Nollie Faith Hope and Charity

http://nolliefaith.org/

Right ok, so i featured them a while ago, those kids and skateboards in downtown joburg. Thanks to the kind folks at Toyrun, i have 2 more skateboards for the kids, plus some other goodies, although i have no idea what yet. Colouring books and crayons type stuff ....

 and chalk.

I'm dropping this here as an open invitation to anyone and everyone, come along, bring what you can, they're supposed to be at the cnr of Fox and Kruger st every Saturday from 11-2. Tomorrow is too soon, so i'm giving everyone a week's notice for Saturday the 8th December at 11am.

and a tin of Q20 (they make the wheels go faster!!)

fruit basket with exotic fruits (because they've probably never tasted pawpaw)

Any other ideas welcome.

http://hermanverwey.blogspot.com/2012/07/nolly-faith.html

Red Robot Project

http://redrobotproject.wordpress.com/

Long overdue for a really hard look, red robots in Johannesburg are a unique subculture all of their own. Here's how it works:

You're driving along going somewhere nice and gentle, robot changes to red, you stop. All of a sudden there are people surrounding you, your windows are being washed, homeless talk is held up for you to see, some bloke has a black plastic bag offering to take your rubbish ... a young boy with a circus type act is showing off in the pedestrian crossing, his friend running around to the cars for tips. Beggar at the robot smiles and puts his hands together in the "please or thank you" gesture ... and there are some toy dogs waving tails and dancing. Oh, i nearly forgot the cell phone charger salesman.

When the light changes to green, these people all flee to the pavements again, en route to the crossing roads, which are now stopped. And it goes like this all day. Beggars, from 8 year old kids to ancient old men without legs, black and white alike, cardboard signs or no, they are there, you cannot ignore them.

Being on a bike saves me being the target of any of these people begging for attention, and hopefully cash. For me they represent a huge threat to my (and their) safety ... so as long as they get out of my way, i don't really have any direct contact with them. I've made a special plan sometimes, my favourite is a mixed fruit basket, lady with a kid, and of course colouring books and crayons. Never money, but for a hungry and thirsty kid, mixed fruit must be awesome. They're there everyday, so if you forget today tomorrow is another day .... but day in day out, well, you'd have to be desperate to be there.

A huge thanks to Sarah Britten for starting this page, i'll add it on the right under blogroll somewhere.

peace

Chaplin's speech

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair". The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . . Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: - "The kingdom of God is within man" Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people. You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers! In the name of democracy: let us all unite!

Don't be stupid

Toyrun by numbers

Years: 30
Toys: +- 30 000
Bikes: +- 30 000
Volunteers: 250
Bike marshalls 25
Stalls: 150
Bikes given away: 3
Setup: 4 days
Incidents: 1 (SVA, not serious)
Road distance all rides: 250km
Mileage by me over the year to Benoni: 2400km.

I add the last because i just worked it out, and it gave me a fright. Well done to every one who contributed and participated, "Many hands make light work" was the message for this year.

I feel the need to add: "miracles can happen ... sometimes".

peace and love and charity to all

Tenderness

I am trying to find the courage to be tender in my life.
I know that violent people are weak people.
Only the gentle ones are ever very strong.
- James Dean

Again.

"We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness." - Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977).

EDIT:

Life*

Windswept

Urban Wild Art

Done for the FNB art thingy, but nothing on their website? Can't figure out who blonde boykie is either.
Brilliantly done thought, found a pinterest thing with a whole bunch of photos, very nicely done!!

http://pinterest.com/source/i-art-joburg.com/

Pain

"Most of the pain you’re dealing with are really just thoughts.. ever think of that?"

- Buddhist Bootcamp

I take illegal drugs for inspiration

Daily Telegraph, Saturday May 21st 2005, pp 17-18

Susan Blackmore

Every year, like a social drinker who wants to prove to herself that she's not an alcoholic, I give up cannabis for a month. It can be a tough and dreary time - and much as I enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, alcohol cannot take its place.
Some people may smoke dope just to relax or have fun, but for me the reason goes deeper. In fact, I can honestly say that without cannabis, most of my scientific research would never have been done and most of my books on psychology and evolution would not have been written.
Some evenings, after a long day at my desk, I'll slip into the bath, light a candle and a spliff, and let the ideas flow - that lecture I have to give to 500 people next week, that article I'm writing for New Scientist, those tricky last words of a book I've been working on for months. This is the time when the sentences seem to write themselves. Or I might sit out in my greenhouse on a summer evening among my tomatoes and peach trees, struggling with questions about free will or the nature of the universe, and find that a smoke gives me new ways of thinking about them.
Yes, I know there are serious risks to my health, and I know I might be caught and fined or put in prison. But I weigh all this up, and go on smoking grass.

________________________________________________

Read the full article, inspirational.