Dear Bloggy-ma-thingy,
Sorry I've been away a while again. Things have been busy at work at the Hill, what with droves of worker bees migrating to other, probably vastly friendlier hives. Even some of the drones are apparently getting ready to desert the Queen, and sometimes I wonder if I should not be out there scouting around for greener pastures...
Generally, though, life outside the hive has been quite pleasant. I seem to have finally settled into more or less what could be considered a routine, even if it is somewhat desperately dull, devoid of all romance, and definitely on the pathetically lonely side at times.
For one, I have become relatively expert (notice: I did not use the word "addicted," and that for good reason) to locally produces "TV dramas," which will be one of the observations and anomalies referred to in the title to this entry today.
For another, I have given up my horribly bad internet connection at home, as the local internet cafe around the corner has been kind enough to offer me unlimited internet for R200 a month. While this has the disadvantage of meaning I no longer can go online 24/7, making playing Airline Online sadly impossible, it means it makes me get out among the people every day, which is probably responsible for my not becoming a total hermit and completely unbearable curmudgeon. I've gotten to know most of the staff at the cafe quite well and there are a few nascent friendships there, which is always a nice benefit...
And another pastime I've sort of developed is watching political developments in my erstwhile homeland. That - like the locally produced dramas (called "soapies" here) - is in and of itself, never a dull thing to be involved with. South Africa's political scene, while probably reported only in small doses or hardly at all, is wild and crazy...
My first observation about all of the local soapies is probably not a shocker, but definitely something which keys into the other area broached above. In every one of them, from Generations through Isidingo, Rhythm City, Scandal!, 7de Laan all the way to Muvhango, nearly all the truly evil, bad guys are white. True, in some of them, there are evil blacks and coloreds, too, but the main range of truly evil folk on these widely watched shows is nearly always white. The whites come up with the most corrupt, evil and sinister plot points, are the most foul when it comes to bad behavior, and are (at least in the case of 7de Laan) always the biggest gossips and busybodies around. The range of acting, especially in 7de Laan, likewise, is also similarly awful. Nonetheless, all of these shows are cult and camp at the same time and give rise to the preponderance that some of South Africa's genuine, real-life problems may come from everyone in the country being subjected to too much bad soapie script-writing and acting. That, in turn, may be the reason for political high-jinx and problems besetting the nation in real-time.
Racism, while officially not very much a topic in the "rainbow nation" Nelson Mandela proclaimed, is, nonetheless, a genuine and frequently unaddressed problem. Many of the policies put in place after 1994, when decades of the cruel, constitutionally-enshrined national policy of apartheid ended, were designed to bring black and coloreds - the two previously completely disenfranchised majority segments of the local population - up to speed as rapidly as possible. Sadly, in a vast majority of cases they have had the opposite effect, fanning further the flames of hatred, inequity and broadening the divide. [I should explain here, for the sake of Americans who might be reading you, dearest Blog, that coloreds and blacks are government parlance here, not some racial slur I'm incorporating. Blacks in South Africa are those people of black African descent, while coloreds are people of racially-mixed origins.]
Corruption, while in the early years of the new South Africa not a pronounced problem, has grown steadily, owing to a variety of reasons, not the least of which is these early policies that, instead of bringing a more equitable distribution of wealth to all as envisioned, has resulted in a very small handful of blacks and coloreds in power milking the system for all it is worth and enriching themselves to astronomical heights at the expense of a vast majority of the population.
Part of this can be laid directly at the doorstep of the ANC, the ruling party, which established an investment arm called Chancellor House. That organization controls a majority stake in nearly every state-run business ranging from South African Airways, SABC, Sasol (the state-run petroleum company) to Eskom and Telkom, the electricity company and telecommunications company, respectively. While some aspects of each of these business sectors have been privatized, the bulk has not. Corruption in each of these businesses is rampant, and the result is a wild increase in poverty, marginalized citizens and residents and a furthering instead of a closing of the gap between haves and have-nots.
I can think of no other country, for example, where an electric company can propose (and then get approved by the country's utilities board) a rate hike of 100% spread over three years. The first "installment" of this outrageous hike took place on the first of the month, increasing electric power bills by an average of 33% to the entire population. It was approved, so the utilities board said, become the mismanaged Eskom had (during the preceding nearly 20 years of corruption and misgovernance) "become uncompetitive and fallen behind" in generation, distribution and production in general. That fact had led to massive brownouts in 2007 through early 2009, which the behemoth addressed not by ramping up production or building new plants, but by buying additional power at grossly overinflated prices from neighboring nations with excess production. Nevertheless, despite these problems, Eskom's board and directors were all paid, much like in many misled American companies, bonuses that were beyond understanding.
Eskom's excuse for these "problems" was that all the poor people living in "informal settlements" (more accurately called slums or barrios) were stealing so much power through illegal taps that the company was facing losses. Documentary programs, news interviews and word of mouth all exposed those excuses as fraudulent; indeed, while there is a connection problem with illegal taps in the "informal settlements" and theft is a problem, the real reason behind Eskom's woes is - simply stated - corruption and fraud. As the majority of the company is controlled via Chancellor House, there is no interest in doing what would come naturally at an American or German or British (or any other first-world) company - whether state-owned in part or entirely - which is firing the entire board and then divesting a majority or all operations.
And so the story goes for almost all state-owned companies here. While a part of each has been privatized (often during the apartheid era), the shares of each are nearly always securely in the hands of Chancellor House, the "investment arm" of ANC, which steadfastly refuses to disclose just how much of what it actually owns.
The result is, naturally, corruption at all levels of these businesses, and also in government. While South Africa may not rank among the most corrupt according to Transparency International and similar organizations that monitor the spread of fraudulent behavior at national levels, it is, as one local paper recently reported, poised at the brink of crossing the line of "no return."
And the result, in turn of this national problem, which is not being dealt with despite promises to the contrary by current president Jacob Zuma, is a growing racial divide and polarization of South Africans. Of course, ZUma himself may not be the most shining example for someone to lead a battle against corruption. He was, from the outset, a controversial ANC candidate and his name was connected to several major criminal and political scandals, the circumstances of several never having been completely cleared or resolved and, indeed, some continuing to this very day. Zuma also tends to incite division through his personal behavior - having five wives and numerous bastard children may work for him, personally, but is not considered de rigeur among a greater part of South Africans, and certainly does nothing to improve his reputation overseas.
So, Bloggy dear, let's review: We have soapies telling everyone whites are evil while corruption of state-run companies rises alarmingly as it does in the ANC and the country itself, which is led by a controversial president with a chequered past. Hmmm. What else can we throw in the mix? Well, how about Julius Malema?
Who's he? you ask? Ah, glad you want to know. Here's what one website says: Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981, in Seshego) is a South African politician, and the president of the African National Congress Youth League. He is best known for his controversial statements and speeches, and intense support for African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. So let's get this straight - born in 1981, which makes him 30 next year, and the president of a youth league? For most of us, youth end at the very latest at 25. After all, most of us recognize that 30 is the beginning of middle age, and middle age and youth have, in most people's books, precious little in common.
Aside from that glaring fact, Malema is probably the single most controversial figure in South African politics today, even more so as of late, than Zuma himself. For starters, he has an extraordinarily big mouth, which he has extreme difficulty keeping shut. Usually, when he opens it, it is to insert an entire shoe-store and always with extraordinarily bad timing. Whether it's a controversial, dangerous and unsettling topic such as nationalizing all the mines in this mineral-rich country, or undermining Zuma's own feeble efforts at trying to bring some sort of cooperation back to Zimbabwe's erratic government through proclaiming to the world press during an "official" visit to the decrepit dictator Robert Mugabe that the ANC wants the despot's Zanu-PF party to stay in power and that it has the"full support" of all of South Africa, Malema can be counted on to distract from Zuma's weaknesses and frailties by giving local and international pundits a workout.
Recently, he's managed to whip things up into even more of a frenzy by insisting he has the right to sing what he called a "struggle song" from the days of the apartheid era. The song, Aw dubul'ibhunu, (Zulu for "Shoot the Boer") was declared hate speech by the country's highest court, but Malema decided he could still sing it publicly (as did several other ANC members, who have since apologized). Shortly after this latest commotion involving the great youth leader, the leader of one of the right-wing extremist parties, Eugene Terre Blanche, was brutally murdered on his farm. Terre Blanche, an odious scumbag leader of the local extremist equivalent of the American White People's Nazi Party, was - how could it be any different? - a farmer. [Okay, so he was hacked to death, not shot, by two black farm hands, and now there's a huge controversial debate ranging since claims have been aired saying a used condom of Terre Blanche's was found at the scene, leading to the suspicion that he was homosexual and enjoyed raping his farm hands on the side, but some here believe Malema may not be totally without blame in the whole case.]
What really amazes me in all of this is the incredible double standard here in Mzanzi. It's okay to do anything and say anything about one group of people, but anything said about another is automatically a "racist slur" or "hate speech." Yes, this is a dangerous topic, but it will only grow more dangerous as long as the soapies continue to cast whites as the baddies, Zuma continues to be more of a buffoon than true leader, and Malema is allowed to continue antagonizing and misbehaving at every turn.
Especially irksome, too, is the fact hat South Africa is on the verge of blowing its first real chance at showcasing itself to the western world as a member of same. There are less than two months to go before the FIFA World Cup begins. Public service strikes, more corruption exposed, and more and more resentment against whites being stoked by Malema and others really is not going to help the country much, if it truly does want to encourage visitors and those tourist Dollars, Euros and Pounds. Apparently Malema and some of the other cronies urging death to whites and worse haven't come to realize one basic fact yet - the vast majority of the 350,000 expected soccer fans who will soon be descending from the skies on South Africa is not going to be black or colored...
Let's just hope that Zuma's latest efforts at reining in the unrepentant bad boy Malema work in time to not have a detrimental effect on the World Cup and don't ruin South Africa's first-ever chance at truly impressing upon the world just what a wonderful place it is. After all, South Africa needs those tourists, but they don't need Malema, crime, corruption, race riots and anything else that will scare them off.
So while we are being besieged morning noon and night by ad campaigns exhorting us all to "feel it, it is here," it's still readily apparent that that sentiment is a last-ditch effort at trying to instill some sort of excitement and will to behave properly in everyone, yet apparently not in politicos. Go figure...
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