Barrack Obama, or Barry as I like to call him, released a book powerfully titled “The Audacity of Hope”. Now, not having yet read the book (it’s on my bucket list), I can deduce from the title of the book and a handful of speeches I’ve watched Barry make that he has the belief that hope can accomplish a lot of things. He believes there is power in faith and optimism. Truth be told, if one has the courage of their convictions with them they can achieve far more than the gloomy masses ever thought possible. Hope turns the, “that’s impossible, it can’t be done” into “yes we can”. That was, after all, Barry’s main campaign slogan.
He had a country, an economy, a people who were down for the count. They couldn’t have been more out if Heidi Klum had come up to them and said, “America, you are out”. Barry gave them hope again. He gave them the belief that maybe, just maybe they could turn the tables. He brought America back into the competition as a wildcard.
Sadly though, the thing with hope, what South Africans are slowly waking up to realize, is that hope without action is pointless. Having faith in your government when they can’t deliver will only lead to disappointment. Granted Barry is having his efforts stifled by Republicans who would rather politic and gain brownie points over him than see him, and the American people succeed. And no, it’s not a racial thing (I would hope).
Sadly, we are seeing a similiar thing here on South African shores, where our so called leaders are more interested in power and personal enrichment than they are in the welfare of their constituents. All of that national pride and hope which was instilled in the minds and hearts of South Africans by leaders such as Nelson Mandela is slowly being eroded away. We’ve just seen in the UK with the riots a few weeks ago what happens when your youth become jaded and live with a gloomy outlook on life. I don’t wish to, but I can only imagine what is going to happen when that happens in South Africa.
I can feel the perfect storm brewing and I really don’t know that we have the caliber of leadership required to quell it when it comes. I mean look at the facts. We are/were one of the most hopeful and inspired nations in the history of this planet – we came through a highly volatile situation, one incident away from a violent, bloody and genocidal civil war with flags painted on our faces and peace signs on our hands. Now, all that hope is fading away. That saying, “the higher they are, the harder they fall” applies perfectly to us. We come from the high of highs and, boy are we falling a long way…and fast!
We have a history of using strikes and violence to win freedom from oppression (then racial, now economic), our youth are uneducated and illiterate for the most part and they wouldn’t know the first place to start if you asked them to INTELLECTUALLY give their reasoning for supporting our “leaders” with the visceral passion they display. We are a short way from hopelessness and when we hit rock bottom it’s going to hurt. It will hurt us as a country and as a people. It’s a scary thought; certainly one I hope never comes to fruition.
That said, my hopes are starting to look more and more like pipe dreams. Look at the recent wage strikes marred by violence and vandalism in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Not so long ago people in Chiawelo, Soweto were stoning a former municipal councillors house and trying to burn her car which was parked in the garage attached to her house - which her family was in by the way. Add to the that the likes of a young man by the name of Mark Esterhuysen (@MarkEsterhuysen) who've decided "fuck the system," anarchy is the way forward.
While I admire his desire above "winning the rat race" to stand for what he believes in, I think he is on the cusp of becoming "the clever man's Malema". Unfiltered, telling it like he sees it - but at who's risk? The problem with this has been displayed time and again by ANCYL supporters. They get so caught up in the movement that they give no mind to the fact their actions cause more self-harm than good.
I see Mr Esterhuysen as a catalyst. One our society has been in need of for a while. He came out of left field, and that's what makes him all the more potent. A white guy, who by his own admission had a not so tough upbringing, with a seemingly non-racial agenda calling the government out on it's failures in a very public and very non-politically correct manner. I applaud that. We need more people like that.
I just wish to say to those who choose to follow in Mark's footsteps, be weary that your hopelessness and apathy are not replaced with violence. Yes, we need to a certain degree to revolt against our current government. We must put our collective foot down and let them know that enough is enough.
We cannot, however, make the mistake of using this as an opportunity to be violent, vandalize public property, loot private property and basically run down society all in the name of anarchy and non-pacifism.
We need to work hard to build this country from the ground up. We need a solid foundation based on more than hope, wishful thinking and empty promises from people who couldn't care less if you sleep on an empty stomach. We need to create a foundation that our generation can build on and the generations after us can improve.
Hope, once faded can prove a dangerous thing, especially in a situation like this. It's up to you and I to do our bit to do our bit to steer the country on the right path. This will need us, as a people to have the temerity to have big dreams, and the audacity to have even greater ambition for this country. Beyond that, however, we must have the work ethic and the common sense to know that ambitions aren't enough. We must act on them. What will your contribution be?
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