Proud to be Part of the Team.

The SABC3 soapie Isidingo scooped top honours at last night’s South African Film and Television Awards by winning the most number of Golden Horns. by Charles Molele.

Advertisements for Litopia.

Litopia, which is an established and respected literary site, recently removed a post of mine which announced the creation of The Book Shed. A construct on Litopia called MOD, sent me this private message:

The Shed post
Digital Scribe,
We have removed your post in Cafe Light regarding your new board, The Shed. It was viewed as advertising, and this is something we don't accept in Litopia.
MOD

Well, MOD, whoever you may be, I’d just like to say that The Shed will continue to link to, or advertise, Litopia. As a peer review site that is useful writers.

The Shed

Or, more accurately, The BookShed, is a brand new peer review and networking site for writers.

It will offer writers the opportunity to form long term relationships around their work and will encourage open and energetic discussion.

South Africa 45, England 14

I'm changing my tune. South Africa will, at minimum, equal England's scrum. We will dominate the line outs. Steyn will finally learn how to offload onto Jacque Fourie's beautifully angled runs. We will run at them from set pieces, and we will slice throught them like a knife through butter. Habana will score thrice, and Fourie, Pieterson and Steyn at least once.

Songs to sing while we're winning:

Leeuloop. From Robbie Wessels - Halley se Komeet

Onverskrokke. From Radio Kalahari Orkes - Stoom Radio.

De la Rey. From Bok van Blerk

And if by any wierd chance we lose, I will blame the people who thought up that embarassing Ninga Turtle Ad.

Argentina 3, South Africa 45.

Here's a snippet from a fascinating post from World of Sprot.

...now the Rugby Football Union (RFU) is bracing itself for an influx of povvos, pikies and boys called Jordan.

Here's hoping we establish dominance up front and then go on the rampage tonight. It's about time a team scored a lot of tries against good opposition.

"Oh Crap"

These are Doris Lessing’s first words on hearing she won the Nobel Prize. Or could that be, “Oh Christ?”

"A certain professor must have died,” says her companion, tantalizingly. He appears to have been in a recent accident. One gets a sneaking feeling he wishes everyone was there to interview him.

To see for yourself go to the LA Times, scroll down to the video player, down load the flash player if necessary, find the Lessing link, and there you are. It loads pretty fast and is worth every moment.

She’s a honey.

Doris Lessing Wins Nobel

In 1981, when I was running away from the army in Swaziland, I had trouble with any reading except pornography and Doris Lessing. It was the Four Gated City that got me and I read it and re-read it. It shaped how I thought about the world at the time, and she was my favourite author until I read Ancient Evenings and discovered Norman Mailer. I heard Lessing speak once and asked, from the audience, what she thought of Mailer. She spoke warmly of him as an admired peer, I'm glad to report. I still think of her as a much loved, literary aunt. So I'm pretty damn delighted to learn that she's got the big one.

"This has been going on for 30 years," said Lessing who put down her shopping bag and sat on her doorstep, head in her hand, after being told of the award by the waiting photographers.
"I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all. It's a royal flush," she said.

Gordimer, Coetzee, and now Lessing. Must be something in our Southern African water.

England Will Win the Rugby World Cup.

I had this sudden sneaky feeling. If I was God, sketching out the plot, interested only in a great story, I might just choose England for my winner. England. A credible but hugely surprising outsider.

In the set up, I’d establish a fat red herring: New Zealand. They have to win. It’s obvious. Start of Act Two, I’d introduce another herring: Argentina. The midpoint would be a shocker: New Zealand fly home, and France is back in the game. Act Two climaxes with more astonishment. The final is to be England vs South Africa.

And then, the climax. The epiphany. And it’s “England, England”, lead by brave Sir John, with a pass to Robinson, that overcomes the Boer in the biggest game since the great war of freedom.

This is not what I want to happen. Just thinking plot here. In fact I’m going to invoke the Gods on our side.

De La Rey, De La Rey,
Sal jy die Boere kom lei?
De La Rey , De La Rey,
Generaal , Generaal,
Soos een man sal ons om jou val.
Generaal De La Rey.....

Hoor die Kakies wat lag.
n handjie van ons teen n heel groot mag,
en die kranse le hier teen ons rug.
Hulle dink dis verby,
maar die hart van n Boer
le dieper en wyer.
Hulle gaan dit nog sien

De La Rey, De La Rey,
Sal jy die Boere kom lei…

Lyrics and music by Bok van Blerk.

I'm going to look like a complete arse if we don't beat Argentina. And this has been World Cup of upsets...

And the Dead Watch Over Us

The opening chapters of the "brutally honest" And The Dead Watch Over Us have been published in African Writing Online, and can be read here.

Also available are reader responses from international peer review sites and the query letter.

Ungena u Caveman - Quelle Grande World Cup

Spent the weekend with good friends at a beautiful house perched on the edge of the escarpment near Machadorp. No electricity. So on Saturday we were sitting under a waterfall in an indigenous forest picking up England Vs Oz in Afrikaans on the radio. That night the steak, red wine and log fire mitigated against a journey to the local to catch NZ vs France. So we turned to the radio once more. RSG let us down, but we found commentary in IsiZulu. “Ungena u Caveman”. Depite having an IsiZulu teacher on site, we had to phone Joburg to make sure we were understanding what was happening. Our friends in town were distracted by storms and falling trees.

At thirteen all, the IsiZulu commentary broke for a message for what seemed to be a church service. Quelle horreur! Then commentary came back. We couldn’t understand whether Mitchell had got the drop attempt over or not. It made it even more exciting in a way. We arrived back in Jozi in time for the second half of SA vs Fiji. And man, can those islanders play. What a World Cup it’s been! Il y aura plus d'aventure à venire!

If there are any anomalies in this post, it is entirely the fault of BabelFish, because I don’t speak French. Or IsiZulu. En fait, je ne parle aucun français du tout. Je parle seulement le rugby.

Destiny in a Name.

Jacob Zuma’s isiZulu name is Gedleyihlekisa. It means: he who smiles with you while he is finishing you off.

UkuZuma, significantly, is to make a surprise attack.

These facts go some way to explaining Mr Zuma’s attitude and actions through the Shaik trail, the rape trail and other travails. Mr Zuma has know in his heart since childhood that he is a surprise attacker, a man who will live to smile while his enemies are terminated with extreme prejudice.

I take this very seriously indeed, and only partly because it comes from Aubrey Mongameli Matshiqi, senior associate political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies, a man whose own name, the Mongameli part anyway, means president.

Boks for the Cup says WorldofSprot author.

We have friends in the world. This just in via e-mail from David Wardale of WorldofSprot.

Good to see the Aussies upping the ante by putting pressure on the ref before the game. It's a classic technique, used by Mourinho and Fergie ad infinitum. but does it suggest they're running scared? I doubt it. I fear that England have left their best performance on the pitch against Tonga. Anyway, if it's to be a southern hemisphere winner, pray God for SA. The All Blacks are just too All Blacky, and the Aussies are, well, Aussies, so my hopes are with your brave boys.

Summing up the Pikoli Pickle - A Pikolimerick

A President by the name of Mbeki,
Had dodgy old friend called Selebi.
His prosecutor, Pikoli,
Suspected Selebi,
And Mbeki, perversely, fired Pikoli.

Pikoli Pickle

This piquant Pikoli Pickle continues to puzzle me. And I am not alone. According to Xolela Mangcu writing in The Weekender, senior ANC members are as "confused as the rest of us." Truth is, the more the government explains this, the less we understand.

On little fact does stand out. It was the SABC which broke the story on the alleged Selebi warrant. Not the “tradidional enemies of the struggle” print media. The SABC. An organization percieved by some to be in the President's pocket. If I was Mr Selebi, I'd have a bad feeling about that.

Curioser and curiouser, said Alice.