I had a somewhat disturbing interaction on our Facebook page the other day. I posted an article entitled, “A Nation of Victims” which focused on how a lot of South Africans are only looking at the negatives and are ready to write the country off and blame anyone and everyone for how bad things are. However, the article went on to say, foreigners who come to SA have a very different (and far more positive) outlook on the country. See article here: http://www.news24.com/Columnists/MaxduPreez/A-nation-of-victims-20150505
I posted this article not because I am unaware and unaffected by the very big and very serious problems we’re facing as a nation, but because I too am tired of the constant negative rhetoric about a country I love very much. Also, there is a lot of good going on, but the media and the conversations have hyped up the negative so much that we seem unable to see the other side of the story.
A case in point: the individual I was arguing with on the Facebook post took a figure in the article and quoted the wrong statistic. He had just read the article, but instead of quoting the figure of 1,737 deaths from farm attacks between 1994 and today, he saw the number of 3,494 attacks and extrapolated that to 4,000 deaths since 1994.
Now am I arguing that the 1,737 deaths are acceptable? Hell no! Of course it’s plain wrong. But my point is, we are so fine tuned and trained to hear the worst about this country, that even when the facts are right in front of us, we make mental leaps to the worst conclusion. Surely, even as an adamant naysayer who hates this country and everything about it, surely, even then, living with actual lies and falsehoods is not a useful way to live your life???
And if you’re going to dig through the Facebook posts to try to find the exchange, I’m afraid you won’t. I put a language filter on the page and it basically chucked out this individual’s comments as a result. Again, even if you don’t agree with something, how is it useful to throw out swearing and angry vitriol on a social media platform against someone you don’t even know?
All of this has highlighted something very strongly to me: I need to very clearly define and describe what the aim of this community and platform is, so that those who aren’t interested in the stance we take can elect to disengage from the page and website rather than get upset and mad when we say or do something they disagree with.
I will lay the mission out in detail in my next post, but as a starter, let me say this: Not in My Name South Africa is about acknowledging and recognising the wrongs in this country. It is about educating us as South Africans as widely and as accurately as possible about injustices – both in terms of the xenophobic crisis, but also key issues that drive these kinds of attacks, like poverty, violent crime, lack of education, etc.
But most importantly, Not in My Name SA is NOT about blaming and pointing fingers and saying this has nothing to do with us. It’s about saying ENOUGH and then owning that – becoming active citizens and taking action to match the beliefs we spout. Because here’s the thing: if everyone refuses to take ownership of the mess we’re in, if all the intelligent and passionate people choose to ignore “them” or “that government” or “those criminals” – then “those people” are just going to continue doing the things we hate. And they’re going to thrive because nobody is doing anything to stop them. So the things that are marring our beautiful country will just grow and grow and we’ll keep saying it has nothing to do with us, but the situation we’re living in will just get more and more dire.
So, this community is about doing things. It’s about sharing ideas and resources and finding a way to change the narrative. If that’s something that appeals to you, this is the community for you. If you’re looking for a group that’s going to hate the country and all its evils with you, then spare yourself the pain and please rather disengage with this blog and Facebook page because it’s not what you’re looking for.
I look forward to the next steps of a journey that will hopefully start shifting some of the things that should no longer be committed in our names in this country.
Not in my Name 