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Practicing biblical submission
Below is a talk I recently gave at a men's event for Sycamore Creek Church. I re-worked it a little into a manuscript so that I could post it on here. This is one of the last spiritual disciplines we discussed, as I think it may be one of the most difficult. I see the need for this practice all around me: in my own life, in my marriage, in my relationships, and in the relationships of others around me. My hope is that others will take this discipline to heart and to begin practicing it.
Almost all of the spiritual practices that we have been looking at are counter cultural. We have looked at fasting and simplicity. Our culture encourages us to consume and teaches that more and bigger are better. We talked about meditation and silence. The world around us tries to fill our ears and minds with constant distractions. Out of all the spiritual disciplines or practices though, I think that submission is the most counter cultural. If we explain to someone else at work why we fast, or pray, or meditate, or live simply, they will probably think we are weird. And they might be right. If we explain to them that we live a life of submission, on the other hand, they are likely to say that we are wrong!
I'm reluctant to call what I'm talking about "submission" because it's almost as if submission is a bad word in our society. We make heroes of people who won't submit to anyone. You'd never hear Bruce Willis or Sylvester Stallone talking about submission. The only submission in their movies is from the bad guys. It's not surprising that God's values look upside down from the world's perspective. We will take a brief look at God's perspective on submission, and his call on our lives. As with previous studies of spiritual practices, I rely heavily on Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. If you haven't read his chapter of submission, I think it's one of the finest chapters in his book. Read it!
A life in Christ is a life of freedom. To practice submission is to embrace freedom. How is that? Richard Foster writes about it this way:
"I said that every Discipline has its corresponding freedom. What freedom corresponds to submission? It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today. People will spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because some little thing did not go as they wished. They will fuss and fume. They will get mad about it. They will act as if their life hangs on the issue. They may even get an ulcer over it.
In the Discipline of submission we are released to drop the matter, to forget it. Frankly, most things in life are not nearly as important as we think they are. Our lives will not come to an end if this or that does not happen."
I love that quote! Foster does such a fantastic job of framing submission for us. To summarize: In submission, we have the freedom to not always get our way. We have the freedom to give in to someone else. Let that those statements sink in because they are huge. Submission has incredible potential to impact the way we live. With the freedom of submitting we can begin to see where the genuine issues lie and where our stubborn self-will has gotten in the way. In submission, true humility is allowed to take root.
Along with the freedom of this practice, there's also a certain fear of it, isn't there? Like I mentioned before, this is radical counter-cultural stuff. There's a part of us that wants to say, "That can't be right." It seems too hard to think about not getting what we want. The predominant message around us is to go for it. This letting go of always getting our way seems too crazy to even attempt. That's when this practice becomes dangerous because we may be tempted to fake it.
Biblical teaching on submission focuses on the spirit with which we view other people, the inner attitude that we have. In submission, there is an inner attitude of mutual subordination. Why is this spirit important? Outwardly, we can do what people ask, but inwardly we can be in rebellion against them. When we embrace submission, we are free to value other people, to love unconditionally, to truly serve another person. It's only in submission that we, with all our junk and desires and flaws, are able to get out of the way and to really connect.
The foundation of biblical submission is Mark 8:34, which reads, "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."" Deny. At the heart of submission is self-denial. Denial? As we step into this, there is a part of us that won't want to believe it. Our culture doesn't teach us to say no. We think of denying ourselves as a bad thing. On the contrary, Jesus calls us to self-denial. This is not self-hatred. It's not harming yourself or thinking less of yourself than you should. It's not losing your identity. Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent on getting what we want.
Living a life of submission involves living, as Richard Foster calls it, the cross life. What is the cross-life? The cross life is a life of voluntary submission. The cross-life is a life of freely accepted servanthood. Service flows freely from submission. Jesus calls us to the cross-life in Mark 8:34. He calls us to it again in Mark 9:35 when he says "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." After washing his disciples' nasty man feet, Jesus added, "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you." (John 13:15)
It's appropriate that we talk about submission during the season of Lent as we anticipate Easter and the Resurrection. I would suggest during this season of repentance and disruption of rhythm that you practice submission and its companion practice, service. As you do so, remember the cross-life and the submission of Jesus. Paul wrote about Jesus in Philippians 2:8 saying "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!"
How do we begin to practice submission?
Seven Areas of Submission (From Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster)
God: We yield ourselves, our mind, body, and spirit for God's purposes.
Scripture: We open ourselves to hear, receive, and obey the Word of God.
Family: Philippians 2:4 says "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Look out for the interests of your family members.
Neighbors: If others are in need, we help them. No task is too small or too unimportant.
Church: We give of our time, our talents, and our money to the body of Christ, the church.
Broken & Despised: Our first responsibility is to be among them. We identify with the rejected and hurt.
The World: We cannot live in isolation. Poverty, hunger, lack of clean water, and lack of medicine affect us. We need to live as responsible members of an increasingly irresponsible world.
We've defined biblical submission, begun to establish the basis for it (there is much more to be said about it), and what remains is to go and practice it. Start practicing the words of Ephesians 5:21 "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."
8 Comments
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Nice thoughts here. I love Foster's chapter on submission. I wish I was at this reCRASH to have discussed it with other men.
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Add Fruits and Veggies to Your Super Bowl Menu
by Alex Guarnaschelli in Food Network Chef, Holidays, February 1st, 2012
The Super Bowl is such a great athletic event. It's also a day that honors another great sport: cooking. People get out their smokers and their spicy chicken wing recipes. Others grab their salsa recipes and tortilla presses. It's definitely a day to bust out some of your favorite all-American recipes. What I find people struggle with is something to put out on the table that's relatively light, something with vegetables or fruit. Are we looking for something to replace those wings or hot dogs? Absolutely not. Just something else that can complement it.
Here are some suggestions and tips for that "light" (albeit out of place) touch for your Super Bowl spread:
- Fruit can be a great guest at your party. Skewer some tomatoes and grapes and serve them with bowl of yogurt flavored with a few spoonfuls of honey, a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of ground cinnamon. Or just serve them plain.
- Make a vegetable platter. What are my favorite vegetables? Raw carrots, cucumbers, celery, red bell peppers and cauliflower. Veggie platters allow people to nibble.
- Try a more unusual vegetable in your mix. White mushrooms, for example, have a great texture when eaten raw. Wipe thoroughly with a damp towel to remove any dirt on the surface, trim the bottom part of the stem and make them a part of your spread.
- To make your vegetables more distinctive, try rolling some in spices. Carrots are great with some sesame seeds, cucumbers pair well with poppy seeds, peppers with a small sprinkle of Cayenne pepper and cauliflower with some ground cumin. Give your spices even more flavor by warming them in the oven for a minute before dusting.
Or try them with a Simple Garlic Dip recipe like this:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
15 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Kosher salt
4 ounces cream cheese
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 bunch scallions, green and white parts both, thinly sliced
In a medium pan over low heat, warm the olive oil and stir in the garlic. Season with salt and cook until the "raw" garlic taste disappears and the slices are tender, 3-5 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, blend the cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Season with salt and add the garlic, hot sauce and the scallions. Blend until smooth.
Every week, Alex Guarnaschelli, host of Alex's Day Off, shares with readers what she's eating — whether it's from the farmers' market or fresh off the boat, she'll have you craving everything from comfort food to seasonal produce.
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4 )-
I have been serving fruits and veggies for super bowl Sunday for years! Carrots, zucchini, apples, celery,peppers, cucumber, radishes, pineapple, kiwi, mango, papaya, you name it, I've served it, with a variety of dippers. Ranch, mayo, vinegarett, hummus, yogurt, cream cheese of various flavors. They're not expensive and they go a long way! I also serve a lot of the traditional stuff too. Every once in a while I get extravagant and serve smoked salmon (but rarely). Happy super bowl, go Giants! (wishing it was 49rs).
Alex's garlic dip will probably out-taste the wings. Mega Yum
The garlic dip sounds delish. I will be makin that this weekend and pair it with tons of veggies! Ive been inspired by Alex, Ann, Bobby an Simon after watching "The Big Waste". Dont let a little bruise scare you when buying fruit and veggies.
Love the blog! -
That sounds gooooood I'm going to try that for super bowl Sunday and you're right wish it was the 49er's. But I have to go with the patriots just because they are in the afc


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South Africa: Supreme Court of Appeal
You are here: SAFLII >> Databases >> South Africa: Supreme Court of Appeal >> 2007 >> [2007] ZASCA 163 | Noteup | LawCiteHos+Med Medical Aid Scheme v Thebe ya Pelo Healthcare and Others (015/07) [2007] ZASCA 163; [2007] SCA 163 (RSA); [2008] 2 All SA 132 (SCA); 2008 (2) SA 608 (SCA) (29 November 2007)
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In the matter between
CORAM: HOWIE P, CLOETE and LEWIS JJA, HURT and MHLANTLA AJJA
SUMMARY: Order of High Court, Pretoria setting aside an arbitration appeal tribunal's award confirmed on basis that tribunal had exceeded its powers. Dispute referred to new appeal tribunal in terms of s 33(4) of the Arbitration Act 42 of 1965.
Neutral Citation: This judgment may be referred to as Hosmed Medical Aid Scheme v Thebe Ya Bophelo Healthcare [2007] SCA 163(RSA)
[1] This is an appeal against an order of the High Court, Pretoria (per Seriti J), setting aside an award made by an arbitration appeal tribunal. The appellant, Hos+Med Medical Aid Scheme ('Hosmed') is, as its name suggests, a medical aid scheme registered in terms of the Medical Schemes Act 131 of 1998. The first respondent, Thebe Ya Bophelo Health Care Marketing and Consulting (Pty) Ltd ('Thebe'), is a company that acts as a broker to Hosmed, and is accredited under the Medical Schemes Act. A dispute between the parties as to fees payable by Hosmed to Thebe was referred to arbitration.
[2] The arbitration agreement provides for an appeal against the award to an arbitration appeal tribunal. Hosmed appealed against the award of the arbitrator, who held that Hosmed was liable to pay the fees claimed. The quantum was to be determined subsequently, the issue of liability having been separated by agreement. Hosmed succeeded in its appeal. Thebe successfully brought an application to have the appeal award set aside. The members of the appeal tribunal, all retired judges, are cited as respondents, but none opposed the application to set aside the award, and they are not party to this appeal. The appeal is with the leave of the high court.
[3] The only issue before the court below, and in this appeal, was whether the appeal tribunal exceeded its powers, or was guilty of gross misconduct, such that a court should set aside its award. There were two issues before the appeal tribunal itself, one of which was decided in favour of Thebe, and the other against it. Hosmed seeks to have the decision of the court below set aside in terms of s 33 of the Arbitration Act 42 of 1965, on the basis that the court erred in finding that the appeal tribunal's award was vitiated, but only in respect of the second issue decided by it. Although the Arbitration Act does not specifically refer to an award of an appeal tribunal, its terms clearly enable an agreement to refer an arbitrator's award to an appeal body, and the provisions of the Act must apply to an appeal tribunal, and its award, in the same way as they do to an arbitration and an arbitral award.
[4] Some background is necessary, but I shall be brief since many of the issues are not relevant to this appeal. In order to facilitate the conduct of the medical aid scheme run by Hosmed, it uses the services of brokers and administrators. In November 1999 Hosmed entered into a contract with Thebe,1 part of the 'Thebe Group of Companies', engaging Thebe to introduce new members for the scheme, for which an introduction fee was payable, and requiring it to provide ongoing services to members of the scheme, for which another fee was payable.
[5] Both types of fee were regulated by regulations promulgated in 1999 under the Medical Schemes Act and the contract between the parties complied with the regulations. However, in June 2000 the regulations were amended. The parties believed that as a result of the amendment it was no longer permissible for Thebe to charge fees for ongoing services. This was apparently a general perception among people working in the medical aid field.
[6] As a result of that perception the parties concluded an agreement in March 2001 varying the 1999 agreement so as to delete the clause providing for the payment to Thebe for ongoing services. In August of the same year the parties concluded a second amending agreement, which retained much of the first agreement and of the amending agreement concluded in March, but also gave Thebe certain exclusive rights as a broker.
[7] The regulations under the Medical Schemes Act were amended again with effect from 1 January 2003. The amended regulations made provision for brokers to charge fees for ongoing services. Accordingly, yet another agreement was concluded by the parties in August 2003, again making provision for Thebe to charge fees for ongoing services to Hosmed members. Between March 2001 and August 2003 Thebe claimed no fees for such services, presumably having forgone them in the 2001 amendments to their original agreement.
[8] In February 2003 Mr R D Laird became the chief executive officer of Thebe: he was unaware of the existence of the amending agreements of 2001, and, on discovering that no fees had been paid for ongoing services between 2001 and 2003, sent invoices to Hosmed claiming a substantial sum of money. Hosmed denied liability for payment and Thebe sued in the Johannesburg High Court. Hosmed pleaded that the agreement provided for the resolution of disputes by arbitration. The parties accordingly concluded a written arbitration agreement and appointed Mr R T van Schalkwyk as the arbitrator. The terms of the arbitration agreement are significant to the issue on appeal.
[9] These are the most important:
'4 The issues to be determined by the arbitrator are the issues contained in the pleadings referred to at clause 8 below.'
'7.1 The arbitration shall be conducted in accordance with the rules of the High Court, subject to any specific directions that the arbitrator may give in regard to the conduct of the arbitration;
7.2 The arbitrator shall have full powers in connection with the arbitration, and in particular, without limitation, the arbitrator:
7.2.1 Shall have the power set forth in the Arbitration Act, as amended, or any replacement Act;
7.2.2 May make such award or awards, whether interim, provisional or final, as he may consider appropriate.'
8.1 The parties have agreed that the pleadings filed in the High Court action . . . will serve as the pleadings in this matter; . . .'
The clause then sets out, for the sake of clarity, which pleadings had been filed and what their status in the arbitration would be, and continued:
'8.3 All further pleadings and notices may be exchanged between the parties on their due dates by E-mail (confirmed by telefax) or by telefax . . . .'
[10] In so far as the right of appeal is concerned, the agreement provides:
'16 The award made by the arbitrator shall be final and binding on the parties, subject to the right of appeal contained at clause 17 below.'
'17.1 The final award made by the arbitrator shall be subject to a right of appeal;
. . .
17.4 Such appeal shall be heard by a panel as agreed to within ten court days [after notices of appeal and cross appeal had been lodged] failing which three arbitrators shall be nominated and appointed by the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa. . . .'
[11] The pleadings were indeed amended: the existence of the amending agreements of 2001 to the broking contract were introduced in an amendment to Hosmed's plea, and Thebe responded, in a replication, by averring that these agreements were void because they were in contravention of s 228 of the Companies Act 61 of 1973. The basis of this defence was that the amending agreements, by which Thebe gave up its right to claim fees for ongoing services to Hosmed's members, constituted a disposal of the greater part of Thebe's assets, yet had not been approved by a general meeting of Thebe's shareholders.
[12] Section 228 provides that:
'(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in its memorandum or articles, the directors of a company shall not have the power, save with the approval of a general meeting of the company, to dispose of –
the whole or substantially the whole of the undertaking of the company; or
the whole or the greater part of the assets of the company.
(2) No resolution of the company approving any such disposal shall have effect unless it authorizes or ratifies in terms the specific transaction.'
[13] Hosmed's rejoinder denied that s 228 had not been complied with, and relied in the alternative on estoppel or the Turquand rule. In essence, Hosmed alleged that Thebe had represented that its managing director, Mr Frank Bartlett, had authority to conclude the amending agreements, and that Hosmed had relied on such representations; and that, further, it had entered into the amending agreements in good faith and on the assumption that the internal requirements of Thebe had been complied with – the Turquand defence.2
[14] The parties agreed that the arbitrator should assume that Thebe's agreement not to claim fees for ongoing services did constitute a disposal of the greater part of its assets. Thus, when the arbitration commenced, the disputes to be determined were whether the amendment to the regulations in 2001 precluded Thebe from claiming fees for ongoing services, and whether the amendments to the parties' agreement in 2001 were in contravention of s 228 of the Companies Act. This entailed also a determination of the defences based on estoppel and the Turquand rule. It was agreed that the quantum of Thebe's claim would be determined after these issues had been decided.
[15] The evidence of two witnesses was led for Thebe at the arbitration hearing: Mr J Alderslade, the financial director of Thebe's holding company, and Laird, the chief executive officer of Thebe, referred to earlier. A director of Thebe, Mr P McCulloch, who was involved in the negotiations with Hosmed, did not testify. Hosmed called the evidence of Mr M Brown. The evidence of Thebe's witnesses was of limited value since they had not participated in the negotiations leading to any of the agreements. Indeed, Laird had joined Thebe only in 2003, two years after the broking agreement had been amended by the parties.
[16] When the arbitration was adjourned for the arbitrator to consider his award, Thebe realized that it had not led evidence to substantiate its contention that the amending agreements had not been authorized as contemplated in s 228 of the Companies Act. It was granted leave to recall Laird. Laird testified that he could not find in Thebe's documents any record of a resolution of the company's members authorizing the disposal of a major part of its assets or undertaking. He was cross-examined by Hosmed's counsel on the existence of such a document. The evidence adduced, according to Hosmed, was designed to show that Thebe's sole shareholder, the Thebe Hosken Group (Pty) Ltd, of which McCulloch was a director, as well as being a director of Thebe, had agreed to the disposal of Thebe's right to fees for ongoing services to Hosmed's members. There was thus, it was argued before the appeal tribunal, unanimous assent to the disposal and no contravention of s 228. The principle of unanimous assent is that where all the shareholders of a company agree on a matter that ordinarily requires a resolution of a general meeting of the company, the need for the formal resolution falls away.
[17] Much store is placed by Hosmed on Laird's evidence when he was recalled. Counsel argued before us that his questioning was directed to the issue of unanimous assent, even though it had not been pleaded. The gist of Laird's evidence on recall was that, despite a careful search, he could not find any resolution authorizing the amendments of the broking agreement and thus no evidence that the disposal was authorized under s 228. He testified that the Thebe Hosken Group was indeed the only shareholder in Thebe and confirmed that McCulloch had been a member of the boards of both Thebe and the Thebe Hosken Group.
[18] In support of the contention that there was unanimous assent, and that this was raised as an issue in the arbitration, Hosmed points to the following passage:
'Mr Swart [counsel for Hosmed]: . . . I put it to you the shareholder must have been aware of this [the disposal] through Mr McCulloch.
Mr Laird: If Mr McCulloch disclosed it. But as I've said to you, I've looked through all of the minutes, etcetera, and I haven't found anything in there that would say that this is what happened.
Mr Swart: But we've already agreed that there was only one shareholder. It would be senseless to have a formal meeting with yourself. Not so?
Mr Laird: Well, I think something as important as this I think it would have been important for it to have been documented and I found no documentation whatsoever.
. . . .
Mr Swart: . . . And I put it to you that on a reading of this the only inference to be drawn is that the shareholder, through McCulloch, was aware of this and consented to it.'
[19] No objection was made to these questions and submissions and Thebe did not re-examine Laird. Counsel for Hosmed contends both in his heads of argument and before this court that it was clear that he was placing before the arbitrator the issue of unanimous assent. He also asserts that he argued the point before the arbitrator, and there was no objection to his argument. Counsel for Hosmed have no recollection of this aspect of the argument before the arbitrator, and indeed it does not appear from the written heads of argument submitted to the arbitrator and which form part of the appeal record. The arbitrator did not deal with the issue of unanimous assent in making his award which was that portion of Thebe's claim, plus interest, and costs was payable by Hosmed (the balance having prescribed). The arbitration was postponed sine die to deal with the quantification of the claim.
[20] Hosmed appealed against the award to the appeal tribunal constituted in accordance with the arbitration agreement. The issues on appeal were whether Thebe could, despite the amendment to the regulation in 2000, claim for fees for ongoing services between 2001 and 2003 when the regulations were again amended; and whether Thebe had complied with s 228 of the Companies Act. The appeal tribunal found that Thebe was entitled to claim the fees in issue (there was in fact no legal impediment to doing so, despite the perception about the effect of the 2000 amendment), thus confirming the arbitrator's award in this respect. But it also considered that the amendments to the original agreements, which had the effect (assumed for the purpose of the question of liability) of disposing of its business within the meaning of s 228 of the Companies Act, were valid. It held that there was unanimous assent to the disposal, and that the amending agreements were thus enforceable. Accordingly Thebe had disposed of its right to claim fees for ongoing services.
[21] The application by Thebe for the setting aside of the award is based on the appeal tribunal's finding on unanimous assent since, it argued, it had not been pleaded, nor canvassed in evidence. The arbitration appeal tribunal, Thebe contended, had thus both exceeded its powers and committed a gross irregularity in terms of s 33 of the Arbitration Act , in not observing the audi alteram partem rule .
[22] The appeal tribunal accepted Hosmed's argument that although unanimous assent had not been pleaded – despite the numerous amendments to the pleadings by both parties, including an amendment made during the course of the appeal proceedings – the 'issues were . . . substantially broadened during the hearing before the arbitrator (cf Shill v Milner 1937 AD 101 at 105) to include a defence of unanimous assent.' It analysed the evidence of Hosmed's witness, Brown, to the effect that no payments had been made to Thebe for ongoing services after the amending agreements were concluded, and no claims had been made. The arbitrator had found that there was no evidence of an agreement, alleged by Hosmed, that this loss of income would be made up by increased administrative charges levied by Thebe.
[23] The appeal tribunal adopted a different approach. It said:
'In terms of s 228 the directors of a company have no power to dispose of the greater part of the assets of a company without the approval of a general meeting of the company. On a proper interpretation of s 228, it matters not whether the company is getting something in return for such disposal or not. Even if the company were to receive the market value of the assets disposed of in return for the disposal, the directors would not have the power to dispose of such assets without the approval of the general meeting of the company. In our view it is, therefore, irrelevant whether there was a "credible or enforceable contract" in terms of which the claimant was entitled to be remunerated for the ongoing services it was providing to the respondent. On the assumption that the claimant [Thebe] disposed of the greater part of its assets . . . [by virtue of the amending agreements] s 228 would in principle be applicable.'
[24] The appeal tribunal considered that the lack of a formal resolution was no bar to the disposal if there were unanimous assent, which could be inferred from the circumstances.3 The appeal tribunal had regard to a number of factors in concluding that it was a probable inference that 'all the directors' of the sole shareholder in Thebe, the Thebe Hosken Group, assented to the disposal of the right to claim fees for ongoing services. These included the fact that prior to the amendments Thebe had claimed fees for ongoing services, and Hosmed had paid, whereas no claims were made or paid after the amendments; the view of the medical aid industry that such fees were contrary to the amended regulations; amendments to the original broking agreement had been discussed at a meeting of the board of trustees of Hosmed; and the directors of Thebe were aware of the new regulations and the problems that they apparently posed to claiming fees for ongoing services. Since there was only one shareholder in Thebe, the assent of the directors of the holding company would be the assent of the holding company itself and a formal meeting would be redundant. The disposal was thus with the unanimous assent of the shareholder in the company, and Thebe's claim had to be dismissed.
[25] I shall set out the award in full since, although setting aside the award, the court below substituted its own order for that of the appeal tribunal.
'1 The appeal is upheld with costs and the award of the arbitrator is set aside.
2 The following award is substituted therefor:
2.1 The claimant's first claim is dismissed.
2.2 The claimant is ordered to pay Hosmed's costs pertaining to this part of the arbitration, which costs are to include the costs consequent upon the employment of two counsel.
2.3 The arbitration is postponed sine die in respect of the issue of quantification as set out in the separation order.
3 The costs referred to above include the costs of the arbitrator/appeal tribunal, the costs of two counsel, the recording and record, the venue, witnesses and all ancillary costs. In the absence of agreement between the parties these costs will be taxed on the High Court scale by the Taxing Master of the High Court, Johannesburg.'
[26] The Pretoria High Court, as I have said, set aside the appeal tribunal's award in terms of s 33 of the Arbitration Act 42 of 1965, apparently on the basis that the tribunal exceeded its powers. I shall revert to the order made by the court.
[27] Section 33 of the Arbitration Act provides for the setting aside of an arbitration award (and this applies also to an appeal tribunal's award) –
any member of an arbitration tribunal has misconducted himself in relation to his duties as arbitrator or umpire; or
an arbitration tribunal has committed any gross irregularity in the conduct of the arbitration proceedings or has exceeded his powers; or
an award has been improperly obtained,
the court may, on the application of any party to the reference after due notice to the other party or parties, make an order setting the award aside.'
[28] Thebe argues that the appeal tribunal both exceeded its powers and was guilty of a gross irregularity. The same conduct, however, was relied on as giving rise to both grounds for the setting aside of the award. The gravamen of the complaint is that the issues before the arbitrator, and thus before the appeal tribunal, were defined by the pleadings. The arbitration agreement said so expressly. The agreement also made provision for amendments, and both parties amended and added to their pleadings during the course of the proceedings. Hosmed even introduced an amendment at the stage of appeal. The arbitration appeal tribunal could not, it was argued, go beyond the pleadings and decide an issue not pleaded. Unlike a court, which has the inherent jurisdiction to decide a matter even where it has not been pleaded, an arbitrator has no such power. It was common cause that the issue of unanimous assent was not pleaded at any stage.
[29] Hosmed, on the other hand, argues that the arbitration agreement expressly confers on the arbitrator, and therefore also on the appeal tribunal, the powers of a high court and of the Supreme Court of Appeal, respectively. Thebe's response is that these are procedural powers and do not confer jurisdiction to determine matters on which the parties have not agreed.
[30] In my view it is clear that the only source of an arbitrator's power is the arbitration agreement between the parties and an arbitrator cannot stray beyond their submission where the parties have expressly defined and limited the issues, as the parties have done in this case to the matters pleaded.4 Thus the arbitrator, and therefore also the appeal tribunal, had no jurisdiction to decide a matter not pleaded.5 Hosmed's rejoinder6 put in issue Thebe's allegation that there had been compliance with s 228. Had Hosmed intended to rely on the principle of unanimous assent it would have had to plead it specifically because it amounts to a classic confession and avoidance. There is a fundamental difference between a denial (where allegations of the other party are put in issue) and a confession and avoidance where an allegation is accepted, but the other party makes an allegation which neutralises its effect – which is what the raising of unanimous assent would seek to achieve.7 It is of course possible for parties in an arbitration to amend the terms of the reference by agreement, even possibly by one concluded tacitly, or by conduct, but no such agreement that the pleadings were not the only basis of the submission can be found in the record in this case, and Thebe strenuously denied any agreement to depart from the pleadings.
[31] The appeal tribunal held, however, that it was entitled to go beyond the pleadings where the issue had been traversed in evidence. It relied, as I have said, on Shill v Milner8 where De Villiers JA said:
'The importance of pleadings should not be unduly magnified. "The object of pleading is to define the issues; and parties will be kept strictly to their pleas where any departure would cause prejudice or would prevent full inquiry. But within those limits the Court has wide discretion. For pleadings are made for the Court, not the Court for pleadings. Where a party has had every facility to place all the facts before the trial Court and the investigation into all the circumstances has been as thorough and as patient as in this instance, there is no justification for interference by an appellate tribunal merely because the pleading of the opponent has not been as explicit as it might have been." Robinson v Randfontein Estates GM Co Ltd (1925 AD 198).'
Relying on these dicta in Shill v Milner and in Robinson v Randfontein Estates the appeal tribunal held, as mentiond in para 22, that the issues were 'substantially broadened during the hearing before the arbitrator . . . to include a defence of unanimous assent'.
[32] I have already said that the appeal tribunal was not entitled to take this approach: its powers were conferred by the arbitration agreement and it did not have the power to go beyond that. But even if, for the sake of argument, it were accepted that the appeal tribunal did have jurisdiction, it can hardly be contended that the question whether there was unanimous assent was properly canvassed before the arbitrator. Counsel for Hosmed said that that was the issue on his mind when he cross-examined Laird on recall. But he conceded that he did not communicate this expressly to the witness or to Thebe's counsel. I have set out the relevant evidence above. It is far from clear that what counsel was attempting to elicit from Laird was whether the sole shareholder in Thebe had assented to the disposal of the right to claim fees for ongoing services. At its highest, Laird conceded that it would have been pointless for McCulloch to call a meeting with himself to pass a resolution. But Laird could not testify on what had in fact happened since he had not been part of Thebe when the amending agreements were concluded.
[33] Hosmed contends that Thebe did not object to the questions asked of Laird. It is not clear why they should have done so: it was not obvious that a new issue was being raised, and even if counsel for Thebe had realized what was on Hosmed's counsel's mind, he was entitled to remain silent knowing that the issue had not been pleaded. But there is no point in examining this issue further. On any basis, the question whether there had been unanimous assent, obviating the need for a meeting and a special resolution, was not really, let alone fully, canvassed in the evidence. It was first raised in the oral argument before the arbitrator, and did not feature even in counsel's heads of argument which form part of the record.
[34] The facts on which the Shill v Milner principle can be applied, even if it had been open to the appeal tribunal to rely on it, were not traversed in evidence. There was thus no basis for the appeal tribunal to find that there was unanimous assent to the disposal of the right to claim fees for ongoing services.
[35] In the circumstances the appeal tribunal exceeded its powers: it went beyond the terms of the arbitration agreement. This is a clear case where the arbitration appeal tribunal exercised a power that it did not have. This court recently referred with approval9 to the decision of the House of Lords in Lesotho Highlands Development Authority v Impreglio SpA10 where Lord Steyn distinguished between cases where a tribunal mistakenly exercises a power that it does have, and those where a tribunal exercises a power that it does not have. In the latter type of case the tribunal exceeds its power, and, under our Arbitration Act, that warrants the setting aside of the order. This is the position stated earlier in Dickenson & Brown v Fisher's Executors11 applied by the court in Telcordia.12 The judgment of Harms JA in Telcordia embodies a comprehensive account of the bases on which an arbitrator's award may be set aside and there is no need to repeat what is said in that case.
[36] In view of the finding that I make that the appeal tribunal exceeded its powers, it is not necessary to consider whether its decision on unanimous assent constituted a gross irregularity.
[37] The appeal against the decision of the court below to set aside the award in terms of s 33(1)(b) must accordingly be dismissed. It remains to determine what consequences follow. Hosmed has argued that the matter should be remitted to the appeal tribunal so that it can apply to reopen its case and amend its pleadings so as to include the issue of unanimous assent. Thebe's response is, naturally, that it had had that opportunity when the appeal tribunal hearing commenced, and declined to take it. Seriti J in the court below refused to remit the matter on the basis that Hosmed should have sought to reopen its case when the appeal tribunal was convened. The learned judge considered that he should substitute the court's order for that of the appeal tribunal.
[38] The order reads:
'(1) The award or order of the arbitration appeal tribunal is set aside and is substituted by the following:
"(a) The appeal is dismissed with costs and the award of the arbitrator [Mr] Van Schalkwyk is upheld.
(b) Hosmed is ordered to pay the claimant's costs pertaining to this part of the arbitration, which costs are to include the costs consequent upon the employment of two counsel in the appeal proceedings.
The costs referred to above include the costs of the arbitrator, appeal tribunal, the costs of two counsel, the recording and record, the venue, witnesses and all ancillary costs. In the absence of agreement between the parties these costs will be taxed on the High Court scale by the Taxing Master of the High Court, Johannesburg.
The arbitration is to continue before the arbitrator [Mr] Van Schalkwyk for arbitration of the issue of quantification as set out in the separation order agreed to between the parties in December 2005."
(2) The fourth respondent [Hosmed] is ordered to pay the costs of the applicant on a party and party scale, which costs will include costs consequent upon the employment of two counsel.'
[39] Hosmed contends that it was not open to the court to substitute its own order for that of the appeal tribunal. This court, it argues, should remit the dispute to an appeal tribunal to consider the matter having regard to this court's finding, and to give Hosmed the opportunity to apply to reopen its case and to amend its pleadings.
[40] Counsel for Thebe, on the other hand, argues that if the court has the power to remit a matter to an arbitrator it must also have the power to substitute its own order. But even if that is not the case, Thebe argues, the order of the arbitrator should stand, and that takes care of the costs and other orders made by the court below. There is no purpose served in remitting the matter to the appeal tribunal, it argues, since it could make no award other than to refuse or allow Hosmed to reopen its case and amend its pleadings. If an appeal tribunal refused Hosmed's application, that in turn would require remittal by the appeal tribunal to the arbitrator to deal with the quantification of Thebe's claim. If, on the other hand, Hosmed can show that there had been unanimous assent, then the arbitrator will have to determine whether the amending agreements did have the effect of disposing of Thebe's assets as contemplated in s 228 of the Companies Act. Either way, Thebe contends, the arbitrator will be required to consider the dispute again: it should thus be remitted directly to the arbitrator if the appeal is not simply dismissed.
[41] The difficulty with Thebe's approach is that it is the award of the appeal tribunal, and not the arbitrator, that is to be set aside. What power does this court have to remit the matter directly to the arbitrator? If such a course were open to us it would no doubt obviate the time and expense entailed in referring the matter back to the appeal tribunal, when it is likely that it would have still to go back to the arbitrator irrespective of the appeal tribunal's conclusion. It is important to note, however, that the award of the appeal tribunal is not a foregone conclusion.
[42] It is not apparent that the court below was referred to s 33(4) of the Arbitration Act or that either party requested submission to a new appeal tribunal. In any event, in my view it is not possible to refer the matter directly to the arbitrator. It is the appeal tribunal's award that has been set aside, and s 33(4) of the Arbitration Act requires that 'If the award is set aside the dispute shall, at the request of either party, be submitted to a new arbitration tribunal constituted in the manner directed by the court' (my emphasis). The section, which is peremptory, must refer also to an appeal tribunal's award.
[43] Where neither party requests that the matter be referred back to the arbitrator, or appeal tribunal, then an award made in excess of its powers should simply be set aside by the court in terms of s 33 of the Arbitration Act. And, presumably, if both parties wished to refer the matter back to the same arbitrator or appeal tribunal, the court would be entitled to make such an order.13 Hosmed submitted that it had no difficulty with a reference back to the same appeal tribunal. But Thebe asserted that it had lost confidence in the appeal tribunal. Irrespective of Hosmed's views, however, the section is clear: if either party requests it the dispute must be referred to a new tribunal. The court is not, in my view, given a discretion in this regard.14 Equally, because of the peremptory wording of s 33(4), a court does not have the discretion to substitute its own order for that of the appeal tribunal.
[44] I consider that the only order appropriate is to refer the matter to a new arbitration appeal tribunal, to be constituted in accordance with clause 17.4 of the arbitration agreement between the parties (cited above), save that the composition of the tribunal should be agreed within ten court days of the date of the handing down of this judgment, failing which a new tribunal should be constituted in terms of the arbitration agreement.15
[45] Thebe has been substantially successful in this appeal in having prevailed on the primary issue: that the appeal tribunal exceeded its powers, with the consequence that its order must be set aside. Hosmed, on the other hand, is successful in so far as the dispute has to be remitted, and the order of the court below set aside. Hosmed has not succeeded, however, in its request for the dispute to be referred back to the same appeal tribunal. And if the new appeal tribunal refuses Hosmed the opportunity to reopen its case and amend its pleadings, then its success in this court may turn out to be hollow. But it does gain the opportunity to canvas the merits in the new appeal tribunal, and that, in my view, also constitutes substantial success. In the circumstances I conclude that there should be no order as to costs.
(a) The appeal succeeds in part and fails in part.
(b) The order of the court below is set aside.
(c) The order of the court below is replaced with:
'1 The application succeeds with costs including those occasioned by the employment of two counsel.
2 The award of the arbitration appeal tribunal is set aside.
3 The dispute between the parties is referred to a new arbitration appeal tribunal to be constituted in terms of clause 17.4 of the arbitration agreement between the parties.
4 The appeal procedures shall be those prescribed in clause 17 of the agreement, save that the parties must agree the composition of the arbitration appeal tribunal within ten court days of this order, failing which they shall request the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa to nominate three arbitrators, as envisaged in terms of clause 17.4 of the arbitration agreement.'
(d) No order is made as to costs.
C H Lewis
Judge of Appeal
Howie P
Cloete JA
Hurt AJA
Mthlantla AJA
1Thebe underwent several name changes, and changes of shareholders and directors over the years, but none is of any significance in this appeal.
2The 'rule' takes its name from Royal British Bank v Turquand [1856] EngR 470; (1856) 6 E & B 327; 119 ER 886, and is to the effect that a person entering into a contract is not required to ascertain whether the company's internal requirements have been met.
3It referred in this regard, inter alia, to Gohlke & Schneider v Westies Minerale (Edms) Bpk 1970 (2) SA 685 (A) and De Villiers NO v BOE Bank Ltd 2004 (3) SA 1 SCA para 52.
4See LAWSA 2 ed vol 1 para 607 and the authorities there cited.
5The arbitration agreement in Telcordia Technologies Inc v Telkom SA Ltd [2006] ZASCA 112; 2007 (3) SA 266 (SCA), on which Hosmed relied, was completely different in its ambit.
6Referred to in para 13 above.
7The Uniform Rules of Court make this plain: Rule 18(4) provides that 'Every pleading shall contain a clear and concise statement of the material facts upon which the pleader relies for his claim, defence or answer to any pleading . . . with sufficient particularity to enable the opposite party to reply thereto' (my emphasis).
8 1937 AD 101 at 105.
9Telcordia Technologies Inc above para 52.
10 [2005] UKHL 43 para 24.
12Above paras 56ff.
13Contrast s 32(2) of the Arbitration Act which permits a referral back within six weeks of the publication of the award only on 'good cause shown'.
14See Benjamin v Sobac South African Building & Construction (Pty) Ltd 1989 (4) SA 940 (C) at 961J-962B and Steeledale Cladding (Pty) Ltd v Parsons NO 2001 (2) SA 663 (D) at 674A.
15The arbitration agreement remains binding on the parties unless they agree to terminate it or it is set aside by an order of court: s 3 of the Arbitration Act.


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Form of automobile racing. Popular in the U.S., it features cars that conform externally to standard U.S. commercial models and are raced usually on oval, paved tracks. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), founded in 1947 in Daytona Beach, Fla., gave the sport its first formal organization. The Daytona 500 is the sport's premier race.
Learn more about stock-car racing with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Contractual agreement entitling the holder to buy or sell a share of stock at a designated price for a specified period of time, regardless of changes in its market price during that period. The various kinds of stock options include put and call options, which may be purchased in anticipation of changes in stock prices, as a means of speculation or hedging. A put gives its holder an option to sell, or put, shares to another party at a fixed price even if the market price declines. A call gives the holder an option to buy, or call for, shares at a fixed price even if the market price rises. U.S. corporations often issue stock options to executives as a form of compensation in addition to salary, on the theory that an option is an incentive to improve the company's business and thus raise the value of its stock; at times such options have been far more valuable than the salary itself.
Learn more about stock option with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Organized market for the sale and purchase of securities (see security) such as stocks and bonds. Trading is done in various ways: it may occur on a continuous auction basis, it may involve brokers buying from and selling to dealers in certain types of stock, or it may be conducted through specialists in a particular stock. Some stock exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), sell seats (the right to trade) to a limited number of members who must meet eligibility requirements. Stocks must likewise meet and maintain certain requirements or risk being delisted. Stock exchanges differ from country to country in eligibility requirements and in the degree to which the government participates in their management. The London Stock Exchange, for example, is an independent institution, free from government regulation. In Europe, members of the exchanges are often appointed by government officials and have semigovernmental status. In the U.S., stock exchanges are not directly run by the government but are regulated by law. Technological developments have greatly influenced the nature of trading. In a traditional full-service brokerage, a customer placed an order with a broker or member of a stock exchange, who in turn passed it on to a specialist on the floor of the exchange, who then concluded the transaction. By the 21st century, increased access to the Internet and the proliferation of electronic communications networks (ECNs) altered the investment world. Through e-trading, the customer enters an order directly on-line, and software automatically matches orders to achieve the best price available without the intervention of specialists or market makers. In effect, the ECN is a stock exchange for off-the-floor trading.
Learn more about stock exchange with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Individual share of earnings distributed among stockholders of a corporation or company in proportion to their holdings. Usually paid in cash, dividends may also be distributed in the form of additional shares of stock. Preferred stockholders receive a preferential dividend, usually at a fixed rate; common stockholders get a portion of what remains after payment of the dividends on preferred stock.
Learn more about dividend with a free trial on Britannica.com.
In finance, the subscribed capital of a corporation or limited-liability company, usually divided into shares and represented by transferable certificates. Many companies have only one class of stock, called common stock. Common stock, as a share of ownership in the company, enh1s the holder to an interest in the company's earnings and assets. It carries voting rights that enable the holder to participate in the running of the company (unless such rights are specifically withheld, as in special classes of nonvoting shares). Dividends paid on common stock are often unstable because they vary with earnings; they are also usually less than earnings, the difference being used by the management to expand the firm. To appeal to investors who want to be sure of receiving dividends regularly, some companies issue preferred stock, which has a prior claim to dividends paid by the company and, in most cases, to the company's assets in case of its dissolution. Preferred-stock dividends are usually set at a fixed annual rate that must be paid before dividends are distributed to common stockholders. Seealso security, stock exchange.
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Economic event in the U.S. that precipitated the Great Depression. The U.S. stock market expanded rapidly in the late 1920s and reached a peak in August 1929, when prices began to decline while speculation increased. On October 18 the stock market began to fall precipitously. On the first day of real panic, October 24, known as "Black Thursday," a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Banks and investment companies bought large blocks of stock to stem the panic, but on October 29, "Black Tuesday," 16 million shares were traded and prices collapsed. The crash began a 10-year economic slump that affected all the Western industrialized countries.
Learn more about Stock Market Crash of 1929 with a free trial on Britannica.com.
The site was launched in February 2001 with the motive to provide a place where users exchange their photos free of charge. In 2005, the site had 200,000 registered users in the USA and more than 275,000 photos. The site is a subsidiary of Dream Interactive. , which in turn is owned by Jupitermedia.


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- You are here:
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honda concept
With the Shanghai Motor Show coming up later this month, Honda has released a couple of teaser sketches for two concept vehicles that will be making global debuts. Aside from the renderings, there is no information about either the Honda or Acura concept vehicles, but we can tell that both are ...
In an interesting attempt to get back into the North American city-car game, Honda is rolling out their GEAR concept at the Montreal International Auto Show 2013 (Salon International de l'Auto de Montréal). With its minimal styling and proclaimed ability to be heavily optioned as requested ...
The Detroit Auto Show dam is busting and the latest news to trickle through is that Honda is bringing an Accord Coupe Concept to show off. The concept will "reveal the styling direction" of the 2013 Accord, which – by the time it goes on sale in the fall of 2012 – will enter its ninth ...


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Zeek is a catalyst for conversations about the Jewish tomorrow. Our content ranges from Jewish meditation to Israeli fiction to congregational-based community organizing, as we explore what Jewish spirituality, culture and politics will look like for the next generation. Edgy and provocative, our well-written and well-edited pieces have received several Rockower awards (the Jewish Pulitizers) and notice in established media like the New York Times and Ha'aretz, as well as in blogs and social media.
Drawing from every segment of the progressive Jewish world, Zeek has featured writing by Sacha Baron Cohen, Ilan Stavans, Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Shaul Magid, Rachel Barenblat (the Velveteen Rabbi), Richard Kostelanetz, Angela Himsel, Andrew Ramer, Joel Schalit, Rabbi Elliot Kukla, Jay Michaelson and many, many others. Recent print issues include Sex, Gender and God (Spring 2009), Israelology (Fall 2009), and Reforming Healing: Why Spiritual Care Matters for Health Care (Spring 2010).
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But WaitThere's More
Find other great ideas in these related stories:
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VietinBank Business Centre, Hanoi, Vietnam
The soaring steel towers Foster + Partners is constructing in Hanoi are best viewed from above (from the Aircruise Dirigible, perhaps?), in order to fully appreciate the slanted V, for VietinBank, that forms the shape of the taller, 68-story tower that will be the bank's headquarters. The second tower (a mere 48 floors) will house a five-star hotel, spa, and serviced apartments designed to coddle green-conscious tourists and residents. The seven-story glass building connecting the towers is where you'll find all the hospitality action: luxury shops, cafés, and restaurants, as well as a rooftop garden. A serrated facade, made of projecting fins, gives the buildings the look of high-tech cheese graters, but the fins' function is to provide shade above each window. However, the big eco-news is that the project, due to be completed in 2014, introduces pioneering environmentally friendly technology on a huge scale. A low-energy desiccant wheel system sucks in hot, humid air from outdoors, removes the excess moisture, and then cools the air with groundwater before pumping it through the towers. Unlike a number of future hotel pitches, this is one project that's not full of hot air.


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The attendance this year was over the top. I've been going out to this show since 1992, when I shared a table in Artist's Alley with Charles Vess. The attendance that year was probably 25, maybe 30,000. This year people are saying 125,000! This is a picture of 125,000 people crossing the street. I spent most of Saturday with the Flight Crew, although I had a very good meeting with the DC team (many exciting things were proposed for SHAZAM! MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL now that it is getting closer to completion), and bumped into many old friends like Terry and Robin Moore, Lee Hester, Jenny Robb, David Silverman, Mike Carlin, Frank Miller, Jim Lee, Rachel Lovinger, Joe & Dottie Ferrera, Charles Vess, Rory Root, Sergio Aragones, Jimmy Palmioti & Amanda Conners, Batton Lash & Jackie Estrada and more besides!
The Flight Panel was standing room only. That's Kazu Kibuishi, Flight's editor at the podium. A very interesting discussion about the future of graphic novels and the sustainability of the long form comic. I think Kazu and the rest of the relatively young, but accomplished artists are coming to grips with the huge commitment in time, money and emotional energy that the field requires. Despite that, I only sensed optimism and fearlessness from every single member. Don't worry, guys, it's nothing Alan Moore, Art Spiegleman, Ernest Hemmingway or Mark Twain didn't deal with.
Kazu, Jen Wang, and Scott McCloud laughing with Reagan Lodge.
Amy Kim Ganter and Bill Plympton.
Kean Soo, me, and Steve Hamaker.
Kean Soo and Derek Kirk Kim.
After lunch we returned to the Flight booth for a signing and found a mob that we could barely get through. It was a monster signing and I want to publicly thank the Flight Crew and especially Johanne Matte for inviting me to appear at their booth and making the whole experience fun for me and more importantly, the fans.
I did get the names of the Fone Bone and Thorn that visited me on Friday: Thorn was Tiana Krohn-Ching, and Fone's puppeteer was Christopher Maslanka.My flight back to Columbus is at 8pm. For someone who normally spends a week at this show, two days seems short. Still it was one of the richest San Diegos I can remember. What did I learn? I learned that Terry Moore won't tell me the secret ending of Strangers in Paradise, and that Scott McCloud – - about everything – - was right after all. And when I spotted Jonesy from Reno 911, I also learned that it's still fun to see a celebrity.
Before heading out to the airport, I met John J. Muth and David Saylor, my editor at Scholastic, for a cool-down drink at the Omni bar. While we were chatting, a squadron of Storm Troopers came in from the heat, and lined up their helmets on the bar, resulting in my single favorite image of San Diego Comic-Con International 2006:
And with that, I think I'll sleep for a day or so!


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A Conversation with Margaret Cezair-Thompson and Marilyn Sides
Marilyn Sides is the author of a collection of short stories, The Island of the Mapmaker's Wife and Other Tales, and a novel, The Genius of Affection. She is a work on another collection of short fiction and a novel and teaches literature and writing at Wellesley College, where she is the director of the creative writing program.
Marilyn Sides: As a close friend, I watched you over the last seven years labor mightily to bring forth this new novel, The Pirate's Daughter, at the same time you were raising, as a single mother, your son, Ben, and teaching at Wellesley College full time. What gets a novelist through those many late nights and hours stolen from the pressing responsibilities of ordinary life? What keeps the dream of a novel intact until it becomes a realized fact?
Margaret Cezair-Thompson: Very strong coffee. But truthfully, there's a lot at stake: it's not only about keeping the dream of the novel alive but the dream of being a writer.
MS: In your first novel, The True History of Paradise (Dutton 1999), Jean Landing's story is set in 1980's post-independence Jamaica, during the violent "state-of-emergency," but throughout the novel Jean hears the voices of ancestors whispering to her across three centuries. In The Pirate's Daughter you concentrate on the late 1940s to the late 1970s, three decades that begin with the post World War II bustle and international glamour of colonial Jamaica and that end during the political unrest which fills THP. Why did you come back to for an up-close look at this particular period?
Margaret Cezair-Thompson: Well, like many writers, I'm attracted to what seems like a vanished or vanishing era. I heard a lot about the forties and fifties from my parents. It was a remarkable period for Jamaica in terms of its developing a sense of itself as a nation, yet as a pre-independent country there were still all those physical and psychological manifestations of a British colony. So you still had the ex-pats, the polo-playing set and United Fruit Company postcard images and songs about drinking "rum an' cola," but you also had this national pride bubbling up from beneath and a self-questioning. To give an example, there's a moment in the novel when Ida is young and she's just come from visiting the home of that very English couple, the Fletchers, where she was made to feel uncomfortable and was referred to at one point not by name but as that "Jamaican girl". In her mind, Ida's sifting through all the songs--
MS: Yes, I love the fragments of songs throughout the novel, "Fan me soldier boy, fan me" is my favorite.
MCT: --and images she's ever seen or heard about Jamaican girls (who were bad and ran away or good and men ran away from them); she also ponders over a clipping she's seen of a 1930's Miss Jamaica beauty queen, and wondering where she fits in all this, how she'll define herself or be defined in the future. Well on a larger scale that's what the whole country was doing, consciously and unconsciously. I found this all very appealing as a writer and the time period also "fit" the subject--these two worlds meeting: Flynn's glamorous 1940's Hollywood and a small island society.
MS: When did the starting point for the novel's action
--the true fact that the dashing movie-idol Errol Flynn shipwrecked on Jamaica and later acquired his own island just off Jamaica's coast--become clearly the absolutely right way to go? And why did you feel that you could dare to let Flynn leave the book, except for the characters' thoughts of him, almost halfway through?
MCT: The origin of the novel for me was not Flynn but an image I had of the young Jamaican woman and a foreign, older man in a house by the sea. They were from different worlds, but both belonged in that house. I got more curious about them and as I dug more deeply and settled on the right setting--Port Antonio--Errol Flynn appeared, so to speak, reminding me that he had lived there, too. So I welcomed him into the book as a main character. I think when writing a novel, you start with one idea or image, then you take a really good look at the place and time and then people and their stories start coming forward. As for letting Flynn "go," halfway through the book: I wanted to be faithful to the facts of when he lived and died; I didn't think of it as daring (though I know what you mean-- oops, main character's gone, what now?) but rather challenging, structurally, keeping his spirit and all the dramatic consequences of his deeds alive through the last part of the book. In almost every novel I've read and admired some "rule" of storytelling is broken and yet the novel works. It's like cooking and changing the recipe half way through--instead of wine you're going to steam those clams in Red Stripe Beer because that's what you've got in the fridge.
MS: As you were researching the novel, I remember you discovering that Flynn was born in Tasmania, so he himself came from a colonial past. That struck me as having so much potential for thinking about his character living in Jamaica. How did that fact come to shape your sense of Flynn in your novel?
MCT: What I learned about Flynn's early life helped me see him in greater dimension. Knowing he was an "island man" I felt I understood a bit more about him, about his desires, habits, and needs as someone who wanted to return to his own sub-tropical island past. I also saw not only the Hollywood icon but a bit of that colonial "bad boy" adventurer of earlier times, like Captain Bligh. He came to symbolize that sort of man, too.
MS: Do you think of yourself as a writer of historical novels? Do you do a lot of research?
MCT: I don't think of myself as a writer of historical novels. But I do love history, always have. And I loved reading historical novels as a young adult, devoured them in fact. I still love novels that immerse me in a whole different place and time.
MS: What did you read?
MCT: Anya Seton and Jean Plaidy who also went under the name Victoria Holt, all those novels of English royalty, Mary Queen of Scots and so on. Especially novels with intricate family trees drawn up on the inside cover.
In terms of research: I didn't have a system. But I wanted to be as authentic as possible in my details, so I'd start checking facts and discover more facts, wonderful things I could not have imagined or made up.
MS: Like?
MCT: That Captain Bligh had been on Navy Island too. And about the Otaheiti apples and the connection to Tahiti, that Columbus's last two ships sank off the coast of Jamaica.
MS: Several reviews of the novel seem to imply that the novel is a great romance novel "beach-read," which not only underscores its rich readability, but also seems to imply an exotic escapist fantasy? Ida pretty clearly wants to be a heroine in a romance novel from the moment we meet her as a teenager all dressed up and about to meet Errol Flynn, but at the end of the novel we see her as having weathered "romance" and living "small" with dignity and even contentment.
MCT: I didn't consciously think about the romance novel. I liked the idea of making all four generations of those women (Oni, Esme, Ida, and May) big readers: Oni reads "Mills & Boons" which were the paperback romances that I remember many of my school friends reading. Esme and Ida share a love of novels. I imagined Ida reading Edna Ferber's Saratoga Trunk. And yes, she identifies with the romantic heroines of that sort of novel. Ida and May have a scene where they bring up another historical romance, The White Witch of Rosehall. And then there's May with her pirate stories.
MS: Yes, in the very first pages of her novel, Treasure Cove, the young May seems to be inspired by the teenage male heroes of adventure stories like Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Still, although she wears her hair short and is a "tomboy," May also wants a feminine identity; when she plays "pirate" with her friend Ian, she takes the role of Lucy Sharp ("lady turned pirate"). Later in the novel, May seems to see herself more as the young woman victim of adventurers and rakes; she wonders if she will turn out to be like Sabine, the "duppy," or ghost who seems to haunt Flynn's island. What happens to May over the course of the novel in her sense of herself as a heroine?
MCT: Again it goes back to that question of identity. At that time and in that society, there weren't many books that depicted a mixed race Jamaican female in a positive or hopeful light, and these women, first Ida, then May, are on a sort of quest to define themselves as heroines of their own story. I think May is looking for her place, her own place, throughout the novel. By that I mean where she fits or belongs in the world and particularly Jamaica. At the same time, she's looking for someone who is like her in these stories but never does. There were a couple of brave but ultimately doomed pirate women--like Anne Bonny; but certainly no Jamaican female adventure heroes. They are all English boys and men. As she grows older and reads more, the only island women she finds are those outcast women: Ann Bonny, the White Witch of Rosehall, the legendary Sabine (a legend and character I made up)). This is true about growing up in a colonial era, that sense of displacement. And it's not just a West Indian phenomenon. I was watching the film Casablanca the other day, a favorite of mine, and this is not a criticism — I wouldn't want anything about that film changed. But I was thinking about what it might be like watching that epic if you were from Morocco. There are no native characters.
MS: Yes, absolutely, except in the local color market scenes.
MCT: May talks about a similar situation near the end when she says she always felt invisible or ghostly in relation to those heroes like Bligh, Admiral Nelson and even her father--because women like her and her mother weren't included, weren't written about in those heroic tales. This is the sort of thing that May, semi-abandoned in her childhood, teased and ostracized by her peers, has to muddle her way through. And I think she does sort a lot of this out by the end.
MS: Yes, unlike the white Ian, who seems to be another illegitimate child of Flynn's with the wife of one of Flynn's white ex-pat friends, so a half-brother to May and also displaced. Ian seems tragically to be unable to find his place among the Jamaicans in Port Antonio.
MCT: Ian. The artist. I grew very fond of Ian. He haunts the book I think but in a more subtle way than Flynn. And he represents quite a lot for me personally--I recognize him as one of the lost ones of my own generation. He couldn't be like his British ex-pat parents but neither could he thrive in the new Jamaica. The tragic thing about Ian, too, is that he could so easily have lived in England and fitted in there because he's got that 60's British pop thing going on too; but he doesn't want to be anywhere but Jamaica.
MS: In TTHP, the main character Jean tries to escape from Jamaica, do you feel in TPD, the main characters, Ida and May, who love Jamaica, are also trying to escape it? Do they try to find on Navy Island a kind of escape from Jamaica?
MCT: It's interesting that you'd see Navy Island that way, and it does have that almost fantastic idyllic quality. But for Ida, Navy Island is her life's goal and destination because of its association with Flynn. For May, it's more complicated--she calls it "a piece of Jamaica that drifted away" so it's very much Jamaica, but a Jamaica where she can feel safe, where she feels she belongs.
MS: You left Jamaica to live in the United States, yet you seem compelled to return to Jamaica again and again in your writing. What is it about Jamaica that makes it home and yet drives people away from that home?
MCT: As is true of any place that has undergone a period of difficult and violent change, there are people who "tough it out" sometimes because they have no other choice. There are others who for their own survival feel they must leave, but that's never an easy thing to do. The whole question of staying or going when things get so rough is something I find interesting as a writer and I suppose that's why it comes into both these novels. But, again, May and Ida are not driven away or trying to escape; they're clinging for dear life. May especially is standing up to everything and saying "I have a right to be here." I remember making a conscious decision that unlike the protagonist of my first novel, this young woman, May, was determined to stay.
MS: Does writing about Jamaica keep you in touch with "home?"
MCT: Yes. But what's also true is that keeping in touch with home (going there, being around other Jamaicans here in the U.S.) keeps me writing. I feel like every time I go home or have a good long chat with a fellow-Jamaican I find something that inspires me to do more writing. Sometimes it's just a word, an expression, some new fact.
MS: Did the writing lead you to discover parts of Jamaica that weren't your home when you lived there? I'm thinking in particular of the loving attention the town of Port Antonio receives in TPD.
MCT: Again yes, I've learned quite a lot about my own country in the writing process so it's always like a return home. Now and then I'd find myself unsure about something or unable to remember clearly, so I'd call someone back home, an aunt or uncle maybe, and if I was lucky I'd get the long answer--anecdotal, with a recipe thrown in (Black Crab Soup, fried green plantains). As some readers have noticed, there's a lot of good food in this novel.
MS: I was always getting hungry. And the flowers, jasmine, bougainvillea!
MCT: Port Antonio is a beautiful part of Jamaica and deserves attention, the right kind of attention. I would hate to see it spoiled, but I'd like to see some revival there, economically, culturally; there are beautiful old Georgian buildings that need restoring. It's a town that has been written about and praised by British and American writers of the nineteenth century. There's a lot of concealed history and it's breathtakingly beautiful.
MS: The Pirate's Daughter is so powerfully a book about the elusive father. May's father Flynn is there in all his glamour and charm, but at the same time not there, not laying a direct claim to May, not fathering her in any real way. May says she feels fraudulent about signing her last name as Flynn. How do you feel May finds herself filling the place of the father in the novel? Does this theme of the elusive father resonate with the political and historical themes in the novel?
MCT: To answer that last question, yes, I was conscious of Flynn's role as absent father reflecting a larger kind of absenteeism, political and historic. Recurring throughout Jamaican history is a figure known as the absentee planter; he was the British owner of the sugar estates and a slave-owner, lived mostly in England, but sometimes fathered mixed-race children born of his slaves. The children, and in many instances the plantations themselves were abandoned when slavery ended. I was thinking how much that's part of our history, and of how islands like Jamaica have been, like the character May, struggling to emerge from a very fragmented past. As for filling the place of a father, there are some very dedicated and even doting fathers in the novel: Ida's father, Eli Joseph; Karl who is a good step-father to May. There's also the map that May inherits. And all that the map means or could mean.
MS: Of course I have to ask this: What about your next novel? Will it be set in Jamaica? Will it be "historical" (in any sense of that word you want to play with)?
MCT: It will be historical because I'm always thinking about history and looking at things in that way. But I won't say more about it than that.
1. Why does Oni, Ida's grandmother, always ask Ida if she's a mongoose or a girl? What is she? What does Oni mean when she says "Sometimes bird hafe learn how fe swim"? How does this saying apply to Ida? To May?
2. What kind of father is Eli Joseph? How does he support Ida? How does he fail her?
3. Why does Ida defy her mother and traditional Jamaica? What does Errol Flynn represent for her?
4. On page 200, Ida wonders if her only choices were "to be a sorry unwed mother or the well-cared-for wife of a man whom she admired but didn't love." Do you think she's right? What were Esme's choices?
5. What makes May feel like a stranger in her own community and country?
6. How is the racism Ida sees in New York different from that in Jamaica? What accounts for these differences?
7. Why does May resist when Ida tries to tell her about her father, Errol Flynn?
8. How does May's single meeting with Errol Flynn affect her? How does it affect him? During this meeting, Flynn thinks of all the things he wanted to tell her. Later, when he waits for Ida at the wrong hotel bar, he wishes he could tell Ida several things. What do you think he wants to tell his daughter and her mother?
9. Though Errol Flynn is May's biological father, many other men are more fatherly towards May. What characters in The Pirate's Daughter help May come of age?
10. How can May love the land of Jamaica, but not the nation, as she asserts in her letter to Nigel on page 205? How does the landscape of Jamaica energize and empower her? How does the nation affect her?
11. What went wrong with Ian? Why is he with the gunmen when they attack Navy Island? Do you agree with May that their parents' generation is to blame for the problems of the younger generation? Why or why not?
12. Why does Karl hide Errol's treasure map from May? And on page 372, why does Karl emphasize that he stole what should have been May's? What does he think he stole, other than a monetary inheritance?
13. How does Jamaica manifest as more than a setting? How does Cezair-Thompson present Jamaica as a character?
14. How does May's Treasure Cove tell the story of her family and her country? What are the implications of the untitled manuscript she sends to Nigel?


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At one
Frodo must have looked back
on the Shire
on Bree
on the edge of Hobbitown
and thought "Man,
I am far from home.
I am on the crest of a fucking mountain."
Home is where the heart is.
We keep the memories of Mary and the lamb,
Mother by the fire as we clung by our mouths to the bottle.
I hear Mr. Romney used to hit people.
His political futurehead would detach
"Don't Step Over The White Lines!"
and they would fall to the floor
with red rhododendrons on their cheeks.
Soul Vocals are rising up on the tide.
Harlem from the distance is an egg custard.
Its thick shell rises up around a depth of gold
The gold glow of community
Comfortably nestled in the warm night
By thousands of skyscrapers and fortifications.
"Do you know what it would mean if we lost Harlem?"
President Obama was frantic on the phone.
We lost Harlem anyway;
a second term in the sunlight
could not stop the watchful Golden Eyes of Mitt Romney.
Harlem was safe in the realm of its art
Not the rebellious Harlem of yore
The one of freaky jazz and women dancing
On tables in the templates of fine loft restaurants.
It was a far cry from the rudimentary Haarlems of yore.
It was thousands of fierce eyes preparing for battle.
Do you know what a battle could be?
On these streets illuminated by glowing neon signs
An electric flash can rapidly illuminate the silhouette of a street fighter.
The hulking silhouettes
Of villains heading home for the night.
There was a casino-like air to these apartments
As thin as shotgun houses but decked out in red velvet.
They were thick with the smell of cigarettes
And the sound of Ragtime.
I'm High and Listening to SEXXX DWARF! This slap Kills! Soft Cell Only On 106.Never!
A skull nestled snug from the rain inside an alien lighthouse, and PIRATES WILL CONQUER (presumably accompanied by a clap of lightning).
Fuck Mr. Romney He is a Bumbled Ass! Hit Me Up for a Link to a Link to a Link to a Manual Salesman of Tijuana Bible Dealers.
Puta Madre (a sombrero-eyed robot in cold rainpaved stone)
At the base is a pile of skulls and crossbones,
rain-soaked Pamphlets dropped by those peaceful planes in the sky.
Red searchlights peruse the claustrophobic ruins of the City
skulking between old archways and unused boulders
piercing ancient carvings and making them shine with crimson.
Here are Four Different Siren Sounds:
I could hear each in the night.
One was a red trill of urgency on wings.
One was the low tremor of an airship.
One was the frantic sound of a tragic fire engine.
One was for night delivery.
I gingerly placed my hand on the grime
Wiped away the filth like hardened tears
and read the accounts of the hardened culture.
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Please click on the image to see bigger image with slide show. The pictures are showed in different pages(Ex: 54 per page). Once you enjoyed the current page pictures, you have to close the slide show and click the next page number for other pictures. If you have more than 10 pages then you will see only 10 page links at a time. When you are moving to next page then you will that page numbers are moving towards the end. You have options to move next or previous or to stop the slide show. Original image/video quality and size are reduced due to the space and loading issues. Comments Hotels Car Restaurants Attractions Directions Weather (Grand Canyon) Hotels Car Restaurants Attractions Directions Weather (Hoover Dam) Video Description - Published on Apr/21/2008
Hoover Dam, also known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River.
When completed in 1935, it was both the worlds largest electric power producing facility and the worlds largest concrete structure. Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake in US Grand Canyn National Park, Arizona. One of Seven, Natural World wonders. Today the park receives close to 5 million visitors each year. The canyon is 288 miles long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles and attains a depth of more than a mile. This Park is a US National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is located entirely in northern Arizona and is one of the great tourist attractions in the US. There are two ways to approach the Canyon: the remote North Rim and the more accessible (and therefore more crowded) South Rim. Both areas have several options for camping, as well as hotels and restaurants. Expect all of these facilities to be overflowing with visitors during the busy summer season. Fall, spring, and winter are all great times to visit. Las Vegas Strip is an approximately 4 mile section of Las Vegas Boulevard. Desert View Watchtower A view of Grand Canyon Skywalk from Outside Ledge Helicopter used for tourist flights over the Grand Canyon City(s) = Grand Canyon,Hoover Dam; State(s) = AZ; Country = USA. Title = Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam(by road and air), AZ, US - Pictures. Keywords = Hoover, Dam, Boulder, Black, Canyon, Colorado, River, Lake, Mead, Grand, National, Park, Arizona, Seven, Natural, World, wonders, US, UNESCO, Heritage, Site, North, Rim, South, Las, Vegas, Strip, Boulevard, ourtripvideos, our, trip, videos, crlapindfrn Attraction Links
http://www.grandcanyon.com/gcntours.html - The Top Grand Canyon Vacation Tours
http://grandcanyontourcompany.com/bus.html - Bus Tours from Las Vegas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon - Grand Canyon Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_dam - Hoover Dam Facebook Comments


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Upcoming movie Conan the Barbarian, directed by Marcus Nispell, is like one big mash up of bits and pieces of big, bloody, movie scenes. There's no character development, plot, or decent staging. Viewers are going to be highly disappointed with this new movie and between this new movie release and Fright Night, it's looking like Spy Kids 4is going to be tops in theaters. Conan the Barbarian will NOT be one of this year's top action movies.
The premise of this movie picture is that Conan, a Cimmerian warrior, (played as a child by Leo Howard) happens to be a great fighter and knows about strategy and brutality when he's very young. His father Corin, played by Ron Perlman, is killed right in front of him and Conan decides to take revenge on KhalarZym, the warlord played by Stephen Lang, who has killed off many of his people and ruined Conan's life.
It takes quite a while for Conan (played as an adult by Jason Momoa of "Game of Thrones") to develop amazing muscles and to find KhalarZym. By this point, Kym is attempting to rule the world with the help of a special mask with which he'll be granted magical powers. The twist is that Kym needs the help of a woman monk named Tamara, who's played by Rachel Nichols. Conan figures this out and talks Tamara into joining him, rather than Kym, and falls in love with Tamara.
There's so much violence in this film that it seems like that's all it's about. Somebody is always being killed by stabbing or being smashed on a rock. At some point the filmmakers must have rethought things and then hired, of all people, Morgan Freeman to do a voiceover narration. Even the actors look surprised when there's a moment with no violence.
What's even worse is that one violent scene blends with another as there's no sense of pacing in Conan the Barbarian. There are some fairly impressive sets but even these are pushed to the background by the incessant violence. Conan is one-dimensional. He's only got one mission. While there's a scene early in the film where Corin tries to teach Conan that there should be balance, Conan remains the same. The only thing he does seem to learn is respect for Tamara. This means there's no real emotion in the movie so there's no climax.
However, Jason Momoa does okay giving Conan energy and likeability. Nichols is a decent love interest and gives a little female perspective in the heavily male movie. Stephen Lang has played lots of bad guys, but here, as the evil warlord, he's somehow lackluster – really due more to bad writing than to his own lack of effort. Both Conan and Khalar want revenge and since it's hard to tell them apart, except for the fact that one is the good guy and one is the bad guy, there isn't enough in the fighting to settle the situation – even with Morgan Freeman narrating.
The original Conan films were great, and future Conan movies may be great. Conan the Barbarian is just barbaric.


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Comparison - BlackBerry Bold 9900 vs Samsung Galaxy S II
By Yudhi
19 September 2011 ?The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Samsung Galaxy S II are among the best devices in their class, and is distinct enough in their looks and specifications to cater to different consumers with different needs.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900s 2.8-inch, 480 x 640 pixel display may seem smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S IIs 4.3-inch, 480 x 800 pixel screen, but that is because the former has to house a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard.
In terms of processors, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 beats its kin with a 1.2GHz processor, though the Samsung Galaxy S II has a dual-core 1.2GHz equivalent underneath. That said, none of these devices struggle to run or multitask, so speed ratings are somewhat irrelevant here.
For the photobugs, the BlackBerry Bold 9000 has a 5.0-megapixel shooter with 720p video recording. The Samsung Galaxy S II on the other hand has a more impressive 8.0-megapixel camera that allows for Full HD 1080p video recording.
Hardware-wise, both devices have been impressive so far, therefore the operating systems on these two is what will set them apart ?The BlackBerry Bold 9900 ships with the BlackBerry OS7, while the Samsung Galaxy S II serves Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to begin with.
The BlackBerry brand has always somewhat marketed itself towards the more professional/enterprise users, though the Samsung Galaxy S IIs sleek looks and impressive hardware makes it a perfect companion for just about anyone. The presence of a keyboard on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 will probably sway the vote for some, but chances are if you are reading this, you are still wondering which of the two to pick, in which case, our vote goes to the Samsung Galaxy S II for its overall functionality and design.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 (RM 2030 ?RM 2110)
3.5G HSDPA + WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Touchscreen candybar, 5.0 MP camera, 16GB internal memory, BlackBerry OS 7
Featuring the revamped BlackBerry OS 7 operating system with a slew of new features, consumers are promised a whole new experience unlike any other before.
For more comparisons click here
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 Preview
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 Latest Price
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 Specification
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 Video Reviews
Samsung Galaxy S II (RM 1840 - RM 2070)
3.5G HSPA + WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Touchscreen candybar, 8.0 MP camera, 16GB Memory + microSD (Up to 32GB) , Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread)
It boasts an 8-megapixel camera which is capable of capturing videos at full HD 1080p @ 30fps. The Samsung Galaxy S II also has HSPA+ (21Mbps) network support, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 as well as an HDMI-out with mirroring and DLNA for media sharing.
For more comparisons click here
- Samsung Galaxy S II Review
- Samsung Galaxy S II Latest Price
- Samsung Galaxy S II Specification
- Samsung Galaxy S II Video Reviews