It is a glorious summer morning in Istanbul; colours of the sky resemble a messy oil painting; both resplendent and melancholic in one go. After roaming around the ancient Roman road in Sultanahmet, Divanyalo Caddessi, searching for a cheap but tasty joint to have breakfast, I find myself standing outside a quaint pastry and fresh juice café observing a young man set freshly baked cheese pastry on a plate.
Sitting down and planning the day in a café that lies adjacent to the ancient Constantinople-Rome road, seemed a rather fair, albeit admittedly ostentatious thing to do.
Istanbul, touted for centuries as “the city” of cities, the grand juncture between East & West takes splendour to the spectacular; it is difficult to imagine a more extravagant ancient city.
I share a table with a well built, slightly tanned man in what appears his early fifties. He sports a moustache, shoulder length curly black and grey hair and is dressed in a dark blue NYPD t-shirt.
Except for the seemingly inconsistent t-shirt, he was really the Turkish version of He-Man, Rambo or even Hulk-Hogan; the WWE version of Atatürk.
Sure, both Rambo and He-Man never sported moustaches and Hulk-Hogan was blonde even when he turned grey, but you get the picture.
“I am from South Africa,” I introduce myself to him, easing into my seat.
“Oh! You’re a long way from home!” he replies with a strong American accent that suddenly seems to make sonorous the bodacious letters across his chest.
I agree since Durban is, well, some distance from Istanbul.
He takes a bite of his delicious looking pastry, nonchalantly glances at me and asks how South Africa was doing since “the Blacks took over”.
“They have fucked it up haven’t they?” he says with a straight face.
I almost choke on the ice-cold coke streaming down my throat.
No exchanging of names, no discussion of what we did outside pastry cafes, no shared vision on the long legs of the passing dame; no ice-breaker -this guy went straight for the jugular.
“They are all a bunch of monkeys,” he adds as he laps up another bite of his pastry.
I try not to react, but my face creases and my eyes squint unceremoniously as I try to literally stomach the comment.
“I see you don’t like what I say”, he says nonchalantly, crowding the meagre morsels with his bulky sinews.
I feel rage creep up my oesophagus and I vow never to sit next to a stranger and gulp ice cold coke on an empty stomach again.
A waiter comes over and delivers my simmering spinach and feta pastry.
“Look”, I attempt finally at He-Man sitting across me, “our new government has done some really childish things and things aren’t rosy, yes. But it is not as if they inherited a country in good shape you know”.
“But the country is not the same as it used to be; these niggers can’t do anything right”, he retorts.
The vulgarity of this bloke unashamed to throw racist expletives at a stranger with his mouth full; what did his mother teach him anyway?
As I pull out my bread knife to slice the pastry into little cubes, I see it morph into a silver plated machete; this could only mean war.
It was easy to remind a fellow South African back home that his/her racism was unwelcome; I could even throw the first punch and be touted a hero for fighting the cause.
But I don’t remember agreeing to face up to Master of the Universe. Certainly not in Istanbul at least. This was not on the memo.
I felt the trepidation knot itself around the ribs of my chest; seriously now, was this really the moment for that fight?
I decide to take a bite of my pastry to mull over my situation.
The cheese spreads slowly in my mouth, sending love to all parts of the solar system. For split seconds my bitter disposition is forgotten, then returned even drier.
Why couldn’t he have said that Cleopatra was a man or that Gandhi was really a homosexual Moslem or that Osama bin Laden was a recovering nymphomaniac.
That would’ve at least been a little entertaining.
This was just not funny; not in this century at least.
I could try address the racism and he would probably break my knee-caps and dunk me into the Bosphorus or I could be more productive and focus on correcting his misconstrued sense of history.
But how do I get him to reconsider his racist views; to deter him from equating poor governance with “blacks” without me tangibly addressing his racist remarks?
This guy obviously got a hard-on from his racist talk, and I refuse to consummate his racist sentiment by acknowledging it.
At the same time I really did not want to be overtly defensive about the South African government whom I had limited faith in myself, but for different reasons.
So while I might think our politicians were a bunch of wankers, this is only because it has yet to be proven otherwise. They remain a species of their own, a worldwide phenomenon.
Life is about timing and this was not the time to sound like a brownish-pink-faced liberal defending the natives, I decide.
“I don’t know what you know about South Africa”, I begin, “but it was not one country before 1994. With the dawn of our democracy, two totally different, unequal worlds became one complicated country” I argue.
“Also”, I continue politely, “the idea that South Africa was some thriving country before the new government took over is just wrong”
“But they have taken a beautiful country and messed it up!” he presses on.
I shake my head determined to chew my food slowly just how my mother taught me.
“If you really want to talk black and white, South Africa had a white face, with a black behind. The country that you saw thriving was the front-end of a farce, while it attempted to hide all its shitty politics, inequality and prejudice, along with everything else detergent couldn’t whiten in its backside”
He motions a retort; his mouth viscerally opens to advance his position, but I stop slicing my pastry and look him in the eye.
“Look, what I am trying to say is that the country was pretty fucked up already”
His mouth freezes brusquely and his eye brows rise as he stares at me with scepticism.
The man, it seemed, was not accustomed to back-talk.
“Oh”, he says after a sizeable, contemplative silence had permeated the air.
“So do you think there is hope for your country?”
“I am not sure. There were a bunch of politicians running a brutal system before, and now, after ‘freedom’, we have a new bunch of politicians…whether they care about the ordinary South African is up for debate. And so no, this has nothing to do with being black or white. This is just politics”
I really didn’t want to be pedantic about colour; I fail.
He continues to stare at me (albeit with his mouth now closed) and I order a fresh orange juice.
@ Billy Hill
You ommit to mention that when PW Botha was State President more than 20% of state expenditure was on Defence. That 20% was supposedly diverted into the RDP and you trumpet the 3% growth rate? (What happened to the balance? Is it now Joe Modise’s bank balance?)
Now, we have service delivery riots, xenophobia riots, more service delivery riots…
Mr Hill
You quote the growth figures from 1994 to 2006 as looking good, and in some way implying that it was down to the new Government I think. To an extent the “feel good” thing that happened after 1994 was responsible for a lot of “growth” with lots of outside investment looking for secure base to start working with the rest of the continent. I was part of it and saw it. The fact is the whole world started going on a mad credit fuelled spending spree at the same time and South Africa was no exception. The consequences of this blew up in 2008. South Africa will also pay the same price as the rest of the world’s economies for reckless spending. While your numbers may be correct your interpretation of them is not.
Another short observation of Mr Hill’s numbers.
Mr Hill the period you refer to prior to 1994 is important as well. You show that SA’s growth figures were miniscule and I would agree. The fact is that for many years South Africa’s government was fighting a series of wars against organisations and movements that were supported by a brutal Russian regime and under sanctions as well. Hardly fair to compare I think.
I do agree with your observations about Americans in general though!
LOL, julias has competition, in the looks, and mentality departments ….
You can window dress it all you want, the simple fact remains, the ANC is a black government. Until the ANC get rid of the racism in their organization, the polarization will remain, and it will always be seen as a “black government”, not a South African government. One day, in the far far distant future, when there is finally real integration, and a non racist government, then it will be a South African government, and no longer a “black government”. As much as we live in denial, the truth remains that deep down we all know this.
@me that is blatantly not true…most saffas abroad have nothing but praise and fond stories to tell to dumb lumps like he-man, but then it only takes one to f&*k it up!
Bare in mind that Some expats have also left for a reson, the raping of a dughter or a wife would be a pretty good reason if you asked me.
Reading this article, I cannot shake the feeling tha Azzad agrees with this man. In fact, I have a sneaky feeling that this encounter is made up. Azzad you want to express certain opinions about your government but you don’t have the guts to tell it like it is without creating a ventriloquist. Oh! gracious God, we are not fooled!
Even if this encounter did in fact take place (which I very much doubt) why would you think it warrants any mention here? Racist rant from an unknown man who is (not Turkish and not American) but actually Turkish and American. Heaven have mercy on you. We are not fooled.
In 1994 we had an Eskom that worked. We had hospitals and schools that worked. We had roads and airports that worked. We had Government and municipalities that worked, We had criminals that were caught and sent to jail in courts that were able to keep the law.
We had apartheid that did not work and that was despicable. All of this has been fixed and now we have nothing to look forward to but more degradation. What has this to do with Race??
It is all to do with incompetence and the blind leading the blind whilst they feather their own nests.
We did not develop the good things for the benefit of all – we destroyed a great country and have replaced it with an ever developing mess. As in Zimbabwe where Mugabe is proud to be “President’ of a pile of ashes so too this is what we look forward to. There is no substitute for ability and experience, and ability and experience has nothing to do with colour. Don’t keep blaming apartheid. In the destruction of apartheid every thing else has been destroyed too. How stupid can we be??
I think your comment does not just shows us about how people from outside perceive our country post apartheid, but even inside this country we still have people who relate our problems(in terms of gorvenance) along racial lines. Most of Our current misfortunes are due to the past atrocities done by the Apartheid Goverment who happened to be white. To just say white people are racist would be wrong, to say black people are incompetent would not be correct, however I concure with Mark Robertson who said politicians of all races are rotten!!
Right now this country, this beloved country, is heading straight down the Zimbabwe road. May God help us all!
I had exactly the same experience here in Canada, except that the exchange involved a highly-educated and well-travelled Asian gentleman. I was also taken aback for a few seconds, then realized that he was being completely honest and wasn’t trying to provoke a response. He’d experienced it firsthand and I realised he was actually delivering a very good summary of SA’s sitaution. Sometimes the truth hurts, eh ? But that doesn’t make it any less of a truth.
Having spent many years working in Turkey, the UK and the USA I have been subjected to differing view by individuals in all 3 countries.
There are not many Turks residing in SA therefore what is happening here is poorly reported and their general perception of Africa is that the whole continent is a shambles. Most Turks would not differentiate Kenya from Zimbabwe or Zimbabwe from SA.
Big city Americans have more savvy and are conscious of race, but rural Americans tend to be blind to anything much further afield than the state they reside in; most are simply not interested.
The Brits have to walk on eggshells with anything that is race related; trouble is heading your way if you talk out of turn. With a large amount of South Africans living in the UK, combined with millions of UK relatives living in SA, the Brits are quite clued up about SA and what is happening there. Generally they think that SA is going downhill at an alarming rate.
The view of one idiot who you meet in a restaurant in Istanbul means nothing in the global context of how SA is seen at present. He was nothing more than a racist bigot but how SA is seen by those who can have an effect, be it business or political clout is important.
I agree with Phillipa’s astute observations. This entire yarn is contrived to serve the purposes of venting the author’s hidden thoughts. I fail to see any other purpose for this disgraceful article based on hearsay and innuendo.
We do have freedom of speech in this country, and I’d have more respect for you if you had the courage to speak your mind instead of cowardly maligning the poor Turks and Americans as racist pigs.
People who aren’t perceived as white in the USA often try to compensate by being ‘more white than the whites’ through hating blacks – see e.g. Stan Goff’s Hideous Dream… Although how the hell people from Turkey can fail to be perceived as white mystifies me…
As to Paul S – wow, it’s blackness that makes RSA so violent, e.g. as in comparison with Botswana. Get a life. Of course, (east) Asian attempts to be more white than whites is little different from west Asian attempts at the same. Shamepies.
I am pleased most readers focussed on the issues around race, racism and the race-governance-politician continuum in commenting about this piece.
It is less gratifying, albeit predictable to see other readers attempt to sabotage the topic by diverting the themes to their (own) selfish ends.
Perception is reality.
Mike on November 12th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Sorry Mike. That shitty expression is being peddled everywhere. What Asmal used to say as I recall is :’The perception is as important as the reality.’Which is more likely to be true.
The perception was that there were WMD’s in Iraq. The reality is that there weren’t. Now go figure out your own exmples and stop others from repeating such a bullshit meme. Ta.
It’s difficult to know what to say about Phillipa Lipinsky; she is so filled with hatred. Is there no way her rants can be prohibited from the mg site?
The yardstick is – In world rankings where did we advance or retreat in the past 15 years ??
Is there somone that can list our ranking 1994 and now.
The challenge is to improve not to move backwards.