EDITOR – It should be possible to do an analysis of variance between the viewpoint of Frank Horn and that of Jeff van Belkum and arrive at a credible rationality.
This is however not possible because while Frank Horn has a mind that has obviously considered and accepted change over the years, Van Belkum is rigid and unbending.
Van Belkum does not engage in iteration at all and therefore falls foul of the central rule of innovation.
When reading the latest exchange of letters, it seems to me Horn is trying to do Van Belkum the eminent service of advising him of the social democrat tactics in the coming but possibly delayed local government elections. Van Belkum is as usual, not listening and only reading in order to make a response.
It is well understood that the ANC government has nothing to blow their trumpet about with regard to service delivery in their campaign. It is also abundantly apparent that they need a strategy to defend the incumbent president.
“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude to the problem.”
Their chosen method has been to highlight the unbridled statements of useful idiots such as Penny Sparrow, Gareth Cliff, Penny Sparrow and Dianne Kohler Barnard in order to promote a campaign of racism, or anti-racism, or ethnophobia or whatever. The folly of this tactic should be apparent to anyone who has studied the Rwanda massacres. In this situation it is very foolish for Jeff van Belkum to be feeding the ANC’s narrative with his bigoted and hackneyed statements.
I have often wondered about this ‘race card’ statement that is so frequently used by people such as Jeff van Belkum in his frequent letters to the paper. Is it some sort of joker card or is it a trump? Maybe it is a sort of confirmation bias technology that is used when someone mentions similar problems – like a card in a game of snap. Whatever it is, it usually precedes an ethnopathic statement that consistently feeds and supports the ANC message. It says “we are racists, here is an example of our hate speech”.
A good example is found in Van Belkum’s previous letter, where he continually refers to ‘us’ and ‘them’ as if we were citizens of different countries.
To read the letters click here
The point is that in South Africa we still have race problems and we are far from the necessary discussion about a shared future. Political opportunists are playing ‘race cards’ on all sides and no-one seems to be prepared to talk to each other with the necessary respect that is so paramount in both the protocols of ubuntu and chivalry.
It has been over 20 years since the first democratic election and as a nation we have not made the required progress. The entire nation must take the blame and not just one political party or individual. In this regard I have invented the word ‘erascism’. This means the removal of the crazy notion that people of one pigmentation are more equal than others
Let’s get the useful idiots who patronise and insult other racial groups out of the spotlight .
As far as the debate is concerned, my money is on the so-called ‘anti-white white’ Frank to win the debate. With enemies like Jeff van Belkum, Dianne Kohler Barnard et al, who needs friends?
As the famous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (no relation to Penny) said: “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude to the problem.”
KEITH DOWNS
