saundra busieka obote

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Elani: making musical waves in Kenya

From left to right: Wambui , Bryan , Maureen , members of Elani

BY SAUNDRA OBOTE

Addicted . that's the best way to describe how i feel about Elani's music.with a string of hit songs behind themand more to come, Elani is a young upcoming pop/soul/ afro group from Nairobi kenya , who over the past one year have absolutely dominated the music industry , taking top spots in many of the Kenyan music charts.

I love the authenticity of the band /group , the vibe, the message they send to the listens and how they genuinely carry themselves and the fact that they prefer to sing in Swahili.

Made up of 3 musically gifted artist, Maureen , Wambui and Bryan, the members of this band understand the importance of formal educationa part from making music.Bryan the only man in the band recently graduated with degree in law from a university in Naiobi and is an advocate of the high court of kenya.Maureen one of the 2 female vocalist in the band , has interest in law as well and is currently awaiting admission to the bar of advocates in Kenya.Wambui the other vocalist is perhaps the geek in the group,as she went on a different path and studied actuarial science!!!

As this bands' music and talent continues to grow i can only hope that fellow Kenyans and all music lovers will continue to show their support and help this band reach its dreams and goals.

Below are links to some of the bands music

you can follow them on twitter at https://twitter.com/elanimuziki

For more on this article please Click Here

Big brother house burns down ahead of the 9th season

Emergency service attenting to the fire

It is an open secret that i loooooooveeee big brother Africa . i am absolutely addicted to the show and all its activities . it was with great shock and sadness, that i read of the unfortunate incident that took place at the mnet studios in Johannesburg , just a few days before the scheduled commencement of the 9th season of this hit show.

A massive fire, engulfed the big brother house , causing damages to the set and therefore leading to the postponement of the show till further notice.

For all those big brother loves out there , myself included, we shall have to be continue practicing the virtue of being patient and hope the show shall be on our screens soon.

The slogan for the 9th season of big brother Africa

For more on this story please click below:

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/article/2000133601/big-brother-africa-postponed-after-massive-fire-destroys-the-house

http://www.channel24.co.za/TV/Reality/Big-Brother-Africa-house-burning-show-delayed-20140902

Monday 25 August 2014

Dear Friends

Hello , Its been a couple of months since I visited this blog and worked on it. I seem to be constantly carried away by my other work , but worry not , below are links to a few of the articles that I have been busy with and the work that I have been doing on the other blog http://journ-express.blogspot.com/

Below are stories that i have also had the opportunity to work on and appreciate a lot

Well that's it for now , my coffee break is over , hope to update you my dear readers soon. don't forget to check out http://journ-express.blogspot.com/ to find out what i am up

Thursday 15 May 2014

New BEGININGS

Hi there,

Wow, it’s been quite a while since I actually sat down and wrote down articles for this blog or posted anything for that matter. yes, I am guilty of negligence and as of late procrastination has been making a mock of my life.

Truth is lately I have found myself spending most of my time on my other blog. Well technically it’s not my blog, but it’s a blog, that i am the current administrator for. Feel free to have a look at some of my work as well as the work of the students that i work with on that blog. http://journ-express.blogspot.com/

seeing as it’s a new month, and with the first quarter of the year well behind us, I would really like to kick start the second quarter of this year on a better footing, and perhaps leave some of my old habits behind, besides this month I turned a year older (yes I am a May baby) so I think the timing is just about right

The reality is that a lot has happened over the last few months. Some things have made me happy, while others sad. Perhaps this is one of the many reasons I have been having a very bad case of procrastination as of late.

As it is said, every tear has its own season and reason and over the last 4 months the following occurrences have kept me going.

Finding an internship,

Salary problems

Finding true friends,

Falling in and out of love

Dealing with crazy landlords,

Learning to drive,

The essence of freedom

As time passes, am sure more events will help shape my future, hopefully for the better.

In the next coming weeks be sure you will read an article about each of these inspiring events.

Thursday 30 January 2014

2014 Journo's trip to Toppieshoek

BY SAUNDRA OBOTE

Situated in the North West province, near the Hartbeespoort dam, and about an hour from Pretoria,Toppieshoek, leadership development center, a TUT owned Centre, is a breath takingly beautiful place.

As the name suggests , this this a place for individuals to gain a sense of leadership , learn about togetherness and the importance of team work, while at the same visitors to the Centre are guaranteed to have fun and a real sense of adventure, through the different challenges to them , both physical and mental

Guided by a team of well-trained facilitators, the 2014 first year Journalism group got their academic year off to a fun adrenaline filled start. They also had an opportunity to bond together and learn from one another, ahead of the busy school schedule.

The students were put in various groups and given activities that required the students to work together as a team, while at the same time enhancing individual ability to have a say in how the tasks were carried out

“it was very fun , we got a chance to get to know each other , we got challenged , and most of we were united , my favourite part was forming the groups , getting a name for the group as well as working on the logo, and supporting each other in the group, “said Tumiso Setladi, a newly registered first year student .

While Boitshoko hobyane,relayed that she thought the whole trip was great and very inspiring, the food was great. She added that they had very challenging games that needed teamwork. “We learned leadership skills, cooperation’s amongst the teams. Although I did not go up the pole, the rope excise was my favourite, as it showed the courageous side of some people.” she said

Personally, I had a lot fun, perhaps too much fun, but of all the activities done during this trip, the rope walking exercise was perhaps the most fun, challenging and scary.

now while on the ground , the task looked quite easy , I mean what’s so hard about going up a pole , having what I can only describe as a bird’s eye view of the Hartbeespoort dam, and then holding on to your partners hand as you progressed to the other side of the rope?

Right , some activities are easier said than done, barely a minute after manning myself up and going up the pole , I was ready to come down !!! , my heart could not take it anymore as fear and paranoia, got the best of me, my legs started shaking so bad I was sure if I was to stayed up on that pole for a few more seconds , things may have turned out much worse……

And if you think I was bad, mmmhhh... Think again, A little bird told me that a certain student who had gone went on this trip, actually passed out for a few minutes ….

Friday 17 January 2014

2014 address to the Journalism students at TUT

Back to school, back to reality!!!!

The reality is that “Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you are at it” - Horace Greeley

2014 is finally here, and yet another year for us to count our blessing!!!

A warm Welcome back to all the senior students and to the first years ,congratulations, It’s my pleasure to welcome each and every one of you, to the Tshwane University of Technology, and especially to the Journalism Department .

For those visiting Soshanguve for the first time, feel welcomed and I hope you enjoy, each and every minute spend here, where there is never a shortage of sphatlho, fire fighters (stimamollo), skopas, and plenty of good music .

As this year begins, I hope we have all made our goals and will work towards achieving these goals. As students the lecturers and the department as a whole are here to be of assistance to you whenever the need arises.

Journalism is a fun filled profession that provides an opportunity for people to learn and grow as individuals on an everyday basis. Yes, there are moments of extreme tiredness and excess work that involves a lot of reading and writing but as DR Oz once said, the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

As aspiring journalist below are a few tips that if followed may make this year as well as the future years more bearable in terms of your work

· Always be ready for a story

· Always Be on time

· Ask relevant questions

· Have reliable sources

As you study and practise whatever you will learn this year remember:

Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space- Rebecca West

Good luck in all your endeavours, although luck has nothing to do with it.

“ALWAYS LOOK INTELLIGENT”

Wednesday 21 August 2013

CONFESSIONS , THIS ARE MY CONFESSIONS

There are things to confess that enrich the world, and things that need not be said. These words were famously said by Joni Mitchell .

In the recent months, many university and high school orientated confession pages have pop up left right and centre, all over many of the social networking sites out there, mainly facebook. The aim of these confessions pages are for people to confess to their inner most thoughts about certain things happening mostly around , or within their schools, yet remain anonymous with very little chances of the confessions being traced back to them

Although the concept of confession pages has gone viral due to its popularity within the teen and young adult as they can send anonymous messages to a certain Link and have this messages posted up, interestingly enough confession pages were initially started as a platform for working people or people out of school from a particular institution to reminisce on the good old days and all the adventures they went through or the experiences they had and also confess on some of the things that they had always wanted to share but were unable to, back then for various reasons

Bringing this matter close to home , current figures show that TUT confession pages is the most liked viewed and most updated of all the university pages. On the link http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Student-confession-sites-go-viral-20130531 news 24 states that the craze over the confession pages started at the University of Cape Town and swiftly spread across the country.

TUT’S confession pages has about 24,116 likes with 13,045 talking about this , it is closely followed by Tuks(University Of Pretoria ) with approximately 21,974 likes , with 156 talking about this . The University of Cape Town has about 21,693 likes and 324 talking about this. the confession page of the university of Johannesburg has approximately 19,111 likes with 165 talking about this while Rhodes university has about 12 359 likes with 4586 people talking about the page

As a keener follower of the various confessions pages I have come to realize that while Some students live vicariously through this pages, confessing as often as possible, commenting on the various post put up, others find this pages a complete waste of time and as a way of degrading the school name, and other people through the commends posted up

In many ways this pages have positive attributes as they at times allow people to confess a about a dilemma or problem they could be facing and ask for help without fear of being judged, and in return, he or she at times gets positive feedback, while this is a positive impact, I worry about the constant sexual confessions posted up with very vivid details that would have many parents out there, worried as to whether they send their students to school to learn or carry out sexual activities and also the sense of tribalism and racism that some comments do bring up .

Trinity Molobi a current student at TUT says “I think all the things that pop up on this pages especially TUT’s is scripted, and the grammar is poor and it’s an insult to tut students as a whole “

Tinah Masonga also a student at TUT said “ I think it’s sad if you read the confessions and the comment s , because it shows there is no peace at TUT , cause the students don’t get along , as they fail to help on another “

At the moment the jury is out on whether the confession pages are good or bad, but like all other social networking fever, the hype over confession pages may soon come to pass as technology will allow for another form of innovation to come up and grab everyone’s attention.