Review on Mediaupdate for Christa Biyela's Getting Dirty



 

 

 

 

 

 

Christa Biyela’s Getting Dirty doesn't shy away from gritty issues

Published: 16 July 2014

Christa Biyela’s latest book, titled Getting Dirty, is all about the gritty issues around sex, HIV and AIDS. She believes that the positive way forward is by having open and honest conversations with not only our partners, but also our children.

By Abbygail Zwane

There are instances, in fact whole chapters, when the book offers a bit too much information and I had to ask myself “when it comes to saving our children from HIV and AIDS how much is too much information?”

The voice inside my head would answer: “surely all of us need to be as informed as we possibly can be.”

In this respect (and in many others too numerous to list) I take my hat off to Biyela who has completely opened up to her reader, exposed wounds, scars and horrifying memories to ensure that our children will not need to endure what she has endured.

Biyela herself is living with HIV and is proof that you can still live life to the fullest. Through her book she outlines how the spread of HIV can be prevented and this starts with the education of our children.

Getting Dirty is provocative, candid and tells it like it is. She says “As adults we need to learn to be open-minded about sex. Let us have an open discussion about HIV whether we are married, dating, heterosexual or homosexual. If one is in a relationship let it be based on trust so we also act in a trustworthy manner thereafter. I believe HIV has come to our lives to better us, our relationships and motivate us to explore safer ways of making love. Nowadays having sex without a condom, being uncircumcised and not knowing one’s HIV status should be despicable.”

With Getting Dirty, Christa Biyela takes you by the hand and guides you through her life. At times it is traumatic, at times it is funny and poignant and at other times it forces you to stop reading for a moment and think. Getting Dirty is a book that should be read by everyone. In the words of director and playwright Clinton Marius, Getting Dirty offers “precious words of wisdom and advice that may save a life; hopefully more than one…”
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About the Author:

Christa Biyela is a writer and motivational speaker whose career includes being a producer and co-host of Sihlomulelana Ngolwazi previously on Ukhozi FM. She is now the head writer for Kusa Kusa, Ukhozi FM’s first soapy.

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Review from Tame Times

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Review in the July Issue of Sarie by Lydia van der Merwe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Julie 2014

Gesondheidstories

Span só jou breinboodskappers in vir gewigsverlies

deur Lydia van der Merwe

As die brein-oordragstowwe GABA en dopamien albei laag is, gaan jou kosdrange (cravings) jou oorrompel, sê dr. Hannetjie van Zyl-Edeling. Volgens haar werk Tim Noakes se hoë-vet-lae-koolhidraateetplan juis daarom vir baie mense. Proteïene voorsien die aminosure waarvan brein-oordragstowwe (veral dopamien) gemaak word. En as jy koolhidrate grootliks uitskakel, kry jy beheer oor jou wisselende bloedsuikervlakke.

Dopamien

’n Tekort kan onder meer lei tot gewigstoename, moegheid en die onvermoë om stres te hanteer. Jy het ’n drang na nikotien, koffie, soetgoed of ander energie-opkikkers.

Vul dit aan

• Eet proteïenryke kosse soos hoender, maaskaas, eiers, laevet-kase, melk, jogurt, kalkoen, wildsvleis, okkerneute.
• Oefen met gewigte, speel ’n potjie skaak, doen asemhalingsoefeninge.
• Kyk ’n snaakse fliek of vertel grappies.

GABA

Dis betrokke by die maak van endorfiene – natuurlike pynstillers wat jou goed laat voel. ’n Tekort gooi jou van balans af en maak jou angstig, geïrriteerd en vol skuldgevoelens. Jy kan ’n binge-eter wees.

Vul dit aan

• Vermy witmeel, -suiker en ander verfynde stysel, want dit laat jou bloedsuiker wipplank ry, vererger angs en is ’n sneller vir kosdrange.
• Eet amandels en ander boomneute, piesangs, broccoli, bruinrys, lensies, sitrus, aartappels, spinasie, heelgraan (verkieslik nie koring nie).
• Doen aërobiese oefeninge, loop in die natuur en drink kruietee vir angs.

Belangrik

Oefen minstens ’n halfuur per dag om jou brein-oordragstowwe te balanseer, bloedsuiker en depressie te beheer en jou metabolisme flink te hou.

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SOWETO BURNING Review: Saturday Star; 03 May 2014

Get your copy now click on http://www.porcupinepress.co.za/shop/history/soweto-burning-detail.html

Review: ZENZELE by Sandile Memela in Sunday Tribune news & views; 25 May 2014

To pre-order your copy, contact Clare-Rose at Porcupine Press: 011 / 791-4561

Jozi Gold in GET IT Joburg West Magazine; 26 May 2014

Jozi Gold    

Rialien Furstenberg / 26 May 2014

A woman with a past, a city with a future, a soccer team chasing glory …

Amidst the tension surrounding the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, one woman discovers her husband is having an affair, another meets up with a university sweetheart and a third heads for a nervous breakdown. Who is the man at the centre of the drama, and does he get to keep his gold?

Who the book is for:
Are you toying with the idea of reinventing yourself but haunted by the thought that your life could end up tasting like a failed casserole or looking like a bleach job gone wrong? You’ll relate well to Jeannie Parker. Where your relationships have worn tired, you seek ways to revitalise them. When you’re not scrambling to meet work deadlines, helping the kids with applications for car licences and college, or looking after the needs of elderly parents, you’re dreaming big dreams… Because you firmly believe that, if others have found happiness, so can you.

Book distribution by PSD Promotions.
For orders email orders@psdprom.co.za or phone 011 392 6075 or visit www.porcupinepress.co.za

Retail price: R189 (including VAT)

Porcupine Book Makes News in the Mail & Guardian: Coolie Come out and Fight; 23 May 2014

A blessing and the fighter's lace

By: Jane Rosenthal

Coolie, Come Out and Fight

Mohamed F (Mac) Carim (Porcupine Press)
This engaging and interesting read is a politically modest “struggle” memoir, which may have been written primarily to please the author, and for his family and friends.
It reasserts the notion cherished by many, including this reviewer, that each individual life is significant and interesting. From humble beginnings in South Africa he and his family, including his siblings, parents and his own wife and children, have achieved remarkable success once they had emigrated.

Carim’s parents had a relentless struggle to establish themselves as traders of one sort or another, always beset by legislation restricting the business operations of South African Indians, and further complicated by the mixed-race status of Carim’s mother – a great beauty who raised six children in conditions of hardship and insecurity.

His memorable and often nostalgic account of his boyhood includes a period in Troyeville, where local white boys liked to call him out of the shop on to the pavement to fight (hence the title of this book). They also spent some time in a flat with a balcony overlooking Market Street in Jajbhai’s Building, in the Johannesburg central business district, and a stone’s throw from the Library Gardens in which they were not allowed to play even when the city centre was deserted over the weekends.

Carim enjoyed these, but points out the contrast with the extremely larney school in Pakistan to which he and his two brothers were sent for a while when the family’s fortunes were in an upswing.
The high adventure of the journey there by ship, and his experiences at the school, showed Carim that life could be better than it was for his family in South Africa.

On his return to South Africa he found the Johannesburg Indian High School in Fordsburg such a comedown that he left before matriculating and started in a variety of jobs – finally ending up with Pepsi South Africa, which led to work all over the world.

In his late teens he and a group of friends led a socially active life (with a few lapses of judgment and brushes with the law) in which good clothes, a cool hairstyle and dancing played a big part.
Luckily one of them had a car, a 1949 Chevy. When Carim was just 22 he married Hajoo – the start of a long and happy marriage.

The text shows signs of a battle to compress and streamline the narrative of complicated life events; a more ruthless edit may have produced a more elegant book, but lost its special savour.
Carim’s storytelling is a lively mix of fact and opinion, and he has an eye for beauty.
I especially enjoyed his little riff on white lace curtains as a symbol of Hajoo’s determination to keep things good and tranquil in the family home.

Similarly enriching are his meditations on people in his life from whom he learned something useful – such as the stupidity of racism from his friendship with Sally van Rensburg, a poor white girl in Troyeville, and from a Jewish teacher in Pakistan he learned that confidence and good planning lead to success.
From Johannesburg to Lahore, and later on to Nigeria and Canada, this is a rich and memorable story.

For obtain your copy, click on: http://www.porcupinepress.co.za/shop/porcupine-books/coolie-come-out-and-fight-detail.html

The Science of Success; Obakeng Gaitate

For your copy, visit Porcupine Press