south africa

The holding of the Olympic Games in China has generated a great deal of criticism and protest. Many argue that the Games should never have been held in Beijing, because of China's awful human rights record. But to what extent are these criticisms justified? Do they simply reflect double standards and racial prejudice on the part of the West?
 

Way back during the apartheid years, when I was in international company, I hated having to admit to being a South African. During the transition to democracy that changed and for a time, I felt proud of my country. Lately, I'm starting to get that uncomfortable ashamed feeling again when I travel. Yesterday I hit a particularly low point.

On Wednesday (28th May), I paid a visit to Mary Tal, who heads up Whole World Women Association, an organisation based in Cape Town, dealing with the concerns of refugees and migrants -- and women in particular. Whole World Women is a participant in the Citizen Journalism in Africa project. When I meet Mary, she looks tired. She has been very involved in the recent xenophobic crisis in South Africa.

It's a strange and terrible time in South Africa. The xenophobic attacks, which started in Gauteng province (Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounds), have now spread across the country. It's horrific. Tens of thousands of people forced to flee their homes -- again. Several killed, many injured.

I have just finished reading The Uncertainty of Hope, by Valerie Tagwira. It is a novel set in the Harare area of Mbare, during the time of Operation Murambatsvina. The novel reminded me why fiction is so important. It's important for lots of reasons, but one of them is that it teaches us, by helping us imagine -- other people, other lives, other circumstances.

Yesterday I woke up, went outside to pick up my newspaper, and was confronted by a picture of a man burning to death, set alight by a mob who laughed as the flames engulfed him. We have been seeing images like this for days now, as South Africans in several poor residential areas, as well as the Johannesburg city centre, have been attacking foreigners.

In the early 1980s, when I was at university in England, an official of the South African apartheid government came to speak to students of the debating society.

It goes like this: Snuki Zikalala is known as an Mbeki man, and he was suspended by Mpofu, who perhaps used to be an Mbeki man but is now apparently in the Zuma camp. Mpofu was then suspended by the Board, which is believed to be loaded with Mbeki supporters, and the board has been censured by the Parliamentary committee, which is full of Zuma's people.It's all rather like one of the SABC's own soap operas -- but any script-writer who wrote this plot would be told to change it -- it's too far fetched to be believed.

Day 1 of the training had its challenges; Day 2 was a great improvement.