PLEASE SPARE A MOMENT TO READ THIS
Posted on: 3 November 2006
- In: thoughts
- 21 Comments
I am going to tell you a story… it is a true one.
Many of you will know our dear friend and fellow blogger AXE Here she is pictured in her rock singer days.
Today she was able to get to an internet and I visited her blog to see if she was around, as I do most days. When I read it I telephoned her immediately and asked her permission to post her address here and she agreed.
Her problems are real and by the end of the month she will be back on the streets. It is possible that some of you may have thought she was exercising her creative writing skills, but what she writes is true.
Axe is a poor white unemployed South African… she has no British connections so cannot even get here. If you are white and you are poor in South Africa today, you don’t stand a chance; no one will employ her…. she cannot cut a break since losing her job last June.
There have been times that without help she has been unable to put food on the table.
She will have to send her children Anushka and Ivan, away to her parents who live on a remote farm and they are also impoverished. I asked her if she could stay there too, but if she did there would be no hope of her ever finding work and her parents cannot afford to support her.
She will be evicted at the end of November. I am not telling anyone what to do, but here is her address for now.
Natasha Verster, 35 Rhodes Street, Mount Pleasant 6070, South Africa
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have to confess I’ve been feeling a little down in the dumps myself over something too too pathetic. I have been visiting other blogs and reading; reading the most amazing stories and poetry which outshine anything I am capable of, putting mine so much in the shade that I should be merciful and bury my feeble attempts. I know I am stupid. But I have read some wonderful wonderful work and I appreciate the hard work that goes into it.
I have also allowed myself to wallow a little over other issues in my real world where I know I am being taken for a mug and because of my now single status I am treated differently and not necessarily nicely.
I have no single friends; thankfully my friends are all happily married or remarried. I do get invited to their homes, but not out with them. I recently met a couple of very nice single people and I thought I would extend a hand of friendship… doh… they didn’t want to know. Now I guess I am an acquired taste and that I am nothing special, but I didn’t realise I was that bad… hmmm.
However, I am blessed… I have a family, a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and clothes on our backs. I am not rich materially, I manage, but I am rich in so many other ways. I have no right to the blues and when I read poor Axe’s plight, and the plight of people who need help, then I feel somewhat ashamed of myself.
I’m sorry I couldn’t download pics of The Next Raven Generation… my fault I think. I think you have to download the pics first then write… once you start writing you can’t put pics. I’ll try and make up for it during the week.
In the meantime tomorrow, for those in the know, I am sponsoring a kiddush in shul for Jamie and Lucy and on Sunday, Rachel wants me to go with her to help choose the options for her new apartment, which I’m not even sure they’ve actually started building yet, but she is so excited.
I am in the throes of organising the engagement party for December and the wedding is definitely going to be in Herzliya, Israel at the end of July… hot, hot, hot as many people like to point out… like we don’t know.
I wish you all a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom.
Must chain myself back to the kitchen sink.
21 Responses to "PLEASE SPARE A MOMENT TO READ THIS"
2 | ann
3 November 2006 at 16:28
Brian: thank you for your kind words, for your friendship too… and for all your encouragement…
3 | Diane
3 November 2006 at 20:04
I wish there was something material to be done for Axe, I feel so helpless. Wonderful post Ann, her plight does make you realise how lucky some of us are.
4 | Finn
3 November 2006 at 21:04
Ann: believe me, every single writer in the world, however good, has those same thoughts of “OMG my work is terrible!” And then other writers read that work and are spurred into thoughts of their own of, “wow this is so good and I’ll never be able to write anything half as good as that!”
We’re a strange bunch 😉
Herzliyya will be an awesome place for the wedding. All the best with the planning and so forth.
5 | The Rev. Dr. Kate
3 November 2006 at 21:20
Shabbat Shalom, Ann – and bless you for the kindess of your soul. Stick with your writing – there are many different styles and ways of writing – yours may simply different – no less wonderful in the way that is unique to you. Aesthics are subjective by definition – do what makes you happy and what gives you voice.
And I so totally get the “single” vs. married friend thing. I am the only widow in my generation of friends and you would think its catching. It’s hard sometimes.
My prayers are with Axe – and with you.
Love, Kate
6 | lisa
3 November 2006 at 21:21
Bless you Ann, for being such a loving and caring friend not just to Axe, but to all of us. It is easy to forget the plight of others and focus on our own (minor) problems.
And your work is NOT trash or whatever – I love your blog, mrsbg’s blog, LL & LLV. Your soul has gifted us with so very much.
7 | JoJo
3 November 2006 at 22:48
Hi Ann! Thanks so much for Axe’s information. I have only begun to read her blog in the past couple of months. I did not realize how hard it is to be poor & white in S. Africa these days. I really should educate myself on more international issues.
It puts things into perspective, hearing about people whose troubles are real and dire, and I look at my own situation w/ the job thing and am embarassed that I complain about possibly having to find a new job…..
Your writing is fantastic and you are very, very gifted. I would love to meet you in person someday!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Love, JoJo
8 | Claire
4 November 2006 at 00:08
Dearest Ann,
Never say you are stupid!! You give a lot of people encouragement when they really need it (me, for instance). I think you are so very brave to put yourself out there. I love your work! Keep at it, because you don’t know it, but your good and friendly spirit is flying around the blogosphere making a lot of people feel better about themselves.
9 | ann
4 November 2006 at 00:38
thanks everyone for your kind words… I am praying for Axe and hope that she gets blessed with the good luck she needs and deserves.
sorry about my little crisis, which in perspective is nothing. It’s not as if I’m even a professional; just having a mad half-hour.
jojo, one day we may meet, but ask Finn, we spent an afternoon sitting in a Tel Aviv hotel talking vdo/whitney/ashton and… I am boring
actually I had planned to be in NY this week, but events beyond my control prevented this trip materialising… one day, I hope, but this window is closed and I don’t foresee another one opening for some time…
it would be awesome to meet up
lotsa luv ann xxxx
10 | DNY LOVES CRIMINAL MINDS
4 November 2006 at 02:54
Ann: I will send her more money this week. Actually I think we decided it will be easier and quicker if I send it to you and you forward it on. I shall send it to you the fastest way possible first thing Monday morning. I have been so busy lately that I have not been to her blog. I realize now that it has been several months since last I sent her any money and I hope that others will as well. I am sure everyone can spare a few dollars. Jill
11 | ann
4 November 2006 at 08:37
Jill: I sent her some early this week regardless, but anything anyone can spare goes a long in South Africa.
I know you’ve been busy and we’ll talk later
lotsa luv ann xxxxx
12 | Riccie
4 November 2006 at 13:44
Ann…the beauty of your kindness takes my breath away.
Thank you for the heads up about Axe.
13 | Val
4 November 2006 at 17:42
Ann, you are so NOT boring (to use teenspeak) but you are lacking in confidence and IT MUST STOP – NOW!
I’ve been short of work lately but will see how it goes and if I can send something to her.
16 | Anonymous
6 November 2006 at 11:20
Seems axe is now experiencing what the black poulation have and are still suffering.
After a lifetime of apartheid, some of the black population now have better prospects, and the right to have basic possessions and not have to work as slaves for white masters, or butchered at will because of the shade of their skin.
I’m sorry for your friend, but her situation is the result of deeply oppressed people fighting back and repossessing stolen land. A move wrongly dubbed “reverse apartheid”
17 | Faizel
7 November 2006 at 09:54
Anonymous, “reverse apartheid” is exactly the correct term. If you are not South African, don’t pretend to know what is REALLY going on here.
Why do my generation have to pay for things that two generations before me did? They’re all dead and gone, but the government retaliates against us. If that isn’t blatant racism, I don’t know what is.
And I’m not even White! I’m a coloured South African in Cape Town!
18 | Anonymous
7 November 2006 at 14:56
Faizel, I have friends and collegues from S. Africa.
As a ‘coloured’ S. African (mixed race), in the present political climate, you have no doubt lost your “Minor concessions and dubious privileges” as someone refers to what goes on with how coloureds are seen and sees themselves, compared to blacks.
I don’t want to turn this lady’s blog into a political plaform. We’ll just have to beg to differ.
19 | JoJo
7 November 2006 at 16:11
Thank you for your info about S. Africa, Anonymous and Faizel….it’s a terrible thing, apartheid/discrimination, no matter what way you look at it.
However, Ann’s purpose here was to help our friend Axe….What’s the best way to get money to her? Anyone have any ideas? I was going to slip an American $20 into an envelope but can she get it easily exchanged into Rand?
20 | lisa
7 November 2006 at 22:05
I was going to do that too, jojo… Ann? Is that the best way to do it??
21 | Anonymous
5 December 2006 at 21:00
Please,Mrs. Ann email me.I have a few questions about fast and inexpensive methods to ship things to Axe from the U.S. to SA.Thanks…..
at home with ann 
3 November 2006 at 16:04
Ann,
I come to your blog(s) to read all your wonderful poems and stories. I do think your work is beautiful and moving and funny and sad.
You have a caring and gentle soul that I admire greatly. Your light is a shining beacon of hope across the dark waters.
Thank you for being my friend. Have a joyous and safe weekend.