“There was a time when I thought life was over and out, When you went away from me
My dying heart made it hard to breathe, Would sit in my room, Because I didn't want to have to go out, And see you walking by, One look and I'd break right down and cry
Now you say that you've made a big mistake, Never meant to take your love away
But you can save your tired apologies, 'Cause it may seem hard to believe

But

I'm doin' just fine, Getting along very well, Without you in my life
I don't need you in my life, I'm doin' just fine, Time made me stronger
You're no longer on my mind.” Boyz II Men (for u T, just incase u forgot bro J)

Woo hoo another addition to the ‘weekly’ list, lovely miss Emily, welcome, please feel free to comment or read some of the older articles. www.mondaymail.blogspot.com

So up until just now I had nothing to write about but just had a discussion a discussion I had last weekend and the weekend before.

If Jacob Zuma takes over I am going cos this place will go to the dogs. Very similar to the same discussion I heard about 13 or so years ago when the ANC came into power. “I am leaving this place, its going to the dogs” and to the dogs its gone, we have Vodafone spending plenty pounds here, Barclays doing the same, the Chinese have entered the game as well, we have the privilege of hosting the worlds greatest showpiece in 2010. the economy is bustling evidenced with buildings popping up everywhere. Judging from the past weekends Sunday Times plenty a new millionaire has been ‘born’, lots of people my age are cruising around in flashy cars living in big pimping houses(one day when I am big I will be like them). Many people living in rural areas have access to basic amenities like running water, electricity, ablution facilities…to them the government has done some good. On the other hand there will be those living in townships who will feel that they have been failed because their circumstances are very similar to the way they were. Crime is another thing that has failed the people.

Now I am not saying I support Mr Zuma, but I am saying lets see what happens, who says he will be the next president? Who says it will be the worst decision ever? I don’t think many of us foreign born black South Africans are ‘safe’ if he comes into power, but then again who says I am right. Yes he has a corruption charge hanging over his head, as well as a charge of rape, of which he was acquitted. My question is if the case was as airtight and as plausible as the media would like us to believe would he not have been served his charge papers already. The rape case is another clearly flawed attempt to discredit and marginalize the man. Prior to all these allegations we were all quite happy to have him as a deputy president, bar Umshiniwam Umshiniwam, a huge smoke screen is created to discredit the man with a lot of help from the media and we are all weary and I am not saying our caution and uneasiness is unfounded, but I am asking is it not all part of a campaign to let him lose face?

He has the backing of 5 provinces, the youth league, the trade unions and the Woman’s league…that’s an overwhelming majority. All of whom have been exposed to the same propaganda that we have been, dam nit the man was accused of rape and the Women’s league still nominated him. Are they all stupid? Are we wiser than they?
The other side of the coin, so say Zuma comes into power. He actually focuses on providing free healthcare and schooling to the masses. Minimum wages are increased, basic conditions of employment are enhanced. Say he focuses his whole tenure on lifting the not so well to do out of the doldrums, will that be so bad? I guess provided the ability of the ‘better off’ is not inhibited.

Fears of this being another Zimbabwe, well I had a conversation with some seemingly knowledgeable people a few weekends ago. The situation here is far from the situation in Zim. In Zim people live for their farm land its not the case here, think about it, how many people do you know of that want to go and live on a farm, everyone is migrating to the city, cos they heard there is s ex in the city…oh so lame! I speak from a very ignorant position, but I don’t think the land issue is as great as it was in Zim and secondly I do believe that the powers that be have handled it well.

My largest concern with Mr Zuma is that if he is voted in his will be a populist vote and what tends to happen with such leaders (even if they are not elected into power), is they tend to believe that they know best for the people and are helping the people and as a result hang on to power indefinitely creating a dictatorship (of sorts)…Castro, Gaddafi, Mussolini, Hitler, Idi Amin…u get the gist.

But wait there’s more what becomes of all the work that has been done in trying to contain the spread of HIV and AIDS in this country, if what his trial revealed is anything to go by? [And by the way my understanding is that plenty is being done about HIV/AIDS in this country, more money has been thrown at it than in many other countries, but the complexity with this country is vaster than imagined, the dissolution of the sense of community that defines many Africans thanks to the practices of the past is so much deeper. In more traditional African cultures there are elders that the youth look up to one way or another, and once again I could be mistaken because the only form of African upbringing I have been exposed to is that taught by my dear parents and family friends, but then again I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to great education to help enhance the basic manners and treatment of others in my community that I was brought up knowing. The lack of this figurehead of sorts and the ‘dehumanization’ of many of these people that were supposed to perform the role of elders, flows onto the crime situation and general behaviour of certain factions of the community, but that’s a story for another time]. But then again I am no psychologist, but it makes sense in my head J

In closing though, just as Cyril R was favoured by the last of this country’s figureheads, the Great Nelson Mandela to take over when he left office (and we know what happened there) there is a huge possibility that JZ may well not take over. But that being said, so JZ takes over, you tell me what good, everyone with some intellectual capacity packing their bags and leaving going to do for this country we all so love? I say we stay and keep fighting the good fight, I strongly believe that everyone of us can make a damn difference. You know what I find so concerning is the fact that I a foreign South African, who supports the All Blacks, who is also routinely stopped by the police (the most recent being yesterday afternoon and boy did those fu ckers hear it from me, they couldn’t wait for me to get into my car and drive off!! It pleased me!) has to write and try and convince many a proudly Springbok supporting South African that this is as good as it gets, its not perfect, but if we spend half the energy we have bad mouthing and creating a negative self fulfilling prophecy and channel it into fighting a good fight, even if it came to naught at least we can say ey we tried!!

Anyway that’s me for the week

Birthdays
01 Emily
02 Servon M
03 Scott G
04 Garth A
07 Tana

Maximum respect to the masses and if I don’t get to e-speak to you guys before the end of the year, be good and be safe, happy XMAS, Eid, Hannukah etc.

Y

‘Que sera sera’