"Out, whitey, out!" - MoneyWeb Article

What's all this bizarre mumbo-jumbo about ousting all things white?
JOHANNESBURG - Stupid people shouldn't breed, especially when they're
sanctimoniously obsessed about always being correct, knowledgeable and
even erudite.
I can't remember who first remarked, "Stupid people shouldn't breed",
or where I first read this. Darting mischievously into the epicentre
of political correctness and spiritual dignity, this statement remains
a favourite truism. It's one to reflect on today with too many
irascible and incorrigible bigots uploading their poorly written and
conceived comments and arguments on to news and opinion websites,
including Moneyweb.
If these idiotic commentators (replete with their profoundly spurious
but paper-thin viewpoints and inarticulate forms of expression) were a
reflection of our nation's health, we'd be terminally ill and bound
for the mother of all doomsday graveyards. Fortunately for most of us,
based on the number of reader impressions generated by Moneyweb and
the nobler qualities of those smarter minds who contribute insightful
counter arguments or helpful alternative viewpoints, these cyber
sickos form a small minority (or so we better hope and pray).
In recent months, a few cyber commentators have made two startlingly
original and insightful reflections about white South Africans: (1)
white people don't have any culture; and (2) black people don't need
white people or anything developed or made by white people, so all
whites should return to their places of origin.
Barring some people of Semitic origin (mostly members of the South
African Jewish and Lebanese communities), it's probably safe to say
most white South Africans originate from Europe. Like it or not, but
this fascinating continent has been the modern world's primary
fountainhead for spawning many new art and architectural forms,
influential philosophical concepts and welcome advances in almost
every field of science, engineering and technology.
Even modern-day Asians, including the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans,
are deeply indebted to Europe's myriad advances in thought and
achievement since the birth of the Renaissance (never mind the earlier
achievements of the Greeks and other older European cultures). This
assertion, of course, doesn't preclude the many significant
contributions by Arabs, Chinese, Japanese and early Egyptians, among
other influential cultures.
From Gothenburg to Grahamstown, and from Seattle to Seoul, most of our
world's modern-day conveniences and comforts have their origins in
Europe or people of European origin. Just pause for a minute or two to
reflect on the development and greater significance (in rough
chronological order) of universities, cartography, printing presses,
steam trains and railways, photography, telephone and radio
communication, internal-combustion engines, aircraft, television, jet
engines, lasers, personal computers and genetic engineering.
What about material sciences and the development of high-tech alloys,
ceramics, plastics and glass? Let's not forget so many humbler
inventions we take for granted like toothbrushes, razors, waterborne
sewers, ballpoint pens and clothes pegs. In the hallowed halls of
invention, how can anyone forget the feats of Alexander Bell, Henry
Bessemer, Thomas Edison, Blaise Pascal, Nikola Tesla and the Wright
brothers, Wilbur and Orville? One can't neglect John Crapper, either!
Blackout with Boere Basher
One brain-bruising expositor, hiding behind the smug anonymity of the
predictably unoriginal "Boere Basher", informed Moneyweb readers a
fortnight ago he wanted nothing white in his life. Well, Boere Basher,
one can only hope you've found some white-free serenity today beneath
the scant shade of a mopani remote from any South African town or
road. Hopefully, you've traded in all your fine clothes, shoes, watch,
cellphone and laptop for a loincloth and a hunting spear handcrafted
by one of your black brothers (a true African).
Should you still be an urban rat, like most of us, one can only assume
you must be deeply fooked, if not skimp and clueless. Assuming you
have a paying job, you can't hope in hell to receive any financial
rewards, never mind hold a bank account and use a debit or credit
card. Perhaps you've developed the finer art of bartering. Perhaps
you're happy to receive indigenous corn, meat and veggies as your
reward, provided a few of your black supremacist brothers raised the
herds and cultivated the crops free of any agrochemicals and
veterinary services.
In all probability, your white-free job must be prosaic and your job
description duller. You can't use pen and paper, a telephone, a
computer or any office automation; nor can you use a desk, a workbench
or any modern tools and machinery.
No doubt, you're happy to walk barefoot across a few strips of rare
virgin veld to get to your job. Because you can't wear shoes and ride
a bicycle or motorcycle; nor can you own a car or catch a taxi or
train. Chances are there are too many tarred roads and concrete
pavements, which you can't use, so perhaps you have evolved your own
aboriginal form of self-propelled flight.
You can't play soccer, rugby or golf, and you can't watch tennis,
cricket or the Olympics. You're prohibited from buying any product
made with glass, steel, aluminium, paper, plastic or foil. Moreover,
you can't use any homeopathic or allopathic remedies, or visit any
clinic or hospital.
Returning home to your mud 'n' thatch rondavel or woven beehive hut,
which happens to be super eco-cool with the Greens, your blackout
fetish gets literal. You can't light a candle or a paraffin lamp; nor
can you connect to the Eskom grid. For entertainment, you'll have to
ban anything approximating a magazine, newspaper, book, gaming
console, television set, radio or compact hi-fi set.
Boere Basher, you can't own or enjoy a vinyl record, CD or DVD, or
almost any form of commercial board game or playing cards. In
addition, with World Aids Day celebrated earlier this week, you'll
have to take a leaf from Jay Zee's Kama Sutra and refuse to condomise
when one of your few entertainment options means stoking your manly
fire. On taking another leaf or two from your ludicrous paperless
world, you'll have to be astute when Mother Nature heralds another
unavoidable bodily function.
You'll also have to ban anything to do with languages like English,
even in the case of some of their words being corrupted and integrated
into your vernacular language (as is the case with the Zulu word for
"money"). In fact, BB, you can't write your own language because it's
based on a combination of the Latin and French alphabets courtesy of
the pioneering linguistic skills of missionaries, educationists and
other white settlers.
Enjoy your freedom today
The dreaded cliché, "Ignorance is bliss", is frighteningly true. Some
folk love to impersonate an ostrich. They delight in not reading books
or following television debates. They derive freedom in having no or
too few moral convictions, spiritual precepts or intelligent political
ideas. They simply exist, almost sloth-like, in a near-vacuous state
of inertia. They hope life will reward them with a medicum of food,
drink, sex, sleep and an untaxing hobby like watching a local game of
soccer.
The likes of Boere Basher and his contemptuous and ungrateful band of
black supremacists, as with the rest of us, were born with free will
and today have all the inherent opportunities made possible by a free
South Africa. How you direct your life choices and pursue South
Africa's innumerable opportunities is up to your free will, judgement,
skills and drive.
More important, around the world, many of us have embraced Marshall
McLuhan's prophesied Global Village. The Village has many tantalising
elements to relish. While we're free to uphold our own languages,
interests and cultures, we can embrace elements of many others. We're
free to savour Thai, Indian, Mexican and Hungarian culinary delights.
We can indulge in American jazz, blues and folk, European symphonies,
and a cornucopia of African and Asian musical idioms.
We're free to watch films made in Iran, Spain, Chile and New Zealand.
We can read award-winning novels written by writers from Columbia,
Sweden, India and Nigeria. We're free to enjoy and admire the best of
everything planet Earth has to offer. These countless and
ever-increasing gifts are worth more than any nation's treasury,
regardless of the original donor's colour or location.
One's free to watch life blur by in tedious black and white, but some
of us thrive on the 7bn shades of colour that form the incomparable
canvas of our common humanity.
*Michael Waddacor is a writer and music critic.