Nic Haralambous published one of Sheena’s fake articles
Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,792 views
Nic Haralambous, editor of SA Rocks, recently published one of Sheena Gates’ articles which is completely fake.
Her article begins with:
I was leaving for Australia. I had my bags packed, my tickets ready and my family there waiting for me. Then one morning I woke up and thought ‘what the hell am I doing?’. I love Africa. I love my country and its people. There are things in this place that only we could ever understand, such as:
I brought these obvious lies to his attention by posting a comment, but instead of responding, he simply deleted my comment.
Unfortunately, it seems that Sheena Gates, by virtue of her strong personality, has wormed her way into the good books of many South African bloggers and she is abusing their trust by supplying them with lies.
Here is the comment I made on sarocks:
Nic, I submit to you that this story written by Sheena Gates that you published is wholly false.
The entire story rests on whether the reasons Ms Gates has furnished are true or mere embellishments of her creative imagination.
Were her bags really packed? Or is that a fabrication? Did she indeed possess airplane tickets to Australia? Is she in possession of a valid passport? More importantly, did she possess a visa permitting her entry into Australia?
I submit to you that Ms Gates is lacking in at least one of the above requirements. I believe that she does not possess any visa allowing her entry into Australia. That being the case, one can deduce that neither were her bags packed nor is she in possession of airplane tickets.
The rest of her article is fanciful nonsense as can be discerned by most readers.
Ms Gates has expressed diametrically opposite views of South Africa in the past, lamenting the crime and lack of job opportunities here. At the time, she expressed a firm resolve to emigrate to Australia.
Ms Gates writes articles containing superficial nonsense which she often contradicts later.
Ms Gates has previously sought employment on cruise liners, but her application was declined. She has also expressed the firm conviction that she wishes to travel and live and work outside of South Africa.
No doubt the real reasons for her currently choosing to reside in South Africa have absolutely nothing to do with the ridiculous reasons she furnished us with in her article.
I recommend that no-one take Ms Gates’ opinions seriously.
I am one of those old fashioned people who believe that bloggers have the same responsibility to the truth as journalists do. It grieves me when I see people such as Sheena Gates publishing rank absurdities and then managing to rope in someone such as Nic Haralambous who is a journalist himself for The Financial Mail.
I believe that Nic Haralambous owes his readers an apology for his collusion in Ms Gates’ deception.
UPDATE: According to his personal blog, Nic Haralambous has taken up a position with The Mail & Guardian. His last working day with The Financial Mail was May 9 2008. He will start with M&G on May 19.
Some wag, by the name of Wesley, cheekily asked him, "Is it true that you got fired from Financial Mail because you reported on that fake story by Sheena Gates?"
I doubt it.
UPDATE II: Sarah Britten just blogged on Thought Leader that she’s moved to Australia to take up a new position there. At least, we can trust Thought Leader not to publish bullshit.
Tags: Fake blogger, Nic Haralambous, SA Rocks, Sheena Gates
Filed under Nic Haralambous, Sheena Gates | 126 Comments »
Meeting of the minds
Posted on January 25th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,190 views
I’ve recently met, in the flesh, two young woman bloggers that I first encountered online last year via their blogs.
On July 28 2007 11:54 AM, Candy Tothill wrote a blog entry about FaceBook:
What started as simple curiosity has turned into a full-blown fascination. Appealing to my general interest in the human condition, my narcissistic tendencies and my fundamental need to network, it has consumed hours – no – days of my life of late. Facebook is that of which I write. Face-F-ing-Book!
Two days later I found Candy’s post via a search for ‘facebook’ on amatomu and made a casual decision that, little known to me at the time, was to have profound consequences for me.
I wrote a comment on her blog entry:
Richard Catto said on July 30th, 2007 at 7:35 AM:
I created a facebook login months ago to post some comments on a facebook forum. I had no intention of developing a profile or amassing friends or etc.
And then somehow, people found me. How / why I don’t know / care to know.
They sent me invitations to friend them. I accepted, lest they be offended.
Now THEY are demanding I put a picture of myself up there!
When will this madness end?
At that time, back then in the Dark Ages of Ms. Tothill’s wonderful blog, I had to wait 5 days for her to reply. Today, that is unheard of! Inside Candy is now so popular and so well trafficked that it is hard competition to be the first to comment on her blog articles, and one can expect to hear back from her within hours at the most.
Sheena Gates and I, collected Candy from Cape Town International Airport yesterday afternoon and we proceeded to discover that Candy is just as interesting and exciting in person as she is online. Sheena is the other woman blogger mentioned above.
On September 7 2007, 13h35, Sheena wrote a blog entry on Wibble:
I’ve just heard on the news that the mother of Madeleine McCann has been hauled in for questioning on the suspicion of her involvement with her daughters disappearance.
Bitch. If she’s guilty, I hope they hang her.
Two days later (again), whilst browsing wibble, I found Sheena’s post there and was inspired to write the following comment to her (which also had profound consequences for me):
On September 9th, 2007 name: Richard Catto says:
The woman has been declared a suspect and you all are already baying for her blood!
Honestly, I think that is a sick opinion to express publicly. Hold it privately if you must, but spewing hate online offends.
Furthermore, I’ll have you all know that even if (and that’s a BIG if) she is guilty, The European Union does not have capital punishment because it is BARBARIC.
Pat yourselves on the backs, you all, for being barbarians.
After posting that comment, I went over to Sheena’s blog, which at that time was still hosted on blogspot, and read some of her posts. It was there that I discovered the reason why Sheena was so emotional about Madeleine McCann – she had lost an infant daughter herself. So I felt a bit bad about what I had written and contacted the administrator of Wibble and asked her to convey an apology to Sheena, which she duly did.
The next day, Sheena replied to my comment saying that she had received my message from the wibble admin via FaceBook. So I went over to FaceBook and searched for Sheena’s profile, and sent her a message there.
This is the message I sent her on 12:43 AM Sep 11 2007:
Is this Sheena the Barbarian?
Cheers,
Richard "Conan" Catto
I got a sassy reply from Sheena, and so began an online friendship that has lasted several months and led to her coming to stay with me on January 10 2007 when I collected her from Cape Town International airport two weeks to the day before Candy joined us for a brief visit yesterday.
So what I’m saying here is that it is through the medium of blogging that we three strangers were able to get to know each other and form online friendships that translated comfortably into real life, face to face, friendships.
We knew each other before we first laid eyes on one another.
It was quite a heady and exciting feeling laying eyes on Sheena for the first time as she waltzed into the visitors lounge of Cape Town International Airport. She had a ready smile, a bouncy gait and even bouncier boobs. 
We were slightly late collecting Candy and Sheena went in to meet her while I waited by the car, lest it be clamped in the Stop and Go zone. So my first glimpse of Candy was of a slight, incredibly thin long-haired beautiful brunette woman in the distance, holding the long extended handle of an elegant and compact travelling case.
And then began the ride home in my cantankerous car, now dubbed Bartholomew by Candy. We fell into conversation and I acted as tour guide, pointing out various spots along the N2 and regaling them with (true) tales of my exploits in those regions.
Our amiable visit was threatened to be cut short by the looming meeting between Candy and someone she would rather avoid, but felt obliged to see. At the last minute, en-route to her hotel, the person cancelled (via SMS) and so Candy invited us in to dine with her in the hotel’s restaurant.
Time sped by as we enjoyed each other’s company which was briefly interrupted by a giant cochroach whose speedy dartings under quaking legs terrified my companions. It crunched satisfyingly under my Nike shoe, after a brief chase around the restaurant. The Dutch party adjoining us, applauded.
Around 11PM we finished off with coffee and was amused when Candy ordered ice cubes from our waiter to put in her cappuccino to cool it down. Now that’s an interesting quirk and something I would probably never have discovered via online chat alone.
She’s flying back to JHB today, but promised that she would come see us again soon.
I can’t wait.
Tags: Candy Tothill, meeting online friends, Sheena Gates
Filed under Candy Tothill, Online friendships, Sheena Gates | 3 Comments »
In a perfect world:
Posted on December 17th, 2007 by Richard Catto 2,444 views
- Jacob Zuma and all the rest of his uneducated and ignorant supporters would be cured of AIDS by having a shower
- Manto would be able to drink alcohol to her hearts content without it affecting her brand spanking new liver and then heal any ailments by eating beetroot.
- Nelson Mandela would live to be 100 years old
- 3rd degree would actually make sense sometimes and not just be a TV show with a presenter full of attitude
- Tokyo Sexwale would be voted in as president and not jump on JZ’s band wagon like he has done
- Neledi Pandor would have more of an effect on the department of education and 2008 matriculates would have a higher standard of pass rate
These things are highly likely to not ever happen. So what do we do instead? Some of us ignore the issues going on around us (like I do), some of us write political articles (such as this one) in the hopes of creating some awareness, some of us kick up a fuss and down our country at every opportunity, and a lot of us plan to make a difference, tomorrow. For most of us, tomorrow never comes.
What is the solution?
Immigration for those of us who can’t handle “third worlding” any longer. That way, you will solve your problems, and eliminate a small amount of negativity from our country.
If immigration is not for you, support our government as far as possible, without compromising our morals. Don’t become another negative statistic that aids all the corruption, dishonestly and crime factors.
Vote in the election. Have your say. Your opinion does count. Imagine if 20 000 other people also stayed at home that day and thought the same insecure thought ‘it won’t make a difference if I vote or not”.
We are South Africans. Yes, there is too much crime. Yes, rape is inhumane and unjust. Yes, there is corruption more deep rooted than even we know about. There are far too many cons of being in this country.
But there are a lot of pros too, that sometimes we overlook or dismiss as unimportant.
This is South Africa. In less than 13 years, look how far we have come. We have won two world cups, we’re hosting another in two years, black people are now licensed to be human and do what whiteys have long taken advantage of, such as going to watch a movie at ten o’clock at night, or shopping in the same malls, or drinking from a tap in a public bathroom.This is an enormous change!
When I go abroad to travel, I’m looking forward to defending my country and setting the record straight “Not only do we not have lions as pets, we also have malls with electricity, we have streets of tar, we have multi racial schools, sports events that involve every single South African citizen, we have local productions on TV that are worthy of International broadcasting, such as Isidingo, or the Oscar winning movie, Tsotsi, which was remarkable to watch”.
I am proud to call myself South African. You should be too.
Tags: Politics
Filed under Education, electricity, Ex-pat South African, Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Parliament, Sheena Gates, South Africa, Statistics, White South Africans | 29 Comments »
Sheena Gates’ poignant story of her prematurely born daughter and Kiera’s untimely demise
Posted on November 19th, 2007 by Richard Catto 1,991 views
If there is one blog post you read this year, I would recommend this one:
My mom and dad were already beside my daughter and holding my hand as the head nurse explained to me that Kiera was brain dead. The machines were the only thing keeping her alive and that I had a choice:
I could let her stay as she was with the hope that she would eventually breathe again, but remain mentally incapable of living – she was now considered a ‘vegetable’, or I could let her go in peace now. As much as I believed in religion and God having his will, I also believed in quality of life. My final decision was what I thought my daughter would have wanted, and I turned off her ventilation machines.
It was at this point that I cried. I am so terribly sorry for you, Sheena. I was rivetted by your story, breaking off reading it only to call you, because I had to.
One day, I pray, you will get another chance to fulfill your destiny to become the greatest mom who ever lived. You’re a wonderful woman, Sheena, and a brilliant writer. A strong determined woman who does not quit. Kiera probably never knew, while she was alive, that she had the greatest mom ever. I am sure she knows it now.
I am proud to call you my friend.
Tags: Kiera, motherhood, premature baby, SheBee, Sheena Gates
Filed under Sheena Gates | 3 Comments »
