Brutus Stabbed Caesar With a Knife at Noon

BaldOpinion09

30 May 2012

Ok, so here we are back in South Africa where the majority holds sway.  This sway is held not because something is right, or wrong, but because the majority determines the way to go.

Why is it that we forget about context, about priorities; we also forget that respect, experience and growth toward maturity – all elements that are earned?

I cannot understand why people follow blindly. Why do we accept views that are determined by “culture” without constructive question?  Maybe it is my own blindness.  Why do I get the sense that we are blind to a practice when certain people enact and bright eyed, even vitriolic, when others do the same thing?

No matter how unreasonable the practice, or outdated, we chase after the one who questions a culture, particularly if s/he is not part of that way of life.  Why?

Some contend that the ANC has lost more than its moral compass.

In reference to the 14 year old girl and King Zwelithini, remember the fracas this caused when people dared to question?  What about the Swazi King Mswati III who has seven wives and lives large, attends an English Royal wedding and this, despite his Kingdom being amongst the poorest in the world? Question that and you’re in trouble.

Readers may refer to this writing as racist. In South Africa, when you are not able to substantively argue a point, then you label the one with dissenting view.  Today the common refrain is racism. During the 1970’s and 1980’s when it was decided that certain persons were to be discredited then the label, “police informer / sell-out” was apportioned, remember? The scourge of community organisation during the heady days of resistance was those, often among us, who took money from the state in exchange for information.

I am not suggesting that South Africa has and had no racists and that the past was not plagued by those who “sold out” to the apartheid government. Of the sell-out people continue to be politicians, even in the ANC. Today culture is a shield and you use it to justify why you need so many wives, and as reason for many other socially unacceptable practices. Racism that is what it is. People who question like this are racists.

Years ago my then colleague, Thandiwe Kgosidintsi, and I were in conversation.  I respected her intellect and her experience was of another world. I remember many conversations with Thandi. Those about religion come to mind.  “You’re a Catholic Thandi, and I have spent a substantial portion of my life in environs influenced by Catholicism, yet…  I feel that the Church and reality, in many respects, are not aligned…” (I have no reason to be critical of the many splendid Catholic men and women who are my friends.)  However, I have and continue to question certain practices and beliefs within the faith.  Thandi agreed, “But… you know, I know that all of what you say is valid. I go to church each week because it makes me feel good. I cannot explain it to you.  Maybe it is the singing, the incense, others perhaps. It is much bigger than me, you see. I do not go to the building, to see the priest, or to marvel at the decorations in the more affluent parish churches. No, I go to the church to get nourishment for my soul, and it is something that I get in a Catholic Church.  After all, this is what I am accustomed to…”  

Maybe the same applies elsewhere. We support that which makes us feel most comfortable and often we have no need, desire, or concern about questioning / examining our practice for validity in the new world order?

Sis Thandi died two years ago.  It was a heart condition. Thandi was sad, I think, and I think also that it is fitting that I dedicate this piece to her memory.  I continue to wonder what my strong resilient, combative and gentle friend would have made of the recent fiasco sweeping across our South Africa.

You see, the Advocate was in conversation with a client. “Why did you allow a forensic auditor to change the document I had written for your signature?” In reply, the Plaintiff, still shaking, she said, “You should have seen these people; they were aggressive and I felt intimidated…”

“Yes, but when you experience an ache in the region of your knee, is it reasonable to consult an optician…?” – Shame, lawyers also have a role to play.

The Lawyer cried in court. Yes, Malindi wept. He was representing the South African President in a case where an artist’s impression included a painted exposed penis. It was a decent penis; in proportion with the rest of the painting I mean.  No, nothing like the David statue, better, I promise, this was decent.

A silent group, whom I may not agree with, continue to hold sway that if you have a gripe with what is immoral and what is not, then do not consult Jacob Zuma; unless you believe that he has an ability to reason about fairness without allowing old and outdated cultural practices to determine appropriate behaviour in the new modern world, particularly if you are the president where the peoples are plural. 

“I see, an advocate cried about your President’s penis”, reads an international text message I received recently.

I wondered whether all this howling was because of the penis; was it because the penis had been desecrated; were the tears as a result of relief, glee, envy, or; perhaps his sob was informed by the artist’s interpretation, which interpretation the lawyer found constituted disrespect.

Is culture not defined by what is practiced over an extended period?  This practice later becomes a norm, the way things are done, culture, voilà! 

What is the correlation between the latter and the historic depiction, which the artist uses to illustrate the person of our South African President; even though this time the image features an exposed penis? Is this relevant symbolism or artistic license in need of censure?

Let’s examine / describe the subject:

1.    He has Five (05) wives;

2.    Is reported to have a child with his friend's daughter;

3.    Has stood trial for rape;

4.    Sports an affable personality with an inclusive leadership style;

5.    Is the President of one of the leading African countries;

6.    Is alleged to have more than 21 children;

7.    Is older than Seventy (70) years and;

8.    Continues to marry different much younger women –

If this is the subject and you are the artist, is it not reasonable to include a healthy penis in your depiction? I mean, what is the role of art if it is not also to reflect reality, create debate and examine certain practices?

How can an artist depict the described subject without reference to his enviable virility?

If asking these questions makes me racist, then I submit to being incorrigible. There is no racist as bad as the one who is benign, after all. However, before you apportion this label, think: 

·         Is your labeling me a racist defensible, given the circumstances;

·         is it justifiable, or;

·         are you using this label to shut me up, discredit me?

I saw a man being interviewed on the street the other day.  I saw it on an E TV news broadcast.  Speaking in a particular context, he said “To marry more than one wife is not love, but lust…” He was speaking as a Zulu man. I question whether this man is perhaps trying to communicate what he thinks is right in the modern world, or whether he is merely a sell-out?

View the above as funny, sexist and discriminatory, help yourself. Remember though, we are here referring to the President of South Africa.  All South Africans have him as our President.  He is my President too.

Meanwhile, here in South Africa, and on the front page of the Sunday Times, 27 May 2012, is picture of children learning under various trees and being taught by teachers who are not paid. http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/05/27/suffer-the-children

Yes, whilst this embarrassing act denying our children rains down we bicker about whether a painting of the President, whom some describe as lascivious, should be depicted with an exposed penis; whether this is an insult and; whether it is an affront to the Zulu culture. 

I put it to you that this fiasco we bring upon ourselves is embarrassing.  It is also piffle and trite of law and I wonder whether this is perhaps the real reason why Malindi shed tears?

It is indeed a crying shame. I think that we should let the President, the penis, the painting, the gyrating, and the oft marauding crowds and the large wives, they should all just be man, let them be. We should allocate this wasted resources and trite, to education so that the future can be created by teachers who are paid.

I am ashamed, sorry.  I herewith apologise to those children, the ones receiving instruction under a tree in 2012.  You will probably never get this message, children, but I am so sorry and sorry is not medicine, this I do realise.  We have to do something about the state of affairs.  We have to shut up and make this talk about a better life for all real.

Stab the bastard Brutus!

So, this is Hellas

In 1971 John Lennon released the single, “So This Is Christmas”.  It has nothing to do with Christmas; instead, it speaks to a war and to a year end.

At the time of writing I am in Athens, Greece. I last worked in Hellas almost 30 years ago. There is nothing Greek about me, yet everything here Greek to me.

It was a hot Sunday afternoon when I arrived. Within an hour I exchanged a cold, wet and windy Rome for a warm, even hot Athens – National Election Day.

The usual suspects were in run-off. The conclusion, a hung result, and the government cannot be formed.  Horse trading followed for three days; but no conclusion was in sight. Some say that the Greek temperament gets in the way.  Is this an anathema, I wonder? Seems like new election as are to be held during June should the last ditch effort of Friday, 12 May fail.  Will the next result be different?

Since arriving I continue to struggle in order to understand the issues. The Temple of Poseidon, a heap of stacked stones and some remaining pillars sits on a hill over-looking the sea, no different to what I saw back in the day when my eyes were brighter and baldness a fresh developing prospect. In an acerbic tone I tell all who care to listen, “I am not here to see heaps of stones, old buildings and the like”; in the same way I think that driving, adding to pollution, and crawling about tarred roads in a nature reserve so to see an elephant a complete waste. Pictures of the wild beasts, and pictures, stones, even broken buildings, have always been more beautiful to me. The Greek temperament may not smile upon my view, so my thought stayed in my head lest I give offense.

Then I do a night tour of the Acropolis and I eat my thoughts, bitter thoughts, unnecessary thoughts, thoughts entertained in haste and in ignorance!

The cradle of modern civilization beckons before my shifty eyes. Empires, the knowledge of which make for sit up straight action in the wagon-cart drawing some 50 people up against the hill, windowing in and between the seat of history and through the most arduous of curls and bends as he, the  seemingly can’t care-less skillful driver negotiates the route. Not once do I feel apprehensive afraid or concerned that this country is in crisis. The others on the little train-bus, children in their final year of primary school, they chant (Imaste apo K R I T I) [we are from CRETE]. The children wave at ones on foot and to those in the closely arranged cafés, restaurants and bars; others who stop to look at the funny little train-car transporting excited children under the deft leadership of their man teacher who proudly wore a moustache in the style made famous by American actor Tom Selleck, those people there too exchanged waves.  I am taken by the moment and too am waving; with both hands, waving because there is no reason why my Cape Flats temperament too cannot come from KRITI, for we come from any and everywhere, anyway. The Greeks, however, are not a disparate people instead they are a proud people.

My hosts and I stop to eat Souvlaki. I do not let on how the recent experience has caused a lump in my throat. I think of stuff; the stuff about Twelve (12) Gods in Greek Mythology that pre-date Christianity - the Goddess, Athena, the olive tree and Acropolis.  I think about religion and how it is made by man because man has this need to worship, give thanks and in part be worshipped. Maybe it is because man is too little, or man is not enough, but this evening my conclusion is that, like Greek Mythology is a myth, so too are these religions we manufacture.

My friends, whom I love and who love me, know where this comes from. I cannot have a good friend unless I am a good friend first. We have to continue to do to others what we wish to have done to us though.

I speak with the Greek friends and I learn that the Germans and the French, the strength of the European Union that Greece is a part of, that these nations are at odds with how the austerity measures are unfolding in Hellas.  The Greeks have not complied; they have not held their side of the deal. The Greeks signed the agreement, but no longer wish to comply with the provisions thereof.  The brothers and sisters here in Hellas insisting that their land, the land of Apollo, Athena and others, this land is not to be exchanged for money from Germany and France.  I learn that the interpretation of austerity measures is that it, the austerity measures, is a farce and a ploy to own this land.

A better solution must be in the offing because when a people feel that exchanging their land for money is due process then this is a wrong.  This is wrong and no different to the wrong requirement, which requirement is determined by my skin colour before gaining entry to certain courses at the University of Cape Town, as example. This, no matter whether the so-called commentators, like Pierre de Vos, directs me to read articles dealing with Substantive Equality before venturing an opinion – how pompous and vile can one get! De Vos accuses me of being racist because I dare express a view without first reading a paper of his direction.

Equal fit and proper academic achievement proves ability and not skin colour. I do not support the notion that because in South Africa we had apartheid 20 years ago that I continue to require a handicap as defined by admission policies to universities.  I need no handicap because my brain is at least comparable to other brains no matter what skin colour envelopes it.

The Hellas solution should be determined by the people of this country. Debates about withdrawing from EU and returning to the Drachma based economy, a stricter application of the austerity measures and even a coup d'état informs the discussions amongst the Seven (07) parties in their animated discourse to find the most suited way forward.

Greek temperament! All of us have our respective temperaments. Greeks strike me as being a people who prefer to do the opposite.  A solution is needed though.  The solution could also be found in identifying a group of people, preferably successful business people, international beings who understand that change is required before Hellas will work in its own interest, recover and again claim its independence.  This is where modern civilization began.  Democracy as we know it was born here.  That democracy is outdated is a view I subscribe to.  Outdated, because it has become a mere label.  Anything containing a smattering of “… people by people…” is deemed to be a democratic process. This is trite because the label is not more important as the process and the result.

The solution is not to access greater loans; more loans and more money because this will result in a deeper vortex of depression emerging.  This is no different to the plans put out in spurious and gentle tones by the Minister of National Planning in South Africa when he pontificates, via little cartoons, the dream that unemployment will resolve when 11million jobs are created by 2030. Meanwhile, 700000 jobs are required per annum, as is the requirement in 2012. At the time of writing the total inclusive unemployment figure in South Africa is again 36%!

We need draconian measures imposed on education.

Sustainable jobs are required, not the little tasks that absorb some and later discard many.

The talk of people dying of long-illnesses, instead of telling that the spectre of AIDS continues is exacerbating our dreaded crisis.  Are we already nothing at the hands of the government we deserve?

In Hellas there is a need for people who know and understand economic development.  Independent people with integrity are required to facilitate an understanding and emerge with a supported inclusive plan.  I am not going to speak in fancy terms. If the plan is to be complied with then ordinary people should understand it.  We cannot find the best solutions if only some people understand the jargon used to describe these solutions.

Hellas wants an economy that can reinstate need for self-determination and independence. In order to achieve this there is a need for renewed disciplines. Austerity se moer!

Facilitate a solution that all parties can comply with. Agree to implement and do so consistently.

Develop plans to grow the GDP. Marshal the application within the country and; let the Greeks do it for themselves.

Germany and France were in the same position and the German experience was more recent, therefore, what is their insistent beef with the people of Hellas, and why?

So this is Hellas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT08acQ86K0