ANC's 100th birthday
7/1/12 21:29![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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telemann for pointing me at the feature at the TIME magazine in regards to ANC's centennial anniversary:
"The ANC blames apartheid's legacy and, as party spokesman Keith Khoza describes it, "the reluctance of business to come to the party." But 17 years is almost a generation. The government's failure to transform South Africa from a country of black and white into a "rainbow nation," in Archbishop Desmond Tutu's phrase, means black poverty is still the key political issue. A second, related one, however, is the ANC's dramatic loss of moral authority. At 93, Mandela is still among the most admired people on earth. But his party has become synonymous with failure — and not coincidentally, arrogance, infighting and corruption. Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and, at 80, still the nation's moral conscience, encapsulated South African political debate last year when he came out of retirement to give two speeches. In the first he asked whites to pay a wealth tax in recognition of their persistent advantage. In the second he called the ANC "worse than the apartheid government."
I think the author speaks truth. Now, more than ever, John Pilger's documentary Apartheid Did Not Die, is valid and worth considering.
You know, when I was leaving NL on my way to my new life here in SA, my dad sent me with the words, "Remember: it took a generation to defeat white supremacy; if it'll take another one to defeat black totalitarianism, you should be ready to go for it". But that's only one half of the story. The other one is that this isn't the main struggle now. The enemy is poverty, and corruption, and the marginalization of vast chunks of society from social and economic life, and the HIV epidemic.
Old grudges and prejudices cannot be healed in such a climate. We have to address the real roots of the problem, not just fool ourselves around with doing short-term damage control of the symptoms. And that may take more than a generation. But ultimately, it's worth the effort. Because the alternative looks much bleaker.
telemann for pointing me at the feature at the TIME magazine in regards to ANC's centennial anniversary:"The ANC blames apartheid's legacy and, as party spokesman Keith Khoza describes it, "the reluctance of business to come to the party." But 17 years is almost a generation. The government's failure to transform South Africa from a country of black and white into a "rainbow nation," in Archbishop Desmond Tutu's phrase, means black poverty is still the key political issue. A second, related one, however, is the ANC's dramatic loss of moral authority. At 93, Mandela is still among the most admired people on earth. But his party has become synonymous with failure — and not coincidentally, arrogance, infighting and corruption. Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and, at 80, still the nation's moral conscience, encapsulated South African political debate last year when he came out of retirement to give two speeches. In the first he asked whites to pay a wealth tax in recognition of their persistent advantage. In the second he called the ANC "worse than the apartheid government."
I think the author speaks truth. Now, more than ever, John Pilger's documentary Apartheid Did Not Die, is valid and worth considering.
You know, when I was leaving NL on my way to my new life here in SA, my dad sent me with the words, "Remember: it took a generation to defeat white supremacy; if it'll take another one to defeat black totalitarianism, you should be ready to go for it". But that's only one half of the story. The other one is that this isn't the main struggle now. The enemy is poverty, and corruption, and the marginalization of vast chunks of society from social and economic life, and the HIV epidemic.
Old grudges and prejudices cannot be healed in such a climate. We have to address the real roots of the problem, not just fool ourselves around with doing short-term damage control of the symptoms. And that may take more than a generation. But ultimately, it's worth the effort. Because the alternative looks much bleaker.
(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 20:11 (UTC)You do what you can. If there are more people like that, this could actually work. Maybe not in your lifetime. But you'll have been part of it.
Spoken like someone who has spent most of his conscious life during the "Transition Period" as we call it here. I have no illusions that it'll end anytime soon. Because transition should happen in people's heads first, before becoming reality.
(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 20:12 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 20:49 (UTC)That said, my country does have some huge problems stemming far back in time and the solutions are not anywhere near in sight, and neither are they easy and simple.
What some guys in ANC are saying about the "lack of investments" is not exactly so. There has been huge investment, because some sectors of the economy (including tourism) offer huge profits. There has been both domestic and foreign investors flocking in. That's not the point. The point is that many of those corporations could've been much "better citizens", as opposed to merely taking their profit and contributing little beyond that to the society in the country where they're making their money. And that's where political activism should step in.
(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:18 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:21 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 20:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:07 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:12 (UTC)I know that democracy doesn't get born out of nothing, especially in a place which hasn't seen real democracy, ever. And neither does the 1:1 application of a foreign form of democracy work (just like it doesn't work in the Middle East, contrary to what some people might be hoping for). Every society has its specifics, and my position is that it has to reach its own unique "order" mostly by its own means, walking the whole road. Not having the new order served on a silver plate, because that's unsustainable.
(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:15 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 21:19 (UTC)Things have always been bound to get worse before getting better. SA may appear to be going too slowly along that road, it may be taking too many sidesteps and retreats, but have no doubt that it'll end up in a better place than it used to be 20 years ago. Either that, or it'll need another full overhaul, but rest assured it's not going down the gutter. And that's not just me trying to cheer you up - I can see it everywhere I look. Despite all the shit that's been going on during all these years.
You made the right thing when you opened that door in NL. Now keep walking.
(no subject)
Date: 7/1/12 22:09 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 8/1/12 15:54 (UTC)