South Africans are spectators to their own lives
Last week at opposite ends of the world two events (one of
many) occurred. Both were remarkable. They were not similar in any way, but each told
us about the values of the respective societies in which they occurred and the
paths those societies are on.
On September 8 at Cape Canaveral 7.05pm local time Nasa
launched Osiris-Rex spacecraft on a two year journey to intercept the asteroid
Bennu. It will study Bennu for two years,
take samples from the surface and return them to Earth in 2023. The samples will help scientists understand
more about how Earth and the solar system developed.
On September 6 in Durban students set fire to the Howard College law library causing extensive damage and destroying “rare and valuable
books”, including ancient Roman-Dutch volumes.
George Devenish,
emeritus
professor and one of the drafters of the interim constitution, wrote in BDlive he observed the news on television
in “horror” and “wept” when he visited the scene.
“The Howard law library is part of the heritage of all South
Africans and an incomparable resource of which we can all be proud. Its damage
is a source of profound pain for all those who use it and value it.”
Of course the destruction must be condemned. But of significance to me is that first, it
occurred at a university, an almost sacred arena of rational debate, free
speech, learning and research.
Second, these occurrences have become commonplace at
universities throughout the country, and reflect incidences and attitudes in
society.
Third, while university management and government react passively
and in utter confusion to events as they occur, they also paternalistically
indulge students and allow them space to continue their actions by making
excuses for them and not taking, or being reluctant to take, disciplinary and
criminal action against offenders.
This pattern was started at the University of Cape Town in
2015, supposedly the country’s leading university.
Fourth, events like at Howard College indicate to me that as
a young nation we are not on a path of exploration and discovery, but nihilism
– destroying and negating anything we don’t like, or that stands in our way or
beliefs, be they ideas, flesh or matter.
Devenish said students “do their cause and the country great
harm by resorting to acts of violence and destroying resources which exist for
their use and upliftment”.
But I resist the patronising notion university, government,
analysts and sometimes media offer that funding, or “legitimate grievances”, is
a sufficient cause of irrational and destructive behaviour. However, it’s learned from a society where
such acts are tolerated and tacitly encouraged.
Remember, in 2015 UCT management, government and sections of
the media and public applauded Chumani Maxwele and UCT students when they
tested their and authorities’ mettle in a consequence-free environment. Max Price stood ingratiatingly
at their side, all the while condoning
what they were doing and had achieved, while Rhodes’ statue was toppled to televised jubilation. This was the match that lit the fuse.
Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Caltech – ranked 5th
for 2016 by QS World University Rankings – is at the vanguard of space
exploration. JPL’s engineers and
scientists build and operate planetary spacecraft. JPL’s Juno spacecraft entered Jupiter’s orbit
on July 4, 2016 and will gaze beyond the planet’s dense clouds to pierce its
mysteries. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, has
left the solar system, the first man-made object to enter deep space.
The point I’m making is dedication to knowledge, creativity,
exploration, discovery and advancement starts with imagination. And it starts with enquiring minds, nurtured
from childhood in a society that encourages thought, ideas and reflection that
transcends the mundane, and values it for its own sake. But it develops and grows to fruition through
education and at universities.
Caltech is a place where physicist and cosmologist
Stephen Hawking is “geek cool”. His public
lecture in 2013 was akin to a rock star event where the hundreds deep line
for seats in the auditorium started at 8am for an 8pm start time.
The brilliant minds of Caltech and JPL receive recognition
in popular entertainment like TV’s The
Big Bang Theory and the novel and movie The
Martian.
People may say I’m being unrealistic comparing developed countries
like the US, which can easily afford hundreds of millions of dollars on a single
science or cultural
project, to South Africa. But I’m not.
South Africa suffers from exceptionalism, the notion we as a
nation are unique, that our problems and history are unique and particularly
difficult, and lessons cannot be learned from elsewhere in the world at any
time in history. And yes, sometimes our
rare successes are crowed about as being unique too, the peaceful transition to
democracy being the one I’m thinking of.
Since World War 2 many countries proved a successful transition
can be made from social and economic ruin, from a backward or disadvantaged
state to stability and prosperity in a relatively short time, in some cases a
generation – Germany and Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. (Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all
have active aero-space programmes, considered the pinnacle of scientific and
technological advancement and human achievement.)
Vietnam, though, is described as a “development success
story”, following political and economic reforms launched in 1986. The World Bank country
review states:
“Reforms transformed the country from one of the poorest in
the world, with per capita income around $100, to lower middle income status
within a quarter of a century with per capita income of around $2,100 by the
end of 2015.”
Vietnam’s growth since 1990 has been among the fastest in
the world, ranging from 5.5% since 1990 to 6.4% in the 2000s. Its estimated
growth for 2015 is 6.7%.
It is worth remembering Vietnam was in a state of war from
1947 to 1975. In 1976 a socialist
republic was formed that implemented a “Stalinist
dictatorship of the proletariat”. Dire
political and social conditions caused an exodus of a million Vietnamese by sea
– “boat people” – and land.
In 1994 South Africa faced economic and social challenges,
but it was surmountable. In comparison to countries like Vietnam and similar it
had good, intact infrastructure, a sound legal system and civil and state
institutions. It still had world-class
businesses and universities.
People were working and in school. Their health and social needs were attended
to, even if it was not as fast as government promised or they desired. And their liberties were buttressed by a
constitution that Devenish helped write enforcing socio-economic rights,
described as one of the best in the world.
But under the tyranny of a discredited socialist philosophy even
mother Russia abandoned (perestroika), and a culture of corruption
and incompetence among governing party apparatchiks, South Africa turned
victory into defeat.
The economic system we have today – monopolistic,
overregulated, inefficient, high cost, closed, low growth, high unemployment
and antithetical to innovation – was the Faustian bargain the ANC struck with white
capital, that is, the monolithic corporations that ran the economy, to not
change the status quo so that they could continue their monopoly power after democracy.
Thus the ANC partnered with self-invested capital, and black
economic empowerment and its overnight multi-millionaire oligarchs were the
pay-off. Corruption,
a chronically stagnant economy and poor social conditions originated around 1994. We are living with this legacy, not apartheid’s,
and should apportion blame where it’s due.
However, the exceptionalism that smothers the ANC (“the ANC
will rule until Jesus comes”; “the ANC is self-correcting”), the left, many in
the media and many self-pitying members of society, including nihilistic
students, says everything that went wrong over the past 22 years is solely the
fault of colonialism and apartheid. So there
appears to be a systematic attempt to rewrite pre- and post-apartheid history. An indiscriminate purge has begun.
“Colonial” and “apartheid” statues and art, and those deemed
so including post-apartheid works by black artists, are ripped off pedestals,
covered up and put in deep storage. “Euro-centric”
or “Western” philosophy and concepts are questioned, and freedom
of expression is normative.
Lectures are cancelled, lecturers chased out of auditoria and
libraries and books burnt. Free speech, debate
and independent thought are stifled and self-censorship imposed at campuses,
and elsewhere. The essence of a
university is being erased one idea at a time.
It’s appalling to me this incendiary wave started at the
university I went to, facilitated, encouraged and actively managed by the
principal, executive and some academics labouring under whatever delusions they
may have.
University funding and high fees are a problem, but one
developed countries have too. But they do
not break down institutions like Caltech and others of less distinction brick
by brick, as South Africans are determined to do with theirs.
They work through the problem until a solution is
found. Sometimes there is no immediate,
satisfactory answer – that is the way of the universe. Only spoilt children or the psychologically
disturbed expect instant gratification, problem free, and for the world to be laid
at their feet.
Most of South Africa’s problems are self-manufactured. People are poor because against sound advice
they persistently elect venal and misguided leaders whose policies
ensure they remain poor. They are
ignorant and unskilled because they set fire to schools and universities, and intimidate
the country’s fallible leaders into doing nothing.
And while the world explores new frontiers, they are left
behind, rewriting history to fulfil their narratives they are its perennial
victims, and spectators to their own lives.
This article was previously published on Politicsweb
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