THERE ARE TODAY 40 MILLION MODERN DAY SLAVES IN THE WORLD!

 Modern day slavery

Modern day slavery

The UN reports that there were 40 million modern day slaves in the world during 2016.

Please spread the word about this scourge and evil. Read the newspaper report at this link. This evil mostly affects women and children. Forced labor and sex slaves are predominantly in this kind of a thing.

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ARE YOU CHANGING THE WORLD ONE STEP AT A TIME TO BE A BETTER PLACE?

Are you changing the world one step at a time to be better place? Good for you!! I am also doing my bit - one step at a time and at times only to improve the life of one person at a time. 

 Pope Francis - he's got the world as his platform to speak out!

My friend Werner Perufsky - he's got Fochville as his platform to perform good deeds.

My wife referred me to the then President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt's ARENA SPEECH that he delivered 1910; it is called THE MAN IN THE ARENA. 

Here is the quote: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt, excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic", delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910; here is the link to the internet. 

My question to you: Are you in the arena? Yes, I know you are and let's us keep up the good works we do. And may God bless you!

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WHAT DO YOU READ?

This is a part of my rather extensive law libray

I have to do a lot of legal research to serve my client's interests best and I am continuously updating my legal skills by my own research and then of course I attend a lot of legal training seminars. My wife is also a qualified attorney and she assists me in my practice.

The post that prompted this write-up is more of a general kind of reading - I take it for granted that you are reading of necessity a lot about your profession to keep you updated of the latest in your field of expertise. Besides that, what are you reading? Or do you just flop down on a coach and watch TV with the brain dead material soaking it up like a sponge? I encourage you to take a book and read. Grab a difficult subject and read it slowly devouring every single word as you go along. 

I suggest that you look at the recommendation of TED about 50 books to read during 2017 or maybe you have your own extensive reading list. 

Please write me at neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za and tell me what you read and why you are reading the book/s? 

Enjoy your day reading.

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS A SCOURGE ON HUMANITY

He was treated like an animal for sale - or worse 

She was also treated like an animal on sale

I am back on this topic of slavery and human trafficking because it is very heavy on my heart. How on earth can anyone in his or her right mind treat people as if they are animals? Please read their heart rendering stories at this link. I do thank this photographer who took his time, money and other resources to research this topic and to bring it to us with this wonderful medium namely photography. 

How will you recognize a slave? Does this gentleman and/or lady look like a slave? Be careful with this question because it presupposes that slaves look like slaves, not so? No - a slave look like a normal ordinary human being BUT is being viciously exploited by another human being. 

Please share this story with other people and be on the look out and spread their stories. You might come across a slave especially if you drive by so called adult shops or brothels or night clubs. 

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WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR TIME? A READER'S RESPONSE TO MY QUESTION

This guy was standing still spinning about 200 k.p.h.!

We all got a kick out of it!!

One of my readers and a fellow genealogist took time to reply to my blog post of yesterday [5 July 2017]. I encourage you to read and to join her; please tell me what do you do with your time? My e-mail address: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za 

I know I have readers all over the world - I would really like to hear from you. 

Hello Neels
I thought I would respond to your question especially as I retired at the end of 2016 so I now have much more free time.

I have been thinking about wasting time. What is wasting time? I think this means different things to different people. I am getting more sleep. Some people might consider that wasting time. I sometimes sit for a little while in my sunny diningroom watching the birds on my neighbours roof. Time waste? We have been so conditioned by our fast paced lifestyle to be constantly on the go that one can feel guilty about not being constantly productive. I have found watching SABC a waste of time. I hate soapies, adverts and polititions. I have never been a big fan of TV but did watch the weather forecast and 50/50. Both my son and I stopped watching TV some years ago but I still continued to pay the license. I decided this year to get rid of the TV and not pay the license. What a problem it is to get the SABC to understand that I do not have a TV! I followed their proceduces, submitted the form and affidavit. Each time I get a reminder I ring them or e mail them. Makes no difference to them. I have had several final demands. Now I ignore them. Time waste is ringing SABC .  Time waste is trying to ring city of joburg when they experience high call volumes. 

Yes I think I do spend too much time looking at my cell phone screen. Fb can be a waste of time but I have also learnt a lot by reading interesting articles or even watching u tube videos. One has more time to communicate with friends or family using a smart phone. One catches up with certain news items. I don't read the newspaper and don't always listen to the news on radio. My father used to subscribe to both the Cape Times and Cape Argus and often had the radio on.

Retirement definitely gives you more time to follow your hobbies. It is easier to get back to hobbies that one persued at some time than starting a completely new hobby. 

I gave up the genealogical research while working as trying to search through hundreds of documents at 10pm was exhausting. In fact I would nod off for a few seconds and nearly fall off my chair. 

I have time for the research now. I thought I had lost the all important file. I went into a bit of a panic! Fortunately I have found it and can now try to pick up the threads again.

With a lot of free time there is little pressure to get things done today, because there is always tomorrow! 

I always used to wonder what older people do with their time! Now that I am at that age group there does not seem to be so much time. The days go by quickly. The only problem is that one does not have much to show for how the time was spent. Perhaps I should write a daily journal.

Regards
Penny Evans

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WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR TIME? SPARE TIME? WASTE TIME?

My friend Alan Mason during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

What do you do with your time? We all have only 24 hours per day to "spend." I know my friend Alan Mason is a very keen photographer. Some time ago he challenged himself to take one photograph per day for 365 days. He completed it with gusto and great photos. During the World Cup in South Africa him and I went to the Mary Fitzgerald Square in Johannesburg taking our cameras with to photograph this spectacle.

Do you my dear reader still tackle difficult tasks? Do you even set yourself difficult tasks just for the sake of it? Just to stimulate your life juices? 

My wife and I are still practicing law everyday of the week and I assure you that we have some pretty tough matters to attend to. Besides that we have other stuff to attend to as well, for instance growing vegetables, flowers and sculpting. 

Please write me an e-letter and tell me what do you do especially if you are older than 65 years of age. My e-address is: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za 

Have a look at the article that was published recently in 1843 Magazine by clicking on this link.

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How the iPhone revolutionised photography

Fashion photographer Georges Antoni and Margaret Zhang for Elle Australia

Fashion photographer Georges Antoni uses the iPhone 7 Plus on Portrait mode to photograph Margaret Zhang for the June cover story of Elle Australia. 

Can you believe this? The face of photography [pun intended] have been changed tremendously. I was a member of photographic societies in Johannesburg area for a number of years and later was "duped" into believing that members [especially very senior members] know everything about photography and what the perfect image looks like. I resigned. 

This is the new face of photography - thanks to "photography-rebels" such as Georges.

After my resignation I packed my "big" Nikon away, obtained a "mik-and-druk" [point and shoot] and experienced a tremendous freedom. I you click on this link you will see the same thing happened to this photographer: he experienced freedom from certain restraints imposed by others on photographers. Please read this article to the end. 

Some time ago Bentley  [video shots] also requested a photographer to use his iPhone to shoot an advertisement for them. Read the article by clicking on this link. Their approach to this meant having the ad "filmed, assembled and edited using the in-car connectivity and entertainment platform." Essentially, the filmmakers used an iPad Air to assemble all of the footage, and edited the entire thing in the backseat. 

Revolution in the photographic palaces!!!!

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