Herman Charles Bosman, saam met JM Coetzee seker die beste skrywer wat
ooit uit SA gekom het, sou die afgelope naweek 100 jaar oud gewees
het. Om dit te vier, hier is een van sy minder bekende stories. Minder
bekend, maar so 'n briljante stuk vertelkins....
-------------------------------------------------
The Recogning Blues
I was ambling down Eloff Street, barefooted and in my shirt-sleeyes,
and with the recognising blues.
I had been smoking dagga, good dagga, the real rooibaard, with heads
about a foot long, and not just the stuff that most dealers supply you
with, and that is not much better than grass. When you smoke good
dagga you get blue in quite a number of ways. The most common way is
the frightened blues, when you imagine that your heart is palpitating,
and that you can't breathe, and that you are going to die. Another
form that the effect of dagga takes is that you get the suspicious
blues, and then you imagine that all the people around you, your best
friends and your parents included, are conspiring against you, so that
when your mother asks you, 'How are you?' every word she says sounds
very sinister, as though she knows that you have been smoking dagga,
and that you are blue, and you feel that she is like a witch. The most
innocent remark any person makes when you have got the suspicious
blues seems to be impregnated with a whole world of underhand meaning
and dreadful insinuation.
And perhaps you are right to feel this way about it. Is not the most
harmless conversation between several human beings charged with the
most diabolical kind of subterranean cunning, each person fortifying
himself behind barbed-wire defences? Look at that painting of
Daumier's, called Conversation Piece, and you will see that the two
men and the woman concerned in this little friendly chat are all three
of them taking part in a cloven-hoofed rite. You can see each one has
got the suspicious blues.
There is also the once-over blues and a considerable variety of other
kinds of blues. But the recognising blues doesn't come very often, and
then it is only after you have been smoking the best kind of rooibaard
boom, with ears that long.
When you have got the recognising blues you think you know everybody
you meet. And you go up and shake hands with every person that you
come across, because you think you recognise him, and you are very
glad to have run into him: in this respect the recognising blues is
just the opposite of the suspicious blues.
A friend of mine, Charlie, who has smoked dagga for thirty years, says
that he once had the recognising blues very bad when he was strolling
through the centre of the town. And after he had shaken hands with
lots of people who didn't know him at all, and whom he didn't know
either, but whom he thought he knew, because he had the recognising
blues
then a very singular thing happened to my friend, Rooker Charlie. For
he looked in the display window of a men's outfitters, and he saw two
dummies standing there, in the window, two dummies dressed in a smart
line of gents' suitings, and with the recognising blues .strong on
him, Charlie thought that he knew those two dummies, and he thought
that the one dummy was Max Chaitz, who kept a restaurant in Cape Town,
and that the other dummy was a well-known snooker-player called Pat
O'Callaghan.
And my friend Rooker Charlie couldn't understand how Max Chaitz and
Pat O'Callaghan should come to be standing there holding animated
converse in that shop-window. He didn't know, until that moment, that
Max Chaitz and Pat O'Callaghan were even acquainted. But the sight of
these two men standing there talking like that shook my friend Rooker
Charlie up pretty badly. So he went home to bed. But early next
morning he dashed round again to that men's outfitters, and then he
saw that those two figures weren't Max Chaitz and Pat O'Callaghan at
all, but two dummies stuck in the window. And he saw then that they
didn't look even a bit like the two men he thought they were -
especially the dummy that he thought was Max Chaitz. Because Max
Chaitz is very short and fat, with a red, cross-looking sort of a face
that you can't mistake in a million. Whereas the dummy was tall and
slender and good-looking.
That was the worst experience that my friend Rooker Charlie ever had
of the recognising blues.
And when I was taking a stroll down Eloff Street, that evening, and I
was barefooted and in my shifl-sleeves, then I also had a bad attack
of the recognising blues- But it was the recognising blues in a
slightly different form. I would first make up a name in my brain, a
name that sounded good to me, and that I thought had the right sort of
a rhythm to it. And then the first person I would see, I would think
that he was the man whose name I had just thought out. And I would go
up and address him by this name, and shake hands with him, and tell
him how glad I was to see him.
And a name I thought up that sounded very fine to me, and impressive,
with just the right kind of ring to it, was the name Sir Lionel
Ostrich de Frontignac. It was a very magnificent name.
And so I went up, barefooted and in my shin-sleeves, to the first man
I saw in the street, after I had coined this name, and I took him by
the hand, and I said, 'Well met, Sir Lionel. It is many years since
last we met, Sir Lionel Ostrich de Frontignac.'
And the remarkable coincidence was that the man whom I addressed in
this way actually was Sir Lionel Ostrich de Frontignac. But on account
of his taking me for a bum -through my being barefooted and in my
shirt-sleeves - he wouldn't acknowledge that he really was Sir Lionel
and that I had recognised him dead to rights.
'You are mistaken,' Sir Lionel Ostrich de Frontignac said, moving away
from me, 'You have got the recognising blues.'
Die minister kla oor daar te min blankes by die nuwe inname van rekrute by
die SAW is, maar net verlede week reken hy hy kan nie wag om van blanke
kolonels ontslae te raak nie en dat dit net die begroting is wat hom beperk
om te doen wat hy graag wil. Dink hy rêrig enige blanke persoon wat hoop
om te vorder in sy beroep in 'n weermag, sal eers nog oorweeg om by die SAW
aan te sluit? Ek lees dat amper meer blanke outjies gaan sluit by die
Britse weermag aan en mens kan hulle nie verkwalik nie. Dié minister kort
so 'n hele klompie IK-punte.....
Op sêwie nou net, vertel iemand dat 'n leeu 'n nael in die klos van sy stert
het, en as hy moet begin hardloop vir kos, dan raps hy homself op die boud
ter aanmoediging:))))
In gister se koerant 'n artikel dat 88 miljoen by BRS lê wat uitbetaal moet
word - blykbaar enigiemand wat vanaf 1980 pensioenuitbetalings gekry het as
hulle bedank of afgetree het, het minder uitgekry as wat hulle moes.
Die olie piek is kortweg gestel die punt waar die koste van ru olie die
hoogte inskiet. Om dit te verstaan gaan doen 'n soektog op google vir
"peak oil" en lees van die artikels.
Die implikasie van piek olie vir die wereld ekonomie is stagnasie en
ekonomiese resessie en op sy ergste 'n depressie. Dit is ook duidelik
van die artikels dat die vraag is nie of so iets gaan gebeur of nie,
maar dat dit bloot 'n kwessie is van wanneer. Van die skrywers reken
selfs dat die wolf voor die deur staan en dat daar nie meer tyd oor is
nie. Om die boodskap erger te maak is dit duidelik dat hierdie toedrag
van sake permanent sal weer.
In die lig hiervan tesame met die ANC se ekonomese beleid, swart
ekonomiese bemagtiging en regstellende aksie onstaan die volgende vraag
by my: Is die afrikaaner nie besig om die dek stoele op die Titanic se
dek rond te skuif terwyl die skip besig is om te sink nie?
Wat se toekoms bestaan daar vir enige minderheids groep in Suid Afrika
wat in 'n permanente ekonomiese depressie sit? Huidiglik gaan die goed
met die ekonomie, maar wat gaan gebeur as die brandstof prys styg tot
R10.00 of selfs R15.00 tot R20.00 per liter? Dit sal gebeur, dit is net
'n kwessie van wanneer, en wanneer dit gebeur sal die prys nooit weer
noemenswaardig afkom nie.
Om te huil oor wat ons gehad en verloor het, vinger te wys na
skuldiges, rond te hardloop en ons hare uit te trek gaan niks help nie.
Die era van goedkoop energie is verby en tesaame daarmee die era van
onbeperkte ekonomiese groei.
Sonder ekonomiese groei word swart ekonomiese bemagtiging en
regstellende aksie bloot die wegneem van hulpbronne/werk/grond van
blankes sodat dit aan minderbevoregtes gegee kan word.
Geen optrede van enige instansie kan 'n ekonomiese depressie of
resessie keer as die olie prys baie hoog raak nie. Daar bestaan ook
geen alternatiewe energie bron wat olie kan vervang nie. Geen
hoeveelheid harde werk sal die situasie verander nie. Ons is te
afhanklik van olie in elke aspek van ons lewe.
Alles is egter nie "doom and gloom" nie. In die lang termyn (geslagte
van nou) behoord ons weer 'n lewens standaard te handhaaf waar ons nie
besig is om te vrek van die honger nie. Dit is volgens optimiste in die
"peak oil" beweging. Die pesimiste voel dat die kanse goed is dat ons
op pad trug is na grotte.
Die probleem is die oorgangs tydperk, van 'n olie gebaseerde
industriele gemeenskap na ekologiese volhoubare klein landelike
gemeenskape. Hierdie oorgang sal geslagte neem. Die oorgangs periode
sal ook gekenmerk word deur groodskaale hulpbron tekorte en
ineenstorting van infrastruktuur (water, kos, vervoer, gesondheids
dienste, reg toepassing om meer net 'n paar te noem). Die begin van die
oorgang sal vinnig plaasvind, 'n kwessie van 'n paar jaar na die piek
olie tydstip.
Met ons huidige bevolking groei en verstedeliking is dit vir my maar
redelik duidelik dat stede nie 'n gesonde plek gaan wees tydens hierdie
oorgangs tydperk nie. Misdaad en die ineenstorting van dienste, veral
regs toepassing, tesame met die huidige ontwapening van die burgerlike
bevolking gaan die toekoms baie opwindend maak, daar sal meer opwinding
wees as wat ek voor lus het.
Ek het 'n soektog gedoen met google om te kyk of daar hoegenaamd 'n
debat aan die gang is onder afrikaaners oor ons toekoms in die kontext
van 'n wereld wye olie prys toename, ongelukkig kon ek niks kry.
Wel, julle kan aangaan om dek stoele te rankskik, ek sal intussen gaan
kyk hoe lyk 'n reddings boot. Per slot van sake, daar was in elk geval
meer mense op die titanic as wat daar plek was in die reddings boote.
Nie dat dit veel beter sal gaan in 'n reddling boot nie. Maar ek sal
moontlik ten minste kan eet as ek gelukkig is.
Op die ou einde sal die debat oor 'n volkstaat ook van geen nut wees
nie. Self al word die olie piek boodskap aan afrikaaners oorgedrae sal
hierdie boodskap en sy implikasie nie geglo word nie . Die debat oor 'n
volkstaat sal bloot 'n debat bly en wanneer die skrif so duidelik aan
die muur is dat selfs 'n blinde dit kan lees sal dit te laat wees.
We weten al dat het Afrikaans is, en ik denk te verstaan:
"Die Bybel is 'n groot boek. ???????????? Lees één bladsy van die boek."
Wie verstaat de volledige tekst?
Dan Roodt: Interessant is dit weer 'n Afrikaner wat politiek korrek
probeer wees:
____________________________________________________________ __________________
Roodt exposes himself again
06 February 2005
AN INTERESTING spin-off of life in democratic South Africa has been
the
unmasking of certain high-profile academics who had paraded in a haze
of
pseudo-liberalism during the apartheid years, but who have since shown
us who they really are  institutionalised brains unable to cope with
the country's social evolution.
Of these, Dr Dan Roodt is perhaps the prime exponent (although he is
constantly challenged to the throne by the likes of Professor Hermann
Giliomee). I find his particular brand of deranged intellectual
narcissism sad but also extremely amusing, "Whites needed no help"
(June
30).
It is very telling that Roodt should attempt to question Professor
Makgoba's ability to build a sustained argument when his own eulogy to
colonialism and Afrikaner nationalism is riddled with "flawed logic
and
simplistic argument".
Afrikaners may have pulled themselves from widespread poverty amid
"hostility and discrimination from English-speaking whites" but it
would
be highly disingenuous to claim historical victimhood considering we
trampled on 80% of the population to reach the top.
Roodt's claim that European settlers "stumbled upon Stone Age cultures
Â
without any assets and with no orderly system of land ownership" reads
like a quote from a 1950s history textbook.
Perhaps he borrowed a few lines from the father of "negrology",
Stephen
Smith.
Both gentlemen seem to share a taste for generalisation and an
astounding ignorance of life on this continent, yet dare to comment in
public on what they perceive as "blacks' narcissism and obsession with
their African identity".
It is indeed one of the ironies of this world that a PhD in philosophy
does not guarantee insight.
If it did, Roodt would not be a bigot regurgitating colonial myths
about
Africa and making a fool of himself yet again. Â Wynand Prinsloo [who
obviously thinks he can score some points by kissing ass]
Johannesburg
____________________________________________________________ _________________
Mr. Wynand Prinsloo describes me as an "academic" (Sunday Times 6
February), yet I am far too level-headed and critical of
twentieth-century communism and fascism ever to be offered a post at a
university. I have never even been invited to address an academic
gathering in this country. He accuses me of "being a bigot
regurgitating colonial myths about Africa" and that I rely on Stephen
Smith's 2003 book Negrologie (which we have incidentally just
translated into Afrikaans, to be published soon).
I would like to ask Mr. Prinsloo if he believes the political and
economic collapse of Zimbabwe to be a "colonial myth"? Are the civil
wars in the Congo, the Ivory Coast, as well as the Rwandan, Ethiopian
and Sudanese genocides equally due to "colonial misinformation" about
Africa which is otherwise a model of so-called "good governance"?
Of course not. African failure since independence, despite massive
amounts of external aid as documented by Smith, Robert Guest and
others, is an uncomfortable fact. So is the utter lack of scientific
or technological thought in Africa prior to contact with the West.
I am afraid "the noble savage" is another very Western idea, first
formulated by Rousseau. Mr. Morewane Maisela believes that "both
Afrikaners and the English found ethnic groups living in tranquillity
and harmony", yet in the 1830s the Voortrekkers found the interior
devastated by the Mfecane in which a million people are estimated to
have died. Contemporary Africa is indeed a paradise, but a "paradise
of cruelty" as Stephen Smith calls it. Similarly, the lost idyll of
pre-colonial life was "tranquil" because of ambient death resulting
from tribal wars.
Afrikaners did not "trample on 80% of the population", otherwise there
would not have been so many hospitals, schools and universities built
during the apartheid era and which we can still observe around us with
our very eyes, despite so much government propaganda holding that
South Africa rose miraculously out of a Proustian teacup when the ANC
dipped its Madeleine in it ten years ago.
I have no problem with Mr. Maisela applying ruthless affirmative
action to create a world in which there would be no white managers,
teachers or sportsmen. This was after all what apartheid sought to
achieve, a complete separation of the races. Logically, there is no
difference between apartheid and black consciousness or negrology. It
is a pity that both Verwoerd and Steve Biko got killed before they
were able to talk to one another and devise a system acceptable to
black and white alike. The current system satisfies neither side, as
it will always have to discriminate against whites, yet will never
meet black demands for money and power.
Dan Roodt
Skrywer, uitgewer, en direkteur, PRAAG
epos dan#praag.org
Posbus 3103
Dainfern
2055 Suid-Afrika
____________________________________________________________ _______________
Last but not least some Black racism and myth-making in the same
paper:
____________________________________________________________ _____________
Colonists had evil intentions
06 February 2005
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DAN Roodt's retaliation against Makgoba's essay has a derogatory,
racist
and "Afro-pessimistic" aura.
History informs us that the Europeans did not have civil and organised
intentions when they invaded Africa  rather slavery, torture, murder
and oppression.
Both Afrikaners and the English found ethnic groups living in
tranquillity and harmony.
At least there were no genocides, which have subsequently occurred as
a
result of borders imposed by white colonialists.
"The orderly system of land ownership" praised by Roodt is one of the
factors that encouraged the Anglo-Boer War.
Affirmative action should be executed without fear or apology to serve
the interests of most black South Africans, especially women who
succumbed to brutal situations created by whites who think like Roodt.
You should have left before 1994 with your pessimistic family. Â
Morewane Maisela, Pretoria
____________________________________________________________ ______________
I am interested in reactions from both English and Afrikaans-speaking
South Africans about the decision by the governing board of the Mikro
Primary School in Kuilsriver to go to court to prevent English-speaking
pupils from enrolling in the school. More broadly, I would like to hear
your views on the future of Afrikaans-only schools (including the
historically Afrikaans universities) in the post-apartheid South
Africa.
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