Fuelling the fire of mayhem
There are plenty of tragic and shocking events, nationally and internationally, that have grabbed the headlines of late.
Right here at home, again, the brutish power of the unions is on display, flexing their muscles like a bodybuilder overdosing on steroids, as workers pillage the land while the Rand plummets to new lows.
And the country can but stand in horror as workers from different unions lay down tools, crippling production.
The unions are a product of our new found democracy – like a rebellious child wild on the opium of power and greed – and because they have been empowered by the Constitution, the government can only sit back and watch as chaos once again erupts.
It is like a nightmare that refuses to go away, and even though this child needs a good spanking (oh wait, such discipline will also soon be criminalized), how do you stop the unions from getting their way?
With each strike, the citizens of this country, who are actually willing to embrace the economic climate and who are not willing to throw a tantrum when not getting ridiculous wage increases, will now have to bear the brunt of future escalating fuel and consumer prices.
Did this country not learn anything from Marikana, where workers and the police violently clashed?
We can lament all we want about Marikana, but a climate has been created in this country that it is alright to be a violent protestor and that you have the right to act like a hooligan to get your pay.
But then again, it seems as if this climate of violent protests and behaviour bordering on anarchy is contagious (and we are not talking about Bird Flu!), as we witness the carnage in Egypt and also in Serbia.
And yes, the longer the unrest continues in the Middle East, and the greater the tension within the UN Security Council, the greater the negative impact on the barrel of oil, on our stumbling Rand, and our exports and imports.
Long gone are SA’s days of isolation, when we ploughed our own fields for gold and prosperity — now, the world catches a proverbial cold if there is a sneeze in a country.
This situation in Egypt, and especially Syria, can still have dire consequences for the world, and of course for South Africa, especially if it escalates into greater conflict.
But, despite these developments locally and abroad threatening to erupt into a stormy economic climate, it still, in some sort of way, pales in comparison to the recent child porn syndicate that was exposed.
The police are hunting at least 50 members involved in the syndicate, with the six accused, including two teachers and a retired principal, appearing in court.
And there are indications that what has been discovered so far is but the tip of the iceburg.
How far has this world fallen morally when children are not safe from their teachers?
There is no justification or excuse to be involved in child porn – talk about the corruption of the innocent. I mean really – children?
And how about all the barbaric abuse against animals?
This is why a question mark remains on the term “civilisation”, and how the world deems itself to be “civilised”.
The Romans thought they were civilised compared to the hordes of Barbarians, but, in fact, the Roman Empire was more animalistic than any barbaric behaviour of the Gauls or the Saxons.
Just so today, the word “civilised” can be scoffed at – this is by all accounts not a civilised world (just look at the incidents of road rage, for example).
One can blame this world-wide moral corruption and ill-discipline on numerous factors — be it the influences of mouthpieces such as Hollywood, or maybe it is simply a world that no longer wants to be held accountable for any wrong action.
Some will blame it on the trend of moral relativism, whereby everybody has their own sets of rules, truths and obligations.
Remember the Billy Joel song, We didn’t Start the Fire? He rambles on about world chaos, about influential celebrities and about tragic events.
The chorus goes as follows: We didn’t start the fire; It was always burning; Since the world’s been turning; We didn’t start the fire; No we didn’t light it; But we tried to fight it.
History attests to the fact that there has always been much chaos, war, famine, brutality, cruelty and disaster, so Joel is right, the fire of mayhem is burning, but what he sings also reminds you that, somewhere in history, there have been people trying to fight it.
We think of people like the late Martin Luther King. The 50th anniversary of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, in which, in 1963, he called for an end to racism in the United States, was celebrated on August 28,
There have been many such fighters of justice and civility who have toiled against numerous odds involving social injustices (such as the slave trades), yet they stood up to fight the fire that was burning.
And this is why this violent climate that we are seeing these days is not doing anything to quench the fire — it is simply fuelling it.
So the question is: who is willing to take a stand against injustice, barbarism, and cruelty of any nature, to fight the fire of hate?
