Kismet: A predetermined or unavoidable destiny (wiktionary definition).
The hand of fate can take unexpected turns. The last time I travelled to Bloemfontein Geisha, my white alsation, took a leap out of the vehicle at 120 kilometres per hour, just outside of Aberdeen and if you wish, you can read the whole story here. So on the way to Bloemfontein for a wedding I approached Aberdeen with some trepidation, my wife however saw only relief and so it was that we visited Aberdeen again. I remembered years ago the town had a hotel but unfortunately this was now a pile of rubble. The one service station in town is not recommended for a relief stop so when I spotted a coffee shop in the main street with a parking available right in front it seemed that fate had smiled upon us. My wife could barely wait for me to open the car door for her (yes, some men do still do this, although it may seem old fashioned) before disappearing inside. I took a table outside and to my consternation a small dog, nothing more than skin, bone and fleas trotted past.
As a animal lover I can’t abide animal suffering. I will watch thousands die on screen with disinterest but will reduced to tears if a horse or dog suffers the slightest injury. We already have three SPCA rejects in our household and I after several calls from the SPCA I have made it clear, to them and to my wife, NO MORE!
On Alta’s (my wife) return, I mentioned the dog thinking it had disappeared not to return, heedless of destiny. As she stood on the sidewalk to take a picture, the little discard came trotting back. She eventually coaxed him into her arms and with trembling lower lip asked if we can take it with us.
I am no match for the trembling lower lip. I can deny my wife the credit card, the new car and on occasion even can ignore her sulking but when it comes to suffering animals combined with a trembling lower lip, I wilt, I succumb, I am a wimp.
Leaving our details at the coffee shop in case the dog had been lost and had an owner somewhere. We departed Aberdeen with our new cargo safely ensconced in the back. Alta turned to me and asked; “so what are we going to call her?” It has been custom in our household for me to name our new additions. I told her I would think about it but almost immediately it came to me.
“Kismet” I said.

With no small effort Kismet has been nursed to health in only a week. We have arrived home and introduced her tiny little frame to the three big beasts at home only to find her readily taking to play with them.

She is a four month old greyhound puppy and the most lovable puppy I have encountered. She purrs like a cat when stroked and demands to be in your arms every moment she can.

Thank you Destiny, for bringing this little bundle of joy to me. I will do my best to ensure she never has to endure abandonment or hunger ever again in her little life.

I’ve been tagged by absolutwillie (again)
and the rules are:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) What was I doing 10 yrs ago?

Ten years ago, strangely enough, almost to the day, I made the career changing choice to become a corporate refugee. Packed by bags, quit my post as brand manager and moved from JHB to George.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

1. Give car in for service
2. Take other computer in (crashed)
3. Blog
4. Write speech for my best mate’s wedding
5. Update poker group on Facebook

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Anything chocolate, Biltong, dried fruit.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Buy an boat
2. Sail into the blue yonder never to be heard from again

5) Five of my bad habits:

1. Procrastination
2. Temper
3. Over analysing
4. Alcohol
5. No fitness regime

6) 5 places I have lived:

1. Pretoria
2.Cape Town
3. Bloemfontein
4. Amsterdam
5. London

7) 5 jobs I have had:

1. Motivational Speaker
2. Brand Manager for a medical company
3. Estate Agency Principal
4. Pizza Chef
5. Supermarket Owner

5 peeps I want to know more about:

1. Dave Duarte
2. Max Kaizen
3. Beverley  or Feisty Female
4. Charl Van Niekerk
5. Rafiq

I watched the documentary South Africa, Murder Most Foul, by John Blair and presented by Sir Antony Sher, on television this week. A bit late I know but still. It is a shocking tale even for South Africans who are inured to crime. I found myself going through the knee jerk reaction almost automatically “Aw come on” I vented at the television, “it is not that bad” But the truth is, it is. The longer the documentary went on the more I related and the statistics are shocking. It is no wonder the powers that be would like our statistics to be lost in bureaucracy. Over nineteen thousand murders per annum.
That excludes violent crimes like rape, assaults, hi-jackings and non violent crimes but violating crimes such as housebreaking, robbery and drugs.
Can you live with that number?
John Blaire in an interview with Carte Blanche stated that he had received widespread criticism for portraying this violent aspect of South Africa. I can relate to his critics. This is not how I want to see my country portrayed to the rest of the world. In the tourism industry this hard look at post apartheid South Africa post does not bode well for our future overseas visitor numbers. It does not bode well for me, my family and my friends.
The truth though is, he is right.
We hear our ministers say crime levels are unacceptable, we hear our Safety and security minister claiming that we are whinging but if we don’t like it we can leave. Neither stance is solving the problem. I am one of those whinging; I am one of those claiming that the crime rate is unacceptable. In reality we are all in denial. We have become inured. A four year old raped and murdered no longer shocks and enrages us, instead we seem to hang on in quiet desperation. A murmur and on with our lives we go.
We need to get angry, we need to be enraged. We need to hold our government officials responsible.
No!
That’s not right either. I need to be enraged, I need to get angry, I need to hold my local ministers responsible.

Ron Paul, at last a candidate for the American presidency that espouses what government should be, by the people for the people, not the other way round
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg

Blogged with Flock

My domestic has recently been diagnosed as HIV positive. Really surprising was her reaction and I quote “I feel fine and I don’t really understand this thing.” I know she received comprehensive counselling as my neighbour sat in on the counselling session and was full of praise for the way it was handled. The counselling had covered every aspect I asked the neighbour about, including diet, ongoing blood tests and the possibilities of treatment with ART’s.

In the late eighties, early nineties, I worked for a company called Wellcome when they released AZT which was one of the first antiretroviral drugs available and which is still used in combination with other drugs to this day. So I regard myself as reasonably informed when it comes to HIV and Aids.
With so much information and education can one really still claim not to understand “this thing” I was obviously concerned for her and for her child of six (status as yet unknown) Was she in denial? I am not sure.

The next few days I realised something was definitely bothering me. Not the risk of infection or anything like that (I am informed enough to know this is highly unlikely) but this was the third person that my wife and I knew personally, that had contracted and/or died of this disease. I remember reading a prediction in 2002 that claimed that
in the next ten years, someone you know will die of AIDS. I remember thinking at the time that this was the usual magazine hype. I started having real difficulty sleeping (I normally have difficulty sleeping but this was worse). Perplexed I did some serious introspection to tryand solve this discombobulated feeling and there it was.

Just a whiff,not overwhelming but lurking under the surface……. FEAR. This event had
brought mortality to come a calling and I had to face the fact that despite years of self delusion… I was going to die. The fact is we alldie, you don’t need to contract AIDS or be attacked by a Great White, you just have to live and at some point, ready or not, you will die. Ithink we create the delusion of immortality so that we can function normally. Death is something that happens to us tomorrow and we all know tomorrow never comes. Well it was true for me anyway; I was immortal till last week. I lived with no fear as many who know me well, will attest.

Before the image in the mirror was that of a young man who was going to live forever, now I see the greying, balding, middle agedman whose time was running out.

It scares me.

Like the Normans in theAsterix story I had discovered the meaning of fear.

It is not a pleasant feeling.

Blogged with Flock

I am vexed, truly vexed by some of the negative publicity that online communities are getting in the press. I can not argue that the world has more than it’s fair share of deviant personalities with questionable intent. Nor can I argue that they are present on the net in unseemly numbers and that they can and do present a danger to the unsuspecting.

To warn us of these dangers a TV documentary I watched recently used the following three examples.
A twelve year girl old who was approached in a forum by a paedophile adult
A woman on a dating site who was mislead by a married man and who believing she had found true love gave thousands of dollars to this conniver.
A man who got caught in the classic Nigerian scam of paying money to a third party before the cheque cleared. The cheque did not clear and he was out of pocket.

The above examples only demonstrated to me that one should clearly apply the same cautions on the internet as one would in any other situation. The internet and its supposed anonymity is no safer nor more dangerous than the rest of the world. It is merely an extension of it. These examples, to me, demonstrated the gullibility and stupidity of the average Homo Sapien, rather than the internet’s inherent dangers.

The lack of care taken by parents and individuals on the internet is really the cause for concern.

Recently I stumbled upon a forum which had posted a fairly intimate sex survey. The respondents, although replying under the anonymity of an assumed name, all had biographies on the site. Of concern to me was that I could view the biographies even though I was not a member, I could view all their posted photographs, several of which included family and friends and the sheer amount of personal information posted in the biographies that I could view.

In chatrooms, giving out your telephone number does not strike me as a great idea yet I have seen several very young teens do exactly that

Your anonymity on the net is only as good as your protection of that anonymity..

To misquote Cassius in Shakespeare’s Julius Ceaser
“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves….”

The responsibility to protect ourselves lies with ourselves. We can no more blame the internet for our gullibility and stupidity than we can blame the Bible for the Spanish Inquisition. What concerns me more is the hype around these issues which is slowly building to hysteria which can eventually lead to the introduction of laws which would effectively end our internet freedoms.

Blogged with Flock

Given the anonymity of the web, I would expect individuals to shrug of the oppression of their social conditioning and give free reign to their wildest identity fantasies. You can be the person you always wanted to be, express yourself in ways you never dreamed would be possible.
Yet does this happen ?
Without doubt in the chat rooms we have all at some point misrepresented ourselves or logged in under two identities. For awhile I was lost in the mysteries of the iniquitous chat room and although people often misrepresented themselves for a lark it was seldom sustained. More often it was to get rid of an aggressive sex seeker or to have fun at some newby’s expense. Often it was possible to recognise people purely by their writing style even though they changed monikers regularly.

In true style we have arrived at the point of today’s blog by means of a semi circuitous route.

Sitting in the beer tent at the George Sevens rugby tournament this weekend I entered into another of my drunken debates this time with my friend and colleague Jayx.

The point of the debate ?

How far do we stray from our nature and personality when on the
net ?

I have on several occasions met people whom I previously have had only internet contact with. On each occasion my preconceived idea on what they would look like was off the mark, however their personality seemed in keeping with what was portrayed via the internet. This seemed to be true even when I got to know the person quite well.I also analysed myself, Stii and Jayx, in terms of our net activities and how we perceived each other in life. I reached the following conclusions which I think Stii and Jayx agree on….

Stii seemed a little more frivolous and outgoing online than in life.

Jayx showed no discernable change, he is as crazy online as in life.

I on the other hand seemed to be quite staid online as opposed my normal sarcastic, cynical self.

Overall though we showed very little difference between our online personae and our real identities even though we operated under pseudonyms and were completely anonymous.

Although I recognise that the above does not constitute research into the matter it raises an interesting question for me.

How ingrained are we ?

Blogged with Flock

Recently the waving of the old South African flag made a minor media tsunami. It was labelled as a shame and embarrassment to our Springboks. I agree that the waving of the old flag is an embarrassment and shows a non acceptance of the new regime. Things have changed in South Africa and it seems there is a sprinkling of people who are using the old flag as a demonstration of the fact that they liked the old system better. I must admit to me it shows a narrow minded individual who is at best living in the past and at worst just plain ignorant.



However this weekend at the IRB sevens tournament in George I came across another phenomenon. Large contingents of people of colour supporting the All Blacks. This exceeded just waving the flag, several were dressed in New Zealand colours and the odd few even performed the Haka flawlessly.



I can understand in the days of apartheid that people of colour in South Africa would not support the Springboks. They were a symbol of a regime that was despised and if they had a love of rugby then New Zealand as a team filled with people of colour and playing a physical running game, with a nickname like All Blacks to boot, was a natural choice.



But time has moved on and today the Springbok is the symbol of a new South Africa. A symbol of a transformation that astounded the world and created new respect for South Africa all over the world. Is waving the All Black flag in  support  New Zealand then not also a sign that these individuals have not quite accepted the new regime ?



Are we not South Africans first and Rugby supporters second ?



Is there a difference between the individual Flying the old SA flag and the individual waving a New Zealand flag ?

Is there any any reason why the one incident sparks international media interest and the other is quietly ignored ?



Just thought I would ask.

Blogged with Flock

Cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am - Descartes

In trying to come to grips with the phenomenon of social group platforms on the Internet, I joined Stumble (purely for research of course) Initially I dedicated very little time towards it as I had a huge deadlines looming and loads of people to train on the Go Active tourism portals. As a result by the time I started Stumbling my two colleagues Stii and Jayx had several friends and I had none. I was quite surprised by how rejected I felt. Was I not interesting enough ? Was my colour scheme lame ? Why does nobody review me ?

This unexpected response immediately made me ponder human nature and its implications when combined with social network groups.

Has city life impacted on us to the point where we are lonely and social interaction is lacking ? Perhaps we have come to a turning point in Human interaction where electronic communication will supplant face to face interaction. I see young people using SMS in preference to talking to one another and already have friends who have had relationships terminated by sms. This saddened me greatly.

Once again in a roundabout way I approach the main point of this block.

The statement I think therefore I am.

Most marketers, sales trainers and teachers would agree that recognition is the single most important motivator. People crave recognition or put it another way, acknowledgment.
Would we exist if we were not acknowledged ? Along the same reasoning of the Zen Koan “If a tree falls down in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Are we afraid that without our existence being acknowledged we do, in fact, not exist. Perhaps the argument can actually be extended as far as the quantum experiment of Shrodingers cat by posing the question “Do we exist unless our existence is observed.” Is their more than a little truth to the statement

I am, not because I think, but because I am acknowledged.

Blogged with Flock

Coming to terms with oneself is in a way a function of aging. At some point I have had to acknowledge that I do not always like and often don’t understand facets of my being, expressed I suppose for want of a better word in terms of personality. My Id so to speak. Often facing the darker elements of my personality has been uncomfortable and difficult.

Understanding the Human psyche and the response triggers is roughly what I do for a living(Marketing with special interest in Viral and Networking) and as a firm believer in the “Physician heal thyself ” tradition, I have spent an unhealthy amount of time coming to grips with my Id.

What is enormously difficult is separating that which is me and what is social conditioning. At first this seemed a fairly simple exercise. I am and always have been fairly contrary and combined with an inquisitive nature it seemed that authority and I would always agree to disagree. They would agree and I would disagree. So I believed, erroneously naturally, that I was not a product of my environment.

In time comes wisdom and to quote Socrates “the only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing” I have come to realize that not only is my social conditioning a very real part of who I am, it is even more alarmingly an ongoing process. We are bombarded with images and messages telling us how to think and what to buy. Even more disturbing I suppose is that I am part of the marketing machine doing exactly that.

“Come to the Dark side Luke.”

As Darth Vader succinctly put it.

Seperating what is really me from my social conditioning is proving to be a very interesting exercise.

In a roundabout way I suppose I have finally come to the point of this particular Bloggy, which in part was started as a drunken debate between myself and Stii over cigars and Chardonay on a recent business trip to Cape Town.

The point being ….

Living with and coming to terms with the deeds done when expressing our dark side.

I have however taken some solace from the Eastern Philosophers and a Quantum Physicist. Strange combination I know but allow me to explain.

Niels Bohr the Quantum Physicist, when knighted, chose for his crest the Yin yang symbol with the Latin motto “Contraria Sunt Complementa” which translates as “opposites are complimentary”. The T’ai Chi or yin yang symbol which in eastern philosophy represents the notion of a Dynamic Duality(male/female, dark/light, negative/positive). They reason that one can not exist without the other. Therefore ……

I am me, only because of my duality.

Blogged with Flock