aiden choles

While I've never really taken an active interest in politics I have nevertheless been keenly aware of the shifts in the political landscape of South Africa and how they affect the narrative pulse of our nation. I've gathered this information and formed the perspectives I have based on some fairly superficial gleanings from the media reporting on political events.

In particular, I've had some strong emotional responses of late as I've been considering the shifts leading up to this weekends ANC National Conference and the recent branch nominations for the party's president. Unsurprisingly, Jacob Zuma has wrapped up the nominations process, and I've begun to wonder to myself how he has gathered so much support when one considers the saga's he's been invovled in (generally corrupt relationship with Schabir Shaik and a pragmatic approach to preventing the contraction of HIV)? Surely, rational people would not nominate a fellow with such a cloud hanging over his head?  read more »

I'm not one for sad or painful books. I'll happily go to a movie that I know will pull the emotional heart-strings, but I'm definitely not one for investing time and effort in traversing through hundreds of pages of something that will induce sensations of pain, guilt, remorse or some of those other wonderfully melancholic emotions.

Thanks to some fairly unrelated events I have found myself remembering one such book that I read a few years back. I seem to have relegated it to the deepest, darkest parts of my memory reserves in trying to forget that I ever read it. The aforementioned culprit is Antjie Krog's acclaimed work, Country of My Skull. The book is an in-depth, personal narrative "with the goal of capturing the overwhelming moral, emotional, and historical complexity of the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa."

I almost didn't have a choice in reading the book ...  read more »

A few months back I wrote a fairly scathing post on Debora Patta and the shoddy job she did in a 3rd Degree interview with a megalomaniac on eTv. Having returned from a PR Net event she hosted this evening I now write with a slightly different perspective on her. Besides the insight she provided on her show, it seems her in-person persona (excuse the possible redundancy) is a whole lot easier to digest than her on-screen presence.

Am I getting soft? Nah ... I still maintain that she did a shoddy job. Hearing her speak outside of the blood-thirsty investigative journalism mode is slightly refreshing and has done some work in shifting my perspective on her.

Before you write this post off as a pseudo-apology and quit reading, know that I'm going somewhere with this and that there is some backbone and relevance around narrative to be explored below.  read more »

I've been threatening to write this post for the last 6 days. Thankfully, today, I have managed to find a plug socket (spouting electricity) and an internet connection. That's a whole lot more than I've had at home for the last while thanks to the infamous sub-station fire 6 days ago. Besides the luxuries of electricity and a hot shower I managed to source today, the death of an elderly couple due to generator fumes inhalation over the weekend has prompted me ever more to write this.  read more »

I'm proud to be a blogger. But gosh, we have taken some stick in the news and media over the last few weeks, especially around the emergence of the SA male prostitute blog (would link to it, but unlike others I'm not anonymous and may be up for prosecution one day) . Patricia de Lille and David Bullard have also thrown their hats into this ring (not the prostitution ring that is).

But man, I love what Bullard is doing. He is holding up a big, fat mirror up to the blogging community and asking us damn serious (often clad in the usual Bullard sardonic tone) questions about who we are and what we do on this public forum.

When I look at the narrative pulse of the South African blogopshere, and how it is eating away at itself from the inside, I see Bullard's role being one that uncovers the often farcical nature of what we do in this space, challenges the inward-focussed "nepotism" that occurs and leaves space for someone to step up to the plate and bring some common sense to what we do.

As I meandered through my blog posting sabbatical there was a story I had encountred about an experiment on beauty. I have been meaning to post about it, but have found a post that captures it better than I could have.Click on over to John's blog and read about it here .

To start, an excerpt from CS Lewis' first fictional work, The Pilgrim's Regress:   read more »

I've been a part of the South African blogosphere for about 2 years now. It is still a very young blogosphere by global standards and is fighting hard to establish itself. There are some insanely clever people playing in this space and I am proud to be playing amongst them. As I look back on the last two years it seems to be me that the SA blogging movement has been moving in the same direction - towards establishing a significant presence in the global blogosphere boosted by innovative thinking and relevant content.

Within the past few months, pretty much since 2007 began, I have however begun noticing a change in this story. There is now a level of dissent within the SA blogging community that I have not seen before - and it has revolved mainly around the annual SA blog awards, and to some extent around the "lets-meet" gatherings that have been organized by some prominent bloggers (to read some what this looks like click here, here, here and finally, here)

There are three observations/recommendations that I have about this situation:  read more »

I was bored yesterday. A friend recommended that I use some of this time to read My Nemesis. It is a blog that chronicles the story of a tough break-up where the nemesis is the Ex. I can't help but feel like I'm walking on holy ground when someone opens up their story for general consumption in a world where people are strangely guarded over their personal lives.

My Nemesis does something interesting though - Sarah seems to have written her posts recently, but time stamps them to the date that the events happened. This is why I highly recommend reading My Nemesis chronologically - Sarah writes her story with a retrospective coherence (I love that phrase!) that is lucid and moving.

For someone who delves into the realm of story daily, My Nemesis has touched me in a way that has had me living with her story.

I'm embarrassed.

I've just finished watching an iconic South African journalist lose some serious credibility ... publicly ... in my eyes at least. The typically acidic Debora Patta has just anchored an edition of ETVs investigative programme 3rd Degree that took a hard look at South Africa's very own Enron-type scandal ... and she did a piss-poor job.  read more »