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The truth – the roots of life

Today I got an interesting call from the man who contributed to my existence. The call made me realise that the truth is really what constitutes the roots of life. One may or may not like the truth but if at all it is true that “nnete e mokoka” (the truth shall prevail) then one will eventually have to face the truth for what it is.

The truth as far as my journey to getting to the roots is concerned is: I do exist and statistically the chances of existing as the person I so much love and adore were very low. The statistic enthusiasts estimate that the chances of one being born is 1 divided by 6 x 10100 (go here for more details). This using a calculator is almost zero! This means I could have almost not made it to this world but I did precisely because of the exact sperm-egg fusion that statistically can never be repeated. For this reason, I celebrate but I also mourn because I realise that I might never get the bound I so desire nor deny the blood that runs in my veins.

So I celebrate for even in mourning I am not without hope. It could perhaps be because I am young and find it easy to subscribe to the so-called Obama ideals. Or it could be because I believe in the saying “hloakana la bophelo le fumanoa liretseng”. (I stand to be corrected on the literal translation but I think it is as follows: “the straw of life is found in the mud”; and the actual meaning is that one doesn’t find meaning and worthyness of life in pristine conditions.)

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Remembrance Sunday

Well it is that sunday of the year where we remember the fallen heroes – our fathers and grandfathers who fought in the world war. This particular year as we celebrate the freedoms that these men fought for, one song comes to mind. This song was written by Ntate Karabo Eric Lekhanya and its chorus is as follows:

“Khotso e rene kahohle-hohle
Pula li ne melubela;
Batho ba lule ba ratana
Ba lese ho loantšana.”

Translated:

Let peace reign all over
Let the rains rain
All people must continue to love one another
And they should not fight each other.

It is therefore my hope that all the prayers made during the 2 minutes of silence can result in a renewed commitment to peace. Khotso Pula Nala!

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Interview at Ragland Clinic

Just went for an interview at the Ragland clinic. After briefly providing an overview of what I would like to achieve, the following were deemed as important questions:

  • Where is the service provider located at?
  • What services are offered by the service provider?
  • What time are the services offered at?
  • What is next after I get HIV test result be it is positive or negative?

A question that might be asked to the caller is: what made them want to test? The cited possible reasons include:

  • Been encouraged to test by a health professional
  • Partner tested positive
  • Check of status (This is more a likely a response from the youth. The old tend to test on account of partner testing positive or being sick and have been encouraged to test.)

Contacts: Noel Issacs, Mandisa Nduna, Lungi Masingili, Pumeza and Ntozi

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Defining relations…friendship vs. camaraderie

By no doubt we are in interesting times. We are in a period where one has to critically analyse the difference between friendship and camaraderie (comradeship). I choose the two because as one listens to the news, one particularly gets a distinct impression that the two differ greatly. And indeed from seeking clarity from the all-knowing wiki, comradeship can be used to refer to friends or colleagues; and this means one can have a work relationship with another individual without being friends.

This, together with a reflection of my own relationships has made me wonder if it is possible to confuse high frequency of interaction with friendship? My answer is that the possibility of confusion is in all probability the same as the possibility of gaining a true friend from those interactions. Therefore, unless the friendship is tested, one may never know. So with the possibility of a splinter being formed, as spectators we should look forward to witnessing true friendships and mere interactions of convenience that might have been confused as friendship as embodied in comradeship!

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Sing and dance through it all

This evening I went to Rhodes University Chamber Choir concert. I must say the performance was impressive—but if the truth be told, Wits choir is a little bit better than us. This is not really about comparing the two choirs, my point is while listening to the choir, I was reminded of an article I read not so long ago — the jive that kept us alive —a tribute to John Matshikiza.

The gist of the article was about dancing and singing through all that life has to offer us. Yesterday, we were hit by a mini tornado here in Grahamstown; it is still relatively windy to be at ease, but despite this, it was impossible not to enjoy the singing and dancing. Strange as this may sound, it suddenly made sense to me why music is such a huge part of our culture. For example, in my own culture, we sing virtually for every occasion including war. We have songs known as mokorotlo (war songs) and koli-ea-malla (sad songs), which I provide as support for my statement.

Much as I had never thought about singing and dancing as part of culture, I never underestimate the power of song. The repertoire included songs in isiXhosa, Sesotho, IsiZulu, Germany, English and I think Latin as well. It wasn’t just the language factor but some compositions were dated as far back as the pre-Christ era. This means that the choir, through song and dance, was able to transcend it all — language, time and differences in culture.

So, as food for thought, we should consider singing and dancing through it all — be it we are in pain or filled with joy. Whilst, of course, taking heed of advice given in a song Nna Na (I think it should have been: Nnana). In this song, a person called Nnana is asked to remember that life is like a spinning wheel (bophelo ke lebili); what goes around will surely come around!

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Advice from SAICIST Postgraduate Symposium

Today, we presented our work-in-progress papers at SAICIST Masters and Doctoral Symposium. It was truly very interesting and these were some of the general comments that were made by the moderators:

  • Articulation of the problem statement: It was felt that many of us failed to state our problem statement.
    Research question formulation: Again, we were faulted for articulation but the major criticism was with the formulation of the question. The formulation of the question tended to be binary as in yes or no. The problem with this is that contribution to the body of knowledge is not highlighted as a priority.
  • Motivating the relevance and importance of the research: We were reminded that the responsibility lied with us to sell our research. So it was important to address the WHY at length.
  • Claiming one’s contribution with panache: It was recognised that many people showed reluctance in claiming their contribution. However, it was cautioned that when they do they should do it with humility and perhaps a touch of panache.
  • Communicating stage of research: In presenting we failed to inform the audience the stage we are in of the research. That is, are we at the start, middle or end? Consequently, the audience could not gauge what types of questions to ask.
  • Confidence: While it was understandable that many of us lack experience in presenting but we were urged to show confidence. After all, it is our research and odds are we know more about it than many people in the audience.
  • Differentiating software product from research: This was directed specifically to the computer scientists. Apparently we tend to think that the product that we will develop is the ultimate research. We need to understand that whatever we develop is but a by-product of research.

All in all, the important message to take home was explicitly addressing the WHY, WHAT, HOW and last but no least the SO what questions in the presentation. I must say it all sounds cliché but I guess one can never overestimate the old wisdom of sticking to the basics!

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Lesotho Independece Day

I am uncertain about whether to celebrate the Independence day tomorrow (4th October) or not. I am yet to get a proper exaplanation on why we celebrate the day. Basically I still don’t understand why we needed to declare independence when we were but a protectorate and not a colony. As far as I understand, when we sought out protection to become Her Majesty’s subjects, it was never at the expense of our freedom. Thus, I still don’t understand how the British ended up setting their own government in our own country. Moshoeshoe in his submission to the British crown made it clear that he will continue to govern and provide leadership for his people. This was captured by the supposed statement he made: ‘le nkuke le nta tsa kobo ea ka, empa le tlohelle sechaba sa ka ke se buse’ (rough transaltion: take me together with the lice from my blanket, but allow me to remain the governor and leader of my people).

So the question is why did the British decide to treat us like a colony of sort? The answer doesn’t really matter for this posting. All I want, really, is for those who will celebrate the day to remember that freedom is never free, even though it contains the word free. Freedom comes with great responsibility. We need to honour those who sacrificed themselves in fighting for freedom by doing our best to make this world a better place. Yes, this sounds all cliché, but we need to start taking to heart what it means to be truly free to be whatever it is we want to be. I know for example that the dream of prosperity might seem to be hard to attain, but no one ever said it will be easy. As it was, the journey out of Egypt to the promised land was slow and filled with trials and tribulations which at one point resulted in Israelites worshipping false gods. (In Sesotho: leeto la ho ea fihla Kanana ebile le letelele le nang le mats’oenyeho, Maisaraele chaba sa ‘Moloki ke botele ba leeto, babile ba rapela melimo ea bosaoana). So, whilst it is certain that we will meet some challenges let us not despair!

Happy Independence to all!

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Asterisk and audio formats

Gosh I sure know how to derail myself! Today, I spent a good chunk of my time investigating what is the best format and codec to use for my audio files, which are part of the voiceXML application. This was not meant to be a time-consuming exercise since Asterisk technically supports many formats and codecs. However, I was keen on finding something with a low bandwidth footprint and reasonable quality. To be precise I was thinking of something along the lines of 8 bits sampling size and sampling rate of 8 KHz.

Why? Well because I am bandwidth sensitive but also because ordinary voice doesn’t necessarily benefit much from high sample rates (or at least this is what you get if you follow debates related to podcasting for developing worlds). Ok back to the point 😉 ! In my adventure I came across speex and I must say, I am so in love with it. It truly seems to be something that one must consider just check out how it compares with other codecs by following this link http://www.speex.org/comparison/. What is also very interesting is the modesty attached to the comparison as captured by a disclaimer which basically says the results should be taken with a grain of salt!

The only issue I have at the moment is that speex is not supported by audacity. Thus after file creation one has to encode the files to .ogg files at the command line. This all translates to not being able to kill two birds with one stone which is not good because I certainly believe in killing two birds with one stone (just as a side issue I have been provided this link by Richard as part of dissuading me into such a believe). But when it comes down to it, I suppose my issue is not even an issue because at one point or the other one might need to convert files for Asterisk using command line utilities like SoX, “the Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs”. So when all has been said and done, I think I shall be a speex fan and not fanatic 😉

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