GOB!G Quote of the Day

Friday, November 30, 2007

Being the wiser

It is no offence to be a bit vague every now in then in life. So today I'm to say: As much as it's important to fight, to endure, to hold in there, there are times when it becomes a weighinly important to just let go. And most times, letting go is not as easy as fighting, enduring, sticking in there. But when let go time comes, just let go. It may be meant to be.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

SA has worst HIV rate in the world

This can never be more worrying. Yet the government is still convinced that the scourge of HIV/AIDS hasn't reached epidemic levels. To them, it' s just another passing pandemic, and as a result of the politicians' ill attitude, more and more of those infected will not have access to the much needed anti-retrovirals (ARVs). Our government is in denial, our neighbours and their new born babies die whilst a practical and temporary solution is available. May be it's time Manto Tshabalala-Msimang got her wake up call and started scoring points by making available and accessible, more ARV drugs to those who need them.

This story just makes one think if we are unique as a country, to any other:

SA has worst HIV rate in the worldWed,
21 Nov 2007 (NEWS24.co.za)

More than three-quarters of Aids-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa is now officially the country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world, a new UN report said on Wednesday.
Improved monitoring of the pandemic has led the United Nations to revise its estimates, particularly in Southern Africa and Asia, resulting in a major revision in the assessment of India's epidemic, the country previously thought to be worst-hit.

"South Africa is the country with the largest number of HIV infections in the world," read the UNAids annual report on the epidemic for 2007.

Millions have Aids in SA
While the report did not give a figure, the South African government currently estimates some 5.5 million of the country's 48 million population are living with the disease.
While Aids continued to be the leading cause of death in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa was the worst affected region.

"More than two out of three (68 percent) adults and nearly 90 percent of children infected with HIV live in this region, and more than three in four (76 percent) Aids deaths in 2007 occurred there, illustrating the unmet need for antiretroviral treatment in Africa."

Women in the region bear the brunt of the disease.
"Unlike other regions, the majority of people (61 percent) living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women," the report found.
"It is estimated that 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million the total number of people living with the virus" that causes Aids.
Southern Africa was the worst affected in the region with national adult HIV prevalence over 15 percent in eight countries.

A significant decline in Zim
"While there is evidence of a significant decline in the national HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe, the epidemics in most of the rest of the sub region have either reached or are approaching a plateau."
The UN data showed that adult HIV prevalence was either stable or has started to decline in many parts of Africa.

According to the report, Kenya and Zimbabwe were some of the countries where the slowing trend of new infections was most evident, with similar shifts in Burkino Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali.
Worldwide, new infections of Aids were levelling off, and of the 2.5 million people newly infected overall, more than half come from sub-Saharan Africa.
AFP

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Friday, November 16, 2007

She is, meaning she just is

One with pride
Pride that puts even Queen's to shame
One with beauty
Beauty that's better than the stars' flame

One with joy
One with joy
Joy that topoedos the waves... [continue]

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Focus

Something eating me for the past couple weeks. Hope it doesn't finish me bit by bit as the ant did an entire elephant. The lack of focus is chewing me up and I realised that without that focus which I managed to reach some months ago, my book will be just another wish on the fridge door.

It's a bummer to know what to do and how to go about doing it and not being in the right mode and mood to achieving it. I find that with me, if I'm not in the right state of mind, many things that require creativity or tapping into imagination just don't work out. If they work, not work out, but just work, they progress without reaching a destination. The goal. The bull's eye. This has been happening a lot with the novel. Nevertheless, am glad to say that it's a feeling that I'm fighting each day and the battle is not lost.

Soon I'll be writing on this very blog that my book is completed and undergoing manicures and pedicures here and there. I'll be proclaiming that PanMac already has the manuscript. And that won't be long.

So if you got anything that you struggling to complete, like me, I think you should think twice about how much of focus you're putting into it. The issue my really just be there - and get in the right mood. Well, that's an instruction for myself.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Pleased about a turbo-charged restart

I'm quite pleased that this morning I went back to my 3am routine of writing my novel - The Half Prince of Timbuktu. I tried writing at other times other than early morning hours and all I had were pages and pages that I just deleted - thousands of words. Then I realised that my writing came specifically at the wee hours of the morning when all is quite and serene. So the routine of the morning goes on. Hoping to finish the novel by end January or December. Luckily, if I take leave in December, I can writer 20hours of the day and get to finish end December.

It's always good to flirt with the creative and as early as possible in the morning.

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