Following last week’s heated commentary about Desmond Tutu’s suggestion to tax the whites, Wonkie thought it was time to get readers thinking on a completely different track. Here is some long overdue Friday Fun to hopefully get your mind off taxation, the second coming (of the Great Depression), the introduction of the stupidly high toll fees Gauteng, etc.

Wonkie thought that this would be a great photo to remind readers, that no matter how bad you think things are right now, they could always be worse.

NB: You are welcome to submit more than one caption. Wonkie does request though, that you put ALL your entries in ONE COMMENT please. Thanks.

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The best caption will be awarded a juicy tender or Wonkie CartOOns t-shirt.

If you are not a regular Wonkie subscriber as yet, now would be a great to time sign up and put yourself in line to Win an iPad. The competition is open to all confirmed Wonkie email subscribers and ends on 31 October 2011 – sign up today, it’s free!

This caption challenge ends on 5th September 2011, when the top entry will be announced… think hard, have fun and enjoy the weekend.

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If you, like the giraffe above, are in a tight spot and need a good strategy fast, consider using the services of an experienced personal strategy coach. You will be surprised at what you can achieve in a very short time. For more details on personal coaching, visit Fusionfields Coaching today.

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Wonkie did wonder whether this giraffe is still pondering what numbers to select if it were able to buy buy lottery tickets in Trinidad. Now would certainly not be a good time for it to reflect on whether it should take a chance on the best online slots UK or the best online casinos period!

If photo caption challenges are not your thing, be sure to check out Wonkie’s recommended sites

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Ah, it’s that time of the month again, when Wonkie puts out an interesting Photo Caption Challenge that is. Given all the recent excitement around the local election results in South Africa over the last week, Wonkie thought this particular photo would generate some very creative entries from readers.

We have some great topics coming up for discussion over the next few weeks including a couple of follow up posts on the Consumer Protection Act, your rights and how to protect them. Other topics include corruption in Africa, tenderpreneurship, and how to make a quick buck a la Kenny Kunene – all this and more.

For now, stay focused and get funny with your photo captions – no t-shirt allocated for this week’s challenge but be sure that your name will go up in lights on Wonkie if yours is the wittiest! Those of you who are not already email suscribers can sign up today for free – our current Win an iPad promotion for email subscribers ends on 31 October 2011 and ALL verified email subscribers will be included in the draw – so sign up today for free!

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The best challenge entry will be announced on 6th June 2011… enjoy the weekend!

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Read Wonkie’s tips for getting cheapest car insurance in South Africa.

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Visit here for the latest on SilverSands casino or on the best Indian casinos. Or if you’re based in Canada, be sure to check out Wonkie’s online casino Canada page. For those that are interested, playing lottery online can be very lucrative this week especially since the US PowerBall is sitting at a massive $171,000,000 after this week’s rollover! If all that bores you, check out Wonkie’s other recommendations for more fun alternatives.

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Diwali, Deepavali, or the Festival of Lights as it is known in the West is one of the most significant festivals in the world. Considering that about a billion people in the world celebrate it, Wonkie finds it quite surprising that many people know little more about it than it being the Indian “Christmas” equivalent of sorts.

The Diwali celebration takes place over five days during the Hindu lunar month called Kartika – usually around October-November in the western calendar. The main Diwali festival itself falls on the no moon phase of the lunar cycle. The darkness in the sky is offset by streets and homes lined with lit clay lamps. Add to that the amazing firework displays, rich sweets, delicious food and festive atmosphere and you’ve the makings of quite a celebration. This year, Diwali falls on the 5 November.

Although the festival represents different things to different communities in India, one of the core reasons for the festival is rooted in the epic Hindu scripture, the Ramayana. The day commemorates the triumph of good over evil and represents the conclusion of the story narrated by Amitabh Bachchan in today’s cart00n. The story as it is told is a long and fascinating one.. in summary though, it is a hero’s journey. Prince Rama and his wife Sita are banished from the kingdom and leave to live in a forest for 14 years. During their exile the king of Lanka, an evil demon named Ravana deviously managed to kidnap Sita. After many trials and with the help of the devoted monkey warrior Hanuman and his army, Rama manages to successfully rescue Sita from Lanka.

After Sita was rescued, their period of exile was over and they returned home to Ayodhya. In celebration of his victory over evil and with great symbolism, the streets were lined with lit lamps called diyas. Hence the name Diwali or Deepavali which translated from Sanskrit means row of lamps.

The remaining four days of festivities (two days before and two after) include giving appreciation and thanks for wealth, acknowledgement of siblings – particularly between brothers and sisters, and the spreading of general goodwill. The day following the Diwali festival itself marks the start of the Hindu New Year in many parts of India.

The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore eloquently communicated the significance of Diwali in a single beautiful verse:

Wonkie would like to wish all readers a very Happy Diwali filled with positive spirit and goodwill. May you all have a great year ahead!

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If you’re based in India, check out the latest specials at all online casinos in India or the weekly updated Silver Sands casino offer page. For great UPDATED offers on ALL online casino South Africa click here!

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It’s official – Wonkie CartOOns is a thrilled winner of the 2010 SA Blog Awards. Wonkie scooped the Best Political Blog category and was runner up in the Most Controversial Blog category which was won by Cape Town based news blog 2oceansvibe.com.

Wonkie was surprised to find Helen Zille presenting the award for the category, particularly considering that the Malema vs Zille celebrity deathmatch was one of the most popular posts last year. To be honest, Wonkie was a little disappointed it didn’t get to do a little toyi-toyi and say a little victory speech… particularly given Mrs Zille’s presence at the ceremony. Can you picture it:

“Excuse me, Madame Premiere but I must dedicate this award to my mom, dad, amazing fans and subscribers,… (a few minutes later), but most of all to our comrade JULIUS MALEMA – without whom this award would just not have been possible. So, thank you Julius for making the headlines and just being yourself – this one is for you…!”

Seriously for a moment though, it was great meeting fellow bloggers in person at the Cape Town event which was held at the exclusive One&Only hotel. Below are the other winning best South African blogs in their respective categories:

Ogilvy Twitter Micro Blogger of the Year: @mandyjwatson
The Best Group Blog and Company Blog: RLabs
The Evox Advanced Nutrition Best Sports Blog: PaddleSweep
The Ogilvy Best Media and Marketing Blog: CherryFlava
The Old Mutual Best Green Blog: Sprig
The Best Blog about Politics: Wonkie CartOOns
The UCT Graduate School of Business Best Blog: Memeburn
The Havana Club Rum Best Blog Design and Best Personal Blog: IndieBerries
The Jameson Whisky Best Fashion Blog: Kim Gray
The Olmeca Edicion Black Best Music Blog: Don’t Party
The Best Parenting Blog: Reluctant Mom
The Best South African Podcast/Video Blog: ZANews
The Best Science and Technology Blog: ShesTheGeek
The Best Food and Wine Blog and best new blog: Simply Delicious
The Best Photographic Blog: GuyWithCamera
The Best Overseas South African Blog: Pharside
The Kulula Best Travel Blog: Getaway
Exclus1ves Best Entertainment and Most Controversial Blog: 2OceansVibe
Best Post on a SA Blog: BrainWavez
Best TV/Radio Blog: ECR Breakfast Blog
And finally, best Indigenous Language Blog and overall winner in 2010: WatKykJy

Wonkie would also like to make a special mention of a few others that did not win this year but are certainly worth checking out:

- Cooksister – who was a runner up in the best overseas blog category
- e4Africa – Kobus van Wyk’s excellent blog on Education
- SA Venues for some interesting travel posts on some really cool places in South Africa
- Cape Town Girl in the best new blog category
- Slick Tiger – who was in the running in the top post category as well
- Life is Savage – containing some entertaining posts on a variety of topics
- Pfangirl – Noelle Adams’s fun pop culture blog
- IMod – one of the top ranking technology blogs in South Africa

If you would like to include a thumbnail and link to this cartoon on your blog or website then please copy the code below and insert it into your post or webpage:

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<a href="http://www.wonkie.com/2010/09/29/sa-blog-awards/" target="_blank" title="SA Blog Awards cartoon"><img src="http://www.wonkie.com/comics-rss/2010-09-29_22-sa-blog-awards-cartoon.png" alt="SA Blog Awards cartoon thumbnail" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.wonkie.com/2010/09/29/sa-blog-awards/" target="_blank" title="SA Blog Awards">2010 SA Blog Awards – Wonkie CartOOn!</a>

As an added highlight at the event, the ZANews team had brought along their Helen Zille puppet to interview Helen Zille. Below is a video of the interview:

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Thank you all for supporting Wonkie through the awards and we’re really going to try harder to be more regular… hopefully one or more of us is going to be in the country to update the blog weekly from now on.

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After covering natural disasters of a different sort over the last month, Wonkie thinks its readers deserve a short break from that trauma. 2010 is off to an intense start all over the world. Besides the obvious excitement about the 2010 FIFA world cup, the world is in quite a state following a spate of Acts of God(s).

Since the start of the year hundreds of thousands died in an earthquake in Haiti. And following that there has been one disaster after the next:

– serious storms and flooding in Europe in the middle of a harsh winter;

– an earthquake in Chile which was one of the most powerful ever recorded anywhere in the world coming in at 8.8 on the Richter scale – an earthquake of such magnitude that it was felt across the South American continent in Sao Paolo some 2,900 km away;

– then a number of tsunamis in the Pacific as part of the aftermath of the Chile earthquake;

– moving to chillier climes, last month an iceberg the size of Luxembourg broke away in a daring escape from the continent of Antarctica – though the full impact of this may not be immediate, scientists fear that the rogue iceberg will adversely affect ocean currents, marine life and weather patterns the world over; and

– earlier today, the government of Fiji declared a State of Disaster after a devastating category 4 cyclone tore through the Pacific islands – more than 17,000 people have left their homes and fled to evacuation centres already

All this begs the question, what has the world done to make the Gods and Chuck Norris angry and how much more ruthless will They be in the months to come?

Please select the option that best describes what you believe in our poll below (if you are unable to vote below, please Click HERE to reload the poll):

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Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Wonkie thought it would make today’s photo caption contest a bit more challenging but much more inclusive today. After all it’s easy to make fun of Malema, Zille, Zuma etc – they simply provide us with so much content to do so. Please enter your best caption for the above photo in the comments section below – it does NOT have to do anything with politics so flex that imagination!

The funniest, most original caption wins a Wonkie T-shirt!
The winner will be announced late next week.

Or click here to visit SilverSands Online Casino!

Barack Obama made history today when he was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. There was high security in Washington as it was flooded with spectators waiting to experience a likely once-in-a-lifetime event of this magnitude. Mr Obama has much of the world’s hope resting on his shoulders – notably including those of Juan and Chong in today’s cartoon strip. To many minorities, Mr Obama is a symbol of strength and a clear sign that anybody can achieve just about anything in America.

Mr Obama inherits a wide range of disasters left by the Bush administration including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a deepening recession that is not likely to improve in the short term, to mention a few of the challenges. He has put together one of the highest intellectual horsepower teams the White House has ever seen. All the elements for success are in place and Wonkie wishes his that little bit of luck that’s always needed to make anything a success.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Reading between the lines in the Sunday Times last weekend, Whitehall and diplomatic sources have indicated that Gordon Brown will effectively be acting as Obama’s lackey in Europe.

Brown is expected to beg other Nato leaders in Brussels next month to support the USA by dispatching more troops and resources to Afghanistan. Some very unreliable sources suggest that Brown may consult Tony Blair on what he usually used to wipe his nose after his meetings with Bush, Obama’s predecessor.

Also see the comic at Gordon Brown meets Bush for cartoon context.

In a confidential meeting on national security, George Bush unveils to Barack Obama the most highly classified US Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) – Chuck Norris.

Also see the earlier post for the Whole Truth behind George Bush and Gordon Brown’s first meeting.

Bringing you the latest news and gossip from around the world.