Powerful people at play in Soouthern Africa

I am studying a little book called “The Destiny of the Nations” by Alice Bailey.   It was written during the last world war to guide Europe, and the world, into understanding an evolutionary force working out behind external events and the destructive effects of the war.

Africa today is going through similar crises so it is interesting to learn from the lessons of the European past.

I chose dominant personalities from Southern Africa’s recent past to try and examine how they yield this powerful first ray force of change.   It is a pity my knowledge about Northern Africa is so poor.   I would have liked to study some of the dominant personalities shaping the world there too.

Nelson Mandela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
Robert Mugabe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe
Desmond Tutu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
Julius Malema
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Malema

Snippet from the book:
“There is, at this time, an emergence of certain powerful and dominating first ray personalities into the theatre of world activity.  These people are in direct contact with this Shamballa force and are sensitive to the impact of the will energy of Deity.  According to their type of personality and their point in evolution will be their reaction to this force and their consequent usefulness to the Lord of the World as He works out His plans of world unfoldment.  The energy of the will of God works through them, though stepped down and often misused and misapplied, by their differing and limited personalities, and interpreted unsatisfactorily by their undeveloped consciousness.  These people are found in every field of human affairs.  They are the dominant persons, and the dictators in every aspect of human living — political, social, religious and educational. 

Who shall say (until at least a century has gone by) whether their influence and their efforts have been good or bad.  Where they flagrantly infringe the Law of Love, their influence may be powerful, but it is passing and undesirable, at least where that phase of their activities is concerned.  Where they meet human emergency and need, and work along lines of basic restoration and the preservation of "units of synthesis," their influence is good and constructive.

I would here point out that real group love never demonstrates as hatred of the individual.  It may work out as the arresting of the individual's activities or enterprises where that is deemed desirable in the interests of the whole and if what he is doing is estimated as harmful to the good of the group.  But the arresting will not be destructive.  It will be educational and developing in its results.”

 Copied from  “Destiny of the nations” by Alice Bailey.

Pet Tweeters

22 February 2012

Why would people tweet their pets?

There are a great number of animals tweeting on the Internet; or shall I say pet owners hiding behind the photographs of their pets.

I remember years ago I was very shocked when a “pommie” (English friend) referred to someone as having a puss-face.   In those days I only knew the South African interpretation of the word. 
Today there are many cat- and dog-faced identities on Facebook and Twitter.
It is in Twitter that one can get behind the psychology of these pet-faced identities.

For what reason would someone choose to use a photograph other then their own as an avatar?
Some of the reasons may be:
1.    The person fear identification for some reason.
2.    The person does not have the courage to make his comments face to face.
3.    The person does not like the way they look.
4.    People with poor self-esteems.
5.    The person does not want to reveal their age, gender or race.
6.    Just for fun.
7.    Want to communicate as sequels among all gender, racial or age groups – brain-to-brain rather than face-to-face.

 Why use the identity of an animal friend or pet?
1.    All the above reasons.
2.    Someone who loves animals more than people.
3.    Someone who make money from the upkeep of animals.
4.    Animal charity organizations.
5.    Someone who wants to meet other animal lovers.
6.    Someone who wants to try and experience the world through the senses of their animal.
Above are a few possible reasons for not using ones own ID photograph or using that of a most loved pet as a photograph.
I am sure there must be some professional scientific psychological profile for people using pseudo identities on the Internet.   Above is my own unprofessional summery.

If we are one of those un- or other-human profile people we can use the above lists to do some self-examination.   We may just find out something about ourselves that we were not aware of before.

For an example you may want to follow Onesock Dog on Twitter who is the mascot for the Blaauwberg Animal Trust.

It may be a good exercise for any psychologist or anyone working in a field where communication with public or with a patients are required, to look at the world through the eyes of an animal.   We are often so caught up in our own importance that we fail to recognize the true need of other.

Dis my reg, dis my reg, dis my reg vir wat ek veg.

The bottom feeders in humanity are rising against the big fish.
Many of the worlds nations are either in a war situation or are experiencing strike action.

We are entering an era when those who have been suppressed up to now are demanding equal opportunities in life.

I was reading about a domestic worker who does not only have to financially support her own children but also the seven children of her sister and brother-in-law who both passed away; I presume they had aids.

We should all hang our heads in shame that we are so busy chasing our own wealth that we neglected the education of the “want them to disappear” people who live in tin shanties at the borders of big cities.

• Every citizen should have the right to know his or her aids status.
• Every citizen of the world should know the importance to be informed about aids.
• Every citizen should understand his or her responsibilities regarding this condition.
• People with aids should be encouraged to take birth control measures in addition to using condoms.
• People with aids should not have intercourse with non-infected people even if they use condoms.
• No child should have to grow up without parents.
• No child should have to look after younger siblings before they had a chance to enjoy a natural childhood.
• All children should have the right to have a suitable education, love, support, shelter and food.

Child abuse and neglect is a cancer in humanity.

Those should be basic human rights.

Of wat se ek alles

It is not the same any more

Q: What is the worst thing about a lazy day out in nature?

A: The journey back home.

As children we loved visiting our favorite picnic spots in Paarl. It was a carefree day of fun under tall trees next to a little river.
We had a picnic, explored the environment, had a swim, and ate ourselves dik then we started all over again, while the old people had to sleep it off on the camp chairs or a blanket on the grass.

I no longer consider such an outing fun. Just the thought of having to dodge the traffic, on the way back to Tableview, undoes all the relaxation of the day. My my nerves are as knotted as it has been before the trip when I get back home.

Then there the idiots and smart Alex’es who know just how to bring your blood to boiling point, when they squeeze into your lane, while you queue at the bottle neck in the road into Tableview.
You also have to figure out which is the best lane to queue in. I seem to mark one car in the other lane and see who moves the quickest. One can never see the cause of the holdup until you passed it.

When you get home you have all the picnic things to clean away and the family will be looking at you with big eyes for their next tummy fillers or just coffee to get the old nerves back to its normal stress levels.

If you live in and around Tableview, it is silly to go all the way to Paarl just to sit under the trees.
We may not have many shady trees in our nature areas left, but we still have a lovely dam and beaches where we can enjoy a relaxing day out.

People, who live in Tableview, do not appreciate or utilize the resources right on their doorsteps.

We have some of the best shops, nature walks, parks, water sport areas and beaches right here, on our doorsteps, and much of it is free. The only thing we do not have a lot of in our nature areas are shady trees to sit under, so perhaps a tranquil visit to deeper in the country now and again may still be warranted.

My garden is like a rain-forest. If I want to sit under a shady tree near water, I just have to put the sprinkler on and fold the beach chair open. I possibly have more birds concentrated on one spot than anywhere in Rietvlei.

Five big trees have been cut down in our area recently. It is the height of breeding season so we have birds breeding at eye level.

It is difficult to know when it is the best time to trim trees now that conservation removed all the alien trees, which is just about all the trees in the nature area. The birds seem to compensate by breeding all the year around.


Of wat praat ek alles

One right to freedom

Those who are not for us are against us

My praatnie gedagte

Why should our children suffer from imported drugs and other substances of abuse? Why should international individuals get rich at the expense of decent, life deserving, individuals like our precious loved ones? Why should the world tolerate fat cats who weaken and kill our global human resource?
There are a majority of global citizens who want a better, free for all world. Why can we not have a global government that can make global free citizenship a reality for all people?
If one, individual, group, country or continent threatens the well-being of the global citizenship, there should be a force that can isolate and remove the infrastructure of international travel from such a group or person until they conform to the global law of opportunity for all.
There should be no exceptions. We should have no mercy for global inf ringers of our democratic rights to a good life for all. Any country, individual or region who partake of travel outside its borders, should fall under one global law.
The ‘United Nations’ have the infrastructure to become such a law society. It should be given the muscle and power to uphold those principles.
The global government should be able to protect all people.

Of wat praat ek alles

What the eye can see makes the mouth waters

24-02-2010

(original post from http://white_granny.iblog.co.za/)

My front door was open.
We never have the front door open anymore, because if we leave it open every vagrant that passes by comes and ask for something and we have to listen to untold stories of sadness.

It was a bit stuffy in the room and I decided to open the front door just for a short wile to get some air in the room.

I was 'smagging' for something to drink so I took the last lovely cold fruit juice from the fridge.
I was standing well back, facing the security door and enjoying the fresh cool breeze from the door, while sipping my fruit juice, when the dog's bark alerted me to the free-paper delivery boys.

Knowing that begging is a side line for them, I hastily hid my cool drink, not wanting to put any ideas into his head.

I was hoping he did not notice the open door and deposits the stuff in the letterbox as he normally does.

No chance, he was on the doorstep and still hoping that he would just greet me and deliver the newspaper, I went to the door with the normal smile and greeting.

He gave me the newspapers then asked for a cool drink.
How in the warm place did he see me sipping the drink?
My last fruit drink.

I said that I only have half a bottle left, and he said its OK he will have it.

I gave him the hidden drink and closed the door.

I long for the days when I could leave my front door open in peace.

Later we found the empty cool drink bottle together with other junk next to the flattened plants in our front garden where he decided to picnic.

En nou praat ek nie twak nie.

Ag man! Dis lekker in die Army,

Original post from the white-granny blog

When I lived in Australia, my father used to send me some Afrikaans tapes which he recorded from the radio.
When I worked the 9-5 shift the traffic from our home was first gear and stop all the way to work.
A 10 min journey took an hour.
It was the best time.
I used to make flask of coffee. Put my vehicle in first gear and drove it like an automatic car.
No gear changes. It was a straight road so there was no need to turn. Just stop and start.

I rolled down the windows (No crime in Brisbane in those days)
Poured my coffee;
Spread the newspaper over the steering wheel. (No cell phones back then)
Then I turned the tape recorder on and listened to my Afrikaans songs while I read the newspaper and drank my coffee ……… and drive.

Here is one of those songs from Chris Blignaut (I think). I am not 100% sure of the words.

I shall have to scratch my old Chris Blignaut tape out somewhere.

—————————————————————-

Ag man! Dis lekker in die Army,
van Tempie tot Grootfontein!
In ‘n ratel op Otavi,
of hoog in ‘n bos aeroplane.
‘n Rang wil ek nie dra nie,
net ‘n R1 hier styf langs my sy.
Ag man, dis lekker in die army,
en ‘n troepie die wil ek graag bly.

Een Woensdag het ek ge A-wol
Die rugby offisier was vies
toe laat hy my pale toe leapard crawl
en ek word vir die DB gekies
‘n rang wil ek nie dra nie
net ‘n R1 styf teen my sy
Ag man dis lekker in die Army
net’n troepie wil ek graag bly

As jy van die kos dalk siek word,
wat jy innie army kry.
Wees bly dat jy daarvoor betaal word,
hulle moemit jou danger-pay.
Ek spaar dit en vergeet dit,
in ‘n bank en daar lê dit doodstil.
En as ek uit ge-clear het
oop ek wat ek begeer het,
dis ‘n ding wat hier onder my brul.

Koor
Ag man! Dis lekker in die Army,
van Tempie tot Grootfontein!
In ‘n ratel op Otavi,
of hoog in ‘n bos aeroplane.
‘n Rang wil ek nie dra nie,
net ‘n R1 hier styf langs my sy.
Ag man, dis lekker in die army,
en ‘n troepie die wil ek graag bly.
As my pa wil dan sal ek hier bly!

---------------------------

The song in this post is about voluntary army training in order to protect the country against terrorism.

The thought that comes to mind is that many things that is normal during war time, becomes crime during peace time.

The enemies of war become your friends of tomorrow.

So why do people not just skip the fighting and resolve their differences.

At least you will have more chance of living out your life to the full.

Of wat praat ek alles?

Die ou bees. Old cow?

So I am fat. I am a happy fat person. I love cooking and eating. I have a fat husband and a fat cat and a fat dog and we all like to eat nice food.

What I don’t like is the medical term the doctors give to fat people.
OBESE!

Well, being Afrikaans obese sounds like an “ou bees” which might as well be an old cow.

So whenever I go to the doctor with some medical problem or another that he can not solve, he says it is because I am such an old cow. (Obese)

Of wat praat ek alles

Being hollowed out

The truth/lie about stomached ulcers.

Being a retired person, one has time to enjoy life’s experiences, whether they be work or family related.

This morning, while pondering over my possible last fatty breakfast of coffee, bacon, eggs and buttered toast, my mind examined every tasty mouth full of food. I chewed every morsel of bacon, egg and toast until it became fluid, in order to extract each and every flavoring particle for the absorption by my taste buds.

I am not sure if I will be able to enjoy the nice crispy bacon fat mixed with the yoke of the nicely fried egg again.
It tasted like the best breakfast I ever had.

My mouth welcomed it, my esophagus carried it happily to my stomach and my gallbladder said: 'let’s get to work breaking this fat load down while we can'.

Every part of my anatomy was happy and the last remnants of the tasty breakfast still linger in my mouth.

So why all this fuss over a little breakfast? Why this post?

As from now I am on a diet of clear fluids prior to gastroscopy and colonoscopy procedures tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow a little camera will be passed into my stomach and bowel to exclude any nasties, like cancer or polyps, prior to removing my gallbladder, which is believed to be the cause of the chest pains that feel like heart attacks, which I have been having...

Personally I think they have the ‘kat by die stert beet’ but then that may be one of those labels the doctors put on patients who do not want to accept their medical conditions. That label called 'denial'.

Just last week I had another imaginary label stuck to my forehead, by my GP, when I described my gastric and chest discomfort. That one was called ‘Hypochondria’.

A nice name for a baby: Imagine saying ‘Hypochondria go and do your school work’

My name is no longer ‘Hypochondria’ because I now suffer from a

‘delayed bile flow condition’ due to a gall-stone. So they say.

So I have a little gall-stone. So what? It is mine, it does not necessary need to be removed, so I redekavel. Surely if my gall-bladder was so troublesome, why can I enjoy this large breakfast of bacon and eggs so much?

The surgeons of today are far too eager to chop people’s body parts out because they feel it is not essential to health.
They think God created people full of needless spare parts, it seems.

I think it is man who is unable to understand the full glory of God’s creation. One day, perhaps we will understand just how vitally important each and every organ in the body is and aim to preserve, or replace it, rather than ‘chop it out’.

I was fifty when they chopped my uterus and ovaries out, pushing me into menopause overnight.
I was told that it was better to remove it because it would cause problems later in life.
(The removal of the ovaries was due to a surgical accident but that is another story).
The argument, at the time was that I did not need it anyway.

They possibly took my appendix out too because they believed that I did not need it either.

If they could they would remove my tonsils because ‘I do not need it’

Now the surgeons are about to remove my gallbladder because it is not necessary for health.

Soon I shall be like an empty vessel that can only make a lot of noise. (So I shall still have my tonsils – I hope)

Anyway, what this post is about is what I was thinking while I ate my last fatty breakfast. I was pondering on the mechanics of eating.

The food enters your mouth then it gets mechanically mashed by your teeth.
The more you chew your food, the less work your stomach has to do in order to break it down.
One can assume that people that chew their food well have to secrete less stomach acid.
Failing to chew food well will place a strain on the stomach which has to break those hunks of un-chewed food down chemically. (Using a strong acid)

Un-chewed food remains in the stomach longer, because an acidic chemical process is needed to make the food useable to the body.

The food beaks up in the holding-tank (stomach) and gets released in small amounts, as it digests, also causing a hold-up in the gallbladder (that has to break down the fat) and the pancreas (that breaks down the sugar and other nutrients)

Can you see how by neglecting the simple process of chewing food properly, we can have such a host of other gastric stress and congestions.

We all know that stress causes ulcers. We know the bigger the hurry, the faster we eat.
Acids can burn through the bowel linings and cause ulcers.
The shorter the time that food remains in the stomach the less chance there is of developing ulcers and indigestion.

Perhaps if stressed people can only take time to eat regular small meals and chew each mouth-full to a masticated pulp before swallowing, many stress-gastric symptoms can be avoided.

Chewing food well, from childhood, can possibly prevent obesity, stomach cancer and a host of other gastric problems in later life.

Eating and chewing with consciousness can possibly be a key to a longer life. Think about it.
It could prevent being surgically hollowed out in old age.

Perhaps parents should train their little children to chew their food, rather than delight in seeing an empty plate.

So mum, next time you hurry your little one through his plate of food, consider the surgical problems you may be training him to have later in life.



Of wat praat ek alles.

------------------------------------------------

Charity?

The 67 minutes of Mandela Charity thing came and gone without much of a ripple in our routine.
Most of the people I know give much more than 67 minutes of their time to helping other in need either on a daily or on an hourly basis.

One of my friends gives 120 minutes of her time every hour of the day to helping someone in need.
She has a daughter with leukemia.

She is now faced with perhaps leaving her place of residence, because the owner needs it for her own family.

It seems that, in my environment, the people who mostly need to be reminded to give time to charity are those who receive it.

Some people become like helpless sponges and just take.

They have the attitude that the world owes them.

It does not matter how badly you are off, a smile or a good word cost nothing.

I remember some years ago, when our Pick and Pay decided to donate the day old bread to the squatter community.
Sometimes the transport would let them down and the bread become moldy.

The people appeared on television accusing the chain store for regarding them as pigs.

In that case it would have been better if the store chucked the bread. They would not have received the bad publicity the got instead of a “Thank you”

People often slap the hand that feeds them. They always want more and more.

They will only become satisfied when they get in a situation where they become givers and not just takers.

I don’t think the time to start giving is when you have excess. There are lots of things that you can give that do not cost money.
We should all be givers. Of wat praat ek alles