Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Patriotism is...

me.

zOMG!

I cannot sleep because I am worrying about the ANC Polokwane conference thing. No, really. Despite my usual insomnia, my eyes cannot close and neither can I stop thinking about the possibilities of the outcome.

zOMG!

I mean what if Zuma wins? Will showering join beetroot and garlic and olive oil and lemon juice in our National First Aid Kit? What if Thabo wins? Will he cling to power and become Mugabe II? Well garlic and lemon juice concoction will still be available on the chronic medication list anyway. *shrivels into foetal position*

zOMG!

Lawdeh, I'm blogging about this *clutches duvet*. Talk about g33k!n355.I don't want to get into the ins and outs and of why we shouldn't panic. Because that would be hypocrisy at it's best. Personally, I think they're both a bit Blaaaaah and I wish we had one of those head to head presidential candidate debates like they do in the States.

zOMG!

I don't know whether the tone of what I am writing here is revealing the SHEER AMOUNT OF PANIC I feel. I think I am mad. Really.

zOMG!

I have this feeling of panic...like I quit smoking, imbibed a litre of coffee-neat and then went to OD on 3ph3dr4**. teh_panic! Consternation is not a good noun...sounds too fuddy duddy to reflect TEH_PANIC!!!

zOMG!

AAAAAAAAAAAAarrrrrrrrggh!!!

zOMG!

I hope it all works out, I need sleep. I can only imagine how Zuma and Thabo feel...I wonder if they have sleepless nights worrying about the state of the country and it's people like I have.

Nkosi Sikele i Afrika...we need it.
*counting sheep*

rah*

**please translate on your own- 3= e and 4=A. Don't need any more spam through Google searches than I already have :)

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11 Comments:

Blogger cobain said...

LOL!

Shame poor child. Well they want female representation so maybe...

QUEEN_LESTAT FOR PRESIDENT!

You'd do a better job than either of them would. Plus you've got the royalty thing going :P and you actually care about that patch of land enough to have sleepless nights.

December 11, 2007 12:55 pm  
Blogger Waseem said...

You know what I find sad, its just the election of the ANC president, and we already assume the winner of that will be the president of our country. Is there really a democracy if we already know which party will win before the SA elections even come to pass?

Im not the panicking kind of person, I guess I will take it as it comes.

December 11, 2007 1:29 pm  
Blogger SingleGuy said...

what I find interesting is where the Anti-Zuma camp hails from. Most people I speak to who are mildly intelligent and have kept a vague eye on current affair are Anti-Zuma. Why? Well not one of them can tell you anything about his virtues? Me even less, I know very little about his history. What I can tell you though is what every other non-african language speaking south african out there can tell you: Zuma has been charged and acquitted for rape. Zuma has effectively shown us that he has flagrant regard for the principles of Safe Sex. Zuma has questionable morals and Ethics when it comes to business practises.

I can tell all these things, because, IT WAS COVERED IN THE NEWS.

So, you have to ask yourself this: If every non-african language speaking person I talk to is anti-Zuma, AND, if more than 50% percent of ANC members are pro-Zuma (One has to admit that over 90% of ANC's membership is made up of African language speakers); THEN what is it that THEY know, that WE don't?

AND? Are we being duped the English Media?

How is it that someone who has received SO MUCH Bad Press can still have such a large following?

Personally, and honestly, I don't know if ZUMA would be a worse or better President than Mbeki. Sure, he is not the world's best role model, but then show me ONE political Head of State that is.

December 11, 2007 8:31 pm  
Blogger My dartboard said...

To give Zuma his due, he is no Mbeki. And Mbeki is no Mbeki. Zuma has resilience. He was aquitted on rape charges. But what is worrying is the justification of undemocratic practices. I am not saying that Zuma is the best candidate but what I am saying is that if he is the top contender in the ANC, he should win the presidency. Mbeki should have the grace to step down and respect democratic institutions.

One thing is certain, that a lot of things need changing.
the ANC constitution, the SA Electoral system. Constituencies is the way to go.

But what do I know?

Queen dont stress. if all else fails there is always Hindia or Mozambique

December 12, 2007 8:28 am  
Blogger Bilal said...

JZ over Mbeki any day!
Umshiniwaam!!

December 14, 2007 2:16 pm  
Blogger Mohamed Karolia said...

Lovely post. The prospects of JZ becoming president are terrifying. *shudders*

Love the key at the bottom for the non geek language people.

December 16, 2007 12:56 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What if I said that while your fears are valid, only a blaa..hnian would let her/his fear overwhelm his faith in the politically empowered masses of this country? What if I said that while your criticisms are valid from your vantage-point, that such a large endorsement of this mans values may actually result (in democratic terms) in a better country for all? I will not lend any credence to the idea that the poor people of this country don't know what's good for them. A mindset of isolation is an enemy to our social conscienceness... whether I was hijacked or not.

I agree with singleguy. Our perspective of this man who spent ten years in jail for his activities during apartheid, and who rose up the ANC's ranks in our current dispensation for his active political intervention on the ground, is peppered by the narrow short sightedness of minority inclusiveness and liberal medias oh-so-obvious targeting of the man.

I will not accept in whole gulps a media that so poorly covers the Palestinian issue, that so poorly covers the rest of the developing world, that so shoddily reports on the state of the poor, and so proudly touts as standard the sensationalist journalism the likes of Deborah Patta.

PS Blaahnians have no faith in people of different economic and social standings to begin with ~ I am only trying to make a point.

December 17, 2007 8:00 pm  
Blogger rah* said...

okay...

I do agree with Organ Harvester, Single Guy and Goolam and Waseem.

But that was not the point of the post. The point was that in SA there can be no overnight changes, but we have to be vigilant. However, some policy mistakes will also remain in place for quite a while.

The point was, do either of them care enough about the country or is it just one one-upmanship and personal power struggles?

While I completely agree that the poor get a rotten deal and should be a priority, I do believe that Mr Zuma's involvement with Sheikh for personal gain makes his character and ethics and morals questionable. ie the briber is just as guilty as the 'bribee', even though he isn't charged as yet, the fact that there is doubt surrounding him makes him an undesirable role model. His comments on women and his famous shower quote are also dodgey.If he is indeed bankrupt and has no real control over his financial affairs, it is worrisome how he is going to manage all our resources.

What troubles me is that this man is speaking everyone's language on crime etc, but can he be trusted? He's pandering to everyone's whims to get in and has succeeded with his canvassing but is he loyal or fixed on any one idea?

He had his say recently on crime and how lawyers defend rapists etc if that was not the height of irony then I don't know what is. It was him and his crowd that was singing the innocent until proven guilty song wasn't it?And had it not been for the same lawyers he would've been sitting in jail by now. But on the other hand who asked a lesbian HIV+ woman to wear a skirt in his esteemed presence?

Also this basic income grant thing...we already have so many beggars and so many people who just refuse to attempt to find any kind of work or start any kind of business because of the "government must provide" mentality. A basic income grant can work for a few years, but do we have the resources and the capacity to sustain it for so many years? And when the people decide they're not getting enough? Then what?

The reality is that I doubt the poor will not see much of the money allocated to them because of rampant corruption in government departments. And speaking of corruption...look who's at the top.

I'll give him time, I've got faith in the constitution being the highest law in this land. But if he starts screwing up big time, I think I might be first in line to join the next liberation/freedom movement this country will see.

December 21, 2007 11:52 am  
Blogger Junaid said...

Zuma for el-preseidente! is better than mbeki for Dictator for Life!

December 21, 2007 3:47 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Word Gomez!

The thing about character assassination attempts on Zuma is that they're not meant to give balanced portrayals of his sacrifices. Someone who actually sacrificed his life for the struggle and actually did on-the-ground, dirt-in-his-nails political work will be criticised. Liberal media believes that the people in power must be criticised. These aren't publicity savvy, moralistic preachers. They're anti-oppression, justice-oriented rebels. The ANC, from Ntate Mandela to Mr Thabo Mbeki and Defendant JZ are all people who have done questionable things (and continue to, childrens fund and all). They were afraid of Mandela, were afraid of Mbeki and are now afraid Jacob Zuma. That kind of attitude is going to result in a backlash of self-censorship as has happened in the US. One biased story is as good as any other.

Policy issues like basic income grants are still very much debatable. The idea of being absorbed into an economic environment that is too efficient to absorb the unskilled and uneducated through something other than government support .. well .. in my mind, its just an idea. Hence the corrollary situation in other developing nations. Its called treacle down economics and it just has never worked.

Discussions of efficacy in government must consider that the fundamental principle of democracy isn't that the people shall govern. The fundamental principle of democracy is that the people are ABLE to govern. Now it may not be an absolute truth that the people can, the idea of a liberal democracy (in my mind) is that the people should enable themselves from within a permissive framework. But capitalism is the overarching principle of interaction of this country. We all know its implications.

JZ addressed the question of overnight changes directly. Most of the journalists interviewing him didn't even know how party officials are elected in the ANC. It is a consensus driven (communist styled) organisation. But who said we don't need overnight changes? The situation is getting worse under the enlightened western-styled system everyday. The only way certain disenfranchised segments of our society will be integrated into the "better life for all", is as labour slaves or on a HIV body counts. Incidentally, if we wanted to learn about liberation politics, he'd be the person we'd learn from.

December 22, 2007 10:52 am  
Blogger r said...

so... Have the panic attacks increased or subsided since the outcome of the presidency was confirmed?

December 23, 2007 6:06 pm  

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