It seems that these days, all you have to do to get a blog campaign rolling is to stick a five letter word in front of ZA or SA and Bob is the maniacal leader of your neighbouring country. It’s almost tempted me into organising one myself, which would obviously be DrinkZA. I hear that others are considering FightZA, but I’m not subscribing to that.
One that I’m happy to put my name down for is UniteSA – organised by Rob Valentine – because I think that the more sane voices that speak out at the moment, the better and thus, I agree with all that he writes below (although I am hugely disappointed that he didn’t manage to get the word “hubris” in there anywhere).
South Africa stands at a crossroads – a time in which racial tensions run high and the attention of the world is focused on us. Neither the people of South Africa nor the country itself can afford to have negativity and irrational outbursts rule our daily lives.
To that end, UniteSA is an attempt to bring people from all corners of our nation together in a call for peace, calm and rational thought.
Various ministers have called for restraint as has President Zuma – certain organisations have chosen to use this time to push a political agenda and we appeal to them to allow the authorities the chance they need to resolve the issues.
We urge the people of South Africa to express faith in the police force and the justice system at this time.
We call upon the ANC to rein in Julius Malema appropriately and urge him to behave responsibly.
We call upon the AWB to continue to act responsibly after the death of Eugene Terre’Blanche.
We call upon the National Government to plan for protection of farmers as they worry about their futures.
We express our solidarity and empathy for those who have suffered because of crime and corruption in our country.
We are far stronger united than we are apart.
Blogroll
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/gatherer/
http://www.dreamfoundry.co.za/
http://www.6000.co.za
http://loveandpolitics.co.za
http://synapses.co.za
http://fsi.org.za
http://www.macgeek.co.za
http://www.futurechurch.co.za
http://www.robsramblings.co.za
http://antithesis.blognation.co.za
http://jhbprincess.blognation.co.za
As with any blog/social media campaign, the more noise that can be made about this, the better it will work. So please use the retweet button below as liberally as you can, visit the other blogs on the list and feel free to link to, copy or publicise this post as much as you like.
Oh – and before I go, please, please take the time to read Sipho Hlongwane’s column in the Daily Maverick on this issue, because it might just be the most accurate and most salient collection of words I have ever set eyes upon (outside this blog).
Simply brilliant.
And more: here from COPE’s Mosiuoa Lekota:
“If the ruling party continues on this path, then any disaster will be on their heads,” he said when asked about the potential explosive situation in the country.
Lekota condemned the ANC in general and Jacob Zuma in particular for not taking action against Julius Malema’s “kill the boer” song.
“I may be an African, but I feel uneasy when I hear these songs, because I feel somewhere somebody is encouraging young people to do these things… The government should take actions against anybody who says you must kill, even if it is in a song.”
A view echoed in part by Jacques Rousseau at his synapses.co.za blog.