Irreplaceable

It is just close to impossible to live without. Unthinkable for sure. It's the fuel of the morning heartbeat. The kickstart of the brain. It's to the human being what petrol is to a car.

The smell and the kick in the head of the first sip. Irreplaceable. And straightforward black please. Certainly no milk and sugar. The sweet stuff only if the quality of the brew is seriously below standards.

And after the first sips that brings life, then on we go for more and more as body and mind comes to life. And all that just from simple beans from Kenya or Ethiopia or Rwanda. Nice. I mean NICE.

Am obviously talking about COFFEE......

Cup to Cairo?

Some Algerian players spoke about "war". And the battle of the arch enemies turned into a football stand off of note. A semi-final of revenge and high emotions. Algeria got 3 players sent off and in the end got trashed 4-0 by Egypt. It was "war" indeed.

In the other semi-final yesterday the youngsters of Ghana beat the pensioners of Nigeria 1-0. So Sunday will see an Afcon final in Luanda between Ghana and record-holders Egypt. If the Pharaohs win again and take the cup to Cairo it will be their 3rd Africa Cup victory in a row. A unique treble. But still the fact that Algeria kept them out of the 2010 world cup, after a tense playoff in Sudan last year, remains a very painfull memory for the Egyptians. Victory on Sunday will just easy that heartache a little bit.

Banned

So it seems that the UK government has announced it will ban 3000 British football hooligans from travelling to South Africa for the world cup.

Eish, that is 3000 x many pints of beer less income for bars and restaurants across the nation. And less fun for us. It would have been an interesting mix of drunken hooligans, armed local criminals, and ‘shoot-to-kill’ cops. Like a real action movie on the streets of our nation. Reality TV on our doorsteps.

Let’s see if Germany and Holland follow the British example. I mean, all that tax money has been spent on SAPS special anti-hooligan training and fancy new equipment. We demand some action for our bucks.

Maybe some desperate British hooligans will fly to Maputo and sneak into SA through Swaziland. Like old-school MK style.

Revenge is in the air

So the Afcon's semifinals will be an interesting, regional affair.

It's Egypt vs Algeria. Two major enemies. Last year both teams had to go and face each other in a playoff in Sudan to decide who would qualify for the worldcup. The Algerians won. A few weeks earlier Algeria played in Cairo and the players' bus got stoned. It's deep-rooted rivalry and high emotions. Tough game. And Egypt is still very much a wounded animal for not having qualified for the first world cup on African soil. On its continent! Revenge is in the air.

The other semifinal is a West African affair between Nigeria and Ghana. Tough one too. I predict an Egypt - Nigeria final.

Skin

Saw Skin. The new movie about the life of Sandra Laing, the South African girl/lady who had a, so called, mixed-race appearance, although having 2 white Afrikaner parents. A true story. An amazing tale of genetics.

But ofcourse in mad apartheid philosophy such a genetic twist was unthinkable and thus unmanageable. In the very dark and narrowmindedness of white supremacy thinking (and before DNA testing existed) this was a confusing event. And obviously also within a (forcefully) racially divided society such a genetic twist brings about intollerance, confusion, hatred, division, guilt and doubts.

It's a sad story (but Sandra is still alive today) but also a stiff middle finger to absurd racial 'purity' theories. There is that moment in the movie when a genetics professor from WITS tells a court that very likely many Afrikaners have somewhere in their genetic line some black compenent, he is laughed at by the whites as a circus freak. If they would only know.... Welcome to reality.

To quote a New York musician: "Remember one thing. We all bleed red".

Fatal error

Uh! The computer screen read "Fatal error: Call to undefined function".

It came seriously unannounced and unwelcome. Swear words was my reaction. And it disappeared in silence. Back to its dark, unknown, IT labyrinth.

I get "Processing A Threat" regularly when emails are coming in. And then obviously, as probably many if not all of us, regular spam emails by Nigerians promising me billions US$, or some ABSA email telling me to log on and do something with my personal details (I don't even have an ABSA account!!), or even SARS telling me of un-existing refunds, or some poor Malawian lady wanting to share with me the millions of cash her dead uncle left her.

The world wide web is a strange place. Meanwhile The Bouncing Souls' new release "Ghosts on the boardwalk" is pleasantly rocking in the background. Ghosts in the laptop more likely..... Aliens. ETs. Invaders from Uranus and beyond. All in my personal laptop space. I need IT-doom.

Extended Angolan visa

So the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola is done. Loosers go back home and winners stay. As simple as that. 8 Nations have extended their Angolan visa and made it to the quaterfinals.

No games today nor Saturday. The first 2 quarterfinals will be on Sunday (with blessings or not) and will bring host Angola to face disappointing Ghana; and Algeria against also-disappointing-so-far Ivory Coast.

Remaining quaterfinals are set for Monday (with or without Monday blues). Nigeria will then have to tackle surprise-team Zambia; while favourites Egypt will face Cameroon.

Kick it.

Baftas

Our own District 9 has 7 nominations at the Bafta's - the British Academy Film Awards. The British Oscars in other words.

The awards will be announced at a ceremony at London's Royal Opera House next month. Fingers crossed.

Politico-Fashion

The ANC just launched its own leather jacket range. Obviously with ANC colours as leading visual element. Plenty of choice. Below are just 3 of the many examples available.

Mmmmhhh,... maybe politicians should stay in politics and off the cat walks.

Interesting to see how heavy the "pressure" will be on the party apparatchiks to get one asap and fly the party flag (meaning: proudly wear the ANC jacket everywhere they go).

The king (not Elvis)

Dec 2009. They came. They saw the king of the jungle. They left.

God's hand on our soil

SA227 from Buenos Aires will this morning bring Diego Maradona to SA. The cigar-smoking, overweight, loud-mouth coach of Argentina is here to check out his team's home base for the upcoming worldcup. He will also visit some stadiums and hook up with some kids for some "good work".

The 'Hand of God' will apparently avoid all close encounters with any media because he is just back from a suspension after some clashes with journos during Argentina's difficult qualification games for the world cup.

I wonder if besides teaching his players some of his amazing dribbles, he also passes on the knowledge of some of his dirty tricks, of which his 1986 'Hand of God' remains a milestone in football history.

It was 22 June 1986 in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Quater final of a world cup. It was Argentina against England amidst still emotional warfare over the past Falkland War (aka Malvinas for the Argentinians).

Maradona is at his super-best. His first goal of the match, 51 minutes into the game, he scored with his hand. The 'Hand of God'. Not legal, but unnoticed by the referee and thus not penalised and thus on the scoreboard. I guess France's Henry had a Maradona-moment when he did a handball-pass that lead to France eliminating Ireland late last year in the qualifiers for 2010. Anyway. 3 Minutes later Maradona dribbles 6 English players to score his second goal. Final score 2-1. Argentina goes on to beat (West) Germany in the final and grab the 1986 world cup.

Egypt again

Egypt seems on a path to grab another African Cup of Nations. They easily won their 2 first games and seem to have kick-started their rollercoaster to final victory. They are already the holder of the most titles of African Champions. Sad the Pharaohs are, surprisingly, not qualified for the World Cup later this year.

Drakensberg sky

A beautiful, threatening, evening sky over the Drakensberg. Nature can be brutally deadly as we have just witnessed in Haiti,... but it can also be simply beautiful.

At least

The Togo attack in Cabinda was a very sad and troublesome start to the Africa Cup of Nations. But at least since the real kickoff we have seen some very surprising results.

Mali came back from 4-0 down against host Angola to a 4-4 draw. And all that Malawi goal action in only 15 minutes. Then little Burkina Faso kept mighty Ivory Coast to a goalless final whistle. Algeria, who kept African champions Egypt out of the world cup, got thrashed 3-0 by Malawi. Gabon (does anybody knows a player from there??) beat Africa's giant Cameroon 1-0 yesterday.

It's all good for the game.Keep it up. Let it roll on.

The Queen's Baton

As football fans, officials, and players have all eyes on the June-July world cup, many other SA athletes are focused on October 2010.

Then New Delhi will host the Commonwealth Games.

Now, what I didn't know till a few days ago, and witnessed it up close yesterday, is that before every Commonwealth Games a so called Queen's Baton is touring the more than 70 Commonwealth nations. It's a bit like the Olympic Flame....

So over the last day this baton toured SA (Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein) and yesterday it was Gauteng's turn. The baton went to Ekurhuleni, then to Soweto, followed by SAFA House next to the beautiful Soccer City, to end up at the Olympic House somewhere in Johannesburg (I think it was near Houghton). Today the baton will continue its journey to Lesotho and onwards.

So as Bafana Bafana is trying to find the space between the 2 goalposts, SA's swimmers are in the pool testing their speeds, boxers are trying new gloves, runners are puting their spikes in new tracks, and so on and on. So lots of sweat outside the football pitch too.

150

150 Days to kickoff at Soccer City. That's all. It's really around the corner now.

Bafana Bafana vs Mexico on June 11 is coming and is coming very soon.

Despite the Togolese misery (and bad luck) in Cabinda on Friday, the Africa Cup of Nations kicked off yesterday in Luanda with an amazing 4-4 between host Angola and Mali. Angola was 4-0 up till 15 minutes before the end of the game, and then Mali just did the unthinkable.

No bullets, no cry

The Africa Cup of Nations will kick off today. That's a fact! The bullets of the cowards of the micky-mouse FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) wont stop the show to go on.

Angola vs Mali will kick off the tournament today. Sports is never detached from politics, but it is really unfair for this FLEC to shoot at people that have absolutely nothing to do with their cause.

Anyway, sorry about the victims and their families. But one thing for sure, and in honour of the fallen, the show must and will go on.

Beat for Peace

Sudan is back creeping up the news agenda with national elections this April, and in January 2011 a referendum in Southern Sudan on independence (aka breakaway).

All potential for violence and a return to civil war. Unfortunately!

Therefor drummers from Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Snow Patrol and the Police have taken part in a film and project called "Beat for Peace" to try to prevent bloodshed in Sudan.

The "Beat for Peace" project, part of the broader Sudan365 campaign, features these famous British drummers alongside fellow stickmen from Sudan itself and other countries (Japan, Australia,...).

Let's hope the hawks of war hear the drums for peace.

Watching Sky News

Amazing in fact. Well to a degree. Sitting here in SA enjoying nice, sunny days (and still little traffic) and then watching Sky News and seeing all the snow chaos on the roads across the UK. Really massive snowfall.

Sky News reporters doing some live reporting amidst thick snowfall. Wearing big coats and warm headwear.

And then I look outside and see the bright blue sky of Jozi.

Zulu swing

He is nearly 68 but still swinging it. He that is JZ.

Jacob Zuma got married for the 5th time this week. The rights or wrongs about that is another issue. What got my attention is how JZ seems still pretty fit during his traditional Zulu wedding ritual up in the hills of KZN. Splashed all over the TV news last night.

Walking and singing and dancing and stamping down the feet and all that. JZ will be 68 in April this year but still seems to have the gusto for the Zulu song and dance festivities.

A local paper this morning put it very confusingly. Its headline was that JZ tied the knot for the 3rd time, but then the opening lines of the article was about Zuma's 5th marriage. How do you put that together? It's simple. JZ got married for the 5th time and has currently 3 wives, after 1 divorce and the suicide of another wife.

As part of Constitutional equality I wonder when the first case of a woman taking 5 husbands will occur.

Blue

It was December 31 (last year) and it was 8.51 PM. In the new year's eve darkened sky stood the blue moon. A rare vent. Not exceptional it seems, just not common.

Google made it simple: a blue moon is an second full moon in the same month. So 2009 went out in style with a 13th full moon. An exceptional event, that's why tradition has the saying "once in a blue moon", when things happen sometimes but rarely.

And apparently a blue moon brings good luck. Now was that good luck that 2009 ended or good luck that we were about to make it into 2010?

It's here

Yeah yeah. 2010 Is here. The countdown to 2010 has now become the countdown to June 11. This is it. Yes we can! And all that and more...

2010 Will be - unavoidably - the year of the vuvuzela. Loved and hated. The sound of that plastic trumpet will be the defining tune of this year. No doubt about it. Get ready to be deaf.