I am thankful

Confucius' wise words

Today I had my much awaited driving test and unfortunately I failed. Because I know what I'm capable of and because the mistake was so silly I was (still am a bit) disappointed in myself. However, as I said to a friend soon after: "I supposed I had to fail an exam at some point in my life." So here's hoping that I do not make this a frequent thing!!

Another thing I've noticed after having been out of good internet connection for over a month now is that I now feel kind of lost logging on. I do the rounds on facebook, check my notifications/inbox, write happy birthdays and then check my email & the news. Once that's done I sit and think 'now what?' It's really funny how, once you've weened yourself away from the internet (by choice or circumstance) the desire to be constantly connected, and your dependence on it for entertainment diminishes. Whilst I do wish that I could stream movies/tv shows (because there's only so many times you can see the same movie. Or only so many depressing movies you can bear to watch on TV) I am resorting to my all time favourite pastime of reading. And it feels gooooddd!!

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” - Confucius

Seeing people reunited makes my heart swell + my smile biiiigggg

“I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can’t tell fast enough, the ears that aren’t big enough, the eyes that can’t take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone.” -Jonathan Safran Foer

Best festival in the world... or maybe I'm just biased;)

Every year in October a music festival is held on the shores of Lake Malawi. It's basically 3days of non-stop music, dancing, drinking, friends (new and old) & pure happiness. Every age, race, religion, music genre, alcohol... features with the mornings consisting of jumping in the gorgeous lake in an attempt to ease the hangover. Musicians & DJs come from all over the world to perform, the majority are independent artists and their styles vary assuring that there is something for everyone. A couple of really famous people have come including Goldfish (SA) who were INCREDIBLE, Oliver Mtuzkudzi (Zimbabwe) & this year Freshlyground (SA) are making an appearance. Slowly but surely Lake of Stars is making a well-deserved name for itself!

I just saw the 2011 poster (which inspired this blog) and I have to say it is absolutely PERFECT. It encaptures the heart of what the festival is about - dancing to your heart's content underneath a baobab tree at one of the worlds best kept secrets.

What a memorable moment!

This is the kind of thing you'd see in the movies... literally.

The Spanish Revolution

A sort of follow on from my previous post about the youth being those who will change this world. For many years now Spain has suffered greatly from the worldwide economic crisis - mostly due to it's reliance on tourism & their construction bubble which imploded a couple of years back. The country's unemployment rates are the higest in Western Europe with 21.3% (4.1million people) of the population jobless. When looking at this rate amongst the 'youth' or under-35 age gap, the figure almost reaches a staggering 50%!!! The effects can be seen throughout the country and as the elections for the 'communidades' loom next week people are finally starting to stand up against these injustices with the hopes of forming a 'Spanish Revolution'.

I came across a Flickr photostream with pictures of protestors outside the Spanish Embassy in London. I highly encourage you to take a look! My favourite one:

From there you can also check out more photos from the Flickr page Spanish Revolution which has pictures of acampadas throughout the country as well as the main one in La Puerta de Sol.

“We have a powerful potential in out youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.” - Mary McLeod Bethune

To all my friends in Madrid, get involved! Show your support for a different, more democratic Spain!!

Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on the youth

"It is these qualities which make of our youth today the only true international community.  More than this I think that we could agree on what kind of a world we want to build.  It would be a world of independent nations, moving toward international community, each of which protected and respected the basic human freedoms.  It would be a world which demanded of each government that it accept its responsibility to insure social justice.  It would be a world of constantly accelerating economic progress -- not material welfare as an end in of itself, but as a means to liberate the capacity of every human being to pursue his talents and to pursue his hopes.  It would, in short, be a world that we would all be proud to have built." - Robert F. Kennedy