The Ghost Ship

Muesli and yoghurt wasn't going to do the trick for me this morning. I knew where I could get something more fullfilling to eat for breakfast so I headed for Carlucci's. Just opposite Carlucci's was the Sely 1 lying still in the early morning mist, looking like a lost ghost ship. Apart from the fact that the crew of the Sely had left the ship months ago, the eerie look around it made me feel a bit uncomfortable this morning. I sat down with a newspaper at Carlucci's waiting for my bacon and eggs. For years I stopped reading the newspaper, because it was just too upsetting and the facts just too inaccurate. The same with the news on television. Someone told me the other day that keeping your head in the sand like an ostrich does not change the reality of the real world. I am just protecting myself from sensationalism. After the recent political turmoil in this beautiful country of ours, I watched the news religiously for the past couple of days to see what was going on. I promised not to make my blog a political blog, but rather to advertise this  beautiful country that I live in. This morning however I was reading the newspaper out of curiosity to see what the latest was on the Eugene Tereblance's sex accusations. I could not help to see what else was going on and I started feeling very chagrined by what was happening in South Africa. I thought maybe it was a good time to get this off my chest for a change and then hopefully tomorrow have the motivation to look for the good again.

With the recent brutal killing of the AWB's white supremacist leader Eugene Tereblance and the refusal of the ANC's Youth League president to stop singing songs with words like "kill the whites" the media is obviously having a feast with all the action. So you cannot really believe everything you hear at first. All this happening weeks before the Soccer World Cup makes it more sensational. In a time like this, we should really try not to sing instigative songs, so I don't agree with the way the ANC was handling Julius Malema and they way they disrespected the court ruling that prevented the singing of this song in public. But on the other hand I also cannot associate myself with war talks coming from the AWB after their leader's senseless murder. I believe every country has people with different opinions, but what worries me is how violent people in South Africa become when they disagree. Wherever I travel in the world, people always talk about the "friendly South African people". Yes, that is true, I also think South Africans are very friendly, but be careful when your have a different opinion from your neighbour, or especially someone from a different race. You might end up with a bullet in your skull or a knife in your back. Recent outburts on TV by an AWB spokesperson and Julius Malema just proofs this.

The past couple of days I was having some sort of conversation with a AWB supporter on Facebook. I have never really spoken to any AWB supporters about their believes, so she was telling me what the AWB wants in the new South Africa and I was willing to listen to her opinion. I thought it might be a good opportunity to hear what she had to say seeing that I never really took much interest in the AWB before. The funny thing though is that despite the fact that I did not play devil's advocate with her, and the fact that I am also a white Afrikaner exposed to exactly the same sh*t as what she is, she managed to insult me a couple of times before actually getting to the point. She automatically assumed that I was against her because my opinion was not exactly the same as hers so she started calling me selfish, uninformed, siding with antichirsts, etc. She was trying to convince me of her viewpoint, but instead of convincing me, she made me realize that I wouldn't want to live in the same "Volkstaat" having her as my neigbour. And we are supposed to be "brother and sister in the same predicament".

Another thing that worries me in this beautiful country is the callous nature of some people. And I have to admit, it includes all races. The brutal killings. People's lives are not worth a cent anymore. People are brutally murdered for a cell phone or a pack of sigarettes. Eugene Tereblanche's head was bashed in for R300 that was not paid to his murderer in time. That is not even 40USD. A friend of mine was lying in pain next to the road after a motorbike accident while people were stealing the parts from his motorcycle. A few weeks ago a woman was raped by a passerby near George when she was in a motor accident. I can make a list longer than my monthly shopping list of brutallity among our people, but the more I list the angrier I get. It saddens me. What is happening to us?

So yes, I don't feel good this morning. This country has so much potential. The country is beautiful. But where are we heading? I still have no intentions of packing my bags and running away. But somehow this has to end. Somehow someone needs to stand up and say enough is enough. It is a handful of people that makes life in this country miserable for the rest of us. Is this handful getting smaller or bigger? At the moment it looks like it is spiraling out of control. Can we always believe the media? Whether we believe everything we read in the newspapers or not, one thing stays the truth...one brutal murder is one too many.

But despite all this happening around us I still enjoyed a wonderful breakfast this morning overlooking a beautiful ocean. The sun was starting to break through the mist and the ghost ship was looking much less ill-omened than an hour before. All I and the rest of the law abiding citizens of this country can really hope for is that the sun will break through for the rest of South Africa too. The sooner it happens, the better for all of us.