On Friday I took a little trip to Durban China City. I’m not sure when it was but I know that the SA government granted Chinese the same rights as blacks in South African. Something about Affirmative Action rights are equal amongst blacks and chinese. Someone must have paid someone for this law and no forward thinking skills were applied. This place is huge and it’s one of many so Im told. The chinese are supplying the 50 millions South African’s with everything from blankets to screws.
This sign made me smile as I browsed through and spent time exploring, still my favorite pastime.
"Once we cash (catch) you stilling (stealing) we can charge you ten times a price for one item Thank you!!"
Last June a great friend and I went to see Losing it a play performed by Ruby Wax about Ruby Wax. Both of us were pretty blown away by the honesty and complexity she is able to portray in being human. Although the play is centered on Ruby Wax’s own mental health journey it touches on so many very complex behaviours and seemed, at the least the night we watched to bring out allot of emotion in people in the audience.
I was delighted to hear that she is in Cape Town performing Lost it (as it’s now called). It makes me so happy when I see projects like this Thrive and even more happy that after London came Cape Town.
“what makes this show so funny is the fact that it’s so true. We as humans have evolved into an incredibly complex species and now live in a world we barely understand. And because we don’t have an instruction book telling us who and how we’re supposed to be, all we can do is go out and give it our best shot”
“There were many times when she said something so profound that the audience didn’t know whether to laugh, clap, or sit in silence. It was in those times that I could sense a deeper message coming through. Her breakdown became our breakthrough”.
Over the easter weekend we spent 5 days in the Drakensberg. I can’t remember when last I was in the berg but it took me about a second to feel so alive and comfortable in the mountains. The music festival Splashy Fen was happening and to our surprise it was less 45 minutes walk away. Such a special time with friends, amazing food, walks and swims in the rock pools. I’d forgotten how connected to nature we are living here, life in Africa is agreeing with me!!
Thriving colourful plants spring up all over the place, this was taken on our walk to Slashy
A friendly grashopper
Our surroundings, mountains and mountains, no people, no houses that we could see.
Tom Burick took a long time to realise that he had fought hard for his survivalJourney from Silence is his way of giving back and feeling like he’s making a difference.
Inspired by Rosa Parks, “her courage in the face of insurmountable adversity inspired me and I started thinking that maybe I could make a difference”. “What if I could help them understand that they are not alone”?
He realised he could not do anything alone and contacted 3 organisations.
1) Stop it Now!) works towards the prevention of child sexual abuse
3) Horry County Rape Crisis Centre in Myrtle Beach, SC. In addition to sexual assault they work with victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Tom is riding his 50cc Honda scooter 10,000 miles across three countries to raise funds and awareness for this epidemic issue. All three organizations use the symbol of a heart in their logo. Consequently, he mapped out a route on Google in the shape of a gigantic 10,000 mile long heart spanning the United States, Mexico, and Canada. (image below)
His goal is to raise a total of $20,000.
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” — Albert Einstein
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2010, two friends ambitiously set out to capture footage from every country in the world, all filmed on a single day. To do this, they partnered with over 95 UN country offices—as well as several nonprofits—to distribute video cameras around the globe.
On October 10, 2010, people turned on their camera phones, set up their tripods and filmed the world as it passed before their eyes. The result was some 3,000 hours of footage, filmed by over 19,000 filmmakers.
After years of hard work (and a whole lot of editing!), One Day on Earth is finally done. The feature-length movie includes clips from every country in the world, including clips of environmental devastation, scenes of a Mongolian woman giving birth, and dozens of smaller moments, from a violinist practicing to skydivers falling through the air. It’s inspiring, upsetting, and illuminating.
I’m reminded of Life in a Day just a little sad, and surprised to see that the global screening does not include any in South Africa. (Mauritius even features but SA no?)
Project Unbreakable was founded by Grace Brown after a friend confided in her that she had been sexually abused. Grace decided to help heal victims of sexual abuse by taking photographs of them holding posters with quotes from their attackers.
Months ago while I was travelling in the US interviewing for my documentary Surviving or Thriving a friend from Australia sent me the link to her site. I was blown away by the simplicity and how powerful this medium can be. Yesterday, now in Durban South Africa, I am reading the Fair Lady and there is a 2 page spread on Grace’s project. To me it’s these little messages that keep me on track.
I decided to submit a quote from my own experience………..
All the charges against former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky have helped bring the issue of sexual abuse to light in the last year. By far the most common theme in my own research has been the need to speak out, to be heard and bring our secrets out in the open.
Californian Simon Weinberg and his wife, Kathy Barbini, have produced the documentary Boys and Men Healing and believe the allegations against Sandusky have only begun to change the landscape of discussion about childhood sexual abuse. Every week Weinberg and Barbini receive emails from men all over the world.
“It’s bringing up a dialogue about something that’s been hidden for a long, long time. At every single screening there are at least 1 to 10 people who stand up and disclose for the first time about their abuse.”
People who seek out help are not as likely to act out and harm others, Gadsden said.
It is estimated that 1 in every 3 girls and 1 in every 6 boys are sexually abused by the age of 18.
National US studies have revealed that at a given time, approximately 35% of kids less than 18 years of age had been molested.
4 out of 5 cases of childhood sexual abuse are committed by someone that the child knows.
30-40% of children are abused by family members.
Sexual abuse cuts across all boundaries: race, religion, gender, and all cultural, educational and socioeconomic levels.
Most child victims never report the abuse.
I’m often asked if there are any theme’s that have arisen out of the interviews I’m doing for the documentary. There are many, but the one that stands out and shouts the loudest is TO SPEAK, the importance of telling someone, sharing our thoughts, being heard, feeling accepted, these are feelings that come with speaking out. No question the start to healing is in speaking.
In my early working life at a large company, I learned all about water cooler politics. It wasn't a happy lesson, to be honest. It never occurred to me that so many people with so much talent and education could spend such a big part of their life, being diminished on a daily basis. Yak, yak, yak. Complain, complain, complain. Sure, they had all the excuses in the world, some more valid than others. But it never quite added up for me. So I left.
I was delighted to hear that she is in Cape Town performing 
