Starry Starry Night

I recently had the privilege of spending a good two hours lying on my back on the grass staring at the magnificent Cederberg sky. Contemplating is inherent in my nature and it occurred to me again (as it does every once in a while when the opportunity to star gaze arises) how distant human beings have become from just about everything else in this world. The stars are there every night, the moon waxes and wanes, Venus winks at us every evening and for the most part we remain oblivious. Besides the fact that we have become so obsessed with the self and so obsessed with material man-made paraphernalia we simply NEVER look up. We assume man’s contribution to planet earth from industrial to technological revolution to be our ticket to eternal happiness and not forgetting the products and lifestyles that we think are going to prevent us from ever facing death. We, as an increasingly selfish species, have not only lost touch with the planet that facilitates out earthly experience but we don’t appreciate or respect the magnitude of the Universe. Even in a city like Cape Town we are blessed to have visibility of a generous smattering of stars and when last did you register that they were there and wonder anything about them?

Admittedly in the Cederberg Mountains with the quiet stillness and lack of light and noise pollution, one is gently led to gaze upwards in silent awe at the vastness of the Universe. The irony of my starry starry night contemplation was that we feel so desperate and isolated about life sometimes and its all-consuming organised chaos that one would think that staring up at the vast skies that surround us would add to this feeling of isolation and insignificance. Strangely, however, it always leaves me feeling humbled and in tune with the mysterious cauldron of existence here, there and everywhere.

We spend so much time looking at televisions, computer screens and within our own minds and bodies that we forget so easily that we are (as cheesy at is sounds) all ONE. Somehow no matter your belief system we are all connected by the very simple things of the elements and the stars surrounding our planet and the fact that collectively we really don’t know much about anything beyond our own humanness.

Whenever you get a moment – look up. As the old adage goes "there are no answers only questions" but strangely when faced with the vast, complicated and mysterious Universe of skies and galaxies…the questions stop for a moment and you can allow the sense of collective peacefulness to prevail.

George Bush is a complete MORON!!!!!

OK yes I know we all know that but Bush saying out loud to the whole world that Nelson Mandela is dead and that "Sadam Hussein killed all the Mandelas"...is he even from this planet? How do you Americans sleep at night? How do you believe in anything anymore? George is one of the stupidest public figures ever to have walked the face of this troubled earth.

Nelson Mandela, however, is (yes for those of you who believe that your president has a brain...and did not realise that he is useless at innuendos...Nelson Mandela is alive and living in the Eastern Cape of South Africa) a noble, humble and truly remarkable man and spirit. His ability to forgive, inspire and warm all of our hearts regardless of race, culture, gender or religion makes him one of the most significant beings of our time.

George the empty headed idiot on the other hand is no more than a pawn in a very terrible and tragic game of power of the world's worst enemies - the money hungry elite who can trash a whole country and its history for ego and oil. George is going to be the laughing stock of history and the people that support him should be ashamed.

He has no right to use someone as awesome (the true sense of the word...not American slang!) as Nelson Mandela for his own political gain and in the same breath as anything to do with Iraq for a true philanthropist like 'Madiba' is surely frowning on the forced occupation of another country and the theft of their resources...because Mr Mandela knows all about that and would never encourage such action. Furthermore, George Dumbass Bush, is the only head of state to visit Africa and not request a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Go figure.

Yours in purple

Limitation

Reflection for me from far within the walls of self.
From the east side of the mind to the south side of the wound.
But your small mind can only see you.
And I pity your grey spirit's inability.

Yours in purple

Cape Town Clone Colony

Cape Town Clone Colony
Ironic materialism of Cacophony
Pseudo-original
No individual aboriginal
Despite the bushmans voice
Of pure and conclusive choice

The ego spill over the man like rapid rain
Like the table cloth spills of the mountain
Hills of wicked conscious thought
Trust and honesty needs to be sought

Don’t call them loon
Don’t spite the moon

False Beauty is overrated
True insight cannot be negated

Cape Town Clone Colony
Ironic materialism of cacophony
Constellations of human A Capella
If only they could all see the splendour of Stella
Time to seek a different wealth
That always remains proper to the self

Don’t call them loon
Don’t spite the Moon

False Beauty is overrated
True insight cannot be negated

Yours in purple

Cheesy existensional poem

Purple clouds fly by
Oblivious to space and time.
And I sit and I wonder why…

I wonder why the Virgo glow
Has always been so unseen?
To the energy they have flown;
But their reasons are always unknown.

Purple clouds whizz by.
Oblivious to space and time.
And I sit and I wonder why…

I wonder why like an endless novel,
We never reach complete understanding?
Perhaps it’s because in the media we trust,
That our purpose is lust

Purple clouds float by.
Oblivious to space and time.
And I sit and I wonder why…

I wonder why we deny our inner truth,
And plunder onwards like fools with no jokes?
We do not see that our spirits flow;
Like the simplicity of candle glow.

Purple clouds meander by
Oblivious of space and time
And I sit and I wonder why…

Yours in Purple

Viva La Rhino

You all know that business and work in the modern world is a strange thing. People like me start off finding the world pretty mundane and mediocre. They then get caught up in an elated dellusion of immediate change. And then one day they realise that life is all unpredictable, the unexpected happens, life is random and yet so purposeful and spirit-felt at the same time.

I find myself in a place where Social Media (yes I finally gave in to facebook.com today) and Internet delving has become a way of life. But still remains the beauty of a certain "people" gathered. Rhino Africa has an awesome bunch of unique, special beings working for them which gives me an immense hope in tourism as an industry and way of modern (don't we need a new word for this??!!) living.

Genuine people are hard to find. If they keep their faith and integrity in the third world tourism industry then something is won back from the post-colonial BIG BUSINESS colonisation.

A big up to the Indaba Rhino Africa crew and also Inspirational Places for champaign and comradery and Guy at Durban's coolest bar Bean Bag Bohemia.

May you all always live for the moment, smile upon the cheese and listen to good music!


Yours in purple

Purple

Fiery Body
Spirit Poem
Deep Angels

Fundamentally Rudimental

Whether you live in South Africa or whether you are just visiting our complicated but beautiful country – you owe it to yourself to seek out the Rudimentals! They are a wicked band who truly show off some original African Ska with an infectiously earthy energy that gets your feet stomping and your arms waving. They are a motley crew whose stage presence exudes a power that is hard to find in live gigs these days. Read the review on www.music.org.za

During apartheid there was much cause for “identity” music in terms of protest and cultural personality. Both black and white musicians used music to express anger, political views and comment on our complex social dynamics.

With the first democratic elections in South Africa came the end of an era of music for our troubled country and it has taken until now to begin a new wave of local music that reflects our present situation.

The Rudimentals are part of this new eclectic wave of music and long may such trends continue!

Yours in Purple

Feathered Wine

Feathered wine
Feeds on Cultural dishonesty
As we watch the beautiful decay
We all corrupt time

Media suffocates
Our instinctive human faith
As Capitalism’s parasites cultivate paranoia
It’s all about rates

Pure moments
Become fewer and distorted by greed
Plastic cement is the nature of our age
Allure of wealth torments

Yours in purple

Bring it on

Wyclef sings in a smokey haze of my youth and as the weird number of 3 0 comes to find me I feel fairly content to say goodbye to a part of me that experienced the world in a completely different realm to the me that is now and the collective universal raindrop of time that my piers share.

I hope the future brings us back together becomes a concept of how I thought it should be but isn’t. Like the arcane beauty of an outdated piece of art. But it fades and change is the only certainty.

The love (forgive me I am an optimistic cynic at heart…whose New Year’s resolution was to stop reading the newspaper….it only feeds the growing fear of life!)…oh ja….the love…is something that becomes significant. A twist in one’s inevitably mysterious passage through the strange phenomenon of earth. Not just love between lovers - but yes there have been an overcountable amount of weddings, hen’s parties (eeeuuugghh…too many girls for me!) and baby showers - but love between old friends who can tell each others discomfort by the tilt of their smile; love between families who at this point realize that they are all just individuals who share a common weirdly worldly experience; and love between the strangers that we see on a daily basis in the workplace but never take the time to know.

A whirlwind of our own personal lesson in sorcery ...a Saturn Return of note …almost certainly a familiar airing of thoughts for those who try to marry spirit and grounding.

Bring it on! Life is an eternal unravelling.

Yours in purple

Dance cos we are free

In the wild trance party summers of the late nineties in Cape Town, there were three crazy young psychedellic fairies. I was one of them. We were young enough to be free and old enough to be wise and had some truly spectacular experiences together. After being separated by geography for almost 5 years - a whole series of events have magically ensured that we find each other again. People come and go in our lives for a particular purpose and I can confidently say that the three of us have been re-connected to remind us of our freedom and to dance with abandon.

Dancing makes the spirit sing and our western lives have cheapened the ritual of dance into Kylie's ass and a Britney Spears video. So the Whizzball's message for the day is to dance more - at home alone, in the shower, when a great song finds you, when the soul needs a shake - don't wait for someone to dance with you and definately don't worry about how you look or if you can compete with the MTV dance-androids. Dance because it feeds the spirit and as our beloved Bob Marley continues to sing throughout the world's concsiousness "Dance cos we are FREE".

A big up to Sir Bob and BIG love and whizzballs to OD and EK for dancing freely with me.

Yours in purple

Flesh-Spirit Union

The rain plays my skin
So gently and fine
The wind strums my spirit
And the Earth Goddess speaks in time

Cleansed like a crystal
With pure Water-Air
Body organ beats lightly clean
The Flesh-Spirit union is tranquil and rare

A storm of thoughts quietened
By the louder nature call
Ancient sensual whispers
Splash wisdom as they fall

Cleansed like a crystal
With pure Water-Air
Body organ beats lightly clean
The Flesh-Spirit union is tranquil and rare

Yours in Purple

What are the new connotations of “freedom”?

This is supposed to be the communication age but it’s really turning into the Propaganda age – CNN, BBC, etc, etc and the rest are a seriously pathetic excuse for journalism.

In South Africa, we suffered severely from propaganda and brainwashing during apartheid and there was no such thing as freedom of the press for a very long time. There were nevertheless black and white journalists who risked their lives to find and expose the truth. Many lost their lives. Irony is that even though we had the most publicized make-over in recent history and the “gifts” of democracy and capitalism have rained freely upon us for the last 10 years…we still suffer from propaganda, political control of the media and side-stepping, corrupt politicians after the BMW rather than justice and service to their people.

IMHO it just goes to show that democracy and the “freedom” that George is planning to bestow upon the world (there is going to be a lot more death and destruction before his father-issues are satisfied) means nothing if our collective conscience doesn’t kick its own ass and strive for something different.

The political theories that the US and Europe seek to spread across this planet are just as corrupt, fallible and incomplete as the “others” they seek to “transform”. Under the guise of “freedom” it seems, you can do the unthinkable and encourage similar behavior in developing countries like South Africa.

Yours in purple

Moments

Amongst the craziness of the world’s eternal struggle to survive and in this Cyber Age where everything moves too quickly, we are bombarded with way too much useless information and advertising.

I so often get disheartened by the fact that life offers so many complications, challenges and downright nasty curveballs and there never seems to be time to really reflect and contemplate the REAL questions about life and make a vague attempt to understand the REAL implications of our existence.

But two specific social gatherings recently reminded me of one my old theories that life is all about those “moments” when there is no place you would rather be, no person you would rather be with at that particular moment and the moment washes over you with a wave of warm and comforting synchronicity.

It’s these moments, I feel, that give us that invisible and indescribable human “fuel” that enables us to be flung back into the world with a smile and “keep on keeping on”.

Yours in Purple

Where is Saddam?

I know that yank-bashing and bush-whacking are so “last season” but I seriously wonder about Saddam’s whereabouts. Why do we know who designed Laura Bush’s inauguration dress but no-one has a clue where Saddam is? He could be in a penthouse suite of the White House drinking Earl Grey with Dubya or he could be having his toenails pulled off one by one in Guantonimo Bay…we don’t really have a clue. For that matter…anyone know what happened to the hunt for George’s buddy, Osama????

Unless you are one of those people that believe we can find out anything from CNN, you will agree that considering the hours and hours of coverage on Middle Eastern issues, it is remarkably uncanny that we NEVER hear anything about Saddam Hussein. Even several Internet searches for news on Saddam and what is happening to him didn't yield much. He has become as mysterious as his weapons of mass destruction.

We know NOTHING and the powers that be prefer it that way. One would think that at this point in human development, we would have the right to know the answers to these questions rather than our grandchildren having an inkling of understanding about something that doesn’t really affect them anyway. But I guess if 52% of America still believes in cowboy tactics and show no real interest in standing up for their democracy, then there is little the rest of us can do to fight such BIG POWER.

If you haven't read George Orwell's 1984, you should. The world is in serious danger of becoming its own weapon of mass destruction. North Korea, Syria, Zimbabwe, etc are next.
Wake up America and Europe - your democracies are built with the blood of Africa, the spice of the East and corrupt intentions of organised religion. Use your money and power for something that humanity can be proud of.

Yours in Purple

Collective unconscious

Damn I work with a great bunch of people! Although as every smoker...I want to and intend to give up smoking...there is something binding and enlightening about speaking to fellow smokers on the stairwell (or anywhere for that matter)! Luckily I work with a group of young, new-age cyber freaks whose outlook and questioning minds intrigue and entertain me. (A smoke break with a 50 year old wheezer might not yield as much pleasure!)

Getting to the point - my last stairwell chatter was the discussion of whether people born with no sight, dream in pictures? An interesting question...my argument was that considering many theories on dreams indicate they are connected to the collective unconscious, perhaps there is the chance that these people tap into the collective image library when dreaming!

This concept got my mind working overtime again and reminded me that so few animals were hurt or killed by the Tsunami and what it is that has encouraged humankind to become so "civilised" but devolve at a rapid rate at the same time. The increasing and debilitating handicap of humankind these days is that we are losing our 'sixth sense', our intuition, our psychic abilities, our understanding of the collective unconscious and our instinct (if you consider instinct to be the realisation that you NEED a McDonalds Burger immediately then there is no hope for you...STOP reading now!).

Our general connection with our planet, our Universe and the Divine is dwindling into a series of automated responses created by the media, corrupt political control and advertising that is designed to reprogramme us all into unthinking consumer-drones.

Why is it that the elephants broke their chains and headed for the hills, trying to warn the dumb-ass humans along the way? Why do we feel so superior to other earthly species just because we carry shotguns and AK47’s and manage to F**** up entire ecosystems and atmospheric layers that are aimed at our protection? Why do we feel so all-important and get hung up about our significance when we should really be humbly accepting of our mortality and the lessons learned from it?

The real importance of life is certainly a wonder that we all ponder on a daily basis. It certainly seems strange to me that we still make the same mistakes, cannot eradicate the seemingly “natural” human need to be destructive and still have no real concrete idea of what, where, why, who and how! Organised religion IMO certainly works against a real understanding of life and only adds to the suffering.

We need a human spiritual revolution! The Tsunami has shown that when necessary the world can mobilize itself for the greater good…problem is we only seem to be capable of this when there is a disaster.
Yours in purple

Office view...aaahhh! Table Mountain, Cape Town. 

Purplewhizzball meets blogging

Greetings earthlings :)
I have not yet decided the exact purpose or direction of this blog...but considering the realms of writing that have collected in my books and cupboards, unseen and forgotten, I thought a Blog might be a brave new medium for my ramblings...
I have diaries from about age 8 and although I live in South Africa my surname is German for "scribe" and its possibly about time I exposed some of these strange words that collect in my Virgo, mercurial brain.
I am both a hopeless romantic and an incurable cynic but I have come to believe that the two are almost inseparable...take the late comedian Bill Hicks, for example, a greater cynic is hard to come by. But if you take away the wild language, gesticulating and dark front, you see a philosphical romantic who truly believes in a better, more enlightened way to BE. Perhaps all cynics are born romantics and jaded by consumerism and inherent human cruelty, their unreachable idealism can only be expressed through the reverse.
My point being, that somedays you might be inspired or sickened by my ridiculous idealism and other days you are sure to be exposed to heated ranting.

Yours in Purple