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18 May 2011 |
| Today
was election day. Quite emotional for me to be honest. Call me a fool,
call me a patriot, call me whatever you want. This is my country as
well and the fact that the collective need to stand together to get rid
of the corrupt ant-Christ that is ruling our country. Harsh words but not totally unjustified. "We will rule until Jesus returns" was just one of Zumas' remarks. Then there's the very recent reference to the forefathers watching you and ANC card carrying members will be the only ones allowed into heaven. I won't even go into the racial hatred being spread under the cover of campaigning - especially Malema claiming that the DA is for whites only and the ANC for the blacks. What hogwash from leaders who are supposed to promote racial harmony. Playing on the emotions of the electorate. But what does the average black think about the political situation in South Africa? I've been trying to put it into some sort of logic. To be honest, we've known this all along but I've had my hopes that in the new improved South Africa and 17 years later, I might be wrong. Sadly it seems, I'm not. Under apartheid we whiteys had an advantage over our black brothers. Even though they burnt schools and books, education was of primary concern to us. Most of the black ANC leaders over the past couple of years were educated in the country with the odd revolutionary being schooled overseas. Was educational thus such a big disadvantage to our black community? Yes, it's all about education. Sure there are cultural issues as well, and considering the fight for freedom and rejection of everything the (then) white government tried to do to improve the lives of the blacks. Yet we still sit with a majority who believes that the whites got everything they own for nothing - from government. That's the real issue. Whatever the root causes were, seventeen years is a long time to try and correct this misconception. Over the past couple of months we've seen an increase in riots. These township people are under the firm impression that government owes them big. They want houses (for free), they want elecricity (for free), they want schooling (for free), they want money (for free). Most of them refuse to accept the fact that basic economics does not work that way - understand - they refuse. Why is this such a big issue with the township folk? The ANC has been promising this to them ever since they came into power. Our government has been making these promises for a long time now and the people who voted them in are fed-up. They've had enough. The problem now is that there is no way in hell anyone is going to convince them that there is no money and not enough time to supply all these "luxuries". My believe is that you have the basic human right to fresh water. That is it. The rest is up to you. Us whiteys had to work hard over the past couple of years to make a living. Nothing comes for free. We know that. We've had to comply with what is accepted as standard in the modern age. Even criminals work for their loot - sometimes endangering their lives, other times through easy pickings. As a thirty-year old I cannot lay claim to an RDP house. I cannot go on strike because I don't like my boss, or because the taxi fare is too high. I cannot burn tires in the streets because I don't have electricity. Though in the new improved South Africa I feel justified to do so and when things turn violent and a "comrade" gets killed it only fuels emotions of revolt. Why do I have the right then? Simply because my elected government officials do as they like. We have no respect for them. We want what was promised and we want it now. And we'll vote for them and revolt against them until such time that they deliver on their promises. It's as simple as that! |
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