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Showing posts from January, 2013

Southern Mail Reporter, Raphael Wolf, and his digital pocket camera

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There is only one newspaper journalist that I have seen using a pocket digital camera when he takes pictures for his articles. This is reporter, Raphael Wolf, a seasoned writer for the community newspaper, The Southern Mail.Raphael, also affectionately called Ray, is almost inconspicuous without his pocket camera. Most of Ray's articles appear on the main pages of this Cape Flats community newspaper that covers events happening in the Southern Suburbs. You will see the 15 cm camera before you see the owner at events.   A typical scene would be when a keynote speaker takes his(her) place at the podium, ready to make a speech. Out of the blue, you will see a man with camera moving almost within one metre of the speaker. As the speaker pretends not to see Ray and his moving photographic missile.Ray would be oblivious of the surroundings. It is just him, his camera and his target.   As the speaker tilts his(her) head to avoid direct eye contact, Ray too would shift his po...

Our visit to the Taal Monument in Paarl

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Walking in an art gallery with a difference... The Taal Monument viewed from the start of the walk. The pillars symbolise the influences of Asia and Europe on the Afrikaans language. The domes symbolises the African and Khoisan influences on the Afrikaans language. Two days before the end of our three-week camping stint at Berg River resort, we visited the Taal Monument. What an impressive, colossal structure! Even if you do not know much about the Taal monument, you can glean key information from plaques placed strategically as you start your tour of the Monument. We learn that Jan van Wijk, the architect designed the Taal Monument. He was inspired by two Afrikaans writers, CL Langenhoven and N.P. van Wyk Louw, both who paid tribute to the Afrikaans language. Jan van Wijk , inspired too by the natural environment, infused such elements in the design. The monument is an artistic blend of pillars and a set of three domes linked by winding curved open spaces. The various pilla...

Playing Cards that Life deals you – learning from a young man

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Memories of playing card games with our Dad. As children, our Dad loved playing board games and card games with us. We used to play dominoes, draughts and 11-card many a night.   The 11-card game was a fun game. Usually you are only allowed to place out all your cards in their permutations if you are going to win. My dad built in a concession: we were allowed to put out sets even if we had a “bad hand” and could not play all our cards to win. We were showed that there are possibilities even if success seemed light years away. We loved him for this because as time passed, we mastered the “Adult” version of the game. Our own set of cards on our life’s journey Strangely, life is just like that. We are often dealt a set of cards of life experiences on our journey to personal mastery. Often our sets of experiences seem to set us up for failure. One crisis seems to follow another and you seem to find yourself burdened with responsibilities or duties that hold you back, slow you do...