Our Future in South Africa…

This post was originally created as a comment on another blog. It was a reply on a post youth in South Africa on mycontemplations.wordpress.com. Since then I have decided to create my own blog, with this as my first post…

This is something I often think about! How many teenagers stare into the stone wall built by what their parents say, how many have already given up the fight, even if there wasn’t even a fight to begin with. One day apartheid will die, finally die, because all the people who are keeping it alive are going to die aswell. Everyday in my school I talk to my friends, and from time to time we do discuss politics, not intensively, but we do. And although we differ from race or culture, our views don’t differ like our parents’ views do. We can work together, and in that fact I see a bright future for South Africa. Yeah, the fact that I’m an optimistic person does help…

I’ve always seen it this way, my generation’s grandparents still respect each other in the ways that existed during apartheid, they don’t blame each other nearly as much as my generation’s parents do. To a point where a year ago, a lady working at a till in Piet Retief randomly told my grandmother that according to her, South Africa was in a better state during apartheid. I don’t necessarily agree on that point, I wasn’t there and therefore don’t think I want to have an opinion. Apartheid could have been a mistake, and I think it was to a point, but what came after apartheid, and how apartheid effects us today, is an even worse mistake!

Imagine a SA being populated by all the races who grew up with each other, who learned to accept each other from an early age and who can work together. Ok so it’s not all moonshine and roses, a lot of parents still transfer their feelings and opinions to their children who blindly follow the same route. They want to fight in a war that long since doesn’t exist anymore!!! We should be working for a better future, a brand new future, not working for history to repeat itself.

I do realise that our government is far from perfect and leaves a lot to be desired, there is definitily room for improvement, and for those of you that thought that it only happens in SA, guess again!! Our Brazilian exchange student expressed to me how she and her family and friends feel about their government. All over the world power is given to men, men who might not deserve it and who are only human, mistakes and all. How can perfection be expected if the one expecting it isn’t even perfect, those of you who are perfect, be my guest, you can be the first to throw a stone, because you alone should have the right to do so!!! The youth of SA do infact have a future, and even of we have to work really hard to make the best of it, then so be it. It makes it all the more worth it, don’t you think?!!! Who would want something that just falls into your lap.

I don’t think there exists a “De La Rey” generation, a confused generation yes, one that is being pulled in different directions by different opinions, influences, like the media, and authorities. And of course by our own opinions and dreams and plans!! Yes, we do have those too, not that all of us know how to express them though. I’m sad to say that I don’t think racism will ever completely end.. It’s in the nature of many people to discriminate or not accept differences, to think they are better because of skin colour or culture or language or knowledge or experience or circumstances or money or social standing or religion or sex or location or moral values or you name it. Never will everyone accept everyone, not all actions will be accepted by all. To a point we can bridge most differences by working at them and respecting them. But differences will always exist, point blank…

In our future there will certainly be differences, but not differences that are totaly unbridgeable, the youth of today should stand together proudly and claim the country that belongs to us too, especially to us, the future!!! I say stand aside and watch us stay positive, and never give up! Watch us work together and make SA an overall beter place! It might not happen now or in the immediate future just yet, but believe me when I say it is going to happen, and the best time to start it is now, not later, now!! Waiting for better days isn’t going to get us anywhere, I for one want to get somewhere, being nowhere is just boring and lame, hehe! I have a future in SA because I choose to have one, the choice is yours!! It always has been, and I’m not going to let anyone convince me otherwise!! I know that my future is in Good Hands, The Best Hands.. I don’t need to worry, I need to have faith!!

About my Afrikaner identity, the past is what made the present, but that’s all it has done, it didn’t make me and it certainly didn’t decide my future. According to me, we should respect out ancestors, they did have a lot to do with today’s present, and they are what ended in the making of a beautiful country, but I for one am more than ready to live my out present, to anticipate and enjoy my own future and to create my own past, a past that I hope I can one day be proud of, that I can proudly share with my children and grandchildren…

Black youth is to a point just as fed up with affirmative action as the white youth is. It’s not a great feeling to know that you for example you got a job because of your skin colour or sex. You want to know you got a job because you are the best and thet all the hard work paid off. These are my opinions, and the opinions of some of my friends and some of the people I have discussed these issues with, but mostly they are my opinions and interpretations… There where we are destined to be and to live and to work one day, there we will be, live and work one day…

Have faith South Africa, all will be well, Stay positive, keep on working for the future you want, in the end the work will pay off and you will be rewarded with the best future imagineable…

Optimistic at heart and soul and mind till the end . . .