South Africa is a beautiful country and Cape Town a gorgeous City.... I have lived overseas and my ancestry on my mothers side is British... I have a British passport and family in England and yet I am still here... my family is here my life is here... Cape Town is full of amazing people and beautiful sites yes I bitch and moan about the political issues but that aside i have always been very happy here....
Of late however I am not only becoming increasingly afraid for myself and my children but also getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of care that our government is showing for its people...
Racism is rife in this country and it is becoming worse by the day...
I understand Apartheid was a terrible and disgusting time in our countries history and that atrocities occurred that shouldn't have, yes I understand that black Africans or anyone of color for that matter was treated as a 2nd rate citazin.... I could never understand or know the pain and turmoil of those people and what they had to endure what I do know is that firstly the apartheid era ended in my very early childhood; second nothing is going to change that it happened or make it go away and 3rd unfortunately if you go through the history books we were not the only country who went through this, this was not understood to be wrong at the time it was the norm, as wrong as it was it happened all over and if you look at the history of South Africa in particular; the dutch arrived and suppressed the African tribes and then the English arrived and suppressed the dutch- the dutch farmers along with many Africans were put into concentration camps starved and tortured, white, black and colored, in fact the van der Merwe's which is my maiden name were one of the 6 original Afrikaans families to settle and one of the 6 who were tortured and kept in those camps,there is nothing I can do to change that this happened and it wont help me to hate those who did that to my ancestors it wont do any good it wont change anything all I can do is ensure that I/ we don't do the same...
My point is pulling down historic statues, slapping them and defacing them as if these statues were alive well its just pointless it is not going to change anything, it wont make the issues, the poverty and the crime in this country go away, it wont fix the corruption in our government or stop the rape and murder daily of woman children and the elderly it wont change a thing, it wont make apartheid disappear and it wont eradicate the pain of those who endured the struggle through and post the apartheid era....
You know what will; joining hands together as one nation all colors, cultures and religions and working together, saying no to corruption and crime voting for a government that cares for its people instead of encouraging the behavior of a son who condones xenophobia or leaders and people who defaecate and then throw there mess at airports and on the steps of parliamentary buildings, who encourage looting and stone throwing and general violence based on a complex of in superiority that encourages people to feel entitled by their race instead of knowing that they don't need to be given a free ride when the have the ability to work their way to the top... to prove that they an amazing people who can get there on their own if given the chance.
South Africa is rich with so many cultures and religions it is a beautiful thing to behold...
I consider myself extremely lucky to have a roof over my head and food on the table to have a job for all of that I am incredibly grateful.... I work hard for that every day, my car is old and beat up but its mine, I have a job and we get by even if its by the skin of our teeth, we don't live in an expensive or upmarket area, our area hosts many different races and cultures, we are all just trying to survive...
I don't want to leave this country, I love this country and I believe people like Mandela who fought so hard to create a country of equality and love have been put to shame, personally I do not care whether we have a president who is black or white they could be Asian, Indian, it wouldn't matter, what matters is that they run this country for the better of all who live here, that every South African is embraced no matter who they are or where they have come from, I wish everyone would see how much we could do for each other if we just choose to uplift one another rather than go against eachother because we are different...
I mourn for South Africa right now, for all the people who have died due to crime and general violence, I mourn for those who fought so hard for a better future and are now seeing everything fall to pieces, I mourn our beautiful country....
No comments:
Post a Comment