Diary of a former Zimbabwean freedom fighter

A colleague at work has asked me to look at her friend’s 20-page memoir, with the idea of making it available on my blog as a download.

The friend is a former Zimbabwean soldier, and he tells the story of how, as a boy, he watched his sister’s murder. The man grew up to join ZANU PF fighting for what he thought would be the liberation of his people.

Only there was no freedom at the end of the journey: ordinary Zimbabweans remain poor and oppressed, and the guy regrets that he fought to get the Robert Mugabe regime into power.

Because of the economic situation in Zimbabwe, the man came to South Africa to look for a better life. Unfortunately, that remains elusive, and he works as a security guard at a townhouse complex, earning very little money. He also misses his family deeply.

My colleague says it’s a poignant tale that would make good reading for teens. We’ll see. If the story is as good as she thinks, I’m going to suggest they apply for a self-publishing publishing grant from the Centre of the Book. Not sure when the deadline for the next batch of applications is, but it’s probably around September.

My colleague and her friend can also make an ebook version available, set up a web site or blog and promote it.

WRITING NEWS: REJECTION AND COLLABORATION

The first email I opened this morning was a rejection for a poem I submitted a couple of months ago. The managing editor said she liked it at the start, but along the way, it became "mundane," so the pub had to pass.

The rejection stings a bit, but I'm heartened by her personal comment of the intro. It means the poem is salvageable, and I just need to work through it again until the full whole works.

Note to self: send as much material as possible out into the market as possible, so rejections don't sting too much.

A couple of months ago I mentioned plans to collaborate with a colleague. I didn't elaborate too much on the project, and still can't. But I did put together a proposal and sent it through her to add to it, and this morning she sent back her revised version. It looks really great, and we just need to panel-beat it a little before sending it out to publishers.

Have an article on the South African NGO Network's web site

My Q and A with Ramon Thomas made the front page of the web site of the South African NGO Network (Sangonet).

Sangonet is a national non-profit organisation that encourages and assists other non-profits with issues around the use of technology to deliver services to disadvantaged communities.

I’m very excited about this, because Sangonet is a reputable, well-known organisation with national scope, and members include child welfare organisations.

Sangonet also publishes an online database of South African non-profit organisations called Prodder.

I also have an article (about blogging) due to come out in the newsletter of the South African chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Not sure about dates, but will keep you posted. The article will also be published in the SCWBI Gauteng blog. Will link up to it when it's out.

Also, don’t forget to read Absolute Write on Tuesday 2 July and 9 July, where I expect to have 2 articles published.

I’m still not sure if the Ezine Articles experiment is working. In the month since I joined the portal, I submitted 12 articles and they are now live.

Collectively, these articles have been viewed over 650 times by publishers, online markets and bloggers. I don’t know how many publishers eventually used them though.

I haven’t seen an increased hit rate on my stories at ITWeb, but I remind myself that it’s only been more than a month since I joined the portal.

It will take time for publishers start using my stories and for people to click through to the ITWeb site and my blog.

It also strikes me that maybe readers from Ezine Articles do click through to the ITWeb site, but don’t find anything they can use directly for their business because it’s a South African technology news site, so they move on. I need to give this experiment more thought…..

Read my interview with Ramon here.

Q and A with Ramon Thomas, MD of Netucation - Part 1

This week I chat with Ramon Thomas, MD of Netucation, a Gauteng-based company that does research on the impact of technology on people and relationships. Specifically, Ramon and I talk about the use of new media like the Internet and social networking platforms in South Africa, and the impact of these platforms on children.

The interview also looks at the roles of teachers, parents, government and telecoms service providers to provide a safer environment for children to use technology.

ABOUT RAMON THOMAS

Ramon worked in IT Security for many years in South Africa, England and United Arab Emirates. This experience gives him unique insights into how the online world can impact on children, “the most innocent of Internet users,” he says.

Another event, more personal in nature, also motivated Ramon to become heavily involved in the impact of technology on people and relationships.

My own sister almost failed matric [last year of high school] in 2006 because she spent too much time on MXit, using a cellphone I gave her! Her marks continued to drop from June, to September to final exams. And she cried when she found out she didn’t pass with exemption [which allows automatic entry into college]. She ended up gaining a provisional exemption and so she is now doing her first year BA.

This led to Ramon writing “THE PARENTS GUIDE TO MIXIT.” The Parents Guide led to speaking engagements where he addresses parents at schools nationwide to raise awareness about the positive and the negative of MXit, chat rooms and cyberspace. Ramon says in time, the parents asked him to also educate their children.

When I talk to parents I narrow the gap between what they know and what the kids know. I bring the kids down to reality of the situation and lift the parents up so they feel more empowered to manage the conflict that has been caused by excessive cellphone use.

Q AND A

How many children/young people use MXit or any other social networking platform in South Africa?

Research is hard to come by. MXit has over 4 million users, growing at about 10 000 new users per day. I think this growth is going to accelerate as they expand internationally. Mig33 has become a very popular alternative to MXit and there are also several WAP-based chat services like Rivotext and others parents should be aware of.

It's important to understand that many of these services are international and so it's almost impossible to get the South African numbers. My estimate would be that maybe 6-8 million children are accessing premium content items.

What are the 3 most important trends emerging as young people interact with new technologies?

Accelerated development - This can be positive as hand/eye co-ordination is developed when playing computer games, and negative in terms of relationships between teenagers who are just beginning to understand male/female dynamics in the context of sexual relationships and roles.

There is also a strong impact on early childhood development. As a result, I am moving toward full agreement with Clifford Stoll's (author of High-Tech Heretic) views that computers should be not be available to very young children so they can have normal development of cognitive functions.

Lack of Netiquette and Social Skills- There is now a whole generation of children who grew up in a world where cellphones have always been available. These kids struggle to adjust in social situations that do not require cellphones. There is also tremendous conflict in what is deemed acceptable between children and their parents. They are almost two to three lifetimes apart.

Another challenge is that in the early days of the Internet and the Web, Netiquette was heavily enforced by the "tribal elders." For example, WRITING EMAIL IN ALL CAPS was considered equivalent of screaming and frowned upon. These days there are people who genuinely do not know, and there is nobody to teach them any better.

User generated content - This is the bane of traditional media companies. Users, with teenagers leading the way, are populating profiles on social networking websites with an almost unlimited amount of written, audio, photo and video content.

The content is self-produced, and every now and then of a superior quality to anything available on network television. This is leading to a huge shift in the consumption of media.

What is the trend that is uniquely African people need to pay attention to?

The biggest trend across Africa is the substantial growth in localised, regionalised and cultural specific content, translated into local languages. This is where Africa has always been left out and left behind. However, the "cheetah generation" as described by George Ayittey is going to make a meaningful difference in that aspect.

What are the three most risky behaviours that children engage in while online? Why do they engage in these behaviours?

a)Children have no idea of personal privacy. So they frequently exchange cellphone numbers in public chat rooms on MXit. They seem to ignore the fact that other people are watching and seeing this information being exchanged.

I think they do this because they don't see the consequence as immediate or real. It's supposed to be anonymous because it's a chat room.

b)Children accept invitations from strangers to connect and communicate on MXit and websites like Facebook. So in the context of social networking websites you must be findable. The problem is that there is no discretion on how to decide who to approve as a friend/connection/contact or not. Parents need to go back to basics about not talking to strangers even online. Just remind them constantly.

c)They post too many photos in public profiles. This is happening at an alarming rate on MySpace and Facebook. There is again no discretion as to what is acceptable amount of photos or not. So it's not even that the photos are explicit in any way. It's that these photos provide enough details for predators to use against the victims. MySpace has some excellent filters to protect minors from being contacted by older people. Others can learn from them on how to co-operate with government and law enforcement.

How much involvement do/should South African parents have in their children’s use of new media?

Many parents have a limited role as they may not have used it or even have access to it. Right now you have many Black children going to private schools, which have huge computer labs but some of their parents remain clueless about technology use.

In cases where parents have limited knowledge of technology, they should use the infrastructure from the schools to increase their own education/training and awareness of technology.

However, parents should not expect this to be driven by schools. They should be proactive in communicating the need for increased awareness of technology.

Would an education campaign/the provision of educational materials assist young people in keeping safe, or do we need other interventions? What are these interventions?

Other than educational materials, we also need to train peer counsellors. They could be current and future prefects who can handle first level problems before passing more severe problems onto more qualified experts.

There is going to be a need for more of these experts at provincial level to go into schools who can't afford to employ them.

Are telecoms service providers offering adequate protection for children while they use their platforms? How far should/does their responsibility for these children go?

Telecoms service providers can do much more to provide tools to block, regular and limit access. And beyond this they all should be forced by government to spend money on computer literacy/education and awareness programs. There is a direct economic benefit here because the more sophisticated users are power users, and power users are heavy users.

My Internet bill is more than R1000 per month and has been for years! They can and should provide the tools to at least give parents the choice to enable/disable the applications irrespective of SIM cards or cellphone network. So there should be legislated interoperability between providers.

What are some of the projects you have in the pipeline that will help South African children to be safer online?

I am working on bring www.wiredSafety.org programs into South Africa. I've completed my initial training with them and am now moving into more advanced and specific training. Much of what is need has been developed and refined by them. They are the biggest group dedicated to online safety with over 9000 volunteers worldwide.

I'm also going to work with Childline/Lifeline to provide training to their counsellors on the technology side of problems experienced children. We need all the support we can get here because resources are severely limited.

Next week Ramon and I chat about marketing and promotion strategies, and the strategies he employed to successfully market his business and the causes he supports.

Stories from Papi: A story a week

Papi (Jorge) has set himself the target of writing one story a week.

I’m going to put a link to his blog, under Resources for Parents, so you can easily find him when looking for a new story to tell your kids.

Go Jorge! I hope he reaches his target of 50 stories in one year.

Recycling old posts: online resources for storytelling and parenting

I have a 40th birthday coming up next month. As you can imagine, it’s a moment that lends itself to introspection about the life and the paths not taken.

I decided some years ago not to make New Year or birthday resolutions, so I’m not feeling like I didn’t achieve set targets or anything.

In general, I'm pretty happy with my life: the choices made and professional goals achived. I don't regret the paths not taken.

To remind myself of where I come from, I decided to check my blog archives for this time last year:

- In June last year, I landed an agent. He got me a nice deal performing my children's stories at a festival, but he hasn't sold anything. When I didnt hear from him for months, I emailed him for an update. He didn't reply to two emails, so I assumed he decided we weren't a good fit afterall.

Note to self: phone agent and find out if assumption is correct.

- I quit blogging, and wrote an essay explaining my decision. But a friend encouraged me to try again.

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND STORYTELLERS

I decided to look through my blog archives to find posts you likely haven't seen, but which have resources you would find useful. Here we go:

Tips for storytelling and other parenting resources

Some bed-time reading

Flat 9 by Mariam Akabor

Title: Flat 9
Author: Mariam Akabor
Publisher: Umsinsi Press, 2006
Price: Please check with Mariam or Felicity
To order: Email felicity@umsinsi.com

I rarely read short story collections, and I never go out of my way to find them, but after opening the first page of Mariam Akabor’s Flat 9, I couldn’t stop reading.

Set in central Durban, the collection of 11 short stories explores the loves, lives and troubles of a South African Indian community living in a dilapidated old building called AK Mansions.

“Amidst the hustle and bustle of city life, the tenants of AK Mansions are never short of excitement, drama or pain,” the back cover synopsis says.

Flat 9 captivated me primarily because it explores life’s moments that are a familiar to me, even while I was learning more about another local culture. The stories are very short and move along fast. Some leave you with the need to know what happens next beyond the pages.

For example, in Latif’s Mother, we meet a cranky woman whose son moved away to get away from her. Even as she yelled: “You blurry idjits! Voetsek fum here!” I couldn’t help but feel pity for her. Given the chance, would she change?

Then there’s Fatima, in AK Mansions, whose life just took a turn for the better. She has a new job, is about to move into AK Mansions, which by her current standards is actually a step up, and she’s looking forward to her mother’s visit. But a big decision that most local young women, whether African and Indian face is just around the corner.

Some of the stories pack an emotional punch. The Paki hits too close to SA’s shame – its citizens’ zenophobia. It was not a comfortable look in the mirror.

I suspect many teenagers can identify Feroz, the main character in All About Money, destined for a secure, well-paying job that does not touch on their interests or passions. “It’s just a stage,” they say of Feroz when he explains he wants to be a chef, not an accountant or engineer.

Flat 9 has been prescribed as secondary reading for high schools in the KswaZulu Natal province in South Africa, and with good reason.

But the book is more than a duty read. It’s a fun read, to be enjoyed equally by teenagers and adults. The book is a good place to start if you or your teenager are not yet fans of the short fiction form.

Interviews and marathon writing

I first met Mariam Akabor’s sister randomly on the Internet. Over a hot plate of curry and rice she mentioned her sister the author, who launched a short story collection (aimed at teens) at the London Book Fair last year.

Of course I had to interview Mariam and introduce her to you, so I asked for an interview. Lucky us, she agreed, so some time in the next week or two I’ll post a Q & A with her.

In the meantime, I got my grubby hands on Flat 9, her latest collection of short stories, which is prescribed as secondary reading in the province of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. Check out my review soon.

I also emailed Ramon Thomas, online child safety guru, the series of questions for our interview as planned. I feel guilty because he’s a busy man and I’m asking a lot of questions. But there was so much I feel you’d want to learn from him…

Over the weekend I had a marathon writing session. It all started when I began to work on a short article on blogging (a South African perspective),I promised to a local writing newsletter. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop until I had an 8-page document.

Nope, I didn’t waffle. It so happens there are some challenges local writers have to bypass before they can blog successfully, and I wanted to acknowledge them and provide some suggestions.

Anyway, I’m going to trim the article to make suitable reading for the newsletter submission. But I also plan to make the full document freely available on this blog as a PDF document. As soon as I figure out how to do it:-)

Have to re-evaluate my "parenting guide" project

The good news is Biblionef South Africa saw my post about their search for indigenous language books and contacted me. Not sure how we’ll work it out, but the executive director would like to meet.

Wow! It feels great to know that your words touched someone enough for them to pick up the phone and call not once, but twice. (I was stuck in meetings and didn’t know!)

Biblionef is based in Cape Town, and I’m attending a conference there in August, so I hope we’ll manage to squeeze in coffee etc. Before you leave, please visit their Web site and if possible, please donate some books?

HAVE TO ASSESS THE NEED FOR THE PARENTING GUIDE PROJECT

The bad news (for me) is Ramon Thomas, South African online enterprenuer and dating guru beat me to the punch and wrote the parents’ guide to cellphone and social networking safety.

His guide is much smaller than I envisaged my book being (12-pager), and but for now, it provides the basic tips that parents need. So there may still be room for my project, but we’ll see.

To download a PDF copy, click here
To read more on Ramon’s online safety campaign, click here

The weird thing is I know Ramon, but through my job as a journalist. I never mentioned my book project to him, and obviously he never thought to mention his project to me. Our conversation by necessity centred on business-to-business IT issues.

I’m going to write him a quick email and ask him for an interview for the blog. We’ll chat about the guides I’m told he’s bringing out and some online safety tips for parents.

Anyway, it’s not all gloom and doom on the project. The mutual acquaintance who told me about Ramon’s guide says a collateral book project is coming up and gave me contact details of the person in charge of the project. So, something may still come out of this.

Lessons I learnt today:

a) The seeds you plant now will bear fruit later. So keep writing and sending out material even when you don’t see an obvious return. Your time will come.

b) If you have a good book idea, and you procrastinate on it, someone else will write it for you. Three months from now, I suspect even the collateral project would be all signed off and my business acquaintance would have had to say:” Sorry but you’re too late! Maybe next time.”

Two Writing Articles For Absolute Write

I mentioned some time ago that I submitted two writing-related articles to Absolute Write, a weekly writing newsletter. The articles were accepted and will be published in the 2 and 9 July editions. Yay!

Also, my post on why and how I blog has now been published on Quasifictional. Please visit the blog, and if you are a blogger, why don’t you respond to Diogenes’ (blog owner) invitation about why and how you blog? Chat about how you find your subjects, when you write, how you promote your blog and/learn from other bloggers.

Q and A with Terri Lailvaux, author & publisher of THE GREATEST GIFT

Title: The Greatest Gift
Author: Terri Lailvaux
Illustrator: Shane Smitsdorp
Publisher: Self-published, 2007
Price: R85.00
Synopsis: This is a story about a Mother and Dad bear who want a baby but can’t have one and a Lioness who is alone and carrying a baby that she can not care for.They all end up at wise Mrs Cow’s house to seek advice. Mrs Cow suggests the Bears adopt and raise the Lioness’s baby for her.
To order: mwterril@mweb.co.za

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Cape Town based children’s book author and publisher Terri Lailvaux had an important message to get out, so when traditional publishing methods failed, she decided to get a loan and “get on with it.”

Terri is also a wife, mother, tourism lecturer at a private tertiary education institution and a part-time student doing a National Diploma in Tourism. THE GREATEST GIFT is her first book.

Q AND A WITH TERRI



When did you know you wanted to become a writer?

I didn’t really ever know that. I went to look for a book that would explain to small children why and how adoption takes place and I couldn’t find one. I searched websites and eventually decided to try and write a few words down and see if I could create my own story.

What did you do about it?

I started writing the story for my own son and his friends. I thought about the things they like and the things that excite them and came up with the animal theme. I wrote the true story of our adoption process but I changed all the humans into animals so make it appealing to kids.

What inspired you to write this book? What is the message that you most want to communicate through the book?

I decided to write this book after my husband and I adopted our son, Alex. It’s a story that we can read to him and that our friends with biological children can read to them. My hope is that Alex and his friends will understand how and why adoption takes place and see the process as an incredible act of love from both sides.

Adopting a child is a very special process and I wanted to make sure that as my son grows up, he sees it as something positive and also that he can explain to other kids why and how he was adopted. I also want his friends to know about it and understand it from when they are very young.

What were the credentials that most qualified you to write the book?

Purely experience. I have no other writing credentials.

What were the two most important problems you encountered during the writing process? How did you deal with them?

I worried that the story was too simple but I looked at so many children’s books and they are, for the most part, really simple. The biggest hurdle by far was illustrating the book.

I can’t even draw a stick man so I needed help and on a zero budget, no one leapt forward to do the job! Eventually after trying for over a year, my neighbour who is a designer suggested manipulating digital photos and doing it that way.

Did you initially submit the manuscript to traditional publishers? What was their response?

Yes…well, I tried. Most wouldn’t even read the manuscript. They just said that their budget for the year was used up and they couldn’t help me.

I did get one publisher to read my work. Three months later, I got a very short letter to say that the market for children’s books is very complicated and at that time, they didn’t think they would work with my story.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

Out of pure desperation. I have quite a large circle of friends with adopted kids and they all needed a book like this.

I work full time and study part time and I just didn’t have much time to keep on phoning and writing only to be told “no” every time. So I took a loan and just got on with it.

Please talk a bit about the process of lining up a big distributor, attracting media coverage for your book, and getting copies into book stores when you self-publish. Did you attempt these activities and to what success?

Once the books were printed, I emailed all my friends and family with the details and they in turn forwarded the email to their contacts. Out of that, I sold a hundred books immediately.

Some of my friends bought my book for their school library and the adoption agency that we used has also taken a few copies on consignment to see if they can sell them. That’s as far as I’ve got.

I have no idea what to do to get the books distributed and partly because I feel quite brow-beaten after struggling for two years to get it all done on my own.

I have no contacts in the media world and I haven’t yet come up with any great plan. I would LOVE to get the printing and distribution of the book taken over by someone as I feel it is so important for people out there to have access to it. Adoption affects a much bigger piece of the population than most people imagine.

Have you established contact with some of the child welfare networks and advocacy organisations that support/facilitate child adoption in this country? What was the result of your interaction? Do you speak at parenting groups?

So far, I have only sent the book to Procare in Wellington as they are the agency that we used.

My plan, in the next few weeks is to make contact with schools, other adoption agencies, parenting groups and clinics. I haven’t yet due to time constraints. Procare were very positive about selling it for me.

What are some of the marketing activities that you are doing to make people, especially parents, aware that the book/resource is available?

At the moment, I rely on word-of-mouth marketing and have two posters up at local swimming schools.

I have also sent quite a few books overseas to friends in the hope that the more widely the books are spread the more chance there is that someone will want to publish or distribute for me. There are books with friends in UK, USA, Dubai, Hong Kong and Canada.

If you had to do this book again, would you self-publish again? What were the rewards?

I wouldn’t self-publish by choice because of the expenses involved. But if it was the only way to get the book out there, then definitely, yes, I would.

The reward is seeing the vision I had, being transformed into reality. I’m also rewarded by seeing the incredibly positive reaction of my son and his friends and their parents to the book.

Now that the book is printed and ready for sale, what's the next project for you? Do you have another book in the works?

At this stage, I want to get this book more widely distributed and will spend some time looking at how to sell online and how to get into book stores.

I do have another idea for a book but I’m not sure whether to run with it or not. It’s not a children’s book and trying to appeal to an adult market scares me a bit!

Two men, two dogs and a million cats

Saturday was a dog day, in the literal sense. Baby mentioned out of the blue that she’d like to have a pet dog. I'm skeptical about this new wish (and said so) because she has never shown interest in dogs before.

A friend gave me a purebred Belgian Shepard as a birthday present a couple of years ago, and the two of them didn’t get on well. Or rather, John Fox wanted to get along, but Baby rejected his overtures. Eventually, John Fox had to go - he was an exuberant, big puppy and I had a little girl in the house who was not taking to him at all.

I also met a couple that's emigrating to The Netherlands, and are looking for new homes for their two dogs and a million cats. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but everywhere I looked in the semi there seemed to be a cat!

One of my friends wanted a dog for her eight-year old son, so we went over to pick it up. His name is Skipper, and they say he’s a Schipperke.

“He’s not really our dog,” one of the man said as my friend picked up Skipper to examine him. For a moment we were stunned – he was giving away a dog that didn’t belong to him?

The real story is that he rescued the dog following a car accident outside his house. He found the dog lying on the pavement (sidewalk), took him to the vet and kept him when no one responded to his adverts and posters. He named the dog Pavement, but was later persuaded to go for a more doggy name, hence Skipper.

Macmillan's Write for Africa 2007

The 30 June deadline for Macmillan’s Write for Africa Competition is looming and my submission is not ready yet.

The competition is biennial, and it would be a pity for me not to enter. So I’ll have to set aside some time this weekend to attend to it.

Other than the $5000 prize money for each category winner( 8-12 and 13-17 categories), there is a lot of recognition and publicity for the winning authors.

So best I get off my duff and pull my story together. Even if I don’t get a mention, I will at least have given the competition a shot.

THE EZINE ARTICLE EXPERIMENT

The Ezine Article experiment is coming along slowly. I was skeptical that there would be benefits to submitting articles to a publishing portal, with the idea that they are made freely available to publishers in return for a biography and link.

But I decided to try it out, as a lot of Internet marketing experts punt is as one of the strongest strategies to drive traffic to your web site or blog.

My caution seemed even more justified as only a few people read my articles in the first week. There is no impact to the traffic to my articles on ITWeb, but more people seem to be reading the articles from the publishers' portal.

Of the people who read the articles, 17 were online publishers. I’m not quite sure how one tracks the actual usage. I don’t know the pubslihers'subscriber numbers either, so it’s hard to tell how many people will eventually read my articles. But that's teh point of the viral marketing - the articles will circulate all over the place, and everyone of the readers may choose to click through to the link I provided.

Making dreams come true

Last night I did a speed coaching session with Lisa Gates at Intrinsic Life. I wanted to start evaluating where I am with my writing, where I would like to go and what’s stopping me. Lisa offered a free speed-coaching session.

Lisa, who calls herself a Completion Catalyst, says: “You bring your whole life to your project, to your writing, and as a client you bring your whole life to coaching as well. What stops you in your life will also stop you in your project. Where you have freedom in your life, you will have freedom in your project. Coaching brings you into the process of inquiry by asking questions. And they are, at last, the right questions.”

If you’ve been meaning to start a project, maybe write a book or take your writing to the next level, go on over to Lisa’s blog and check out what she has to say.
Even if you never email her or comment on her blog, you will leave her space with some important questions that can help propel your writing forwrad.
............................

WHERE WILL YOU BE IN 10 YEARS

Speaking of making dreams come true, today at work I interviewed a young man whose company won a multimillion rand defence contract.

Andile Tlhoaele, MD of Inforcomm, said something that I thought all dreamers would find encouraging :“Just 10 years ago I was working as a technician of the same contract, not knowing that one day it will be awarded to my company!”
So my question to you as a writer is this: “ Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time?”

As a writer, do you have big enough dreams? Or do you constantly remind yourself how tough the publishing market is, and it’s better to be realistic about your chances of success?

When your child shares dreams of her future career with you, do you remind her that it’s better to be realistic because it’s unlikely her dreams will come true?
Do you help her look at ways which can help her develop a strong practical plan so when she's older she can make the seemingly unachievable dreams can come true?

Some thoughts on blogging and other social networking phenomena

I have submitted a post to Quasi Fictional, discussing how I blog and my feelings about the phenomenon.

Also please explore the site and to read why a number of people from various countries blog. I found many of the posts illuminating, especially because many writers spoke of blogging with enthusiasm and passion.

WHO’S TO BLAME?

In this post, Babygirl chats about the use of mobile phone instant messaging platforms like Mxit and the danger some of these chat rooms pose for children.

Babygirl writes for Mydigitallife, a social networking platform recently launched by my employer.

“The chat rooms had names that were so disturbing and so inviting to the prowling sick men out there. But the one that really irritated me was [R-word an f-word me]. I found it appalling for girls to have something to do with a chatroom like that. Why on earth do girls want to invite such frivolous behaviour?”

Babygirl’s post takes me back to my position that children need to be educated so they don’t take undue risks and know how to spot the signs when they find themselves in potentially dangerous situations.

POLITICIAN CALLS FOR REGULATING BLOGGING AND IM PLATFORMS

Politician Patricia De Lille was recently catapulted into the spotlight for suggesting that the South African government should regulates on blogging and the use of instant messaging platforms such as Mixit.

South Africa has a high mobile phone penetration rate and Mxit is very popular with millions of young phone users, who use it to get online for chats everyday.

Most people in the media /technology industry laughed De Lille off the stage. I sent her my proposal for “A parent’s guide to protect children from harmful cellphone content” and told her educating the parents and kids is probably the only protection South Africa can realistically offer.

South Africa already has laws, regulations and a code of good conduct governing the mobile content and the social networking space. But, most people don’t even know where to complain if their children are sent content that is inappropriate for their age.

A popular refrain among the operators is that the solution is not technological; the solution is about the parents being informed and educated about their children’s use of cellphone use and taking the necessary steps to protect them.

All this tells me there is a strong need for my book. Maybe I’m not knocking on the right doors, because so far there haven’t been takers for my book proposal. I’m going to rework the proposal again, tighten it, and send it out again. I know there is a need for this kind of book.

Africans should be sterilized or bombed (This is not hate speech)

Africans should be sterilized and troubled regions of the continent, like Zimbabwe, bombed off the face of the earth.

This is a sound strategy for the developed world to deal with the population explosion, food shortage and the many problems that the continent brings, says a writer I came across on the Internet.

The man, who has written over eleven thousand articles and generated four and half million hits (at that particular portal) also argues against attempts to revitalize the continent, especially the slums.

He says Africans are essentially a waste of food. The world is already overpopulated, and the last thing the developed world needs to waste its resources on keeping the lazy sods fed.

Slum areas in Africa should also not be rehabilitated, because once you’re done with the work, more poor Africans will move into the improved regions, breed like rabbits and ruin your good work, he says.

I CAN’T IGNORE HIM

My gut reaction was to dismiss this writer as an ill-informed crackpot few people will take seriously. But, I couldn’t ignore his huge body of work or the sheer commitment that he demonstrated in writing articles and getting them into the public arena. (The articles are free to republish by anyone who wishes to do so)

Also, we know who we are, what we stand for and what life really is like in Africa. Why worry about an ill-informed person who has no way to influence our lives?

I couldn’t ignore him because there is too little information on the Internet telling the real story of Africa. There are too few Africans chatting on the Internet, sharing about their life experiences, doing just as people from developed countries are doing through blogs and forums. There are too few fictional stories, based in Africa, published on the net and many African writers don't even bother to build web sites or to blog.

So even if ordinary citizens from developed countries disbelieve this writer and others like him, they have no accurate information to replace the misinformation. They still end up with the mental picture of the African as a poor, lazy, starving individual in need of intervention, whether benign or aggressive.

MY CHALLENGE TO AFRICAN WRITERS

My nine year old daughter spends a lot of time on the Internet, learning and playing. This weekend alone, she researched:

- Racheltjie De Beer (1831-1843)- a 12-year old Afrikaans girl who sacrificed her life for her brother’s survival (she learnt about Rach at school)
- Madeleine McCann - a 4-year old girl who was snatched from her family a month ago. ( been following story since etv broadcast a news segment on Madeleine)
- How to polish silver – a school project due Tuesday ( really bad luck she pulled that topic)
- Ethiopia – I mentioned the country and Baby was curious, so one thing led to another
- The Frog Princess – a Russian fairytale we’d never read before.

It will be very difficult for Baby (and African children in general) to gain a positive self-image if most of the online accounts of Africans are of victims or a people too lazy to help themselves.

So, my challenge to African writers is this:” Are you using the Internet to tell Africa’s story to the world, the continent, your country, your community, your family, your children? If you’re not busy showing the world that we’re more than hungry mouths to be nuked or fed, who do you think is doing your job?”

For as long as African writers have excuses not to use new media like the Internet to get their stories out, someone else will define who Africans are using this medium. In the absence of our stories, our own account of life in this continent, their truth will be the only truth net surfers read.

So I suggest that African writers be as prolific as this man is; that they let their work be distributed as much as possible, so for every article this man (and many like him) writes about Africa, there are a hundred more giving a more accurate portrayal of life on this continent.

I’m not talking about disputing what he said, or even trying to convince those who think Africans are a waste of good resources that we too are human beings entitled to life and dignity. Why bother?

I’m talking about Africans doing just as everyone is doing on the Internet and saying “this is who we are and this is how we live.”

Lest some writers come up with excuses why they can’t use this media, let me say I am a technology journalist and am aware of all those reasons already. All I’m asking is for you to work over/under/around those problems and get the job done.

Let me remind you that ONE man, not yet 45 by the way, wrote more than ELEVEN THOUSAND articles in a couple of years. In some them, he suggests that you and your family be sterilized or bombed. If that’s not motivation enough to put forth your perspective, I don’t know what is.

P.S. For obvious reasons, I didn’t name the writer I was talking about or hyperlink to his articles.

One child one seed by Kathryn Cave

One child one seed
Writer: Kathryn Cave
Photographer: Gisele Wulfsohn
Publisher: Giraffe Books,
Pan Macmillan South Africa in Association with Oxfam
Published: 2002
ISBN: 9780620280884
Availability:Kalahari.net
Soft cover price: R54.86

It took us a while to get into “One Child One Seed,” mostly because the book has many layers and wasn’t meant to be entertaining.

The book is oldish, published in 2002, but it’s still worth reading today. It’s billed as a South African counting book, teaching children to count from one to ten through the story of Nothando. One child, one seed; two hands to plant the seed, three ways to help it grow and so on…..

The beautiful, vivid photographs show Nothando’s home life, and provide a good picture of how poor, rural South African communities live.

I was especially impressed with the accuracy with which the family unit is shown. It’s no traditional Ma, Pa and kids “ideal” picture of a family unit, but something that many South Africans would easily recognize.

“Nontando lives with her Aunt Nomusa (in red) and her Grandmother Betty (in blue). Her big sister and her mother are on the right of the picture, and her brother on the left. They live nearby and spend a lot of time with Nontando.”

The book also gives a step by step guide on how to grow and nurture a pumpkin until it’s ripe, which you can use if you’re a keen gardener and would like to help your child grow something independently.

This book is a must-have.

Public servants on strike - indefinitely

Today began what many call the biggest public sector strike in the history of South Africa.

Public Servants, including nurses, doctors, teachers, policemen went on strike today.

A media statement from COSATU says: “the unions are united in their rejection of the current [salary increase] offer of 6.0% and are resolute in our decision to embark on indefinite industrial action in pursuit of 12%.”

“Don’t send your kids to school tomorrow,” the late edition newspapers said yesterday afternoon, as I was going home.

I phoned Baby's school to find out if the strike affects teachers from private schools. The school secretary assured me it’s business as usual at the school, as the problem with government about salary increases does not apply to them.

Phew! Glad Baby's school programme remains uninterrupted. I hope no one robs us, and we don't fall sick during this time, because going to a hospital with skeleton staff just sounds scary.

WRITING NEWS: THE LIMPOPO INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES WRITER’S COMPETITION

I’ve polished a children’s story I plan to submit to the Limpopo Indigenous Languages Writer's Competition for Foundation Phase stories.

Problem is, the story should be in Sepedi, Tshivenda, Xitsonga or IsiNdebele, and I don’t speak or write any of these languages.

So I’m going to ask a friend of my sister’s to help me redo the story in one of these languages and submit it. I need to check with the competition organizers though to find out if they mind that it would be a translation of an original, unpublished story. The competition rules do not say anything about the matter.

According to the rules of the competition:

* The story must be suitable for Foundation Phase (4-9 years).
* The entries must be previously unpublished and original.
* The text must be suitable for a picture book- no illustrations necessary but suggested artwork briefs can be added.
* Easy readers with simple text.
* Length: around 600 words.
* Manuscripts must be typed in double spacing and submitted in duplicate hard copies.

Maskew Miller Longman will award R500 for the best entry in Sepedi, Xitsonga, Tshivenda and IsiNdebele.

Maskew Miller Longman will also publish the winning entries if they meet their publishing requirements. Non-winning entries may also qualify for publication.

The deadline for entries is the 27 July 2007.