Focus on the Project (24/06/2017)

Yesterday we hosted eleven year old kids from two local schools. During one of the exercises I observed something interesting. A group of five boys who were friends were given a girl to be their captain as they were supposed to build a tower, using only eight pieces of paper and a string of sellotape. One of the boys told me that the group does not want the girl as their captain so they were not participating. I tried to convince them to participate. They sulked and resentfully distracted her. I watched as she kept on working on the tower while rejected by those who were supposed to be her team mates. When the time was about to end they discouraged her and said 'let us give up we have already lost this competition'. Still she kept on working. I had to intervene when they physically destroyed her structure for the third time and told them to leave her alone as they were deliberately sabotaging her. She kept on working even as you could see hurt on her face. Her energy was not spent on convincing them to like and accept her. Her focus was on the project. Her tower won silver and the group claimed that honor. I knew better and I marveled at her quiet strength as the judges commented on the simplicity of the design. This happen in life. Please be like that eleven year old girl. Focus on the project even when they reject you, not help you and try to sabotage you. Even if you are breaking inside, JUST KEEP GOING and FOCUS ON SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETING THE PROJECT.

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Paarl Uprising 1962

Growing up in Mbekweni I got used to being associated with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC/Poqo) when visiting other townships. This is because Paarl has been viewed as a PAC stronghold since the 1962 Paarl uprising that was led by that organisation. The history of the PAC struggles can not be told without mentioning Paarl 1962. That was when a mass uprising consisting of hundreds of men took place. They marched in the morning of November 22 from Mbekweni and Langabuya to town with the intent of attacking the police station and prison. The Late Minister of Justice in the ANC led government Dullar Omar recalled this event when accepting an award for Human Rights in 2004. Omar who, in 1963, was one of the lawyers who were to defend the men recalled that: “ The PAC was particularly active in Paarl. Suddenly hardly without any notice the so-called Paarl riots (the Poqo uprising) exploded on the South African scene. These poor migrant workers had had enough. They marched through

Marching against apartheid education

I am the fifth from left in this 1990/91 Education march: students linked arm-in-arm do a toyi-toyi dance during a march to the Houses of Parliament. Student leaders handed over a memorandum to an official of the State President's office calling for the creation of one education department and for the president's intervention in the improvement of facilities. — with Luvuyo Zantsi, The current deputy minister of police, Bongani Michael Mkongi ,is the tenth person from left. the late Ntuthuzelo Ngwane, Sipho Kussie, Bhabha Dantile, Bhabha Ntshobane, Mcebisi Tshandu, Patrick Lakabane and Songezo Mjongile, who was to be the Western Cape province secretary for the ANC at Parliament of South Africa around 1990/1 .

Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

The Main gate at Dachau concentration camp with the words 'Arbeit macht frei'. It means work sets you free. The Gas Chamber Dachau concentration camp memorial site building and yard. A crematorium to burn the dead I took time one Sunday morning to visit the Dachau Concentration camp memorial site when I was staying in Feldafing, in the State of Bayern. The memorial site is said to be one of the first concentration camps established by the Nazis. It was located in the small town of Dachau approximately 10 miles northwest of Munich. It was quite an eye opener. When you are there you just realize the cruelty of it all. It hits you that thousands of people were imprisoned there without trial. They were tortured and many died. It is not an ordinary tourism site. It is sad. Jews, Russian prisoners of war, Jehovah's witnesses, gays, Intellectuals, communists and anyone who disagreed with Hitler became a victim.

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