Hey there Sipho. It sounds like you may have a hormone imbalance if everyone is irritating you.

A well known cause of hormone imbalance is eating a lot of meat. Many animals bred for meat are fed estrogenic steroids to fatten them up. It could be that a rise in estrogens in your body is causing you to act like an irrational person suffering from pms. This can be solved by switching to an organic vegetarian diet.

(Report abuse)

Best you take at least 2 Valium if you ever come near my board room …

(Report abuse)

Cyclists in lycra are bottom feeding shrimps.

Go watch District 9, soon out on DVD, to find out more about prawns.

You sir, have been prawned.

(Report abuse)

Sipho - please add one more to your list. Those that have taken insane vows of special abstinance, like refusing to eat meat, and then trying to impose feelings of guilt on the carnivores at snack time. Even worse is that they impose special restrictions on the fruit they eat, like the must be completely organic or something, or must fall naturally from the tree so that cannot hear the apple scream.

(Report abuse)

stationEry is the stuff you write on, stationAry means not moving.

(Report abuse)

I recently went on a vegetarian-only diet. I enjoyed it immensely and the health benefits were fantastic. Unfortunately I had to give it up as one has to do the trapping and slaughtering one’s self.

(Report abuse)

You have a sense of humour, Mr. Slaughter.

I notice the ironic use of “slaughter”.

See, I have a sense of humour too!

(Report abuse)

Sipho, please find another nick. Jaundiced Eye is something u stole from the great William Saunderson Meyer. U however, are no writer nor deep thinker. What on earth could u possibly contribute to a board-room meeting?

(Report abuse)

Stuff boadroom prawns, vegans, carnivores etc. Lets get off the boring stuff onto something no Thought Leader journalist has tackeld seriously for a long time.

Genetically modified (GM) crops. The world desperately needs them to stop hunger say Monsanto the American seed corporation, but they usually yield less than non-GM crops and are harmful to human health and environment say scientists. Plus they use more dangerous herbicides than non-GM crops. Their seed is patented and threatens food security which will increase starvation say activists.

Biotech spin doctors lie through their teeth about them, university professors love or hate them, depending on whether they get funding to research them or not. In Europe informed consumers have rejected them.

South Africa grows GM maize (60-70%), soya (85%) and cotton (95%). In the Eastern Cape farm animals have died eating GM cotton (95%), but the media has not reported on this, comeon Sipho, here is your chance to make it big. Get a life and make readers think and talk like you did on your vegetarian post.

(Report abuse)

Actually Sipho, Slaughter may well be Andrew’s surname. Furthermore, he was being quite factual and not at all funny, ha ha.

But then by the looks of you, you can be forgiven an immature outlook on life and your lack of understanding on the mature choices of non-meat eaters. It seems those teenage years of wanton hedonism are still with you as demonstrated by your uninformed opinions and limited experience.

I suppose your idea of a suitable meeting environment is in a pub or around a pool deck. Grow up.

(Report abuse)

Many gestures and social customs are firmly rooted in body-language. An example: Eye-picking is as good as always - that’s right - a message of a double-message; something is said about what is not said. The obvious question when talking with an eye-picking person, is: “What is the opposite of his/her message?” A good second could be: “What is the reason why this person do not wish to tell me the whole truth? Is he/she lying, and if so are there good reasons for that?” (- there are many reasons for lying, and some of them can be very good - ethically too).

A curiosity about body-language is, that it is as good as impossible to lie once you can read it. Only very experienced actors are able to completely block it out. But it is very possible to mask it and give faked messages, and it helps a lot if you are good in catching the attention from the receiver of the message. (Pickpockets are excelling in this). This is actually synonymous to acting, which we know has become a big industry. A good actor can convey profound messages by body language and engage deep responses within the spectator/viewer.

(Report abuse)

Body-language can be confusing - if a person is not familiar with the expressions, that is. It is older and more basic than most spoken languages, but very much used in our “modern societies”. It has evolved very efficiently along with our societies. First, the one *expressing* a message in body-language can be unaware of it. Second, the one *receiving* a message in body-language can be unaware of it. And even so - the message is usually received and responded to anyway. The reason is the intuitive nature of the language.

It is mostly intuitive, actually, which means that your rational understanding depends on how good you are to read your own emotions, when you receive the massages expressed by it. This spells only one thing: Know your own emotions! Then you are prepared to respond rationally to any situation where it is used actively. There are, however, challenges immediately appearing to those on the path of mastering the skills rationally. And the most difficult among these, is to remain an empathic and sensitive loving human being. Cynicism is the common pitfall.

(Report abuse)

[…] Thought Leader » Sipho Hlongwane » The seven highly annoying … […]

(Report abuse)

let’s allow our thoughts to live in about the same vicinity in these troubled times SA is experiencing, that we are one of coutries topping the list on child abuse/molestation, what about the highest number of infant mortality, matenal mortality, human trafficking, the fact that our economy has low levels of savings making us the least preferred economy for investment - compared to CHINA, INDIA & BRASIL,

these issues and a whole lot more need more consideration as discourse at social level, WHY’s and HOW’s need addressing as a matter of urgency

(Report abuse)

Yes Sipho, vegetarians irritate you and so do boardroom prawns. I get irritated by fat people who always stop in the middle of passages and doorways oblivious that others want to get past, they also irritate me when they sit on a public toilet and groan in exertion then sigh with relief while answering nature’s call. Shop tellers that carry on a conversation in loud voices with passers by while they are serving me piss me off, and taxi’s that stop to pick up or drop of passanges on busy motorways where it distictly says ‘no stopping’ also irritate me.

At least you don’t have to be exposed to what irritates you, but I get exposed to what numberous times a day.

(Report abuse)

Thobekani & Liewe Heksie,

Have you ever imagined what it might be like, living in a country that has no humour, a country populated by citizens who cannot laugh at themselves every now and then?

It would be hell.

Also, just for the record, I am no “journalist”. I am a blogger. This is a blogging platform.

(Report abuse)

Khalsa,

I didn’t “steal” the nick from anyone. There are literally hundreds of websites, blogs and suchlike bearing the name “jaundiced eye”.

It’s a common English expression. Broadly speaking, it means a prejudiced or slanted viewpoint.

However, in deference to the fact that Mr. Saunderson-Meyer and I share a blogging platform, I will think up a new name for this blog.

(Report abuse)

You tell them, Sipho. Poor old Liewe Heksie and Thobekani completely missed the point, being so PC they scare me. Although if you go and read the Liewe Heksie stories you will find that she is not the sharpest tool in the shed by any stretch of the imagination. As for Thobekani, I suppose anyone has the right to be anal.
But back to you now: the worst boardroom/meeting prawn must be the one that pitches up 15 minutes into the meeting, didn’t prepare, and then raise points under “general” that have been addressed already during the first 15 minutes of the meeting. When the revolution comes they will be the first against the wall, I tell you!

(Report abuse)

Sipho

That is great, I think you can be really creative with a new name for your blog page, something that epitomises you and your writing.

(Report abuse)

this post and its comments are the most random i’ve ever seen in my 2 or so years of dropping in here….

anyway, i like prawns. especially with lots of tabasco sauce. i like them staionary as well…

(Report abuse)

@Sipho

If you are a blogger I am sure you keep up with current affairs. I see reports indicating South Africa’s nuclear Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project could be scrapped which is excellent news.

Germany terminated its experimental PBMR project in 1986 after an accident when radioactive material leaked into the environment.

If the billions of rands of tax payers money wasted on this pie in the sky project had instead been channeled into renewable energy, South Africans and our beloved Eskom would not be in the mess we currently find ourselves. Heads must roll for this monumental scam, with no golden hand shakes, in fact those responsible for this grave injustice should pay back our communal capital they have squandered, or face the wrath of the hardworking tax-payer.

Maybe you feel for the SA public, I don’t know?

(Report abuse)

Hahahaha. I know acouple of prawns, the type that will ask a stupid question just to mess with your train of though.

Well written Sipho, I like, I like.

(Report abuse)

Hlongwane, South Africa’s circumstance(s) from whichever way you look at it, is like the walls of Jericho, and we have to use all the amunition and spaces we have to hold it up, from the lowest levels of our society as said, invoking sense of humour must remain suspended for now until the progress is in sight, use the resources you have to contribute to the struggle, that way you’d not only be appreciating your position and certain powers and priviledges but also releasing the freedom fighter in you,

cat, the nature of the first part of your response shows the color of your charector and YOU also have a right to be, we are greatful for that.

(Report abuse)