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Protection from Eviction (Bedroom Tax) (Scotland) Bill proposal and consultation launched
A bill that would protect victims of the bedroom tax has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament by Scottish Labour's social justice spokesperson Jackie Baillie. The bill proposal and consultation paper can be viewed online here.
Govan Law Centre (GLC) has assisted in the drafting of the Bill proposal and accompanying documents. The proposed legislation will ensure that anyone who falls into arrears as a result of the bedroom tax will not be evicted from their home.
The bill has been backed by Govan Law Centre, the Church of Scotland, the STUC, the Poverty Alliance, both the Bedroom Tax Campaigns in Scotland and many others besides.
Jackie Baillie said: "The bedroom tax is unfair and unworkable, it doesn't make financial sense and is targeting some of the most vulnerable tenants in our communities. David Cameron should end this unjust policy right now. We have an opportunity to make it clear that all victims of the bedroom tax, whether council or housing association tenants, will be protected from eviction from their homes."
Tommy McMahon, Govan Law Centre's Chairman said: "GLC fully supports Jackie Baillie proposed Bill which would prevent bedroom tax rent arrears being used to evict Scottish secure tenants. It makes no economic sense to evict tenants, disabled people and children for bedroom tax arrears when they cannot downsize to a smaller property in practice, obtain a smaller specially adapted home, or find an extra £50 per month from breadline benefits. The Scottish Parliament has the power to protect tenants from the bedroom tax and it's time to act."
The Rev Sally Foster-Fulton, Convener of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland said: "At this year's General Assembly, the Church of Scotland agreed to press the Scottish Government for legislation guaranteeing there would be no evictions for rent arrears accrued simply by failing to make the additional payments caused by the "bedroom tax". Whilst we recognise that local authority budgets are being continually squeezed, forcing those who cannot afford these additional payments to carry the burden for this flawed policy is not fair. We urge the UK Government, Scottish Government and local authorities to work together to find a more equitable solution. I welcome Jackie Baillie's proposals, but with the reversal of the "bedroom tax" policy, they would not be needed in the first place."
Peter Kelly of the Poverty Alliance said: "It is hard to underestimate the negative impact that the bedroom tax is having on individuals and communities across Scotland. Not only are people struggling to get by on already reduced incomes, but now many are fearful about being evicted from their homes. In this context we must explore every opportunity to protect individuals from the impact of the Bedroom Tax. We therefore welcome the launch of Jackie Baillie's Members Bill and would encourage organisations and individuals to respond to the consultation. Every effort must be made to protect individuals and communities from this disastrous policy."
Dave Moxham, Deputy General Secretary of the STUC said: "STUC wants the Bedroom Tax repealed by Westminster and action in Scotland to prevent tenants getting into debt. But STUC is also ultimately opposed to the eviction of Scottish tenants whose arrears are a consequence of the Bedroom Tax. The Scottish Parliament has the power to act on this by supporting Jackie Baillie's Bill and in so doing reinforce its opposition to this iniquitous and inhumane measure."
Gail Morrow of the Scottish Anti-Bedroom tax Federation said: "We have supported the Govan Law Centre petition, and helped it to gain over 5000 signatures. Now that there is a member's bill based on it, put forward by Jackie Baillie MSP, the actions called for by the petition are one step closer to being acted upon. This will remove the threat of eviction from the thousands of people who worry about paying for basics such as food and heating. The bedroom tax is a horrible piece of legislation, forced upon us by the Westminster government. In Scotland, we don't have the power to repeal the bedroom tax, but we do have the power to remove the worst effect of it - the threat of eviction."
Alan Wyllie of the No2 Bedroom Tax campaign said: "The Scottish Government should be leading on this issue and taking a stand against the bedroom tax. We support this Bill because it would remove the fear of eviction for thousands of bedroom tax victims across Scotland. However the Scottish Government must also pledge to fund the £50m 'bedroom tax shortfall' so council and housing association budgets don't have to pay the price for this cruel tax."
Cllr Mark Macmillan, Leader of Renfrewshire Council said:
"Jackie Baillie and Scottish Labour are to be congratulated on bringing forward measures today to protect tenants who are being pushed into debt because of the bedroom tax. Scottish Councils can commit to no evictions policies just now – but over 40% of tenants in Scotland live in housing association properties. Councils cannot protect these people and we need the Scottish Government to act decisively now to protect this group of tenants."
Labels: bedroom tax, govan law centre, Jackie Baillie MSP, Protection from Eviction (Bedroom Tax) (Scotland) Bill
How to change your bank and personal banking problems in the UK
This month UK banks introduced a new '7 day switching' (seven working days) guaranteed service which means you can now change banks in a similar way to switching electricity or gas suppliers. All of your direct debits are automatically switched and payments redirected for 13 months. If anything goes wrong the bank will refund any charges. How does it work in practice?
GLC's Principal Solicitor, Mike Dailly joined BBC's Money Box Live's panel in London to discuss switching personal current accounts, along with problems with personal current accounts, unauthorised payments, bank charges, overdrafts, ethical current accounts, joint accounts, PPI, packaged bank accounts and CPP products. Also on the panel were Craig Donaldson, CEO of Metro Bank, and Emma Cocksedge, Senior Product Manager with First Direct. You can listen to the show again on the BBC's iPlayer here.
Labels: BBC Money Box, govan law centre, overdraft charges, personal banking, Radio 4, switching
Glasgow fights back against predatory payday lenders
Payday lenders are under attack in Glasgow like nowhere else in the UK, writes Phillip Inman, Economics Correspondent of The Observer and The Guardian.
Without waiting for Westminster politicians to tackle the burgeoning instant loan industry, Glasgow City Council has banned all access to Wonga and its lookalikes in libraries and colleges. Glasgow's trading standards officers tour shopping parades to check on offers for loans agreements and APRs that breach the Consumer Credit Act.
Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor of Govan Law Centre, is challenging the contracts that allow payday lenders to snatch their customers' bank-account funds, while also defending people who, in the most extreme cases, take out £200 loans only to find their home being repossessed.
The crackdown coincides with the biggest promotion of credit unions anywhere in the UK. As an alternative to banks, these unions may conjure up an old-fashioned image in the minds of many people, but in Glasgow they are taking to the high street and can be found inside the swankiest shopping centres. One in four Glaswegians now have a credit union account.
According to the council treasurer Cllr Paul Rooney, this go-it-alone approach is necessary to scale down an annual £57m binge on payday loans, door-to-door credit and pawnbrokers that affects one in five of the city's population. In November, the council will begin allocating credit union accounts to new secondary school pupils and handing them £10 toward their savings. Read the full story in The Observer here.
Labels: access to fair credit, Cllr Paul Rooney, Credit unions, Glasgow City Council, govan law centre, payday lending
BBC Radio 4's Money Box discussion of successful tribunal challenges to bedroom tax decisions
BBC Radio 4's Money Box has discussed the issue of successful first tier tribunal challenges to the bedroom tax (Saturday, 14 September 2013). You can listen to GLC's Principal Solicitor explain the implications of the Fife Law Centre cases decided by Tribunal Judge Simon Collins Q.C on the BBC iPlayer. There is also a reference to current challenges for disabled tenants and occupiers based on unlawful discrimination and ECHR caselaw. The discussion starts 19 mins into the show on the BBC iPlayer here. GLC is in the process of updating its 'Bedroom Tax Toolkit' to take on board the lastest case law developments - more details as soon as possible.
Labels: BBC Money Box, BBC Radio 4, bedroom tax, Fife tribunal cases, govan law centre
Govan Law Centre seeks Trainee Solicitor
Govan Law Centre is seeking a new Trainee Solicitor to join its award winning legal team. The role will include defending evictions and mortgage repossessions as part of our new Prevention of Homelessness City Rights Hubs in Glasgow City, along with undertaking work in our Govanhill Law Centre office, working with the Roma community and EU migrant workers.
The new post will also have scope to undertake legal work within our national Education Law Unit, which provides expert advice and representation in the field of Scots education law. There may also be an opportunity to undertake Scottish Parliamentary law reform and social justice campaign work. We believe this is a fantastic opportunity for someone who has a demonstrable passion for social justice in Scotland.
Please send CV and a relevant covering letter to: Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor at Govan Law Centre, 18-20 Orkney Street, Glasgow, G51 2BZ or m@govanlc.com. Closing date noon, Friday 27 September 2013. No recruitment agencies necessary thank-you.
Govan Law Centre is a Registered Scottish Charity SC030193 http://www.govanlc.com/ And aims to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. You must hold, or be entitled to hold, a valid Entrance Certificate from the Law Society of Scotland to apply for this post, in relation to a proposed start date of October/November 2013.
Labels: career opportunities at Govan Law Centre, govan law centre, jobs, trainee solicitor, vacancies
Govan Law Centre to draft Bill to prevent vulnerable Scots being evicted for bedroom tax arrears
Glasgow's Govan Law Centre (GLC) is delighted to announce that it's 'No Evictions for Bedroom Tax Arrears petition' will now be taken forward as a Member's Bill in the Scottish Parliament. The sponsoring member is Jackie Baillie, the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Welfare and MSP for Dumbarton. GLC has agreed to provide full legal and policy support in the drafting of the proposed legislation and accompanying documents.
'Under-occupancy deductions' are losing tenants of councils and housing associations in Scotland £12 per week on average, with some tenants losing as much as £22 per week in housing benefit. Around 105,000 households in Scotland are affected by the bedroom tax, of which 80% contain a person with a disability.
When it comes to Scottish rent arrears eviction actions in sheriff courts, often the success or failure of a tenant in preventing eviction will turn on a few pounds per week, for example the standard payment for arrears direct is £3.55 per week. Accordingly, £12 to £22 per week being deducted from rent payments under the bedroom tax creates the perfect storm for a major increase in evictions and homelessness in Scotland, as tenants are unable to downsize or find extra money from very low incomes.
Govan Law Centre's Chairman, Tommy McMahon said: "Govan Law Centre has suggested a small amendment to section 16 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 which would prevent 'bedroom tax rent arrears' being used to establish or justify a crave for eviction, and instead the landlord could obtain a payment decree for these 'type of arrears', and pursue them an ordinary debt".
"We are very grateful that Jackie Baillie MSP has agreed to champion this law reform proposal, and stand up for Scotland's most vulnerable tenants. It makes no economic sense to evict tenants, disabled people and children for bedroom tax arrears when they cannot downsize to a smaller property in practice, obtain a smaller specially adapted home, or find an extra £50 per month from breadline benefits. The Scottish Parliament has the power to protect tenants from the bedroom tax and it's time to act'.
GLC is also supporting the calls - along with Shelter Scotland and many others - on the Scottish Government to find £50m for social landlords to off-set the impact of the bedroom tax.
Labels: bedroom tax, govan law centre, Jackie Baillie MSP, law reform, member's bill
Protection from Eviction (Bedroom Tax) (Scotland) ...
How to change your bank and personal banking probl...
Glasgow fights back against predatory payday lende...
BBC Radio 4's Money Box discussion of successful t...
Govan Law Centre to draft Bill to prevent vulnerab...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Information relating to retirement of Sheriff Andrew Lothian: FOI release
Justice Directorate
Law and order, Public sector
Date received: 25 July 2017
Date responded: 23 August 2017
Information contained in documents, meetings, communications and discussions relating to the retirement of Sheriff Andrew Lothian; any payments made by the Scottish Government, Scottish Court Service or judiciary to Sheriff & retired Sheriff Andrew Lothian upon his retirement; and any correspondence to/from retired Sheriff Andrew Lothian to the date of this FOI request.
I enclose copies of the information you requested.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why the exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.
In addition, some of the information you have requested is not held by the Scottish Government for the purposes of FOISA because we received it in confidence from the UK Government. This means that, under the terms of section 3(2)(a)(ii) of FOISA, we are unable to disclose it in response to your request. However, you may wish to submit a new request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) to the Ministry of Justice at Judicial Pay and Pensions, 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ, or at data.access@justice.gsi.gov.uk who should be able to help you further.
An exemption applies.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested (including personal telephone details of a Scottish Government official, names and contact details of officials below the level of the Senior Civil Service, address details that might identify a living person, bank account details which might be a joint account, the name of a spouse and details of a widow's pension). This exemption applies because the information is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.
foi-17-01705 related email correspondence.pdf
36 page PDF


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Chacomylus is an extinct genus of odd-toed ungulate condylarth which existed in the Nacimiento Formation, United States during the early Paleocene period (Puercan age). It was first named by Thomas E. Williamson and Anne Weil in 2011 and the type species is Chacomylus sladei.

References

Condylarths
Fossil taxa described in 2011
Paleocene mammals of North America
Fossils of the United States
Prehistoric placental genera

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Classic Greek & Roman, Egyptian, Incan, Persian & Viking.
"Edfou. / 193 Lichtenstein & Harari, Commissions-Agents, Cairo." showing the Ptolemaic Temple of Horus, in its remarkable state of preservation; unused carte postale with undivided back, fairly fresh with good edges. The spelling is sometimes seen as Idfu. Seen elsewhere offered as high as 8 Euros, but we need only $5.00 ea.
Aztec & pre-Aztec images are both here.
to other archaeological collectibles webpages.
Baths of Roman Emperor Caracalla (AD 212 - 216).
Later, the site of the gymnastics events of the 1960 Summer Olympics.


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Is Coronavirus (COVID-19) a Punishment from Allah?
by Imam | posted in: Islamic Creed, The Faith	| 0
Only those who are unwell appreciate health and only those who are not safe appreciate security.
Are the viruses such as Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the catastrophes a punishment from Allah?
Answering your question, the European Council for Fatwa and Research, states:
In actual fact, people, as individuals and groups regardless of their places and positions, are subject to tests and adversities, one of the ways of life. Tests come in forms of adversities as well as prosperity.
Allah says: {Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. To Us must you return.} (Al-Anbiya 21:35)
In his interpretation of this verse, Ibn Katheer states:
"It means that sometimes we test you with afflictions and others with graces to show who will express gratitude and who will disbelieve and who will portray patience and who will despair."
Regardless of awareness or unawareness of Allah's significance, belief in destiny of adversity as well as destiny of prosperity constitutes one of the definitive rules of Islam.
This deeply rooted belief does not curtail Muslims' contemplation and learning lessons.
In the case of the universal catastrophes afflicting all, the good and the bad, it could be a reminder to humans that despite their material and scientific achievements, they should not overlook the spiritual and ethical aspects, strengthen their relations with the Creator the Exalted, and abide by the fundamental values e.g. social justice, peaceful coexistence, respecting human rights, and cooperation with all in good and righteousness.
In this sense, Allah's tests are not an act of revenge since Allah is the most merciful and the most kind with His servants. Allah says:
{For Allah is to all people Most surely full of kindness, Most Merciful.} (Al-Baqarah 2:143)
Tests are for reasons:
1- Reminding people of Allah's graces by missing some.
Only those who are unwell appreciate health and only those who are not safe appreciate security. By means of familiarity with and getting used to Allah's graces humans are often headless of Allah's favour when granting them abundant implicit and explicit graces. Allah says: {Do you not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made his bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen? Yet there are among men those who dispute about Allah, without knowledge and without guidance, and without a Book to enlighten them!} (Luqman 31:20)
The more Allah's servant becomes aware of Allah's graces on her/him the more grateful s/he becomes. This gives satisfaction with Allah's granted favors. One is to turn always to Allah and seek His assistance and protection.
By nature, when afflicted man looks for someone to help. Realizing that Allah supports humans and He is sufficient in time of adversity creates peace and tranquility in one's heart needed to face tests and is a shield against depending on others. Allah says:
{O you men! It is you that have need of Allah: but Allah is the One Free of all wants, worthy of all praise.} (Fatir 35:15)
In the time of affliction, one expresses his turning to Allah by means of prayers and submission. Allah says:
{When a wave covers them like the canopy (of clouds), they call to Allah, offering Him sincere devotion. However, when He has delivered them safely to land, there are among them those that halt between (right and wrong). But none reject Our Signs except only a perfidious ungrateful (wretch)!} (Luqman 31:32)
In another place, Allah says:
{When the suffering reached them from us, why then did they not learn humility?} (Al-An`am 6:43)
2- Adversities and tests come to warn people against committing sins.
Since sins have repercussions on humans themselves and their society but not Allah, then it is out of His mercy that He warns humans so that they might give them up.
In this regard, people, the believers and the non-believers, are treated equally. Tests are not a form of revenge but rather a warning against a sin one commits so that one might give it up. Allah says:
{Whatever misfortune happens to you, is because on the things your hands have wrought, and for many (of them) He grants forgiveness.} (Ash-Shura 42:30)
At this point, it is worth mentioning that Allah has uniquely granted the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) the last prophet, the privilege of securing his nation against the punishments of general destruction in this world, yet it befell some of the previous nations.
Allah has postponed their accountability to the hereafter in order to give them the right opportunity of repentance in this worldly life. Hence, the Prophet Muhammad did not make prayers for the destruction of his opponents.
In a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, the Prophet Muhammad when requested to invoke curse on the idol worshippers, said: "I have not been sent to invoke cure but rather as a mercy." (Muslim)
In his Quranic exegesis of the verse We only send the Signs by way of terror (and warning from evil)" Al-Tabari reports that Qatadah says: "Allah casts fear into people's heart with whatever sign He determines in order to learn the lesson, remember or return. One day Kufa was hit with earthquake during the time of Ibn Mas ud, so he said: 'Indeed your Lord is blaming you so seek His pleasure."
According to Al-Hasan, this verse refers to death in large scales.
3- Tests befall believers and non-believers.
In fact, the believers' tests are harder than the non-believers', since their belief gives them patience. In an authentic hadith, Prophet Muhammad says: "The most severe tests are the prophets' and those of these who are the nearest to them and then those of these who are the nearest to them."
We should say that tests come as a warning against sins i.e. every behavior that is not right in relation to Allah, in relation to a human brother or sister and in relation to the universe that one lives in.
It is obvious that humans are misbehaving at all levels. Nowadays, due to Coronavirus (COVID-19), the wise people all over the world are calling for considering much of the humans' misbehavior dominant in all fields.
These wise people say what is after COVID-19 will be divergent to what was prior to it. The immoral approach, the perpetration of inequality among people and unfair financial system, the unethical environmental activities and pollution, and the problematic situations resulting from waging wars and confrontations are sins from which humans should repent. Adversities come as a warning against continuing adopting these aggressive and oppressive means.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Source: https://www.e-cfr.org/
coronavirus, covid-19, FEATURED, is coronavirus a punishment from Allah? why are we tested?


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Author: debeernecessities
Author Jonny Steinberg writes Brilliantly about People that Matter in the Award-Winning One Day In Bethlehem
June 22, 2020 June 22, 2020 ~ debeernecessities
This is another of those books that could be titled #blacklivesmatter and it makes perfect sense that it was awarded the 2020 Recht Malan Prize for non-fiction. As is his nature, Jonny Steinberg perfectly captures this moment in time with his latest illuminating investigative writing. DIANE DE BEER reviews:
One Day In Bethlehem by Jonny Steinberg (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
From the Harold Pinter inscription (A thing is not necessarily true or false; it can be both true and false) to the first sentence which states that the author, Jonny Steinberg, could have sworn that he had read the newspaper report that triggered this book in his office, he is at pains to make a point about memory and how people remember things.
Apart from the horrific life circumstances of most of the men featured in this book (they're all black and tragically, that is the only explanation we still need in 2020), especially Fusi Mofokeng, who is the one focussed on in most detail and depth, he also searches for the truth and how this can be distorted through constant lifelong trauma.
For Fusi, a resident of Bethlehem, life has been tough. And even though he had a rough childhood, nothing could prepare him for what was going to happen to him on the eve of our new democracy – what should have been a time of freedom became a loss of life as he understood it.
The summary on the back page of the book captures it thus: A bakkie full of men armed with AK47s is stopped by two policemen on the outskirts of Bethlehem in the Free State. The men open fire on the policemen and, from that moment their lives are irrevocably changed. So too for Fusi Mofokeng, a resident of Bethlehem, who was not in the bakkie but happened to be the brother-in-law of one of the perpetrators. He and his drinking buddy, Tshokolo Mokoena, are accused of being accomplices and are tried, sentenced and jailed.
And then begins Steinberg's story in his exact, detailed style as he unravels the lives of those involved to get to the nub of the story but also to put you in the shoes of the people whose story is being told.
For most of the white privileged world, this is important because you still today have people saying in total ignorance that the playing field is level, for example. When you follow these lives, you quickly understand that for many people, in fact the majority in the world, this is simply not true and can never be.
When starting to interview especially the two men wrongfully accused and imprisoned for life (they served 19 years), Steinberg found that he struggled to connect with Tshokolo during the first evening and the notes he made were filled almost entirely with Fusi's words. This is where he focused and why he persisted.
"During his years in prison, the world outside, he said, slowly emptied of the people he loved." Already you have a lump in your throat, and this is page 8. It is not an easy read yet as all Steinberg's work, it is compelling. No one was more reluctant to read The Number, one of his earlier books dealing with prison gangs. It completely overwhelmed me and I have been a Steinberg disciple ever since.
And he does it again. He takes you into the lives of others and teaches you about a world, perhaps unknown and unfamiliar, and brings understanding and much more empathy than you might have had before for your fellow (sometimes world) citizens.
The detail he exacts from his subjects makes sense at the end as he gives you a particular life with specific circumstances, whether it is someone who is reluctant to be treated for Aids, dealing with the harshness of prison life or trying to come to terms with life imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit. That must be one of life's most difficult battles and in a world where black men are viewed through the harshest of prisms, Steinberg is at pains to show how Fusi met some Samaritans along the way which gave him courage and confidence to fight for freedom at any cost.
One of those was a social worker in Kroonstad who spotted Fusi's anger and helped him to understand that eventually it would kill him.
"It's amazing to me that you are not angrier," writes Steinberg about an early conversation with Fusi.
"'I was very angry,' he replied. 'I realised if I didn't stop being angry, I was going to die…'
'I was shown the connection by a warder, a very good man, a white man. His name was Steyn.'"
He took Steyn's advice to heart and realised it was his only way out.
He wrote to everyone he could think of; officials in government, the ANC, the TRC (which rejected him for amnesty because he didn't commit the crime) and the list went on. Finally he made contact with Jacques Pauw (or so he thought) and this hard-hitting journalist who uncovered so much of what has gone wrong in this country, decided to check the story of the two innocent life-long prisoners. At the time he headed the Wits Justice Project.
On his way to interview Jacques, Jonny reminisces: "Fusi's is a tale one resists. One listens intently and thinks one has taken in the depth of it, but it is not so. For one does not want to walk in his shoes."
And again he encapsulates in that one sentence the thing that gnaws at you throughout reading the book. How and why does this happen to people? And so often the very people who don't have the means (and here I don't even mean money) to do anything about their momentous dilemma.
As the book winds down, the author allows himself to speculate, to capture some emotional moments in prose that's breath-taking. But he also wonders and philosophises about especially Fusi's life and what would have become of him if this bakkie full of freedom fighters hadn't stopped over for that dreadful day in Bethlehem.
It's a fascinating and rewarding read. He has always had the power to tell stories – especially those set locally – that fling the doors wide open and allow us into a problem(s) while bringing understanding and depth to a news headline. Locally but also worldwide, we so easily accuse without empathy or understanding. This is a time to stand still and take stock and Steinberg's insightful book is a powerful way to do that.
And it seems the time is right. Finally everyone seems to listen and hear that black lives matter.
Author Jeanne Goosen – a Woman of Wise and Wonderful Words – a Force of Nature
DIANE DE BEER
When author/poet/playwright Jeanne Goosen died at the beginning of June, a unique voice was silenced.
But fortunately with writers, they do leave their voices behind and while Jeanne's mother tongue was Afrikaans, one of her most acclaimed works, Ons Is Nie Almal So Nie, was translated into English by André P Brink who, in a twist of irony, had a few decades before slated her first poetry book. This, in turn, had paused the publishing of any new anthologies for quite some time according to her biography.
So crushed was the young poet that, while still writing, she didn't want the humiliating results on any further public display of her poetry.
Author Jeanne Goosen
That's who Jeanne Goosen was. She was one of the journalists at the interestingly staffed Oggendblad in Pretoria where I started my journalistic career in the '70s and I was hooked. She was a storyteller and someone about whom stories were told – and still are.
Coincidentally, at the time of her death I had just started the Petrovna Metelerkamp biography Jeanne Goosen; 'n Lewe Vol Sinne (Hemel en See Boeke) which I found absolutely fascinating. I knew enough about her to find an easy way in, but even though this book has been described as "skoongeskrop", for those of us who didn't know Jeanne that well, there's enough to form a very vivid picture of someone who lived her truth – even though most of her friends would agree that the going was tough.
Having read a few of her works recently while also listening to a tribute production on RSG of Elders aan Diens with Luna Paige, Nicole Holm and a name I only recently encountered, Frieda van den Heever (who directed the most fantastic production at the recent Woordfees, Die Poet, Wie's Hy?), it's evident, while very funny and no holds barred, there's always a tragic underpinning.
This is emphasised in an in memoriam former publisher Hettie Scholtz wrote for litnet of the gloriously wild and wonderful Jeanne (and with her kind permission I repeat):
In response to one of Jeanne's short stories Hulle noem my Jean, she asked the author where she found the courage and she surprises her with the following lengthy quotation from Ania Brookner's Look at me;
"When I feel swamped by my solitude and hidden by it, physically obscured by it, rendered invisible, in fact, writing is a way of piping up. Of reminding people I am here. And when I have ordered my characters, plundered my store of images, removed from them all the sadness that I might see in myself, then I can switch on the current that allows me to write so easily once I get started, and to make people laugh. That, it seems, is what they like to do. And if I manage this well enough and beguile all the dons and the critics, they will fail to register my real message, which is a simple one.
"If my looks and my manners were of greater assistance to me I could deliver this message in person. Look at me, I would say. Look at me. But since I am alone in this matter, I must use subterfuge and guile, and with a little bit of luck and good management this particular message will never be deciphered, and my reasons for delivering it in this manner will remain obscure."
And now you begin understanding the melancholy, the willfulness and the discomfort in her own skin – always the outsider. But when you start reading Jeanne (in Afrikaans), it's her understanding of the life she views from the sidelines, her determined and not unexpected iconoclastic view of the world in general, the frustration of even close friends because of an unpredictability that all come rushing through.
Hers was not an easy life to view but more than anything, a tough one to live when you read the biography.
And then she dies, a voice suddenly gone and the words are all around and they are magnificent. They always were, we just forget.
Apart from the biography which is a portrait of a true artist, an illuminating recent anthology Het Jy Geweet Ek Kan Toor (Hemel en See Boeke) as well as a book of stray sayings which the biographer couldn't resist compiling titled Los Gedagtes (Hemel en See Boeke), a true gem and just for those non-Afrikaans speaking readers, I loosely translate a few that capture some of her truths. Metelerkamp notes that these were random phrases written down, the grammar unfixed, not filed according to topic, that highlight the amazing thought processes of a thinking artist:
Who wants a constructive relationship?
Stubborn women rule.
A postcard is an orgy in sepia.
All suffering is man-made.
Posthumously rehabilitated.
One eye is always completely open. It considers, watches, and sees the silliness of everything.
Food spiced with the blood of killers.
The cold and poverty of this winter was gruelling and humiliating.
To write is like dreaming while being awake. It's like being a magician.
Writing is like having a love affair with death.
Life is energy and a head filled with facts.
Materialism is a kind of psychological ideology and a lifestyle.
Dead: If you are dead, you are dead and that is that. If you are alive, you are dead most of the time anyway.
Don't overestimate people's intelligence.
Death is life's healing drug.
Perhaps I was Tchaikovsky in a previous life. But what did I do wrong that fate dumped me in Parow amongst these people who don't understand anything?
Total independence. Total freedom.
I will eventually reach the truth if I keep on making notes.
His beard starts in his nose.
I fail in the human world. I should have become a nature conservationist.
And she goes on…gloriously so, sometimes so sad and sometimes hysterically funny.
As a young journalist, to watch her in action was spectacular. She was larger than life and even years later when I had to review Trudie Taljaard in Kombuis-blues, I could still hear Jeanne's unique gravelly voice in my head. If she happened to cross your path, you remembered her.
Similarly with her writing and there's so much more. If at all possible, try to read as much of her published works as well as the biography. Who she is and what she wrote is extraordinary.
And there's so much more than can be captured here…. her passionate love for dogs and other animals; her love of music, and ability to play piano and perform … and on and on.
If I could wish upon her star, cherish her words and honour the author. She deserved so much more.
Deborah Steinmair Finds The Interior Nightmares in As Jy Van Moord Droom
June 9, 2020 June 9, 2020 ~ debeernecessities
Coming home seemed to have started the healing process. No longer vivid and garish, the memories seemed to be covered in gossamer, fading behind a curtain of time and forgiveness.
― Karen Fowler, Memories For Sale
As Jy Van Moord Droom by Deborah Steinmair (Lapa Publishers):
I only review Afrikaans books in very specific circumstances, either because of the writer or perhaps the story that captures my imagination.
Deborah Steinmair is one of my favourite writers and if Afrikaans is one of your languages, check her weekly Vrye Weekblad columns online. I can read them for the vocab, the turn of phrase and the way she plays with the language in very unique fashion.
And then there's the topic. It might be deadly serious but she will have you screaming with laughter – and also because this contemporary Afrikaans newspaper, being online and of its time, is much more relaxed with the language.
This novel is Steinmair's first venture into what is dubbed domestic noir and being the contemporary woman she is, she goes to the heart of things – a daughter who has been kidnapped as a sex slave returns after 20 years, a stranger.
But there are forces out there who do not want this story unravelled, while mother and daughter have to find their truth.
We are familiar with these stories, daughters changed at birth or families being tortured by a demonic father. What happens in the aftermath? What happens in a mother's head when a young daughter only 6 years old disappears? Some might wish them when not found, to be dead rather than living an unimaginable torture.
And then Maryna is suddenly on her doorstep – 26 years old. She arrives on a stormy night, huge, shielded in size and uncommunicative, which makes the coming back together that much tougher.
The rest of the tale is both an adrenalin-rushing story and a mother trying to reach into her daughter's hidden soul. She knows that this is really going to be the toughest task of them all. But after 20 years of living without, she is determined – like most mother would be – to fight for the full return of the person she lost.
In the process you also get to know about the marriage that disintegrated, which is so often the case when couples go through traumatic events – some come together, but often it rips them apart. It's often about the cracks that existed before the trauma as well as the different ways people deal with crises or in this instance, loss, that make staying together problematic.
But because Erin needs someone to talk to, she has imaginary conversations with former husband Bert, who in the meantime has immigrated to the US and started a new family. But these conversations are what keeps her sane and probably more real than the ones they would have had if staying together.
Erin is all about her lost daughter. For her it is tough to move on without closure as she tries to make sense of her world until the day her daughter arrives on her doorstep.
It's not a tough ask to look for familiar bogeymen in the South African context, but typical is not Steinmair's way. She never opts for the obvious. Her mind and manner is much too maverick to go there. And that is what makes this such a gripping read.
Has she stumbled into a genre, which for many years has been the best escape? Of course, but what makes this one stand out is her breakaway storytelling. There's no formula here and instead of looking for the action on the outside, the author has turned inward as she explores the mind of a woman who has to navigate some of the toughest emotional terrain on her own.
Couched in the thrilling context of the return of a lost daughter – for more than 20 years – she has found a way of exploring all kinds of issues in today's world. And that's the kind of thriller I want to read. It gives all the spills and thrills but there's some realism there that gets me thinking.
It's a double whammy.
Visit https://lapa.co.za/e-books for good prices.
Undercover with Mandela's Spies Captures the Devastation but tells of Reclaiming a Life, Making a Difference
With the current tensions and peaceful resistance in the US (and now worldwide) following yet another police killing of an innocent black man, the insensitivity amidst all of this for example of a white sportsman trying to tell his black teammate why he should not dishonour the flag or his country by taking the knee, Bradley Steyn's own battle with his privileged whiteness could not be more relevant
Bradley Steyn was still a teenager when he crossed Strijdom Square (at the time) to visit his mom at the State Theatre. His life exploded into the sharpest of tiny shards as he found himself centre of the horrific Barend Strydom massacre (with 8 black victims murdered and 16 injured) yet wasn't targeted because of the colour of his skin. He tells DIANE DE BEER about the decades of trying to recover his splintered life:
Two journalists capture much of why Bradley Steyn's book Undercover With Mandela Spies – The Story of the Boy Who Crossed The Square (Jacana) is such a mesmerising read if like me, you aren't immediately drawn to yet another story about our past as told by a white man.
The first is Daily Maverick's Marianne Thamm who writes about Bradley Steyn and his book: "Bradley Steyn's book is not just a rollicking read full of testosterone-driven skop, skiet and donner, treachery and treason, it is also about a young white man's gradual attainment of wisdom, of understanding how psychologically, emotionally and spiritually corrosive the idea of unreconstructed whiteness is." (And I implore you to find this article at Daily Maverick and read it, as further proof that this is an illuminating read, as she does a wonderful piece, putting it all into its political context of the time – 1988).
And this concluding paragraph in journalist Ranjeni Munusamy's column in a past Sunday Times:
"Ours is an impossible story: It began 25 years ago with the triumph over a system that forced us to hate ourselves and each other.We are and will always be a deeply damaged people. On our journey we lost our humanity and our values were eroded. We lost our national pride.Now begins a new era. Broken or conquered, we must find our way."
These, in different ways, encapsulate Bradley Steyn's story Undercover with Mandela's Spies: The Story of the Boy who crossed the Square and the title is perhaps so much more vivid if you live in Pretoria where it all began.
And then, to further intrigue, there's yet another catch phrase on the cover: Four sworn enemies. The MK ANC Spy team that infiltrated the heart of the apartheid regime.
And the preface begins with: "It's been 30 years. It's time I got over it."
He is, of course, talking about that horrific day that impacted the rest of his life. "There was a court case," he writes. "A killer got the gallows and was sent to Death Row. I saw what he did, saw him murder those people, but I survived. I got a job. I married. I had a child." Survivor's guilt is often what really survives – in these kinds of situations.
Bradley Steyn, who was only 17 years old at the time, was no different. In fact, nothing in his personal circumstances helped either – not because people are bad, but because they don't know how to react, how best to help. That includes everyone from parents, to teachers, to friends.
He explains his own circumstances best: "But then like a cassette tape unraveling, everything suddenly snarled into a noise I didn't recognise, and that life I had before just screeched to a halt. "The story of his world following the shooting on the square is how his life took on a life of its own.
"I had escaped physically unscathed, but the real damage lay within. I have never recovered emotionally." He acknowledges that the post-trauma he suffered was hard on his parents, as his stress disorder intensified in the weeks that followed the slaughter.
"The desolation of not having the school principal or my teachers or the other children – except a couple of close friends – even acknowledge what had happened has remained with me to this day." It's a chilling sentence which captures the terror this young boy must have felt following the killing spree he was witness to – allowed to escape simply because of the whiteness of his skin.
That has been his battle and what propelled him into a life dictated mostly by the use of force as he found his life spinning into a routine of violence, seemingly the only thing he understood at the time.
"A child today would be given a time to heal, to be filled with fury, and then to dip and rise – whatever was needed," he notes.
But there was nothing like that, not for any of the victims. His mind was left to rage with bedtime becoming hellish. It's so typical of how white people in this country reacted to horror at the time, they turned away, brushed it aside and those directly affected, just had to cope. No one did.
And as he explains, the devastating after-shocks didn't stop there. That was just the beginning. In desperation, his parents decided that the military might help to bring order to his chaotic life and it did, on the surface – but also honed all his skills for a way of life that led to him announcing the following resumé: Thug for hire. Highly qualified.
As he passed from being a bouncer at nightclubs to a life much darker and dangerous, he writes: "I was just a humble thug, a 19-year-old taken in by the lure of an undercover life where I could blow off the terrors inside my head without having to answer to anyone…the people I came across were often brutish, unafraid of blood and even death. That was the criminal underworld, and I guess I had been shifting more and more into that zone of absolute indifference because it fulfilled a need in me to shut off all emotion."
From there he followed a short route into doing dirty work for the apartheid regime and at some point, was flipped to the other side, eventually fronting as a far-right fanatic to infiltrate an even scarier world which eventually led to him fleeing the country for his life.
And finally my first reservations when handed the book, and I will again explain this courtesy of Marianne Thamm and journalist/author Janet Smith who was instrumental in the writing of this book:
Smith wrote about her first impressions: "If I was wary of supremacists – who didn't hesitate to DM me with threats of slitting me open from top to bottom and rejoicing if I was gang-raped – I was cautious of Bradley at the get-go. I was affected by his experience as the boy who crossed the square, but I was immediately suspicious of everything else, especially the depth of his relationship with the ANC."
She explained that while she was "moved by his having witnessed Strydom's massacre, I felt he had to be that white male stereotype of a special kind that my generation of South Africans knows only too well. He would want to be 'protected' and treated as special in some way because he had always been told he was."
Thamm in turn writes: "Smith's sentiments echoed my own when I first picked up this remarkable book. Do we really need another damaged white person who finds redemption through black suffering and pain?"
And when reading the book, these are issues the author battles with himself and which makes this such an intriguing read. He had to come to terms with his demons. And the serious position he takes is underlined by the space of time elapsed since his life was turned on its head.
I love the way Steyn ended the book by giving the details of all the victims of that horrific Strydom Square nightmare, fortunately now with a powerful new name and that of a woman, Lilian Ngoyi; but also the details of the people who played a large part in his life.
It is a book that captures the devastation on so many levels of people living in this country during apartheid, but it also tells a story of reclaiming a life and making a difference, something which this country is also renowned for.
Pretoria Boys High's Education Warrior Bill Schroder Tells A Headmaster's Story
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020 ~ debeernecessities	~ 1 Comment
It's a time to dip into books that you might not always get time for as one of the few good things of lockdown has been the gift of time. DIANE DE BEER reviews one such example:
As I don't have children, schools have never loomed large in my adult life and, having had my own dose of prestigious same-sex schools in my youth, the traditions etc. don't factor into my thinking.
But (full disclosure), as Bill Schroder is a family friend and I had listened to him speaking in general and more specifically about schools – also being a Pretoria inhabitant for the past 40 plus years – I was tempted to see what he had to say following his retirement (not that he has ever given up fundraising for his final alma mater).
And thus when starting with A Headmaster's Story: My Life in Education by Bill Schroder (Jonathan Ball Publishers), it took a few chapters for me to fully engage. But once he grabbed hold of me, it was a fascinating read.
With the current pandemic, most people will have realised how vital frontline or essential workers are to all of our lives. These are the people who are taken for granted, held in little regard and paid extremely badly. With money being power in the world we live in, no wonder the teaching profession is not taken seriously.
And yet all of us go to school and we all know the impact those special teachers in our lives have on our future. They are the people who speak truth to power, who are intent on showing their pupils the things that count and who often steer us in a direction that we never thought was possible.
What we should never forget with these essential workers (and this is exactly what teachers and educators are) is that they are often driven by an overwhelming desire to do the best they can. It is a calling rather than a career and that's why the good ones always rise to the top.
Once the young Schroder realises that what he wants to do is be a headmaster, to lead, and to do it his way, there's no stopping him. He paid his dues and proved his mettle at schools that were write-offs in the community but he also learnt valuable lessons right through his teaching career from the day he started.
He is someone who knows and acknowledges when he could possibly have done better (a rare trait) in the competitive world of top schools where it is dog eats dog (as in any of these mini societies that are understood only by those who are part of them). To survive all the in-fighting and the struggle of getting it right is a feat in itself, especially if you are an outsider, which in many instances is what he was.
But this is not where this headmaster lingers. He is much more intent on dealing with the way he did things and why he believes they work.
For the reader, it is clear that he had some blessings – his wife Cherry the most important one. Both of them are their own people but Schroder is very clear on why he could deliver his ideals – his wife supported him in everything he did as a headmaster. When they had to move even in the worst of circumstances, she simply got packing. And often his teaching duties included that of serving as house master at one of the boarding homes, which included the co-operation of the whole family. Irt was never an issue And allows you to focus where it's necessary.
There are many stories and lessons he imparts but often it is best just to hear what he has to say.
As the book progresses, in his own words, he offers the perfect example of his leadership with this example:
"…I feel strongly that when a principal is involved in major (and not so major) disciplinary and behavioural issues, he or she can frequently defuse them and prevent long, drawn-out disciplinary issues that then end up in the hands of people who are not necessarily skilled or experienced enough to deal with the problem. It is vital their parents to know that the head finds these issues important enough to get involved.
"I know there are procedures that are prescribed for dealing with various disciplinary issues, but in my opinion, these should be a last resort. I am sure that when serious disciplinary issues arise in schools, there has not been visible leadership, getting to the source of the problem immediately and decisively.
"…this underlines the need to surround yourself with good and trustworthy people, and to let them pick up the issues at which you as leader might not be competent, and in so doing also to acknowledge your weaknesses.
"No matter how small or inconsequential a problem that a pupil brings to you may seem, if it is important to him or her, then as a leader you need to respect that importance. Theories of leadership and leadership styles abound; arguments about whether leaders are born or can be made have gone on for centuries; and of course your leadership style is a reflection of many things, and in particular your personality….
The next priority for me was support for my staff. …"
It is this kind of insight that makes this such a fascinating read. For those of us living in Pretoria, many stories swirl around about loved headmasters. There's a reason for that; they make a difference to lives – more importantly young lives.
And Schroder didn't only make a difference to the lives directly under his care. As the former headmaster of one of the country's top schools, a few years after retirement he was approached to consider mentoring a secondary school in Soshanguwe.
He was persuaded by a former member of the governing body of Boys High to assist them. His brief was specifically to mentor the principal and his staff at this particular school. He describes it as a "most interesting, challenging and at times a depressing relationship," but more importantly he goes on to say, "from which I have learned as much, if not more, than they have."
Like much of his advice throughout the book, it is often relevant to ordinary lives. He was blessed with a great partner who stood by his side throughout his career and brought her own special magic as the headmaster's wife. That allowed him to walk and talk his own truth which he imparts in this smart book.
And even for those who don't have kids at school, it's good to know that we still have these educators who are in it for all the right reasons. It has always been one of the noblest and most precious professions, but it gets tougher and tougher to make it a choice.
It's time that we honour these noble warriors who still stand up to be counted. It's a calling and they can't help themselves.
We need to salute them.
A Good Neighbourhood Is Seriously Flawed But It Is A Damn Good Story
May 25, 2020 June 4, 2020 ~ debeernecessities
A Good Neighbourhood by Therese Anne Fowler (Headline Review):
A perfect on-the-surface family moves into a new neighbourhood – a good American neighbourhood. The family next door is represented by an African-American mother with her mixed-race son.
The mother, whose fields are forestry and ecology, regards those who destroy trees as "raping the landscape".
But not only had Brad Whitman cut down ALL the trees in the garden to build his brand new house next door, he had also circumvented all the rules with the help of officials charmed by his celebrity status. Because of unethical drilling practices in the back garden to build a patio and pool, it has damaged an ancient oak tree in Valerie Alston-Holt's garden – the reason she has never left this home even though it held dark memories because of her husband's death.
The scene is set for some explosive business with race, underhand dealings and an unwavering moral compass, all coming into play.
Adding to the already combustible mix are two young adults – the mixed-race Xavier Alston Holt (who in this time on face value is regarded as a young black male) and the lily-white Juniper Whitman – who fall in love even though the young man has been told by his mother that "those kinds of people are all about keeping their girls and their bloodlines 'pure'. Forty, fifty years ago his kind would lynch you just for looking at her. Maybe they're not stringing up boys anymore, but the attitudes haven't changed."
And watching what Americans get up to during lockdown – and before – this is not hard to imagine.
Juniper, on the other hand, took a purity vow at the age of 14 on the insistence of her stepfather Brad and her mom, Julia, who wants to protect her daughter from facing the same kind of dilemma she was faced with when pregnant and still just a teen. Brad often refers to her as a rescue bride because that's what he did when marrying her with a young daughter, he believes. Scratch a little under the surface of any of these smiling families and the skeletons come tumbling out, is what the author implies.
But she's set up the perfect scenario with which to tackle many different issues and she has also chosen a specific style in which to tell this story, with someone from the good neighbourhood as the narrator. Yet, while she/he/they address the reader directly, we don't know who she/he/they are.
And it is especially with the narrator that I had problems. It's a cunningly clever story as it brings together so many different strands and issues that criss–cross one another, in a very contemporary and accessible kind of way.
Take, for example, the Brad character. He is a self-made man but as soon as he starts making REAL money, a certain entitlement starts emerging as he cuts corners with anything he wants changed in his life. He feels that he has earned that and that he doesn't have to consider anyone else in these dealings. It's simply to satisfy his own needs.
As for his needs that emerge more clearly about his budding and beautiful stepdaughter, Juniper, he justifies those because he has assured himself that this inexperienced, naive young girl returns his feelings. He should be the first to show her the way.
It's heady stuff as we dive into so many different dilemmas which families have to deal with in a world that is becoming more and more complicated to navigate. And because as a society we seem to hop, skip and jump from one story to the next due to a short attention span, one that seems to diminish daily, some people do terrible things with the knowledge that the information will only be out there for a blink of an eye. And they're right. With scandals coming at you from across the world via a myriad of social media, how can you keep count? Some stick, others seemingly disappear without much attention, either good or bad.
So all these things play into a fascinating story of a good neighbourhood (and we know those, there's a wonderful Afrikaans saying, Stil waters, diepe grond, onder draai die duiwels rond loosely translated as still waters run deep and that's where the devil roams).
I could hardly put the book down because the story is so compelling, but throughout I was thinking of particularly two friends, both writers, who would kill this one. What was a thrilling story and one very relevant to our times, could also be a brilliant novel with some smarter writing and editing.
Take this following rumination:
"Two people are in each other's company and feel the pull of attraction: We call that pull chemistry, but what is the actual substance? (Really?)
And it goes on…: What's the biology of sexual attraction, and is that biology the same as romantic love, and did this pair of teenagers have it, whatever it is?
This rambling goes on for one and a half pages and the two teens who are sketched with much wisdom, would be far more interesting on this topic than the narrator(s).
So while this is a gripping novel to read and hugely enjoyable, it seems once you are a New York Times Bestselling Author, you can get away with almost anything.
There's a reason good editors get such high praise. They are often the ones who keep authors honest, who can see when there's something special but also when something needs some smart cleaning up.
It's not the device that is the problem here, it's the way it is applied that doesn't quite work and as the story and the characters' goings on get momentum, the irritation levels also rise…
But check it out for yourself. It is a damn good story.
Tremendous Mantel Trilogy On Thomas Cromwell Comes to an End with Third Man Booker Deservedly in her Sights
May 17, 2020 May 17, 2020 ~ debeernecessities
The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night.
– Isabel Allende
The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel (4th Estate):
When the third in Hilary Mantel's Tudor trilogy landed at home (thanks to the publishers), Covid19 had already surfaced across the world, I had an arts festival to attend and I thought it would be the perfect read for my husband who was staying at home, alone, for 10 days.
On my return, the lockdown hadn't yet been announced, the book was waiting – and lockdown happened.
Unintentionally, I had in my hands what I think might just be the perfect lockdown read. It's not every day that you're excited about starting an 875-page book. For one thing they're heavy to hold in bed, but Mantel being the writer she is, the topic – an extraordinary one and this third in the trilogy – as had been proven with the first two Booker-winning books, will take you to another world completely.
One which also has plagues it must be said, but then it's reassuring to know that the world made it through those too – and they don't play a large role in the story while adding to the overwhelmingly precarious circumstances of everyone except those serving the king – and they have the threat of possible death hanging over their heads all the time.
"But now there are rumours of plague and sweating sickness. It is not wise to allow crowds in the street, or pack bodies into indoor spaces." Sound familiar?
Hilary Mantel is in a league of her own when it comes to historical writing. The layers of every sentence are mind-boggling, her language pure poetry and her storytelling abilities backed by research that is painstaking.
It is difficult to explain the full magnitude of her storytelling without it sounding tough to read, too much hard work or simply too much of a drag to even tackle. And I won't lie, it isn't easy reading in the sense of just picking up the book and diving into the story. Dealing with Henry VIII and his constantly changing court, depending mostly on his whims, you have to keep your wits about you to know who is who.
But Mantel knows that and she reaches out a helping hand with a very strong listing at the start of the book including all the main players. To give an indication what we're dealing with, it starts with the heading The Recently Dead with the main topic of the previous book, Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, first on the list.
If you have read the previous two, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, you will know that the trilogy while dealing with the reign of Henry VIII, centres on the machinations of Thomas Cromwell, later Lord Cromwell, Secretary to the king, Lord Privy Seal and Vicegerent in Spirituals; that is, the king's deputy in the English church.
What his job(s) is really about is being constantly on call and responding to the king's every whim. This is about a ruler and a time when his word and every wish was what everything was about. "Once Henry says, 'This is my wish,' it becomes so dear and familiar a wish that he thinks he has always had it. He names his need, and he wants it supplied." And "He (Cromwell) thinks, I want to be able to locate the knave at a moment's notice. The king spits at the name of Becket, but give him a year or two and he may change his mind, and make him a saint again. Sad, but those are the times."
The complete disparity between the king and his immediate circle and the rest of the people reminds strongly of the world we live in today, so glaringly visible during Covid19 where the treatment in so many instances is dependent on good health services. Obamacare is beginning to make sense and when you see the statistics in the US of the disparity in communities worst hit by Covid19 nothing more has to be said. Similarly, the squalid circumstances of our squatter camps. Many people don't even consider space a luxury.
More than anything though, because you have to pay attention when reading the dense writing of Mantel, it transports you into another world far removed from the one we live in because it is so far back in time (1536 – 1540). In a recent interview with Mantel when the interviewer wanted to know something about the world we find ourselves in now (this was before Covid19), her response was quick as she reminded her audience that she had been living in the 1500s for quite some time. With research, the book took 7 years to write and is described by the author as the "greatest challenge of her writing life".
But just breathe in some of her writing:
"After supper, as a hush falls and the long midsummer day folds itself and disposes to dusk…"
When talking about the latest choice of wife for the king: "Which one will he take? They say the one has brown hair and the one blonde.
"Go for the blonde, is my advice." …
"His tastes may have changed." She looks at him as if he is simple. "I do not think blondes go out of style."
That could be part of any contemporary story.
And this extraordinary thinking by Cromwell on plums: "He used to think that the plums in this country weren't good enough, and so he has reformed them, grafting scion to rootstock. Now his houses have plums ripening from July to late October, fruits the size of a walnut or a baby's heart, plums mottled and streaked, stippled and flecked, marbled and rayed, their skins lemon to mustard, russet to scarlet, azure to black, some smooth and some furred like little animals with lilac or white ash; round amber fruits like crimson eggs in a silver net, their flesh firm or melting, honeyed or vinous; his favoured kind the perdrigon and it black , the palest having a yellow skin dotted white, sprinkled red where the sun touches it, its perfumed flesh ripe in late August; then the perdrigon violet and its black sister, favouring east-facing walls, yielding September fruits solid in the hand, their flesh yellow-green and rich, separating easily from the stone…" and it goes on.
The richness of the description says as much about Cromwell's need to have diversions as about his attention to detail, whether it is the king's needs or his longing for the riches he was starved of in his rotten and abusive childhood.
And that's what is so extraordinary about her writing. Mantel tells a story of the time as much about the people as the way they lived. One dithers constantly between caring deeply for or discarding Cromwell for his dastardly deeds. He was doing the kind of dance someone like Dr Fauchi or Governor Cuomo has to do around Donald Trump. It's not that they want his favour, they need it to serve the nation.
For Cromwell it was about survival. While he accumulated much wealth and an enviable lifestyle at the time, his family savoured his successes after his death rather than him ever having the time. He was simply treading water and even though the reader knows the end of the story and the death of Cromwell from the beginning, it's with huge sadness that you follow his downfall in the final chapters of a book that masterfully concludes a long sojourn with Thomas Cromwell and the king he served with everything he had.
Perhaps too well, but he never had any choice. And even the outcome was destined. If you have read the first two, this isn't even an option. And if you haven't, this is the perfect time to tackle all three. You won't be sorry – almost guaranteed.
I can't wait to see where Mantel goes next. Wherever it may be, I will follow.
Hustles Explains the Creative Compass of an Architect and a Photographer with a Contemporary African Space
May 8, 2020 May 8, 2020 ~ debeernecessities	~ 1 Comment
I am fascinated by the idea that the greatest architecture in the city has happened by accident
Thomas Chapman.
Hustles – Five Years Of Local Studio by architect Thomas Chapman with photographer Dave Southwood:
Because of the time I'm writing in, I couldn't speak to the author(s) face to face, but really didn't need to, because they state their purpose so clearly in the book Hustle – Five years of Local Studio by Thomas Chapman (Photographer: David Southwood).
The title, explains the architect Thomas Chapman, refers to the "opportunistic process of becoming local – of using design to solve urban problems amidst immense financial and time constraints – and throughout this process, trying to hustle an architectural product that is present, engaged, hopeful and ultimately, never boring".
Knowing a few of their buildings but also having read this book, they can never be accused of that – boring! No sir!
Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre.
With this book then, Thomas wanted to capture the spirit of the five past years of his practice, which consisted entirely of projects that required hustling of some form or another to get the project done.
In the meantime, he states, while compiling the book, they have embarked on a new phase for the practice with "more trusting clients, (slightly) bigger project budgets and hence a greater refinement in design and construction.
He admits to it being tempting to include some of these projects to extract value from what was becoming a very expensive book, but he resolved to draw the line at 99 Juta, at the time their most recently completed project in Braamfontein, which he thought still captured the spirit of Local Studio as a start-up.
Their choice of photographer, David Southwood, a self-proclaimed human rights photographer, is someone whose pictures of their work made them change the way they saw and contextualised their work so that they started thinking differently about people in cities.
David recalls their first meeting in the book and quotes something he said on their drive: "I like photographing architecture, but I much prefer photographing scenes which embed the built form into the street and render the structure as a continuum of its context, if in fact they are at all connected. In fact the photos of architecture that I have done which I like the most obscure the structure almost entirely." As it turned out, the architect and the photographer were a perfect match.
He remarked further on in this introduction: "The only way a practice can include as many street photographs as this in a monograph is if they are genuinely concerned with the street. Local Studio is obsessed with the street. The street is the immediate material context in Johannesburg if you are building, where the urban fabric is rough and unkempt."
Outreach Foundation Community Centre in Hillbrow.
Familiar with the following project, the Outreach Foundation in Hillbrow, because of the Hillbrow Theatre where Gerard Bester is involved, this is also one of the projects I want to focus on here.
Gerard explains in a piece about this complex that the theatre provides a space for inner-city children and youth. It serves the neighbourhood and after-school programmes are held. The theatre was there, but in 2009 they raised some money for a homework centre. After workshops and discussions were held with Thomas, what emerged was a building that now houses the computer centre, dance studio, boardroom and offices of the youth centre.
He explains further that though Hillbrow has negative connotations for outsiders, "I think the people that actually live in Hillbrow, have made it their own."
Hillbrow Trauma Counselling Centre
Even though it is one of the city's toughest neighbourhoods, he believes that we have to keep "engaging an exercise in imagining what Hillbrow can be, and not oppose that; to absolutely engage with the people that reside in the neighbourhood, and not gentrify it but to create meaningful, authentic change."
Which is exactly what has been happening with the project he is engaged with – creating a safe space that is also open and accessible.
Hill Street Café
Pretty close by is (was) the Hill Street Café, a steel restaurant pavilion built as a temporary structure on the foundations of a demolished lunatic asylum in Jozi's historical Old Fort (just above the Constitutional Court) which was designed to last 2 years but eventually stood for four.
I can remember doing an interview with Gerard there about the Hillbrow Theatre and it's a pity that the structure, which was erected there specifically to commemorate the space where the Asylum stood, has been removed. It was a warm and embracing space with great coffee and I remember cool service.
Fullham Heights which now houses Breezeblock Café and Whippet Cycle Company on the ground floor, Local Studio on the first floor and two residential units on the top floor.
The other building which I am familiar with is the one that also houses the brilliant Breezeblock Café in Brixton. Called Fullham Heights, Thomas notes that it is one of the first projects to demonstrate the principals and guidelines of the Johannesburg Corridors of Freedom policy. It looks to promote mixed-use development and residential densification in neighbourhoods adjacent to the recently completed BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) network.
He explains that the building is a conversion of an old corner shop, which had been a Chinese restaurant and subsequently rented by Local Studio as office space prior to its purchase for redevelopment.
The Local Studio offices, a part of Fullham Heights in Brixton.
Now the building houses the funky Café and Whippet Cycle Company on the ground floor, Local Studio on the first floor and two residential units on the top floor. The new structure contrasts with the original concrete facade and pavement colonnade, which were restored as part of the project.
These are simply two projects selected because I am familiar with them, but there is so much more to this book. One needs to see the full scope to understand the ethos. Even if the firm is bigger and reaching higher, I can hardly believe that with this kind of creative compass, their work doesn't still remain in this kind of contemporary African city mind space.
Westbury Pedestrian Bridge and Park, an effort to influence the choice of architecture in the city.
And what would be even better would be to buy the book and do your own guided tours to discover a city you probably weren't even aware exists.
To buy the book:
https://local-studio.myshopify.com/products/hustles-book
Lientjie Wessels Showcases Connections Between Food and Cultures in Geure
May 1, 2020 May 8, 2020 ~ debeernecessities
Lientjie Wessels, artist and chef extraordinaire
Capturing Lientjie's style
Cover and food pictures: Donna Lewis
Foodstyling: Hannes Koegelenberg
Anyone who knows artist/chef/stylist/entrepreneur Lientjie Wessels will remember her for her imagination and individuality. It is exactly those two elements that she exhibits so joyfully in her new recipe book titled Geure (flavours by Annake Müller Publishing). DIANE DE BEER spoke to the author:
As Lientjie tells it, she has for a long time been thinking of writing a cookery book. "My love of strong flavours and tastes came to the fore when I participated in kykNET's Kokkedoor 3," she says. And those of us who know her were quite surprised by her participation. But no one more so than Lientjie herself. That's just who she is.
The first time I bumped into the extraordinary imagination of the larger-than-life Lientjie was with her Brooklyn Mall shop Lemon Lounge. You knew immediately if this was your kind of place or not and if it was, you were hooked on the Lientjie sensibility and style, which is all her own and has a charm that is completely unique. Her food and her fine art are interlinked and -twined – similarly in this book, which makes this one such a feast for the eyes with the food further enhanced by her paintings.
Lemon and vanilla cake
Lientjie's painting
Her spectacular flair and flights of imagination flourished during her years in magazine styling and also in her much-loved restaurant Li-bel in Sunnyside and later Albizia in Cullinan and for a while on a family farm in that neighbourhood.
There has always been something of a gypsy about Lientjie, the way she embraces life and everything it offers. For those of us who favoured her food tables, there was always the knowledge that it might all be gone tomorrow, but also that it would appear in some other form – as it always does.
That's why this book, which encapsulates it all, is such a treasure – so if your Afrikaans language skills are on par, this is one worth checking out.
Roasted marrow bone on green salad with pickled onion salsa
Salted snoek cakes
Because flavours, which were introduced to Lientjie by her mother (to whom the book is dedicated), have played such an important role in her food journey, this is the focus: vinegar, citrus, ginger, olives and olive oil, flowers, chilly and mustard, honey, saffron and vanilla, garlic, herbs, spices and salt, sumac and tamarind, nuts, sesame seeds and tahini.
Soulmates: Lientjie Wessels and the late Robert Denton
She was helped by her late husband Robert (who sadly died suddenly last year) with the writing and, like with everything these two life travellers tackled, it is quirky and simply a joy to experience. Each chapter starts with a description of the flavour showcased and in many of them, Lientjie's mother's influence surfaces. "My first memories of vinegar," she writes, "is absolutely the rows and rows of pickled onions that my mom made each year."
Greek style leg of lamb with hasselback potatoes, anchovies, chimichurri and nasturtium chips
And then the recipes follow and in this instance it stretches from pickled walnuts on toast with goat's milk cheese and fast fridge pickle. Citrus is included in recipes of lemon mousse, lemon curd, soup with lamb shanks, rice and lemon, pork fillet with a lime sauce, fruit salad and more.
Lientjie's food has always been rooted in South Africa but with a strong dose of Middle Eastern and Asian flavours. Her mother was her first and strongest influence and, according to Lientjie, started to cook because hér mother could not. "My grandmother taught me everything else, but not about making food."
Spinach and ricotta gnocchi
From the first time we talked about food, she has talked about her boredom threshold, and she believes that her restaurant days were always doomed, because she couldn't be bothered to make a dish more than three times. By then she had achieved everything she wanted. Also probably influenced by her mother, who had such an unusual palate and constantly introduced her family to new flavours and textures. "She always wanted to make something new," notes Lientjie.
But of course, that's also what made her dining experiences so unique and unusual. She has a very distinct signature and the menu would always be a surprise. Similarly she has achieved that individuality in this absorbing book.
Dark chocolate ice cream with cardamom and pomegranate
The colours are vibrant and welcoming, the food – apart from being grouped according to flavour – is a lovely mix of starters, mains and desserts with sauces, snacks, breakfasts and more.
There's never anything conventional or contrived about this artist. She is probably the last one I would have expected to appear on Kokkedoor and yet, in the end, it resulted in this fantastic book and when you listen to her, she also discovered a newfound confidence in her cooking during the show.
She also realised that she really likes food. Anyone who has had a restaurant will know that it must be one of the most challenging endeavours to attempt . She did it twice and then created a very niche way of dining. It was spectacular and appealed to a select and very loyal group of diners. Local chefs will tell you that South Africans are tough to feed and Pretoria, I have often been informed, is an especially difficult market at best.
But some of my best experiences were either at a pavement table at Li-bel with Lientjie and Robert's dogs lying around, drinking a coffee after a delicious meal and never feeling I had to rush anything; or checking in for a Sunday meal at Albizia with Robert, a storyteller extraordinaire, entertaining us with his fables of life on the fast side.
Lientjie paintings
Lientjie painting
Lientjie's paintings
And then there's Lientjie's art. It has been incorporated into the book in simply the best way and introduces even more of the way her mind and creativity works. For her, when she makes food or paints, the same principles come into play. "I can taste things in my head," she says. It's all conceptual, exactly like her art. "It's about balance, colour and texture."
Lientjie Wessels
Looking at the future, she wants to find a way to make people and cultures touch one another. "We have so many connections through food," she explains.
And then she shares her delights in the best way she knows how – with her recipes and through her art.
For more detail on buying the book, contact Annake Müller Publishing: annakem@mweb.co.za. After lockdown they will be sending those books via courier.
It's Time to Catch up with Some Extraordinary Performances both Local and International – all of them Universal
April 27, 2020 April 27, 2020 ~ debeernecessities
Cody Mountain as Kev and Joel Rosenblatt as Mike in Cut-Out Girls
These are tough times and yet for those of us privileged enough to stream and have other entertainment options like DStv, the options of how to pass the time with reading, movies, theatre, documentaries in-between work, are endless.
DIANE DE BEER reviews three of her current favourites:
We have to start with local and I was thrilled to see when Nicola Hanekom's debut movie Cut-Out Girls appeared on Box-Office (currently at a mere R25 a movie).
Hanekom is one of our most exciting theatre director/writers who has recently also moved into television and now film, with this, her first feature film. In interviews she explains that she first wrote it as a play, specifically for young actors she was working with at the time.
The audience reaction was so unexpected (it's a story about date rape), that she decided it needed a wider audience, and in this instance a film. These are debut film roles for all the youngsters. That's amazing! And they had to do crowdfunding to make it all happen.
Kev (Cody Mountain) and Jenna (Kesiah Gabriel) in Cut-Out Girls.
Clea (Ashleigh van der Hoven) in Cut-Out Girls
Anni (Atlanta Johnson) in Cut-Out Girls
Rape is such a scourge in this country that we are all duty bound to talk about it. Even with this pandemic, around the world, abuse is a huge problem because so many people cannot deal with this kind of pressure and violence is their own release.
And with the young, the world we live in now, it's not that everyone has to live scared, but they have to live smart. We have to know the dangers out there and how to keep ourselves safe – women and especially young women, who don't yet have their cynicism radars working fulltime, have to be vigilant.
I remember Redi Thlabi in her book Endings and Beginnings writing about being scared when walking to school at the age of 11, highlighting the parallel universes we live in. Nevertheless, we're all vulnerable and what Hanekom's exposé uncovers so smartly, are the monsters within.
It is sometimes the boy next door, the tennis star, the popular personality at school who feels entitled. Because danger is something we live with in this world, we sometimes forget when we have to be on our guard. And this is the aspect Hanekom spotlights.
Being both writer and director and informed by an intimate knowledge of the cast, she could work smartly with a small budget. You certainly don't feel short-changed and the performances are beautifully balanced.
It's a film of our time, speaks to both young and old and extends the reach of one of our most innovative artists.
Harriet starring a powerful Cynthia Erivo
Another film I was keen to see, is also part of the Box-Office collection. Cynthia Erivo stars as Harriet Tubman in Harriet, the woman who not only escapes from slavery herself, but also freed many slaves as part of the underground railroad, a perilous freedom endeavour of that time.
At some point, Harriet says people should not be owned by other people, a sentence that is so obvious yet so ignored – even today – still. That's why these stories are so important. This is also the time when the people affected (still today) by these abominations are the ones telling the stories. That makes a huge difference in both tone and authenticity.
And for this one specifically, Cynthia Erivo's performance is epic. She was rewarded with the ONLY Oscar nomination for an actor of colour and also for the best original song, which she both co-wrote and performed. She's a remarkable talent both as actor and singer. She has a strength of character and a powerful presence, which served the character well and her voice has a quality that stops you in your tracks.
Her rewards have been well deserved and this following huge controversy because she was a British actor playing an American character – but she proved them wrong and hopefully people were big enough to concede and witness her prowess.
The story is a great one but there are problems with the way the story was told – just clumsy and sometimes with too little subtlety and sensitivity. One would think it is a story that almost tells itself especially with Erivo as your talisman.
But it remains a story worthy of your time and money.
Doon Mackichan (Feste) and Tamsin Greig (Malvolia). Picture Marc Brenner
Last on the list is the latest NT Live streaming of 12th Night with Tamsin Greig as the main attraction. But she says herself, this is an ensemble cast as anyone familiar with this Shakespeare comedy will recognise. And while this is a matter of confusingly mistaken and hidden identity throughout, with director Simon Godwin's gender-fluid production, you really have to keep your wits about you.
Greig is cast as Malvolio (or in this case Malvolia) and hers is the performance on which the play hangs. Not only is the gender switch in these times fun to watch and navigate but with a play that is a dialogue between order and disorder, puritanism and revelry, and finally, control and fear with terror the driver of control, another contemporary evil.
That is how the director viewed it says Greig in an interview which is useful to watch (even with a few spoilers) before getting into the play itself. It's also part of the NT Live stable on YouTube and easy to find.
We have had our own innovative 12th Night (a Clare Stopford production in 1998 with amongst others Langley Kirkwood, Isadora Verwey, David Dennis and Bo Peterson) and it is a play that lends itself to interpretation as you heighten both the comic and tragic effects at will.
Phoebe Fox as Olivia second from the right with her entourage. Picture Marc Brenner
This being a first class British cast with some exceptional performances, a set that enhances the fast flow of the story, some excellent songs with a brilliant burlesque interlude stuck in between, Shakespeare can hardly be more contemporary. Just check a striking ensemble stepping out in their 21st Century ubiquitous veils.
It's sassy and smart with as much laughter as there's food for thought in a time when gender fluidity and identity could not be more centre stage. It's exactly where we are now as Shakespeare in his constantly shows us: the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
Catch it on NT Live on YouTube until Thursday at 8pm when Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch follows. Don't miss that either.


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Syrian Refugees in Turkey Embracing Christ After Witnessing Kindness of Missionaries
By Leah Marieann Klett ( [email protected] ) Apr 04, 2016 01:38 PM EDT Comment
Syrian refugees are pictured at Kilis refugee camp in Gaziantep, Turkey. Photo Credit: Reuters
Disillusioned by the war, famine, and terror around them, Syrian refugees living in Turkey are embracing Christianity after experiencing the love and compassion of missionaries in the region.
According to a report from the Christian Aid Mission, thousands of traumatized refugees continue to flow into Turkey in desperate need of aid. Currently, Turkey hosts more than half of all registered Syrian refugees, with at least 2.7 million residing there according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
However, some arrivals are not able to access the official camps to benefit from government assistance, forcing many refugees to live in unofficial, makeshift tent camps that do not provide adequate food, water, or medical assistance.
"Every time we speak with refugee newcomers, we find another sad story that sometimes makes you wordless," an indigenous ministry leader in Turkey who provides aid to such camps told CAM. "We have spoken with a family that has three kids. The husband's wife was captured by ISIS, and they wounded him when he stood against them to try to stop them from taking his wife away from her children. He showed us the scar."
Due to the limited amount of supplies, the ministry sets priorities for distribution, and last week gave out cards indicating who could receive aid. The ministry workers revealed that when members of their team arrive at the camps, refugees come running up them, begging for help - mothers pleading for diapers, baby formula and medical care.
He recalled one particularly heartbreaking story, where the missionaries came upon a 7-day-old newborn who was not moving.
"The baby was just sleeping without moving, and the father and mother said the baby had epilepsy, and that the hospital told them that they have to change the blood," he said. "They are village people, they have no idea what to do, and the mother of the baby kept begging for us to help them with the child."
"They said they have eight children, and they are suffering, and they didn't know how to feed them," he said. "We have to do something for them immediately, and for other suffering families, too. They have been desolate, on their own; they said, 'You see we are dying in front of the Turkish government and people, but nobody cares about us."
Despite such pain and suffering, many refugees are embracing Christ after witnessing the love and compassion of the missionaries, who provide both physical and spiritual care. In a visit to the camp earlier this month, the team went to 200 tents with the aim of providing medical attention to babies and children and proclaiming Christ.
"Our God gave us this opportunity, and we had the opportunity to touch people's hearts; thanks to God, they're asking questions to get to know Him. This opportunity is a treasure for us," the ministry director said.
He added, "We entered each tent and listened to their stories. It leaves us really heartbroken when we listen to their stories, and the living conditions in the camps are becoming worse each day, and we become speechless. But today the good news is that three Syrian refugees accepted Jesus Christ, which is God's miracle, showing us everything is possible for Him."
After experiencing atrocities at the hands of Islamic extremists and the dismissive attitude of Turkey's government, many of the refugees have begun asking about Jesus and Christianity
The ministry director recalled, "We were telling them the difference between Islam and Christianity, and when they heard the difference, they said, 'We didn't know the way of Christianity that you are telling us about.' We are so glad that the Lord is using all of us to reach them, to correct their way and to redirect them. Please pray for us so we can reach more people, and we are also praying for you all so we can assist them in their suffering lives."
The director of another ministry in Turkey told the organization that they were able to provide 150 food boxes, 90 heaters, 200 blankets, 120 boxes of clean water and 100 pairs of shoes to refugee camps, but he confirmed ongoing needs.
"When it was finished, other refugees kept saying, 'We want also; we need, as well,'" he said. "We said, 'Pray for us so God can give us some that we can deliver for you.' They kept saying, 'We are forgotten people here, no one is taking care of us; the government and other organizations have left us on our own.'"
To learn how you can help, visit the Christian Aid Mission website.
Cave Church in Egypt Attracts 70,000 Christians Weekly To Worship Jesus
Queen Elizabeth's 2018 Christmas Message: The Gospel of Christ Is 'Never Out of Date', 'Needed as Much as Ever'
China Offers Thousands of Dollars to Anyone Who Will Report Christians, 'Illegal' Churches to Government
U.S. Olympic Soccer Player Tobin Heath Relies Heavily on Jesus, Christian Faith
Powerful Shaman Embraces Christianity on Deathbed After Dreaming of Man in 'Brilliant White Robe'


This'll always be one of my favorite O face pics.
You want Billie to smell like a Christmas tree? They hurt when you hug them.
That sweet zoom on Tre almost killed me for some reason I have no idea why Love the boys!
Okay, now listen, I know we have different opinions and fetishes, but, come ON, we all know Tré's the one you should be googly-eyein'.
Actually, aren't they all hot? It's not just Billie or Tré, it's all three of them.
Billie is the "pretty boy" of the group. That's why he has the most fangirls. Mike and Tré are good looking too, but Billie just has that special something. Trê is definitely the clown (though they all can be complete goofballs), Mike is the most down to earth and normal, and Billie is the charismatic fluffy boi.
@Green Day In Seattle I love the pic above but I'm with @Not as cool as Tré Cool, all three are hot but I prefer Tre with less rigid hair than he's wearing these days.
@maryjanewhatsername I love too when Billie makes weird faces. Even when it's not on purpose, he just looks so damn adorable all the time.
I love it when he pulls silly faces, whether intentional or not. He's such a wonderful little goofball.
He looked amazing! All of them did. Loved Dugans costume as well.
I really love the hair. For once I wish he would just keep it blonde through the next promotion period.
I know, I'm not used to seeing him in baggy pants.
Perhaps a little dadbod in the off season or he could have shopped in the big boys department.
Ooh, we're doing silly Billie pics?


Avengers: Endgame is almost upon us. But before we get to what might be the biggest blockbuster event of the year (with only Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to challenge it), let's take a look back at last summer when we were all anticipating Avengers: Infinity War.
It was bound to happen, but no one predicted it would happen this soon. Someone, somewhere, went ahead and filmed a very early Avengers: Endgame screening on a cellphone, and then leaked the footage online. Which means there are Endgame spoilers all over the web. In the spirit of avoiding those spoilers, Endgame directors the Russo Brothers have released a letter to the fans urging them to not be a total jerk and spoil the big twists of Endgame for others.


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Q: Errors trying to start nginx after updating Ubuntu I am trying to troubleshoot my nginx and it is not going to well.
I start off by running sudo systemctl start nginx and I get
Job for nginx.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status nginx.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

and so I continue and try systemctl status nginx.service to get:
Dec 13 00:29:18  systemd[1]: nginx.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Dec 13 00:29:18  systemd[1]: Failed to start A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.
Dec 13 00:29:18 systemd[1]: nginx.service: Unit entered failed state.
Dec 13 00:29:18 systemd[1]: nginx.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'

and so I continue to give it a test sudo nginx -t -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
resulting in
nginx: [emerg] unknown directive "passenger_enabled" in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/nginx_aggrigator.conf:164
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

I am trying to run this on ubuntu 16.04 if that is any help

A: Like the error say..
unknown directive "passenger_enabled"
nginx_aggrigator.conf:164
So start by checking this file:
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/nginx_aggrigator.conf
and look at line 164 and find the part where you declare passenger_enabled As this is where your error is.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


- The shipping methods are based on BUSINESS DAYS.
- If we ship an order on Friday for Next Day, it will not arrive until Monday.
If you need a Saturday delivery this can be done, although our system does not currently allow for it when ordering online. If you call us, we can manually book your shipment for a Saturday delivery although there are extra charges.
We are a California-based retailer and can ship anywhere within the state. All non-California residents who wish to order from us must determine whether they may legally do so in accordance with their own state's law.
Any wine we sell is sold in the state of California, and the title passes to the buyer in California. By completing your order, you are authorizing us to use a common carrier (UPS or FedEx) to deliver your order.
There are some states where the courier itself cannot deliver wine and you will be informed of this during checkout.
At the moment we only ship within the United States. We do not ship to any of the United States territories.