Tomorrow is Freedom Day here in South Africa, the nation is expected to dance and celebrate the day but we never do, the government gets upset with us, the nation, but they don’t understand. They throw big celebration parties and events through out the country only to find people turning up for the free food. Our nation is not free at all – the only freedom we have is freedom from apartheid.
All races in this nation feel this way, it is not the old prominent whites as everyone seems to think overseas with much thanks to the ever present media influent lies. Our nation has done a reversal of sorts, there is more wider spread poverty, the affirmative action is seen as apartheid on many fronts, the colour of your skin determines whether you get the job, whether you are male or female, all scored and ranked. It does not matter what skills you have nor whether you can do the job, a person with the right scoring will get the job above someone who can do it. Crime cripples us on a daily basis, it is not as if the media are reporting everything just the more heinous crimes. Yes we have freedom, we as a nation have become free of holding on to material things that we used to treasure, now it is our lives that we treasure. We value people more and less the car we drive or the fancy handbag.
If you look it like that then yes we are free, we are all accidental Buddhists, we are all that monk that sold his Ferrari all but with one difference, ours was stolen with a gun to our heads.
Freedom Day? I will not celebrate for the reasons they put before me, I choose to celebrate it as a freedom from within me, I will celebrate the fact that apartheid ended and I will celebrate the fact that we can live as one in the ideal world. I am not being negative although I know it may come across as such rather I am being unfairly realistic.
Power cuts closing businesses, police helicopters flying over our houses every couple of hours, locking our doors and going through red traffic lights at night, guns to our heads and starvation, lack of education and lack of medical support for the masses, unemployment in high numbers, inflation rates souring faster than Zimbabwe can get it’s election outcome, our exported tomatoes cost less in America than on our own shelves – freedom?
So tomorrow I shall celebrate this day called freedom on a different note, I rather want to think of it as a fight for freedom, a fight for freedom from media manipulation, societies ideas of what is good for us when it is rather great for both their pockets and egos. The lessons in our past are their and yet we ignore them, Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for decades, he fought for what he believed and he harboured no guilt. He worked side by side with De Klerk the last “apartheid” president in bringing about the end of that era. Till today he spreads love and kindness, above all he spreads forgiveness to a nation, he passes on that message and is colour blind only seeing fairness.
Have you ever watched the movie Freedom Writers? It is one of those movies that has stuck by me, its story is hope and that where there is a will there is a way, if you care enough anything is possible. That is the freedom I celebrate so I will leave you with the trailer and the theme song from the movie… if we care enough, if we stand together and if we all do our little bits then perhaps this world won’t be such a scary place, perhaps as our numbers grow people might join us and together we become a mass of good will, kindness and giving without expecting… perhaps all but a dream but I feel in my heart and soul that it is possible.
If you want to read more about the freedom writers you can go to the Freedom Writers Foundation site, gives me hope in this world I can tell you.
One world, one soul, one colour
Freedom Writers Trailer:
Freedom Writers – I have a dream
I am happy
I am I am happy
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
[One day]
We gonna work it out oh oh
We gonna work it out oh oh
We gonna work it out
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
We gonna work it out oh oh
we gonna work it out oh oh
we gonna work it out
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
[that one day]
that one day
all of the people and myself
are gonna find a better way
My dream is to be free
my dream is to be
my dream my dream is to be
my dream is to be
my dream is to be free
A search for brighter days
I ride through the maze of the madness
struggle is my address
where pain and crack lives
gunshots coming from sounds of blackness
given this game with no time to practice
born on the blacklist
told I’m a little average
A life with no cabbage
that’s no money if you’re from where I’m from
funny,
I just want some of yours son
dark clouds seem to follow me
alcohol that my pops swallowed bottle me
no apology
I walk with a boulder on my shoulder
it’s a cold war
I’m a colder shoulder
I fight the same fight that made Martin Luther the king
I ain’t usin’ it for the right thing
in-Between lean and the fiends
hustle and the schemes
I put together pieces of a dream
I still have one
I am happy
I am I am happy
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
[One day]
We gonna work it out oh oh
We gonna work it out oh oh
We gonna work it out
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
We gonna work it out oh oh
we gonna work it out oh oh
we gonna work it out
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
[that one day]
that one day
I’ma look deeper than myself
are gonna find a better way
My dream is to be free
my dream is to be
my dream my dream is to be
my dream is to be
my dream is to be free
The world see me lookin’ in the mirror
images of me gettin’ much clearer
dear self,
I wrote a letter just to better my soul
if I don’t express it,
then forever I hold inside
I’m from a side where we outta control
rap music and the hood play a fatherly role
my story like yours, yo, gotta be told
tryin’ to make it from a gangsta to a Godlier role
and Jewish people in cold caves
hate has no color or age
flip the page
now my rage became freedom right
write dreams in the dark
they far, but I can see em
I believe in heaven more than hell
blessings more than jail
In the ghetto, let love prevail
with a story to tell
my eyes see the glory of, well,
the world waitin’ for me to yell
I have a dream
I am happy
I am I am happy
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
[One day]
We gonna work it out oh oh
We gonna work it out oh oh
We gonna work it out
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
We gonna work it out oh oh
we gonna work it out oh oh
we gonna work it out
[Soundclip: I have a dream]
I got a dream
[that one day]
that one day
all of the people and myself
are gonna find a better way
My dream is to be free
my dream is to be
my dream my dream is to be
my dream is to be
my dream is to be free
vishesh
•15 years ago
i donno where the world is getting too….sometimes it is all too blurred that i think it is time someone clears it…who knows…we are own destiny writers…but we don’t know what the pen is…
SanityFound
•15 years ago
Vishesh, through all of time the world has had troubles but it is those that try to help, those that dream of a better future, those that do the little things that help keep it a little bit more sane. The issues in SA have been constant and growing but would be far worse if it weren’t for all the “little” people trying to make a difference…
Your pen, is your heart 🙂 all we have to do is follow it…
Doesn’t have to be a suit the wall is going just has to get stronger to prove to you that there are indeed more people that care.
ilegirl
•15 years ago
A wise person (George Santayana) once said, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
As a species, we can be quite forgetful. It is worse too when there is a rebellion against education, such as that we see when very conservative politicians are in power; the difficulty in gaining information about the past prevents us from gathering its lessons.
I think that a society which provides a solid education to its children is key.
SanityFound
•15 years ago
I have to concur with you ilegirl, it is integral to all humanity that a solid and honest past is represented in all educational systems. So often it is so warped that, like you say, the lessons can’t be learnt or worse yet the wrong lessons are learnt as in the mass media misinformation and disillusionment plight…
George is indeed wise, Mandela has quoted him many times alas to no avail, sad but my childish hope is that it is forever changeable worldwide 🙂
Above all else education is key, couldn’t agree more!
cordieb
•15 years ago
Freedom writers was somebody’s dream; look how many lives it has touched in the postive! Don’t forsake your dreams; for yours are those that will change the world for the better.
Peace, Light and Love,
CordieB
SanityFound
•15 years ago
Cordie, thanks so much for your kind kind words, I am the forever dreamer but plan on putting them into action I only pray that I can do them right! 🙂
aniche
•15 years ago
i think we cut a raw deal with God. We shd have kept heaven and given him Earth. On the other hand, we wud have fucked up heaven too.
SanityFound
•15 years ago
Aniche aye but heaven is ours as well he just keeps it lookin spiffy for us when we depart from here 😉 We learn the lessons here and transfer them…
Vanessa
•15 years ago
I am thinking of you after your “celebration” there of Freedom Day. I so hear what you say about is it really “freedom”? Are people there really “free”? I have not yet seen this film, but believe that it speaks to the freedoms here in US that we have yet to achieve: freedom from hatred, oppression, unwillingness to understand one another. That is why I always feel such a need to inform, to educate, to reach out, even when it seems hopeless or fruitless…..
I feel I must never lose hope for a better, more just world…… Vanessa
SanityFound
•15 years ago
Never ever lose hope because there are millions hoping just along side you. We all share the same dream so it is possible for there to be change… can’t not when there are so many of us!