erratic blogging

Hi, I am shocked to see that it is almost 3 weeks since I last posted, I don't know where my life is rushing off to, but I feel like I am trailing behind! One thing that has been happening is the arrival of our son, his fiance and their daughter from Sudan, along with friends and family from around the world, and they are getting married on Friday. So we are having a great time getting to know the visitors and showing them around, and of course it is wonderful to see the kids again.

It is SOOO great getting to know our granddaughter, who was a pink blob the last time we saw her, and is now an amazing little person with a strong will and delightful nature.


On Saturday we went off to the much anticipated airshow, and had a great day of ooohing and aaahing over the aerial antics, while simultaneously keeping an eye on energetic grandchildren at ground level, and getting pretty sunburnt and wind buffetted into the bargain.

Last week I went out with the plein air painting group, and had a fabulous time ferretting around in a steam train graveyard, I took enough photos to fill a blog for months! So as usual, I emerge from the whirlwind, wondering where to start when it comes to posting photos.
Perhaps I should start with one or two of each of these events, and then if time permits, I will enlarge on them later.

The airshow was great fun. Even the little Miss Millie was fascinated by the helicopter display. Since she lives near a runway in a war zone, I guess this is par for the course as far as she is concerned!

There is something very bizarre about watching 3 large noisy machines, decked out in camouflage colours, dancing gracefully together through the sky, to the strains of Bolero.... really cool!
This year's airshow included a real action packed mock hijacking display, with fake baddies attacking a fake tourist bus, holding hostages, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades at the special task teams and dog units sent in to catch them. A sniper in a police helicopter mopped up and the medical rescue helicopter airlifted the "casualties" to hospital. The crowd loved it, but as a tourist, Miss Millie's mom found it a bit un-nerving that the South African audience were watching this as if it is an everyday occurence.... which it practically is in some areas!
What none of us realised at the time was that a real life drama was going on during one of the displays, and one of the helicopters was diverted to track down some thieves who had been spotted breaking into a home, and were being pursued by the home owner, before taking cover in thick bush. One of them was arrested, while the other two got away!

Even with all this excitement going on, little boys have a short attention span, but boredom and impending nagging to go home were skillfully dealt with by grandpa, who bought a toy helicopter in the nick of time, and bought us a few extra hours of enjoyment in the process!


For me, the highlight of any airshow is always the formation flying. I adore the artistry and skill of aerobatics, but when it is combined with the precision and teamwork of flying close together at high speed, it makes for breathtaking displays.

The Apple Express is narrow gauge steam train and a very popular tourist attraction in PE. In its heyday, it was run by the railways, and had a few pristine engines to choose from. Sadly it was allowed to get into a sad state, and was eventually rescued and taken over by a private enterprise. These enthusiasts struggle along, trying to keep it viable, whilst working hard to keep the high maintenance trains going. In the old Apple Express yard, all is now ruin and decay. the buildings are falling apart..........

and several old trains are rusting away on a siding.

Whilst this is a great shame, it also gives rise to wonderful photo opportunities, and I will do a post sometime on some of the images I took while we were sketching the trains.

Enough is Enough

This is the slogan of a movement called the Million Man March, held in Tswane (formerly Pretoria ) yesterday. It is an anti crime initiative, led by comedian and actor Desmond Dube, who was inspired to arrange the event after a neighbour, Bashimane Mofokeng, was killed in a hijacking.

The idea is to mobilise citizens across the country to stand up and be counted, and make a statement to both the Government and the criminals (often one and the same...more about that later) that the people of South Africa have had enough!
Here is the mission statement of the MMM movement:

The Million Man March is an anti-crime initiative formed as a direct response to the unacceptable levels of crime in South Africa.
The March aims to:

• Unite all South Africans against crime, crime can only be defeated if confronted with a collective will, a combined commitment and a united plan of action.The March endeavours to empower people who feel helpless, vulnerable and alone by giving them a specific time and place to join together with others, and provide them with a voice against that which they fear the most.
• The March will call on the Government of the Republic of South Africa to act decisively on the crisis of crime in South Africa. Urgent attention needs to be given to combating crime, more resources need to be allocated to our police, with efficient mechanisms put in place to combat corruption.
• Law abiding citizens have the constitutional right to have an efficient justice system to support them. We want to call on the people of South Africa to recognise that we are part of the solution. We call on each and every individual to take responsibility of his or her actions.
• We aim to challenge the perceptions that our society have about crime and use this opportunity to engage government, business, religious groups and individuals that this is the platform to launch and extensive and aggressive MORAL REGENERATION PROGRAMME.
• Remind one another that there is a lot to celebrate about our country and need to make sure that the negativity of crime does not take away from all the good that has been accomplished.
• The integrity of the march is dependent on the peacefulness of its nature. It is scheduled and planned to take place within the boundaries of the law.
• This march is for all citizens of South Africa who feel passionate about making a positive contribution towards the country, it will not be used as a platform to advance political or financial gain.

The march took place yesterday, and although the goal of a million marchers was not reached, a large number of people did participate, and it was a peaceful event. A memorandum was handed over to Minister Balfour, who received it on behalf of Government. ..... somewhat ironical, since this is the Minister of Correctional Services (the new euphamism for Prisons) who, in response to overcrowding in prisons, resorted to a special remission of sentences, whereby all offenders irrespective of their sentences or offences got 6 months off their sentences. This trivialized the sentences of the courts and was a slap in the face of victims of crime.

Placards saying "where is Mbeki" emphasised the weak leadership this Government has suffered under. From the start of his Presidency, Thabo Mbeki has been involving himself in international diplomacy, at the expense of his own country. Many are deeply outraged that our taxes are used to fund his little jaunts around the world in the Presidential jet, so that he can angle for International glory and a crack at the top spot in the UN, while back home, the country spirals out of control on many levels.

My advice to anyone who considers offering him any leadership post after his term is over would be... DON'T do it! His so called 'quiet diplomacy' in Zimbabwe basically translates into "Mugabe is my buddy so keep your hands off him and leave him to finish the plundering of his country in peace". Every important crisis here is met with "crisis, what crisis?" His silence over the recent spate of Xenophobic killings and attacks on foreigners is nothing short of criminal, weeks went by before he issued a lame statement, and not once did he bother to show his face at any of the hot spots or personally intervene to show how unacceptable it is.

However, I digress, sorry, at the moment the word Mbeki is a bit like a red rag to a bull, I am outraged by his silence on so many critical issues in his own country, and his total lack of concern over the suffering and deaths of people here. And I assure you this is not just me ranting about the ludicrous lack of leadership, check out these cartoons...

To me the statement at yesterday's rally that really hit home hard, and for which I want to applaud Desmond Dube wildly and loudly is the one he made to the effect that "crime is not just when someone holds a knife to you and threatens you. Crime is someone taking money from an institution and failing to provide services to that institution."

Yes Desmond, you hit the nail firmly on the head. We have become so conditioned to extreme levels of violent crime in this country, that we sometimes fail to even see day to day dishonesty and lack of integrity as crime any more, and the threshhold of what is acceptable keeps sliding further and further along the continuum from petty to extreme crime.

But every civil servant or Cabinet Minister who receives a salary at the end of each month, and fails to do the job for which they are being paid, is STEALING from the tax payers who employ them.

Well Done Desmond for highlighting this fact! I salute you for this initiative, for using your celebrity status to get the attention of the nation, and for giving so freely of your time and money to organise this initiative.

(Going back to the irony that it was Minister Balfour who was sent by Government to receive the anti-crime memorandum, it is Ngconde Balfour, the Minister of Correctional Services, who said that 738 members of his department had been suspended on full pay in the 2005/6 financial year, costing the taxpayer over R34-million!!!)

I hope the MMM initiative will continue to snowball, and that ordinary citzens who are tired of being victims of crime will stand together and clearly let the criminals inside and outside of Government know that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

stats

Just to illustrate my post from yesterday, and to show that I was not in any way exaggerating the situation, I have scanned a tiny selection of newspaper articles that appeared in our local paper over the last couple of days. Bear in mind that a tiny fraction of crimes (even very severe ones) even make it into the news because there are just so many each day that most go unreported.

I was amazed to read this article today, because it really mirrors what I wrote about yesterday.

When you see the stats about rape, and realise that the 54000 reported cases per year are only about 36% of the actual cases, you get a picture of the scale of the problem. (In other words, a woman or child is being raped here every 3 minutes. In the time it took me to scan and edit the articles, and write this post, another 10 have had their lives ruined (those who survived, many go on to become murder statistics.)

And it doesn't seem to matter who you are, it touches so many lives.

I know this is all a bit depressing, so if you came here expecting light and cheerful reading, I'm sorry, but these are really serious issues which will only get addressed when people sit up and take notice of the enormity of the problem. Since my blog is my personal space which reflects the reality of my life, and seeks to introduce South Africa to readers from elsewhere, it would be dishonest to stick to the light and frothy stuff all the time, and fail to balance it with the other side of the story. I won't be ranting about this every day, so I'm sure it will be safe to come back next week, if you are after brightness and sunshine, but every now and then this stuff needs to be aired!

Seeking Answers to tough questions….

Oswegan, who lives near Portland, Oregon features delightful Police reports from his area every Thursday, well worth a visit!

They just crack us up, because the crimes the Police there have to deal with are along the lines of ……..
· “A juvenile girl was sitting on the neighbor's flower box at the end of their driveway. She was reportedly "waiting for her soul mate."
· Two people were seen smoking on the porch of a vacant apartment on Foothills Drive.
· A couch was seen in an alley near Second Street, but there was no one sitting on the couch. Police later found that the couch was on private property.”

Max and I have both commented on the contrast between living there and here in SA. Oswegan replied saying “Suzi, I think living in South Africa might be a little too nerve racking for me. Why so much crime there? Is it akin to a large US city in that respect, like New York or Chicago?” And in a later answer to Max he said “It sounds a little crazy there. Is it due to the disparities between rich and poor?”

These are good questions and the answers are just too big to answer in the comments (in fact to be honest, I don’t think there are definitive answers, the problem is so complex). But since it is an issue I have been reading a lot about lately, in an attempt to understand why it is so bad here, and what we can do to change it, I decided to try and address it here.

Before I get to it, I just want to balance the whole thing by saying that, despite all the crime, this is still a great place to live, and it has many wonderful qualities which help to compensate for the negative aspects.

By trying to discuss the crime issue openly, and arrive at some understanding, I am in no way linking myself with those negative ‘old South African’ diehards who go around blaming everything on the new government, and moaning and groaning about how good things used to be. I wish they would just leave instead of spreading their negativity around, because there are many of us who, despite the serious social problems we face, are optimistic and positive about this place, and who celebrate the cultural diversity, natural beauty and unique combinations of lifestyle that make it so interesting to live here.
Right…… to the subject at hand!

I have already done several posts around the subject of crime, simply because it forms part of the fabric of our daily lives. Some links to past incidents and discussions are :
http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2007/10/not-so-lucky-dube.html in which I speak about the murder of musician Lucky Dube and mention the 20000 murders that have taken place here this year!
http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-breed-of-superhero-is-born.html
http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2006/10/justice-south-african-style.html
http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2006/11/wheels-of-justice-grinding-slowly-on.html
the incident in which I was stabbed while trying to stop a thief last year

http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2007/10/this-time-last-year.html
Which looks back on the incident and its aftermath, and an analysis of the impact of Apartheid, how our Government is soft on crime, and our politicians model a culture of corruption and lawbreaking.

http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2006/10/apparently-laws-are-made-to-be-broken.html
About the taxi industry here. I must do a post about it one day, it is beyond belief the things that the taxi drivers and operators get away with, but since they have gunned down several Traffic Officers who have tried to apply the law to them, (not to mention large numbers of fellow operators who are creating competition for them) they are now more or less a law unto themselves… defensive driving to avoid a) taxis and b) hijackers is a way of life here. Along with the rules of the road, kids get taught how to recognize and avoid possible hijackers!

http://arty-fartying-around.blogspot.com/2007/02/time-has-come-walrus-said-to-talk-of.html
Scroll down to a heading “a scary incident”, involving my grandson almost getting attacked by a Police dog, and again the issue of a crumbling legal system arises.

Having said all that, let me try and gather all these thoughts, as well as some others, into some sort of cohesive overview.
South Africa is one of the world's most crime-ridden countries, with nearly 20,000 murders recorded in the last year. Rape is literally an epidemic, and no-one is exempt, we have had frequent reports of little babies and old bedridden grandmothers being raped in their own homes, often by relatives.

Certainly poverty has something to do with it, but that does not explain the deaths. In Zimbabwe, crime is also rife, but for the most part, it is the act of desperate people trying to steal something so that they can feed their families, without the accompanying violence.

The thing that is scary about crime here is the gratuitous violence that goes with it, the rapes and murders which accompany the theft, and these really speak of a society in deep trouble, where human life seems to have lost its value.

There is no doubt that life is cheap here, people are regularly murdered for their cell phones …. So I don’t think it is a simple matter of the disparities between rich and poor.

It also goes beyond racial tension, because the same people who will murder a teenager on the beachfront, for his cellphone, will also rape their own grandmother at home…. This is not only a ‘Blacks getting back at oppressive whites” issue.

I do think that the combined effects of poverty and years of oppression have given rise to a sense of powerlessness, which has led to a deep underlying rage that goes way beyond financial circumstances.

It also goes deeper, to the core values of our young people. And living in a world where moral values are no longer politically correct doesn’t help. It has become fashionable to scorn what are termed “right wing religious values”. But without them, where is the moral compass that guides humanity? If there is no right and wrong, but only grey areas and ‘if it makes you happy, it’s OK’, then what is to stop youngsters from growing up selfish and shallow. When you add to that anger and frustration at their powerlessness, you have a lethal mix.

The culture of ‘bucking the legal system’ and civil disobedience which developed in the apartheid era, as a means of undermining the oppressive government, has sadly carried over into our new democracy, and it is still considered sort of heroic and fashionable to get away with whatever you can.

When this is combined with a legal system that is woefully understaffed (both in terms of numbers and qualifications) and is skewed in favour of protecting the rights of criminals over those of their victims, you end up with an escalating problem that is compounding with each new generation who has to grow up surrounded by violence, and feeling hopeless and worthless in the face of it.

Added to that, we face a huge refugee problem here. There are already over 3 million Zimbabweans who have entered the country, mostly illegally, with no hope of finding jobs. We have large numbers of Somalis and Nigerians, amongst others, and they all bring with them the social problems from the countries they have fled, as well as being on the fringes of the economy. There is no doubt that much of the drug dealing, prostitution, car theft syndicates etc are being run by Nigerians.

Here is a report I wrote on our community blog, about a recent discussion on this topic…

“Also at this week's meeting, there was a discussion about illegal immigrants and xenophobia. We tend to label all the criminals in the area under the generic term "Nigerians" so it was interesting to meet a Nigerian lady who is here working as a missionary, and helping to relocate refugees back to their home countries. She gave us an insight into some of the problems faced by immigrants who arrive here, get ripped off by unscrupulous 'agents' who take their documents and money, and leave them high and dry. Jeremy Davis reported on a house in Central where 19 Bangladeshis were living in 1 room, and each paying R900 per month rental! Thankfully that landlord has been "sorted out"! But it does highlight one of the big problems we face in this area....absentee landlords really do not care who lives in the area, or what they get up to, as long as they can get income on their properties. And those of us who live here are left to put up with the anti-social behaviour and conditions that result from this. We need to agitate for laws that make the landlord pay (either by forfeiting their property or facing criminal charges) for allowing illegal activities on their properties.”

I am not really qualified to comment on how similar all this is to conditions in large US cities like New York or Chicago, there are obviously some common problems, but then there are also some that seem to be unique to Africa.

And at times the problem seems overwhelmingly huge and hopeless, but if the Government can catch a wake-up, and start dealing with the issues firmly and realistically, starting with corruption in the top echelons, re-establishing the high value of human life, and making the cost of committing crime higher than the rewards to be gained by it, then we do have a chance of turning it around.

So what keeps us here?

I suppose a combination of pioneering spirit, a love of living on the edge, enjoyment of the unexpected and illogical, and boundless optimism that things can improve! ...... No seriously, it is a deep, deep love of the warm vibrant continent, which is the only home we have ever known, and which worms its way into your heart, so that anything else seems like a pale alternative.

As well as thisthis and this. .... i could go on ad infinitum, Africa really is a special place!

anecdote and architecture.....

An Anecdote........
A post by David in Australia reminded me of an incident that happened near our smallholding a few years ago. Police were chasing a little VW Golf full of suspected stock thieves, and when they pulled them over, all but one fled into the surrounding bush. They thought at first the culprit must be drunk, just sitting there on the back seat, until they looked closer and saw that it was a sheep wearing a hat and coat. True story, gotta love Africa!

Inspiring Architecture #3

Ok now I want to introduce you to a gracious old city lady (in contrast to her rustic country cousin who you met yesterday.)

The Ann Bryant Art Gallery in East London started life as a gracious double-storey Victorian home in the centre of town. Just minutes away from the hustle and bustle of commerce is the tranquil tree-lined suburb of Southernwood, where the gallery is located.

The lovely old building, with its white walls and a green corrugated iron roof, is home to many of East London's famous works of art. Built in 1905 for Arthur Savage, the house was bought two years later by East London businessman, AE Bryant. He added land to his original purchase, so that the property covered a whole block from Belgrave Road to Oxford Street. Both Bryant and his wife, Ann, were art lovers and between them built up an enviable collection of mainly British or European artists from the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1946 Ann Bryant donated the house, known as "The Gables", and her valuable art collection to the City of East London to be used as an art gallery. She asked the council not to change the house so that its Victorian style and elegance was retained. After her death, the gallery was renamed the Ann Bryant Art Gallery.

Alongside the main house is the Coach House, where visitors can buy light lunches and teas, sitting outside and enjoying the dappled sun through the magnificent trees in the well kept gardens. This building, originally stabling for the family's horses and coaches, now houses the more modern exhibitions. (This is where I am currently exhibiting, but more about that later.)

Look how stunning the jacarandas and lilies were last week. (Jacaranda is indigenous to South America, but graces many South African cities. As it flowers before the new leaves start to sprout, the effect of purple flowers against stark branches is breathtaking, as is the subtle honey scent. When the flowers drop, they form a sweet smelling purple carpet and walking on it is a heady experience!)

The scented and colourful gardens provided a very warm welcome into the entrance foyer of the coach house, so I continued the theme by making a big flower painting the first thing visitors would see.

I particularly love all the loving attention to detail that went into buildings like this... everywhere you looks, you see signs of the artistic pride that the builders took in their work. (The guys who sling up mushrooming low cost developments these days could really learn a thing or 2!)

rugby madness.......

There is an electric atmosphere in South Africa today..... traditionally when South Africans get together to watch rugby, it is mandatory to eat vast quantites of Naartjies, Droe Wors and Biltong. OK, let me translate, for the uninitiated, that means Tangerines, dry sausage (a specific blend of spices makes them uniquely South African,) and dry salted meat, the US equivalent is beef jerky. Well the stores have been cleaned out, not a bit to be found.... as the country makes important preparations for tonight's World Cup final against England!

If you have been reading Max's blog, you will have seen some awful gloating going on (I mean REALLY, how insulting putting a ginger pussycat in to depict the English Lions!!!! he he.) I suspect that if the Springboks don't bring home the Cup tonight, you will see a nation in mourning, and sad scenes as grown men cry!

It is hilarious driving around, flags everywhere and "go Bokke" written on the sides of cars (even a rather smart beamer had been suitably decorated, but sadly Max was driving and couldn't catch a photo!)

You know someone takes the game seriously when they are willing to tape a springbok onto the bonnet of their precious car, even at risk of stripping the paint later!

Even the littlest people have flags on their wheels!........

So we wait with bated breath for 9pm tonight, and in the meantime, the cry of GO BOKKE rings around the country!

(I might add that we are still experiencing major power shortages and load shedding, and we have been advised to turn all other geysers and electical appliances apart from the TV off, to avoid blackouts during the game. There is such excitement about the game that I suspect, if there are outages, heads will roll at ESKOM, our para -statal power supplier!)

Tonight, if you watch the game, and see the full stadium, take a careful look at that sea of humanity.

The stadium seats 80,000 people.

Just to give you a visual image to bring home the message of how serious our crime problem is in this country, double that amount of people have been murdered here in the last 5 years! (And this is a democratic country in a state of peace, not a war zone!!!) So that should give you an idea of what I have been blathering on about ....

I just wish there was a way of getting this message to our State President tonight as he sits there watching the match..... If he looked around, and saw a visual image to bring home the enormity of what is going on under his leadership, he might stop running around the world talking about peace, and do something concrete about his own people who are dying like flies!

While the nation watches the match tonight and gets so hysterical about the result, several more South Africans are going to die. Will we even hear about them? Yet more proof that our priorities are really upside down. It is a mad world!

(I hope all this ranting about crime doesn't give you the idea that I am one of those die-hard whites who are unable to accept the new democracy in this country... that is so far from the truth. I love this place and am very positive about it, but I also think that there are some serious changes that need to be made to improve it, and addressing the unacceptable crime situation is the main one.)

So after that sobering thought, there's nothing like a bit of comfort eating!

Who's for Yorkshire Pudding? I must thank Denise for the recipe, and even photos of how to make it!

I even made a gluten and dairy free version for K who has horrible allergies. The finished thing isn't beautiful, but it was delicious. Thanks Denise.

Not -so - Lucky Dube

As most of us use our blogs as personal spaces in which we reflect our interests, pre-occupations, philosophies and lives, it is not altogether surprising that crime rears its ugly head quite often in my blog. (Not by choice really, just by default, because it is such an integral part of life in South Africa.)

Well today all the radios and television are paying tribute to Reggae musician Lucky Dube, who was murdered in Johannesburg last night, in front of his children, in a botched car hi-jacking.

It is a tragic waste of yet another life, in this case a famous and talented one. It is going to mean devastation, and trauma for his loved ones, and sadness for his many fans. There is a sense of national outrage about the incident.

To quote from a report posted 2 hours ago by AFP

"President Thabo Mbeki was among those who paid tribute to Dube, calling him "a really great South African artist", while his killing reignited debate about the levels of crime in the country.
The award-winning artist, who recorded more than 20 albums in a career spanning two decades, was gunned down at close range on Thursday night as he dropped his young son off at a relative's home in the suburb of Rosettenville. The child had just got out of the car when unknown men approached him, trying to hijack the vehicle. He was shot and he died on the scene.....
Fellow musician Mzwakhe Mbuli, one of the first people on the scene, said the music industry has been robbed of a legend. "I am devastated ... out of words," Mbuli told AFP. "For me it's cold-blooded murder, until investigation proves me otherwise. Crime is out of control. Where is this country heading to? We really need divine intervention," he said.........
South Africa is one of the world's most crime-ridden countries, with nearly 20,000 murders recorded in the last year.
Dube's killing was widely condemned by politicians and prompted calls in some quarters for the restoration of the death penalty. "

Our regional radio station played one of his songs this morning, with very apt and ironical words........

it is called TAXMAN,

"I pay my gardener

To clean up my garden

I pay my doctor

To check out da other ting

I pay my lawyer

To fight for my rights

And I pay my bodyguard

To guard my body

There' s only one man I pay

But I don' t know what I' m paying for

I' m talking about the taxman x3

Chorus: (x4)

What have you done for me lately

Mr taxman

You take from the rich

Take from the poor

You even take from me

Can' t understand it now

I pay for the police

To err..I don' t know why

'Cause if my dollar was good enough

There wouldn' t be so much crime

In the streets

They tell me you' re a fat man

And you always take and

Never give"

Good question, Lucky, and prophetic too, in the end, what has the taxman (and the civil servants who are paid from your taxes) done for you?

But I must admit, sad as this is, I am wondering, why is there such a song and dance when this sort of random violence hits a celebrity, but we never get to hear about 99% of the similar incidents that are going on here daily. Mothers of young children, businessmen, students, pensioners, all die just as needlessly, but disappear into history quietly, leaving behind their grieving families. And the government remains mute, and the courts continue to let rapists, murderers and armed robbers out on bail, and take years to bring them to justice (if ever.) And the most we ever get to hear about it is when they are reduced to statistics. (Just one of the 20,000 mentioned in the report...)

If it takes the death of a celebrity to make them sit up and take notice, well I suppose something good can come out of it, but it is a sad indictment on the powers that be in this country, and how little value they place on the average human life.

This time last year...

Over on As Time Goes By, Sheila was responding to Libby’s challenge about what we were blogging about this time last year. Sheila shared a really lovely piece of prose about a train going by.

This triggered my curiosity, so I dug into the archives, and was surprised to see that it is a year since the incident in which we caught an intruder at our house,
and in the process I got stabbed with a screwdriver!

At the time I put a humorous spin on the whole thing (I guess it is the same self preservation mechanism I alluded to yesterday, where it is easier to make light of things, or focus on trivia, rather than really deal with the intensity of the violence around us.)

But to be honest, the incident did leave scars, and the emotional ones are deeper than the ones on my arms and hands.
Initially there was a deep insecurity, and neither of us slept well for many months afterwards. We were always on the alert for odd noises, and often used to get up during the night to prowl around and make sure all was well in the neighbourhood, since our front veranda has commanding views over the Park and surrounding houses.

There was also a deep sense of outrage, and for a liberal, peace loving optimist, I found it really hard to deal with the feelings boiling up in me. If I had actually caught another intruder after that incident, I seriously think I might have done some harm, I spent time planning ways of catching and punishing criminals, and the scary thing is that it totally goes against who I am. Is that how this thing works? One anti-social act spurs the next, and it snowballs throughout society until it becomes hard to distinguish the criminals from the normal civilians?

We sleep better now, (except tonight, when remembering this triggered all these thoughts, and then I heard noises and got up to investigate.........) and I have tried to channel the sense of outrage into useful directions, like getting involved in setting up a neighbourhood watch, setting up a community blog, and expressing it as social commentary through my art.

It has resulted in a few disturbing paintings, but hopefully the message they convey can do some good!
This one is called fat bobcat and the hitler-like moustache on the cat should give a clue, Robert Mugabe enriches himself at the expense of his suffering people.

This is called Social Meltdown, and the words on it read "bands of thugs roamed freely while the people lived behind bars. The streets ran with blood and mothers wept for their children.... but the law had lost its teeth."

It has become fashionable to blame everything on Apartheid, and all the ills of our society are put down as legacies of that barbaric era, but in this case I think there is some justification, up to a point. During the repressive years, when black South Africans were being treated as sub-human, and were hounded constantly by the Police to keep them in line with Government Policy, a culture of lawlessness and civil disobedience developed. For 5 decades, it was the only weapon they had against the system, and it was considered heroic to buck the system at any opportunity.

I am currently reading “still Grazing”, the autobiography of trumpeter Hugh Masikela, who grew up in the South African townships of the 40’s and 50’s, and went into exile in America and West Africa during the 70’s and 80’s. It is very illuminating, seeing the situation from the black point of view, because strict censorship and segregation meant that most whites (even those who opposed Apartheid) were unaware of the true conditions the majority of people in this country were living under. He gives a fascinating insight into the culture of civil disobedience that developed at that time.

Unfortunately, this has carried over into the new democracy, and it is not going to be an easy thing to eradicate, because of the snowball effect. (Where this theory falls down, I think, is that the lawlessness is not just perpetrated against whites, or government. Young men rape and murder their sisters and grandmothers, and no-one in the townships feels safe. So it is not a political strategy anymore, but plain criminal behaviour in which all fellow humans are potential victims.)

It is also quite natural that when a cruel and repressive regime is being replaced, there is a sort of pendulum swing, and often an initial over-correction in the other direction. I believe that this has been the case with our legal system. Overnight, the death penalty was abolished, sentences for crimes lightened, many previously illegal activities were legalised, and new laws were put in place which seem on the surface to be humane and liberal, but are in fact simply weighting the legal system in favour of criminals, and denying justice to their victims. It has now got to the stage where, if someone breaks into your home, and you use any force to protect yourself or your family, you will be charged with assault!

Getting back to our incident, a year has passed, and the status of the case is that the intruder was released on R200 (about US# 30) bail, despite the fact that he had stabbed me, and was wanted for various armed robberies in East London. Naturally he disappeared. The police are still attempting to put together a case, but will have to track him down again if it is to proceed, and I have never been approached to appear in court.

On a political level, the apparent approval of lawlessness and corruption is even more worrying. I find it frankly disturbing that, whenever Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe appears in public here, he receives a hero’s welcome and standing ovation from the South African masses that turn up to welcome him. The fact that over 3 million of his citizens have fled to this country to avoid food shortages, wanton destruction of their homes, and Police brutality seems to be beside the point!

The same applies to our ex deputy President, Jacob Juma, who was recently tried for rape, and did nothing to reprimand his followers who threatened to kill his accuser, so that she has been forced to flee into exile in Europe! He still has major corruption charges pending, his co-accused is already in prison, but Zuma’s case has still not been put together. Yet despite all this, he is a serious contender for the next ANC, and therefore South African President. (This is a man who, during his rape trial, was quoted as saying that the sex was consensual, because she was wearing a skirt, which meant that she was asking for it, and therefore did not mean no when she said no! He also said that he was aware that she was HIV positive but had a shower afterwards, so he is sure he did not catch it!!) What makes it all even more revolting is the he was, at the time, the head of the “Moral Re-armament Movement” encouraging South Africans to embrace decent and moral values!

Given this culture of openly flirting with disregard for law and order, at the highest levels, it is hard to remain optimistic that our legal system is going to take crime seriously anytime soon. And it is hard to avoid the temptation to take the law into one’s own hands.

Apparently all people have one of two reactions when threatened… fight or flight. Max and I have discovered that ours is fight. To be brutally honest, if we have a further incident where we are threatened, I can’t tell you how I will react. I hope I will not be as rash as I was last time (if he had been carrying a gun instead of a screwdriver, it would not have ended as well as it did) but I also don’t see myself taking it lying down, because there is still this simmering rage……..

We have bought a paintball gun that takes pepper balls, so it is basically high-powered mace! The theory is that it will disable an attacker long enough to get the police to arrest him, or prevent him from harming you first, but in a way that is still legal (for now!) I hope we never have to test the theory.

It is probably mind boggling for those of you living in more civilised places to imagine what would possess us to stay in a place where you carry mace on you at all times, and have to check out who’s around before taking a stroll around the neighbourhood. I sometimes wonder too! But there are compensations, and over the last year I have waxed quite lyrical about some of the stunning surroundings, old buildings, wildlife etc.
So far they swing the scales in favour of staying… but who knows about the future? We will have to keep an open mind, and take each day as it comes.