5/17/07

ORGY

GO OUT AND CHANGE THE WORLD!

United States of America President George W Bush is one of the people I admire. Before you get it twisted ask me why and under which conditions and I'll tell you. First; if he was the president of South Afrika he wouldn't welcome people who steal elections in Nigeria and hug them all in the name of continental stability because that is to say as long as unity is at stake you can steal elections and Thabo Mbeki will let you get away with it. He wouldn't keep his mouth shut when opposition leaders next door are battered, bruised with reports of people going missing and ending up found decomposed in bridges occupy the daily news diet. He would have done what Bishop Emeritius Desmond Tutu suggested last week during his American visit that South Afrika should close the tap.
Which tap? Some people ask. Let's say for example we decide to cut the supply of electricity to Zimbabwe. Immediately the lights go off, President Robert Mugabe and his cronies will just plug on their ever-ready generators and continue living as if everything is normal. That's precisely the point, 'living as if everything is normal' because at the back of their heads there will always be that little voice telling them that not everything is normal. They can light their mansions with generators but they can't power the petrol pumps at filling stations, they can't power the fridges in convenient stores, they can't warm the food in restaurants, they can't light the traffic lights on the streets, they can't light the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison outside Harare where many activists are detained, tortured and killed for simply asking for mealie-meal and that will inform them that not everything is normail. I mean even now they do most of their shopping in South Afrika but the fact that they travel this far informs their nutheads that not everything is normal. The sanctions will hurt ordinary Zimbabweans worse, but it won't be anything more than the hurt they are currently feeling. They won't even be angry at South Afrika because they will recognise such an act as tough love. Someday, they will understand; Tutu argued, as he had argued to the Reagan Adminstration during the turbulent 1980s that South Afrika must be isolated even though it will hurt the majority blacks. He was right and today darkies don't hates him for denying them the opportunity to play international soccer or starring in Hollywood and instead they liked him so much that they made him Chairperson of the Forgiveness Brigade (Truth and Reconciliation Commission).
Okay, I'm using this example because, while Bush is keeping hundreds of suspects shackled in inhuman conditions without trial at Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray, the only good thing about him is his motto, 'if you hurt Americans anywhere in the world, we will hunt you down and make you account'. That's the spirit, and that's what Bush, like Tutu is doing to change the world in his own way. Introducing order by punishing those who think they can misbehave and get away with it. Those who think they can unleash the Janjaweed militia to kill civilians will face Bush's wrath before he's out of office. Bush is not an angel, he most of the time misbehaves a lot himself, resulting in tens of thousands of innocent people unnecessarily dying, but it's his backbone that should be applauded, holding on to your guns (literally) even when you are wrong.
Now, we all should ask ourselves what are we doing to change the world for the better. When your moms was experiencing labour pains and finally you popped out the first words she yelled were, 'go out and change the world my child'. The map of the Middle East has been changed forever, the balance of power has also shifted, thanks to Bush who still refuses to recognise a legitimate democratically elected government in Palestine. That's how we will always remember the Bush Administration, and that's important. The question is; how are we going to remember you?
Island-Def Jam Recordings president Sean Carter (Jay-Z to less corporate fans) coined the saying, 'I'm a business man'. This is a shift from the hand-tailored CEOs' braggadocious rant of 'I'm a businessman'. S
ean is a business and soon even Bow Wow thinks so. Sean, unlike Marion 'Suge' Knight changed the way music is made and marketed. He showed everybody that you can still push many units without claiming gangsta or prison credentials. Sean reintroduced romance to hip-hop. He is the first hip-hop artist to fill Madison Square Gardens and perform to a mixed audience that knew each and every line of each and every song from his records. In a scene from his Fade to Black film he humbly comments, to paraphrase him, 'it's not much for rock stars to fill this venue all the time, But man I'm this boy coming from the ghetto and for a hip hop star to be able to do that is a milestone'. Well he never really said it like this but if he requested me to work his script that's how I would have written it. Still he said something along those lines. With that show alone Sean raised the bar for every rapper to surpus. His Madison Square Gardens show is the new benchmark since Dr Dre's Up In Smoke Tour. It is to staged shows what Nas' Illmatic is to recorded rap albums.
That pompous New York mogul named Donald Trump is one of the people I note as having fulfiled the mandate given to them by their mothers. That's why he could get away with humiliaring apprentices. Next in my list would be the goateed Virgin billionaire Richard Branson. Then wrestling's Vince MacMahoun, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Thabo Mbeki, Margareth Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Yasser Arafat, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Spike Lee, Joachim Chissano, Julius Nyerere, Abdel Nasser, Haille Selassie, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, Lebogang Mashile, Elvis Presley, Mother Theresa, Sir Seretse Khama, Bob Marley, Louis Armstrong, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michael Caecescu, Benazir Bhutto, Vincent van Gogh, Es'kia Mphahlele, Lucas Radebe, Pele, Naas Botha, Brenda Fassie, Andries Pretorius, Che Guevara, Shaka Zulu, Tony Leon, Joshua Nkomo, Jean Betrand Aristide, Charles Taylor, the ordinary folks who at some stage in their lives have stood for an ideal and never wavered even when crisp banknotes were flashed infront of their eyes. Ordinary folks who tagged their dreams beyond whatever could be given by another person.
Maybe by now you're wondering why am I not mentioning folks like Gabriel Sexwale (Tokyo), Patrice Motsepe, Danisile Baloyi, Mannie Dipico, Saki Macozoma, Cyril Ramaphosa and scores of other darkies in dark suits and dark/green&orange party membership cards? My argument does not change on this one because from where I am, the policy that put so much millions in their pockets insultintly called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), is meant only for them and not for every black. If they are any wiser let the playing field be levelled, and let every darkie compete from an equal platform with them and let's see if they can major up. I have respect for Kaizer Motaung, Irvin Khoza, Jomo Sono, Richard Maponya, Herman Mashaba and all the black tycoons who started hustling while apartheid was still strong and enforced. Those are the people who changed the world of business in this country. Most of the clowns who came into the fold in the past 13 years just bore me to my bones.
Some of the tens of folks who are now millionaires can not succesffully run a spaza shop or their own households. And they wouldn't have been given the opportunity to make the millions if they did not belong to a certain political party. So, I have no respect for people who are not out to change the world apart from standing in line to be tokenised by the same white people they claimed to hate all along.
The Cape Town Ruperts came into an industry that was dominated by multinationals and decided they was going to make a success irrespective. They do not get my vote because they made so much money out of tobacco products but their nerve to decide to give back most of the money in many of their philanthropy activities. One wonders why it is so hard for the Black Elite Elevated (BEE) plastic millionaires to give R10 without inviting the media. We need black philanthropists who don't give along party political lines but broadly.
One of Microsoft founders Warren Buffet did something many rich (not wealthy) people find hard to do. He decided to work so hard down the years so that he can give away his wealth through the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation. Buffet is changing the world in a big way.
That slain rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur still continues to speak to his fans from the discomfort of a cold urn. Ten years later you can never write a book about hip hop, unabridged without dedicating a chapter or two to 2Pac, the son of a crack-fiend Panther. He reintroduced poetry in a genre that was suddenly running out of concepts and soul. He flipped the game and redefined what the future of hip-hop should be through songs like Keep Ya Head Up, Brenda's Got a Baby, Baby Don't Cry, Dear Mama, Happy Home, When Thugs Cry, Changes, and scores more. No wonder wannabees like 50Cents and our own local players are trying hard to walk in his size 2PAC shoes. They call it being deep. Zubz tops the list of those who are trying too hard.
Now, what are you doing to change the world? Are you sitting at a street corner smoking your weed and complaining that so and so are responsible for your failure to make money and live the type of life that you feel you deserve? People we are all meant for greatness as we collectively are God's chosen flock. Are you this black dude who is always complaining that whites are full of shit and introduced apartheid that makes it hard for you to survive today? Or are you this white jerk affiliated to hate movements daily blaming the much-hyped Affirmative Action and BEE as robbing you of an opportunity to make a success? It don't matter if you black or white, stop complaining and do something.
The secret, see beyond whatever hurdle that is put infront of you to detain your progress. If you are white and you feel AA is a hurdle, pat yourself on the back for having identified it and learn how to jump it. If you are a darkie and you feel there's too much corruption and nepotism in the tendering process, okay, focus on providing services to the foreign diplomatic call or NGOs. Never in your life claim to be a victim. You are only a victim immediately you behave like one.
I'm telling you all these because for me, I'm what they call YOUNG AND BLACK. That you are currently reading this piece is enough for me. That you are going to share what you read today with someone means I have changed the world already. I have put in your brain something that was not there an hour ago. And it will stay in your head forever whenever you feel adversity overpowering you.
However, ultimately my biggest ambition is to change how the media works. My main aim is to introduce to print and alternative media a set-up whereby if I commission a story to be written about the violence in Khutsong or Durban, I commission two people who don't know each other to write the same story using the same brief. My aim, to publish both the stories and introduce pluralism of ideas in every story you find in any media. In that fashion, you the reader will have a choice, instead of being pumelled with lies from one source, hiding behind a Press Card, you can choose which one to believe - an option you currently don't have.
*NOW; I HAVE STARTED ALREADY- READ Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane's treatment of the same concept below.
GET YOURSELF A DAMN ROLE MODEL

NB: WHILE READING THIS PIECE OF WRITING I WILL REQUIRE YOU TO CHANGE OR SWAP TWO WORDS WITH ME. WHEREVER I HAVE WRITTEN THE WORD 'CHANGE' PLEASE INTERPRET AS 'GROOVE'. HOPE THAT IS CLEAR: IN THIS ARTICLE THE WORD GROOVE MEANS CHANGE, AND ALL ITS EXTENTIONS, PAST AND PRESENT TENSES, WHATEVER.
e.g. "Groove is pain," said poet Mzwakhe Mbuli some years ago. Ever since then he has grooved into a petty convict who is now bashing his own wife while preaching "Stop abuse." This makes one wonder what if his fighting piracy is real or not, because the dude seems to do the opposite, or is he playing my swap game, saying don’t abuse women while meaning the other? Honestly, Mzwakhe, despite his reasons (excuses), he has grooved into an embarrassment to me because he used to be a role model of some sort. A spade is a spade, Mzwakhe himself taught me to say things as they are. For that, sis Mbuli, you are a failure, a hypocrite, a scribe.
Talking of role models, they play a crucial part in grooving the world. If you have a real dream to groove the world, you need someone who has done it before you to show you how. That someone may not tell you straight to your face how but as long as you can get their message, you are pashash.
Growing up at Shatale township I had one role model: Jean Claude Van Damme. I used to kick ass like he did and that helped me gain fame and respect. I grew up believing I was gonna kick ass on TV. As I grew, and as Van Damme faded and got replaced by your Jet Li’s kicking ass on high velocity I lost my passion to be on TV as a Jean Claude Van Damme. But for the best of my life, he did groove my life, making me believe I can kick anybody’s ass. That’s why today I still have that attitude. And fo shizzy, I will kick yo monk ass if you dare trip.
Growing older I started liking the post-legendary Tupac Amaru Shakur, who made me believe that I am a rebel and that the world was fucked to the pits and that I should not be afraid to fuck with it. He was instantly my role model, posthumously though. I have experienced such a groove that even to this day it is still resonant in me. To me Tupac became a personal messiah of mine after Jesus. I took to Pac’s lyrics like a fiend to drugs. He was instantly my role model. His motto was that "I will not groove the world, but one day I will spark a brain that will."
Today I believe I am that brain. I am grooving the world it ain’t funny. I have single-handedly grooved over 3000 lives. How? I used to be a powerful Christian, had a cult following, that when I experimented with apostasy and became an immoral mother*&%%$ thousands followed me. What’s worse, I influenced and grooved key people who were leading other people. When they grooved, under my new found gospel, their followers followed. The role model was living in me.
You need to understand that I played Tupac’s role both in and out of hip-hop. Wherever I was, I was the center of controversy. Yet in the mean time I had other role models. It was Goodenough Mashego who influenced me to believe in my poetry although I was whack at the moment. Today I am a writer damnit. It was Amos Mbiza (who has wronged me I won’t forget) who helped me believe in Jesus and his power. Even today I still use the same principles even though I am in a different mindset. These are role models, and I am proud that they are my role models, they model me according to the way they are. I yearn to reach their level of achievement and beyond. Of course I will. Not that I am in competition; I am just too empowered not to achieve it.
The same can be said for you today. If you can get a role model you will visualize where you are going and how to get there. Nas says "Name a rapper I ain’t influenced." I cant. He influenced me, and that’s grooving the world. If you have a role model don’t deny it, you are not setting yourself down, you are actually setting a high standard for yourself. There are times I ask what Tupac would have done in the situation. One thing I know for sure is that Tupac would have written a rhyme and read a damn book. That’s what I do. My former girlfriend has always discouraged me from reading too many books because they fuck me up. I thought about it and realized she has no damn role model. She saw no power in reading because she saw no one she liked reading. That’s why she is my ex. I follow my role models no matter what. You cannot trick me. Even if my role models were to groove, I would continue, the precedence has been set already. Forwards ever, backwards never. Now I am at a level that I am my own role model, and that of many. If you don’t believe me ask around.
However, note that without a role model you ain’t gonna be shit. You will be like the people you claim are your role models: your parents. Fuck them, they can’t surely show you the way through this century. Get a fresh role model. If you want to be a billionaire, you need a role model with principles that make people billionaires. Try (Patrice) Motsepe, Oprah (Winfrey), (Donald) Trump or (Bill) Gates. If you want to be a rebel that thinks, try me. Then you shall groove your world and the world. If you google the name Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane you are sure to realize that I am grooving the world. I got at least 10 pages on the mother**^%%. And everything there has nothing to do with what I really do. I am actually a transformational speaker and writer. And on the net I haven’t done much of that except "Is your life worth saving?"
4kof Satan.

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