Tag: human rights

When humans forget they are

You know I prefer to keep things light on if all else fails.  The world is serious enough without me contributing.  But sometimes one has to unsheath the hammer and start whacking stuff.

Imagine this:  You come home from work.  Hang on.  Did I say home?  I mean the shack knocked together from scavenged wood and corrugated iron sheets without water, electricity, plumbing or a floor which is the only home you can afford.  So, you come home from work.  Except, your home isn’t there.  Some guys in overalls had pulled it down and all your stuff that used to be inside is gone.  Normally in a situation like this you’d call the police, but they’re already there, standing in a line between your angry and crying neighbours and the men systematically destroying your homes, protecting the latter.

If you think this sounds like something that happens in third world dictatorships you’ll be right, but not this time.  This time it happened in a country that less than a month ago had its fifth free and fair democratic elections as they celebrated twenty years of freedom from oppression.  Yeah.  Right.

Continue reading “When humans forget they are”

On speaking out

On Monday the Reader delivered this post by 23thorns about a high ranking police officer who brought in a sangoma* to investigate a break-in at his office.  Just in case you think 23thorns is making this up, here’s the link to the actual news report.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.  Someone asked in the comments whether something like this will hold up in court.  I jokingly replied whether he really wanted to know and got the following reply:

“I think someone else mentioned it, but this is a dangerous stand…. I hope you are flying under the radar.”

There was another comment on the post asking whether it was “safe to wax political in SA”.

I don’t know what upset me most about these comments – whether it was the fact that this is the view these people have of South Africa, or whether they are cautioning us to be careful about what we say. Continue reading “On speaking out”