A Peaceful Perspective... August 9, 2010

In this edition...

• Column: Brand Christian
• Closing of the Year of the Priest: Celebration of the First African Priests
• Column: Let the Children See the Stars
• Transkeian village breaks the poverty barrier
• Fellowship to honour activist's work
• Opinion: The kids are going to be okay—Our country has problems, but we're not without hope
• ‘Mama’ helps feed hungry school children

Column: Brand Christian

I recall being surprised one day towards the end of my tenure at the University of Cape Town when I was told by some bureaucrat in the administration that one of my proposals for the Graduate School in Humanities did not fit the UCT brand! That was the first time I had heard the word used at UCT. But evidently according to the PRO people at the university there was a new policy that required everything that was done should reflect its image or brand. It all had to do with the way in which the university was meant to be perceived in public which was important for marketing the university to prospective students and donors. Branding is partly a new way of talking about advertising, but it is more all-embracing because everything from logo and stationary to the actual product itself is meant to be coordinated…. The brand name “Christian” was first given to the followers of Jesus in Antioch. So to begin with it was not a name that they claimed for themselves, but a nickname given to them because they were identified with Jesus of Nazareth who they claimed was the Messiah or Christ. But the name Christian stuck and the followers of Jesus have lived with it ever since even though they have debated about who is truly a Christian and who is not. But the Christian brand name is important because it has to do with how we represent Jesus in the world around us. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Closing of the Year of the Priest: Celebration of the First African Priests

The closing Celebration of the Year for Priests will be held on Monday 9 August 2010 at Mariathal Mission at 9:30 am, Diocese of Mariannhill, with the attendance of all bishops and priests representatives from all dioceses. This will be also a special celebration in honour of the first four African Priests in South Africa. This celebration was planned to coincide with the Plenary session of the Southern African Bishops Conference which starts in Mariannhill on 3 August. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Transkeian village breaks the poverty barrier

More than 200 residents of Saphukanduku village in Transkei have broken the barriers of poverty with the assistance of a R1.6- million investment by the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA). The maize project is built on a reinvestment model where emerging farmers get 10% of the crop or take the percentage in cash. The remaining 90% is reinvested into the next year and used for expansion. Elated villagers had big smiles on their faces during the project’s first harvest last week. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Opinion: The kids are going to be okay—Our country has problems, but we're not without hope

If you ever harboured any doubts that South Africa had a bright and prosperous future, this past week would have blown you away. After speaking to young South Africans in high schools from Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp in the dry north western regions of the country, to the idyllic town of Paarl in the Boland and Rondebosch in suburban Cape Town, I can assure you that you can relax. It will go well with us. Geesie Theron is much smaller and leaner than her twin sister at DF Malan High School. You forget the troubled name of the school quickly when you meet this amazing young South African. I stretch out my hand to greet the small teenager, but there is no response. The young woman is blind, a condition brought on by an inoperable tumour on her brain. Your mistake would be to feel sorry for Geesie, or to rush to embrace her; I make both mistakes. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Column: Let the Children See the Stars

For me July began in Mphophomeni with a week of holiday club mornings for 100 children from child headed households, and ended on an evening at a remote hilltop in the KZN Midlands, stargazing with my son and a dozen other children and parents. The week with the orphans was part of A Rocha South Africa’s environmental education for children at risk. It was the first time since working with Bolivian children as a volunteer in 1985 that I have spent quality time with young orphans. And quality time for little people on any continent, orphans or not, means high speed catching games, balloon popping, ball chasing, hoop jumping, crayons, eagerly awaited sweets, model making, action songs, storytelling and nourishing mealtimes. There were many memorable happenings during the Mphophomeni week, one of which concerns a boy - we’ll call him Thulani - who confidently enjoyed eye contact and conversation from the start. He seemed to brighten just at hearing his name spoken. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

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Fellowship to honour activist's work

It is one of the toughest reporting challenges for South Africa and no doubt the most important: understanding in its proper context the awful cleavage of poverty and inequality that cuts across the national landscape. Because the problem is so large and its impacts so broadly spread, our media, including the Mail &Guardian, struggle to focus on it. This was understood by the late Eugene Saldanha, activist, civil society leader and policy adviser, whose life's work was fighting for social justice. To commemorate that work and give expression to the insights that animated it, the M&G and Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Southern Africa have created an annual fellowship in social-justice reporting. The Eugene Saldanha Memorial Fund Fellowship will enable a young journalist to spend a year working at the paper on poverty, inequality and the realisation of human and socioeconomic rights. more >>
Source: Mail & Guardian

‘Mama’ helps feed hungry school children

Known as a guardian angel who feeds the city’s hungry job seekers, the elderly “mama” Iris Mqotsi has now taken more than 70 needy children under her wing. Not one to spend her golden years doing nothing, the 72- year-old Mqotsi visits Ilitha Senior Primary School near Berlin on a weekly basis to feed school kids. This, after one of the teachers told her how children came to school on empty stomachs. Although the school forms part of the feeding scheme, no food has apparently been delivered since just before the June holidays. “As the teacher was telling me the whole story, I cried because I know how it feels to be hungry,” she said. more >>
Source: ANiSA News