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Entering Cape Town after a 20 hour drive from Joburg via Durban was worth it, this was after I had unceremoniously left the city more a then decade ago. It could easily have been some where in western Europe, great tourist mecca. Air was fresh with ocean breeze and streets clean dominated by modern architecture. Well fish and chips was order of the day unlike Durbs with its extra hot bunny chows, food is really the quickest way to get to the heart of a culture. On my first night I went skinny dipping, amazing!. Sleep was as remote as the townships from the hustle and bustle of of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. My dreadlocked girlfriend then took me to Simonstown passed the naval base for another swim the next day, felt like I was floating somewhere in the dead sea, another codec moment. She did a live hip-hop performance at a curior shop in bussy long street. Visited friends and family and braai ( chiesa nyama) went to Mzolies in Guguleto township filled with foreign and local tourists alike and more braai, also helped friend to promote clothing label ISTAYELA. One last dip in cold Atlantic for the road at Campsbay, shark scare had everybody on shore, fortunately it was only a dolphin. Rejuvenated and filled with optimism we hadded for the City Of Cold ( Johannesburg), hopefully we can make it under 12 hours.

Road accidents continued its fatality well into the new year, the figure rising into the thousand. I did not have time for blood donation. 2012 is year of the Dragon according to chinese calendar so it will be an even better year for me. Peace and love.

It has been 7 months filled with highs and lows and new memory’s. Back to the land of the living. Some things never change in our connected journey through life. For the religiously inclined; have a happy and blessed Christmas and for the rest, I hope you have a cracker of a time during the Festive Season and lots of positive energy for the New Year.

Someone once told me what goes around comes around, I am still trying to LIVE that one out. I hope you’ll enjoyed reading my writing and experiences. I managed to get some time-out and head for the coast, back-packer-style. Apparently the sea is so friendly it waves all the time. The mystical pool of life were all could have originated from and for some strange reason we are drawn to it in huge numbers every year to holiday.

See you all in 2012 with new resolutions.

Later.

If love is likened to summer then surely the four seasons combined must be overflowing with passion, infighting, marriage and even death?. How can any great love be secure from disaster?. Love seems to eternally find sanctuary in lust and despair, like death frolicking in the shadow of life.

How can one escape this uncontrollable emotion? filled with promises of eternal bliss and childlike gayety free from disaster. Countless poets and lovers have fallen victim to her spell. Love burns like a raging fire swooning the soul. Lonely heart,did your mother not warn you about her, she takes your youth in a whirlwind of lovers delight. Is there a great love typical of a Hollywood ending. The love of Aphrodite for Adonis and Romeo for Juliet proves me otherwise.

It is though the perfect love we desire is nothing but a fleeting moment and so potent that it can not even survive fiction. How can love that is pure and innocent be so tragic like that of Othello. In partnership it seems more for the sake of convenience and their finds its joy. How romantic for Psyche to drink from the cup of immortality so she may never depart from Cupids hip.

The power of love, grab it a gift from the gods and ravel in her beauty and hope the moment may last forever.

We often make the mistake of going through life with preconceived ideas and fallacy without ever questioning what our parents, teachers and society conditioned us with. Yet in the same circular and physical reality, we religiously cheer for our favourite sports team, many professing to be a die-hard Springbokke, Chicago Bull or Red Devil ( Manchester United ) all different totem symbols.

Yet we can not entertain the idea of consciously standing like a wolf in the spirit and feeling your form like on ” TWIGLIGHT” or “MORTAL KOMBAT” even if it is not voluntarily. Afterall we do not only genetically bear a uncanning resembles to animals ( animal testing products for humans), who have even regarded as potential donors, even though we regard them as lesser beings. Fear, hate, stress and mating are just some of the traits that we share. Polytheistic religions do not regard Darwin’s theory of evolution as relevant and the missing link were higher intelligent life forms could have manipulated our genes to speed up our evolution. Yet it is self-evident that we are still evolving and that we have not even reached a our full psychic and mental potential. Who could have imagined less than twenty years ago plasma and microchip technology being used on a daily basis in most households.

At least consider the existence of the spirit or energy that races back to the infinite pool of creation in colours of white, blue, red and yellow like electric impulses through the body to the brain in node conduction when your time your comes or even when the body is asleep at night. My belief is that the concept of a Humanbeing should be broadened to more than bone, flesh and spirit and that race, prejudice and poverty are distractions designed to keep us from what we really are . I was partly motivated to write this by what former US president Eisenhower’s great grand-daughter said at the UFO conference held in Johannesburg.

Artwork: by Alex Grey

Ever had the privilege and bliss of crossing the conscious threshold and seeing yourself and others literally standing naked in the universe, in your true form just like Adam had in the book of Genesis and even feel a little scared and anxious for tasting from that tree of knowledge and wisdom.

I most probably did Mazlow’s hierarchy from top to bottom and just like many, achieved a higher level of conscious awakening /awareness by default and without psychoactive drugs, but I did not discard the experiences and hightend senses as an illusion or nonsense and succumb to the pressures of everyday life. I admire the nobles and merchants of renaissance Florence who used to set time aside and retreat to an isolated place for reflection, just like the more the zealous yogis of ancient India.

My premises and experiences were not tested by any scientific methodology and will probably fall victim to philosophy and fallacy by the more relative minded. Subliminal effects and social engineering are as difficult to get away from as it is to quite the mind “psalm 46:10, Be still and know that I am Lord”.It is a command or suggestion to mediate more than pray and connect with the higher self and ask who am I?, what am I? and maybe even where I really come from?.

Many times I ask my friends what they think they are and I receive a perplexed “Humanbeing” yet often they can not even distinguish the left hemisphere from the right. That is how well they know themselves. Maybe I should have rephrased the question by asking what they think they consist of. Check out WHY LOVE BLIND “Goat or kid head”.

Artwork: by Alex Grey

Well I think it was inevitable that economic power house China would do the unthinkable and surpass technologically dominant Japan aswell as former colonial masters great Britain, to emerge from mysterious east with strong communist influence and successfully dock two unmanned spacecrafts ( Shenzhou 8) and ( Tiangong-1 ) on thursday both ships were reportedly orbiting earth in unison. Only the US and Russia are thus far able to master space docking technique.

I read the article with great interest since communism was always hailed as socially unstable, an economic disaster and threat to world peace by democratic scholars. In simple words communism was the big bad monster and its ideology a recipe for chaos. Russia proved us wrong and now China is rubbing it into our wounds. The new threat is dictatorship and terrorism has played its part in deviating us from the celebrating commies. How times have changed.

In terms of technology, the launch of Tiangong-2 places China about where the US was in the 1960′s, but experts believe China’s progresses further than US did with each launch it undertakes.

In the meantime experts see no explicit military function for the Chinese space station. Wu Ping, spokesperson for China’s manned space programme said, ” It is fair to say that aerospace technology is closely linked to everyday life and the benefits rage from satellites in navigating cars and television broadcasting to the design of diapers for babies”.

Closer to home, Africa is lacking shamefully behind and progress is painfully slow with South Africa hoping to have small satellite in space by 2030, which is currently under development at the university of Stellenbosch and the dump of high-tech waste material in Ghana is not very admirable. The closest technological advancement over our african sky’s of recent note are the reported UFO sightings in the Orange Free State. Thank you.

Victory for tree huggers and ordinary greener earth lovers in South Africa as a 200-year-old fig tree remains put, after Trans African Concessions threatened its life when a road construction company wanted to have the tree removed and preferably plant it some were else to make way for a build a super high way in the province of Mpumalanga.

This caused an outcry amongst environmentalists and concerned citizens alike who for a week camped and toye-toyed around the tree to prevent it from being chopped down. The big multinational finely complied to pressure and has agreed to build the N4 extension around the wise one. This is a great victory and a classic example of modern architecture blending
in and co-existing with nature. A friend once asked me if I had lived in nature if I would change my immediate environment or adapt to it , maybe this is a question many multinationals should ask themselves. Thank you.

Last night I witnessed an amazing array of fireworks display, dazzling in the night sky. I initially thought that it was gun shots and the family dogs were running wild in the yard until I looked up and saw combination of colours unfolding like blooming flowers and piercing the heavens. I was later told that it was October 26 and Diwali or “Indian festival Of Light” and the Hindu new year.

South Africa is truly a melting pot of different cultures and creed and sports a million strong third and fourth generation Indian immigrants who mostly settled in Kwazulu-Natal and more than 65% of whom are Hindus. The festival of lights is associated with good health, prosperity and happy life and celebration usually starts once the new moon is cited, unfortunately I did not get any sweets but it was a great spectacle nether-the-less.

Apparently and according to legend Lord Rama was in exile for 14 years and the citizens in the Northern Kingdom of Avadha lit thousands of lamps to guide his flying vimana back to his people. Even though the tradition of fireworks is not very old in celebrations, it still plays a significant role in festivities. The fireworks reminded me a lot of Guy-Fox held every year especially in the Cape, but that’s another tale for another day.

Hi, the strike by more than half of the 220 workers who ferry tourists to the former political prison Robben Island, and who sell tickets and work in the shops caught me by surprise. The determent staff not only want Christmas Day and January 2 off but also want an increase to their wages to meet inflation demands.

It would be a travesty and a great contradiction if big business in the Western Cape and the government would allow this situation to continue while tourism continue to thrive from the Nelson Mandela gateway from the Victoria and Alfred on Waterfront to the museum on Robben Island, while the very same people who are supposed to benefit do not gain.

Robben Island chief executive Sibongeseni Mkize says the management offer of 6% wage increase was rejected by the strike force but expected the remaining workers to fill the necessary gaps and not for operations to be effected. I say to the tourist don’t be fooled by the beautiful scenery and pretentious restitution and reconciliation to the past, injustice and oppression is very much alive and dark and murky like the green waters of Victoria Bay and nevermind the sharks around the notorious Island.