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[Elvira van Noort weblog] The nation is in quite a state

  1. Posted on Friday 16 February 2007 - 16:23
    Elvira van Noort
    Image of Elvira van Noort
    As we all know by now, Mbeki"s State of the Nation distressed citizens all over South Africa. I watched the whole 'show" on SABC, South Africa"s corrupt self-censored public broadcaster. And low and behold: they took a closer look at the fashion statements some guests tried to make.

    The presenters were right: it was outrageous. Even the Cape Town rain couldn"t wash out the bright colours of the many modern but 'African inspired" dresses. There were even pink suits.

    It was good thinking from the SABC to focus on fashion. Typical also, since they are on the governments" side one would not expect from them to focus on corruption, crime, job creation or getting people electricity and clean water.

    Speaking about clean water: I stopped drinking tap water in Grahamstown since the last problems we had because the water still tastes like sand. Filling a white bathtub with the brown water makes it very unattractive to bath any longer. I prefer to have a shower so my body gets a nice scrub and my hair some volume; it"s the after-beach-effect in my own bathroom.

    I sincerely hope the new Rhodes University students, who just arrived, do have clean water in their taps. Oh! Wait! Of course they do! And they always have electricity... all the time! Isn"t that a very corrupt situation? What about us; the people in town?

    Luckily I have friends in the right places, one of them working for Etv: the only commercial national broadcaster. They've got a programme called 'Third Degree" that looks at situations like ours in Grahamstown. They are looking into our water and electricity issues, high unemployment rates, lack of community media (radio Grahamstown is no more), our crime statistics, the bucket system in the location, high amount of kids on the street (due to problems with the only shelter Exolweni), why we have a hundred school kids in one class room, and all the other problems that our tiny Eastern Cape town has to deal with on a daily basis.

    Thanks for that. It"s just that we all must remember that the problems are not worse in Gauteng or Cape Town; there are many towns that need help. The last Mail & Guardian runs a story that should spur Mbeki into action. It carried the headline: "I eat with robbed money...I"m not sure whether those things are wrong because how else will I eat?"

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