I am because you are

If Mbeki had not acted like a distant father & left all his constituents feeling like lone impoverished voiceless souls in the dark ... would Zuma’s power exist?

Someone apparently said at a lecture at WITS on Wednesday night that he views Zuma to be South Africa’s Obama.

This is because Zuma gives hope & realised aspirations to all those people who never managed to obtain a good education. To those who live in nothing, with nothing, and are given nothing to help them up a step. Suddenly this man who comes from their background has shown them that they can rise through the ranks, to even becoming president one day, even with nothing.

But did this need not arise on its own, but because of the gap created from nearly ten years of it not being heard.

Do so many South Africans identify with Zuma, not because of who he is on his own, but because he represents the antithesis of Mbeki... the ex-President who forgot to address & loudly include The People when he was grand designing for the country? The president who flies on airplanes and attends summits and who had a famous father. Three things that most South Africans do not and will never do and cannot relate to in anyway.

And, does all of this mean that when Zuma must exist on his own, when Mbeki’s legacy is truly passed, he will fall flat?

In a similar vein....

Does my identity exist because (South) Africa’s problems exist. That of being an aid worker by vocation.

And if so.

What identity would I have in a First World country where development problems are not on the agenda. Would I fall flat? Or will I not even just exist, I will thrive?

And what does that mean for the woman that wants you to all understand the world of those living the developing world life?

In a similar vein...

Why the fok are so many people in blog comments so damn angry!? (Are why do I keep getting caught up in this nonsense. You scroll down to put “nice comment” and the next thing you find yourself fighting for life against other commentators!)

Say something good about SA and you’ll be lambasted & just-as-vehemently championed. Say something bad about SA.... and you’ll be lambasted & just-as-vehemently championed.

For some random post. That exists in the ether. That will only be read by a few hundred people. That was a passing thought, a passing judgement, that won’t change the world & definitely does not appear to have changed or even minutely altered the regular commentators’ perspectives.

Are we all so angry? Are all people so angry about SA & its countless voices & lives and perspectives & versions. We all now detest the rainbow’s difference?

Or is it just those of us who might be so bored & uninspired that we surf the blog-net and find our inspiration in being the antithesis to anything virtually published. Seriously. Anything. Because, well, what the hell are you doing surfing blogs midday midweek. Whatever is outside of your computer can’t be entertaining you much.

And who would you be if you just had to disconnect the internet and put down the newspaper and turn off all the tvs & radios and just be amongst the difference. And perhaps smile at someone who passed you but you’d never knew existed. Till then.

Would you be if it never existed.