Case Of a Class Injustice

Source:jesuitjottings.

A weekend or two ago I went to visit my sister in Cape Town, and since my life is what it is, I had to take a taxi. No, not Uber, not American or British taxi, this is the kind that is supposed to sit sixteen but somehow (though not always) I find myself among the twenty or so that are lucky enough to have a seat with four other people squatting or standing somewhere packed like squashed loaves of bread.

For this particular trip I had a seat but I was unlucky because I found myself seated directly in front of the SDO (Sliding Door Operator). He insisted that we’re meant to be together forever and in due time I’ll realize how big a mistake I made by telling him to leave me alone and move along. This is all while he is sitting on the engine with his back to the passenger front seat and my legs between his. I suppose I should have been grateful for the SDO’s chatter because as soon as his chatter subsided I became painfully aware of the of the man beside me who had his arm on the backrest of the seat we shared and was sweating profusely onto my shoulder. I take taxis all the time and it always annoys me, but it’s not the fact that I had my legs between some stranger’s legs but because I realized some people have to go through this every day and some have been doing it for decades and it doesn’t change. The system does not care for the poor.

The taxi eventually dropped me off at another bus/taxi stop and I stood with a bunch of other people who, by the resigned and tired looks on their faces, had just clocked-off work and were on their way home. While I stood in the dark with strangers wondering whether my sister would eventually find me, I watched My Citi buses come and go on the other side of the road, and the group I stood with get smaller as they got on Golden Arrow buses and taxis on my side of the road, I felt anger brew slowly in my chest.

The My Citi bus service is part of an Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system in Cape Town that is funded by the National Department of Transport’s Public Transport Infrastructure and Systems Grant. I’m not sure how the system actually works but I guess it works much like the Gautrain only it’s a bus.  You get a MyCiti Card and you load money on the card and you can use that card to take you on any of the routes that the bus covers so long as you have credits (or whatever) on the card. There are several My Citi stations spread out across Table View, Blaauwberg, Atlantis, Dunoon, Joe Slovo and Parklands. I probably missed a few but that’s not the point.  MyCiti buses have their own lane, that (as far as I’m concerned) other vehicles cannot use, the stations (I think that’s what they’re called) look rather fancy and cozy. The service (disregarding everything else) is what I hope the rest of public transport becomes.

The aim of the whole project is to reduce the use of private vehicles for everyday commute and consequently deal with traffic congestion and reduce carbon emissions. Throwing a tantrum because not everyone can use the bus service would not only be a waste of time but it would also be idiotic since the bus does not travel everywhere in the Western Cape.  But I’ll still throw a tantrum. The bus lane is not accessible to all public transport providers, i.e. taxis (yes, the sixteen/twenty-seater that I use) and other buses that aren’t MyCiti buses; the shelter that My Citi stations provide is only accessible to card holders, these two facts are the source of my grievance. So the rest of us that don’t have membership (or whatever it’s called) stand in the cold and watch those who can afford sit in fancy-shmancy MyCiti shelters across the road. My phone camera probably ranks among the worst but I hope the pictures below or above  (or somewhere on this page) still communicate my   point.

The claim that one of the main aims of the project is to reduce traffic congestion is a lie. Instead the project aims to save money for middle and upper class citizens (especially with the trend that fuel prices seem to following). The system was developed because private commute is not as convenient as it used to be!

If the aim of the project is truly to reduce traffic congestion it shouldn’t be so exclusive. The bus lane should be accessible to sixteen/twenty-seater taxis, jammies and other public transport providers! We can all agree that taxis can be annoying and are the cause of much road rage. Taxis have been around for decades if not centuries, they are used by lower class citizens. However, there are very few (if any) measures to improve the taxi system or public transport delivery to the poor. And because capitalism, class discrimination (and consequently racial discrimination) are in intrinsic part of the wretched system that governs our country efficient and effective solutions to social problems are tailored to benefit the middle and upper class. The very people that don’t particularly need these solutions.

It is no secret that quality service delivery to the lower class has never been a priority in South Africa, service delivery to the poor (especially in the Western Cape) is but a facade. Those that need the services the most are bypassed. The people whose tax is and was used to build public facilities don’t have access to the very same facilities that their money went towards building.


The system and the people that are part of the system that governs this country govern it in such a way that it benefits them and their peers and not for the benefit of the general public (especially the poor). This is just one case of a class injustice; the country is riddled with such cases. The next generation (our generation) has to do a better job at providing for the poor. Citizens that have a voice and an audience must speak up for those that don’t.

EoP.

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This Democracy Is A Lie

Source: Media Cache

It’s a full week since the disaster that is the American elections, the shock has worn off for some and others are still in mourning. For some, the outcome of the elections came as no surprise, I tend to think these are the people who have long given up on humanity. For some of us, somewhat optimistic, we hoped and thought the outcome would be different.

While I could go on about how tragic the outcome is and how it’s an indication of the racial and gender discrimination that still exists and is deeply rooted in our society (because this really isn’t just about America) I will instead talk about post the election.

Hillary seems to have lost this election in a similar manner to Al Gore in 2000, while Hillary hasn’t won the election she won the popular vote. I’m not entirely sure how the voting system works but a candidate can either win both the popular vote and the electoral college vote or they can win just the electoral vote (I’m not sure if I’m using the right words here). In order for a president elect (smirk, big words) to win the election the candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes (there are 538 electors on the college).

Source: i.ndtvimg.com

According to NBC news Clinton won the popular vote by a bit over a million votes, yet the orange one gets to run the country (the picture along side is a bit biased but I don't care :) ). I’ve said this before (in my previous post actually), I’m a firm believer of the quote by Emma Goldman that says “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal”. A candidate who hasn't won the popular vote has been sworn in four times in the American democratic history. I could go into a long winded lecture about who (unjustly) lost the election when and what the circumstances were, but I refuse to be such a bore. All I can say is it’s happened four times before this and the last time it happened was in 2000 when George W. Bush was declared the winner of the general election despite having lost the popular vote to Al Gore.

Following George W. Bush’s rather unfavorable actions during his presidency (This is according to some shady website I found called the dailydot) I would have thought there would be a change in the American voting process. According to this website George W. Bush failed the American people; he failed to bring those responsible for the September 11 attacks to justice. His policies led to the great recession, and last but not least he did not advocate on behalf of the LGBT community (He and Trump are alike this way).

The American people chose Hilary and they got the orange one that goes by Trump instead. This goes to show that this democracy is a lie, how can the opinion of 538 flawed (probably old white) men sideline the opinion of some 130 million people? I understand that this system was probably established based on the fact that the 583 are probably chosen by the general population and their opinion is therefore an indirect representation of the people’s opinion. But shouldn’t the electoral vote then be disregarded in the case where it differs from the popular vote? The electoral college evidently doesn’t always know what the people want.

That being said, we can all agree that the American voting system is a bit peculiar, it takes forever, and then when it does eventually come to a conclusion the people don’t always get what they want. One of the things that stands out for me is that it is biased towards a certain class and race. State representation on the electoral college is not based on the size of the state (writing more about this would leave me confused and angry but here’s where you can read up on it if you are interested:  www.nbcnews.com)

Besides the election outcome itself (I kid you not, when I first saw that Trump won the election I thought it was one of those fake news that Facebook has been publishing lately) what I find surprising post-election is the strength of the US Dollar against major currencies (i.e. Euro, Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollar, and the Rand)! Somehow I had assumed it would plummet if Donald Trump won the election, but obviously I was wrong.

There is a lot that I could go on about (If I may be so vain) relating to the US elections but nothing I would say would be new and I don’t know enough about US politics to write anything that’s life changing, and I won’t risk my blog being riddled with more factual inaccuracies (nobody knows how much of what I’ve said is actually correct). Besides my factual inaccuracies we can only hope that Trump won’t be the disaster of a president that his speeches and interviews indicate he will be.

EoP (End of Post)

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Smart Protests

Source: The Daily

This post is (OBVIOUSLY) inspired by the recent protest but I also thought it would also be a good follow-up post for my Fees Must Fall post, and maybe, just maybe it will change the direction that protests are taking (and if I may dare to dream) change the way that people protest in the future.

So I dared to use Google definitions (at least that’s what I think it’s called), and said Google defines protests as “a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something” and strikes “a refusal to work, organized by a body of employees as a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain a concession or concessions from their employer” so obviously the two are not synonymous (and yes, I googled the definition of synonymous as well, just to be sure). If you have read my blog at least once you know that this is about to be followed-up by a rant that might (or might not be) constructive, and I think the pictures below are the essence of this ‘rant’.

Source: Grazia Dialy

Source: The Daily

The first picture is of Hector Pieterson being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo, Antoinet Sithole running beside them. The the second picture was taken last year at UKZN during the Fees Must Fall protests. There a few things that are wrong with the pictures: the brutality, the looming death (in the one), the hopelessness and helplessness (I could go on for a few years, but you get the point) but one that I think we need to address in the time difference. Some forty years later we are still using the same methods to protest the actions and policies of the powers that be, and received with the same brutality as we did forty years ago! Forty years ago it worked, it was an effective and efficient way to protest whatever you were protesting because everything was so dependent on manual labour. I saw a quote by Emma Goldman the other day about voting, it said “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal”. And I think the same can be said about protests, the only time that the needs of or the demands of the protesters are addressed and met is when the whole world has decided to take action against whoever is in power.

Evidence of this is the FMF (Fees Must Fall) protests last year. Half the population was criticizing and condemning the students that were part of the protests. Until Universities in the United States, Europe and wherever-else started hash tagging FMFSA, and making public statements about how FMF movement is a worthy movement and how it’s all for a worthwhile cause. Only then did people start taking action. Marikana was officially declared a massacre, people died fighting to get a decent pay, others injured and valuable time lost. Were their demands met? NO! because the Marikana strikes had not made it to the rest of the world and the rest of the world had not managed to guilt trip the powers that be.

I won’t go into the conversation about whether or not I agree with violence because I obviously don’t (I’m not a dumb-dumb now am I? well at least we assume I’m not). Do I agree with disruptions? I can’t say for fear of prosecution. But if you were to have a shower moment with yourself right now (where you strip yourself bare and are honest with yourself). Do you really think that the powers that be would do anything if students were to walk up and down the streets of Stellenbosch singing “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound”? Would actions be taken to realize free quality education within our lifetime? Somehow I really don’t think so. At the beginning of this whole struggle (if I may call it that), protests were peaceful, students sang struggle songs and shared bread (I’m kidding I don’t know if they shared bread). But did anything get done? It took mobilizing of all of South Africa (parents included) to get no increment in fees. Students shouldn’t have to protest every year to get the government and whoever else is in charge to make a solid commitment to realizing free education.

The solution to this running-in-circles-trying-to get-people-to-listen should come to an end. Of the million (at the very least) students that are protesting I am certain that there is enough brain power to protest digitally. Digital protesting meaning occupying digital spaces. Instead of occupying the admin building, occupy the admin building’s Wi-Fi or occupy the company’s/university’s servers, at least this is my interpretation of it. No damage is done to the property but temporarily you MAKE THE POWERS THAT BE LISTEN! Everyone is severely reliant on the digital space so that’s where protests should be focused, because people evidently listen once they have something to lose and when you hold that something in your hand, only then are you declared worthy of being listened to.

Is digital protesting illegal in South Africa? I don’t know, if it is go back to that quote by Emma Goldman. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it up to here (gestures at triple chin) seeing blood all over the place when people are demanding to have their voices heard. The brutality and blood we are seeing with the FMF movement needs come to an end and I think the solution to the brutality is digital protests, smart protest.

I may be way off with my thoughts here, are there are other ways we can facilitate smart protests? Don’t forget to follow and subscribe to Stellies Afro Chick.

Peace Out.

EoR (End of Rant).

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