Aandiebeginwasdaar

Elke en Gustav was gister in hul 1ste konsert gewees. Elke het vrek baie uitgesien daarna en sy het dit regtig terdeë geniet. Soos julle op die video sal sien het sy ‘n lang gehad want sy gaap kompleet soos ‘n minister in die Parlement. Sy is nog net 2 weke in die skool en sy verstaan nog nie altyd die Engels so lekker nie.

"Deep Water" - moving

Deep Water is a film currently showing on DSTV. This documentary covers the true story of how Don Crowhurst, Bernard Moitessier and others attempt to sail around the world on their own.

The first words of the film are “We are all human beings and we all have dreams.” Very apt. This deeply moving film examines Man’s (sometimes tragic) quest for adventure and glory. But it is far more than that; it is about friendship, failure, family, priorities, greed and solitude. I would say it is essentially about men. Real Men; with their strengths AND weaknesses. But it also explores these men’s relationships to their families and how unwittingly destructive these men can be.

I like to think I have exploration in my blood. I think most men, especially Afrikaners, feel the same. I know my father has it in his blood; he has travelled into remote Africa on his own for months on end. This need to explore – in solitude sometimes – is something that fascinates me tremendously.

This film hit my right in the chest; Twice! I give it 8.5/10 – a must see!

Ek het het vandag fotos gaan neem met my splinternuwe Nikon D90. Die kamera is die 1ste DSLR wat video kan neem maar dis glad nie hoekom ek hom gekoop het nie. Ek het niks verwag van die video nie, maar toe Elke en Gustav in die bootjie gesit en gesels het het ek gedink dis ‘n goeie geleentheid om te kyk hoe goed die video funksionaliteit is.

Ek was aangenaam verras. Ek het op die kleinste format 640 x 480 geneem en ek dink die kwalitieit is heel goed. Dit was bewolk gewees, maar soos julle kan sien was die beeld baie goed en lekker skerp.

Die video self is baie snaaks – veral die einde!

As jy na die video kyk dan kan enige ou wat ‘n bietjie van krieket weet sien Dale Steyn kan onspeelbare balle afstuur. In my opinie is sy beste enkele balle nog ooit:

• Yorker vir Michael Vaughn (Eng) in 2004
• Outswinger vir Brad Haddin (Aus) in 2008 in die 3rde toets in Australie
• Yorker vir Dwayne Bravo (WI) in 2007 (hierbo)

Maar Steyn is beter as dit. Statisties kry hy, op hierdie oomblik, ‘n paaltjie elke 38.2 balle wat hy boul. Dit is die beste syfers in die toetskrieket vir die laaste 100 jaar! Die befaamde (of berugte) spinbouler, Shane Warne, het ‘n paaltjie maar elke 57 balle geneem.

Call me counter-revolutionary is an exceptional, well referenced, column by Head of Crime, Justice and Politics Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, Prince Mashele.

I think it is a great column, because it attacks the idle middle class & its irresponsible consumer culture. I think this is one of the real underlying problems in this country and others. In fact I think Obama also addressed this issue, although in other words, in his brilliant inauguration speech.

While I think this is a problem in any middle class culture, I think it is particularly bad in the new black middle class in South Africa. For obvious reasons there wasn’t a black-middle class in the past. Now these people suddenly have access to money and it seems to have become all-consuming. I applaud Prince Mashele for being honest about the cause & effect of this on blacks.

I think this issue underlies many of our other problems like crime, corruption, fraud, affirmative action and the resulting poverty of many South Africans.

Vandag toe soek ek vir ‘n Luciano Pavarotti opname van Nessun Dorma. Ek kry toe ‘n clip wat al 8 miljoen hits gehad het. Dit het heeltemal sin gemaak want hy is sekerlik die beste tenoor van ons tyd. Maar wat vir my vreemd was was dat daar ‘n ander opname van Nessun Dorma deur Paul Potts 38 miljoen hits gehad het. Dit kon ek nie verstaan nie – ek het nog nooit eers van Paul Potts gehoor nie! Toe kyk ek maar. En toe kan ek verstaan hoekom die clip 38miljoen hits gehad het. Dit is iets ongeloofliks. Dit wys net hoe ongelooflik kragtig musiek en die mens se stem kan wees.

En veral omdat dit Nessun Dorma is. Die laaste woorde “Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All’alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!” beteken
“Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At daybreak I shall win! I shall win! I shall win!”.

Hoe van pas is dit nie?

Here, word for word, is the column that got respected journalist David Bullard sacked. It is available at its original location at The Sunday Times, but since he has already been sacked I’m not sure how long this column will still be available online.

I think Bullard just got fed up with the “blame the white man” line that every black politician now uses whenever they have messed up. Love it or hate it, you have to agree that Bullard makes some interesting points. What I love is that Bullard had the kahunas to say it. He also has a stab at China (along the same line as an earlier post of mine).

Uncolonised Africa wouldn’t know what it was missing

Imagine for a moment what life would be like in South Africa if the evil white man hadn’t come to disturb the rustic idyll of the early black settlers.

Ignored by the Portuguese and Dutch, except as a convenient resting point en route to India. Shunned by the British, who had decided that their empire was already large enough and didn’t need to include bits of Africa.

The vast mineral wealth lying undisturbed below the Highveld soil as simple tribesmen graze their cattle blissfully unaware that beneath them lies one of the richest gold seams in the world. But what would they want with gold?

There are no roads because no roads are needed because there are no cars. It’s 2008 and no one has taken the slightest interest in South Africa, apart from a handful of botanists and zoologists who reckon that the country’s flora and fauna rank as one of the largest unspoilt areas in a polluted world.

Because they have never been exposed to the sinful ways of the West, the various tribes of South Africa live healthy and peaceful lives, only occasionally indulging in a bit of ethnic cleansing.

Their children don’t watch television because there is no television to watch. Instead they listen to their grandparents telling stories around a fire. They live in single-storey huts arranged to catch most of the day’s sunshine and their animals are kept nearby.

Nobody has any more animals than his family needs and nobody grows more crops than he requires to feed his family and swap for other crops. Ostentation is unknown because what is the point of trying to impress your fellow citizens when they are not impressible?

The dreaded Internet doesn’t exist in South Africa and cellphone companies have laughed off any hope of interesting the inhabitants in talking expensively into a piece of black plastic. There are no unsightly shopping malls selling expensive goods made by Asian slave workers and consequently there are no newspapers or magazines carrying articles comparing the relative merits of ladies’ handbags.

Whisky, the curse of the white man, isn’t known in this undeveloped land and neither are cigars. The locals brew a sort of beer out of vegetables and drink it out of shallow wooden bowls. Five-litre paint cans have yet to arrive in South Africa.

Every so often a child goes missing from the village, eaten either by a hungry lion or a crocodile. The family mourn for a week or so and then have another child. Life is, on the whole, pretty good but there is something vital missing. Being unaware of the temptations of the outside world, nobody knows what it is. Fire has been discovered and the development of the wheel is coming on nicely but the tribal elders are still aware of some essential happiness ingredient they still need to discover. Praying to the ancestors is no help because they are just as clueless.

Then something happens that will change this undisturbed South Africa forever. Huge metal ships land on the coast and big metal flying birds are sent to explore the sparsely populated hinterland. They are full of men from a place called China and they are looking for coal, metal, oil, platinum, farmland, fresh water and cheap labour and lots of it. Suddenly the indigenous population realise what they have been missing all along: someone to blame. At last their prayers have been answered.

Ons het vanoggend Elke se eerste treë op video vasgevang. Met die hulp van tegnologie kan lesers dit ‘n paar uur later sien. Die is ook toevallig my eerste Youtube upload.

My onmiddelike reaksie toe ek van die ontdekking van die “grootste” diamant hoor was moet dit nou net nie weer vir die Pommies gee nie! Maar nou reken ek dis miskien ‘n liegstorie.

Van die bestuur van die maatskappy wat die diamant ontdek het was betrokke by Holland Moorehouse, ‘n tyddeel maatskappy wat bankrot geraak het. Hulle was bekend vir hulle aggressiewe bemarking. Die kundiges in die veld reken ook dat alluviale diamante nie so groot raak nie omdat hulle gespoel word en so afgebreek word – wat vir my sin maak.

Ek weet Siener van Rensberg het vertel van die diamant, maar Siener soos Danie Krugel en Marietta Theunissen was ook maar ‘n bogspul. Tensy Carte Blanche anders dink (lees vroeër post).