Join me this Saturday for the Right to Know Rally in Cape Town (https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111889785582542) as we stand up together for our freedoms in a very pivotal moment in South Africa’s modern history! If the Information Bill/Secrecy Bill passes as is, the government will get away with threatening to jail those people who tell the truth about what’s happening in our country – even if it is those in power who are doing wrong and who need to be exposed! We cannot sit idly by and not even attempt to show that we do NOT agree with the ANC leadership’s vision of a press controlled by its government. It’s what the Apartheid Govt did and those days should be history!

Don’t forget to wear red, white and black.

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won you earn it and win it in every generation” – Coretta Scott King .

When I was studying at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and we would walk into the entrance lobby every day, quotes of Joseph Pulitzer would remind us of the importance of a strong, independent press for any true democracy. Without a press that struggles to tell the truth despite the propaganda machines, democracy is in fact a farce.

Here are some of Pulitzer’s words:
 “Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together,” Pulitzer wrote. “An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.”  
 —  Joseph Pulitzer
   
  “There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away. Publicity may not be the only thing that is needed, but it is the one thing without which all other agencies will fail.”
 —  Joseph Pulitzer   

Rally Starts on cnr of Tennant St and Keizersgracht St (outside CPUT) – 10:30am – 1pm

Wear red, white and black!

Last night, I went to the annual Steve Biko lecture. Those who told the truth about how Biko was killed by the secret police would be charged under the Information Bill if it happened today and the Information Bill was Law.

It is shocking that the ANC who fought against how the freedom of the press was blocked in order for the Apartheid Government to hide its wrongdoings is now trying to protect our new government from exposure of its own wrongdoings. The Mail & Guardian has compiled a list of stories that would not have been told (without journalists facing prison time) under the Information Bill – ex the Arms Deal: http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-09-secrecy-bill-the-stories-that-couldnt-be-told/

As Sir Sydney Kentridge, the speaker at the Biko lecture last night, said : all governments have secrets they would prefer do not come out – but NO wrongdoer should be protected from exposure of the truth.

As the ANC also tries to pass a bill allowing police to be even more trigger happy, we face a scary REVERSE into Apartheid times with a police and government who could get away with murder. It is critical we stand up and do what we can to show public opposition to such a block on critical freedoms that we achieved in 1994. The good news is that the Information Bill has seen some changes in response to all the public outcry, so we can remain hopeful that if enough people speak out loudly enough, we can place pressure on our government to put the PUBLIC interest ahead of the interest of those politicians and those in power who are scared of letting their abuses of that power be known. A protection from the truth will only encourage more wrongdoing in people in power who will operate with fewer whistleblowers around…

Only the most basic definition of classified information should be protected (that specific military information which if known could actually harm South Africa and its people), but all information that relates to abuse of law, abuse of power, or abuse of the public interest should always be open for the telling, without the threat of loss of freedom/imprisonment+fines for those who strive to expose the important truths – the telling of which is critical to us being a nation with more integrity, better service delivery, less corruption and a greater opportunity for democracy and prosperity.

Furthermore, there is a trending by the current leadership to operate this country more like a police state – trying to access private BBMs, and using the high crime statistics to try to garner more power while in reality so much of the legislation is to allow certain criminals (some elected) to get away with crimes! We need a strong response to crime, but we do not need a police state nor an authoritarian government who forget our own Bill of Rights:

14. Privacy

Everyone has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have ­

a) their person or home searched;

b) their property searched;

c) their possessions seized;

or d)the privacy of their communications infringed.

16. Freedom of expression Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes ­

a) freedom of the press and other media;

b) freedom to receive or impart information or ideas;

c) freedom of artistic creativity;

and d) academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.

2. The right in subsection (1) does not extend to ­

a)propaganda for war;

b) incitement of imminent violence;

or c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

It only took 15-17 years for us to have to be fighting for our freedom again, but let’s fight now before the battle/stakes becomes as big as battles we saw in recent history…

Please join me and friends and thousands of others this Saturday as we march under the banner of THE RIGHT TO KNOW CAMPAIGN. Hope to see you there!

INFORMATION ABOUT THE MARCH:

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/event.php?eid=111889785582542

Time Saturday, September 17 · 10:30am – 1:00pm 

Location Starts on cnr of Tennant St and Keizersgracht St (outside CPUT) 

Created By Right 2 Know Campaign 

On Saturday 17 September (10.30am-1pm – right after the rugby), thousands of South Africans will join in a march to Parliament to reject the final draft of the ‘Secrecy Bill’.

For more information, and to organise transport for your community: Nkwame Cedile: nkwame.cedile@gmail.com 021 461 7211 or 078 227 6008 *** Come dressed in red, black and white! ***

Max was a bright spark of energy, filled with joy and affection, on a path to a creative and successful life. He was in university, studying filmmaking, and he and his “partner-in-crime” Vusi were always working on or dreaming up projects. They did everything together – from church to their studies to their photographic training. I was looking forward to seeing what they would end up creating individually and together with their burst of literary and creative energies.

Max is the 3rd tragic death I’ve experienced in Cape Town in the past year – all people I’ve worked with or know from the townships. Thembi was the first. After doing a radio diary about her life with AIDS (http://www.aidsdiary.org), Thembi became a sort of poster child for getting tested and living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. She was on many PSAs in South Africa, and even spoke on panels in the US with former President Bill Clinton. She was taking her meds and doing well. Unfortunately Thembi was suddenly hospitalized with TB and in a very short span of time died from the disease. Apparently the TB strain was drug resistent, and of course as an HIV infected person, her immune system was compromised, but still, if she had access to better healthcare, she may have had a different outcome.

The second death was the mother of a girl I work with on a radio/mentorship project in the Khayelitsha township. Her mom sold chickens in the township for a living and was a single parent struggling to provide for her family, often not even having enough money to send her daughter to school. Apparently, she had suffered with diabetes, and this may have been connected with her death (the information here was murky), but there remains the very real possibility that if she had proper medical treatment, her daughter would not have become an orphan at age 16.

Another girl I work with has recently had a very painful cough and luckily for her it didn’t turn out to be something serious like TB. She didn’t get tested or treated as she has no medical insurance and she didn’t go to the community clinic despite being very sick because she says it would involve waiting in a line all day starting from 4am if one wanted to be seen that day. (A scene in the film “Yesterday” highlights this scenario.)

South Africa of course has a resource problem, but if there were more clinics, and people had access to care to manage their daily health, those clinics/doctors etc could also provide critical healthcare education (esp related to HIV/AIDS) to their patients and could encourage people to get tested while there!

But the availability of quality medical care here is very much lacking for the masses and when you start to have more people from poorer communities in your community of friends, you realize the impact. For me, it’s been three deaths this past year, but I know a woman who runs a community center in a township here and she seems to be at a funeral every other week!

I heard a statistic today that 1,000 people are newly infected with HIV every day in South Africa. I don’t know if this is correct but all the numbers paint a very bleak picture: 390,000 children in sub-saharan africa being infected with HIV in 2008, around 10-11% of the entire population of South Africa living with HIV, and this number gets as high as 18% when only considering the 15-49 age group!

Instead of just trying to suck every last penny from South Africa’s poorest by tempting people with sweepstakes prizes for those who send in high-cost sms’es, why don’t companies like the cellphone provider MTN who is able to smother the African market with their soccer world cup marketing so much so that “ayoba (sweet/cool)” is now a part of local vocabulary send sms’es to their subscribers with incentives for people who get tested for HIV? Offer them free sms’es or airtime (it really costs MTN little to nothing-if MTN needs an incentive, how’s this?: Once someone dies,they’re no longer buying your airtime!) or enter them into a drawing? Or instead of vodacom sending out dozens of sms’es to its customers about vodacom promotions, why not send out a clear health related message from time to time? Clearly we need to be more innovative if we are ever going to slow the tide of AIDS which is drowning Africa.

And this is not just about AIDS. This is about life and healthcare everywhere. In a country like the US where there are enough resources, it amazes me how some people can still argue against ensuring that all Americans should have access to decent healthcare, healthcare that can allow them to treat diabetes before it becomes deadly, or get lifesaving surgery when necessary. Are informed and experienced specialists or diagnostic tests a luxury only for those who have money or employment health benefits? It’s bad enough that people living in poverty often live in conditions that do not support health (asbestos shacks, cold living spaces, non-nutritional diets), but then when they are sick, do we close the door to recovery on them?

Yes, some deaths are unpreventable, but others are preventable and when politics, corruption or special interests block people from access to diagnosis and treatment, we should surely question ourselves and our hearts !

Instead of mourning a genocide, what if we could stop one?
www.SaveDarfur.org/now

We see in Madiba’s story how much the political tide of opinion can shift – from the way much of the world viewed him and his comrades during their days as freedom-fighters, to the way they are honored globally nearly 50 years later.

My friend Kathy (Ahmed Kathrada) talks about how the South African Apartheid government would take photos of the political prisoners, dirty and unshaven, trying to make them appear like “terrorists”, and in many ways, they were successful. Shockingly, Madiba, and others, were only removed off the US terror watch list last month! 

Madiba was just one of thousands of men, women and children, of all races, who fought heroically against Apartheid. My cousin Haroon Patel spent much of his youth in prison because of his role in the struggle. Kathy spent more than 26 years alongside Madiba on Robben Island and in Pollsmoor Prison. Kathy’s partner, a white woman, MP Barbara Hogan spent ten years in jail for treason. There were many others. But Madiba is our representation of the struggle, of the battle of right versus wrong, and the hard-won victory for justice.

These heroes gave up so much for the cause: their families, their youth, their lives. They were organized and dignified.

There’s much about the ANC organizational structure and traditions that led to the success of the struggle. Unfortunately, now, ANC hierarchy, and the unwillingness of most members to speak out against their comrades even when they are corrupt or hurting the country is a sign of the change that still needs to happen within the ANC, and within South Africa.

The recent Xenophobic violence in South Africa and the threats of ANC youth league leader Julius Malema to take up arms and kill for Zuma are also signs of the huge contrast between the direction Madiba was leading South Africa in, and the direction of his successors.  There is a lack of the rule of law in South Africa now: crime is rampant, South African policemen are regularly bribed, the President has inappropriate influence on the national broadcaster, Malema threatens to incite violence around the judicial handling of the Zuma matter without criminal or significant political recourse. All of this is a stark contrast to the ideas and ideals that Madiba tried to instill in South Africa during its first days of democracy. As Madiba gets older, and the current government leadership gets further away from Madiba’s political, unified and peaceful legacy, the importance of Madiba’s legacy is underscored, as are the challenges to keeping it alive.

For Madiba, Kathy, and many of the other prisoners on Robben Island, they spent nearly three decades reading, acquiring knowledge, unfolding inner and learned wisdom, writing and developing ideas around society. Many are/were men and women of conscience, of strength, of clarity and of magnitude. Their political lives showed that they cared less for their own status than for the interests of their countrymen.  Many political prisoners were able to exit prison, not with hatred in their hearts, but with ideas for reconciliation at the forefront, and ready to pave paths to peace and growth. 

Madiba’s inner-circle (both during the struggle, and since democracy) is a rainbow of non-racialism. His Personal Assistant and protector, the woman perhaps as close to him as his wife, Zelda La Grange is an Afrikaaner woman. Madiba didn’t just talk the talk. He lived it. The man who was released from jail held none of that same racism that made him carry a pass in South Africa, that made him wear shorts (to be like a “boy”) in prison, that killed and oppressed his friends, family, comrades and countrymen. His message of reconciliation and his message on unification is perhaps at the heart of why Madiba is so revered and so loved.

I have been fortunate enough to be in Madiba’s presence a few times, and whether its a function of his stature or not is hard to know, but his radiance emanates, and one immediately feels that this is a man who gets it, a wise man, a gifted soul. He smiles, you smile.

I feel sorry for him too – to be so in demand, to be so protected, to follow the prison of jail with that of extreme celebrity. I hope that now, after his 90th birthday, he will stop with all the public appearances and events, and focus, for a change, on himself, and living in that sort of personal peace.

I think many of us have anxiety around the possibility of Madiba passing away soon. At 90, that’s on many people’s minds. One hears people talking about it a lot – journalists, those who run or work for the various Nelson Mandela Foundation organizations etc. Madiba passing will be a great loss to the world – to all of his family and loved ones, but also to South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world. To have such a legend living amongst us is a gift. So many of the leaders, like Ghandi or Martin Luther King, who really stepped out on the ledge in order to lead us and bring about justice are no longer with us. Madiba has been a voice of reason, of peace, of justice, of fairness, of impact, of compassion and of love. Such leaders are few and far between. And with so few inspirational leaders in South Africa presently, not having Madiba’s voice of leadership in times of crisis could be tragic. When Madiba passes, it’s undoubtedly going to be this huge global news event, and probably even a media circus, but it’s also going to be a time where we have to look beyond the sadness in our hearts and look towards how to continue his legacy, to keep what he has taught us alive and present.

South Africa has many huge challenges – crime, poverty, disease and political corruption amongst the greatest. To overcome this, we need to remember that although Madiba is extraordinary, he is also just a man. He was not alone and did not walk his path alone. We need to find the “madibas” within each of ourselves, and the many madibas walking around us, and nurture the beauty and the strength, helping to fill the huge gaps of leadership that his absence will leave behind.

Madiba’s legacy is one of leadership, sacrifice, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace-making, charity, love and joy. He is a man of immense gifts, of great courage, wisdom, humility and humanity. He helps us see the potential in ourselves, and of those around us. We can be good. We can do great things. He reminds us not to be complacent and that change, even when it seems impossible is always reachable. We have so much to learn from, and be grateful for Madiba.

May the years he has ahead be filled with health, peace, joy and love, and may we honor him by keeping his legacy strong.

Happy Birthday Madiba!

Furthermore, she thinks the fact that she can win voters in West Virginia, many of whom told pollsters that racism is the reason they voted for her – that they simply will not vote for a Black man – is reason enough to overturn the results of the primary (Why are we having a primary again? Should we just be having a ‘Would you ever vote for a black man?’ poll?). Hilary is now suggesting that the votes of those who’ve said they will not vote for a Black man for President should count for more than the votes everyone else cast!

Obama will get the vote of many Black Republicans, and of those votes, some will be simply be because he shares their race. Many people of all racial backgrounds will allow race to be the defining factor in their decision. This will give Hilary some votes, and this will give Obama some votes. Some of those same voters take it a step further and will refuse to vote for someone who is not their race regardless of who the final candidates are.

Americans don’t usually have the choice to vote based purely on racial preference in general elections, but if they did, and let’s say the Republican nominee was a Black man, and if Black Democratic voters said they’d actually vote for a Black Republican over a White Democrat, would Obama be giving that as the reason he should be the nominee, even if he had lost the primary? Even though there are some male (and even female) voters from both parties who will vote for a man over a woman, despite political affiliation, or experience or character, do we hear Obama giving that concept validity in the race? No, we don’t reward bigots! We don’t give bigotry political precedence. We don’t say let’s turn over the democratic process and the will of the majority, and let the person with the fewest votes and fewest elected delegates get the trophy (even though they lost the competition) because a small minority of voters are such bigots that they won’t vote for a Black man or a White woman? We don’t give people more of a say than the rest of America simply because they’re bigots, even swinging bigots. Seriously, Hilary, give up!