Fear: The Universal Capitalist Whip

Written in response to this opinion piece : http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/FEAR-The-driver-behind-white-economic-power-20120624

perfectly normal paranoia drives capitalism in every part of the world, but that has nothing to do with why whites still dominate the south african business scape. hundreds of years of exploitation and benefitting from basically free black labour has put the majority of the country's wealth in white hands. 

the reason it will continue to remain in white hands is that the vast majority of blacks don't learn the lessons about delayed gratification and entrepreneurship you are teaching your kids until much later in life. a lot of blacks are still caught in the baas mentality instilled by the apartheied system; "sell your labour cheaply to Umlungu, be grateful that he's giving you work at all, and brown nose at every given opportunity to ensure that you don't get fired ." blacks need to develop a different attitude/culture towards money and work. and it is happening. slowly. generation by generation. 

white south africans: can we stop skirting around the issues, making scathing generalisations about political parties, and give frank, constructive criticism of the state of the nation? Our shared past is not just history, it has a very direct influence on the lived experience of millions of south africans, so stop trying to sweep apartheid under the rug like it never happened. It's the reason there is such a small percentage of market participation among our majority population grouping. 

you'll realise soon enough that the issue here isn't black vs white or anc vs da but growing the nations's economy so we can all have a seat at the table. 

black prosperity equals south african prosperity.

a salutation from the heart

Written September 17, 2007

I’ve always promised that I would take a minute out of my “busy” schedule to appreciate all the people I’m fortunate enough to call Friend, to in some small measure translate the experiences I have shared with each one of you and the incredible joy I’ve derived from every second of every chill session, jammie convo, games of touch at kops fields, fb wall-to-wall, arb encounters in the food court, beach 'n hubbly jams and all the nights out that honestly would have meant nothing without the mates who were there to help create and preserve the memory’s of those nights.

Coming up to the end of a year that will see most of us graduating and embarking on our respective journeys into the working world and all that comes with it, I thought it appropriate to make my hearts' salute to you all in the only way I know how; I wish I could paint a wall mural on the high-way or pen a song but alas the gods have chosen to impart those gifts to others.. so in the absence of any other medium of expression I will use what I have been told I have some skill with, words..

Nearly losing a good friend and comrade in the fight against the tyranny of social suppression (you know who you are) sparked an internally directed inquiry into what, in the conflagration of life's constant exchange of losing and finding, we will be allowed to carry with us when all else has turned to ash.. a good eight months later I’m moved to say that I have not found anything that would have even the smallest meaning to anyone who hasn't lost someone they love, but I will do my best to convey the conclusion I have come to none the less.

The fundamental question mankind's existence has been the source of unquantifiable amounts of discussion and literature, all with little evidence of a final solution or indeed; the answer to life, love and everything else. I've come to the realisation that we all have to find within ourselves the reason for taking all the crap we have to put up with, sift through it and find something on which to base the conclusion that in the end , it’s all worth it. I think it the height of hubris for any individual to assume (and in far too many cases assert) the right to dictate to others what to do (or not to do) to be happy or lead what they call a “good life”, we’ve got enough psycho-social constraint placed on us from birth without any of that, thank you very much!

“So what has this got to do with me?” you might be wondering at this point, the answer is simple; everything! We’ve all, at some level, given thought to the dual nature of life and death, the inevitability of the latter and the idea of immortality. I’ve decided that being immortal wouldn’t be all that much fun unless everyone else was as well (which brings up it’s own set of problems); watching generation upon generation of friends and family flower and wither while you subsist would be an empty and hollow existence. So what alternative is there? I was reading the epitaph written on my father’s tombstone when I recently went to pay respect to his memory, and it struck me as strange that the whole of someone’s existence could be compressed into a sentence of a few lines, possibly even more shocking was the hyphen between his dates of birth and death; “that’s it?!” looking back on that moment I gradually came to realise that ultimately all we have, when the pursuit of fame and material wealth have been rendered irrelevant by the Great Denominator, is the memory we leave behind in the hearts and minds of those who have gotten to know us most intimately.

If ones’ life can be circumscribed by a single line between to sets of numbers; would it be foolish to assume that to be the answer to (or at east a plausible stab in the dark at) the question of the meaning of life? Possibly, but following the logic of this idea has formed the basis for my recent thought on the subject and ultimately what you are reading right now. How simple would life and all the endeavours of the human heart and mind seem if we were all to live on the premise of being able to dictate how much weight or gravity is carried by that short line between our two most significant dates? Think for a second, of being able to write, in the present, what will be read on your epitaph when your soul no longer has a place to call home on this plane of existence.. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks and let me tell you it’s been a mind trip to beat the effects of any hallucinogen! (not that I’ve ever used any :P) I’ve decided to do a bit of the only plausible form of time travelling I’ve come across and make conscious effort to make sure that the lines (both kinds) engraved on my bit of granite will be read with fondness and warm remembrances.

So, you might still be asking what this has to do with you. I’ll explain in as simple a way as my limited eloquence allows; if you hold to the idea that all of the experiences we go through, consciously and otherwise, are all recorded in a part of our minds called our souls, and that this part of us is what traverses the boundaries of this world when we leave it, it becomes almost painfully obvious that our memories, and those others have of us, is the most important thing in the world! (There is evidence in psycho-analytical research that lends weight to this idea; it’s all more scientifically phrased but the logical parallels are hard to ignore, so I’m not just sucking my thumb on this one ^_^ ) The sights, sounds, smells, sensations of touch and taste all form a single image that is recorded in crystal clarity and stored in our memory banks for us to recall, with varying degrees of ease, at any time we want to! With this in mind, it makes perfect sense to me to flood this part of our minds with as many ‘good vibes’ memories as we can, ‘cause later in life all we’ll have are those memories we’ve created along the way.

There’s so much unnecessary shit we are forced to trudge through because of the socio-economic system we live in, things we may have no real desire to do (at the time) or remember later on. Shining to eclipse these with the brightness and fervour of a million suns are all the memories made with friends and family; of unadulterated, unconditional love; glowing serenity, peace and contentment… these are what I hope will figuratively form the line between 25/02/1986 and the day that I take my last breath. In the past few years (especially the last three) i’ve been lucky enough to find a whole treasure-trove of friends (some of whom have become like family) to help create these gems with, and if you’re reading this, you are one of them. This is my way of saying, in quite a few more words than I originally intended, that it’s been f#&@ing awesome jamming with you!! A slightly sensationalised translation of the meaning of the Hindu greeting 'namaste' reads a little something like this,

"I honour the place within you where the entire universe resides,
the place within you of love and light, of peace and truth where, when you are
in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us."

I wasn’t entirely sure of the meaning of this until last week, and that in itself lead to the realisation that I may never truly understand the full import of the phrase, but I thought it an appropriate ending to this salutation. Whether we see each other as often as we’d like to, or stick to the plans we make to hook up, I want you to know that, from my heart of hearts, I honour you.

some existential pepper with your primordial soup?

Written in response to a friends' posts, October 1, 2007:

Dude this is the thing I’ve been grappling with for the last three years... if God is in everything, why does so much of the worlds strife seem to centre around Him? I think I might have found an answer, not THE answer, but something to help me sleep without nightmares of a world that is nothing but the Greatest (I don't say this lightly) Practical Joke of All Time [check out he nebula pic]

Let me start at the end, which is the also the beginning... sorry my mind is leaking, haven't slept in 36. Yes, the beginning: God is in everything, ergo God IS Everything.

Scientists haven't been able to determine the exact point in time when the Soul enters the human body, or where such an entity would reside, or even where it goes when the heart has given up... the reason for this i think is scientists flat (in my opinion self-defeating) refusal to acknowledge anything that smells even a little like metaphysics ... let's leave that be for now. So this leads us to the question of what the vital essence of the human being is, what's missing when all the other necessary conditions for the sustenance of human life still hold?

Looking at the human brain and it's normal functions while man subsists, the most exciting thing for me are the synapses that are constantly firing off; from your medulla oblongata which regulates your heart rate and breathing without your conscious volition, to the signals being shot along your nervous system at mind-bending speeds telling individual muscles in your entire body to move in perfect unison enabling you to take a single step.. all this is electrical energy, a kind of energy that is self sustaining, irreplaceable, perfect..

Thinking of the human body as a machine complicated beyond our ability to fully understand, you've got to be drawn logically to a design, and by extension a designer.. follow me into the designer's mind, to look at the Purpose that is programmed inherently into the child of His thought. A knife is designed to perform a specific function, the same with a tennis ball or pencil or kite; these objects can be put to many other uses, granted, but they were designed with one Purpose in mind. Apply this to mankind’s design; try to envision the Purpose in our design, Divine purpose if you will.. What is our purpose? Back to this later..

Back to the energy which moves us; Einstein could find no other justification for the idea of an afterlife except for the principle of Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, simply transferred from one form to another.. Postulate with me that there is an energy transfer that takes place, guided by God's hand, at conception, into the human body, 'sparking' life.. This same transfer takes place at death, out of the human body, 'extinguishing' life.. Where did this energy come from? Where does it go? I think that the source of this divine energy IS God...

If there were some sort of Budget of energy for this universe (which I believe there is); I can't accept that OUR universe is infinite, this notion is flawed in the same way that the IDEA of time is, it's all relative. The same applies to distance and other physically measurable dimensions (I’ve got an argument to support this, but it would take waaay too long to explain here). back to the Budget; all of Creation ( as far as we are able to perceive it) is connected through this Energy, and this Budget needs to be maintained (give or take) the same way that the Earth's energy budget is maintained (ask an EGS student for an explanation, I read about it but can't explain fully yet, give me time) and the bits of it that all these small bits of Gods creation hold while they occupy this plane of existence have to give back their Energy when they're no longer using it, to maintain the balance.. Think for a second of where that Energy goes. In my mind it goes back to the Source, the very Spark of energy that set the 'Primordial Soup' to boiling, Creating, from the lightest element to the heaviest (and back again) what we now know to be our Universe.

God is the Source, the Beginning and the End, the Energy, the Architect...Everything!

But we are still no closer to having an idea of what the Purpose that he programmed into us is... if you figure it out dude, let me, know...

 Okay, I actually came up with an answer: http://frustratedutterancesofabrokenmind.blogspot.com/2012/07/let-there-be-love-part-i.html

Socio-ecnomic change, one generation at a time

Written October 4, 2007:

You see the issue here is that although the black people of South Africa have won their political freedom, we are still miles from achieving economic emancipation. One might argue that there are plenty of Black millionaires in the country, but as the statistics above show, this is still far from an equitable distribution of this country’s wealth. Until the proportions of wealth and resource distribution are reversed, we cannot claim to have achieved true freedom.

What needs to happen is this; young, Black, educated South Africans need to rise up and take their rightful place in South African society. They must play the role that only they can, thanks partly to their unique historical legacy, in the transformative movement already building up steam. They must prove, once and for all, that one should not depend on others to for help in changing the adverse socio-economic circumstance one might find themselves in (regardless of the causes), but should devise means of lifting themselves and their community out of poverty and indignity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating the kind of forced seizure of resources that has left our neighbours in Zimbabwe with the highest rate of inflation in the world. No. I’m talking about educated Black men and women using the tools they’ve gained through Universities and Technical colleges to re-order the power balance in this country.

In addition to this, workshops need to be established in our communities on a massive scale, promoting the spirit of entrepreneurial ambition and establishing a culture of saving; it gains our country nothing learning to make money without knowing how to spend it wisely. The government needs to make it’s presence felt through the media, actively playing a role in the kind of programming being fed to us on a daily basis; if the right kind of messages are being broadcast over the media and reinforced in the home environment, the media can play a pivotal role in ensuring that the perception of wealth is changed in the minds of our people. The images and messages need to encourage education (by extension knowledge production) firstly, initiative and ambition secondly, and thirdly contextualise them in the spirit of Ubuntu. These values are to create the foundation for an ideology that will transform the perception surrounding Empowerment, not to be thought of as means with which to grow individual/personal wealth, but to benefit the families, communities and ultimately the country of those who will pioneer this new generation of (mentally) Empowered Blacks.

These are necessary measures, and I am unapologetic about advocating the fundamental principles underpinning them. If you think about it you’ll see that the results of a process of this kind will in time benefit not just the Black grouping of our population, but the whole; it will increase the number of economically active citizens, raise the level of competition in the market (not for jobs, but for contracts), allow this level of competition to produce world class specialists in a variety of fields, attract foreign capital, strengthen the economy, give the government more lateral space for social spending (focusing primarily on education, centrally engraining the concept of, what I will for want of a better phrase, call socio-capitalism) on schools, health care (including nigh aggressive HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, I will outline some plans I have drawn for this in a later document) housing, venture capital (Umsobomvu etc.), strategically designed disability grants and pension funds, basic amenities and motivational seminars on community development (the latter will play a critical role in fundamentally changing the perception that the majority of the country has of them selves). If all this is geared towards enabling a shift in focus from base survival to betterment (through education), it will begin the cycle all over again; sustainable development, perpetuating itself so long as there are men and women willing to give of themselves to see this ideal achieved.

[I’ve put the words educated and education in italics to denote a different concept of knowledge giving, not necessarily bound to institutional learning, but encompassing a broader array of gained wisdom; what remains when the facts have been forgotten]

A phenomenon that has disturbed me, not because of its’ advent, but it’s general acceptance and even promotion by most of society, is the Debt Trap so many newly empowered Blacks find themselves inextricably caught in. However it may have come about in individual cases, it exhibits a fundamental flaw in the thought processes propagated by a capitalist society; that money and the material possessions it can afford you will make you happy. It doesn’t help that pop culture, through various forms of media, especially music and television, have made this an almost primary assumption of the frightening majority of the youth in the world today.

This perception needs to change if we are ever to free ourselves (South African society as a whole) from debt, as impossible as this might seem. How, you might be asking, will we ever achieve this lofty goal? It’s simpler than you might think. The truth is that Black South Africans have never known what it is like to have excessive amounts of money, and quite frankly we’re handling it badly. How many of the Black Fat-Cats you see rolling around in S-class Merc’s paid for them in cash? How many of them are ‘in the black’ on their credit ratings? The plague of newly empowered Blacks is the desire to show the rest of the world how much money they have, by buying flashy cars and mansions in exclusive neighbourhoods, Armani and Gucci suits, Breitling and Rolex watches, whether or not they really can afford them. We live in a society of debt, just another form of slavery that so many of our young Black professionals have fallen into. We’ve learnt to love the wealth of the White man without learning how to use it effectively; we have new money, not real wealth.

So how does one go about curbing this trend? The answer is simple; education. Teach money management from the earliest stages of cognitive development, this way our children will grow up with an understanding of how money works, learn to manage theirs properly when they enter the working world and avoid the debt trap. Feed this into the model of social spending I outlined above, and maybe, just maybe, we might be able to turn this country around and realise the Dream our Fathers and Mother bled and died for, in our life time. If not, we can always rest easy in the knowledge that we have helped to sketch the plans for a better society for all South Africans, one in which our children will be the architects and engineers of a kind of Social Change that will lead the rest of the world along the path that will spark the next step on mankind’s evolution. I believe quite firmly that in the same that fire, the wheel, the telephone, electricity, the internet all helped shape and give direction to Man in his collective evolutionary trek along the vastness of time, global social change (beginning with individual, cognitive change) will be the determining factor in our survival or ultimate extinction

Piscean mythology and psychology...hmmm

Think I found and edited bit of this, November 7, 2007:

The Pisces Myth

In many fairy tales there is a peculiar and enchanting figure, sometimes called an ondine or melusine, sometimes called a mermaid, who lives in the depths of the sea or a vast lake, and falls in love with a mortal man. This legend may also be seen in the legend of the Swan Prince - although here the creature from the 'other realm' bears feathers rather than scales. And these ancient stories, in all their various forms, have the same basic theme: the union of a mortal, an ordinary flesh-and-blood human, with something from another level of reality. The meeting is fraught with difficulties. There are always conditions attached. And it usually ends in disaster or difficulty, not because it is doomed from the start, but because of the ineptitude of the mortal who attempts to impose his own laws or values on his mysterious, other-worldly partner.

Usually the melusine agrees to live on dry land, and inhabit a mortal body, so long as her mate observes one special condition. He must not ask her a particular question, or look in a particular box, or enter a particular room at a particular time. In other words, there must be respect for the mysteries of this other realm. And the mortal, driven by ordinary human curiosity and lack of respect for this magical dimension, inevitably asks the question or opens the box. So the bond is broken, the melusine disappears into the depths again, and he is left to sorrow. Or, sometimes, she drags him down with her, drowning him in her embrace.

The motif, which we can find in several myths and fairy tales, is am story which has special meaning for Pisces. As we have seen, Pisces is the last sign, the completion of the cycle. Every sign leaves its trace in Pisces; there is not so much a particular Piscean dilemma as that Pisces embodies the human dilemma. In this last of the zodiacal signs is represented all of man's helplessness, his longings, his dreams, his needs, his powerlessness in the face of the universe, his delusions of grandeur, his longing for love, his sense of a mystery or a divine source which he strives for, yet cannot wholly reach without great sacrifice.

You might say that in every Pisces, symbolized by the two fishes trying to swim in opposite directions yet bound together by a golden cord, there is this dilemma of the meeting of two dimensions. There is the ordinary mortal side, which is used to facts and realities of a tangible kind. Eat, sleep, make love, and die - or bread and circuses, as the Romans used to say. And there is also a melusine - or, in the case of Pisces women, the masculine equivalent - which inhabits the dark depths, and which occasionally flashes its tail above the water, catching the sunlight, entrancing the mortal on the shore. How this meeting is dealt with is the story of each Piscean life. Some Pisceans simply follow the mermaid down, forgetting that human lungs cannot survive underwater. Here we have the derelicts of humanity, the lines of the junkies and the chronic alcoholics and the hopeless, the waster, the despairing, the abject. It is these whom Christ, in Christian mythology, declared blessed, for they have sacrificed everything of ordinary life and for their suffering have earned the key to another realm.

For other Pisceans, the fairy tale has a different ending. It is here that we can see the genius of men such as Einstein - where the melusine, the glimpse of other realms and of a universe barely comprehensible to the ordinary mind in its majesty and infinity - is translated through the human brain, offering to the world a charting of the unknown waters.

Obviously, not every Piscean is an Einstein or a drunkard. But perhaps the task of every Piscean is to come to terms in some way with the transpersonal realm, and to have the courage to be its mouthpiece. Here we find the poets and musicians, the great actors and playwrights, the visionaries and mystics who attempt to bring to ordinary life a glimpse of something else. This can be through a work of art, or it can exist in the humblest expressions of human love.

It is not easy, perhaps, to be born as Pisces. Many Pisceans simply cannot accept the size of the challenge. And, after all, who can blame them? It is not easy to make peace with melusine; and our education does not help us, since it tends to emphasize that anybody with the secret life of the Pisces must be at best a lazy daydreamer, and at worst emotionally disturbed. The fairy tale world in which many Pisces children live is criticized, bludgeoned, mocked or argued out of them very early. And it's important to remember here that Pisces is a mutable - that is, a changeable - sign, malleable, easily influenced, often hungry to please. Pisces is more easily distorted, more easily pressured by a hostile environment, than any other sign. So the melusine calls unheard from the depths of the soul, and the average Piscean disguises himself from himself by a rationalistic attitude toward life.

Another important mythological motif that tells us something about the Fish is the Christian myth itself. When I use the word 'myth' here I do not mean to imply something true or untrue, but mean it in the sense that all myths are apertures into another world. If one is a Christian, then the New Testament is truth while the religious symbols of other faiths are myth; if one is either non-Christian or open-minded, one can see that all myths describe God. So let's look at the Christian myth.

The Christian era is sometimes known as the Age of Pisces. Without going into lengthy explanations about precessions of the equinoxes and other astronomical phenomena, let's just say that about every two thousand years a new zodiacal sign colours man's history and culture. You can see the traces of this sign at work particularly in the religious symbols that emerge during the time it is in power. The Fish is one of the great symbols of Christianity; and in this symbol can be found many important themes that pertain to Pisces, both in this broad way and in the individual life of the person born under the sign.

Firstly, there is the aspiration. Before the coming of Christianity, man and God were two different things; there could be communication between them, there could be enmity or friendship; but man was not like God and God was not like man, and never the twain could meet. But one of the essential meanings of the Christian myth is that God incarnates as man: that there is a halfway point, an intermediary, a bridging of the two worlds. We are back to our friend the melusine here. But, instead of melusine, read soul or spirit. So, we can, if we want to consider the religious aspect of Pisces, say that there is a strong awareness in many Pisceans, especially the more mystical ones, of themselves - and the whole of mankind - being some kind of halfway house between animal and divine.

You can imagine that this creates problems. Being aware of two dimensions like this is pretty confusing, especially when the one tends to pop up when the other should be operating. No wonder Pisces is said to be confused a lot of the time.

Second to the aspiration is the urge towards self-sacrifice. Now this can be of the noblest kind, and one of the characteristic renditions of this can be found in the lives of the Saints. These figures - whether one believes in Saints or not - are in a sense the epitome of this side of Pisces. Everything devoted to the ideal - whether it is God, a country, a people, the poor, the suffering, or whatever. Pisces may often be found searching desperately for a cause to which he can devote himself, even sacrifice himself. It is an ecstasy which the other signs want no part of, since they all still have left some shred of a personal sense of their own 'I'-ness. Pisces doesn't. It's the completion of the cycle, the end. And there's a very strong tendency to want to give up everything, offer it up, disintegrate, disappear.

Compassion and love of an impersonal, unbiased kind are also Piscean virtues extolled in this last era. Love thy neighbour as thyself, turn the other cheek - these are Piscean aspirations. Of course you have to remember that there's another fish to the pair, too. But much of the history of religion in the last two thousand years has forgotten about that second fish. It's locked down in the basement, and popularly referred to as the Devil.

Even if you don't subscribe to astrology and i's associated beleiefs, or even Christianity as a religious institution, this might help explain why us Pisceans constantly seem so torn up inside.. at this point i can't decide what's stranger, truth or fiction

Human BEEing

Written October 4, 2007:

I wrote this as part of a set of short essay questions on my application to an int. youth leadership conference next year. I had no idea what it would come out as but feel the need to share this epiphany with as many people as possible. Please feel free to criticise it or in whatever way you can add to the debate, i think it's vitally important that we start taking cognitive note of this issue (and many others that i will write on as time permits) as it will, in my personal opinion, determine the kind of world we're building for our children:


Measures of socio-economic redress as they have been applied in South Africa have proven themselves to be contentious to say the least; I recently witnessed a debate between the Cape Town city mayor (also head of the major opposition party, the Democratic Alliance) and the MEC of the ruling party (African National Congress), and was surprised by the manifold levels of the arguments they presented. Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and Affirmative Action (AA) have become almost cliché in academic circles but it's frightening to think of how many of our youth have little to no conception of the impacts these policies will have on their futures.

The majority of White students of my generation (from my personal interactions) view BEE and AA as parts of a system of reverse Apartheid, while the majority of Black students think that the policies are justified considering the active and purposeful oppression previously imposed on Blacks, both socially and economically. It seems that neither group (apart from the politically conscious within them respectively) has taken the time to think about the meaning nor implications of the policies that are intended to ensure equity (if not equality) in our divided nation. What bothers me are the underlying attitudes that govern most young people’s perception (especially frightening as we are meant to be the next generation of intellectuals); most of the arguments I’ve hard talking to my peers centre around ideas of entitlement, citizenship and ownership. One will talk of the government owing him/her some form of compensation for the suffering our parents endured, while another will counter that they were not part of the oppressive regime and don’t deserve to be punished for it. Again, one will speak of placing South Africa’s wealth in the hands of true Africans (in so implying that any white south African is simply a second or subsequent generation European, and will therefore never really be African), while another will argue that their parents fought for the cause of Black South African’s, and is just as much an African in heart as any person with darker skin. As long as this sort of thinking is allowed to perpetuate itself in the minds of this country’s youth, Nelson Mandela’s dream of a Rainbow Nation will never be realised.

What this country needs are passionate and committed leaders who are able, and perhaps more importantly, willing to cross the boundaries of race, gender, and culture (I would have liked to add to this litany political affiliation, but that would indeed be idealistic). Once leaders are able to penetrate these self- made bubbles of identity and thought, and successfully inspire those within to help create a culture of exchange and co-operation through the sharing of ideas (in so doing shine light into the den of that ancient beast called Ignorance). Our nation will then be able to harness it's intellectual energies into forging and shaping a future that is as rich as the legacy we have inherited, that will honour the sacrifices of those who came before us, and ultimately make this country a place we can all be proud to call home. This, I believe, is the great need of South Africa; perhaps then we can teach the rest of the World how to live together in relative peace and harmony.

Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m going to learn at the conference; it would be ludicrous for me to think I’ll find the answer to my country's problems in five days when it has taken greater minds than mine decades to come this far. I do though, hope to interact with other like minded individuals, sharing ideas that may be limited by experience and/or cultural and (to some extent) ideological principles. The very notion of democracy (in my opinion) rests on the idea of people collectively finding solutions to their problems through consultation, fighting to protecting the human rights of all in a politically pluralistic environment. I hope to come back with tools that will enable South Africa's youth to 'speak the same language', to talk not of 'us' and 'them' but to see the nation's (by extension the world's) future as something we are collectively responsible for.

I want to be able to help open young peoples eyes to the fact that we're not all that different; fear is of ignorance, the more we know about what our respective (in my opinion collective) concerns and needs are, the more we'll come to understand, accept, and respect each other. This respect will hopefully be the foundation for a system of social thought that goes far beyond notions of fairness and due process, a system in which we will see each other without the emblematic ‘lenses’ of the socio-politically separatist definitions we have invented for ourselves; in this system no man will see the needs or concerns of another as being less than his, nor endeavour to oppress or impede him in his personal search for spiritual self-and-whole-actualisation (this is based on my belief that in furthering mankind’s collective understanding of our purpose on Earth, we simultaneously give ourselves the same service)… this is my eutopia.

Open your ears, your mind, your heart, your mouth (in that order)

Written October 24, 2007:

So here's the deal right; you've got all these people arguing on different sides of socio-political issues like Transformation, Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment, many of them not really knowing or thinking about what they're saying. You’ve got your radical militants on one end, your neo-classical liberals on the other, and the unfortunate few in between who are trying, with little success, to make sense of it all. In the absence of any kind of political rhetoric, or the socio-economic theory which informs it, people will always be stuck in a bit of a stale mate as to which side of the socio-political fence to plant them selves on.

The constant pressure being applied from both ends is not making it any easier for the disenfranchised, politically uncommitted men and women in the middle trying to grapple constructively with the issues being debated, from inside each of our homes right up to the Big House itself. Party slogans, revolutionary songs, fists pumped animatedly and fingers waggled mock-admonishingly across the Floor are all part of the charade being played out at national level, except in the Big Leagues, they’re playing for keeps.

All this, in my opinion, has lent itself heavily to the attitude of apathy on campus, why no-one but a seemingly crazy few are willing to take dip into the murky waters of politics and find out where the hell all bubbles are coming from. People need to understand the fact that politics is real, and affect every single one of us on such a continual basis that we’ve almost forgotten how to recognise it.

From that first day of primary school we ask the questions, “Whose game is it?” and/or “Can I play with?” and if you happened to be the new kid, nerd, asthmatic (or any other kind of social outcast really) you’d be left standing there with your mouth agape wondering, “Well why didn’t I get picked?” Later on in life many of us will be making tactful ‘donations’ to certain prestigious prep schools to ‘secure young Thabiso’s/ Thom’s academic future’. Much later we’ll be playing out the same game, this time trying to secure ourselves memberships to exclusive country clubs.

Now think ahead to this weekend and how many people you will see jump to the front of the queue, give the bouncer a companionable handshake and waltz straight up into the VIP section, without paying the R50-odd cover you’re about to fork out. Lucky bastard, you may be thinking, and in some cases you might be right (though I can’t think how). The honest truth is that in the day and age we live in, it’s not about what you know, but who you know. We all learn this lesson very early on in life, and from then on it really does become a case of survival of the fittest (or best connected).

This is just the first day of POL 1ooooh!1, and it’s not going to get any easier. What’s missing from the context of the tender processes and quota systems, is a nation-wide dialogue where people can to talk about how they actually feel about the measures government has put in place to establish equitable wealth distribution in SA. The Conservatives have their set-in-stone views, a disturbing number of which (not all) are set in the context of ideological underpinnings that have long since been rendered irrelevant. The Liberals on the other hand are trying their level best to convince everybody else, and I think them selves, that everything will be okay if everyone just works hard and has some patience. The way I see it, every one is just trying to hold on to or take hold of what they think they deserve, should have ownership of or are entitled to. Is it greed? Maybe. Is it the pursuit of prestige and power? Possibly. What I think is the more likely answer is this; Fear.

A natural human concern for all of us is whether or not we’re going to be able to provide adequately (though there are varying definitions of this term) for ourselves and our families. Now if legislation is dictating whether you will or not get hired for a position or be awarded a contract based on something as fickle as the amount of melanin in your skin, I’d say we’ve all got a right to be just a little bit afraid.

So where does this leave the average guy trying to maintain, regardless of the racial grouping he falls into? The simple fact of the matter is that there is still massive socio-economic inequality in S.A.; we have the second highest income difference in the world between the richest and the poorest, just behind Brazil. Now although our economy is picking up momentum, we’re still far from having full market participation. In my understanding, the point of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment and its policies is to increase the economic capacity of the country as a whole by giving black-owned companies a competitive advantage in a cut-throat job market. In a previous note I wrote about how this will, in time, benefit the country as a whole. You can’t ignore the structural disadvantage (and abject poverty that comes with it) that the vast majority of black people in our country are under; something has to be done to help alleviate their suffering. Is BBEE the answer? As a sole measure, I don’t think so, no. It would do more harm than good to give a multi-million rand contract to a company that can’t handle the job they’re being expected to do. A governmental focus on massive social spending aimed at increasing the number of skilled individuals at all levels of employment, combined with the AA and BEE initiatives, will go along way to achieving the ideals that underpin the Empowerment movement.

AA and BEE are real and whether we like these policies or not, they’re not going anywhere. The question is this; what are you going to do about it? Take politics out of parliament and into the pubs, from the boardrooms to the bars; open your ears, your mind, your heart, your mouth. In that order.

To abort or not to abort

Written November 8, 2007, in response to a friend's post on the subject:

Dude, you took a nose-dive into very murky waters with that one... My feeling is that it's ultimately the mother-to-be's choice to keep the baby or not, religious arguments aside, no-one can know what life they're preventing from flowering, look at this example for instance:

A professor at the UCLA Medical School asked his students this question:

"Here is the family history: The father has syphilis. The mother has TB. They already have had four children. The first is blind. The second has died. The third is deaf. The fourth has TB. The mother is pregnant. The parents are willing to have an abortion if you decide they should.

What do you think?"

Most of the students decided on abortion.

"Congratulations," said the professor. "You have just murdered Beethoven!"

Right and wrong cannot be taken as absolute values, and since none of us are prescient, we can't justify abortion with a statement like," the baby would have been worse off if we had allowed it to live"

Pro-lifers' tend to justify their position based on the idea of a ‘special obligation’ the mother has to the foetus, while the opposite end of the argument follows something along these lines:

A famous violinist needs to be put on a special life support system that requires you to be hooked up to it continuously for nine months to facilitate his organs' recovery from an otherwise fatal illness. while it may be nice for you to offer this most humane of services to the comatose violinist, you're not necessarily obligated to, even though you're the only person who can save them..

The pro-lifers will then counter that abortion is disanalogous, arguing that two people who willingly engage in sexual intercourse, even with contraception, do so at the risk of creating a foetus; and in so doing incur the above mentioned obligation which doesn’t exist between the subject and the violinist in the example.

This argument could go on forever, even without bringing in the complexities of socio-economic circumstance, rape, incest, religion and myriad other factors. What’s the solution? If the choices made by the mother are based on love, and not hate and fear, then I think further questions of the child’s’ successful gestation, birth and later development will become moot…ultimately bringing the questions of willingness and ability to raise the child back to the mother. A loving and supportive father would help.

Live a little, it's good for your health

Written November 11, 2007:

Get real, Live a little

It's late on a Thursday afternoon, I’m standing next to the Frigo café with some friends, exchanging lightning peals of witty banter over fashion faux pas’, when the subject of shoes comes up, and the question of whether to Jesus slop, or not to Jesus slop, is posed. Inoocent enough question, but the answers to such everyday conundrums can be quite enlightening… The comment came out of nowhere, and went a little something like this, “I didn’t wear my pair today ‘coz my feet smell!” all delivered with a wry smile that quickly slides into a huge grin.The sporadic outburst, which should have triggered reactions like “gross” or “siff” in any other context was a simple but powerful show of comfortability within ones’ self and surroundings. Kinda like being able to fart unashamedly in front of a (girl)friend; it shows a certain reckless abandon, the kind we somehow managed to lose between blissful childhood and those angst-riddled teenage years.

I mean think about it, how many people would you be comfortable letting rip around? What proportion of that group is of the opposite sex? See what I mean? We’ve all somehow become so self conscious that we’ve accepted the social farce of living behind screens and masks, unable to cast aside our inhibitions. We act within the bounds of norms and schema’s of acceptable social behaviour, constantly examining ourselves in case of existential 'open-fly’s' or un-tucked shirt tails. Now if you’re lucky, you’ll find a group of people with whom you feel completely and unreservedly at home, yourself; more than accepted. These are what a good friend of mine refers to as the family we are free to choose for ourselves. The only thing I think really limiting the range of this type of social transaction is the level of stigma being attributed to being/behaving in a improper manner, not in entirely sync with the rest of society; in some way sticking out. If people pretended less and just, were, more, how much easier would it be to find and get to know people of like mind and heart?

These people with whom this connection is forged at a chemical level obeying rules of a soul-ore metallurgy we haven’t even begun to conceptualise, can be summed up in a simple yet direct analogy; Peanut Butter People. I’ll explain; any one who has sat down on a Saturday morning, all set for a monster cartoon marathon with a jar of that good brown stuff and a spoon knows what I’m talking about. The first spoonful seems to explode in your mouth as a taste sensation your palate has been voraciously anticipating; you lean back contentedly, may even sigh appreciatively at the evident genius behind the creation of your favourite Xtra-crunchy variety. Next comes the arduous task of chewing, not so easy to do with a substance that isn’t exactly either solid or liquid, and swallowing all that goodness, as much pleasure as a pain in the neck, washing it all down with the mandatory gulp from a glass of full cream milk. Wow! Your palate tells, you, let’s do that again!

This is how I imagine your soul feels when you’re in the company of the people I earlier related as the family you choose for yourself. Always great to have around, sometimes make that imaginary mute-button in the air above their head seem a genius idea, but always there for a quiet retreat into the times in our minds when we didn’t give two rocks what the world thought; we were with friends and that was all that mattered. Peanut Butter People.

Feeling a hankering for Peanut Butter…? Then go out there and find yourself some! But first, get real! Come to accept yourself with all your character flaws and bad habits. Learn to love everything bout yourself, even the quirky if not down right freaky idiosyncrasies you keep getting ragged off about. Once that’s done, finding people on the same wavelength as you will be as easy as drawing water downhill. Always challenge yourself, do at least thing that scares the bejaysus out of you, everyday!

"Just let go! It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything, be anyone… I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve!" - Tyler Durden

 Really think about an answer before you give it, try to listen more than you speak, push the insecurity out onto the periphery, and just… Be.

Peace and Love

Let there be Love - Part II

Written October 18, 2008:

...So who is this God character anyway? As a matter of principle, I believe that every living soul should be allowed the freedom to answer this question in their own way (Way), in their own time. What I will offer here is my personal conviction on the question of Gods’- and our- nature.

I’m quoting a couple of passages from the Bible that, for me, paint the perfect picture of God and how he relates to us. They’re all from one of my favourite books, 1st John:

1:5 “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

3:1-2 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are...dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

3:16”This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us”

4:7-12” Dear friends let us love on another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No-one has ever seen God; but if we love on another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

4:16-18”And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete in us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

From this book alone we can make at least two concrete statements. The first; God is love. The second, God is light. If God is both these things, we are also by very nature love and light. We were made in the image and likeness of, as reflections of light and love. But what is love? My boy Paul lays it down beautifully in 1Corrinthians 13:1-8, 13

“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I have to the poor and surrender my body to flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Sound like a bit of a tall order? It shouldn’t be; this stuff should come naturally to us, and it can. If man was created and designed to be vessels of pure love, as God is, and Christ was that self-same love made flesh, then it seems to me logical to conclude that there isn’t a final purpose for our existence in the strict sense of the word, rather that our purpose is a continuous one: to propagate and refine our understanding of God and his infinite and pure love by practicing it in our daily lives. Again, if Christ can be used as the template for perfect love, then we already have in the Scriptures all the guidance we’ll ever need for leading lives more and more in line with our divine purpose. The only thing I think limiting us individually (and to a greater extent, collectively) is the level of understanding we allow ourselves to experience. I say allow because I don’t think any of this has to do with learning or growth or something we have to go and find that we lack.

Describing the colour red to someone born blind is a fruitless exercise. So is talking about abstract states like contentment, peace, joy, love. It is only through experience that one can testify that it truly is ‘more blessed to give than to receive.’ The most worthwhile thing we can do with our lives is to increase the depth of our spiritual understanding (not intellectual) of the fullness of the Love of God through the experience of sharing it freely and actively amongst ourselves.

This is our sole purpose, our Soul Purpose. Everything else is incidental.

This is my Truth, what I’ve adopted as my Way. However you’ve chosen to practice your Way, I sincerely hope that God continues to reveal himself to you in his infinite glory, and guide your steps every day as you walk along the path of enlightenment.

Peace and love.

Nathan

Let there be Love - Part I

Written October 18, 2008:

What follows is a model I’ve been building to make sense of life and the universe, a sort of self-substantiating rhetoric that I hope will be of some worth to you in your attempt to do the same. Parts of it have been pieced together from scientific, religious and philosophical books; the rest of it is simply what I’ve come to believe very firmly to be truth, and therefore entirely subjective. The central theme is Love, and given the metaphysical nature of this subject, I feel I must warn you that I won’t be able to qualify many of the statements which, while being in no way exhaustive, I hope will serve as solid points of departure for further discussion.

This first part is a summation of the Creationist vs. Evolutionist arguments, both of which are attempts at explaining the origins of the universe. Briefly stated, the Creationists hold to the Genesis 1 account of how the universe came into being, discounting any scientific explanations of the phenomenon. Theirs is a literal interpretation of the Bible’s account, down to the six days given as a time frame, which assumes that each of the events described happened in a 24hour period. This interpretation also gives the earths age to be only a few thousand years.

The Evolutionists, who are mostly either atheists or agnostics, are equally belligerent. Their position on the origins of the universe is largely based on the Big Bang theory, formulated entirely on scientific evidence and the observation of natural laws. Their argument mostly uses Darwin’s theory of natural evolution/selection to account for what has taken place on earth since then. For the sake of expediency, let’s suffice to say that, taken to their extremes; neither of these arguments holds water under close scrutiny. A more thorough exploration of this subject can be found in Is there a God? By John M Oakes, Ph.D.(Great Commission Illustrated, 1999).

Having looked into both arguments, I found that an open-minded analysis allows for a synthesis of both arguments; the biblical account fits almost perfectly with currently available scientific evidence about the history of the earth. Besides, I’ve never thought it necessary for science and religion to be irreconcilable.

“Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside its domain, value judgements of all kinds remain necessary.”- Albert Einstein

Creationist and Evolutionist arguments melded, these are the assumptions I’ve been working with:

1. God existed before the creation of the universe.
2. God created the universe out of nothing.
3. After creating the universe and everything in it, God created life.
4. Last of all God created man.

This leads us to the second part of the model, which deals with the origins of man. Having established that an extremely powerful Creator brought the universe, and everything in it into being, along with an inexplicably complex set laws to govern how it would maintain itself, one is forced to think of why this being would go through all that effort. The synthesis of the creationist and evolutionist arguments shows a deliberate plan in the creation of the universe, and earth in particular. The fact that we have as yet to find another planet that supports life in the way that ours does only bolsters my conviction that the earth was created with a purpose in mind:

Day one: And the Creator said, “Let there be light” and there was light. Biologists have found that light is the necessary catalyst in the process of photosynthesis by which plants make food for themselves, and consequently provide the energy we need to keep our bodies working.

Day two: The Creator decided to make an expanse between the waters, to separate the water above the expanse from the water below the expanse. This expanse is what we would call the ‘atmosphere’ or ‘sky’ we live in, whatever is between the oceans and the clouds (water above and water below).

Day three: On this day the Creator gathered the waters below into the many seas and the oceans, raising dry ground (arable land) in between these bodies of water. The Creator then causes the land to produce various kinds of vegetation, plants and trees to bear fruit with seeds, each according to its kind. And He saw that it was good.

Day four: The Creator then went about placing lights in the sky to separate day and night, and let them serve as signs to mark the seasons and days and years, and to give light on earth. He made two great lights, the greater to govern the day, the lesser to govern the night.

Day five: The Creator spoke,” let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” And so were created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. Blessing his creation, He bade them be fruitful and increase in number and fill the waters in the seas, and the birds increase on earth.
The Creator then caused the land to produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.

Day six: Last of all, the Creator said unto Himself,” Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, end let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth (Syriac translation: all the wild animals), and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

“So God created man, in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

The Creator saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Day seven: Having finished the work he had been dong, God rested.

Like an architect, God designed the earth and everything in it with a single aim in mind, giving careful consideration to the kinds of material conditions that would be necessary to support human life. The sun to control seasonal changes and the water cycle, the moon to control the ebb and flow of the tides; the creatures of the earth, sea and sky, the plants and trees of the earth to carry out the complex biological exchanges of nutrients needed to recycle the energy (and air) man would need to live. It’s pretty incredible to think of the amount of planning and thought that must have gone into creating a perfect natural balance of all these varied elements, all just so that we could have life!

Why would God go through all of this trouble? Why would he design and create the earth in all its exquisite perfection, and then give it mankind to rule over? In this next part of the model I will essay an answer that I believe with all my heart, soul and mind to be Truth.

I seriously doubt that God created the universe out of boredom. I mean, a being with the kind of power to form, apparently from nothing, the entire universe and provide means and laws by which it would carry working on it’s own must have had a pretty good reason to put forth all of that power. My answer? I think he was showing off. Not in the way that a child would show off a new toy to his friends, but more in the spirit of the Olympics, an exhibition or expression of latent talent. And not because God had anything to prove, or anyone else to impress, but simply because he could. Look at the hundred meter sprints at the Olympics this year. Asafa Powell must have been pretty chuffed with himself when he broke world record for the first time, making him the fastest man in the world. Enter Usain Bolt, who, in one of the most amazing spectacles I’ve ever witnessed, made Asafa and the rest of the field look like they were standing still, and he made it look so easy! The point I’m trying to make is that both sprinters must have known that they are pretty quick, but that knowledge clearly wasn’t enough for either of them, it never could be. They needed to experience as well as know that they are fast. This is essentially what I believe God was doing when he created the universe, it was an exercise of his power, in order to have an experiential knowledge of His infinite power.

Note again that as mankind, we were created in the image of God; as a reflection of him. God could only “see” Himself through us, like a self portrait using the rest of the universe as a backdrop, God revealed Himself unto Himself by creating us. Can you see the significance of this? We were made in the image of God, in the likeness of God, as a reflection of God; WE ARE GOD! We share His nature (the implications of this are scary) and His purpose. Any question, therefore, of our nature or purpose, can only be answered by or found in God...

Amandla Wa Ntoni?

Jameson Hall, 12 September 2007: Xhosa poetess explodes into a rousing,"Amandla!", to which the crowd appropriately responds,"Awethu!" She then gives the echoes reverberating from the vaulted ceiling above a moment or two die down before begging the question,"Amandla wa ntoni?"

The dead silence that followed lasted only a few seconds before thunderous applause rang out to fill the vacuum. For those members of the audience who understood the meaning behind her words, though, that pregnant pause must have seemed to last much longer than that brief moment.

You see, the speaker that night was former President, Thabo Mbeki. The occasion, the 30^th anniversary of the death of Steven Bantu Biko. How appropriate that the address was being given by an ardent advocate for an African Renaissance, celebrating the life of the man who gave birth to, and literally died for espousing the principles of the Black Consciousness Movement. 

I remember walking back down to lower campus with that single phrase replaying itself in my mind, “Amanda wa ntoni?” which in English translates roughly as, “Power for what purpose?”

Put another way, we could ask ourselves, what are we making of the legacy we inherited from the years of struggle for freedom? After all the suffering and strife that was endured, and the countless sacrifices that were made, it seems as if the political will that was built up to combat the corrupt and oppressive apartheid regime just dissipated into the ether.

What were we fighting for? Was the right to vote in a democratic election really the end game of the stalwarts who bought with blood and sweat the freedoms we enjoy today?

It certainly seems that way. The sum of the freedom years up to now can be characterised by power jockeying, increasing government corruption, near non-existent delivery of essential services to those most in need of them (housing, education, water & electricity) and the kind of political apathy that is a hallmark of people who have been severely let down.

If you look at it optimistically, one can project that, with the right people in the right jobs, the country's administrative issues will get sorted eventually. But if an efficient government is all we can show for ourselves in a century or so from now, I believe then that the Biko’s, Thambo’s, Hani’s and Sisulu’s of our world will have fought and died in vain.

Hundreds of years of active under development and exploitation of the Black peoples of our nation, followed by decades of systematic subjugation have robbed us of more than just land and the right to self-government. The cultural poverty that so many of our generation are left in today is also a direct result of the laws and policies that were enacted by our former masters, and one that was consciously driven at too.

Today, Ubuntu is little more than a catchy phrase, cultural identity is rapidly being eroded by the behemoth that is the American marketing machine, and the kind of community and family values that our forefathers took for granted have been all but lost to the ravages of time. Our struggle is no longer primarily a political one, but a spiritual one. Now before you close this window and go check your e-mail, give me a chance to couch my statement in more elaborate terms.

Numerous references are made to the Spirit of Ubuntu, more than likely because it has never really been codified, it’s something that our people have always just practiced instinctively, as if it was the only religion and constitution we ever needed. You don’t need to be a sociologist to notice how little power that Spirit now has in the hearts and minds of Black South Africans.

The lucky few who were in positions to benefit economically from the transfer of power in the early to mid ninesties have been party to the widening of the disparity between rich and poor in South Africa, amassing wealth and all it's accoutrements with barely a thought for the millions whose lives have improved but a little since 1994. The economic betterment of a select few and the relegation of the masses to what is still essentially a hereditary labour force has made social disctinctions more about class than race, though the two are still closely correlated. We don't talk to each other anymore. We live in a constant state paranoia from fear of being robbed, hi-jacked or mugged. We walk past each other in the street without so much as making eye contact. I'm pretty sure this isn't the vision of South Africa that Steve Biko gave his life to realise.
 
In the thought system of Ubuntu, one cannot be fully happy while his neighbour suffers. This clashes with the current state of affairs where those who are reaping the rewards of our relative freedom today are content to leave those less fortunate to languish in squalor. This cannot be abided. Pre-colonial communities used to farm the land as individual families and share the crop collectively. If there was any kind of surplus generated by one families efforts, it was distributed to those who hadn't faired so well. Nowhere can this Spirit of sharing for the common good be seen today. It's more a case of,"I'm good, go out and get yours." I'm not talking about giving handouts that perpetuate the charity-case mindset, but about doing one's level best to better the man next to him, so he can do the same for the next.

Support small business. Spend time tutoring children at under-resourced schools. Make a conscious effort to give of your time and energy by volunteering to help with community outreach programmes. Get to know the person who cleans your house or tends to your garden. Instead of just donating money to a faceless organisation, pack a light meal and give it to the man or woman on the corner you pass on your way to work every day. Or a blanket. Or a pair of shoes. Let's be aware of each other.

Our challenge, the answer to poetess' question and the true test of whether or not we have overcome the tyranny of the apartheid system, is to recapture and rekindle the ideals and values of Ubuntu.Only then can we begin to build a truly unified natioin and forge a future where the Africa in South Africa doesn't just denote out geographical position.

Get Over It Already!

I don’t think Europeans dealt with the Black Death very well. Imagine the kind of trauma the survivors must have gone through; apart from the very real social and economic consequences of the devastating depopulation the plague left in its wake, I’m pretty sure they were left with the mother and father of all PTSD’s.

The problem is, the environmental factors that lead to Europeans becoming such an ingenious bunch also contributed to the beginnings of a belief in their own superiority:

The basic challenges of survival that their antecedents so inventively overcame helped shape the kind of mentality that is manifest in just about every kind innovation since the renaissance, “okay, so Mother Nature seems to have it in for us, so let’s start applying ourselves to overcoming her and maybe, just maybe, we can avoid ever having to look annihilation in the face again.”

What followed, as the history books will attest, is the systematic and rather effective attempt to place man above the natural order, with Europeans of course getting the credit for doing all the slog work.

The resulting civilisation and modernisation the world has been a reinforcement of their perceived intellectual superiority over not just the elements, but over other races as well. The human rights atrocities committed by the European powers beginning some time during the fifteenth century and carrying on right through to the last one are proof enough of that; you have to have a pretty strong disregard for a people with more melanin than you to consciously set about decimating them in order to lay hands on their natural resources.

I’m sure that most of you reading this have heard of phrenology, biblical rationalisations and all manner of sophistry the contrived to prove the natural supremacy of Caucasians over all other races. And they put these fallacies to good use too, lowering the less advanced peoples they encountered in their expansion to the level of subhuman so they could justify to themselves the wholesale theft of land and life they subsequently committed.

North America, South America, Africa, India, Australasia and South East Asia: everywhere Europeans have gone, they’ve perpetrated the same crimes against humanity in a ruthless, efficient and characteristically creative ways. Murder, rape, forced removals, enslavement, forced labour and brainwashing; at first innocuously and obliquely, then bald facedly and brutally. The diseases they brought with them also did a number on the indigenous peoples they encountered. They essentially became the embodiment of the pandemic that so nearly wiped them out. The White Death?

Cultures that were less technologically progressive have typically been more in sync with nature, it’s rhythms and cycles, and in my opinion, more given to recovering from natural disasters with a minimum amount of psychological trauma. If a crop failed, or a particularly bitter winter set in, or a bout of sickness took out a significant portion of their population, they simply chalked it up to the natural progression of things, made a sacrifice to their chosen deities and moved on with life.

This accepting attitude also made them vulnerable to the machinations of the wily Europeans, who had long since learned to dissemble their intentions until they had no more use of subterfuge. Complex social structures will do that to people, I guess. 

Now I know it might be a stretch to suggest that the Plague put a scar on the racial memory of all Europeans, I don’t think that idea has been proven, but if you look at it from a purely behavioural stand point, there are clear signs of psychosis in every aspect of Western life. 

Capitalism has become, from any angle you look at it, the most pervasive institutionalised expression of this psychosis.

Europeans became too clever for their own good, paid the price when a disease ripped through their overpopulated, unsanitary populations centres, recovered physically from the devastation they endured but not psychologically, and now the rest of the world is being forced to share in the experience of their resulting madness.

Anybody got the number of a really good therapist?

Got Hair?

Black women with expensive synthetic hair on their heads just rub me up the wrong way. I mean, who are they trying to look like? I didn't even know that white women hade extensions put in until I watched a trashy reality show out of sheer boredom, a fact which threw me for a loop just as much as news of glue on nails did when I was kid...

It doesn't make any sense to me why one would spend hundreds if not thousands of rands in an effort to look more or less ecaxtly like a member of Barbie's posse. What's wrong with the hair you were born with?

I'm not going to get into the complexes a lot of people are throwing around as laymen pseudo-diagnoses of weave wearers mental states, but plastering another human being's hair (or horses tail) on top of your head because you think it makes you look prettier definitely point to some sort of underlying insecurity.

Bald, Afro, Dreadlocks, short brush cut, there's so much that our black women could do with their god-given crowns of hair that would cost far less in time and money, and would probably make them more endearing to men of a particular turn of mind (myself included), but they stubbornly persist in going after the latest brand of Brazilian or Indian weave to get that 'all natural' look. What's the basis?
 
And it could just be me and my limited life experience talking here, but the more a woman spends on what's on her head, the less she's probably invested on what's inside her head.

In fact, I can't think of a single heroine of the past century who had any kind of tinkering done with her hair.

All I'm saying is, if your hair costs more per month than you spend something constructive like, oh say, books (Mills & Boon rubbish doesn't count), then maybe you need to rethink your priorities.

Wanna feel like a 'natural woman'? Ditch the fake hair, fake nails, fake eyelashes etc. and a maybe a real brother will see you for the African queen you are. 

Black Gold

I really appreciate positive value affirming music like this, there's just not enough of it going around in this pop-everything (bottles, hoods, tags etc.) world we live in:

http://soundcloud.com/concordmusicgroup/black-gold

It sounds glib, but if music is food for the soul, and you are what you eat (no more cliche's, i swear) then this is the kind of music i'm going to raise my children on. I was convinced for a while there that the sum musical aspirations of my genereation ran to catchy hooks and heavy bass lines, but it's nice to find out that i have some contemporaries who are thinking about the heritage of song we'll be passing on.

As I lay awake in bed last night, a fire was lit in my mind.

As I lay awake in bed last night, a fire was lit in my mind. It was sudden, but it flared with such ferocity, it was as if myriad hands had been at work with twig and branch, flint and tinder, all to spark the flame that would illuminate the dark recesses of my mind.

I know these hands; bold hands, bruised hands, hands that bear calluses earned through year upon countless year of struggle and strife. These hands that planted, these hands that built. These hands that were now cupped in thanksgiving and supplication, now raised in praise and exaltation, these hands that are even now bathed in the warm glow of the blaze they laboured to fuel.

My hands.

As I lay awake in bed last night, a fire was lit in my mind, and it will not be put out.