Who gives a crap about what you think or write, anyhow?

Been going through one of those phases where you wonder whether the effort of opening up TypePad to rant about your latest bit of angst actually matters at all. Particularly when we have people, in the run-up to celebrating our 'African Unity' on Africa Day, mutilating some and burning alive, others of their peers. Dear Jesus. What a world we live in. More specifically, what a country. However, this morning I was skim-reading the Sunday Crimes, er Times and ran across this exquisitely insightful piece by the talented wordsmith, Helen Walne. It's not about Xenophobia, or crime. But about social media. Read it. It helps put certain things into context. Right click on the article and select 'Open link in a new window' to read.
Yeah, and just discovered the article online anyhow. So if you're too lazy to right click, then click here! ;-)

Comments

[Jacques de Villiers]

Hey Clive,

Who gives a crap? I think your writing, mine, David Bullard's and anyone else who speaks out only makes us feel better. It is like a release valve which is water off the guilty party's back. My dad was politically outspoken in the 60s and had to write under a false name for fear of being shot. Yet, his writing, Braam Fischer, Beyers Naude and the like hardly made the government of the day flinch. The DA can cry until it is blue in the face, but all those members of parliament who were involved with the Travelgate scandal are going to walk without having to pay back a cent. The fact that 90% of South Africans want the Scorpions to stay will not deter our dictatorial government from closing it down (If you calculate the column centimetres of space in the papers on this issue ... it runs into millions of rands worth of publicity). It didn't make an iota of difference, did it.

So, I suppose your rants and my raves, just make us feel better ... but, I'm not sure they make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things.

[Clive Simpkins]

Jacques, That's of course, precisely the point. The Zulus have a delightful aphorism. It says: 'Only a foolish man urinates into the wind.' I fear that's what we do. It's not even a constructive process, because it just upsets people but doesn't, I think, change anything. So, going all philosophical, why even expend the energy writing it? Probably better to save mweb the bandwidth! ;-)

[suki]

Hi

I like your blog!
My friend passed away a month ago - she had no service or anything...a few days after her death I located her blog...it is like reading her letters...and I feel much better being able to read her blog - so PLEASE don't stop blogging!

[Clive Simpkins]

Suki, guess you're right. I think Jacques and I will have to settle for the fact that it's a ventilation mechanism. Even if it causes inadvertent intergalactic offence now and again! ;-)

[Jacques de Villiers]

Hey Clive,

Farting against thunder more like it. But what's that saying (you'll know it better than me) ... something to the effect of "Evil happens when good men/women do nothing ..." So, keep on writing and taking people to task. I'm certainly going to keep on doing it. I see you gave Outsurance a lekker klap. I'm about to have a go at Apple. By the way, I suppose protest does work even though the wheels turn slowly ... when my dad left the Dutch Reformed church in disgust (over apartheid) in 1960, it only took 34 years for him to see his dream of a a non-racial society come to fruition (I'm glad he lived long enough to see it happen in 1994 and I'm glad that he's not around now to see how it is being stuffed up).