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Thread: My Fellow South Africans

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    My Fellow South Africans

    My fellow South Africans.

    I am addressing you today from the highest office in the country. Not of minister or premier or even president but the Office of a Citizen of South Africa, an office and title I am proud to share in our wonderful and democratic society.

    Our country stands before a dark and frightening abyss…not from pestilence nor the wrath of nature or great cataclysms but from the single most evil and destructive force known to man through the eons…power.
    The most dreadful and heinous events in our collective journey as humans that left the most indelible scars on our collective psyche, has always been brought by those in power on those without.

    In the twentieth century three devastating influenza pandemics killed at least 60 million people but in the same century those yielding power over others caused the deaths of at least 200 million people with their instruments of war, revolution and oppression.

    As a human race, we do not carry deep and lasting scars from great and terrible diseases or epidemics; but we do carry deep wounds from wars, death camps, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Even the greatest killer, smallpox, which felled a half a billion in a hundred years, did not traumatise us as specie to the extent that power has.
    In our own time HIV / Aids took the lives of nearly 40 million people and left us with great sadness and pain but did not traumatise and scar us, as only powerful people are able to.

    We stand at a cross roads yet again were those in power would inflict on us great evil for the “greater good”.
    The draconian measures taken by the government has left us and freedom loving people across the world in shock and disbelieve. This from a government that knows suffered draconian oppression “for the greater good”. Now the chorus rises to deafening crescendo: “How can you compare the life saving measures of a government trying to safe it citizens to a crime against humanity like Apartheid?!?!”
    Well, I cannot…not yet. 18 000 fellow South Africans have been arrested in 31 days (more than any month in 1986 during the terrible State of Emergency). We receive reports daily of fellow citizens being brutalised and in some instances killed by the security forces…for the greater good. 73 000 soldiers are to be deployed; in support of or against our population, only time will tell. Again, take note that no such South African force was ever deployed after the end of World War II for any reason what so ever.

    “Limit their movement. It will make it easier to fight the virus” – Freedom and democracy is not supposed to be easy!
    “Don’t let drink. It will decrease violence and make them easier to control” – Freedom and democracy is not supposed to be easy!
    “Don’t let them smoke because we don’t have a good reason” – Traumatising 11 million smokers while they are watching their livelihoods and freedom go up in smoke. Pun intended. On this note research in France at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital indicate smokers are 5 times less likely to contract the Covid 19 virus. So the South African government is actively trying to increase the risk of contracting the virus for 11 million of our fellow citizens.

    My fellow South Africans.

    I do want to believe that a substantial number of those in power want to save us. The danger in front of them might be blinding them to the bigger danger of our lost freedoms and futures. The uncomfortable truth is that those that wield power and especially their scientific advisers are fundamentally different than us, that power is wielded over. Life is not about being alive. Life is about so, so much more than being alive. It might be that most scientist are not part of the 88% of South Africans that identifies as faithful and as such being alive is the be all and end all of all thing…as there is no after.
    Us 88% have a great luxury…of looking beyond just being alive and as such we probably have different priorities. Freedom to worship as we choose… Freedom from tyranny and oppression… To love and be loved…We generally hold our own lives in low enough value to gladly lay them down for others.

    That then for the misguided. Now for the nefarious.

    As clear as the sun, we daily see that some with power just want to oppress. Comments about keeping a ban on alcohol after the pandemic as a personal agenda should disqualify all from any position of power (just a note, Hitler was a teetotaller too). A quick lesson in civics…true freedom is identifying rights that people have, that you hate (this being for instance, private firearms ownership or the right to smoke or drink) and fighting your fingers to bloody nubs for those rights to be safe and saved. TRUE FREEDOM IS ABOUT KEEPING AS MANY RIGHTS AS POSSIBLE FOR AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH THEM.

    The danger is clear, so how do we proceed?

    The law and courts in South Africa has truly been a protector of right and freedom. It has been imperfect at times but as citizens we have mostly believed and felt that we are protected from power and the abuse their off. We beseech those with access to the law and courts to stand up for us ordinary citizens, which in practice do not have the access.

    We beseech constitutional scholars to not let slights against our freedoms stand unchallenged.
    We beseech civil rights organisations across the political spectrum to stand up and be true stewards of our freedom.
    We beseech industry organisations to fight asinine and arbitrary actions by those in power that damage our freedom.
    We beseech labour organisations to fight for our livelihoods even more than for our lives.

    Those who wield power need to be brought to an understanding that we are not your children, you are our employees. You were not elected to reign over us but to govern wisely and carefully. Our hard won freedoms are not to be cast away in the face of adversity or any circumstance for that matter.
    To my fellow citizens I say: “Be strong!” Work in a spirit of cooperation as much as possible but stand against abuse of power every time, wherever you find it. Do not let it go unanswered once. We have power in numbers and great tools in technology (we carry accountability and mass communication in our pockets).

    We will overcome all adversity, be it viral or oppression.

    May blessings and good heath be upon us all.

    Humbly yours
    Citizen I.M. SouthAfrican

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    All this "strong belief and conviction" wanes a bit thin when you go to the trouble of creating an anonymous profile just to express your point of view. If you want me to take you seriously, put an identity to your thoughts. Otherwise you're just another chicken shit muck-raker without the courage to be held accountable for their convictions.

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    To: Whoever wrote this drivel.

    1. You only speak for yourself!
    2. Unfortunately your over use of flowery descriptive language does not hide your poor writing skills.
    3. How about you use a spell checker!
    4. As Dave said, if you are too Chicken$h1T to sign your name then you have ZERO credibility.

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