The chills I feel as I read the Argus today are not a result of the storm from which Cape Town recovers, but rather from what I read in the paper.
The article is about a society of normalised gender violence, our society of normalised gender violence. It touches on the stories of Bredasdorp's Anene Booysen as well as student Jyoti Singh Pandey, who was gang raped and murdered in a bus in India.
Way in on page 11 is where the story appears and there is little left to wonder. We want to ask all these questions, but we have asked then before. What makes people act so, un-human? I use the term 'un-human' because inhumane indicates some form of choice and I hope that any animal that could do the things that these people do are doing so without a choice. The decision to rape and slaughter cannot be the rational thinking of a creation of God...or can it? Another question! Gods role in all of this. Why God, we ask. Why would a God allow this? We can go back many posts ago to the story of the man in the barber shop, where the conclusion is that in this world everything only exists because we acknowledge its existence. But as happy as that story may end, I am sure we can go back in history and find instances where 'going to God' seems of no relevance, perhaps like when a baby is raped? (apologies for the tasteless example but there was a point to be made and I think you got the point).
What are we doing wrong? Why are our people suffering so? I think perhaps the human condition is the biggest problem. We are greedy, we want, we favour, we turn a blind eye, we are selfish. How do we turn away from this?
I'm not saying victims are partially responsible, nobody has any right to harm another human being, what I'm saying is that we are society. We need to step up. Small acts of selflessness can trigger a domino effect. We need to lead by example. There are all sorts of principles in place that we can use to do our bit.
John Miltons' on his blindness teaches us that we must use our God given talents to praise God. This is how we can make a difference, through the traits that God has instilled in us. The problem is that people are not always able to identify there own gifts. I have two perfect examples from just this weekend:
1. I was at the annual SACTWU springqueen pageant, a rather, Erm, drunken crowd and not the most reserved bunch either. A very drunk girl accidentally spat most if the energy drink that was in her mouth, into my face. Now, given the crowd around us, if it were anyone else she may have seen the bottom of the staircase at the top of which we stood, but instead I established how completely wasted she was, and encouraged that she find her friends so that she could get home safely and not with anyone...else. my gift: patience.
2. Sunday, road rage went horribly wrong when the occupants of two vehicles ended up in a full blown fight, complete with crowbars and beer bottles as weapons. It was late afternoon and most of the cars in the road were of the variety that would probably also not step down from a fight, but in this case, as outsiders, they were able to identity that there was a problem here, and like clockwork several people were out of there cars, fearlessly trying to stop a fight without thinking twice of their own safety. Their gifts: fearlessness, courage, faith, and possibly some stupidity. But you get my point.
We can use the gifts God gave us, the things on which we pride ourselves, to make a difference in a world we ruined. Yes its not us but it is our kind, man kind, who stood by and watched as a specie with the most developed thought processes committed the most senseless and profound acts of cruelty.
Just like MJ said, and just like Ghandi said (so it works whether you prefer black, white or Indian), it starts with the man in the mirror- be the change you want to see in the world.
