It's a sludgy kind of rainbow

I’m not sure what happened to the dream of the Rainbow Nation but I think it’s probably safe to say both dream and rainbow have vanished. The past few weeks have been “interesting” to say the least. The xenophobic violence that reared its ugly head killing about 62 people, injuring some 670 and displacing more than 100 000 people has left many of us perplexed. D and I have had long discussions as to what may lie behind the inexplicable display of violence that has been experienced. Could it be sociological? Yes. Could it be theological? Yes. Is it the result of socio-economic policies? Yes. Is it the result of high expectations fuelled by lack of delivery? Yes. Is it the result of political lethargy? Yes. Is the result of a lack of education? Yes. It is all these things but it is also more – and it is the more that is almost too frightening to put into words. It is a barbarism and brutality that smacks primarily of Hitler’s Germany but also of Pol Pot’s Cambodia and Milosevic’s Serbia. It speaks of a baseness in the human psyche – the shadow self, the untamed beast.

Take this story and make sense of it if you can.

A Somali shop owner lived in one of the Cape Town townships/shantytowns for over seven years. He lent his predominantly Xhosa neighbours money, did their shopping when they’ve were unable to, gave their children sweets. He was a part of their community and his prices were better than the supermarkets. Yet there he stood in his shop two weeks ago when his neighbour walked into the shop and started toyi-toyi-ing. He said to her “Sisi [sister], you must sing when you dance,” not realising that her dance was a Judas kiss which brought all his other neighbours into the shop. His neighbours looted the shop, burnt it down and chased him from his home and neighbourhood screaming “Hamba amakwerekwere, hamba!” (Go, foreigner, go!)

There is no logic in this action. This man had done nothing to them. In fact, he had helped them, yet this was how they repaid him – by turning on him and destroying everything he had.

It’s not an isolated incident. In recent weeks events like this have unfolded across South Africa.

Angela’s husband has experienced much the same. For two years he has lived amongst his neighbours, renting a room from a local woman. As a qualified welder running his own business, he has created burglar bars, sliding gates and security gates for the people he lives amongst. Yet, on top of never wanting to pay him (after all, why should they pay a foreigner), two weeks ago they looted the workshop where he worked and stole most of his equipment. He now has to either start from scratch or find employment with a company. The irony is, these same locals are now asking when he'll come back and do more burglar bars for him. As he says, he doesn't want to go back, it's not safe and will never be. Foreigners, he says, are natural targets from local criminal elements - and others, simply because they're foreign

As events have unfolded, foreigners across South Africa have been necklaced and burnt to death, they’ve been attacked and victimized, they’ve had their belongings stolen or burnt. Many fled with just the clothes on their back. Locals have shown a complete lack of human compassion, understanding - and basic humanity. A negative energy which has touched everyone has pervaded the country like an unexpected, rampant cancer. Of course, one might say it was not that unexpected. And it wasn’t – it’s been waiting to happen – it started happening five years ago (and that’s without mentioning South Africa’s long history of ethnic violence). But the government in its “wisdom” has, as ever, failed to act - and continues to do too little, too late.

It would, of course, be gloriously easy to say, as so many do, “Oh, this is the legacy of apartheid.” To that, I say, "Rubbish! Wake up and smell the roses." Yes, of course, apartheid was a deeply dehumanizing system, no one denies that, of course it has left scars. But we are fourteen years on and huge efforts have been made to heal the rifts. Yet today, racism is more alive and well in South Africa than it has ever been. It is conceivably far worse than ever.

Angela’s husband and I were chatting this morning.

“You know what they say in the townships,” he said, “why they want this Zuma as president? Because they say he is going to chase away the whites. They don’t want whites in South Africa, they want only themselves, they hate everyone else. They look to Zimbabwe and they say, yes, that Mugabe, he has the right idea, he chased away the whites. They’re mad, these people, crazy. They’re ignorant. They don’t know what the reality will be. They will have nothing. South Africa will end up like Zimbabwe – and unlike Zimbabweans, these South Africans they don’t want to work, they don’t know how to work. They want everything, but it must be given to them for nothing.”

My own experience of many South Africans bears this out. The resentment and hatred continues to brood and brew. It is targeted at minority ethnic groups, irrespective of colour or creed. Alongside it the culture of entitlement and non-payment continues to grow.

“You know,” said Angela’s husband, “they were attacking everyone they saw when we left. It didn’t matter that you were black, if you were blacker than them, they attacked you. Even their own people. It was only when people could prove they spoke their language that they stopped beating them, but everyone else – local people and foreigners – who didn’t speak their language, they attacked, even the old ladies, the grandmothers.”

(Do take into account that South Africa has 11 official languages and eight non official languages...)

There is a strong sense among those I speak to that this violence is but the beginning. That it will, in time, spread from attacks on foreigners to attacks on the Indian, “coloured” (mixed race), white and other smaller ethnic populations.

The ANC government has had fourteen years to make a difference – and it has failed miserably. President Thabo Mbeki continues to argue that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. I suspect he still believes that AIDS is the white man’s hex on the black man and that it can be cured by the African potato and a goodly dose of garlic. He has presided over an education system which is in tatters, health services which have failed miserably, and borders that are as porous as sieves. The fact that it took him two weeks to act and another two and a half weeks to speak out against the xenophobia, also speaks volumes, as does his refusal to invite the UN to lend assistance to the thousands of refugees housed in tented camps in the middle of a wet and cold winter. One can only assume that along with Bob from up North, he’s done a deal with the devil (or maybe the Chinese). Of course, as to his successor, Jacob Zuma, currently facing charges of fraud and corruption (which he and his cronies are doing their level best to quash), I think it would be safe to say, he’ll go with the highest bidder. As it is, his message changes from day to day depending on what any given audience wishes to hear.

Those who think the writing isn’t on the wall for the “Rainbow Nation” are surely living in a fool’s paradise whilst imitating the good old ostrich.

Time for Whimsy

When the going gets tough, the tough remember to play (and sometimes they go shopping too). Sometimes you just have to find the balance, sometimes you just have to have some fun.

I will write some more about the things that have been going on, the humanitarian and health crises that are brewing but for now, let's just play. It's what I did, in the digital darkroom and by sticking my nose into some comic verse.

As Ogden Nash says...

On Breaking the Ice
Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker

The Purple Cow
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
Gelert Burgess


Sequel to the Purple Cow
Ah, Yes! I wrote the "Purple Cow" -
I'm Sorry, now I wrote it!
But I can Tell you Anyhow,
I'll Kill you if you Quote it.
Gelert Burgess

A Case

As I was going up the stair

I met I man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today -

I wish to God he'd go away!

Anon

Opportunity

When Mrs Gorm (Aunt Eloise)

Was stung to death by savage bees,

Her husband (Prebendary Gorm)

Put on his veil, and took the swarm.

He's publishing a book next May

On "How to Make Bee-keeping Pay".

Harry Graham

Ultimate Reality

There was an old man in a trunk,

Who inquired of his wife, "Am I drunk?"

She replied with regret,

"I'm afraid so, my pet."

And he answered, "It's just as I thunk."

Ogden Nash

Until next time, go gently, be kind to one another - and remember to have fun.

The shredding and shame of the Rainbow Nation

As xenophobic violence rips its way across South Africa, displacing thousands of foreign migrants and political refugees, I find myself at a loss for words when subject to the cruelty, hatred and brutality of South Africans towards their neighbours. The tragic irony is that Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambicans all welcomed South African political refugees in the bad old days of apartheid, gave them hospitality and aided them in their struggle against the white minority government. But memories are short and the pressing poverty (and inherent violence) of South African society far outweighs issues of humanity.

And bear in mind that it is not only foreigners being attacked but local people too - Vendas, Pedis, Shangaans, have all been told to leave Johannesburg and go back to their own provinces (counties/states). The violence is also spreading to Durban and Cape Town.

There is a view that says a politically motivated third force is behind the wave of violence. This may or may not be true.

But the reality is, the truth, whatever it is, is deeply complex and Thabo Mbeki, in his usual and ineffective way, has called for yet another "investigation". As if that will solve the problem. The Times, in particular, has torn into Mbeki's policies, or lack thereof, as being a direct cause of the violence.

I leave you with this and suggest you look at the related links in the article too. Also go here. Or follow the various links from here.

Hello Xenophobia, my old friend, you raise your ugly head again...

I was pondering what to write about today when Angela arrived.
“Did you see the news last night?” she asked me.
I hadn’t.
“They’re killing Zimbabweans and Malawians – beating them – three people have died.”
“Who?” I asked, “who’s killing them – where?”
“Zulus – in Alexandra.”
Alexandra is a shanty town in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. An estimated 350 000 people live in “Alex”. They occupy 8500 formal houses, 34 000 shacks, 3 hostel complexes, 2 500 flats and numerous old factories and buildings. In the past few days xenophobic violence has flared across the community as local people have lashed out foreigners – Malawians, Zimbabweans, Congolese, Rwandans… Claiming the foreigners take their jobs and their homes. The foreigners, terrified for their lives, have fled to police stations where they are barely getting any food. Some, in fact, have had no food for a few days.
“They say that we must go back to Zimbabwe,” said Angela, “But we can’t, Mugabe is killing us there. Everyday he is killing people. I’m frightened. What if the Xhosas here start doing the same thing here in the Cape. Where will we go? We can’t go back. And if we stay here, South African black people will kill us. I’m worried.”
Worried is an understatement.
“What about Mozambique?” I asked.
“Yes, they are good people in Mozambique, but there are no jobs. You just sell things in the market. I don’t know what we will do.”
And so we face another grim reality of Angela’s daily existence. And that reality is xenophobia - rampant xenophobia which spills and spreads like an oil slick from the north to the south of South Africa. And the interesting thing is this: While, by and large, most white South Africans have accepted the nearly 5 million refugees from various parts of Africa, most black South Africans have not. They view these foreigners as troublemakers who “steal” their homes and their jobs. Ironically, the refugees have aided the South African economy hugely, doing whatever jobs come their way – while many locals would prefer to see largesse simply handed to them on a plate. So, yes, local people may be right in saying the foreigners are stealing their jobs – but only because they can – because many locals are simply not willing to work in the same way. It’s a tragic sort of irony.
“I pray every day to God,” said Angela, “I pray that he will make them not hate us and hurt us. I don’t understand it,” she said, “We are all Africans together.”
And therein lies the greatest irony. Not only are we all Africans together on this benighted continent, but we are all humans together, not just in Africa but in the whole world. And look at us, look at how we bicker and fight. I often wonder what an ET looking at this planet must think.
The simple reality is this, one man feels he is threatened and he attacks the man who lives next door. You see it the world over. You just have to look at the rise of nationalism across Europe. You hear the same arguments in the UK – “these foreigners are taking our jobs, we must have tougher immigration control”. And so it goes. It's a strange phenomenon for a global "village" isn't it, the villagers hating and fighting with one another.
But while most of us sit in our safe houses, with food on the tables, in Zimbabwe – and countless other places - people are starving and living in fear of their lives.
And as the global economic crisis plays itself out the people who are worst hit are the poorest. Local people are rising up at this moment against refugees because food prices have soared as a result of purported global food shortages – but you just have to look at the considerable food waste in the West to really question the reality of that position.
“I can’t go back to Zim,” Angela said as she pushed the iron back and forth over a shirt, “We will die. I know we will die. If Mugabe doesn’t kill us, we will starve to death. But I am frightened to stay here. I don’t know what we will do.”
And I have no answers. I don’t know what to say to her. All I can do is pass on the phenomenal goodwill that so many of you sent her via this blog last week. And when I do so, her eyes soften and she says, “Thank you, thank you, there are good people in the world.”

For more on the Alexandra violence and the plight of African foreigners in South Africa, you can take a look here here, here and here