Manifestering
Saturday, 28 March 2009 23:32
administrator
The solution is simple, you say
All the pieces are in place.
Answers to my questions, conclusions to my thoughts, explanations for my mysteries.
You have them all.
Rely on me!
Depend on me! You say
You will represent me
You will be my friend, neighbour, countryman.
Be patient and I will have my resolutions, you say.
But I am tired of waiting.
I am tired of being represented.
And I am tired of having you on my behalf.
Because your benevolence is transparent.
Your pretensions false.
I see it now.
You need us disenfranchised, disrespected, disregarded and disempowered.
You need us to feel that we need you.
Without us, there would be no you.
The time has come for me to make my own past, present and future the way I dream it.
And for you… brothers, sisters, friends, comrades
It will be our collective dream.
You ask us to vote for you?
To play your game?
To hand you our power, our empowerment?
I say this.
Nope! My dreams don’t fit on your ballots!
Last Updated on Thursday, 16 April 2009 23:34
Manifestering
Tuesday, 17 March 2009 02:00
ds
Always just before elections, new shanty towns arise in South Africa. Card boxes after card boxes alongside the streets show supposedly good hearted people who want to change the plight of the poor but who bring empty promises like equal opportunities for all. But one has to ask oneself if there are really equal opportunities in a country where the First, Second, Third and Fourth World exist next to each other, often just a few hundred meters apart and in which inequalities are so painfully visible.
We have to ask ourselves if the parties we should vote for really care about the inequalities in South Africa or if they do not all profit from them? Do politicians not all just want to get a seat in parliament or better even, in the cabinet, because these are high paid positions? Do they not only long for the money these positions will bring and the power they would have over millions of people?
We have to use this time of elections to speak the truth and show the lies written on the new shanty towns that line every street in South Africa. We have to question why the parties waste so much money on meaningless, sometimes ridiculous and often bluntly deceitful messages. Why don’t they use this money to provide services to those who need them? Maybe because they don’t really care?
Last Updated on Friday, 20 March 2009 22:46
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Manifestering
Tuesday, 17 March 2009 01:44
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Every five years there is a national election. But like those that have come before, we probably already know how it will end.
Of course this particular election is not without its novelty, for the post-apartheid hegemon, the monolithic political force we call the ANC, has never been weaker. And, to be sure, there is no shortage of contenders to fill the vacuum. “The ANC has split, now the DA can win”, says the banner on the opposition’s website. Wishful thinking? Probably! No doubt, something worst than a lack of imagination.
We can perhaps take comfort in the fact that Parliament will have new voices, or, at least, old voices singing in a new band. But Parliament today is simply dull theatre; a well-lit stage for the cast to perform. Government is where the action is.
‘Together we can do more’, they say. More of the same. Whoever wins, or rather, by whatever small or big margin the ANC wins, we can be sure of ‘continuity’. The wheels of the system will keep turning, casting the privileged few to the top, and the rest of us to the sidelines. As the bloated beast we call the global economy enters into a new crisis, their promises of progress appear ever more empty.
Manifestering
Tuesday, 17 March 2009 01:33
ds
The mandatory election manifesto. Every party has one. Every organisation. Every campaign. Principles to be proclaimed from a ‘platform’, a vision to be attained in some future always on the horizon, a new promise to make us forget every other one that came before. The election manifesto: a public statement to close the possibility for any way of being political other than the putting ‘hope’ in a vote. Their ritual.
This is not a manifesto. Neither policy makers, nor vote takers, this is our manifestering…
We can no longer be satisfied with the empty cycles of election politics, the pious lies of party officials or their pretences to speaking in the name of us all. ‘Together we can do more’ they say. More of the same… where ‘being-together’ will mean little more than deferring our dreams and desire in the name of the nation, party or magnum leader. We can no longer believe in the shallow visions of the future imagined by others for us all.
Regardless of the trimmings, their manifesto’s message is always the same. Trust in us, and we will deliver. We can no longer believe the promise and so can no longer take comfort from it. And regardless of what they say, their manifesto bearing the promise of dreams one day fulfilled, cannot escape its framing by capitalism’s own manifesto. A manifesto that is felt everywhere by everyone. A manifesto that shapes our everyday. That tries to get under our skins, and make us live in ways alien to our desires. Their fulfilment always on the horizon, that is, always only ever a matter of ‘hope’.
Last Updated on Friday, 20 March 2009 22:45
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Manifestering
