This and that

Remember a few years ago, when every possible racial issue under the sun seemed to bubble to the surface at once? The Freestate video, Jansen's response, that white kid from a farm somewhere up north who randomly went and killed someone in a nearby township... were there other incidences too? I think so. Anyway these things were all over the news and everyone was talking about them... wasn't it also around the time Mbeki was kicked out and the whole JZ trial / persecution / who knows was in full swing?

Fun times :) You know us South Africans, we love a good controversy. Anyway, it seems ET's death brought us back to a bit of that. Only now it is centred around the AWB and farm murders and the like. And Julius Malema... well, kindof.

Anyway, these are serious matters of course but in true South African style we deal with the serious (in part) by having a good laugh about the silly parts of it. With Andre Visagie and Chris Maroleng giving us some fantastic opportunities to laugh (Don't touch my Studio!), and Malema doing his but too (rubbish is what you have in your pants!). The funnies for me was reading a New York Times article about the Malema incident with the journalist, which diplomatically wrote that "He insulted Fisher's manhood." Ah you have to laugh!

Anyway so several good things have came out of the present heated situation in SA:

• Some truly winning comic moments on TV
  
• The full exploitation of the comic moments on twitter... #touchmystudio
• Twitter increasingly becoming my news feed of choice. We heard about ET's death on twitter hours before it was even on the formal online news sites (though twitter is very prone to spread wild rumours too!)
• Zuma actually decided to tell Malema off
  
• The African National Congress facebook page was wonderfully entertaining for a few days**
• People spoke about things they usually don't, and to people they often don't. We all need to be concerned about farm murders, they are scary. We all need to be concerned about the living conditions of farm labourers. It really is a blight on our nation that a 15 year old is happy for the comfort of living in jail. And we need to talk about things across the boundaries of our own circles of similar political opinion.
• There seems to be a growing feeling that Malema should not be given so much airtime, that we should not allow ourselves to be so aggrived by his silliness.
• .... I'm sure I will think of more...
  

Shame, I do feel a bit sorry for Afrikaans people though. Its tough being them at the moment I think.

On an entirely different note, I read this article by Prof Jansen yesterday, and I think its wak. Which is saying something, because I really like him and I usually love to hear what has to say about things. Sure, there is a place where nationalism can get self indulgent. Or xenophobic. Or superior. But being proundly South African is none of those things. I'm proudly South African because I think we're pretty awesome. We have a lot of flaws too... but thats why its also important to recognise our awesomeness :)


** It times of upheaval like we have seen over the past couple of weeks, white people (like me) rush to the ANC FB page to see what is going on, whether black people are really plotting to kill us all, to moan about Julius Malema and so on. Which leads to some of the most fantastic conversations.

One of my favourites was when a girl wrote on the wall of the ANC page, saying she had got lots of emails saying that after Mandela dies all of the white people will be killed. She wanted to know if this is true - reading other people's responses to her, and hers to them, was just delightful.

My other favourite was when one ANC pesron put up some info about a black hunter being killed somewhere on a farm in KZN I think. The ANC had mentioned it in a statement as a way of raising the point that farm workers and other people in rural areas are as subject to violence as white farmers. But what was really hysterically funny was that one white guy saw this and completely misunderstood it, and started commenting about how there is no place for black hunting in the new South Africa (he though black hunters = people who hunt black people!).

Too much silliness!!