The universal South African experience.

My friend Atha has just started a blog (check it out, she has some great stuff to say, especially if you are interested in education).

Reading her blog inspired me to update mine...

Something I've been mulling over for a while is this: You know Desmond Tutu and his "National Braai Day"? It is an effort to bring people together around some universal experience. It is celebrated on Heritage Day, the day we remember our past, where we come from, and who we are. And in a nation like ours, where different sections of society have very different heritages to celebrate, the braai was thought to bring everyone together. Whether we braai in our back yards, in our front yards, in our neibours yards, at the beach, in a half drum or on a pile of bricks, or a weber, or a skottel, we all enjoy a braai.

It is a little bit cheesy (I just read about the Braai Day Song - lol!). But its also rather nice, and it is good to have ways for people to connect across lines we don't usually venture.

But actually why I was thinking about Braai Day is that I think I have discovered the truly truly universal South African experience: Unemployment.

Not everyone is unemployed (obviously!), but unemployment is an experience that effects people from across the spectrum. And especially young and youngish people.

White friends of mine have battled to find jobs. Black friends of mine have battled to find jobs, coloured friends, Indian friends. People from wealthy backgrounds, people from politically connected backgrounds, people from middle class backgrounds, people from poor backgrounds. People with matric, with degrees, with double degrees, with Masters degrees.

All of whom have experienced extended periods of unemployment, sitting at home, sending out CVs and getting more and more and more desperate and depressed. Mustering up the will to apply again and again and again. And most of the time, not even getting the courtesy of overt rejection. Just sending out your CV into the abyss, and no response, no response, day after day.

Some of them are still unemployed. Some settled for jobs that were not ideal, but were jobs.

It is quite sad that instead of being unified by this common (terrible) experience, this problem actually serves to divide people further. I think many people don't realise how common this experience is. So they sit at home feeling horribly isolated, thinking things are easy for everyone else. Which is just not true at all.

Anyway, so how about next year we combine "Heritage Day" with "Braai Day" with "Unemployment Day" ? A day of solidarity with (and perhaps free meat for?) our multitudes of jobless young people.

Okay, maybe not. But if you are unemployed and at home railing against the rest of the world, at least know that you are not alone. And don't give up, others have been where you are and got through it, and you will too.