Quote:
Originally Posted by NVplumber
Since you are a citizen of SA, I'd like to ask a question, if I may. Do South Africans, generally, feel OK with the US interference that has brought your country to the place it is today? The Apartheid system was touted to we Americans, as justification for all manner of US meddling in the internal affairs there. Sheesh, it bordered on a Holy Crusade for the Clinton administration.
For anyone here in the US, to believe that we just needed to butt out, caused howls of indignation, saw one immediately labeled a racist, and sent folks scurrying to look for a coil of rope and a spooky horse.
So, apartheid aside, do South Africans feel better about the nation than they did 20 years ago and are they eternally grateful to US "assistance" in getting to the current state of things?
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I can only speak for myself but I think many whites have the same conclusions.
In the 70s and 80s we were in the midst of a cold war between the US and the USSR and it was fought on the battlefields by proxy in Africa.
My homeland then Rhodesia, and now SA were a real powerhouse back then. The settlers had revolted against the throne and as time progressed they surrendered states but still kept control of the natural resources. Head office simply moved back to the US and UK.
When I left in Jan 81 from the new Zimbabwe, a year old by that time, the Zim dollar was the strongest currency in the world followed by the Rand. The GBP was artificially the strongest b/c they took the pound and divided it by 100 and the rest had used the 10 shillings and divided by 100. I got ZAR1200 for my Z$1000 I was allowed to leave with on a faux 3 month holiday as a single man.
We produced in the region upward of 60% of the world's gold in the early 80s. Stands to reason we had power back then. That would not do for the US and UK powers that be so sanctions.
We were on our way to righting the wrongs of our forebearers and probably would have worked out a longer transition to majority rule with proper transfer of power and knowledge. This evolutionary aspect was never allowed to happen which is sad as even in my early 20s, I was not overtly racist even though my dad was.
Under apartheid which means simply separate but equal, blacks, unlike Coloureds and Indians had land and were autonomous and heavily subsidised by the white government. In Rhodesia we had similar places called tribal trust lands. That would roughly equate to your native Indian reservations. In the 80s, I felt no threat to travelling through these regions and we had to have a passport in many cases. Schools were built with the best facilities available. In my late wife's hometown, they built two huge schools for the blacks and were the most modern. In my hometown, Mpilo hospital in a black township was the most advanced and modern and even us whities went there for special treatments and tests.
The picture that was presented in the US was that we were keeping them back but is very far from the truth.
Our "house boy" in the 70s never wore shoes despite us giving him them to wear. He was a first or second generation of his family to have some education.
I use this analogy. Both my grandfathers had cars in the 30s. My dad serviced his own car and taught me, I actually stripped engines down on my own cars and refurbished them. This is a natural evolution of transfer of knowledge and improvement on predecessors.
When the white settlers came to Africa, they locals had not even discovered the wheel. Enter a new and foreign way of doing things and you already have a huge disparity from the onset.
What has gone horribly wrong in Africa is that the new leaders are trying to redress what they see as discrimination and apply a quick fix. I saw with my own eyes black folk that would excel in theory but when it came to practical and application, there was just a huge gap. It is that car thing that is missing.
Oddly enough, my career has always involved blacks in one aspect or another and I made a point of talking to them and still do. My last gardener is now in his 60s and has buried most of his kids (AIDS). Their traditions is that the kids should care for you in old age (kinda like your how your SS works) but now is rearing 8 grand children, He and his wife still have to work as common labourers and their employers are still white folk. He states emphatically, it was better under white rule.
My occasional partner in business is also black and younger than me, he too is of the same opinion. Simple folk like me have never really mistreated the black folk. You have to remember, brought up with privilege, it is much the same as it is with white folk in the US.
This is getting too long now but ask more questions if I have not addressed them.
I will say, the Brits invented apartheid, the Afrikaner merely assigned a name to it.
Am I glad it is gone? Yes but I would have preferred more time to transition. At the end of the day, we all have pretty much the same desires that our kids make it a tad better than we did. We are after all, all humans.
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