Legalising prostitution in South Africa?

by Thobile Memela

Public officials are considering to legalise prostitution in South Africa, and guess who came up with the whole idea at first place?, former NPA Commissioner and Interpol President Jackie Selebi, yep why are we not surprised? ANC MP George Lekgetho seems to promote the same idea. He emphasised that prostitution would be the ultimate case of ceasing rape in the 2010 Soccer World Cup "it is one of the things that would make it a success because we hear of many rapes because people dont have access to women", he said. One of the things that concern me is the fact that these 'public officials' do not inform 'the public' in their decisions. People particularly the lower class people in townships, skwatta camps, rural areas are not informed. Their voices are silenced, they are always expected to agree on everything 'they' decide is right. They tend to forget these are the people who produce most of their votes, they are the ones who make them 'seat up there' their votes make them experience the luxury life they are experiencing right now. And in return they ignore their voices, ignore what they might have to say in this, as a matter of fact they ignore their culture because they know that prostitution is a deviant act in their eyes and legalising prostitution is just against morals and against religion in their culture. So they go on deciding to legalise something that will merely affect their societies, because its not their children or relatives who will sell their bodies to international arrivals but it is their children who will end up deeply involved in this business.

TAKING CHANCES

Through out my entire year that I have spent at Rhodes University, I have been tempted to climb on the bikes which are right next to the Eden Grove building, on campus. However this seemed to fail because I was told that that kind of deed would get me into trouble.
After planning to spend an afternoon with Dr. Saleem Badat, our vice chancellor, we were disturbed by a meeting that he had to attend urgently. Therefore, my next option was to spend the rest of the afternoon with Professor Andrew Buckland. That was quite interesting, considering that I had never been in his office for an hour and literally sit there and watch him work. However, I felt as if I was still hungry for more from this exercise and I needed something a bit more challenging. My next option was to go for my temptation which has been haunting me the whole year.
I decided to spend an hour on the bicycles, taking the chance of being chased away by the CPU. Some students thought that I was crazy because most of them seemed to notice that I had been on those bicycles for quite sometime. Time went by, shifting myself around the bicycles and making me comfortable as I was this was starting to get tiring. After fifty five minutes spent on the bikes, a CPU officer walked up to me and reprimanded me for doing something against the university’s code of conduct. But to my surprise, the officer understood when I explained that this was work related. The mission was accomplished at last…

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL…
Sifiso26: #rublogs Mirror mirror on the wall is a blog which can be said to be a job very well done. the hard work put in by the bloggers is seen

This blog caught my attention from the minute I browsed into it. It left me with such a great impression that I was unable to proceed to other recommended blogs. The appearance has been what I have find to be fascinating about this blog; which allowed me to be interested in reading the contents in it.
The style of writing used by the bloggers of this blog can be described as very narrative, which allows you to create images with the given story in your head; as we find that they have guided us in every step of the story. However, in saying so, they have allowed us room to place our own opinions as the readers; they have not spoon fed us and led us to a certain common opinion.
A lot of dedication can be seen on this blog as we see that the bloggers have taken the initiative of going the extra mile to blog a lot of information and post up a lot of articles which is more than what the course requires them to do. They have taken a lot of pride in the stories that they have written and have shown interest as young and upcoming journalists. This is also evident in the fact that they have taken the time to upload pictures to all of their articles. As journalists, we know that it is vital for an article to have a picture which will be a good combination to the story; be an eye catcher and be able to give the readers an idea of what the story is about, before they have even read the article. This blog does follow those types of principles. Therefore, it can be said that Mirror Mirror On The Wall is a job very well done.

The Bubble Review

By Thobile Memela

Ever wondered what other journos are writing about in their blogs?. There really is no need to worry, it only just crossed my mind. I recently visited the Bubble blog and believe me it is 'bubble'. It is a group blog that consist of three members who are curious about life as much as you and I. Their main concern is about a life of a journalism student. It is not perfect neither not ridiculous but so damn good. First time i browse through it, i was like 'who the hell is going to read this junk?' Its like they are writing essays. I couldn't believe it but after a while i remembered that these bloggers are actually young aspiring journalists and journalists-in general are good at writing and expressing their intellectuality in paper-well on their blogs' so gave it a try because i read what i like and i really wanted to read it. but patiently i went through it, i was actually amazed. One thing i have noticed about this group is that they are all equally persistent to pursue a career in the journalism field -well reading from their personal mission statements. It was surprising to find such young intellectuals who actually care about writing and reporting regardless of how much criticism journalist have received more especially from the last five years up-to date. They all still have faith in journalism with no doubt of cracking stories that concern people but more reflectively varsity students for now-as to gain access to the real world out there after staying at Rhodes for the next four to five years.

A laugh with the Mandela Professor

by Thobile Memela

The 2nd final day of lectures, but the last day with the professor. Peter Vale 'The Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics' as he usually describes himself potentialy speaks with gratitude to his junior students of Politics and International Studies at Barrat 1-Rhodes University continuously feeding his students about the world around them and what they ought to do to save it from the accelaration of capitalism.
This i have never done before, sharing a laugh with the professor! It was a mini-conversation that was filled with great laughter as the students left the venue after the lecture. It was suprising for me to actually chat with the professor as i usually see him as a prominent firgure who may not whatsover have a friendly conversation with a student more specially a first year student. This was 'the day' of my life with Politics.