Wow! The internet is an amazing thing. The amount of comments I have received from you in such a short space of time is beyond my comprehension. Thanks to everyone who’s joining my conversation on my journalistic journey.

My post about the policeman being shot has provoked the most attention it would seem… So I just have to share with you the story that I covered today.

I went to cover a house robbery. Two robbers attacked a family in their house, the house owner started struggling with one of the robbers. The house owner’s puppy, which he had gotten just yesterday for his birthday, started barking at the robbers, so one of the robbers shot the puppy dead.

Here’s the wierd part: While the house owner was struggling with the one robber, the robber with the gun tried to shoot the house owner, but instead the bullet hit the other robber in the neck.

Now, you were commenting on how bad crime is and the lack of resources for our SA police. To me, today’s story is just proof that God’s still there, watching. He hasn’t forgotten our country.

I sincerely hope all of you will frequent my blog and keep on giving your views – for me as journalist, your comments help me think of story ideas and of follow-ups to my articles. It helps me tremendously to know what the public thinks and then I can follow up on your thoughts in my journalism. This is what online journalism is about!

So keep blogging!

But hey, here’s someone who’s keeping SA smiling – Check out the latest Vern pic:

There are many types of crime we just have to deal with in South Africa, but when a cop gets shot it’s just something I can’t stomach.

Today I covered a story of a cop who was shot in the stomach when he and his partner caught ATM-bombers red-handed. Insp. Thys van Wyk (41), father of three young kids, was shot with an AK47. Interestingly, his partner Insp. Philip Botha (39) was shot in the stomach only eight months ago – when the two caught a group of hijackers red-handed. They have been buddies for 23 years – for as long as they’ve been in the police service.

And they tell me this won’t stop them protecting people from hardened criminals…

I know it sounds cliche - but this is very close to my heart: When you’re home safe and warm this Winter, spend birthdays and Christmases with family or enjoy a holiday at the coast – spare a thought for the many cops and paramedics working day in and out, risking their lives for us for nothing but a measly salary. Especially South African cops. There have been over 250 ATM-bombings since January alone, more than half of these were in Gauteng. Crime in this country is at an all-time high - I don’t have to tell anyone that.

Five people from the same family are missing: Mom, dad, son, daughter and daughter’s four-year-old boy. They vanished without a trace, together with the little boy’s mom’s fiance.

Myra Blanche Clur (62), her husband Charles Henry Joseph (68), their son Ivan (28), daughter Tamryn Caitlyn (21) and her little boy Tyler (4) disappeared on 3 April with Tamryn’s fiance Cole Graham Liam Heart (28). The police have now launched a countrywide search after realising Heart’s ID is false.

What I couldn’t write in my print article today, was that the police suspect something very sinister happened to the family – I know what they’re thinking, but can’t reveale it yet. The boy’s eyes are haunting me… What happened to this innocent child?

A very concerning issue to me as journalist is the resources available to the South African police, and therefore the media, when it comes to missing persons.

Take the photographs I’ve been given today to publish. These photos are supposed to help readers identify the missing people and lead police to finding them. The police expect the media to help them find missing people in this way.

However, most of the time they are only given an ID photo – mostly only a copy of the ID photo – which they then scan before giving it to the media for publication. The loss of quality in images is severe, with the end result being that the person on the photo can’t really be identified. So how do the police find the missing people? And how do the media help?My answer is education. The general public needs to be educated that in South Africa, it is absolutely necessary for all  of us to keep updated photographs of ourselves and our loved ones. Unfortunately,  we need to be keeping photos that we know will help anyone in their search for us and our children, should we suddenly disappear.

More needs to be done.

The streets of Ekurhuleni on the East Rand of Johannesburg are a mess!

Today I covered the Samwu (South African Municipal Workers Union) strike that entered it’s third week in this area and I was both disgusted and entertained: disgusted at how municipal workers can overturn rubbish bins, break streetlamps and throw rubbish across the streets – destroying public property with no compassion for the tax-paying public; as well as at how the Ekurhuleni-metro can allow this to happen. And entertained because the metro said it is now up to the public to do their own refuge removal, because it’s simply too dangerous for non-striking workers and contractors to perform this core municipal service.

What a joke! Why must the public put out more money for a core service they’re already paying rates and taxes for?

And do the 8000 Samwu members not realise that, as soon as the strike is over, they are the ones who will have to clean up their own mess? Wake up! You’re just making more work for yourself!

Where are the days of civil negotiations?

Here’s proof that South Africa’s online media is catching up to the rest of the world. The proof is in the pudding – or rather… in The Koek (the cake)!

The character of Vernon Koekemoer, a middle-aged man sporting a mullet hairdo and some unusual fashion gear, was created online, became very popular very quickly online and still continues online.

Vernon Koekemoer became a virtual superstar after a photograph of him at a Boksburg party was posted on the Internet. It first went round via email, afterwhich someone started a Facebook group called Make Vernon Koekemoer Famous (it has over 6000 members!), from which people started photoshopping the original image.

The news spread fast through online social groups like Facebook and emails were widely circulated. At the core of the phenomenon was interactivity. People were encouraged to take the same photograph and manipulate the character into different scenes. Thousands were, and still are, blogging their hearts out. It rang true to the South African online audience and The Koek became an overnight virtual hit.

Only after this did the printed media pick up on the story and jumped on the bandwagon – revealing The Koek’s true identity (Cassie Booyse from Brakpan) and interviewing him. Now, Vernon is on t.v. too – we see him in a very funny Nando’s advert with Chuck Norris and in an advert for Vodacom.

He’s South Africa’s answer to Rambo and Chuck Norris. And now it seems everyone wants a slice of The Koek!

See The Koek and Chuck Norris in a gatswaai! And watch The Koek, our East Rand Hero:

I love movies!

To illustrate: when I was in high school, I rented the movie While You Were Sleeping (I was a huge Sandra Bullock fan!) so many times that the movie shop eventually gave it to me!

There’s just something about that big silver screen, the popcorn (yummy cheese flavour, thank you!) and getting all emotional in a space of two hours. It’s funny how movies can make you laugh, cry, scared or excited – all in about 90 minutes! Not all of us realise how much we are influenced by movies – they can infuriate us, inspire us, and make us act or speak a certain way. In fact, many of us reference movies and famous quotes in movies in our everyday language. Almost everyone will laugh and know why they are laughing when you say: I’ll be back! or Hasta la vista baby!

 I love chick flicks, like Made of Honor (okay, maybe I was biased because McDreamy stars in it. I’m a great Grey’s fan!). Though it didn’t resonate in my head, it was romantic, funny and cute – the recipe for easy watching.

I haven’t seen the latest Indiana Jones but I hear it’s fantastic. It made $101m (that’s a whopping R766m!)in it’s first week of release in the US! I’m sure it will satisfy the action-junkie in me, but that’s not why I have to see it. There’s a rule for avid movie fans like me, you see. This film is part of a series, like George Lucas’   Star Wars and the Harry Potter films. It’s like a religion – you have to follow the story. (So, even though the latest Superman movie totally sucked, I just had to see it. It’s the rule). It’s the amazing cinematography, editing and sound in movies like these that make us walk out of the cinema feeling that we’ve just escaped into another world.

Then there’s the art-lover in me that just digs flicks like Sean Penn’s  Into the Wild. It’s a real cinema gem. Slow at first but even if you don’t quite understand it, enjoy it simply for the way it’s been filmed – the breathtaking scenery is captured in a very intimate way that makes you think: hey, maybe I should stop in this rat race once a while and just take note of my surroundings. It’s gloriously put together and based on the life of Chris McCandless, the young adventurer whose footloose life led to his gruesome fate. It resonates.

Another stunning piece of film-making is Atonement. It’s a rivetting tale told in an unusual way. Though it may appeal to cinema nouveau goers, the deeper meaning rings true to all of us. It’s simply glorious!

On Tuesday The Star (www.thestar.co.za) launched a campaign called Operation Reach Out to help the thousands of displaced victims of the recent violent xenophobic attacks. The Star, owned by the Independent Newspaper Group, put in R250 000 in funds to start the campaign. Today it reports that the campaign is doing well, with Vodacom pitching in R400 000.

Now, I have no objection to this at all. I think it’s a great idea. The Star has obviously recognised the media’s responsibility in developing our society and they’re getting business on board in a big way. They’re obviously saying, “look, we have to unite and do something about this, and be an example” – thus leading public thought.

We see alot of campaigns in the media, urging people to get on board, but seldom do we see the actual media house contribute financially.

My question is, however, why The Star hasn’t launched a similar campaign – perhaps on much smaller scale – to aid local projects, like saving the Scorpions? Why haven’t more businesses come out to financially support Hugh Glenister’s Save the Scorpion’s bid in court? Is it perhaps because, here, their support will defy government? Or because the media, and business, can not be seen choosing sides in such a case?

And yet The Star’s xenophobic rescue campaign breaks the notion that the media’s role is that of unbiased observer and watchdog, and paves the way for a media that gets involved in societal issues – campaigning journalism, as it is known.  Does The Star’s campaign question media ethics or reinforces it?

Why don’t media conglomerates come out more often to financially support local causes that will benefit our country? Should the media be taking sides and getting involved, if it means developing a better South Africa? Is it possible for the media to be active patriots and still maintain its watchdog role?

(Just an afterthought: I don’t see the campaign being punted on The Star’s website… To me this is bizarre. Will putting it online for a global audience to see not make the campaign much stronger?)

For the past two weeks, South Africa has been plagued by violent xenophobic attacks that has seen thousands of foreigners displaced, over 30 people killed and over 1000 people arrested. Most of these attacks have been taking place on the East Rand, the area I cover for Beeld (check out www.beeld.com and search Gloria Edwards for my articles but note they are in Afrikaans). I have been off sick and have not personally covered the stories… One side of me is profoundly sad that I couldn’t be part of this history in the making, while the other seems to say: you’ve been spared the grief of watching this unsettling, senseless violence unfold in front of your very eyes.  

View some brilliant photos on this issue at Beeld, or go to the following link: http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=south+africa+xenophobia&m=text

Check out The Times’ (of SA) video on the attacks:

And look at this video from TheRealNews.com:   Not the difference in the way the issue is presented between the South African and foreign news agencies.

A comment on my blog reads: All journalists are people, but not all people are journalists.  With the advent of the internet and other technologies, like cellphone cameras, now anyone can become a journalist in the sense of reporting on events. Check out this video, in which Chris Hogg and David Silverberg from DigitalJournal.com explain the citizen journalism revolution.  Also go check out the North-Korean site http://english.ohmynews.com/  which is a great example of citizen journalism.

This is glorious! It’s from a project that my lecturers at Wits University are running, called www.earth-touch.com   Click below to view!  Go to their site to see more stunning wild life videos! I will be posting more videos from there soon…