You speak the truth, Brian.
What is difficult, is that, as a young Afrikaner who was born too late
to have anything to do with Apartheid, I find my heritage and culture
disregarded and destroyed (though the endless changes of place names,
removals of monuments, etc etc) and I find myself part of a minority who
is actively discriminated against (even though I personally am lucky and
successful in my life) without having any form of protection, which
other minorities in other countries enjoy.
The Afrikaner nation is strong and have accomplished much (from the
Anglo-Boer War, to building South Africa up as what was, at a time, the
only country in Africa which was not solidly third-world) but all of
that is forgotten / shunned because of the one mistake made by the
political leaders half a century before my birth.
The price they pay, is that black people here repeatedly and continually
commit heinous acts of crime of a brutality you have not seen before
*anywhere* against white people (and, often enough, themselves, if you
followed the news of the recent Xenophobic attacks that broke out
against other Africans).
Yes, many white people who are fortunate enough to live in decent homes.
Have decent jobs. But I am a strong believer in a non-racial society,
and I am not, and will never, prevent a person of a race different to my
own from building and maintaining a decent life.
But, in the meantime, we find ourselves in a reversed, implied apartheid
where everything we as a minority have, is actively seeked and
destroyed. We are outnumbered more than 20:1. Some of us stick around,
because this is there home, and they feel they can contribute to
society. They do not want to just run. But so many have.
I will not bore this list with my personal losses over the past seven
years. But this was by no means the first incident. But my life and my
belongings are at constant risk, if not actively protected.
Surely, That is not a society?
And as a last comment, over the past decade or more, the 'democratically
elected ANC government' has allowed so much of our natural beauty to be
destroyed due to gross incompetence, mis-management and lack of
planning. The beauty we had, and still have, was actively protected by
previous governments.
If you want to come and see it (and photograph it) you better come
quick, because it is being raped and pillaged like never before.
I wish I could convey the sadness, and the conflict, I feel at the
transition of the situation: In 1994 we went from a pristine, well-run,
beautiful country with a terrible political and human rights record, to
a current 'free, democratic' country which is collapsing under its own
uncontrolled over-development because of the incompetence and the greed
of those in charge now.
Seems like there is no winning? The only way to deal with this is to
enjoy the small, simple things - and try to photograph them :-)
On Wed, 2008-10-15 at 12:46 +0100, Brian Gray wrote:
> It looks as if it will
> take a long time before race is not an issue and people of all
> colours will be judged for what they are and not by stereotypes of
> people with their background.
>
> But, if you do go to the country, and much of the scenery is
> beautiful, be prepared to take many pictures with your Olympus cameras, I did.
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