I make resolutions
Yeah, I know. It’s nearly March already and I’m only now giving a think to my new years resolutions. I don’t do silly resolutions such as ‘lose weight’: something like that is too vague. Besides, I don’t even know how much I weigh 
So here goes:
- Learn to play the guitar. Everyone’s doing it these days — yeah, even my 2-year-old niece — so hopefully it’ll turn into a jam session at some time. But I don’t want to stop at learning how to jam; I want to do math. I was half decent at it in school and I’m sure that I can kick arse if I apply myself a lot more.
- Buy property. I’ve been saying this for the last 5 years but I think this is the year I’ll finally convince myself — I’m still not 100% convinced that it’s the cleverest thing to do — to buy.
- Be more interesting. It can’t be too difficult, eh? But a great part of being interesting really means being interested [in the person you're talking to]. So it’s time to dust off How to win friends and influence people.
- Explore. I’ll start with a trip to Parys.
- Become a hell of a lot more self-aware. It’s difficult to do but this isn’t optional. I used to scoff at people who read The power of now. But that was back in the day and I now realise just how important it is to savour every moment.
- Become big and strong. I’ve been to two boxing classes and I regularly go to yoga classes. I want to have strong legs and a flat tummy. One of the women at the boxing class has the hardest punches I’ve ever experienced. I wanna be like that.
- Learn to construct flawless arguments. This means I need to argue more often. Not all the time, just more often.
- Consume less sugar. It makes me hyper. Go figure. Sure, I could just go to the gym after work but that means I’d have to walk around our office block 3 or 4 times a day just to get rid of all that extra energy until I can get to the gym. Not on.
- I’ll fill my days with more stuff to do. Cause the more you do, the more you can fit in every day.
- I’m gonna [lay]buy experiences, not stuff. So I went to one of my favourite vintage stores at the weekend and I saw this awesome ‘Made in Italy’ leather briefcase. I’m not a lawyer [yet] but it’s an awesome bag. I wanted to lay-buy it until the end of next month. Problem is that I already have an awesome bag; I don’t need yet another one. So I’ll lay-buy myself some experience instead.
- I want to make as many mistakes as possible so that I can learn from them while I’m still young. Then life will be so much easier when I hit my 30s and 40s.
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We need a proper mobile shortener service
OK. So Google has Goo.gl, Facebook has Fb.me, there’s TinyURL, Bit.ly, and there’s WordPress’ wp.me. And there are 5478 other URL shortener services available to choose from. So here’s my question: when are the big mobile browsers going to enter the battle? When’s Opera going to do something similar?
There are a few mobile URL shorteners out there: QuickTr.im for iPhone and Android devices; there’s Mobile Tiny URL for keypad phones; and there’s Delivr.com.
I do not have an iPhone nor do I have an Android phone so I tested out Delivr.com and Mobile Tiny URL. Delivr.com works well but it still doesn’t have the functionality that I’m looking for — shorten a URL with one tap of my stylus or one tap of a key. And it needs to be integrated into the phone’s software so that I can copy the URL onto the clipboard and send it to friends via sms messages or as part of an email. I can only use Delivr.com with Opera Mobile, not with Opera Mini.
It’s not enough that I can shorten and simplify a complex URL; I want a mobile URL shortener service that will allow me to press a key on my phone that shortens the URL while I’m viewing that particular page. It needs to mimic how one would use a URL shortener service on a computer, but it also needs to cater to the many phones that cannot use copy and paste (yet). The user would overcome this liability by writing down the — simpler! better! faster! — URL on a piece of paper and then sending it to a friend.
While Mobile Tiny URL is cute, it is much more beneficial to a user whose phone has a keypad. The service assumes the user has to tap a key several times to get to the specific letter they want to use: 3 times to get to the letter ‘c’, for example. But this isn’t always the case. Some phones allow you to select the exact letter you want without having to tap the ‘a’ key 3 times.
So the perfect mobile URL shortener service would need to do the following:
Be compatible with the phone’s software
Opera Mobile gets this right — I can copy and past a URL into an sms message and vice versa. But not all mobile browsers allow this — Opera Mini 5.2, which is one of my favourite mobile browsers, doesn’t – and not everyone has a Windows Mobile phone.
It should be easy to use
Users shouldn’t have to fiddle with the browser’s advanced features to enable the function. It could even be an app that the user downloads onto their phone.
Compatibility
Whether it is a website or an app, it needs to be compatible with a myriad of mobile browsers as well as a myriad of WAP-enabled cellphones. This might be a challenge but I’m confident that there are plenty of clever developers out there who can build superb applications.
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What is ‘real’ racism?
So just what is this alleged real racism that people are talking about? They speak of real racism as though it’s so much better than fake racism. Fake racism could be white people who dress up as Native Americans aka Injuns, for Halloween. And then Native Americans complain about it and they’re told to rather focus on ‘real racism’, which is so much more offensive. And so much more ‘real’.
Same thing with ‘real sexism’. Could it be that people who wish we could rather focus on ‘real’ instances of sexism or racism are unaware of how these bigotries actually work? Because there are too many people who claim that a remark is OK as long as it is not horrifically sexist/racist. And that we should not be offended by such ‘benign’ statements. I always wonder how they distinguish between ‘horrific’ and ’so-so’ examples of bigotry. And this one guy claims that anecdotal evidence aint evidence. Pity he doesn’t realise that sexism is the sum of many small injustices. It becomes a pattern, as does racism. One sexist lyric/video/blog post/internet forum comment/book could still be ignored; many sexist lyrics/videos/blog posts/internet forum comments/books means it’s a state of emergency. Something’s wrong and we need to fix the system.
Sometimes, though, a member of the privileged group will acknowledge that they might not be the best ones to determine what or who is sexist or racist — for the very reason that they belong to the group with the most power. But this doesn’t happen nearly as often as should.
You see, sexism and racism are both overt and covert. Overt sexism would be job ads that specify ‘men only’. And covert sexism could be someone being idiotic — though sincere! — who claims that women are the ‘nicer’ sex. It sounds like a compliment, no? But it reveals as much about the speaker or writer as that exclusionary job ad. It’s similar to hearing that you’re so ‘pretty for a black girl‘. On the surface it sounds like a compliment. But dig a bit deeper and you’ll find that it isn’t a compliment at all — it’s racist. It’s racist because the writer or speaker is surprised to encounter such a good looking black person. So they’re experiencing some cognitive dissonance — “Hold on! How can this black person be this pretty? Aren’t blacks ugly?” And then comes the compliment: “Wow, you’re so pretty for a black girl!”
Real racism is at play even when you, liberal white man, refuses to see it. Real sexim is at play even when you, liberal woman, laughs along with the sexist jokes.
Sure, you do not think it’s racist or sexist. But it doesn’t mean that it isn’t. Real racism doesn’t just have to be a burning cross on someone’s front yard. Real sexism isn’t just sex-specific job ads. Think about it.
And let’s hope you’ll be less inclined to tell the aggrieved party that the ‘offender didn’t mean to offend’, is a ‘nice person’, and ‘couldn’t possibly be racist/sexist’. ‘Cause guess what? Their actions hurt someone else. Surely that’s bad enough?
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Which things will you remember with fondness?
I think about this a lot when I’m driving around. And then I promise myself I’ll write about it when I get home. But I never do because other things distract me. So I was thinking about memories. What they mean to us, why we remember some things but not others, and which things I’ll remember in the future.
I do this because often I’ll remember something pleasant. This sometimes happen when I’m having a craptastic day. Such as today. The memory helps me to get through that moment and, eventually, the day. Exercise helps, too.
It could be something silly, such as my favourite doll’s name from when I was a wee one. Or perhaps I remember my childhood crush — Andrew. Oh, how I’m smiling now!
So I’d love to know from you: which things do you think you’ll reflect on next year or in 2012? Will you remember a special moment from today?
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Does mineral oil benefit my skin?
So I’ve been trying to find information on beauty products’ efficiency as well as their benefits. I did a bit of googling and found a post on The Beauty Brains about the top 5 myths about mineral oil part one and myths about mineral oil part two.
The first part talks about the 5 myths and gives reasons why they are illogical. I bolded the last two sentences to show the contrast between this section and a comment — also in bold – in the second half of the article. So now I ask you with tears in my eyes — what’s the point in using mineral oil aka baby oil if it doesn’t provide the skin with moisture?
2. Mineral oil dries the skin and causes premature aging. Mineral oil works as a barrier between the skin and the air. It acts as an occlusive agent which prevents water from naturally leaving your body through your skin. It will not dry out your skin or cause premature aging. Quite the contrary. It will provide moisturization.
The comment in the second half:
thebeautybrains January 7, 2008 at 8:27 am
Angel,
And snake venom will kill you. The point is that there are plenty of natural materials that are not “good” for you.
Most of your comments are just a rehashing of things others have said. If you could include some proof to back up your opinions it would be nice.
Your car example…the parts exposed to oil do not rust. Not all the parts are exposed to oil all the time.
You’re trying to create a straw man logical fallacy. I never said mineral oil imparts moisture. It doesn’t. Go back and read through the comments. This has already been discussed.
What is your proof that plant based oils soak into your skin? The fact that they are organic is irrelevant. They don’t soak in any different than mineral oil.
Where is your proof that petroleum based products will lock microbes in your wounds? More unproven propaganda.
Finally, mineral oil doesn’t add vitamin A or C to your skin. And what exactly do vitamins, mineral or fats do when applied to your skin?
Either/Or Logical fallacy…
“And by default- if it NOT putting any kind of vitamins, minerals, or fats of any kind into the skin then logically we have to call it what it is: a filler.”
It’s an occlusive agent put in products to increase the level of moisture in your skin. This is proven by the fact that when skin moisture levels are measured with a device like a corneometer, they are higher when mineral oil based creams are used.
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We’re being erased…
A Google search for information on whether ’slams’ is a pejorative word led me to an article by Ashraf Johaardien about his struggle to find information on the disappearance of the words teram-akasie and kanala in the Cape Malay community.
He doesn’t mention his feelings on the struggle to find any information but this is [yet another] an example of erasuring a people’s history.
So yes, there can be many reasons why he failed to find anything about the disappearance of teram-akasie and kanala from the Cape Muslim community on Google. But we live in a Western world, even though we live in Africa. Many white people still refer to themselves – and to others of their tribe – as European. Never mind that many of the Afrikaner tribe can’t speak any European languages.
Some of the best reasons that I can think of are the following:
1. The POC community exists only to make jokes about
2. POC communities exist only in pictorial books in Exclusive Books stores
3. Few people in [white] academia see POC as worthy of research
4. There are few interested [insiders] people who chronicle the history of POC dialects’ language quirks.
5. The publishing industry is not as transformed as they would like to think(pdf)
6. And POC communities are only worthy when they exude ‘blackness’, ie, poverty.
Another example of this erasure is ‘Daisy’ Dube’s murder on 12 June 2008. Few online South African newspapers mention this murder; I learnt of it from a comment on a blog that had criticised the blogger slash comedian for his sketch about a transwoman.
Rarely even do we get to write our own histories. That honour is reserved for people such as Chris Ledochowski, John Liebenberg and David Goldblatt. Don’t forget about anthropologists and sociologists. But they are nearly always fond[er] of stories that contribute to the single African story. And these stories all conform to the ‘one true’ way of telling stories about Africa. POC who do not fit the narrow mould of their story are erased. Their experiences are discounted as not ‘black’/'authentic’/'African’ enough.
The other reasons why few ever hear our stories is not there are too few people creating content. And the number one reason for this is systemic racism. This is racism that is built into our society and that might be eradicated in a couple of thousand years, though I highly doubt that. Umuzi’s writer page shows that only 11% of their writer base is black. Oops, sorry, K. Sello Duiker is dead. So out of the 98 writers on that page, only 11 are black. And Sir Richard Branson is a British citizen. But Umuzi has more POC writers on their books than Jonathan Ball Publishers; I could only find one living black author on JB Publishers’ fiction page.
Solani Ngobeni, the former International Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, said this: “We are not documenting our own stories and history; instead, we are allowing the former colonial master to do so on our behalf and then to resell it to us. Shame on us African publishers!“
I’d bet a substantial amount of money that most publishers believe they are being fair in sourcing unique stories to be published. But the reality is that transformation needs to happen sooner rather than later. And not just on junior levels. We need people in senior positions, people with clout, who can help us to get everyone’s story out there. This means that POC should be promoted and not side-lined.
Online media, on the other hand, does not rely on publishing houses; online media relies on eyeballs. But to start an online media empire one needs tools: decent broadband, some type of computer, networking, a smattering of good fortune, and writers. Oh, and time, too. These criteria exclude more than 95% of this country, let alone people of colour.
We don’t need more blogs written by POCs with Gammat jokes; we need more POC blogging that dissects the news and offer analysis; we need more POC blogging about fashion theory; we need more POC blogging that criticizes something, anything, everything; we need more POC blogging that can challenge the stereotypes the [white] media creates and perpetuates of us.
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Do your rights trump mine?
Vuvuzela supporters are causing a stink — a cacophony? — with their insistence on using the instrument during the World Cup next year. And now Motoaki Inukai wants Fifa to ban the instrument.
I’m no law expert and these are only my personal views but the supporters seem to believe their right to making as loud a noise as possible is an inalienable right. There are few such rights — life, dignity, health, freedom and equality. Inflicting pain and suffering on someone else’s eardrum doesn’t strike me as one of those rights.
Some claim the vuvuzela is uniquely African. Alas, it seems that the instrument is uniquely American and Chinese.
Anyway.
When two rights oppose each other , eg, your right to smoke and my right to clean air, we have a problem. Sure, you’re allowed to smoke. But my right to a clean environment trumps your right to smoke in this instance. My right to quiet enjoyment of my property trumps your right to play doof doof music at any time of day. And my right to clean air trumps your right to wear perfume that constricts my throat.
So why is it that this is not common knowledge? Why are people quick to point out that I’m infringing on their rights? And why the defensiveness? Perhaps it’d be a great idea to go back to Emsie Schoeman’s etiquette guide.
I read a post about perfume in the workplace and one commentor sums it up nicely:
I foresee the same thing happening to fragrance wearers that happened to smokers. At least banning the use in the workplace and using natural deoderizers (baking soda, etc.) and fragrance free cleaning products. Unfortunately we are the ones who are in the forefront of this revolution similar to the suffragettes who fought for the right for women to vote.
South Africa does not have enough legislation to cover those of us who feel our rights are being infringed. Nor are enough people, organisations and companies aware of the problems. All too often, people are told to suck it up; the offender will not change their behaviour(s). This needs to stop. It’s time to recognise that we all need to be more considerate of other people. And sometimes that means forgoing or altering certain of our behaviours or products.
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Yeah, they think coloureds are hilarious
Some of the searches that lead people to my blog:
learn to speak cape coloured
coloured hare
cape coloured jokes
cape flats jokes
coloured people front teeth
why coloured have no teeth
funny papsak pictures
coloured models
cape town coloured speak
Many people would find this funny, I know. Just a pity that I don’t. It’s interesting, though, to see what the online world thinks of us. But what’s even more interesting is that there are some people who think colour is no longer supposed to be an issue.
I wonder what these people think when they arrive on my blog? Are they disappointed? Especially when they realise I’m not a coloured model and that I have all my front teeth
Update: Another searcher arrived here by searching for ‘talk like a cape coloured’.
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What and who is POC/WOC?
Why should anybody want to define himself by what he is not? — William Safire
I recently received an email from Jason, one of my readers, who wanted to know what POC and WOC are. So I gave him a short explanation. And then I wrote that if he doesn’t know the terminology, I might have to do a post about the two acronymns’ meaning.
I remember my introduction to the term in 2006. I was on a date with an older guy who is a Kenyan expat. He called me a woman of colour. Something in the phrase made me uncomfortable. I have no idea what it could have been. But I didn’t like it and for that week I kept introducing myself to my friends as – “Hi, I am Joy-Mari Cloete and I am a woman of colour.” We thought it was funny.
Fastforward to 2009, only 3 years later, and I have done a 360° on this phrase. I now realise that the word black isn’t always descriptive of the majority of people in this world — many are something else: Creole, coloured, Jews, Latina/o, Indian, Native American, Aboriginal, Inuits. And the term ‘black’ has negative connotations in many parts of the world. So it makes sense to call myself a woman of colour instead of coloured when I’m speaking to my Canadian friend who flinches when she hears what she calls the C-word.
POC means either person of colour or people of colour, depending on the context. Similarly, WOC means woman of colour or women of colour, depending on the contex.
No-one can safely say when the term was first used, nor do linguists know who had used it first. But an 1818 pamphlet, ”Report of the Committee, to Whom was Referred the Memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States.”, may be one of the earliest known usages of the term. French colonies have used gens de couleur liberes to speak of emancipated black people. And the oldest known usage is from 1781, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. But I’ll be damned if I can find a credible link on that piece of information.
And yes, immigrants and refugees could be people of colour. The term has expanded since it first became en vogue in the late 20th century, when Frantz Fanon and Martin Luther King Jr used it.
Activists created it as a counterreaction to ‘non-white’. Why do white people [get to] set the standard? And we have to define ourselves on what we are not? But perhaps my initial dislike of the term stems from yet again being ‘othered’. White people are just that — white. They don’t seperate themselves into categories, as they did with people of colour: quadroon, mulatto, quintoon, octoroon, Eurasian.
I have incorporated the words into my vocabulary but am still more than a bit reluctant to call myself black, even though I can identify with Steven Biko’s definition of black as everyone who had suffered under Apartheid.
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