Concerning Buffdays*

Long Hair - check

Goofy smile - check

Building Sandcastles - check

It's comforting that some things never change :)

MJ

Thanks to everyone for the e-mails, sms's, grafitti, wall posts, offline messages, phonecalls and other forms of communication - MJ adores you all

(i'm the one in the middle - the other two were just actors who were paid to absorb the excess toddler awesomeness that i had)

* Yes - i ripped that straight from the vocab of Zesty - perhaps my dumbest title yet :P

Concerning Labour

No No, this isn’t another MJ alimony post – luckily those have been scarce as of late (cross fingers) but rather about how the migrant workers in the gulf region are being screwed over. The Gulf region,or as I prefer to call it – the ‘Yaa Ayoohal Arab region’ (woe to the Arab region) is currently seeing an exponential growth in investment. Because of the oil, there is tons of money being pumped in, so now we have ski resorts in Dubai, Waterworlds in Sharjah, brothels in Syria (a guy can dream cant he) I’ve got no problem with the stupid Arabs building all this shit – I mean, its their land and money after all (Ive got a problem with the development in the hijaaz though, but that’s a post on its own – would the prophet (pbuh) stay at Zam Zam Towers?)

Marx spoke at length about the extraction of labour in modern society, and while he was sloshed most of the time, he still remains a really influential chap (Gandhi done right). What he meant by ‘extraction of labour’ was that when you buy a commodity like a jersey or a vibrator or whatever, we admire the product but fail to see the work that’s been put into it. Now imagine all that work … times a thousand! Over ten million Asian (read Indians) migrants are in the gulf region right now, working in the most squalid conditions, and all for what? Five U.S Dollars a day. As I said before, build your skyscrapers in the desert and all that, ship a bunch of coolies in to build them for you if you like, but give them a decent wage at least. Many of the workers aren't even paid for months on end, and there's nothing they can do as their passports are taken from them, and they have no money to return home. We're supposed to be the best example for mankind - someone give me something to be optimistic about.

Pay the worker his wage before his sweat dries - Narrated in Ibn Majah, #2443

MJ

Concerning Suits 2

You can't help buying the album, for the song. Only to realise that your expectations have been crushed as you attempt to salvage something that you'd only put on your mp3 player if its a bloody 80 gig ipod and you ran out of things to fill it with. It happened to me this weekend, when MJ purchased a 'Best of The Proclaimers' CD. I love 'I'm gonna be (500 miles) and I expected the rest of their stuff to sound remotely familiar, I mean - the evanescence and Zain Bhikha stuff i bought all sound the same.

MJ bought a suit last week, Ive always wanted one, and i figured sooner or later I'd need it, as i venture into some corporate whorehouse, or i actually attend a wedding where i'm the best man (missed two of those so far). Ended up mixing and matching from a bunch of shops. This shit is expensive as hell - i suppose its like the difference between a watch and a time-piece - serves the same function, but one costs a lot more.

Suits are rather impractical though - There are hardly any benefits for them, you cant play soccer while wearing them, forget about wearing a suit to a braai - all they are really good for is to make you feel more suave and upper class than you really are.

Concerning Dads

I caught the latest Steers advert on the telly tonight (hope you guys watched 'As Good As It Gets' - Jack Nicholson is the man, and i cant see anyone replacing him - i mean, who do we have in the latest stock of actors - Michael Douglas - one of the Baldwins. yeah sure) Anyway - Back to Steers - it was for their 'Rib Special', and it got me thinking - you cant have ribs on a first date - they're too messy - it'll create a bad impression. I think that they'll be good for a third date though (well - the last time i got to a third date with someone was back in October 2001, so what do I know:P) The same goes for other messy food, basically anything that makes you look like a retarded toddler trying to shove an entire pineapple down their throat.

My Dad is 64 today. I love my dad, with his quirky ways, and twisted sense of humour. i remember asking him once about the day I was born - he looked me in the eye, with this serious face ( the kind of face that parents put on when they are examining the phone bill with a highlighter) and said, " Son, The day you were born, i was really hungry, so I'm not even sure I picked up the right baby, so you gonna have to take my word for it OK" before returning to the paper with a smirk on his face.

My dad can switch on the television, flip through channels, start watching a movie from half way - have no idea whats happening, but will refuse to change the channel. Then fall asleep five minutes later. He is the type of dad who won't buy you a chocolate when you're at the mall with him, but will make sure that there will always be a stocked up pantry at home.

Dad and Zahraa

MJ

I'm going to watch simpsons tonight - if any guys are keen, let me know ( no girls- well except sibling - she's cool)

Happiness is knowing what you want, and being content with not having it.

Concerning Guitars

City Hall, usually the site of adolescents throwing up in the hedges, as they succumb to their first drink on their prom night, or the favoured destination for most protest marches (I believe we should rename these to fun walks or something – I mean, if half a million people in London couldn’t stop the war, do we really believe four hundred people in Durban will coerce Israel to withdraw, or a newspaper to apologise? Yeah – they have their purpose bla bla – if you wanna help, its easy – you arm the Palestinians/Iraqis etc and level the playing field a bit) Anyway, before I drift further, lets get back to City Hall – two things made it clear to me that it was definitely an Islamic event tonight and not some Charou prom night. Firstly – Everything started half an hour late, and secondly – the toilet floors were flooded beyond use – what gives? I mean , while we were busy arguing about whether duff was permissible or not, did we forget the hadith about wasting water?

Yea – tonight, I attended the muslim forever concert hosted by Ilm SA – Also found out that the organizers read my blog, and were pretty pissed that I sat in the two hundred rand section last time (One organizer even told me this time around that I’m not allowed to go backstage – pffft – like that was gonna happen) I gave her this lovely smile as I walked past, helping myself to the appetizers that were laid out for the singers, en-route to see ‘ma boys’ Zain and Dawud.

Zain made my night by saying that he loves reading my blog! I’m gonna change my banner sentence from ‘Angelina Jolie to Zain Bhika! Dawud smiled at me, and he was like “ Hey, how you doing? I see you grew your hair”. Dawud rocks! Spent some time discussing comedy in Islam and my new radio show with Zain, before his manager shushed me out so that they could do final rehearsals. Naeem Sheik from Waahid asked me if I was excited about the concert - I was like “Hell No – I wanted to watch Harry Potter tonight”, but then I quickly recovered by saying that I’m hyped for their new stuff. Ahmed Bukathir was there – his stuff was good. The rainbow kids were good as well, so was Waahid. Zain and Dawud rocked (yeah – I’m biased, but its my blog, so blow me) The only substandard item was this Australian guys bayaan on charity or something – I mean, it went for far too long, and I guess maybe MJ wasn’t in Friday sermon mode or something, but I found that to be the lowlight of the evening. Yes – charity is good. I know that ok – its one of the five pillars! MJ and Dawud Warnsby Ali one and a half seconds AFTER they pose - we call it the 'constipated nasheed look'

Line of the evening – Dawud Warnsby Ali : “The organizers have stressed that I don’t include any musical instruments in my performance – because usually I sing with my guitar!”

MJ