The Heartbreaking Unfairness of Poverty

Dear all I met Nyebho during rehearsals for a theatre play in Grahamstown (now Makhanda), in 2000. I was the live musician for the play. The director picked on Nyebho, or should I say, there was difficulty between them. What I sensed was that he possessed almost an uncontrollable urge to express. He could do …

The Upsurge of the Feminine

Dear all I just finished reading Joke’s newest short story. I had to cry and cry and cry. This is no selling point for the talents of my life-partner. It is sharing with you how I am moved by yet another woman. It is a personal sample of how the feminine can and is moving …

A River is Flowing

In front of me the Vaal River slowly makes it way. across the breadth of South Africa to the Atlantic. We have been kindly put up in a guest lodge just outside Sasolburg, the town built for the turning of coal into oil. The Vaal actually joins the Gariep at some point, along which our …

hey dude I’ve got something to tell you!

Dear all An imaginary conversation I had with “dude” recently hey dude, I need to tell you something. dude? who’s your dude? ag man*, just someone that has an ear right now I’m your dude, but keep it snappy ag* thanks. listen, I have this new online thing! online thing. what do you mean online …

catching up

Dear all I sit in a flat in Vigevano, near Milan, Italy. Joke just went out to catch a moment of writing while Mira is asleep. I do not have an extra adaptor for Italian plugs, so this laptop’s battery will switch off at some point but I MUST write this newsletter now. It is …

The story of Mira’s birth, seen through my perspective

By Joke Debaere As my pregnancy was coming to an end, I often googled “water, breaks, signs”. Facing the Big Moment, Google was my refuge. Just like it had been the first couple of weeks. I had found a Dutch website that compared the growth of my fetus week by week with a piece of …

that which flows

water Joke stood in the kitchen area of our little cottage in the mud (so much rain these days). her water broke. it was making a potent pool on the floor, just like in the movies. is this the water she has been drifting in all these nine months? yes. this is the water she …

silent force of nature

One morning, about seven months ago, I woke up with this feeling that someone had switched on the lights inside my body. I looked in the mirror and there I was, staring at myself with unusual big eyes. Some weeks later, a home test confirmed it. Pregnancy had entered me and Francois’ lives. Since then, …

when adding another human being on this crowded planet

Yes, we have been thinking and feeling about this for some years. Yes it is a challenge with the kind of life we live. Yes, why, when you are so aware and busy with the intractable problems and growing crises of a global humanity, would you still decide to procreate? Are we ready? Can we …

Will a Wonder Woman end all Wars?

Something happened when Donald Trump announced that the US would pull out from the Paris agreement on climate change. America used to be able to hold the world at ransom. Not anymore. America pulls out, and in stead of stalling the whole process, the rest of the world is simply moving on. America was the …