vry

1.  Get your photo published, including on the Web.
2.  The photo should be unusual in some way:

Use a prop such as a cigar and an arrogant, ‘don’t mess with me’- stare (David Bullard)

***
 
Clive Simpkins doing the stare (not as convincingly)

***

Clive Simpkins posing

***

Or use an unusual angle, with a glimpse of your palace in a gholfing estate in the background (Dan Roodt).

***
3.  Write something really contemptuous about some group you hope won’t do anything back.

CAFOD’s Golden Rules for gold mining are laudable, and I doubt that any reasonable person could disagree with them. The problem with CAFOD is that these rules are not what you see in the advertisements - only a headline-grabbing: “Gold mining is one of the world’s dirtiest industries”. That is all that 90% or more readers of the ads will register from the campaign. Only the small percentage who go further and read their many web pages on the subject will see the golden rules and what the campaign is supposed to be about.

Although green activists tend to say things like ‘pollution damage the poor most’, they tend give insufficient weight to the fact that capitalist mining and industry - brutal as it may be - provide real jobs to people who might otherwise have had none.
The only way for green activists (who are almost exclusively from wealthy backgrounds and countries), to avoid trampling on the employment needs of the poor, is to involve them in the campaign - from planning to execution. In this way a sensational headline such as the one CAFOD chose could have been avoided.
—
I have written to CAFOD about this, and I assume that their lack of response does indeed mean they have not consulted anyone from gold mining communities.

This can happen to anyone who writes. You write something, and when people read it (perhaps including you, later on), they see merely a weak piece that reveals a lot about you, the writer, instead of something that is informative or wise.

Take the case of Clive Simpkins’ article in which he argues that Afrikaans should be banished from the education system.
In his haste to have his go at Afrikaans, he states that ‘Afrikaans is still a compulsory subject at school’ - a lie that is easily disproved. How will this lie reflect on Moneyweb’s journalism?

When Afrikaners and Afrikaans are being targeted by the wealthy English-speaking elites, we don’t claim racism, because we are the same race in many cases. But it seems to me that to dismiss the rights of a group in such a way is the same kind of thing as racism - to target a group and try to step on them. Unfortunately for Clive, his discrimination is now published for the world to see.

He then goes on to say that African languages should be taught instead (along with English) - nothing wrong with that of course, but does it tell us something about Clive wanting to suck up to black people, and perhaps even his fears (as a white person) for his career?

In the past, paid columnist were protected from themselves by sub-editors. It seems that newspapers’ response to blogging (more blogging by their own columnists), cause editorial control to fall by the wayside. However, what difference then between a paid columnist and an ordinary blogger?

CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, has a new campaign called Unearth Justice, which is aimed at the gold mining industry.
The slogans of the campaign are:

Storymakers
The BBC’s Storymakers seems to be always presented by a black person, but why is he called “Byron Wordsworth”, and another one is called “Blake Wordsworth”?
This reminds me of the words of Patrice Naiambana:
“scores of African actors who now ripple across our screens albeit in RP, cockney or some other form of english context that remain culturally indistinguishable from white actors”
Is the only good African one that becomes culturally British, or is this about children of Jamaicans who are now so integrated in the UK that they don’t mind being black Englishmen? I can’t figure it out, but it seems disappointing both ways.

Noddy
I wondered for a while if Enyd Blyton grew up in South Africa, or is the idea of a scary underclass universal. The baddies in the stories, the gremlins or golliwogs, live in poverty on the edge of the town, township-style. Every now and then, they are up to tricks to steal something from the clearly privileged but silly Noddy. When this happens, Big-ears or Mr Plod rally to rescue him.
The episode I disliked most, was one where two giraffes, talking in very irritating English upper class voices, refused to wear scarves. If African animals can’t be characters that are culturally African, can they not at least be less annoying English types?

Bob the Builder
But the British have moved on from Noddy, and he is thankfully not too popular anymore. This progress should be recognised, and I think this is mostly due to the influence of the Left and feminists. The BBC’s Bob the Builder, for example, is kind when necessary, firm when that is called for, but mostly he is enterprising, enthusiastic and takes a great deal of pleasure from his work. I have actually worked with English people like Bob - you have to like them, because they seem to know exactly what their role in the world is, and are neither vain, nor suffer from low self-esteem. And they have a strong sense of fairness.
The music in Bob the Builder is great, and the other characters are all very interesting. This would be a good series for the SABC to import or imitate.

Adventures of the Little Red Train - Benedict Blathwayt
I love these books! The illustrations are magic, capturing just about everything that is visually interesting in the UK. I doubt that a children’s book with better illustrations exist. You can still discover new detail when reading them the 50th time!
The human hero, Duffy, isn’t too bright, and the little Red Train isn’t a character like Thomas the Tank Engine. The text is sparse (I don’t even read it - I tell the story in my own words.) But values such as community spirit, the common good and the advantages of public transport shine through in the illustrations.
My favourite is The Runaway Train - it has an exciting, action -filled plot and has the best illustrations too. I admire the scene where the Little Red Train drives back, and everything that you have seen previously is now seen from the other side. That beautiful drawing alone must have taken weeks if not months to perfect.
I wish someone from South Africa could draw SA in this way. I think it could potentially be very profitable, because the international public loves reading stories from other countries (see next section).

Handa’s Surprise
Handa’s Hen
by Eileen Browne
These books are so beautiful, even if you don’t have children you’ll want to buy them. They show how beautiful Africa is and the harmony of African village life. Handa’s Surprise is very popular, and is available in 16 languages.

Dougal’s Deep sea diary
Simon Bartram
A great story with some truly sublime illustrations, such as one where rays of sunshine illuminate Atlantis in the distance, with some hills, whales and a mermaid deep under the sea.
But this makes the way Atlantis is drawn when Dougal actually gets there, all the more dissappointing and incomprehensible. Characters seem to be deliberately ugly, and one woman is actually blowing bubble-gum. There is nothing magical about this Atlantis, and I’ll probably never understand why the English are so uncomfortable with beauty that it has to be spoiled in some way. Or is this not just the English, but a fashion of our time?

A secret of children’s books
The other day, I started telling a story to my 2 -year old son, making it up as I went, but tried to be fairly boring because I wanted to talk him to sleep. To my surprise, he liked it so much that he asked for it again the next couple of nights, which goes to show that he is getting something different than a good plot from the experience - it is more about attention, closeness and language development. So it seems crucial that stories for children should be enjoyable to the parents, because that encourages them to read the stories more. Children have an amazing capacity to listen to the same stories again and again - it must be important for their language development.
I can see myself easily reading The Runaway Train or Handa’s Surprise another 50 times, but it is hard not to hide the Noddy books on top of a high cupboard!

Notes:
The Adventures of the Little Red Train is published by Red Fox
Handa’s Surprise first published by Walker books. Also published by Mantra Publishing.
Dougal’s Deep sea diary is published by Templar Publishing
Patrice Naiambana is known for (amongst others) In Exile and
The man who commited thought