Racism is racism is racism ...

[ChrisNG53]

Racism is racism is racism ...

Teco - I hear you loud and clear. It is all very frustrating as with so many other aspects of our country.
And yes ... just moaning and groaning about it achieves nothing.
In my case I have blogged the thing and sent an appeal to all the main "opinion makers". Social networking can be a very powerful medium.
I have also devoted space in a book I have written.
It's all I can do ... mini crusade within the limits of my resources. Propagating TRUTH has never caused harm and often induces change.
What I don't believe in is to grumble, moan and groan ... without confronting centers of power and influence.
What I have noticed is that these centers of power and influence "don't want to know" ... "don't give a sh%#" -- and that is why nothing changes. The Editor of the Sowetan deleted my appeal without even reading it.
But does that mean one should then just "shut up". No!, because those who benefit from maintaining the status quo want you to do just that ... shut up and lump it.
The present situation is SA is obscene ... it is evil ... and I, for one, will not shut up about it.

[desA]

I've only been back in SA since mid July.

A few things I've come across thus far (not an exhaustive list, by any means):
1. To obtain government (largish) contracts, BEE status is mandatory;
2. Corruption at the highest levels is rife - actually all the way down the grab chain;
3. ANC youth league promotes Zuma's son's business interests - blatantly;
4. People's lives are threatened if they expose this rampant corruption;
5. A lecturer at a University needs to be dark green to obtain a permanent position (blatant);
6. Current 'top' (light green) lecturers at many universities are on one year contracts - already some have retired 2-3 times;
7. Light green businesses struggle to get registered (excessive times). Dark green seem to breeze through;
8. The road systems are collapsing;
9. Young light green school leavers face a jobless future;
10. Too many 'workers' demand their 'rights', & prefer to strike & not work;
11. SA salaries are in excess of 2-3x those of SE Asia - productivity 1/2, or less of SE Asia;
12. Cartels rule the roost in SA;
13. SA is moving down the skids - slowly, but surely;
14. The chances of a regime-change coup grow daily - together with the growing season of discontent.
15. SA's medical industry has slipped far behind health-care in SE Asia.
16. Doctors & pharmacies are milking the local previously-advantaged population - in extreme measure.
17. SA's housing bubble is the highest in the world. It is about to burst.
18. Food is excessively expensive.
19. SA is now importing food. (Where have the farmers gone?)
20. SA farm murders are rife.
21. Farm expropriation pressures loom. (Welcome to SAmbabwe).
22. The rugby coach is appointed based on colour, not ability.
23. At SA Home Affairs, what used to take 2 days to sort out, is still not settled 5 months later - with no end in sight. (Zuma praises Home Affairs).

One only has to wonder what SA could have looked like were a non-racist policy to have been followed.

[ChrisNG53]

Racism is racism is racism

DesaA - your summary is so indicative of an overall situation that is "surreal", i.e, real but hardly recognized as such.
In my book "The Other -without fear,favour or prejudice-" I devote a Chapter titled "And the frog is boiled alive" in which I also summarise this incredible situation where we simply accept, tolerate, acquiesce in, allow ... the most abnormal, intolerable situations to subsist ... without realizing that, in effect, we are being "boiled alive" ... slowly but surely.
The Zuma government has obviously sensed this phenomena and there are some clear indications that it wants to arrest the situation. However it is severely hamstrung, on any number of counts, especially as the "Black is entitled" dogma has corrupted the whole State in it's emotional intelligence. In short, no one is even starting to see the inherent evil that is now a national religion, spawning anything and everything except "true transformation" of our post apartheid society.
The media is quite valiant but somewhat "superficial" about the paradigm problems besetting this nation. So you have a "daft" Lead SA campaign that we must all switch on our lights apparently to better see vehicles that we can already see quite perfectly, thus distracting us from the real problem which is bad road use culture.
Another example is the "General" Beke Cele led national idea that the cure to crime is
"more police", "harsher sentences" ... etc without doing anything about the underlying problem of a whole nation that is infused with an anomic culture whether it is a dishonest domestic worker or directors "fixing" national commodity food prices.

So all we can do is raise our voices to expose these things. As Edmund Burke said - "for evil to triumph, it requires only that good men say nothing"

[Dave A]

I had to look up the definition of anomic - I share just in case anyone else also didn't know it is a real word.

1. Social instability caused by erosion of standards and values.
2. Alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a class as a result of a lack of standards, values, or ideals

[Chrisjan B]

I had to look up the definition of anomic - I share just in case anyone else also didn't know it is a real word.

Perfect description of what is wrong with our country at the moment...

[desA]

"And the frog is boiled alive" in which I also summarise this incredible situation where we simply accept, tolerate, acquiesce in, allow ... the most abnormal, intolerable situations to subsist ... without realizing that, in effect, we are being "boiled alive" ... slowly but surely.

An excellent reply, Chris.

SAmbabwe is most definitely in the frog-boiling business. The whole state apparatus has been so severely eroded over the last number of years that, under the present regime, the downward slide will move into a death spiral.

The national psyche is now firmly in the hands of the 'we demands'. Difficult times seem to lie ahead.

The leadership vacuum is tangible.

[Justloadit]

A new word for me as well.

What is interesting, is if such a word exists in the English language, it may mean that what we are experiencing now has happened before, and a word created to describe this cancer

[Dave A]

I'm more interested in how Chris came across it in the first place.

It is damningly appropriate and I was suitably impressed.

[Chrisjan B]

Me too...

[ChrisNG53]

Racism is racism is racism

I'm more interested in how Chris came across it in the first place.

It is damningly appropriate and I was suitably impressed.

I am a retired judge by profession. Anomie is a pretty elementary concept in the study of criminology, i.e, the study of why we have crime which is a bad manifestation of deviance.

So what you can accept is that this is not "rocket science" to thousands of our lot in the legal sector. Therefore I find it absolutely astounding that government does not appear to be getting the obvious advice on this score.

For example - an "expert" was being interviewed on Radio 702 about "crime" in SA. The usual "more police", "harsher sentences" tripe was on the menu. I phoned in and took the stance as to why we were concerned to "treat acne with cream etc when the real cause was a blood disorder", i.e, that we should be tackling our anomic condition, the fundamental driver of all our deviance and crime.

The good man agreed with everything I had to say, without the slightest qualification or reserve.
So why the frigging hell do we mess about with "superficial", "band aid" strategies and ignore fundamental realities..???. It drives me coo-coo ...!!!!

..... like asking me to switch on my headlights so as to better see things I can already see quite perfectly ... Are we serious??? Really?

... and, of cause, we have this unreal approach all over the place ... don't we?

[Dave A]

The good man agreed with everything I had to say, without the slightest qualification or reserve.
So why the frigging hell do we mess about with "superficial", "band aid" strategies and ignore fundamental realities..???.

Probably because of cognitive dissonance. The subliminal process of rationalisation means the visible evidence of the problem is so far removed from the actual fracture, the victim has problems connecting actual cause with the effect.

[ChrisNG53]

Probably because of cognitive dissonance. The subliminal process of rationalisation means the visible evidence of the problem is so far removed from the actual fracture, the victim has problems connecting actual cause with the effect.

I don't think so, with respect. I think it was simply a case of ensuring that your bread stays nicely butterred. The expert was reporting in terms of a "government sponsored" study he and others had just done. Like all "tenderperneurs', he was always going to "babble" on about no more than was absolutely necessary ... and not start dealing in "inconvenient truths".

South Africa has a fistful of incredibly talented, brilliant people ... yet we have a "deafening silence" on a whole bunch of issues.

For instance - take the World Cup. Of cause a World Cup is terribly exciting ... etc. The reality, however, was that we simply could not afford to indulge ourselves in this way ... but we did ... and practically no-one raised a pipsqueak in objection. Apparently the thing made us look good ... in the eyes of the world.

Well, "looking good" is a terribly fickle commodity. Ask Tiger Woods.
Today, in considering South Africa, the whole world is preoccupied - not with the World Cup - but with the brutal murder of Anni Dewani!

[Justloadit]

Ohhhhh how the truth hurts.

[Sparks]

Ha ha welcome to the "New South Africa. It was never this bad and will never improve. Racism is and always will be alive and kicking. The majority of the racists are obviously found in the largest ethic group. They somehow think they are more equal than the rest of us, as for their inferiority complexes, I am sure you would also have one if you could not think further than your nose. Even if it is flat.

[Dave A]

Sparks, you do realise that last post makes you a racist, I'm sure.

So if you're OK with being a racist and grant yourself the right to run down blacks on the basis of their flat noses, does that mean you don't have a problem with blacks giving themselves preferential status in some areas, such as economic entitlement or job reservation for example, ahead of you as a whitey too?