Comments on: Does freedom mean being free to shop?

By: Kit

Kit — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:07:07 +0000

I’d guess people shouldn’t let their other halves post under the same user accounts. Or alternatively, they should use their socks in different browsers.

Come on, Phil, your turn.

By: mundundu

mundundu — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:34:01 +0000

phillipa –

the problem with people like you and your alter ego dave harris is that you equate “white” with “better”. maybe, just maybe, people don’t *want* to be around a bunch of white folks in their free time. i know this may sound completely alien to you, but you should keep your mind open to that possibility.

even if sandton were “untransformed” — which is really bloody rich coming from someone who lives in rondebosch — which isn’t the case, you really need stop and think, just a wee bit. i mean, if i wanted to pay european prices for housing, i would live in europe. plain and simple. which part of that is so hard to understand?

clearly you’ve forgotten lihle’s post about that very point. [that would be the one where i said that i burned all of frantz fanon's books when i found out his wife was white.]

her post was, in essence, why should i leave soweto, which has everything, and almost everyone i know, to buy a house in the northern suburbs so my mother could brag? now, if you work in sandton, it may make sense to live in the northern suburbs. but if you work in the east rand or central joburg, it really doesn’t.

people want to shop where they live. now they can. it really is that simple. stop trying to look for stuff that isn’t there.

By: Sarfeffrikin

Sarfeffrikin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:12:27 +0000

Yeah Phillipa, you should visit Sandton city again. It sounds like you haven’t been there in the last 5-10 years! That’s where Alexandra goes to shop as well. In case you’re wondering how they get there, just exit the centre on the South side where the taxis congregate. It is totally cosmopolitan – rich and poor people of every race and description.

By: Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:09:46 +0000

By: Elle

Elle — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:21:54 +0000

Phillipa, I thought you were no longer going to bother with Sarah’s blogs?

By: Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:04:59 +0000

Phillipa, when last were you in Sandton? I can tell you that Sandton City is definitely not dominated by whites. In fact, it’s probably the most racially diverse place in the entire country.

By: Phillipa Lipinsky

Phillipa Lipinsky — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:51:22 +0000

Ofcourse one of the reasons why there is a Maponya Mall in the first place is that Joburg’s nothern suburbs are not satosfactorily transformed. More black people need to be economically empowered so that theyb can afford to live anywhere they like and so that SA’s residential places are not characterised race. It is unacceptable that 15years into democracy; places like Sandton are still dominated by whites. We should promote diversity.

By: Sabelo

Sabelo — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:12:51 +0000

All societies have ‘show-offs’ that love expensive things, period. Now the question of the show off being ‘black or white’ is the South African obsession. Let people worship materials cos some may argue that even those who worship God are wrong.

However I pray for a day where we can just accept that we are different, in both skin colour and thoughts, however no other is superior to the the other. I hope we get over ourselves and start to exist as a nation. I am listening to the soundtrack of the Lion King(Lebo M especially) and realizing that ‘South Africa, YOU’RE BRILLIANT!) And today am gonna just celebrate that about us. Lets go shopping for what we ‘need’ on cash not credit! But I love shopping for what I want cos that’s freedom right there!

By: Pastor Ray Mac Oily

Pastor Ray Mac Oily — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:28:20 +0000

Also read Mandela’s original letter to Tabata here:

http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za:8080/DC/cor19480522.026.044.000/cor19480522.026.044.000.pdf

By: Kit

Kit — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:08:35 +0000

Eh, Tlanch Tau, you might be surprised to hear that many of us less affluent white folks ‘hit the mall’ to buy bread, milk and rice, buy our fruit in bulk at the market and can’t remember the last time we bought an item of clothing.

I can’t understand how the ‘black elite’ are the exact equivalent of the kind of white people that you seem to be talking about with their penchant for pointless extravagance – I mean, where did this elite come from and how did they become like this? Is it only because they humour or mimic their expensive pale counterparts or is it because they are actually, I don’t know, empowered to do what they want? The former is a very bold statement to make about people that might actually be genuinely self-made and not beholden to any ‘oppressor’.

See, I don’t know what it’s like to trek for 30km to buy my daily essentials, I have a fairly dodgy supermarket two blocks from my house. But what I do know is that money, race and attitude are often inextricably linked but not the same thing, not interchangeable.