Has being gay become a death sentence ?

Gay hate crimes a epidemic...

Hate crimes against people belonging to minority groups has always been a global phenomenon that has negative consequences for its victims .Unlike in many African countries, homosexual acts are legal in South Africa and discrimination based on sexual orientation is banned, but activists say, gay and lesbian people are often attacked in townships.Behind the "gay-friendly" exterior of South Africa, lies the reality: A society that remains, for the most part, virulently homophobic.

Our very own  president Jacob Zuma said in a September speech that same-sex marriages were "a disgrace to the nation and to God." He also said: "When I was growing up a gay would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out." He later apologised, but the pain he caused lingered  in the gay community.

I don’t encourage a homosexual lifestyle but I don’t look down on it either, If we are all entitled to the full range of human rights and equal protection of the law then ,I believe , it can  never be acceptable to deprive certain individuals of their rights , not because they have inflicted harm on others or pose a threat to the well-being of others, but simply for being who they are, for being born with a particular sexual orientation or gender identity.

The government’s job does not end with passing rights-protecting legislation but also lies in ensuring that the laws translate into applicable rights for everyone, including the most marginalised groups and individuals.We should take a stand,the time is now.

 

Advocacy Groups with Hate Crime Info

• Rainbow Coalition      
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)  
• LAMBDA Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Community Services
• LAMBDA Legal Defense & Education Fund

Look beyond the money:

Do We Work for Money or Love for the Job?

It has become more apparent that many people are driven by the desire of becoming wealthy, thus take on any job that can bring them that much closer to their reality.When choosing a career path, one needs figure out what things in life are important to you i.e. your goals for the future, what you enjoying doing.Obviously, the amount of salary that your chosen career provides, directly effects the kind of lifestyle you can live.

However, it is important not to get blinded by the potential amount of money any given career path might provide because choosing a career path is more than the money you can make. After all, if you do not enjoy what you are doing, at least on some level, you will not give it your all and giving it your best is the kind of attitude that will lead to promotions that subsequently lead to more money through promotions.

passion over money

I've always believed that it's really important to follow your heart when you're job searching. Do what you love and the money will follow. If you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.  One of the leading reasons why we get people who are incompetent in their work is because they chased paper instead of their passion, arriving at work moody ,angry and ready to do a rush job.You have to work your way up the ladder,no one becomes an overnight success!!!!

 

 

Arguments for Money:

■A job is a job and as long as you’re working, you might as well be making the most return for your time investment.

■When you follow a path that leads to money you are developing a skill set that is in demand in our society and have a much better chance of getting hired and keeping a job.

■Your job is your job. You should leave it at 5 PM and enjoy the rest of your life.

Arguments for Job Satisfaction:

■Your passion should be what you do with your time. Life is too short to pursue other people’s or employer’s goals. Pursue your own, and rich or poor, happiness will follow.

■What good is money if you don’t enjoy what you do?

■If you love something you can become really good at it and money will follow.



anti-social ?



The blurry lines of social media

Is social media making us more anti-social?        

We often praise the greatness of social media, but in our excitement we sometimes overlook the dark side of social media .With boundless power, comes great responsibility. We need to take the responsibility to look at, question and try to understand the role of social media in our lives and our societies.

I don’t see anything wrong with social media or social networking , more especially since it has become a great platform for public relations practitioners to build sustainable relationships and maintain effect communication channels  with their desired target audiences , however I must emphasis that there is so much communicated outside of text. Stats have shown that only 10% of communication is spoken through actual words, the other 90% comes through our tone of voice, our physical gestures, subtle eye movements and other things that a computer or cell phone cannot interpret, or represent .Honestly speaking, people are spending more time indoors than before, and when outdoors, they’re forever on their phones having meaningless conversations with people they barely see. Social media is slowly reducing face-to-face interaction, something needs to give…

bombarded with social networks

                                 

Westernisation getting the better of our cultures?

Lobola



Negotiations

There is no doubt that our rainbow nation is being westernised on a daily biases, however the question is “how well can we adapt to these changes?” We look at culture as a mere example, focusing mainly on Lobola. For African cultures, ilobola is a vital part of the customs for families to enjoy and for the man to thank his future wife's parents for raising her from a girl into a woman.This is a custom by which a bridegroom's family makes a payment in cattle or cash to the brides family shortly before the marriage.

There are two sides to the lobola debate. Some say the practise must be abolished because the tradition has lost everything it is  meant to stand for,thanks to western influences:with time,life has become more expensive and love is now for those with "good credit".There is some sort of sensation that tradition has become about greed and not nourishing a relationship between families,as was the original intention. The custom now warrants the parents to expect so much on their “return on investment”.

Some say that we cannot abandon this custom because if we do, we lose everything that is African about us. These are the people who are fighting against what they view as the increasing Westernisation strangulation of African customs.

 

The coming of two families

The process of lobola has been followed for years and I don’t believe it should be changed in any way. Roots are roots. If we are to continue honouring the tradition of lobola as it ought to be, it should be practised with the original intention and all malicious activities that are being attached to it eliminated.

As in any other religion there’s the possibility of abusing the practise of lobola. So it remains a societal responsibility to guard against such tendencies, the only way to go forward is for families to sit down and educate the young one’s what lobola really is or attend lobola lessons.