This year, man, this year.
The days a twisted game of Jenga,
with stacks of bureaucratic paperwork
and nothing really to look forward to.
Alas, this is just what everyone feels like
when big changes
are just around the corner
ready to shout "BOO!"
when you least expect it.
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Sunday, 11 January 2015
Sunday, 17 March 2013
I can see a lot of life in you
There's a book series called City-lit, where a city is explored through excerpts from various other books to chart the feeling of a particular space at different times. I just finished reading the book on Berlin, and together with watching 24h Berlin, and my father totalling his car in Berlin, well, the city is coming to me although I am very far removed physically from it.
This waiting around for something, anything, to happen is making me feel like an animal trapped in a cage that it could pimp out and make super comfortable but now cannot leave until a freaking earthquake comes and shatters the bars. Slightly over exaggerated, sure, but waiting for things to happen is not programmed into me. Fuck all the chilling and cleaning and baking and cooking and planning Taaltandem (which takes 3 minutes) because I'd rather be busy.
On the other hand, I know this is the moment to be patient. Pro-active, yes, but patient. Wait to hear from Japan, wait to hear from Goethe, wait to hear from Germany, wait to hear from Sandton, wait to hear. WAIT. WAIT. Ugh. Wait.
Enjoy the chilling, who knows when you can chill again and won't have to get up before 10 AM on a weekday. Enjoy the possibility of nothing. Tell yourself stupid things like this to somehow infuse your life with the tiniest level of importance.
Ja. And in the meantime be thankful for friends like K who keep you in the loop and organise jobs for you and drink wine with you in the cinema because otherwise Lincoln would be unbearably boring and give you Macadamia-nut-butter and help you make a gift for your grandmother and are really great.
So great they make you bake cookies with hearts, from this recipe, which fails a bit but remains tasty.
This waiting around for something, anything, to happen is making me feel like an animal trapped in a cage that it could pimp out and make super comfortable but now cannot leave until a freaking earthquake comes and shatters the bars. Slightly over exaggerated, sure, but waiting for things to happen is not programmed into me. Fuck all the chilling and cleaning and baking and cooking and planning Taaltandem (which takes 3 minutes) because I'd rather be busy.
On the other hand, I know this is the moment to be patient. Pro-active, yes, but patient. Wait to hear from Japan, wait to hear from Goethe, wait to hear from Germany, wait to hear from Sandton, wait to hear. WAIT. WAIT. Ugh. Wait.
Enjoy the chilling, who knows when you can chill again and won't have to get up before 10 AM on a weekday. Enjoy the possibility of nothing. Tell yourself stupid things like this to somehow infuse your life with the tiniest level of importance.
Ja. And in the meantime be thankful for friends like K who keep you in the loop and organise jobs for you and drink wine with you in the cinema because otherwise Lincoln would be unbearably boring and give you Macadamia-nut-butter and help you make a gift for your grandmother and are really great.
So great they make you bake cookies with hearts, from this recipe, which fails a bit but remains tasty.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Le mal(e)
On the farm, I wanted to pour everyone a glass of wine for dinner when my gran looked at me sternly and said that I should let my cousin do it because he is, after all, the man in the room. I have no problem with gentlemanly behavior, hell, I find it rather encouraging if people have nice manners and if men treat women like ladies. But if I've got the bottle already in my hand, if I am a second away from pouring, it is silly to me not to do it because I was born with a vagina.
It angers me incredibly when people tell me I cannot do something for the simple reason that I am female. To this day, I have not met many men that were not in some form or another a disappointment. Everyone is flawed, everyone makes mistakes, and these stupid gender rules that my grandmother and many others live by irritate me endlessly - I have grown up thinking that I could do anything, that my rights and my role in society was equal to every other person's, irrespective of race and gender and age and whatever else you could list as a reason to separate human from human.
Times change, mindsets adapt, but the old cling to their doctrines as though they were drowning in the thinking of the new age. I will also be old and frustrated and feel a sense of loss because I am being replaced by younger generations who ignore that their achievements could not have been accomplished without the foundations that their lineage laid down.
But I think it is stupid to say that you cannot change the old, that "because they are old" you cannot have a discussion with an elderly person. I love my grandmother, but I cannot stand to hear her speak of the k*****s, of the "anderskleuriges" ( people of a different colour) as though we were not all the same. And she should know better : she speaks fluent Sotho ( one of the 11 national languages), she built a school for the black children on the farm, she always treated the workers on the farm with dignity. Also, she says that the best time in her life was when she worked as a teacher before she got married, and her biggest regret is not doing it for longer. In a life filled to the brim with more fantastic experiences and a great family, I cannot understand why she fixated on those two years of independence,but tells me that I should submit more to a patriarchal way of thinking.
I like hearing old stories and asking questions that only my grandmother can answer since she has lived the longest. She should be wise and I should learn from her, I should be able to take her life and mould mine accordingly, but all I want to do is shake her and say that for 60 years, she has believed wrongly,that she is ignorant and foolish and keeps making these errors without accepting any blame, without taking any responsibility. I want to say, "Ouma, skrik wakker, wees in beheer van jou lewe, en hou op om die heeltyd so flippen die moer in die wees. Alles was jou keuses" ( Gran, wake up, be in control of your own life and stop being so damn angry. Everything was your own choice). Instead, I ask her if she wants more coffee, listen to every story and complaint 20 times because she forgets she has told them before, and forgive her for not being what I imagined a grandmother should be.
It angers me incredibly when people tell me I cannot do something for the simple reason that I am female. To this day, I have not met many men that were not in some form or another a disappointment. Everyone is flawed, everyone makes mistakes, and these stupid gender rules that my grandmother and many others live by irritate me endlessly - I have grown up thinking that I could do anything, that my rights and my role in society was equal to every other person's, irrespective of race and gender and age and whatever else you could list as a reason to separate human from human.
Times change, mindsets adapt, but the old cling to their doctrines as though they were drowning in the thinking of the new age. I will also be old and frustrated and feel a sense of loss because I am being replaced by younger generations who ignore that their achievements could not have been accomplished without the foundations that their lineage laid down.
But I think it is stupid to say that you cannot change the old, that "because they are old" you cannot have a discussion with an elderly person. I love my grandmother, but I cannot stand to hear her speak of the k*****s, of the "anderskleuriges" ( people of a different colour) as though we were not all the same. And she should know better : she speaks fluent Sotho ( one of the 11 national languages), she built a school for the black children on the farm, she always treated the workers on the farm with dignity. Also, she says that the best time in her life was when she worked as a teacher before she got married, and her biggest regret is not doing it for longer. In a life filled to the brim with more fantastic experiences and a great family, I cannot understand why she fixated on those two years of independence,but tells me that I should submit more to a patriarchal way of thinking.
I like hearing old stories and asking questions that only my grandmother can answer since she has lived the longest. She should be wise and I should learn from her, I should be able to take her life and mould mine accordingly, but all I want to do is shake her and say that for 60 years, she has believed wrongly,that she is ignorant and foolish and keeps making these errors without accepting any blame, without taking any responsibility. I want to say, "Ouma, skrik wakker, wees in beheer van jou lewe, en hou op om die heeltyd so flippen die moer in die wees. Alles was jou keuses" ( Gran, wake up, be in control of your own life and stop being so damn angry. Everything was your own choice). Instead, I ask her if she wants more coffee, listen to every story and complaint 20 times because she forgets she has told them before, and forgive her for not being what I imagined a grandmother should be.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Blockage
When life is busy I have nothing to write about. I can think of not one thing that I would consider to be important. Sure, there is unrest all over the world and opinions that could be shared, but I feel like I would not do justice at the moment to their importance. Right now, arguing about religious views, or why young people have lost the desire to do better, or why life is beautiful, well, I just have no words at my disposal.
You know that situation when someone has said something mean or rude about you, or made a sarcastic joke on your expense, and you can say nothing witty back? But then, when you are sitting in your car or in front of the TV or wherever, you come up with the smartest comeback? Well, the French have a term for this : l'esprit de l'escalier. Directly translated it means the spirit of the stairs, or the wit of the stairs, and relates to Diderot, who said that he could only think of something clever when he was at the bottom of the stairs again ( in his time, the nobles would receive guests on the first floor).
Apparently there is a similar term in German, Treppenwitz ( Stair-joke). However, it is used more as relating to events that seem to contradict their own context. This is what Wikipedia says, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean or what examples one could mention. What events seem to contradict their own context? Perhaps a situation similar to Frank Miller's comic book ( and later film version) 300, where 300 Spartans fight off the threat posed by the gigantic armies of Xerxes, would be suitable as a Treppenwitz?
Here a comeback from a man I would have loved to drink tea with :
During Winston Churchill's early career, he was at a meeting and another member was giving a long-winded speech. Churchill began to close his eyes and fall asleep. At the sight of this, the member became visibly angry and shouted: “Mr. Churchill, must you fall asleep while I’m speaking?” Instead of making attempts at an apology or a cover-up, Churchill simply replied:
You know that situation when someone has said something mean or rude about you, or made a sarcastic joke on your expense, and you can say nothing witty back? But then, when you are sitting in your car or in front of the TV or wherever, you come up with the smartest comeback? Well, the French have a term for this : l'esprit de l'escalier. Directly translated it means the spirit of the stairs, or the wit of the stairs, and relates to Diderot, who said that he could only think of something clever when he was at the bottom of the stairs again ( in his time, the nobles would receive guests on the first floor).
Apparently there is a similar term in German, Treppenwitz ( Stair-joke). However, it is used more as relating to events that seem to contradict their own context. This is what Wikipedia says, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean or what examples one could mention. What events seem to contradict their own context? Perhaps a situation similar to Frank Miller's comic book ( and later film version) 300, where 300 Spartans fight off the threat posed by the gigantic armies of Xerxes, would be suitable as a Treppenwitz?
Here a comeback from a man I would have loved to drink tea with :
During Winston Churchill's early career, he was at a meeting and another member was giving a long-winded speech. Churchill began to close his eyes and fall asleep. At the sight of this, the member became visibly angry and shouted: “Mr. Churchill, must you fall asleep while I’m speaking?” Instead of making attempts at an apology or a cover-up, Churchill simply replied:
“No, it’s purely voluntary.”
You can find more clever comebacks here.
.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Glossolalia*
Because my parents both spoke a different language with us, we grew up bi-lingually, but ( as you have probably noticed) my Afrikaans is fine when I have to speak it, but the grammar and the linguistic expressions are lacking because I did not learn that base structure at school and was not constantly practising it. Now I practice by watching 7de Laan.
Also, I only learned English when I was 10, but I feel quite secure in my language use here.
But today I helped a young South Korean man with his English ( basically we just talk and thereby he practices his English) and it reminded me of my time at Disney, because people assume you are not as smart when you cannot express yourself clearly in their mothertongue. When you have an accent and not quite the same expansive vocabulary as 1st language speakers, they think you are not as intelligent because you cannot always immediately find the right words to say exactly what you mean. I doubt most of them realise how hard it is to learn a new language and that it becomes quite frustrating not to have the words right there. It is annoying to have to think about what you are saying and if the expression is right.
To some it might also be irritating when people correct you, but this depends on how it is done. Normally I don't mind being helped along because I see it as a learning curve and then one won't make the same mistake in the future, but I can understand how it is weird to be very eloquent in one's own language and not have that immediate access to words in another language.
But then again, it bothers me when people speak a language badly when they have had ample time to learn it. Here I directly mean the politicians and the journalists at the SABC. I mean really, that jumbled mix of bad grammar and worse pronunciation is just not sufficient. If I can learn to speak other languages clearly, why can you not do the same? Especially when one must speak to the public and provide information for them.
* it means "speaking in tongues"
Saturday, 30 July 2011
How to quit a friendship
This is an idea that has been bothering me for a while: one can break-up with a boy/girlfriend, one can separate from or divorce one's husband/wife, one can quit one's job, one can cancel one's gym subscription, one can end almost any contract.
But not friendship. There is no real way of breaking up with a friend, of saying "I can have no more of this in my life", without seeming like a complete drama llama. And with friendships it could always be too early to end it. There is always the possibility of the friendship just being at a rough spot, at being stuck in limbo, and one would not want to lose out on someone's role in one's life for that alone. Everything can change.
However, it could also change for the worse. People move, people evolve, and yes, people do change. After a while of having no interaction, of only stalking one another on facebook, there is just nothing left to say.
I would like it if in life, one could move someone from the friends circle to the acquaintance circle. I would like it if I could tell you, listen, you have disappointed me one too many times. I no longer want to be part of your life. Friendship is a two-way street and I seem to be in a cul-de-sac with ours.
Naturally, you would have the same right. You could say, listen, you and I are no more. I eliminate you from my life. It was nice while it lasted. It's not you, it's me. I need to move on. We are just not good for each other.
Now I ask you, reader, how do you break up with your friend? Because I want it to be known. I want the friend to know why I am leaving him/her. Why the time invested is not worth the outcome any more. I don't want us to just drift further apart and then have to exchange awkward "Happy Birthday"-smses or have to ask him/her how he/she is when we do meet again, if ever.
I want to tell the person: listen, I tried. I tried communication, but you blocked all channels. I tried giving you space, but there was no return from it. I tried moving on, and just ignoring past attachment, but somehow, a clean break would be preferable. I want to know that everyone is alright separately.
I think leaving a friend is so hard because friends are the family of choice. And one does not want to have made the wrong choice. Furthermore, a family is for life. So perhaps the chosen family should be, too. I expect my friends to be there, just as I am for them.
Perhaps the crux is that I should accept it is over and not make a big deal out of it. Just move on. Just accept that some friendships are momentary, and appreciate the moment.
So maybe I will tell you this. Maybe you will read this. If you do, know that it was a pleasure having you in my life, that you were integral to my youth, but that now, I wish you a happy future, sans moi. I am placing you in the past. Haha, I think you already categorized me there.
.
But not friendship. There is no real way of breaking up with a friend, of saying "I can have no more of this in my life", without seeming like a complete drama llama. And with friendships it could always be too early to end it. There is always the possibility of the friendship just being at a rough spot, at being stuck in limbo, and one would not want to lose out on someone's role in one's life for that alone. Everything can change.
However, it could also change for the worse. People move, people evolve, and yes, people do change. After a while of having no interaction, of only stalking one another on facebook, there is just nothing left to say.
I would like it if in life, one could move someone from the friends circle to the acquaintance circle. I would like it if I could tell you, listen, you have disappointed me one too many times. I no longer want to be part of your life. Friendship is a two-way street and I seem to be in a cul-de-sac with ours.
Naturally, you would have the same right. You could say, listen, you and I are no more. I eliminate you from my life. It was nice while it lasted. It's not you, it's me. I need to move on. We are just not good for each other.
Now I ask you, reader, how do you break up with your friend? Because I want it to be known. I want the friend to know why I am leaving him/her. Why the time invested is not worth the outcome any more. I don't want us to just drift further apart and then have to exchange awkward "Happy Birthday"-smses or have to ask him/her how he/she is when we do meet again, if ever.
I want to tell the person: listen, I tried. I tried communication, but you blocked all channels. I tried giving you space, but there was no return from it. I tried moving on, and just ignoring past attachment, but somehow, a clean break would be preferable. I want to know that everyone is alright separately.
I think leaving a friend is so hard because friends are the family of choice. And one does not want to have made the wrong choice. Furthermore, a family is for life. So perhaps the chosen family should be, too. I expect my friends to be there, just as I am for them.
Perhaps the crux is that I should accept it is over and not make a big deal out of it. Just move on. Just accept that some friendships are momentary, and appreciate the moment.
So maybe I will tell you this. Maybe you will read this. If you do, know that it was a pleasure having you in my life, that you were integral to my youth, but that now, I wish you a happy future, sans moi. I am placing you in the past. Haha, I think you already categorized me there.
.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Giving
My friend needed some extras in a silent/black-and-white short-film she is doing, so I spent the day at Church Square drinking Oom Paul's coffee and talking to interesting people. There is nothing like a discussion on the merits of pornography and its audience as background noise to a silent film... However, while walking the 20 metres from Capital Theatre to the Café, my friend's cellphone was stolen.
I don't think people who do not live in a society riddled with crime will understand this, but when we go out, we keep our handbags in the boot of the car, we lock everything ten times, we are hyper-alert at traffic lights and we have all been robbed. Or at least we all know someone. And it pisses me off. There are so many anti-crime associations and organizations aimed at helping whomever needs it. One would think that every person would want to do honourable work, would want to contribute meaningfully to their community. And yet, we have become nonchalant about crime, it is just part of our lives, like corn flakes for breakfast or the Gautrain not coming to Pretoria yet even though they advertise it on TV.
On my way home from the shoot, the radio-presenter was recounting how the day before, he was out with his girlfriend when a car with two respectable-looking young women stopped next to them and the driver asked if she could quickly borrow one of their cellphones because both their batteries were flat and they needed to reach someone. So the guy's girlfriend lent the girl her phone, and while she was still typing an sms, they sped off in the car with the phone.
Unbelievable, isn't it?!
One tries to be helpful, but the accumulation of bad stories really does make one mistrust everyone. I don't stop to help someone with car trouble out of fear that it might be a ruse to kidnap me. I don't give people rides if I don't know them, again out of fear. I think there exists a contradiction in the communal South African character: one the one hand, we are an incredibly friendly and open people, but on the other hand this aspect is reserved for foreigners and we are excessively mistrusting of our fellow citizens. Now don't go saying it is a racist thing, and that this mistrust is based on our history of racial segregation. It is not a case of "us" and "them" in terms of race, but in terms of class. The rich do not trust the poor, but I assume this is a universal phenomenon. Perhaps here the discrepancy between rich and poor is just too huge a chasm and that if one lives in poverty, one does not know how to get out of it.
I also don't know. I mean, my cellphone and money was stolen out of my handbag at a house party with only 20 guests. My sister was burgled in front of our door. Last year October four men broke two gates and a wooden door in a matter of seconds in order to get into our house. Constantly someone is being robbed of some possession.
I can understand if one steals out of a true need, say, for want of food or water or shelter. But it seems to me that crime in South Africa has become increasingly violent for the most meaningless things: people being killed for a cellphone, young schoolgirls raped on their way back from school, someone being smash-and-grabbed while stuck in a traffic jam. It is all just so stupid, and I don't know really what one can do. How can we react?
Already, most people in the big cities live in gated communities, neighbourhoods organize neighbourhood patrols and most citizens want to work with the police. But there is also a sense of helplessness, as the police force appears to be the most corrupt of all and they never solve a case. There is the idea that if no one died, it wasn't serious.
I think we as a country need to change drastically: we need to focus extensively on the education and integration of the lowest classes, re-teaching a value system and moral code that underlies every respectable society. There needs to exist a communal sense of what is wrong and right, and in everyone's mind the desire to do good must outweigh the desire for objects and status by any means possible. Also, the government needs to commit to a complete eradication of corruption.
Naturally this is an ideal that will take generations to achieve. But I believe that we need to instil in our generation this sense of morality that somehow has been lost after the atrocities of previous ages. There are two options for each individual: choose to see humanity as too flawed to do good, or choose to see humanity as having an essentially optimistic and embracing character. After all, each community reflects the collective choices of individuals, and at the moment it seems that South Africans are choosing indifference to their environment as opposed to wanting to change it for the better.
.
I don't think people who do not live in a society riddled with crime will understand this, but when we go out, we keep our handbags in the boot of the car, we lock everything ten times, we are hyper-alert at traffic lights and we have all been robbed. Or at least we all know someone. And it pisses me off. There are so many anti-crime associations and organizations aimed at helping whomever needs it. One would think that every person would want to do honourable work, would want to contribute meaningfully to their community. And yet, we have become nonchalant about crime, it is just part of our lives, like corn flakes for breakfast or the Gautrain not coming to Pretoria yet even though they advertise it on TV.
On my way home from the shoot, the radio-presenter was recounting how the day before, he was out with his girlfriend when a car with two respectable-looking young women stopped next to them and the driver asked if she could quickly borrow one of their cellphones because both their batteries were flat and they needed to reach someone. So the guy's girlfriend lent the girl her phone, and while she was still typing an sms, they sped off in the car with the phone.
Unbelievable, isn't it?!
One tries to be helpful, but the accumulation of bad stories really does make one mistrust everyone. I don't stop to help someone with car trouble out of fear that it might be a ruse to kidnap me. I don't give people rides if I don't know them, again out of fear. I think there exists a contradiction in the communal South African character: one the one hand, we are an incredibly friendly and open people, but on the other hand this aspect is reserved for foreigners and we are excessively mistrusting of our fellow citizens. Now don't go saying it is a racist thing, and that this mistrust is based on our history of racial segregation. It is not a case of "us" and "them" in terms of race, but in terms of class. The rich do not trust the poor, but I assume this is a universal phenomenon. Perhaps here the discrepancy between rich and poor is just too huge a chasm and that if one lives in poverty, one does not know how to get out of it.
I also don't know. I mean, my cellphone and money was stolen out of my handbag at a house party with only 20 guests. My sister was burgled in front of our door. Last year October four men broke two gates and a wooden door in a matter of seconds in order to get into our house. Constantly someone is being robbed of some possession.
I can understand if one steals out of a true need, say, for want of food or water or shelter. But it seems to me that crime in South Africa has become increasingly violent for the most meaningless things: people being killed for a cellphone, young schoolgirls raped on their way back from school, someone being smash-and-grabbed while stuck in a traffic jam. It is all just so stupid, and I don't know really what one can do. How can we react?
Already, most people in the big cities live in gated communities, neighbourhoods organize neighbourhood patrols and most citizens want to work with the police. But there is also a sense of helplessness, as the police force appears to be the most corrupt of all and they never solve a case. There is the idea that if no one died, it wasn't serious.
I think we as a country need to change drastically: we need to focus extensively on the education and integration of the lowest classes, re-teaching a value system and moral code that underlies every respectable society. There needs to exist a communal sense of what is wrong and right, and in everyone's mind the desire to do good must outweigh the desire for objects and status by any means possible. Also, the government needs to commit to a complete eradication of corruption.
Naturally this is an ideal that will take generations to achieve. But I believe that we need to instil in our generation this sense of morality that somehow has been lost after the atrocities of previous ages. There are two options for each individual: choose to see humanity as too flawed to do good, or choose to see humanity as having an essentially optimistic and embracing character. After all, each community reflects the collective choices of individuals, and at the moment it seems that South Africans are choosing indifference to their environment as opposed to wanting to change it for the better.
.
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Open Letter to Jimmy Manyi ( News24 2.March 2011)
Dear Jimmy,
Let us drop titles for the purpose of a necessary exchange. So let us forget for now that I am a Cabinet Minister and that you are a Director-General equivalent, in the same government. I want to address you simply as a compatriot South African.
I want to draw to your attention the fact that your statements about "an over-concentration of coloureds" are against the letter and spirit of the South African Constitution, as well being against the values espoused by the Black Management Forum since its inception.
That you were a Director-General of the Department of Labour, as well as the President of the BMF at the time when you made these statements is quite a mystery.
It is a mystery because I must assume that you were elected as President of the BMF, without any familiarity with the history and constitution of that organisation; and that you were appointed as Director-General of the Department of Labour, without any familiarity with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa or the legislation administered by the Department itself.
I observe from a GCIS press release that Mr Vusi Mona issues in his own name, you apologise for the statement because "some people may have taken offence". This continued negative behaviour merely serves to confirm the values that you hold, or more precisely, lack thereof. Firstly, why Mr Mona had to issue a statement is beyond comprehension since you distinctly did not utter those racist sentiments as an official of the GCIS.
Secondly, that you lack the moral conviction to publicly apologise says so much about your acute lack of judgement. Thirdly, the statement apologises only for the fact that "some people may have taken offence" says to me that you clearly fail to appreciate the extent to which your utterances are both unconstitutional and morally reprehensible.
These "things", (as the ANC statement says that your utterances reduce people to being mere commodities) in your view, "the coloureds who are over-concentrated in the Western Cape", are the sons and daughters of those who waged the first anti-colonial battles against the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British when they set foot on our shores. These "things", which so irritate you, include many who made huge sacrifices in the struggle against apartheid, at a time when people with views like Jimmy Manyi were conspicuous by their absence from the misery of exile, the battles at the barricades and from apartheid's jails. By the way, what did YOU do in the war, Jimmy?
I want to put it to you that these statements would make you a racist in the mould of H F Verwoerd. I want to put it to you that you have the same mind that operated under apartheid, never merely satisfied with inflicting the hurt of forced removals and the group areas act, would encamp language groups so that horrible aberrations, such as Soshanguve, were created to accommodate "non-Tswanas" in their own little encampments in greater Mabopane. Mr Manyi, you may be black, or perhaps you aren't, because you do not accept that label and would prefer to be "only a Xhosa", whatever the label you choose, I want to put it to you that your behaviour is of the worst-order racist.
I refer to you in this way because for those of us who found our way into the struggle through the Black Consciousness Movement have always understood the origin of the Black Management Forum, as we have understood and supported the ANC documents that speak of "blacks in general, and Africans, in particular." Regrettably, in your understanding the term "Black" has quite a different meaning.
As a consequence of your behaviour, people like me - in the ANC and in government, are being asked to explain what was in the mind of the drafters of the amendments to the Employment Equity Act. We were present at the point of the debate of the first Employment Equity Bill; we expressed a complete comfort with the assignment of 'designated groups' to include “black people” which means "Africans, Coloureds and Indians" because it served as a representation of our constitutionality and as the fruits of our struggle.
When in your capacity as Chairperson of the Employment Equity Commission you made strange utterances that sought to carve away at the basic premise of the Employment Equity Act, we should have been more vigilant. The just and constitutionally obligated provisions for redress are not and can never be an excuse to perpetuate racism.
Now, in the light of the utterances you have made at a time when you were the DG of the Department of Labour, and given the fact that the amendments to the Employment Equity Act were drafted during your tenure, I have a sense that your racism has infiltrated the highest echelons of government. Count me among those who, in spite of my position, will ensure that parliament acts in the letter and spirit of our constitution when it adopts amendments to the Act.
I have never waged any battle from the premise of an epithet that apartheid sought to attach to me but I will do battle against the harm you seek to inflict. When I do so, it is not as a coloured but as a non-racist determined to ensure that our great movement and our Constitution are not diluted through the actions of racists like you.
I have been prepared to sacrifice before for the cause of the kind of society articulated in the Freedom Charter. It is not a cause that has ended. I have simply not been called upon to make the same kind of sacrifices since 1990. I must declare my willingness to make sacrifices now in deference to the opening lines of the Freedom Charter that boldly declare that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it".
I now know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and that he had fought against black domination. Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you.
Yours sincerely,
Trevor A Manuel
see original article here
Finally someone acknowledges that it is not only white/black racism that dominates the minds of the ignorant and hateful, but rather that racism is blind to the skin colour of the person who is prejudiced against his fellow humans.
I admit, I crack racist jokes about Jews and Nazis and Turkish, I laugh about Ethiopians and stereotypical white-black jokes. Never though will I intentionally discriminate against a person based on their skin colour. There are stupid people and intelligent people everywhere, regardless of age, sex, skin tone and class. Just because you drive a Porsche does not make you a decent person. Just because you are black does not make you more African than coloured or white people born on the same soil.
This makes me angry, because I cannot understand how the proportion of bad people; of egotistical megalomaniacs; of selfish, self-centred suits and of criminals and killers can outweigh morally good people. How can the hard working, the poor, the ethical population of South Africa not be in more power than their corrupt counterparts?
Let us drop titles for the purpose of a necessary exchange. So let us forget for now that I am a Cabinet Minister and that you are a Director-General equivalent, in the same government. I want to address you simply as a compatriot South African.
I want to draw to your attention the fact that your statements about "an over-concentration of coloureds" are against the letter and spirit of the South African Constitution, as well being against the values espoused by the Black Management Forum since its inception.
That you were a Director-General of the Department of Labour, as well as the President of the BMF at the time when you made these statements is quite a mystery.
It is a mystery because I must assume that you were elected as President of the BMF, without any familiarity with the history and constitution of that organisation; and that you were appointed as Director-General of the Department of Labour, without any familiarity with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa or the legislation administered by the Department itself.
I observe from a GCIS press release that Mr Vusi Mona issues in his own name, you apologise for the statement because "some people may have taken offence". This continued negative behaviour merely serves to confirm the values that you hold, or more precisely, lack thereof. Firstly, why Mr Mona had to issue a statement is beyond comprehension since you distinctly did not utter those racist sentiments as an official of the GCIS.
Secondly, that you lack the moral conviction to publicly apologise says so much about your acute lack of judgement. Thirdly, the statement apologises only for the fact that "some people may have taken offence" says to me that you clearly fail to appreciate the extent to which your utterances are both unconstitutional and morally reprehensible.
These "things", (as the ANC statement says that your utterances reduce people to being mere commodities) in your view, "the coloureds who are over-concentrated in the Western Cape", are the sons and daughters of those who waged the first anti-colonial battles against the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British when they set foot on our shores. These "things", which so irritate you, include many who made huge sacrifices in the struggle against apartheid, at a time when people with views like Jimmy Manyi were conspicuous by their absence from the misery of exile, the battles at the barricades and from apartheid's jails. By the way, what did YOU do in the war, Jimmy?
I want to put it to you that these statements would make you a racist in the mould of H F Verwoerd. I want to put it to you that you have the same mind that operated under apartheid, never merely satisfied with inflicting the hurt of forced removals and the group areas act, would encamp language groups so that horrible aberrations, such as Soshanguve, were created to accommodate "non-Tswanas" in their own little encampments in greater Mabopane. Mr Manyi, you may be black, or perhaps you aren't, because you do not accept that label and would prefer to be "only a Xhosa", whatever the label you choose, I want to put it to you that your behaviour is of the worst-order racist.
I refer to you in this way because for those of us who found our way into the struggle through the Black Consciousness Movement have always understood the origin of the Black Management Forum, as we have understood and supported the ANC documents that speak of "blacks in general, and Africans, in particular." Regrettably, in your understanding the term "Black" has quite a different meaning.
As a consequence of your behaviour, people like me - in the ANC and in government, are being asked to explain what was in the mind of the drafters of the amendments to the Employment Equity Act. We were present at the point of the debate of the first Employment Equity Bill; we expressed a complete comfort with the assignment of 'designated groups' to include “black people” which means "Africans, Coloureds and Indians" because it served as a representation of our constitutionality and as the fruits of our struggle.
When in your capacity as Chairperson of the Employment Equity Commission you made strange utterances that sought to carve away at the basic premise of the Employment Equity Act, we should have been more vigilant. The just and constitutionally obligated provisions for redress are not and can never be an excuse to perpetuate racism.
Now, in the light of the utterances you have made at a time when you were the DG of the Department of Labour, and given the fact that the amendments to the Employment Equity Act were drafted during your tenure, I have a sense that your racism has infiltrated the highest echelons of government. Count me among those who, in spite of my position, will ensure that parliament acts in the letter and spirit of our constitution when it adopts amendments to the Act.
I have never waged any battle from the premise of an epithet that apartheid sought to attach to me but I will do battle against the harm you seek to inflict. When I do so, it is not as a coloured but as a non-racist determined to ensure that our great movement and our Constitution are not diluted through the actions of racists like you.
I have been prepared to sacrifice before for the cause of the kind of society articulated in the Freedom Charter. It is not a cause that has ended. I have simply not been called upon to make the same kind of sacrifices since 1990. I must declare my willingness to make sacrifices now in deference to the opening lines of the Freedom Charter that boldly declare that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it".
I now know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and that he had fought against black domination. Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you.
Yours sincerely,
Trevor A Manuel
see original article here
Finally someone acknowledges that it is not only white/black racism that dominates the minds of the ignorant and hateful, but rather that racism is blind to the skin colour of the person who is prejudiced against his fellow humans.
I admit, I crack racist jokes about Jews and Nazis and Turkish, I laugh about Ethiopians and stereotypical white-black jokes. Never though will I intentionally discriminate against a person based on their skin colour. There are stupid people and intelligent people everywhere, regardless of age, sex, skin tone and class. Just because you drive a Porsche does not make you a decent person. Just because you are black does not make you more African than coloured or white people born on the same soil.
This makes me angry, because I cannot understand how the proportion of bad people; of egotistical megalomaniacs; of selfish, self-centred suits and of criminals and killers can outweigh morally good people. How can the hard working, the poor, the ethical population of South Africa not be in more power than their corrupt counterparts?
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