The roses run red
I have not written in a long time. But it does indeed seem that elections campaigns have taken their toll on our objectivity! Out comes swinging ardent supporters of a Governing party that has not merely failed to rein in but so clearly enabled the deep structural fissures left in our demographic and State schema for their own greed. And not to be left behind are livid and so doe eyed courters of an Opposition party whose track record lays bare their own wilful deflection of their responsibilities they have to the city they govern.
Is it asking to much; is it beyond what I dare suggest that someone hold in their minds that they are representatives of the people they govern? I personally have given up that hope for the ANC who have so vividly at our feet left the potholes littering their moral consciousness for all to see. But I live in Cape Town; and around me, in the hospital where I spend most of my days I see no difference between a party that has let the Nation down and one that has let its City down. There is no one; no politician it would seem that cares.
Lest we forget politicians are paid for their time and their mouths so where is one that with every breath and every fibre will fight for those with nothing? The elite, well we have our pens, our gadgets, our generator, our account and our wallet to speak so have little use for them but should then that not focus their scope? Sharpen their gaze to fight for the forgotten? let me get more practical; my simple request to my governing leaders, to Mr Steenhuisen and the DA and any politician that may stumble upon this
Stop blaming the ANC (that they are a root to many problems could not be clearer) ; stop bemoaning what papers you can and can not sign; stop caring about the shallow aesthetics in our City’s tourist districts. Start caring, and I mean truly, about the social neglect, the deep violence that breeds in the darkness beneath the slopes of our pretty mountain. I want my elected leaders to fight for those who can’t ; it will be tough and maybe you will have to accept your city won’t look as pretty and your resources strained.
Our city is at war with itself, a gang and crime ridden decaying flatland with no where to hide. It seems on our platforms we are eager to use rhetoric to fight and pretend that our dissent at the ANC will be heard here; it won’t and neither will mine by any politician (DA, ANC or other) sheltering in the cocoon they so carefully weave around each other. We are so sycophantically dedicated to anything that is not the ANC that we lose our heads and cannot see the failures of others. Because we delude ourselves with paranoia that accepting critique would mean that looming spectre of the ANC wins.
Our minds are tangled and understandably so; we live pay check to pay check. Loadshedding slot to water shedding slot. The gluttony of feeling like champions of the world to the reality knock when we slip back down into the rut. We cannot see clearly where our feet lie so are far from problems we can easily deny, problems we can’t see or feel for ourselves expect for a vague unease that wafts in the air. I don’t blame a Constantia dad for living his life, or that Camps Bay couple for feeling like European royalty. Its nice, its fun to have the luxury of political myopia. But for everyone else they can choose to look down but can never drift away. So can you blame them for trying? We only see when the fires from PRASA’s trains finally hurtle through our mist and pierce what’s left of our constructed ease. Can you blame them for trying? “Why do they burn tires” “why do they choose to do nothing but look down why don’t they get up and fix things ” , why do you only hear them when they scream?
I want a populous, one with resources to force their leaders to fight for the people who can’t. Children are dying, into their veins desperation, fear hopelessness pump drugs if not then bullets into their skin. But we do nothing and let the Cape Flats drown, watch the few eke their way out and pat ourselves on the back for permitting that. Use your reason, voice and money and do something, make your voice heard and own your own mind. Help our hospitals for they overflow, fund a creche, a community watch in a place that needs it more than yours. Listen to your fellow citizens talk.
And for Gods sake, don’t trust anyone who wants your vote further than you could spit them.
Blue, yellow or red
Those violets aren’t for you
For Tiano Anthony , I hope that I do not use your name in vain
