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What if I had told you that the mechanism of your brain is like plasticine and could be moulded to your own unique set of beliefs and hence abilities? Could you afford not to even try to step into a new reality? Would you dare?
Ornithology, cultural sociology, & nature conservation mingle in this splendid book. The author spent his boyhood on the bird-rich slopes of the northern parts of the Drakensberg Mountain range. He & his friends frequently ventured into the forests, hunting birds. His strong association with birds developed during that time-but so did his sense of guilt. From this conflict emerged a thoughtful conservationist. Who decided to ultimately write a book.
This led the author into research on how and why birds were given names in his native North Sotho, and why certain birds behaviours were so accurately interpreted by their traditional black neighbours. He soon realized that an enriching relationship existed between birds and people, and that it was a relationship well worth preserving.
Many thousands of South African children are brought up by their grandmothers. This is one of the many manifestations of an unstable and distraught society, where the mother to child bond is too often broken, causing pain and a deep-seated sense of loss to both parties. Each Gogo-raised child’s story is different, but the general theme is the same: it deals with abandonment, with only qualified acceptance, but most of all with the simple absence of a real mother presence. The title of Vanessa Neo Mathope’s book – Orphaned, with Living Parents – tells it all. A monstrous imbalance has occurred, and the consequences run deep.
Theodor, the eighty-five year old protagonist in this engaging short novel, writes of his early years in Johannesburg in the 1930s and 1940s.
The story begins as he remembers how his journey began. It ends with his arrival in the fledgling Israeli state to serve his ancient homeland as a soldier-farmer on an outlying kibbutz. But the main focus is reserved for the often funny and always ironic accounts of the childhood and youth of an intelligent Jewish boy growing up in a dusty mining town in Africa.
Israel’s military occupation of Palestine is horrifically reminiscent of South Africa’s Apartheid past. Yet, pro-Israeli apologists are shocked that the Zionist entity is being compared to Apartheid South Africa. In response, Zionists ask “Why Israel?”
South African activists, Suraya Dadoo and Firoz Osman answer that question. They examine how and why Apartheid applies to the situation in Palestine by using expert academic analysis, commentaries, articles, and blogs of well-known and highly-respected activists and human rights organisations, as well as reports from NGOs with extensive on-the-ground experience in the region.
