(From a facebook post discussing Nelson Mandela - Dec 9 2013)
When
asked what were the long term affects of the French Revolution,
Chinese Communist Premier Zhou Enlai reportedly answered, “It's too
soon to tell.” I can only hope that is true for South Africa – that it
finds a way to be a healthy, safe, multiracial society. My father was
a merchant seaman and he would return from trips around the Cape of
Good Hope back to New Jersey in the 1960s with tales of the wonders
of Durbin SA. He described the prosperous farms, the beautiful
beaches, the nightlife, the hardworking, fun-loving, intelligent
people who had built a paradise for themselves, but he would add, parenthetically, “It is going to end badly”.
It is interesting that Gandhi got his political start in SA and it is not that hard to imagine that if things had been a little different, he might have been the “Father' of SA instead of Mandela. India would have been different then too, maybe .. In any event, it is too bad it took so long for SA to make the adjustments that so clearly needed to be made. And conversely – it is a good thing SA made the changes when did instead of trying to hang on. I think both those statements are true to a degree.
While I don't believe anything is inevitable or per-ordained, (although oddly the predominate Afrikaner religion was Calvinist wasn't it?) there is a streak of it in all of us I think. Lincoln at his Second Inaugural Address said, “ Yet, if God wills that it (the Civil War) continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."” When reading the great Russian novelists of the 19th century and one sees a society that was at once advanced and thoughtful beyond what was occurring in Europe (on one level) and yet supported at its lowest level by the most severe and oppressive cruelty – and then in the 20th century to see it all sweep away like a wealthy beach community in a hurricane – well – one understands the unfeeling 'inevitability' history, and the serious nature of the facebook postings here.
I think that what is being expressed by people all over the world in remembering Mandala is that the transfer of power, the change that had to occur, could have been much worse and Mandela through giving up 27 years of his life and coming out, regardless of his politics, as not a bitter man, that this example is the only one that holds out any hope.
How many Pied-Noirs are left in Algeria? Clearly Afrikaner roots are deeper in SA than were the French in North Africa. And even though things have changed for the worse in SA in some ways, we all got a glance at SA society through the tragedy of Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp. The dependence on guns to maintain a privileged life is part of the culture. And clearly some privilege still exists, even if it is very precarious. Of course, to say “privileged” in SA is for Westerners to mean “normal”. The affect on the white population by the changes since the end of apartheid are perhaps worse psychologically than economic. But I am straying into areas I have no right to be in – I am only trying to understand it from a distance.
Russia and China both went from extreme disparities of wealth and class in the 20th century. In Russia, Dostoevsky saw it coming very clearly in his literature. The disaster when it came was genocidal at least in a class sense. I think what we are seeing in these facebook postings is an attempt to change opinion in the West about SA, in a way that is similar to what occurred here 30-35 years ago when the boycott of SA over apartheid began. It is correct to make those attempts to educate us about the reality and the declining quality of life that white South African's face, and the dangerous state of affairs there. The most important thing now is to make people understand the situation as it is seen through everyone’s eyes. People, I believe at their core, are good. If they know the truth and can see things from another perspective they will act in the right way. It might take a long time though. In the end nothing is fair but perhaps there is fairness in that too. In spite of all the horror that has occurred I do believe we have no other choice but to believe in prospect of a good ending. Now that Mandela is gone, perhaps we can deal with it more honestly.
I think we (people who are not from SA) have to support all people's right to live free of intimation regardless of who they are or who their parents were. But ultimately the only thing that means anything is what happens in SA itself. I hope SA can find its own way of dealing with this that doesn't repeat so much of the horror of the last 100 years.
To make one more small point germane to the society that I do live in and have more authority to speak to – SA is a warning that extremes in inequality have a way of biting back – and it is better to manage them sooner than later. It is easier to change tax rates and health care delivery than it is manage a rebellion.
It is interesting that Gandhi got his political start in SA and it is not that hard to imagine that if things had been a little different, he might have been the “Father' of SA instead of Mandela. India would have been different then too, maybe .. In any event, it is too bad it took so long for SA to make the adjustments that so clearly needed to be made. And conversely – it is a good thing SA made the changes when did instead of trying to hang on. I think both those statements are true to a degree.
While I don't believe anything is inevitable or per-ordained, (although oddly the predominate Afrikaner religion was Calvinist wasn't it?) there is a streak of it in all of us I think. Lincoln at his Second Inaugural Address said, “ Yet, if God wills that it (the Civil War) continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."” When reading the great Russian novelists of the 19th century and one sees a society that was at once advanced and thoughtful beyond what was occurring in Europe (on one level) and yet supported at its lowest level by the most severe and oppressive cruelty – and then in the 20th century to see it all sweep away like a wealthy beach community in a hurricane – well – one understands the unfeeling 'inevitability' history, and the serious nature of the facebook postings here.
I think that what is being expressed by people all over the world in remembering Mandala is that the transfer of power, the change that had to occur, could have been much worse and Mandela through giving up 27 years of his life and coming out, regardless of his politics, as not a bitter man, that this example is the only one that holds out any hope.
How many Pied-Noirs are left in Algeria? Clearly Afrikaner roots are deeper in SA than were the French in North Africa. And even though things have changed for the worse in SA in some ways, we all got a glance at SA society through the tragedy of Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp. The dependence on guns to maintain a privileged life is part of the culture. And clearly some privilege still exists, even if it is very precarious. Of course, to say “privileged” in SA is for Westerners to mean “normal”. The affect on the white population by the changes since the end of apartheid are perhaps worse psychologically than economic. But I am straying into areas I have no right to be in – I am only trying to understand it from a distance.
Russia and China both went from extreme disparities of wealth and class in the 20th century. In Russia, Dostoevsky saw it coming very clearly in his literature. The disaster when it came was genocidal at least in a class sense. I think what we are seeing in these facebook postings is an attempt to change opinion in the West about SA, in a way that is similar to what occurred here 30-35 years ago when the boycott of SA over apartheid began. It is correct to make those attempts to educate us about the reality and the declining quality of life that white South African's face, and the dangerous state of affairs there. The most important thing now is to make people understand the situation as it is seen through everyone’s eyes. People, I believe at their core, are good. If they know the truth and can see things from another perspective they will act in the right way. It might take a long time though. In the end nothing is fair but perhaps there is fairness in that too. In spite of all the horror that has occurred I do believe we have no other choice but to believe in prospect of a good ending. Now that Mandela is gone, perhaps we can deal with it more honestly.
I think we (people who are not from SA) have to support all people's right to live free of intimation regardless of who they are or who their parents were. But ultimately the only thing that means anything is what happens in SA itself. I hope SA can find its own way of dealing with this that doesn't repeat so much of the horror of the last 100 years.
To make one more small point germane to the society that I do live in and have more authority to speak to – SA is a warning that extremes in inequality have a way of biting back – and it is better to manage them sooner than later. It is easier to change tax rates and health care delivery than it is manage a rebellion.
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