Articles | spokenmind.net

When Projekt 23 was started in March 2009, one of the main aims was to demonstrate that we do not have to wait for Arbor Day, Arbor Week or Arbor Month to plant trees. Yes, we will still plant trees on these days, but we will do this on any other day when we can. Trees are basically the lungs of the earth and this is why. They absorb Carbon dioxide only to convert it to the Oxygen that we need so much.

posted
2012

Aug

When I was a kid, my father had a mini library stacked with heavenly books which often helped to quench my copious thirst for words. I went straight from ‘It’s fun to be six’ and Binky (the springbok that had little six year olds sitting on the edges of khaki coloured plastic seats) to the thriller crime novels of Rene Brabazon Raymond who was well known under his pseudonym, James Hadley Chase. On my 16th birthday my father bought me two books, one of which was titled after this article and penned by Pieter Pieterse.

posted
2012

Jun

Projekt 23 – The Green Movement II (Series)

Early in 2009, while working at an Island on the West Coast, I was preparing for my graduation. I was due to get my National Diploma in Ecotourism, and because I had had to answer so many questions about what Ecotourism is about throughout my Diploma years, I felt that as a way to celebrate my graduation, I needed to educate people about this. That’s when I started Projekt 23 – The Green Movement, a community project that deals with environmental education and the planting of indigenous trees at schools and the broader community.

posted
2012

Apr

What is biodiversity? In the simplest term, it is the variety of life forms within an area; that is, animals, plants, and everything else found in a natural system (genes, species etc). But what is the big deal here? Why should you care what biodiversity is?

The big deal here is that we all depend on biodiversity – natural resources- to get on with life. Take a few seconds to think about it. You woke up today, walked to the bathroom to freshen up and brush your teeth because you would not have that cup of coffee unless you had done so.

posted
2012

Jan

Let me take this moment to reintroduce my new found self. During my long leave of silence I have turned my face to the Son (sun), thus the shadows have fallen behind. I have embraced the spoken secrets whispered by those who have lived before me, not because those who spoke them were perfect, but because the lessons learnt from a man of fault are as candles lit to disperse the darkness; those learnt from a perfect man are light itself.

Mine eyes, though vaguely open, can see clearly the prospects of harvests sown in season.

posted
2012

Jan

Listen to Lebo Mashile to get a grounded, sober view of life as a poet and what it takes to succeed.

Like any artist of substance, Lebo talks with sincerity, her depth of insight delivered in simple words; she’s not here to impress, she’s here to do what few writers do, to open herself to her appreciative fans.

posted
2011

Nov

The Intervarsity Spoken Mind Competition

Art imitates life. Depending on which school of thought you embrace, life imitates art. Whichever way you look at it, life and art come together in an aesthetic amalgamation that pleases and appeases the senses. That was the experience on Saturday, 27 August in a trendy Africafé in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

What started out as skepticism on my part about poets competing with one another slowly grew to appreciation, to admiration, then inspiration. It was the Intervarsity Spoken Mind competition.

posted
2011

Sep