Doing what comes naturally!

Here's to my brothers and sisters who are out there doing what they do to make this situation for those who can't do it for themselves. Much respect indeed.
I watched a show by Blaqpearl last night and afterward I had a chat with this 'sista'. She was at times really deep and one would think that her lyrics are too sorrowy at times but she was sincere, to say the least.

After her show, which was supported by a phenomenal backing band, who might I add are too damn duidelik!! I got to exchange a couple of words with the saxophonist of the band, and he was as very calm, collected and plain down to earth. Sista Blaqpearl and I briefly stopped to chat, and she gave me a bit of insight as to how she spends her days. This lady dedicates her time to firstly enriching the lives of the misguided youth in her community. She has a degree in Psychology so from that I derive that she has a good grounding in the proses of productive communication. Which is a perfect tool to encourage others and aides her in dealing with volatile cases such as youth who find themselves in a jail sell. The lives of the youngsters around her who fell victim to the most notorious danger in the neighbourhood, "ignorance" is the force behind what motivates her to teach these kids about the alternatives.

Of course like any other person out there, she too received guidance and had a role model that she dearly loved and honorably respected. Her late brother Mario van Rooy (MR Devious), peace be upon him was her inspiration. This young man was retracted from the physical realm in which we operate about three years ago, and since then Blaqpearl and her family have been dealing with their loss whilst trying to stay positive amongst the mediocrity that surrounds them daily.

Coming back to the sista who dedicates her time to the people, it inspired me even more when she told me that she goes into studio atleast three days a week to record her forthcoming album. All in the name of spreading the positive word and the will to be more than just another statistic. It is these things that end of the day, decides what we'll become. Especially in our country today where your life is in your hands and if you don't take controle of it, then either a guardien angel like Blaqpearl will, or you're doomed.

Save Our Society! How?

Since our country's transition to a democratic state the mindset regarding the improvement of quality of life for the population was approached very poorly. This can be contested of course by the many non-white South Africans who since then, had the luxury to enter into any area without being harrased by the military or police. Since then there was no restraint from private schools, now referred to as Model C's, to restrict none white students from enrolling. A lot of changes were noticed by the general population of S.A, but it was those underlying matters which were not affectively dealt with that today have caused detrimental social degeneration.

Our country is today known as a place ridden of crime, mainly related to drugs, rape, robbery and murder. Our correctional service has become a place perceived to be limited only to those who are sick enough to cause such hanniase offenses. Civil citizens have little knowledge as to why the current economic situation regarding high inflation rates, hiked fuel prices and exacerbated property costs have all been a testament to the deficiency of our country's current social and economic status. One could look to Zimbabwe to comfort ourselves and breath a sigh of relieve in knowing that "atleast we have food in our supermarkets...", but we can't just brush our sickness off like that.

Our society is in need of a new system, a new way of thinking, feeling, believing, understanding whatever it is that we are dealing with. It is our responsibilty to make a difference by communicating differently. This also pertains to how our legal services, jails or rehabillitation centres are managed and used as tools in aide of reconstructing the disjointed shape of society.

This is a problem and can only get worse. Where to start...

What is your vice or virtue?

What motivates us to pursue greatness, and relentlessly optimise on the circumstances which sometimes would give any ordinary person a good reason to give up?

It's a very personal question, but what is your motivation? Is it the city scape, the mountain, the bus, train, taxi or car ride into the city or country side. The long walk you used to take as a child, and still had to do it with broken or even no shoes? The words your mom, dad, brother or sister use to say to you the morning before leaving home for school?

Is it the genes your loins were constructed from, or is it the first contact with society that made you what you are today? Is it the higher grade you puffed on, the carbon-monoxide vapours you inhale daily or the the second-hand smoke? The beer, whiskey, wine, fruit/veggie juice, the carbonated drinks or the water? Is it the meat and fish?

What decides where we'll end-up and whether we'll make a success of this chance we have here?

If we know this, we'll know what our strongest vice or virtue is. Do you know what yours is? I'm very curios to know what your feeling on this is, write me a comment if you pleas?

Music for your mind, your body and your soul.

Who would believe that the soulful sister that sang "Tonight is the night" started her professional singing career at age 15 in the late 60's. Who later went on to influence the genres of RñB, Hip Hop and Soul.

Betty Wright, in '68 released her first album, and accomplished making a number one hit with the track, "My first time around". Three years later she made an even bigger contribution to the U.S music industry with her second album which was released under her own record label, MS B Records. Her musical genius influenced the likes of Mary J. Blige's "Real love", SWV's "I'm so into you" and the hot hit off Beyonce's latest album,
"Upgrade U" which was sampled from one of Betty's first recorded tracks, "Girls can't do what the guys do".

This clearly shows how much soul this sister had and started feeling it at such a tender age, that aint right but if you hot, you hot. No wonder the term chicken murderer is so commonly dear to us. My personal favourite is her track titled "Clean up woman", in which she schools ladies on what another woman will do with the good man they dumped. The lyrics goes something like this:
"A Clean up woman is a woman who gets all the love we girls leave behind. The reason I know so much about her is because she picked up a man of mine. Shoe, that's hot and sticky idn't it?

She really peri-peried-up the topic of love and relationships. This gives y'all women out there a lot of credit because it shows how open minded y'all are about this love and heartbreak stuff. Relationships are tough and sometime seems like a waist of time but eish... I know for a fact that I can't resist getting my head twisted over some woman that I can't stop thinking about. I guess the soul doesn't ask a lot of questions when the opportunity arises for a love at first sight encounter between to people. But one thing is for sho, I will definitely listen more to Y'all women in the future, especially to my homegirl Betty.

Information sampled from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Wright
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk

Where I'm coming from.

My schooling was conducted with minimal facilities.
The primary school I attended, Astra Primere (afrikaans for primary) was a typical "coloured"
school where everything was taught in afrikaans and the history...well let's just
say that "Die Groot Trek" was the highlight of my history lessons.
I was always a fan of maths, due to the genes and the diet my family nourished me with.

It was however the wishes of my father that we learn Afrikaans as our first language.
It was a contentious topic betwen mom and dad which my dad clearly dominated.
I guess it's safe to also say that at the time it seemed like a good idea.
We were surrounded by a majority of Afrikaans speaking people in our commuinty.

I have no regrets about this though, I'm still proud of what my parents have accomplished,
and how they've managed to nurture us as individuals with no limits to language or culture.
I'm the youngest of seven and am and have always been in a very comfortable
position in terms of my exposure to the world.

My cultural heritage was however enriched with westernised classifications of
society and my parents made it a priority to promote schooling to us by equating
intelligence with the benefits of healthy food.

My contact with my peers; friends and relatives and my elders; aunts, uncles
and the elder friends of my parents was where the bulk of my societal knowledge
originated. I was the youngest and always accompanied my parents to visits to
their friends and relatives' houses. This is where I would either have tea with the
elders or play in the backyard with the other kids. I still vividly recall all the games
and mischief we got upto. The good old days.

I'm now ultimately, a product of the style and quality of interaction I had with all
of those people who essentially created the multi-coloured world I now live in.
It is from my family and friends that I come. Now I'm going places I never knew
were accessible or even obtainable by me. Due to the friends and relatives that I've
had the pleasure to mingle with, I can now gaze upon how limitless my options are,
and how much more I still have to learn about those I met as a child.

Say it, How you wanna say it.

Who said that "we are free, to be free."? Oh yes, it's Nelson Mandela in an excerpt from a song by one of my favourite composers, Nitin Sawhney. This particular song titled "Breathing Light" is from his 2001 album, "Prophesy".
He introduces the song with the voice of a reporter covering the war in Bosnia in '92 when heavy conflict broke out regarding the independence of the state under governance by the late Izetbegović. At the time when Muslim nationalist, president Izetbegović and his Islamic following including Bosniaks and Croats were exchanging heavy military strikes with the opposing Serbian citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The diversely controversial and cultural richness of our world's history is expressed very elloquently within this album. Conflict, tragedy, dreams; we as humans have been subjected to, things that we've imposed on others throughout time can all be felt with this album. Every dollop of music Nitin composes is filled with rich electronic and organic sounds and are seamlessly woven together to express his view of the "prophesy"; the controversial past and the ethereal present.

The remarkable thing about this album is that it allows you to travel through time.

From the '63 when Martin Luther King, the main leader of the American civil rights movement made his "I have a dream" speach, to the emancipation of African Australian tradition and culture. Each song amazingly performed by amazing individuals, one truly gets a good idea of the title as it uncovers. A "Street guru" from Chicago talks about the diversity of this city, yet stresses the idiosyncrasy thereof. He believes that the hunger of peoples need for "productivity and efficiency", will be the demise of technology".

Nitin really uses his freedom of expression and manages to make Prophesy a very palatable musical masterpiece.
After all, it is in How well we express something that we end up with the best result. To fine tune something in order for others to understand and ultimately adopt it.

There in lies the objective to this post; How we express something is what determines the outcome. This can be proven in how advertising is done. The way a marketeer would sell a product to a consumer is determined by the research done to get insights into the socioeconomic status of the consumer. Once the marketeer obtains this information, it is then disseminated to the advertising agency who uses it to create a comprehensible piece of communication targetted at the consumer.

A very important lesson can be derived from this, particularly for our statesmen and political leaders. They do however hold the well-being of our land in their hands. It is though the responsibility of us as individuals to be active and use our freedom of expression to make our world a better place, by telling our statesmen how they can make our environment more livable for all.

Let's say it how we want it to be to said.