Richard Stupart

I came across an interesting quote from someone the other day (apologies that I cannot remember the reference), which reads something like “We don’t so much see the world as it is, as we see the world as we are”. Underneath the sugar-coated simplicity of the statement, lies a more fundamental truth which, in my view, separates lambs from lions in the world. Those who achieve and move from those who whine and become marginalised. That fundamental truth lies in where you look for explanations of events in the world, good and bad and where, by extension, you feel that the power in your world resides.

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I, like many of my South African brethren, and the more optimistic Zimbabweans, believed for a time after the MDC boycotted the second round elections that there was a possibility of a negotiated settlement to the chaos north of the border. Unfortunately, many weeks on, the MDC and the ruling (in the most repressive sense) party are still stuck in talks about talks, with no productive end in sight. I now no longer believe that we will see a negotiated settlement to power sharing in the country.

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Those newsphiles who follow what is happening in our continent will know that the MDC has withdrawn from the Friday  Zimbabwe elections. It was no doubt a tough decision, as victory is now assuredly handed to Robert Mugabe and his bloodthirsty militias – with no clear indication that negotiations to find a power sharing agreement will succeed. I believe, however, that Morgan Tsvangirai has made the right (although wrenchingly painful) decision. I say this for a few reasons:

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With the xenophobic violence now having largely subsided, leaving government in competence at dealing with the problem as the only major outstanding scandal (and it is not really that scandalous, given the background noise of ineptitude against which it is cast), I have only one last set of thoughts on the matter to share.

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It has been a busy week, to say the least. With so many South Africans insisting on carrying on the hard work of mindlessly killing their neighbours in the most despicable fashion possible, some of us have been doing our little bit to try and mitigate the worst effects of the human devastation and each, in our own way, say that we are not this sort of South African – that we are people who actually give a damn about human life and care for those who have lost so much.

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Unless you live in a cardboard box – and far too many people do now, if they are even alive at all – you will have noticed in the news that Johannesburg, and increasingly the various metros, are now alive with the worst sort of murderous rage and frustration. This set of photos, taken by various people in and around the violence today, pretty much sums up the whole sad and painful week. So what has the response been?

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I was reading Lelo’ s facebook note about the Jackie Selebi issue this morning, and my response to Lelo’s original post was longer than allowed by a fair margin, but I feel strongly that it needs to be said, so I will post it all here. Lelo’s original post – for those who have avoided the facebook phenomenon like the Amish avoid credit cards – runs along the lines that we have a major democratic crisis on our hands viz-a-viz the handling of the Selebi warrant issue by the president. My response, which follows, is really a comment to the effect that outside a thin group of South Africa’s population, I don’ think anyone has ever given a serious, principled stuff about democracy. It is a crisis, sure – but not one that I think the free people of South Africa will leave their TV’s to protest about any time soon. The comment follows:

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One of the reasons for starting this blog initially was the fact that I was hoping to go on a year-end holiday to go and see Thailand and surrroundings in December. The blog would provide an entertaining space for me to put pics and commentary accrued over the course of the journey. That hope became a little bit more real some weeks ago when I managed to go and finally place the bookings for the tickets. The real reason for the trip is attending the World Universities’ Debating Championships in Bangkok – that drunken and blurred week of severe mental exertion and highbrow argumentation married to singing as you wander down foreign streets at night, oblivious to the general worries and cares of the world. Good times.

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