Onward and upward!

Firstly, all the very best for the New Year to all my regular readers. once again it has been awhile since I've written a place where there's a good reason for this. Our what the hey, you've heard it all before so I should not bother making excuses again! Seriously though, I hope that the new year ahead is full of optimism love and happiness for you all.

A lot has happened since I last wrote. South Africa has not collapsed into a heap as many had predicted after Jacob Zuma took power in South Africa in April last year. From what I've heard from my friends and colleagues is that the crime rate has improved significantly though. Clearly this could not be attributed directly to the new presidency however the efforts to curb crime that were promised by the state before the elections have certainly not been delivered. This year alone I had one friend that was hijacked and her house is broken into. She lost everything. Stories like these are a dime a dozen: from ATM bombings to jewellery heists committed in broad daylight in public malls across the country to hijackings petty theft and household robberies -- nothing has changed, in fact things have gotten much worse.

On the work front my photography has stalled somewhat and taken a backseat to some freelance journalist work that I was doing across the southern Africa region. The work has been quite interesting and the articles have been published in a number of European journals and newspapers over the last six months.

I am currently working on a number of websites including one with a psychiatrist friend of mine working in the UK. I have also undertaken to write for guest articles for the Wonkie cartoon blog website as well as Ira Vaidya's new site when it launched called PeachyAnna

A number of my photographs have been recently published in two journals in Slovakia. I will be publishing these photos on this website shortly too.

Again, all the best for the New Year and I hope to be much more regular in the year to come. 2010 will surely be an exciting year to be in Africa not least of which because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup that is going to be held for the first time in Africa.

Back to work

Back to work today (yes, freelancers do have work times too!) Spent a great day yesterday catching up with my friend from India. It always amazes me how calm I feel after I talk to him.

I'm writing an opinion piece on the SA 2009 elections for a paper in Europe at the moment and came across some really interesting articles over the weekend papers. One in particular in the Sunday Times by Paddy Harper was great - it was titled "A promise for every voter".

I loved the twist in Sizwe's Zuma cartoon on his cartoon blog - it always intrigues me how the general public fall for politician promises so easily and so consistently.

I know I promised to post some of my photos on the site (yes Ray the nagging will eventually work!!) - will get them up by the end of the week - promise!