Pretty quiet in here this morn. Sadly to report there's still no surf in Lenno after yesterdays promise of good clean swell on the way today. Bloody NE'ers.
That aside, I was wondering Tex, and for once I'm not stirring the pot here, what your response would have been to your own Q you put to the three SA boys about the big Zulu dude.
it's interesting to put oneself in that position also but I suspect you need to qualify as having lived in SA for awhile to answer this one. My own short comment would be that all of the above is cool with me but what are the ramifications if they then decide to stay in SA?
The Vich
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Refer to the comments in that post ...you'll find it's been covered already.
I think it's part of blogging to use the comment section of a post rather than posting another blog on the same topic ...otherwise we just repeat the same confusing mess as in our email that Gazza referred to and we agreed with
This is a very interesting topic and I'd really like to hear evryone's views on it. So let's take it from a different angle, rather than how Tex approached it in the previous blog, thus validating the existence of this one.
I guess it doesn't matter where one lives in the world today, there is going to be some forms of racism per se. The BIG difference in Apartheid and every day racism, is that the "previous regime" in SA had the balls to put a name to it and to legislate it. Come on guys, let's all admit to having that "tingle" every now and then when someone of a different ethnic group from ourselves pisses us off or says or does something not quite the way we'd do or say it!!
As a South African, born and bred, and here I speak purely for myself and nobody else, I admit that I DO suffer from momentary lapses of decorum and use the ugly 'K' word. But I do NOT consider myself a racist. The fact that I grew up in a society where our separation was legislated and I benefited from it could be construed as being "unfair", but I never chose to be a caucasian living in Africa. My existence here was preordained and I just happened along. Although I never condoned the policies of the previous government, I suppose I could be labeled a "co-conspirator" for having never taken any action to stop their activities. I think I enjoyed the lifestyle too much because having a white skin allowed us a lot of social priveleges.
Things have changed dramatically for us in this country over the last 20 years. I have, with my immediate family, have decided to embrace that change, for better or worse, and here I'd like to quote Alvin Toffler:
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn, unlearn and relearn.
This is crucial to one's survival and hopefully I am in the process of relearning. Living in a free society allows me the privelege of making choices. I choose where I live. I choose who I live with. I choose my friends. I choose where to send my children to school and university. Without that we may as well be living in the Congo or Iran. Freedom of choice is a wonderful thing.
We have chosen to stay in this country because it is our home. I don't deny that the thought of living in a place like Oz is so very tempting, but I have no doubt there are other social issues that would piss me off. I am a Self Efrikin through and through, always have been and always will be. I want my ashes to be scattered off backline at Warner Beach where I had some of the most memorable surfs in my life. It is a beautiful country and I still want to explore it before I go to the big wave house in the sky!
So, after all that, how do you guys in other parts of the world, see racism? Do you experience it first hand? Is it something you shy away from? Do you have friends of mixed ethnicity?
Wow...big subject El Musto especially for us guys having been through it. It's interesting to listen to what other guys say who arrive here and start sussing out how things work. Most of them say that SA is probably about the most unracially biased country they've ever visited but that's because we've been through it all already and they don't realise what's actually going on.
I see SA as a country where so few have so much but then that's pretty much typical of the entire world.
I read recently that 1% of the USA population own more than 90% of the entire country added together. Freaks me out.
I don't think there is a solution for racialism because politics are so crooked no matter where you go.
If I had been the one to decide on SA's future when Nelson and FW De Klerk did the change over I would have said to be fair we have four major racial categories being black, white, coloured and Indian therefore each category gets 25% of the government and municipal seats. The president has a rotating three year term with each category getting a turn. What happens inside each categorie's 25% is up to the people. They can vote for whoever they want to for there 25% category. This way no one denomination has superior control over the other. Because it is superiority that causes racialism which is pretty much what is happening in SA now. We have apartheid in reverse.
Christine and I did a 4 month European trip in '79 that included a magical mystery bus trip from Greece to France in which a cute self-appointed Greek tour guide announced "Oh, yes, there was some sort of battle up there" as we passed Thermopylae .....I freaked! I am a big fan of the 300 Spartans and Leonidas story.
Anyway, to get back to racism, I read the book 'Gates of fire' by Steven Pressfield, the best account of that era and that event specifically, in which my favourite character Dienekes teaches the novice warriors that in order to fearlessly fight to the death one must understand that Fear and Love are the opposite ends of the same continuum.
I have felt the same love for my black South African friends as I have for my other paler friends. However, put a mob of any nationality together where they chant, jump around, wave flags and weapons ....fear kicks in and I involuntarily start looking for a semi-automatic FN 7.62 and a 25-pounder with a crew of good ol' SA boys from 41 Battery, Natal Light Field Artillery.
"Die Swart Gevaar" (The Black Menace)was as hard-wired into me as the Red Peril or Domino Principle would have been in my USA contemporaries ....multiplied by a factor of 10 because the menace was in my street, not on another continent.
My friend Kiko taught me to welcome and objectively observe any fucked-up thoughts and feelings that my sub-conscious presents and in doing so recognise and come to terms with/deal with those. I am hardwired racist because I have been taught to fear other races and to kill them as effectively as possible.
Australia is one of the most covertly racist, (and in denial of being so)countries I have been in. The US and the UK are the same/worse. ....Since 9/11 this fear is now centered on Muslims.
Now I and my neighbours in AU, US and UK fear DoonCoons/Ragheads instead of Kaffirs and send our children out, at great expense,to kill them and protect us.
Are you Serfikin boys special in your racism?
Fuck no!!!!
Nice take on that Neil...!
As the one local DA Parliment member (current opposition party to the ANC in South Africa) stated recently, "Its interesting to note how political viewpoints around the world have changed since 9/11. The ANC in their pre-apartheid heydey were nothing short of a murdering bunch of terrorists who targeted innocent women and children. I doubt they would have got into power today now that the rest of the world understands what it's like for their families to face the threat of terrorism. It seems 'what comes around...goes around...!'
I hear ya bru!! It's the same wherever you go... it's just the people's way of dealing with it that differs!
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