Personal Touch Works

I shared some thoughts with various people on 19 March 2023, the day before a national shutdown planned by a small group of people who love to dress in red and wear red berets: 

This is so relevant to the threats made by the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) in South Africa who are staging a national shutdown on 20 March 2023. What we need is the opposite of this kind of behaviour, not what seems to be immature bullying that can not be based on love, but seems to be based on selfishness. Let us strive to live up to our national motto.

The RSA motto post 1994 is: !ke e: /xarra //ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, literally meaning diverse people unite. It addresses each individual effort to harness the unity between thought and action. On a collective scale it calls for the nation to unite in a common sense of belonging and national pride - unity in diversity.

Between 1961 and 1994 the RSA motto was Unity is Strength.

Let us strive for unity in our diversity.

Before 1994 it was apartheid and segregation. 

Yes, it was. 

I love the way that I understood it to be - allowing the 'Bantu' to be themselves without having to compete with the very different ways of the 'European' people, so that they could progress in the way that was least competitive to themselves. As I understand it, that policy, created by believers in Calvinism, was based on love and compassion rather than on hatred. I do not deny that the implementation of the policy was not without fault or imperfection.

During the time of separate development, referred to by many as Apartheid, the 'Bantu' people had what Thabo Mdange KaTshiwo apparently claims to have been among the highest quality health care, hospitals, schools, literacy, standard of living, and so many things as compared to many countries in Africa and of 'Third World Countries'. These advantages were paid for by the taxpayers who were a small percentage of the population of South Africa (as is almost certainly the case in just about every nation in the world) and most of those taxpayers would have been the despised and hated 'Europeans' that were running that system that was referred to as apartheid and segregation. 🤔 

There were injustices then. Is it fair to say that there are no injustices in South Africa now? Are there not injustices in just about every country, in 2023? 

Would the Saviour remind us in South Africa in 2023 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at [the Apartheid government]''? 

As I recall, the present governing ANC (African National Congress) party had the slogan on their election posters 'A better country for all'. Is it a better country for all in 2023? If so, then that would be progress. Have we really progressed? Yes, we are better in some ways. But can we honestly say that even the least of us now has a better state of well-being in 2023 than the 'disadvantaged black people' had just before 1994?

I pray earnestly that our diverse people will unite, that the government will stress that every citizen has equal rights as stated in the Bill of Rights in our constitution, but more importantly, the Founding Provisions state that every citizen is 'equally subject to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship' for ensuring those equal rights. That means that the lowest and the highest should be working together for the rights of every citizen rather than just demanding that 'the government' provide them with the rights that they deserve or demand. Each citizen should work to the extent that she or he is able to earn enough to be contributing meaningfully to the taxes that will fund those equal rights. Each citizen should be wise in exercising their democratic right - and responsibility - to vote for a party that will actually deliver on meaningful promises.

I look forward to us really having a better country for all. In my understanding, there are injustices in our present government. I was told to not look equally at job applications when preparing to interview applicants for jobs at SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute). I was instructed to not treat all races and genders as equal, but to deliberately exclude certain applicants, even if they were most appropriately qualified for the position being advertised. Is that really better than pre 1994, 30 years after declaring that every citizen has equal rights? 🤔

I love South Africa. I don't think that all is perfect now. I know that all was not perfect then. I am trying earnestly to love every other child of God, striving for the best strength possible that is all the better for our diversity if we will be one.

Unity is Strength. Unity in Diversity will give greater Strength.

May we have that greater strength, I pray in the name of our gracious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, amen.

Note: It is difficult to fact check Thabo Mdange KaTshiwo on the 'EVIL APARTHEID OF THE BOERS', but you can look at this Facebook post and this Wordpress article and decide for yourself what is fact and what is fiction. 

I hope that my thoughts are the fruits of a disciple of Jesus Christ and not of a follower of Satan. I honestly try to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. I hope that each reader of this blog post will strive to be part of the solution and not part of the problem!

A video was shared recently on a social media group. The video shows homeless people making homes adjacent to the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. The video was accompanied by this comment:

Gra: This was posted on another group. People ask if we can honestly call this one of the world's best tourist destinations. A group of Israelis I was touring with today asked me what is being done to house the homeless and how can the city allow this to happen. This is not the only place this is occurring. 

Derek: Tnx Gra. We need to embrace what is real. The homeless do not have a place to go to. 

 To which I made a comment:

Me: I have very mixed feelings on this subject. I have dealt with many homeless people. I contribute to many homeless shelters. I believe that some of the people who go to homeless shelters go there hoping that they can improve their lives so that they can become the opposite of being homeless and provide for others. 

     My grave concern is for many that appear to me to choose to remain homeless, receiving, but with no real determination to be contributors. I worry that I may, at times, have added to the problem by giving to some beggars who are still just beggars years later, begging at an intersection where others are trying to sell stuff in order to earn a living. Begging in places where there is a lot of litter and they don't care enough to clean up what they appear to choose as their home. 

     I am glad that we're told to not judge, but to leave judging to Him who knows the heart. I happily lay the burden of judging at His feet and just try to give responsibly in the hope that I will be judged fairly.

Some chatting about the plight of homeless people, followed be:

Derek: Which ever way we look at it. The homeless population (for whatever reason) is growing exponentially, and are being more restricted for places to go to.
My response: I've often looked at them and wondered why most of them are not at their fatherland farming and providing food and employment for people rather than hoping that someone will provide for them. 
     I've looked at pictures of starving people in various countries and they are surrounded by open land with no crops growing. 
     I've spoken to someone who abandoned his farm because the irrigation does not work. When I asked him why he didn't fix it he replied that the white man does that. 
     Each person needs to find solutions rather than being stymied by problems and always expecting someone to provide for them. We changed our babies' nappies, fed them and clothed them. But we expected them to grow up and become self-reliant. 
     Our constitution states that every citizen has equal rights and spells out those rights. Then it says that every citizen has equal responsibility. I have yet to hear any politician tell the citizens of South Africa to not expect the government to be responsible for each person's rights but that each citizen has the responsibility to ensure the rights of every other citizen. That is what democracy is...

Further discussion over a few days, and then a response to my previous comment:

Unknown responder: You’re making an assumption that these people are all black when in fact there are increasing numbers of white ex-middle class people amongst these homeless. This US and THEM talk is very counterproductive and creates more problems than it solves.

So, I wonder if the US or THEM refers to homeless vs homed, black vs white. US and THEM also often refers to privileged vs underprivileged, advantaged vs disadvantaged, straight vs gay, or any other 'opposite' groups, but in either sense, I believe that I can affiliate to some degree with each of these groups. 

I grew up in a family with a reasonable home, but we had a simple old car, and generally simple things. I remember feeling really privileged when my father bought a slide projector. This was the 'entry level projector' that was fully manual. I later noticed many of my acquaintances who had fancy carousel or automated slide projectors. I realised early in life that my parents invested in educating their children rather than in fancy clothes.  That broadened my viewpoint.

I remember a friend asking if he could buy a really old pair of jeans that I had worn to the point of it falling apart because the fashion was to wear what looked like worn-out jeans. I always bought the cheapest jeans and wore them as long as I could and he was offering me more than I had paid for them. I still cannot understand why someone pays for something that looks like it would not pass a Quality Control test because it has holes in it... That broadened my viewpoint.

In 1973 I spent a night in prison in Empangeni. My three companions and I were not guilty of any crime, but we were locked up in prison because we had no other place to stay for the night. Each of us was given a blanket similar to the one that I had had in the army the previous year, but the mattress was simply a thick layer of felt. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have often slept under the stars in various parts of the county, including one night that I was entirely on my own in the Namib dunes close to a dry river bed, and all that I could hear that night was the barking sound of some hyena and the singing in my ears. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have spent hours on Sundays or days off wandering on my own in the Namib Desert, savanna, Kalahari, Namaqualand, Succulent Karoo, Nama-Karoo, Fynbos, spekboomveld, grasslands, on beaches, and other open spaces all around our delightful South Africa, South West Africa/Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland/Eswatini. I walked many kilometres on each of those days. All that I saw besides the wonderful vegetation, landscape, sky and the environment, were buck, ostrich, beetles, lizards, snakes, birds, of many species and animal life forms, and on rare occasions another human being. That broadened my viewpoint.

I slept on my own, on the ground, in a tent in Sperrgebiet. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have spent time alone with people of many race groups and nationalities, with just two of us, or groups of varying sizes, discussing life, eating, socialising, working, sleeping in the same room, bungalow, or tent.  That broadened my viewpoint.

My already sympathetic feeling of respect and honour towards the LGBTQ community was enhanced when a gay colleague said, when accommodation was limited for a meeting, that he would not share a room with any other man because it would make him feel unfaithful to his partner. That broadened my viewpoint.

I remember in about 1983 when I was teaching at a Jewish school, and a Jewish colleague turned to me while a young male scholar was talking disparagingly about the informal settlements near the Cape Town airport, 'I wonder if he has been to Tel Aviv and seen the informal settlements there?' That broadened my viewpoint.

I have a child married 'across the colour bar' and I have a grandchild of 'mixed race'. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have been unemployed on at least four occasions. I had to hire myself out doing odd jobs and repairs. That broadened my viewpoint.

My wife has been permanently incapacitated and unable to work in her profession for nearly 20 years. That continues to broaden my viewpoint.

My wife and I were astonished to hear on the news that the aircraft Helderberg, a Boeing 747-200 Combi, 'experienced a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area, broke up in mid-air, and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 people on board.' We had flown on that same aircraft in July 1981, about 7 months after its maiden flight, and while flying over the Atlantic Ocean at about 11pm I was aroused from my sleep by a strange noise. Looking out of the window I saw lights flashing past us and asked Sally if we had landed - to which she said that we had not. Damage had occurred in one engine and after landing we discovered that debris from that engine had been thrown into the neighbouring engine such that we flew for several hours and landed on Ilha Do Sal (Sal, Cape Verde) where we waited 24 hours for a replacement aircraft to take us on to New York. That broadened my viewpoint. And yet, I still fly on aircraft, old or new...

I am far from perfect - I acknowledge that. But I hope that I am becoming less and less prejudiced, and certainly not discriminatory, as my viewpoint becomes increasingly broadened and inclusive. I love our national mottos. When I was young we often quoted Ex Unitate Vires (transl. "from unity, strength", Eendracht maakt macht, or Unity is Strength), and in our present era, ! ke e: /xarra //ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, literally meaning Diverse People Unite.

I feel it appropriate to share something that I shared in response to a video blaming all whites for causing all of the corruption in the ANC government or the EFF party: I am a cheeky ou, Colin. I ask myself - if Sterkfontein, Mapungubwe, Agulhas plain, and other notable sites in South Africa are sites of the cradle of humankind, and if I am descended from the first humankind, am I any less at home in the Fairest Cape than is someone with a darker skin and darker eyes? I reckon that I have just returned to my fatherland. If that is the case and I am as at home as anyone whose ancestors wandered away and then returned, then our skin colour is simply a sign of genetic variability and we are as equal as anyone can ever be. What is the problem of someone who blames 'whites' for anything that he does not want to accept as being his own fault? Somehow that sounds a bit like 'hate speech', prejudice, narrow-mindedness, or something like that, and more a part of the problem that part of the solution 🤔 But then, what do I know? 😉

I hope that anyone reading this will have his or her viewpoint broadened and seek to be inclusive and not exclusive, united and not divided, a builder and not a wrecker, part of the solution and not part of the problem. As imperfect as my efforts are in this regard, I continue to try. I hope that my mind, mental and emotional capability, and my brain and body, will enable me to always continue to try to be intentionally open-minded and inclusive as I advance in years.

I felt impressed add more thoughts that you might be interested in reading. See 

'A promise of an eternal marriage for LGBTQ+ individuals - well, for anyone'.

Sal and I join Herman Mashaba in supporting President Cyril Ramaphosa – and we join him in his concern about the many members of the cabinet that are divisive, exclusive, destructive and obstructive rather than uniting, inclusive, constructive and supportive.

I was told a few times of an incident in my childhood when I was riding my tricycle and following my sister who was going to visit a friend. Then, unable to stop at the main road, I fell off my tricycle as a truck caught it and carried it some distance along the road. I wanted to use this experience in a talk that I am giving, and so decided to check the details. I asked Judy, Tim and Jane what they recalled, and Judy and Tim had no memory of it. I wonder if they might have been at boarding school at the time, so not aware of it.

First reply from Tim said 'Sorry, I know nothing at all of this event.' 

Then Judy said 'I’m sorry to say I have absolutely no recollection of this event! Therefore… I do not think I was involved?'

Then Jane said

Hi Les
I was the sister involved and I remember very little.   We were going down the hill on Havenga Avenue and the intersection next to the old gaol on Goldman Street was the place. I remember a lady who lived opposite the gaol a couple of houses up from Goldman Street taking me into her home and (I think) phoning Mom.  If you were still riding a tricycle you were probably about 4.
I'm sorry that I cannot give you any more information than that apart from Mom and Dad commenting on how you were protected.
Love
Jane

Misty & cloudy am. Cleared pm late to sunny. Heavy clouds again then steady rain in night.

Travelled in with Rambler. 

Walked down to Lasts for Belladonna lunch time. 

A miracle! Jane & Leslie rode down 7th Avenue on Bike and Trike respectively. Leslie unable to stop at Goldman Street & got hit by a lorry. Rushed off to hospital but nothing but bruises & abrasions. A blessed occasion of the ministering of guardian angels. Thanks be to God. I came home at 4 pm. Elders Wright & Butler came to administer to Leslie with me.

Made fudge evening.

Had a letter from Tim - settling down much better. 

I remember Mom surmising that for some reason the tricycle might have swerved causing me to fall off it just before the truck connected with the tricycle and dragged it off, leaving me lying on the road. Whatever happened, I guess my mission on Earth was not yet complete. I am still alive now 56 years and four months later, so I guess my mission is still not accomplished. I hope that I do not fail the Lord!

These two photos from Google Maps Street View show the intersection where this miracle occurred. The slope seems so much less than I remember it being. Walking or cycling, especially at ages 6 to 12 years may cause one to consider it to be steeper! But because of the terracing to construct the road the slope within about ten metres of the road is somewhat steeper than the general slope.

What a blessing to have such a record faithfully kept by my father. My children are not so fortunate. I keep a professional journal at work, and have Blog entries and keep my talks, and some correspondence, but I hope they do not have to look for something like I did. They might not be as fortunate as I was to be able to find out what happened at some specific point in their lives.

It was fascinating to read what he recorded. Elders Naudé and Park (André and Mack?) had lunch with them 17 Aug 1958. He recorded the first American satellite launched 1 Feb 1958, and the first Russian satellite. He recorded that his basic salary was £10 with EA (whatever that means - Executive Assistant or Employee Allowance?) of £5, and Tim's and Jane's glasses cost around £6 each, so relative to a salary of R15000 that would be about R6000. They paid a gardener 8/, presumably for a day's work, equivalent to about R670 compared to that salary of R15000.

I love seeing Mom's writing in Dad's diary. She would communicate with him, reminding him to do something, asking him to do something, or thanking him.

26 February 1958: Thank you Darling for every time you pump my bike, I really meant to thank you last time. This is to make sure I don't forget again. I love you.

4 July 1958: If I'm 3 months pregnant, m. sickness should stop from now. Otherwise another 4 weeks? Heaven help us!

17 April 1958: Nats in with 103 seats to 53 although in minority of votes, by about 30,000 - Democracy! 

26 May 1958: Mr Eb Wells died in hospital after having received a cut from sheet metal car part at Plant.

7 June 1958: Jane, Leslie, Phil & I off to Potch. 8.45 - got there about 10.15, picked up Judy and Tim then off to Lake for day. Out in boat pm. Left there about 6.15 back about 7.45.

I remember those trips to Potchefstroom to fetch Judy from boarding school, and at this time Tim was also there.

17 July 1958: Crisis in Middle East. British troops land in Jordan. Americans in Lebanon.

11 August 1958: Atomic US Submarine 'Nautilus' sailed across earth under North Pole.

4 September 1958 (the anniversary of their wedding): IC [Louw] phoned am to tell of visit of Apostle Harold B. Lee early October to dedicate chapels. Did church work evening - wrote to British Mission re dedicating of Temple and to Pres. David O. McKay for his birthday Sept. 8. Bed by midnight.

I could not find it again, but he recorded the day that parking meters were first used in Johannesburg.

Fascinating, too, to see names of people and cars that I remember, and many that I had forgotten, but reading them bring them to mind again.

He recorded a very busy trip to England and France 25 October to 1 December 1958. His entry of 24 October says 'A hectic day! Received news am to get moving to Paris. Booked for SAA tomorrow pm 3.30.'

Blessed memories! Blessed heritage! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I thought I would add another two incidents that I recall to do with not stopping at stop streets. Round about 1965 I was cycling to Florida Primary School on my Fairy Cycle, with 16 inch wheels, as I recall, and back-pedal brakes. I was riding down Havenga Avenue to cross The Highway.