CAMPUS NEWS
Love is in the air...
Joseph Fikile Bukula
“As love is full of unbefitting strains, all wanton as a
child, skipping and vain, formed by the eye and therefore, like the eye, full of strange shapes, of habits and of
forms, varying in subjects as the eye doth roll to every
varied object in his glance” Shakespeare (Love’s Labour’s Lost, 5.2). Let’s get to know the management of
North-west University on the affectionate side and find
how spontaneous they are towards their loved ones.
“Valentine’s to me is a special day where you should
make an effort to the one you love. I do celebrate it,
so this upcoming Valentine’s Day I will be celebrating
it at the Three Rivers Lodge that I personally booked
for just a night for us (my husband and I). As a couple
sometimes you have to make each other feel special.”
Let’s hear what she has to say to the youth on the love
side, “respect each other and really listen; spoil each
other. It doesn’t have to be expensive, even just a walk
to the river; put cell phones away for just even an hour,
communication is very important.” That is from Mrs Sally
Van Heerden – Information Assistant Librarian, a happily married woman for 31 years.
Prof Natashade Klerk from the School of Economic Sciences has a different perspective towards this day, a
day that is proclaimed to be a day of lover’s. “Valentine’s
Day is a marketing strategy to make money, I don’t cel-
12 - Student 24/7
ebrate it because I see it from a marketing perspective.”
But she has a message to the youth she says, “be selfish, meaning you are wealth. Don’t just give your heart
to anybody, make sure who you give it to. Think with
your head, not with your heart.”
“Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean a lot to me, it’s a day to
treat woman special. No I don’t celebrate Valentines; it’s
not a big deal for me.” That is Dr Johan Steytler a Social
Work lecturer; but he has something for the youth, “love
is not cheap, it’s not only emotional it’s something that
you need to practice, it’s a “DO” word.”
“It suggests to me that there is a life in a society, it’s
a personalised love or gesture symbolised by others
to the loved ones. Love is a serious thing that means
so much because you can hurt somebody. If we want
to give meaning we must understand what love is first.
Usually I send my wife some flowers and tell her I love
her especially on Valentine’s Day because when you
are married for a while you forget. Last year I composed
a song for my wife, very early in the morning, I called
the song Valentine’s Day 2013 it’s full of irony, because
when I was busy telling her I love her, the story of Oscar
Pistorius was everywhere. Love is very gentle but can
also be very harsh and brutal. So to the youth I would
say love is serious, think sincerely and convene the
message of love to the person. Love is not a very easy
thing, we must be very careful when it has to do with our
emotions” Prof Johann WN Tempelhoff from Faculty of
Humanities, School of Basic Sciences.