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What South Africa, Clint Eastward’s movie and Morgan Freeman’s Mandela moment can teach the USA. Ten reasons to see the Oscar-nominated film (with Freeman nominated for Best Actor and Matt Damon for Best Supporting Actor).

By Wanda Hennig

Invictus is the story of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted and won by South Africa. The movie is a tribute to Nelson Mandela’s vision and leadership — and a lot more. Go see it and be inspired. Perhaps it will give you new thoughts and insights on Washington politics and the US health care debate. The Top 10 list starts with rugby

Story by Wanda Hennig

This story was first published in Food Illustrated magazine, London, with photography by Richard Jung

A visit to Greens in San Francisco is a celebration of the senses. Dip your spoon into a bowl of butternut squash soup and delight in the delicate harmony of lightly caramelized onions and apple confit blended with a hint of calvados. Feast your eyes on a salad that marries fresh ripe figs with Kodata, Mission and Calmyra olives, melon, watercress and creamy goat’s cheese. Inhale and delight …

By Wanda Hennig

Super-geek and Berkeley–based internet identity guru Kaliya Hamlin mounted her first She’s Geeky ‘un’conference in October 2007 and her most recent, last weekend. They grew from her observation that while women are encouraged to enter the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — once women leave school and enter the workforce,

An inner journey can be more spectacular — and revealing — than a trip around the world. And a weekend spent doing something you really would prefer not to be doing can change the course of your life.
By Wanda Hennig

Can this really be me writhing around the floor in a large, darkened room with a number of other should I call us crazies? I have my eyes glued shut but I know the others are out there because I can hear grunts and whines and hisses and the odd …

Story and Pictures: Wanda Hennig

First appeared: East Bay Edible

“In Zen practice we want our intuition — our universal self — to come forth,” says Berkeley Zen Center abbot, Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi. “When you’re doing simple tasks [like peeling broccoli or breaking lettuce into bite-size bits], your body, mind, the broccoli, the knife, your hand, the breath, are all involved. When you keep bringing your attention back to what you’re doing — when you are simply one with your activity — it’s the same as sitting zazen.”

The inside scoop from educators, activists and social media gurus at the East Bay’s first Beast Bloggers Bar Camp.
Photos: Wanda Hennig

This list of 40 facts, tips, key points and “how to” suggestions come from blogging panels and conversations at the first East Bay Beast Bloggers Bar Camp held at Tech Liminal in Oakland. (Read more on the event here.) Some comments are attributed. Others came from general discussion. All are from Bar Camp participants. (See Part One of this story.)
About Blogging

Decide what are you trying to say? What do …

You’re the marketing director of a nonprofit — or perhaps the director if it’s a smaller organization. You know you need to add social media to your tool kit. Where to begin? Any good swim coach starts with a plan. You need one too. To ensure success, consider these five key points before you dive in.
By Wanda Hennig
1) Make sure the pool has water in it. In other words, have a handle on what you’re getting into.
This involves, on the one hand, learning about the tools. On the other, …

Story and photos by Wanda Hennig
First published in Sunday Life Magazine, South Africa
“I ENVY you. That’s just the sort of holiday I need. Somewhere to relax, space out and unwind.”

The comment comes from a colleague. We’re in the newsroom of the Sunday paper we’re both working on

Story and photos by Wanda Hennig
First published in the Sunday Tribune, South Africa
The Ufafa district, near Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is home to around 23,000 people. Families reside in a sprawling muddle of family compounds that stagger up hills and tumble into valleys, forming a jumbled patchwork of mud, thatch, concrete block and tin. The dwellings have no electricity. Water for drinking, washing, cooking and bathing is hand-pumped from underground wells and carried in plastic bucket and barrels. The area could have been forgotten. But — was it serendipity, karma or …

Story by Wanda Hennig
First published in Black Diamond Living magazine
It started with a routine morning scan of East Bay newspapers — part of the standard daily work drill for Devi Lanphere, CEO of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce in east Contra Costa County. This time the piece that caught her eye might not, at first glance, have seemed work-related. It announced an extreme makeover contest. Read more …