I've been on the internet with my web pages since the mid 1990s. First I started off with a wallpaper site (http://myqts.tripod.com) which expanded quite rapidly in the first two years. I had to find more space and at the time the guys offering free space and bandwidth, limited users to something like 5Megs. Thus we jumped to Angelfire with part of the MYQTS site published there.
Eventually my first publication on GPSA was with Tripod (http://gpsa.tripod.com). With a mate of mine doing very well with a (now) major internet player in South Africa, I registered and moved my website to CMC Networks. It's been there ever since.
GPSA started off as an outlet for my frustrations getting used to being under black rule since 1994. Not only the change of direction politically, but the assumption by white South Africans that they can now do as the black man did all those years under apartheid.
If you don't understand what I mean by that it will be very difficult to explain. What is important to know about South Africa is the immense diversity of cultures, each with their own unique customs.
What we see as barbaric (mostly due to different values), is the black mans culture. Like slaughtering a cow in celebration of whatever. What's happening now is that these customs are practiced amongst old white neighbourhoods. Obviously quite a shock to our systems.
Back on the farm where I spent a lot of my childhood years we used to first shoot the animal (preferably in the head for a quick and easy death) before slaughter. The black man custom is to kill it by panga - an agonising death for sure.
The white man does not know enough of the black man custom. From there the fear of the 'unknown'. But that's not it. Not totally.
The Dutch landed in the Cape and negotiated and traded with the local Bushman (Khoi). All of the various tribes in Africa were 'roamers' and thus no black men existed as far as the settlers were concerned until they expanded to the Fishriver where they bump into the Xhosa. The Xhosa initially traded with the settlers until they were forced to either work for the settlers or move further north.
Working for the Boer entitled them to certain priveleges on the condition that they abide by the white mans laws. They mostly did and the law was certainly on their side, even though they had no voting rights.
The fact that the white man arrived here and immediately started putting structures in place for towns and law, and then met up with a gypsey type roamer tribe(s) immediately put the black man at a disadvantage. They lived in huts constructed of straw and clay, they moved around by foot and used spears to hunt. They did not know God - which played a major role with the Dutch and later the British.
So obviously an advanced civilisation settled on the Southern tip of Africa. Numerous historic documents show that north of the Pietersburg, there were no indigenous people. Could it be that the trekkers just never saw them? The first civilisation encountered were at the foot of the Soutpansberge, an extensive mountain range in the far north of South Africa. They are still there today. To the east some more tribes were encountered such as the Phedi with the Sotho a bit more south (between Pretoria and Pietersburg).
That was a quick history lesson.
A corrupt government saw the white man (in general) starting to behave like our black government officials. No regard for the law nor for their neighbours. General law started breaking down. People did as they pleased and got off with bribes (most of the time). With the integration of previous freedom fighters into every possible government service, whether qualified or not saw the collapse of government institutions from which the ANC government is still trying to recover fifteen years later.
No-one ever expected a terrorist organisation like the ANC to be capable of governing a country, but they did. To the black man this was victory and come what may, they will rule (even though they cannot govern). In their initiation years the previous white government held their hands, making a lot of money out of it. Ex-government officials contracted their services out to an incapable ANC government to show them the ropes. Once these guys were confident enough to shrug off the white man, or purely because of hating the white race they took over and did as they pleased.
From a culture of a headman in charge of a kraal, they now had a free hand with little respect of the laws laid down by their own comrades. It was a free for all. Shaka (king of the Zulu nation) was probably far more advanced in his leadership than all the other tribes put together in Africa. The Zulu was by far the strongest nation the trekkers encountered in the 1700s. Devious and unforgiving, easy to retract on their promises as Piet Retief found out. He and his party of Boers were killed by Shaka after an agreement on land negotiations went south. Shaka changed his mind after he realised that the Boer cannot be messed with. He was scared of the might of the white man and was eventually killed for his cowardice.
The black man thinks he owes nothing to the white man. In fact, it's the white man who owes everything. The possessions, the houses, the streets, the towns, the businesses, the infrastructure and the economy. They've taken most and they're still taking. Not only material but life as well. Through brutal slaughtering to simple stabbings, they take. And they keep asking for more.
As with Zimbabwe our economy is slowly dying. There is a bright light every now and again but the pride of being South African is dying within the white community. The infrastructure we handed to the new 'owners' were immense and it takes time to destroy, even for the black man.
Personally I'm hoping for a turn around. I am fortunate in that I've dealt with some decent like-minded black people. We can work together but for the majority who are still trapped in a mindset of ignorance and their false belief of what freedom means.
Is this what they've done with their freedom? Is this what freedom means to them? If that's the case, God help us all.
