My association Zen4Zulu has installed a cottage to lodge & feed volunteer doctors to treat & save on average 80 emergencies daily, mainly babies, little kids and grannies.

« 1000 Hills Community Helpers, KwaZulu » our partner, founded in 1989 by Dawn Leppan, to serve 31,000 souls, is located a mere 60 kms from Durban’s golden beaches & golf courses. It is blessed by nature but blighted by poverty and HIV/TB.

The Centre has a fully equipped Primary Health Centre, with 2 senior nurses, ambulance, home visitors, volunteer pharmacists, psychiatrist, safe house … but due to high cost relies largely on volunteer doctors to treat, and if needs be refer & transport to hospital.

The kitchen serves more than 1,200 tasty, nourishing breakfasts & lunches 5 days a week – rice, beans, chicken… freshly cooked by the voluntary valley chefs.

The Centre has also a daily crèche, toddlers inn, pre-school bustling with happy, loving infants, staffed by experienced ‘special care’ local women.

The Centre is rightly named « The House of Love » – love given & love received.

Evenings you are free to explore the local bistrots & pubs to discover the famous south african hospitality.

Weekends – a short drive to coastal villages & beaches, golf and a 3 hour drive to the amazing Game & Bird Reserves of Hluhluwe, Mfolozi, St Lucia bay…

Tempted? A working holiday, intimate contact caring for the zen Zulu valley folk, knowing that YOU are making a difference. You will love the experience of the Beloved Country.

Drop a line to richardbeardsley@zen4zulu.org & we will get right back to you.

Zen4Zulu – building a better future.

South Africa is short of heroes, aren’t we all, and particularly a hero who is loved & respected by, not just footie fans, but everybody in the rainbow nation. A role model to millions of kids.

Senzo Meyiwa was such a hero. He died putting his body in harm’s way to protect his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo. His last save!

Gunning down Senzo was not only savagely brutal, it was plain stupid – his murderers will be found & their lives, in or out of jail, won’t be worth a damn dime.

Murder in S.A. for the year ending March 2014 exceeded 17.000 souls – among the highest rates in the World.

USA & South Africa need political leaders, URGENTLY, with the balls to stop this shooting carnage. Now is the time for them to SAVE LIVES.

Football in South Africa is left poorer and so is the  Nation.

CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY.

I wept tears of joy when you were elected, believing that, after Junior, Rummy & Cheney, you represented the return of CAMELOT.
NOT
« Chains you can Bereave in » – but « Change you can Believe in. »

6 years on I still believe in your basic decency, I still love your strong beautiful wife. I still hang onto a faint, wavering hope…
BUT
You are not the Captain of the ship of state, nor the Master of the destiny of the USA & the World.
You are blown off course, if you ever had one, by the crises that swamp you each morning.
Your inability to solve any one of them encourages your & our enemies to pile ’em on.
You appear to be politically friendless, lacking the staunch allies of Reagan, Bush père, Clinton…
Your New York EBOLA comment was, frankly puerile – and the « 7 Survivors » comment did not include you.
Your body language is that of a depressed, defeated man… Is Michelle ganging up on you?

Man up Mr President – give us 2 last glorious years.

WE HOPED YOU WOULD FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY & STING LIKE A BEE; ALAS YOU HAVE FEET OF CLAY.

This virus is real smart & sneaky – it’s mutating & the mortality to infection ratio has reduced from 70% to 50%.
WHY?
To survive the virus needs live, infected carriers to transmit and spread the illness. Dead bodies are of zero interest & if everybody dies the virus is condemned & simply burns out.
Good News
Sure, a blessing & great news for the sick who recover.
Bad news
Because of snowballing – the more folk who are infected, the more people they will infect & the greater the geographic spread; just imagine that the virus spreads to India, it will be sheer bloody havoc & hell. Which is what the virus wants and that way it kills & kills & keeps on killing.
It also appears that the incubation period has increased from 12 to 21 days, which is extremely dangerous & favourable to globalisation, just like AIDS. This way infected folk who show no signs of fever or illness travel, undetected, as international Ebola virus ambassadors.
This is why the isolationist reflex of banning flights and testing at host Airports & entry points will not work. The only way to stop EBOLA is to attack NOW in the West African core countries and stamp out the virus. A humanitarian MUST, as well as a no brainer to stop the virus from colonizing the planet.
Obama is leading the way, with Britain, France and Cuba. Lamentably, China, Russia & the rest of the world are sitting on their hands, with no care for the suffering and passively inviting Ebola to come knock, knock, knocking on all our doors.
This way the Ebola virus wins the day and has the last say.

American medical authorities fear 1,400,000 infections by end january = 1,000,000 deaths.

World leaders must act to kill the Ebola dragon at source.

Printing fancy forms to fill out in Airports won’t stop Ebola.

Post-war Europe was saved by the Marshall plan.

SAVE AFRICA TO SAVE THE WORLD. 

A proud & happy family in Yaoundé – Granny & 3 moms.

– 5 girls at University studying medicine, law, engineering…

– 3 boys passed their Baccalaureate & join their sisters at Uni.

– Klara, 11years jumped a year to enroll in College

– Léa, 5 years is an ace on Acer.

I’m proud to be part of this family.

NOW ISN’T THAT ZEN – YES IT IS

And Zen is building a better life for Africa.

Today Cameroon is playing Sierra Leone in Yaoundé. The players, their families, the population are worried.

They are right – Football & Ebola make a bad match.

Bill Shankly the legendary manager of Liverpool FC said:

« Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death… 

It is much, much more important than that. »

Pray for Cameroon that Ebola is not the winner today.

I have been following the daily column of Roger Cohen in the New York Times for years. Roger is a south african jew and self-described liberal zionist – who never hesitates to condemn the Israeli government for it’s divisive, cruel policies which he believes are against the longterm interests of the security of Israel.

You should know, dear reader, that the south african jews were the most militant of all whites in their opposition to & confrontation with the evil Apartheid regime – for which many suffered years on Robben Island with Madiba.

Now I hear increasingly here in France condemnation of immigrants – described as parasites, living off the state at the expense of the french population ie whites.

So I thought Roger’s quote from Leviticus to be most apt for all of us:
« Treat the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. »

WORLD BANK prez Jim Kim blasts International community for failing miserably. He wants every developed country to send medical teams to West Africa – heck there are more doctors & hospital beds in Versailles than in Sierra Leone. Jim Kim doesn’t take prisoners – he demands a World Health Fund of $20 bn – NOW!

SIERRA LEONE prez Karoma has blocked a huge medical supplies container in the docks SINCE august 8. WHY? The US. donation shipment was organised by opposition leader Alpha Bah. No x*h#ING comment. Like Lady Macbeth, Karoma has the blood of hundreds of his compatriots on his hands.

DUNCAN DEATH IN DALLAS – predictably USA is gonna reinforce immigration/airport control. Don’t they get it? Ebola can be conquered at source – this is the best & cheapest way to protect  the US of A – not to mention saving precious lives – one of whom maybe the next Einstein, Bill Gates, Joanna Liu,Picasso, Madiba, François Hollande (delete the last name).

FRANCE FIDDLES prez Hollande is too busy night-scooting to his luvly ladies, & daytime screwing the french economy, to be saving lives in francophone african countries with strong cultural & historic ties. France is extremely exposed to Ebola. Every flight to & fro West Africa is full. François beware the town of Waterloo  is in Sierra Leone!!!

MSF prez Dr Joanne Liu has brass balls « we don’t get paralyzed by risk ». Medecins sans Frontières are the heroes – like Coca Cola they are everywhere, wherever there is suffering. MSF is doing more than any single rich industrialized country. DONATE to MSF – what do they need ?EVERYTHING!

Being a bible trained atheist, please allow me, gentle reader, to quote « What ye sow, so shall ye reap. »  If we don’t each and every mother- loving one of us help beat Ebola in the African towns & villages, as sure as God made little apples the grim reaper will come knocking at our door.

Welcome I’m the new kid on the blog.

Why me? Having lived for 15 years in Africa -Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon I am pretentious enough to say « I wasn’t born in Africa but Africa was born in me. »

Why ZEN4AFRICA? For the simple but legit reason that the world’s media only reports the disasters – of which sure there are many. But there is also a lot to be happy about – improvement in governance, economic growth, decline in poverty, education, growing pride & self-esteem…

So, sure when stuff happens – the Ebola virus I will inform & comment, but I shall also comment on the many reasons to be cheerful & zen.