tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316590020392782855.post6248676016874721182..comments2013-01-23T17:30:49.777+02:00Comments on John Ellis: RANDOM NOTES FROM AFRICAJohn Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14711935906095515860noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316590020392782855.post-10898770605120813182010-04-30T15:31:15.652+02:002010-04-30T15:31:15.652+02:00I get sad a lot. sad that 16 years on - like you s...I get sad a lot. sad that 16 years on - like you say - nothing has really changed. the people at the top have changed, but for the most part it's all the same. <br />At the same time though, don't you think some things have changed? I have the freedom to have black people as friends, I'm a 29 year old white male, but I have a nephew who is half indian and half white, a baby sister who half black and half white, but that's not how i see them, they're Mics and Melissa. I am one of the few for whom nationbuilding is happening in my home. and consequently in my head.<br /><br />I wonder about how it feels to be black living in SA, and the lady from Orange Farm saying nothing has changed, that JZ doesn't even care to come visit. but what's with this mentality of 'they' have to come see so they can change things? why don't we (...I) do something to bring reconciliation, change, a better life now? as long as we wait on government and 'the leaders', the big wigs, the Amadodana, the freedom fighter heros to sswoop down and kiss our eina better, then we're in for a long wait.<br /><br />I try not to let the negative voices in my head outweigh the positive. even this morning i was at a preschool in Motherwell township (just outside PE) where a lady started a school with a few kids who had nowhere else to go and is now a fully registered preschool that costs R70 per term for the kids. I'll say that again: R70. She is making the difference. Your friend from shepherds keep is doing the same. bringing hope into hopelessness. and that's where our hope for the country comes. you said in your first post that SA is a teenager, awkward and gangly. that's it, we're still working ourselves out. but we're doing it, and that's important, that people like shepherds keep and ladies in townships are rescuing babies and educating children. one person, one thing, making lives better.<br /><br />JZ could disappear into a hole and the country would still need to do the hard work of growing. I think there's some work to be done.<br /><br />And some loud mouthed chops are goign to call us agents and bastards, but those are politicos who don't live in the real world. we who do make up south africa, and we will never get into the newspaper, but we will change the status quo.<br /><br />how about the idea that few of us are called to change a nation, but all of us are called to change ourselves?Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09301791936530152054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316590020392782855.post-69968878775205948812010-04-29T19:24:01.209+02:002010-04-29T19:24:01.209+02:00That's some good shit.
What do we do as the n...That's some good shit.<br /><br />What do we do as the now 'sloppy-seconds' of society while our apparently still nouveau-entitled leaders vigorously point fingers with impunity? Will we ever get to point back again, or did we forego that right when we admitted we were very, very wrong? Are we destined to live out the banalities of our white tendencies in self-realised, politically-correct shame, in self-imposed submission? White people are people too! Um hang on, that's not right... We're agents.<br /><br />I suggest knee pads all round. I reckon there's some significant forgiveness-grovelling to be done yet.antonyellishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18012315363651818807noreply@blogger.com