An oasis to run to in blogosphere when the social networks begin to pale. iScatterlings will be here.
February 27th, 2008 — Global
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There I was minding my own when the photo above leapt at me. It is a fabulous photo of a vineyard in the Barossa Valley, Australia.
So what I hear you ask, has it got to with Stormhoek?
February 24th, 2008 — Africana
The collapse last year of Orbital Wines, UK based distributor for South African wines abroad has serious economic impacts for the effected vineyards of the Western Cape’s Stormhoek locale. In total the vineyards have lost revenues amounting to R6,000,000. This is a very large amount of money for a labour intensive industry to kiss goodbye. There is no hope of a dividend from the liquidation of Orbital.
The economy for the region may be severley harmed, but the worst and saddest legacy of Orbital’s demise will be the human impact.
Vineyard workers will have to be laid off unless some quick & effective cash injections to contribute toward operational costs is found. Unlike the UK where if you get laid off work, you can make your way to the local Job Centre, sign on and get state benefits paid out to you each week, the vineyard workers like Manus, Maxwell and Ludwe (in main photo above), do not have the luxury and security of anything remotely like this to fall back on in the event they cannot earn a wage to keep their families fed, housed, clothed and the kids educated.
We are asking you to dig deep into your Big Love for SA wines and help keep the affected Western Cape vineyards operating. How? By buying a Stormhoek vine.
Click here or below on the icon to read Stormhoek’s complete article.
October 21st, 2007 — Global
Every Englishman can be proud of their national rugby team. As the final whistle blew last night in the Rugby World Cup, I could hear the groan of every Englishman I know. In part it was the groan of defeat. But a large part of the groan was related to the fact that these same Englishmen and women know a South African and today and tomorrow (Monday) they will have to face that ‘bloody arrogant sob South African’!
I know that South Africans can be arrogant and do gloat fleetingly sometimes but last night’s thriller afforded them the right to do so. I also know for certain, South Africans can and will be magnaminous in victory. Last night’s final against England was no rollover.
The Boks were made to work hard for the win. England forced the Boks to dig deep. And in this, Every Englishman can be proud of their rugby team. Considering that 6 weeks ago, the English were beaten 36 - 0 and written off in a lot of peoples minds, to reach the final was a magnificent achievement. Thank you England for providing the world with a thrilling final. You deserved to be there with the Bokke.
Well done South Africa. The Springboks are World Rugby Champions. Thanks for making South Africa the best rugby nation in the world. Eish!
October 8th, 2007 — Africana
The Moon
Look at it. Wonderful isn’t it? So close you could stretch out your arm and touch it with your fingertips.
And so it is with our deepest dreams, personal aspirations and business goals. One of my goals since I was a young boy in Namibia, is to own a telescope that will let me clearly see the moon close up and much more detail than what can be seen in the photo above. But as so often happens, one’s life gets in the way of certain aspirations so they go unfulfilled.
I still live in hope and with Christmas only a matter of weeks away, I wonder what Santa will bring me? I am also hoping to oneday meet a certain young lady who I have come to respect and admire for her dedication to living her life to the full while also fighting for a better tomorrow for HIV/AIDS victims. Something tells me that I will realise none of the two dreams if I do not ENGAGE the process to make them occur. And so I have decided to write to Santa and to now book my return flight to Johannesburg. You might think that these two ‘dreams’ are pitifully small and easily realisable. Well to me they represent two things I need.
One other Xmas gift I have not dared contemplate getting is an invitation to a 27 Dinner. Like maybe the last week November for example?!! Hint, hint.
All that remains for me to do now is to begin ENGAGING positive thoughts. Self-fulfilling prophesy thoughts.
