Is This Really Freedom?

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.



Is This Freedom? 
Is this your idea of freedom?
Don't get me wrong I am grateful for being in a so called democratic country.
Then again again are we really living in a democratic country?
What's so visible nowadays that shows we're living in a democratic country?

Is This Really Freedom?
Being locked up in our homes, not knowing what will happen in this country.
In fact not know what our government will do with our lives.
I never thought I would saying this but our survival is based on the actions of our government.
We're afraid of the unknown, is this how you envisioned your freedom on the 27th of April 2020 will be like.

Is This Really Freedom?
We have so much inequalities within our country.
The rich are getting richer day by day, meanwhile the poor are getting poorer all day everyday.
The government funds put in place to upgrade our communities are misused by our so called leaders.
Leadership isn't something you get involved in for the sake of getting money.
Leaders lead by example not by default or corruption.
Each leader before coming up with an decision, he/she should this question: How is this going to benefit the citizens of my country?

Is This Really Freedom?
A lot of people are starving each day and they don't know when their next meal will come from.
Others don't even have homes nor shelters.
The employment rate keeps on increasing at all times.
The country struggles with water and electricity as certain provinces don't have full access to such resources.
The education system has failed a lot of people within our country.

Is This Really Freedom?
Our rights are messed around with by certain individuals that feel they're above the law.
Politics run the whole country and if you not at the top or within the political circle, you get nothing.
We don't even a freedom of speech, as we need to watch what we see and whom we say it to within the country.
The media cannot publish the truth as it has to obey certain rules within the governance.
Seriously, no-one can be trusted with doing their jobs within government.
Most people within the government are all talks but no actions. Full of empty promises while the citizens are suffering to lack of competency from our certain government officials.

Is This Really Freedom? 
We really got a long way to go to fix our own mistakes and poor decision making skills.
Although we maybe in this mess but we can still come out of it as better people.
We can definitely learn from each situations and challenges that we come across each day in our country.
I just hope we all work together to achieve more success as a country and finally reach that status of having freedom.

You're Not Alone TNS.

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.



After I saw a rare video of TNS crying live on Instagram, I felt touched by what he was going through and most people could relate in such situation.
TNS explained on his video that he feels that his life is at risk as there's a group of Durban artists that want him dead.
On his the video, he also explained that he has no-one on his corner, as he doesn't have a family. Since he grew up as an orphan. He said the artists can take the music but leave him. Basically he was reaching out for help from anyone. TNS just needed someone to talk to and help him out with the situation at hand. I then decided to dedicate this piece to him...

It was sickening to see you cry like that on social media.
I seriously felt your pain as I washed that Instagram video.
The hopelessness, anger and helplessness was written in your face.
I was a bit emotional too as watching the video.
As your story was very touching and relatable.
You're a young man who was fighting to leave a poverty stricken life and build your own life that you need and dreamt of when you were a child. 
I am sorry for what has  happened to your TNS.
It's okay to show your emotions.
And what you're going through.   
Every person has a breaking point.
You've shown us that nothing is impossible in life with your success.
You've made us dance with your music.
You're nothing but a pure talent that we should protect as South Africans.
You're the future of our South African Music.
Stay strong young king.
Everything is going to be okay.
Keep praying.
We love and cherish you TNS.
Keep blessing us with your timeless music.
Take care Bhari.

Also please download his latest hit single on all digital music platforms called Ibhari.

I'm A Proud Virgin.

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.



My name is Puleng Nkosi from Durban in South Africa. Just to be honest it hasn't been easy for me to remain a virgin throughout these years, in fact this year I'm turning 22 years in October. It is through self discipline, self love and support from my friends and family that I can still call myself a proud virgin. I feel that my virginity is very  sacred to me and I can't just give it away just like that to any man I meet in my life. It's something that I hold dearly in my heart and it's very special to me. I do get a lot of guys asking me out, most of them just want to break my virginity and runaway.

I also been getting a lot of peer pressure from people. I've been told that I don't know what I've missing out on, meanwhile other people don't believe that I'm a virgin, also I got some good people cheering me and begging me to stay a virgin until marriage. I can say that I get a lot of mixed emotions or vibes from different people, but it depends on their take on virginity. I'm cool with it though, I'm used to it now and at the end of the day everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I put pride on my virginity and it has became my treasure as I have to constantly make sure that I don't give it away that easily.

I would really like to keep it like this until I meet my husband and I'll then loose my virginity in my marriage. For now though I just need to focus on myself, my studies and building my legacy. Make sure that I make something out of myself. I will continue going to the Reed dance that takes  place every year in September whereby we get checked if we're still virgins or not. It's also massive event in KwaZulu Natal, I also love just rubbing shoulders with fellow virgins, dressing up in my traditional attire, singing and getting all the advice from the elders especially the King. It's just a wonderful event to attend as you leave as a better person.

My advice to other fellow virgins out there, please continue loving yourselves unconditionally and you don't need a man to validate your existence on earth. Just keep it moving and make yourselves, your families and friends proud. Remember your'll are role models too, please handle yourselves with care. Focus on your goals and visions by making sure that your'll finish your studies at school.

"My Breasts Are Perfectly Imperfect."

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.

 


I recently just saw this beautiful woman called Lelethu Bunu Poney who posted on her social media about her breasts and how it has been a struggle over the years to accept that she has bigger breasts than other women.

This is a touchy subject to most women across the world. As breast form part of the woman's beauty, especially when they look in the mirror. Most women don't want their breasts to be too big or too small, they just want that perfect middle size breasts. Also, they don't want their breasts to be saggy too, hence many women do a boobs job or you can call it breasts surgery. Whereby they spend a lot of money trying to make their breast perfect. This can involve increasing or decreasing the size of their breasts. We see this being mostly done by our porn stars and celebrities.

I feel that despite how the breasts of a woman look shouldn't determine her sex life. Even if a woman has a child or children, married or not married, dating or not dating, her breasts have nothing to do with her beauty or past relationships. We need to normalize having any size of breasts in our communities. I mean like to let the women know that it's okay to have big or small breasts. We also need to stop judging other women's breasts, it's none of your business if she has big or small breasts. We need to stop adding more pressure to other people's insecurities. If you got nothing good to say about her breasts, do us and yourself a massive favour by keeping your comments to yourself.

An Open Letter To COVID19.

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.

Corona Oh Corona...
I stand before you sickened by your actions.
I am quite disappointed by what you've done to our people, our communities and our countries.
We just cannot live in peace and harmony ever since you came to our households unannounced.
You on our minds, body, even on our different media platforms.
You're the talk of the town.
Are you proud of your what you've to us?
Aren't you exhausted of the results of your birth?

Corona Oh Corona…
I'm devastated by constantly hearing your effects on people's lives.
The world is at war with you.
Can't you feel the pressure of being on everyone's prayers, minds and mouths?
The bad thing is that no-one has the answers to fight you.
The world has came to a stand still.
We've been introduced to lockdowns and quarantine.
We were never ready for such things.

Corona Oh Corona… 
Our schools closed.
Most people are not working at the moment
Meanwhile others are working from home.
We don't know what will happen tomorrow but we still live in faith that we will defect you.
The deaths and heartache you’ve caused will come back to you.
By fire or by force we will overcome your suffering and pain.
Our healthcare, protection and essential services are working tirelessly.
Please stop it now Corona, we don’t like it.

Problems.

Written By SivuyileTshalana.

It's really important to have a clear mindset on what you want to do each day. You cannot wake up in the morning and complain about what is not going right in your life. How about you put actions to your complaints? Actually start solving your problems, instead of talking about them to people and thinking they will go away. It's utter important to face your problems face-to-face nor man-to-man and show them you above them.

Problems are actually challenges that are meant to grow you as a person. Despite whatever problems you currently facing, ask yourself this: how bad can it be? What can I learn from this problem? How can I use this problem to my advantage to better myself and other people? On the real, many people own their own businesses and innovations because of their problems that they overcame. A problem only leads you to the right direction that you never thought existed. With that being said, we all need to learn to see problems as opportunities to success. We cannot afford to let our problems drag us down, that means they've won the battle and we can't give our problems victories as they will always haunt us. We can't put our problems in front of us, because we going to continuously trip and fall on top of our problems. Let's not let our problems dictate how we live our lives and our future endeavors in life.

Every person should try by all means to look beyond their problems and be stronger than their problems going forward in life. We cannot walk with our head held high with our problems on our minds. We need to have a fresh start to each day and manifest our goals and visions. Everyone wants to make something out of their lives and throughout all of those actions, there will be problems along the way. What matters is how we deal with them.

Short Story: The Bravest Moment Of Her Life.

Written by Sivuyile Tshalana.

The way Zanele was raised at home by her parents was to become an ideal woman that valued her parents teachings and respects everyone. Zanele's happiness came last, because all she wanted was to make her parents proud. Firstly, her parents constantly bought her skirts and long dresses as well as all the typical girls clothes. To be honest she did not really feel comfortable in girls clothing even though she was a girl. She accepted the clothes with open hands and a fake smile on top. Zanele was more into boys clothes, and she used to steal her brother's pants and wear them when her parents were not around as they used to work most of the time. Zanele's brother had a lot of clothes so he hardly noticed if one pant was missing. He was always away most of the times. If he was not at school, he was  playing some sport somewhere or chilling with his girlfriend or friends. Zanele and her brother were not really close as they used to fight over typical things many siblings fight about, like chores but through it all they loved each other unconditionally. One thing they made sure of was to never fight or argue in front of their parents, as they both loved and respected them like any other child would that's living in this world.

As much as she enjoyed seeing her parents happy but deep down she was not, as she was living two lives. At home she was her parents little girl, they always  told her one day she will get married to a good man, have a big and happy family and she will have a wonderful life. She did not really entertain such comments as she would just laugh it off and just say she was not ready for that lifestyle anytime soon as she enjoy her family right now. Zanele's parents did not pressurize their daughter to get married as they enjoyed having her around and they told her to focus on her studies and be a better somebody going forward in life. They did not want her to be dependent on a man for any sort of income to get her going. Zanele's parents had this ideal life for her which she played along with but her problem was her sexuality. She was a lesbian, the way she carried herself around women, she had feelings for them and when with men she would feel like part of them. They spoke the same language which was women's language - as they always spoke about which girls they were into and the men welcomed her as part of them. This goes back to Zanele's childhood as she always enjoyed having male friends more than female friends. She was always herself when she was with her male friends, and started  wanting to dress and behaving like them. Zanele's male friends enjoyed her company and for the fact that she used to set them up on blind dates with the most beautiful women. Zanele's family was the only one's who did not know that she was a lesbian, as many people knew her secret. They were very judgemental towards her and that made her even more doubtful about talking to her parents about her sexuality.

A couple of days later she just told herself that she was going through with it, and she called a meeting and told her family about the big secret that she was hiding from them. She also apologized for not being the ideal girl that they wanted as parents. Zanele's brother stood up from the chair, gave his sister a hug, whispered on her ear that he knew as he was told by other people but he will support her all the times. Zanele's father just walked out and left them sitting in the lounge. Zanele's mother tried to comfort her daughter, told her that she will always love her and all will be alright. As they were both in tears and her mother told her that her father will come around one day but she got her support as well as her brother's caring support. Zanele thanked them for understanding and she also agreed that this situation is very hard to digest. She will always love her family and they will adjust to her new lifestyle. Zanele also added that her sexuality does not change anything, she will always be their daughter and her brother's sibling. She will still do what she has to do for her future to be brighter. Although life had to go on, Zanele's father did not accept her at all and made sure he avoided her most of the times.

What Is Love?

Written by Sivuyile Tshalana.

In this day, and age we all need love and we must love back at the same time. In order to love, we must firstly understand the term love. The word love is overused these days by certain people to meet their needs and wants without even thinking about the other person involved. There are different aspects that make up love.

Love is unconditional, whereby you love a person based on your true feelings and not loving the person based on their materialistic things.

Love is inner beauty. It is a person's personality and looking at the person's heart.

Love is also spending time with your loved ones. Taking time off your busy life and to be with your loved ones.

Love is having no expectations. You give love because it benefits you not financially but emotionally.

Love is beautiful, it makes you feel happy, it makes you smile and gives you a different perspective of life.

Love is unique. It is something that we all have but very few of us do not fear showing it.

Love is not just an emotion, it is a way of life.

Love is equal. People must have the same level of understanding and feelings. In order for love to be not alone but pure.

Love has no boundaries, no privacy, sees no colour, does not discriminate and has no specific age limit. In other words love seeks no perfection.

Love is giving, caring, patience, sacrifices, trustworthy and transparent.

Bible Definition: Love suffers long and is kind, love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. Love never fails. (Take from the New Testament Psalms and Proverbs. 1 Corinthians 13:4, 5 and 8. Page 320).

Love is more than just a romantic thing.

Love can be explained in many ways, but only shown in one way by actually loving.

Underestimating Others.

Written by Sivuyile Tshalana.

In life as people at times we like to think that we're better than each other as we're constantly in a race to be successful. In that race we meet a lot of people, get used to certain ways of doing things and we then settle for their personality that they portrayed to us. After that we then develop one of the bad tendencies that any human being can have, which is called underestimating. How this came about is that a human being looks down on another person. We then create unnecessary and inaccurate conclusions about certain individuals that we come a cross.

This can be considered as dangerous, because no-one really knows what the other person is always thinking. Sometimes they can tell if you ask them, but there's guarantee that the person told you everything. We then develop ways of underestimating that person based on what they told you, what you see and hear. In certain cases, many people show or tell you what you to hear so that you can think you ahead in life. Then that's how being underestimated come about in life. We don't want to give everyone a fair chance in life. We cut others of because we feel they are not good enough to be with us in our lives which means they won't be as productive as other trusted ones. To be honest everyone deserves an opportunity to do something without being underestimated so that they will be loved, and it will portray on their work as there would be no pressure. People are then allowed to be themselves which increase their happiness and productivity. They will feel content as they will not overthink things to come up solutions.

No-one has the right to underestimate another person. We all here to make somethings of ourselves and times we might step on each other's feet. When that happens, we don't have to take it personally, but we need to accept it as we keep it moving. In some cases, other people love being underestimated as it gives them less pressure. As an underdog, you can do whatever you want nothing to pressure and excel at it too. Before even underestimating another person, which I would don't do it as it is not worth it. Just do your research on other people before you utter a word about them to yourself and other people. You will get nothing from underestimating others. Hence it is important to do your own thing and focus on yourself more than you do on others. Chase your hustle, upgrade it and rip out the rewards of your hard work as well as live the life you know you deserve. It's now or never for your dreams and visions. Living on other people's shadows won’t help you.

Thank God Every day.

Written by Sivuyile Tshalana.

It is not by choice or our liking that we are waking up every morning and gear on to face the day. Everyone need to give credit where its due, especially to someone who deserves it for looking after us every night's and days, that person is God. We're absolutely nothing without God, as he's the creator of mankind. The aim is to praise him every day for simply giving us a golden opportunity to live and make something out of ourselves that he'd be proud of and make the difference in our communities. Remember that a giving hand is blessed than a receiving hand.

Life is more meaningful when people learn the art of giving without expecting anything in return. God uses people to help others to come out of tough situations in their lives. Hence it is important to see God in all people and don't hate others. Everything is taught, no-one is born knowing everything on earth or about life, hence it is crucial that we seek guidance from God in order we can be able to understand our reasons for being on earth. We live and learn from others as well who've already been through the ups and downs of life and have seen it all. Those people are our elders, also known as our parents or guardians and are also called our Gods on earth. If can we can love them unconditionally, respect and cherish them, surely, we can do the same to the Almighty our God and surveyor. We need to pray more and worry less, just to thank him for such an amazing present called life. We need to be more thankful, count our blessings and have less complaints. Just sit down and start appreciating what we have in this lifetime. We're so used to touch base with our God when things don't go our way or when we ask for things that we need in our lives.

When doesn't give us those things that we need at that time, most of us start doubting him and his abilities to help us, forgetting that he has already helped us by giving us lives and our brains to use come with solutions. Most people forget that if they start thanking God for all they have now and what they're about receive in the future makes God gives them more blessings. Be thankful for waking up every morning, being strong and healthy and being able to do things by yourselves. Be thankful for your loved ones, job, education, shelter and food. Just be thankful each every day, because there are many patients in hospitals right fighting for their lives as well as begging God for another opportunity nor shot at life. They want to revive their lives in a way that God would approve and start following God's commandments in order to lives accordingly and with so much ease. There's about approximately four-hundred trillion in one probability that a person has a chance to actually live. This means life is very rare and it’s something that shouldn't be taken for granted as it is not promised that we might live tomorrow.

We need to thank God more often for everything, people die every day and we still alive, which means there's still a chance to better ourselves and praise God daily. It's our chance to show God how much we appreciate his blessings and love through prayer and being thankful for everything. God is love. God is our father. God is our leader. God is the greatest man of all time. He always deserves to be thanked and praised.