Practise what you Preach!!!!

Nothing is more than a turn off like someone who does not practise what they preach.

I’m sure we are all aware of such people who do not practise what they preach…… these people are more likely to say things and do the opposite. It is not that I don’t do this sometimes, I do but not with the things that will project a negative perception about myself-being. There is a say that which goes like “you are what you preach”. So what ever happened to creating a good image for oneself?

You can back me on the fact that the current media mantra is “going green”, it talks about global climate change = global warming. Our government has been pondering about the The Greenland Dialogue which its aim is reduce the international understanding of the challenges in future international climate policies. However, not too far ago South Africa named the National Heritage Day a Braai Day. Didn’t they? Yes, they did and their main aim is to unite all South Africans by encouraging them to partake in a fun and tangible activity shared by all individuals.

Recently, our president made a speech in China looking for ways to reduce climate change in our country and the world at large. Isn’t this contradictory? I mean how many trees were cut down for the Braai Day so that people can make fire for to braai meat, around the country? The Greenland Dialogue speaks of planting more trees for our health’s sake. Thus, tons and tons of trees were cut down for the so called “Braai Day” celebration. Beside that the pollution on that day caused by the smoke of fires also contributes to the climate change.

While looking at the solutions for the climate change we still continue to spread the problem further, this means we do not practise what we are preaching.

15 mins of fame.......

When I saw this one I giggled!!!!!

Picture: Mollie Kendall

I mean being a world famous for only fifteen mins!!! Hectic is it not? Andy Warhol said, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes” – You can’t choose the 15 minutes but why would you be world famous. “15 minutes of fame (or famous for 15 minutes) is an expression which refers to the fleeting condition of celebrity that grabs into an object of media attention, then passes to some new object as soon as people's attention spans are exhausted. It is often used in reference to figures in the entertainment industry and other areas of popular culture” (Wikipedia).

   Online media has presented numerous possibilities for everyone to be world famous, speaking of twitter, facebook, blogs etc one can be famous. Thanks to the blogs now people can text your name on Google and there comes your name (that makes us celebs for even more than 15 mins).

  Other than that the old traditional media: television, radio and the likes can also make you a world’s celeb for a few minutes. I have been on television (on Your Date With Destiny) more than five minutes I guess and that contributed to my celebrity encounter.

  So I fully agree that everyone in future would be world famous for 15 minutes or more but now I think people can choose when and through which media they can be famous.

Rock Journalism

Frank Zappa quoted that: “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read”. On the other hand Wikipedia talks about music journalism as a criticism and reportage about music which began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today generally classified as music criticism, comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of music and its performance. However, I eventually came up with this opinionated authoritative information about what I think RJ’s is. Though it nearly turned me into one as well, hence the hustles I went through. This took me a couple of hours thinking about this, processing, googling but all I divulged was virtually about Frank Zappa’s quotations and comments which basically was no help after all because it is just what it says on the topic. However I think Rock journalism are actually worthless people seeing that they can not do more than two things simultaneously. Zappa said that “most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can not talk, for people who can’t read. These are the people who write for the literate people and look for the relevant information for the right target audience. They know where exactly to find information and how they go about delving the information that they want.

What motivates me…

I reckon every individual’s motives are important because they drive one to a particular path in life…..as it is said that if you going nowhere in particular any road will take you somewhere.

The motives I possess are:
I’m motivated by certain aspects of life such as learning, curiosity and making a difference in other people’s lives. Every day I believe I should start something new and see repercussions after.

What keeps me going is faith and hope that one day I will achieve my goals. Starting from zero there is nothing to lose, though I have lost some things that had value in my life but that couldn’t stop me from adventuring, I believe that everyday’s new beginnings.

Music also play a pivotal role in my motives (all types of music = r n b dominating though). Something about music it can be real powerful. If I hear a good song that I like it motivates me.

Among other things that motivates me is love…. to love someone and being loved back in return really takes me to the sky, actually a motive is driven by love.

And all the successful businessmen who started their business/es from scratch and made it to the top keep me aggravated because that signifies the potential of being successful in my career endeavors. Funny enough, some of them had to start from home (in the garage) but now they have international businesses.

If they can do it so can I.

Luck favors the prepared mind!

I personally didn’t believe that there is such a thing as “luck” in reality. Guess I just lost a connection with reality in that case…not that there was not link with it at all but with the luck mythology. Now I fully believe that luck really favors a prepared mind.

Having a prepared mind helps in a number of occasions, it also keep people alert of the things happening around them. Not the people who wander around. One can agree that every person has an expectation in life and every time you go somewhere you want your expectation to become realism. Someone who wander would not be prepared about what might happen but a prepared person would.

A prepared mind will truly impact in our success when something occurs in our personal, work or family lives. Just take the global recession for instance; those who were aware of it from the beginning had/made plans before it took a full scale. But those who were caught in between are in serious trouble now. To be prepared you need to have your timing right though. Ever heard of being in the right place at the right time, a prepared mind won’t be surprised when good things happen.

As a person you need to be able to adjust or adapt to any situation but you can only do this if you are aware of the past and current occurrences. If you are enlightened you will not be shocked if a change happens in your life. So all in all, be prepared for anything in life as they say that anything is possible in life. Luck favors a prepared mind!

Personal Autonomy- how far does it extend?

When looking at this topic (Personal Autonomy), I reckoned it would be best to first understand what it means in order to come up with an authoritative conclusion as to how far does it extend. Reference.MD described personal autonomy as self-directing freedom and especially moral independence.

As human beings we are exposed to the planet earth’s diversity where every single individual do things according to what they believe is right or what they were taught is right. Everyone controls his own universe, though; other people as well are directly or indirectly affected by the circumstances of your decisions. However, not all of us consider our cognates with our dealings.

I think as a person you are destined to make decisions on your own, although people in our surroundings also partake in this but at the end your shots goes, so it is important to self-direct ourselves to the righteous paths and to let our morals be independent. But our personal autonomy has no limit; it’s only our actions or decisions which limit us.

I guess personal autonomy goes as far as the regulations and/or rules we make for ourselves as human beings and how we behave in societies we found ourselves in. In addition, it also depend to what or how we govern ourselves and to what extent we allow others to take control in our dealings, of which we shouldn’t….. it’s only us who must make calls and nobody else, which is how far I think personal autonomy extends!

The Significance of NiNe!

Let’s not be outraged, astonished, or shocked about this month’s occurrences. Well! One can actually look at this from a negative perspective that we should be having brighter and sunny days but instead we’ve been recently blessed with rainy days in the city. Why is that? *(Wondering)*---This is probably that rain gives life and it is a gift that brings growth to plants. Without water they strive to survive and so do we.

On the positive note the rain we have been blessed with these days is perhaps meant to strengthen our roots, so that we remember where we come from as human beings (especially on a cultural day), or it is meant for us to be grateful for our mother’s whom carried us for NiNe months and gave birth to us, and continued to nourish us. It’s a big up to us as well because we pulled it through for NiNe months in our mother’s wombs. I reckon we should be thankful to the Almighty for those blessings too, because some of us didn’t make and some made it before time.

NiNe month of the year is the time when most people pack away their winter woolies, provided that winter doesn’t last longer though and we get to see bright outfits, beauty pageants, and weddings etc. Speaking of NiNe, in few days to come we’ll experience 09/09/09 and both September and Wednesday have NiNe letters. How is that for a coincidence?

“BUNCH OF ANIMALS” is one comment on CPUT strikes. What is yours?

People have had their personal views on this heart touching topic. As individuals everybody is entitled to safety and security. Don’t we? Yes, we are. Though students were out of control in their dealings, everyone can back me up on this ‘if you make decisions using your intuition the worst happens’. Is not so?

This is heart touching because some of us are being negatively affected by the strikes taking place at CPUT. Just imagine when you fight for your own rights but instead of negotiating the matter concerned you get jailed. I mean we are here for one reason and that is to pursue our careers but how one is expected to do that when intuition fees increases every year. Well, I know the global economic recession play part on this but that does not mean that the increment should be 100%.

However, Student Representative Council should monitor their fellow students and ensure that they do not vandalize any property but how is this possible if management locks themselves in their offices when needed to come and negotiate with the SRC. Students have seen that they only take action once something is destroyed.

Strikes at CPUT are becoming a new culture which inevitably gets students’ voice heard. If you have noticed every time students strikes they get what they have been striking for. This is the worst year of my life with this institution, though there have been, in the past few years, strikes but they never are like this one.

My comment on this is that strikes at CPUT need to be announced well in advance so that all students are aware and they come prepared. Bunch of animals should take part on strikes because most of these issues affect us directly or indirectly.