Comments on: Lessons from India

By: Derrick

Derrick — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:33:22 +0000

MLH – why don’t you hire some Afrikaners to work like dogs on your farm?

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:26:20 +0000

This is a romanticized view of India that ignores the brutality of the caste system, the disastrous environmental conditions, and the horrible treatment of women. Somewhere like Denmark is more sustainable and civilized by far. Spirituality means little if people are hungry, poor, oppressed, living under stone age societal structures, and destroying their environment.

By: Robyn

Robyn — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:09:27 +0000

I find myself suddenly fascinated with the power that writers have, enticing the idea of traveling to India has for me now after reading of your experience. I hope that I may be able to capture my stories in the same way that you have.

By: MLH

MLH — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:18:15 +0000

Not to trivialise our own revolution, but I believe that not enough of us saw enough blood and gore, starved enough or suffered enough, to make a firm impression; some still hanker after it as a justified form of self-expression.
This; here and now, is our ongoing revolution.
I remember the faces of people whose friends and relatives were thrown from trains in the late 80s. Their fear was not of white people, but of their fellow black people. This was something that got to them, in no uncertain terms.
A young lass who used to work for me felt and looked the same about ongoing taxi shootings in her neighbourhood.
Unless we have all touched it and felt it, it will not go away.
Take the trouble in De Doorns. We are told it’s not Xenophobic, but a labour issue. The Zimbabweans are paid the same as South Africans. They are here legally, we are told.
I recently had a company working on my property that had hired two Zimbabweans. My hardworking gardener worked with them for a couple of weekends. His opinion? The Zimbabweans, one by trade a chef and the other a science teacher, laboured (moving soil) like DOGS! All day, every day! Were I a De Doorns farmer, I know exactly who I’d be hiring for my money…

By: Fergie

Fergie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:54:24 +0000

The author didn’t tell you that for a long time that India has practiced a caste system that people are born a certain way and should be happy. After death that person will come back in a higher order of life in the form of reincarnation. Also, he should have pointed out that people are murdered everyday and their organs taken and sold on the black market.

By: Dave Harris

Dave Harris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Ryland, I’m glad you enjoyed your brief trip to India.
Like toejam comments, I too find your statement below, somewhat interesting:
“…I realised that I never felt threatened by anyone, despite all the poverty. And yet, in South Africa, some of us blame the high levels of crime on poverty. There must be another reason for all the crime and violence in South Africa, I found myself thinking.”

Hmmm…
Could it be that we continue to ignore the elephant in the room – the ill-gotten gains of the beneficiaries of centuries of white AA in stark contrast to poverty still borne by the majority of SAn blacks. Supposing the rich in India acquired their wealth through discriminatory laws, do you think it they would still live peacefully side by side?
Could it be the the nature of the oppression experienced by the Indians was different from the oppressions of SAn blacks at the hands of the apartheid regime? How does the nature of the brutality differ in both our histories of oppression? Could this explain why we have a higher tolerance for abnormal violence in SA?
Could it be that the nature of the healing process of Indians liberated from British oppression, is vastly different from what SAns have to cope with even today on a daily basis in the new SA? White supremacy is still pervasive in our society – the DA and their policies are living proof of this.

By: Lobengula

Lobengula — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:10:17 +0000

@ John Carlisle

“But first the learner must want to learn.”

Alas John, there’s the rub…How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb…

Answer: Only one…but the light bulb has to really want to change!

By: Magnus

Magnus — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:34:31 +0000

I’m sure your personal experience of India was life-altering, as was mine. But this blog paints a romanticised one-dimensional image of India. When you visit a place as a tourist (in this case a spiritual tourist) you see what you want to see. India is full of complexities: hope and ignorance, beauty and violance, charm and brutality – much like South Africa.

If you look a little further than the romanticised spiritual India you will find a severely oppressive caste system (yes still today), religious intolerance (Hindu extremism) and mob violence (Bombay riots), terrorism (train bombings), state violence (Kashmir).

If you go to India and read local newspapers you will see what I am talking about. And please do consider the fact that being a foreigner (with money) in India means being treated very differently to other Indian locals.

By: Rory Short

Rory Short — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:20:12 +0000

@toejam I would phrase it differently, our problem as a collective is a complete lack of profound respect for individual life whatever its form and that includes ourselves.

Thus the place to start is in developing respect for ourselves as the fragile but magical life forms that we are. This requires that we devote time to contemplating what we consider to be what we and our fellows are right now as well as the potentials that lie hidden within each one of us.

By: toejam

toejam — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:05:05 +0000

Only when we have categorically documented the “other reason” for crime and violence in SA, can we start the discussion of real and effective action to dissolve the underlying causes of the extreme violence, greed and cold disregard for life we experience here.

Cries of “bring back the death penalty” or “they are animals and deserve to be shot” bring absolutely nothing positive to the table.

I’d like to make the first suggestion – to me the most obvious condition – the root cause of any unpleasant experience, reaction or situation:

1. The lack or absence of love