EXTREME RUDENESS, PROFESSIONAL ARROGANCE, AND WORST CLIENT CARE REMINISCENT OF PRE-1994 SOUTH AFRICA DAYS EXPERIENCED TODAY!

According to Mr Steyn, LLB, of SCHOEMAN ● STEYN ATTORNEYS, Welkom, South Africa, if you are old (like my mother is at age 70), and you don’t remember things, you are hopeless against the law. You are as vulnerable and weak as can be. And legal representation for you regarding complaints against fraudsters, as well as incompetent services providers is a waste of time. Then, I reckon, criminals are free to have a party cheating, robbing, and abusing the elderly in South Africa.

While a formal complaint against the above-mentioned learned gentleman shall in due course be lodged to the relevant Law Society of South Africa organ, I wish to move for a boycott of his firm if it is the firm’s policy to treat senior citizens with such total lack of respect, extreme rudeness, and abhorrent professional arrogance as demonstrated by the learned gentleman today.

Simon Chilembo
Welkom
South Africa
Tel.: +4792525032
January 20, 2011

Summer 2007 I stumbled and fell with a heavy thud. When the global finance crisis struck the following year I was at my lowest ebb, and, therefore, most vulnerable indeed. Had I been a lesser man I should have cracked, I think. But then again when my conscience is clear, my strength and will to survive are insurmountable. For that I am eternally grateful.

More grateful I am of the fact that I am blessed with such a vast and solid global network of people who love and care about me though; people who support and believe in me; people who, despite all my failings and at times self-induced personal calamities, are ever willing to fall and rise with me. Indeed, all-weather friends, Brothers & Sisters, family. My ever-loyal students, my clients and patients, as well as business associates have all in their own ways been great sources of strength and inspiration, as well as joy. I’ve heard many words of wisdom and hope here. My belief in the good of humanity is anchored in the compassion I continue to enjoy from all these people who so immensely contribute to making my world go round so smoothly.

Year 2010 has been a most fulfilling year. Thanks to all above. I shall enter year 2011 stronger than ever before; I shall live the year and beyond with greater passion than ever before, giving more of myself and my things as my way of saying “Thank you, ALL!” for the love, support, understanding, patience, generousity, kindness, faith, and care.

It is, therefore, with the greatest love, joy, and pride that I wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010, & HAPPY, PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2011!!!

For those who are entrepreneurs, let’s all rock, let’s make the money and get wealthier; let’s change the world with opulence!

Simon Chilembo

Commenting on the mines nationalization debate in South Africa

@ “The ANC as a government party cannot pretend like we are a resistance movement in the running of the country and the economy … we must run the economy successfully,” … “The argument is that when we take a decision it will be implementable … and not base them on the ideological emotional feeling. We have a responsibility,” … I just love these lines!

Looks like JZ’s irrational “wounded lion” is finally awakening to the reality of demands for rational and structured thinking concomitant to good governance in a democratic country. I get goose bumps at the thought that “Feel It! It’s Here!” could also apply to the ANC’s re-invention as a credible people’s party, keenly determined to take South Africa to the highest levels of quality living standards for all.

Simon Chilembo

Commenting on my Brother: Bobby Moroe: “I too deserve a moment of glory”

Though not necessarily the most intrinsic motivation source for many who rule with clear consciences, the personal glory experience attributable to the recognition and acknowledgement of one’s efforts and achievements, as well as the subsequent rewards accruing consequent upon the latter, gives a kick and motivation; inspiring one to want to be a better and more creative/ effective/ productive person and visionary today than one was yesterday.

Moments of personal glory fortify our will to live and to survive, enabling us to learn and practice calm and clarity of mind in both good and turbulent times. The future will, I postulate with confidence, always belong to those of ordinary mortals who without malice do and achieve extra-ordinary things for others, their own, as well as themselves.

Bobby, you rule. Here’s to you, to your moment of glory! I’ll, I want to, see you when you get there!

Responding to: The power of forgiveness in international relations

Both in my private and professional lives I’m ever fascinated by the theoretical, philosophical, and political discourses on and about forgiveness as a concept on the one hand and a process on the other. As a concept, the potential life-supporting and life-enhancing outcomes of forgiveness at both the individual and collective/ national/ global levels are as clear as the brightest hot summer day in the heart of South Africa, or anywhere in the world for that matter. Bring in God and religion (with all due respect) and all is rosy: Pray, forgive, cleanse your soul of anger and bitterness, and then paradise and heaven are all yours (but then again others blow themselves up in the air for this); God will take care of those who cause/ have caused you harm. Amen.

Indeed, there is hardly any emphasis on penance. As a process, I personally find it extremely difficult to forgive anybody/ group/ nation that fail/-s to go into themselves and acknowledge their own wrong- or evil-doings against myself, my people or others. From my real life and professional experience, I believe that forgiveness leads to better and lasting outcomes for all to the extent that the wrongdoer acknowledges his/ her own transgressions. I believe that forgiveness on the part of the offended/ abused must be encouraged parallel with seeking atonement from the wrongdoers/ offender/ aggressor also. Failure to achieve the latter, I can and will argue for example, is a sure guarantee for the perpetuation of the series of personal racial conflict tragedies still flourishing in today’s SA Rainbow Nation. Reconciliation has, of need and necessity, to be a two-way traffic. It is unfair to expect the (formerly) abused and brutalized to just forgive, and hope for God and the global civil society to take care of the rest. Real life is much harsher than that; and in my view this is one of the major challenges in/ of International Relations.

Responding to: “Lost and found in Soweto”

Contrast the Soweto experience to my first encounter with the African bhujwa class in Lusaka, Zambia, first half of 1975, and subsequent years. I was born and brought up in Thabong Township, Welkom. By the time my family and I get to Zambia I’m a sharp and alert young man nearly 15 years old.

As the car we were travelling in from the Lusaka bus station branches off from the highway, Great East Road, we entered into what immediately struck me as an opulent residential area very similar to the parts of Welkom city where only White people lived. We were heading for my uncle’s home and he, being Black Like Me, couldn’t live in a fine neighbourhood like this, I thought. We are surely driving through to get to the township beyond, I concluded.

It was a fairly long ride through this neighbourhood, enabling me to take in a lot observations: the streets were tarred, wide, and clean, with well-kept trees lining up them; the yards enclosing the finest-looking houses were nicely hedged, and I could catch a glimpse of a fine garden and a swimming pool here and there; there weren’t any people seeming to roam about aimlessly; there were a few children of the races on bicycles here and there; there were many fine vehicles whose African male drivers seemed just a little more sophisticated than my father. Guess then my total astonishment when our final destination actually turns out to be in this super cool area, and we are received by the blackest, most exuberant, Black Man I ever saw, speaking the sweetest English language I ever heard any Black person speak!

My uncles’ house stood on a 10 acres plot, had a carport for up to 4 vehicles, a kitchen the size of the standard township match-box house, a dining-room with a 12-seater dinner table, a bar, a spacious living-room, a lounge with the best stereo unit of the time, and lo, a separate TV-room! On the other side of the carport stood a fully serviced guest wing, with a library. My then only cousin aged 5 had his own bedroom, bathroom and toilet; my aunt had a sewing room; the bedroom my younger brother and I were allocated had two separate beds, a dressing table, and a desk; we also had our own separate bathroom (bathtub & shower!) and the works. For a long time I was convinced that my uncle and his wife never had a bath despite them looking real good everyday as top executives in banking and energy industry respectively. I found out later that their master bedroom had a self-contained bathroom!

There was this unforgettable constant nice vibe in and around my uncle’s house, with everyone soft-spoken, and nobody ever getting on top of another. So much space around! Such peace and quite 24-7! At any one time everyone had a private space if they so wished to have or needed. No stress. And, ahhh, electricity!!! I could at last read in peace all night long. I recall one day thinking that under conditions like these, I could be anything. That’s when I understood that the whole thing about SA townships- planning, design, over-crowding, control, (mis)management, etc.- was all part of the grand plan to break and destroy our people in the long run. From then on my hate for townships became profound. Indeed, I am the proudest Black Man I know, but like you, Milisuthando, “…I cannot relate to the choir that glorifies the idea of the township. To me it is just a ubiquitous symbol of everything that apartheid intended for black people”

My earlier township thoughts here.

THE HALF OF ME

They have taken away
The half of me
God’s paint brush
Has just lost a canvas
The drawing board’s gone
Like with the storm
I remain here feeling hollow
Empty and mysterious
Like the Black Hole after the Big Bang

It is silent
Inside of me
Been told there’ll be
No more crying, no more laughter, no more pain
Inside of me
When the half of me is gone
Never to return
I feel like barren land
Existing only here and now
Anywhere I am only me and me alone
With the half of me gone
Tomorrow will remain
A distant longing
Legacy only my deeds
But then again I’ve heard told of oases in the hearts of forsaken lands
So I’ll write a song
Ode to the departed half of me
Just immortalized me

Love x love
(Sisi)
Simon Chilembo© 31/03- 2010

NB: See The Queen here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4421293&id=723175447
Video here.

Following preceding posting: Can u define ethics & morals exclusive of each other? Check this:http://www.facebook.com/simon.chilembo?v=wall&story_fbid=120382607979063

Inspired by: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8aLKcnvq_8

Simon Chilembo Indeed, Europe has for hundreds of years screwed the outside world like nobody else as any (South) African will tell you. But then again it is generally certain specific (Western!) European values, such as Democracy (no matter how the concept is and can be skewed both in definition and application from time and space to time and space), which have contributed to the progress of our current global modern society with all its faults and flaws, but functional and constantly forward-looking and moving all the same.

In my mind, heaven and a perfect world are functions of democratic principles applied to create and sustain conditions for the individual to reach the highest level of self-realization and creative potential possible within the confines of prevailing laws, moral and ethical boundaries. Makes me wonder if Silicon Valley and similar places in the world would ever have come to life in the absence of growth and development possibilities Democracy facilitates. To have or not to have iPad? To believe or not to believe in God? In a functional democratic setting I believe these questions can be debated freely without fear or favour till the gates of heaven fall apart. Europe, in the 21st century you are actually not too bad; do thrive!

Do join me here if you can – ENERGY VITAL ART OPEN HOUSE: Rebirth, Spring 2010, http://gloenervital.com/events/