CC9 - Invisible Stories

9th CC Toastmaster speech. The objective is to Persuade with Power. Copyright of the speech and photos belongs to Zani Smit. Side note: 4 months after presenting this speech, I had the privilege to visit Arlington Cemetery and stand next to J.F.K's grave. (see photos)

It all started in the corner of a smoky Beverly Hills bar, a legendary but fading singer stands, nursing a drink, a cigarette and – much to his distress – a cold.

My fellow journalists. Tonight I want to share with you just a little snippet of Talese’s masterpiece.I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Esquire magazine writer Gay Talese who recounted that cold night in 1966 with his story “Sinatra has a cold”. Instead of writing another old and boring celebrity interview, Gay Talese started a revolution in journalism.

“FRANK SINATRA, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something. But he said nothing; he had been silent during much of the evening, except now in this private club in Beverly Hills he seemed even more distant.

Sinatra was ill. He was the victim of an ailment so common that most people would consider it trivial. But when it gets to Sinatra it can plunge him into a state of anguish, deep depression, panic, even rage. Frank Sinatra had a cold."

We all want to be part of the journalism revolution that Talese started but then why are our newspapers and magazines filled with the same-old-same-old stories.

Do you really want to write about another ATM bombing, rhino-poaching, Julius-Malema rally. I dare you to go out there and find – The Invisible stories. They are not so difficult to find, you just need to know where NOT TO GO. Editors are quick to say that News is where journalists are. But what if I told you tonight that maybe it is where journalists aren’t.

I was working as a foreign correspondent in America when their president JFK was assassinated. We were more than 3000 print journalists who rushed over to Capitol Rotunda to view the presidents’ body and to interview celebrities and politicians. Needless to say all 3000 of us got the same old same old story- the one about a dead body.

One journalist – Jimmy Breslin did not. Instead of following the heard of sheep to Capitol Rotunda, Jimmy went somewhere else because he believed that News is where journalists aren’t.

He was a lone reporter walking around Arlington National Cemetery where he interviewed a man of no real importance the Grave digger. This gravedigger only gets paid $3.01 an hour for digging graves whether it is the late president grave or John Does.

Published in the New York Herald Tribune in November 1963 I give you a little extract of “Digging JFK’s Grave was his honour" by Jimmy Breslin.

"Clifton Pollard was pretty sure he was going to be working on Sunday, so when he woke up at 9 a.m., in his three-room apartment on Corcoran Street, he put on khaki overalls before going into the kitchen for breakfast. His wife, Hettie, made bacon and eggs for him. Pollard was in the middle of eating them when he received the phone call he had been expecting.

It was from Mazo Kawalchik, who is the foreman of the gravediggers at Arlington National Cemetery, which is where Pollard works for a living. "Polly, could you please be here by eleven o'clock this morning?" Kawalchik asked. "I guess you know what it's for." Pollard did. He hung up the phone, finished breakfast, and left his apartment so he could spend Sunday digging a grave for John Fitzgerald Kennedy."

This account is still considered today the definitive piece of reporting on the assassination. It’s 48 years later, Breslin’s column has been reprinted many times, and even today this seemingly invisible story is able to move me to tears. I want to challenge you to do the same.

CC8 - Elke pot het 'n deksel

8th CC Toastmaster speech. The objective was to use visual aids to support your speech.
The copyright of the speech belongs to Zani Smit.

Meneer die Tafelheer, Dames en Here

Elke pot het ‘n Deksel, maak nie saak hoe krom, dom of skeef die pot is nie.

‘n Pot kan nooit sy volle potensiaal bereik, mits die pot sy regmaatige deksel het nie.

En ja Meneer die President van S.A - ‘n pot kort net 1 deksel nie 3 nie.

Wat kan gebeur as jy die verkerde deksel op jou pot forseer? Jy verander in ‘n drukkoker wat enige tyd kan ontplof want jou deksel sit te styf, of jy brand aan want jou deksel pas glad nie.

Daar is potte wat rond dans met deksels wat te los sit en ander staan weer roerloos – te bang hulle skewe deksels val dalk af. Nuwe potte skaam hulle vir hul ou vaal deksels.

Selfs Blinkgeskuurde ou potte lyk sommer net simpel met splinternuwe deksels op. Dit is dus uiters belangrik dat jy die regte deksel vir jou pot kry.

Kom ons bestudeer van die bekendse pot & deksel kombinasies in die geskiedenis. Adam en Eva, Simson en Delila, Romeo en Juliet, Bonnie en Clyde, Sonny en Cher, Brad en Angelina en selfs Barbie en Ken.

Al hierdie kombinasies werk en dit is duidelik dat op hul eie so hul defnitief nie so bekend of suksesvul sou gewees het nie.

Sekere deksels is maklik om op te spoor, anderis deksels moeilik. 20 jaar terug moes enkeloopendes op Landbou weekblad se Hoekie vir Eensames staatmaak. Gelukkig vir ons het dinge verander en daar is nou baie ander plekke om jou deksel te ontmoet. My nommer een voorstel is om jou deksel in die donker te ontmoet.Die fliek, ‘n nagklub, ‘n hysbak sonder krag is alles ideale geleenthede vir ‘n goeie 1ste indruk. Ek was self in die uiters bevoorregte posisie om 7 jaar gelede my “deksel” te ontmoet op ‘n Woensdag aand in Maart 2003. Net ‘n paar bloke van waar ons nou is. Dit was ‘n baie donker aand en ‘n baie donker vertrek. Maar Drop Zone was die perfekte geseligheid vir ‘n 1ste ontmoeting. Wat is die voordeel om iemand in die donker te ontmoet. Almal lyk goed in die donker. Die donkerte gaan gewoonlik gepaard met baie harde musiek so jy hoef nie bekommerd te wees oor of jul gesprek vloei nie. Dit is ook maklik om weg te hardloop as jy sien die deksel is nie vir jou nie.

My nommer twee idée is om jou deksel perongeluk optespoor. In hierdie kategorie kan jy baie kreatief wees. Ry agter in sy motor vas, dan moet hy vra vir jou telefoon nommer.

Nog ‘n voorstel Boek jouself in die hospital of ‘n rehabilitasie sentrum in en flankeer met jou mede pasiente of selfs met die dokters.
Die voordele van so ‘n ontmoeting – julle sal ‘n fantastiese storie he om eendag vir jul kinders en klein kinders te vertel. Dinge kan ook net beter gaan na hierdie tragiese ontmoeting.

Kuns klasse, Tango Lesse en my gunsteling Toastmasters. Almal weet dat mense nie stokperdies doen vir ontspanning nie, hulle doen dit net om iemand anders te ontmoet.

Die internet en kletskamers, Facebook, Mixit en Twitter het die moontlik gemaak om deksels van reg oor die wereld te ontmoet. Of jy nou ‘n bruid van Rusland of ‘n metgesel vir jou matriek reunie nodig het, jy kan kies en keur op die Internet.

Die enigste nadeel .... jou deksel kan dalk ‘n reeks moordenaar wees.

Dames en Here, met hierdie voorstelle hoef jy nie meer soos ‘n deksel te voel wat jou hele lewe lank al die pot mis sit nie.

Revenge of the Rainforest

My 7th CC Toastmaster speech. The objective was research. The copyright of the speech belongs to Zani Smit

Mr Toastmaster,

Some of the most important events in the twentieth century took years to accomplish, while others took only minutes.

Let’s look at some of the highlights of this century.

• 1st Flight by Wright brothers
• World War I
• Titanic Sank
• The Assassination of Gandhi
• Creation of Star Wars
• Nelson Mandela being released from prison

I want you for a moment to imagine a small and trivial event of this century, like the paving of the Kinshasa highway in the nineteen seventies.

The paving of this highway may seem insignificant to you but what if I told you it affected every person on earth, and turned out to be one of the most important events in the twentieth century.

Before the highway was paved and become known as The Aids Highway, a little boy called Richard Preston and his family went on a trip to Mount Elgon that lies between the border of Uganda and Kenya, not far from Sudan. They wanted to visit this biological island of rain forest in the center of Africa, and isolated world rising above dry plants, fifty miles across, blanketed with trees. Another cool fact about this Mountain was that is may have been the highest mountain in Africa if it was not eroded down, even higher than Kilimanjaro is today, it is still the widest.

The road to Mount Elgon is a segment of the Kinshasa highway, a road that cuts Africa in half. During the time that the Preston’s took the trip the road was a dirt track that advanced through the heart of Africa, almost impossible to traverse along its complete length.

But how could the paving of this road have such a dramatic impact on humanity? It killed at least 10 million lives, with the likelihood that the ultimate number of human casualties will vastly exceed the deaths in the Second World War When long sections of the road were paved, the trucks began rolling through and soon afterward the Aids virus appeared in towns along the highway. Medical doctors who work in East Africa believe that 90 percent of the prostitutes working along the main roads carry the Aids virus. Local doctors estimate that as many as 30 percent of all men and women of child bearing age who live in the vicinity of Mount Elgon are infected with HIV.

The emergence of HIV was subtle; it incubates for years in a human host before it kills the host. If the virus had been noticed earlier, it might have been named Kinshasa Highway, in honor of the fact that it passed along the Kinshasa highway during its emergence from the African forest.

Years later when Richard Preston became a number one bestselling author with his book “The Hot Zone” he recalls “In effect, I had witnessed a crucial event in the emergence of Aids, the transformation of a thread of dirt into a ribbon of tar.”

The emergence of Aids, Ebola and any number of other rain forest agents appears to be a natural consequence of the ruin of the tropical biosphere. The emerging viruses are surfacing from ecologically damaged parts of the earth, like Mount Elgon. The tropical rain forests are the deep reservoirs of life on the planet, containing most of the world’s plant and animal species. The rain forests are also its largest reservoirs of viruses, since all living things carry viruses. When viruses come out of an ecosystem, they tend to spread in waves through the human population, like echoes from the dying biosphere.

There are many villages around Mount Elgon and the forest is being cleared away, the trees are being cut down for firewood or to make room for grazing land, and the elephants are vanishing.

In a sense, the earth is mounting and immune response against the human species. It is beginning to react to the human parasite, the flooding infection of people, and the dead spots of concrete all over the planet.

Perhaps the biosphere does not like the idea of 5 billion humans. Nature has interesting ways of balancing itself. The rain forest has its own defenses. The earth’s immune system has recognized the presence of human species and is starting to kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite.

“Aids” is the worst environmental disaster of the twentieth century.Whether the human race can actually maintain a population of five billion or more without a crash with a hot virus remains an open question - unanswered. What we do know is that Aids is the revenge of the rain forest. It may be only the beginning.

Mr. Toastmaster