Our country is experiencing challenges, but the epidemic of negativity, especially among the privileged, hampers progress. I spent decades on the ground in conflict zones around the globe. I experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall while stationed in Germany.
I observed the unification of a deeply divided nation and the slow recovery in East Germany after decades of oppression — a process that has still not been finalised. I saw the then Yugoslavia rising from the ashes after being bombed by Nato for their ethnic oppression. Soldiers surrounded my car when I asked my driver to stop to take a photo of a blown-up bridge.
I presented my credentials to then-president Slobodan Milosovic, the architect of their problems, and learnt about his prejudices from his own mouth. I saw Bosnia recovering after a bloody war caused by an ethnic conflict, and learnt first-hand from the people about their pain caused by ethnic strife and intolerant politicians. I talked to people on both sides of the deeply divided Cyprus about the pain and division caused by intolerant and power-hungry politicians pulling the strings on both sides.
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In South Africa I saw people rising after generations of oppression. I was involved in a commission of inquiry into the causes of an uprising against the government of the day because of its oppressive policies. I experienced how we survived the “swart gevaar”, the “rooi gevaar”, the “Night of the Long Knives” and tinned food (after 1994).
The latest is “white genocide”. The government of national unity is busy turning a huge ship around, slowly but surely, under heavy “friendly fire” from the shore by their own people. Yes, especially from the previously advantaged.
I am also on that ship and thoroughly aware of our challenges. What I would have liked to see, however, is more of the spirit of the people I observed over decades among affected people in conflict zones across the globe. But no, I see complainers who are still living privileged lives with white bread under their arms.
Many of them are now preparing for the difficult trek to the coast on busy roads with their heavily loaded 4×4 vehicles to their seaside houses or their bushveld farms. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments toletters@businessday.co.za. Letters of more than 200 words may be edited for length.
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