Yesterday, today and tommorow...

Journalism is defined as being a profession of writing and communicating, formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular community of people. I personally see it as hard work and challenging the thought of an individual in order to equip them with knowledge thus giving countries a better chance of new developed media. That is why I have a passion for it so much; one gets to learn new skills but yet can use their personal creativity to set academic work right. Through my first year in Rhodes University, I have travelled an unforgettable journey which you are about to be informed on.

It was a sunny Monday morning and I had just arrived into my residence, the trees were swaying, birds chirping- the scenery was just too beautiful to be true. My breath was taken by the silence and the isolation of the place. But all changed when I started making friends and attending lectures. In term for we started a course on blogging. At first I had no clue what blogging was although Rod Amner had mentioned it once during his lecture but I did know that it collaborated with genre. As time passed slowly I started to adapt the structure of blogs and the reason why people have them. In my eyes I do believe that blogging is a form of journalism because individuals do research on the topic they want to write about, and then display it on the blog. The readers of the blogs interpret the message in any way they want to and if they feel the urge they can comment on what has been said. The information produced is useful depending on the type of person reading it.

The theme “surviving first year” limited the way I can think and show my writing skills. It is a killed topic because we basically got it every term and no one could actually expand there knowledge on this particular topic. The strength of this theme is the fact that pupils had to engage with other first years to get the feel of there survival and if there social skills were perfect they would make friends during profile piece interviews. For example, I got the chance to meet new people like Chris, one of my interviewees and engage with him on a personal level. The weakness about it was that other important topics like rape, robberies etc could not be approached because all students want to talk about is the hardcore partying that went on the previous night. I really wanted to tap into other topics but the blog produced that opportunity for me to speak about anything which was of importance to me and that I fancied. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate myself as an 8 because when I came here I knew nothing at all.

The journalism department extracted the hidden potential within me. I was once dull and had no formed focus within in me what so ever but as I took time to do my vacation work and attending lectures I learnt so much. I grew very streetwise and aware of reality for example I use to carry my credit card very confidently around everywhere with me until one of my friends tipped me about pocket pickers in Grahamstown. That is when I started carrying a small amount of cash with me. Professionally my vocabulary became sharper and I learnt how to have excellent time management.

This term was different because blogging was a new form of work that was introduced to me. Pre-planning had to be done before performing a task and working in groups was something difficult to do because personalities clashed. Working in a group did not go so well for us because we had bad time management and unfair distribution of work. I feel like I have/had put enough effort including blood and sweat into my work over the term. I lived up to the journalism department’s expectations. My motto was why choose the sky as a limit when one can go higher. I have too much pride, there is no space for failure. Yes, it was not easy dealing with assignments, tests and all that jazz but had to be completed, got completed. During tutorials I would not talk much when requested to but when it came to listening- I payed special attention with anticipation, especially when our tutor spoke about hyperlinks and backtracks. When our blog was created, I thought of majority of the things existing in it because I’m so fashion crazed. I got my ideas from magazines and television. During research, I learnt that research over the internet is not as useful as it may seem and that plagiarising is a risk one should not be willing to take. The Universities system is to High-Tec for crime.

My writing skills are more impressive then they were before and I actually take the time to unpack a topic before explaining it. Genre opened up new doors for my work and education. This course has prepared and geared me for more things to come. I’m more relaxed and confident now, looking forward to what my future holds.

I am fashion

Fashion is an amazing topic to sit down and talk to your mates about. We were thrilled to find that this blog has the same fascination as ours.. By Kganya Ramoshaba

Our dear Sarah Palin

Since being announced as John McCain’s running mate for Vice President of the United States, "fiscal conservative" Sarah Palin has racked up over $150,000 in receipts from high brow stores like Neiman Marcus, Barney’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue. (Makes Hillary Clinton's two $3,000 stylist sessions look like chump change, you think?). To view groovy make-over pictures of our leading lady visit this blog

"Life Isn't About Finding Yourself. Life is About Creating Yourself."

As a scholar, the prospect of attending university was one filled with great excitement and enthusiasm. After spending almost twelve years in a rigorous school system, which allowed little room for creativity or individuality (the colour of our underwear was regulated), I longed to attend university, a world which numerous brochures and pamphlets from institutions across the country described as the period of my life that would be filled with possibility. I was eager to steer my future down the right path, to leave home and to assert my independence but most of all, I yearned to find myself.
After almost a year on “my own”, I like many other first year and sometimes even masters’ students at university, feel that this endeavour has been somewhat futile - I still do not know who I am. At times I think that it is unfair of me demand an answer to such a simple yet complex question, whereas at other times I’m perplexed as to how I still have not managed crack this question. To put it simply, I am more confused now than ever before. I no longer know what I would like to do with my life and as such regularly consider switching majors, dropping and picking up subjects and sometimes even dropping out of university as a whole.
Academics aside, I am well aware that blinded by the desire to fit, I haven’t always been true to myself. While I realise that throughout our lives, we are all influenced by others, I can’t help but wonder whether the way in which I carry myself, my diction of choice or taste in music mirrors that of my friends or whether it reflects who I really am.
My friend Charmaine, regrets that she allowed herself to be swayed by the desires of her friends to the point where she could no longer recognise herself: “I wish I had taken time to explore my talents. I wish I hadn’t gone along with all group activities; I partied a lot in the first semester and went along with what everyone else did instead of doing what I enjoyed. I focused too much on new things and in the process forgot who I was and what I enjoyed,” she says when speaking of her regrets as a first year student.
I am certain that like Charmaine and I there are billions of students who go through their first or even final years at a tertiary institution hoping that their quest for knowledge will also lead them down the path of self-discovery. Oftentimes, this simply isn’t the case. While students may find themselves doing the unexpected are they really finding themselves or are they just realising the stereotypes associated with students?
It is only natural for us to lose ourselves during transitive periods in our lives and university signifies that all important transition from childhood to adulthood. Perhaps it would be wiser if instead of promising hordes that they will embark on a journey of self discovery and ultimately find themselves, university’s should rather say that among other things, they provide students with the platform to create themselves, which, in time will see them leaving their mark on the world.

The morning after the night before

She asked for it...

We live in an age where our character is determined by who we associate with, where we choose to spend our time and more importantly, what we choose to wear. The importance of clothing and the impressions that it creates has been sidelined for far too long. In our own microcosm here at Rhodes University, it’s no secret that students judge each other according to what they wear.

For instance, you have the “hippie trend”. These are students who religiously sport the Che Guevara/Steve Biko t-shirts, leave the shoes at home and adorn themselves with as many beads and strings as possible. Even though these ‘individualists’ may not have picked up a joint in their life, there is a misconception that these students all meet at the old gaol to engage in their habitual ‘stoning ritual’. While these stereotypes may just cause the occasional snigger, there are those stereotypes that have been created by clothing which prove to be dangerous.

When a girl walks into room, club or dining hall wearing a short skirt or shorts, there are at least three people who have judged her as being one of those eager girls (the most politically correct term I could think of). These people can either be male or female, and feel that they have the right to sentence this girl to a life of promiscuity, stupidity and failure. This may seem over exaggerated but it’s true that the sexual availability of these girls seems to be determined in one glance. Perhaps there are some girls who feel confident with flaunting their legs to get attention from guys and have other characteristics that create negative impressions of them, but then there are also girls who have no agendas when they wear short skirts...unless wanting to be comfortable or cool on a hot day is an agenda?

In a democracy, women should have the freedom to express themselves through their attire as freedom of expression is a constitutional right . Yet, so often women are forced to give up the choice to wear certain clothes simply because some men can’t keep it in their pants. There is the argument that women entice men and tempt them by wearing such clothing. In courts today, this is becoming a common (warped) justification of rape and abuse. It seems ridiculous to think that a simple item of clothing can cause a person to have all dignity, safety and power taken away from them. “She was wearing a short skirt, and so she asked for it” is no longer acceptable. Matters are then made worse when this kind of twisted reasoning disseminates from the mouth of influential politicians when they are accused of rape . This in turn, creates the misconception that rape is somewhat acceptable when the victim was wearing certain items of clothing.

Discrimination and abuse can never be justified by fashion. This idea is simply ridiculous and it all leads back to the acceptance of certain stereotypes which may appear harmless but can end up undermining the dignity and rights of the person. People shouldn’t have the right to undermine anybody else’s rights. Next time you are about to judge a woman for wearing a short skirt (or heaven forbid showing some skin), step down from your high horse and realise that she owns her own body and may clothe it with whatever she wants. As Eve Ensler says in her poem, My Short Skirt, “...mainly my short skirt and everything underneath it is Mine. Mine. Mine.”

My dress or yours

The English oxford dictionary defines unique “as of which there is only one, unequalled is; having no like, equal or parallel”. This is a serious struggle a Rhodes student encounters once or more in there first year unless one is lucky and hits the popular scale just by luck. It is the turbulent movement of leaving a secure environment called home and moving into the cruel selfish world referred to as hell. Obviously one does not leave without putting up a shield and sword for protection.
We live in a global village, whereby everybody is a replica of the next person and Rhodes is no exception. People buy the same clothes, cell phones and many stay in similar residence rooms. This takes away individualism and makes us, the one reason for institutions to be one uniform. In my experience peer pressure is still evident in the young adults on campus. Many teenagers express “their freedom” in various ways; some come here to build their careers in contrast to others who have come here as a form of rebellion to their parents; they have a fear of missing out and always r.s.v.p for parties and are commonly referred to as “social butterflies”. Others have come to explore other sexual preferences and they are able to this because they can not be negatively sanctioned by their parents i.e. I had this friend who has always claimed to be boy crazy, but she went through a phase of going out with other girls and ended discovering she has always been attracted to girls but society had brain washed to her like boys.
Being unique in Rhodes is a statement that always leaves a trail of thought in my mind, who are we and what we do that makes us think we are different from others. Is it what we wear, the way we walk or the people we socialise with? One must admit we do dwell in an isolated area, its hard for us as students to be different. We must have some sort of similarities. Some form clusters to create individualism just like the following sub-genres which I have chosen because in my eyes they tend to stick out. For example hippies-they are a majority group that demand a lot of attention by walking bare feet around campus with dreads and side bags. In between lectures they will sit on the grass under the arch and speak in philosophised terms. Besides them we then get the stoners otherwise called marijuana smokers, they are an “underground” group who distribute deviant behaviour. They symbolise there group via wearing beanies with a huge ganja leaf on it. They carry themselves with aloofness.
Then we get the hip-hop group that thinks music and any rhythm one can move to was created just for them. Hoodies and baggy clothes tickles there pop and lock. Now with these categories one tends to want to fit in so any form of initiation act which has to be done, one will feel pressurised to do. Forgetting that we all have a choice in life, no one is holding a gun against your head. Some people are just not bothered about having a status or reputation to keep up with. They would rather be themselves then a clone of someone else. We try so much to have an individual style and to make an identity for ourselves that even the fact that we came into this world alone never fazes us.
I believe that people weren’t given a spirit of fear but of love and a sound mind, so moulding ones personality is not up to the world but to there mind set. Yes, people do blow identity creation out of propotion, but honestly speaking who doesn’t want to feel special…