OPINION: Dear God
Sorry to bother you again, but you did such a splendid job with that Rainbow Nation miracle in the early 1990’s, we’d really appreciate it if you could glance our way again because things are looking decidedly dodgy.
I regret to say that the present governing party is going down the same road as their apartheid era counterparts in laying the blame for all of South Africa’s ills on the media. Except, of course, for the two newspaper groups that have thrown in their lot with the governing party in the interests of money.
It’s getting pretty chronic down here. Members of parliament are fighting among themselves and it has got so nasty that I’m sure Machiavelli, wherever he is, will be doing joyful cartwheels.
Even the late St Nelson, who we are sure is now enjoying your company, decided soon after he retired from politics that discretion was the better part of valour. While he was happy to take on the entire apartheid regime he appeared extremely reticent about getting in between the African National Congress and its various offspring. And not without good reason. They are all making mincemeat of just about his every principle.
These days, nothing, but nothing, surprises we the citizens about this ‘Afrodisneyland’ we call South African politics.
Frankly, divine guidance is now no longer an option but fast becoming an urgent necessity.
Tolerance and respect for one’s fellow beings, something with which you endowed all religions, is now, with respect, entirely out of the window.
In fact, there seems to be so much hatred around in just one political party that it is making that infamous Night Of The Long Knives sound as though it was nothing more than a handful of people trying to stab each other in the back with partially inflated sausage skins.
Its like a Marx Brothers Film festival down here with political leaders being charged with strings of crimes the minute they are elected to lead and some who have already been found guilty of crimes almost automatically being elected to lead. Seems like being guilty of a crime or being charged with some sort of criminal activity is now a prerequisite for political office.
Then, there are people whose job it is to ensure that the law should be obeyed being arrested by other people whose job it is to make sure the law should be obeyed and ending up coming before other people whose job it is to make sure that the law is being obeyed and then either being exonerated or charged in which case they still get exonerated but the chargee inevitably gets charged and fired from his job.
It is very confusing and if you have ever wondered just what is going on in the minds of people like Robert Mugabe, George Bush, Vladimir Putin and those Islamic State chaps, don’t even try and fathom what is going on in the minds of our political leaders right now.
Your urgent influence is desperately required in our neck of the woods.
Please.
You need to impress upon all of your various flocks in this country that it is very naughty to condemn anyone until a court of law has found them guilty.
There’s a lot of that going about right now.
But, you also need to somehow convince those influential politicians who have been found guilty of a crime or who might have to wait till August to find out if they are guilty of committing a crime, that given a second chance, they will amend their ways and dedicate their lives to the betterment of their countrymen.
I know, I know, we’re talking mega-miracles here. But a miracle is the only way I can think of to get politicians to turn their backs on megalomania and money and start giving morality a shot.
And it wouldn’t hurt to perform some sort of miracle on the mass media to get them back to the good old days of reporting facts and telling both sides of the story. Tough call, I know.
Dear God, its becoming a mess down here. It really is.
Devoutly yours
South Africa.
PS: While you are at it, could you have a look at our currency exchange rates too?
Follow Chris Moerdyk on Twitter @chrismoerdyk
IMAGE: Rainbow over Cape Town’s City Bowl / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
* Opinions expressed in posts published on The Media Online are not necessarily those of Wag the Dog Publishers or the editor but contribute to the diversity of voices in South Africa.
