-
Sit down and be counted…my census 2011 experience
A friendly lady called Mavis knocked lightly on our door. My housemate and I were elated. We would finally be counted. We had been wondering when this day would come. She said she had been during the daytime but had not found us working class heroines. We let her in and offered her juice. We were cooking dinner so we carried on in the open plan kitchen as she sat in the dining area and took out her endless questionnaire and a pencil. We questioned the use of a pencil but she said that was how they were told to do it. When she asked for my name and I found myself repeating it for the third and slowest time, I realised she couldn’t really write. She erased what she had written as I washed my hands clean of food, dried them and went and sat down to be be counted. I ended up writing in the information with her guidance, to speed up the process and avoid errors.
We laughed a lot through out the process. With her, at her, at each other, at the not so funny paradox that is South Africa. Mavis said she documented about 10 households each day. It turned out she is from Lebowakgomo in Limpopo, has a two year old daughter and didn’t have a job to go back to once the census was finished on October 31st . My (broody) heart rejoiced then sank. I imagined her child and wondered if she to would be a grown woman who couldn’t write. I pictured Mavis putting her to bed sans a bed time story. Of course she knew stories and lullabies but she couldn’t read them to her daughter or teach her how to read. Then she got a call. She answered it, speaking loudly and freely. She had a face that looked older than mine but I recognised youth in her as she chit chatted about meeting her colleague at the corner and walking back home. Soon she was gone. Out of sight but still on my mind. I heard her knocking and uninhibitedly calling out Census! a few doors down. I BBMed Cheryl from the flat I imagined she was at to get her cellphone number, which she did. I have Mavi’s number and will call her to see how I can make her feel she counts.
-
Design by Jonathan Mak, Hong Kong
R.I.P Steve Jobs
THANK YOU
-
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life”
-
I saw this movie at First Wednesday Film Club in September. Easy to see why it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography & Best Production Design at the African Movie Academy Awards. It’s also been screed in the US, Germany and Canada. Viva African Cinema!
Check out the director speaking about making the film and the film’s American Premiere.
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=0V8vEjd5nHI
-
Rest in Peace. Professor Wangari Maathai. (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011)
The first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. You will remain to us a testament of what we can achieve through passion and and commitment. -
Famous Quotes That Were Never Said - Photo Gallery - LIFE →
Marie Antoinette never made this statement. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, however, wrote something similar long before Marie Antoinette was the queen of France. Actual quote, from Rousseau’s autobiography: “I recalled a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread and who replied: ‘Let them eat brioche.’” (“Je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui rpondit, qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”) Above: Actress Norma Shearer as Marie Anotionette, 1938.
8 months ago / 0 notes / Source:
-
Famous Quotes That Were Never Said - Photo Gallery - LIFE →
Actual Quote: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
8 months ago / 0 notes / Source:
-
Organiser
-
Reason the mass performing 15 Grand →
Took this footage and pcitures on August 25th at the State Theatre in Pretoria.
-
I’m still here…
