Video: Fueling the fire
Man those Cape fires seem really bad. I wanted to write my column about the Oscars and how Lady Gaga still managed to shock everyone just when we thought there was nothing she can do to shock people anymore.
She performed the Sound of Music in a beautiful white ball gown. I half expected her to turn back into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight… Is that not how the story goes? O well, like I said, today’s shotgun blast of opinion is about the Cape fires on the other side of the country and how Mpumalanga or eMalahleni can learn something from the incident.
The Cape fires were devastating and many people will be left with scars both literal and metaphorical. The fires destroyed entire ecosystems, took away people’s livelihood and homes, and cost the province millions of rands.
Yet I have heard so many stories about how the community pulls together for the common good, and helps each other out. It is very heart warming actually. If you have ever played connect the dots game, then you should see where I am going with this. (Brian would like to announce that his favourite connect the dots picture was a giraffe).
Anyway here in eMalahleni we have also seen entire ecosystems being destroyed like the Olifants River fish dying in masses, or the state of our water supply, we have also seen people lose their livelihood, like the layoff that happened at Highveld Steel a couple of years ago, and we have certainly seen damage that has cost this city millions upon millions of rands like corruption, or vandalism and theft of copper cables. Yet here it is every man for himself? I mean the only difference is that we can’t actually be mad at a fire for burning down a quarter of the Eastern Cape but we can be mad at people.
I know I am over simplifying all this but allow me to shove you down the water slide of impossibility.
Imagine if eMalahleni treated these problems like they would treat a raging out-of-control fire in the Cape. When the power goes out, there would be central help stations similar to a refugee relief station, all over the city where a person can microwave their 2 minute noodles, or plug in their phone for an hour.
What about the muck in the Olifants River? Imagine hundreds of volunteers arriving and signing up to clean out the river and unblock the river by removing manmade structures just like people would do when an oil spill occurs and the furry sea critters need a bath. What about potholes? There are roughly a million people in this town. If every person fixes one pothole we would be done in an hour. Do you know how much recourses go into rebuilding everything after a war?
I am not saying that we should not complain because things can be a lot worse, and it seems like we can get a bit winy about it, umm no that is kind of what I am saying.
The sense of community people feel when they are sitting together on top of a pile of bricks, that used to be their home amazes me. It is not just the Cape fires and South Africans, the tsunamis in Japan and Thailand, the hurricane that hit New Orleans. Like everything Brian and I dream up, it is easier said than done but I am still hoping that a transformer made entirely out of caramelised sugar might be in development somewhere in the world.
In case you haven’t seen Lady Gaga’s performance at the Oscars….
