South African Democracy - faking the whole affair

Some of you may be shocked after reading that. Not only by the gore of it, but by the fact you could never have imagined that could happen. Let me tell you that the area it happened in is only a twenty minute bus ride out of the centre of a major Azanian port. This gruesome incident occurred in a suburb of Durban City. Yes, you never heard about it being this bad. I know.

The truth is seldom heard. Most people only see blurbs on CNN, and then they are usually the same ones repeatedly shown, regardless of the story connected to them. If such images are shown to you without any information, you assume it happened in one of those "naughty" countries like Zimbabwe or Mogawhatsusname", not good old Mandelaville. The truth is that violence in Azania is so severe it puts Zimbabwe in the eyes (no it's not as bad as Mogadishu yet). Let me say that in standard, non Azanian English: the Azanian violence levels are far worse than that found in Zimbabwe or Malawi. The sad difference is that our situation is ignored. It is drummed home that we are a democratic country so many times, that when people go missing and turn up in the hands of the terror cell controlled from the pentagon, people just continue with their daily duties. After all, South Africa is one of the "good African states", obediently following American and British guidelines about social spending, and economic policies. So, one is sure they did "whatever" for "whatever good reason". So even if you DO happen to hear that "politicians have repeatedly said that security is an expensive affair and that Azanians need to start paying for out of their own pockets", you'd probably agree with them. A few years ago, the security industry was the fastest growing industry. Today, private security companies patrol wealthy neighborhoods, expensive electric fences and burglar alarms are installed by anyone with half a brain and the money to do it. The rest of the folks get screwed. Private security companies have even been signed up to protect certain police stations that had had their weapons stolen so many times, they themselves had become part of the problem.

Of course, I don't blame you for not knowing about our situation. We are a small drop in the ocean compared to all the other things going on. Besides, the media and shoddy journalism is also to blame. This is not only true about Azania (still known by it's colonial name, South Africa). Last month I showed some students a report about the Russian exploration of the North Pole, an dteh following day, one of the net savvy kids showed me a young blogger's response to the event. The video shown during CNN TV soundbyte/blurb was footage taken from the famous movie "Titanic". Though it doesn't prove the Russians had faked the whole affair, it does lead one to question what the media giants really assume about our intelligence. We weren't even informed about the source of the footage, which would have been half respectful. Such oversights or plain shoddy production or "journalism" is meant to sensationalise and sometimes to mislead. Many misconceptions about many important things arise from this sort of dishonesty.

When we actually read the cold hard facts about a situation in Azania or Iraq, we tend to see it in relation to other images we have seen (genuine images or otherwise) and the impact of these hard facts are actually softened by the subliminal (and not so subliminal) repetitive rubbish we have been fed prior to exposure to the facts.

As a result, when we see a leader like Ahmadenijad or Chavez address the UN, though they may be making very good points, if we have been suckered up to that point, we can't understand the address.

Now, back to the article I posted: Why has the situation come to this? If anyone wants my opinion, let me hear yours first. i will only say that it has a lot to do with a culture having been whittled away and something else put in its place. Also with a breakdown of other norms, services, and a silence regarding the whole thing. If there is noise being made, it's all that it amounts to: NOISE. The noise takes place at middle class dinner tables, and among ruling class newspaper redaers. The end result is that nothing ever happens, and a state of paralysis sets in.

There, I've gone and said too much now. I'll leave the rest to you.