BARSTOOL NATION

There’s a lot of chatter in South Africa at the moment: offensive paintings, tweeting imbeciles, money-grubbing football coaches, and the usual day-to-day pillaging and looting that is the spirit of modern democracy. The media packages it all and we read and re-tweet it, but the real conversations are the ones that take place between actual people, like the one I observed last night.

Once in a while I stand in with a blues band down on Wilson’s Wharf in Durban. Tuesday nights in the city are nothing to write home about for white people anymore, and those that venture out aren’t exactly your typical Investec suburbanites. Last night, the white guy on the left in the picture, with all the grace and social skills of a failed sprocket salesman, downed goblets of red wine at the  bar and then turned his burgeoning invincibility on the black guy to his right.

The black guy was sitting quietly by himself two stools down sipping a draught and reading, of all things in a city bar on a week-night, a pocket-sized edition of Sun Tzu’s “The Art Of War”. White Guy noticed the title and pounced.

“ ‘The Art Of War’, hey? You fucking ANC guys…”

What followed was a loud stream of invective accompanied by wine-induced slouching and gesticulating (see picture), all  from the white guy and all based on two assumptions: 1. This particular black guy was responsible for the the state of the country at the moment, and 2. ‘The Art of War’ was some kind of ANC/black terrorist text.

The black guy, to his credit, just sat and listened. The white guy got louder and louder, throwing out phrases like “fucking kaffirs” etc. The bar staff in the immediate vicinity started paying very close attention in case it started getting nasty.

Then, inexplicably, the white guy goes, “Well, fuck it, I’m leaving anyway. Soon as I can get out of this bladdy country I’m gone”. After complaining and accusing, he’s leaving anyway? Then, even more inexplicably, the white guy and the black guy, unable to continue the one-sided conversation because of the barrage of white-guy blues rock from the guest band, get up and go outside to share a smoke and carry on their fireside chat. They came back in a few minutes later practically arm-in-arm, all national issues resolved.

As much as people like Julius Malema may make it embarrassing for some black people to be black, white guys like this make it excruciating to be white in a country like South Africa. When previously-advantaged white people show themselves to be more ignorant and uninformed and just plain dumber than their previously-disadvantaged countrymen, it’s teeth-clenchingly awful.

Somewhere down the line, though, this belligerent drunk smirking racist and this graceful, thoughtful quiet African man found some common ground, shared a drink and a smoke, and the staff reported back that they were ‘friends now’.

National Democratic Revolution be damned: this is the real South Africa.

THE CYBER-STRUGGLE

Recent and ongoing political upheaval (and dare I say it, revolution) in the Middle East is the first of its kind to be dubbed 'cyber-resistance'. From Egypt to Syria, people have been informed, persuaded and inspired, not to say mobilized, by social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. So much so that the ousting of Egypt's Mubarak has been labeled the 'Facebook Revolution', while the earlier protests in Iran following that country's 2009 presidential elections have become known as the "Twitter Revolution".

Whether this is media-hype or not is beside the point. The internet is a powerful tool, and Twitter and Facebook are the means to a lot more interesting ends than banal, vapid status -envy.

With this is mind, here's a bit of what-if: what would Apartheid in South Africa have looked like if the internet and its' attendant social networking capabilities had existed during, say, the 1970's and '80's? 

How would the banned and exiled ANC have used Twitter to rally the people of South Africa against the Apartheid regime?

How would the beleaguered National Party government have made use of Facebook to marshal the troops to hold back the tidal wave of Die Swart Gevaar?

It's an intriguing fantasy. Of course, humanity doesn't need technology to affect political discourse, but it sure helps. Kira Baiasu makes the point in a piece entitled Social Media: A Force For Political Change in Egypt, saying that social networking gives protestors invaluable anonymity, instant access to the masses and an opportunity to politicize an otherwise apathetic or disinterested body politic.

So allow yourself to imagine the Struggle on Twitter. Umkhonto we Sizwe's Facebook profile. The Robben Island group page. The 1976 Soweto Uprising sending out invites. End Conscription Campaign emails. Black Sash tweets. Chris Hani's status updates. 

Or, for that matter, AWB blogs, National Party 'likes' and SADF Google campaigns.

I'm not trying to be facetious. I would love your suggestions on what could've been.

Of course, the obvious next step then is, "Well, if not then, why not now?"

No wonder Julius Malema suggested closing down Twitter last year...

ANDRIES TATANE

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Robert Kennedy, Cape Town, 1966

This is Andries Tatane, a 33-year-old maths teacher, a resident of Meqheleng, a poverty-stricken township just outside of Ficksburg in South Africa. 

Andries is lying dead in a friend's arms, having just collapsed after a brutal beating by eight riot policemen that ended in one of them shooting him.

You can watch his beating and death on YouTube if you want to.

Why was he killed? 

He had intervened in the over-zealous policing of a group of protestors. He stepped in front of an old man being sprayed with a water-cannon, took off his own shirt and told the police to spray him instead of the old man. In response, the police beat the life out of him.

This happened on April 13 2011.

Last week.

Not during apartheid.

Why were the people protesting?

After 17 years, the people of Meqheleng are still waiting for the State to provide them with basic amenities. 'Service delivery'. That's the buzz-word in these post-Apartheid Rainbow-Nation days. 

So, Andries Tatane is brutally beaten and killed by the government's police force. 

Police Commissioner Bheki Cele's new policing policy is 'shoot to kill'. Zero tolerance of crime. And zero tolerance of people too, obviously.

Andries Tatane, a brave husband, father and South African, who lost his life at the hands of the State by standing up for another.

Look familiar?

Please tell me you know this famous photograph and what it represents.

Please read the Deputy Chief Executive of the South African Institute Of Race Relations Frans Cronje's open letter to the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa. 

So far, the police have failed to suspend the policemen involved, and neither Bheki Cele nor Nathi Mthethwa have offered to resign. 

What are we to make of all this, people? 

One thing is for sure, you can't ignore it. 

But somehow, most of us will. 'It's just the government', we say. 'It's just politics'. 

'It's nothing to do with us'.

Tell that to Andries Tatane's family.

A luta continua.

Devemos resistir.

Viva Andries Tatane Viva!

POLITICS, LIKE, SUCKS

How do you make people interested in politics?

And how do you then make them interested enough to get involved in politics?

How does a disinterested person become an activist?

Is it even worth attempting?

South Africa is/was a highly politicized country. Apartheid gave us all something to have an opinion about, a side to join, a cause to believe in, a future to fight for. Good or bad. We all cared, because the stakes were so high.

Yesterday, the students in both my Communication classes and Human Development classes gave a resounding thumbs-down to any kind of political interest.

“Do you watch the news on TV?”    NO!

“Do you read newspapers?”    NEVER!

“Do you go to political party rallies?”     WE JUST WANNA PARTY!

Last week at an otherwise great gig in Durban, the crowd just stared blankly during my songs that had political content (“Rant”, “A Luta Continua”, “Government Song” etc).

White, black, Indian or other, younger South Africans have not inherited the previous generation’s passion for political engagement. Most black kids I know love the ANC Youth League president Julius Malema because he’s a large personality, not because of anything inherently political he has to say. That’s normal: kids just want to be kids. We want to move on, not live in the past. That’s why Winston Churchill was voted out of office just after WW2.

So how do you politicize people?

How do you turn them on to their own political power?

How do you show kids that politics isn’t just boring old men in three-piece suits, but everything to do with their own future?

Above all, how do you encourage democratic people to act democratically, hold their own government accountable and actively oppose bad governance?

Your suggestions, please.