WITH THESE HANDS

I honestly would not have thought one day I’ll be writing about hands, I mean what can one say about hands? Not much neh! Well we use them to eat, pick things up and etc. Actually there’s a lot one can write about the topic, give yourself a moment and think about it. For the mean time I’ll tell you why I’m writing about hands, a few weeks back I was working with performing artists from UK, actually UK consist of Ireland, Whales, Scotland and England if there’s any country I’m leaving out forgive me! all this time I thought UK and England were just different names for the same country until I was corrected by a generous English man. So the performing artists are from England to be specific. They had a theme we South Africans and them could use to inform our artistic collaboration, I thought it’s a bloody ridiculous theme especially from a filmmaker’s point of view but thankfully I always fully mentally digest any project I commit myself in. The next day I made time to observe how others interpret the theme, and it hit me what it meant to me through other people. And most important as a South African! I use my hands to reach out to my fellow human being, to give them a hand shake! With that hand shake I can connect with them not only physically but emotionally and now and then spiritually. Yes! It all happens in a hand shake. And that’s why sometimes you can feel if they genuinely mean it when they say they okay. With these hands I can hold on to you and you, especially when a friend is in need; with my hands I can comfort you, help you lift something when you need extra hands. With these hands warm I can hold her, tell her how much I love her. It’s through my hands I can express joy, laughter by simply clapping my hands. My hands can beat a drum and create rhythm, which we will joyfully dance to, but in my case I can conceptualise an idea for a film then with my hands type a script and direct actors how to perform it with these hands. With these hands I pray to the all mighty to bless me so I can be a blessing to others; have the knowledge and wisdom to manoeuvre through this journey of life. Nelson Mandela used his hands to reach out to those who oppressed us in the past to forgive them, make them feel they still part of this rainbow nation. Well! That’s what my hands do and mean for me, so the performing artists from England had a brilliant theme and I thank them for that! Through my hands I type and publish on http://www.evansmathibe.blogspot.com what these hands mean to me. Now that I gave you more a moment to think about it, what do your hands mean to you?

Written by: Evans Mathibe

MEASURE OF SUCCESS

What is a measure of success? now! I’m going to have a cup of coffee, hopefully in my coffee session I might just get a “light bulb moment” and answer the mentioned question. Rather let me give you my understanding of success, or what people mean when they talk about measure of success. If you ask anyone right now what it is? They’ll most probably not give you a definite answer. And I, find it very disturbing that society does not think about such life changing questions, asking yourself the question is far more important than the answer you’ll get. It’s a journey you’ll go through trying get the answer, and that’s when you realise the answer lies in asking the question which will lead to more questions. Whenever you’re with friends randomly ask them what is a Measure of success? Most of them will have an answer immediately, and their answer will have key words like I’m happy where I am or have a job the answer will be about now! I call it short term happiness. Anyway recently I was with friends well some I still value their authentic friendship, and that is another subject I will dwell into soon, so we chatting about friends we haven’t seen for years, what are they doing with their lives a etc. While conversing with them I realize we all have our own interpretation of success, and at that moment I was almost getting close to my definition, then one of them questioned one of our friends achievement thus far in life. And I mean career, finances you know social status related success, no one is in a position to make their own success as a bench mark for everyone else. That’s my position and i stand by it. Okay! Let’s address this social status success thing, let’s say I had a friend who’s a construction worker and I’m partner in a law firm, from the outside, one will assume I’m successful and he’s not. But I might be envious of him because he’s more fulfilled in life than I am, he’s content. Anyway that is an example of how we measure success. What is the measure of success? The answer can be simple if you inclined to a philosophical way of thinking; success is different for everyone; its doing and getting you want. But some haven’t asked themselves that question and that’s why in most cases they don’t know their own success. Its very important as a human race to ask our selves what is our personal measure of success, and its okay if you figure that out through someone’s else success, you will be inspired to have the courage to find your own measure. So fellow readers, what is you measure of success?

MTV SWEET 16 AUDITIONS

BEING A LEADER

A Month ago I had a discussion with a “friend” about a certain theatre institution on what’s going wrong. And i was blaming the lack of leadership which results in things going wrong and my “friend” felt its more complex than blaming top management, well we were civil enough to agree to disagree. At that moment I realised how we as society have ignored the importance and what it means to be a leader to its true essence, are we appointing people in such vital position solely based on academic achievement or their connections? There are various reasons why one would occupy such a position, and that is not the reason for writing this blog. I have been meaning to write about this leadership issue for some time while it was still “fresh in my mind” but I took my time in trying to process and sort of find out people’s perception of leadership. Finally! I had the courage to blog it out of my system, well I’m trying to lead by example I know it’s quite ironic. Let’s start with the Oxford’s definition of leadership; it says “Ability to be a leader” so lest say an x company employs me (Evans Rakgole Mathibe) as the Chief Executive Officer because of my academic achievement and experience, and I’m given all the support and control so to the company can be more successful than where it is. But I the x company have not made any profit and the management is not efficient, so in this instance who do we actually blame? Where does it go wrong huh? Okay let’s say it’s the management, either they were not competent enough or lacked commitment, or maybe it’s more complex than that? shares were down and etc. That’s one way of looking at it, maybe I to be blamed as CEO? Dear readers! There’s numerous good books written about Leadership, and they will tell you there’s more than just being in that position that makes you a leader, your assignment is to find out about such books and read them, they will help you in giving you more clarity. For me it’s about leadership qualities that someone can bare testimony to them, I mean being in a leadership position doesn’t mean you have qualities that come with it. A leader must have the ability to make those who follow him/her their vision, have those who want to follow them; it’s not about what you know (academic achievement & experience) and who you know (connections), is how much you care that makes you an even better leader. Yes! Care about those who follow you (management), I’m talking about making sure they know their importance in the success of an organization and how much you value their contribution. When something wrong a leader identifies the problem and provides a solution. So going back to the example I used, the CEO should replace the management with a new one if they are the issue and use powers given to him to rectify why the company is not making a profit with no hesitation or he should simply resign as the last solution. Remember, the oxford definition says “Ability to be a leader”, key word is ability! Lastly a good leader can ask for help because they don’t know what to do. So what’s your definition of a good leader?

MATTERS OF THE HEART

MATTERS OF THE HEART
I can safely say we all want to fall in love someday, one day even its today. I’m talking about falling in love in its true essence, you lose yourself in love to a point you’ll do anything to feel that way till the end of time. I know it sounds farfetched; well it’s something you’ll hear from a “realist” or someone who has been hurt so bad they would rather die to go through that again, and blame it on love. I’m sorry to everyone who went through that but don’t blame it on love, please! I have fallen in love, rather at a young age some will say; have you ever fallen love? So deep in love, when you with that person you feel like you have an outer body experience? You willing to share what’s dear to you with them, your heart, dreams and you make them part of your plans. I once felt that way and it felt like I wasn’t in this planet for the time when we were in a relationship and only came back when it ended.

We connected in ways I couldn’t even comprehend. Yes sceptics would disagree with me, cause they say, “if one could ever feel that way for another then why is there cheating?” That person hasn’t fallen in love; they’ve been in relationships for other reasons and most probably loved them but not inlove. When you literary fall in love, you feel like you’re possessed by the feeling, that’s why the saying “love is blind” I believe someone came up with it cause they couldn’t explain the behaviour. I urge everyone who’s reading this, to “open their heart” so when you find that person or vice versa, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, like on Celine Dion’s song “Love doesn’t ask why, is comes in your heart and never explains” We all have that special person who will reciprocate exactly how you will fell for them, but it depends if you have hope, well that’s another subject I will dwell into soon. The love subject or the feeling that we describe when being inlove is a global phenomena or they could be just matters of the heart!

STRUGGLE OF A FILMMAKER

I can’t begin a day without a cup or two of coffee, am I an addict? I don’t know, but I love it. Like everyone who has an affair with coffee. My body only “wakes up” after having a cup. My coffee sessions come with a state of mind, either thinking about how I’m going to spend my day, anything needing my urgent attention and recalculating my journey, you know what I do for a living and how to reach my peak. Talking about what I do for a living I recently watched a film I lost myself in, which is a rare occasion. A good film should have that effect on a person, so after that I’m on a creative climax. I’m conceptualising a film that makes me get on a natural high, it’s an aftermath of watching a good film something happens to me quite often.

Unfortunately and fortunately filmmakers are usually lost in their own world and only they reside there, fortunately that’s when they are most creative and the unfortunate part of it is losing touch with reality, no! I’m not saying we act crazy and etc. Just that we find it difficult to snap out of that world in most cases. I’m one of a few lucky ones who can snap out of it at will, so I did exactly that and at that moment at hit me how much of a struggle it is to be a filmmaker, well anywhere in the world but even more difficult in my country (South Africa ).

About 80% of us are still struggling to get funds, l mean it’s ultimately about that in order for us to produce a film. So why do we struggle as filmmakers? There are a few reasons and different arguments. If you look at films produced in South Africa, none of them have been commercially successful, why? It’s because they ant the kind of films one would want to watch. So the ones who get funding should pave the way for us by producing a commercially viable films and they must master the business of filmmaking, so we (the next generation) learn from them. But it seems not to be the case, and the government should make more funds, not that they should spoon feed us but “kick start” the industry and we will take it from there, I estimate we would need about 1o billion for the next 10 years so we can be self sustainable. So that reality check suppresses my creative juices” but hey what can I say, it’s the price we pay for being a filmmaker. So why do you think filmmakers struggle so much?