I want a Shirley Valentine Holiday to Greece

My relationship with Shirley Valentine started long before they even realised they were going to do a movie!! It all started many many…many years ago in Paris early one morning. Armed with backpack and train ticket I made my way down to ‘le pressing’ to fetch my friend Katrine Boutillier ( she has apparently since married into the Manoukian fashion family!!). I knocked on her door and that woke her…she was not ready to leave!! I saw a packed bag and a few things on the floor and she asked whether I could fit them into my bag? You can imagine my response…
“Absolutely no ways, if you can’t fit in your bag you just leave it behind!!!”

We had an exciting train ride to Brindisi. Katrine fell madly in love twice at first sight with Italians she could not understand and cried buckets each time at her loss when they left the train!! I had to ask always for “toilette” and cigarette” for her because she couldn’t say it in English. These are the French words written on the page just for your info!!! Of course by the end of my train ride my French had improved by double after spending a year ‘au pairing’ in France. I had the joy of translating every conversation that we had in English into French so Katrine could understand!!

We had much fun on our island-hopping-on-a-shoe-string-holiday. We slept mainly on beaches with a little knife down the side of the sleeping bag just in case!!! We fell asleep to the sounds of the small waves hitting the sand and sometimes that sound on pebbled beaches. We took a donkey ride up Santorini and enjoyed the night life on Ios. We laughed at the English girls who were always bright pink at the end of their first day in the sun and laughed at the Irishmen who wore socks on the beach. Those were the good old days when you woke up in the morning, went for a beautiful swim, changed into something light, left the back pack leaning against a lone tree or bush somewhere and you wondered into town for the morning to find breakfast and shop and returned to find your back pack just as you left it!!

We finally made it to Crete, the large island to the South of all others!! We found Panayiotis and Georgos very quickly or they found us!! This time we both fell in love madly – sun, sea and sex were the order of the day in that order I might add!!!

Sometimes Panayiotis and Georgos would have a day off work and Katrine and I would jump on the back of their 125cc’s and be driven to exciting places around the island. Sometimes we hitched ourselves around the island and that did leave us once in a compromising position – on a beach who knows where down a long windy lane with an old man!!! We no speak Greek and he no speak English but a common understanding of “take off your clothes and come swim with me” – had he been a Greek Adonis – who knows but he was just a dirty old man. Katrine and I looked at each other – absolutely no ways – we shook our heads vehemently and he promptly dropped our bags out his car - thank you very much for your thoughtfulness - and left us standing there with a long walk back to civilisation!!!

We finally had to leave Panayiotis and Georgos and make our way back to France. Buckets were cried of course from both of us this time as we caught the ferry back to Brindisi with absolutely no more cash and promises to return soonest!!!

I did return to Greece the following year much to the horror of the now ex boyf who had taken me 24 months earlier to Mykonos restaurant in Durban to break plates before I left!!! I of course had to go back and find Georgos who was now spending a little time in Northern Greece just after my Christmas trip home. I went to Khalkidhiki and skied in Mount Athos. I think it took me three hours to ski down my first slope without a lesson and no clue what I was supposed to do. I spent most of that time with bum in the snow and legs in the air – now I know what you are thinking but it wasn’t that at all. The only way to zigzag down the mountain and turn that corner was plop down in the snow and swivel me legs in the air to the right direction before getting back on my skis till the next turn.

We returned to Crete at the start of the summer and I found a job on a tour bus accompanying tourists from French and English speaking countries and a few Italians on a 5 day tour round the island of Crete each week. I loved that job and the people I met. I worked with Georgos the bus driver. I partied hard and worked hard but by the end of the summer I realised that lots of other girls had also come back to find their Georgos. Sometimes he was my not so dark Georgos and sometimes he was another Georgos but yearly visits from European and Scandinavian girls leaving husbands and boyfriends behind to find their Georgos seemed to me the norm. I laughed when I heard young foreign girls stop Greeks in the street and they would plead.

“I’m looking for Georgos. He has black hair and a moustache. I met him last night!!!! Half the males on the Island were called Georgos, they had black hair and a moustache!!!

This time when I do my Shirley Valentine trip to Greece I will most definitely not be looking for Georgos but hey what about Yannis… Dimitri…

For the sanity of us neighbours – just legalise it

I’m not talking good or bad, right or wrong or whether you should or you shouldn’t. It’s illegal – In this country it IS illegal!!!

People say it’s the oldest profession in society but that doesn’t make it right. But hey, people do it and they will not stop doing it!! - Paying for SEX

There were 3 girls at work in the house next door. I never saw them often. They came out to put the washing on the line in the morning and sometimes would get in or out of a car for a function outside of these 4 walls. I laughed at the one visitor as the girl would have to come out to meet him at the door of his car and then walk into the house in front of him. Sometimes he would come baring gifts – a box of donuts perhaps.

In the last 2 weeks before they finally moved out there were 4 raids on the establishment. Some policemen spoke to the ADT guards in our road and apparently some dagga, some pills and a person with expired papers were found. Duck tape was also found which usually points to packets taped up and placed in a garden. If they are tending a garden it is only for show and the place were illegal substances are kept! All these aspects were denied during the course of the next week. The pills were Chinese medicine apparently – maybe to help that lift that was needed coming from their loins!! One policeman admitted he didn’t want to arrest the Taiwanese pimp because he was such a sweet man and couldn’t possibly be doing anything wrong!!!

All raids followed the same procedures. Loud banging on the door, a few grumpy shouts – I thought for my attention just to say ‘we are here’ – a walk round the garden where the vegetable patch was overlooked and what then looked like a search which I could only see happening in the kitchen. The rest of the house windows covered in thick red drapes was impossible to see. This then followed a fair long time of talking and laughter and then finally the police would leave with no one in hand cuffs. The neighbours finally left just over a week ago. I thanked the police profusely as I have finally got my life back and can sleep at night without being woken by cars and talking all day and all hours of the night! I did however express concern that not having been arrested they would just move the operation somewhere else and some other poor unsuspecting neighbour has just started their nightmare living!!

“Well as long as it’s not in our jurisdiction, we are happy and it becomes someone else’s problem”. Yes you heard right and that’s the policemen’s answer to the situation!!

These policemen are playing cat and mouse getting these establishments out of their areas into other areas and of course the same problems start again. What a waste of police money, time and energy raiding brothels for show with no arrests but to appease the public that someone IS doing something to protect us! No wonder there is little room for descent salaries after all that!!
Oh I almost forgot! They are shown appreciation for there brave raid actions by also being allowed to lurk down those very same passageways where the public were too!!

I have lists of number plates and pictures of number plates all handed to the police, the brigadier and my lawyers. No one really cares about these illegal acts and no one does anything about those visiting!

I would break up with my man if I found out he was visiting a prostitute and I knew about it. I would prefer my man to have an affair! For me the lesser of 2 choices I would not want to make but if I had to…I know that an affair means he might give up some part of his heart and soul but living next door to a brothel gave me a totally different perspective!!

No matter how far I think I’ve come since my Catholic school upbringing and no matter how broadminded I think I have become I obviously just don’t get it!!!

These men were fat, skinny, dirty sweaty, clean, rich, poor, bald, greasy haired, Christian, Jewish, Hindi, Moslem and probably some atheists thrown in too!! They arrive in the latest 4 by 4 models, BMW’s and the real old ‘skadonks’ that you can hear a mile down the road and you just know that noise is going to get louder and louder until it stops with a rattle and a shudder in the driveway next door. They arrive 1 to 4 men in a car 3 to 4 cars parked outside at some given moments (remember only 3 girls inside) and they go inside to poke it into the same limited space one after the other maybe even together – who the hell knows.

Some men stay for 15 minutes and would be called premature ejaculators – but in the brothel who cares!! Some men stay for close on an hour and you can just imagine all that grunting and snorting and sweating and then the next man walks in!! What’s a little bit of shared sweat between strangers huh!!!

At this point the clean or unclean methods respected in different cultures and religions are thrown out the window. No one seems to care whether those before eat beef or pork or mixed meat and milk in the same saucer, whether they are alcoholics or smokers! The desire for illicit sex is obviously so strong that they don’t care about what ever it is they are anti in the real world and are just happy to go lurking in passageways that hold proteins of all food types and behaviours - There’s definitely no time for cleaning in between each act !! They don’t care!! They paid for it and their wives and religious leaders just don’t know!!! The Catholics would leave and say a Hail Mary or 10, I would think - but the others I’m not so sure what their religion would require!!

It’s quite funny actually but it’s the only time when all people of different religions, races, creed, cultures and colour all meet in the same place and are happy to share!! The real rainbow nation!!

If I was a prostitute – I’d make them pay big, I mean real big! As much as I find the above conduct unbecoming of any man I think we should all fight for it to be legal. That way the police would not waste time and energy on farce raids. They could move into a red light district and leave us neighbourhoods alone where we the women and children hang out!! The brothels can be taxed for all the cash they get paid and help pay toward this economy. The prostitutes could get regular AIDS tests and like America if they have AIDS they are out!! I don’t care much for the men getting Aids but I do care about those poor unsuspecting wives they go home to and those children that would be left behind!!

For the sanity of us neighbours – just legalise it!!!

I just love the colours of Africa - Don't you?

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!!

A really good overseas holiday has a checklist, some more important than others. Its about what you saw, what you did and what you experienced so that you can wear that ‘been there, done that got the T-shirt’ phrase on a nice new Top!! Better than ‘all I got was this lousy T-shirt’ because that would mean you actually hadn’t even been there!!! One of the most important aspects is experiencing a different culture! I’ve been to The Yangtzee river, Xian and the Great wall in China, The Tran Siberia train ride from Moscow to Beijing and even seen Santa Claus in Lapland so I should know am little about these things.

Today I’m going to take you through a virtual tour of that experience in the Eastern Cape.

Most people like to shop till they drop. They even take an extra suitcase. A family I knew literally went with the clothes they were wearing and overnight bag and bought a whole new wardrobe to bring home!!

While the women are out shopping with Mr’s credit card the men are sitting in the pub having a few ales, drowning their sorrows before they get those statements, some even wondering how lucky they might get from the guilt of her spending!!!

Eventually the women get tired and need a good chin wag over a cup of coffee! They have to convince themselves that all ‘that’ spent on ‘this’ was absolutely worth it!!

No holiday would be complete without visiting a few old churches. I was upset to hear that when one now pays to light a candle they go on electrically. No more good old fashioned wicker candles!!

A few cultural places are always on the map although some people like to just look at it from the outside and then brag about what they did!! I met an American traveller once and all he did in each place he visited was to go the American Embassy in that area and take a picture!! Quite a collection he must have!! But back to the Eastern Cape and a little bit of culture!!

Of course the old buildings are always my best. I just love to wonder the streets and look at the architecture!! I could spend all day just walking, snapping and experiencing.


One has to experience the night life, drinks and a disco maybe!! Even at 75 they like a good party and a few drinks. I took a trip to Russia once, average age 75 years!!! There were amongst the crowd 5 single ladies and one single gent!! All the ladies wanted favour with Sir and Sir was happy to wine the ladies!!! There’s hope for us all!! He was buying the drinks and the ladies were drinking!!

These days you can’t go anywhere without looking at real estate and imagining the life if you could just buy a house or some property there!! A place with a view – position is everything!!!

And in the end I am always fascinated by how others live and what it would really be like to actually make that move!!

If that is intolerance and I am intolerant…I don’t mind!!

To wear or not to wear the headscarf is a question being asked in many non Muslim countries of the world today. With the banning of the burqa (full head cover) in public places in some countries France, Belgium, Turkey and Kosovo and the headscarf banned in schools in France and about to go the same way in some other European countries I had to ask myself the big Question – How tolerant of others am I??

I was walking through the mall the other day and a woman (I think) in full black outfit and burqa with slightly dark reading glasses on through the slit in the eyes, came walking towards me and I looked really hard trying to understand what this was all about. I have not read the passages in the Koran that insists on this practice so am fairly ignorant on those matters on this subject. My understanding is from my perspective of freedom!! I am not being rude when I say ‘I think’ but in full honesty it could have been anyone under that garment!!

Anyway back to this idea of looking…and I remembered a brilliant 2 part series TV show I watched fairly recently when the first picture was of a young suicide bomber blowing himself up in London and then followed the whole story on how he got to that moment in time and in the mind. His sister who was a devout Muslim did not wear the burqa and was ostracised by those who did and the men who wanted her to do so. One day she tried it after a friend explained to her that when wearing a burqa people treated you really badly…like a ‘non person’. She then got similar ‘non person’ treatment!!

I do apologise in advance for my feelings but when looking at a person who is choosing or maybe forced into choosing to cover up the whole body with a flowing rob just like Denis Roussos did when trying to hide his large size, I got to thinking of others who do the same for different reasons!! Our nuns in Catholicism wear full dresses and cover their hair. Practical philosophy followers wear flowing ankle skirts and not so tight tops. The Amish wear simple outfits with long sleeves and long skirts. The fundamentalist Mormons also have their thick course dress material and the ‘we all buy from the same catalogue one choice style’ look and awful long thick stockings that must be worn. I am sure there are many other instances of dress code which make you conform to belong through religion, customs and beliefs. We have the total opposite here In SA with the Zulu maiden who is allowed to let it all hang out!!

I do not even mind the head scarf that covers up the hair. It is the face and the eyes that matter to me!!!! It’s the covering of the face and the mouth and the eyes with the burqa that make me think ‘non person’. If your personality shines through your face and eyes and expression which to me it does and I can’t see you, you become ‘non person’!! And I can only think that out of choice or husband’s choice that person wants to be a non person. Intolerant - yes absolutely but my intolerance goes deeper than that!!

Gheerah is the driving emotion that is supposed to protect and safeguard a man’s own woman and children from the leering look of strangers. Hijab the terminology for covering yourself fulfils this action. A real man would thus want this for all women so he can’t leer at others and others can’t leer at his possessions. If people choose to really wear these full outfits because of their own relationship with God and the humility they feel in face of him. I understand; but when it is a male that dominates the world and is doing this to curb the lust he might feel. I freak out.

Especially when living next door to a brothel! The police have checked the number plates and the car owners are a large percent Muslim! They even arrive from Mosque still dressed in their white robe and turban. I know this is a small percentage of men and men from all religions do visit (trying very hard not to generalise) But when you walk in a mall and the man is dressed in jeans and normal clothes and the woman is covered from head to toe…I just don’t get it!! My intolerance level heightens!!

I realise that my tolerance is ruled by do unto others as you would do to yourself.

In calcutta in India (a largely Hindu society) a devout Muslim teacher who does not wear Hijab with full face burqa was told by her students that they would not come to class unless she wore it. In some places in France and Norway statistics show rape has increased in certain areas where hijab is not practised!! Even in Australia a Muslim cleric condoned the rape because the girl was ‘asking for it’.

If their was absolute freedom world wide and only those women who really wanted to wear it, did and I was free to visit Iran, Iraq and a few other Muslim countries without conforming to Hijab I think I would be more tolerant and advocate to not ban the burqa – full face cover. But in its symbol of suppression for so many people in worlds where freedom of women is non existent in mans insistence to keep her as a non person because of what he feels and his non ability to fight these feelings with reasoning instead of succumbing to it – I say – Ban the burqa!!

If that is intolerance and I am intolerant…I don’t mind!!

P.S. – thought left in a Muslim internet chat room!!

‘What kind of dignity a non-believer has by the way; they conduct their life and expose themselves. They have removed the shield of protection, that modesty of Hijab and left themselves unprotected and that is the cause for the assault, which takes place once every ten seconds in rape and murder around the world. But those true Muslims who observe proper Hijab are protected from such assaults and not one [case of] this type is ever heard of.’

Afrikaans - To speak or not to speak!!

I was very upset the other day when I read the following in an article in news24 the other day.

"Cosas condemns any racial tendencies that seeks to close doors of learning for the black African students, who are indigenous people of this country and Africa at large by having foreign, unoriginal Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in some racist schools, more especially in the West Rand region under racist Afrikaners management," a statement from Gauteng provincial secretary Oagile Louw said.

I was left wondering if all Afrikaans schools are racist or only those on the west rand!! And furthermore why are some people still intimidated by Afrikaans 16 years into our democracy. It was the language of the oppressor but in Africa so was French, Portuguese and English and that hasn’t stopped the people in those countries from expressing themselves in these European tongues!!

Afrikaans is an interesting language and it is a relatively new language in History but that does not make it a language that should thus be ignored. If you asked me where Afrikaans came from I would always say that the Dutch bought it out in 1652 when they established a colony in Cape Town. A couple of years later the Huguenots, mainly French protestants who had moved to Holland fleeing catholic persecution came to South Africa on ships to settle in distant lands. There were German, French and Dutch Protestants in this group so although never mentioned I am sure that German and French did have an influence as well as the Malay, Portuguese and some African languages in its development.

According to Wikipedia and South African statistics Afrikaans is the 3rd most spoken language and it has the widest geographical and racial distribution of all official languages. It is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language. When I go to my sister’s farm in Bloemfontein we have to communicate to her staff in Afrikaans. We don’t force them to speak Afrikaans - it’s just that they don’t know any English!!

So why am I making all this fuss!!

I love languages. I speak a few myself!! I never learnt Zulu unfortunately because in those days we learnt English, Afrikaans and maybe French or German!! I did not live on a farm like Eddie from Ficksburg or my friend Debbie and so have an extremely limited knowledge of the Zulu language and I can’t even call it Fanagolo. I also hated Afrikaans until the travel bug hit me and then I realised how fortunate we were!!

I was sitting alone but not by myself in a hot spring in Iceland, surrounded by snow, northern lights haphazard movement across the sky, bottle of Irish Baileys in hand and I was contemplating life. Those of you who spend time alone will know that other people’s conversations can be quite interesting during these times. I was listening to a foreign language spoken by an elderly couple and after understanding the just of the conversation I asked them what they were speaking. It was Old Norse a language spoken by the older generation of Norwegians and I could understand a bit – I am sure that was because of Afrikaans. 4 Months later I found myself in Akureyri watching the sun come down to the horizon on 21st June before bouncing off to start its next daily cycle. There we were a few in the back packers all come to see the midnight sun and once again conversation flowed in many languages and Afrikaans.

When I studied my Travel and tourism diploma in France; paid for by my fish cutting antiques in Iceland I had to choose a 3rd language. I had French with difficulty but essential, English as my 2nd language and I chose German. The girls in my class and I think one male student, had all done German for matric in France. Verbal comprehensions were my best. I understood a lot more than anyone else in my class – That was because of Afrikaans!!

My favourite sport is snow skiing. If you want to woo me, offer me a snow ski holiday somewhere in the world!! My most frequent destination is France but ski resorts are multilingual places in this modern world. I laugh now but my children definitely don’t laugh at their sergeant major mom who got them up before dawn, fed them breakfast and made sure they were standing at the ski lift as it started working in the morning. First up the slope and first to come down!! That powder some mornings was to die for!! Many a time on my own, I took my food and drink in a backpack, eating it sitting on the lift so as not to waste a single moment. The only time I took off those skis was to go into the powder room (but definitely nothing powder about a ladies toilet on a ski slope). Thank goodness I’ve mellowed and now will stop for lunch when others have gone back to the slopes after theirs!! The joy about the long ski lift rides was again those overheard conversations. I spoke Afrikaans and a few German words to people from Holland, Luxembourg, Germany and even spent a day following a man from Belgium slope to slope kamikaze style which never would have happened if I did not have Afrikaans. He could not speak English and would definitely not have wanted muted ski lift conversation that day!!

I remember in those early days of my travels, travelling in a combi called the DOOS from Nice, France to Bad Durkheim a place in Southern Germany. We stopped at a contact simply known as Jan, a big German wine maker. We had never met him before. We mentioned a few names and we were sleeping in the DOOS behind the garage in no time picking grapes during the day and drinking ‘neue’ wine by night, eating Kotelett, Bratwurst, Leberwurst, Sauerkraut and Apfelschnitz. Jan used to send his daughter Dagmar for translating purposes to the delight of my 4 male travel companions but he treated us special because we made an effort with him communicating in Afrikaans and 3 or 4 German words!! Before long we were all sleeping in the spare room of his house!! Incidentally I had the most fun as 21 polish men were also picking grapes at that time and minding my own business the vines were parted every now and then with a flurry of polish words being spoken and sung and raucous laughter from all other poles in earshot. Afrikaans definitely did not help me with that language but we had a good laugh!!

I went to Egypt once. Rode a smelly camel into the desert and bartered in the souks using the name Bafana Bafana which delighted the local ‘mad about soccer’ Egyptians. I thought I was buying bargains but I’m sure they made the most out of the deals we finally agreed too. I visited the pyramids just on the outskirts of Cairo. I had finished reading ‘The Orion Mystery’ and in days had booked my trip and here I was making my way down the narrow passage into the bowels of the pyramid. I thought I was the only one there until I noticed 2 people and a familiar language being spoken. All the way to Egypt sharing an ancient chamber visit with one other couple and they were speaking Afrikaans!!! We laughed all he way back to Cairo centre.

Power, drunk and younger chaps in mind!!

I am fascinated by the time line of Julius Malema. He was born on 3 March 1981, in Seshego, Limpopo province. He was raised by a single parent, his mother, and was the only child.

He supposedly joined the Masupatsela ("Trailblazers") pioneer movement of the African National Congress at age 9, 10 or 14 according to different sources. Their main task was to remove National Party posters from outside police stations. They all agree that by age 14 he was receiving military training – was this for the daunting task of removing the posters from out side police stations we have to ask!! At this point it was 1995 and Mandela and the ANC were already ruling South Africa. There were many people out there who risked their lives in their real fight for Freedom from the apartheid government but just where does Malema fit in to all this!

His school career was undistinguished and he failed two high school grades as well as several subjects in his final secondary school examination. He finished his secondary school education at age 21 which would be end of 2002!!! We have all heard the rumours at how well he did in the woodwork class. Let me remind you all that soldiers don’t make coffins so he didn’t need the woodwork proficiency!!!

His early political career is very interesting. Malema was elected as chairman of the Youth League branch in Seshego, Limpopo and the regional chairman in 1995. This puts him at 14 years of age and also removing those posters from outside the police stations!!! Being so busy school was just a means to an end!!. In 1997 at 16 years of age he became the chairman of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) for the Limpopo province. Would YOU be worrying about a woodwork class with all this responsibility at such a young age!! He just wanted to stay at school. Some of our children do post matric to stay at school and play sport, he just had other reasons!!! He was elected as the national president of that organisation in 2001 when he was 20 and still at school. There was method to his madness!! In 2002 at 21 years of age when most of us are celebrating the key to our futures at the coming of age 21st birthday and getting drunk on all sorts of drinks, Malema led a Cosas march by school pupils, through the streets of Johannesburg that was marked by serious incidents of violence and looting!!

Malema was elected as the president of the ANC Youth League in April 2008. It was a close race at a national conference held in Bloemfontein. The election – and the conference – were characterised by what Malema himself later described as "unbecoming conduct" which rumour has it – this unbecoming conduct is following him around since then. (BBC journalist incident, Kill the boer song, to name but a few!!). Allegations of irregularities in the polling procedure saw the conference adjourned shortly after the election results were announced. Malema's election was officially accepted when the conference was resumed only in late June. The integrity of his election has been criticised and questioned!!

Malema is well known for his controversial statements like - “He is a girl” and more recently on relationships - “one man one woman but that does not mean I’m against polygamy”!! He also said “One of the things I have learnt is never rely on any individual who is in politics," – So there we have from the horses mouth!!.

I am not sure about all of you out there but I will be watching the political arena with interest over the next few months. He is attacking the old men in politics saying they must give way to be ruled by the ANCYL and younger men and that they (the ANCYL) should have better representation in ANC matters. This week during the league conference he surprisingly extended that to his mentor Robert Mugabe saying “Mugabe must go and must hand over to those young chaps so that we can engage with (them) on the same level,”!!

While solving Zim’s problems he did admit to “sometimes power makes you drunk” but this statement was directed at Mr Tsvangirai and definitely not himself!!

So with power, drunk and younger chaps in mind this ANC conference around the corner could be very very interesting!!

This could be your daughter or son!!!

Some of you might have read my earlier report about a ‘Brothel in the neighbourhood’. Today my story takes you into the sordid world of human trafficking!! You might not know but human trafficking is rife in South Africa and it is defined as…

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

I will talk mainly from the sexual exploitation angle and please note that this includes boys and girls, men and women!!!!

Our neighbourhood watch on our situation has uncovered that these girls (Thai, Taiwanese or Chinese) forgive my ignorance in not knowing their actual nationality – do not leave this house and as cars visit all day and all hours of night these girls have to be available!!

Prostitution is illegal in this country but we all know it IS the oldest profession in the book!! Although we would love to know that it does not happen… Who are we kidding!!

If that woman or man you are visiting is free to decide when to work or not and they are free to choose to have a night off or not then it is probably not human trafficking but a choice to be a prostitute!!

However if you are visiting a house or environment (lap dancing club) where the girls or boys never leave or are driven home to a owners house and back to work the next day then you are part of and condoning some form of human trafficking with out even realising it.

The other day a whole lot of matrics went to a certain lap dancing club in Durban. Hey its young boys and they are only having fun after their trial exams….but…. we need to ask ourselves the question? Are these girls they were fraternising with, free to catch a cab home at night or are they driven to the owners house were they sleep and then bought back to the club the next day!! Does someone control their movements!! As a parent would you be happy knowing that your sons ‘innocent’ night out was actually in the greater scheme of things part of a human trafficking organisation.

Most these girls and boys are drugged and given alcohol to numb their feelings. If they cause trouble they are discarded or moved to other jobs in the chain of happenings and it’s almost impossible to get any evidence. The people who frequent these places don’t talk. The girls are shipped back to their countries so they can’t give evidence and the owners are linked to the best lawyers in town who will find any loophole to get their clients off the hook.

I phoned the eThekwini municipality the other day to see what they would do about a normal prostitution situation. I told them I had some evidence from the visitors. (Our neighbourhood watch are very busy!!!) I was told you cannot use the evidence from any visitor in court, but we will go in and arrest the girls. Now isn’t that ridiculous!!! Prostitution is illegal but not for those visiting the institution. It is only for those performing the acts!!!!

The owners of these placers have got very sophisticated and you with partners out there would be shocked to know that the choice is made from a photo line up on the cell phone. Payment is often made somewhere down the road so no money changes hands on the actual premises. Drugs are involved but drive by exchanges happen so no evidense can be found. All a raid will actually uncover is the sexy red underwear, the drawn red curtains in the middle of the day or night and red sheets and blankets!!!

Some of you might have watched the movie ‘TAKEN’ or seen the many documentaries on the subject. It does not only happen only in other countries but right here in South Africa. It was not a World cup thing and now it’s all gone away….It is still happening and there are parents around the world who have no idea what their young sons and daughters are subjected to. One day this could happen to your children….

Please be aware, be vigilant and above all don’t be quiet!!!

Where are our talented Youth!!

How many of you out there have been watching or just taking note of the Inaugural Youth Olympic games? I am for one very excited about this new addition to major competition. I do understand that this might mean more stress for younger athletes but what an amazing opportunity for the youth to be able to compete and mix with different cultures of the world in preparation maybe of things to come!! Syrop

South Africa got nine medals according to other official sources and SASCOC sources 11 medals. Not quite sure but could be combined Africa relays that got us the 2 extra medals!! 5 medals were won by Chad le Clos of Westville Boys High for Swimming with One Gold and Jacques Du Plessis got the other gold for Discuss throw.

I know that all these athletes tried really hard and did a great job for South Africa but I have one question…

Where are all our talented youth!!!!

We have one of the best sport schooling systems in the world. Not many countries have such an integrated sport education system. Even in our close rival countries (Rugby and Cricket) like Australia, New Zealand and England they do not have sport in schools like we have besides a few elite private institutions. So how does the wealth of talent that exists in this country even at that age slip through the cracks.

My son is at senior primary level and many of you will have been to the school athletic meetings many schools are holding this term. Did you notice that talent!!!! I certainly did. What happens to it!! Too many schools are so wrapped up in there quests to be the best Rugby / Cricket schools around that they forget that talents of all sorts should be nurtured on the playing fields at schools.

I heard about an inter schools athletic meeting that they hold at Kings Park in Durban. 3 Meetings over 7 or 8 weeks. What a well organised day the first meeting was. I told a person from school to give the schedule to the sports masters at school. Their response was – ‘I hope she (me) doesn’t expect us to officiate!!!! No you bumbling oafs – I expected you to notice that talent at our inter house sports day and put the schedule in the weekly monthly news letter! I expect you to inform those parents whose kids did well that such a meeting exists and why don’t they take their children down there to compete if they so wish!! And yes that you won’t be there to officiate but hey Parents – He can’t be expected to do everything at school and not teach a class!!!

We probably all have been following the Caster Semenya story. Last Monday on the news the ANC publically congratulated her on her run in Berlin! I for one do not want to take that away from her!! But…what they failed to do as far as I’m concerned was to publically congratulate Chad le Clos on bringing 5 Youth Olympic Games medals home to South Africa!!

Sam Gideon SASCOC last week made this statement about the commonwealth games - “If we can lay the foundation with medals from athletics and swimming, the other codes will add to it, but we need to have our swimmers and athletes firing on all eight cylinders. If not, we will have serious problems!!” and with this in mind they fail to honour an up and coming swimming youth!! Take away Chad’s 5 medals and you do the math on the 9 we bought home!!


Sam also said. “We have to think about what we’re doing in South African sport. Other countries are miles ahead of us, I felt so sorry for those athletes. Let this be a warning to the various sporting federations as they will be asked to account for what is going on. If the youth in Singapore were anything to go by, what have we got in store for 2016 and 2020?”

This is after he made this statement on Sunday March 7, 2010 where he was speaking after a two-day President’s Council meeting at Birchwood, Boksburg that good progress has been made in taking South African sport forward but as always, there’s work to be done. How could he have got it so wrong 5 months ago!!!! I mean our basketball team and Hockey team never won a single match

Reading through various articles people are still complaining about colour in Sport and why we have no black swimmers (Just look how many blacks go to the Olympics world wide and maybe they are barking up the wrong tree). They say that on a national level the federations must bring in more sportsmen of colour etc etc etc…..(I’m yawning now) SO boring actually because in my view this is what needs to happen!!

SASCOC, lotto funding, all other concerned ANC citizens and the Minister of Education 14 years down the line need to stop moaning about white sportsmen and post to ALL schools in the rural areas a dedicated Sports teacher/ Coach/ Mentor who is accountable for what they do in this position in promoting and finding talent in their school. This way talent is scouted young and they will not have to push athletes of sub standard into teams at high level for quota purposes because we would have enough talent coming through!! They will stop blaming the whites and just get on with it! We on the other hand don’t care what colour they are as long as the flag is flying high and our athletes are doing us proud!!

So well done to the BOKKE for your great win yesterday - You did us proud and if anyone from SASCOC is reading this blog and you can see this white blonde head jumping around at the back of the crowd trying to be noticed. Pick me please for a Sports coach talent scout in a local rural school. I won’t toi toi and strike and you will get the results you are looking for… That I promise!!!

Thank goodness she does not teach in OUR classroom!!

I am sure most of us were effected by the strikes this end of last week. If not because you too had to do something with your kids because you did have to go to work!!! I was personally furious when I got the call to go and fetch my son at 10h00am on Friday morning at school. Precautionary measures I was told. I saw no bus and dancing elephants which infuriated me even more. Why pander to the whim of these very uncouth people.

The ANC manifesto in 1994 was impressive with regards to learning…

An ANC government will:
•introduce one education system that provides ten years of free and compulsory education for all children;
•start utilising all existing school facilities;
•provide more classrooms and repair and modernise inadequate facilities;
•double the number of free text-books within one year;
•allow mother-tongue instruction and education in the language of choice;
•provide a national bursary and loan system;
•provide adult literacy programmes;
•assist youths who have not been able to complete their education;
•focus on ways of providing pre-school educare;
•give special assistance to women…”

A closer look at our Bill of rights states that;
~ Education: You have the right to basic education, including adult basic education, in your own language (if this is possible).

~ Assembly, demonstration, picket and petition: You can hold a demonstration, picket and present a petition. But you must do this peacefully.

~ Freedom of association: You can associate with whomever you want to.

I am a strong believer that teachers need to be uplifted in our Society. They play a pivotal role in the education of our children and even although we say that children learn all their morals and values at home we all know from experience that it was teachers that hooked us onto something in life for life or just as easily killed that dream! I was told I really battle with French, so I gave it up. I now speak 5 languages including French which I speak like English and really all it was, was influence (not necessarily bad!!) from the person I was sitting next too. I had fun and didn’t concentrate too much!! That was after getting 80% the year before!!

So the question is: should they be asking for more money?

Yes they should!!!

For me it is not in what they are asking for but the way they are asking for it.

Our Bill of Rights states that education is a right. Teachers take an oath like a doctor or lawyer. However, they seem to ignore this undertaking.

Children have a right to be in the classroom learning right now. No one has a right to intimidate the rest of us like that. Matrics have a right not to be threatened by this action when they are in their final moments before the big exams.

Our Bill of Rights also states that demonstrations and picketing must be done peacefully and that we have Freedom of Association. Surely if a teacher does not want to strike that is their choice!

I have also had the amazing experience of facilitating certain subject matter workshops and OBE workshops for teachers and am very often appalled by the fact that at starting time 08h30 for 09h00 we have 10 teachers of 60 sitting ready to start. The rest arrive periodically throughout the morning making sure they are there for lunch and they disappear just as fast afterwards. One bunch over a 5 day workshop were so excited to be in town they ‘casinoed’ and drank till all hours at their own admission and slept all day in the class. How do these people instil a love of education and learning when they themselves are lacking!

What comes first: upliftment of the job and more pay or respect for the job and then you are rewarded for your dedication and passion.

I unfortunately do not have all the answers. I just know that constitutionally speaking what is happening today with the educator strikes is wrong. I also know that I would not want to send my child to a school where educators create havoc and trash things and then expect the kids in a few weeks time to sit quietly in the classroom and listen with respect. I know that when my son goes back to school he has every reason to respect his teachers but how many out there will not have that same opportunity!!

Would you want this person to be teaching your children!!

And I dread the day I have to go to hospital and these ones have to stick a needle in my arm!!!