Drawing to a close...

By Shavaughn Haack

As the final term of Journ 1 draws to an end this post serves as my last for cigarettesandcoffee. The assignment for this piece is to do something I have never done before. I suppose the reasoning behind this is to ignite the natural journalistic inquisitiveness and curiosity that’s inside each one of us. Sooo something I have never done before?

Bereft of ideas I started asking around and realised some things I have never done simply because I am not prepared to do so. I then decided to just try my hand at a few different things. I thought exploring would be as adventurous as I would get, so a group of friends and I went up Mountain Drive at night for a sort of picnic. It was an amazing experience, being out in the pitch black of night, it was so quiet. Nevertheless we soon got over our freezing solitude and packed up for a much warmer cup of hot chocolate indoors. Another day I had lunch on a bench outside the Grahamstown Cathedral. It was a pleasant experience as there were so many interesting people around that I wouldn’t normally come into contact with. Then in preparation for my German oral exam I spoke a lot of German to myself, something I am not prone to do. I’m not convinced it all made grammatical sense all of the time but it sure did help me in the exam. Then for a bit of random fun I put my clothes on inside-out and back-to-front. The most difficult thing about this was actually getting my clothes on and fastening buttons and zips. The banana feet brought back a feeling of nostalgia as I remember not being able to tell the difference between my left and my right shoe as a little girl.

I would definitely recommend trying something you’ve never done before. Try seeing things a little differently or considering a new perspective or just to remember. I’m pretty sure it helps us appreciate life a little more.

So with this final post and in the words of the Von Trapp children “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye”

Anger, awareness and apologies.

Ok, so after writing that opinion piece, there are a few things I need to ge straight. What hurts me most is not that she's gone, or that I think the Dean has gone about this all in the complete wrong way...no, it is none of that. What hurts me the most is the amount of pain she suffered before she died. In order for her to want to take her own life, she must have been hurting so much and so deeply that the thought of facing tomorrow just seemed impossible.

Although it may not have sounded so in my last post, Winnie and I were once close friends. Things may not have been that way towards the end of her life, but ultimately we were both first years in Allan Gray House. We had gone through O-Week together and bonded a great deal. She had come to me a number of times and explained how she felt down and so unhappy here at Rhodes. I encouraged her to seek help. More than that I do not feel it is right to disclose as our conversations were confidential.

By third term it seemed that her and I were having a sort of tif, I guess you could call it. We had disagreed about something so petty and had allowed our friendship to fall to pieces. I regret this so much now. But I also see that it was her way of pushing people away.

My most fond memory of her is how she would come running to me for a our daily hug, a ritual I had started with the secret intention of letting her know - everyday - that somebody was there for her. Someone cared. I cared, and I know that so many others did too. But I failed her. As her friend and as her res-mate, by allowing something so pathetic to come between us - I wasn't there for her anymore. For that, I am really ashamed.

It was so hard seeing everyone hurt so much when the initial shock hit. And her funeral was horrible...in the sense that so many people were forced to say goodbye to a very special person.
I saw Vivian de Klerk (the Dean of Students) at the funeral...she was sitting in front of me. And I remember just wanting to yell at her for even being there after doing something (I believe) was very insensitive: telling the world a partial lie.

I miss you already Win. And I'm sorry, so, so sorry for the circumstances. I'm sorry that you were living in so much pain. And, mostly, I'm sorry that I was not there for you as much as I should've/could've been.

Suicide. NOT suffocation.

By Cassy van Eeden

Tweet: cassystars THE TRUTH ABOUT WINNIE MAROGA'S DEATH: http://tinyurl.com/yjamv89 #rublogs


“Ms Winnie Maroga, passed away on 19 October as a result of complications following respiratory failure” is what the Dean told the student body of Rhodes University last week. However, this statement is completely untrue, and it really angers me. Winnie Maroga is dead because she chose to take her own life, and not simply because of “respiratory failure”. I realise that some students may feel that my statement is brash and that it is not my right to disclose this information, but I think that it is critically important that everyone know the truth.

I know that I speak for a number of my fellow students when I say that sugar-coating the issue is wrong. I understand that, for ethical purposes, the Dean may have chosen to (at first) keep the facts under wraps, but is it not everybody’s right to know what really happened?! In fact, I think it may even be a helpful lesson on the kind of depression that students often have to deal with. Losing someone to natural causes presents an entirely different situation to that of suicide.

The truth is that Winnie was in so much pain that she could not bear to live another day. Yes, ultimately (and according to the doctor’s report) she died of respiratory failure, but all this was because she had taken steps to end her life and therefore impaired her lungs’ ability to function. Her body did not want to fight…she had already given up. It is a very sad situation, but keeping it a secret is pointless.