South Africa: The bread and the spread

A communion in disparate communities

There was a time when everyone broke the bread, even though the larger part of the loaf went to the few as freshly baked and the leftover part of the loaf that went to the most was stale and barely edible.

Yet, the many were hungry and made do with the piece of bread they got whilst asking for more of the loaf and a having it fresh too.

Besides that unequal sharing of the loaf, the few that had the fresh loaf also had butter and jam to spread on their slices of bread, it was a good life for them.

The thinner spread of yummy

Then there came a more equitable sharing of the loaf, not necessarily equal, not by any stretch of the imagination, however, there was no increase in the jam and butter spread, this meant that for every slice of bread there was a thinner spread and less of a satisfactory bite for all.

Yet, to compare the confectioners before equity to those after would be to miss the point that more jam had to be made and more butter churned to give a healthier spread to all.

The scale of the problem then

That, in a nutshell, is the story of South Africa in the Apartheid times when infrastructure and services were built to serve the minority and then post-Apartheid the same infrastructure was to stretch to serve all.

It has meant the black majority government has been met with challenges of inheriting working infrastructure and scaling that up with the same standard to serve all South Africans. However, this knowledge and plausible excuse can only go on for so long, we are 21 years into black majority rule and the need for seriously noticeable change for the better for the majority cannot be overlooked.

The time for excuses is fast ending

The need for greater accountability of the leadership that has taken the larger racial constituency for granted is more pressing than ever, the opposition also needs to up their game and begin to present themselves as a real and viable alternative for leadership, government, progress and development.

South Africa has both promise and potential, it needs to touch the seemingly inconsequential that for whatever reason lives from hand to mouth, whose future only appears to extend to the next minute and it would be ambitious to see beyond the next hour.

We cannot avoid it

Those realities cannot be ignored, as we cocoon ourselves in the prosperous areas, we have to traverse the pathways between the conurbations of the privileged where we see a grimmer reality and the temptation to say, South Africa is not working for the majority.

That is the lesson I learnt from my fellow passenger as I was flying from Paris to Johannesburg.

Turkey belongs outside Europe for now

Is this a democracy?

I have been watching events in Turkey lately and I think we can now conclude that it does not belong in Europe, it is best kept at the periphery of almost-European but never attaining the stature of a truly free society with European values.

Turkey is presumably a democratic country where a party with Islamic leanings holds the majority in parliament having been voted in by the people of Turkey.

The parliament exercises the right to elect a president who would in most cases be a member of the ruling party.

However, there is a fearful and uncomfortable undemocratic situation enveloping the country as certain vocal elements in the country try to derail the process in the name of keeping Turkey in its strict and suffocating secularist model.

It would make one wonder what the Turkish democracy is for and what the people of Turkey have required if the party they have voted into power cannot then exercise prerogative and privilege because some sections of society suspect the ruling party would de-secularise the country.

Protectors of democracy

Whilst the ruling party has had certain Islamist policies it has maintained if not protected the secularism of Turkey regardless of the fact that the wives of the ruling elite wear scarves.

This unholy alliance of undemocratic forces which now includes the opposition parties, the wayward army and even the judiciary have thwarted every attempt to present a viable candidate for the presidency from the ruling party such that the Prime Minister has now called for elections to be held on the 24^th of June.

Evidently, it appears the Islamic party is keen on protecting the democratic credentials of Turkey whilst the opposition is keen on protecting the secularism of Turkey regardless of the harm it does to democracy.

Between democracy and the secularist dogma, democracy should signify in the most certain terms what the people want; even if it includes ditching the secularist millstone.

The power of democracy

It would be interesting to see the result of this election especially if the Islamist party is returned to power.

The pragmatism of the Islamist party is commendable; they have also suggested that the president be popularly elected by the people of Turkey.

In fact, one can say that only the Islamic party is able to make Turkey a European entity and without them, Turkey would continue to be a proudly backward-looking country with a weighty heritage of being hamstrung to secularism when in fact it is the fear of religion that has kept them from respecting the very basic tenets of popular suffrage and democracy.

For now, Turkey belongs outside Europe, way outside Europe for the foreseeable future.

References

Turkey PM condemns court ruling

Court ruling deepens crisis in Turkey