U N P L U G G E D|T H I N K E R

What do you get, when you put 40 South African educational institutions together in a social media virtual battle to win prizes worth R2 million and a cheque with a solid six zeros on it? Fierce competition, bubbles of day dreaming the vast possibilities that R1 million holds, while the rest hangs in the balance of a mass prayers going up to the heavens or in the hands of Lady Luck! Being in a competition that has revives your hope and belief that great things are still possible, particularly when money is involved.

The premise of the competition largely lies in the fact that everything is facilitated online and there is no hassle that normally comes with manual fundraising. Everything is efficient with the assistance of technology. There is a hybrid of prizes that competitors stand in line to win, depending on how active they are throughout the 6 month duration of the competition. The participating schools also gain a sense of camaraderie while they are in competition, as the Universities also get a share of the funds raised through collective voucher purchasing. Buying more vouchers means, you get more prizes, more fundraising is attained and your school builds up to the ladder until it is the number one fundraising institution in the country! It really doesn’t get any more dynamic than this!

The real Gem of this competition is the ultimate goal of raising funds for the Department of Sports in South Africa. Sports around the world is known for bringing people together and inspires all sorts of dreams. Evidence of that in South Africa is demonstrated through the transformation that sports has gone through, especially the symbolism of Rugby becoming more than a racial and cultural custom, but is breaking barriers in the African cultures, from previously and currently disadvantaged areas. The principle about sports, is that it is not just sports. It teaches one essential life skills and builds character traits that can be mindfully applied in the workplace, social scenarios and personal management, provided the individual is willing to learn.

GameOn defines healthy competition because it demonstrates that while there is a titled winner, nobody has anything to lose because you can’t put a price on experience of giving the little that you can to the development of another person. The competition is (in a way) inspiring the country to figure out ways on how to get the whole country in GameOn mode to make the most out of every situation so that there is a win-win result.

Go to www.gameoncompo.co.za to know more about the competition! 

Where does one go to feel freedom? Not just freedom from your everyday routine, or to escape the monotonous uptown experience that tends to settle on you. One wants to know what it feels like to conquer a fear.

Together with the students of Varsity College Sandton, we entered the freshly historical streets of Soweto on an overcast day, geared up for bungee jumping and for some it was the vital experience waiting to be ticked off their bucket list.

The unique feature about the Bungee towers is not only that it is the worlds’ first bungee between cooling towers, but it is such a unique metaphor to overcoming oppression, breaking into freedom and living through it. Not only is the act of Bungee jumping the thrilling symbol of it all, it is also the location of the Bungee towers which largely contributes to this monumental, creative addition to all the other reminders of the struggle in South Africa that reside in Soweto. Another aspect which encompasses the struggle is the adventure element of bungee jumping. The struggle was ultimately a quest to dive into, a kind of freedom that was never experienced before, but those who set out to find it knew that it held something of significance to their lives.

What is also fascinating is the fact that every single one of the students, and as is with most people that jump, is that they are terrified of jumping but insist that it is something that they want and need to do. I would imagine this is how some of the struggle leaders felt about the many expeditions which they set about. It was always a life or death situation, but the matters at hand were still pursued.

Everybody wants to be greater than they presently are. I call it the super-human complex. One loves the feeling of conquering a fear or something that seems bigger than they are. It is not the love of adrenaline but the love of achievement, the love of tapping into your super human. The power of your super human lies in the greatness of what you have conquered. The beautiful thing is that it is a unique super human experience for everyone.

As one of the Varsity College students unstrapped himself from the ropes, all he could say was “I almost died, but it was so awesome.” How far or how close are your fears from life giving moments? Or even a life time, just as conquering the struggle has given more than just moments, and not just for few individuals. The power of doing things that scare us goes a long and significant way. Fear will always be with us, and perhaps we need to find a friend in fear.  And finally, “our greatest fear is not that we are in adequate. Or greatest fear is that we our powerful beyond measure.”- Marianne Williamson. 

The Soweto Towers in South Africa are a monumental symbol of the freedom that has been experienced by many South Africans since it became a democracy in 1994 and also the many generations to come that will feel this freedom. A view of the township from above and the jump offer an experience of what release from bondage truly feels like. - Thato Choma|@tweetingthato

So convenient of the Health Society to grace Varsity College Sandton Campus with their presence this morning as they offered an informative, long-table style display to interested students of the ever-current issue of the present day: Health. Very few matters deserve attention and concentrated investment as this one.

Notice how I said convenient in the beginning. The question I found asking myself is “Do we go through the effort to go & find out about our personal health?” I can guarantee that the only reason why most of the people went to find out more (like me), was because the information was brought to them. It is a positive thing that they grabbed the opportunity to check their iron levels and the lot, but how do we get people to take ownership of their health? The same people that went onto being informed about the good and bad fats from the Flora spokesperson, hopped into the canteen to order a packet of hot chips for the road to and during class. Besides the fact that it was the persons’ choice to buy the packet of hot chips, it was also made available to them.  This element exists in a lot of society, but I find myself in a battle between choice and a controlled environment. It is the eternal struggle of finding the right balance and taking responsibility.

Health in South Africa and in other parts of the world has become an inconvenience. It has become expensive. Plenty petrol stations and main streets cornered with unhealthy fast food drive through’s. To take it further, what is easy on the pocket, especially on that of a student?

Here is another way you might want to look at it. Being unhealthy could prove to be extremely inconvenient or ill-timing, in every sense of the word. We have all heard of the public health conditions and facilities of South Africa. If you do not have a medical aid especially, you are in trouble. And remember that health is not the absence of illness.

The benefits of holistic health are not immediate. And in this day immediate and convenience seem to be used synonymously. Being unhealthy can also prove to be very inconvenient. Perhaps look at  and choose the inconvenience you prefer. 

-Thato Choma|@tweetingthato

It has been almost a week and Helen Zille, president of the Democratic Alliance in South Africa is still being crucified for her “reckless” use of words on national television and on the twitter streets. 20 March 2012 Zille referred to Eastern Cape pupils who clustered to the Western Cape for better education as refugees, after visiting a school in the province that had a majority of Eastern Cape pupils. This left the ruling party, ANC, in bad humour and led onto a civil twitter war of some sorts and thus a public disturbance.

Since then, Zille has been tweeting back n forth to explain and supposedly redeem herself as most of the public that is not pleased with her is the loudest and the most adamant that an apology is in order. She remains firm on the fact that she sees nothing wrong with what she said.

Of course there are people who feel that Helen Zille is blameless and accurate in her statement. She even comes to her “tragic, depressing conclusion” that the ANC is as interested as denying people their right to education as Verwoed was, and people agree with this statement.

Some people just feel that we should just move on. After all, it’s just a word?

In every story there are three main sides: The two that I have mentioned and the truth which often remains uncovered. And then other perspectives which are mainly comprise of broken telephone, made up fact, opinions - then it becomes messy. This demonstrates how careful we have to be about the things that we read.

I have reviewed the story, walked the twitter streets but the one thing that I cannot overlook is Zille’s inability to recognise when the public is concerned about something but she does not recognise it as a serious matter. She is dissing people and being sarcastic about a matter that concerns people at large. Surely we want a president that is concerned about our concerns. At first Simpiwe Dana was a professional black, now people who are upset about the refugee statement are “professional offence takers”.  @ProffesorRugby tweeted to “@HelenZille some people are common-sense refugees. Let’s move on.”  Zille Replied with two remarkable words “Good idea”. Taking it further back, she told Moflava of Yfm to “please hurry up” so that she can go for her bike ride, as they were about to start an interview regarding the Simpiwe Dana- mini-saga which is a building block in the increasing tweeting tumble of Helen Zille.

And then finally a true tweet; that we need to lay off Zille and pay attention to the Education crisis in the country. One thing that South Africa is very good at is pointing fingers, talking, claiming rights but not being accountable and taking action. I am not saying that we must overlook matters that arise, however, not to dwell on things that hamper on productivity because actions have the loudest voices in the end.

-Thato Choma|@tweetingthato

In a dessert-like condition, where it is tremendously difficult to even find a job, let alone get hired and the minute a follow up from a CV submission comes through, it almost feels like water to a very parched throat, and walking into an air conditioned room after walking in 35 degree Sahara sun, and suddenly there are even prayers coming from an atheist.

News just in, temperatures in the interview seat are even hotter. Companies in America have been asking interview candidates & potential employees to provide them with their Facebook profile details. In certain cases, they are asked to login to their accounts on the spot of their interview. In the worst case, they are asked for their login details to have an accurate view of what the candidate is really like. Some people describe it as a gross violation of privacy and say “it is like someone asking for the keys to your house.” Note that if they are not asked for the above, they are in one way or another coerced into giving up the information which they require.

A more acceptable means of what I call “The Social Media Interview” is when the human resource department of the respectable company requests the candidate’s friendship and the candidate accepts as a form of allowing a review of the Facebook account.

The question is what would you do? Many people are faced with the dilemma between maintaining their dignity and the fact that they are sweating from not having a job and having no means to live. Some people “have no choice” because jobs are scarce. Even if you have got nothing to hide, there is still something violating about an outsider prying around in your private life. Whatever even happened to keeping your business and private life away from each other?

The companies mainly seek to protect the company by making sure that the right person is hired so that the chances of nasty surprises in the future are dampened.

Over and above many interesting elements to this case, it reveals the classic Cold War tendency. Trust is absent. Even when there is no reason for suspicion, there is immediate assumption of the worst. Rather be safe than sorry perhaps? Or as the publication of David T Lindgren goes, “Trust but verify”? That is exactly what the Cold War amounted to and often broke out into hot wars in certain zones due to broken trust. Without going into too much historical detail, the relevant aspect is the lack of trust and the need to ascertain security no matter the expense.

Even though the job seeker will consent to have his or her private life invaded, and even if there is nothing wrong with the Facebook profile in the eyes of the employer, the job seeker will still have a deep settled root of injustice and harm which is not a healthy foundation for any kind of relationship.

On the other hand, the company will be investing in a resource and they do deserve to know what they are investing in. It is disturbing to be referring to somebody as a commodity, but it’s for the purposes of keeping the illustration simple. However, this is where the problem lies. People have become likened to commodities. Therefore they can minimised; and ironically we have the Human Resource department managing these matters. Being a resource is a wonderful thing. It means that you are useful, not to be abused in any way. It is concealed bullying.

A lot of what we have overcome in history is repeating itself or simply carrying on subliminally in the present day. The future of our job interviews is a mini depiction of the slave and the master in a sense that the job seeker (slave) will do anything to get the job and the employer (master) assumes the position to request what he or she will.

I predict that our future auditors, accountants, actuaries, economists, and opinion leaders of all kinds will find a way to pin a definite and suitable value (based on a certain criteria of course) on what the value of a person should be. Oh but wait, is that not what remuneration is? Or is it purely a reward? Even better, the year 2017 will see a book published on what you should be like if you want to be worth a certain amount of money, from your looks to your brains. And it will be in the offices of every single human resource department. I am almost certain about this one. 

This opinion column was specifically written following my reading an article in The Star newspaper of 22 March 2012. 

-Thato Choma|@tweetingthato

Tweet of the day definitely goes to Afrikaans musician Steve Hofmeyr after tweeting this deep-seated statement. It wasn’t exactly embraced by the twitter community, having people calling him a buffoon and others responding in agreement with him as he continued to trend in Johannesburg, South Africa. Hofmeyer certainly has a reputation of throwing out comments that are interesting, for absence of a better word. In the dubul’ibunu- saga, he threatened to release a song with the *K word in it, in honour of the late AWB leader Eugene Tereblance if Malema won the case. Hofmeyr does refer to himself as an “angry activist” on his twitter bio, which alerts me to not be surprised by his behaviour in the future but it shouldn’t be ignored either.

From the many diverse tweets of the #HUMANRIGHTSDAY in South Africa, it was entirely thought provoking and a lot to contain in the mind about how people view human rights day today. 

*K- Kaffir, derogatory term for an Black African man, primarily in South Africa. 

-Thato Choma|@tweetingthato

“Most people do not want freedom because freedom involves responsibility and most people are frightened of responsibility”-Sigmund Freud.

There are different kinds of rights emerging all over the world still today for various reasons. We primarily have human rights in order to protect ourselves, in order to establish a foundation of respect and certain behaviour that is expected from one another, where the human rights are the basic language. I am settled with the latter. There needs to be common language of conduct because we are all different. I am however disturbed with the former.

It’s strange how we have Human Rights but further subdivisions of rights such as gay rights, women’s rights and children’s rights. Granted that it is essentially for the protection & welfare of the population group, but it is disturbing how as time goes by, there is even more extension and divisions of human rights. Most Human rights have their origins in inhuman behaviour by humans and people feeling entitled to a certain kind of treatment. I define something that is inhumane as the absence of good and wanting the worst for another person.  How did it get to the point where we needed to establish human rights in the first place?

The beginning of solving this deep mystery is to realise that a right cannot exist without responsibility- just as an egg cannot exist without the chicken- however they go hand-in-hand. A responsibility means that a duty calls and you need to respond to it. One thing I am strongly sure about is that we are all human resources on the earth, with an intrinsic value and our responsibility is to recognise it and invest it into the world. Your responsibilities and your duties birth your rights and the more rights you attain the more responsibilities you assume.

Think about it- Rights are laws which achieve change to a certain extent. Undertaking a responsibility is long lasting and from there flows rights because it is something you want to do yourself and not something that is being demanded of you or certain behaviour that you are demanding by vigour. Taking responsibility is taking matters into your own hands and outflows the rights which come with that responsibility. In this world, we need to relax on the rights and pick up on responsibility.

In honour of all the rights that have been written and unwritten, the people who fought for them assumed responsibility so that we would have these rights. Now that we have these rights, we have greater responsibility. As John F Kennedy says, rights are to fix the past and responsibility needs to be accepted for the future.