“How good and how pleasant it would be, Before God and man, yeah

To see the unification of all africans, yeah, As its been said already let it be done, yeah, We are the children of the rastaman, We are the children of the higher man

Unite for the benefit of your children, Unite for its later than you think

Africa awaits its creators, africa awaiting its creators

Africa, youre my forefather cornerstone

Unite for the africans abroad, unite for the africans a yard

Africa, unite” – Robert Nesta Marley

Moral question…and it’s a fine line. So yesterday I am driving and not paying much attention to my odometer but I was in no rush, I was pretty chilled, like most days, out of nowhere jumps this traffic officer and pulls me to the side, I knew I wasn’t driving too fast so wasn’t too stressed about the ticket. Anyway the dude pulls me over, grabs my licence I asked him what the limit was, thinking it was either 70km/h/80km/h and he says 60 I am like eish, so I ask the man how fast was I going he said 76, I was like EISH. So I asked the man bra cant you let me off this one time, I started pleading my case regarding prior fines etc. So he told me well speak what can u do, so I said to the bra, boss I can’t bribe a police officer…long spiel about how its not right blah blah (but in the back of my mind I was thinking if this dude was gonna take me to jail I may well consider buying my freedom…at least I am honest) but anyway during our conversation he mentioned it being hot and him wanting a cooldrink. Anyway, long story short he told me he could see I was a good guy (I was touched) and I should get in my car I offered him R10 for his cool drink to say thanks for the favour. He said no thanks, and I should have a good day. On my way back from my meeting I bought him and his 2 colleagues cooldrink. My question? Was that bribing an officer?

Please forgive this email because it may well be all over the place because this topic has so many facets to it in my mind.

Isnt it ironic…don’t you think. On the 25^th May we are supposed to be celebrating this phenomenon called Africa Day, the day on which the Organisation of African Unity was formed way back in 1963, as we all know this union is now known as African Union. And here we are…2008 and still having to deal with another bout of senselessness which could easily plunge this nation of ours down the same path that many an African country has taken in the not so distant past.

I am almost sure that this email is going to the wrong audience (preaching to the converted) but alas, I would like to hear your thoughts and express mine and some of those I have heard. Yesterday I was having a chat to a friend and he attended some leadership conference and the speaker made a point which he reiterated to me. And let me ask you this? People from which country are known to wear or rather let me rephrase it and ask which country(ies) are the following items of clothing associated with? kilts, berets and kimonos? I am sure we are all too eager to answer Scotland, France and Japan respectively. But now tell me what is the traditional attire of the Ashanti tribe or closer yet the Vendas? I’ll leave it there…

Xenophobia is not new to this continent nor is it isolated to South Africa. In 1969/1970, Ghana had a bout of it after Kwame Nkrumah was ousted. In the 80’s Nigeria followed suit and burned alive many Ghanaians living there, along with many other ‘aliens. Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal same thing. Libya and Gambia even took arms against Africans living there too. The reasons for these attacks ranged from taking control of business rights through to the expulsion of aliesn who were promoting a non-islamic way of living, as was the case in Libya and the Gambia. Here is a link to an ariticle I came across if you have time http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/may01/xeno.html.

All these countries chased out their so called aliens and where are they now, economically? I am sure we can all agree that Nigeria is one of the richest countries on this continent, and I have never been there but economically its no New York, or Joburg. A lot of these countries that adopted these practices suffered hugely economically and are only now starting to come right. You chase out your migrants, you will inevitably chase out your skilled workers too and I am under no illusion that foreigners are doing a lot for this economy in bridging the current skills shortage. A small illustration, if you had to go to the former homelands, a lot of the teachers and doctors are from the greater continent, well at least that was the case in the 80’s and 90’s. I know for a fact because that’s what brought my family here. A lot of the current politicians and their kids were taught by our parents back in the good old Transkei. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I think the kwere influx added an extra dimension to our Xhosa brothers and sisters whilst we lived amongst them. I am sure many people will remember this, when we first came here a lot of people used to have a to have a tooth or 2 knocked out and it used to be called a ‘love gap’ (and forgive me if my recollection of the story is not sound) but that soon stopped, then came the hair relaxing and braiding and the wearing of traditional african attire… How soon we forget.

My only concern is that if its not stopped now it will definitely spill over into all areas of our society. This is how it starts, first the soft targets, the migrants, who are happy to do whatever they need to do to earn a living. Then it will be the skilled workers then it could easily spill over to a case of the haves and the have nots, which could easily roll over into ethnic cleansing…ie all the other have nots seeing that hey wait a minute, this government is predominantly Xhosa and the BEE deals on a whole over the last 14 years have mainly benefited the Xhosas etc. It may sound a tad alarmist, but if this can happen, tell me what will stop it from spilling into that?

You know I couldn’t help but chuckle on Sunday. A friend of mine has been trying to spade (court) this young lady for a few days or so, she is not a bad looking woman, anyway another mate was also getting in the mix on Sunday, so my mate goes to our other mate and tells him we are men of honour right? So how about backing off from my girl?! We have all been guilty of this at some point, but it made me chuckle and I drew comparisons to what is being touted as the reason for these attacks…they are stealing our jobs! Just like that girl is not my mates girl, no job is anyones job until they actually have it! If you and I go for a job interview and you get the job, how did you steal the job from me? If there is a job as a builder and I don’t believe that the job is beneath me, and I decide to go and take that job, how am I stealing a job from anyone? Xenophobia in this country has been around for a while I remember when I was younger foreign nationals were not liked much in those days and the reason was that we were stealing their women and I blame that solely on my namesake Yao J…

Sorry back to my story, so say 2 years ago or so, it raised its head in Cape Town, where many Somalis were being targeted and blamed for stealing peoples jobs. Their businesses were looted and burnt down. Now my example is pretty simple. At that time I worked at Standard Bank. Outside the building was a huge pavement. This pavement had been there for as long as the building has been erected. For many a year no one did anything there. Along came these Somalis and set up shop there. A little kiosk that sold cigarettes, cool drinks, chips, chocolates, etc. How did that dude steal anyones job?

I condone none of this violence or hate in any form nor hatred or intolerance of another being based on anything other than them being an idiot J but in all this madness I wonder how many Chinese, Bulgarians, Russians etc are here illegally? I am sure a visit to a few gentlemen’s establishments where the ladies are known to ask the very melodic question ‘you want lap dance’ will unearth a few of these such persons ;-) well so I heard…but ridding this country of such personnel would just be darn right silly….once again so I heard ;-)

Moving on rapidly…

All this being said though, I have no idea what goes through the mind of someone who has to struggle to survive or feed himself and his family and along comes all these foreigners who ‘take’ just about any job they can so they too can survive and create a better life for themselves, no matter what the job is paying?

But what is the solution then? Government intervention by setting a minimum wage in all industry and sectors? I don’t know if that will solve anything. I sit here and I kinda feel bad. I have a helper who comes once a week. She gets paid like R100 and she is more than chuffed with that. But if I do the maths, if she had to work every day of the week she will only earn R3 100 take out transport of say R20 or so a day and then what? But if it was legislated that she had to earn a minimum of say R250/R300 a day I might honestly think twice about using her, cos in my mind there isn’t much to do at my house, and then she will have no income from me at least, up goes unemployment…it’s a fine line this.

The sad thing about this is that the people perpetrating these atrocities don’t understand the magnitude of the potential consequences of their actions. South Africans and South African countries benefit largely from a presence in other Africa countries, companies like Standard Bank, Game, MTN, Anglogold Ashanti, Nandos to name but a few are raking it in from their African footprint. Imagine if these countries decided to expel these countries? Imagine if England, Australia, New Zealand decided, hey, you foreigners taking away our banking jobs, go home man?!

I have so many thoughts running through my head about this (such as there being a third force behind these acts which I don’t believe are too far fetched, also I am very disappointed about the lack of leadership being shown, as far as I know none of the ANC leadership past or present has actually come down from their mansions up high and come to the people and asked them to cease this insanity, bar ofcourse Mrs Winnie, and big respect to her, how short our memories are hey, good time friends) but it’s late and I must work tomorrow, it would be great to have your thoughts.

Birthdays

20^th Sanete

22^nd Lance

24^th Amrain and Rich Marshall

Have a great weekend and keep safe

Maximum respect and just because we are different doesn’t make anyone better a man or lesser a man, race, religion, height, you name it diversity adds to our society. Fear not for tis all an opportunity to learn from another and make yourself and life ‘richer’ and better….but then again I am preaching to the converted…

‘Que sera sera’