I found it very difficult to blog this week. It has been a tough week. News from South Africa have not been good. People getting killed for being foreign. Xenophobia. So sorry, I haven’t been my chipper self since it happened. As you might know from my last blog – Terror in South Africa and the end of a dream… This week I will focus on the news from Africa. Just because it has been in my thoughts all week. Hopefully the news will be better next week and I will have the will to blog again. Let’s see where this takes us…
1. Immigrants run, but not foreign investors
I had to look for some good news out of Africa this week. But it is slim pickings. But it looks like foreign investors don’t see the world through my eyes right now. And thank God for that. Investors still believe that Africa in general is immunefrom global recession. That’s good news right? I don’t know. Becauseinvestors don’t actually give a… hum… damn I guess. (My wife doesn’t want me to swear. She says it isn’t “classy”. I argue saying she is looking at the wrong blog for that!) I have serious problem with the way they look at Africa. BecauseAfrica isn’t immuneto a recession. Food prices are up – just yesterday the UN says that developing countries will pay 40% more for food because of global needs, biofuelsetc. No crisis hey? But I have a bigger problem with their view. They should rather say that SOME African countries won’t feel the pinch. But others? I don’t know. Zimbabwe is not doing so well. And haven’t for a while. South Africa is losing steam – and will have an impact across sub-Saharan Africa. Sorry guys. It’s gonna get worse before it gets better. So that was the good news…
Talking about Zim. It is getting worse by the day. Women are now going to Mozambique to earn money for food. Selling their souls and bodies for a food. Hoping to earn dollars to send home for food. We are not talking about the young girls being starry eyed about a better future and not seeing the potholes. I am talking about mothers going into prostitution to hopefully make enough money to send home again so that the family can be fed. And it won’t get any better with the thousands moving back to Zimbabwe after the xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Again it is the women who will suffer. And it is the women who will do anything to try and save their families. And the men who will do the killing. Hope you are proud of yourself. Men. Bah! Wimps and weaklings – that’s what they are. Can’t solve a problem and they go straight for the violent option. Stupid bastards.
We know Gambian President Yahya Jammeh is crazy. Some call him eccentric. Just call it what it is please. He is a crazy lunatic – a mad man. A stupid, stupid insecure sub-human. First he found a cure for HIV/Aids in a plant and a Qur’anic verse. I am sorry. A bite of a daisy and reading a line or two won’t do it buddy. No matter how much you believe. I believe you are just plain crazy. And that is not written in the Bible or the Qur’an. It’s written in the skies. Now he wants to behead gays because it is against the Bible and the Qur’an. Sorry buddy. Go read the scriptures again. It still says your crazy. And stupid. Put your insecurity in a box and put it where the sun don’t shine. If your version tells you to behead someone or discriminate against them – then burn it. It doesn’t deserve better treatment. And neither do you. I really don’t get the issue people have with the sexuality of others. It’s just insecure, stupid and silly. Really. You won’t be worried about others if you more secure within yourself. Real men don’t worry about the choices of others. Get over yourself.
4. World Wide Web Weddings in Cameroon
I don’t know how many times I have won the lottery. I win it at least a couple of times each day. You know. Those “you email was selected” type of lottery winnings. Not to mention the hundreds of people from Gambia, Nigeria and South Africa who wants to send me money each day. The money that is in a holding account and needs a place to go. And I am always the right guy for these little transactions. Damnit. Still waiting. Not one single onehad paid out yet… But now their is a new way to catch you suckers foreigners out. Marriage. Yes, hot babes on the offer from Cameroon. And the stupid guys from Europe falls for it! Girls from Cameroon is whispering typing sweat words of promises and a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say-no-more here and there and the guys are falling hard. Especially the older French guys. TAs they say, there is a sucker born each and every day. And he speaks French. Next up? Offering quickie divorces over the web. Mmm. Let me think about that one for a bit…
5. Jou ma se…
The xenophobic attacks in South Africa has spread to my hometown – Cape Town. You know my feelings. But I just want to express it in the best Capetonian way possible. “Hey, you guys. Yes, you tsotsi. Ja, ek praat met jou dom donner. Vat jou goed en trek Ferreira. And I don’t mean the foreigners. I am talking to you who live in Cape Town and who are doing this. Boet. Jy is niks nie. En jy is nie ‘n Kapie nie. Ons maakie so nie ne. Vat jou goed en waai. Jou ma se…” Enough is enough. Stop it now.
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May 25, 2008 at 1:52 am
This news report says it like it is far better than a newspaper because you mirror the sentiments that are within me… Jou ma se… indeed… what is going on???
No one can blame those fleeing the country anymore, no more comments about being unpatriotic, no more snide remarks about those who leave being not truly South African
Don’t know when last you were home or when you were at the V&A but I stopped by there yesterday and there are statues of de Klerk, Mandela and Tutu, under Mandela’s one stands the quote “Never, Never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will experience the oppression of one by another” … I cried
May 26, 2008 at 4:57 am
Sanity – yes indeed. Those words, haunting in its meaning – now a phantom. How short the memories of some people!! What is going on, indeed?
We have taken in our gardener and his young family, from Malawi. They want to go back, so we are making arrangements. We will fly them “home”. I wonder who is really unpatriotic?
May 26, 2008 at 10:46 am
As a foreigner living in another country, I thought about how frightening it would be if my neighbours turned on me and my family. I am truly appalled by how this can happen in a country with the history that we have had. Ubuntu – where has it gone?
May 26, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Ditto to you all. I have also not been able to write for a while… but reading this and the responses makes me realise once again that it is not the majority who are commiting atrocities. The rest of us must continue to practice ubuntu, now more than ever, we need to keep our heads high and our hearts open and whatever we do, we must not lose hope…because then they have won.
May 26, 2008 at 1:11 pm
@SanityFound – That is what gets to me. Those words of Madiba and how these people who call themselves South African are denying our past with their violence. They are breaking down what Madiba has given us.
@Emil – I agree. Who is unpatriotic. These people who are doing this. They are not unpatriotic. Because they are animals and not South African. They will use the name of patriotism and kill in our name. But I won’t give that to them. They deserve nothing.
@a broad – True. How would we feel if our neighbours turned on us? Yesterday we had fun together and today they try and kill us? Makes no sense…
@Michelle – I for one won’t give up hope. Hell, they might trample on Madiba’s vision, but it is up to us to not let that vision die. It is a wake-up call to remind us we can never assume that everything is okay. Still lost of work to do.