Author: Grocott's Mail Contributors

The following poem is about eating, touching, a very sensitive issue which is unusual at the end of it. People eat food and sometimes money but the new phenomenon we heard that there are people who eat human flesh. The poem written by Dumisa Mpupha KUYATYIWA! Kuyatyiwa kuba kuqheliwe Kutyiwa kuba asinto iqhelekileyo Kaloku kudliwa mhla ngatheko Ngoko ke ngasi yunguma ngasinye Sijonge ukutya sibhukuxe Kuyatyiwa kub’ithuba liyavuma Akukh’otyekel’ecaleni Nabani ung’angaty’ahluthe X’unqanda wozi zekel’olune nkume Izolo besi sitya isonka nenyama Izolo sisaziwa ngokutya nokudl’imali Kodwa namhlanje kudliwa isimanga nesimamangu Kutyiwa iinyama zabantu Buzani kwabaziyo Kuyatyiwa!

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no-one thinks of changing himself.”  Said the famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoi. It is our almost instinctive reaction when confronted with bad situations, bad news, or bad people. THINGS need to change, or THEY need to change, other people. Very seldom, or rather never, would we get excited about the option of changing our own point of view, or emotion or ourselves. But things so seldom really change for the good that we tend to lose hope, especially as we look at the world around us. The easy option might be just to…

By Siyabulela Fobosi        Learning in the digital age is central to schooling, and is currently a main concern to educators and members of the public. However, the changes of communication channels in this digital age requires a major re-thinking of the nature of literacy and the pedagogy of literacy teaching and teacher education. The access to information technology is, particularly, divided between those who have access to the internet and those who do not. In South Africa, there is an advantaged elite minority and, the less privileged majority. The elite minority have major access to digital literacy in their contexts. In…

Ubuntu understands that poverty does not mean stupidity any more than wealth means wisdomMpho Tutu, who spent much of her childhood in Grahamstown, was a guest speaker at ‘Botho/Ubuntu: A Dialogue on Spirituality, Science and Humanity, A Mind & Life Dialogue with the Dalai Lama’, which took place in Gaborone in August. This is the speech she gave at the event. Being so late on the programme this morning I do have the singular advantage of being able to greet you with that wonderful South African turn of phrase, ‘All protocols observed!’ And save myself from much hot water. Good…

The ACVV Senior Citizens Centre would like to thank the residents of Grahamstown for their wonderful support of our bazaar, held on 28 July. We would like to thank the following for assisting us in making our Bazaar a success: Feathers Farm, Fridge Foods Group, Pick & Pay, the van Kerken family, Nelma Jurgens, Joe Hoole, Hennie le Roux, Hannes Pieterse, Stan Reed, Ferdi Hempel. A special word of thanks must go to all the loyal supporters who went out of their way to produce the wonderful home made cakes, cookies, savoury tarts, jams, bread, rusks, biscuits, meat products. Your…

It’s reported by STATS SA that 30 million South Africans are trapped in abject poverty. This figure is more than half of the entire South African population. The youth are the hardest hit by this scourge. The outgoing Statistician General lamented extensively the country’s sombre future, in particular that of the young blood. Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, the predominantly rural provinces, are the area most affected. Levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment have reached alarming proportions, nationwide. Rural development and land reform initiatives have failed to make an indelible dent on the state of rural provinces. The 30…

EPIPHANIES by Chris Mann Reviewed by Paul Walters, Rhodes University Chris Mann’s choice of title, Epiphanies, may be a little obscure to many readers – even to those within Christian circles, who may limit it by too specific a reference to the Feast of the Epiphany observed on 6 January each year. M H Abrams’s Glossary of Literary Terms (80) is helpful: Abrams highlights the general meaning of Epiphany as “a manifestation”, or “showing forth” – for Christians a manifestation of God’s presence within the created world – but, thanks to the Irish writer, James Joyce (1882-1941), it was given the…

Compiled by Nick James InnoWind (Pty) Ltd., the owners of Grahamstown’s wind farm have recently proposed an extension to the existing wind energy project with nine new turbines on the opposite side of Howison’s Poort to the existing installation. This came to light in a presentation recently made to the Makana Council by InnoWind’s Project Developer Daluvuyo Ntsebeza. The proposal plans six turbines along the mountain ridge to the south of Featherstone Kloof, on the Southern Commonage, and three more on Glenthorpe Farm. Key to the project is access to this mountain ridge, as it is surrounded on all…

In journeys of modelling human excellence, I am fortunate enough to visit North America twice a year. If you can suspend belief momentarily (which is really difficult), you will notice changes. But to integrate change, we have to completely assimilate what is familiar. Then the five senses trigger an intuition and unrehearsed emotional response to what is unexperienced. At least that is how it is with me. Innovation generates change and the United States has been at the centre of invention since the start of the 20th century. An innovator may not always have a disruptive influence. They tend to…