A case for RE companies

[adrianh]

Interesting how light greens as a whole are unable to see themselves as a group. Many, many businesses are owned by Indians and only employ Indians. Then there is the proverbial Portugese & Greek corner shops.

Could it be that the light greens born in this country never developed a coherent group. There have always been at least two sub groups, Afrikaans & English. Those sub groups were comprised of various nationalities and those nationalities still have strong overtones within pockets of those societies fragmenting the groups even further.

The dark green does not need to divide and conquer, to the contrary, the light green has always been divided.

I fully agree with DesA, we are quick to talk about the business skills of the Indians, Jews, Portugese, Greeks, Chinese yet we frown upon our own RE networks.

Lets stop kidding ourselves, BEE is not primarily to benefit the masses, it is to shift power at the top of the pile. Look at Malema, Zuma & son & cronies, the problem is that the masses get a R50 / month increase and then fail to see that the Chief Dung Beetles have rolled the entire pile into their own nests.

[desA]

^

Interesting how light greens as a whole are unable to see themselves as a group. Many, many businesses are owned by Indians and only employ Indians. Then there is the proverbial Portugese & Greek corner shops.

Could it be that the light greens born in this country never developed a coherent group. There have always been at least two sub groups, Afrikaans & English. Those sub groups were comprised of various nationalities and those nationalities still have strong overtones within pockets of those societies fragmenting the groups even further.

The dark green does not need to divide and conquer, to the contrary, the light green has always been divided.

I agree completely with these observations.

[desA]

... as well as a huge number of what are probably termed 'poor whites'. Some 650,000 I'm led to understand, amongst a light-green population of arguably less than 2 million souls.

Would anyone perhaps be able to provide more substance to the poor-light-green estimate? What is the official census figure for the total light-green population in SA at present?

[Dave A]

You guys are just going to love Pierre de Vos's latest blog post - Blaming the victim.

[adrianh]

@DaveA - Deep but true...

It is sad to see that our leaders fail to follow the teaching of a great black leader; namely Martin Luther King Jr.

Some quotes
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

And the greatest quote of them all
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation were they will not be judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

...
So yes, when it is all said and done, the more things change the more they stay the same. Wise men are ignored, roles are reversed and instead of Martin Luther King Jr's four little girls being judged by the colour of their skin, my little girls are. My two little girls were born 4 years after '94 but they are unable to partake in the "prosperity" provided by MTN because they are white....

[flaker]

Now come on-give me a break. How is one to expect "indians" to now employ their previous masters. the next "indian" generation will. Yes,they will place those light-greens behind shop counters.those that previously clipped tickets as train conductors (school drop-outs & untrainables) & were given railway accomodation (3 bedrooms,lounge,kitchen etc.,free kids schooling,books) apart from a very decent wage will be trained to become traders.

[desA]

You guys are just going to love Pierre de Vos's latest blog post - Blaming the victim.

Yes, indeed. A very interesting & relevant article. Thanks for that.

Of course we all would love to move to an utopian society in which a person’s race really does not matter to anyone. But we cannot do that by pretending race does not matter now, when it so clearly does. Racism is all around us and pretending that race does not matter now and that racism does not exist is, in my view at least, merely a less toxic form of racism. All we are doing when we do that is to try and preserve the status quo which benefits ourselves and which we want to normalise and universalise – something that is inherently unfair and also unconstitutional.

I would read this as a supporting view towards the establishment & maintenance of RE companies & networks, under the premise that the prevailing 'norm' in SA has become supportive of the dark-green dominant group.

[desA]

So yes, when it is all said and done, the more things change the more they stay the same. Wise men are ignored, roles are reversed and instead of Martin Luther King Jr's four little girls being judged by the colour of their skin, my little girls are. My two little girls were born 4 years after '94 but they are unable to partake in the "prosperity" provided by MTN because they are white....

This comment sums up the current state-of-play in SA, that I've observed over the past 2 months.

[desA]

Now come on-give me a break. How is one to expect "indians" to now employ their previous masters. the next "indian" generation will. Yes,they will place those light-greens behind shop counters.those that previously clipped tickets as train conductors (school drop-outs & untrainables) & were given railway accomodation (3 bedrooms,lounge,kitchen etc.,free kids schooling,books) apart from a very decent wage will be trained to become traders.

No, they won't. They will place family members, or members of their own RE network behind those counters.

In applications where it would be more 'correct' they will allow members of other groups to work for them, as their 'front'.

[adrianh]

Now come on-give me a break. How is one to expect "indians" to now employ their previous masters.

Exactly, we don't expect them to. We accept that that is the way they do business, just as we accept that the Chinese employ the Chinese and so on.

This is the exact point we are trying to make; we should have our own "Currently Disadvantaged RE network"

Another interesting thing is that I've never heard the majority moan about the Oriental Plaza or the Chinese Market...but the "Currently Disadvantaged" holiday resort, now that is something to complain about...