Santana's guitar playing on final string

The following post is an evaluation on an article written on beleaguered national team coach Joel Santana by Tiyani wa ka Mabasa for Kick Off - South Africa.
South African reporters have been wilfully spilling ink and calling for head of the Bafana Bafana coach without stating why they believed he should leave. Unlike his colleagues and Julius Malema (News - Opinion: Santana must go - Malema), Mabasa provides readers with evidence as to why he believes Santana should be relieved of his duties.
South Africa is the first national team Santana has coached in his 28 years on the sidelines. Mabasa highlighted his three main problems with Santana as follows; “1.His selections 2.A negative playing system 3.‘Rocket science’ approach when taking decisions.”
I am of the same mind as Mabasa on these three points. Santana has made some shock inclusions/exclusions in his team, like the omission of Nasief Morris from the team while Aaron Mokoena earns cap after cap for the once great Bafana. Santana habitually selects players to fill in unfamiliar roles, while also using a defensive system that dries up the already barren goal tally.
Bafana have lost eight of their last nine matches which is at the opposite end of the continuum with teams like Spain and Brazil, who have lost only once in 42 and 21 games respectively.
Now that Joel Santana has been shown the door, the question is who will step up and take over the reigns as coach of Bafana?
By Tshegofatso Masoba.

Grace Ushang and The Indecent Dressing Bill

"Grace Ushang was a young Nigerian woman who had every right to expect a bright future. Now she is dead merely because she was female." (Asma'u Joda and Iheoma Obibi, allAfrica.com)

Grace Ushang, a women raped to death for wearing trousers, serves as yet another bitter reminder of the struggle for equality that women on this continent face daily.

Violence against women is so commonplace that it hardly ever reaches the news stand. While searching for online news coverage of Ushang's murder this fact was re-emphasised when only three news articles came up, none of which were South African. This profoundly highlights the incredible apathy that faces women's rights activists in our country and on our continent.

It is not surprising then that the most informative article was written by Joda and Iheoma of the Nigerian Feminist Forum. This article discusses the role that an "Indecent Dressing" bill had in Ushang's murder and critically discusses the horrific implications such a bill would have for the safety of Nigerian women.

Next.com's follow-up article on Ushang's murder was also interesting. While it did not explore the issues that the murder transgressed, it did show the anger and despair Ushang's family and community are experiencing.

Grace Ushang presents us with a warning that cannot be ignored. While women are being murdered for the clothes that they wear, it is unacceptable to turn a blind eye and forget our duty to other women on this continent. The battle for equality rages ever stronger.

Awesomeness

Sexual Violence = Silence

I am a 19 year old female from a township called KwaMashu in KwaZulu Natal and I go by the name of Nosipho Msomi. I am also an inspiring journalist who loves to analyse people’s behaviours,experiences and ways of thinking in an attempt to understand them. I guess that is why psychology is my second major! Human beings are my most basic interest,which is probably the reason why I generally enjoy reading autobiographies. They allow any reader to walk with writer as they tell their story and share some of their most intimate experiences.

I believe life to be an array of different experiences which are there to offer lessons and wisdom. These experiences are laid onto us by our Creator and it is up to the individual to attain as much fulfilment and life-long spiritual enrichment as they can. People who take the chance to analyse and meditate about their lives have a great opportunity at spiritual growth,then those who only see their world to only be about material and worldly obsessions. Similar beliefs can be found in a variety of literature such as the books by Maya Angelou titled I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. In her books she relays lessons of spirituality,knowing and understanding oneself and accepting the person you are. All this while working to achieve in the pace of the rest of the world, because the world is a competitive place.

Life as a journalism student presents many different experiences which give the student the chance to broaden their horizons. This clearly shows in the Freadom Writers group,as we are all relatively different individuals brought together by the love of journalism,writin and sharing ideas. As individuals we have different approaches to our work,yet we have a common goal to educate and share information with our audience. Our separate interests come together to form a beautiful experience and energy that we can gladly share with other people through blogging.

I view the world to be a relatively challenging place. Where it is up to the individual to establish a place for themselves . Opportunities come and go,this means it is up to the individual to gather their energy and will to obtain what it is they were created for. The challenge seems too great at times,but it is possible to conquer. Finding one’s purpose may just be the greatest challenge of all,but once found,every other factor of life falls into place and life is complete. So read on,as we use the information we gather together to learn more about the world and the people with whom we share it with! Hope you enjoy and learn valuable lessons.

Tshegofatso Masoba is one third of the writers who make up F[read]om writers. Of the three first year Rhodes University Journalism and Media Studies students, I embody the third that is comprised of sports, music (predominantly underground hip hop) and spirituality. Writing and thinking caps on please! Got that? Now you can enter F[read]om writers, a cyber realm where opinions and ideas reside in the hope of spreading from one head to the next.

A Johannesburg thoroughbred, I now find myself in the tiny city of Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, where life is not as fast tracked as I had gotten used to. I am a person who is absolutely crazy about sports; rugby, cricket and soccer form an integral portion of my staple diet while other sports like boxing, athletics and swimming also feature in there as well. Messi vs. Ronaldo? Is the current Springbok team the best ever? These are the type of arguments that I hope to indulge in with readers as we learn from one another and converse about the wonderful world of sports.

Music also forms a major part of my life at the moment as I have been in love with hip hop since my years as a toddler. My older brother used to play the catchy beats and lyrics at an outrageously high volume, inconsiderate of my supple ears. Today, I play hip hop at deafening volumes independently while also making an odd contribution of writing verses or poems of my own every now and then. I am flexible in this field, although I might not be eager to talk about commercial hip hop and crunk; a conversation about underground hip hop is most likely to get the best out of me. I consider underground hip hop as being much realer than commercial and crunk music, a wet dream for the other two forms of hip hop. It manages to address serious topics, enlighten one about the world we are living in, without losing its amazing sound. Journalism on beats.

F[read]om writers, on the other hand, is a blog that aims to attract as many people involved in the field of journalism as possible. A blog vigilantly assembled for readers who will not view our blogposts as undisputable doctrines cast in stone, but rather the opening exchange in a conversation because our hope is to sustain a reciprocal relationship between readers and writers alike. Since it goes without saying that journalists are readers, or at least they should be, you can expect a book review as well every now and then. Are you ready to be f[read] ?

Amandla! Awethu.

Amanga! Awenu.

Getting to know Curious Cat

As you wander around this blog you may find yourself questioning who it is that actually spews out the rants, raves and reviews that you read. It is clear enough that they are the musings of a journalism student, but you want to know what makes this person tick; what makes them laugh, cry, scream, shout and wave fists (and there is rather a lot of that).

I am Cat Pennels; one of the three minds behind the F[read]om Writers. I like many things and dislike few. When I want to laugh I read Hunter S Thompson or phone my dad. When I want to cry I listen to Edith Piaf. I am incurably curious and full of life. I have no aspirations to a middle-class suburban life but want to see the world from every corner.

I am passionate about many things and they are the driving force behind my writing. As an animal and environmental nut, I believe it fairly obvious that when polar bears start drowning and ice-caps melting, every person should sit up and make a concerted effort to reduce their own carbon footprint. I am also a people-lover. Living in South Africa makes me very aware about how precious and invaluable human rights are, whether they be of gender, race or class. My inner-activist rises her head when I think about how many people worldwide, but most specifically in my country, live without the dignity and opportunity they deserve. To think that the people who have the power to effect change remain useless, and worse still, that the citizens who know and see the inequality prefer apathy, makes my skin crawl. It begins to feel as though this world really is a smouldering heap of injustice, greed and exploitation.

However, my true hope loving self knows that this is not the case. There are young people like you and I who are desperate to make a difference, to uncover the darkness and create light. That is why we study journalism and that is why this blog exists; to serve as a platform for other journalists and people to discuss issues such as these and others close to their hearts.

You can expect to find many different posts on many different ideas, almost all of which will be based in reading. I do not pretend to be an expert on life and the world and so turn to older and sager minds to help form and bolster my ideas. As Nadine Gordimer says, “The only school for the writer is the library – reading, reading.”