Attie Heunis's Journey

The ramblings of a Caucasian African American

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about

Originally from South Africa’s magnificent Eastern Cape, my family and I now reside in Pennsylvania in the United States. To earn my keep I’m an executive for a multinational company in the Healthcare sector. I’m also a serious amateur photographer. Pro-environmental and conservation views.

  • P J Olivier reünie toespraak

    Ek is gevra om ‘n toespraak te lewer vir P J Olivier se reünie vanaand. Hierdie is waarmee ek vorendag gekom het:

    My naam is Attie Heunis en ek verteenwoordig die klas van 1991 vandag. Ek wil net sê dat is dit nie ooglopend hoe dat al die ander klasse skrikwekkend ouer geword het nie, maar dat ons klas opmerklik nog net dieselfde lyk, maar net wyser is!!

    Mnr Snijders, Personeel, Oudskoliere en Families,

    Die wêreld soos ons hom vandag ervaar is heelwat anders as in 1991.

    In 1991 het die Blou Bulle die Curriebeker gewen, die Wallabies het die Wêreldbeker gewen, Stefan Edberg was die Wimbledon kampioen en Ayrton Senna was die F1 kampioen. Vandag is die Blou Bulle laaste in die Curriebeker, die Bokke is die wêreldkampioene, Djokivic is die Wimbledon koning en Vettel beheer F1. Die een ding wat nog konstant is is hoedat WP nog steeds in die semi’s uitval.

    In 1991 was die tyd van briljante rock bands soos Nirvana, Queen, Alice in Chains, Metallica, Guns & Roses en AC/DC en vir Richard Hartwell, Depeche Mode. Vandag luister ‘n mens na Justin Bieber, Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna, Selena Gomez en darem Adele.

    In 1991 was die somtotaal van tegnologie, die sakrekenaar in jou tas en Smirre (Riaan Smit) se twin-deck radio waarna ons na “duiwelsmusiek” geluister het. Vandag het ons Google, Android, Tablets, .NET, the Cloud, Blackberry, Wifi, WiMAX, iPhone, iPod, iPad en selfs iPood. En so gaan dit aan en aan. Behoorlik die inligtingsera!

    Maar op ‘n ernstige noot, in 1991 het Afrikaners die hef in die hand gehad. Of dit nou reg of verkeerd was is ‘n ander saak, maar dit is hoe dit was. Die spreekwoordelike deur was wawyd oop gewees vir Afrikaners. Demokrasie het in 1994 het gekom en nou 17 jaar word Afrikaanses van alle kleure (wit, swart en bruin) gemarginaliseer. Ons taal en kultuur kry dit van alle kante af. Hierdie stand gekoppel met die wêreldwye ekonomiese afname beteken die deur waarvan ons vroeer gepraat het nie meer wawyd oop is nie, maar net op ‘n skrefie vir ons loer. Dinge is nie maklik vir Afrikaanses nie.

    Maar “moeilik” bou karakter. Ons moet aanpas by hierdie situasie. Ons moet deur hierdie deur kom. En die sleutel tot hierdie deur is opvoeding. Maar opvoeding in die bree sin van die woord: dit sluit in akademiese opvoeding, maar ook disipline, toewyding, maniere en ook om vrae to vra en nie als te aanvaar nie. Hierdie bree opvoeding is wat entrepeneurskap, innovasie, selfversekerdheid, selfverwesenliking en uiteindelik leierskap stimuleer.

    Edward Everett, President van Harvard Universitiet in die 1850s het gesê “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” En dit lui hier en nou!

    Met goeie opvoeding breek jy enige deur af – hier in Suid-Afrika of in enige plek in die wêreld. Sonder goeie opvoeding gebeur dit wat in Londen die afgelope week plaasgevind het. Maar in Londen het daai outjies die veiligheidsnet van Sosialisme. Ons in Suid-Afrika het nie daai luuksheid nie. So opvoeding is inderdaad ‘n ernstige saak. Die geniale evolusionis Charles Darwin het dit perfek opgesom toe hy gesê het: “How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.”.

    Ek wil afsluit deur te sê dat ons – die klas van 1991 – goed oplet dat Dr Snijders en sy personeel PJ Olivier se opvoedingslig weer helder laat brand. Die manier waarop julle hierdie kardinale verantwoordelikhied dra is vir ons oudskoliere ‘n riem onder die hart. Ter ondersteuning sê ons “Mooi so” en “Doen so voort”!

    Dankie.

  • Goodbye 2010; Hello 2011

    I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t blogged since September. I try to blog at least once a month, but my life have been so hectic the last 3 or 4 months that I haven’t had the time to post something.

    In July I started programming again with Dimension Data. It was kind of something we looked at because business at Red Apple wasn’t good enough to support the family. But the truth is that I love writing software. Sometimes I wonder why I still get a buzz when I solve a problem in software. 🙂

    I started off with a Sabco Coca-Cola contract doing Infopath forms for a Sharepoint library. This was not a great introduction, because frankly I did not have much experience with Infopath or Sharepoint. I learnt a lot, but after having done the work, I am not a fan of Sharepoint or Infopath. I have written web applications that did pretty much the same thing (but for a different sector) that worked a lot better. Since then though I have been involved with .NET applications and web sites for Sabco, Volkswagen & Volpes. DotNET is my forte; I have almost 10 years experience in DotNet in Enterprise environments and I think I’m really good at it. DiData have extended my contract since July, so I guess they agree.

    In the week I live with my sister, who has a flat in Walmer. While I’m away coding in the week, Lene manages the Red Apple. I must say I had some doubts that she would cope, but apart from one or two stumbles she has been brilliant. I really take my hat off to her. Right now, for the first time in years, our situation seems to be very healthy. Both Lene and I are doing exactly what we want and our finances are healthy as well. The only bad thing (and unfortunately it is a big deal) is that I spend 4 nights a week away from my family. To make it easier one tries to not think about it too much, but it is tough. Fortunately I’m so pleased that Didata have agreed that I can work from home for two days a week. This will mean I only have to spend 2 nights a week away from home instead of 4. This will be a massive improvement in my quality of life and I look forward to 2011!

  • J P Landman se optimisme is misplaas

    The last couple of months I have been impressed with Afrikaans radio station Radio Sonder Grense. This morning they had a very topical discussion about the impact and costs of the FIFA World Cup now after it had finished. I was enjoying the discussion except for one of the panellist’s striking aversion to anything negative being said about the World Cup or indeed South Africa. I decided to take note of this person’s name. It all made complete sense when I found out it was the happy fool J P Landman who was rubbing of up the wrong way.

    This fool with his over-used often misdirected quotations would make you believe that there really is nothing wrong with our young democracy. That corruption is under control and all is well. I don’t respect J P Landman. I think he is essentially an academic who doesn’t live in the real world. His utterances are always delivered with spectacular grandeur, but I don’t think he ever really says anything of consequence. What he does say is what in Afrikaans you would refer to as Soetkoek – a light sweet cake that makes you feel good in the short term, but is ultimately not healthy.

  • Sony Ericsson XPERIA with Android

    This week I bought an Android powered Sony Ericsson XPERIA mini smart phone. A colleague of mine introduced me this beacon of technology so I had an idea of what to expect. But after now having used for a couple of days I have to admit that I’m completely bowled over!

    Before using this phone I didn’t think that Google’s Android (or any other mobile OS for that matter) really came close to beating firstly Apple’s iPhone and secondly RIM’s Blackberry, but now I’m of a different opinion. Personally I already prefer Android to Blackberry. Yes they have been designed for slightly different audiences and both have their pros & cons, but the Android’s user interface is very good (because of the touch screen this can be almost completely driven by software).

    Add to that the extensibility of Android (through its 70,000+ apps) and most importantly the cost and the Android becomes a more sensible option for me. Android is a hardware independent phone which means you can get the full power of Android on a relatively cheap phone – as is the case with the XPERIA mini.

    I still think that right now the iPhone is the ultimate, but I just cannot justify the price. Although that being said I’m quite certain that the architecture of Android and the commitment of Google will see Android eventually catching and finally passing Apple certainly in terms of units running the OS.

    (because of the touch screen this can be almost completely driven by infinitely programmable software)

  • Back to Corporate life, but this time in SA

    Because of the economic downturn Lené and I decided to send me back. Back to the evil dungeons of corporate life. In other words; a real 9 to 5 job. I haven’t worked in corporate since leaving the UK in August 2006. Everyone knows corporate has its bad aspects, but by-and-large I enjoyed the environment. Some people hate it, but I seem to do well in it.

    Once the decision had been made, I was expecting to wait a while to actually start working. Not so, luckily. Lené’s cousin’s husband referred me to someone at Dimension Data, probably South Africa’s biggest IT company in Port Elizabeth. After a few to-and-fro emails I managed to secure an interview. I have done many many interviews and am very comfortable doing them. In the UK I was so good I would go for 4 interviews on one day and get offered them all by 5pm! Anyway after the interview they said they liked my skills but they had nothing right then. Fair enough I thought. But about 2 hours later I got a call asking when I could start! The rate was obviously not as high as I would expect in the UK – where I made serious money. But I am pleased with what I got.

    My first job was to jointly build 83 Infopath (for Sharepoint deployment) forms for Sabco, a major Coca-Cola bottling company. It was something I hadn’t done before, so there was quite a learning curve. I was nervous about impressing my new slave masters (so to speak; they’re actually dead-nice), but in the end I think I did OK and I expanded my skill set. It seems DiData was happy as well as they’ve offered me another contract; this time with Volkswagen. And best of all this time it will be in C#, which has been my bread and butter for many years. I can honestly say I think I’m not a bad C#/ASP.NET developer. Time will tell I guess!

  • Coalinga: A Place for Paedophiles

    On Saturday I watched Louis Theroux’s Coalinga: A Place for Paedophiles, a documentary about the Coalinga State Hospital. This hospital houses 850 sex offenders who are thought to be too dangerous to release into general society. I am a big fan of Louis even though I know many people can’t stand him. This episode though really got under my skin.

    The whole idea of Coalinga to me seems unethical. Despite the real crimes of the inmates I don’t think the proponents of this system are honouring the constitutional rights of the prisoners (called “individuals” by the staff), especially considering that they are being held after serving their full prison sentences. Trust me, I have two daughters myself, so I take this seriously. But to legally lock a guy up for the rest of his life because of what he may do seems unjust.

    Also the ridiculous tests that the “clinicians” give to establish if a prisoner still has sexual tendencies seem like something out of the dark ages. Seriously. For  instance, one of the tests goes as follows. A prisoner has a measuring device installed on his penis and then shown sexually charged (but not nude) images of various people including children. If the guy gets an erection he fails the test. With this test I have major issues. I wonder how many “normal” people wouldn’t also fail these tests. I don’t think it is fair. Essentially many many (if not most people) on earth have impure thoughts about anything imaginable. But there is a massive fundamental difference between thinking something and doing it. I can’t even think how many times have I wanted to bliksem someone without doing it. By all means increase the prison sentences of the offenders for what they have done, but this is wrong.

    The hospital gets granted $200,000 per year for every prisoner. Makes a nice turnover of almost $200m!

  • Fotos op die strand

    Fotos op die strand

    Ek en die twee prinsesse het gister middag na werk ‘n draai by die strand gemaak. Dit was ‘n fantastiese middag gewees en ek het hierdie mooi winter fotos geneem.

    Elke & Cara exploring on a boat

  • Spud the Movie Trailer

    I have just seen the trailer for John van der Ruit’s hilarious book, Spud and it looks promising.

    Due for release in in November 2010, the movie tells the story of Spud, a boy going to school in the prestigious Natal private school, Michaelhouse. The book was a huge hit in South Africa and the UK, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that was to be made into a movie with screen icon John Cleese (as Spud’s favourite teacher) and newcomer South-African actresses Tanit Phoenix (as the sexy teacher) and Alex McGregor (as a girlfriend).

    I am reading the book at present and I must say that I’ve had several involuntary fits of laughter, so I think it could be a great movie if they can successfully portray the South-African humour in the book. Inevitably some of the humour will be lost in translation to American and European audiences, but I think the English-speaking nations like the UK, Australia, New Zealand and India will certainly “get it”.

  • Potgooi 30

    Episode 30; oftewel Reeks 2 Episode 3 (soos DSTV alles nou klassifiseer). Ek gesels oor die FIFA Wêreldbeker, Gary the Tooth Fairy & Sharleen Surty Richards.

    Potnotas:

    Alternatiewelik laai af of luister op iTunes.

  • Eie besigheid: Pros en Cons

    business plan
    Business is about ideas

    Ek en Lene het in 2006 terug Suid-Afrika toe gekom om ons eie besigheid, Die Red Apple – ‘n padstal/restaurant, te begin. Ons het albei goeie werke gehad in Engeland. Ek het so op ‘n manier vir myself gewerk as ‘n konsultant, maar dit was verseker nie my eie besigheid nie.

    Ons het ons eie geld bymekaar gekry, besigheidsplanne opgestel, geld geleen en uiteindelik in Desember 2006 oopgemaak. Ons het gespook en gespartel; baie foute gemaak en vrek baie geleer. Desember 2006 self was goed gewees want dis hoogseisoen hier in Boesmans, maar in 2007 het ons by tye gewonder of die ding gaan werk. Maar Desember het weer gekom en toe in 2008 het dinge rêrig begin mooi loop. Ons het begin planne maak vir ons volgende winkel, maar toe kom die “smooth sailing” tot ‘n dramatiese einde!

    Eerstens het daar padwerke begin – eers aan die een kant van “ons” pad en toe aan die ander kant. En tweedens tref die ergste wêreldwye resessie in 60 jaar! So dis 3 substansiële terugslae waaroor ons geen, niks, nul beheer het nie. Ongelooflik frustrerend!! Skielik vat ons omset ‘n duik en ons winste verander in verliese.

    So wat doen jy? Of jy kan die besigheid verkoop. Dit sal ongelukkig nie vir ons werk nie. Ons besigheid is net te nuut en potensiële kopers sal moeilik koop as ons – met ons commitment – nie self dit kan laat werk nie. Of jy kan jou “losses cut”, jou krediteure betaal en wegloop (in ons geval terug Engeland toe). Glo my ons het dit sterk oorweeg, maar dit sou 4 jaar van harde werk net so tot niet maak EN as die ekonomie wel eendag inevitably regkom en die padwerke klaar is glo ek in my murg en been dat ons in ‘n uitstekende posisie is om goed te doen. Dit voel net na so ‘n waste om nou te loop.

    So ons het besluit dat ons aangaan. Dis great, maar dan moet jy eers besluit hoe doen jy dit. Glo my dit verg konstante slapelose nagte. Jy moet probeer om jou omset op te kry, maar jy kan nie regtig spandeer nie. Goed wat ons ge-identifiseer het en nou doen is:

    • om ander dienste aan te bied wat nie oorspronklik deel van ons planne gevorm het nie (bv funksies en onthale).
    • Ek doen nou weer sagteware vir kliënte vir ekstra inkomste.
    • onderhandel vir beter pryse en afslag waar ons kan.
    • probeer om bestaande en potensiële besighede om ons te stimuleer
    • sluit aan by effektiewe besigheidsorganisiasies om konneksies op te bou.
    • stuur nuusbriewe uit (aan 550+ mense) en SMSe (aan 100+ mense) net om ons naam op mense se lippe te hou.
    • “bestuur” ons krediteure.

    Al die goed kos fyn beplanning en daar is min ruimte vir foute. Basies probeer ‘n ou jou verliese (want daar is g’n sprake van wins nie) minimaliseer. Dis nie gesond vir die siel nie, maar dis al wat ‘n mens nou kan doen om te oorleef.

    Ek moet erken as ek nou ‘n keuse kon hê dan sou ek maklik ‘n cushie joppie vat wat my huislening en dies meer kan afbetaal, maar as ek dink hoe baie ‘n mens leer en hoe tough jy raak dan wil ek soveel meer hê dat ons besigheid ander kant bo uitkom. Jy kan nie daai commitment hê in ‘n job nie. Die houe wat jy vat as dit sleg gaan is erg, maar uit die aard van die saak is die belonings (en dis verseker nie net geld nie) ook soveel meer.

    Ek sien uit na die dag wanneer ek gaan blog oor daai belonings. 🙂