[Koos: Ek het nog nie die boek van Reitz genaamd "Commando" gelees nie,
maar ek sal graag wil]. Ek is toevallig besig met 'n boek genaamd:
"THOSE BLOODY WOMEN" - "Three Heroines of the Boer War"
- Brian Roberts, 1991
Die het ook interessante stukke oor die boereoorlog.
So bv, die rol wat die swart stam, die Tswana-Baralongs,
wat buite Mafeking gebly het,in die geveg om die besit van die dorp.
Die swartes was offisieel neutraal,
(Die boere en engelse het daarop gewys dat dit 'n witmansoorlog was),
maar die stam het nie baie simpatie met die boere gehad nie.
Die Engelse (Baden-Powell) het die dorp in besit geneem en wou nie
oorgee nie. Dit het op verhongering uitgeloop.
Die Engelse het fokkol vir die Baralongs omgegee en het hul uitgebuit.
Hulle het slegs 'n klein rantsoen gekry en op 'n stadium is hul
hondekos gegee. Baie is dood aan verhongering en siektes.
Baden Powell "was always to insist that the Baralong would have been
worse off in the hands of the Boers". Mens wonder.
'n Gedeelte van die boek gaan oor die konsentrasiekampe.
Daar is natuurlik gruweldade aan beide kante gepleeg,
maar ek dink nie enigiets wat die boere gedoen het vergelyk met die
grootskaalse barbaarsheid van die engelse teen die boervroue,
kinders en plase nie. Die plase is afgebrand, en die vrouens en kinders
toe in konsentrasiekampe aangehou. Laat ons dit nooit vergeet nie.
Dit is hier waar vroue soos Emily Hobhouse gewys het van watter
staal hul gemaak is.
'n Paar dekades later was die lot van die swartes in party townships
ook maar erg. En hierdie keer was dit die "boere" wat onreg aan iemand
anders uitgedeel het. En die nuwe generaals De Wet wat opgestaan het
daarteen was mense soos Chris Hani. Vandag swaai die tronkvoel
wat klippe gekap het op Robbeneiland die septer.
Die wiel draai darem ne?
Lente in Tokio is vlietend
soos 'n romanse. Milder lug
en sonsigbare parke
in voorstede
waaier meteens oop;
die dae rek somer
tegemoet.
Kuslangs
meer brutaal: die ingeburgerde ys,
kraak en bars, riviere sidder nat-
neus en die vogtige aarde
gaap stomend oop.
Die wit peerboombloeisels
op die heuwels van Kanazawa
het reeds oopgegaan
twee weke gelede in Tokio.
Toeriste leef soos ekspatriate.
Drink saam, speel mahjong
of voetbal. Verlange
na 'n vaderland
of moederstad maak plek
vir verwondering.
Ou lojaliteite raak oorgroei
deur nuwes. Skiet wortel.
Raak ingegrawe.
Drie dae was daar duisternis ... Alleen,
in diep gelatenheid, soos in die sand
'n suiwer saad wat wag op son en reën,
het al Sy sterflikheid stil weggebrand:
die swaar en trae slakke van die vlees,
sy onrus, vrees, verwarringe en waan,
dat Hy, een met die Vader en die Gees,
verheerlik in die lig weer op kan staan.
Die wagte kon in daardie gloed nie kyk.
Die steen is afgewentel deur 'n wind
wat uit vier hemelstreke op die aarde stryk
dat dit vergruisel is tot stof en grint,
en soos uit diepe duisternis 'n vlam,
staan hoog en rank en smetteloos die Lam!
ek gaan moerse hard probeer om nie narrowminded te klink nie.
maar.
ek het 'n ruk terug 'n ad op 702 TalkRadio gehoor wat darem die koek vat.
vir een of ander degenerate derderangse scruffy rag van 'n tydskrif genaamd
enterprize magazine. (nee, dit het niks van Spock in nie). die ad feature
'n afrikaanse gesinnetjie wat sit en gesels. die pa, baie paternalisties,
kla dan dat 'n "black man, ja 'n swart man" die farmer of the year award of
so iets gewen het. die kinders is geskok. nee pa!
dan praat 'n stem bietjie oor die tydskrif en die artikel en dan kom die
gesinnetjie terug. die pa sê: "it's time we pack forr new zealand!" dan sê
die een kleintjie - "maar pa? isn't new zealand all blacks?"
party van julle sal dalk lag. ek nie. ek dink dis ongelooflik hoe iemand so
kan veralgemeen. as afrikaanssprekende vind ek dit nogal moeilik om nie as
rassis gebrandmerk te word oral waar ek gaan nie. sulke elemente in die
media maak dit nie makliker nie.
as jy met my saamstem oor sulke snert, dan moet jy asseblief vir die
reklamestandaarde vereniging 'n woordie faks. hulle sal niks doen as een ou
kla nie. maar dink net as hulle van oor die hele land, hei maybe even uit
kanada australie en even nieu-seeland ietsie hoor. dis maar hoe hulle
stelsel werk.
Wanneer uit die wereldverte
die son tot die mense sin spreek
en vreugde uit die sielsdiepte
in die sien, met die lig verbind,
dan dring daar uit die omhulling van die self
gedachte in die verre ruimte
en verbind onbewus,
die wese van die mens met die geestelike sin.
Wenn aus den Weltenweiten
Die Sonne spricht zum Menschensinn
Und Freude aus den Seelentiefen
Dem Licht sich eint im Schauen,
Dann ziehen aus der Selbstheit Hölle
Gedankenin die Raumesfernen
Und binden dumpf
Des Menschen Wesen an des Geistes Sein.
uit Meditasies vir die weke van die jaar. R. Steiner
Fearful white professionals desert Mandela's 'rainbow nation'
International News
Electronic Telegraph
Friday 28 March 1997
Issue 672
Fearful white professionals desert Mandela's 'rainbow nation'
By Alec Russell in Johannesburg
External Links
Electronic Mail & Guardian
Main Street South Africa: news and links
The New South Africa
'PACKING for Perth' is in vogue again as worries over rising crime and the future of South Africa's schools spark a new brain drain.
HEADS down, barely uttering a word, the group of white 30-somethings parked their BMWs outside the Johannesburg office block and filed upstairs.
They looked as if they had come for a funeral, and in a sense they had: the funeral of their South African life. They had come to hear the weekly seminar given by Australian Opportunities, one of a growing number of emigration consultants capitalising on whites' fears about President Mandela's "rainbow nation".
The message was carefully packaged. There was no attempt to denigrate South Africa. Films presented a glossy picture of a new life of ease in Australia. By the time Nigel Boast, the managing director, was finishing his spiel about the financial advantages of emigrating, the audience was eating out of his hand. Another group of middle-class whites seemed set to take their skills from Africa.
"It's heartbreaking to leave your roots," said Steve and Mariaan Ferreira, who attended the seminar with their three sons. "We have a settled life and a thriving business. But the pressure is getting to us, particularly crime. We may get downstairs and find our car has gone. We know we have a good life but we have to weigh up the reality. Sean and Mark, our two eldest, are in their second last year at school. What sort of future will they have, with affirmative action designating most jobs for blacks? It's getting too much."
In the year after Mr Mandela took office in May 1994, figures for white emigration dwindled amid post-apartheid euphoria. But suburban dinner parties once more discuss "packing for Perth" as they did in the mid-Eighties, when a race war seemed possible. One of the world's highest murder rates and fears for the future of schools that in the past were heavily subsidised for whites are clearly tipping the scales for some against the delights of maids, swimming pools and year-round sunshine.
For the Ferreiras, the decline of the rand, which lost a fifth of its value last year, was the last straw. No one knows the extent of the brain drain. Official statistics suggest that more than 5,600 people, many of them white professionals, emigrated in the first six months of last year, an increase of 24 per cent on 1995.
But these figures reflect only those who left from the three main airports and dutifully told passport control that they were leaving for good. At least as many again are thought to have left as tourists but never to have returned.
"It's not a situation of panic. But people are now weighing up their options," said Mr Boast, who processes 40 emigrants a month. In return for about �1,000 he helps them find a home and a job in Australia, and a short cut through the bureaucracy.
Of particular concern is the loss of professionals who are essential if South Africa is to realise its dream as the power house of the continent. Research by Deloitte & Touche shows that three quarters of chartered accountants leave South Africa after qualifying and only about a third return. Already banks are reporting difficulties in finding qualified staff.
"If the accountants stay away there won't be anyone to replace the current crop of management," said David Mitchell, a Johannesburg-based director of Deloitte & Touche. Many South Africans are tempted to say good riddance to those who cannot stick the pace, arguing that emigrants exaggerate crime to mask their dislike of a black government.
"I'm not an apologist for the government, but I see the same problems here as in much of the world," said Dr Steve Burgess, an academic who recently gave a talk entitled "Nine Reasons to Stay".
"South Africans have always deluded themselves that their country is part of the developed First World. It never was." Mr Mandela, however, has called on blacks to put aside resentments over apartheid and market South Africa to their white fellow-countrymen.
"We must stop this brain drain," he told an African National Congress rally. "Whites have a role to play here. To think that you can now just push them aside is fatal. That's suicide."
27 March 1997: VIP police implicated in raids on ministers20 February 1997: Racist tirade exposes 'rainbow' nation myth4 February 1997: Guide to survival on the streets of rising crime
Next report: China smears past rule of Hong Kong
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