Blacks love their white people, even if they are racist.
Many of them are.
We blacks have even coined a term of endearment for them: abelungu bethu, which simply means our superior white people.
You see, when you are black and have the confidence and courage to look a white person in the eye, you recognise their humanity and see them as nothing more than simple, ordinary folk who are your equals.
They are not better or superior because of their skin colour. Thus something in you changes.
I, for one, love white people who are comfortable in their own skins and what it represents in terms of our history.
There are still many white people who are in denial about what “white” means — its benefits and consequences — and especially their deep-seated guilt complex.
They will tell you that they did not benefit from dispossession of land, monopoly of wealth, control of the economy and the perpetuation of economic inequality and exploitation.
This we know to be a blatant lie. They know it, too.
I have watched many white people following contributions to Thought Leader explode into anger and frustration when anyone touched on taboo subjects such as white racism, dispossession of the land, economic control and racial inequality.
Many became irrational and condemn the articulation of this problem as the rantings of a black racist.
Even in day-to-day encounters, whites generally avoid eye contact with a black person when we discuss the issue of colonialism, apartheid and what their role was in opposing it, if at all. They will duck and dive or just tell you to shut up because it has nothing to do with them. It belongs to the past.
But some of us love white people who are willing to confess the sins of their ancestors and how these have come home to roost.
These are white people who have matured enough to accept that which can neither be wished nor washed away. It is a history of racist exploitation and oppression that is still with us today. This always comes with self-conscious collective guilt.
This experience has been shared by other black people.
There is something in the acknowledgement, the recognition, the confession and admission of white guilt that washes over your whole body and makes you breathe a sigh of relief.
There is instant forgiveness, an openness of the human spirit, a deep intuitive connection when this happens.
Of course, not all white people, for instance, own large wine farms with black slaves in 2008. Not all white people are CEOs who earn more than R50-million a year for being executive of big, white corporations that are trekking into deeper into Africa for more profits.
Whites are not some homogeneous group who do everything the same way.
In fact, white racist exploiters and oppressors do not exist in the new South Africa. They were wiped off the land with the signing of the 1996 Constitution.
This whole political thing about white racism, land dispossession, economic control and perpetuating inequality is just a remnant of colonialism and apartheid. It is a label to describe a particular white group that may not have changed since 1652.
But many white people do believe in upholding, promoting and preserving the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.
They will, sometimes, glare at you if you are black with a look that radiates superiority, hatred or contempt. You are just another invisible “kaffir”, a thing without any dignity or respect that deserves to be trampled upon, reduced to a pair of hands.
But, of course, there are other whites who are nice. They would not jump out of a swimming pool or move out of a neighbourhood because “it is becoming too black”. These are the sort of whites who allow the black maid to use their cutlery and eat with the family at dinner time, for instance. They even allow the boyfriend to sleep over during weekends.
Or there are some whites who spend their weekends teaching black children mathematics at a squatter camp. They will collect some left-overs, meant for the dustbin, to feed the poor piccaninnies who go to Saturday classes hungry because their parents drank their meagre wages.
These are the nice white people that blacks call abelungu bethu. In fact, their workers speak about them with pride, warmth and love in their segregated, poor and squalid communities.
These are the nice whites who are considerate and understand that colonialism and apartheid were wrong. They continue to benefit from its consequences simply because they are white.
In fact, they do not like blacks who are aware of the historical facts or discuss sensitive issues that threaten to divide us. These are the whites who do not want to rock the status quo because it will just spoil the rainbow-nation “miracle”.
You see, the thing about colonialism is that it is dead and gone.
Well, the other thing is that apartheid was the white law, unjust as it was. People, especially whites, would be sent to prison for challenging authority and betraying their race.
However, these nice white people always sided with the black people. They would be the ones in leadership positions of black organisations, telling blacks how to deal with the effects of colonialism and apartheid.
And black people admired them and respected them for their humanity.
I am one of those blacks who connect with white people who have overcome the past and fear of black people, especially black racists.
You feel that they are part of something new, have transformed and have broken with the past. They are fellow patriots.
We are holding hands and ready to nurture a new spirit of nation-building.
This is what brings us to accept our common bond as people of the same new nation.
There is some mysterious Madiba magic in being able to open your heart to forget the dreadful consequences of almost 400 years of brutal dehumanisation to melt away just like that.
It is a myth that all white people were responsible for racism, dispossession of the land, economic injustice and institutionalisation of racial inequality. Oh no, not all whites are responsible for exploitation and oppression.
We sometimes make the mistake of generalisation that white people alone were responsible for slavery, colonialism and apartheid. This is ridiculous.
There were always some black cohorts who collaborated with them. These black people continue to exist and do not hesitate to perpetuate the silly notion that blacks were born to serve white people.
Nevertheless, it is time that white people got back their groove.
They should regain their confidence to look black people in the eye and tell them: “I am sorry, my friend, but can we move on now because apartheid is dead and gone. You blacks are now in power.”
After all, what is done is done and cannot be undone. All we can do, hopefully, is to learn from the past. History repeats itself because …
White people need to assert their right to participate in this democracy and be regarded as fellow citizens. They can complain about the power failures, for instance.
In fact, they will only be accepted as such when they claim their right to be.
It begins with the Madiba magic to look someone straight in the eye.
J Napo Mokoetle
Dear Sir
Were you subjected to some sort of Pavlov’s experiment that you keep on repeating the same
nonsense over and over again.
Have you really been brainwashed to such extent that you believe the ANC propoganda, which now wants us to thank them for the speedy interference
in the Escom crisis?
Under the ANC Escom assets have been neglected
and have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that we now face a serious crisis with
disatrous economic consequences.
Me think you should rethink the thinking process,
because you can no longer trust the truth in which
you have put your trust.
them
Hehehe!!! Baas Jon, Consulting Eng…cool down. You folks must be on some cheap drug!
Much of what you see today here on Earth, was first an imagination, an idea, a dream. It didn’t just fizzle into “reality”. Nature just doesn’t work that way folks. “Imagination” has the upper hand to knowledge fellows, for only in imagination lies the seeds for manifesting reality.
I thought it was just the truth your crew can’t handle, it’s clear facts elude you too!
There is just no way you can be capable of ‘loving’ anyone when you lack love for yourself Consulting Eng. Your claiming you love your family and “your people”, is like one stating they’re getting heat from a block of ice at zero kelvin! Being it that you’re choking in your own vomit, I’m not surprised you don’t realize that (or are in your habitual state of denial) your ignorant generalizations about race reflect the confused state of being going on within yourselves. Your daily scribbling on this and other blogs only serve to give away the conflict buried beneath your lightly pigmented skin. You’re at war with yourself and it’s frustrating the hell out of your souls. You are driven by memory (hence your doing to your children and families what your fathers did to you) rather than engaging in active creative thought hence all you can spit is your forefathers dead superficial philosophies about race.
“Self-determination” is not for you lost souls who feel they can drive our nation backwards to fulfil your mindless ends. So ‘cool down’ before you go about referencing chapters from the constitution in the hope of supporting your old pathetic ideologies about race. You’ll enjoy self-determination as soon as you ‘determine-yourselves’.
It is apparent that your crew Consulting Eng. argues merely to “win”, and perhaps fuel your hatred of others who by natures way don’t match your skin pigmentation. On the contrary, I and many other sober souls argue and discuss to learn and teach knowledge calculated to positively benefit the human species here in our beloved country South Africa, and beyond.
You can carry on groping in darkness and looking for more of it from other like souls to support your doom fulfilling prophecies, or opt to wise up and pick up the torch and spread the light. God willing, you will in time make the right choice.
I think I’ve written enough to ‘cool down’ your inner fires in times of need as they now-n-then flame out of hand. So whenever you feel the blaze is too great for your souls to bear, feel free to re-visit my scribblings on this blog for a fix.
And hey, quit the cliches…be original for once!
Blessings People Of The South.
I’m out.
Baas Jon, Cool down, eagle, JP and others of ‘the crew’
You also groping in darkness? Guess you were also load shedded.
I heard another once said ‘ i have a dream….’ Till they caught him involved in all sorts of sin and illegalities. They all seem to have dreams, just no implementation.
Speaking of fires and blazes, guess a braai would be lekker with such a group of fine intelligent gentlemen!
@ Engineer
“Before the BEE contractors were appointed, the previous company had no problem with the roads or rates…”
How do you know this? It didn’t say so in the programme transcript… we don’t even know what the previous contractors were paid. And petrol has gone up a lot lately too so that might have been a factor, who knows. Unless you have information the program didn’t tell us. I really don’t think the program showed that BEE was the problem. I think you can only arrive at that conclusion if you throw in a whole lot of assumptions, which isn’t fair.
I thought about what you were saying about “first look after your own family” this morning.
First, maybe I should say that there is no way I could have afforded to study at university without financial aid and I’ve been on bursaries since my first year. I’m still on financial aid now.
I’m not quite sure what to say about “poor whites.” I pondered this morning if I should somehow feel more sympathy for and solidarity with poor white people. Hmmm when I think about it, I feel most sympathy for and desire to help poor people I come into contact with, people from my town and my community. And a large number of those people are black. And I think thats ok. My family is first of all my natural family, and my close friends. And then its the people in my community, who I walk past in the streets and stand in queues with in the shops. Some black, some white, some coloured, indian, whatever…
I think that there are bonds of maybe culture and history with people from the same racial group as me. But I don’t think those bonds are strong enough to automatically put all white people high up on the “family” list.
More could be said of course, but I’m trying not to make this comment too long!
@Laura
Beacuse I drilled on some of the strategic coal reserve stockpiles to get samples to check leachate. All the contractors that delivered coal were then white and the stock piles were huge. Now The piles are gone and the contractors are Black.
Ergo… the conclusion is…. since the Black contractors took cover, many go bust due to poor cash flow management, and ESKOM has no coal. Why were unsuitable contractors appointed? BEE procurement policy.
I feel a kinship with other whites. Watching them retrenched due to the colour of their skin, their children being denied jobs due to their whiteness etc.
Think back to what your ancestors went through to get you here. They were united as a people. Not all whites are your blood family in the traditional sense. Obviously family comes first. When you say you are Afrikaans, Scottish, english etc you are expressing a racial pride or affiliation based on origin. This is extended. When you travel you will naturally tend to associate with other white south africans, afrikaans or english. In africa other whites no matter what nation etc.It is natural. They are your extended family. You will help each other overseas and bond. If you emigrate other white saffers will help you. Therefore there is a loyalty to your people. Why not help them here? Whites survived as they always helped each other. In SA English and Afrikaans, we face the same threats and must stand together. Why not? Blacks did it.
To not assist your fellow whites means as a group we go under. Our people are under siege by declining birth rates, crime and race mixing. If no one cares whites will disappear. In europe already whites are below replacement level.
I do not know you, but if I see you on the road in need of help I will help you as we are one people. Its about time we stand as one.
@Laura
Something else to contemplate. The future and affinity for your own kind.
We will use my son as an example. He has Blonde hair and green eyes, disciplined in a germanic way. They like traditional european folk music etc. Its in their blood. Typical characteristics.
Let us say, God Forbid, he marries a Black over my dead body. His offspring will never have these traits again. Nor their descendants. Gone forever.
Let us say 100 000 years of his ancestors had those traits. In one foolish choice he has destroyed all that and all the history of his ancestors is gone. Sacrificed on the alter of Liberalism.
In the same way, if his ‘wife’ is Zulu, the kids will never be Zulu.
They will be Coloured and have a totally different culture, unique to Coloured people. They will feel no affinity to their european/english/afrikaans origin. There will also be less white children from which your children will be able to select a husband/wife.
It is damaging to both cultures.
The choices you make have implications far beyond yourself. So be proud of your people sister. Think of our history as a unique people.
J Napo Mokoetle
Good heavens,where were you schooled,your vivid
imagination allows you to put so much trash
together,that you’re unable even to grasp the
most basic concepts.
I am asking myself why I bother even to reply
and shudder to think that South Africa must be
left in the hands of a person like yourself.
Look at your opening statement,imagination and dreams are worth nothing if they are not based on
solid foundation of education in which the basic
knowledge required to fire your imagination and
dreams are taught.
Your lack of grasping the basic of the economic disaster that is taking place right under your
nose is astounding.
It is clear that all the knowledge you’re referring
and you confess to possess and in your wisdom have
departed with was not enough to keep even one
power station going.
I now do understand that with your fashion it
is easy to destroy even the most robust economy.
The ancient people build on top of destroyed cities,please inform me when you’re ready to do the
same or is there still too much standing to your
liking.
I do not need to find myself,thank you sir,before
you were even a twinkle in your eye I was quite
capable of managing the financial and Administrative Affairs of a an engineering department employing close to 1500 people and engaged in all aspects of Engineering,from Roads.sewers,water,water disposal works,draughtmen
to artisans,from planners to inspectors, clerks to
typists,controlling multi-million Rand projects,
served on a number of committees during the transition period,so unlike you my friend I do know a little of what I am talking about.
I merely referred you to certain provisions in the
constitution to illustrate that not everthing
contained therein comes to fruition and if the ruling party has no desire to implement certain
provision it is like talking to a rock and that
is precisely the impression you are leaving me with.
@ Mokoetle
If Dreams and imagination are more important than reality then I have ocean front property for you in Zimbabwe.
All you need is some dreams and a positive attitude and you can turn it into reality and retire by the sea.
@cool down
I can imagine what an englishman felt like in 1948. Much like whites in 1994: This country will go to ruin, those racist uneducated Afrikaners in charge etc etc. By 1962 they would be suprised to see SA as one of the power houses of the world: 1st world infrastructure, safe, strong currency and economy etc. They would have to admit the new government succeeded.
Now in 2008 we are still offered only dreams and spin. Give us another 300 yrs in power etc.. paradise is coming. Dreams are appropriate while we sit in darkness. We have crime, infratsurcture decay, 30% of the top structure are convicted felons. And worse is still to come.
Get on board the Titanic people. Life jackets and life boats not required. The ship is unsinkable. At least the Titanic went down with the lights on.
J Napo Moektle
I have one final question to which I would like
you to apply your self confessed superior insight,
taking all the atrocities colonial powers have
inflicted on all the indigenous people of South Africa, in to account how the population of an estimated 1.3m in 1868 still managed to grow to an estimated 48m in 2008.
I am sincerely looking forward to your usually well founded explanation, if you please,sir.
@Mokoetle.. You’ve been “out” for longer than you imagine.
I find it amazing how easily we want to display the apartheid era’s “1st world infrastructure, safe, strong currency and economy etc” forgetting the fact that these gizmos only benefited a very small persentage of the SA population while most South Africans were forced to live in very squalored conditions deprived of the basics of life.
Cool down,
The answer to your question. “That is the miracle for which we thank the almighty. So much against us were the odds. Nobody has an answer to that question, only god knows.”
AK
I think that somehow the arrival of western medicine,doctors and hospitals also played a role.
You see the Almighty did not create us as passive
beings,like little birds waiting to be fed by their parents,but as active beings engaged in the
betterment of mankind and not seeking its destruction.
So a word of thank you to God that eventually
the fruits of modern medicine arrived
in South Africa,I reckon would not be out of place.
@ Cool down…crew
I would have thought the answer to the question you asked me is obvious for your smart kind.
Answer:
If dinosaurs once ruled the world, just how did they become extinct? Ok Ok Ok!!! Before you scratch your skull to oblivion…Let me help you out.
My friend, survival is not guaranteed by one’s physical might and evil intent, it’s guaranteed by a strong sense of character and goodwill. It may not seem that way in the short-term (especially to weaklings), but it is simply that way in the long-run. We are living example to that fact. With Mandela being the epitome…A living embodiment of that timeless truth about life.
@ Consulting Engineer
Thanks for the ocean front property. I’m truly enjoying it…Hehehe!!! I see you learn fast boet. Take it easy though, don’t rush, let the lessons settle into your mind for they’re at this point foreign to you by your own admission.
Odd how you super men can blow your horns on being superior beings, and yet be so uncomfortable in your own skin! Ironic ain’t it!!! The very thing you claim exalts you above others, brings fear in your soul. Torments you!
It’s not too late “crew”, you too can change for the better. You too can make a positive difference towards your life and that of those the Most High affords you an opportunity to interact with in his creation. You need only work on your mindset and beliefs, the rest will follow.
Unlike you, the laws of nature don’t discriminate. They don’t care who you are, where you come from, what skin pigmentation chance provided you. As long as you understand and work with them, they’ll reward you in wonderful ways. And if you work against them, you will be rewarded accordingly just the same! Call it the miracle of nature.
“You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. Maybe some day you will join us. And the world will be as one…” – J. Lennon
Being kind and caring to humanity at large without regard to how one reflects light relative to the other, means no loss of individuality. For we’re more than we can see.
Yeah, it is easy if you try.
In truth I trust.
@Napo
You are back old friend
How did you know I am unfortable in my skin? You see I had a potjie at home this weekend and lay out in the sun by the pool for too long, so am I bit burnt. Its the problem with white skin, but I am glad I have it. Thank you for your concern about my discomfort. So you see Nature discriminates based on skin colour.
By the way, it was not chance that gives me my pigment. You see at some stage in the past my ancestors and their kind could not tolerate what was going on (probably some pre-historic crime spree or AA programme of your ancestors)and emigrated to Europe. Subsequently my ancestors chose to selectively breed with other whites, a process I plan to continue, as do my children, to perpetuate our people.
I know how much you want to mix with us, and I can see why. But I am sorry. Our generosity extended to handing over control of the nation to your people, and in return they chose to make a mess of it. Handing over our genetic material is just asking too much, don’t you think?
I do not like John Lennon nor that degenerate genre of music called rock or pop that idolises drugs, race mixing, infidelity, loose living, and clothing best worn on street corners. I prefer Afrikaans music, german soldatenleider und volskleider, marches and classical. Good european music. If you tune in to Radio Pretoria you will hear some. Better for the soul than that drug addict Lennon. Why would we pay attention to words coming from a drug addled brain?
Cool Down,
Um tired, have been educating the likes of you. i do need a break. But kindly note that we have spent many many thousands of year before the arrival of White people. I am sure you must have had that many people of koisan ethnicity died of imported TB.
You know that no man would leave his father land and go to the unknown. there must be something pretty bad in your own country to take a raft and throw yourself into the sea, turn your back to your kith and kin.
You are talking rubbish my man, you actually contribute a lot to lowering the standard of the debate that goes on here.
and when the fruits of racism dangle so gloriously from your watered three, you will right a public letter to Thabo, complaining about his allowing black people to kill the poor whites.
My man, let not your racism be so pervasive as to rob you of a chance of seeing the beauty of the sky above.You are actually helping those Africans who are beginning to think they are White to see South Africa for what it is. You embarrass us as far awy as the corners of the world. And people simply wonder, what kind of animals some White South African are. And e simply say; you see
@Consulting Eng and crew…
Yeah I’m back…by popular demand…Hehehe! Black by God’s will. And proud by my own conviction.
Dude! That your parents conceived a child may not be that much of a chance depending on their sexual appetite and maturity. That your soul was given the body they conceived is pure chance. Swallow that boet!
That you charred your skin in the sun proves nothing about nature’s discriminative sense. If I had a potjie with you by your pool nature would have subjected me to the same forces. It’s not the sun, it’s your skin’s reaction that makes the difference.
The paranoia you spread with your scribblings is all based on your discomfort with your own skin. You lack innovative thinking, all you keep endlessly repeating is what your forefather’s preached that led to your current dilemma (I pity your family…It is unfortunate that they’ve to be subjected to your ill-motivated thinking on a daily basis!) and many of the problems we have to work on overcoming. You utterances make it obvious that you’re uncomfortable about the perceived misfortunes your pigmentation seems to bring your kind. Mind you, every time I state “your kind”, I’m not talking about white folks in general, I’m talking about those people who abuse thought energy as you do.
Perhaps some prehistoric crime spree in Europe caused your forefathers to emigrate to Africa! In any case, who cares!!! South Africa is what it is today due to a great deal of past factors that need not hinder our progress in making the country a success for ALL who live in it irrespective of their race, gender, creed or social standing.
And again, who cares whether you like John Lennon or not…Or what kind music you prefer? Not me for sure. What I care about is that you go out there and apply yourself positively to help South Africa prosper and stop moaning. What I care about is that you find ways to escape your dull thinking brought about by years of conditioning by your forefathers and start to experience freedom from your self-imposed inner shackles.
Your genes my “old” friend, are good for nothing worthwhile in their current state. Listen to your thoughts, you’ll catch my drift. Nobody in their rightful state of mind would wish to taint their gene with your kind. So step off that castle in the air I say! Nobody is asking you to mix with anyone, at the I’m not asking you to do that. I’m just merely saying that you should provide mutual respect. When you commit to preserving your culture, do it in such a way that you don’t unnecessarily alienate others, in a way that doesn’t undermine the existance of others who are not in your circle.
Let not your ego rule your thinking, allow your spirit to take over. You ego keeps you trapped into “thinking” what you’ve seen and see is all there is. Help yourself to change for the better by allowing the spirit to have the upper hand in sourcing and managing your thoughts. As you change the way you think, the world around you will change accordingly. That is as definite as the rising of the sun.
The past is gone, the future is not here. The only reality is this moment, make the best of it by being kind to your fellow beings. Adopt an all encompassing positive attitude every moment in all you get involved in, and you’ll get to do less and accomplish more. Afford mutual respect to others and you’ll gain power.
In truth I trust.
@Napo
I am glad to hear you call yourself Proud and Black. That means you are happy in your skin, as I am in mine! So why is it if I am proud it is a problem for you and i must be uncomfortable?
Your potjie analogy is unlikely to happen. But if you in
If you don’t like Lennon, why do you quote him to me? Undisciplined drug addicts are not people I turn to for life advice.
My genes cannot be altered by any education. They are high demand and I have children and other women have wanted children with me. You see they are successful and my kids always get called very attractive. It is the beauty of our race. If it is envy, hatred, a desire to disrupt us or whatever that makes you promote multi-cult it won’t work.
I cannot see how my views can undermine your culture, unless you are so unsure that my views can make you change yourself.
I am always kind to my fellow beings, hence both Black and White come to me for help. Now tell me why Blacks come to a ‘racist’ for help and don’t go to the liberal next to me? Is it because they want abuse or that they know that the ‘racists’ have good hearts and are not patronising? Nor do we want to change them.
@ Consulting Engineer.
At least you have a good sense of humor it seems. Keep it up.
@Napo
I have a great sense of humour and everyone around me always laughs. Its a bit off colour and of the type commonly called Black Humour he he! Even Blacks laugh around me.
Do not jump for joy. I did not get it from a previous race mixing ancestor. ha ha! Now repeat after me my friend: ‘White Pride!”
It seems your people have a sense of humour as well. It is only the white PC liberal that is lacking this trait. Maybe they are ashamed of their race or something and are full of self hate.
AK needs a break. Good, try a Kit-Kat, helps
to sooth your already strained nerves. Recommended
for J Napo.M as well, it must be tiring to exercise
the grey matter to emerge with some new evidence
instead of the old fashioned cliche.
Mark my words the State President’s speech will
include phrases like ‘ the remarkable progress
we have made since apartheid’ and some vague
reference that we have problems and acknowledgements of their mistakes will also be
included.
Now need to upset the nation by telling them the
truth, because any good plitician has the inborn
ability to send you to hell in such a convincing
manner that you actually look forward to the trip.
This reminds me much of an earlier incident.
One chap used to follow a wellknown politician
from meeting to meeting.
It is a known fact that politicians amend their speeches to suit their audiences. Nobody wants to listen to bad luck stories,not good for the morale.
So during question time this chap got up and said
‘ Exuse me Sir, that is not what you told us,last night.Are you lying? The politician replied ‘ No sir, I am not, I lied last night, but tonight I am
telling you the truth!!’
Thank god! I’ve been waiting for Memela to tell me I’m OK and nice all my life! What a relieve.
No, seriously, I’m disappointed to see that Consulting Engineer is a serious white supremacist. Sometimes before on Thoughtleader, I liked his input because we need that particular brand of conservative rasionality to have balanced debates. But I’m very disappointed to see the Nazi bullshit.
This is the problem with the right wing in South Africa. Conservative intellectuals have so much to offer, but unfortunately the right had been hijacked by jackasses for decades. What a pity.
Ali that is not a nice thing to say because a
jackass is a male donkey or wild ass,or it
is informal an insulting word for a stupid person,
I presume you refer to latter,if that is the case
is the left hijacked by idiot savants who in a
moment of inspired brilliance decided that in order
to get cleverer we all should go to bed earlier?
Cool Down
I take your point. Absolutely. The left haven’t been covering themselves in glory whatsoever. But, somehow, I think the left is more tolerant of diverse opinion and I think it is generally accepted that no one opinion represents The Left. Patriotism, after all, is not a leftie idea.
With rightwing opinion in South Africa, it is somehow different. It has lost a lot of credibility because of past policies and absolutely idiotic positions. It is a pity.
@Ali
Perhaps you equate the right wing with the Boep en brandywyn brigade. Some of us are highly succesful, have good businesses and are well educated.
I even work internationally. And you?
Its the people who have to resort to name calling that are the real intellectually challenged. I have never insulted anyone. If you don’t agree with what I say, then prove me wrong. But I am proud of who I am. I am involved with the right wing all over the world: Croatia, USA, UK, Germany, Russia etc. They have one hell of a lot more brain power than these liberals spouting cliches. Try read Dr David Duke sometime, or a few other brilliant right wingers i can recommend.
Dont be trapped in your narrow mindedness.
oh man I was enjoying this article and the comments and then when I scrolled down I saw that old Consulting Engineer has landed here again… Dude, do you ever do any work!
@Brent
Yeah the blogs are kind of depressing but also very enlightening. I think this kind of dialogue is exactly what we all need though. Get it out there and hear what others have to say. Just wish we could rather do it down at the pub…
Sandile, I’m what you would describe as one of your ‘nice white people’ to my husband’s eternal embarrassment (he has no interest in politics).
My father, a civil engineer was murdered in his home in 2004. We had always argued he and I about SA politics. Me trying to teach him what I learnt at Rhodes University (I was the first white chick to invite a black man as my date to a ball in 1989 – poor guy got it from the Black Student Movement for that. They trashed his car. We didn’t know he was forbidden to attend). Anyway my father was a good old Nat party supporter through and through but he’d worked on the mines and spent a lifetime working with black people in the rural areas of South Africa building townships, laying pipes etc. And he was the one who told me when I was young that ‘This white skin of yours means nothing – things are going to change’. I just wanted to say that with his murder by four young black boys (I say boys because they didn’t steal his car – probably because they couldn’t drive yet) for R3000 and a watch, I feel that my family have paid their debt to black South Africans. A portion of his estate went to the government as inheritance tax too.
I have been a victim too and I will continue to do everything I can to empower the black woman who works for me and her family. Not because of guilt but because she is my friend and the nanny to my child. She is teaching him isiXhosa. We have started a small business in iKasi together.
And I acknowledge that I have benefitted from apartheid and continue to do so, albeit because I inherited money from my murdered old man. But I’m not feeling guilty anymore because as far as I’m concerned my father paid the debt for all of us. I hold all black South Africans responsible because they condone vicious crime against whites with their deafening silence. We know that you think we deserve it as payback for the past. And many of you continue to teach this hatred to your children who then feel vindicated in their crimes. And what about the black people buying stolen goods in the townships?
So I’m looking you straight in the eye and telling you that I forgive you for the senseless murder of my father and please in return forgive me for the atrocities of apartheid.
I would think Sandile Memela is partly right, but also wrong. Last time he wrote that whites should not apologize for apartheid, forgetting the Carl Niehaus and others initiative that went belly-up. Viwed againt the idiocies of UFS students’ video, we have a larger problem than we aknowledge. And in this matter, I believe Neville Alexander is exemplary in his analyis of ZA today (read ‘The “Moment of Manouvre”: “Race,” Ethnicity, and Nation in Postapartheid South Africa’). At the best of times we have whites who wish to apologize but are not given the opportunity, and then we do have the virulent strain of racism clothed in liberalism as displayed in the Employment Equity debate in the Cape Times recently. Ayone who believes in the students’s UFS story, Memela, is your target.
Best wishes, as always
I am a white/asian/portuguese okhuluma isiZulu ngokuba bengihlala KwaZulu Natale eNgotshe. I have seen many different South African’s from different backgrounds and I must say one of the frustrating things is how much of what is happening is made a racial issue. This present government is not the ‘Black’ government. It is the ANC which has a huge Communistic contingent to it. When the present government is criticised by whites it is criticised because ‘it is black’ rather than on the basis of its policies and implementation or lack of implementation of its proposals. If we just stuck to policies and proposals we might see a reason for black and white to bat on the same team for or against the present Government. I think it is such a shame that the ANC had such a great opportunity to bridge the gap between white and black but has missed the opportunity by habouring on the past. But I suppose it was inevitable considering the grievances. May I suggest that, rather than eradicating Afrikaans or European place names they might have done what they did with the 2 places of KwaZulu and Natal. Instead of wiping out one name over the other they joined the two together. I seriously doubt the term umlungu referred to the white scum on the surf of the sea. The word for scum is (um)engulo which is not similar to (um)lungu. I am not saying I am a hundred percent right in this. But whether or not it started as a negative label for white people it is not so today and so what is the big deal? In fact there doesn’t seem to be anyone with an etymological explanation of which word exactly it came from. The word ‘lungu ‘ actually has to do with peeping. But one thing we should all learn from this is that no nation or tribe is without its dirty laundry. Us Brits put the Afrikaans in concentration camps. The Akfrikaans and Europeans treated the blacks as animals or at the best, noble savages. The Xhosa stole and killed from the Boers, the Zulus persecuted other black tribes. In mid africa blacks sold blacks into slavery, Arabs had their fair share of slave selling and of course there are the unspeakable horrors of the white slave ships. We are all equally sinners in need of a saviour. We think we all have ubuntu but look inside and we will see we all have ububi in the pit of our souls.
More black people are victims of violent crime than white people, the media just reports more crimes against white people thus the misconception that crime against whites is race-based.
Ronaka,
I am a great lover of black people and I take a stance against white generalisations about black people with the stereotypical branding that if a person is black, therefore they must be treated with suspicion of being a potential murederer, thief or rapist. I have many friends who are black. But saying that, how can South Africans say that crimes purpotrated against blacks by whites are racially motivated but when it is the other way round it is not racially motivated? How can we say that black peoples have not been racially motivated when the whole xenophobic attacks by a section of black South African society was drawn on racial lines. It wasn’t only the indians, zimbabweans or Mozambiquans but also South African Shangaans too. It is no use pretending that racial discrimination or racially driven actions are a thing of the past. They are still alive and well in both white and black circles. Let us stop blaming apartheid or the black problem and move on.