I could have died on 2 January 2025. But I didn’t. I survived a mini stroke.

In the middle of a not-so-hot Cape Town afternoon while I was doing my regular body weight exercise. I was busy performing staggered push-ups using the thickest book I could use for the movement (funny enough it was the Vicassan Tagalog-English Dictionary that I had lugged with me to Cape Town back in 1994).

One moment I was doing my tenth then in an instant I had my head “stuck on the floor” unable to pull my body up. First thought was that this must be a bout of vertigo which some friends have described having.

I luckily had the phone within reach, so I called my wife who was at the other end of the house. She rushed in panic and was stunned to see me on the floor all helpless. We called the emergency assistance line of the local community forum. They quickly sent for an ambulance once they arrived and assessed that I have just had a stroke.

The ambulance came, quicker than we expected, and I had my first ride in one – also first time being lifted off the ground on to a gurney like in a medical series scene! The ambulance drove fast, but to me it looked like we were going backwards. Glimpses of trucks on the windows.

20 minutes later I was being wheeled in the hospital that was about 15 kilometers away – the one closer to us told the ambulance crew they had an hour of waiting time.

The first doctor to see to me confirmed that  it was a stroke. He booked me for various tests… MRI, ultrasound, etc…

After all the tests were done and they had the results…. The first thing they asked me was if I was a heavy drinker. I rarely have alcohol these days. I prefer not to have headaches if I can avoid them.

They could not pinpoint a particular cause of the stroke. I was healthy and fit. The only thing that they suspected was cholesterol levels. But mine wasn’t even high. It was normal.

My left arm and leg were the badly affected side. Luckily my speech was spared so that I could still make a lot of noise and opportunities to annoy other people.

I had spasms on my affected limbs and I could not walk. It was a terrifying experience to be suddenly so helpless and totally dependent on others.

A great friend who came to visit asked if I had been stressed over something. I was actually feeling all fine, but there has been something bothering me for many months – the genocide in Gaza.

I ended up staying  in hospital for two months, with a few infections and other medical issues popping up along the way, which hindered my physical rehabilitation routine.

We should all be sick of the so-called enlightened leaders of the West propping up the terrorist state of Israel. Who can bear seeing so much bloodshed and not be affected or afflicted with something like a stroke?

The heart and mind can only take so much brutality on devices daily, and we’re not even there to physically witness the death and destruction that Zionists continue to spread unabated. When is it going to be enough?

My writing cannot undo the horrors, but I try to express my feelings through what I write. Some people, it seems, found my stance too much for them to allow… So not long ago a handful of South Africa based poets singled me out and publicly made a show of displeasure online. I responded with a blog post about them and shared an entire section from one of my books…

Alien to Any Skin: intergalactic nightmares

I blame Netanyahu, all the bloody Zionists, and the lot who attacked me online for this stroke. There. I said it.

You know who you are, you intolerant monsters!