Admitting a problem is the first step to recovery
“The African National Congress (ANC) views the granting by Canada of a refugee status to South African citizen Brandon Huntley on the grounds that Africans would ‘persecute’ him, as racist,” the party said in a statement.
…Willie Spies, legal spokesperson for civil rights initiative AfriForum, established by traditionally white trade union Solidarity, accused the government of indifference over the rights of minorities.
“The mere fact that the race card is so often played by people in positions of power and positions of authority, is definitely a red light as far as we are concerned,” he said in response to Huntley’s case “
OK ANC, we’ve got no problems. Whites are not being targeted, and are given an equal opportunity at employment and being scalded to death with boiling water (here and here, just the top two on google…). Weekly reports of old defenseless non-AA compliant people being tortured to death for little more than pocket change & a TV set is just run of the mill Africa I guess.
Reading articles like this “It was like Beirut. Even my deaf aunt said she heard a knocking sound, but I recognised it as automatic gunfire” on a weekly basis comforts me that Mr. Corruption-Charges-Dodged-Zuma and his crime ridden police force has my back? Yeah right.
I admit I think this Huntley took a chance, but the fact that educated people from a first world country sided with him is frightening. I think we’re the classic example of a frog slowly brought to boil, our exposure to daily violence distored our sense of reasonable safe living conditions. Numbed.
What gets me the most is that they, our goverment, never admit the problem. Crime stats are not published since it makes them look bad. Every time something goes wrong, or they just plain screw it up beyond fixability, it gets blamed on racism. I’ve yet to see any changes, and I honestly fear that after the much touted 2010 world cup has come & gone, all the motivation to keep up pretences of running a legitimate country will be gone, and we’ll be sliding down the slope of becoming just another African country real fast.
I hope I’m wrong, really, but I see no evidence to suggest otherwise. The fact that these cartoons are all old jokes, and we actually laugh at it despite it being true, is rather sad.
