SA Rocks

It’s coming. They’re coming. They aren’t human either.

It appears to be a very simple concept based on real events but with a twist that makes it further away from home. Yet the fact remains that this movie seems to be based on the Xenophobic attacks that took place around South Africa last year (2008). (See below comment from coda regarding the possible origins of the films concept.)

The launch of this film seems to have been extremely well thought out and carefully orchestrated. It’s very underground and relatively viral.

Here are some sites to visit:

MNU
MNUSpreadLies
District-9
District-9 on YouTube
Apple Trailers – Where District-9 has just been featured on the trailers homepage.

I am astounded by what appears to be one helluva film emerging from our shores and gaining such ground so quickly.

Cannot wait to see this one.

Popularity: 4% [?]

A while back I blogged about not being embarrassed to be South African. This was a post written in response to the xenophobic attacks that took place in South Africa. I stand by my post and am very glad to see that my sentiments have been echoed by action.

It seems as though the community in Paarl has come together and found good out of the bad. They refused to let the violence spread to their area and actively sought out positive change. And succeeded.

By the end of May, after a concentrated effort by local officials and community leaders, 430 foreign nationals that had fled their homes were peacefully returned to their communities. Just 20 people remain at a camp set up in the nearby town of Wellington, waiting for documents that will allow them to return to their native Zimbabwe.

Paarl had a number of factors in its favour: The events in Johannesburg had served as a warning to police in the area, and – like many other parts of the Western Cape – most of the people who fled Mbekweni were displaced by the fear of violence rather than actual attacks.

Many in Paarl also credit the swift work by the police and creative community-based solutions for keeping a lid on the crisis, which simmered on for two months in other parts of the Western Cape.

Fantastic stuff, they even credit the police for sterling work. That is community building for the better. That is Positive Action.

The police identified potential “hotspots” where violence was most likely to erupt but, according to Tommy Matthee, executive director of community services in the municipality, no one thought it would actually happen.

Months after Meda’s attack, a large sign in the Mbekweni police station still instructs officers to report all xenophobic incidents to a specially established hotline. Both Meda and his co-worker, Clements Kabamba, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, say they could see that the police had made stemming the violence a priority, and their quick reaction was one of the reasons the two chose not to flee Mbekweni.

Within four hours of the first attacks on 23 May, those sheltering at police stations had been moved into tents set up in a park in nearby Wellington. By early the next morning, the displaced had electricity, blankets, a hot meal and an onsite health clinic. According to Matthee, providing immediate relief was easy compared with trying to figure out the next step: how to return 450 terrified people to their communities.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Go back and read Chapter 5.

Writing is a passion for me and one that has taken me to heights that I haven’t even begun to consider. I love it. I love it almost as much as I love South Africa. However that love is not always present and accounted for. Yes there are things that I am unhappy with and yes I have considered leaving SA because I can. But I am not leaving because I truly believe that my attempts to better the place that I call my home are making a difference.

South African’s exist, we live, we love, we are passionate and we thrive where others would probably not. But sometimes contributing to this state and nation is a very difficult task. Sometimes enough can be enough, with the traffic, with the crime, with the absolute rubbish that we all have to put up with sometimes (the recent “xenophobic” attacks to name a recent incident).

But sometimes these things are tiny little blessings in disguise. And sometimes simply existing is not enough.

The Individual

Every human being has the desire ingrained within them to do two things:

To Live
To Procreate

Obviously this is very base and simplified. There are, and have been proven to be, other desires but for the purposes of this piece let us speak of two for now.

When I speak of living I do not mean comfortably or successfully. I mean to literally stay alive. Death is of no practical assistance to anyone in anyone’s life.

Procreation is important for obvious reasons that I wont delve in to. But when children are placed in to the equation as a focus then things change and options become more limited. Bear with me. Imagine you cannot afford to fend for you children, to keep them alive – breaking the first basic human instinct – then you begin to fight for your life and the lives of your offspring. This is where I believe that many South Africans are right now. Poverty rates are high in SA, employment is low, and educating the masses is not happening and is thus leaving those with jobs unsatisfied and relatively poor anyways.

The point here is that when your basic human rights are infringed upon the individual can be forced to react in any ways possible. This can be violence, innovation, entrepreneurship, charity or any means that comes to the fore.

It is at this point when individuals begin acting without a community. The human experience exists in different ways for every person in the world. This others people and leaves them feeling alone. When people in a community begin to feel alone, they begin to act alone and act dangerously for themselves and the greater community.

The current state of affairs in South Africa (SA) make the above clear and present. Desperate times call for desperate measures. There is no justification for harming another human being and many criminal acts are just that; criminal acts by people who deserve to be in jail. But one thing leads to another and before you know it you have anarchy.

The recent xenophobic attacks in SA are an example of individuals acting without a community and pulling other marginalised people towards one another. Then you have mobs forming and criminal acts occurring that should not be taking place. My personal opinion regarding the attacks is that the people committing these acts are people who would otherwise probably be committing other criminal acts anyways. It irks me that these crimes are being called xenophobic acts when in fact there are South Africans being affected and the crime is just as bad whether it happens to foreigners or to locals. Crime is crime.

The Community

The greater community is an important faction of any group, organisation, country, family or any gathering and co-existing of people. Individuals make up communities. We all know this and this is not a new discovery that I have just made. But for some reasons communities do not realise their power and strength. This strength comes from the individual within a community acting together and sharing a common ideal. I have chosen the word ideal specifically. I do not want to share a goal with another person. I want to share and ideal, a way of thinking, living, being and existing. Goals are things that people who share an ideal achieve together.

There are many different ideals that exist in SA right now. There are many ideals that exist everywhere in fact. But in many places some ideals are shared by many people in a community and that community can thrive and achieve their common goals.

The xenophobic attacks are proof of this. A small group of people (when you take the entire countries population in to account) banded together and displaced thousands upon thousands of other people. This is the misguided strength and power of a community of people acting with a shared and horrifying ideal. This is mob mentality and unison at its worst. This is not the way that our country should exist. If only the thousands upon thousands of foreigners shared an ideal and acted on it. They would have rightfully defended their basic human rights to live and protect their offspring. But the sad truth about marginalised majority communities is that they never see the power that they hold by the sheer numbers that they have.

Since I started SA Rocks I have been hammering on about a mind shift that I believe is taking place. It is taking place in my opinion. SA Rocks is proof of this. Thousands of people visit and experience this positive blog every month and take in the positivity that my readers and I exude. This is a start.

I am an individual acting within a community and making a difference. The only catch is that it is not quick. Nothing that is ever great, long lasting and memorable is every quick. Change is never quick. Ever. Yet it can be viral. Positivity in SA has gone viral. Individuals who believe in this country have begun to feel confident in this ideal enough to start spreading the word. It takes on catalyst to throw change in to motion. One person to tell ten, ten to tell ten more, those hundred people to tell just one and those hundred people to tell two and so on and so on.

The community thrives off the success of the community and the individuals within the community.

Two things have come out of the xenophobic attacks. Firstly people have realised that life is not all roses for everyone in SA. Secondly people have begun to want to change, help, aid and be charitable. People have woken up. If anything good has come out of these attacks it is a greater sense of community that marginalised people have begun to feel. We have vociferously defied these acts and revolted against them with acts of kindness. The fact that we can stand together whether in thought, action or opinion, against these acts means that there is hope. There is hope if we all believe that right is right and wrong is wrong.

The community is starting to defy these acts of horror, whether 50 people are murdered or on child is harmed the reaction is beginning to become action, positive action.

I am not going to discuss the individuals who leave the community because free will, choice and economic bracket allows these individuals to leave and contribute to other communities. That is there choice and their right and I applaud them for making the hard decision to uproot their lives and move away. It is difficult. But it is not helping our community practically.

It might be helping our community theoretically and mentally. Negativity within a community only breads negativity and negative action. The opposite also applies.

Positivity breads positive action.

The Leader

Thabo Mbeki is the perfect living, walking embodiment of the community electing a leader and a leader acting and marginalising him. Mbeki’s idealisms got in the way. His African Renaissance blurred his vision and in all of that he lost his Africanism and his people. He is now an individual without a community. Mbeki has so distanced himself from his own community that the community began acting beyond the power of his government. He is no longer the leader of his community he is now the figurehead of a government that does not relate to its community and often does not act within the community’s best interest. This invariably leads to the demise of the community and that of the country as a whole. All in all, it’s a bad thing, to put it plainly.

The Action

Action is the key to the resolution of our problems. Not just any action, positive action.

There are many different types of action that form different value points to the community. Negative action has its place. It creates unity and binds people together in their misery, sadness and discontentment. If people are unified in their dissatisfaction they rally to find answers and solutions. Everything takes place can yield positive outcomes. It all depends on the mind set that you have while you are experiencing something and the mindset that you have when you come out of something. Negative or positive.

The Million Man March is a fantastic example of negativity resulting in a community of individuals who share the same ideal, coming together in the hope of change. Change might not be the outcome of the march but hundreds of thousands of people coming together, out of adversity – in this case crime, to stand together and fight for their ideal is magnificent.

Now let us hope that one person changes the attitude of another and this mid shift begins to spread across the nation. Change begins with one person changing his or her own attitude. Positive action stems from this change.

Go forth and read Chapter 5 from Paul Jacobson.

This post is a chapter of the SA Blook: A Piece of Significance, an online book written by a diverse group of writers with strong views of our country and the reality we find ourselves living in. The other chapters in the Blook are here:

Introduction
1. The new South Africa – is it real?
2. Is SA rich or poor?
3. What the world thinks of South Africa and what our global opportunities are
4. The importance of each individual’s contribution collectively
5. SA Inc and the business of doing business in SA
6. The beauty and grandeur that surrounds us
7. The importance of technology in SA’s global emergence
8. Building brand South Africa
9. Making the most of SA’s creative talents and abilities
10. Innovate for a better South Africa
11. The role of the younger generation in SA, and what we need to do to support them
12. Connecting South Africa – Communities that transcend technology
13. We are African – the role of collaboration in South Africa’s growth

Copyright Nic Haralambous 2008. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No-derivatives 2.5 ZA license.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I really am loving that SA Rocks is becoming a community initiative and I am receiving recurring content from people!

Rouvanne from PeakPerformance has once again sent me through some worthwhile information.

He has asked me to help Filmakers Against Racism (FAR) gain some exposure.
From the FAR website:

FILMMAKERS AGAINST RACISM (FAR) – an initiative launched on 23rd May 2008 in response to the shocking wave of xenophobic violence hitting South Africa – will be producing six x 24 minute documentaries, as well as 8 x 30 second Public Service Announcements, which will be broadcast by SABC, and hopefully e.tv and MNET as well as community TV stations.

The site seems to be a general awareness site with more of an action based campaign at the centre of the awareness. I think it’s a fantastic idea and it is great to see filmmakers and the arts getting involved practically and taking the initiative. If the filmmakers lead the publis is bound to follow.

One of the posts on their site that caught my eye is their attempts to make a film about “the burning man” caught on camera recently in the midst of the xenophobic attacks.

Our intention is to create a film that reclaims the identity of Ernesto Nhamuave – known to the world simply as ‘the burning man’ after the horrific images of his flame-engulfed body that have come to represent what, on the surface of it, is simply explained as ‘xenophobia’.

We seek to give Ernesto his dignity back, to introduce people to who he was, what he dreamt of, whom he loved and who loved him. We want to create a poignant, thought-provoking film that creates a “collection of memories” for a man who belonged to a community, and a family. We want to reveal the real human being.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Here’s a great video produced by Jason Von Berg at The Times:

This is one smart rapper with a very intelligent voice who makes sense and raps it. Originally from Uganda, Obita speaks his mind and says what he feels.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Ed’s Note: This post is a contribution from Carly Ritz.

I am more proudly South African today than I have ever been – perhaps a strange statement to make when the last two weeks have been characterized by a plague of violence, brutality and senseless hatred. I don’t think I need to describe the gruesome images and tragic stories that have already played out in local media all week. I have been sad and angry and afraid, but I have also been so uplifted and inspired by the generosity of the wonderful people of our country.

Today I visited the Red Cross office in Johannesburg. I stood in a storeroom on the 16th floor of The Sable building in Dekorte Street in Braamfontein. It was filled with donations of food items and clothing, tinned food cans and nappies. I was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude – I was thankful to be part of a nation that opens their hearts and even their homes in this time of crisis.

A colleague of mine has taken 5 Zimbabweans into his own home after they were beaten and chased from their homes. He is trying to keep them safe and offer them refuge from the volatile streets.

YFM’s DJ Sbu led a march for the youth in protest of the violence. Another march has been planned for the weekend. This saturday, people will gather at Marks Park to defend the foreign members of our country. The members of Wits University marched today.

I have had the most wonderful support from friends and colleagues in the office who have contributed so generously for the Red Cross collection. People have even been to load up their cars and help with delivering these loads to the Red Cross office. Another colleague has even offered to accompany me to the various refugee points to help deliver some supplies directly to the people in need

I am so proud of the journalists and photographers with whom I work – who have roamed the streets, day and night to show the country and the world the reality of the humanitarian crisis. I am sure their dreams are haunted by the visuals, the pain and the human suffering they encounter so intimately on a daily basis.

I am not proud of what is happening in our country right now and I desperately want the violence to cease, but I am more proudly South African than ever

Popularity: 6% [?]

Here’s a list I found from a facebook group:

1. Speak with your local councillor, individually or in a group, and ensure that (s)he calls a ward meeting to condemn violence.
2. Start conversations with family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, fellow learners and students, etc. about xenophobia and violence and about taking a public stance against it.
3. Call a meeting at your place of work and organise a discussion on the violence and on xenophobia.
4. Join your community policing forum and ensure that the CPF acts to protect foreign nationals and anyone else being threatened or targeted in your area.
5. Report any agitation or threats against foreign nationals or groups of South Africans to the police.
6. Check with police stations, community centres and churches sheltering victims of violence on what material donations are needed, and donate blankets, food and clothes, as needed.
7. Participate in any public forums you can access, including calling into talk radio shows, public meetings, writing letters to newspapers, etc.
8. Check that your foreign friends/ colleagues/ neighbours/ cleaners/ gardeners and their families are safe, and, if necessary, offer them refuge in your house.
9. If foreign nationals in your neighbourhood are likely to be targeted in their homes, organise a group of people to spend the night at their house so that a South African can open the door if someone knocks in the night asking about foreigners.
10. Encourage any public figures you know, including artists, sports persons, business people, teachers, etc. to speak out publically against racism, xenophobia and violence.
11. Do not let racist and xenophobic comments go unchallenged.

Mike and Stii are also asking what we can do, maybe this list can help.

I was also informed of a march taking place on Saturday:

I was informed about a march that will be taking place on Saturday:

Time and PlaceDate: Saturday, May 24, 2008
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Location: Pieter Roos Park, cnr Empire and Queen, Parktown – north of Constitution Hill
Street: cnr Empire Rd and Queen Street, Parktown
City/Town: Johannesburg, South Africa

So get involved if you can.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Yes, I am saddened that people are dying on the streets of their so-called “haven”, their safeguard from the tyrants in their own country. That saddens me, but most of all I am saddened that our President and his cabinet have let this happen.

The blood of those who have died rests on thier hands, not ours. Saul wrote a post today saying that he has had it and decided that SA is not for him, that he is sad to be South African today. Well I am not, not at all, not in the slightest.

I am not going to say that due to one single event (the xenophobic attacks) that is happening now that I am ashamed of my heritage, my culture and my fellow South Africans. I am not. I am uplifted. I am uplifted by the number of people talking, disagreeing and loudly rebelling against this sort of action. A small faction of savages are destroying people’s lives and we must all feel as if we are part of it? Rubbish. I am not a part of that, I never was and never will be. I am a part of the solution to it. I am a part of the growth in people’s consciousness that allows them to step back and say no to this sort of human rights violation.

It makes me feel good when people don’t keep thier mouths shut, when they stand up (or speak up) about wrong doing and actively seek to end it. I am uplifted by the journalists and police officers putting thier lives on the line to get the truth out there.

I don’t think that we cannot know joy and contentment until we have lived through true pain and suffering. Right now we are caught between the two as a nation and the one will lead to the other. Which one comes first is up to us.

Popularity: 11% [?]