Good riddance, Carroll
As a 25-year-old Indian woman who grew up in Durban, I remember the days before the release of Nelson Mandela.
I remember going to a school for Indians only. I remember going to Addington beach as part of a protest when it was whites-only, and I remember a policeman with a rifle chasing an African boy out of the water and an Indian policeman throwing my brother’s shoes over a fence as he ordered us off the beach.
At a rally shortly after Mandela was released, I remember the crowds, the joy and the celebration. It was electric, and people were alive, driven, united.
Rory Carroll (“How I never quite fell for South Africa”, August 18), you were never here for this. This is what the people of South Africa lived and died for, and every day we’re building our future and rewriting history.
This is my home, my country, and my people. I’m happy and I’m hopeful. You’re a bitter white male perpetuating racist stereotypes, a species on the brink of extinction; I’m a black woman who’s just starting out.
I believe in change, in transformation, that it starts within. Only once you’ve undergone transformation yourself can you see its potential in the world around you.
This is what is needed for us to succeed in South Africa, the radical transformation of the way we see ourselves.
At Cape Town’s International Arts Festival Sam Williams warned us never to forget what happened; not to stop talking about our past. We should always remember that we came from the darkness of oppression.
A profound and active remembrance of the past, in our dealings with the present, is the only way we can build a secure future.
Mr Carroll, you wouldn’t understand this because you didn’t experience our past. And as you’re unlikely to change, it’s a good thing you’re leaving. — Indira Govender
Carroll’s article was an offensive rehash of the beliefs and practices of racist white South Africans.
The most offensive part of the article was Carroll recounting glibly how he appointed himself the custodian of his black female friend’s sexuality, outing her as disease-ridden when she dared to flirt with his pal.
This simply reasserted the racist belief that black women are vectors of disease, and cannot be trusted to form open and honest relationships since they are “over twice as likely to have HIV as white women”. — Anna Weekes, Cape Town
I want to thank Carroll for his honesty. I have changed from being one of the most positive people I know to being totally negative and trying to find a way to move overseas.
Too many issues around race, crime and government mismanagement are taking up too much of my energy. — Johann Hattingh
Ten reasons why we are privileged to live on the finest turf on a troubled planet:
- our national sport, football, is not so ridden with corruption that top clubs are relegated to lower leagues;
- we don’t have a football player that shames us by head-butting an opponent in a major competition;
- we have the world’s finest Constitution;
- we don’t have a leader remotely like a warmongering George W Bush;
- we don’t have an electoral choice between Bush lapdog Tony Blair and the even more right-wing Tories;
- our satirists and cartoonists keep us smiling, using a bounty of material supplied by politicians of all parties;
- we don’t solve our problems by reducing other countries to rubble;
- our police officers don’t shoot an innocent man in the head eight times while holding him down;
- we don’t decline to charge these police officers with murder; and
- we have Madiba.
How can the ” Packing for Perth ” Afro-pessimists bear to lose all this? — Clive Swann, Johannesburg
Carroll articulates the white South African experience rather beautifully — “a boot camp for progressive ideals” is one choice phrase.
Carroll’s failure to puncture the bubble of white life, as he puts it, and “to let the energy and variety of this wonderful country suffuse [his] daily life” will no doubt have a troubling resonance for many of your readers. — Angus Douglas, Johannesburg
Your report misleads
We are very concerned about the inaccurate reporting of the Constitutional Court’s judgement about the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act (“Abortion law sent back”, August 18).
Anyone reading the article would have had the impression that the judgement seriously impacted on women’s right to terminate pregnancy in terms of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act. This is false, and we are concerned that the Health Department’s press release clarifying this has been ignored by the media.
The Amendment Act sought to amend definitions of who could perform terminations and which facilities could do them. The challenge related to Parliamentary procedure and the need for consultation only.
The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act has made a huge contribution to improving women’s health and access to their human rights. Medical Research Council research has shown that abortion-related mortality has fallen by 90%.
It is important that we recognise and build on these hard-won rights and do not let them be undermined by misinformation. — Marion Stevens and 20 others
The African National Congress government condemns Israel and effectively encourages Hizbollah, but makes no response to the unfolding human disaster in its own backyard — Zimbabwe.
The Arab world chose the wrong side in two world wars — in fact, if they had not advanced the Nazi cause, European Jews might not have been compelled to establish a homeland. They have persisted with wars against Israel despite the fact that Israel possesses no oil or other strategic benefits.
Arab countries have repeatedly made decisions that have harmed their own peoples. Let’s hope our government doesn’t make the same mistake! — Jon Selby
Not a single paper has used the word “kidnapping” to describe the abduction of the Palestinian deputy prime minister from his Ramallah home, in addition to other Cabinet ministers kidnapped by the Israelis. Yet this word is liberally used to describe the capture of soldiers, who are instruments of war. — Rasimeni Manjezi, Newlands
Manto, the pseudo-scientist
Any scientist would have to agree with Mark Wainberg, International Aids Conference co-chair, that the HIV/Aids theories of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang are pseudo-science.
One hallmark of pseudo-science is the refusal to engage in peer evaluation, and attempts to limit the public accessibility of knowledge claims. The South African government is even barring United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Steven Lewis, from UN work here.
Another hallmark of pseudoscience is over-reliance on selected testimonials and anecdotes to verify theories. Interviewed on SABC TV Tshabalala-Msimang could only provide testimonials and anecdotes from selected HIV-positive people to support her theories. Asked about scientific evidence, she questioned the entire scientific community: “Whose science?”
Pseudo-scientists invariably reject the established scientific community on grounds that it is inherently biased against “alternative” theories. They also often assert that their theories cannot be adequately evaluated by conventional scientific methods.
Tshabalala-Msimang seems to value only experiential evidence, ignoring the importance of cross-validation: “When a person says she or he is feeling better, I must say no, I don’t think you are feeling better. I must go and do science on you?” If this logic holds, we may as well use heroin to treat depression.
Pseudo-scientists place the burden of proof on the critic, whereas in science, the burden of proof always lies with the claimant. Tshabalala-Msimang repeatedly declares that it is up to the scientific community to prove her theories wrong.
Asked about a University of Stellenbosch study indicating that the African potato may have adverse effects on HIV-positive people, she said the researchers should go back to the drawing board. — Stephen Saunders, school of business and economics, Monash University South Africa
Time for a green front
I am a green African National Congress supporter, and now all I can see is red. Alec Erwin’s ignorant, silly attack on Richard Worthington of Earthlife Africa (Letters, August 18) and the praise-singing about his knowledge of electricity and economics are poppycock.
Germany produces 20% of its electricity through photovoltaics placed on people’s roofs. Excess electricity generated by the homeowner is then fed back into the central electricity grid. If a customer’s needs on occasion exceed the power generated by the photovoltaics they buy in electricity from the grid.
We have a far higher sunlight profile than Europe and could easily better the German figure. The idea of Eskom sending me a cheque each month is enough to make my toes curl in glee.
Perhaps Erwin’s vaunted knowledge of electricity goes no further than centralised power generation. Now we have the possibility of decentralising power generation and literally giving “power to the people”. The decentralised system would be very difficult to “sabotage” and the Cape Town and Johannesburg electricity outages a thing of the past.
A South African study commissioned by Earthlife Africa shows that for the same unit of electrical energy conventional electricity produces one job while renewables produce 100 jobs. Furthermore, there is the massive cost to our planet of carbon emissions caused by Eskom generating “cheap” electricity with low-grade coal.
South Africa is the 10th-largest producer of carbon in the world, while being 26 in world economic ranking. We could use the Kyoto Protocol carbon credits system to fund photovoltaics for every house in South Africa.
With his vast knowledge of economics Erwin would know that we would reduce urbanisation and substantially impact on the level of poverty through an obvious “win-win” strategic move.
Of course, a decentralised power generation grid would mean the monied cronies surrounding Eskom and its R12-billion unproven pebble bed generators might have to drive Toyotas.
The time has come for green civil society organisations in South Africa to form a United Green Front. We have a brilliant Constitution but an environmentally dumb government.
Organisations and individuals who would like to explore the formation of such a front, along the lines of the old United Democratic Front, should contact me in Midrand on [email protected]. — Alan Dawson, former mayor of Midrand
Do your bit, M&G!
The Mail & Guardian carried a strange, pseudo-Herald rant last week about how people are on a spending spree in Harare because of the exciting new currency.
In fact, the re-evaluation of the currency is causing chaos and more misery for the average shell-shocked Zimbabwean. We’ve had to go through at least two police roadblocks on the way to work every morning. Police have been stealing poor people’s money and splashing it on hi-fis and TVs. And the government is pouring its usual garbage on to the exhausted public, saying prices have come down and we should all be happy.
Rural people, who know nothing about the change, have lost their small savings. The average wage-payer has had to overpay staff because the new “bearer cheques” are in extremely short supply and unavailable in denominations smaller than a thousand (old million).
Most shops this weekend couldn’t sell anything because not everyone had the new bearer cheques, and no one could provide change for the bigger notes.
Also, our most intelligent transport minister has just dictated — yet again — a fuel price half of what it should be. Yet again there will now be no fuel, bringing the country to a halt.
Zimbos can’t be shocked any more. After 10 years of violent manhandling of our lives and rights, we can’t really focus on our problems. We were hoping the M&G would. — Olly, Harare
Rural myth
Fiona Macleod (August 18) creates an ideological myth about Mapungubwe, expanding it into an empire the size of Swaziland that existed for 700 years. Almost nothing scientific or in the oral tradition of northern Limpopo supports this contention.
The second myth is that the archaeologists who worked the site kept all “under wraps because apartheid ideologues refused to publicise the existence of a sophisticated pre-colonial cultural and trading empire”.
Researchers published significant scientific publications from the outset and over many years, placing Mapungubwe on the historical map and ensuring its artefacts did not disappear. — Fanie Olivier, Pennington