h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear heavens, what the hell is *wrong* with us?

I mean us Afrikaners.

I was in a place today to get something done; to protect the guilty I'll not add any further info. But anyways there was small talk involved. I usually don't like small talk because of ... well maybe you'll come to understand why. Remember that I am massively insecure and have difficulty speaking with other people anyways.

The first thing this person started talking to me about was a large truck with poison that was stolen. Apparently the poison looked and smelled like coffee grounds. The person then hoped that the people who stole the truck would give it to other people who would then get poisoned by it.

(Conversation paraphrased - not the exact words but the gist of it.)


Me: Er, I don't think it is actually a good thing when people are killed.

Person: Yes but think of it. There are way too many of these people (assumption: the people who stole the poison were of a particular race, as would be the people they would give it to). It's like with AIDS. It would be better for the country if there were fewer of them.

Me: ...

Person: Don't get me wrong! It's not good when people get killed. But people are going to get killed anyways. There are too many of them, and not enough food. They're soon going to kill each other.

Me: ...

Person: You see, what we needed to do was when we gave them Lebowa (small 'Bantustan') we should have instituted a 'single child per family' policy. That way there would have been far fewer of them today. And things would have been much better for the country.

Me: ...

Person: I mean, I'm right am I not? Look what's happening now. They're demanding more land. And I mean, why, what's the use of giving them land? They don't know how to farm! Sure they may know to keep chickens or cattle but they don't know how to plant and grow stuff. So where's the food going to come from?

Me: ...

Person: They're not like you and me. We are private businessmen. We pay taxes. They don't. And our taxes support *them*. They don't know how to do anything. We have to employ *them*, and as there are more and more and more of them, where are the jobs going to come from? I can only employ so many people. There simply are not enough jobs. So they're going to start killing each other because there's not enough food and not enough jobs.

Me: ...

Seriously. What the hell could I say? I could go into details about why this is all bullshit - but would this person listen? I doubt. And ... this person considers this kind of racist talk to be acceptable small talk! This is *obviously* the sort of stuff this person talks about with all his customers all day, or how else would he even conceivably think it was OK to talk about with someone he barely knew? So how many of us 'Afrikaners' are actually talking like this with each other? How many of us actually take this sort of thing seriously? What the hell is wrong with us?

The funny thing is, 'we' are supposed to be Christians. In THIS town to not be a Christian is to be a social outcast. 'Person' in the above dialogue is a self-identified Christian and so would pretty much all the customers with whom he talks every day be as well. Now this is what kills me. The first commandment of Christianity is supposed to be (OF THE SAME IMPORTANCE as 'Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength') 'Love your Neighbour as Yourself'. AND ALSO Jesus himself said to (paraphrased) treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.

Now.

Suppose after we had lost the Second Boer War, the British had treated US the way this person wanted 'those people' to be treated.

Suppose they had herded us all into a small reservation.

Suppose they had forced us to comply to a policy of a single child per family. (For the record: after the Boer War, us Afrikaners did 'breed' prolifically, families frequently having six to twelve children, typically.)

Suppose they had told us we can't have any land because unlike the cultivated British we had no knowledge of proper productive farming.

Would we have considered that proper treatment of ourselves?

Suppose then the British had not done the above, but then lamented that we (Afrikaners, still) were breeding like rabbits, becoming too numerous, threatening the supply of food and jobs. Suppose they had spoken of us as being unable to do proper work, and said that it was good that AIDS kills many of us, and that it would be OK if many of us were poisoned.

Would we have considered that a proper way for them to regard us?

So ... if we would not have liked this, how could we think *others* should like it if we did it to them?

Is that not what Christianity would imply?!

So how could people think like that and still think they are Christians?

There is something very, very wrong somewhere. I think I know what it is ... but what do I know? I'm crazy after all.

That's terrible, Willem! I'm sorry you had to endure this bullsh*t.

I wish people would learn.

Yeah, me, too, Willem. So our opinions don't count, I guess.

It's like the old man who walked up to me, a perfect stranger, in a local transport station in Cologne, Germany, shortly before Christmas, somewhere about 1980. I had joined a small crowd of people listening respectfully to a quartet of homeless people - 3 men and a woman - sing Christmas carols. They were obviously inside the station to get warm. They rewarded the station folk for letting them in out of the snow by singing in really sweet harmony.

Now this 70+-year-old stranger walked up to me and said, 'In the Third Reich, we would have known what to do with them.'

O-kay...so what did I do? I have a really disconcerting stare when I want to. Because I'm crazy.

So I stared at him without speaking until he went away.

Willem, if you were able to mix with people more you would realise that there are thousands of people like that, and just as many who are like you, Christian (and other religions) and caring and not tainted by such bigoted ideas.

It is best not to react or get involved. We get similar here for similar reasons but it is best not to give them oxygen. Hopefully they will get their come uppance one day.

It takes up far too much energy to argue with people like that, and there is no changing closed minds anyway.

I hope now you have got it off your chest you can relax a bit.

Take care,

Websailor

Hi there Bel, Dmitri and Websailor! Yeah I think I feel better after venting about this. But I'm still worried as heck. I'm hearing way too many of 'us' speaking like this. And ... I sort of desperately want to believe we're beyond this, because when I hear black people saying all white people are racists, I don't want to feel that it is more true than not ... I mean this could get a heck of a lot of people here killed. So those people could get their come-uppance, and a lot of innocent people along with them as well ...

I hear you. I don't know if people are getting better, but the loose talk business goes on.

I just got a notification in my email that somebody had reviewed our apartment complex again. The reason: the management asked us all to submit reviews, and since we like it here, we did. This, of course, causes mean-spirited people to log on and say negative things, just because, and I get an email.

Some woman who had issues - I don't blame her for moving, the apartments aren't really large enough for two toddlers, I would think, but then, I wouldn't know - added to her list of things she didn't like, such as, eek, there was a mouse once, that the maintenance people should speak English.

Now, one out of the 3 is a non-native speaker. And he communicates fine, he's just shy, like most guys who are handy with wrenches, in my experience.

But this woman had to add, 'I'm not racist or anything, BUT...'

*pounds head on desk*