Saturday, September 27, 2008
I Am Packing For Victoria Falls
Left of What's RightMarlan Padayachee In our business of newspapering and publishing, all in the public interest, there is an old adage: "If it Bleeds, It Leads."This is about sensational reports making the headline news in newspapers, television and radio sound bytes.The media is often castigated for sensationalism rather than idealism. Newspaper, TV and radio are communication and information consumer products that publishing houses sell to the public domain. There's no sentiments, no matter the size, status, stature of big, small or powerful people who are not above the law because the Fourth Estate has its one rules and power as watchdog mirroring society. In our business, we have been empowered by these mantras: 'Publish and Be Damned', report "Without Fear or Favour, and as the Americans say 'There's no such thing as a free lunch" and as we say in isiZulu country, 'Nothing for Mahala'. Zim Who? So what's the point?After weeks of sensational headlines and sound bytes, my breakfast was greeted by a breakthrough storyline: Zim deal struck at last.And after the longest poll in the world in the post-colonial-apartheid democracies, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia to expatriates who still fly the old colonial flags and have probably immortalised Cecil John Rhodes). Long after the multiparty negotiations became a no-hoper on-off case study under the stewardship of Thabo Mbeki and at the cost of hard-pressed taxpayers, and with Robert Mugabe stubbornly sticking to traits of his post-Lancaster House intransigency and guerilla doctrines, the world had given up on the Promised Land that was once Africa's breadbasket and liberation template. So how does this affect our constituencies and communities? As I have stated previously, xenophobia has been on your doorstep for a long time.The recent xenophobic attack on African nationals from Harare to Houghton was a haunting political choreography of a nation bursting at the seams. The political powder keg had at last exploded on the Proudly South African face. Other reasons and critical and shrinking resources may have sparked the xenophobic attacks that put SA to shame. Embarrassed and belittled with Nelson Mandela's heart bleeding in the background over our ingratitude to the Africans who sheltered, fed and clothed exiles, and the global village that saluted our peaceful transition to democracy and rainbow nationalism, Mbeki soldiered on. The media covered the mixed messaging from the recent talks about talks aimed at getting poll winner Morgan Tsvangirai, dealmaker Arthur Mutambara and the Chimurenga warlord Mugabe to smoke the peace pipe. Once he retires from the Presidency next autumn, he can expect a call from the UN in New York to be redeployed as its Ambassador-At-Large in the trouble spots in the footsteps of his British counterpart and exiled academic days host Tony Blair, an envoy making peace work in the Gaza Strip. Ja, well, no, Chief, Commander Mbeki has pulled our troublesome neighbouring out of the fire and the boiling political pot. Yesterday's Heroes I recall as if it happened yesterday. Picture this two-part scenario: Mbeki, the ANC diplomat in exile tugging at his trademark pipe and sipping lager in the breakaway interviewing sessions during the Non-Aligned Movement congress in Harare in 1986, just like Yusuf Dadoo, the SA Communist Party leader in exile, tugging his trademark pipe and sipping lager in London during the United Nations' apartheid sports-sanctioning conference under the stewardship of Sam Ramsamy in 1982.Quite prophetically, the bearded persona who was to become our visionary president, told me to go home because "they" needed journalists to cover the story of the victory over apartheid, while Dadoo provided some incredible insights into how his conservative family prodded him to study medicine over political activism.The rest is history until Mugabe, who hosted the Non-Aligned Summit in a town that was once called Salisbury under the chairmanship of India.Mbeki began taking the heat and refused to leave the kitchen while our belligerent neighbours ran the gauntlet in the reading room. Who Started the Joke?Public confidence started waning and slowly the world was writing Zimbabwe's death warrant. The country's currency under crisis and cronyism became a standing joke from Bulawayo to Beit Bridge. From Downing Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, Africa's once powerful economy and hospitable nation became the laughing stock of the 21st century world. Who started the joke? Life President or Zimbodweans? So when "Zim deal struck at last" hit the streets last Friday, displacing Jacob Zuma's public-interest court trial from the front pages and leading sound bytes, it must surely convinced the world that Africans, stigmatized by stereotyping, have at last pulled it and they have a grasp of outcome-based solutions and strategies. In the spirit of multiparty democracy, the one-time adversaries will now share the political pie and bring the controversial country back from the Zimbabwe Ruins. Remember how the warring Irish factions worked around the Good Friday Accord. Closer to home, this was a Good Friday, indeed, despite the President-elect hogging the limelight in court, surrounded by all the well-wishing bigwigs (no pun intended) from Amichand Rajbansi to bald-headed Jeff Radebe after Judge Chris Nicholson set him free. New statesmen are taking the podium across the Limpopo skyline and the few millions of persecuted economic exiles and migrants will soon be homeward bound, leaving behind vacancies for our jobless to become car guards, chefs and waiters and teachers and lecturers and Home Affairs getting on with the core business of delivering new ID books and passports to South African taxpayers. Along the SADC route via the Maputo Corridor, Angola's long-running ruling party, MPLA, are thinking of drinking Windhoek Lager with the opposition party, UNITA, after a bloody 30-year bush war with slain rebel leader's Jonas Savimbi's guerilla movement. Last week's parliamentary vote in which the ruling party won a landslide victory has raised hopes for the end of a one-party state since Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975 that triggered a deadly civil war. Peace at last on the south? So instead of the crime and corruption scourge compelling fed-up taxpayers to join the brain drain for foreign shores, like Packing for Perth (PFP) or To Run To (Toronto), I am packing my bag for Victoria Falls because it has been a long time since the real rainbow hit me in the eyes with the holy water from the Great Lakes soothing my face from the sunny blue skies and sprays from one of great wonders of the world. Here goes when I reach Makasa: "Prime Minister Tsvangirai, I presume. Sir, take me to Your Excellency, it's been a long time since we shook hands and had bear hugs. Back on the home front, watching Jacob Zuma being feted in the capital's old courthouse, I also see value in old adage: "You cannot keep a good man (woman) down" and until next week: About Braaivleis, Sunny Skies, Amabenzi and Jacob's Ladder: "Zuma is one of the few leaders with whom I would sit around a fire. He's an honest man and speaks like an Afrikaner — a straightforward person." - Celebrity Steve Hofmeyr after a braai with the ANC President who has started wooing the hearts of the marginalised Afrikaner tribes. Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist, socio-political commentator and media communications strategist whose work earned him the British Council Fellow and USIS International Visitor awards.
I Am Packing For Victoria Falls
Left of What's RightMarlan Padayachee In our business of newspapering and publishing, all in the public interest, there is an old adage: "If it Bleeds, It Leads."This is about sensational reports making the headline news in newspapers, television and radio sound bytes.The media is often castigated for sensationalism rather than idealism. Newspaper, TV and radio are communication and information consumer products that publishing houses sell to the public domain. There's no sentiments, no matter the size, status, stature of big, small or powerful people who are not above the law because the Fourth Estate has its one rules and power as watchdog mirroring society. In our business, we have been empowered by these mantras: 'Publish and Be Damned', report "Without Fear or Favour, and as the Americans say 'There's no such thing as a free lunch" and as we say in isiZulu country, 'Nothing for Mahala'. Zim Who? So what's the point?After weeks of sensational headlines and sound bytes, my breakfast was greeted by a breakthrough storyline: Zim deal struck at last.And after the longest poll in the world in the post-colonial-apartheid democracies, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia to expatriates who still fly the old colonial flags and have probably immortalised Cecil John Rhodes). Long after the multiparty negotiations became a no-hoper on-off case study under the stewardship of Thabo Mbeki and at the cost of hard-pressed taxpayers, and with Robert Mugabe stubbornly sticking to traits of his post-Lancaster House intransigency and guerilla doctrines, the world had given up on the Promised Land that was once Africa's breadbasket and liberation template. So how does this affect our constituencies and communities? As I have stated previously, xenophobia has been on your doorstep for a long time.The recent xenophobic attack on African nationals from Harare to Houghton was a haunting political choreography of a nation bursting at the seams. The political powder keg had at last exploded on the Proudly South African face. Other reasons and critical and shrinking resources may have sparked the xenophobic attacks that put SA to shame. Embarrassed and belittled with Nelson Mandela's heart bleeding in the background over our ingratitude to the Africans who sheltered, fed and clothed exiles, and the global village that saluted our peaceful transition to democracy and rainbow nationalism, Mbeki soldiered on. The media covered the mixed messaging from the recent talks about talks aimed at getting poll winner Morgan Tsvangirai, dealmaker Arthur Mutambara and the Chimurenga warlord Mugabe to smoke the peace pipe. Once he retires from the Presidency next autumn, he can expect a call from the UN in New York to be redeployed as its Ambassador-At-Large in the trouble spots in the footsteps of his British counterpart and exiled academic days host Tony Blair, an envoy making peace work in the Gaza Strip. Ja, well, no, Chief, Commander Mbeki has pulled our troublesome neighbouring out of the fire and the boiling political pot. Yesterday's Heroes I recall as if it happened yesterday. Picture this two-part scenario: Mbeki, the ANC diplomat in exile tugging at his trademark pipe and sipping lager in the breakaway interviewing sessions during the Non-Aligned Movement congress in Harare in 1986, just like Yusuf Dadoo, the SA Communist Party leader in exile, tugging his trademark pipe and sipping lager in London during the United Nations' apartheid sports-sanctioning conference under the stewardship of Sam Ramsamy in 1982.Quite prophetically, the bearded persona who was to become our visionary president, told me to go home because "they" needed journalists to cover the story of the victory over apartheid, while Dadoo provided some incredible insights into how his conservative family prodded him to study medicine over political activism.The rest is history until Mugabe, who hosted the Non-Aligned Summit in a town that was once called Salisbury under the chairmanship of India.Mbeki began taking the heat and refused to leave the kitchen while our belligerent neighbours ran the gauntlet in the reading room. Who Started the Joke?Public confidence started waning and slowly the world was writing Zimbabwe's death warrant. The country's currency under crisis and cronyism became a standing joke from Bulawayo to Beit Bridge. From Downing Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, Africa's once powerful economy and hospitable nation became the laughing stock of the 21st century world. Who started the joke? Life President or Zimbodweans? So when "Zim deal struck at last" hit the streets last Friday, displacing Jacob Zuma's public-interest court trial from the front pages and leading sound bytes, it must surely convinced the world that Africans, stigmatized by stereotyping, have at last pulled it and they have a grasp of outcome-based solutions and strategies. In the spirit of multiparty democracy, the one-time adversaries will now share the political pie and bring the controversial country back from the Zimbabwe Ruins. Remember how the warring Irish factions worked around the Good Friday Accord. Closer to home, this was a Good Friday, indeed, despite the President-elect hogging the limelight in court, surrounded by all the well-wishing bigwigs (no pun intended) from Amichand Rajbansi to bald-headed Jeff Radebe after Judge Chris Nicholson set him free. New statesmen are taking the podium across the Limpopo skyline and the few millions of persecuted economic exiles and migrants will soon be homeward bound, leaving behind vacancies for our jobless to become car guards, chefs and waiters and teachers and lecturers and Home Affairs getting on with the core business of delivering new ID books and passports to South African taxpayers. Along the SADC route via the Maputo Corridor, Angola's long-running ruling party, MPLA, are thinking of drinking Windhoek Lager with the opposition party, UNITA, after a bloody 30-year bush war with slain rebel leader's Jonas Savimbi's guerilla movement. Last week's parliamentary vote in which the ruling party won a landslide victory has raised hopes for the end of a one-party state since Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975 that triggered a deadly civil war. Peace at last on the south? So instead of the crime and corruption scourge compelling fed-up taxpayers to join the brain drain for foreign shores, like Packing for Perth (PFP) or To Run To (Toronto), I am packing my bag for Victoria Falls because it has been a long time since the real rainbow hit me in the eyes with the holy water from the Great Lakes soothing my face from the sunny blue skies and sprays from one of great wonders of the world. Here goes when I reach Makasa: "Prime Minister Tsvangirai, I presume. Sir, take me to Your Excellency, it's been a long time since we shook hands and had bear hugs. Back on the home front, watching Jacob Zuma being feted in the capital's old courthouse, I also see value in old adage: "You cannot keep a good man (woman) down" and until next week: About Braaivleis, Sunny Skies, Amabenzi and Jacob's Ladder: "Zuma is one of the few leaders with whom I would sit around a fire. He's an honest man and speaks like an Afrikaner — a straightforward person." - Celebrity Steve Hofmeyr after a braai with the ANC President who has started wooing the hearts of the marginalised Afrikaner tribes. Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist, socio-political commentator and media communications strategist whose work earned him the British Council Fellow and USIS International Visitor awards.
The Day I Shared Lager With Thabo Mbeki
Quote: “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby.
Me & Mbeki
The Day I Shared Lager with Thabo Mbeki as South Africa’s Future President Tugged on His Trademark Pipe
IT’S 1986 in the spring of Harare. Here I was seated in front of post-apartheid’s future President as he tugged on his trademark pipe and the aroma of tobacco consumed my probing mind. The bearded diplomat-cum-freedom fighter graciously sipped a cold lager, waxing lyrically in measured tones in Queen’s English, about his vision for a new South Africa.
Before then Thabo Mbeki was an enigma whose reputation had preceded him in the underground movement of the liberation struggle spearheaded by the African National Congress.
He was the ANC’s International Affairs Director at Mandela Street in Margaret Thatcher dominion, and the foreign face of the magnetic movement that attracted hordes of black and white post-Woodstock activists.
The British-educated semi-diplomat travelled between Lusaka and London in his roving post as a well-heeled envoy aimed at demystifying his outlawed guerilla movement as legitimate resisters bent on changing the status quo of apartheid.
Our venue was on the outskirts of the high-security conference centre, where India's Rajiv Gandhi, Cuba's Fidel Castro, the PLO's Yasser Arafat, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and almost 50 heads of state were attending the 8th Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement.
NAM was bloc of 101 nations formed in 1961 by leaders of the post-war independence movements, Nehru of India, Tito of Yugoslavia, Sukarno of Indonesia, Nkrumah of Ghana and Nasser of Egypt. NAM members were known to be neutral in the confrontation between the USA and the Soviet Union, and this was an ideal platform for the ANC to lobby support from more than hundred countries under one roof.
ENTER THABO MBEKI
Enter Thabo Mbeki, the suave and skilful negotiator and chief lobbyist. Before that I enjoyed the privilege of interacting with other ANC leaders in exile Oliver R Tambo, Joe Modise, Jaya Appalraju, Govin Reddy, Tessa Colvin and Dr Kesavaloo Goonum and many other exiles who were busy lobbying support in the Zimbabwean capital.
I was equally privileged to receive security clearance to interview Mbeki, but the interview never saw the light of the day because of the tough censorship laws against banned people and organizations. However, I finally published anecdotes of the one-on-one interview soon after President Mbeki took the oath of office at the Union Buildings.
I watched the new el-supremo of African politics work at Parliament in Cape Town in 2004 when he delivered his famous “I Am An African” state of the nation address, and later joined the entourage at the Union Buildings, where he was sworn in for the second term, not long after President Mugabe was given a standing ovation when he walked the red carpet to the VIP seats.
Only a fortnight ago, peace broker Mbeki put the red seal on a power-sharing deal between Zanu-PF and the MDC groupings.
But back home from his favourite African city where he lobbied the world’s leading freedom icons to help the ANC to crack the yoke of apartheid and usher democracy on one of the last bastions of colonial-apartheid rule, His Excellency was unceremoniously from ousted from the Office of the Presidency in a new brand of political maneuvering that has sullied the ANC’s prestige political past, history, heritage and legacy. Mbeki was a staunch member of the broad church that is the ANC, Africa’s oldest liberation movement turned sophisticated ruling party.
Though post-independent Zimbabwe was in its knees in debts and battling post-colonial poverty and the ravages of a bush war, Harare showcased Africa’s model breadbasket nation, housing 2 000 delegates in homes and apartments especially constructed for the conference, while others lived in the homes of wealthy Zimbabwean whites.
In his keynote address, Prime Minister Mugabe urged the heads of state to provide economic aid for the black African "frontline" states that were seeking to cut off trade with apartheid SA, calling on the nonaligned nations to provide military equipment and training to support the black armed struggle in South Africa.
Well, at least now we know that Mbeki does not have a short memory.
Ja, well, no, Chief, our outgoing commander had pulled our troublesome neighbours out of the boiling political pot, only to be axed on the eve of his swansong at the United Nations.
I recall as if it happened yesterday. Picture this two-part scenario: Mbeki, the ANC diplomat in exile and his love for briar pipes, but sipping lunch-time beer and not whisky, during a breakaway interviewing session at NAM.
Four years earlier, just like Yusuf Dadoo, the SA Communist Party leader in exile, tugging his trademark pipe and sipping lager in London during the United Nations' apartheid sports-sanctioning conference under the stewardship of Sam Ramsamy in 1982, I was given an inside track of a rainbow nation in the making.
Quite prophetically, the bearded persona who was to become our visionary president, gently advised me to go home because "we needed journalists to cover the story of our victory over apartheid”, while Dadoo provided some incredible insights into how his conservative family prodded him into studying medicine over political activism.
That day in Harare was forever etched in my mind as I watched Mandela’s protégé deliver stirring speeches, poetically, and wooing voters across the colour line, to what he is good at, straddling on the world stage from New York to Timbuktu, from G8 to SADC, on his “I Am An African” mission.
Now that Mr Dignity is out of the highest office in rainbow country, forced out by his brothers-in-arms, he can reinvent his career by becoming Ambassador-At-Large in a new mission to bring real peace, stability and economic growth to Africa’s troubled hotspots.
Hamba Kahle, Chief, I owe you one for the good advice when ominous dark cloud blighted the African skyline.
So let us get on with the business unusual of governing the Beloved Country and striving for the non-racial democracy that you had stoically fought for during a lifetime of 60 years.
Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist, socio-political commentator and media communications strategist whose work as an anti-apartheid critic and activist earned him the prestige British Council Fellow and US International Visitors awards.
Me & Mbeki
The Day I Shared Lager with Thabo Mbeki as South Africa’s Future President Tugged on His Trademark Pipe
IT’S 1986 in the spring of Harare. Here I was seated in front of post-apartheid’s future President as he tugged on his trademark pipe and the aroma of tobacco consumed my probing mind. The bearded diplomat-cum-freedom fighter graciously sipped a cold lager, waxing lyrically in measured tones in Queen’s English, about his vision for a new South Africa.
Before then Thabo Mbeki was an enigma whose reputation had preceded him in the underground movement of the liberation struggle spearheaded by the African National Congress.
He was the ANC’s International Affairs Director at Mandela Street in Margaret Thatcher dominion, and the foreign face of the magnetic movement that attracted hordes of black and white post-Woodstock activists.
The British-educated semi-diplomat travelled between Lusaka and London in his roving post as a well-heeled envoy aimed at demystifying his outlawed guerilla movement as legitimate resisters bent on changing the status quo of apartheid.
Our venue was on the outskirts of the high-security conference centre, where India's Rajiv Gandhi, Cuba's Fidel Castro, the PLO's Yasser Arafat, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and almost 50 heads of state were attending the 8th Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement.
NAM was bloc of 101 nations formed in 1961 by leaders of the post-war independence movements, Nehru of India, Tito of Yugoslavia, Sukarno of Indonesia, Nkrumah of Ghana and Nasser of Egypt. NAM members were known to be neutral in the confrontation between the USA and the Soviet Union, and this was an ideal platform for the ANC to lobby support from more than hundred countries under one roof.
ENTER THABO MBEKI
Enter Thabo Mbeki, the suave and skilful negotiator and chief lobbyist. Before that I enjoyed the privilege of interacting with other ANC leaders in exile Oliver R Tambo, Joe Modise, Jaya Appalraju, Govin Reddy, Tessa Colvin and Dr Kesavaloo Goonum and many other exiles who were busy lobbying support in the Zimbabwean capital.
I was equally privileged to receive security clearance to interview Mbeki, but the interview never saw the light of the day because of the tough censorship laws against banned people and organizations. However, I finally published anecdotes of the one-on-one interview soon after President Mbeki took the oath of office at the Union Buildings.
I watched the new el-supremo of African politics work at Parliament in Cape Town in 2004 when he delivered his famous “I Am An African” state of the nation address, and later joined the entourage at the Union Buildings, where he was sworn in for the second term, not long after President Mugabe was given a standing ovation when he walked the red carpet to the VIP seats.
Only a fortnight ago, peace broker Mbeki put the red seal on a power-sharing deal between Zanu-PF and the MDC groupings.
But back home from his favourite African city where he lobbied the world’s leading freedom icons to help the ANC to crack the yoke of apartheid and usher democracy on one of the last bastions of colonial-apartheid rule, His Excellency was unceremoniously from ousted from the Office of the Presidency in a new brand of political maneuvering that has sullied the ANC’s prestige political past, history, heritage and legacy. Mbeki was a staunch member of the broad church that is the ANC, Africa’s oldest liberation movement turned sophisticated ruling party.
Though post-independent Zimbabwe was in its knees in debts and battling post-colonial poverty and the ravages of a bush war, Harare showcased Africa’s model breadbasket nation, housing 2 000 delegates in homes and apartments especially constructed for the conference, while others lived in the homes of wealthy Zimbabwean whites.
In his keynote address, Prime Minister Mugabe urged the heads of state to provide economic aid for the black African "frontline" states that were seeking to cut off trade with apartheid SA, calling on the nonaligned nations to provide military equipment and training to support the black armed struggle in South Africa.
Well, at least now we know that Mbeki does not have a short memory.
Ja, well, no, Chief, our outgoing commander had pulled our troublesome neighbours out of the boiling political pot, only to be axed on the eve of his swansong at the United Nations.
I recall as if it happened yesterday. Picture this two-part scenario: Mbeki, the ANC diplomat in exile and his love for briar pipes, but sipping lunch-time beer and not whisky, during a breakaway interviewing session at NAM.
Four years earlier, just like Yusuf Dadoo, the SA Communist Party leader in exile, tugging his trademark pipe and sipping lager in London during the United Nations' apartheid sports-sanctioning conference under the stewardship of Sam Ramsamy in 1982, I was given an inside track of a rainbow nation in the making.
Quite prophetically, the bearded persona who was to become our visionary president, gently advised me to go home because "we needed journalists to cover the story of our victory over apartheid”, while Dadoo provided some incredible insights into how his conservative family prodded him into studying medicine over political activism.
That day in Harare was forever etched in my mind as I watched Mandela’s protégé deliver stirring speeches, poetically, and wooing voters across the colour line, to what he is good at, straddling on the world stage from New York to Timbuktu, from G8 to SADC, on his “I Am An African” mission.
Now that Mr Dignity is out of the highest office in rainbow country, forced out by his brothers-in-arms, he can reinvent his career by becoming Ambassador-At-Large in a new mission to bring real peace, stability and economic growth to Africa’s troubled hotspots.
Hamba Kahle, Chief, I owe you one for the good advice when ominous dark cloud blighted the African skyline.
So let us get on with the business unusual of governing the Beloved Country and striving for the non-racial democracy that you had stoically fought for during a lifetime of 60 years.
Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist, socio-political commentator and media communications strategist whose work as an anti-apartheid critic and activist earned him the prestige British Council Fellow and US International Visitors awards.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Indians At Sea Or At Home In Cultural Splash in South Africa?
Marlan Padayachee
Left of What’s Right
RECENTLY I attended three Indian functions in a row over three days in Durban.
The sights and sounds, saris and sweetmeats and the cuisines, chilli bites and the cultural cacophony of this Diaspora community convinced me once more that Durban is truly an “Indian country”, where many of the descendants of the 1860 indentured labourers are still struggling with the franca-lingua of the dominant Zulu-speaking compatriots and some of the dramatic transformational social, economic and political changes in South Africa.
Though Indians are a homogeneous bloc, they are not alone in a Catch-22 situation in a changing environment where the proverbial playing fields are becoming leveled as we head for the third democratic elections in 2009. The other sister groups, so-called Whites, Coloureds, Chinese, Portuguese, Greeks, Lebanese, or foreigners like Africans, Asians, Sri Lankans, are also feeling as if they are out of the loop, insecure, alienated or regarded as soft targets by the criminal elements. Then there’s also an old adage – a classic case of “too many Chiefs not enough Indians”.
Almost 148 years since that historic landing at the Durban Bay on 16 November when more than 300 men, women and children disembarked from the SS Truro after a horrendous journey across the Indian Ocean Rim, in which some scurvy-ravaged indentured labourers perished in the deep blue ocean, South Africa’s 1, 3 million Indians appear to be still at sea about life in the new South Africa.
Cultural Passion
But one thing Indians, individually and collectively, are certain about is their whole Indian socio-cultural package and baggage. They are passionate about their ancient religious rituals, Hinduism, Christianity or Islam. They appear preoccupied with all and sundry from red-hot spicy meals, the city’s indigenous favourite eat out - bunny-chow - saris and sweetmeats, mansions versus matchbox houses, Amabenzi as the first choice of prestige carriage as compared to the trustworthy Toyota, status symbols, social climbing, Lotusfm, Eastern Mosaic, SA India magazine, and of course, Bollywood, India’s template of Hollywood.
But all said and done, South Africa is arguably one of the best places on the Planet, depending on which side of the fence you are sitting on, or how green your grass is getting. Though sizzling- hot Dubai is touted as our tenth province for economic migration, the weather speaks for itself in this ancient civilization.
Three days in Little India began as a guest of the Indian Consulate at Lillieshell Manor, a one size fits all dinner party for the visiting Indian MBA students, who certainly enjoyed their sabbatical at the Graduate School of Business at the UNKZ’s Westville Campus under the tutelage of Professor Anesh Singh and a colleague Martin Challenor, whom the young financial gurus nicknamed Martinji after he had put them through their paces for week; and the double-header dinner included the Miss India South Africa Pageants aspirants, in which another stalwart colleague Farook Khan, was roundly honoured for promoting young Indian women by His Excellency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who diplomatically reminded us that we were on Indian soil. The Consul-General also politely informed our ubiquitous Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo that nothing socially can happen in the city of his forebears without his charming presence.
The next day the cultural choreography of the annual pageantry rolled out with women being the roses among the thorns, looking radiant and ravishing in colourful saris and eastern garments. On the third day it was off to the yearly bridal fair, exhibiting all that’s Indian, from exotic eastern dishes to intricate gold jewellery, accessories and apparels to photo-opportunities for the big day. On stage, the models strutted the best and the fashionistas thrived to the beat of Bollywood.
This prestige bridal show that enjoys a corporate banking sponsorship is a positive imaging of everything that’s chic, glamorous and modern about the community, exuding a blend of the ancient and post-modernism in which the older and younger generation fuses around the sacred moments of planning marriages in a kaleidoscope of colour and tradition.
Nearby the Bollywood Bible, a high quality SA India magazine was dished out to patrons to gloss over the celluloid icons and catch up with off-screen gossips. Aside from Women’s Month, August was also Indian Month with the Shared Experiences, Goa Food Fair and Bollywood, The Musical.
Romanticism with Bollywood and the Ancient Land of India
Significantly in 2010, South Africa’s Golden Year since the Long Walk to Freedom, South Africans of Indian origin, will be celebrating 150 years of living and working in the reinvented republic. Unlike many Indian expatriates around the world, estimated at 20-million, Indians in this strategic corner of the eastern Africa seaboard of the Indian Ocean Rim are unique. As a cultural bloc, they are still part and parcel of the new RSA, having put up with the indignity and discrimination of the apartheid country.
Therefore, throughout the toughest sanctions on trade and cultural links, Indians at home did not sever their umbilical cord with the land of their forebears and while resisting social and economic injustices at home, hence the intense level of passion and love for Incredible India. In the same vein, Indians have stood four squares behind Mandela’s campaign to free all South Africans and provide a new, non-racial democracy for “all those who live in it”.
Both histories are intertwined and tied to each other’s destinies, and they are almost inseparably linked to the strong platform between Tshwane-Pretoria-Durban and New Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai.
Culturally, Indians are an integral mix of SA’s unique cultural diversity and cosmopolitan image within the banner of One Country, Many Cultures.
For several years, the multi-media has brought the heart and soul of Bollywood into the lives, living rooms and lifestyles of Indians and the animation of the glamour and glitz of one of the world’s colourful film industries is comes alive on the big screens, DVDs and hand-held communications gadgets. Various mediums serve to enrich the knowledge economy of the community and the synergy is boundless. Even pay-TV station DStv is in on the act, bringing out the best of Bollywood to local audiences.
Ahead of the first FIFA World Cup, Indian South Africans are a resourceful and colourful crowd who can act as the catalyst within the Indian Diaspora and this community has a lot to share with the rest of nation’s diverse communities.
There’s romanticism between Bollywood and the ancient land of India – it’s a question of bridging the chasm and celebrating the successes. This human potential has to be unlocked beyond perceived pride and prejudice as we strive to show our young people the beauty of being Indian within a dynamic cultural diversity.
May industrious Indians here and abroad tell the world a story of the ancient land of religious rituals, cultural civilization, pageantry, beauty, tradition, custom , cuisines and the cacophony of people while promoting a one-nation, many cultures mantra.
Until next week and as a tribute to the Muslim community in holy month of Ramadan Mubarak, I am sharing Prophet Kahlil Gibran’s words of wisdom: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, and yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward, not tarries with yesterday.”
Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist and a media communications strategist and recipient of the British Council Fellow and the US International Visitor awards, and he is publishing a gilt-edged coffee-table yearbook, 150 Years of Indians in 2010 South Africa.
Left of What’s Right
RECENTLY I attended three Indian functions in a row over three days in Durban.
The sights and sounds, saris and sweetmeats and the cuisines, chilli bites and the cultural cacophony of this Diaspora community convinced me once more that Durban is truly an “Indian country”, where many of the descendants of the 1860 indentured labourers are still struggling with the franca-lingua of the dominant Zulu-speaking compatriots and some of the dramatic transformational social, economic and political changes in South Africa.
Though Indians are a homogeneous bloc, they are not alone in a Catch-22 situation in a changing environment where the proverbial playing fields are becoming leveled as we head for the third democratic elections in 2009. The other sister groups, so-called Whites, Coloureds, Chinese, Portuguese, Greeks, Lebanese, or foreigners like Africans, Asians, Sri Lankans, are also feeling as if they are out of the loop, insecure, alienated or regarded as soft targets by the criminal elements. Then there’s also an old adage – a classic case of “too many Chiefs not enough Indians”.
Almost 148 years since that historic landing at the Durban Bay on 16 November when more than 300 men, women and children disembarked from the SS Truro after a horrendous journey across the Indian Ocean Rim, in which some scurvy-ravaged indentured labourers perished in the deep blue ocean, South Africa’s 1, 3 million Indians appear to be still at sea about life in the new South Africa.
Cultural Passion
But one thing Indians, individually and collectively, are certain about is their whole Indian socio-cultural package and baggage. They are passionate about their ancient religious rituals, Hinduism, Christianity or Islam. They appear preoccupied with all and sundry from red-hot spicy meals, the city’s indigenous favourite eat out - bunny-chow - saris and sweetmeats, mansions versus matchbox houses, Amabenzi as the first choice of prestige carriage as compared to the trustworthy Toyota, status symbols, social climbing, Lotusfm, Eastern Mosaic, SA India magazine, and of course, Bollywood, India’s template of Hollywood.
But all said and done, South Africa is arguably one of the best places on the Planet, depending on which side of the fence you are sitting on, or how green your grass is getting. Though sizzling- hot Dubai is touted as our tenth province for economic migration, the weather speaks for itself in this ancient civilization.
Three days in Little India began as a guest of the Indian Consulate at Lillieshell Manor, a one size fits all dinner party for the visiting Indian MBA students, who certainly enjoyed their sabbatical at the Graduate School of Business at the UNKZ’s Westville Campus under the tutelage of Professor Anesh Singh and a colleague Martin Challenor, whom the young financial gurus nicknamed Martinji after he had put them through their paces for week; and the double-header dinner included the Miss India South Africa Pageants aspirants, in which another stalwart colleague Farook Khan, was roundly honoured for promoting young Indian women by His Excellency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who diplomatically reminded us that we were on Indian soil. The Consul-General also politely informed our ubiquitous Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo that nothing socially can happen in the city of his forebears without his charming presence.
The next day the cultural choreography of the annual pageantry rolled out with women being the roses among the thorns, looking radiant and ravishing in colourful saris and eastern garments. On the third day it was off to the yearly bridal fair, exhibiting all that’s Indian, from exotic eastern dishes to intricate gold jewellery, accessories and apparels to photo-opportunities for the big day. On stage, the models strutted the best and the fashionistas thrived to the beat of Bollywood.
This prestige bridal show that enjoys a corporate banking sponsorship is a positive imaging of everything that’s chic, glamorous and modern about the community, exuding a blend of the ancient and post-modernism in which the older and younger generation fuses around the sacred moments of planning marriages in a kaleidoscope of colour and tradition.
Nearby the Bollywood Bible, a high quality SA India magazine was dished out to patrons to gloss over the celluloid icons and catch up with off-screen gossips. Aside from Women’s Month, August was also Indian Month with the Shared Experiences, Goa Food Fair and Bollywood, The Musical.
Romanticism with Bollywood and the Ancient Land of India
Significantly in 2010, South Africa’s Golden Year since the Long Walk to Freedom, South Africans of Indian origin, will be celebrating 150 years of living and working in the reinvented republic. Unlike many Indian expatriates around the world, estimated at 20-million, Indians in this strategic corner of the eastern Africa seaboard of the Indian Ocean Rim are unique. As a cultural bloc, they are still part and parcel of the new RSA, having put up with the indignity and discrimination of the apartheid country.
Therefore, throughout the toughest sanctions on trade and cultural links, Indians at home did not sever their umbilical cord with the land of their forebears and while resisting social and economic injustices at home, hence the intense level of passion and love for Incredible India. In the same vein, Indians have stood four squares behind Mandela’s campaign to free all South Africans and provide a new, non-racial democracy for “all those who live in it”.
Both histories are intertwined and tied to each other’s destinies, and they are almost inseparably linked to the strong platform between Tshwane-Pretoria-Durban and New Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai.
Culturally, Indians are an integral mix of SA’s unique cultural diversity and cosmopolitan image within the banner of One Country, Many Cultures.
For several years, the multi-media has brought the heart and soul of Bollywood into the lives, living rooms and lifestyles of Indians and the animation of the glamour and glitz of one of the world’s colourful film industries is comes alive on the big screens, DVDs and hand-held communications gadgets. Various mediums serve to enrich the knowledge economy of the community and the synergy is boundless. Even pay-TV station DStv is in on the act, bringing out the best of Bollywood to local audiences.
Ahead of the first FIFA World Cup, Indian South Africans are a resourceful and colourful crowd who can act as the catalyst within the Indian Diaspora and this community has a lot to share with the rest of nation’s diverse communities.
There’s romanticism between Bollywood and the ancient land of India – it’s a question of bridging the chasm and celebrating the successes. This human potential has to be unlocked beyond perceived pride and prejudice as we strive to show our young people the beauty of being Indian within a dynamic cultural diversity.
May industrious Indians here and abroad tell the world a story of the ancient land of religious rituals, cultural civilization, pageantry, beauty, tradition, custom , cuisines and the cacophony of people while promoting a one-nation, many cultures mantra.
Until next week and as a tribute to the Muslim community in holy month of Ramadan Mubarak, I am sharing Prophet Kahlil Gibran’s words of wisdom: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, and yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward, not tarries with yesterday.”
Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist and a media communications strategist and recipient of the British Council Fellow and the US International Visitor awards, and he is publishing a gilt-edged coffee-table yearbook, 150 Years of Indians in 2010 South Africa.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Inaugural Speech and Debate for Sathish Jaggernath
Marlan Padayachee To Open Community Inaugural Speech and Debate In Honour of Sathish Jaggernath, Former Media Consultant to Premier Sbu Ndebele and Newspaper Columnist and Socio Political Commentator
KWAZULU-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele’s former media consultant and speechwriter Sathish Jaggernath will be recognised for his contribution to the new South Africa at an inaugural speech and debate named in his memory at the Merebank High School in Merebank on Wednesday, 27 August at 5.30pm.
Jaggernath died tragically in air crash near Pietermaritzburg almost eight years ago when a chartered aircraft, bringing Department of Transport officials from a workshop in Gauteng, crashed into a hill near Pietermaritzburg. He worked as a media consultant for then Transport MEC Ndebele who later became the provincial premier.
His close colleague and friend Marlan Padayachee will deliver the introductory remarks about the former librarian, teacher’s union secretary-general, researcher, writer and debater at the event hosted by the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, which is named in memory of an ANC cadre who was killed by the SADF in Mozambique in the 1980s.
Learners from Merebank, Umlazi and Wentworth will engage each in a debate about Jaggernath and how they can acquire skills to contribute to a better social order and develop into responsible citizens while learning the art of talking and listening as powerful tools against the scourge of violence and crime.
“We have named the event in memory of one of Merebank’s most outstanding activists for freedom, democracy, human rights and free speech and the foundation felt that another anti-apartheid and media activist Marlan Padayachee would be the most appropriate personality to launch the debate as both activists worked closely with each during a very difficult period in their careers,” said Pops Rampersad, Deputy Chairman of the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, whose patrons include Pravin Gordhan (SARS Commissioner); Roy Padayachie (Deputy Minister of Communications); Logie Naidoo (eThekwini Deputy Mayor); Ms Beatrice Ngcobo (MP); Dr Michael Sutcliffe (eThekwini Municipality City Manager); Eric Apelgren (eThekwini Municipality Head: International and Government Relations); Bishop Reuben Phillips; Professor Jerry Coovadia, Poobie Naicker (former SADTU Deputy President) and several other prominent people.
Issued by the Krish Rabilal Foundation on August 25, 2008
KWAZULU-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele’s former media consultant and speechwriter Sathish Jaggernath will be recognised for his contribution to the new South Africa at an inaugural speech and debate named in his memory at the Merebank High School in Merebank on Wednesday, 27 August at 5.30pm.
Jaggernath died tragically in air crash near Pietermaritzburg almost eight years ago when a chartered aircraft, bringing Department of Transport officials from a workshop in Gauteng, crashed into a hill near Pietermaritzburg. He worked as a media consultant for then Transport MEC Ndebele who later became the provincial premier.
His close colleague and friend Marlan Padayachee will deliver the introductory remarks about the former librarian, teacher’s union secretary-general, researcher, writer and debater at the event hosted by the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, which is named in memory of an ANC cadre who was killed by the SADF in Mozambique in the 1980s.
Learners from Merebank, Umlazi and Wentworth will engage each in a debate about Jaggernath and how they can acquire skills to contribute to a better social order and develop into responsible citizens while learning the art of talking and listening as powerful tools against the scourge of violence and crime.
“We have named the event in memory of one of Merebank’s most outstanding activists for freedom, democracy, human rights and free speech and the foundation felt that another anti-apartheid and media activist Marlan Padayachee would be the most appropriate personality to launch the debate as both activists worked closely with each during a very difficult period in their careers,” said Pops Rampersad, Deputy Chairman of the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, whose patrons include Pravin Gordhan (SARS Commissioner); Roy Padayachie (Deputy Minister of Communications); Logie Naidoo (eThekwini Deputy Mayor); Ms Beatrice Ngcobo (MP); Dr Michael Sutcliffe (eThekwini Municipality City Manager); Eric Apelgren (eThekwini Municipality Head: International and Government Relations); Bishop Reuben Phillips; Professor Jerry Coovadia, Poobie Naicker (former SADTU Deputy President) and several other prominent people.
Issued by the Krish Rabilal Foundation on August 25, 2008
Inaugural Speech and Debate for Sathish Jaggernath
Marlan Padayachee To Open Community Inaugural Speech and Debate In Honour of Sathish Jaggernath, Former Media Consultant to Premier Sbu Ndebele and Newspaper Columnist and Socio Political Commentator
KWAZULU-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele’s former media consultant and speechwriter Sathish Jaggernath will be recognised for his contribution to the new South Africa at an inaugural speech and debate named in his memory at the Merebank High School in Merebank on Wednesday, 27 August at 5.30pm.
Jaggernath died tragically in air crash near Pietermaritzburg almost eight years ago when a chartered aircraft, bringing Department of Transport officials from a workshop in Gauteng, crashed into a hill near Pietermaritzburg. He worked as a media consultant for then Transport MEC Ndebele who later became the provincial premier.
His close colleague and friend Marlan Padayachee will deliver the introductory remarks about the former librarian, teacher’s union secretary-general, researcher, writer and debater at the event hosted by the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, which is named in memory of an ANC cadre who was killed by the SADF in Mozambique in the 1980s.
Learners from Merebank, Umlazi and Wentworth will engage each in a debate about Jaggernath and how they can acquire skills to contribute to a better social order and develop into responsible citizens while learning the art of talking and listening as powerful tools against the scourge of violence and crime.
“We have named the event in memory of one of Merebank’s most outstanding activists for freedom, democracy, human rights and free speech and the foundation felt that another anti-apartheid and media activist Marlan Padayachee would be the most appropriate personality to launch the debate as both activists worked closely with each during a very difficult period in their careers,” said Pops Rampersad, Deputy Chairman of the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, whose patrons include Pravin Gordhan (SARS Commissioner); Roy Padayachie (Deputy Minister of Communications); Logie Naidoo (eThekwini Deputy Mayor); Ms Beatrice Ngcobo (MP); Dr Michael Sutcliffe (eThekwini Municipality City Manager); Eric Apelgren (eThekwini Municipality Head: International and Government Relations); Bishop Reuben Phillips; Professor Jerry Coovadia, Poobie Naicker (former SADTU Deputy President) and several other prominent people.
Issued by the Krish Rabilal Foundation on August 25, 2008
KWAZULU-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele’s former media consultant and speechwriter Sathish Jaggernath will be recognised for his contribution to the new South Africa at an inaugural speech and debate named in his memory at the Merebank High School in Merebank on Wednesday, 27 August at 5.30pm.
Jaggernath died tragically in air crash near Pietermaritzburg almost eight years ago when a chartered aircraft, bringing Department of Transport officials from a workshop in Gauteng, crashed into a hill near Pietermaritzburg. He worked as a media consultant for then Transport MEC Ndebele who later became the provincial premier.
His close colleague and friend Marlan Padayachee will deliver the introductory remarks about the former librarian, teacher’s union secretary-general, researcher, writer and debater at the event hosted by the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, which is named in memory of an ANC cadre who was killed by the SADF in Mozambique in the 1980s.
Learners from Merebank, Umlazi and Wentworth will engage each in a debate about Jaggernath and how they can acquire skills to contribute to a better social order and develop into responsible citizens while learning the art of talking and listening as powerful tools against the scourge of violence and crime.
“We have named the event in memory of one of Merebank’s most outstanding activists for freedom, democracy, human rights and free speech and the foundation felt that another anti-apartheid and media activist Marlan Padayachee would be the most appropriate personality to launch the debate as both activists worked closely with each during a very difficult period in their careers,” said Pops Rampersad, Deputy Chairman of the Krishna Rabilal Foundation, whose patrons include Pravin Gordhan (SARS Commissioner); Roy Padayachie (Deputy Minister of Communications); Logie Naidoo (eThekwini Deputy Mayor); Ms Beatrice Ngcobo (MP); Dr Michael Sutcliffe (eThekwini Municipality City Manager); Eric Apelgren (eThekwini Municipality Head: International and Government Relations); Bishop Reuben Phillips; Professor Jerry Coovadia, Poobie Naicker (former SADTU Deputy President) and several other prominent people.
Issued by the Krish Rabilal Foundation on August 25, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Politicking in Sports in the Beijing Olympics
Left of What’s Right
By Marlan Padayachee
Marlan Padayachee is a freelance journalist and a media communications strategist and he writes in his personal capacity.
Politics is not new to sports.
South Africa is one of the most spectacular examples of politicking in sports.
Chief anti-apartheid sports antagonist Sam Ramsamy, formerly of Magazine Barracks and Asherville, will not be sitting among the VIPs with his East German Olympic athlete wife, Helga, if he had not made a substantial investment to ensure that all South Africans will participate in the Olympic Games and the IOC Congress.
Forced into self-exile in London in the 1960s, having hurriedly quit his physical education teaching job at Springfield College and head coach at Aces United FC at Currie’s Fountain, Ramsamy was persecuted by apartheid agents abroad. His home in Chingford was bombed and his job as headmaster at a school was affected because SA’s Enemy Number One was embarrassing the Afrikaner rulers with his curved ball activities.
Painstakingly and meticulously, with the home base support of Morgan Naidoo, MN Pather, RD Naidu, Hassan Howa, Rama Reddy, Shun David, Cassim Bassa, Lambie Rasool, Reggie Feldman, Reverend Sigamoney, Rathansamy and many other activist-leaders, this pint-sized personality plucked each and every national sporting code, one by one, from the IOC organogram.
Blackballed For Sporting Prowess
The old country drew first blood, with Prime Minister John Vorster banning the English cricket team’s tour of SA. Reason? The MCC featured outcast coloured cricketer Basil d’Oliveira. Others fled with their talents, like weightlifter Ron Eland, who won a bronze medal for the UK, while his compatriots Johnny Geduldt and Precious McKenzie refused to lift for SA at the Olympics. In protest, Shun David refused to throw a dart for the SA team in world tournament. The Olympic flame of tennis aces Jasmit Dhiraj and Herman Abrahams was snuffed out. Golf maestro Papwa Sewgolum was denied a passport during the height of his prowess on the greens from the Dutch Open to St Andrews. He embarrassed apartheid sport by outflanking Gary Player and fetched the Natal Open trophy in driving rain. Player enjoyed an inside track of politics by playing golf with Vorster.
All fired up, Ramsamy, operating from a tiny office in the basement of the Portman Court in London, owned by activist Chris de Broglio, and with the support of Isaiah Stein, whose sons graced British football fields, and exiled intellectual giant Dennis Brutus, plotted SA’s downfall from world sports. Brave stalwart Peter Hain punctured Springbok rugby with his famous “Don’t Scrum with a Racist Bum” protests from Twickenham to Auckland.
Only a thesis can do justice to how SA played politics in sports and how the anti-apartheid lobbies used politics to blackball the vierkleur flag from flying internationally.
Now, they have since kiss and made up. Ramsamy sits in the IOC boardroom. A likely sports minister in the ANC government, he butted heads with hardliners at home during the reshaping of SA’s Olympic preparations.
With the medals drought in Beijing, our athletes could have benefited from his wise counseling, mentorship and coaching expertise, but all we have is a silver lining. Handicapped and high-spirited, swimmer Natalie du Toit has saved the nation’s proud face. Yet our able-bodied athletes are crying foul about a lack of money and administrative infighting and our brand ambassadors are spending millions showcasing 2010 at a five-star uptown hotel?
Jamaica, a poor Third World nation whose economy and gross domestic product is outstripped by a million times by the economy of Sandton Square, puts its best foot forward and scoops gold and silver medals.
Sports and politics go hand in hand, just like the baton-charged relay race. Naturally, the Tiananmen Square student rebellion will haunt China in its glory hour before worldwide TV exposure. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan monks will not fold their arms and die piously.
High Tea and Spirits But No Free Cuppa
Outside the five rings of action and drama, freelance writer Francisco Little learnt the old adage the new way - there’s no such thing as a free cuppa or lunch in forex-flooded Beijing despite the Olympic spirit. Two young Chinese women volunteers, acting as his de facto tour guide, showed him around from Chairman Mao’s portrait to the cacophony of the side streets until they couldn’t take the heat and lured him into a government teashop.
“Tea is refreshing and good for removing body heat,” they giggled into his foreign ears. Several rounds of home-brewed cuppa in tiny cups and take-home tea jars of the exotic variety, our man received his bill, little over R3 000 or 3 000 yuan. With no bargaining power and the hostess screeching like a Peking duck with two heavies at the door, there was little choice, but to pay his own bill and give his little helpers some just deserts for taking him on a rickshaw ride.
Gold medals to worldwide website search engine Google for glossing its double-O’s with Olympic icons to keep the surfer’s spirits up. A peep into Googleland reveals that staff are feted, fed and fascinated by the best office environment on the planet.
Until next week when I hope to dissect why Indians are becoming chilly under the rainbow, remember what the Chinese say: “Be careful what you wish for.”
By Marlan Padayachee
Marlan Padayachee is a freelance journalist and a media communications strategist and he writes in his personal capacity.
Politics is not new to sports.
South Africa is one of the most spectacular examples of politicking in sports.
Chief anti-apartheid sports antagonist Sam Ramsamy, formerly of Magazine Barracks and Asherville, will not be sitting among the VIPs with his East German Olympic athlete wife, Helga, if he had not made a substantial investment to ensure that all South Africans will participate in the Olympic Games and the IOC Congress.
Forced into self-exile in London in the 1960s, having hurriedly quit his physical education teaching job at Springfield College and head coach at Aces United FC at Currie’s Fountain, Ramsamy was persecuted by apartheid agents abroad. His home in Chingford was bombed and his job as headmaster at a school was affected because SA’s Enemy Number One was embarrassing the Afrikaner rulers with his curved ball activities.
Painstakingly and meticulously, with the home base support of Morgan Naidoo, MN Pather, RD Naidu, Hassan Howa, Rama Reddy, Shun David, Cassim Bassa, Lambie Rasool, Reggie Feldman, Reverend Sigamoney, Rathansamy and many other activist-leaders, this pint-sized personality plucked each and every national sporting code, one by one, from the IOC organogram.
Blackballed For Sporting Prowess
The old country drew first blood, with Prime Minister John Vorster banning the English cricket team’s tour of SA. Reason? The MCC featured outcast coloured cricketer Basil d’Oliveira. Others fled with their talents, like weightlifter Ron Eland, who won a bronze medal for the UK, while his compatriots Johnny Geduldt and Precious McKenzie refused to lift for SA at the Olympics. In protest, Shun David refused to throw a dart for the SA team in world tournament. The Olympic flame of tennis aces Jasmit Dhiraj and Herman Abrahams was snuffed out. Golf maestro Papwa Sewgolum was denied a passport during the height of his prowess on the greens from the Dutch Open to St Andrews. He embarrassed apartheid sport by outflanking Gary Player and fetched the Natal Open trophy in driving rain. Player enjoyed an inside track of politics by playing golf with Vorster.
All fired up, Ramsamy, operating from a tiny office in the basement of the Portman Court in London, owned by activist Chris de Broglio, and with the support of Isaiah Stein, whose sons graced British football fields, and exiled intellectual giant Dennis Brutus, plotted SA’s downfall from world sports. Brave stalwart Peter Hain punctured Springbok rugby with his famous “Don’t Scrum with a Racist Bum” protests from Twickenham to Auckland.
Only a thesis can do justice to how SA played politics in sports and how the anti-apartheid lobbies used politics to blackball the vierkleur flag from flying internationally.
Now, they have since kiss and made up. Ramsamy sits in the IOC boardroom. A likely sports minister in the ANC government, he butted heads with hardliners at home during the reshaping of SA’s Olympic preparations.
With the medals drought in Beijing, our athletes could have benefited from his wise counseling, mentorship and coaching expertise, but all we have is a silver lining. Handicapped and high-spirited, swimmer Natalie du Toit has saved the nation’s proud face. Yet our able-bodied athletes are crying foul about a lack of money and administrative infighting and our brand ambassadors are spending millions showcasing 2010 at a five-star uptown hotel?
Jamaica, a poor Third World nation whose economy and gross domestic product is outstripped by a million times by the economy of Sandton Square, puts its best foot forward and scoops gold and silver medals.
Sports and politics go hand in hand, just like the baton-charged relay race. Naturally, the Tiananmen Square student rebellion will haunt China in its glory hour before worldwide TV exposure. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan monks will not fold their arms and die piously.
High Tea and Spirits But No Free Cuppa
Outside the five rings of action and drama, freelance writer Francisco Little learnt the old adage the new way - there’s no such thing as a free cuppa or lunch in forex-flooded Beijing despite the Olympic spirit. Two young Chinese women volunteers, acting as his de facto tour guide, showed him around from Chairman Mao’s portrait to the cacophony of the side streets until they couldn’t take the heat and lured him into a government teashop.
“Tea is refreshing and good for removing body heat,” they giggled into his foreign ears. Several rounds of home-brewed cuppa in tiny cups and take-home tea jars of the exotic variety, our man received his bill, little over R3 000 or 3 000 yuan. With no bargaining power and the hostess screeching like a Peking duck with two heavies at the door, there was little choice, but to pay his own bill and give his little helpers some just deserts for taking him on a rickshaw ride.
Gold medals to worldwide website search engine Google for glossing its double-O’s with Olympic icons to keep the surfer’s spirits up. A peep into Googleland reveals that staff are feted, fed and fascinated by the best office environment on the planet.
Until next week when I hope to dissect why Indians are becoming chilly under the rainbow, remember what the Chinese say: “Be careful what you wish for.”
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