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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

in south africa

In South Africa it’s sensible to back-up your laptop, not in case your computer crashes but in case it gets stolen. In the past 3 months, between me and my two sisters, we’ve been robbed 10 times: 2 laptops, 2 passports, 6 cell phones, 3 wallets, 2 bicycles and that’s not mentioning my sister’s boyfriend who had his entire office building cleaned out, my friend’s sister’s throat slit and an old lady down the road shoved into the boot of a car. Sorry for being a bit brash, but these are not uncommon stories for South Africans.

During the past two weeks all public service workers across the country have been on strike. Without indulging in discussions on the why’s and why not’s for the strike; it has left us with no fuel at petrol stations and in our hospitals many adults, children and little babies have been left to die. Our teachers are also on strike, leaving our youth unable to go to school, including those in Grade 12 who were meant to write their last mid-semester exams this week which determines their future careers, bursaries and placement in universities. And for those who’ve refused to strike they have been physically attacked and the buildings have been vandalised with chairs through windows.

Currently South Africa has just passed a law of ‘Protection of Information’ limiting the media on how much can be released to the national and international public. The ANC (our current governmental party) Youth League have “fight, produce, learn” as their slogan and dance in the streets shouting “Kill the Boer”, meaning white person. Seeing their members dancing in military camo’s makes anyone nervous because these above two statements are significant incidences that occurred in countries like Zimbabwe before their drastic downfall began!

This is just a drop in the ocean of our country’s problems. It sheds light as to why South Africans have been fleeing the country since 1994 and why those who remain are constantly negative about our future. But you can’t help yourself from asking, “Will we go the same way?” Some say we already are. Are we?

Imagine that we all, and I mean ALL, for one moment, believed positively in the future of South Africa? Would we still go the same way?

Below are some interesting, thought provoking pics and links
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100722045340729C272215

http://www.rense.com/general56/murd.htm

4 comments:

Claire said...

This is a pretty depressing post! I'd love to see one about the exact opposite of this - the positives. We are facing lots and lots and lots of problems. BUT we also have lots and lots and lots of good things happening. Great things in fact. And great people determined to make them happen.

I'm going to choose to stay positive - because as you said, imagine what would happen if we all thought positively and acted positively? Beautiful things!

Mandy Rapson said...

You're right, it is depressing seeing it from this angle. I'm glad this isn't the angle from which I view South Africa or I might be one of those that join the 'white flight'. But nonetheless we can't deny it's existance.

Thanks for your comment, this is exactly the kind of honest, open and thougt provoking dialogue I'm trying to encourage.

Sarah said...

As a mixed race (Chinese) British person, I find it difficult to understand the racial issues in SA. My boyfriend is a white South African and it isn't always easy to appriciate what people are going through. The level of violence is horrible and I would hate to SA become like Zim. I fell in love with SA when I visited nearly 3 years ago and stayed with your family but I know that you only see so much as a visitor.. I have had the experience of living with both black and white South Africans though so can possibly understand some of the issues a bit more than the average Brit! What I find the most challenging is that although I can see why people are outraged by the crime and violence there, are the borderline or outright racial comments/names such as snoobabs, monkey F@@kers etc. Although I look very much "white" these days, as a child I had much darker skin and was singled out because of it after moving from London. I didn't understand and tried to literally scrub my "dirty" skin off in the bath as I thought there was something wrong with me! The thing is that I have come across some blatently racist Christians, although I'm not suggesting that it's only South Africans of course. But I do know some SA Christian with particularly nasty racial attitudes and wonder how that co-exsists with their faith? I don't like to ask them directly as I don't wish to offend them. One of my SA Christian friends openly tells people she is rasist and comes out with some pretty strong stuff. I don't mean to offend anyone, honestly.. There are plenty of ignorant rasist Brits who have no justifiable reason for it, believe me! My boyfriend is not like that although some of his comments leave me uncomfortable, but his parents are pretty racist, to the point that he has hidden my ethnic background from them! I just wish that I could understand all this stuff more...

Cobus Oosthuizen said...

Wow Mandy...how much did FIFA pay you to not fly this post before the 2010 world cup? Yeah...it is crazy, but I have come to realize that 'people' are crazy...and you find some crazy people all over the world! A dear friend of mine went through probably the worst experience anyone can go through after she landed in the US...left violent SA, just to be violated in the safe USA...naaah, we find some crazy people everywhere...I just pray that God will make me crazy enough to deal with them! As for Julius...I am a boer, please don't kill me :)