It started with a simple set of questions… “Dad, what are people doing? Why don’t they want other people to marry? Why don’t they do anything about global warming? Why are they always fighting?”

How do I tell her? How. Do. I. Tell. Her?

1001, 1002, 1003, die… 1004, 1005, 1006, dead…

How do I tell her that every 3 seconds a child dies from something that we could’ve stopped? From hunger. From not enough food. From not having an apple. Or clean drinking water. Or just a little porridge in the morning. That we have it in our power to stop it if we want. But we choose not to. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that our friends can’t marry because some people just hate their love too much? That love is sometimes not enough. That caring for each other is not what everyone else thinks should be. That the insecurities of the heart and soul of others drive hate instead of seeing the love. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that some people talk freedom but don’t believe in it? That freedom is freedom even if we don’t like what others do or say. That freedom to marry. Freedom to love. Freedom to see the love of your life die in hospital. That these freedoms are killed by bigots every day. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her the pursuit of happiness is denied for most? That it’s a lie that we are told by so many who deny the happiness of others. That justice, equality and liberty is claimed by many but believed and practiced by few. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her people believe in carrying guns that kill but don’t believe in caring for love? That it’s okay to defend the right to carry a weapon of hatred in your holster but not love in your heart. That it’s okay to defend the right to carry that gun but not the right to love? How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that I don’t know what our earth will look like in her future? That maybe we are killing this world of ours with our greed and want. That wanting, buying, driving, wearing, making, living, eating too much and all those things we do might be killing our world slowly. So slowly that we argue while the pot is starting to boil. Like frogs we are killing ourselves slowly. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that most people don’t really believe in human rights? That they speak of it as if they care and are willing to fight for it and die for it. But that they will deny others those same human rights. Their right not to be tortured. Their right to marry. Their right to choose. Their right to believe and love who they want. They deny it all. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that people are willing to let their fellow Americans die. That they can stop it but they choose to look the other way and walk away? That a public option will save lives but some of us are too selfish and scared and would rather offer up American lives. American blood. All because they don’t care to care. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that so many men carry hate in their hearts. They rape. They kill. They take away. That these are men we see and know. But we don’t see and we don’t know. That it’s okay to love the world. But be careful with who you trust. They will hurt you if they can because we know of those who are dead and missing. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her to not trust the man who speaks of God because they use and abuse His name? That they will hate in His name. That they will lie in His name. That they will give Him different names and still be full of hate and lies. That the hate and lies is preached by bigots claiming every religion – Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim – you name it. That it’s okay to love God but to not trust those who speak in His name. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her that there are mad men in caves wanting to kill a dream? That there are enemies everywhere willing to take lives. Innocent lives. And that we live in so much fear that we are willing to do the same as them. We are willing to let innocent people die because of our own fears. That we play into the hand of the warmongers with our weakness of fear. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her all this and so much more? Racism. Discrimination. Child labor. Obesity. Diseases. Sexism. And all this stuff waiting out there in the world. How do I tell her?

How do I tell her all this? How do I tell her that if we all just wasted a little less. Wanted a little less. Cared a little more. Believed a little more. Loved a little more. Spoke out a little louder. Did a little more…

How do I tell her that I see the faces of those kids dying? I know their names in my dreams. That they are my kids. Our kids. Not a number. Her kids.

How do I tell her that I feel the love of my friends being denied? That I only feel threatened because they are being denied the right to love and live in love the way I do? They they are not gay. That they are me. They are her.

How do I tell her I believe in freedom? That it’s worth fighting for even when others are trying to kill it with their freedom-my-way-or-no-way lies and bigotry and double standards. That I fight for the rights for all because I fight for her rights.

How do I tell her I don’t believe in guns? That I hate guns. That guns have killed in my family. That I will still defend those who want the right to have a gun. But that I expect them to fight and defend the right of my friends to love just as hard. That those rights are all hers.

How do I tell her that I don’t know everything about global warming? That I don’t know the science that well. But that I know that it’s better to be safe than sorry. That I will fight for this planet because it is all we have. The only one we have. It’s all I can give her. This little planet in the middle of nowhere is her planet.

How do I tell her that human rights means we have to give it to everyone? To those who are like us. Who love like us. Who live like us. Who believe like us. And those who don’t believe like us. Don’t want to be us. That human rights means we take the higher road and don’t torture. That human right means we allow everyone to be treated the same way we are treated. In love and in marriage. And that I will speak out and fight for those rights. Every single day until we all have it. Because it is her rights.

How do I tell her I believe in justice, equality and liberty? That I believe it is fundamental to who we are and how we want to live. Even though other say it but don’t live it or truly believe it through action. That I will fight for her to have justice. That I will stand up for her to have equality. And I will defend her liberty. Because justice, equality and liberty are hers.

How do I tell her that I don’t want these Americans we live with to die? That I want them to live. I want to help look after them. I want them to have an option to get looked after when they are sick. And that the only option for them is a government option. That I have not option but support an option that will let Americans live. Because I believe that Americans are good. And that it is our duty to love them and respect them and help look after them. Because we are them. American health is her health.

How do I tell her not all men are bad? That there are good men out there. Men who love and care. Men we can trust. And that it’s worth trusting and finding the men we can believe in and trust. That we men will fight those who hurt. Because these are her men.

How do I tell her that God is good? That it is okay to believe and not be part of the lies told by those who claim Him – no matter what they call Him. That God is good and God is love. That I will fight for Him and claim Him back from those who use and abuse His name. Who lie and spread hate in His name. Because He is her God.

How do I tell her not to fear the mad man in the cave or anyone else who lives to hate? That fear is not what makes us who we are. That love makes us who we are. That the love we have is stronger than the hate of others. That love should never be seen as a weakness. Because I will fight for it. Because this love is her love. My love for her. My gift to her. Love.

How do I tell her that when I am alone in my thoughts… On the bus. Running. In a hotel. Flying. That I cry inside when I am alone. And sometimes I cry on the outside for all these strangers to see. Thinking of this. Knowing that I don’t know what we are doing. That I don’t know what we are leaving for her tomorrow. For her future. Her world. I just don’t know.

I don’t know what world she will inherit from us. I don’t know what world we will leave behind. For her. And for her kids.

But I do know that I will fight for what I believe in. I will fight for her rights. Her right to love, believe, be free, have no fear, carry a gun, marry who she wants. her right to be herself. My big angel. Because I love her. And it’s all I can give her.

I want to tell her that the world is full of good people. That every single day I work with people who make this world a little better. One step at a time. Sometimes small but always forward. I want to tell her we will fight the good fight. Every single day. There are more of us than what the world might think. And we are strong. And we will never give up.

I want to tell her I do what I do because of her. That I see her face when I work. I see her face when I fight for what is right. I see her face when I live my life. It drives me. I want to leave her a world to be proud of. I want to leave her a dad to be proud of.

But I don’t. I don’t tell her any of this…

I take her hand and we dance on a Saturday. I joke with her and I tickle her. I play with her and I tease her. I help her with her homework and I say I’m proud of her great work. I have fun with her and walk her to the bus stop. I hang out with her and watch Harry Potter with her. I lie watching music videos with her and write silly stuff to her on Facebook. Sometimes we talk about Madiba or God and space-time limitations. Or science and mathematics. Geography or food. Even a little bit of serious stuff like politics and rights. And then I talk to her about crazy silly things and give her my books to read. I pull her finger and burp as loud as I can. I go mess up her bed and chase her around. I just do the things a crazy silly stupid dad is meant to do. Because she is my girl. My oldest girl. My big angel. And I’m just her dad. That’s all I want to be. The cool guy who loves her more than life.

She is my Ubuntu. I am because we are.

So I don’t tell her. But I know. I know we have to fix this world to make it ready for her. She deserves nothing less. She is perfect. She needs a perfect world.

We’ve got work to do. My big angel is coming and I’ve got a world to clean and get ready…

The first ever big book I really read from first to last page.

Madiba will rock 4eva!

It’s a strange feeling to watch the United States celebrate our heroes more effectively than we can.

My father mailed me the link to the Arthur Ashe Courage Award presentation to Nelson Mandela which happened on the 19th July as part of the annual ESPY awards. If you haven’t seen it then stop reading now and watch. It’s electric and I guarantee even the most emotionally disconnected will feel a tear well up in their eyes.

I got curious about why I hadn’t heard about this prestigious award. I’ve been traveling and hit the ground running after my winter break (hence not much Thought Leader blogging). Thinking I may have missed the coverage, I searched the websites of the major English newspapers in South Africa.

Google showed the following results:

Mail & Guardian
Your search – “nelson mandela” “arthur ashe courage award” site:www.mg.co.za – did not match any documents.

Sunday Times
Your search – “nelson mandela” “arthur ashe courage award” site:www.sundaytimes.co.za – did not match any documents.

The only English paper to carry the story was the Independent. Why would this be? Why are we not celebrating our most famous citizen as he gets recognised internationally for his bravery and strategic brilliance?

The footage on YouTube, introduced by Barack Obama and presented by Venus and Serena Williams, takes you back to a different time in South Africa. The 1995 Rugby World Cup was set against a backdrop of violence and uncertainty in the years before. Hope emerged, at least for a moment, as we all dropped our guard and rallied around the boys.

As is usual for an American TV production, this ten minute segment is powerful, real and emotional. Unlike some US productions, it isn’t over the top.

Can you remember what you were doing on those days when we beat Australia in the opening game, beat France in the semifinal and then the big game against New Zealand? Prompted by the video, I remembered each occasion vividly.

Today I browsed Mark Keohane’s gushing account of the rugby world cup 2007 “Champions of the World: Seven Magnificent Weeks”. The book documents the Springboks second World Cup win. While a fantastic achievement, the 2007 win wasn’t quite the same as ‘95. This means we have to look harder for these special moments.

Have a watch and then pass it on. We can’t afford to miss celebrating and feeling proud of Madiba and our rugby heroes.

The powerful catalyst that was created through a leaders’ foresight and a game of rugby is worth spreading. We’ll find more of these moments over the years ahead and they will help us re-build our country.

Don’t worry about the newspapers, they’ll catch up and start reporting the things that really matter; when we make them matter.

MP3 of this Madiba Tribute song is available to download exclusively from RhythmMusicStore.com.

The SONG:

This song was originally composed to celebrate MADIBA’s 90th birthday.

Subsequently,  it was developed into a simple anthem of celebration …

POSELETSO is a stunning young South African lady, who dazzled IDOLS views with her stunning vocals.

Her interpretation of the lyric is calm and understated – yet inspirational …

“MADIBA’ is a simple song for a giant of mankind.

The VIDEO :

The video was made as a collective effort by students at Cape Town’s CITY VARSITY. It was made on a minimal budget – making maximum use of the student’s creativity.

As such, a beautiful, simple and organic feel was achieved – in keeping with the humility of Nelson Mandela.

‘Madiba’ was composed by Patric van Blerk, Natasha Simone & Paul Petersen – and produced by Keith de Kock & Storm FX @ CapeTown Sound in Woodstock.

The song is published by CapeTown Sound / KOHCO.

I am thinking about renaming the blog “things I don’t understand”. There are so many of these, and I find them mostly very interesting. Like Royal Canin donating 1.6 million tons of dog food and 1.2 million tons of cat food to a shelter that feeds 750 cats and 17 dogs. I understand that calculation so little it borders on WTF.

Currently my experience of the world vacillates mostly between bafflement and outrage, with bafflement tipping the scale. This is good, of course. Between the two there are moments of wonder, like this evening when the early moon hovered like a huge, mutant orange between the dark shapes of the Johburg skyline as I left Mint Road, and rose slowly as I drove home on the thawing city streets. Fordsburg itself is a joy on a temperate Friday evening. The streets buzz with families and cool guys punching each other on the shoulder, and informal commerce, and cooking food. I wished for a moment that I could just hang around, but then I got in my car and around the corner I caught the moon. So that wasn’t bad either.   

I edited a wellness manual for soccer players this week. There was a lot of information in there that I found very interesting. I did not know, for example, that women are born with about a million  immature eggs (protected by hollow balls of cells in the ovarian follicles) tucked in their ovaries. About half of the ovarian follicles (and their eggs) are absorbed by the body before puberty, at which point 10-20 ova start maturing on a monthly basis. Only one mature egg is usually released by the ovaries during ovulation. I knew that last bit about the one-montly-egg, of course, but to complete the story, the mature (free!) egg then swans its way down the fallopian tubes in the hope of being accosted within 24 hours by millions of quivering sperm swimming in the opposite direction, all wanting to get in there.

Not all of this was in the manual. I found most of  it on some website. The manual’s writers chose/had to simplify the whole thing, of course. Their target audience is soccer players, and a soccer player with even “vagina” in his vocab must be a rare enough  gem (with the exception of Roger, of course. I am quite sure that he is well-versed in female anatomy), so maybe they thought that “ovarian follicle” would be pushing things a bit.

So. Discovering something about one’s body is not baffling. But the body’s sums, just like Royal Canin’s, seem so… inexplicable. Let’s say a woman ovulates for about 40 years (a very generous and old-fashioned estimate, which assumes that puberty starts at 12 and menopause at 52). That means she ovulates 520-odd times. In that period, 520×20 (generous estimate, again) eggs will start the process of maturation, and only 520 will be released. Let’s say (to make the calculation easy, but not necessarily out-of-the-ballpark) that by the beginning of puberty, a woman has about half a million immature eggs tucked away in her ovaries. It means, ultimately, that out of every 900-ish eggs, one makes it down the tubes. So to speak. And ULTIMATELY, only 2-3 of the whole lot turn into human beings. Those are terrible odds – 1 in 250 000 – it sucks, really. Tadpoles have a better survival rate where one average, five frog eggs out of every 2000 bcome adult frogs. Human sperm, on the other hand, do much worse. Perhaps this is where we should start with redefining biological determinism.

Another thing that puzzled me today was the Mail and Guardian’s apparent determination to fuel hysteria about swine flu. I know two people have died, including one strong, healthy 20-something Stellenbosch rugby player, but more people die of regular flu every year. I tried to find general stats on flu deaths on the net, but failed again. There is no site at the moment that marries “death” and “flu” without throwing in “swine” as a qualifier.

Generally, I had a good week in terms of work, but a more frustrating time in terms of the things that make life puzzling, and interesting.

Something I do understand now is how come Bill has such a roving eye. With Hillary on safari in Mzanzi, it has been possible to scrutinise her very closely. She looks more and more matronly by the day… waving heavily to puzzled crowds and lurching onto podiums and so on. I did some video research on Madiba (the SABC has stopped striking, so it was possible) on Wednesday, and spent a bit of time watching him meet a whole range of absolutely gorgeous women during and after his tour of duty.  He looked like he just loved it. The TV pictures of him and Hillary this week were very… eh… formal, in spite of the close relationship he has with her husband, and I could clearly imagine his next conversation with the other ex-president: “So… Bill… about that Monica girl….”

How often do we say, i wish i haven’t done that.?

I know i do it every  so often.

Why do we limited our self when the world is our playground?

why do we let fear get in the way of what we want.

why are we scared to take chances and makes a success of it, -

everything is within our reach and it all starts with a dream.

dreams do come true,

i believe every day is a dream, live is a dream,

but its up to us what we make of  it.

I am pinned down with fear in my heart.

The same fear that keeps me enchained from reaching my dreams.

The fear of not trying.

The fear of failure.

The fear of losing  and even dying.

it seems we have a fear for everything, but my biggest fear is being affraid of being me.

The fear of being alive and live the life i am  destined to live…

Today is the first annual Mandela Day (http://www.mandeladay.com/). Nelson Mandela, one of my heroes, turns 91 today. He taught me and my fellow South Africans about humility, ubuntu, reconciliation, not having bitterness towards others, working together to make the future better, and how a wise man can change the spirit of a country.

Mandela Day celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint. You can also follow @MandelaDay on Twitter.

In the spirit of Ubuntu, let’s make the world a better place, for everyone.

Nelson Mandela was born on the 8 Destiny Path.

Day = 18 (9)

Month = 7 (7)

Year = 1918 (1)

9+7+1=17.  1+7 = 8.

8 is the number of power on the material plane through balance & correct understanding, i.e. knowledge is power. When misunderstood or abused, 8 is also the number of the bully; the number of greed and heartlessness. He used the higher aspects of 8 to fight against the heartlessness of apartheid – and he won. Nelson Mandela UNDERSTANDS power.

He is an example of POWER BEING DRIVEN BY LOVING INTENT.

He spent 27 years of his extraordinary life in prison and went on to become the first black president of South Africa. His prison number – 4 6 6 6 4 – is highly symbolic in itself, and also adds up to 8. In fact, it was while he was in prison that his reputation as a genuine and courageous freedom fighter spread throughout South Africa – and the world, expanding his power considerably. He became a global presence – a symbol of conscience everywhere.

Happy birthday Madiba.

You are deeply loved and appreciated.

Former President Rawlings has called on people across the globe to emulate the humility, patience and fortitude of Nelson Mandela in their dealings with their fellow man.

In a message to Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his 91st birthday, President Rawlings congratulated him for serving as a source of inspiration to millions across the world.

‘The able manner you led your country after years of bitter apartheid rule has continued to serve as the yardstick by which successive leaders should lead in Africa.“South Africa surely has its political and economic problems like most African countries but your talismanic role has ensured that there is a unity of purpose by your people to progress from the dark days of Apartheid, President Rawlings said.

The former Ghanaian President said Mandela has in spite of his age continued to support projects that bring honour and respect to his country.

“You played an important role in the winning of the 2010 World Cup bid and have been supportive of many international projects that have put your country right at the pinnacle of the world map.

“It is heart warming to note that today also marks the inaugural Mandela Day initiated by your charitable foundation. The call for 67 minutes of the day to be dedicated to community service as a symbol of the 67 years you fought for the emancipation of South Africa is an understatement as far as your contribution to peace in the world is concerned.

As a symbol of peace across the world, which earned you the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 your birthday has become an international event. From New York to Johannesburg stars and ordinary folk alike are congregating to celebrate your contribution to the advancement of humankind. Madiba we are grateful to God for your life.

“It was very inspiring to see you pep up the Bafana Bafana in their Confederations Cup semi-final match against Brazil. Though they eventually lost to the South Americans, the 0-1 loss and the performance of the players proved that they were inspired to play above themselves.

“Africa still has a lot of challenges to overcome in its quest to become peaceful, self-reliant and developed and I pray that many will look up to you for inspiration as they work to change their individual countries.

“You were incarcerated for 27 years, but you spent every single day counting your blessings and focussing on a great future for your people. You never faltered in the belief that change will one day come to your dear South Africa.

“When you were finally released you harboured no ill-will and rather worked assiduously to bridge the gap between all people regardless of race, creed or colour.

“Every time I have been lucky to meet you I am inspired by your thoughtfulness and understanding of issues confronting our continent and beyond and I am always spellbound by your infectious sense of candour and humour.

“On the occasion of your 91st birthday, Madiba, I pray for God’s rich blessings for you. May He continue to shine his light on you and use you an avenue to inspire particularly the youth of this world who are our future. We pray that they emulate your humility, patience and fortitude in their relationships with their fellow man.

“Have an absolutely wonderful celebration, Madiba. Nana and I are with you in spirit,” President Rawlings concluded.

Your grace is a gift beyond measure, and your legacy, love. Thank you! Richest blessings on your birthday

Here’s a link to www.MyFriendShane.com, where messages to Nelson Mandela are being gathered together, for collection into a card. Hop across and add yours!

Its the great mans 91st birthday and Life is Savage would just like to wish him all the best and say thanks for changing the way we live in South Africa.Without him signs like this would have stayed around alot longer.

Cheers Madiba for making it possible.He turns 91 years old and i thought id post this pic to remember what a legend he is.

"yeah baby..where the ladies at?!"

Good times..woop woop

Check this out..18th July is Mandela Day..click it and spread the love.

: : : : : : : : : : :

Nelson Mandela is to the world an icon of democracy and peace. But to us in South Africa, Madiba is the father of the nation. A symbol of hope, peace, forgiveness and love; Madiba was the one person that kept all the people of South Africa united during the uncertain first steps towards a new South Africa.

Tomorrow is Madiba Day, and what will you being doing to honour our country’s greatest leader? Will you spend the day reminding yourself that we all belong to one nation, united in our diversity? Or will you donate some money to a worthy cause? Will you tell your friends, family, children and grandchildren about the lessons that Madiba taught us as a nation?

15 years on from Democracy, will you also spend tomorrow promoting the ideals of our rainbow nation? I hope so.

Happy birthday to one of the greatest men of all time, Nelson Mandela!  Tomorrow, the 18th of July is Nelson Mandela Day in South Africa, in honor of his birthday and I am extremely proud to be part of a nation that birthed such a fantastic man!  Nelson Mandela is one of a very few people I have ever read about, seen, or met that has such integrity as he has had, to be so selfless and show such humility despite his position over the past decade and more, shows just how powerful and wise he is.  I am reminded of the saying that an idiot rules by his power, but a wise man rules despite his power, and for me the latter epitomizes Nelson Mandela.

God’s richest blessings and health to you, Madiba, and may tomorrow be filled with family, good friends, children’s laughter and good food

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

[where: Madiba, 195 Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn, 11205]

Last weekend, Van Hammersley and I went to New York City to eat too much, drink too much, spend too much money, and look at all the beautiful people.  I’m happy to report we succeeded wildly on all counts.  On our first night in town we hung out in the East Village and the Lower East Side.  We endured bad service, overly loud jazz, and wonderful French food at Jules Bistro on St. Mark’s.  I had the mussels and pommes frites – predictable and tasty – and VH had hanger steak with a shallot sauce and asparagus risotto, which was also delicious.

We wandered around a bit after dinner and eventually found ourselves in the back room at Piano’s watching Wolff, slack jawed in utter amazement.  Wolff is, as best as I can describe it, an indie electronica/technorock tuba player.  He uses loops of tuba and vocal samples to create rich, layered, innovative songs that maintain a real sense of accessibility and beauty.

Wolff and Tuba

The lush music, combined with amazing background visuals from the movie Koyaanisqatsi (a precursor to the stunning Baraka, as well as the Planet Earth series), removed us completely from the frenetic Friday night city.  We found ourselves wrapped up in a totally visceral multimedia moment.  I could have watched for hours, but the night was still young at 1:00 a.m.

We moved on to the Back Room, a 1920s speakeasy style bar, complete with comfortable couches, fireplaces, and drinks served in teacups.  We were actually able to get into the exclusive back room of the Back Room due to VH’s little brother’s endless social connections and general awesomeness.  It was extremely exciting:

Rachael Ray's husband was here.

VH and I, used to our Boston 2:00 a.m. bedtime, headed back to Ft. Greene shortly afterwards.  We spent much of the rest of the weekend wandering around Williamsburg.  We especially enjoyed The Main Drag, a fantastic music store in which the friendly and helpful employees basically let us fuck around for well over an hour (me on keys trying to understand the intricacies of a rack synth, VH in a private practice room with an assortment of badass pedals and a beautiful guitar), and the (relatively) new riverfront park.

Play time!

Information.

Hipster love.

We had a beautiful South African dinner on Saturday night at Madiba on DeKalb in Ft. Greene after deciding to get adventurous.  VH had a mutton curry served in a hollowed out loaf of bread, and I had bobotie, a traditional beef meatloaf-like dish with a baked custard topping and sliced almond crust.  Both were served with an assortment of transcendent sauces, including marmalade, raita, fresh salsa, and my favorite, a creamy banana coconut.  It was easily our favorite meal of the trip.  Next time perhaps we’ll try the steak with monkey gland sauce.  Or not.

The best part of the trip, though, was finally purchasing my dream umbrella at the Mini Mini Market on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg:

Nothing will ever be the same.

I spend some of my time coaching executives in South Africa and across Europe. I got thinking the other day what South Africa could need from a coach. I mean the whole country. Not the president — not any individual — all of us who live on this southern slab of Africa. All together — melted down into one, put on a chair and ready for an executive coaching session with me.

Let’s start with what I mean by executive coaching. A definition of coaching is problematic because everyone is a coach these days and definitions are all over the place. I’ll define it based on what I have been doing for the past seven years.*

Executive coaching involves a coach, who has both executive experience and training in the art of coaching, working with a person, a client (mostly executives, entrepreneurs etc) on a shared concern.

The shared concern is something brought to the relationship by the person being coached. Being a shared concern means something that we can both get motivated to work on, and resolve.

In this case the client is South Africa. Armed with the above definition, and a shared concern of creating a country that can grow, prosper and develop to its full potential, we start our process.

There we are, South Africa and I sitting in a room, having our first conversation about how we are going to achieve our objective. At first it’s hard. We haven’t yet built rapport and the conversation is exploratory.

I’d start by assessing the current situation and understanding the strengths and talents of my client followed by successes to date. Let me tell you why.

My philosophy is that as humans we are uniquely talented and that our challenge is to uncover and use these talents. I’ve been trained by Gallup (the research people) on this approach and amongst all the tools, models and techniques I have come across, their research has stuck with me. I agree with their findings that we do much better playing to our strengths, than fixing our weaknesses.

Gallup originally got interested in this topic when they came across research by psychologist Elizabeth Hurlock. In 1925 she studied school children in a maths class and discovered that when she divided them into two groups, and gave the one group critical feedback, they improved by 19%. Critical feedback is the type we are all aware of — pointing out mistakes and suggesting how to correct them.

Nineteen percent is not bad, but the second group got an improvement of 71%. How did that happen? What she did with them was to skip the critical feedback and only reinforce the positive aspects of their performance.

By ignoring their faults and focusing alone on what they were doing right, the school children produced a 71% improvement vs the 19% achieved by giving critical feedback. Since 1925 there have been reams of scientific study that back up this approach. Gallup has been at the forefront of this research examining more than 3 million people and thousands of companies around the globe.

The original research has given birth to a whole movement called positive psychology. While positive psychology is gaining a foothold, there are still many people and organisations that spend a huge amount of energy focusing on fixing weaknesses rather than building strengths. Besides the deficiency of results using this approach, it also takes a lot more effort.

I often start workshops on the topic of positive psychology, by asking participants what they would say if their child came home from school with a 5 As and a C? The answer, almost all the time, is how to get the C to an A. Wrong answer. It is much better to focus on the As as there is, somewhat counter-intuitively, more room for improvement with the 5 As than there is with the C.

So with South Africa across the desk I focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. Armed with the experience of Hurlock and her more modern peers, I know that I have more chance of addressing our shared concern talking about success.

My first series of questions would look at what is working, why it’s working and how do we make the talents and strengths of South Africa explicit and more visible so that we can spend time building and entrenching success thinking.

Would I just ignore the negatives? No, that would be naive. What is important is the ratio of positive to negative in our conversation. Dr Marcial Losada found when examining teams that the ideal ratio of positive to negative was between 3:1 and 8:1. Higher than 8:1 and less than 3:1 teams became less effective. The negative aspects have to be covered, but, and this is imperative, they have to be examined in a context of overall positivity, if we are to produce significantly better results.

Next it would be interesting to understand the context within which South Africa operates. I can often, without jumping to superficial conclusions, make some simple assumptions about a person depending on whether they are in their 20s, their 40s or closing in on their 60s.

Erik Erikson, the psychologist, broke down our lives into eight developmental stages and described the nature of each stage. More specifically, he describes the series of crises that we face. This is our rite of passage into the next stage. Each crisis has a positive or negative outcome.

To illustrate this, Erikson describes the crises faced in the first year of our lives as being about trust vs mistrust. Children who are consistently cared for build a sense of trust with parents, the world and themselves. Those who don’t make it through this initial hurdle, emerge with a sense of distrust which affects all later stages.

For South Africa — thinking about 1994 as birth — certainly of a new age in our history, I’d probably find myself sitting opposite the equivalent of a pimply teenager faced with Erikson’s stage five or adolescence crises.

The adolescence crisis is about identity vs role confusion. It is a time when we need to ask “Who am I?”. To successfully answer this we need to have integrated the positive outcomes from the earlier crises.

Did we develop a basic sense of trust? Do we have a strong sense of independence, competence, and feel in control of our lives? Once the easier crises’ have been resolved, adolescents can face the “Identity Crisis”, which Erikson considers the most significant.

Solved positively South Africa emerges with a strong identity, and ready to take on the challenges of the future. However, without a positive outcome, we sink into confusion and are unable to make important decisions.

At this point, and this would probably be after a good couple of sessions, I would draw on the work I did in my thesis which covers the use of scenario planning for coaching. This is particularly apt for South Africa as scenario planning has had a deep impact on our country. Most prominent is the Anglo American work, better known as Clem Sunter’s “High Road” and ‘Low Road” scenarios. Back in 1988, who would have thought that we could avoid going down the “Low Road”?

In addition, The Mont Fleur Scenarios in 1992, looked at what South Africa would be like ten years down the road. I have to take an aside here to ask you to imagine what it must have been like in 1992 trying to map out possible futures for South Africa. Violence was widespread, we had no idea how negotiations would turn out and the country was effectively bankrupt as result of sanctions and wars fought on our borders.

Perhaps it was as a result of the difficulty of the exercise that it had the impact that it did on the participants, most notably Tito Mboweni and Trevor Manuel. Both participated in the exercise and later took significant leadership roles in the country.

Together with my client, we would jointly create scenarios for 2014 which would describe plausible futures for South Africa. These would likely emerge as follows.

1: Labelled and limited

This scenario describes a South Africa which follows on its current path of division. We compare ourselves to other “First World” countries and label our shortcomings loudly and destructively.

There is little tolerance and labels such as “democracy” are used as a stick to beat ourselves up and show how we are not up to the level of other countries who proclaim to have “better democracies”, despite their obvious shortcomings.

We constantly highlight our non-achievement, ignoring significant steps we have taken. To the rest of the world this further illustrates how little we have achieved since 1994. “I told you so” becomes our mantra. As with the person who compares themselves to others and always finds someone better, we dwell on our weaknesses rather than our strengths.

We are indignant and divided into smaller and smaller pockets of angry, frustrated losers. Like the sports team that isn’t getting results and enters the downward spiral of turning on themselves, we illustrate this to the world through the law of diminishing returns, as we squander the numerous opportunities that were once available to us. Blame is a cornerstone of our culture and we use our energy and resources to push responsibility onto anyone but ourselves.

2: Strength in diversity

The second scenario plays to our strength in diversity. South Africa creates its own identity which is a unique democracy not modelled on that of any other nation. We stop comparing ourselves to others in a way which limits our imagination and always show us up for being deficient. Instead we learn from others while creating our own positive future.

Our diversity, which currently divides us, is reframed to be a strength. As in the world of agriculture where scientists are finding monoculture is limited and susceptible to disease, we create a new culture for South Africa which is formed from the melting pot of our varied and diverse backgrounds.

Like Brazil, where there is no typical Brazilian, South Africans are no longer classified by the obvious and limiting labels such as black, white, Xhosa or English. Rather we focus on much more meaningful descriptions of ourselves. “Ubuntu”, “a boer maak a plan” and “the friendliest people in the world” will be some of our own labels, describing unique South Africanisms, which the rest of the world will look to with envy.

Brand experts know that in the busy, noisy and cluttered world that we live in, success requires standing for something unique and leading as opposed to following others while trying to be better. South Africa will be unique in this way — a shining light for the world to see what is possible.

Our strength will come from striving for our own ideals rather than those that others have created before us. Our people will be more tolerant of each other and while dialogue will be robust, it will be within an overarching framework of positivity and success. As individuals and as a country, we take responsibility for our future rather than casting blame.

Choices

With these two scenarios before us as possibilities for the future, I’d leave my client, as all good executive coaches would, to reflect and make their own decision as to which future they would like to create. It’s never easy and there are of course things outside of our control which need to navigated.

There are, however, always facets very firmly in our control. The scenarios become a roadmap for us to hold up our individual and collective behaviour, attitude and actions. We see what we look for, and if we want to look for different things, the scenarios provide a textured background against which we are able to make our choices.

* If you are interested in a more completed definition of executive coaching then let me know. This one is intended to give a taste of the most important elements and purposely omits detail.

Ever feel that our world is flipping out of control with a head-spinning competition of needier than needy causes?

We don’t know where to start with our caring (and tax-deductible spending)…attempting to prioritise needs is oh-so-Sophie’s Choice. At times, I feel torn between malarial outbreaks, the AIDS epidemic, a bacterial killer I just learnt about this week called MRSA, Oprah’s new pet project Invisible Children, and of course, general poverty and starvation.

But as my mother always said, good housekeeping starts at home. And South Africa’s grocery list is just as long. 

Living abroad, I have so often been met with wrinkled noses when I start to unravel the story of my land. To Americans, Asians and Europeans, it is just too far away to care too much about. South Africa is insignificant.

But it shouldn’t be. Here’s why you need to care.

You see, the power behind the mother continent of Africa, rests in the hands of our little country at its tip.  As the only African member of the G20, South Africa hobnobs with the richest and most powerful countries in the world. Our post-apartheid constitution is among the most progressive worldwide, and we’re the largest energy supplier and biggest consumer on the continent. We are the breadbasket of Africa.

And here’s why I am worried…

Since the ANC first came to power in 1994 an estimated 1,000,000 whites have left the country, taking their skills with them in an exercise referred to as “brain drain”. Estimated because burning bridges and all that prevents them from filling out that redundant emigration form at Oliver Tambo Airport when they leave. This departure of the previously advantaged is not altogether uncelebrated, as SA’s aggressive affirmative action policies have all but bought the “pale males” in SA a one-way plane ticket to London. The number of departures of these educated, somewhat wealthy few is significant, considering it is estimated only 4.5m whites remain. This equates into 9% of the population. Who have the skills, training and education to do all that needs to be done.

Crime has certainly played an equal part in emigration, although the real stats of violence are unknown, owing to the muzzle on the media. Most everyone agrees, despite actual, reliable numbers, South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates. According to a survey for the period between 1998 and 2000 compiled by the UN, South Africa was ranked second for murder and first for assault and rape per capita. In the world.

 But whites are not alone in their pessimism. “We are in a bad place at the moment in this country,” liberation struggle warrior and hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu has lamented. The rose-tinted ideals of Nelson Mandela’s “rainbow nation” were overdue in their transition to a harsher reality. The table has turned for even Mr Mandela, the international hero, is being scolded for going along with corruption and making poor use of his immense authority, as he watches of the mistakes of his party. In my point of view, however, pointing out all the wrongs of Nelson Mandela, doesn’t make our new leader right.

Yes, new leadership is what keeps me up nights most of all these days. Let me explain. Unlike the rest of the world, South Africans vote in their general elections for a party, not a person. And that party has a conference where its leaders vote for the president. So in essence, democracy is dead.  The party can at any time ask the president to step down and will replace him, without so much as a backward glance at the will of the population. This happened last year in the country. And when Zuma won 60% of the vote at the ANC summit at Polokwane, he also scooped up the top 5 positions within the party for his candidates. The ANC is his. And so is the country.

According to Dr Zweli Mkhize, the KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of the African National Congress, “South Africa was eternally blessed to have a leader like our beloved Madiba. We must also face up to the reality that there will only be one Madiba. Therefore, our leaders will increasingly become more and more ordinary.”

After last month’s general election, Jacob Zuma will take over leadership of South Africa, and that presidential inauguration day will be a dark and gloomy one for all South Africans.  And not just because it is the birth of winter in the Southern Hemisphere either. You see, Zuma is a real character. He flaunts his polygamy as he moves onto his 4th or 6th wife (no one really knows), who is 30 years his senior. He dances well. He is a people-person. And that is why the masses want him. But here’s a bulleted-list of why any thinking person who cares not about his rhythm would agree that this new president is a really bad idea for the future of SA:

• More than ever, there is talk these days amongst his henchmen of “reracialising” the country that once bonded over a rugby jersey back in 1995
• SA is saturated with Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment policy, designed to broaden the ownership and management of the South African economy. Black employment equity policy outcomes are clear – they have merely enriched the elite politicians and sent the skilled overseas. Mr Zuma is a proponent.
• Mr Zuma has been an active member of the Communist Party and served on the Politburo as recently as 1990.
• This leads me to my next red flag. Corruption is obviously not new to African politics, but our struggle heroes seem stained by many a controversy. Joe Modise, Mandela’s choice of minister of defense, described as a big-time gangster, is being investigated post-mortem by German, British, and South African prosecutors for conflicts of interest in awarding lucrative arms deals. This has become an increasingly complex and far-reaching web benefiting leaders such as Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and other prominent ANC leaders. This is just one of many scandals come to light in the past decade. Today, it is difficult to find any SA minister apart from Trevor Manuel who has not presided over a steep fall in standards. Unfortunately, many have come to see the ANC as nothing more than a nest of racists, thieves and hypocrites, who have done almost no good at all since they won power in 1994.
• So now we face a future under a President Zuma and an all-powerful, perhaps even vengeful, ANC.
• Yes, Mr Zuma is angry. He’s angry with the Constitutional Court who have several times voted against him. He now says he would like to review the status of the Constitutional Court “because I don’t think we should have people who are almost like God in a democracy.” He also blames the press, which he loathes. He threatens to weed out the “lazy, corrupt and incompetent” i.e. those he does not like from government.  
• Zuma’s gangster friends aren’t limited to the late Mr Modise. Julius Malema, leader of the ANC’s Youth League decalred just last year the powerful Youth League was “prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma” if his prosecution went ahead.
• For many, it is Mr Zuma’s eight-year tussle with the courts that turns their stomachs the most.  First, there was that pesky rape case. It wasn’t so much that he was accused of rape but that in his statement his views on prevention of the risk of AIDS came down to a taking a shower after this unprotected unconsented sex. Moving on, corruption is his favourite vice, evidenced by his long legal battle over allegations of racketeering and corruption. His financial advisor, Schabir Shaik was convicted of corruption and fraud, and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2005. The judge on the case said that the payments totalling more that R4m ($596,000) between 1995 and 2005 from his friend in exchange for using his influence to help secure government contracts for Mr Shaik’s companies “can only have generated a sense of obligation in the recipient”. President Thabo Mbeki promptly sacked Zuma as deputy president, (leading to his own demise). Last month, Zuma announced that if elected he would consider granting a pardon to his friend and advisor Shaik. Three days later Mr Shaik, suffering from hypertension and depression, was released from jail on “medical parole”, normally reserved for the dying. He has served only two years and four months of his 15-year sentence.
• It is the speed and outcome of the way the case that had gripped the nation and dominated world headlines was snuffed out that shocked South Africans most. On 6 April 2009, the National Prosecuting Authority decided to drop the charges citing political interference. All charges of corruption, racketeering, tax-evasion, money-laundering and fraud against the president were withdrawn. The actual merits of the case were not in question, they admitted. Nor was the prosecution in any way flawed. The issue was the timing of the announcement of the charges were deemed to be an attempt to thwart Mr Zuma’s political ambitions. This made it “neither possible nor desirable” to continue with the prosecution.
• And so the corruption continues. A poll taken in February/March of this year, shortly before the charges were dropped, showed that 50% of all ANC members believed him to be innocent. Yet nearly 75% continued to support him “wholeheartedly” and unconditionally.
• With South Africa sinking into its first recession after 16 years of expansion, the last thing we need is a leader with a personal agenda and a hard heart. Footage of Mr Zuma belting out his “Umshini Wami” (“Bring me my machine gun”) theme song are not the sort to encourage international investors.

I can’t help but wonder why I still care so much about a country that welcomes my dollars on a holiday, but continues to discourage my vote.  Not that it would count.

For more on the current situation in South Africa and its political future, take a look at Peter Hitchens’ excellent article most recently published in the UK’s Daily Mail.

It is a few days before president-elect Jacob Zuma is sworn into office. His journey thus far has been colourful to say the least and whatever criticism he may attract, you have to give him 10 out of 10 for tenacity and dogged determination.

Much has been written about how the country is on an irretrievable descent into darkness and oblivion. Similarities have been drawn between Zuma and Robert Mugabe implying South Africa, with Zuma at the helm, is on track for a Zimbabwe scenario.

Judging by the number of international movers packing containers in the leafy suburbs of Cape Town, it seems a lot of white people believe the talk of our imminent demise spoken so persuasively around the braai on a Saturday afternoon.

Helen Zille’s hysteria around stopping our new president, the incessant SMS messages urging me to sign up on websites and follow her on Twitter got me thinking that I’ve seen all of this madness before.

It seems some South African white people are sceptics and cynical by nature and hate the thought of change.

David Bullard wrote in a recent column that these people “wake each morning snarling with anger, fire off a few spiteful comments on internet sites from behind the safety of a pseudonym and go about their miserable lives consumed by envy and hatred”.

I think they will change their minds.

Change, according to Kurt Lewin, takes place in three stages. Unfreezing, moving to a new state and refreezing. Unfreezing is a particularly traumatic experience for some. There is resistance to embrace the new as it implies that current beliefs need to be given up as invalid. Often this brings on defensiveness, anger, hostility and struggle.

But we’ve been through all this before.

Cast your mind back to 1985. State of emergency. PW’s wagging finger telling us to “adapt or die”. Thousands of civilian soldiers in army camps. Unrest at university campuses. Troops in the townships. Sanctions. A country divided in every way on race.

Tutu

Then picture a little black man who in a Ghandi-like way used to walk in front of throngs of toyi-toying protestors. Giving speeches and handing over demands for change. Using his position as the Archbishop of Cape Town to lead and advocate the end of apartheid.

Those who spent any time around whites will remember the venom and hatred poured onto this “monkey”, who was leading the defiance campaign to the then “whites only” beaches. To intimidate him somebody hung an ape foetus in the garden of his Bishopscourt home which was also the target of a graffiti attack stating “I was an Anglican until I put Tu+Tu together”. Imagine how strongly somebody felt about him that they would invest time and energy in doing these things.

Reconcile that with the love many of these same white South Africans now pour on “The Arch” as he is affectionately called. The cynical whites changed.

Mandela

I remember the front page of the Cape Times splashing the headline that Nelson Mandela was going to nationalise the mines and other major industries. Talk amongst whites was that the country would go like every other African country, it was just a matter of time. If he even got into power. Word around the white dinner tables was that Mandela would be killed by tribal factions vying for power.

As Mandela became president and the country generally prospered, the cynical whites changed once again. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in the country who doesn’t have a kind word to say about Madiba as he is affectionately referred to today. In fact, so much so, that there are no critics. We all loved Madiba and what he stood for. Always. Didn’t we?

The Flag, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and Sport

When initially unveiled our new flag was hardly embraced. Rugby stadiums were still filled with the old flag while the new took years to be accepted. Stadiums would bellow out the Afrikaans “Uit die blou…” while the same supporters mumbled their way through Nkosi. This is now changing as white school children learn Nkosi Sikelel’ and their white parents feel proud to sing along. Eventually change happens despite the resistance.

Elections 1994

OK own up, did you buy candles and tinned food for your pantry in case the whole country fell apart around our first democratic elections? Did you think you should have? Did you at least talk about it? Remember the hysteria, the predictions about doom and gloom and how it was the beginning of the end.

And then all of a sudden, nothing happened. Except the political violence subsided and we moved into our mostly peaceful new era where the economy took off, we won the world cup and the country generally prospered. Certainly more peaceful and prosperous than the pre-1994 years. Certainly a better outlook than 10 years earlier.

So why is it that some whites are so paranoid and cynical about our new president? I wonder what could belie the anger and the hatred?

I’ve heard people who I regard as very intelligent and very worldly wise declare that they will leave the country if Zuma becomes president. Such decisiveness based on what? “He’s corrupt and he’s a rapist,” they say.

Makhaya Ntini and Zuma — both accused of rape. Ntini was convicted, appealed and then acquitted. Zuma wasn’t even convicted. Why do we hate the one and love the other, holding him up as a national hero, or at least when he gets wickets.

In 2008 the world’s economic system hit the wall and there is ample evidence to show that some of the people who have benefited the most were at best corrupt and in many cases were outright criminals.

While the collapse has actually affected investments in this country and directly impacted individuals’ pockets, there is relatively little abuse for the masterminds behind the collapse. Even Arthur Brown, infamous for his Fidentia scandal, doesn’t attract anywhere near the level of negative attention rained down on Zuma.

When you place Zuma’s corruption allegations, and the fact that he hasn’t ever been found guilty, against this picture, they pale into insignificance. Do you have friends who get away with not paying all of their taxes? Do we get as emotional about the unfairness of that?

“But he has to have a high moral ethic to be the leader of our land,” you say.

Really? Since when did we hold politicians to those standards. Certainly not in the South African governments pre 1994. Hennie van Vuuren’s report in May 2006 entitled Apartheid Grand Corruption details in its more than 90 pages just how corrupt the government was.

Internationally, George Bush — jobs for friends — Dick Cheney — Halliburton. Bill Clinton lying to the country about his sexual affairs. Colin Powell and Tony Blair lying about weapons of mass destruction so as to have a reason to kill soldiers and civilians in Iraq and control their oil. The leaders of the free world? Certainly not moral leaders.

In considering my own view of Zuma, I look at two sources of information. The first is the reported view in our media, which is the loudest and occupies the most mindshare.

The second, is first-hand accounts of interacting directly with the man, which, although I haven’t myself had the experience, I have only heard positive accounts from those that have.

Of the two, I trust the second a lot more than the first for the simple reason that individuals are more motivated to tell the truth when recounting an experience than a media organisation, which has shareholders, headlines, sales and subscriptions sitting higher on the list of priorities than telling a story accurately or thoroughly.

When we look at Mandela, Tutu, the flag, the 1994 elections we as whites mostly predicted things dead wrong. And I think we’ve got Zuma dead wrong too.

My predication is that JZ will far exceed our expectations, which for some are admittedly low. We’ll come to love his machine gun song Umshini Wami, which will become a signature South Africanism like the All Blacks have the Haka. His engagement with people and real issues will warm our hearts.

The story of his life, from herd boy to president, will become a symbol of hope for the people who to date have not had role models they could follow. Instead of defending the current status quo we will defend his Africanism, his costumes and his traditions — showing instead our finger to the world saying — this is the way we do it in South Africa — it’s different not wrong.

I have great faith in our ability as a nation to adapt. Unlike PW Botha who proposed that the only other option was to die, I believe we will just adapt some more. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.

What you look for you will see. I believe that we have been influenced to look only at what is wrong with Zuma. Once he is in power and serving as our president, we will be able to judge him on what he achieves. This is much more tangible than how he has been judged to date. I’m hopeful and confident that we will be surprised. Like previous change, which we have first feared and then accepted, JZ too will eventually be loved by the cynical whites.

mnr.muller blog oor die redes waarom hy happy is met Zuma.  Self kon ek nog nie meegesleur word met al die wittes se besware oor Zuma nie; miskien omdat ek, een van enkele wittes, saam met 150 of wat zulus werk en ek heeldag die “ander kant” se storie hoor.  Self dink ek hy moet ‘n kans gegee word.  Hy is dalk net beter as uhmbedjie; niemand sal ooit madiba klop nie.

En oor die wapenskandaal – ek wil nog sien wie het nie gescore uit daardie deal nie?  Om een of ander rede dink ek almal was skuldig.  Hoekom target hulle net ‘n paar.  In elk geval, sover ek weet, is daar oral sulke kickbacks beskikbaar; in die ou bedeling, onder maatskappye, in ander lande.  Maar hier by ons, is dit die oersonde.

Nee wat, kom ons vergeet die verlede en kyk hoe lei msholozi ons.  Hy’t in elk geval ‘n baie sterk ondersteunings team rondom hom.

When artists work collectively to achieve a creative goal, it makes it easier for that group to move forward and to apply that leverage to push their art. While spoken word in the Twin Cities has taken a backseat to the burgeoning hip-hop scene, Trú Rúts Endeavors and Speakeasy Records has been working the connection to help create a larger scene.

If you have seen spoken word performance, you know how powerful and soul bearing it can be. It takes poetry reading and storytelling to a higher level. Trú Rúts Endeavors and Speakeasy Records are trying to spread that message through Hip-Hop, World Music and different forms of media. It hasn’t been an easy road, but as they find their way they hope to find the local audience and local media attention they are looking for and make the Twin Cities a place where spoken word artists can thrive.

Rift: What is the Difference between Trú Rúts Endeavors and Speakeasy Records?

Trú Rúts/Speakeasy Records: Trú Rúts Endeavors is structured as an artistic enterprise within which are various entities that cover various disciplines, including music, film, theatre, visual art, etc. Speakeasy Records is the record label under Trú Rúts. We also do artist management, booking, producing, promotions, and a variety of other things. Speakeasy Records is an artist centered independent label that strives to bring innovative, unique and conscious work, and artists, to the forefront. Unlike many labels in the Cities, it is a multi-genre label that includes not only hip hop and spoken word, but also world music and jazz. It will continue to expand into other genres as it grows. However, it is grounded in spoken word and hip hop because that is where its roots were first planted, and it is the community from which it grew. It was one of the first independent, and now one of the strongest, spoken word labels.

Rift: Who started the labels and who is involved?

TR/SR: Trú Rúts was founded by innovative artist and visionary, e.g. bailey. A multi-disciplinary artist working in spoken word, film, theatre, radio and music, he developed Trú Rúts and Speakeasy Records, while working in the groundbreaking spoken word and music collective, Arkology. Upon returning from a four month pilgrimage to his home in Liberia, and other parts of the world, including Dubai, Amsterdam, Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Ghana, and Hong Kong, he re-conceptualized and re-energized the enterprise and the label, releasing the first official release, Words Will Heal the Wound, the first spoken word compilation in Minnesota, in 2001. Currently Trú Rúts is managed by e.g. bailey and his partner and fellow labelmate, Shá Cage aka Lady Sha. The current roster of artists include Truthmaze, El Guante, Quilombolas, See More Perspective, along with e.g. bailey and Shá Cage. However, other projects, which consist of collaborations within the label, include god’s pager, Madiba and Afrika 7. The label has also released albums by Zell Miller III, and Nazirah P. Mickey. In addition to this it continues to release cutting edge compilations including the first compilation to highlight the reggaeton movement in Minnesota, Highstylekyle + Tru Ruts present Lightning + Thunder (Volume One). It also has several UK/US co-releases in the works, including a number of upcoming singles and albums by its roster of artists.

Rift: With the very hot Hip-Hop scene in town, has that help make Spoken Word more popular?

TR/SR: The hip hop scene here has certainly influenced the spoken word scene, and there have been a number of collaborations, along a number of artists that work in and move fluidly between each of the genres. However, the popularity of the spoken word art form in Minnesota is attributed to the very hard and consistent work of artists such as e.g. bailey, Shá Cage, J. Otis Powell!, Truthmaze, Bao Phi, Frank Sentwali and a number of others too numerous to list completely. The dedicated work by these artists, including the commitment of such organizations as the MN Spoken Word Association, S.A.S.E., Edupoetic Enterbrainment, Walker Art Center, The Loft and others, have taken spoken word from “people reading from their journals” to a legitimized art form. In addition, the spoken word community here has been dedicated to not only getting spoken word recognized as an art from but also as an educational tool to inspire literacy and creativity in youth, along with documenting and spreading knowledge about the legacy and tradition of the art form. The community here has also developed the first spoken word grant, the first spoken word conference, and one of the first spoken word radio show and formats. All this has contributed to making the Twin Cities one of the most innovative scenes in the field.

However, the scene has still had a difficult time garnering support from media, and even audiences. The kind of support that has thrust the hip hop scene in the national spotlight. Or the New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco scenes into the national spotlight. In someways it is due to the popularity and focus on the hip hop scene. In the wake, a number of other disciplines and artists get overshadowed. Therefore there has not been the emergence of an artist such as Saul Williams or Jessica Care Moore, Mark Bamuthi or Talaam Acey, Beau Sia, Ishle Park, 2Tongues, Regie Gibson, Ursula Rucker, Sekou Sundiata, Carl Hancock Rux and numerous others. Without the support, the Minnesota scene will continue to be innovative and cutting edge but largely overlooked.

Due to these kinds of obstacles, a number of spoken word artists in the Cities have ’stepped away’, or have moved primarily, or exclusively, into hip hop, sometimes disavowing spoken word and their connection to it. This often gives the art form a sense of being a stepchild, when in fact it’s the most native of art forms, the most native of sons, without which hip hop would not exist, or exist as we know it today. Part of the work of Speakeasy Records, and it’s commitment to spoken word, is to surmount some of these hurdles, and continue to push spoken word in Minnesota into the national consciousness, while at the same time continuing to evolve into the complete and multi-genre it strives to be.

Rift: Since Minneapolis has a pretty diverse music scene, have you found it easy to fit in our have there been some barriers?

TR/SR: Fitting in has never been our goal, and often when you are part of the advance guard, working at the cutting edge, it can be a difficult and lonely road. So there has been barriers, often those that come with the stereotyping of what you do, whether it’s spoken word or hip hop, world music or jazz, being an independent label or even being from Minnesota. However, you persevere, and you find your niche and your audience, which we are starting to do. If there is anything that defines labels and artists like us, it’s making something out of nothing. Whether it is making a dollar out of fifteen cents, or as Atmosphere puts it, gold out of lemons. The struggle defines and divines you.

Rift: What are your upcoming releases or events?

TR/SR: We are currently working on a number of releases slated for late summer through the winter, including singles by Quilombolas, See More Perspective and Truthmaze. A mixtape by El Guante, called ‘Conscious is Not Enough’ that will debut during the RNC. After years of bring other endeavors to fruition, e.g. bailey will release the EP, ‘American African African American’. Also forthcoming is a remix of Shá Cage’s debut album, Amber People; a US/UK hip hop compilation, which will feature artists from around the globe, including several noted special guest artists; and a Speakeasy Records label compilation. www.truruts.com

Posted on www.riftmagazine.com
October 26th, 2008 by Riftyrich