tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post2856590958694153467..comments2024-03-29T04:54:50.435-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: The after-effects of apartheid continue to be felt in South AfricaPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-82374673003742964292014-08-14T11:08:45.126-05:002014-08-14T11:08:45.126-05:00@ Anonymous, my name is Sipho. I am a young black ...@ Anonymous, my name is Sipho. I am a young black South African today. I work as debt collector for a bank, and I'm trying to build a career in computer science. My first time to touch a computer was in 2002, when I was doing Grade 12. Whether you are upset about the current government you cannot begin to compare the damage that is done by apartheid government to my people, especially the psychological effects. In my opinion, a bias towards prior privilege must exist to strike a system balance. Of course that will mean that others needs to lose resources that others need. Remember in the past it was not crime for whites to take from blacks, it was not a serious crime to a rape a black woman if you are white, while a black dude would hang for looking at a whites woman's "boobs". Today the government is faced with numerous challenges such as redistributing wealth which white minority still strongly holds on to. All of us, regardless of the race are not fully content with the current government processes, corruption, and poor service delivery and so on... In fact, black people contend with the government more that white communities, but some of our dissatisfactions are just misperceptions. The government is really trying and at some stage really working hard. The consequence of Apartheid left white young people invisible, black folk angry, Couloreds and Indians and all confused. I reckon that we'll still need at least 2 generations more to undo the effects of apartheid. Furthermore for us to heal as a nation we need to properly clean the wounds of the past before we seal them.the Real_Bophahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13851155057793753005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-35280497962974870092009-06-14T22:01:02.339-05:002009-06-14T22:01:02.339-05:00Anonymous, to a certain extent I can understand yo...Anonymous, to a certain extent I can understand your reactions. I can even agree with some of them. For example, I agree that the present Government of South Africa is incompetent, corrupt, nepotistic, and ignorant to a frightening degree. However, it was, at least, chosen at a free and fair election by ALL the people of South Africa. It wasn't imposed on 90% of the people by the remaining 10%, in order to look after the latter's interests at the expense of the former.<br /><br />Furthermore, I suspect you may be among the many White South Africans who never saw 'up close and personal' how Black South Africans were treated under <i>apartheid</i>. They were effectively regarded as sub-human, 'things' to be used and/or discarded as it suited the authorities. They were discriminated against in countless ways, dispossessed of their land, shunted into 'homelands' where the majority of them had never lived and didn't want to live, deprived of their citizenship to be 'granted' citizenship of these arbitrary 'homelands' (recognized by no other country on Earth), forced to perform menial labor for pittance wages, subject to arbitrary arrest and sometimes torture by the security forces (read the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for many examples), and so on. If you or I had been treated like that, what makes you think <i>we</i> wouldn't harbor extreme prejudice towards our oppressors?<br /><br />No. <i>Apartheid</i> had to go, despite the costs involved in getting rid of it. The pain of post-<i>apartheid</i> South African society is directly traceable to the years of discrimination, and will take many more years to fade away. One can't undo fifty-odd years of legalized discrimination in fifty-odd months. There are whole generations involved.<br /><br />If South Africa does descend into chaos and anarchy (which I most sincerely pray won't happen), the root cause of that will be very clear. To refer to the abolition of <i>apartheid</i> in terms such as 'the operation was a success, but the patient died' is to use loaded language that obscures the reality of the situation. South Africa was dying under <i>apartheid</i>. The termination of that oppression at least gave the 'patient' a new lease on life, and the possibility of recovery. If the recovery doesn't work, the damage done by <i>apartheid</i> will still be the root cause of the patient's demise.<br /><br />For the last half of the twentieth century, the South African government could have educated all peoples of the country, established a thriving middle class (in economic terms) and thrown open the wealth of the nation to all who were willing to work for their share of it. They adamantly refused to do so, reserving most of that wealth for the privileged few. The consequences we see before us today.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-31454335567820272992009-06-14T08:45:26.325-05:002009-06-14T08:45:26.325-05:00Uhh, how many years ago was black apartheid ended?...Uhh, how many years ago was black apartheid ended? Notice I didn't say anything about the white apartheid that is currently happening there. Never ceases to amaze me how libs can continue to blame the problems caused by their utopean ideas on anything EXCEPT their meddling.<br /><br />And before you start, no, I wasn't enamored with what was happening in SA, or the country that USED to be the breadbasket of Africa, Rhodesia. Of course I also remember when Cubans could move freely between the US and their country.<br /><br />However, when the doctor comes out and says the operation was a success, but forgets to mention THAT THE PATIENT DIED, all the good intentions in the world don't mean SQUAT.<br /><br />And now my country is skidding down the fascist/socialist /communist hill towards totalitarianism. The only solace I have is that once you folks finish bringing your good intentions to this country you will all have no place else to go and will be forever stuck in the morass of your making with the rest of us; except for the few more equal animals of course.<br />emdflAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com