Showing posts with label Apartheid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apartheid. Show all posts

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

NOW WE KNOW WHY WE CAN'T BE INDEPENDENT: JOHANN EXPLAINED IT IN ONE (BADLY CONSTRUCTED) SENTENCE



What is the point of debating with a Scottish politician who says: "We are not genetically programmed to make political decisions in Scotland?

I presume that she really meant: "We, in Scotland, are not genetically programmed to make political decisions". The alternative would suggest that once outside Scotland, Scots would be able to operate effectively, but then that would rule out the genetics element (you take that with you), so we'll assume that the ex-English teacher had a momentary lapse!

Is it worth then, maybe, making the point that she and all her colleagues are drawing their salaries under false pretences? What is the point of them sitting there in Holyrood, all genetically incapable of making a political decision.

Is she aware of the provenance of Keir Hardie? Does she know of Jimmy Reid, or Ramsay MacDonald, John Smith, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, or even Johann Lamont? I wonder if she had a moment of doubt about the country's safety when Mr Cameron announced that, although he was not Scottish, his grandfather used to live just outside inverness.

Maybe it's just me, but these few words made my flesh creep. It's almost like she felt that some sort of apartheid was justified. There are Scots and there are political masters, that is to say the white men, like David Cameron and George Osborne, whom, I suppose, she considers to be genetically programmed through their aristocratic and royal connections, to make political decisions.

Now I know why the No campaign don't want to see Scotland independent. They see themselves and their fellows as an inferior breed, of lesser political ability, there to be ruled by their betters.

I'm beginning to empathise, rather than sympathise, with native Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Indians and other races across the world who found that Britnats considered them inferior and unqualified to rule themselves.

I wonder if she refers to Cameron as "sahib", or "massa", or if she just curtsies and stays quiet for fear of embarrassing her lesser self.

Friday, 8 October 2010

HAPPY RETIREMENT DESMOND

One of the truly inspiring men of the last century turns 79 this week and steps down from public life in order to spend some time with his family. Actually he is going to take his wife round the world.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is surely a great man. His bravery fighting against the apartheid regime in South Africa is legendary; as legendary as his giggle.

I don’t think I will ever forget seeing him vote in 1994 in the first elections in the liberated South Africa: the first time he had ever voted in his life. It was a joy to see the enthusiasm and excitement of this then 62 year old man doing what all of us had been entitled to do since we were 18, and he, intelligent and educated man though he was, had been barred from doing, because of the colour of his skin.

His sense of humour must have sustained him through the hard years of being a second class citizen.

One of the little tales he tells goes like this:

"When the missionaries came they had the Bible and we had the land. And they said 'Close your eyes and let us pray.' And we dutifully did so, but when we said 'Amen' and opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land."

I hope he has a wonderful holiday, and then comes back to spread his infectious enthusiasm for life a little bit more.