Kubatana.net ~ an online community of Zimbabwean activists

Accept rejection and reject acceptance

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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 by Bev Clark

Here are some general writing tips from some successful writers. And here are some more

1. Ernest Hemingway. Use short sentences and short first paragraphs. These rules were two of four given to Hemingway in his early days as a reporter–and words he lived by.

2. Mark Twain. Substitute “damn” every time you want to use the word “very.” Twain’s thought was that your editor would delete the “damn,” and leave the writing as it should be. The short version: eliminate using the word “very.”

3. Oscar Wilde. Be unpredictable. Wilde suggested that “consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”

4. Anton Chekhov. Show, don’t tell. This advice comes out of most every writing class taught. Chekhov said it most clearly when he said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

5. EB White. Just write. The author of Charlotte’s Web, one of the most beloved of children’s books, said that “I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.”

6. Samuel Johnson. Keep your writing interesting. “The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.”

7. Ray Bradbury. Learn to take criticism well and discount empty praise, or as Bradbury put it, “to accept rejection and reject acceptance.”

8. Toni Morrison. Remember that writing is always about communication. “Everything I’ve ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it.”

9. George Orwell. Orwell offered twelve solid tips on creating strong writing, including an active voice rather than a passive one and eliminating longer words when shorter ones will work just as well.

10. F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke.”

11. Anais Nin. “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.”

12. Truman Capote. Editing is as important as the writing. “I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”

13. Maurice Sendak. Keep revising. “I never spent less than two years on the text of one of my picture books, even though each of them is approximately 380 words long. Only when the text is finished … do I begin the pictures.”

Young stars

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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 by Leigh Worswick

Sabotage and the Kenyan constitution

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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 by Bev Clark

To provide Kenyans with a fair constitution, a panel of experts used 47,793 words. To derail it, someone secretly added two. The attempted sabotage occurred at the official government printer, which was producing copies of the proposed constitution ahead of a national vote on the law in August. The document had been praised for guaranteeing basic freedoms. But in a move that has caused public outrage and prompted an inquiry involving the attorney general and intelligence chiefs, someone at the printing plant was able to add the words “national security” to a key clause on fundamental rights. Nearly 2,000 copies of the altered constitution had been published by the time it was discovered. “It was an outrageous act, unbelievable,” said Otiende Amolo, a Kenyan  member of the committee that drafted the new laws. “The addition of those words meant that all rights could be abrogated in favour of whatever was deemed ‘national security’.” Though President Mwai Kibaki  has ordered a police investigation, the saboteur, widely assumed to be an individual or group opposed to the proposed constitution, has yet to be publicly identified.
- Xan Rice, The Guardian Weekly

MDC is comfortable in government

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Monday, July 5th, 2010 by Bev Clark

Any honest analysis of the MDC post September 15, 2008 would indicate that apart from unsuccessfully declaring unilateral appointments by Mugabe as ‘null and void’ the MDC as we have known it over the years: courageous, confrontational, uncompromising and proactive has become alarmingly ineffective and compromised. Indeed, there might just well be some justification for the view that many in the MDC have become ‘comfortable’ in government and are more focused on enjoying the privileges of office than on challenging Mugabe and ZANU PF.
- Psychology Maziwisa

Tariro on Top

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Monday, July 5th, 2010 by Amanda Atwood

Tariro is a secretary who wants to do her job well. But Mr Kunaka has other ideas about what her duties should be.

Listen to this seralised audio drama about sexual harassment in the work place.

Football for Hope Festival

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Friday, July 2nd, 2010 by Taurai Maduna

Joburg has been quiet for the past two days, no soccer action! We got used to rushing home and being stuck in traffic as people find their way to the stadiums. But in all this silence I spent time at the Team Village of the 32 teams taking part in the Football for Hope Festival which kicks off in Alexandra on Sunday.

Young people are taking part in a mixed 5 aside tournament which has no referee and where disagreements are resolved through dialogue. I spoke to two of them, 17 year old Hemanta Acharya and 18 year old Mubasher Hassan. They are part of the Football United Team from Australia. Both are refugees. Hemanta is Bhutanese and Hassan is Sudanese. Other team members are from Kenya, Iraq and Cyprus.

They are excited about being in South Africa and looking forward to making new friends from other teams. While they are here for the soccer tournament they will also be learning about being good leaders and HIV/AIDS amongst other issues.

Today, the soccer action returns with Ghana taking on Uruguay at Soccer City.

I’m wearing a t’shirt with the map of Africa and I feel like a Black Star!!!!