A South African Street Diary
"Dressing in my unhappy face ‘cause they don’t know the unhappiest face shows nothing..."
This is a quick reminder that the coming South African election is about poverty. It’s about the corruption that has stolen the future from the 5-year-old child begging for R2 from the Mercedes at the traffic light. It’s about the lack of education that robs the future. It’s especially about millions of us realising that we don’t have to be afraid of of a few political thieves trying to teach us that their history of failure doesn’t matter when we vote.
A STREET DIARY
Every raindrop hits me!
In Winter night, my skin reads the newspaper,
and I awake educated to the street
The cold colds
The robot beckons me to beg a coin
Dressing in my unhappy face
(‘cause they don’t know the unhappiest face shows nothing),
I jostle with the Coca-Cola man to get my tax relief
Later, I’ve got my bread and single cigarette,
and I’m playing hide-and-hide with the older boys
Thank God, they don’t see the Angel in my pocket
‘cause I’m gonna sniff her all the way to Heaven
Sure, I’ve got no shoes and sometimes shiver
but I know that the only difference
between me and that man in the car (closing his window),
is that he’s always in Heaven.
Hi Mike, Since 2017 there has been a movement in SA that will hopefully change your mind about voting: Its purpose is to change the existing faux-democracy into a truer form of democracy by instituting a Direct Elections system. This means that you vote for representatives at all levels, including the president, in their personal capacity, in your local constituency, and most importantly that you can recall them. The effect will be to enforce accountability, end the baneful, divisive influence of political parties and their funders on SA politics, end large-scale corruption, cadre deployment, overseas policy agendas etc. Parallel to the political goal is the social goal of educating and uplifting all South Africans to become as independent of government and corporate control as possible. This national unity is achievable by focusing on our shared values and principles, not on our differences. In fact, our cultural diversity is a source of strength and resilience. The Organic Humanity Movement OHM (the unit of resistance) is funded entirely by members and supporters, not by any corporates or NGOs. OHM is on the national and regional ballot for parliament in 2024, much to the consternation and dismay of the incumbents. Think of OHM as the party to end all parties.
I get so irritated when my fellow young South Africans take this voting matter as a joke, they're now all over social media talking about giving the ruling party another chance because "it's better the devil you know" and because of some dance challenge on tiktok, makes me really wonder if we're living in the same country and seeing the same day to day struggles people go through