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A DECADE LATER
GROWING UP IN TEN YEARS
It is not as if much has changed since I entered the afternoon phase of my life. In my younger, less restrained rock and roll days, going out to a party meant, amongst others, getting told that I talked too much, too loud. Getting laid would also come as a matter of course, although not necessarily as a must; just a cool endeavour to engage in to seal yet another successful party night out.
©Simon Chilembo, Author, President 2017
On the afternoon of Friday, July 27, 2007, I embarked on a cross-border trip from Oslo, Norway, into Sweden. The destination was a recreational cottage village on the outskirts of the south-western city of Gothenburg. I know now that I really had not been keen on doing that trip. But I had to: duty called; business. I was exhausted after a hectic two weeks’ business tour across much of South Africa, from which I had arrived in Oslo the previous day.
There was also a distant, yet distinct enough, uneasy feeling about the double-events calling for the visit: a business partner’s birthday celebration on the day. The following day, July 28, it was scheduled the inaugural shareholders’ meeting for our newly-registered trading company.
I had had a theoretically substantiated notion that, despite the negative vibe I felt, everything would end up well. I couldn’t help but see the millions of dollars we were going to make as we went on to transform and dominate the Scandinavian health foods market.
On my part, I already saw how I’d use my share of the millions to help even more of my needy South African relatives’ children acquire decent education. The poverty levels of some of these people sear my heart ever so too much for comfort on any day.
Apart from a few new dark suits, a new Mercedes, and a new apartment in Oslo, I really had no reason to blow the monies on any more of my vanity needs. I already had my gold Rolex. So, I was cool.
As, on the morning of Saturday, July 28, 2007, I found myself driving my former business partner’s car on some unfamiliar country road, I immediately understood that something terribly wrong had happened. I wanted to believe that I was seeing myself in a nightmare, up until an almost frontal collision with an oncoming vehicle. Things had terribly gone wrong, alright. But, how? … (Continued in the book: “MACHONA BLOGS – As I See It”. Order Simon Chilembo books on Amazon)
Simon Chilembo
Welkom
South Africa
July 24, 2017
►Order Simon Chilembo books here.
WHAT WARRIOR MOVES?
Chilembo Warrior Moves Karate • Development, hereafter CWM, is my safe home base playground. It begins and ends with me. Only I could make CWM for myself. In CWM I do what I have to do, play what I have to play without my inadequacies becoming an impediment for the expression of my overall creative potential. I play my freedom mind games without fear or favour here. CWM is an own platform for the unfolding of my visions, manifesting my values, beliefs, and faith both in thought and action. It encapsulates the story of my life; my past, my present, and charts the course into my future.
I use CWM as a tool to help me make sense of my reality. It helps me structure my thoughts; it helps me to focus. I withdraw into CWM to find answers and meanings to things and events. This is a realm in which I come out of myself for internal dialogues and reflections with myself. My alter ego is my best conversation partner.
My strengths, my strong sense of independence, my free spirit, my rebelliousness, my will to survive, my self-confidence, my innovativeness, my tenacity, my sense of fairness and justice, my ethics, my empathy, are all written on the entire space that is CWM. I walk, and I live my name. Chilembo will contextually mean that which is written down/ the written word/ handwriting/ scripture.
The CWM logo tells it all:
- The book represents the solid intellectual and academic knowledge foundation upon which CWM is based. Education is
paramount; it is an imperative. - The shield represents the protecting and defending roles and functions of a warrior. The Chilembo Warrior moves to protect himself and his own with love and compassion, all in the name of peace, fairness, and justice for all.
- The CWM mind is in a healthy body. Karate training and teaching over a period of 40 years has made my body very strong; has taught me to love and respect life. However, if I have to fight evil I will always aim for the heart. Whatever method I use, I’ll be sharp and precise like a warrior spear.
- Karate has been an invaluable personal development tool for me. It has taught me the value and essence of teaching, leading, coaching, guiding, and mentoring others. Karate has given me a taste of child upbringing. I have had the entire spectrum of life experience in my Karate endeavours, from love through victory to betrayal. Karate has made me whole.
When I have now retired after 35 years of active Karate teaching, and I no longer own or run a club of my own anywhere, CWM will keep me going strong forever. CWM provides the magic carpet rides that will help maintain and sustain the long-existing bonds between my students, colleagues, friends, as well as my teachers and I.
As my students have now taken over the running of my former two clubs in Norway, I cruise around on CWM carpet rides feeling like a proud old man enjoying the pleasure of seeing his children and grandchildren carrying on with Warrior work towards enlightenment through Karate. There’s nothing as good as good history repeating itself. I’ll always be available on consultant basis if and when my students wish to ride with me on the CWM magic carpet of constant innovation and fresh thinking. And for an indefinite period, out of current practical considerations, my engagement with my international Karate affiliations will be limited. But I’m definitely on board.
In my CWM magic carpet cruises all over the world I will, both impromptu and upon request, issue CWM certificates of recognition to practicing and retired Karateka, as well as friends of Karate and the Martial Arts in general.
In 2011 the first WALOBA AWARD in honour of my late father went to my teacher, Prof Stephen Chan. The 2012 recipient is my student and Brother, Eyvind Elgesem.
SIMON CHILEMBO
Oslo
Norway
Tel.: +47 92525032
August 15, 2012
KILLER INSTINCT
I’M MOTIVATED BY FEAR: Will Smith
A fourteen-year-old boy in love is the most reckless thing. I just had to see my new girlfriend that night. To begin with, it was crazy of me to go for her when she lived in a different section of my township. You wanted to get your balls cut off and fed to the dogs you messed around in Section X, which was notorious for extreme youth gang violence in my time.
My Section Z was a relatively newer part of the township with a vibrant aspiring young middle class by Black South African standards in the 1960s/ ‘70s. This means that, because I had also already begun to make my own money then, I had finer clothes and things; and, of course, attitude. So, I want a girl, I go for her; don’t matter where she stays.
The anticipated creepy feeling engulfed me as I approached and reached the forbidden zone, about 30 minutes’ walk away from my home. It is winter, already very dark and spooky at about 2000HRS that evening. By the time I enter her street I have goose bumps all over my body. I’m breathing fast but quietly, I hear even the smallest irregular sound around me. And then I saw them slowly coming towards me, having emerged like from nowhere in the darkness around. A voice said, “So you think you are smart taking our girls, fool?”
And the boys kept coming towards me in a semi-circle, pressing me against a fence; they could have been 5, they could have been 10, hard to tell. The speaker broke away from the semi-circle to come even closer to me. Leader. I hit the fence in retreat, the gang closes in even more; I make out the face of the leader. A few more faces became familiar. All were carrying striking objects, an invisible knife or two as well most likely. These were a notorious gang that was rumoured to have killed at least one person before. Serious trouble. Fear!
Suddenly dead silence! The leader is within arm’s reach, and I understand he is about to strike. Then things happen very, very fast:
- Great concern – How am I going to explain to my parents the stupidity of bringing myself to death this way in the name of love? Goodness, they don’t even have an idea that I’ve already started these things! They sure are going to kill me a second time.
- Then I feel a lightness of my body like I am a feather suspended mid-air; total relaxation. Nice feeling. Something jerks, and a sudden urge to move overwhelms me. I moved like the wind. The leader I give one surprise right hook to the jaws and he tumbles like the earth just moved under his feet. The others freeze. I see an opening. Leapt over the fallen hero, and whirl-winded out of the semi-circle of startled young gangsters. Everybody down! I run.
- I trip over and almost fall. Only to realize that I had taken such a hazardous romantic trip in a pair of Converses without, as was the in-thing then, shoelaces. I took the shoes in my hands and ran for my life.
I do not recall how I explained to my parents my unusually long absence from home that night. But they never got to know how close to death I had come. I thought it wise to stop seeing the girl, though it would be 28 years later that I would fall out of love.
This is one of the stories of my life which have conditioned my killer instinct development as a tool for personal development, as well as working towards achieving the goals I set for myself. Because I have both in real and metaphorical terms come close to death many times, I have had invaluable training in the ability to detach, relax, let go, as well as dream, in the face of challenges in life. Almost without exception, looking back after having survived a crisis, I’ve found that coming down to zero-level (å nullstille seg: Norwegian/ mushin no shin: Japanese), inducing fear and worry to disappear, allows my subconscious me to harness and organize relevant mental and physical resources. This process enables me to intuitively structure and channel appropriate responses, saving my skin time after time. And this is what made me a fierce competitor in my younger Karate days. Many of my top Karate students have exhibited the same over the years, constantly re-lighting my passion for victory and success fire.
©Simon Chilembo, 2012
In these Olympics 2012 days in London, it is ever fascinating for me to notice how it is those who manifest clearly own killer instincts who take the gold. Of course, each one has own stories to tell. However, the common thread for winners and survivors includes hours upon hours of training and repetitions, discipline, endurance, strength, power, knowledge, skills, routines, responsibility, obligation, duty, loyalty, devotion, trust, ambition, confidence, passion, direction, focus, hope, faith, vision, sacrifice, and patience. All this can be real scary stuff if you ask me. Not for the weak-hearted. If you let fear rule your life, forget it: Only one Life, only one Killer Instinct, and only one Gold Medal position.
Simon Chilembo
Oslo
Norway
Tel.: +47 97000488/ +27 717454115
August 05, 2012
AFRO IS BEAUTIFUL. DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?
©Simon Chilembo 2012
To many a naturally straight-haired people often of European descent, seeing Black women in unnaturally straight, long hair is the most stupid thing about them. “Whey can’t these women just keep their hair natural and curly? The Afro is so beautiful, don’t you people understand?”, I’m often confronted with this yet another example of patronizing attitude, portraying extreme ignorance with respect to knowledge and understanding of imperialism, as well as colonialism history.
In order to totally subjugate subjects of new territories, imperialist powers through colonialist forces and mechanisms will at best seek to incapacitate the subjects’ ability to reproduce themselves. European/ Western imperialism with its attendant effective colonial brutality had free game in Africa from about the 16th century AD onwards.
Other than creating genocide conditions as a tool for total elimination of the unwanted dominated people, mass sterilization can be used. Through cultural imperialism though, various social and cultural institutions are used to promote cultural hegemony. The latter strives to change the worldview of the subjugated to be in synch with that of the imperialist powers’. That way the oppressed shall cease to reproduce their condemned faiths, values, beliefs, and other cultural practices; giving rise to a new personality, assimilating into the imperialist’s own cultural, political, and economic mainstream.
©Simon Chilembo 2012
For at least 400 years, African people have through various instruments been made to believe that they are inferior to Europeans. Being Black, and everything about being Black was a curse from God, I was taught at school in the then apartheid South Africa. Though in a not so direct manner, the same message would often be repeated in my church. The only way to be saved, and therefore have a chance of ending up in heaven after death was to think, act, and look like Europeans. If you are pitch black like me, with my kinky hair, not forgetting my flat nose, you were in deep trouble indeed (I wonder which side of God Michael Jackson is sitting). Power and success in life came with getting as much as possible of Eurocentric stuff into our thick black heads, we were told. So, you (will) rule if you are light-skinned, have a not so flat nose, and you have straight hair.
©Simon Chilembo 2012
Therefore, before criticizing and ridiculing my sisters’ and mothers’ apparent cosmetic idiosyncrasies, it is important to take into account the dehumanizing effects of imperialism and colonialism on the people’s sense of identity. That the ladies have just blindly fallen victim to false definitions of modern beauty ideals by homosexuals is not entirely true. The colossal magnitude of the Black Beauty Products industry has grown out of a need that has been built, developed and sustained over a period of at least four centuries.
Simon Chilembo
Oslo
Norway
Tel.: +47 97000488/ +27 717454115
August 03, 2012
SEX, MONEY, BUSINESS, STATUS: MY JOB
SEX IN THE JOB
“You have lots of free sex, you, Simon?” This was more of an emphatic statement from a male acquaintance.
“Tja-a-aaa… being a closed single man I do have the sex I get when I get it. I wouldn’t say it is lots and free though. I could enjoy more sex actually,” I replied.
“But, ehhh, what about those beautiful women you massage everyday at your clinic?,” he pressed on.
“Ahhh, I see! No, as a rule I don’t fuck with my patients. I take my job very seriously,” I said. Discussion closed. Nice weather today, no?
“You know that my son here, Simon, is like a doctor? He treats people with massage!” my mother proudly tells an old family friend who last saw me as a teenager.
“Awww? But I thought this was an educated man with a university degree. Can’t he use his education?” the lady was incredulous.
My mother explains, “Oh, yes, my son is educated alright. But you see, he is a business man now.”
“I have to be frank with you, Simon, massage is a low status job; that’s just the way it is. You will never be rich with this, and people will never respect you. But the thing with you is that you are so good with Chi massasje you take the whole thing to a very high level!” a former patient put it blank to me; taking me down, only to lift me again. I chose to remain high where he left me.
At a law firm in South Africa, a fascinated lawyer (White; need to be specific when talking about Mzansi fo sho) asked, “YOU, businessman in Europe! Wow, that’s very, very much nice! You do massage, you said? Men or women? NAKED? You mean these White women show you their breasts? Incredible! You have a good life, Mr Chilembo. Stay in Europe, Sir. Forget about the gravy train they talk about in this country, man!”
We both laughed heartily for what seemed like forever, causing consternation in the wider office.
Professionally the man did one hell of a good job for me, I paid him well; we both lived happily ever after. I wonder if women’s breasts of all colours, all shapes, and all sizes haunted him much as they did me the rest of the day afterwards. But then again I had “Show me the money!” him. I guess it is the money I look more at when I’m at work. A body is just a body for money, yes or no, yes?
I liked Frodine’s entry not long ago. Lying prone on the massage table like she has done more like a thousand times before since she first got her massage treatment from me about 8 years ago, she says, “You, Simon, I’ve been wanting to ask you this for along time: don’t you ever get uncomfortable touching people all the time here? I mean, when you work you touch people almost all over the body, including sensitive areas; don’t you ever, um, get turned on?”
My hands are creamy, and I’ve switched on to a professional mode already gently and deeply gliding down her fine curvaceous back. In that state, I hear what she’s saying and take it for what it sounds like to me, an innocent question. So I quietly but gutturally respond, “No!” and continue with my work. When she moves like uncomfortably and says, “Oh!?”, I realize that I have to switch off a bit and explain a little more:
- Ok, it does happen that I am aroused occasionally, of course; I am only human like everyone else. And, besides, my good health and robustness make me most virile indeed. But you see, the moment I step in to my clinic, ENERVITAL, my persona changes to become strictly professional and impersonal. That way I can focus on what the essence of my job and mission are about. It’s a matter of both professional and personal integrity.
- Furthermore, given my hypersensitivity to racism and racial stereotypes (remember I was born and raised in the former apartheid South Africa), I am ever conscious about how non-Black people respond to my
Two of The King’s horses in love. ©Simon Chilembo, 2012
being, my presence, my thoughts, and my actions. For example, I (speaking for myself only) don’t go around carrying a penis the size of a horse’s between my legs (but then again I do not go round flashing the organ about in public like a horse does when the heat is on); and my cognitive capacity and work take place in the only brain I have in my head, the one above my shoulders. As far as I know my penis contains no part or parts of my brains, and neither do my testicles. I get a kick out of being an anti-thesis of racial stereotyping vis-à-vis Black people (men) and sexual behaviour, amongst other things.
- Above all, I get an extra awesome kick every time I with honour and dignity manage to resist, and overcome, temptation. For me, every day at work is a day of continual emotional, philosophical, and spiritual growth. I thrive with my physical growth in either the bedroom or the gym, or the other way round, ehmmm… depending!
Today weather nice or not nice, yes?
Simon Chilembo
Oslo
Norway
Tel.: +4792525032
July 24, 2012
Simon Chilembo 