Compatriots

South African politics at the moment is more exciting than a good Isidingo story line (which were far and few between when last I was watching Isidingo, incidentally. Maybe that is why the nation has turned to politics for some excitement).

I really don't know how well COPE is going to do. I'm waiting to see what their policy documents say, for one. That must be one major job, putting together their policy. Because as much as they protest, they are really just a group of people united by their desire NOT to be the ANC.

But in spite of that, I think COPE is an organisation whose time has come. Khaya recently wrote about COPE being a response to the "fierce urgency of now." Exactly. Exactly exactly.

In ancient Greek there were two words for time. Chronos time is the ordinary sequential step by step time. And then there was Kairos time. Kairos time is a time in between, a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens (wikipedia). Kairos time is the time of opportunity. It has the connotation of being a time of crisis, where things can change dramatically.

As Galadriel said in Lord of the Rings, "The quest balances on the edge of a knife."

What Lekota and Shilowa and COPE have done is to recognise the kairos moment South Africa is in. A few years ago the announcement of an ANC breakaway party would have fallen completely flat. Today COPE is riding on the urgency of now, on the frustration of masses of people in our country.

Me, I haven't decided who will get my vote yet. I have toyed with the idea of joining COPE, just because I want to be part of moving our nation forward. But I haven't decided yet if the best way to do that is through COPE. We will see.

I once took note of Thabo Mbeki adressing a speech to "compatriots." I noted it because it was different to the usual struggle veteran, "comrades." And because I liked it. Compatriots - fellow patriots. Nice. Comrade is word that only includes people with a certain mindset, and a certain history. And for the people with that mindset and history, that is great. But that is not all of us. Compatriot. Fellow patriot. That is all of us.

I read on the Friends of Democracy webpage comments, someone suggest we change our language to move from "comrades" to "compatriots". Which I thought was excellent. And very discerning.

So yes, to my fellow patriots!