 for their misplacement…terming it ´interbank transactions´ WTF (What the Fuck)!
I am livid …and makes it hard to scream at someone who doesn’t understand what you are saying e.g. ‘Do you speak English, no thank you! ‘ Argghh!!!!
Randomly Reminiscing
Being in the job market is actually tough…who ever told you that it’s not is playing with you…you go through all sorts of ups & downs and you get to challenge and be challenged to the core of your being which leads to a lot of introspection and self actualization. You go through a point of exhaustion yet you still have to recover – rise – and deliver.
Ø This is it!
Since I heard about the movie after MJ’s death, I thought it to be more of a DVD than a cinema movie, but after watching it lying down on my bed with my laptop on my knees I curse the fact that I didn’t go to the cinema instead cause the movie brought a different light to the guy that was harassed by the media in the last years of his life – he was truly the greatest entertainer of his time, RIP MJ.
Ø Nobel Price for Obama
Ohh yes he did…win the Nobel Price! The questions, criticism, jubilation, and enthusiasm came and passed but he has it.

Ramadan….and Ramazan in Turkey!
A while back was Ramadan - my first Muslim religious experience was on the 22.08.2009, and being in a Muslim country I had expected dramatic changes in working routine, people’s behavior, general way of life…well not much changed – not many people at my office were fasting but a good friend was and I always mistakenly asked her out to luncheon - everyday (I swear I forgot everytime) !
As Sultanahmet is a historical place – half of Istanbul goes there i.e. about 7 million people (…total exaggeration but I wanna give you a glimpse of how pact it is) to break the fast for the day at about 7.30pm. All the 5 times I’ve gone there it’s a food festival but the social setting makes it a pleasant experience for me. One of the nights the company organized a ‘breaking the fast’ dinner at ciragan hotel (one of the most expensive hotels in this country) and I lost my sun glasses (dem mak me nice) which have gone through continents & countries with me – I’m gonna miss them :)

peace out for now...

The good and interesting, the bad & the ugly

2009-06-28T21:30:00.000+02:00

It has been a while since I last updated the blog, in layman’s terms it’s called being lazy and I am in a country that is newsworthy…. So in ‘ pulling my shit together’ I have broken down the article in 3 different formats i.e. the good and interesting (i.e. anything not offending), the bad & the ugly!

The Good…

…I and a couple of friends have been discovering little heavens in this amazing place, There is a nice restaurant in yildiz park (between Besiktas & Ortakoy) called Dahill…you can go there and get the best service I’ve had ever since I arrived in turkey 5 months ago, a great view of the bridge that connects the Asian side and the European side of the city while having a great a buffet…we had a bit of drama getting there though – a taxi driver dropped us in the middle of nowhere and we walked one hour uphill before finding the place with empty stomachs and when we did….boy did we eat :) !!!

After that me and an Australian colleague went to Istanbul modern art gallery in Topane…not for the art though…they have a restaurant that has an amazing view of the bosphorus aswell (but this time our view was distorted by huge cruise ships) and but we enjoyed our white wine anyway…
Then we headed on to a suburb called Cihangir (a trendy/cool place where all starts hang out…has nice cafe’s) for a Cay…it kind reminded me of Melville in Johannesburg.
This past Friday I was on a boat party along the bosphors, this city is nice at night – what a spectacular view…in our admiration I reminded a flat-mate that the night hides all the dirt & chaos that you’d see during the day though…I think I made that comment after my 3rd glass of red wine – don’t remember the brand but it was okay enough to have had a third glass…well actually I had no choice unless I wanted to jump ship and swim to a nearby bottle store – which cannot happen as I cannot swim so I enjoyed the glass of wine and it was not bad :) .

I must say when I got here during winter - I was longing for summer, but now that it’s here OMG…and someone told me that it’s going to get hotter! I get woken up by heat in the morning, when the sun comes up its already blazing its rays into the window and balcony sliding door of the room so I have no other choice but to wake up…otherwise I’ll be fried for breakfast because our room at that time is already getting hotter like a stove increasing heat on an omelet. I was joking with someone Turkish that I bet during the ottoman empire people used to walk naked because they had no air-conditions…and this is humid heat u can’t run away from it unlike dry heat which you can be safe from if inside a house or under a tree. I was telling family back home that I am getting darker by the day due to the heat – I look like I cook copper coins for some doggy government somewhere in the world….then i showed a friend in Switzerland my recent pic and she said I look sun-baked.

…been singing that I need to buy a hat, and will sing that song until thy kingdom come I suppose…

….and the interesting part…

I got the opportunity to be in Antalya…a really nice place with a stone beach (which was nice because you don’t get the irritating sand on your feet when you get off the beach)… during my stay there I got to interact with a couple of people and where is what transpired … the conversation is in a dialogue format - the names have been modified to protect the rights of the individuals..lol :

The 1st conversation
Honey: …so where are you from?
Me: South Africa
Honey: which country are you from?
Me: …thinking she did hear me the first time…; ‘South Africa’!
Honey: ohh…
Me: yes…a country at the end of the African continent

The 2nd conversation
Dick: which country do you come from…?
Me: South Africa
Dick: ok…we have like 5000 Nigerians at our University, I hear you have many languages. Do you all understand each other?
Me: In Nigeria maybe not sure, in South Africa we only have 11 official ones and are broken down into categories which means some are dialects of others.
Dick: ok…but English is what you use to understand each other, right
Me: Where in Nigeria or South Africa? …Nigeria is West Africa and South Africa is very south, but yes for both countries English is a medium of instruction and very well understood but I cannot tell you what Nigerians do as I am atleast 8hrs by flight away from them.

The 3rd conversation
Hairy: hi…where are you from
Me: from South Africa or rather the republic of South Africa
Hairy: no I mean which country do you come from….
Me: there is the region Southern Africa and there is a country called South Africa…google it!

The Bad

It was a nice summer day and therefore headed to this place called Limonlubahce (lemon garden) which was impressive as it felt like a little lemon backyard…they even had some tortoise and cats on the premises…it really looked like someone’s garden and was nice for a Sunday morning with the Herald tribune & Hurriyet international newspapers…and while reading I came across an article called ‘ deep abyss of discrimination in turkey – gender discrimination still exists today’…thinking to myself …well that’s nothing new – I was stunned a bit by the findings though:
74% - being a housewife is as satisfactory as working and earning money
59% - men are better political leaders than women in general
71% - The man should be the leader of the family in our society
67% - some wives may deserve to get beaten by their husbands
89% - It is acceptable that men can have more than one wife …where I come from this is legal & my current president is a best case practice - was wondering if I should say that out loud!
58% It is a sin for a women to walk at seaside or on the beach with a swimming suit…I remember being in Egypt at a resort – I was chilling out at the swimming and a women dived in fully dressed in black, my jaw dropped with horror & that was my first cultural experience about the dress codes of the moslim world.
84% It would be right for women to ask for approval of their husbands to work at a job
62% A muslim woman should cover her head outside of the house
78% It is right to stone an adulteress to death…I disagree with this, let he/she who throws the first stone be pure and not a sinner and besides who has a right to take another person’s life in this world?

The study was conducted by interviewing 1,715 people both men & women in 34 cities in turkey….as you can see the interesting part is gender equality or gender inequality…I must admit though that the number of people is too small to have reached this conclusion as Istanbul alone has about 15 million people…

The ugly

A while ago when taking a walk from a café along the bosphorus, we passed with horror as some 12 year old kid got up from a picnic sitting with family – marched to a woman wearing a vail (I assume it was his mother as she was the elder one amongst the other 2 ladies) and started punching and kicking her…OMG I had never seen something like that…a kid beating his mother. Anyway another boy intervened to protect I assume and got a beating himself then one of the ladies calmed him down by a slap and a thorough injection of her nails into his arm skin…he calmed down like an electrical device losing battery power…. I was stunned…loss of words – if he was home he would have gotten a beating of his life by some male authority passing by…even the police would have spanked the shit out him. I still believe in corporal punishment – these kids of today don’t have manners and respect & a good hiding always brings a child back to the straight line…some of us didn’t turn out so bad due to a good hiding now & again!

Let me know how you softies feel about corporal punishment, would love to hear how i should negotiate and have a round-table with children isntead of spanking them...

Settling – In

2009-04-26T10:44:00.004+02:00

Likes

Hamam – Turkish bath

…I have been bugging the people here (whoever had ear to listen) that I want to go to a Hamam. A hamam is a traditional Turkish similar to the sauna concept but different in the sense that you undress totally then wrap a sarong around your waist but high above your knees (unlike Nordic saunas where you sit-in naked J) – by this time you should look like you´re wearing a mini-skirt (something a lady of the night would wear), then you walk into a hall-like room cemented with ceramic tiles around the walls and on the floor and head straight for the tap where you will see a bowl for you to soak yourself…and I mean pour hot/luke-warm water on yourself as if taking a shower. After this period a heavy looking half-naked guy would come in and ask you to lie on a table-looking marble and you would get a massage i.e. you will be soaked with shower-soap/foam and given a thorough massage while wet, after 15-20 minutes of the massage you head back to the tap and soak yourself more. When tired of having water running into your ear and nostrils - head for a section where you lie on an extremely warm floor and reminisce. This process can take an hour to ten hours, just depends on your enjoyment, schedule, company – I would not recommend that you go alone, it can be a social thing, that’s if you prefer socializing half naked…it was funny just writing that J. Remember though that this is a traditional-conservative society so the baths are separate for men and women but they have mixed ones for all you kinky people out there.
After that experience – I felt light for a whole week.

Food

The cuisine is generally great much to my surprise, I had no expectations so I have been really impressed – hasn’t made me sick yet but it is a bit awkward that at some restaurants I have to point at what I want cause the menu is not in English and the waiter can’t do much in assisting as they don’t speak English either, so I point at what I want and hope it’s not an endangered animal on my plate as I take a dish with meat 90% of the time. Fortunately the dessert is super good and pointing it out is no problem at all.

City’s busyness and energy

I live in Johannesburg, a city of about 10 million but the busyness, energy & traffic is different and at another level here, there are about 15 million people living here so that makes the routine to work in the morning and back a bit of a trip. Another city I have been to that would equal this kind of human energy is Cairo, would love to go to Lagos – Nigeria & Shanghai – China to feel the vibe there aswell.
Big cities usually give one a wider variety of choice in consumer goods & services and the manner of deliverance is usually efficient, but the down-fall of this life is the human contact/relationships – they are kept at a minimal range because people are either too busy working hard and/or making money…hence city people usually die alone if they don’t have family from the outskirts.

The fusion of two seas engulfing the city

…summer is going to be amazing. Now you know that the city is divided by a Bosporus/strait from the black sea into the Mediterranean sea and that is that why İstanbul is said to be ´east meets west´ i.e. has a European side and an Asian side.
After picking up a colleague from Morocco from the airport and partying until 5am, we woke up at 10am, took a boat over the Bosporus to the asian side where the other expats were waiting for us for breakfast – can´t remember how many nationalities where present at that breakfast table but it sure was many and I sure was hungry. The city´s areas around the Bosporus are amazing even in winter so you can imagine what I will see in summer.

Troy

The events that happened a couple of hours before this theater play were very dramatic – a topic for another day!
Anyway we were invited for a theatre play of Troy, my first theater performance since I arrived here and I strongly recommend it – the belly dancing part of the show was amazing, I fully understood what they mean when they say belly dancing is an art of seductionJ. I guess in summer this city will be alive with more arts and I am certainly looking forward to that.

People

Once you break the barrier and get to know people, they are very much hospitable and nice. I have spent afternoons with some people who could not speak English but their welcoming note was humbling and much appreciated – it reminded me of home where you are offered food even if you are not hungry & you don’t dare refuse as it may seem impolite. You do basic things like get off a chair in a public place for the elderly and you will have someone cancel their schedule just to show you around town and places you need to go – thanks Hande for the bank favor….much appreciated :)

Mistaken Identity

Ehehmmm….I have had incidents where people (esp teens) would pass-by and call out Obama in my direction, a bit surprised and frowning at the outburst, I usually think to myself maybe I should tell them that he is my uncle and lives down the street from me…wonder if they would believe me…it would be extremely funny if they actual did. The outbursts have gotten to a point of irritation but I will take it in good faith as I am not sure whether they’re friendly remarks or not….

Dislikes

Getting Sick

There is nothing as bad as getting sick in a foreign country and having nobody to babysit & spoil you ….but serial travelers like us have learned to survive I guess – crying is not an option. A colleague got sick and the response given was very offensive to me as it made it clear that people have very little knowledge about Africa & its people – the very same region they claim to represent & ‘think’ they know something about…never mind the insult of being called Africa like its one country instead of the 50-odd number of countries it represents.

Opening a bank account

It took me a month just to open an account; the English language is a serious problem & I think the city needs to address it especially in business areas. Something which could have been done is less than a week took that long cause I kept on being referred to someone else. The latest incident was when I walked in a branch – it was empty – 5 tellers doing nothing and I asked for assistance and nobody spoke English and the bank claims that they are international and English is a language of usage…I was expected to do a 360 degree turn around and just walk away…which I did, it’s useless to have tantrums they wouldn’t what you are going on about & you don’t want make a fool of yourself either. These things prompted me to ask a colleague to come along to translate and I really don’t think that should have been the case.

No proper pavements for pedestrians

I live in Osmanbey area, which is alright but every rainy morning I get to work wet not because I had no umbrella but because there are no proper drainage systems and the water just stays in the middle of the road and the pedestrian part of the road is taken by hawkers and it was worse when it snowed…I got to work with the bottom part of my trouser wet like I was crossing the nile river during the rainy season…the pedestrian crossings we see are too few aswell – and cars here don’t have wait for pedestrians – pedestrians wait for cars….otherwise you will be minced meat before you know it… if dare and walk across oncoming traffic at your free will.

The intensity of being looked at

I have been looked at for no apparent reason in many of my travels – I guess I will have to get used to it, it’s fine when a child just looks as if to have noticed something out of the ordinary – atleast I am content that it’s a child at its all innocent but its usually strange when an elder looks the same way as I am not sure whether its genuine interest or dislike when they are facing my direction so I try to avoid the gaze at all costs.
Chocolate/caramel skin is a sense of attraction as I have gathered - sometime receiving a positive welcome and mostly a negative reaction. Countries in Africa; South America; some European countries e.g. France and the US + Canada should not be surprised as diversity is their middle name.

Communication is a big obstacle

This I don’t mind, my first days in Lugano – the Italian speaking part of Switzerland were the same, it just means that I have to adopt and be open enough to learn enough to communicate my needs…but I must add that certain places really have to upgrade by using the international medium of instruction i.e. English …it needs to taught to employees especially at banks because this is such a tourist city and because of the fact that the country wants to be part of the European union.

Being ripped off by taxi drivers

This seems to be a continuous phenomenon and the drivers pretend to not understand when I show them that they are cheating me – this I absolutely hate!
How do I tell a 50 year old odd guy that he is being a dick by cheating me…there should be enough old age sense of respect to know that what he is doing is wrong…

The dirty water from the geyser

Obviously we order water and it comes in a bottle …you know…like the water bottle you find at work! But I cannot go to the bottle everytime I want to brush my teeth or rinse my mouth. The thought of that water every morning taking a shower gives me shivers but when you have had a 5 hrs sleep and are late for work that is the least of your worries and besides it is extremely hot – would have killed all the germs as everytime I walk into the bathroom the geyser temperature is usually 100%...anyway I am being too dramatic – the water just looks like it had a brush of dust only. The only other times I was not to drink from a tap was İndia and Egypt and I could see why :)

Invasion of privacy

When withdrawing money from an atm, people are just behind you like you are in a queue for a vaccine and have the audacity to want to view the screen while you are busy withdrawing & have a conversation while you are at it – the only thing missing is an offer to put my pin on my behalf...i really don’t get that especially when I am broke :) There is no personal space none whatsoever.

....I was sitting at filicor café on istiklal – busiest street I think in the whole of turkey and browsing the internet when suddenly Lira (a South African soul singer) started playing in the restaurant – that just made me patriotic and proud of her as I know how she battled to get into the business and now the recognition & distribution is very much global.

İstanbul

2009-02-27T13:29:00.003+02:00

Johannesburg - Dubai

My goodbye luncheon with friends at Rosebank left me heavily intoxicated; thanks to my brother – who packed my stuff - I only collected!!

Got to the airport, sobered up rather quickly when I could not find the forex branch of ABSA bank to withdraw and exchange money. The forex apparently doesn’t exist anymore as they didn´t get the tender (an airport official said) – which left me irritated and confused as exchanging money became a bit of a hassle. Got on a flight anyway – very sober :) !

Emirates is certainly a world 1st class flight – it was my first time in it and it was gentle , the entertainment options are many with top technology, how many airlines give you 10 movies to choose from?!?!

When I landed in Dubai my high expectations were very much shattered, people who I have talked to while visiting or on transit at the Dubai airport always talked about how amazing it is and well…I found it rather superficial – huge paintings with gold frames on the walls, pine trees with a fountain in the middle – giving a it a jungle look and very expensive stores but the contrast was that people were sleeping on the floor like in the Indian train-stations and the luggage trolleys looked like the grocery trolleys used at supermarkets. I had to change money so I can go to McDonalds and the interesting thing was that the coins were all written in Arabic – was not sure how much to pay for my meal and had to therefore give all the coins to the cashier so she could sort me out.

While waiting for my connection flight at the other side of the airport, I passed through a group of guys from West Africa (I assumed west as their body features looked typically west African i.e. tall, masculine-heavy looking, and dark skinned) and sat a couple of benches in front of them, then some Arabic guy (I assume he was an airport official) dressed in a white traditional veil was going around to the black people only and asking for their papers and the ‘West African’ group was rounded-off – he came to me and by then I was highly irritated by what I had seen him doing – he asked for my papers and I gave him my passport with a look that he is disturbing me and it took him a minute to waltz-off but I felt bad for guys even though they probably are not innocent.

Dubai – Istanbul

Obviously my first time to the middle east region even if I was not there per se but in a flight over it. I made sure I watched the screen showing the map in the flight and got a bit nervous when we flew over Baghdad in Iraq, I was wondering if they are not going to shoot the plain from the sky – I know that’s highly unlikely but hey I am the kinda guy who thinks about a plain crash everytime I fly.

When I got to immigration at Turkish airport, the 1st official looked at my passport then looked at me then passed it to the 2nd official who then invited another official to browse through aswell. They kept on looking at me and my passport picture, then scanned my passport if it’s not fake, I then offered my identity book aswell to confirm that it’s really me but I had to submit my ticket aswell. The people behind me in the queue were getting restless and then I finally asked if there is a problem – the official asked me what I am doing here and finally before handing me my passport he said I look too young to be here on a business visa – weather that was a compliment or not, I was just highly irritated and annoyed for keeping me for so long and saying that I am a kid.

Istanbul, Turkey

Merhaba (Turkish for hello)

…don’t know where to start – I have been here 5 weeks and can write a book. Well I’ll start with work and then write about my personal experiences and opinions.

Microsoft
It took me a while to understand what we do exactly – there are so many things going on but now it’s atleast starting to make sense. I am a Community Affairs coordinator for the middle east and Africa region – the work involves strategy development, project-budget-plans coordination, software donation, and etc… The company is great so far, besides getting and using all the latest software which are or will run our lives e.g. the other day we were demonstrated a touch screen model laptop made by HP – the only model existing in Turkey at the moment, you can book a massage every Tuesday for 15min, there is a fridge on all the kitchen floors stocked with refreshments – except alcohol of course, ohh and fresh fruits everyday between 3 & 4pm – so managers if an employee disappears during that time, you know where to find them :).

I normally work 9 – 6 but me and my team (an Australian girl and a Romanian guy) lately have been working until 8pm sometime as there is a project in the pipeline but all the benefits above I guess compensate for the long hours and the fact that you can work from home aswell if you ask your boss – I should try that soon.

The other things is that I work with a Turkish keyboard which was confusing at first and still is – so please forgive me when you see an email that contains characters with an I that has a dot and one without a dot, the other things is that when I get home I have to readjust my thinking as my personal laptop has a german keyboard while when I was home I was using the English keyboard…..see its confusion – confusion!!!

On numerous occasions when I have been travelling, some people would ask – after having gathered enough courage to talk to a foreigner is where are you from and what are you doing here…and my reply would be I am from South Africa (…but they always miss the South part and say ohh Africa) and I work at Microsoft (…an eyebrow would be raised & an acknowledgement sound made as if to alleviate me from a tourist pact to a class of intelligence…so funny).

Personal XP

The cats here are everywhere and soooo well-fed (fat), seems to be common practice to just throw ‘left-overs’ fodd through the window or leave it at a corner in the streets for cats to find…the SPCA in south Africa will be happy that people are actually feeding them but upset that they are not sterilized. Kinda reminds me of the many dogs running around Mumbai, India.

I found it rather baffling though that most tellers in Banks can’t speak English even at places where you’d expect, for example, I have been trying to withdraw dollars and only certain places have that option i.e. airport area, Levent, etc… and this is a city of 15 million people. I work in Levent where I’d expect dollars and English but I had to take a colleague for translation.

There is a great spice market – rather strange that its called that because it sells everything – I mean from spices to a broom and you can negotiate for everything aswell. You just have to go there early enough even though you would not have enough time still, its right by the river so you can pop-by the fish market or a fish restaurant after an exhausting shopping spree.

The transport system is well…different, but not bad at all comparing to south African system, there is a taksi (cad), metrobus (joburg kinda metrobus), metro (the one platform subway arriving every 10min).

The center of Istanbul is called taksim – that is where shops, clubs and restaurants are, then I live in osmanbey area and I go to work in Levent so the metro passes through all this places hence it takes me only 20min to get to work and can also be 15min if I run like I did the other day.

…well the pen is running out of ink and I thought I should get this out to clear way for other stuff.

Hope you liked the chaotic writing :)

2008-08-28T21:52:00.003+02:00

04.07.08 – 15h30pm

Transit in Heathrow…it is massive – first time here. But highly irritated at the same time. I was in Geneva 3 hours before to check so that I can cruise around one last time before departing only to encounter the hassles of Olympic Airlines’ incompetence and British Airways’ ridiculous rules!
Ideally I was to fly from Geneva – Athens (with an 8hrs transit) – Johannesburg, on Wednesday Olympic airlines (which I have a ticket with) called me to change my itenary to Geneva – London – Athens –Johannesburg – I was not about to complain as I had not been to London before and they saved me the 8hrs I was to spend in Athens at 40 degrees doing nothing (actually reading my newly acquired The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama). I had 4 items of luggage i.e. two suitcase and two backpacks…..being the ‘goody’ that I am I went ahead to check-in one suitcase and one backpack and the others were going to be hand luggage, and to allow myself to have ample time to have breakfast with Linda and Luca before leaving…I arrived to check in and then I was told that the policy of British Airlines is to allow only one bag per passenger for check-in (…what the f**ck, since when?) even though I was below the prescribed weight allowance for check-in luggage. Luca, Linda and I ran around the airport looking for a bag at a reasonable rate for an airport…we found one at 70 CHF (R450)…I packed luggage of two bags into one and then headed off to the check-in desk again and it was checked in alright even though it weight 26 Kg.

07.07.08 – 13h42pm

…went through Heathrow to get to my terminal and I must say it is big is not that pretty! N’way boarded and landed in Athens – It felt like 40 degrees when we stepped out of the plain into the airport and I met a Xhosa and an Indian women and heated off into a conversation about the uncultured English young people and the rest of Europe for that matter, the soaring prices of bread and petrol in S.A. and all that could come to mind while we waited for the Athens – Johannesburg connection which was late and when we finally did get on – the food was horrible, could not eat much except drink water and juice!! Its understandable as they were the cheapest airline I got in this high season and I would travel with them again (this time get a day or two in athens for a tan J) but carry a lunch box with me.

…Landed in South Africa, for the first time noticed that there is a South Africa and an African check-in section - customs for passports at the airport similar to Europe where they say EU and Non EU passports queues, I was proud! This might seem like a randon statement but when you have travelled first worlds and have had hassles at customs due to an African passport you would know what I am talking about.

I am home, sitting in a mall at house of coffees finishing this blog and planning my two days stay in Johannesburg and life in general. I feel the pinch of rising prices…got into a taxi this morning and it costs R8 than a previous R5 and the tea I am having costs similar to the taxi fair, but for some reason people are still flocking into clothing shops to get some new goodies that will make their bodies twist and turn better with the midday breeze and capture the eye’s attention! I am holding tight to my wallet, gallivanting the world can hurt your pocket quite a bit.

14.07.08 – 14h45pm

Now I am home, I get out when the sun is sitting in the mid-sky because it is damn cold down here. I am at a friend’s house – my usual urgent thinking and behavior have subsided, ideally o should be on holiday and relax but I am bored already for doing nothing except eating to fatten myself up…

Well I gotta go, my internet time is about to lapse, I miss my limitless wireless back in Bern!

Time of my life

2008-07-04T02:30:00.003+02:00

03.07.08 – 04h00pm

It has started settling in that I am leaving Switzerland after 7 months of being here and the second time living here in 4 years, I’m on the train right now on my way from Luzern - Lugano . . .its summer already – extremely hot, people are swimming in the river and walking in bathing suits in the middle of the day and I am still astonished by the beauty of this country especially the route I am travelling on right now…when you have time once take a train from Luzern – Lugano or Brig – Fiesch or Romont – Lausanne or Lausanne – Montreau or Geneva – Neuchatel or Neuchatel – Biel or just take a trip up to Jungfrau jong mountain . . . I have been everywhere and nature’s beauty weather its winter or summer has been an eye opening and I don’t know if Swiss people truly realize how amazing this place is.

I have lived in paradise, I hardly had to walk anywhere unless I was travelling after midnight (…yes travel after midnight without fear of being mugged, the only fear I had was a ghost jumping in front of me from old buildings J), I had a bus/tram next to the flat, took a train everywhere within the country (didn’t pay – all I had to do was show my GA card – gives me free access to all transportation within the country this obviously has made me very lazy J to walk anywhere).This country has shown me the ability to be able to provide social security even for the ‘lowest’ level of its citizens, I love this country – actually I am in-love with the Swiss’s natural beauty,and sense of togetherness in its diversity and this has obviously made it hard for me to say goodbye….

04.07.08 – 02h20am

I worked with amazing people colleagues & friends from AIESEC to UNFPA and met inspiring people in my usually unpredictable way…

Anna – The bubbly German caramel girl, well I hope you are having a great time some special ones from far far away.
Ivan – The Slovak cook, I hope you find what you are looking for on the pilgrimage.
Luca – The Swiss-French going to the Brazil beach/bitch J, come to S.A. and I will take you to Pretoria – I promise.
Simone – The calm Swiss-German who kept things together, I hope the Brussels people take you if they know what’s good for them.
Jeroen – another bubbly Dutch who enjoyed picking me up for fun, the world is your playground my friend.
Linda – The Arabic/Swiss-French caring individual, something great will come up soon.
Jean-Paul – my brother from another mother, I hope all goes well soon.

. . . and to all those I did not mention I have enjoyed our time together, I mentioned the above people as I literally spent days and nights with them at close range, I have enjoyed my time here – it is one of the best times of my life…

Coming back home!

2008-07-03T10:46:00.002+02:00

Since my time is near for going home, i thought this song would do.

Conflicts in Africa: any good news

2008-06-02T22:35:00.003+02:00

On the …..i attended a seminar/session on the above mentioned topic organised by the UN reasearch and training agency, the panel consisted of various individuals such as Mrs Fraser-Moleketi – the minister of public service and administration in South Africa, Mrs Sydnes – head of Church Aid in Norway, Mr Edusei – Ambassador of Ghana to the US and Mr Mkandawire – a world acclaimed academic.
I must say…to my surprise, there were more europeans in the room than Africans, any way the points that I highlighted as they impressed me were that:

For the 4th conservative year, in 2007 Africa’s real GDP growth rate exceeded 5% ….with growth becoming more broad based, of which; 25 countries achieved GDP growth rate of above 5% and 14 countries achieved GDP between 3% and 5%.

When you talk to the people on the ground, the notion is about getting better….

Most wars are over, but fear that lingers is that wars will come due to new themes of the world such as terrorism.

Africa is in good track of most Millennium Development Goals

Atleast leaders are not comparing medals on the chest but how fast economies are growing, and new definitions were given: Dictators – count civilians who can be put into military use and Democracies – leaders count people in the country and where they can be placed on the needs of country.

Africa deals with diversity more than anyone i.e. we appear as one during the day and manage tribalism at night, but we do need a platform for diversity management to avoid the kenyan and now recently South African rapture.

All African wants is fair and free trade and fair press

All this have been due to good policies in recent good time where better economic was managed, there were more competitive exchange rates, better institutions and governance and fewer conflicts – although we do acknowledge that there will always be conflicts as the continent is large with many different tribes and dialects.

Ps: I found diplomats to have no meeting etiquettes despite their job being to attending meetings. In us embracing communication/technology - I still find it offensive for one person to answer a phone in the middle of a session, its disrespectful to the speaker on the floor and/or presenter on the floor. I don’t know if it’s a subtle behavior amongst ‘this’ community or they are just not used to being told if something in inappropriate in a direct manner!

South African (S.A.) xenophobic attacks!

2008-06-02T22:00:00.002+02:00

You might have realized the xenophobic attacks that had erupted in S.A. in recent weeks – which made headlines all over the world….they temporarily over-shadowed Zimbabwe’s elections, China’s Olympics and any other disasters around the world. I must say I was not impressed by my country and the violence did not improve our image at all. In Switzerland we are on all communication materials you can think of…from TV, newspapers and even tabloits (20minute is a tabloit!). South Africans need to think about what they are doing, imagine if I had to be chased around in Switzerland with fear that I will be burned to death…. I have had to be the undesignated spokesperson of SA lately with questions fuelling from Canada, Germany, Kenya, Brussels, and mostly Switzerland and I told them that ‘i hate the violence ...i think its plain stupidity of a violent uneducated and unknowledgeable minority’….why didn’t they just march and burn Home Affairs department if they had problems with immigrants and the government….what happened to Ubuntu (humanity)?

…I have been thinking about the whole saga and why it started, and it still comes back to one thing – economic refugees – mainly coming from Zimbabwe, here is the reason why; South Africa has always been a country of immigrants, the countless mines that brew diamonds, gold, platinum and all other metals we have in abundance were not just dug by South African men from the 1900…..they were dug by men from Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia – there are even trains and buses from this countries coming directly into South Africa known to have transported mine workers mostly. With history you would know that most settled in especially around Johannesburg and made that home, that’s why joburg is an extremely mixed city….most children actually cannot speak one pure language because they grew up speaking all of them at once…you will find that a typical joburger in a conversation has switched to atleast 3 languages and is still understood perfectly by a recepient.
Listern to the song: Stimela by Hugh Masekela, you will understand what I am saying to you.

So with this in mind, something else must have been brewing behind to have come to this and to me economic refugees made sense… With our next door neigbour’s (Zimbabwe) drama ; with South Africa hosting 2010 soccer world cup and our president refusing to acknowledge there is a crisis in Zimbabwe plus opening our border gates as wide as possible without proper policies for refugees like intergration, status clearance, etc (…for an intellect, he is such an idiot sometimes) – Zimbabweans have found South Africa a safe heaven. Even before I left to come to Switzerland in most restaurants around joburg…most waiters and waitresses were Zimbabweans (…you can hear their proper British English with that unique accent) and I believe this has caused the chaos because there is very little resources in the country even for South Africans hence the high unemployment rate, then you have illegal immigrants treated as cheap labour by most businesses (…and what are the poor people supposed to do in Zimbabwe when there is nothing left to even put into their mouths) and this salad caused the unemployed to march and take out immigrants as they believe they (immigrants) are taking their jobs…..no employed right person who has a proper job can run around during the middle of day in pursuit of immigrants.

As I said; I do not believe in violence, we have come so far in the world to be able to find solutions for problems just by conversing (except for the US), things should never carry on like this…that is why politics are such a bore! And I hope S.A. is taking hold of the situation as competent people should, atleast a majority of South Africans marched to the government to condemn the attackes…. Check out - www.mg.co.za .

Obamatopia....comedy

2008-05-26T12:42:00.001+02:00

Chill in Brussels and party in Amsterdam

2008-05-17T12:32:00.002+02:00

I took Friday off as i was planning to spend a long weekend in Brussels with a friend and former colleague – Chituru. Since I missed the easyjet special, I had to take the train which took 6 hrs through north of France, Luxembourg and finally Brussels. When the train arrived at the central station….I was a bit surprised by the abundance of black people at the station – it felt like I was in Africa again. . . the train station did not look that ‘pretty’ though and trains were very old aswell . . . I guess having been in Switzerland for this long has spoiled me to a certain level as the stations are more organized and cleaner – owing to the fact that they never got bombed throughout history, the trains are not that old (not German magnificent either) and the fact that there are not that many foreigners in Switzerland as in other European countries due to restrictions has created a sort of bubble for me.

Went to a festival at about 17h00, a celebration of spring with all kinds of music….but listened to a lot of Arabic music through-out the day, quite a cultural experience and had a watermelon – which seems to be a delicacy this part of the world. Came back @ 00h20 or so, had water to dilute our alcohol intake and then continued to talk about world issues until 05h00….and the main issues were an African point of view about Zimbabwe & Mugabe, Democracy versus dictatorship and being a foreigner in Europe.After all those deep discussions, my head was dizzy so I went to lie down a while, awakened later on that Sunday morning to have breakfast @ 11h00, slept again to gain more rest during the late afternoon

At about 23h00, left Brussels for a club in Amsterdam and stayed until we were escorted out. Instead of going home at about 04h00 – headed for a bar 100 meters down the road and waited until sunrise…..then we headed back to Brussels 4 hours later. When we got to Brussels we went straight for my luggage, even though time was not on my side - had to wash the necessary parts though cause I was to have another 6hrs sitting down straight.

I feel I am still recovering from last weekend, but that is not happening as I am in the middle of a conference about new generations and demographics organized by the economic commission for Europe where in lay men’s terms they are talking about why Europe east and west are not making anymore babies and what should be done to assist the process of reproduction….another story for another day….right now I shall continue with my book Hannibal, pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham – on that note I learned on my train trip to Brussels that Carthage people are what we call Tunisians from a Tunisian who was sitting across me.

Dinner in France....24hrs later dinner in Sweden!

2008-04-29T00:47:00.003+02:00

Sounds like a life of the rich and famous, right…but believe me even nomads can have their way…here is what I mean.
Team days (time when national office members of AIESEC in Switzerland get together outside of the office space) this time had been scheduled to be together in Sweden, and that meant that I had to apply for a schengen visa to travel outside of Switzerland, and since I work in Geneva; my immediate thought was applying at the French embassy in Geneva – but since I live in bern I ended up applying in Zurich instead, nevertheless I had my visa posted to me with no hassles.
I was told that my fist entry into any schengen state would have to be the country that issued me with the visa so that I do not experience problems while travelling to other states. On Monday 21.04.08 I made a trip to the nearest town in france from Geneva called Thoiry so that I can receive a stamp to prove to the authorities that I was there, I waited for the bus for about an hour i.e. from 18h59 and caught it at 20h11, The bus ride was pleasant and when we arrived I was the only person in the bus except the bus driver, he stopped for 10minutes in Thoiry – I had a little chat with him and we went for coffee and a burger at Mcdonalds, I found out that he is from Cape Verde and has been living in Avian for 14 years now – sounded like a nice, genuine person, but communication was hard as he mastered only French and Portugese and I only English 
When I got back to Geneva I realized that I had left my mobile phone in the bus, I called my phone and the driver answered, for 10 minutes I was trying to understand where I should meet him to collect it – we finally understood each other that I should meet him at 23h45 at the station, during this time I stepped into an internet café to get numbers of people I knew in Geneva to house me for the night as I was going to miss my last train back to Bern, I ended up chatting with Emily in Canada who contacted Regi in Switzerland who phoned someone in Geneva who then phoned Nicole to come pick me up at 00h30 when I got back to town – I was scared of having no accommodation for the night but things worked out thankfully. I woke up at 07h00 to catch an 8h45 train to Bern, on arrival I packed my clothes and headed for another train going to Basel – one hour away, where I caught Rynair which took 2hrs & 20min to arrive in Stockholm Skavstra airport.
Stockholm, a beautiful city surrounded by water, went out to discover the city with my new found friends from Sweden (Himanshu - Indian, Joao – Brazilian, Joanna - Swedish and Linn - Swedish). This was my first Scandinavian travel and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
…..Last day with the Swedes was spent with a national dish called köttbullar i.e. meat balls, boiled potatoes, and canburry sause/jam, the conversation last light – me and Himanshu kept on with our common wealth connection in trying to detect the commonness of our cultures until about 23h30.
Since our flight back to Basel was at 07h50, and getting to the airport took an hour and half, we had to wake up 02h45 for breakfast, catch a taxi at 03h20, then caught a bus and later at an odd hour of the morning we arrived at the Stockholm Skavstra airport.

….when I landed in Stockholm, the customs security check guy singled me out of a group of people passing-by and then asked me where am I coming from and what am I doing here; my response was ‘I just flew in from Switzerland,’ and he let me go, I wonder if I had mentioned I am originally from South Africa – would I have been stripped searched?
Then on my return again at customs, the security guy let my workmates pass and stopped me, demanded that I put all my belongings on a scanner – he even scanned my passport! I wish to understand what the criteria is for picking out people at the airport for inspection, how do you explain being singled out on a queue and being the only one to be humiliated by being double- checked while other people just simply pass-by . . . it must be disappointing for them not to find any drugs in my bag.

Kick Off 2008

2008-04-23T14:22:00.000+02:00

Last week i was in fiesch (high on the Swiss beautiful mountains) engaged in a conference with about 300 people talking about world issues and our impact as individuals and communities. There were people from different parts of the world and it was really interesting, below is a clip of what happened.

Shoot the bastards!

2008-04-15T22:22:00.002+02:00

...that is what the South African deputy safety and security minister said the police should do to criminals if they feel their lives threatened. The statement has received an enormous publicity attention from the media all over and attracted human rights activists and so on and so forth…
There is always an issue of human rights, the constitution, etc, one has to consider when it comes to such statements from a public representative but all of this issues are debatable under 2 perspectives for me i.e. from those who’ve experienced violent crime and those who have not!
When you have been pickpocket you last transport money at the age of 12 by 3 guys, had your laptop stolen from your bag at gun point in the middle of the night in a place thought to have been safe, had your house ‘broken-in’ that they even stole your room-mate’s underwear because she packet them in a fancy bag (they did not bother to look inside) in your absence then I suppose it would be automatic for one to support the deputy minister because one’s life has been threatened on many occasions!
But there are others who have not experienced such brutality and would advocate that giving license to shoot is not proper – we should look at the root of the problem and do ‘the right’ thing and not a ‘good’ thing and that is have a highly trained police force, get an efficient and effective justice system and get competent human capital to execute this tasks. hmmm…this reminds me of the argument: the right to life vs the limitation clause (every right is limited) – this discussion is very interesting and can get really heated when you talk about abortion – does life begin at conception? …anyway this is discussion for another day!
Personally because of my above experiences I choose the first option. Hypothetically – if someone jumps over my wall at odd hours of the morning then drags me at gun point, fastens & blind folds me to help themselves to my hard earned furniture and food that I continuously pay for and they just come and take (they invaded my right to privacy & psychologically scared me about safety in my own yard. I might forgive them but I won’t forget) but if someone jumps over my wall at odd hours of the morning, drags me and my family at gun point and rapes my kids then I will shoot the bastard and forget about who has rights in which circumstance.
…Yet again I don’t want the country to emulate the US where people have killing spree paranoia even in high schools by advocating that guns solve the issues but what is the short term solution that will benefit a long term solution of re-educating a criminal mind? Ohh and I don’t think offering a job is a short term solution – some criminals prefer not to work hard for their money.
….so if you look at this was the minister really wrong in saying what she said, I think she spoke from a parent’s perspective and let down her guard as a minister.

Bush booed at 2008 Nationals home opener

2008-04-01T12:39:00.000+02:00

Dear God

2008-03-22T02:26:00.002+02:00

I missed home thoroughly today, Easter is spent with family – going to church and listening to the 7 phrases Jesus spoke at the cross – and having a feast of lunch with close relatives and neighbors.
. . . I have been meaning to drop by at a Methodist church in Bern (…once I have found it!) and say a word or two to the man upstairs, it would have been more fun to go with other people except people I have asked said church is for either a wedding or a funeral or you must be someone aging (…mother laughed and thought something is seriously wrong with the Swiss).
So when I woke up and pierced through my window, the weather was not agreeing to my adventure as there was snow – carried by strong wind and a bit of rain….. I was not about to freeze myself so I thought I should embrace the day with this message in a form of a song.

Infuriated!

2008-02-27T13:47:00.002+02:00

I am at work its midday, I read my normal dose of South Africa news on mail and guardian, then I come across disturbing news: Free State University Racist video. I am livid, I can’t even think – how could such elderly women be disrespected like this by a bunch of out-of-puberty dick-heads?

After taking 5 deep breaths…let me tell you what happened.

On Tuesday a video was distributed showing five black cleaners at a traditionally white men’s residence on the campus being “initiated”. Amid loud laughter, they are shown taking part in races, downing beers and drinking a mixture in which a student had secretly urinated.

The narration on the video begins: “Once upon a time the ‘boere’ lived peacefully here on Reitz Island, until one day when the less-advantaged discovered the word ‘integration’ in the dictionary.”
The cleaners take part in a “boat race” (a beer-downing competition), a dance, a sprint race, a mock rugby practice and finally, they’re given a mixture to drink.
The video shows garlic being put into a dish full of what looks like dog food.
“We know they’re less privileged so we’re adding a bit of meat,” says the narrator.
Another student puts the bowl on the toilet and urinates into the mixture.
The brew is then distributed in plastic glasses to the cleaners.
All five of them spit out the first mouthful, but try to finish it amid loud encouragement from the students.
The video ends with the words: “That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration.”
This is followed by one of the students asking a cleaner: “What does ’sefebe’ mean in Afrikaans?”
“A black whore,” she replies.

For the video go to click here

ps: i need a shot of vodka,pity i am at work!

Being Informed

2008-02-20T23:40:00.003+02:00

….yes….I reluctantly follow US elections, if you missed the recent market slum that affected stock markets all over the world (rather big economies) or did not know that the US is the biggest Official Donor of Aid, then maybe you should follow….as sad as it is when the US sneezes , we all catch a cold!
Now I added this video, shared by Luca, because I was impressed on how informed this guy was about the politics and candidates’ policies for the upcoming elections. I was sitting and wondering weather I would have pulled it off if I was interviewed about South African politics, and even more wondered if youngsters back home realize that the next elections are in 2009 when we have to make informed decisions about our country’s future. We have voted on emotions for the last 3 elections, which was fitting for the last 3 occasions, but now its time to vote on policies and implementation.

Morals, values and democracy

2008-02-06T02:59:00.000+02:00

Nice combination, hey…. past weeks I have come across articles from different countries on brothels, prostitution and rights! And I thought I’d say something on the issue as well…the constitution does provide for freedom of expression, although every right has a limitation…. gosh I miss my law classes.

The first article I read talked about a Russian guy meeting his wife at a brothel, how deeply saddened he was to see her there and that this has affected their marriage, apparently she worked there so she could earn some extra-money to support the financially burdened family and he clearly did not see it that way. The moral question is what was he doing there in the first place, why was he so heavily upset that he wanted a divorce…shouldn’t she be as well?

The second article this morning (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=331504&area=/insight/insight__international/) was about how sex workers protested against the Nicaragua government (second-poorest country in the Americas after Haiti) who shutdown brothels in the area of a city, they were protesting in what they said was a violation of rights. Prostitution for them is a ticket out of poverty and what the government was doing is shutting down their livelihood. The girl who was interviewed talked about how her first boyfriend and some of the men from her hometown recognised her while visiting the brothel/ bar and how ashamed she felt…. It is funny how our society’s perception is that the girl has done something wrong yet the guys coming to purchase her services are immune from guilt…. Just picture the negotiation of the verbal contract when monetary value was placed for the service that was going to be provided to the guy’s needs, must have been on an equal footing yet the human value of that woman is seen to be lesser than that of a guy e.g. if he were to beat her up – she would probably land in jail, he would walk free and the pimp will have his/her commission anyway, isn’t that just regressive! But I must say it has become so progressive that the most taboo topic of society, which I may add has been practised way before any of our time, has become open…well atleast open enough to write about it.

The last article (http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/pierredevos/2008/02/05/real-transformation-requires-protection-of-sex-workers/) writes about how a sex worker challenged the fairness of her dismissal by her employer, who would have thought this would land at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, but the case got thrown out as sex work is still criminalized in South Africa.

…. Law in this day and age has been influenced by society trends/changes, where social dialogues take place to accommodate the best solution to our lives, yet sex workers are being punished because of the moral prejudices of the majority of our society, especially countries that have still criminalized it. The question that still keeps on popping to my mind is why is there prejudice against the practitioners and not the clients.

I think gender equality has a long way to go in society still and prostitution is a fraction of it.

1month and 2 weeks Anniversary.

2008-01-18T05:48:00.000+02:00

Snow sleighing experience

I went around playing in the snow the other day with some of my team mates, it was actually fun except my feet were freezing afterwards, I had to put them on the heater in the train so that I could feel them again.

It was funny when we arrived and headed straight for the restaurant and realized that I was the only black person there – told Luca that black people need to get out more, it became uncomfortable when people started to stare at us, I kinda felt like an animal in a zoo on display (…and I hate zoos).

But all in all it was awesome, thanks to Luca and Simone.

Diplomacy (sensitive readers should not read this piece!!)

When working for the UN – diplomacy is one great skill you have to possess and if you were not born with it, then you should acquire it fast.

UNFPA deals with reproductive health and rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as adolescent reproductive health. This is a controversial mandate because you go around and tell people to use condoms before sex (…more like tell governments to tell their people), lobby for free access of anti-retroviral drugs for people infected or living with HIV\AIDS, and advice on family planning before jumping into the sac …just to highlight some of the things we do.

In one of our staff meetings I learned about one of the issues that is being tackled – Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), I call it circumcision, but apparently FGM or circumcision are rather insensitive terms and a rather politically correct term is Female Genital Cutting….i mean really – it’s the same difference, but apparently it is culturally insensitive to countries practicing this if you call it in a wrong manner, so despite what you may think about it there is no room for your opinion but an understanding as you are representing nations united.

Hmmm, on that note I think we should have a session that focuses on certain cultural practices such as this one; it would be very interesting to get opinions because usually we evaluate other people according to our own values and practices without ever trying to understand where they are coming from, hence the religious war between the middle east and the west.

Bling…bling… money aint’ a thing!!

I still cannot get over the fact of how expensive this country is, on Wednesday I went to find out how much does it cost to have a hair cut, I’m kinda used to going to a guy who sits under a tree next to the fourways mall and charges me R12 (about 2 CHF), when I got to the train station (…and I am talking about OR Tambo International – domestic section look a like, not downtown parkstation), I asked some west Africans (I have this paranoia that only an African can cut African hair – with exception of north africans) how much it costed and they succeeded in sending me to a shock kingdom by claiming 35 CHF (about R210), all I wanted was a15min shave of all the hair on my head not trim me and make me look like a model!!

I have never cut my hair for more that R20 (about 3, 50 CHF) and I am not about to start now, so I told them I will come back later – never did! So I let Luca shave my head today and he’s a white European… the experiment came out fine actuallyJ

Tolerance

I told you that interaction here is at a highly low level right, and well I’ve even learned to be an obedient visitor and do in Rome what Romans do i.e. get into a train/tram/bus and sit 2m across someone, do not greet (if you do, you’ll probably not get a response), read a book or look outside the window till you reach your destination.

The other day I was in a train from Bern to Geneva, when we left the station the train stopped a bit (technical problem), but after a few minutes we proceeded with our trip and when we got to Palezieux (about 45 minutes from Bern) the train stopped, the driver was talking in French and German and people were leaving the train, I assumed that is where they are all supposed to get off - it looked a bit strange actually that I was the only one left in the compartment and that they lights were suddenly turned off, but I still sat there. When I looked outside the window people were staring at me and some other guy (later found out he’s English) and one old woman signaled to me to get out of the train and come to the other side of the platform, then it clicked that we were supposed to catch an oncoming train from the other platform.

I was upset, that an old woman from another platform had to signal to me to get out of the train, and the people I was sitting with just left and did not even say a word, one could claim they thought I had understood what was being said – but that could have been apparent that I did not especially when you’re the only person left in the compartment with lights off and everyone staring at you.

…..i am really trying to tolerate the culture of ‘mind your own business’ here but you know I would think that the rule needs to be broken if someone is in need of help even though you don’t know them, it wont kill.

Multiple Entries

2007-12-27T05:54:00.000+02:00

26.12.2007

I actually spent Xmas alone, yes I know…how sad, but it was not that bad. I watched movies online (I am legend, blow, sex and the city– don’t ask, I think depression!) and that occupied my day plus calling home. Today I was back at work only to receive an email that I should come back on the 6th Jan 08 – don’t ask!!

23.12.2007

I went to Geneva today, I was not going to work as usual but rather meeting someone for drinks, imagine I traveled 1h46min just to have a drink, anyway on my way back I decided to be polite and have a conversation with the guy I was sitting next to in the train, which is very unusual here because people don’t even greet each other, individualism a friend of mine calls it. Anyway by accent I immediately knew he was from north America, I did not want to assume that he was from the US because Canadians hate being mistaken as coming from the US.

We talked about business (he’s an engineer for aircraft engines – don’t remember the exact position), compared cultures with the guy (he’s mixed race) and evaluated the Swiss culture – funny how most foreigners I’ve met have a one liner i.e. ‘people here are so hostile if you can’t speak\understand the language’, I guess I should get an English – French and English – German dictionary, I am not giving up that easily, part of this experience is cultural understanding.

Have I mentioned that pedestrians rule the roads here (you just waltz into the pedestrian crossing and a car will stop and wait), try that in downtown Johannesburg – you will be minced meat! and that old people are so active – too active actually! My goodness some snail around town like there is no tomorrow and don’t forget when you cross the road here you look out for the tram, bus, bicycle, car and people, now imagine an old lady crossing the road with all those objects in mind, even I get confused because they drive on the other side of the road. In the evening when I got off the tram going to my flat, there was an old woman (she had a walking stick and looked fragile, so I would guess she is well over 70 years) who just crossed the road when pedestrians were supposed to stop – a tram and a car were actually hooting at her, I was paralyzed with fear and some people I was standing with were calling her to come back, weather she could not hear anymore or just plainly ignored us only she knows.

16.12.07

I love this country’s transport system, I can move around with ease because of the ‘on time’ trains, buses, and trams. On Thursday I took, with ease, a 1h30 train to Winterthur for team building which was something useful, learned more about the people I work with than 2 weeks ago when I landed and also got to know the people in the Winterthur local committee where it was interesting and a necessity to question the evolution of an organization and the people’s capacity to handle the change and still be able to deliver on the relevance. It was deep!!

When you are a visitor or on contract in a certain country, you want to find out about the culture, land-scape, the history and the people, you make sure that all your weekends are booked! Today we i.e. me, Ivo (Chairperson of AIESEC in Switzerland [AiS]) and Jeroen (Organizing Committee President of Career Days) went on a trip to Grindelwald (1034 m high) – a beautiful place where tourists and locals go to ski. There is also a mountain called Jungfraujoch (UNESCO world heritage site) which is called the top of Europe because it is 3454 m / 11333 Ft high above sea level, I gotta tell you the place is AMAZING, steep in price when I converted to Rands but certainly worth it - I can’t explain it you have to experience it for yourself.

05.12.07

My first offical day on the job today – wooo hooooo!

…. My flight from Jozi to Athens was not so entertaining, since I forgot all my novels in the car that brought me to the airport; I thought the movies in the flight would be ok, then sadly for 9 hrs I was made to watch some ancient movie of witches with no sound (apparently the flight had a sound problem)! I needed the alcohol to help me sleep but then my doctor's voice was banging at the back of my mind – so I lip-read the movie to the end. Then I took a 3hrs flight from Athens to Geneva, thinking how tasty a meal I would be for the Mediterranean sharks if the aircraft were to crash because I can't even swim to save myself.

Today is my first day on the job; I took a 1h46 train from Bern to Geneva, and then found ourselves in the wrong UN building (I should have asked for a Swiss tour guide and not Slovak – who hesitated to ask for directions even though he is clearly lost!), I am well dressed but clearly a rapid change from summer to winter is a bit too much coz my mouth was starting to freeze and I had difficulty in pronouncing words, so I kept quiet until we finally found the right building after an hour and my guide `gaan-ìng aan` about how this is not so cold.

Suisse

2007-11-30T02:15:00.000+02:00

You know how cliché is ‘the world is your play-ground’, well I guess those clichés sometimes do come back to our lives and make impact as they were initially intended.

I’m off again to Switzerland for a 7 month internship with the United Nations food and population agency in Geneva (wasn’t sure on how my Mother was going to react since I was stuck in Egypt not so long ago and had to ask her to bring me home). For some reason I was excited that I made it out of the 7 candidates I was competing with from Nigeria, Canada, Cameroon and Mexico but then the financial aspect of my trip brought me back to mother earth, but I’m happy anyway that I’m returning back to the neutral country.

I will be living in Bern, the capital city, taking a train for about an hour every day to work in Geneva, so I’ll have a bit of 2 cultures i.e. living in the swiss-german part and working in the swiss-french part.

To all my friends, readers of my blog, acquaintances and colleagues thanks for the support given – especially those that came through for me and my team during AfroxLDS’07 (If you’re an aiesecer you’ll know what that means), to my colleagues for my cushioned entrance at PWC due to their friendliness.

Well keep on reading this blog as it will get more interesting as I update you about my day-to-day life with the Swiss.

As we say in Sesotho (for those of you I’m temporarily leaving behind):

Khotso, Pula, Nala – Peace, Rain and Prosperity.

Ps: Yes I will have a Swiss bank account, so if you want to put your money in it – I’ll be more than happy to hold it for you with only the following 3 conditions:

· Should be more than a million $ (not Zimbabwean dollars…okay!)
· Leave it in my bank account for atleast 6 months (so that I can earn interest on it)
· Should have been legally obtained (pick-pocketing is illegal)

If you don’t fall in this category it means you’re broke like myself and I therefore don’t see any business sense, just joking – I have my price and willing to negotiate.

In conclusion, I do charge a commission – I am in the capital of capitalism after-all :)

‘I am because we are, since we are, therefore I am’ – John Mbiti

2007-11-15T09:25:00.000+02:00

I’m reading the book ‘country of my skull’ by Antjie Krog (been looking for the book since 2004 and finally have my hands on it). A great book – has won many wards nationally and internationally.

…Came across very sensitive, insightful and informative issues, the book is about our South Africa history – Apartheid, how the core of South Africa’s being, race (black and white), was what provoked actions in the past, has formed our present identity and has shaped our perspective of the future.

Two prominent figures in the country, Thabo Mbeki (current President of the country) and Bishop Desmond Tutu (noble prize winner) dissect the words reconciliation and forgiveness. Tutu says ‘reconciliation is the beggining of a transformative process (one must be able to transcend one’s selfish inclinations before one can transform oneself and one’ society) for Mbeki it is a step that can follow only after total transformation has taken place’.

South Africans have a notion that we live in/ are building a rainbow nation, and I battle with that as we still don’t understand each other. Things still look the same for me, everything is still divided by race, from the food we eat, neighbourhood we live in, shops we do our grocery in and cars we drive, there is still a huge gap that can only be bridged by cultural understanding. It seems we tolerate each other because we need to coexist for our survival and that’s it! Weather this coexistence is reconciled and transformed still remains a debate.
A black friend of mine said that white people will never understand nor appreciate how black people bend their backs to accommodate them till and how they (whites) cannot do the same – this reminds me of Nozipho January-Bardill’s statement when she said ‘reconciliation will only take place the day whites also feel offended by racism, instead of feeling sorry for blacks’.

In a sense I understand her comment but do we need to go that route so to make a point or make another person realize where you are in terms of thought? I didn’t realize the complexity of the words truth, reconciliation, and transformation especially in the South African context until I read this book.

I’m due to represent the country yet again abroad, but for a longer period of time – this time, I wonder though how I am supposed to represent the country and my culture. There is no harmony between the individual and the community, I cannot be as we are not, and since we are not, therefore I am not.

…what is this rainbow nation we are talking about and trying to build, has it begun, has it worked, will it work and how do I represent my country’s identity?

Anybody out there….

Struggling to attract Talent

2007-10-11T03:48:00.000+02:00

This morning I read an article on mail and guardian newspaper that says South Africa is struggling to attract talent despite our flexible labour markets and decent foreign direct investments inflows, I question where our South African youth is and what they are doing with their lives.

All of you are well-off than the average youngster on the streets because you are at tertiary institutions busy being educated – but it’s said that talent is lacking. I look at their explanation of talent ‘people with skills, education and competency’, then it strikes me that actually if that’s talent then yes it is lacking especially skills and competence, let me tell you why;

Skills - communication, presentation through PowerPoint and verbally, business etiquette, selling, etc. . .
Competence – the ability to perform the above mentioned skills with minimal training and/or lack of supervision in an excellent manner in order to secure a ‘deal’.

. . . are what companies are looking for in an individual who are about to entered a job market and you will agree with me that there is no subject called ‘skills acquiring’ or ‘competency developing’ in your curricular but you still have to acquire them – and its not a choice if want to be employed.

I joined AIESEC because I wanted to see the world, it retained me because I realized that there is a lot I still needed to learn from thinking of an idea – putting it on paper – turning it into a project and seeing it through, and I got an opportunity of meeting spectacular people across the world.

The reason I write this email is that there has always been a continuous non-seriousness of members in running their operations, being unable to identify and exploit opportunities in an efficient, effective, productive way.
In my roles I have come across a member being invited to come to a conference to come and speak with the CSI manager of Cadbury Schweppes in South Africa about their projects – and a response I got was ‘no thanks’, another was invited for a strategic meeting impacting the national operations and the response received was ‘I’m afraid of joburg’.

In fortune magazine’s (Oct 8,2007/no 17) top companies for leaders:

Proctor and Gamble needs to have people in touch or have social intelligence.
Nokia (The number 1 ranking of the 20 best companies for leadership in Europe) wants people who will connect plans for their personal development.
Hindustan Unilever helps attract and nurture leaders.
BBVA (spain’s 2nd largest bank) identifies managers who’s style is participatory and not coercive.
Infosys Technologies expects members to debate discuss and critique.

If our current leaders still struggle to display qualities of skills, competency, intelligence that we say we’re developing – it means there is a problem!!!

That is why I think the terms Talent Management and Talent Development should be closely looked, in my opinion chapters need to seriously do talent development from recruitment stage especially now that chapters have been engaged in pocket recruitment. People who come in to the organisation should display emotional intelligence, willingness to learn through integration, preparation to solve problems – in that way the People development responsible can place the right people in the right jobs, coach the individuals, mentor, coach and empower.
Chapters don’t have talent to manage as yet.

It's Great to be a Souf Efrikan

2007-10-10T10:49:00.000+02:00

This is a great country because:

1. You can eat half dried meat and not be considered disgusting

2. Nothing is your fault, you can blame it all on apartheid.

3. You get to buy a new car every 3 months and the insurance company even pays for it.

4. You can experience kak service in eleven official languages.

5. Where else can you get oranges with 45% alcohol content at rugby matches?

6. It's the only country in the world where striking workers show how angry they are by dancing.

7. You're considered clumsy if you cannot: use a cell phone (without car kit), change CDs,
drink a beer, put on make-up, read the newspaper and smoke,
all at the same time while driving a car at 160 kph in a 60 kph zone.

8. Great accent. (!!!)

9. If you live in Johannesburg, you get to brag about living in the
most dangerous city in the world.

10. Burglar bars become a feature, and a great selling point for your house.

11. You can decorate your garden walls with barbed wire.

12. The tow-trucks are the first on the scene for most major crimes, without being called.
The police you have to call about three times.

13. Votes have to be recounted until the right party wins.

14. Illegal immigrants leave the country because the crime rate is too high.

15. The police ask you if they must follow up on the burglary you've just reported.

16. A murderer gets a 6 month sentence and a pirate TV viewer 2 years.

17. The prisoners strike and get to vote in elections!

18. The police stations have panic buttons to call armed response when they are burgled

19. Police cars are fitted with immobilisers and gearlocks!

20. Condoms for free - shopping plastic bags for sale

Ja nee!! Dis lekker hier!!