Luke Waltham

This opinion piece is taken from the Huffington Post South Africa's website. It is written by Luke Waltham. The link to the original piece is here We Need To Talk More About Racism In Schools Each and every one of us, as active citizens in South Africa need to speak out about the racism and white supremacy by Luke Waltham A number of racial incidents in our schools have been exposed by students and alumni alike within the last year in an attempt to make fellow South Africans aware of the serious issues of racism that many black students are facing in our public and private education institutions. It should be concerning to all of us that these racial incidents are taking place in our schools despite us living in the "new" South Africa and it begs the question, are many of our schools still established and running on the foundations of white supremacy and racism? Last year, Pretoria Girls High School faced backlash from South Africans after its student...

This was a poem written by Luke Waltham and contains themes such as racism, colonialism, white supremacy, Pan Africanism.  I Cry For The People of Africa by Luke Waltham I Cry For The People of Africa. Ever since the first ship docked,  The word "freedom" was extinguished. As the dances and rituals under the golden sun Turned into cries and woes of pain. Families, cultures, kingdoms and soldiers so brave Oppressed and starving, brutally treated. The slaves They were labelled, subhumans, animals Seen as criminals, savages, barbarians and mongrels Their land taken, their resources stripped,  No voice, no power, silence with gunpowder, Labouring away in fear, blood pumping louder. I Cry For The People of Africa. For the gift of independence did not improve Their Lives. Surrounded by warfare, Neglected by warlords, the people of Africa,  In the midst of chaos and turmoil, Losing hope as diseases, hunger, battles and strife B...

Your Mental Health is so important Taking care of yourself mentally and emotionally is vital and we need to talk about it. by Luke Waltham On the 20th of July 2017, the world heard the news of Chester Bennington's death. Chester, who was the singer of the famous band Linkin Park, had committed suicide. He had been suffering from depression for a long time. His death not only caused much shock, horror and sadness around the world, but it also was a massive reminder to us all that our mental health and well being are so important.  In response to Chester's death, Fall Out Boy band member, Pete Wentz, tweeted something exceptionally important which society really needs to think about: Mental health and people's well being have not been discussed openly enough. Instead, illnesses such as depression have either been sensationalized or made to seem less serious. The sad reality is that so many individuals are suffering from some form or type of mental illness a...

Gay and Bisexual Men are being murdered in Chechnya, Russia because of their sexual orientation and who they are. Thanks to GayStarNews , they have released a list of the names of the men who have been killed by the government in Chechnya. We need to continue raising awareness and putting pressure on our governments to act against the horrific acts committed by the Russian government. The persecution of the LGBTQ+ community needs to end. Love Is Love! Update: Please see Shannon Power's article which clarifies the various reports on the murders here

The Rise of Suppression We're living in an era where leaders, journalists and activists are being victimized, intimidated and suppressed for fighting for what's right. by Luke Waltham Our society is becoming more divided by the day. With this division, we have seen many hateful, fascist radical groups and individuals emerge to suppress and victimize various leaders, journalists and activists who have differing opinions and who speak out against them. This is exceptionally concerning considering the fact that we live in a constitutional democracy that ensures that its people have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression and, of course, freedom of the press. I find it quite intriguing that parallel events are happening in the United States of America and in South Africa. Both countries have groups that seek to intimidate and suppress the media, active citizens and leaders. In the USA, Donald Trump's twitter warfare with CNN continues to undermine t...

Where do you stand on political issues? Do you know what your political viewpoints are or where you fit on the political scale? Take the Political Compass test on https://www.politicalcompass.org/! I'd love to hear what your results are :)!