Articles Tired I’m just Tired Tired of fighting Tired of racism Tired of being forgiving Asked and granted Over and Over Again How can forgiveness work If It is Tired too? That Fence See that boy? The one at the Fence See those boxes? The ones he stands on (It makes him taller) One is mine He took it (Kicked me down) I can’t get over I tried to get it back (After he kicked me down) He said I was being Unfair Now (still) I can’t get over That wretched Fence Land Clarification Recently on world headlines South Africa was featured as a country who’s ruling part is about to change the constitution to allow for land seizure from the White minority community. Let us clarify the current situation: South Africa via a parliamentary and public consensus process is contemplating the amending of the constitution, that already under Section 25 allows for land expropriation without compensation, to clarify the aforementioned area. Furthermore to seize implies to illegitimately take what is obtained legitimately. Thus by calling land expropriation without compensation seizure, implies land was obtained via a legitimate process to start with, ignoring the fact that it was historically illegitimately, lacking parliamentary hearings and public hearings, expropriated without compensation from the black community. Furthermore it was not the ANC who passed the bill. Rather it was the South African Parliament. Thus a democratic process took place to decide to begin the process of discussing possible amendments to clarify the constitution on land expropriation without compensation to restore land historically obtained illegitimately to its legitimate owners. Taking back dignity Dignity is an abstract concept. In general it is defined as the state of having respect and pride. Dignity is also fundamentally about being acknowledged for ones contributions to society and thus being respected. Ladies and gentlemen , dignity for large majority of the black community is missing. 1994 may have provided freedom albeit political freedom only, however respect cannot be legislated. Society must change and. reexamine its standing in the situation This was the situation: land was stolen from the black community who were then forced to work on the stolen land as farm workers for the next two hundred years without compensation for this work. So uncompromising was this system that despite the enormous size of the land in the hands of so few, the black community did not even have land or economic independence to live decently. A simple solution would have been to give back at least enough land so that a family who has served on a farm for generations could build a house and produce food to survive. This would have been the only way to ensure that stolen dignity could return via the economic independence that land offers. the fundamental concept of giving back land and thus dignity to an impoverished community should not be questioned. However this idealistic solution could not be implemented and land owners were unwilling to change. Abstract ideals such as dignity and respect do not feed malnourished children or act as means of survival to a landless community. Thus all focus went towards merely surviving in the squalor that landlessness causes and not getting land and respect back. Attempts to legally streamline the system that kept power in the hands of the oppressor. were met with backlash from the current land- thieving farming communities. South Africa was stuck in a cycle that threatened to never end, both sides unwilling to waiver. Recently that has changed. Land expropriation without compensation has been conceptually approved in Parliament. One cannot expect a person who has not had access to land to know how to use it nor can one expect to create a new farming community from nothing . How can we then ensure that land given back acts not as an economic burden on the owner but rather as a dignity-enhancer and asset? Compromise . There are numerous manners to ensure agricultural stability. One possible solution would be to parcel out segments of land to communities while simultaneously running training programs to on effective and sustainable use of the land before full expropriation is implemented. Another would be to hand over title deeds to incumbent farmers whilst still allowing the current farmer to lease the land. A more tempered solution would be to allow a reason time period for the farmer to sell his/her land before expropriation occurs. Ladies and gentlemen these are but a few ways around this issue. There are numerous valid arguments on the implementation but the fundamental concept of giving back land and thus dignity to an impoverished community should not be questioned. Are we free? 1994 is a much glorified year: Freedom for all our people and the birth of our democracy. While this was undoubtedly an important step in the realization of freedom, I would like to ask: How free are we? True freedom pertains a ability to make choices without being encumberedby uncontrollable external factors. To a child sitting in a black township kilometers away from town, what has changed? The suburbs are still a distant, locked away by fenced communities and security estates. School for the communities that suffered under Bantu, Coloured and Indian education is a privilege for the few and even when in school the quality has since Apartheid not changed. Thus merely because this child’s parents were black and this child was born in the communities they were forced to live in his/her choices are limited. Despite the attempts to create equality the economic-racial divide is still stark. In large part, industries are still not in black hands, remaining unproportionally distributed among the population. Land is still stolen and therefore dignity is not restored nor is economic independence. Thus, the black community concedes to the belief that if for so long we, despite the circumstances ,for so long have been ruled and the White community for so long has been ruling. There must be something wrong with us and action to economically uplift ourselves are dismissed as futile. The cycle of economic oppression just continues. In a nutshell: 1994 may have granted the black community freedom albeit this freedom was limited to being of a mere political nature. And as long as a dreamlike interpretation of 1994 remains this shall be maintained and true economic freedom will too remain a dreamlike unachievable goal. Unless this changes, Apartheid will remain embedded in society and stay there. Africa, The East and the Americaʼs What are we told and Instructed ? “Follow us Be great Democracy and Civilization Enlightenment too We will give it all to you A small price All your Gold Diamonds People Thats all weʼll take from you Our civilizations Society Tradition Thatʼs all Tribal” Rather you said “Listen to our Tribes Tradition and Fight our Tribal wars” Well then let Africa, The East and The Americaʼs Enlighten You Africa The East The Americaʼs We were great already No need to be made great Democracy is not Yours It never was That you learnt from Us Your alleged democratic Impositions Are mere elitist capitalist Decisions How can Democracy grow If you constantly surround it ? No light means No growth No progress No freedom Still controlled then Africa The East The Americaʼs By you Not a memorial letter Not a sympathetic letter Not an apologetic letter Just A Truthful letter To the governments of Europe and the USA Imposition Democracy Democracy undoubtedly dominates the worlds political scene. Nations are built as well as destroyed by it, millions benefit from it but billions suffer from it in Africa (Bloom and Poplak, 2016) and Asia. The worlds being allegedly more democratic then ever has thus not benefitted the majority or given power to the people as it is designed to. This democratic failure however lies not with the concept which is sound rather with the manner in which democracy arises. Democracy in the developing world has been imposed by the dominant power ( The West in particular the USA [ Praman , 2018] ) and therein lies the problem. Democracy is not a Western invention and thus the West imposing their localized version of democracy is bound to fail elsewhere. This essay shall prove this by delving into democracies origins and by exploring democratic failure in the developing world. The first democracy was found in Mesopotamia in what is now modern day Iraq. Government was made up a King and a parliament made up of two houses, one elected by the people ( Upper) and one made up of any parties affected by the decisions being made (Lower) . The king could veto the Lower[...]” “South America and the pre-western democratic systems were destroyed a democracy was imposed. This however was the Western version and designed to benefit the colonial regime at the detriment of the oppressed people: a completely undemocratic democracy. When Africa, Asia and South America sought independence this was in a sense granted as long as this form of democracy was maintained. Due to this imposition of Western democracy for 400 years it was naturally rejected. The West in the modern age has tried to restore a Western democracy via regime change and military intervention. While some say this is the only manner to ensure democracy, it is not constructive as undemocratic leaders use this to prove that to accept democracy itself is to again accept brutal Western control thus preventing any democracy from forming ( Schuster, 2002) . One merely has to look at modern day Iraq (Under Mesopotamia a democracy) to observe how the replacement of a democracy (under colonial rule) and the failure imposition of Western democracy leads to: A failed waring state with approximately half a million dead since Western interference ( Bump,2018). The aforementioned paragraph proves that the entire concept of the West imposing a democracy has[...]” These precious lines of ours Should one happen to glance at a political world map one will. encounter geometric borders carving up continents and, even at times the parts of the ocean. These borders that we hold so dear and equate with our very identity are nothing more than superfluous lines on the map. These lines do not take into account cultural or linguistic differences or similarities nor do do they follow any pattern for equatable distribution of resources. Yet these lines hold enough power to divide people to the extent that we are prepared to shed blood for them. There are more than enough examples of one people being ripped apart because of artificial lines; among them being the Indian-Pakistan divide. An example of one nation being so split among a line that the fight persists today even though line the map was drawn by a man with no knowledge of the area or the people. The Northern Ireland border is another example of a line with the sole purpose to divide one country. Africa is a prime example of how lines drawn up by colonial powers, blissfully ignorant in their knowledge of who and what they are dividing, can lead to the xenophobic massacres of fellow Africans we see today. They are too many independence movements and unification conflicts in the world to mention, but they are all based on the same thing: Borders on a piece of paper. Lines that divide us, bloodlines split by bloody lines, lines that focus on difference. Lines cage us. These are our precious lines. A eulogy...of sorts I write this not at the time of death rather as a foreshadowing of your inevitable Demise Is that not your great achievement? Writing Rather creating eulogies? Those killed by your soldiers bullets or those starved by the Landless You Cause ? Indeed a Great Achievement Apartheid’s Spirit would be happy Its eulogy being Pointless In the end Being manifested in you after all Yes You have a Good Spirit This eulogy is not finished It cannot do justice to your Great Achievement and Spirit. A Eulogy (Of sorts) To Israel (and its leaders) Feminism’s racial exclusivity The above Wikipedia edit on feminist culture in South Africa may have happened seven years ago however it remained unchanged until only 19 days ago when a user changed it. What this demonstrates is a dangerous stereotype that only white people have a “liberal” view on women’s freedom. The fact that an administrator made the edit and no one challenged this racially charged edit for 7 years not only demonstrates that people will substitute their principles for agreement with power but also that people may agree with that statement. “English speaking whites tend to be the most liberal group when it comes to gender roles” according to Wikipedia While we all know that Wikipedia is only one example of this, public sentiment has backed this up. When asked what a strong women looks like people do not generally mention a black or brown woman. People thus assume a strong feminist is white. I would like to counter this idea. The definition of a strong person is one who stands by their principles and ideals even if some one with more power refuted them at every turn. In South Africa the most outstanding example of a strong person is the former public protecter Thuli Madonsela who stood up against state capture and inspired woman to fight for their rights. Her role in South Africa has arguably been the most important in the Zuma-Era to bring justice to South Africa and yes she is a Black Woman. This completely eliminates the argument that a strong woman is white as Wikipedia and society so says. While woman’s rights have progressed rapidly in the last 10 years the racial exclusivity of feminism is a little talked about subject. When left in the dark these stereotypes remain unchanged and gain more influence, let’s shine a light on this issue and change something in the world.