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.

Happy New Year!

Back with a vengeance with 2 articles published in the Czech and the UK. The New Year has been off to a great start so far. I have to say I started this year with a lot more momentum than any other years before - hopefully it will be sustained. I've cast my vote already on Wonkie already about whether I'm optimistic or not for 2009 (see Vote for 2009) - it seems like most peoplle are upbeat about the year despite the forecasts of global financial doom.

I'm well on my way to producing my first article on the SA elections that are going to be held later this year. The political personalities and their backgrounds are fascinating to say the least.

On a sadder not, I was really sad at the passing of Helen Suzman... I had had the pleasure of meeting her for an interview of sorts some time back and was truly taken aback at her strength of conviction and sense of determination. Alas having seen the South African leadership's lack of backbone in addressing the Zimbabwe crisis it seems she was the last of a dying breed.

I managed to take quite a few photos over the December break as well... Prague is beautiful in the winter :) I'll post them as soon as I get my act together with copying the photos off my camera.. soon! My New year's resolution is to be a bit more stable with the photography and reporting back on my blog!