As the new year dawns and many reflecting on their lives and making new resolutions for the new year, take the time to look at your surroundings and people you encounter this festive season with an additional different lens. You may be richly endowed to tackle your new challenges with confidence and zeal. South Africa truly has talent. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 December 2017. Continue reading
We learn in different ways. Aside from formal education, some receive enlightenment in their solemn meditation moments, others learn through the benefit of hindsight, some through observation and others through their skin. Sadly, some refuse to learn and are burned.
One lesson we should quickly learn, lest we do so through our skin someday, is that we are “vessels” and perhaps tessellations of some design by unseen divine power beyond our human senses. I refuse to believe all that defines our lives is to eat, sleep, learn, grow, earn, have fun, retire and pass on. There’s more to this circle of life than meets the eye. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 29 November 2017. Continue reading
Without beliefs, we have no principles. Without principles, we have no convictions and are not anchored. Without anchors, we are drifting away. And with drifting, we have no control of our destination. Without control, we are at the mercy of life situations.
Surely such life leads to hopelessness.
Control your thoughts, avoid calamities and live better. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 28 September 2017. Continue reading
The recently released report by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on “Poverty Trends in South Africa” in the period between 2006 and 2015[1], shows that life got more difficult for many South Africans. The hardship in question is experienced at the core or foundation of life where one does not know where one’s next meal would come from. If ever one was unsure about what disaster looked like, this is it, more so considering wastages we see in many aspects of our lives.
We live in a part of the world full of valuable natural resources. It is shameful that many are highly impoverished in a country such as ours with vast resources and technological and developmental advancements. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 August 2017. Continue reading
At some point in life we’d question our purpose and value in, if not to, society. Taking responsibility for one’s life is a lifelong goal. Finding the harmony between what one desires and one ought to do isn’t always a straightforward peaceful exercise.
If it were easy to earn an income from doing work one enjoys, everyone’s life would be blissful. Circumstances of our lives sometimes goad us into making decisions and choices we would naturally not make.
Tools are available to help us resolve conflicting experiences and circumstances in making such choices. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 27 July 2017. Continue reading
In one of the many phrases the former US President George Bush ever uttered is the one he said in a joint 2001 address with then French President Jacques Chirac. In his call for nations to provide substantive material support in the fight against terror, he sternly said, “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”
The line was drawn in the sand. In his mind, the time for neutrality was over. Nations had to decide whether they favoured the US military action against identified enemies or were collectively seen as part of those opposed to the US. Neutrality was seen as indirect support for forces against the US coalition.
Sometimes our experiences put us in the same situation. We either garner strength to be against forces of evil, negativity, polarisation and selfishness or we join forces to advance everyone’s welfare. In other words, we are either a problem or a solution. No fence-sitting. Which side are you on? By Nimroth Gwetsa, 27 June 2017. Continue reading
Despite the hardship fuelled by today’s economy where blue, white and pink-collar workers experience job losses, the digital economy presents us with opportunities to make a living from many activities. Many jobs people do nowadays would, in the past, not be regarded as “real” jobs.
The fullness and diversity of life make us appreciate the many offerings and activities people get involved in and reward them for doing so. Today’s ordinary person is one familiar with, if not adept at, many aspects of life. Gone are the days when people were ignorant in activities not central to their paid jobs. A typical urbanised member of society knows more about the environment, economy, politics, science and technology, health, law and art among others than, perhaps, what their past century equivalent was.
In this light, the rise of digitisation makes it easier for one to be easily distracted from doing one’s job for which one is hired and paid to do, to focusing on doing another’s job. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 29 May 2017. Continue reading
As if our political and social problems insufficiently kept us sick and depressed for days, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch added to our woes, relegating our country’s bonds to sub-investment grade. Moody’s, bless their souls Lord, decided to play the wait-and-see game, placing us on notice for now. Our new finance minister’s recent trip to New York to assure international investors seems to have hit a brick wall.
Our country seems fiercely divided on many issues, at least as seen through the social and mainstream media lenses. Differences include those about the approach for overcoming problems facing us. The “Madiba magic” is no more. Cry our beloved country.
But not all is lost. We somehow agree on our predicament and need to find a way out. How then do we get there when we disagree on so many issues and cannot even get traction on what we agree on? By Nimroth Gwetsa, 28 April 2017. Continue reading
We’ve heard experts say the president has a prerogative to appoint and dismiss whomever he/ she pleases. The notable condition being that those appointed should consent to taking an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the Republic. The less said about how we perceive some to have carried out that oath, the better, for each tree is and shall be known by its own fruit. Some grape trees, among the appointed, bear thorns instead of luscious fruit. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 31 March 2017. Continue reading
Perilous times often lead to consolidation with people gravitating towards their kind at the exclusion of others and unspoken law of the jungle becoming normalised. We could learn from ancient Egyptians when they faced 7 years of drought and starvation. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 28 February 2017. Continue reading