tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62315218684589996332024-03-20T13:39:47.874-07:00swazifictionliving the life in Africa's global villageswazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.comBlogger294125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-76389021561464999252021-01-06T09:04:00.001-08:002021-01-06T09:04:33.618-08:00HAROLD BUDD: go in peace<div align="left"><p dir="ltr"><b>Harold Budd</b></p>
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<div align="left"><p dir="ltr">Back in the 70s I had a friend called Howard, who lived in Wimbledon village, and we met regularly to listen to and discuss our recent album purchases. I know, it seems crazy now; but that was part of the magic of those days: more interaction, less distraction, a sense of joy everytime you walked down the street. We boomers had it good.</p><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1b-EGo0Dlh8-mXO-_33rsa91t0_x9vsivdI5tNLaB36hOAVYCoO9slVOkwjWvuaJn8wbMpNVC4mMJfWTnZxW702NJw_Xl6SXKL2FT6_rRXGAU1C5oGBXoZC48-n02DxeXTGcSgTbHsS4/s1600/IMG_ORG_1609952533621.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1b-EGo0Dlh8-mXO-_33rsa91t0_x9vsivdI5tNLaB36hOAVYCoO9slVOkwjWvuaJn8wbMpNVC4mMJfWTnZxW702NJw_Xl6SXKL2FT6_rRXGAU1C5oGBXoZC48-n02DxeXTGcSgTbHsS4/s1600/IMG_ORG_1609952533621.png" alt="" width="162" height="320" data-original-width="1080" data-original-height="2122"></a></div><p dir="ltr"><br>One of the albums we talked about was Harold Budd's <b>The Pavilion of Dreams</b>. We both had a copy and we both loved it. I still do, and still listen to it regularly. I haven't, however, heard from Howard in years and now I wonder actually if he's still with us. Harold Budd isn't. Budd died recently in California from covid-19 related complications. Go in peace. <br></p></div>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-56223980085407459562020-10-21T23:43:00.000-07:002020-10-21T23:43:26.071-07:00Chris Thomas King Angola review<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEGNjcV28sO9Pjauo25RQZ-og1uR-pBApk7klnITzRaT8xKD9NbFL7Qe3hz6KeqpkI3EvGtl2dy0qJSlH5Prdzfqdl8kVJlqorhwI5UZPtNvp0dcs15DA5EcTM4NRf-LhSjtHgha_jLZ9/s513/christking.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="513" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEGNjcV28sO9Pjauo25RQZ-og1uR-pBApk7klnITzRaT8xKD9NbFL7Qe3hz6KeqpkI3EvGtl2dy0qJSlH5Prdzfqdl8kVJlqorhwI5UZPtNvp0dcs15DA5EcTM4NRf-LhSjtHgha_jLZ9/s320/christking.png" width="320" /></a></div><b>ANGOLA </b>by <i>Chris Thomas King </i>2020<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">When an album is named after a notorious US prison, and the first thing you hear as the needle drops is a crowd chanting "George Floyd, George Floyd" to a background of police sirens and rumbling guitar, you know there's a lot of anger here. And anger doesn't always translate into approachable art. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Fortunately, there's a lot more here than anger; there's pity, and, in a brilliant cover of Dylan's <i>I Shall Be Released, </i>compassion. The Dylan connection is also relevant in that Dylan himself recorded <i>Hurricane</i>, a song that also challenged the institutionalised <i> </i>racism that we know as the US of A. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is not Johnny Cash at Folsom or BB King at Sing-Sing, this is an altogether different event. The album begins, as already noted, with a mash of real-world noises, hip-hop sensibilities and created music centreing on the brutal viral story of George Floyd and moves into a rendition of the US national anthem where CTK channels Hendrix to remind us of Woodstock's famous deconstruction of the Vietnam war. People still, CTK reminds us, have to face off with the Man, the system that dehumanises every one of us, especially people of colour.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Next up is <i>Drenched With Our Blood</i>; in fact just looking at the album's tracklist tells you what's going on here:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZdyIdSCtfpe60mJgVFm8LaZkclnZ06drGCrl0HNVa2Yhx3YGTc0p4YrWMG_K4oEgdxtxUk0FcA7MgL-yjkx6v757bpu2ZyXj0byZaMlth8KrfVEcIAm5JYGaDp173T_IENwcGl87BG6eg/s1022/angola+trax.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="1022" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZdyIdSCtfpe60mJgVFm8LaZkclnZ06drGCrl0HNVa2Yhx3YGTc0p4YrWMG_K4oEgdxtxUk0FcA7MgL-yjkx6v757bpu2ZyXj0byZaMlth8KrfVEcIAm5JYGaDp173T_IENwcGl87BG6eg/w674-h172/angola+trax.png" width="674" /> </a></td><td style="text-align: center;"> </td><td style="text-align: center;"> </td><td style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But it's not all doom and gloom. In CTK's hands this becomes an existential crisis full of pathos: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><span><span style="background-color: #cc0000;"><span></span></span>Why do we do this to each other? What happened to respecting our common humanity?</span> <span style="background-color: black;"><span></span></span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In this context, <i>I Shall Be Released </i>is transformed from a moving song about an individual to a song of hope for humankind. In this year of lockdowns and terrors it wells up in our chests and becomes a song of hope for us all.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[swazifiction, October 2020]<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><br /></p>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-88030704829474403992019-12-02T04:28:00.000-08:002019-12-02T04:28:35.115-08:00The Mandalorian goes Seven Samurai<div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7GT4wT6xdvp2eFrrsCsL32mpQEV6R0geEgB3q4Df0nbVlnVr_MgcWXyAigs1gTGZ_0IYM2-qdljv2Mqc5vFEvhxTos4GYD7lai89ZkcxKb0i_I19DY3n78srQ8zluS_WA9mgBrrHAXGZ/s1600/IMG_ORG_1575289565668.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7GT4wT6xdvp2eFrrsCsL32mpQEV6R0geEgB3q4Df0nbVlnVr_MgcWXyAigs1gTGZ_0IYM2-qdljv2Mqc5vFEvhxTos4GYD7lai89ZkcxKb0i_I19DY3n78srQ8zluS_WA9mgBrrHAXGZ/s1600/IMG_ORG_1575289565668.jpeg" alt="" width="283" height="232" data-original-width="283" data-original-height="232"></a></div><div><br></div>Episode 3 showed The Mandalorian has a heart for the vulnerable and the courage to help them; in episode 4 he gets another stab at being a saviour. From the opening scene, in which a poor farming community is attacked and their harvest stolen, we enter the world of <b>The Seven Samura</b>i and its Western remake, <b>The Magnificent Seven</b>. </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqkEyeAhLm5vgpL0tU0tGxL6z6VPLAqhDaAcqMsnhZxo8vwhsbuIRiW3be1yr0QN3EZ1P3FgupzeS2dKIscAo1SZLrs26zRK_aRngUG3z91OjwEcDTpVsG_9upxcydrSUTxV5-nDkHgqx/s1600/IMG_ORG_1575289606342.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqkEyeAhLm5vgpL0tU0tGxL6z6VPLAqhDaAcqMsnhZxo8vwhsbuIRiW3be1yr0QN3EZ1P3FgupzeS2dKIscAo1SZLrs26zRK_aRngUG3z91OjwEcDTpVsG_9upxcydrSUTxV5-nDkHgqx/s1600/IMG_ORG_1575289606342.jpeg" alt="" width="320" height="109" data-original-width="1071" data-original-height="366"></a></div><br></div><div>As usual, the poor farmers have little to offer mercenaries but our hero has his own agenda and agrees. There aren't seven, mind you, just two and a child, but they are enough.<br></div><div><br></div><div>One of the reasons <b>The Mandalorian</b> is such a strong show is that it doesn't try to reinvent the history of cinema, but taps into it: everywhere we look we see echoes of what has already become iconic. Star Wars is already informed by Japanese cinema and zen (think <i>The Force</i>, Jedi<i> Warriors,</i> and <i>light sabres</i> aka Samurai swords) so an episode modelled on Akira Kurosawa's 1954 masterpiece is an inspired choice. </div>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-61911450103565912942019-12-01T23:57:00.001-08:002019-12-01T23:57:15.855-08:00Marconi Union: Dead Air review<div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEolzMKRVlrMza2z09BFuWIsN3YtgYie5anR-dmebRWSSSJlXE1G4elhm618T0qW0p39MxbYou7pAJm3vYnd40qBQfpgYgxROxjuPYn0LASsSBT5MxqNeSSV4LHoYwK55soAblyPDFRU-f/s1600/IMG_ORG_1575270808467.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEolzMKRVlrMza2z09BFuWIsN3YtgYie5anR-dmebRWSSSJlXE1G4elhm618T0qW0p39MxbYou7pAJm3vYnd40qBQfpgYgxROxjuPYn0LASsSBT5MxqNeSSV4LHoYwK55soAblyPDFRU-f/s1600/IMG_ORG_1575270808467.jpeg" alt="" width="320" height="320" data-original-width="700" data-original-height="700"></a></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">I suspect that most people who have heard of Marconi Union first heard of them when one of their earlier tracks, <b>Weightless </b>(2012), was declared 'the most relaxing music of all'; my ears, though, were opened by the band's 2016 album, <i>Ghost Stations, </i>which is glorious. <i>Dead Air, </i>however, isn't like those previous masterpieces. </div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">I loved <i>Ghost Stations </i>for a variety of reasons, not all of them musical. For example, the idea of ghost stations, places that the train passes through but where no-one gets on or off, is a real part of my own personal history. Firstly there is the classic poem, <b>Adlestrop</b>, <span style="font-family: sans-serif;">by Edward Thomas,</span> that describes such a station; but, as a Londoner, I know that there are ghost stations on the underground. I always found passing through those stations fascinating. And of course train rhythms are in my blood. But then I also loved the drums on that album, which in places thunder and motor like a track from African deep House<i>. </i>Naturally, I began looking forward to MU's next release. </div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><i><br></i></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">In the interim, the band released live remixes of <i>Tokyo</i>, which I rather liked, but <i>Dead Air</i> is the first proper album since <i>Ghost Stations.</i></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">Was it worth the wait? Yes, it's a gem. But... there are no drums. </div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: left; clear: both;">This new album resonates in different ways and hooks into different memories. There are a few train rhythms, yes, but mostly <i>Dead Air</i> reminds me of Bowie's Berlin work with Eno, especially side 2 of <i>Heroes. </i>Overall<i>, </i>it's a pastoral cityscape, a kind of urban ghostland, one where you can explore inner-city shopping malls when everyone has gone home. <i>Dead Air </i>is moody, brooding and deeply satisfying; but there are no drums. </div><br><br>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-10916859485091225362019-11-20T08:53:00.000-08:002019-11-20T08:53:57.150-08:00His Dark Materials: It's All About the Children Season One review<b>His Dark Materials: It's All About the Children</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HDM poster</td></tr>
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<b> </b>I write novels, screenplays, and music, and have taught literature for 30 years but I must straight out confess that I never got around to reading Philip Pullman's <i>His Dark Materials</i> trilogy.<br />
I knew about the books of course, I had to. But still, I came cold to this new TV show, able to assess it as a TV series without comparing it to the novels.<br />
And I found the first episode interesting enough to come back for more.<br />
These are YA novels, and they're all about the children really even though the adults dominate the posters for the show.<br />
As usual for this kind of show, the adults inhabit a dark and often violent world that the children--because they're children--only gradually come to understand; the story is about the children's awakening into this adult world. This perspective yields great results in a novel (for example, <i>Shane; Roll of Thunder, </i>my own <i>Temangwane) </i>but is difficult to translate to a screen because you have to mostly eschew thoughts (voice-overs can be cumbersome and break the flow of the narrative) and reveal emotion through action. Also, finer details of relationships can be difficult to portray in the different medium. As far as this show is concerned, the notion of characters having their own attendant daemons (animals who shape-shift, counsel and talk) is poorly explained and could have been integrated better.<br />
The main character is Lyra, a young girl who is obviously special but we don't know why. Learning who her father is was a surprise, but her mother not so: I twigged that early on. Lyra and her friends get kidnapped by adults but they don't know why. The gossip doing the rounds is that the children are being taken by the <u>Gobblers</u> (a wonderful name as it sounds on the one hand like monsters from a nursery rhyme or fairy-tale, and on the other has similarities to the old English word for demon, <i>goblin</i>).<br />
Well the children are being kidnapped and it seems as if Lyra can save them but that's only because the shape of the story suggests that outcome: in the first 3 episodes we learn she has some power but she doesn't know how to use it (this reminded me of Stephen R Donaldson's <i><span class="js-about-item-abstr">The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant</span></i>). We also don't know what her power is either, only that she has <i>something</i>. The families whose children are being taken know they should protect and even hide Lyra from the authorities; the authorities, obviously, are going all out to capture her. All the ingredients for a good show!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHXeHv_PtNsT0VNUYy4dZFUlafNdKRvcziS08GCx4U72Bm0RiWgO2xAhodEZXuOkOuRZ0oP5DPfLyadMNKPZAbDdU9msWNLFIwUflgc_SUStp2pZ2HG2FhoXk06fPiHo_hFGYdGLtdWUn/s1600/dark+materials+lyra.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="590" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHXeHv_PtNsT0VNUYy4dZFUlafNdKRvcziS08GCx4U72Bm0RiWgO2xAhodEZXuOkOuRZ0oP5DPfLyadMNKPZAbDdU9msWNLFIwUflgc_SUStp2pZ2HG2FhoXk06fPiHo_hFGYdGLtdWUn/s320/dark+materials+lyra.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lyra and her daemon</td></tr>
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The title, <b>His Dark Materials</b>, is a quote from the poet Milton about the creation of worlds, and this trilogy includes parallel worlds that a few people are able to navigate between. This is useful story-stuff too, but again has been under-developed so far.<br />
The trilogy has already been attempted as a (rather disappointing) film, but this TV series so far has been entertaining and absorbing. It remains to be seen though how much of the rich seam of material from the novels can be utilised in this different form--there are simply some things that only work in books and others that only do well on a screen. I suspect many fans of the books already have misgivings about the TV series. If you haven't read the books then there might be some questions that go unanswered. It's the old problem of adaptability.swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-46676613622939072322019-11-19T23:48:00.001-08:002019-11-19T23:48:22.506-08:00The Mandalorian: Star Wars Goes Spaghetti<b>The Mandalorian: Star Wars Goes Spaghetti </b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Mandalorian</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Disney's made-for-tv venture into the world of Star Wars is a quick-fire, sure-fire, winner because it at once hooks into a myriad of cult classics. The plot centres on a bounty hunter operating at the fringes of the known universe.<br />
Firstly, there's his identity to be intrigued by. He's presented by his race--<i>The Mandalorian</i>--not by a personal name; ie this is tribal. He's an outsider, recognised by his armour, not by his face; and that armour! I don't know about you, but the helmet reminds me at once of both the ancient <i>Spartans</i> and the very modern <i>Robocop</i>.<br />
Character-wise, he's a high-plains drifter, cool, calm and collected with a smoking gun and very few words. He's good at what he does, which so far is mostly smoking bad guys and big monsters; but this is a series, not a film, and it's set in the Star Wars universe, where anything can be encountered and surprises are expected.<br />
Perhaps the biggest surprise so far is the appearance of a baby Yoda (we don't know yet if this is a baby from Yoda's species or even Yoda reborn). This is a possible masterstroke, since not only is the Yoda character much-loved, but everyone gurgles over adorable babies like this one--remember how adorable baby Groot was in Guardians of the Universe?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">baby Groot</td></tr>
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But there's more: baby Yoda has already saved the Mandalorian's butt, apparently through mind-control, but the baby overtaxed its strength and had to sleep for a while afterwards, thus revealing its weakness despite its strength.<br />
Of course it's a shoot-'em-up series and there have been a few pretty impressive shoot-'em-up scenes already. The very spaghetti-western showdown between nasty kidnappers on the one hand and the Mandalorian teamed up with a bounty-droid, is fun.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpv5PlgCcmd_P1g-NO4rutXk3RITM_R3RYxNoNxEtYx6FwB3GunRaIOONGl2PZFcQ98OQcnKaoYTIFfSkxUOg92Lu-DGZHlrv_rRBlQoVzr1F1wSaf6gggq0dbKF5tuWkPJuNLjY_Y1zK/s1600/bounty+droid.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="465" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpv5PlgCcmd_P1g-NO4rutXk3RITM_R3RYxNoNxEtYx6FwB3GunRaIOONGl2PZFcQ98OQcnKaoYTIFfSkxUOg92Lu-DGZHlrv_rRBlQoVzr1F1wSaf6gggq0dbKF5tuWkPJuNLjY_Y1zK/s320/bounty+droid.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a bounty droid</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The fact that the Mandalorian wastes the droid is interesting as well because he agreed on a 50-50 deal with the droid and then reneged on the agreement.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPweJaDqc9TADVyLCJSJSzubpoW9c2irVSRUqVzlWU_KRjC2HQiCcaQDUqPz05kFQjIaIUf4mGG4-t_PRkUzh7ffinp_XWAs6VZRd83u43qnxjUpAcwiKOIPd_ce9qw5zLQKIiMCtFjQ5/s1600/baby+yoda.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="692" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPweJaDqc9TADVyLCJSJSzubpoW9c2irVSRUqVzlWU_KRjC2HQiCcaQDUqPz05kFQjIaIUf4mGG4-t_PRkUzh7ffinp_XWAs6VZRd83u43qnxjUpAcwiKOIPd_ce9qw5zLQKIiMCtFjQ5/s320/baby+yoda.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a baby Yoda</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Is that because he has no morals or because by not killing the mark he's going to get a bigger reward? Or does he perhaps have feelings for this baby or curiosity about its nature? We don't know yet but it will be fun to see how it plays out.<br />
We can only hope that the series builds on this strong beginning. There is every reason why it should.swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-30409089073523121262019-11-17T23:04:00.000-08:002019-11-17T23:04:27.731-08:00Eswatini: 3rd Term report 2019<b>Eswatini: 3rd Term report 2019</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMeLjVneXYyP26zps2_SoTpr05ev0N1qKPAH_44hFjNb5G1Sf94doJ5UXb7T87oxplZtCzDaSEzN6tOwOCE8GAHR_8US-QHppISCNxkrNpNz2uKuhOrCA1GOsL0s0iilul91rC3kLohCIX/s1600/swazi+students.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="508" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMeLjVneXYyP26zps2_SoTpr05ev0N1qKPAH_44hFjNb5G1Sf94doJ5UXb7T87oxplZtCzDaSEzN6tOwOCE8GAHR_8US-QHppISCNxkrNpNz2uKuhOrCA1GOsL0s0iilul91rC3kLohCIX/s320/swazi+students.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">students in class [file pic]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>An Admission of Failure</b><br />
<br />
The recent announcement by the Prime Minister of Eswatini that English Language will no longer be a required passing subject in schools is a huge admission of failure, a throwing-up of hands, reflecting a huge decline in standards both in the national school system and in our wider society. It appears to solve a problem but in reality it's a way of saying 'Problem? There's no problem!' which is our government's favourite way of dealing with issues.<br />
<br />
I can imagine that a lot of students awaiting the results of the recent round of examinations are smiling, saying, "Hey, it's easier to pass school now." Quite so. But will it help to get a job? No. Because there are no jobs. And lowering requirements won't help to create jobs. What is currently needed in our brave new world are school graduates with multiple language skills: I've long argued that students should be studying at least 3 languages in school if they are to be competitive in the workplace [my suggestion for eSwatini is siSwati, English and Portuguese].<br />
<br />
The buzz words these days are <i>entrepreneur</i>, <i>start-up</i>, <i>portfolio</i> and <i>e-commerce</i>: there's a general consensus that if you really want a job you will most likely need to create one.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And how do you become an entrepreneur? What is a start-up? How do you build a portfolio?</blockquote>
<br />
Studies have demonstrated that a prerequisite for entrepreneurial thinking is a population that <u>reads</u>. And our population mostly doesn't. (Do you remember those block-like things that have pictures on the cover,
a blurb on the back, and no navigation buttons or batteries? We used to
call them books.) So how will lowering language requirements and standards help us? Obviously, it won't; rather, it will <span class="zci__def__word text--primary">exacerbate the problem--we're digging a big hole here. Of course, the rot was previously encouraged by the decision to dumb down the teaching of English by making English a 'second-language' in schools: ie, it's taught as a foreign language, which is a much easier syllabus. </span><br />
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary"><br /></span>
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary">In short, the teaching of English has become a political issue when it's actually a practical one. There's a suggestion that we start learning Mandarin; it's a valid idea; but did you know that there's more English spoken in China and India than in America? And considering how important China and India are becoming in our world, that is something to seriously ponder.</span><br />
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary"><br /></span>
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary">It's not about English, or siSwati, or Mandarin, or French or any of our babel-tongues: it's about communicating. If you plug a printer directly into a computer, will it just work? It will work only if the printer and computer understand each other. Technically, you might say the computer needs the right driver. If the printer software and the computer software understand each other, then it will work. </span><br />
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary"><br /></span>
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary">Here's another way to look at it. Recently an African e-commerce platform was launched. So you sit down, come up with a business plan, and register a website domain. You want to sell your product to as many people and in as many markets as possible, so what language will you use for your website? A sensible approach would be to choose a widely-spoken language. Currently that list doesn't include siSwati; I wish it did but it doesn't. So announcing that English is no longer a required passing subject is a political statement, not a practical one. Politicians have a habit of clouding or dodging issues. Language has always been seen as a political issue but it really isn't; it's an emotional issue, and I expect this recent announcement to be popular. But if we are to turn around our moribund economy we need to start working on it now. We don't need to make everything easier, we need to roll up our sleeves and start learning skills. We should be upping our standards, not dumbing them down.</span><br />
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary"><br /></span>
<span class="zci__def__word text--primary"><br /></span>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-55706418859587688612019-07-12T03:26:00.000-07:002019-07-12T03:30:38.217-07:00Eswatini, mid-year report 2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1WSXpWMnR5dWyJbfNDAxp9Aa1Z_-uBPKJ2UVvyWPGietjnWA3txOpW01phI-1QmHhkp2y-IEyERNwIj3TgDgg69lJjc3ZtM7vksdCvqUb8qnXYHdkG31MpizVNI7p4cfAfL07YMxvbptq/s1600/central+bank.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1WSXpWMnR5dWyJbfNDAxp9Aa1Z_-uBPKJ2UVvyWPGietjnWA3txOpW01phI-1QmHhkp2y-IEyERNwIj3TgDgg69lJjc3ZtM7vksdCvqUb8qnXYHdkG31MpizVNI7p4cfAfL07YMxvbptq/s1600/central+bank.jpeg" /></a></div>
<b>Mid-year report 2019: an insider's personal view</b> <br />
<br />
It's July 2019, and Eswatini resembles a boxer who has been hit with a succession of heavy punches, and is staggering unsteadily towards his corner, hoping to hear the bell that could save him.<br />
<br />
Honestly, things are not looking good right now. Government says it is cash-strapped and needs to raise more from taxes; the few who have jobs and incomes are even more cash-strapped than government and wonder where they will find the money for taxes already levied. Almost everyone can tell you how desperate everybody is becoming.<br />
<br />
At the same time, people are dying around us as they never did before: I don't just mean the big A but also cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and strokes; the cost of dying rivals the cost of living these days. Nurses are underpaid, medical supplies are reportedly non-existent, and the people talk of only going to the hospital to die. And this is in a country famous for its cannabis, which could be the cash crop (as medical marijuana) to save the nation--financially as well as improving the health of those living with HIV and cancer.<br />
<br />
There's lots more that's failing of course, but what I want to do here is suggest a way forward; this is not a quick fix. The bottom line (to appropriately use a financial term) is that we need to kickstart the economy and rebuild community. And the best way to do that is to create entrepeneurs to grow the economy.<br />
<br />
Ramaphosa, across the pond in SA, has spoken already about entrepeneurship being taught in schools, but that's not how entrepeneurs are created. Studies have shown that countries with lots of startups and entrepeneurs have readers, artists, and musicians. Without creative persons you won't get anywhere. That's also because all of the new jobs and careers of the future haven't been created yet, they can only be imagined. Obviously creative leaders are also needed.<br />
<br />
So, let's start with education. Our schools are clearly failing to prepare our people for a post-school future. In the first place we are still educating for jobs that don't, and won't exist. Just this week, Deutsche Bank, one of the biggest banks in the world, announced it is cutting thousands of jobs because business has largely moved online; a recent study suggested that up to 51% of jobs at present available here in Africa will disappear due to automation and the Internet. Then, of course, there will be thousands of new jobs that haven't been invented yet. One of the ironies of our present situation is that Limkokwing's courses are a lot of what we seriously need right now, but few graduates from Limkokwing find suitable jobs after completing study.<br />
<br />
Then there's still a prevalent 'white-collar' mindset that needs to be dismantled: we really do need people who are unafraid to get their hands dirty: not those guys and ladies with long fingernails that proclaim their owners don't do manual work. Sorry folks, but office jobs are disappearing because offices are disappearing; we can work from home these days. When you have a cellphone, and data in the cloud, why do you need an office? That's just unnecessary expense. Just as banks have been shutting doors and touting online banking, so the entire CBD of cities and towns will also shrink drastically.<br />
<br />
Banking is an important sector to consider, actually for a variety of reasons: firstly, the banks have long been seen as a source of secure jobs for school leavers; obviously this is no longer true since banks are downsizing due to automation. But there's more. What of drivers in an era of driverless taxis? What of cashiers in cash-free shops and waiters in self-service restaurants? Cash-free shops? Yes, there are plenty. Amazon even has cash-free supermarkets now. Amazingly, ATMs are now over 50 years old but they needed big data and the Internet to really take off--we now have paypal, mobile money, and ... cryptocurrencies. Traditional banks are beginning to talk seriously about 'paper-free banking' which not only uses the cloud but also removes paper money and coins. This is not as far-fetched as it seems. <br />
<br />
Think of it like this: a few years ago the municipality installed parking meters in the centre of town and people were coming up to me and saying, "Hey, we finally got first world status here at the car park!" Apparently people were excited by this innovation. I replied, "Yes, but what about school leavers who will no longer be able to get a job working at the car park?" In the same way, mobile money, ATMs and internet banking have removed the need for so many bank tellers, cashiers and physical business branches.<br />
<br />
In fact, human societies underwent a seismic shift in 2006-2007, and the repercussions are still growing, rippling outwards from the innovations of that year. What happened in 2006-2007, you ask. Well, here's for starters:<br />
<ol>
<li>iPhone</li>
<li>cloud data</li>
<li>facebook</li>
<li>twitter</li>
<li>git hub</li>
<li>youtube</li>
<li>Android</li>
<li>Kindle</li>
<li>Airbnb</li>
<li>AI</li>
<li>DNA sequencing</li>
<li>Intel achieved a major chip breakthrough</li>
<li>the Internet reached 1 billion users</li>
<li>increasing adoption of linux systems</li>
</ol>
Recognise any of these? You wouldn't have noticed most of them at the time, but we all know them now, some quite intimately. This is our brave new world.<br />
<br />
To suggest that we must invest heavily in traditional schooling is pointless; to chase only an IT education is reactionary, a knee-jerk reaction to what is already here. What we need to do is to start talking and create a present that can ensure survival in the future. We must not blindly rush in where fools are afraid to tread and not all be gung-ho for a situation that cannot work for us. In particular, we must remember to build community into all our equations and machinations because the bottom line is that we are all people and need each other. Truly, we must value each other as unique resources. The promise and potential of a nation (as a wider community) is its people.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-8357741857614093822018-06-25T05:25:00.002-07:002018-06-25T05:27:20.698-07:00Peppermint 9 review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAXgaUuKlj1YhxnTTKwzLjDJ86gcO2WsymIpYHxVLtMdHxmGiGTmBmhX8g4B9f3YBxt7NL_ZuzRTaohp6gYGlEPKRDnJ7cwplXKoYAMEeFEwJck9nJZsxCa2Hi73VPM9WhgMuSQI7smWo3/s1600/Screenshot_2018-06-24_09-44-13.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAXgaUuKlj1YhxnTTKwzLjDJ86gcO2WsymIpYHxVLtMdHxmGiGTmBmhX8g4B9f3YBxt7NL_ZuzRTaohp6gYGlEPKRDnJ7cwplXKoYAMEeFEwJck9nJZsxCa2Hi73VPM9WhgMuSQI7smWo3/s320/Screenshot_2018-06-24_09-44-13.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Peppermint 9: June 2018<br />
<br />
A new Peppermint release is always welcome; we've all been at this for a while now. <br />
<br />
I began my linux adventure with Linux Mint Bianca [back in February 2007] and dual-booted with Peppermint Ice [2010 <a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="asynclazy" data-lynx-uri="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geek.com%2Fnews%2Fpeppermint-ice-a-faster-lighter-cloud-focused-linux-os-1270792%2F&h=AT20ybcAXxQ162EgJcrhMcoEEfk_4BqP-FUp9QsnLtWF4awqwo0T1Ff_85ICXUfzPTC4fDKnSSKq7_qrmYWiEUB153Tjs_K-PhD0oJ3eDbaSEDWB3BAmdKv_XMNmYeFdFS1jJ7v_-XU" href="https://www.geek.com/news/peppermint-ice-a-faster-lighter-cloud-focused-linux-os-1270792/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.geek.com/…/peppermint-ice-a-faster-lighter-clo…/</a>]... now we're up to Peppermint 9. Great stuff.<br />
<br />
<b>Is it any good?</b><br />
<br />
Well, yes, it is. It's fast, lightweight, reliable, and (so far) works straight from the box. I haven't yet found a problem with this release (3 days now) but there will always be something to fix when you're updating distros. Which, paradoxically, is actually another advantage of Peppermint and its big daddy, Mint, on which it's based (Mint, in turn, is based on Ubuntu). Linux is all about community and sharing, so there's a large, worldwide, usually friendly and helpful bunch of people willing to help if you have a problem and are prepared to ask.<br />
<br />
I use my distros for lots of things, like most people and, like most people, I have my favourite programs so there's always a bit of setting-up that needs to be done with any new installation. I'm a novelist, editor and musician so I always add programs like Mixxx, Calibre and Sigil, SoundConverter, Handbrake and FocusWriter to whatever is already there. I did that, installed and ran the programs, and everything was and still is hunky dory. Using Mixxx I created a new smooth jazz mix for <a href="https://www.mixcloud.com/ken-rowley/grooving-in-the-grove/" target="_blank">Mixcloud</a>; with Calibre I turned an epub into a mobi [I'll tweak it with Sigil]; with Handbrake I converted an old DVD movie into an mkv file; and I wrote the first draft of this article using FocusWriter.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoh0j6klBiopsqMmcBJ3slQxD5KhxNItY2RLtRQ_CmHO1qpKCRNc3XKA809LJenTByzEwdQTWFSbCyGkQ1HvvTJHsC0PbG4a4iWfALdKUrZ_eU1K_rzOpw-zh8vPeuvmMT46tLB0-A-TpG/s1600/peppermint+9+aptget.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="780" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoh0j6klBiopsqMmcBJ3slQxD5KhxNItY2RLtRQ_CmHO1qpKCRNc3XKA809LJenTByzEwdQTWFSbCyGkQ1HvvTJHsC0PbG4a4iWfALdKUrZ_eU1K_rzOpw-zh8vPeuvmMT46tLB0-A-TpG/s320/peppermint+9+aptget.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
As you can see from this screenshot, connecting to the net and downloading from the repos was straightforward; the connection was strong and fast.<br />
<br />
Peppermint differs from Mint in more ways than one. It's not, and never was intended as, a cut-down version; no, Peppermint was conceived as a <b>cloud hub</b> back in the early days of big data and the promise of cloud computing. Originally the OS was called Ice after the little site-specific cloud apps that are Peppermint's characteristic feature.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw0TURquFjoZmJBQ4-56xh8OhUJYGnsjUo_3haLW0yPnVowoso9Eg3MqeMo1ADrNe0KnUSgWcki3LqvIsb2ekU9aulsp9b3sNjLAGC4CUjrukcU-hzzeB6jeKHDhXRF45PAnlGkg9kAxG9/s1600/peppermint+9+ice+menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="604" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw0TURquFjoZmJBQ4-56xh8OhUJYGnsjUo_3haLW0yPnVowoso9Eg3MqeMo1ADrNe0KnUSgWcki3LqvIsb2ekU9aulsp9b3sNjLAGC4CUjrukcU-hzzeB6jeKHDhXRF45PAnlGkg9kAxG9/s320/peppermint+9+ice+menu.png" width="320" /></a></div>
An Ice dialog. This is where you add the URL for your SSB app. Once set up you will see your app listed in the menu.<br />
<br />
<b>Cloud Apps</b><br />
<br />
Peppermint comes pre-loaded with useful cloud apps like Google's Drive, Calendar, and Mail; Microsoft's online suite of Office tools, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Skype; graphic editing is handled by Pixlr, etc. Obviously the included apps are only a suggestion and because Peppermint is based on Mint, based on Ubuntu, based on Debian, etc there's an incredible wealth of free software available for download. With Peppermint, customisation is only limited by your imagination and skill.<br />
<u> </u><br />
<b>Verdict</b><br />
<br />
Peppermint 9 is a winner.<br />
<br />
A highly-recommended instalment in an ongoing series, it can do most of what you want with considerable ease.<br />
<br />
{Ken Rowley}swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-38419221411920129272018-04-09T12:33:00.001-07:002018-04-09T12:33:49.251-07:00Sakhile Live in Swaziland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5C9adm31hRXoE1Fx-ZmEE4zDjEuGLp2bF3BPjKzNA7yRHevSikGgogXjY4JvjRy3JyWiIY-GEZGtqopUfEb2gIf1dtUAkOiLHVaBpvaLD0Fm9fGs1ClXSK_sGBNv6MGNO_6hYnfU-Cd60/s1600/Sakhile+mixcloud.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="1159" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5C9adm31hRXoE1Fx-ZmEE4zDjEuGLp2bF3BPjKzNA7yRHevSikGgogXjY4JvjRy3JyWiIY-GEZGtqopUfEb2gIf1dtUAkOiLHVaBpvaLD0Fm9fGs1ClXSK_sGBNv6MGNO_6hYnfU-Cd60/s320/Sakhile+mixcloud.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.mixcloud.com/ken-rowley/african-jazz-7-sakhile-live-in-swaziland-december-1987/">https://www.mixcloud.com/ken-rowley/african-jazz-7-sakhile-live-in-swaziland-december-1987/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
For me the best South African band of all. swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-27541808761202448782017-10-19T00:20:00.000-07:002017-10-19T00:20:44.794-07:00Dirty Dancing 2017 is a reworking, not a remake or reboot, and it's ok<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DJ164Fq4rpMNG_vIiQVdJ0gOH9o7o1Mc12C6_0KHw4zo-BIp_maDo4OlVD1dArFwdUyEBXa_c8Xqj-R7-8iSbexws12IK8OJT9n4Ogn6FAVuQXe8rMwNRbnPh5dtTrQ4pKrqKWBh7oRy/s1600/dirtydancing2017.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="376" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DJ164Fq4rpMNG_vIiQVdJ0gOH9o7o1Mc12C6_0KHw4zo-BIp_maDo4OlVD1dArFwdUyEBXa_c8Xqj-R7-8iSbexws12IK8OJT9n4Ogn6FAVuQXe8rMwNRbnPh5dtTrQ4pKrqKWBh7oRy/s320/dirtydancing2017.png" width="209" /></a></div>
Do you remember Michael Bolton's <i>Timeless: The Classics </i>album? And do you still cringe? There's a reason why classics are classics, and the golden rule is, <u>Don't remake a classic unless you do something different.</u> For example, The Four Tops' original <i>Reach Out, I'll Be There </i>is a classic and unless you're going to do what Joe Cocker did with the Beatles' <i>With a Little Help From My Friends </i>or what Jimi Hendrix did with Bob Dylan's <i>All Along the Watchtower, </i>i.e, rework the original so that you create a new classic, you probably shouldn't bother. With cinema a good role model here is <span class="st">Kurosawa's <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seven_samurai_1956/"><i>Seven Samurai</i></a>. The film is a stone-cold classic of cinema, legendary in its influence and impact. It inspired 'seven swords' books and films of course, but one reworking went on to achieve classic status of its own: <i><a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013077_magnificent_seven">The Magnificent Seven</a>. </i>The reworking meant that most of <i>Magnificent Seven's</i> original audience had no idea at all that it was based on Kurosawa's original. </span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">Both of these classics suffered remakes. The point is, Don't remake a classic, don't reboot a classic either. If you want to touch a classic, rework it.</span><br />
<span class="st"><i><a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dirty_dancing/">Dirty Dancing</a>, </i>the original, is seen as a classic of its type, partly for its story, partly for its soundtrack, and partly for the on-screen charisma and energy of the film's two leads, Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ER1RLq37gJQbEG4OR88oNf4BZEJUDrOgTZlgFT_p8sNarSTaSK156SO1OfReWybJVxZE2AYklCo-pjyoOncH9a6Hg_1DgBgawHg4NADB1k3Clslz33jCsXiBbhnP06QKTYT48WbwH2-A/s1600/dirty+dancing+original.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ER1RLq37gJQbEG4OR88oNf4BZEJUDrOgTZlgFT_p8sNarSTaSK156SO1OfReWybJVxZE2AYklCo-pjyoOncH9a6Hg_1DgBgawHg4NADB1k3Clslz33jCsXiBbhnP06QKTYT48WbwH2-A/s1600/dirty+dancing+original.png" /></a></div>
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">If you've seen and loved the original, then <i>Dirty Dancing 2017</i> can't be considered an outstanding success; but it's a worthy attempt--not a remake but a reworking--not a reboot but a reworking--and a lot better than the critics allow it to be. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">It appears to me that most of the critics were simply looking for a reboot and as I've said above, you can't reboot a classic and you shouldn't even try.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">At the very least, <i>Dirty Dancing 2017</i> <b>tries</b>. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">It had something to work with for in truth, there were always two stories in <i>Dirty Dancing. </i>There was the story of Baby and Johnny; but there was also the story of Baby's family. In the original, the family's story was a backdrop, but in <i>2017</i> it's developed and brought forward. The reworking is a full 30 minutes longer than the original, and the characters of Baby's sister, father and mother are fleshed out. This fleshing has also become part of the soundtrack, with one song--'They can't take that away (from me)--even being reprised. This is sung in the film by Baby's mother, and then, later, her father. The other song, an early Dylan great, is claimed by Baby's sister. So the screenplay was reworked extensively.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">But the soundtrack was reworked too. The original OST sold more than 32 million copies, so even using it was a big risk. The producers of <i>2017 </i>decided to neither just replay the original nor create a new setlist but used newer, different artists', versions of the original songs. This choice has been applauded in its own <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Dirty-Dancing-2017-Soundtrack-43572003">right</a>.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">So the <i>2017 </i>producers knew what they were risking and knew also what they were doing. This is a reworking. As a reworking it does, I think, a very watchable job.</span>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-74537123190046024512017-05-24T03:28:00.000-07:002017-05-24T03:28:20.719-07:00Hawu! Relationships have become time-shares!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBYW0e0P9YCi2pI4CIhGxX5gyPFzIps5BiT-j_-zR1YGTJ4mrjj0kfIqoXJXE4nNdGd5Q2-_B1ZW1OY24xABCRgqGUn73rW5g_DiztzmHoZL4LQHu54VKHyx_gsmY959o-gOX5t-4CBG7r/s1600/new+article.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="821" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBYW0e0P9YCi2pI4CIhGxX5gyPFzIps5BiT-j_-zR1YGTJ4mrjj0kfIqoXJXE4nNdGd5Q2-_B1ZW1OY24xABCRgqGUn73rW5g_DiztzmHoZL4LQHu54VKHyx_gsmY959o-gOX5t-4CBG7r/s320/new+article.png" width="320" /></a></div>
the article is here: <br />
<a href="https://medium.com/@kenrowley/hawu-relationships-have-become-time-shares-6ccdbe960439" target="_blank">Baby-mamas and boyfriend back-ups</a>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-32645777816090516362017-05-24T00:03:00.000-07:002017-05-24T00:03:40.951-07:00Recent articlesRecent articles: <br />
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<a href="https://medium.com/@kenrowley/yes-the-new-civic-application-of-blockchain-both-underlines-cryptocurrencies-and-undermines-69b1acfe04e7" target="_blank">23rd May 2017 (medium) Blockchain and its application</a><br />
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22nd May 2017 (Times of Swaziland) profile:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPQwVM2Cg9xTkt4uyvYH8wGtuUJ9uiWiHqw1OfnkJhK5b61vwXCc9f2bwN94dKN6nBm9mS_kGMwx_AXgEoXVWKvb1mAFYdLSvlJYmP_TZgtKyhKMII8DhISAh4sF7isujcwxB7sTXWoic/s1600/mrkenjourno.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="960" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPQwVM2Cg9xTkt4uyvYH8wGtuUJ9uiWiHqw1OfnkJhK5b61vwXCc9f2bwN94dKN6nBm9mS_kGMwx_AXgEoXVWKvb1mAFYdLSvlJYmP_TZgtKyhKMII8DhISAh4sF7isujcwxB7sTXWoic/s320/mrkenjourno.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://medium.com/@kenrowley/why-cryptocurrencies-are-here-and-arent-going-away-anytime-soon-ae1c6dc9406e" target="_blank">17th May 2017 (medium) Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies</a><br />
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<a href="https://medium.com/@kenrowley/ransomware-bitcoin-tor-and-the-concept-of-freedom-6ee79fed99eb" target="_blank">13th May 2017 (medium) Ransomware and anonymity</a> <br />
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<a href="https://medium.com/@kenrowley/its-not-buying-and-selling-but-an-exchange-of-dreams-59ba4488f277" target="_blank">10th May 2017 (medium) rise of the sharing society</a><br />
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<br />swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-77638945220775974642017-03-27T03:14:00.000-07:002017-03-27T03:14:01.660-07:0050 Shades of Sex<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTJhlHveP3-HgyZhB5WoZBgSD3Ajw8Xe72srSzuBLHBJ7jRf7aAWNyW39B_9_Uo4IQiEwpg0-lg-4i8MrxSR0XmzeGYNqZwQqPjx5e-zgKTHFNO4lddv0b6A0hTkaVz0JFiQGVJD3NwXg/s1600/TOS+rape+comment.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTJhlHveP3-HgyZhB5WoZBgSD3Ajw8Xe72srSzuBLHBJ7jRf7aAWNyW39B_9_Uo4IQiEwpg0-lg-4i8MrxSR0XmzeGYNqZwQqPjx5e-zgKTHFNO4lddv0b6A0hTkaVz0JFiQGVJD3NwXg/s320/TOS+rape+comment.png" width="132" /></a></div>
What are you?<br />
<b> </b><i>I'm a man.</i><br />
Is that why you beat your wife?<br />
<i>I beat her to teach her the value of discipline; discipline is good.</i><br />
Is that why you also rape her?<br />
<i>She is my wife: sex is good; I don't want her to lose out.</i><br />
<br />
What are you?<br />
<i>I'm a man.</i><br />
Is that why you beat your daughter?<br />
<i> </i><i>I beat her to teach her the value of discipline; discipline is good.</i><br />
Is that why you also rape her?<br />
<i>(Silence.)</i><br />
Is that why you rape her?<br />
<br />
<i>I'm a man...</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>This text</b> appeared as the leading comment of the Times of Swaziland Sunday on 13th August 2006, under the subheading <b>A disintegrating society...</b> but it could have been published yesterday. We're eleven years on and seemingly no progress has been made as far as gender abuse is concerned. In fact, even a cursory glance at a week's newspapers and the social media for a single day suggests that things have even got worse since then.<i> </i></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: #741b47;">What does this tell us about the level of violence in our society? We don't even need to talk about terrorism in the world--what goes on in our <i>homes</i>?</span><i> </i></b></blockquote>
<br />
At the same time, sex is everywhere and in the open. It didn't used to be. In the pre-AIDS era, people didn't practice safe sex but equally they didn't talk about it either. Now <i>condoms</i>, <i>circumcision</i>, <i>safe sex</i> and even <i>gay</i>, <i>lesbian</i>, and <i>bisexual</i> are words that people use freely. This new-found freedom of speech is perhaps a good thing, but it accompanies a widespread acceptance of porn, which isn't. Porn is everywhere: it's certainly on a cellphone near you. Porn is most usually associated with violence.<i> </i>Consider, for example, the massive commercial success of <b>50 Shades of Grey</b>, with its million-selling books and box-office winning film. Whether it's porn or not, it's definitely sex plus violence. And it's not only tolerated, it's imitated.<br />
<br />
At this moment in our lives, music streams like Channel O routinely screen soft porn while stronger videos of sex and violence are whizzing around the webverse from cellphone to cellphone via social media and from laptop to laptop via flashdrives. One of the current viral videos is of an underage girl and boy in South Africa. The video has already brought untold anguish upon those involved. There were some loud voices saying how sad and how shocking this video was. But there were many more clamouring to get themselves a copy so they could see it for themselves.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: #741b47;">If we are going to leave anything worth leaving for our children and children's children, then we have to do more than admit there is a problem. We have to act.</span></b></blockquote>
<br />
One way to act is through legislation. Legislation works by giving a clear message about what is considered acceptable and what is not. At the end of last year it was widely anticipated that a new Sexual Offences Bill would be passed this year. That hope has begun to fade, with reports implying that the Bill has been deliberately stalled and will remain unimplemented. This is a tragedy that will merely accelerate the downward spiral that we're already in. Legislation would be a public way of admitting that we have a serious problem.<br />
<br />
Another public way would be for the churches--and there are so many of them--to also campaign for change in this area. Sadly, that also looks unlikely to happen.<br />
<br />
The best way then is to do what wisdom tells us we should do: begin the change within ourselves. We could do worse than choosing the words of the apostle Paul, who also lived in such a time as this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRoMTPH4ILj5dX0oV8If2kOHwGNrVXGsNgiOlmBBf-jEHTXqWH9Zs1WJzIde6atHlfsQT4l1H_h4YD0CU0axl0dJUCdxaMx2O7fw90VhunN7uScM2gyld9q71fVdxAb-dM61-ABbeeiNT/s1600/phil+4%253A8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRoMTPH4ILj5dX0oV8If2kOHwGNrVXGsNgiOlmBBf-jEHTXqWH9Zs1WJzIde6atHlfsQT4l1H_h4YD0CU0axl0dJUCdxaMx2O7fw90VhunN7uScM2gyld9q71fVdxAb-dM61-ABbeeiNT/s640/phil+4%253A8.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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In the end, all change must begin with us.<br />
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<br />
<i> </i> <br />
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<br /><i> </i>swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-34498649383397383532017-03-21T03:10:00.000-07:002017-03-21T03:10:02.445-07:00Google fast-forwards... to the past<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuUhPf5koo24zKjHpwdbhZhxfzqXJMowTM1pxzGx2p3pgMlNpYZdtSmZ3iNp_L6f5McgW0yMtvvLfKV6ym7fBz2pSDM-26ssH6w-OPBzMVWyyiC9VsaOluwqL1hSlDMutSVkTrtU7FRzS/s1600/sumerian+script+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuUhPf5koo24zKjHpwdbhZhxfzqXJMowTM1pxzGx2p3pgMlNpYZdtSmZ3iNp_L6f5McgW0yMtvvLfKV6ym7fBz2pSDM-26ssH6w-OPBzMVWyyiC9VsaOluwqL1hSlDMutSVkTrtU7FRzS/s320/sumerian+script+1.png" width="48" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgs1lvfXEEO_qQYHv9GSbiIW4hy_i9EGESHm1Noa4cl3lQF3jlK6KORDCxIdWKOreTbpBikQqY7oYoeX8nBK0wqOE5Xsyv9UoO2nluu7JBmhXVRmSlsQSWZhounKFDO1s_E-ZQFcRQiXS9/s1600/sumerian+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgs1lvfXEEO_qQYHv9GSbiIW4hy_i9EGESHm1Noa4cl3lQF3jlK6KORDCxIdWKOreTbpBikQqY7oYoeX8nBK0wqOE5Xsyv9UoO2nluu7JBmhXVRmSlsQSWZhounKFDO1s_E-ZQFcRQiXS9/s320/sumerian+2.png" width="75" /></a>They say that history repeats itself. That certainly seems to be the case with social media, which is all about communication. On the one hand, many posts are mostly emotional--whether it's posting selfies to get more self-love or posting a diss to burn an old flame. On the other hand, words are somehow too wordy and are being replaced by emoticons and emojis.<br />
<br />
This is definitely a reworking of our ancestral past. Emojis were what we used before we invented words. Richard A Firmage, in his interesting book <i>The Alphabet Abecedarium </i>writes:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Pictographic</b> or <b>Iconographic</b> writing was the first actual writing. A simple picture designated an object... the earliest known examples are Sumerian from about 4000 BC.</blockquote>
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This picture language <i>was </i>at first very simple. In fact it was rather basic. Some of this Sumerian language is shown above, with the pictures on the left and their meanings on the right. You can see that the images for <span style="color: purple;"><b>man</b></span> and <span style="color: purple;"><b>woman</b></span> are images of genitalia. Below the image for woman is the image for <span style="color: purple;"><b>land</b></span>. Combine woman and land and you get <span style="color: purple;"><b>female slave. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><b><br /></b></span>
Where would we be without our whatsapp icon set? We're so used to using these images in our texting that it's hard to remember a time when we didn't have them. They seem so natural, and of course they are--pictographs and images are no doubt coded into our very cells.<br />
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Both Facebook and Google realise this and have been paying attention to the emoji side of texting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52hDBT9Vl2Mq6SyLFuGSx7vxRdq93iZFIzjUHDpm2ObSRBiEdztP1VSPlFBy-_mjoFl9e8vqxtOWDnzuuKOjUKA-KsjPuTRjvtLcz6qX425Ox2LCvj5pj7tRIQQVqus6REEBl0Z9AcI3S/s1600/facebook+reactions.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52hDBT9Vl2Mq6SyLFuGSx7vxRdq93iZFIzjUHDpm2ObSRBiEdztP1VSPlFBy-_mjoFl9e8vqxtOWDnzuuKOjUKA-KsjPuTRjvtLcz6qX425Ox2LCvj5pj7tRIQQVqus6REEBl0Z9AcI3S/s320/facebook+reactions.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Here are Facebook's new <i>reaction </i>emojis.<br />
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And below is Google's approach via a new app called <i>Supersonic.</i> <i>Supersonic </i>converts your voice text into a text-and-emoji message on the fly. What, I think, is particularly interesting is that both approaches are dynamic. We've already had entire novels written in <b><span style="color: purple;">whatsapp-speak</span></b>. At present it seems unlikely that anyone could write an entire book using only emojis. But I suspect that time is not far off.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpKE4wvX4gWCRaf3v8S1rjMKf9R5nQ8oZwmKGTCWjZc1myA2Nk6biFjzDz4JwK9roeOCoqpbsOk-QyevJi-Da7ef8EpgrtLLWTmRDy63hyqcaRsJ3-t05rgTaFItXhIP7AAdledBe8i9A/s1600/supersonicswazifiction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpKE4wvX4gWCRaf3v8S1rjMKf9R5nQ8oZwmKGTCWjZc1myA2Nk6biFjzDz4JwK9roeOCoqpbsOk-QyevJi-Da7ef8EpgrtLLWTmRDy63hyqcaRsJ3-t05rgTaFItXhIP7AAdledBe8i9A/s320/supersonicswazifiction.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-79273843451517637652017-03-16T06:19:00.000-07:002017-03-16T06:23:37.470-07:00This genius created modern fantasy but no-one has heard of him<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBcLWTSNcBdtla9IbGEksGXnN8D1sPkUcA7DwY8_rKzYnVNEP4RbUsDdD0f8V0FVByspl31-gFz-e8ksL1JoDjsHgg9purr5lmFu5LKEI3yAjuEkgfEinlPdJd9elMzoB8YFVtTdV20mtS/s1600/woodbeyondthe+world.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBcLWTSNcBdtla9IbGEksGXnN8D1sPkUcA7DwY8_rKzYnVNEP4RbUsDdD0f8V0FVByspl31-gFz-e8ksL1JoDjsHgg9purr5lmFu5LKEI3yAjuEkgfEinlPdJd9elMzoB8YFVtTdV20mtS/s320/woodbeyondthe+world.png" width="320" /></a></div>
A long time before JRR Tolkein wrote <i>The Lord of the Rings, </i>well before he even wrote <i>The Hobbit,</i> <span style="color: red;">William Morris</span><b> </b>wrote and self-published his first fantasy novel set in a totally invented world, <i>The Wood Beyond The World </i>(left). It was 1895.<br />
Morris was famous at the time, a protean figure in Victorian England. He was an active socialist, painter, designer, and owner of the Kelmscott Press.<br />
But almost no-one knew that he had just invented a new genre, <b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">fantasy</span></b>, that would spawn in later generations the work of such diverse creators as Tolkein, CS Lewis, JK Rowling, Neil Gaiman and George Lucas. He followed <i>Wood </i> with <i>The Well at the World's End</i> (1896) and <i>The Water of the Wondrous Isles </i>(1897). Most likely he would have written more if death hadn't intervened.<br />
No-one knows why he wrote these late novels. <i>Well </i>is considered his masterpiece, and at the time was one of the longest stories ever written (228, 000 words). Tolkein's <i>Lord</i> is twice as long, but that was published as a trilogy. I've reread <i>Well</i> more times than I've reread <i>Lord</i>. It's a book to get lost in, full of characters and wonder. It's easy to see where it inspired Tolkein. In fact in one small section it includes a character called Gandolf, who does some magic... I also love his <i>Wood</i> and earlier <i>The Story of the Glittering Plain</i>. Lewis and Tolkein were members of a small literary club of professors and writers called <span style="color: purple;">The Inklings</span>. They would get together and talk about literature and whatever they were working on at the time. Undoubtedly they discussed Morris. Lewis once said that after he discovered Morris he "got all the Morris he could get". You can get some <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/169" target="_blank">here</a>.swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-29022248583129874402017-03-16T02:50:00.002-07:002017-03-16T03:15:17.422-07:00Whatsapp listens. Now we have the old text statuses and the new snapchat ones.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-qbDg1tBTyyUzIJasJyIOq1m79ckIoDdmUhNmgl_aJk3R8KebylCmKwXyGBYv3PHRM3ALhw5gwNMuY9tDCVn4QYc7OK5x9u2Rlms_8ussBDCh86MqHcwcruuHZwk4uPjPO5Z1aMX3SoQ/s1600/statusme.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-qbDg1tBTyyUzIJasJyIOq1m79ckIoDdmUhNmgl_aJk3R8KebylCmKwXyGBYv3PHRM3ALhw5gwNMuY9tDCVn4QYc7OK5x9u2Rlms_8ussBDCh86MqHcwcruuHZwk4uPjPO5Z1aMX3SoQ/s320/statusme.png" width="203" /></a><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiynJyJaiLbp-1JB7ppKpgxNiT3LELWVGuYLrQSXrp4i6KgPSN8C3JFQbVs1PbE2mnB4KItVZPP_KP8t4dy0Lrqm-RJaYhaPbwwlqJCUkKJUDbmnEOgL4lXHzmtn7HlTVO0fz9CGoHq7Y1x/s320/status+other.png" width="203" /></div>
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In a recent <a href="https://swazifiction.blogspot.com/2017/03/whatsapp-statuses-and-coming-empire.html" target="_blank">blogpost</a> I mentioned that the new whatsapp statuses were hugely unpopular here in southern Africa and that the change was an attempt by facebook (whatsapp's owner) to replicate snapchat (which facebook failed to buy). I then--as I'm sure did thousands of others--complained to whatsapp about the change through their beta app.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, now we have the old text statuses back as well as the new snapchat ones. if you go to your own <b>Settings </b>you can set your own text status just as before; and if you check your friends' <b>View Contact </b>you can see their status under the heading <i>About and phone number. </i>According to reports the company says that Android updates that reflect the statuses change will roll out next week; Apple updates will follow after that.<br />
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swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-21791386979253923162017-03-14T04:29:00.002-07:002017-03-14T04:29:45.109-07:00Why 'The Richest Man in Babylon' is one of the best financial books of all time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzTFid3XWmECrS_zc5tDoqR3wmjUy8dDVB1IGvwO_w1T2aFnNZV9ZzyZNHOwdSOPleGC3dt4PnkHyPvxFnhACOCURyeLjhtjW4K6SfVaI-twMuLSdIilIDeUbl2mRN6sN5uDm3epT_wuRE/s1600/richestmaninbabyl.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzTFid3XWmECrS_zc5tDoqR3wmjUy8dDVB1IGvwO_w1T2aFnNZV9ZzyZNHOwdSOPleGC3dt4PnkHyPvxFnhACOCURyeLjhtjW4K6SfVaI-twMuLSdIilIDeUbl2mRN6sN5uDm3epT_wuRE/s320/richestmaninbabyl.png" width="185" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
George S Clason's 1926 <i>The Richest Man in Babylon </i>has currently 505828 ratings and 2277 reviews on GoodReads and millions of copies in print. Clason originally composed it in parts, as a series of short pamphlets dispensing practical financial advice. Long hailed as a classic for all generations, it has been of inspiration and value to many many people. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But why is it so good? Yes, it offers practical and helpful advice; but so do many other books and they aren't as well-read or so famous. Is it that the advice is radically different from other books? No. In fact, some would say Clason's advice is homely and commonsensical rather than especially insightful. So what made it stand out and become viral in an age of print?</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Indeed, what makes this book still so special and so different from other books on similar themes?</span></i></b> </blockquote>
Quite simply, it's the power of story. Clason wasn't a brilliant financial advisor with insights unknown to others; he was a brilliant storyteller. This was his genius. <i style="text-align: justify;">The Richest Man in Babylon </i><span style="text-align: justify;">harnesses the <b>potency of story</b>. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> We all of us love to hear and tell stories. If we didn't we wouldn't be human. Storytelling is primal.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> Consider the following books: </span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li> <i>The Alchemist</i></li>
<li><i>The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari</i></li>
<li><i>Harry Potter</i></li>
<li><i>The Lord of the Rings</i></li>
</ul>
<i> </i>and film and TV series like:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><i>Star Wars</i></li>
<li><i>Star Trek</i></li>
<li><i>Game of Thrones</i></li>
</ul>
<br />
These are all fables and myths for a generation that grew up without fables and myths. Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of modern education as well as the foundation of our modern world, but do you know what the Athenian youth studied at school? They studied the Homerian myths--the stories of the <i>Iliad </i>and the <i>Odyssey.</i> These stories were more than just stories; they taught morality and character too. The Romans had the stories of Romulus and Remus, and the legend of Aeneas. The Jews had the stories compiled in Genesis, the Exodus, and the Judges.<br />
Here, in <i>The Richest Man in Babylon, </i>Clason creates a classic financial myth through careful and detailed elaboration of <b>setting</b> and skillful differentiation of <b>character</b>. He uses the powerful device of <b>dialogue</b> to share his ideas. Dialogue helps create character and thus <b>personalises</b> the teaching. Much of the dialogue uses <b>question-and-answer</b> (think Quora and Google) and throughout Clason understands how certain words and phrases <b>trigger</b> the reader's response to the text. Indeed, the storytelling techniques in this book are the same that drive our current social media and clickbait world.<br />
In short, <i>The Richest Man in Babylon </i>is a story with power because of the way it is told. It works like the telling of a good joke and is likely to endure for a long time to come.<br />
<br />
Kenneth Rowley 2017<br />
swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-56894626015794923412017-03-04T08:40:00.001-08:002017-03-04T08:41:59.464-08:00Whatsapp Statuses and the Coming Empire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkMsWF7tAQNOfuujpxX9vLa_x7TigAfsq3Bu6X8VxmtlBXrQET3R6YZSVbLPwKrbCyctXpOjdH7esM0-h2DuJIB9v0M62EKiiIJEay82Z9p42kDRM4NJSUsCyXdRRG03c8ZtgiQGvAKkq/s1600/whatsappfb.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkMsWF7tAQNOfuujpxX9vLa_x7TigAfsq3Bu6X8VxmtlBXrQET3R6YZSVbLPwKrbCyctXpOjdH7esM0-h2DuJIB9v0M62EKiiIJEay82Z9p42kDRM4NJSUsCyXdRRG03c8ZtgiQGvAKkq/s200/whatsappfb.png" width="200" /></a> I use whatsapp beta, so I get the <strike>crap</strike> good stuff first... <br />
<br />
Here in southern Africa many households don't, and have never had,
landlines but cellphone use is part of everyone's life. I surprised myself and most of my friends by buying a cellphone almost as soon as they became available (back in 1998). It was a Siemens handset. Despite the predictions of the so-called experts, MTN, Vodacom and
the rest took off like rockets. In some African countries cellphone saturation is now running at over 80%.<br />
That's amazing, but it's very costly and there are many who argue that the introduction of cellphones compounded the already dire poverty situation in many countries.<br />
Anyway, I thought whatsapp was great until recently. See, I tried out whatsapp as soon as I heard about it circa 2011. At the time we were all using Mxit because we didn't want to pay through the nose using MTN. Of course once we started with Mxit we got hooked on Mxit's little red hearts that flashed and winked and glowed as we sat up chatting late into the dark, and the app's sounds and pix. Mxit was a cool app. But whatsapp had the potential to be cooler and we didn't have to ditch the emoticons either.<br />
As with all of these apps, the takeup at first was slow--you can't chat with your friends until they're using the app as well. At first we android users all had BBM envy; but whatsapp arrived at the right time. (When BBM was finally made available for non-blackberry users it was too late.) .<br />
Then facebook recently bought whatsapp. We feared for the worst; we liked our whatsapp the way it was. Facebook tried to buy snapchat but failed. So whatsapp statuses have become snapchat-like. At the same time, facebook's messenger now wants to take over your standard sms stuff in addition to the already popular facebook messaging. <br />
We are being encouraged to send a facebook message instead of a standard sms instead of sending a standard sms, use whatsapp for snapchatting, and whatsapp for calling: an integrated solution to all our needs, and relatively inexpensive. In fact a boon to end users. But why? Is facebook trying to muscle cellular networks aside?<br />
In a sense, yes. Both facebook and google want the world to have free Wi-Fi so that they can grow the world's biggest consumer base--which will be their own users, i.e., us. It's a smart plan, and working so far. It is obviously a plan for empire-building.<br />
Why should we be worried? (Apart from having no private identities, that is.) Are we under threat?<br />
Not directly no. Not at this moment. It's not average people who are threatened but every traditional status
quo, including governments. Why are
cellular networks so expensive? Because 'esteemed investors' can harvest
money from them. That is under direct threat. For example, MTN's
biggest money harvester in Africa has always been sms messaging. With
the Internet they are now trying to mine it from data; wi-fi is cheaper but few have access to wi-fi as compared to cellular. It's all about money. Cellular networks get it directly. Data uploads as well as downloads, so streaming of media, especially youtube videos, consumes a lot of data. People don't think they're downloading, because it goes
into a temporary file, but they are. Facebook can do it cheaper and at the moment we're tempted to think they're actually on our side.<br />
<br />
swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-69044513137265131872017-02-07T03:34:00.001-08:002017-02-07T03:34:17.424-08:00The Biggest Lie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ-hHnwya0S-Wn6CFbX7awxpNB6lYKNASpbU0NYqTCW8N245NzytB8ZPCzjIcKSIedBEleqYck8nzy1rOD-wO-3iPMZY0fFyBuF2YyjHLCXmRDpL3xpodbr8dP9tThsXAek4KjUteMZjH2/s1600/biggest+lie.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ-hHnwya0S-Wn6CFbX7awxpNB6lYKNASpbU0NYqTCW8N245NzytB8ZPCzjIcKSIedBEleqYck8nzy1rOD-wO-3iPMZY0fFyBuF2YyjHLCXmRDpL3xpodbr8dP9tThsXAek4KjUteMZjH2/s320/biggest+lie.png" width="219" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The spirit of the world is all about getting things, owning things, possessing things, and we have carried this attitude of consumerism into our relationships, into the very heart of our personal lives. We have come to think that people can belong to us, that we can own someone. And, just as with things, we get angry when the people we 'love' fail to minister to our needs or get broken or stolen from us.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You see, the biggest lie--a very common one these days--is when someone says 'I love you<i>'</i>. No doubt millions say these words every day. What they invariably mean is, 'I want you to be mine. I like the look of you and have decided that i want you to be around to make me happy forever.' That is what most people mean when they say 'I love you<i>'. </i>And this is the biggest lie.</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We have come to think that people can belong to us, that we can own someone.</i></blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We collect girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and husbands the way we collect cellphones or washing machines or houses or cars. And when they fail to live up to our expectations we get frustrated and angry. And the desire for possession when angry results in husbands beating their wives, girlfriends killing their boyfriends, and anything that has legs and can move being raped. Rapes, yes, for it's all about possession. Everyone's on the lookout for collecting someone new. </div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the commonest greetings here in Swaziland (and echoed around the world) is '<i>Sisi</i>, I'm proposing love'. That it isn't love becomes immediately apparent when the child, woman, gogo or donkey doesn't immediately consent to the man's request. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And when we get tired of our girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and husbands we trade them in for newer models--<i>makhwapheni</i> style. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet the worst of it is that our 'I love you' collecting habit doesn't make us happy but rather enlarges our fear. You see, the moment we get something new we worry that someone might steal it from us. A friend of mine recently tried an old number he had on his phone, the number of a lady he'd once dated. He dialled the number and a male voice answered. He asked for the lady and received a gruff, 'She's not here'. Then a few moments later that same man with the gruff voice phoned him back, aggressive and loud, with a host of questions as if he was the police officer in charge of a criminal investigation: 'How did you get this number? Who gave you this number? What do want with this woman? Who are you?' and so on. Once a man has said, 'I love you', and you have said, 'I love you too', he is terrified that once you are out of his sight you might be saying 'I love you too' to somebody else.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This isn't love. and it never was. A couple say 'I love you' to each other and then believe that they own each other and deny each other any freedom in a desperate bid to secure the happiness that they themselves so desperately crave. The world's values are sick and the world's love is already as stiff as a carcass. No-one can ever own another person--we call this slavery, not love--and no-one should even try.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The secret to relationships is not possession but freedom. Real love is always wanting the best, the highest good, for someone. That doesn't mean ownership, but the opposite--it means being able to let someone go. If you really love her, then you'll set her free to follow her own path. If she chooses you, that's great; but if she chooses someone else, then that's her choice. The truth is that the highest best for the other person might not include you. If she wants to spend time with you today, then thank God for that, for it's a blessing; but if she doesn't want to be with you tomorrow, then thank God for that too, for she's following her own path.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Are you looking for Mr Right? You will never find him. Mr Right is always Mr Wrong if you're looking for someone to become part of your collection. But if you're able to let someone go, then--even if it hurts for a while--you'll learn to be content and when you say 'I love you', you'll mean it and won't be caught telling the biggest lie.</div>
<br />
[Originally published in the Times of Swaziland SUNDAY, September 24th, 2006.]swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-71060055445383832962017-02-02T23:43:00.000-08:002017-02-02T23:43:51.201-08:00Poor Reader, Poor Thinker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx2UWgvjjoWaMhbvzAJ9I0pF8v7cEsQh2nWgc63yVtdjtKntDcxBAIaTeUisuC2O2jLGPk55zFC8RO002SmOZ9x8OT3Aolcl4sG3aGOPiATJ1LUZbHnAQatf6gTEO9uEvAoOaMTIfY2a4I/s1600/CH+screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx2UWgvjjoWaMhbvzAJ9I0pF8v7cEsQh2nWgc63yVtdjtKntDcxBAIaTeUisuC2O2jLGPk55zFC8RO002SmOZ9x8OT3Aolcl4sG3aGOPiATJ1LUZbHnAQatf6gTEO9uEvAoOaMTIfY2a4I/s200/CH+screenshot.png" width="154" /></a></div>
It's like this: people who don't read can't think well. Consequently they're clumsy in expressing their thoughts, but they can <i>feel</i>. Most often they feel anger and frustration. These are powerful emotions which constantly percolate and burst to the surface in outbursts that are mostly violent eruptions of invective or physical violence.<br />
<br />
Is it surprising that this is so? Not at all. We're first and foremost emotional beings who feel before we think. You know the expression, <i>gut feeling</i>? That happens to be true. We have some neurons in our stomachs (not just in our brains), so when we feel fear, for example, our stomachs register that discomfort before our brains awake to the danger.<br />
<br />
But there's more. When we read a book, our brains don't differentiate between fact and fiction. If the book's hero falls in love, then so do we. If Mr Nasty is really nasty, then we hate him with all our being. Words can help us analyse what we feel--after the event--but words in the first instance trigger emotions.<br />
<br />
You see, we begin learning language whilst still in our mother's womb. Language and thought begin together and need each other. They are locked together in an intricate dance, a woven fabric of being. This is no doubt why meditation on words and sounds is one of the most basic techniques in ancient tantric texts. [<i>Tantra</i> means <u>woven fabric</u>.]<br />
<br />
Apart from being a writer, I'm also a mentor, teacher, and editor. Over the years I've discovered that mostly people are unable to express themselves clearly because they can't think clearly. That's why, when I teach writing, I tell would-be writers that they must write the last sentence of their essay, article, story or book <b>before</b> they begin writing the beginning. My audience often baulks at this, throwing up metaphorical (sometimes actual) hands in despair. But there's logic in language. There's such an intimate connection between beginnings and endings that if you develop the skill you can often predict what will happen in the future. That's not prophecy, just an ability to connect the dots.<br />
<br />
Of course, each different language has its own different logic. English is linear and full of bipolar constructs, but not all languages are. In English we like to begin with a statement of intent, a topic sentence. Thus Americans are often thought to be rude, insensitive, overly direct and blunt. In siSwati (the language of Swaziland) the important statement often comes last. Arabic thought tends to move in a circular, roundabout way, and so on. When you use a language you effectively put on a pair of glasses through which you view the world. The language helps you to see, but it also channels <i>what</i> you see. The Chinese have many words for rice; the Eskimos many words for snow; Swazis have many words for meat; and in older Afrikaans dictionaries the word for 'gentleman' was <i>witman, </i>i.e., white man.<br />
<br />
Martin Luther King in a sermon based on Mathew 10:16 said that we each need a <a href="https://thevalueofsparrows.com/2014/05/04/sermon-a-tough-mind-and-a-tender-heart-by-martin-luther-king-jr/" target="_blank">tough mind and a tender heart</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let us consider, first, the need for a tough mind, characterized by
incisive thinking, realistic appraisal, and decisive judgment. The
tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of
legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. </blockquote>
Quite so. Reading is one the few ways to develop a tough mind. The rage, the anger, the frustration of life can be tempered. Grow also a tender heart. Read, people, read! <br />
swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-87464365280565881352016-09-14T04:02:00.000-07:002016-09-14T04:02:21.962-07:00#ComingHomeBook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwnpKggiQE6dPwwuSDT11QZoTaZeRMUekU34DX7i4sXaTrLpNfbhBnHcqDeyWd2rd0sF_lBs7nOkVQK1YX42BedHubdub3lWX0_AefVcbzDXwXk0t5YeLWOh-3X3wSpeaFQIUbzQxqpT_G/s1600/CH+screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwnpKggiQE6dPwwuSDT11QZoTaZeRMUekU34DX7i4sXaTrLpNfbhBnHcqDeyWd2rd0sF_lBs7nOkVQK1YX42BedHubdub3lWX0_AefVcbzDXwXk0t5YeLWOh-3X3wSpeaFQIUbzQxqpT_G/s320/CH+screenshot.png" width="247" /></a></div>
I'm well into my publishing projects now. Last month I released a new novel, <i>Temangwane</i>, my fifth book, and it's doing well both locally and also is on Amazon. That book was finished in 2003 and revised only slightly. Now I'm getting my 2004 novel, <i>Coming Home</i>, ready for publication.<br />
<br />
<u>Publication</u> means 3 formats these days: a local print copy, an Amazon CreateSpace copy, and an epub/mobi edition.<br />
<br />
Amazon is great, but it doesn't at the moment serve the needs of Africa because packing and postage can easily cost more than the book itself. There's still much to do to kickstart an African reading revival...swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-73117990274155818452016-08-23T03:12:00.000-07:002016-08-23T03:12:30.252-07:00Shakin' The Reed<span style="color: #990000;"><i><b>Wena weluhlanga.</b></i></span> You of the reed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTafGB0FEZi528W__kxxDpteIKcy8uk24jNSeqo2k9uUYUHnO5L7PjzzP4ZcSCZm2V1Cd_dULmA_tp4AkwZZoWpw9VYooaD6yzIug1cL3zqFTbIWZlhx1u2sqfBeS9rHyfBi3VpAEeDfO_/s1600/reed+dancin1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTafGB0FEZi528W__kxxDpteIKcy8uk24jNSeqo2k9uUYUHnO5L7PjzzP4ZcSCZm2V1Cd_dULmA_tp4AkwZZoWpw9VYooaD6yzIug1cL3zqFTbIWZlhx1u2sqfBeS9rHyfBi3VpAEeDfO_/s320/reed+dancin1.png" width="229" /></a></div>
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In 1926 Jelly Roll Morton released a single called <i>Black Bottom Stomp</i> (he had originally called it <i>Queen of Spades</i>).
It was a jazz dance and a hot record of its time, so popular that it
was covered by other early Jazz legends in one form or another. When, a
decade later, jazz had moved into the snazzy windy city clubs the dance
was resurrected under the new title of <i>Shakin' the African</i>. The dance was synonymous with excitement, energy, and vitality.<br />
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I was reminded of these earlier dances by media coverage of this year's <span style="color: #990000;"><i><b>Umhlanga</b></i></span>, the national Reed Dance, an event that many city dwellers now seem to regard as mainly for tourists. I'm sure that isn't so, although the ceremony's origins are so shrouded in the mists of time that there are many who see the annual ritual as an anachronism, an odd, out-of-place happening in this high-tech mobile-phone and computer age.<br />
Yet the event's central metaphor is still striking. In contrast to the Judeo-Christian myth that people were fashioned from clay (cf the potter's wheel, 'dust-to-dust' and 'ashes-to-ashes'), Swazi cosmology has it that the first people were shaped from reeds.<br />
This connection of people with reeds was once engagingly made by a preacher in a service I attended. He gave no impression that he knew of the Swazi creation story, but instead argued that 'reeds' was an accurate description of the unconverted, since reeds are hollow and are easily swayed by the wind. The image was an ideal one for the preacher, allowing him plenty of scope to elaborate on those whose lives are 'empty' and 'wavering', without purpose and direction. Never once during that longish sermon did my attention to it waver.<br />
I have another view of those reeds however. I think if you look at a bed of reeds moving in the wind you can easily imagine them to be dancing, and I think that's an apt image for life itself. The reeds are animated, alive because they have movement. Death, after all, is supremely seen as a stillness. Life can be viewed as a kind of dance: a sometimes noisy, crazy, careering one, but still a dance.<br />
This interpretation, I believe, enriches phrases like <i>wena weluhlanga</i>, and supports the Reed Dance's prominence on the national calendar.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5azBg7rAV1TNP_q5YYLOTyN-ArKVEat6hR2SloKkRGR4v7DEqyn8ORNyNSo2QsEpJWhn6mdg1tLamyE_LopCKrF647Dn_0ic-QwV_CyAixT3sqbRgwVFibzZnWs5M1CXFO-qt5GodyNvf/s1600/shakin+the+reed.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5azBg7rAV1TNP_q5YYLOTyN-ArKVEat6hR2SloKkRGR4v7DEqyn8ORNyNSo2QsEpJWhn6mdg1tLamyE_LopCKrF647Dn_0ic-QwV_CyAixT3sqbRgwVFibzZnWs5M1CXFO-qt5GodyNvf/s320/shakin+the+reed.png" width="320" /></a> It's another instance of discovering the constellations of meaning behind what we say and do. Often familiarity and repetition blur and obscure meanings. For example, many people believe that English names have no meanings, whereas Swazi names do. Everyone knows why an Ntombifuthi is so named, but what about a Kenneth? The truth is that English names do have meanings but they've been forgotten over the course of time and need someone to take the effort to find out what they mean. The same applies to annual events like <i>uMhlanga</i>. It is certainly a colourful event and, yes, it does attract visitors from other countries, but if we allow it--and other events like it--to become merely a vivid event, a spectacle, a showy entertainment for the media age, then everyone will ultimately be the loser. By watching the swaying, jostling, singing girls at the Reed Dance and imagining them as that amazing thing, a bed of living reeds, we can deepen our understanding of ourselves, and perhaps regain something of the wonder of life itself.<br />
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[* an earlier version of this article was previously published in the Times Sunday newspaper*]<br />
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swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-11873397741534362992016-06-26T00:07:00.001-07:002016-06-26T00:08:00.473-07:00The lie of romantic love<p dir="ltr">https://medium.com/@kenrowley/when-the-elephants-fight-the-grass-suffers-the-lie-of-romantic-love-7615cb5b86d4#.<u>54by6uznn</u></p>
swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6231521868458999633.post-36796588563737250662015-12-23T02:33:00.000-08:002017-05-21T00:00:41.652-07:00Sgt Pepper's Alternate Expanded Radio London Club Band<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGmGdqDxb6g_Iud5xY93ilUK8S-MrD3eaRdspjPfCtZEg_n8F6sEaUVt8CfhAM2-q_zptTbPeBWfp_Xx2zMqlQY2-gQI36n2SOGD3C0dHEr1ZLvuUvFeHEKg7-VYUC5i2mm0WgH0N9ZOo4/s1600/SavoyLemonbeats.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGmGdqDxb6g_Iud5xY93ilUK8S-MrD3eaRdspjPfCtZEg_n8F6sEaUVt8CfhAM2-q_zptTbPeBWfp_Xx2zMqlQY2-gQI36n2SOGD3C0dHEr1ZLvuUvFeHEKg7-VYUC5i2mm0WgH0N9ZOo4/s320/SavoyLemonbeats.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">deviantart by SavoyLemon</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }</style>
<br />
<h3 style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">Sgt
Pepper’s Alternate Expanded Radio London Club Band</span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">1.
<b>Alternate</b>: the first two tracks recorded during the Sgt Pepper’s
sessions were <i>Strawberry Fields Forever</i> and <i>Penny Lane </i>but they were selected as a double-A side single and therefore,
following EMI’s principle of not including singles on Beatles
albums, never made it onto the album. George Martin apparently said,
“I wonder what the album would have been if those two corkers had
been included”, so I had the idea to include them. That, naturally,
raised the question of what to replace. The obvious choice for me was Paul’s
‘granny song’, <i>When I'm Sixty-Four</i> which wasn’t written for Pepper (he’d been
playing it since the Cavern days) and George’s misfit song, <i>Within You Without You</i> (which
is clearly not a rock song).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">2.<b>
Expanded</b>: since Beatles albums usually have at least one Harrison
song, I felt I should include the song George actually intended for Pepper,
<i>(It's Only) A Northern Song </i>which was recorded at that time but vetoed by Martin as ‘not up to
standard’. It sounds great on this recreation, in its original place rather than just on the cartoon soundtrack.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">3.<b>
Radio London</b>: in 1967, the ‘pirate’ radio station radio London ( 'Big L') had 16
million listeners and was given an exclusive 8-day preview window of
Sgt Pepper’s. When later that year the British government brought
in legislation to end the pirates, Big L was closed down at 3pm on 14th
August 1967. The last song the station played was Pepper’s <i>A Day
In The Life. </i><span style="font-style: normal;">That historical
moment is</span> recreated here by adding London's original broadcast ending, where it displaces Pepper's original 'nonsense loop'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">This recreation was made using the mono versions (The Beatles' first true stereo album was <i>Abbey Road).</i> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;"><u>Tracklisting</u>:</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">1.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">2.
With A Little Help From My Friends</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">3.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">4.
Getting Better</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">5.
Fixing A Hole</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">6.
She's Leaving Home</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">7.
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">8.
Strawberry Fields Forever</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">9.
(It's Only) A Northern Song</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">10.
Penny Lane</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">11.
Lovely Rita</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">12.
Good Morning Good Morning</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">13.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">14.
A Day In The Life</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">15.
14<sup>th</sup> August 1967 (Big L Closedown)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "freesans" , sans-serif;">Consider
this mix as a fan’s tribute. </span></div>
swazifictionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08645242652571536985noreply@blogger.com0