THERE IS FUTURE HOPE OUT THERE ...

[SandyB]

Under Bot attack i mentioned paul going through PMS  ( post mini  syndrome ) he sold his old Mini  today and was feeling sort of down .. a sort of  separation anxiety ... well the hope .. let me explain it ... the buyer  is a young  black man  MK ( his nickname )  .. he the boyfriend of Vuli that works with Paul at the deli down the road ..  This is one  sorted young man .. a student .. works call center after hours to help finance his studies .. got his banking sorted out  to the extent of  32 day call etc .. did final paymnt via my PC on internet ..    4  happenings / things he said  took my attention .
1.  I am buying and old Mini  voetstoots  and i know its  not the best and i know i am going to have to work on her ..but its a start .. the better  cars come when i have the means ..
2. over tea .. ( I had my wine of course )  he  sort of mapped out  his and Vulis  expectations of life .. and it revolved around " baby steps' start slowly and build .. build  build .. its got value then ..
3. Tina  is a tricky BITCH .. she  is very funny with people ..  some she loves and others she just well does not like and takes every opportunity to bite their ankles  no matter how  much they suck up to her .. well this young man and his amoir  she just took  to  instinctively ..  our  animal children never lie do they ??
4.  inbetween all goings on i was scanning the papers .. and made the comment about the news ..being the same old  c ..p   his reply was  yes the news about all and sundry including our  so called  future president  and others  is just so  well  you know .. .. why do they even  waste their time on him .. ??
now if there  were more  free thinkers  of the new emerging generation .. not  having  expectation but realising that they have  to make their own mark .. ??   so is their some hope ..
My feeling .. instictively I welcome such folk into my life .. they on my invite list ..   they have decent values ..

[SandyB]

COME NOW .. GIVE AT LEAST SOME COMMENT ......

[Bertie Horak]

Good to see there's young ones planning ahead.  Very rare.  Sounds like great guys. 
Also amazing how animals see what kind of person you are long before we make the connection.  Saw the same with my "kids" - if they walk up to somebody, i sommer know I'll get along with them.  It's always been that way, I get along much better with animal lovers!

[Florrie van Zyl (Muir)]

Sandy I agree with you. I am a racist and expect the worst from our previously disadvantaged people but every now and then one comes along that completely goes against your racist expectations and I then feel extremely guilty but unfortunately those ones are very few and far between and I look at the corruption in government and the way our country seems to be heading for disaster and the old racist feelings come back again. The strange thing is, my mother came to SA as a teenager from England and we were brought up very liberally, our Owambo houseman was treated like part of the family. When my hubby and I got married one of our problems were our different views towards the non-whites and he could never turn me against them. All the years I have spoken up for them and defended them and I am sorry to say, I am now a racist (worse than my husband ever was)and it has been no influence on my husband's side, I am just sick and tired of them throwing apartheid in our face. They are more racist than we are and most of them suffer from post-apartheid syndrome. They just want, want, want and once they get it, excuse the language but they then f... it up. My son started school with black children in his class and today he is disadvantaged because of apartheid? Sorry, got off the topic a bit, yes it is great when youngsters are prepared to work for what they want and are prepared to start small and build-up. Most kids nowadays want to start where their parents are after 20 or 30 years of working.

[Cherry (Alcock)]

I think it's great that there are young people who have the right idea ito saving for the future.  My son, Rafe, is one of those -he sets goals and achieves them also with money.  He worked his butt off delivering pizas until he could buy his Apple Mac for cash. 

On the racism thing, Florrie it's unfortunate that you feel that all black people are the same - they aren't, just like white aren't all nice, shiny people.  But you have the right to your own views and I for one will not try to change your mind - each to his own. 

[SandyB]

Florrie  ..  while i admire your openness  I do believe you should try reframe your  expression  and examine its origins  as i am sure that deep down you are not what you state  .. is it from personal experience .. or  from viewing the developments in our country ??  they are two totally different dynamics .. politicians etc we can only try to get the good ones in through  intelligent voting  which is unfortunately still  slow in this country .. populism and just sheeplike  movement seems to be the norm ..  and then  there is the dynamic of always looking for good in all and beleiving in it ..  strangely enough by believing one seems to be rewarded by attracting  what you believe in ..  It can work in the negative .. if you believe life will screw you over then indeed you will attract it  and that seems to be from what i see with some people  they believe it and it happens ..  the positive side is going in with open mind and believing  that life is not going to screw one over .. and always looking for the good in  people and life .. generally apart from the usual  dissapointments that are thrown at one as  life lessons  one tends to attract  good experiences and good   and honourable people enter ones life .. ..   i call it  shaping ones destiny .. I have practiced it most of my life and it has served me well ... so  if you  say you racist  then  you going to attract  racist behaviour from those  you have the thought towards ...  Oh dear I'm rambling  but yes ..

[georg ruf jr.]

I'm not to sure what you want to say Sandy. Don't always understand the slang and some of the English words. But somehow the following post helps me...
I#ve still got a certain pic of SA and their citizins in my head. But the pic is 30 years old. And yet I try to understand what you guys are all on about. Reading words like racism, open-minded, free thinker ect. ... I'm sure I have different associations with these expressions, seeing that I've spent 30 years in Europe.
Germany has it's past. I don't need to tell you what I mean. Most people are very aware of the responcibilty we have when it comes to negotiations, forign policy ect. It's all about trying to understand how people are, why they are that way and what might help them get on.
To me it seems, history works like a pendal. (is that correct English) Swinging back and forth. Just they way SA had apartheid discrimmenating black people for many years, the pendal just goes in the other direction. Apartheid against white. Even though I'm sure what Cherry said is absolutely right. You have good and bad on both sides.
But the problem is, so many of you are disapointed because of  corruption, inflation... You know better.
This makes you feel real sh***y. That's why I (in a way) understand Florrie. But I think it's important to keep a cool head und one must be ready to learn and to understand.
To me, Mandela is one of the most fantastic people of thre last century. He spent almost 30 years in jail. When he came out he said white and black must learn to live together in respect. No revenge!!! I think that's what it's all about.
This is something that happens all over the world. It's just so easy to see in SA, cause of the skin colour.
Europians could have put us down after WW2. No, they believed in us and gave us a chance. Germany has an important role in Europe and the world. This doesn't mean everybody is always happy with our way. But people look up to Germany and like to use us as an excample.I think this is a reward for liberalism towards other people and their beliefs. At least I hope so.
I hope it doesn't seem like I'm boasting to much. But Germany is obviously the best comparison I have.

I know it's so easy when I'm far away. But I'm sure, if the pendal goes back to the centre, it'll go back to where it was before. So it's up to both sides to keep a cool head and try to learn from each other.

Oh boy. I'm sure I'm in trouble again... 

[Paula Gottsch (Willson)]

 

hey you lot, everyone to the  then we can all   get pissed    and   , SandyB, you can barrow one of my ousfits.

[SandyB]

Is  this  a  Kiss  and  make it  up  session  Paula ??  east  west  north  south  black  white  ..  or  just an excuse to party and  celebrate life ?? Paula  which  outfit ?  your  old  wild  west  cathouse madam outfit ?  I think its  quite sassy .. looked damm  good  on  you  last time ..
@ Georg  words well put ...  input appreciated ...

[Paul Alexander]

Good comments one and all, always enjoy a healthy debate (when I get the time). I've never considered myself a racist, however there was a scene in the movie "The Chamber" (I think) with Gene Hackman, who plays a racist southerner on death row for murder. The lawyer in the movie is a liberal and doesn't consider himself racist so Hackmans character asks him: "When you're driving down the main road, in a hurry to get to your destination and a car full of black men cuts in front of you, driving at a snails pace with the boombox blaring out of the open windows, wheels all coated in chrome and windows tinted darker than night, what do you really think? Do you think: "I wish these gentlemen would pull over to the slow lane or do you think n******s?".

The lawyer didn't answer the question, but I though it was an intersting question to ask and demonstrates something quite key to race relations. We as people need to categorise things in life, its in our nature... items are always grouped into some sort of classification and sub-classification "animals", "dogs", "transport", "cars", "white", "black". While this is essential for us to get to grips with the world around us, it has one serious drawback and that is that it enforces sterotyping. We identify physical traits and characteristics of items and categorise them accordingly. So "White People" have white skin, differing colour eye's, differing colour hair etc. Pesonal experiences then encourage us to assign more tags to these categories (seemingly in an never ending quest to better understanding them), so if all of the white people you know eat waffles, then we deduce that eating waffles is another charateristic of white people. If you meet a white person who doesn't eat waffles, well then he's either the exception to the rule or he isn't really white.

So the problem at hand (racism) arises as a result of our natural tendancy to categorise things. We are largely unable to seperate things into their individual capacities unless we personally experience them (a la Sandy with Vusi). An even bigger problem emerges once we have defined these categories within our own minds, because once its there its not likely to change (possible because its an acknowlegement that we were wrong). Ask yourself this, take a generalisation about something you have and then determine what it would really take for you to change your opinion of it. If you believe that Afrikaaners are racist brandy and coke swilling arseholes, what would it take for you to change your mind? One Afrikaaner who shatters the mold? 10, 100 a million??? Cnaces are, nothing will change it. So in summary, the only way we are ever likely to change our perceptions would be to (1) experience individuals and not groups and (b) consciously be aware of the need to not categorise (something which is exceptionally hard to do).

[Paula Gottsch (Willson)]

Is  this  a  Kiss  and  make it  up  session  Paula ??  east  west  north  south  black  white  ..  or  just an excuse to party and  celebrate life ?? Paula  which  outfit ?  your  old  wild  west  cathouse madam outfit ?  I think its  quite sassy .. looked damm  good  on  you  last time ..
@ Georg  words well put ...  input appreciated ...

you can take your pick SandyB on the outfit you want.

Politics and religion when discussed can sometimes get heated up, thought we could all do with a breather and a laugh.

[georg ruf jr.]

Geez Paul!
Fantastic talk. I see you're on your way. Wish I could express myself that way in English. I'm learning.

[Bertie Horak]

@ Paul   

Very good!  And like Georg said - wish I could express my thoughts as good as you and Sandy!  Anyway, very good read, please do it more often!

[SandyB]

Sorry   for delay .. had  to run home .. pup managed to set of  burglar alarm ..

Mmm  I think  everybodys been  very  civilised on this topic .. healthy exchange of opinion .. no  offences  taken  etc ..  but  yes  any  reason  for a  get together   to  have a  really   good  look  for the  good in  each other  hey ? 

CHEERS ...     ..  Paula  I  know  how  much  you  like that outfit  so I'll allow you  to  wear  it for this  get together Ok ??    Ill  wear my cudlly  kitty  outfit   

[georg ruf jr.]

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