As i remain true to my origins

Globalization and technology, the two things highly praised for the transformation of the world and also blamed for almost all Africa’s misfortunes. Being an African child who grew in the Africa that is continually faced by technological changes and the globalized world I cannot say I am neither thrilled nor ungrateful for this technology.

From the time when Africa was colonized, to apartheid to now that most African countries are democratically governed, democratically as they call it but we all know it’s actually dictatorship, I have noticed changes both economically and socially oh did I mention political.

Boko Haram, political instability, poverty, suicide bombers are just a few of the things faced by my beloved Africa, and many blame technology and globalization. Well as an African child I blame us Africans who are gradually interested in western culture’s and new trends and what is happening in Western countries but turn a blind eye to the so called ‘ misfortunes’ of Africa.

On a daily basis we Africans find external factors to blame for what is happening in the Africa that we live in, to some extent we the general public do not have much power or maybe knowledge to challenge certain things, but nevertheless it is not an excuse to always carry on looking up to western county’s for the latest trends and turn a blind eye to that orphan next door who does not know where their next meal will come from

Where but in Africa does a six year old have to protest to have a playground, when our leaders should be happy that the future generation is involved in sports the opposite is done, the same ground the future generation is uses to play is sold for some business franchise.

Africa has become the worst place to live in in almost all aspects, our leaders take us the voters for granted, we fight amongst each other, and materialistic things have become the definition of rich and happy. I doubt its possibly to be happy when you constantly have to look over your shoulders to make sure no one will kill you for your money.

we are never safe at home, the mall, walking, driving or even flying, the only time when we can say a person is at peace is when they die. The very same police that are meant to protect us point guns at our children, but I cannot say I am surprised, what can one expect from police that were brought up in a violent society like this.

After the uncle Rob’s fall media frenzy i told a friend of mine that if Robert Mugabe had the power he would block cell phone network and ban social media, not even a day after I said this his security cluster was fired, why? we can never know, just like we will never know how our average politicians afford their luxury lives.

we Africans value everything that is not African, even life unfortunately, I was extremely shocked by my fellow Africans concern over the death of six people Paris and yet no one and I mean no one was talking about the more than 200 people that were killed by Boko Haram.

Ashley Madison the doom or gloom of a marriage!

I am not usually ignorant but I must admit, I was not aware that so many South African married people were part of the Ashley Madison cheating website; I was so shocked at the same time relieved I do not have to worry about my partner’s dirty laundry being put out for the entire world to see.

There have been mixed reactions from both married and unmarried people since it emerged that the website was hacked, the hacking part, well came as no surprise to me I must say, websites get hacked on a daily basis. BUT the shocking fact was the high number of married people that are part of the website, I can’t say I am happy that so many people are on the edge of their seats hoping that the owner cooperates with the hackers to prevent them from being shamed; it’s a bit sad but am glad this happened.

Not to generalise, but as a young woman I am happy that this happened I believe it’s about time people know the realities of marriages, it’s not all glamorous as Hollwywood film producers continually perceive it to be in most films. Yes marriage is a blessing and all but can make stop making it seen as if it’s all a girl should work to achieve in life.

As it stands over 175,000 South African cheating spouses have their data compromise, what do you do when faced with such an event, do you tell your spouse before anything drastic happens or do u just seat back and hope the information does not get released. Well you might decide to tell your spouse, but the problem then becomes the fact that the information would not only be seen by your wife, well that’s if exposed but by everyone who decides to check out the “ Ashely Madison Cheaters” yes, that amongst other nasty names is what you will be called.

Some people might argue that what matters is the commitment; at the end of the day that website is nothing more than a hobby and there is no attachment, oh well I guess like I am everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Seaneys Hair Port

Seaneys Hair Port is, a hair, and nails specialised salon that offers its clients a wide range of products and services. The salon is famous for its highly trained hair and nail specialists, who offer nothing but the best to their clientele. Their slogan beauty lies in the women emphasises the salons commitment to beauty.
The salon has been operational for over 8 years and they hope to introduce more products and open branches across the country. The self-sustained salon gives credit to its clients, for the good working relationship that they have and hope to continue having in the years to come. The salon offers its services to female clients, although it also caters for male clients in terms of haircuts and dreadlocks, they also give advice to clients on hair products and suitable hairstyles for certain occasions.
Each of the salons hair dressers has an area of focus in terms of hair styles, ensuring that they cater for a vast majority of clients. The services that they offer include hair relaxing, styling, hair plating, artificial bonding (including Brazilian and Indian hair) as well as artificial nails, manicure and pedicure. The staff is professional, friendly, ethical and above all they are ethically stylish.
There is an incentive for clients who spend over R2000 a day for snacks, refreshments, breakfast and lunch. The clients get the luxury to choose what they wish to eat and one of the friendly staff will ensure that the food is provided to the client.
Charity Mothoa is a regular customer at Seaneys Hair Port, she has been using the products and services of the salon for the past 3 years, the client claims that the service is so good that she does not mind spending all day with them, she also says that the service is excellent that she does not worry about the price tag “they have top notch service when my hair and nails look extra stunning then the price is not a problem for me,” she says.
Audey Reinek, the co- founder and manager of the salon, also indicated that the salon not only focuses on ensuring that they offer the best service to their clients but also empowers the staff, so that they too can be able to start and manage their salons in the near future. He teaches the staff the financial and managerial aspect of owning a salon.
Bonolo Masindi, is a professional hair dresser and he has been working at the salon for 3 years. He specialises mainly in artificial bonding, and relaxing of hair. Bonolo is not only happy to be working at Seaneys but motivated as well because he has been getting training on how to manage a salon, “it is so encouraging working here, we meet new people every day, it also feels good to see customers happy because of the work that we do, and above all I learn a whole lot of things, so all in all it is a delicate experience” he says.
Bonolo suggest the so called “drunk in love hair style “for a cocktail party, kinky always does the trick for an informal occasion and clean, short or long hair for the office lady”.

Vision:                                                                                                                                                        To explore our experiences and to create a favourable environment for our clients and to also give them exceptional hospitality.
Mission:                                                                                                                                                    Reach the needs of clients and continually improve our services and to go places in terms of hair products and service.
Address Shop Number 22                                                                                                               momentum building  371 Pretorius Street                                                                                                     Pretoria                                                                                                                                                        0001
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Dietitian saves the Day

Over the past years South Africa has gained attention in regard to the bad eating habits, eating disorders and chronic diseases.   The recent study by the Chronic Diseases Initiative in Africa (CDIA) and the Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle Unit of the Medical Research Council (MRC) in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa (HSF) and Pharma Dynamics revealed the disturbing misconceptions of unhealthy eating habits of many South Africans at a time of chronic conditions such as heat diseases.
Chronic diseases such as hypertension (raised blood pressure) hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol levels), type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer of the lungs, pancreas, colon, breast and rectum can actually be prevented since they are primarily caused by a similar factor, unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise.
Ivonne Mashite is a consultant dietitian, she reckons that a healthy person should have a minimum of 50 or 60 percent energy per day; this could be a combination of all the vitals that a body needs, be it vitamins, protein or carbohydrates. Nevertheless, even if one has the minimum energy requirements level for a day, they should still have a healthy diet, have a fruit in the morning, and ensure that you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
Ivonne has a list of five things that she recommends that people adhere to, to stay healthy, they are: eat lots of vegetables, fruits, fiber  which you can get from eating tomato, zucchini, spinach, sweet potato, onion, kales and cooked Brussels sprouts, drink lots of water and exercise. “I always tell people to do these five things and I know they will be healthy’ she says.
Getting children to eat vegetables is most parents’ nightmare, Ivonne advises parents to make the young ones love their veggies by being more creative with the preparations, cut them into beautiful shapes or alternatively mix them with soup or in stew.  When Children are growing they need fat, as it is a crucial factor when it comes to their brain, not just any type of fat, good fat, avocado for instance contain very good fats.  She also advises that vegetables should be eaten as raw as possible, those who use frozen vegetables should “defrost them and add them to the cooked food they have more vitals when used in this form than when overcooked” Ivonne added.
The say too much of everything is bad proves to be true after all, Ivonne confirmed that, eating a burger once in a while or fried chips is not bad but it becomes a problem when fatty foods are eaten constantly without any form of physical exercise. A balanced diet consists of a balance of all the vitals that a body needs.

A jump to remember

 When I felt the belt tightening, I knew this would be an experience I would live to remember. The palpitating beat of my heart and the perspiration on my back confirmed my inevitable fear.  In the perfect world movie directors continue to sell to us, bungee jumping looks like an easily done daily activity. Truth is, bungee jumping is a bit easier said than done.
Toppieshoek is a Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Owned leadership development center and is situated in the North West province near the Hartebeespoort dam, about an hours’ drive from Pretoria. The place is breath-taking and so was the experience, almost literally. It is just unfortunate that this is the place I learned of my fear of heights.
It was on a beautiful Thursday morning when I accompanied junior students for a leadership trip. There were various activities that we all participated in. Well, I believe one is never too old for a bit of fun, and the experience brought out the child in me. Believe me, there is a child in every one of us. Bungee jumping was the last activity of the day, I was very excited, I have always seen people Jump, and I thought to myself, “here I am and the opportunity has presented itself, there is no way I am letting it pass.”
The level of excitement was no longer the same when one of the students cried and called out for her mummy, but hey, I have always wanted to do this, I told myself I was brave and nothing was going to stop me.
My partner and I moved closer and the time to climb up had finally arrived. The facilitators helped us tighten the belts, I had a chance to back down and not do it, but I did not. My partner climbed the pole first, she looked down and realized I was having second thoughts and she cheerfully said, “Come Leila it is going to be fun, you should come and see the view of the dam from up here.” There I was, climbing the stairs up, on the third stair of the pole I could feel my adrenalin pump increasing, I should have listened to the facilitators when they told me not to look down. Nevertheless I looked down and my eyes instantly turned red and there I was calling for mummy as well.
My mouth turned dry, my hands were shaking but I had to hold on tight or else I would fall, this was when I realized that heights were not my thing. But I refused to let my fear take over and not allow me to do something that I have dreamed of doing from the very first day I saw someone bungee jumping. I held on tight to the pole, closed my eyes for a while, I moved up and finally I was up there.
It was amazing, the view was extra ordinary, I was so excited to be up there for a moment I forgot that the main business of the day was still to come, the jumping part. I just allowed myself to enjoy the moment, I was no longer scared, and it felt so good just having accomplished the first part of the activity. I just could not get enough of the view from up there; I wanted to sit there and never jump down.
Unfortunately my excitement was cut short when the facilitator reminded me I had to walk on the robes up there and I had to jump. At that moment, I wished bungee jumping should have remained a dream and nothing more. Fear got the better of me again, I felt like crying, but I contained myself; all I did was scream “I am scared” over and over again. As they kept saying I could do it, I felt more annoyed than motivated to continue. They were trying to encourage me, but at that moment all I wanted was to see myself on the ground. Nothing they said mattered, jumping just had to be out of the list.
I closed my eyes, had a short dialogue with myself, and I decided that “you know what? I am jumping,” I had fun, I enjoyed the view but it was time to jump. I closed my eyes again and I literally took a leap of faith. The last I remember, I was jumping, when I woke up there were people around me. As embarrassed as I was, I stood up, held my head high, and asked what had happened. Well, I had passed out and hit my head on the ground, I was bleeding but I was happy. The accident did not matter much, I was happy that I had just had an experience of a life time. One I would never forget.
I have never gone back, so I am not sure if I am still scared but if I had an opportunity to do it again, I would not even think twice. I would proudly do it, and the rest would sort itself out. If I were to advice someone who has never went bungee jumping, I would definitely recommend it. In all the experiences that we have, there is always a good story that comes out of it, if not a funny embarrassing one.

Abduction of Nigerian Girls

As a young women living in Africa, I am very upset about the abduction of those girls in Nigeria, I feel as though the world is not doing enough to find them. When the Malaysian flight went missing, so much effort was put into finding that flight and they did not even know where it was but they kept searching. Now more than 250 girls go missing, we know the radius in which they are but they have not found them. This is just my personal opinion as a worried African.                                                                               

What are our leaders doing, I really praise the South African women that marched to the Nigerian embassy to submit the memorandum. thousants of people are out there trying to do something for the girls to be brought back fome, these are regular citizens. i was very happy when i heard Michel Obama saying that her husbant would help i bringing back the girls but every minute that passes, i wonder what is happening to them now. a second is feels like a day to them.

I would like to believe that the whole world would never be defeated by a small group of men, if the world would unite in a mission to find those girls they would have found them a long time ago. I know that as a regular citizen alone there is not much that I can do to find the girls but the say “together we can do more” should put into practice in this case. They are young girls surrounded by dangerous men carrying guns, they are scared, and they have probably lost hope. They were hoping that they would be home sooner but they are still out there in the jungle, Lord knows what those men are doing to them. What are they eating, if they even give them food at all?

This is the time that our world leaders need to set aside their differences and find ways to get the girls home. I am a woman and one day I hope to be a mother, I want to be assured that I will bring a child into a safe environment. This incident might not be in the country but if nothing is done about this incident then chances are these guys will evade more countries because they would know that they are untouchable. This might not make it far but if you read it pleae sent it to the next person. Let us do our bit to find those Girls.

   Together we can take them Home.

South Africans not ready for change.

The 7^th of May 2014 marked the firth democratic elections in South Africa; there was a lot of drama and scandal surrounding these elections. New political parties were formed; there was intense campaigning from most of the parties. But these elections also evoked a lot of tension in most townships in the country.

There were various protests for service delivery in most townships, places like Freedom Park, Bekkesdal in the west rand and some areas in the Western Cape. Most residents vowed that they would not vote in the May 7^th elections until their demands were looked into and something was done about service delivery. In most of these areas nothing was done about the service delivery protests but came the 7^th of May residents went to the voting stations and according to the results they put the same government that does not attend to their service delivery into power again.

The premier of Gauteng Nomvula Mokanyane made a statement saying that the ANC does not need Bekkesdals dirty votes, but the ANC got majority votes in this area. This just shows that we south Africans are either not ready for change or we are scared of change. The Nkandla gate proved to all South Africans how the ruling party missuses tax payer’s money. In the very same province, the home of Nkandla and yet the ANC got 64.52% what does this say about the politics of So

uth Africa and the voters. Are we blinded by the so-called RDPS, the social grants to actually see that the current government could do more than what they are doing now with tax payer’s money?

Many might argue that they are voting for a party and not for individuals but let us keep in mind that these individuals make part of the party. No matter how we put it, a party would not be there without the same individuals that say things such as we do not need your dirty vote. But yet again we go and vote for this party. The no vote campaign was launched so that people could vote for small parties or rather spoil their vote if one is undecided who to vote for. This campaign was put into place to make provision for people who were not sure who to vote for, and to also make provision for change and vote for small parties.

According to the electoral commission there were 251 960 spoilt votes, and this could have secured between five and six seats in parliament. As much as the ruling party crashed this campaign, it seems to have reached its goal. The results are out and as a citizen of this country I can just hope that in the next term things will be done in a much, transparent and corruption free manner.