my view on the 67 minutes

Yesterday was our former South African President Nelson Mandela’s birthday. The man is now 94 years old, can you beleive it? Indeed the man has been blessed with a long life.

 

The world went into complete song and dance celebrating the icon’s  special day and we were all urged to devote 67 minutes of our time to doing good.

 

I have a problem with this, mainly because I don’t understand why I should be compelled to devote my time to doing good. I mean shouldn’t that be something I do naturally? Everyday.

 

I hear you say, Mandela freed us blah blah blah blah…and to a certain extent I may agree with you but not whole heartedly. I beleive Mandela appealed to the masses because of all the popularity he had gained while in prison tyring to free our country. But hold on a second here…if he was in prison and you and i were out here being sjamboked to hell and back trying to rid pass laws and apartheid…then who really liberated this country? If today we tolerate each other as different races instead of embracing each culture, how free are we?

 

Back to Mandela day.

 

I want to know why it is that icons like Robert Sobukwe, Steven Biko , Oliver Tambo, Joe Slove, Chris Hani not celebrated.

 

What about the people who went through so much trauma :  “They held me…they said, ‘Please don’t go in there…’ I just skipped through their legs and went in…I found Bheki…he was in pieces…he was hanging on pieces…He was all over…pieces of him and brain was scattered all around….that was the end of Bheki” (39) http://azadehpourzand.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-reflections-on-country-of-my-skull.html .

 

Why is there no 67 minutes for them? What will happen when Mandela dies, will I now be given another set of rules?

I refuse to give any of my time to do what they say I must do without proper information of why I’m doing it in the first place. How is it applicable to me?

  

Do they even know me? I bet you one thing…none of them are sitting there thinking ‘hey, I wonder if we can solve Futuresoul’s issues for today?…  “heal the world, make it a better place…” even Micheal Jackson sang the song. We can never look to a few minutes to justify the injustices of the country we live in.

 

Let Afrika become a first world COUNTRY, with leadin Health, Internet, Education and basic  service provider.

 

Let us then redress the core issues : nationalisation of mines, ridding of labour brokers, racism and the newly acclaimed “social coersion” . Let’s find out why people resort to crime to adress anything in this country. Rid elitist scratch my back tendencies like we have now.

 

Mayber one day when they know who I am and what my needs are and can deliver absolutely MAYBE then I may just devote my time.

Until then…check the Zapiro cartoons to view my sentiments!