Left Behind December 1, 2009

Today is another World  AIDS Day.  A day to remember those who fought the disease and those who are still fighting it.  A day to bring about AIDS awareness in the hope that this virus can be stopped in its tracks.

Today I want to remember the children, particularly in the rural areas, who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.  Many, becoming the primary caregiver to the ill parent and nursing them in their final days.  Many, orphaned by HIV/AIDS who are then left to become the head of the house and the parent figure to their younger siblings.  Children, who due to HIV/AIDS,  have had a fast forward button pushed on their little lives forcing them to grow up before their time and taking on the responsibilities of an adult.

Tabelo Timse has written an article called “SA’s Aids time bomb” on News 24.com.   This report states, that due to South Africa’s delayed response to HIV/AIDS, it is estimated that by 2015,  32% of South Africa’s children will have lost one or both parents to the disease. 

These are children who were failed by their government while their parents were alive and I question what type of support their government will give them when they are left to fend for themselves.

It’s easy to play the blame game, but today, I want to remember these children who have been left behind.

Fifteen Days! March 12, 2009

I sat glued to my television screen as the Constitutional Court ruling has just been issued on the right for South African Expats to vote.

I am so excited that Registered South African Expats will be allowed to take part in our April Elections!  Those who are registered voters, before leaving South Africa, need to notify the IEC of their intentions to vote as expats by the 27th March 2009.

It was exciting to see our South African Constitution work for the future democracy of our country!  I hope all Registered Expat Voters will take this opportunity and vote in South Africa’s General Elections this year!

Fifteen days and counting!

When Saying Goodbye Is Hard To Do. February 19, 2009

Many South Africans seem to be searching for their Utopian Dream.  A place where garden lasers and security systems don’t have to be switched on before turning off the lights and they can sleep without worry.  A place where they feel their children have a future and they can grow old.  The crime statistics here in South Africa are high, our current government are starting to show cracks as the old order retire and the new ‘cadre’s’ start taking control.  There are too many instances of fund mismanagement and corruption is starting to seep from under the parliamentary doors.  Many question where this will leave us in the years to come and many like to predict a future very much like Zimbabwe’s.

It is with this in mind that the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, amoung other countries,  are seen as their salvation. 

Today I have a heavy heart.  This weekend I am to attend a farewell party of a close friend who has made the decision to immigrate. This is not like the 1990’s when many of  our friends were going overseas for work experience, where we knew that they would return at least once a year for a holiday and eventually they would return home… maybe?  This farewell party is just that, a finale to having the pleasure of a friends reachable company.  No more long phone calls, late Friday glasses of wine, dinners out and birthday parties. 

How do you conduct yourself at a farewell party?  Smile? Cry? Pretend it’s just like any other party and go into denial?

Either way I think waterproof mascara may be in order.

Straight Talking January 23, 2009

I like straight talkers.  Maybe that is one of the reasons I enjoy  listening to Barack Obama.  I find our politics here in South Africa a little long winded and filled with meaningless waffle.  Our politicians sometimes appear to be talking sense but if one listens carefully they are generally saying a lot without meaning a thing!  If they do attempt straight talking it is defensive or attacking their opposition without any basis to their claims which to me appears to be playground tactics.

On Wednesday, while watching the evening news I had a moment where I wanted to stand up, raise my fist and ululate!  Graca Machel, wife of Former President Nelson Mandela, was speaking at the launch of “Save Zimbabwe Now” and she called it like it is. (See here for the news report.)

“Politicians have very huge egos to protect. They don’t care if another thousand, another thousand and another thousand die, as long as they protect their egos.”

SADC (Southern African Development Community), after the Zimbabwean Elections, held in March, told the world to leave Africa to solve Africa’s problems.  Well it’s 10 months on and they haven’t solved a thing allowing Zimbabwe to unravel.  I can’t understand how the leaders of Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries could allow this to happen!  For me, a South African, I worry that should anything go wrong in my country who will help us?  Because if this is the help that is out there then I am afraid it stands that African Leaders are only out to look after their own interests and not that of the common man.

Graca Machel stated;

“I want to say to the leadership who are in government in Zimbabwe… a government must protect its citizens… it’s how you treat your own citizens, that’s where your legitimacy comes from.

“It [the Zimbabwean government] has lost completely any kind of legitimacy. “

Robert Mugabe has been in power now for 20 odd years and yet he continues to blame ‘ the West’ and colonialism for the state of his country.  He constantly projects his failures onto Britain and it is time that he stops trying to hide behind the skirts of ‘colonialism’ and face the consequences of his actions.  In Zimbabwe there is little electricity and clean running water, not enough food, not enough money, no medical services and the children of Zimbabwe face a prospect of no education.  Due to the countries failing public works the country now faces cholera outbreaks which are spilling over into Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries.

Graca Machel hit the nail on the head when she stated;

“This is not normal. This is a lesson to our region. We came together to liberate ourselves, but now [we see] that power can pervert you to become precisely the opposite of what led you to become a freedom fighter.

“This is a lesson to other liberation movements in our region,” said Machel.

To fight for freedom, in the past,  here in Africa, was black fighting white but I think it is time for the leaders of SADC to realise that a new fight is emerging and that is to ensure that African countries practice the democracy that they fought so hard for.  Democracy is not about race, it is about rights!

Many are starting a 21 day fast  in a bid to highlight the plight of Zimbabweans, I just hope that their efforts are not invain as it seems that the SADC Leaders are so preoccupied with self preservation that they may not take notice. Afterall, they have managed to ignore the voices of the people of Zimbabwe since March 2008 .

SADC will meet again on Monday here is South Africa, I am hoping that in those meetings the needs of the Zimbabwean people will be met.  If we can’t hope, what do we have left?

Contemplative Thankfulness December 15, 2008

It has been a tough week.  Both my little guys have been ill, Eldest with an ear infection and Wee One with an ‘Acute Respiratory Tract Infection’.  My kitchen counters are scattered with little bottles of homeopathic remedies, spoons and sprays.  My ironing pile has once again reached Mount Vesuvius proportions and the dust bunnies are taking over.

Exhausted, I collapsed on the couch, bemoaning my week of sleep deprivation to Hubby while he flicked through the channels on TV.

It was seeing pictures on Sky News like these that I found humbling.  My children have access to medical help, food and clean water.  I, as their mother, although I feel helpless at times know that I am able to provide the best care I can for them.  Imagine being a mother in Zimbabwe?

The Red Cross states that Cholera is easily treatable by ensuring it is caught in time and by rehydration. A simple glucose solution is what is needed but in Zimbabwe there is no clean water and to be able to access or even afford sugar and salt is near impossible for many.

South Africa borders Zimbabwe and it is reported that in the town of Musina more than 664 cases of Cholera are being treated.  The UN has reported that there are approximately 16 000 cases of Cholera and deaths in the region of 783 in Zimbabwe.

On the 11th of  December, 2008, the international community were astounded to hear Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, state that Cholera no longer existed in his country!  He went on to slam international leaders like Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom and George W. Bush of the United States of America as they called for him to step down as President, indicating that they were using cholera as a basis for their claims.  Once again, Robert Mugabe, has found a new scapegoat for his governments inability to manage their country.  Pity the man can’t look in a mirror and point at himself.  Cholera would not be at its high levels in Zimbabwe if the people were given access to clean running water but that is one of the rights the Zimbabwean people have been denied, including medical care, due to the collapse of its infrastructure.

I am still trying to understand why my own government has not taken a stronger stand on the Zimbabwe crisis, especially now that there is a chance that Cholera can pass into our country across the border and put further strain on our already stretched medical resources.  Gwede Mantashe has probably given the most plausible explanation, that Robert Mugabe is scared.  Surely a man must face his demons, especially if he has danced with the devil?  At what point is South Africa finally going to wash their hands of their old ally and realise that he has become similar to the monster that they fought so hard against  in the apartheid years?

Wee One woke again in the middle of the night, his temperature had spiked again, but as I held him and gave him something to keep his fever under control to make him comfortable, I was no longer bemoaning my fate….. I was thankful.

Political Alphabet Soup November 7, 2008

The race for “America’s Next President” has ended and the world has embraced the new President Elect – Barack Obama!  I listened to his speech as he addressed the Nation and I must say for a brief moment I wished I was an American.  Americans have been playing the political game for a long time and they make it look good with all the bells and whistles! It was incredible to watch!

Africa can learn from American Politics.  Your Presidential Candidate should inspire a nation, embrace it’s people by putting their needs first above yours and your parties and lastly the biggest lesson, should you not win, be gracious in defeat like McCain.

South African politics in the ‘Demorcratic’ sense is still very young and at the moment the maturity of our governing political party is being put to the test as a breakaway splinter group is about to form to challenge them at the polls in 2009.  

There is concern with what is been cooked up in the political kitchen of the ANC, under head chef Zuma, especially with his assistant chefs of the Tripartite Alliance, Zwelinzima Vavi of COSATU and Blade Nzimande of the SACP throwing in their generous pinches of salt on the way.  Some chefs like Lekota and Shilowa have thrown down their spoons and are currently starting to cook in another kitchen.  They will soon be launching their new party, once they agree on a name!  As the saying goes “Too many cooks spoil the broth”.

This weekend we, as South Africans, are called to ‘register to vote’ for the 2009 elections and I will be queuing with my bar coded Identity Document once again. With a range of political parties like the ANC, DA, IFP, UDM,ID,ACDP and ”?” party of ”Shikota”, I will have to wade myself through this political alphabet soup before making a decision where I want my vote to count.  My only wish for the 2009 elections is that the political parties will exercise civility towards one another and that voters will respect each others democratic right to vote.

When Democracy is understood and practiced correctly it is a beautiful thing to watch – this week America showed us how it’s done.

 

(Recently announced: The Party formed by Lekota and Shilowa is being called, “Congress of the People”.)

Telling it like it is… October 13, 2008

Last week saw Eldest having to return to school for his last term of the year and he was having a little whine, while getting dressed, how he would rather stay at home.  So in an attempt to ‘psyche’ him up for his school term ahead I told him that this term was really exciting and that he would be learning about his town.  The school has organised various little outings to the Post Office, the Library, the Fire Station and for my big finale I exclaimed, ” A Policeman is going to come and visit you at your school!”

To which he exclaimed, “A Policeman! A Policeman! I haven’t seen a real Policeman before!”

I looked up at Hubby sitting in the kitchen spluttering into his cereal trying to hold in the laughter.

A few days later, while strapping him into his car seat, he exclaimed, “Mommy, a Policeman and a Policewoman came to visit our school today!”

I asked him if they came in their ‘Police Van’.

“Yes.” He replied disappointingly, ” But their siren was broken!”

In South Africa we have Policemen, but they are kept very busy and are rarely seen ‘walking the beat’.  One may see a Traffic Officer, but they are generally hiding in the bushes trying to catch speeding motorists.  The truth in Eldest’s innocent comment spoke volumes in the general feeling amongst us – we just don’t have enough of a Police presence or Police vehicles and evidently not enough with ‘working’ sirens!

As the saying goes, “Truth from the mouths of babes.”

House of Cards September 25, 2008

Have you ever tried to build a house of cards?  It is not very easy as it requires a steady hand, meticulous precision and balance.  Each card is balancing and supporting on another card and it takes one card to fall or a gust of wind and it all comes crashing down.

This is how I view politics in South Africa at the moment.  I think that the relationships within our governing political party, the ANC, have been weak and strained.  It has been a balancing act, with the Zuma trial and the ‘new’ voices within the party, the winds of change have blown over the ANC as we have known it.  They were once united with a common goal, but as time has shown, once power and money is involved it can divide even ‘good soldiers’.

Today is ‘out with the old and in with the new’!  Kgalema Motlanthe is now our new President elect and will be incharge of building trust and stability within his party and address the needs of the people of South Africa.  I hope he has a steady hand and meticulous precision as he rebuilds that which has been broken and neglected both within the ANC as well as the country of South Africa.

Moments. September 17, 2008

When in the Drakensberg you have to: -

• Enjoy the silence.
• Breathe the mountain air.
• Embrace the wind.
• Inhale the scent of dry grass and thatch.
• Listen to birdsong and crickets at dusk.
• Watch the mountains change colour.

Tonight, I will sit in front of the fireplace, with my glass of red wine and enjoy the time I have left till I return to “urban-land”.

Holding our breath September 11, 2008

Yesterday was a day of protests and fighting words.  The  ANC president has a ‘date’ with the courts in Pietermaritzburg on Friday and his thousands of supporters took to the streets yesterday with placards stating “Hands Off Jacob Zuma”. In Durban it was estimated that about 10 000 people marched through the city centre, including our Mayor!  Whoever is printing the “Jacob Zuma” t-shirts must be rubbing their hands together with glee, they must be making a mint! 

The ANCYL, (ANC Youth League), celebrated their 64th birthday, and their president, Julius Malema, voiced his verdict for Friday as he addressed his members. 

As reported on http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2391286,00.html

“We are not a group of losers.” he said.  “Every fight we fight, we win.  We don’t fight to lose.  That’s why everybody, every little artist, (must come to) Pietermartizburg – there’s going to be a huge party,” he told his members. 

He also referred to what would happen if the outcome of Zuma’s verdict was not favourable. 

“We’ll never hand over our president to jail without a fight.  We’re going to fight.

“Any force that tries to block our way, we will eliminate. We are on a mission here. We will crush you. It doesn’t matter who you are… even if you are in the ANC,”

I never took political science, so I am not qualified to voice an opinion that is of intellectual substance and I am also not about to defend or support the Zuma trial.  I am, however, worried for the stability of South Africa if Zuma is found guilty.  Thousands marched yesterday and marches here in South Africa can become violent very quickly if angry or incited.  If the words of Malema are anything to go by, a fight is what the government will face if their president is put through the wheels of justice.  It is a scary thought.

Today, we go about our business, tomorrow, we will hold our breath and wait.