Chris Hani, the ANC and context.

I was 9 years old the day Chris Hani was assassinated. I remember sitting on my parents’ bed watching the news presenter on TV announcing the murder of a person who I had never heard of before. I vaguely also remember Nelson Mandela addressing the nation, requesting that everyone should remain calm. Apparently we were on the brink of a civil war but what would I know? I was a careless 9 year old kid. Beeld newspaper ran a detailed explanation on how the assassination took place (I remember the pictures vividly) and when the killers were apprehended the names Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus became household names. I even remember that all of us in St 3 (Grade 5) were discussing what we heard on the news and saw in the papers (not that we had a clue of what we were talking about at the time). We were 9 years old.

Everyday occurrences of the time only make sense in hindsight. The possibility of civil war tends to get hidden by a patriotism that is the dogma of your surroundings. I was proud of my anthem, I was proud of my flag. I was oblivious to a silent war that has been going on for years already. Could we argue that Hani was a casualty of war (he was after all chief of staff of the ANC's military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) just like the people who died in the Church Street bombing or the AWB murders in Bophuthatswana? Our primary school had bomb drills. Show me school today who still practise bomb drills. I could identify at least 5 different types of bombs at the age of 9. Is this normal? At the time it was. But then things started to change.

A referendum took place in South Africa and everyone was talking about whether people would vote “yes” or “no”. “Yes” votes were in the majority and after elections the ANC came into power with Nelson Mandela taking the reins of South Africa, exciting and sometimes confusing times for a young kid. We got a new flag, a new national anthem. Words like freedom and rainbow-nation took a new place in our vocabulary. Affirmative action and BEE were also new additions to the SA lingo. Nelson Mandela landed with an Oryx military helicopter on the rugby field of my primary school. I got to shake his hand and get his autograph. He was a nice guy, all smiles. Now as he is nearing the end of his life the whole world tends to agree. At the time there were sceptics though.

Now at 29 I look back at those years with a much greater understanding of the scale of events that took place. I am not nearly as naïve but I have become much more cynical. You see, I have read the ANC’s freedom charter. If you haven’t perhaps you should. Our constitution is pretty much based on it. It is a very noble and idealistic view of what the perfect society could strive to be. (Let me just declare my personal view, I am by no means a communist or socialist. I make no excuses for having capitalist beliefs. But that is the beautiful thing about our constitution. Each to his own.) I was never taught to hate the ANC. I have however experienced two sides of the ANC from my youth to now. Chris Hani was 51 years old when he was assassinated. He would have been an old man of 71 by now. Would he approve of the things that his 1998 SACP successor Blade Nzimande’s has said over the past couple of years? (Just google Blade Nzimande news stories, it is ridiculous how paranoid this man is.) The thing is, I doubt whether Chris Hani would agree with the ANC of today just like I think Nelson Mandela would disapprove of the party and the leaders that carry his legacy. But that is just my opinion and I am still relatively young. Perhaps I’ll understand what is happening today when I reach 49. Hindsight is always 20/20. 

Sleep with one eye open - Constantly connected

Isn't it peculiar how most of us suffer from a squinting morning disease? You know what I'm talking about. We are barely awake, haven't even turned around to bid a good morning to our partner but our smartphone is in hand and we are squinting through one eye at the useless information glaring at us from the little screen. I use the term useless information due to the fact that five minutes after we scanned through our Facebook, Twitter and news feeds, we actually wake up properly and can't recall anything that we read just a while back. (Better check again) Also, how useful is the information on Facebook really? I'm sure we would be just fine if we didn't know what our pseudo-friends were up to. Not that it matters anyway. How much could possibly have happened since we checked our phone before we went to bed last night?

 We are living in an age of information overload and unfortunately with the increase in quantity the quality gets diminished. Not that most of us care. Our hunger for information has grown to the point where we will settle for anything (queue Facebook status updates) and in our hunger to 'know' we are becoming increasingly more disconnected while being more connected. Confused? Me too. Stephan Marche (2012:sp) explains that "we are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible". We are now always available, but to who? I find it highly irritating when visiting a restaurant and witnessing a couple or a group of friends sitting at a table with their noses buried in their smartphones. Everyone at the table is communicating with someone who is not actually present. I find this very strange. Let's get together so we can communicate with people who couldn't join us. Wait what? When I become president I am banning any digital communication device where two or more people are present. Marche (2012:sp) attempts to approach this phenomena from a psychological point of view in arguing that even though Facebook might encourage more contact with people outside of our household, it might come at the expense of the relationships in it. He explores the fact that this might be due to "unhappy family relationships in the first place" that we feel the need to connect to people outside of our close relationships.

A state of always being connected isn't necessarily simply linked to being social. Perlow (2012:2) explains that "always being on, in fact, is becoming increasingly core to our identities". Whether this is a good thing is definitely up for debate. We are willing to interrupt personal conversations in order to answer a ringing phone in our ever increasing need to be available. Sure, being available outside the confines of the office has definitely made our lives easier, not to mention the monetary rewards of being able to handle one's business from anywhere at any time. But does it come at a cost? The cost of personal, face to face social skills? The cost of being able to shut down and simply be by yourself? Perlow (2012:4) refers to "PTO" or "predictable time off" where we have the power to decide to not always be connected. In order to maintain a healthy relationship with the actual people around us and ourselves, we need to make time where we are unavailable. The problem is that we have become so obsessed with being connected that anxiety overcomes us if we accidentally leave our electronic communication devices at home. Perhaps I am generalising but it is certainly something I have observed and even experienced myself. Perlow (2012:7) explains that "by being constantly connected to work, [people seem] to be reinforcing - and worse, amplifying - the very pressures that caused them to need to be available".

 Perhaps I have been a bit pessimistic till now. Engaging with the digital and being available isn't all bad. It is however important to manage the way in which we interact with the digital. Rheingold (2012:1) wants us to engage in a "mindful" manner although he believes that this does not happen automatically. Instead of simply consuming we need to engage and think of what we are doing and why. We need to accept that technology is an ally that if used correctly can be very beneficial on all accounts of our daily lives. But as Rheingold (2012:2) argues, it is "dangerously naïve" to believe that technology will be able to solve social problems that are caused by technology. We are social beings and interaction with human beings, especially on face to face value, should not become a casualty of technology.

 The next time you are in a restaurant, switch off your phone and be present in the moment. Some things can wait till later. Have both eyes open when engaging with technology. I know I can quit my phone anytime I want to, just let me quickly answer this email.

Why Embargo?

My first blog entry might as well explain the name of this blog right? I am an editor-in-chief of a newspaper by profession. I thus have the platform to voice my opinion to 30 000 readers on a weekly basis. The problem is that editors need to distinguish between newsworthy and relevant content and personal drivel. I have thus embargoed personal content from my editorial column and created this platform to publish my thoughts on motorcycling, news and politics, music and anything else that tickles my interest.

I am not expecting anyone who reads this blog to agree with me, it is my personal opinion after all. I do however like to engage with others so should you have an opinion on one of my entries, feel free to comment.

Finally I would just like to reiterate the fact that this is a private opinion blog and should not be confused for me speaking on behalf of my professional publication.