The article “Rome, AD … Rome, DC” by The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland (Comment & Analysis, November 15) was entertaining and highly suggestive about the imperial character of the United States today. However, it revealed a fatal flaw in our substantial reliance on Western correspondents for our view of the world.
The article states as truisms, backed by eminent Western historians, that the Roman empire was the most extensive and powerful in history, and that like “all empires” it eventually collapsed.
Both are surely false.
According to my history books, the Chinese empire was initially consolidated from a wide array of cultures and languages in about 221BC. It covered a larger physical territory and encompassed many more people than the Roman empire ever did.
Various ruling dynasties for 2 200 years built — through conquest, persuasion and co-option — one unified country we now call China. Today it has 1,3-billion people under its political control, a quarter of the world’s humanity. The fact that we no longer think of it as an empire, but as one national entity, is testimony to its enduring success.
Similarly, while the Soviet Union has been dismembered, the vast Russian empire of more than 150-million people has remained intact for centuries. Again, we think of Russia as one nation only because it successfully “russified” diverse peoples and cultures over the centuries.
It is rather astounding that these two glaring examples of extensive and enduring empires are completely ignored by your correspondent.
Freedland and his academic sources are clearly steeped in a Eurocentric view of the world. But do we, in Africa, have to be as well?
There is no doubt that Guardian and other Western correspondents often provide your newspaper with insightful and well-written articles. But we should also be exposed, on as regular a basis, to the world views of correspondents in other parts of the world. Or are we that locked into the legacy of our colonial past? — Devan Pillay, senior lecturer, sociology, Wits University
I read the article on whether the US is the Roman empire of the 21st century with much interest. One comparison that is omitted is the use of the symbol of the eagle, used by the caesars and the US. — GA Grootboom, Kimberley
“Reichstag fire” logic takes hold
Gavin Davis’s letter (“Deplorable tactics inflame racial tensions”, November 15) is based on two logical fallacies. The first is that strong opposition to a powerful government creates a climate that encourages terrorism, a favourite argument of authoritarian regimes. The opposite is true.
Strong, constitutional opposition offers a non-violent channel for people to express their opposition to the government of the day. Authoritarian governments don’t like effective opposition and seek to present it as “unpatriotic” or seditious.
The African National Congress increasingly argues that its failures are not responsible for the growing alienation of ordinary South Africans, but the opposition’s criticism of these failures. Acts of terror become a convenient (even welcome?) excuse to undermine legitimate opposition and justify centralisation of power.
I call it the “Reichstag fire” logic, and it is becoming disturbingly commonplace.
The second logical fallacy is that “fighting back” against the ANC’s failures is harmful to race relations. This is based on the assumption that the ANC “owns” black people, and to criticise it is to criticise all black South Africans.
Anyone who works in poor communities knows how absurd it is to equate the ANC with black South Africans. This was already obvious in the 2000 municipal election when six out of every 10 black voters in the Western Cape stayed away from the polls. Black South Africans are increasingly voting for opposition parties.
As constitutional opposition grows, so will the ANC’s attempts to “co-opt” it (à la Marthinus van Schalkwyk) or to demonise it, using racial nationalist propaganda. The Democratic Alliance is sufficiently committed to the future of multiparty democracy to withstand both assaults. –Helen Zille, DA leader, Western Cape legislature
The editorial line of the Mail & Guardian, all too often, has been to brand the DA and its programmes as negative.
But the launch of our campaign and policy for the introduction of a basic income grant has received no coverage except a short snippet.
The DA seeks to protect and promote the constitutional, democratic and human rights order born in 1994, and to promote policies aimed at giving everyone, especially those disadvantaged by past oppression, the opportunity to improve their quality of life.
One-fifth of South Africans live on less than R10 a day and 20-million live below the poverty datum line — 4,6-million without any income.
Poverty will only be eradicated by creating sustainable jobs and this requires economic growth of 6% or more a year.
Our policy on the basic income grant should be read in conjunction with other policies designed to achieve economic and employment growth.
A basic income grant cannot eradicate poverty, but it can help to alleviate it. — Nick Clelland-Stokes, MP, DA spokesperson on social development
The last Democratic Party/DA election was fought on the “swaartgevaar — fight back” campaign and its next campaign would appear to be equally short-sighted.
The DA is insulting our people’s intelligence by making empty promises. Creating a dole system in South Africa can only compound problems and is not a long-term solution to poverty
The people need jobs — not handouts. They need to be given back their dignity, which to a great extent is gained by being employed.
How much will this dole system cost the taxpayer? How many people will receive the dole? Can South Africa afford it? Is it not better to spend the same amount of money on job creation? Sadly, the DP/DA will never know, after squandering the opportunities they had while in power. –Tom Classen, New National Party chairperson, Ekurhuleni
The groundswell of public opinion against floor crossing, fuelled by the ravings of the DA — which supported the legislation — demonstrates a total misunderstanding.
Defection legislation has been adopted by democratic governments throughout the Western world.
Everything is subject to constant flux and change. Politics is no exception, and it is unrealistic to expect the political marketplace to remain frozen between elections.
Floor crossing enables public representatives to reflect changes in the political scenario between elections. Elections will, of course, tell whether their assessment has been correct.
The Inkatha Freedom Party fought the 1999 elections on a platform of good governance. A perusal of the auditor general’s reports on IFP-run departments shows most are riddled with mismanagement, while departments under ANC control are significantly more efficient.
What is a responsible member of a party expected to do when his or her party is not fulfilling its voter mandate?
If such members resign their seats, the party can replace them with someone more willing to toe the party line. Alternatively, they can cross the floor and give expression to their conscience and what they believe the electorate wants.
We are witnessing a fundamental political realignment, where voters are demanding better governance and are tired of a patronising white opposition sitting on the sidelines telling us how badly the country is run while doing little except sow seeds of negativism. –Michael Tarr, Durban (a former IFP MPL who recently defected to the ANC)
Holistic reponse to the rape crisis
Your lead story (November 15 ) on the “secret rape report”, which confirmed that “rape is a largely risk-free activity” in South Africa, did not tell us anything we did not already know.
The criminal justice system fails rape victims from the moment they enter its relatively hostile, poorly trained and under-resourced environment to the point where they see that justice is rarely done.
For those of us who work in this field, the task team’s findings are not shocking. They are helpful in that they confirm what we already know, and draw attention to the need for an inter-sectoral approach.
The report, however, fails by not going far enough in identifying the complexity of the required response to the horrifying rate of rape of women and children in South Africa.
Given that the national director of public prosecutions commissioned this report, it is perhaps not surprising that it focuses on the criminal justice system and the extent to which it is failing rape survivors and contributing to the high levels of rape.
Two days after the M&G report, other national newspapers carried three stories about the rape of children. A two-year-old was “sodomised to death”; a man with a subnormal IQ who raped an eight-year-old in 1999 was sentenced to a life-skills course; and a five-month-old who was raped and cut open with a bottle has been fostered by someone who says “her ordeal is our collective failure as adults to protect our children”.
The connection between the M&G article and the other stories is this: the report commissioned by the national director of public prosecutions is right to find that the success of a rape strategy depends on improving the reporting rate and the effectiveness of victim support and the response from the criminal justice system. However, it does not look at the other areas where we need to succeed, nor does it make the connection between its recommendations and the failure of the rest of the system.
Poverty alleviation, job creation, better treatment opportunities for HIV-infected people, a strengthened criminal justice system, and better access to health, housing, education and justice would be helpful. But they need to form part of a holistic and strategic response, the focus of which is a move away from the socially constructed norms that box men and women into scripted roles and perpetuate dangerous stereotypes. — Carol Bower, Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, Rondebosch
Marx is dead, long live Marx
It is regrettable that the Mail & Guardian chose not to celebrate the publication of the 2002 Zulu version of The Communist Manifesto. Instead it manufactured an imaginary battle between the South African Communist Party and Brian Ramadiro, who penned the 2002 Zulu version (November 15).
The M&G questioned the SACP’s credentials and ignored the need for the proper documenting and archiving of our history and the anti-apartheid struggle. The SACP statement also provided extensive background that the editorial ignored.
It is true that in 1970 the SACP central committee published an underground translation of the manifesto. The M&G should not undermine its existence because it cannot be found at the Mayibuye Centre.
We informed you that in the 1940s the central committee of the Communist Party of South Africa decided against publishing the first Zulu translation of the manifesto because of errors. The M&G chose sensation instead of enlightening the reader of this important historical information.
Thousands of SACP members are translating SACP and other Marxist documents in their daily work among the workers and poor. Given the power of the African oral tradition, this is a major contributor to the transmission of Marxist ideas in our country.
The M&G gives the game away by stating as a matter of fact that the ideas contained in The Communist Manifesto are dead. –Mazibuko K Jara, SACP media department
Bad advice
You say Afrikaner leaders should not voice their people’s concerns, but impress on them how contented they are. The Afrikaans newspapers, church, business and cultural leaders and the New National Party have done that for years, unsuccessfully.
Reality compels Afrikaners to fear for their lives, livelihood and culture. The government educates our children in ways contrary to our conscience and traditions. The United Nations advises that such “nation- building” tactics are neither effective nor legitimate.
Your advice — shut up and be happy — would prevent Afrikaners from using public debate and other lawful avenues to express their concerns, a classic recipe for violence. –LJ van Oostrum, Totiusdal
In brief
It is with great pain that I learned that John Pape (James Kilgore) was an FBI fugitive. In South Africa John is regarded as someone who is concerned about the plight of the poor majority. When I first went to university I didn’t have the bus fare from Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal, and John gave me R150. He told me that “education is liberation”. Through education I can help improve the lives of the poor. I appeal to those whose lives John contributed to — give money to the John Pape Legal Aid Fund to pay for his defence. –Thabo oa Rakoloti
Why should we be subjected, on a regular basis, to the boring droolings of an old has-been like Robert Kirby? He often seems at a loss as to what his weekly focus should be. What other explanation could there be for his long and abusive diatribe against the New National Party and Marthinus van Schalkwyk (November 15)? Why does Kirby persist in underlining the significance of the NNP when he is trying so hard to dismiss it? –M le Roux, Cape Town
Norma Reid Birley had no option but to go public. The one-sided reporting on the Wits rumblings in your paper illustrates how powerful the “old boys’ club” is. What a pity that the transformation of a national resource like Wits is being marred by petty power struggles! It’s a shame that a new incumbent, obviously stronger than other contenders, has not been given adequate time to prove herself. Innovative, principled Reid Birley is not the only casualty of this debacle — Wits is bleeding too. — Mark Potterton, Wits alumnus
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