I don't understand

Part of my job includes the reading of newspapers. Reading the news can be a bad thing, but not nearly as bad as reading the comments that follow. 'Trolls' aside, I am often astounded at the sheer disrespect and lack of courteous engagement on online forums.
Yesterday, I read a comment that got me thinking... One person while making their point suggested (quite strongly) that 'white people' would benefit by spending more time listening to the pain of 'black people' rather than defending 'their' positions.
I have taken that to heart I have seen and listened to the suffering of my people and this is what I hear:

• Tens of thousands of children have no food nor proper shelter
• In South Africa, rape and the sexual abuse of women and children at all time high.
• Our youth is disenfranchised and youth unemployment is off the charts not to mention the general unemployment rate.
• The annual death toll on South Africa's roads is three times higher than the number of Egyptians who died in their revolution.
• Basic services are denied to many communities
• Our public healthcare service has fallen apart, in no small part due to mismanagement
• Corruption abounds 
• Children have no textbooks at school. 

I could easily continue to recount the stories I hear while I listen, but now I'd rather as a question of my own.
Why is our ruling party marching to protect the president's penis?

Mercy triumphs over judgement

South Africa's response to 'The Spear' has clearly revealed that we are still a very divided and hurting nation.  Our need for mercy rather than judgement in our public discourse has never been greater. Listening to Ferial Haffajee's interview on John Robbie's show this morning reminded me of a Jack Johnson song called 'The News'. One refrain from the song particularly stood out to me:

"Why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die? 
At least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes"


The lyrics of this song emphasize, for me, that truth is by nature relational. I am grateful to Ms. Haffajee that she is not so hung up the news that she looses sight of the people involved.

As a nation we have been debating the role of the media and whether is should be allowed to self regulate. Could this be an example of what a self regulated press in a constitutional democracy could look like? I think the action taken by Ms. Haffajee and City Press newspaper to offer an 'olive branch' is commendable. I sincerely hope that our ruling party exhibits the same level of integrity and responds in kind.

MarsEdit 3.0

This is a test to see if MarsEdit is a sassy as the review blogs would have me believe.

I'm planning a blogging comeback so watch this space.

Consumer Christianity vs. Woolworths

This post may offend some people, so read on at your own risk.

Woolworths, a South African  retailer pulled a variety of, so called, ‘Christian Magazines’ from their shelves, citing poor sales performance as their reason for doing so. The response of some Christians should be categorised as nothing short of a tantrum. Amid threats of boycotts by the ‘Christian’ community, and only God knows what else Woolworths hastily re-stocked their shelves just in time to avert the battle of Armageddon, but not quickly enough to avert a major PR crisis. (Read media reports here and here).

Some thoughts:

Christian Consumer magazines (or Christian consumer anything else for that matter). Why do these magazines exist? Why do Christians buy them? What is the role/place of Christian consumer media?

Discrimination against Christians in South Africa. If you assume that this was intentional discrimination against Christians  then go read John 15:18 and visit www.persecution.org

Christian activism. Should Christians be pleased that the results of their ‘activism’ returns magazines made by Christians, for Christians (in LSM 7-10) back to a single retailer’s shelves? Might it not be more in line with the mission of Jesus that Christian rhetoric and activism advocate the assistance of the poor, the healing of the broken hearted, etc?

Mandela, Malema and reason to hope

So last night I ran out of firelighters and was forced to resort to the old fashioned means of fire lighting... newspaper and twigs.

So as I unfold the Sunday Independent (that I picked up at the airport to help me navigate the check-in queues with an American friend who looked more like a merekat in the Kalahari than a seasoned traveller) I find a picture of Madiba on his birthday.

To my surprise, then shock and ultimately my horror I recognize the little man standing to his right… Not even in my wildest nightmare would I expect to find what I did. There in that grainy feel found only in newspaper photos is none other than South Africa's most notorious agent provocateur - Julius Malema.

So I'm faced with a choice.

Either I go down that well practiced neural pathway that leads me to the conclusion that South Africa really has gone to the dogs, and that Madiba, now 92, is too senile to realize that Africa's next Idi amin is standing next to him.

Or to an alternative possibility, some may even fall it a place of hope. Richard Branson said:

“…my recipe for success has always been to understand my limitations and to surround myself with talented and brilliant people that can pick up where I leave off.”

Perhaps the fact that Malema is hanging around the current international symbol of reconciliation means he may yet be able to change his racist and divisive ways and adopt Mandela's deep rooted spirit of reconciliation. Wishful think perhaps, but futures unimagined are futures impossible.

I think I will choose hope. My life has been changed, my future altered, my experience could also become Malema’s experience.

PS. In case you are interested in whether I  got my family fire going? Me and mine, by contrast to many of my fellow South African's, slept warm and for that I am grateful and on this am in agreement with Malema. There is still much to be done to make the hope of the rainbow nation a practical reality in the lives of the majority of South Africans.

Amandla ku’Jesu!

In my previous post I mourned the lack of justice in South Africa, it now seems their may yet be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This news article caught my attention Malema guilty of hate speech

Martin Luther King is quoted as having said that:

“The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

My prayer remains that the work of those great souls who have laboured to see the Freedom Charter embodied in our nation will be honoured by those who come after them.

Amandla ku’Jesu!

‘for my names sake…’

The first rainbow was given as a  sign of promise, hope and renewal (Gen 9:12-17). I guess these sentiments were the the intention of those who dubbed South Africa as the rainbow nation. Sadly, the rainbow nation is proving to be less promising, hopeful or colourful than we all hoped it could be.

To be honest I want to leave…

Not because i don’t like the country, on the contrary I think it is one of the best possible places (in the world) to live. Rather, my desire to leave is fuelled by the daily mockery that is made of human rights, free speech and democracy.

I am appalled that our government whose God given responsibility is to restrain sin, disorder and violence and protect the poor, weak and vulnerable are the very ones who promote sin, disorder and violence at the expense of the poor, weak and vulnerable.

In the words of the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk I call out to God:

How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! "Violence!" I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed and useless, and there is no justice given in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery. (Habakkuk 1:2-4 NLT)

My desperate longing for integrity and justice remains unfilled, my prayers seem unanswered… Many echo Job’s wife sentiments “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” I cannot. While my resolve to stay the course and endure hardship and suffering for His name sake may falter. My faith in His character will not.

"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."
(Exodus 34:6-7 TNIV)

His words of encouragement to me:

“I am concerned for you and will look on you with favour… This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake… but for the sake of my holy name…” (Ezekiel 36:9, 22 TNIV)