The Malema Disgrace--The Hofmeyer Disgrace

I have been thinking about what I wrote in my previous post. Malema has a right to sing about killing "ibunu", but I would ask, how does this serve the best interests of reconciliation and how does it best serve the concept of nation building?

For Steve Hofmeyer to sing about "kaffers" is also his right, but I will ask him the same question.

Who will stop the process of deepening division? How does either action compare to Nelson Mandela's open and energetic support for a rugby team consisting of 14 white players?

Compare that to the silence, and in instances the open support of extremist behavior, that our leaders are showing. It is a disgrace to moderate South Africa and it is a disgrace to the common principles of democracy--I'm talking here about the silence. Our leaders, to warrant the name "leader" need to show leadership and speak out for the values of democracy by acknowledging the right of Malema and Hofmeyer but by openly distancing themselves from the behavior.

Current events around these incidents are serving to polarize our nation further into a democracy based on group support and separation. Democracy based on values, the right of individuals, the right of minority groups, human dignity, equality under the law and above all the right of individuals to strive towards being the best they can be should be our aim. We can all, black, white, no matter what our religious conviction, associate with these values. The impracticality of a democracy based on division and maintaining political power is clearly reflected in our past. Do we want to now allow the pendulum to swing too far the other way? How do we stop the spiral of domination/revolution? Who has the guts to stop perpetuating this?

I call on our leaders to come out of the spiral and to stand up for real democracy. Here are some real democracy values:

Common Good: Working together for the welfare of the community or the benefit of all.

Justice: All people should be treated fairly in both the benefits and the obligations of society. No individual or group should be favored over another person or group.

Equality: Everyone has the right to Political, Legal, Social and Economic Equality. Everyone has the right to the same treatment regardless of race, sex, religion, heritage, or economic status.

Diversity: The differences in culture, dress, language, heritage and religion are not just tolerated, but celebrated as a strength.

Truth: They should expect and demand that the government not lie to them and the government should disclose information to the people. The government and its people should not lie.

Our leaders prefer to uphold what works best in the context of their political power. Today Zuma spoke out against NATO for trying to uphold the above principles in Libya, but he does little to distance himself from Malema's disgraceful behavior. Consider the statement made by F W de Klerk and reported in Die Burger on June 2, 2011: “Dit is onverstaanbaar dat die regering Malema se reg verdedig om ’n liedjie te sing waarin hy vra dat mense doodgeskiet word. Die historiese konteks is irrelevant. Dit sal net so onaanvaarbaar wees as Afrikaners liedjies uit die Anglo-Boereoorlog begin sing wat vra dat Engelse geskiet word.
“Dit is ook onaanvaarbaar vir Malema om wittes misdadigers te noem.
“Dit is selfs meer onaanvaarbaar vir pres. Jacob Zuma om glimlaggend op dieselfde verhoog te sit terwyl Malema, ’n vername ANC-ampsdraer, sulke rassistiese opmerkings maak. Malema se gedrag is onversoenbaar met die Grondwet wat Zuma ’n eed gesweer het om te bevorder.” De Klerk is critical about Malema, but he, like me considers the president's reaction even more unacceptable than Malema's utterings.

Democracy is not giving every person a vote and then polarizing them so you can remain in power to do as you please. Stop hiding behind, "it takes a long time." If our current leaders don't have the guts, then I call on Mandela and Tutu, old as they may be, to re-initiate a march to real freedom and real democracy. The question is not, what do you do when it gets too much, the question is what do you do before it gets worse, what do you do now?

The Malema Disgrace

The solution to the Malema created disgrace in our land is not a court battle to shut him up. Our leaders need to come out and distance themselves from his attempts to run against the concept of living together better. I'm surprised that our president has not spoken out and pointed out that, while Malema has the right to speak out and chant his chant, his rhetoric is actually in conflict with the ANC slogan on the election posters: "Together we can do better."Our president's silence regarding this matter brings further shame. It is a silent encouragement to widen racial division. It is a shame that, unlike Nelson Mandela, he is not looking for opportunity to integrate moderates, but quietly encouraging extremists to polarize our nation further. Shame on all our leaders who can make a difference. Shame on you Mr Zuma.

We have a problem in Africa: We observe some democratic principles and ignore others.

A democracy is based on the model that not everything the individual or family needs can be provided by the individual or family e.g. roads, education, health… So the individual pays a levy, a tax and elects a central body to provide these things.

Obviously the central body, the government, has administrative expenses. These have to be carried by the taxpayer as well. But generally speaking, the big chunk of the money collected, the money that rippled up from the ordinary people needs to be spent in a way that benefits the ordinary people. You don’t collect money from everyone and then use it to benefit mostly those who are in government, those who have their hands on the money—that would be corruption. You can devise many clever ways of hiding this corruption, e.g. tenderpreneuring, but it is still corruption.

We invent a voting system to elect who will do the governing. This is democratic and the government is elected democratically.

In Africa this is where the wheels come off in a big way. The elected body abuses the money contributed by the ordinary people: They deploy cadres, they have buddies who tender and get contracts and then mess up the delivery after being paid too much for what they promised. They just mess up the whole system—the money is wasted and lost and stolen before the benefits ripple down like it is supposed to.

This is an oversimplified model. I intend expanding it. But it contains the basic flaws of a system that works upwards in the collection of taxes and election of public “servants” and falls apart in the downward application of the money so collected. This is not democracy. It is abuse.

Triton WCA390 Blade Height Winder--A Workaround

I spent a frustrating 8 hours trying to align the saw blade of my Triton 2000 workcentre. I eventually discovered the reason why I could not get it right; the saw, power unit and blade, is attached to its base in such a way that depth and angle are adjustable, but a degree of rigidity has been lost in order to have this adjustability. There is too much sideways movement and slump for accurate work. The blade alignment changes when one adjusts the depth.

I googled and found the Triton WCA390 Blade Height Winder. With this accessory the power unit can be locked in one position relative to the base and the whole assembly moved up and down with the winder to adjust depth of cut. The following pictures illustrate how it works.

I went about looking for a supplier in South Africa without success. Several tool shops told me that they no longer stock Triton products. I wrote to Triton and did not get help from them. So, I made my own height winder. It’s not as difficult as it seemed originally.

I purchased 30mm X 5mm flat bar for the U Frame and a length of 10mm threaded rod. I figured the threaded rod would be a slow way of adjusting the height, but it would make small adjustments easier. The rest of the materials were scrap pieces of tube etc that I had. I spent just over ZAR50, about US$8.

I started with the saddle. I used some tubing with an inside diameter slightly bigger than the outside diameter of the U-frame tube. Cut two sections that enclose a PVC bearing cut from a piece of irrigation pipe.

I then attached the one half of the saddle to the threaded rod using a flat piece of scrap and some tubing. I figured brazing would be strong enough. I sandwiched PVC material in between the washers so I could eliminate play and still have the rod rotate easily.




The following pictures show the rest of the assembly. I used a piece of stainless steel tubing, left over from a balustrade job, to make the bracket that attaches the threaded rod to the saw base plate.





Constructing the U-frame is the easy part. I made some PVC blocks and shimmed them so the U-frame fitted precisely between the 2000 workcentre rails. Aligning the saw as described in the manual was too difficult. I marked the workstation base so I knew where the front of the blade had to be so it aligned exactly with the middle of the slot in the saw table top. I removed the “cam” type adjusters and just clamped the saw to the workstation base. It was easier.





It works! With the ruler laid up against the blade--it’s a one-meter ruler--the alignment of the saw blade is accurate to 0.5mm over that one meter. And it does not change when the height is adjusted.

Falling Into a Negative State

When I look back I realize how often I’ve been overwhelmed, sometimes by trivial things. Last week I left my cell phone at the cigarette shop. Fortunately the man at the shop called one of the recent numbers I had dialed and was able to get a message to me. I was 30 kilometers away, home already, by the time I received the call. I began to fall into that state of self-recrimination as I got into the car to go retrieve my cell phone. I’m predisposed to being intensely critical of myself. I’ve always done that. If I lose my keys, wallet, credit card I feel like I’ve committed a gross sin. All of me feels ashamed, guilty and untrustworthy. Why? It was a simple lack of concentration in a moment, not a crime.

If someone betrays me I am devastated. If I oversleep and realize I’m going to be late I become so worked up I cannot function properly. I call this “falling totally into a negative state” I use “totally” because ALL of me becomes that negative state. There’s nothing else, just the terrible thing that I’ve done or omitted to do. All of me is forgetful, unworthy, unreliable. I sometimes don’t even label myself; I just feel awful.

In a recent discussion a friend complained about being depressed. I said, it’s okay to be depressed; it’s only a part of you that’s depressed, the rest is functioning well. I did not fully realize the impact this would have on me. Slowly, over the next few days, I began to realize, I don’t have to fall totally into that compartment of my life that may be negative at any particular time. I began to realize I’m much more than my depression, more than my forgetfulness, even more than my unworthiness. I’m an alcoholic, but I’m also a brother, a husband, a father and grandparent. I’m a taxpayer, a technician, a mechanic, a woodworker. Losing my credit card does not invalidate all the good and acceptable things I am. If I’m depressed I can accept my depression and go and live in one of my not-depressed states.

It has taught me balance. I don’t get it right all the time, but I’m beginning to apply this principle. I can more readily step back from a situation and see the bigger picture; give the incident due consideration but don’t become the negative state.

Dale Carnegie, way back in the 40-s somewhere, defined the concept of “day-tight compartments.” The concept is to not let yesterday contaminate today, or be so worried about tomorrow that you only part-live today. One can shorten the period into half days or hours—being in the moment. But being in the moment is very hackneyed. Day-tight compartments is something I can get my arms around, visualize and live.

Maybe I'll write a story

I read the following passage in one of Tolle’s publications. I'’m thinking, I want to write a story based on this pain model of his. I don’t think it is plagiarism:

“The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.

”The pain that you create now is always some form of non-acceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind. The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it. In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may put it like this: the more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering – and free of the egoic mind…

”In a fully functional organism, an emotion has a very short life span. It is like a momentary ripple or wave on the surface of your Being. When you are not in your body, however, an emotion can survive inside you for days or weeks, or join with other emotions of a similar frequency that have merged and become the pain-body, a parasite that can live inside you for years, feeds on your energy, lead to physical illness, and make your life miserable.

”So place your attention on feeling the emotion, and check whether your mind is holding on to a grievance pattern such as blame, self-pity, or resentment that is feeding the emotion. If that is the case, it means that you haven’t forgiven. Non-forgiveness is often toward another person or yourself, but it may just as well be toward any situation or condition – past, present, or future – that your mind refuses to accept. Yes, there can be non-forgiveness even with regard to the future. This is the mind’s refusal to accept uncertainty, to accept that the future is ultimately beyond its control. Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so to let go of grief. It happens naturally once you realize that your grievance serves no purpose except to strengthen a false sense of self. Forgiveness is to offer no resistance to life – to allow life to live through you. The alternatives are pain and suffering, a greatly restricted flow of life energy, and in many cases physical disease.

”The pain-body has an extremely powerful energetic charge that can easily pull you into unconscious identification with it. You are then actively possessed by an energy field that occupies your inner space and pretends to be you – but, of course, is not you at all. It speaks through you, acts through you, thinks through you. It will create negative situations in your life so that it can feed on the energy. It wants more pain, in whatever form. It is pure pain, past pain – and it is not you.”

My idea for the story is this; two people, each with his own pain body with vastly different causes and dimensions and energy, get together and move into a relationship. At first they don’t realize that the attraction is between the two egos, the two pain energies that want to continue and perpetuate the pain in an ever worsening spiral. The two compliment one another perfectly—say the one is stuck in blame and resentment and the other in fear and approval seeking. The dance continues and deepens. Only one of them realizes how their underlying energies are destroying the relationship and tries to change habits and patterns. In the story the thoughts and journaling of the one who realizes the underlying dynamic is used to communicate this hidden plot to the reader. The rest of the story is form and what the world sees. The struggle is between the one who wants to become real and the other who unconsciously wants to remain in denial. Ultimately they either destroy the relationship or both become real and start working towards their fulfilment.

I don’t know where to start. I guess this is already a start. I got Zen and the art of writing from Brett this morning. I’ll start there. While I’m working on my motorbike restoration I’m thinking about the characters, creating images of them in my mind.

The Spirit of the Wind

Brenda made the reservation with Olivier’s Rust in De Rust. While she was talking and trying to confirm dates, I said, we have to check if we can get kennel space for Nunus and then confirm. Well, the outcome of that was that Susan, the Olivier’s Rust owner, said bring her along. So we took Nunus with us! I was apprehensive, but this was the first revelation—She travelled well, behaved exceptionally, enjoyed herself and appeared as if she’d been doing this all her life.

De Rust was a good choice. Around the corner from where we stayed, on the front gate of The Weaver’s Nest was this plaque: “ It is Here With The Spirit Of The Wind That I Will Find My Soul.”

And we did, each in his own way. In the stillness of the quiet Klein Karroo we could stand back and refocus on the bigger picture, be honest and clearly see the value of the simple life-style.

De Rust is a village of simple life and Donkie Teksies.The Donkey Cart project was started to convert a problem into a feature. Donkeys were verwaarloos and looked it. The carts were held together with wire and make-shift fasteners.

The project saw carts restored, fitted with rubber wheels and painted green. The visitor can now hire a ride. It provides a small income for the owner, the donkeys are better off and what used to be a disgrace has become a feature in De Rust.

Meiringspoort is an experience. It is a beautiful place in nature. But above all, I’m proud to be South African when I see a place like this. It is clean and well managed. There are no plastic bags and beer cans lying around. The stopping places are clean and quiet.

On the Wednesday we took a ride to nearby Uninondale to see Paul and Carol. They were both out and while waiting we looked around the village and visited some of the churches. It was good to see Carol again. Next time we'll see Paul. The Klein Karroo is an experience. I wonder why we are so fascinated with Disneyland and casinos. There's not been a time when visiting this beautiful part of our land has not transformed my thinking and lifted me.