Friday, May 25, 2012

I AM AN AFRICAN.



I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.

My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightening, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope.

The fragrances of nature have been as pleasant to us as the sight of the wild blooms of the citizens of the veld.

The dramatic shapes of the Drakensberg, the soil-coloured waters of the Lekoa, iGqili noThukela, and the sands of the Kgalagadi, have all been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of our day.

At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito.

A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say - I am an African!

I owe my being to the Khoi and the San whose desolate souls haunt the great expanses of the beautiful Cape - they who fell victim to the most merciless genocide our native land has ever seen, they who were the first to lose their lives in the struggle to defend our freedom and dependence and they who, as a people, perished in the result.

I am formed of the migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land. Whatever their own actions, they remain still, part of me.

In my veins courses the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East. Their proud dignity informs my bearing, their culture a part of my essence. The stripes they bore on their bodies from the lash of the slave master are a reminder embossed on my consciousness of what should not be done.

I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour the cause of freedom.

My mind and my knowledge of myself is formed by the victories that are the jewels in our African crown, the victories we earned from Isandhlwana to Khartoum, as Ethiopians and as the Ashanti of Ghana, as the Berbers of the desert.

I am the grandchild who lays fresh flowers on the Boer graves at St Helena and the Bahamas, who sees in the mind's eye and suffers the suffering of a simple peasant folk, death, concentration camps, destroyed homesteads, a dream in ruins.

I am the child of Nongqause. I am he who made it possible to trade in the world markets in diamonds, in gold, in the same food for which my stomach yearns.

I come of those who were transported from India and China, whose being resided in the fact, solely, that they were able to provide physical labour, who taught me that we could both be at home and be foreign, who taught me that human existence itself demanded that freedom was a necessary condition for that human existence.

Being part of all these people, and in the knowledge that none dare contest that assertion, I shall claim that - I am an African.

I have seen our country torn asunder as these, all of whom are my people, engaged one another in a titanic battle, the one redress a wrong that had been caused by one to another and the other, to defend the indefensible.

I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.

I know what if signifies when race and colour are used to determine who is human and who, sub-human. I have seen the destruction of all sense of self-esteem, the consequent striving to be what one is not, simply to acquire some of the benefits which those who had improved themselves as masters had ensured that they enjoy. I have experience of the situation in which race and colour is used to enrich some and impoverish the rest.

I have seen the corruption of minds and souls in the pursuit of an ignoble effort to perpetrate a veritable crime against humanity.

I have seen concrete expression of the denial of the dignity of a human being emanating from the conscious, systemic and systematic oppressive and repressive activities of other human beings.
There the victims parade with no mask to hide the brutish reality - the beggars, the prostitutes, the street children, those who seek solace in substance abuse, those who have to steal to assuage hunger, those who have to lose their sanity because to be sane is to invite pain.

Perhaps the worst among these, who are my people, are those who have learnt to kill for a wage. To these the extent of death is directly proportional to their personal welfare. And so, like pawns in the service of demented souls, they kill in furtherance of the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. They murder the innocent in the taxi wars. They kill slowly or quickly in order to make profits from the illegal trade in narcotics. They are available for hire when husband wants to murder wife and wife, husband.   

Among us prowl the products of our immoral and amoral past - killers who have no sense of the worth of human life, rapists who have absolute disdain for the women of our country, animals who would seek to benefit from the vulnerability of the children, the disabled and the old, the rapacious who brook no obstacle in their quest for self-enrichment.

All this I know and know to be true because I am an African!

Because of that, I am also able to state this fundamental truth that I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines.

I am born of a people who would not tolerate oppression.

I am of a nation that would not allow that fear of death, torture, imprisonment, exile or persecution should result in the perpetuation of injustice.

The great masses who are our mother and father will not permit that the behaviour of the few results in the description of our country and people as barbaric.

Patient because history is on their side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun shines.

Whatever the circumstances they have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be.

We are assembled here today to mark their victory in acquiring and exercising their right to formulate their own definition of what it means to be African.

The constitution whose adoption we celebrate constitutes and unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our Africanness shall be defined by our race, colour, gender of historical origins.

It is a firm assertion made by ourselves that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans, and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern.
It recognises the fact that the dignity of the individual is both an objective which society must pursue, and is a goal which cannot be separated from the material well-being of that individual.
It seeks to create the situation in which all our people shall be free from fear, including the fear of the oppression of one national group by another, the fear of the disempowerment of one social echelon by another, the fear of the use of state power to deny anybody their fundamental human rights and the fear of tyranny.
It aims to open the doors so that those who were disadvantaged can assume their place in society as equals with their fellow human beings without regard to colour, race, gender, age or geographic dispersal.

It provides the opportunity to enable each one and all to state their views, promote them, strive for their implementation in the process of governance without fear that a contrary view will be met with repression. 

It creates a law-governed society which shall be inimical to arbitrary rule.

It enables the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means rather than resort to force.

It rejoices in the diversity of our people and creates the space for all of us voluntarily to define ourselves as one people.

As an African, this is an achievement of which I am proud, proud without reservation and proud without any feeling of conceit. Our sense of elevation at this moment also derives from the fact that this magnificent product is the unique creation of African hands and African minds.

Bit it is also constitutes a tribute to our loss of vanity that we could, despite the temptation to treat ourselves as an exceptional fragment of humanity, draw on the accumulated experience and wisdom of all humankind, to define for ourselves what we want to be.

Together with the best in the world, we too are prone to pettiness, petulance, selfishness and short-sightedness.  But it seems to have happened that we looked at ourselves and said the time had come that we make a super-human effort to be other than human, to respond to the call to create for ourselves a glorious future, to remind ourselves of the Latin saying: Gloria est consequenda - Glory must be sought after!

I am an African.

I am born of the peoples of the continent of Africa. The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, Burundi and Algeria is a pain I also bear.

The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a blight that we share.

The blight on our happiness that derives from this and from our drift to the periphery of the ordering of human affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow of despair.

This is a savage road to which nobody should be condemned.

This thing that we have done today, in this small corner of a great continent that has contributed so decisively to the evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes.

Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now!

Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!

However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper!

Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say - nothing can stop us now!

Today it feels good to be an African.

~ Thabo Mbeki ~

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

BRAIN AND BODY, WORKING TOGETHER


Saturday was my best run yet. Seriously, I know my running career has only just eased its’ way into its’ 3rd year and by any stretch of the imagination I am a total newbie to the trials and tribulations of Ultra Running, but I don’t care. Saturday rocked! In blistering 90 degree heat (Fahrenheit) accompanied with no shade, very little water and an extensive amount of sweating, I ran 50kms and literally loved every single minute! I don’t think I’ve had a race to date where I can actually say that. 

Now when I say I, I mean my brain and body. For a change, the 2 were working in sync with one another. In hind sight I should have bought a lottery ticket as that’s a very very rare occurrence indeed! Instead of the usual:

Brain: You know you can stop and just walk, right legs?
Legs: Shut up Brain, I’m not listening to you!
Brain: Come on, just walk, you’ll feel so much better.
Legs: Ja, maybe you’re right, we’ll just walk until that next lamp post.
Brain: Or all the way home, that works too.

They sounded more like:

Brain: Hey Legs, this is kinda cool!
Legs: I know right, check out the view, it’s awesome.
Brain: You wanna speed up a little?
Legs: Sure why not!
Brain: You know it’s not as hot as I thought it would be…
Legs: I agree, check it out, we’re still going!
Brain: I see that, wanna give Road Runnner a lesson in speed the last 4 miles.
Legs: You’re on, let’s go!

This NEVER happens. Above the neck fights tooth and nail to be right whilst below the neck tries (often unsuccessfully) not to listen to the negativity and easy way out mentality of the brain. The fact that they became friends during a 5 hour run was both a miracle and a revelation. I’d like to think it was because I was exceptionally trained, well fed and hydrated and completely confident in my abilities. Bahahahahahaha! Now we all know that would be the world’s biggest fib! I don’t think I’ve ever been exceptionally trained in my whole life, for anything (except consuming bubbles, at that, I am a Master).  No, it was the revelation that I love running, no matter what the weather, the distance or the obstacles, it is the sport I enjoy the most. Don’t get me wrong, I have my bad days where I feel like all my mojo has deserted me; but when it returns, running ROCKS!

Thank you to the Marine for making me do it. To my favourite book in the world for reminding me that you can be as light as a feather in all situations. And to my Prince Charming for being at the finish line to watch his Crazii Redhead come in 2nd female overall! PC, you ROCK!


Friday, March 23, 2012

BORN TO RUN... MAYBE


I have just finished reading Born To Run, again, for the 3rd time. And I think it might be the last time. Not because I don’t absolutely love that book, but purely on the basis that I think friends and family alike are actually going to confiscate it from me and bar me from shopping anywhere close to a Barnes and Noble, Exclusive Books and even firewall Amazon. Why, you ask… well…


When I first read that book I was young(er) and highly influential (sort of). I was also bored and the thought of running seemed like a good idea. Introduce Born To Run. So inspirational was that little gem of a book that I went from running 3 kms to 56 kms in 5 months… hmmm (and then got injured and couldn’t run for a while and was very very sad). Obviously the running bug had bitten and I attribute a lot of it to the book and a lot of it to my running family who made the sport more of a social outing than a exercise regime.

During my injury time I picked it up again just to perk me up and see if I’d missed anything in the initial reading. I had! Quite a lot actually. So in true Crazii style I donned my running shoes 3 weeks before I really should have, pretended to be as light as a feather and went running again. Boom! I was back, and popping around the world to visit friends and family and run international marathon(s). Okay just London, but still, they drive was there. Anyway, the point is, who needs physiotherapy and rehab when you have a little A5 book of magic and my grey matter swirling around an otherwise rather empty cavity J

So brings me to today… or rather a few weeks ago when I finished reading my favourite book (again, cue 3rd time) and promptly signed up to run an Ultra Marathon. Which is tomorrow. Gad! Eeeek! Gasp! You see the pattern evolving here… book=excitement about running=entering crazy races without training=nervous Crazii=confiscated book. And just to qualify this statement to be as close to the truth as it could possibly be, “without training” is not a euphemism for couch potatoness, I do actually go out and run, just not enough… not nearly enough for 50kms of tarmac in 40 degree heat… not even close… not even at all. And that is why the book shall be removed from my possession, not because it in itself is bad, but on the basis that I just use the time I read the book as a replacement for long distance training. You see in my head running is a mental sport. Therefore so is my training… who knows, if I make it through tomorrow I’m either a)right about mental training or b)was carried over the finish line by the south amercan tribe of super Runners… either way I’ll be ahppy J

Happy Friday Peeps, I’ll be holding myself up on Saturday evening with the help of a few bottle of bubbles and the every loving Prince Charming.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

GOOD IDEAS... I DON'T HAVE ANY.




It seemed like a good idea at the time. To be fair though, they always do… especially in my case if you preface something with alcohol, I’m yours. I enjoy running, I especially like running races. So when The Marine decided to tell me about a race on our door step that would end in The Pretty, Friendly, Lovely version of Miami where there was beer and music, I was obviously ecstatic. “Count me in”, “I’m there like a bear” and so forth were the usual nonsensical however excited phrases exiting my mouth. Then I actually looked at the race and then I lost all blood flow to my brain and then I passed out and hit my head hard on the concrete. I awake from my apparent moment of madness with hope that, it was in fact, a dream. Alas, it was a true moment of insanity (however common they may be) and I was in fact running an Ultra Marathon in under a month!

So I told Prince Charming:

Me: Guess what?
Prince Charming: What?
Me: I’m running an ultra marathon in 4 weeks!
PC: Ummm… when was the last time you ran an Ultra Crazii?
Me: Ummm… 2 years ago maybe?
PC: And when was the last time you actually trained for an Ultra Marathon?
Me: Ummm… 2 years ago maybe?
PC: I see… and how do you propose to complete this 50km run?
Me: Well there’s beer at the end.
PC: Oh well in that; case give it horns!

You have to accolade the man, he does know me very well!

In the forthcoming weeks I have planned a very rigorous exercise regime involving drinking beer, I mean carbo loading, and going to bootcamp… the bootcamp part is proving to be slightly tricky. For my sins I signed up at the local Hell on Earth, I mean gym, and within five minutes it became clear I was ‘that’ person in the class. Having forgotten I was supposed to start on Friday, I rocked up yesterday.

Me: It’s me, I’m here!
Drill Sergeant: You were supposed to be here on Friday.
Me: I was playing hide and seek with my enthusiasm… It won, I couldn’t find it anywhere.
DS: Where’s your mat?
Me: Matt who?
DS: Your mat to lie on.
Me: We lie around in bootcamp, I can totally do this!
DS: *Sigh* how about weights?
Me: I think you mean weight, singular, and isn’t that a bit personal. Regardless, I’m giving you a heads up here, I will lie.
DS: No Crazii, hand weights, that you lift up and down to build muscle.
Me: Oh right… well I think I have a bottle of wine in my bag. Probably more than I can handle but I’m willing to give it a go.

Wish me luck Peeps, for you all know that I need it!




Thursday, February 2, 2012

MARKETING FOR THOUGHT


A bit of running trivia/absolute drivel for all keen runners out there; and a bit of a cop out for me because I have, as yet,  not recovered from this weeks worth of running/gym and therefore all blood flow has been reserved for the sole purpose or resuscitating my hamstrings and convincing my calf muscles that fighting with the neighboring Achilles tendon is not a good idea. Enjoy!

P.S. While I think it’s a pretty amusing little piece if marketing/nonsense, could someone explain why its called Sports Bras vs. Speedos… do men really run in speedo’s???

Brought to you by Running Music
 

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

SIMPLICITY


Right, so… In an effort to adhere to one of my New Years Resolutions (a topic for another time), I have tried to simplify my life therefore my blog. I’m going in a new design direction and colour scheme to see how it fits. Comments are always welcome and if there is an over-whelming desire to change, I shall do so.

I promise to be back in action soon with witty banter and stories of general hilarity (often involving me being a total idiot), some sweat and spandex and of course wine and it’s accompanying sumo wrestler eyelids and jack hammer brain! 

Saturday, January 21, 2012

TIME... WHERE DID YOU GO???



Can’t talk now, last deadline of the year. And since I left it till the last minute, I have until midnight to draw something utterly inspiring, truly original and elegantly subtle that appeals to ‘everyone’. I’m not sure if this includes aliens, poor and/or senile people or anyone/thing outside the realm of extremely wealthy, but I will give it a go. So far I’ve draw the front door and written down twenty words which were in fact a shopping list; I’ve also cleaned my desk, done some seriously innovative filing (read numerous small piles of paperwork as opposed to one) and listened to everything that Pandora has to offer. I then spent an hour on YouTube watching running/motivational films of ultra marathoners during their 75 mile delusional state... Not because they would help me with my house but because they’re wipe my eyes and spray tea through my nose funny and somehow make my current position look easily surmountable. I’m now waiting for ‘beer o’clock’ which usually rolls around late afternoon in the office and involves drinking alcohol and being distracted for 30 mins. I’ll have wine I think, beer makes me gassy… I’ll draw after wine. Perhaps not straight lines, more organic, but if this house is supposed to appeal to everyone, I say why by square...

OMG it’s January 20th… I’m screwed!

Happy new year everyone! I’ll be better this year I promise!