Afrikaners aren't all 'plesierig'

2007-10-04 11:58

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Dear Editor,

Aren't people supposed to be happy about attending an arts festival? I am talking in particular about the recent Aardklop festival held in Potchefstroom.

People got in their cars and they drove there to have fun, appreciate amazing art and the best theatre productions - right?

Well, the number of senseless fistfights clearly - and sadly - proves that notion wrong. Afrikaners are not all "plesierig". Some of them like to beat each other to pieces for no apparent reason. And that at a festival celebrating our wonderful culture and appreciating the artistically talented ones amongst us.

On Monday, an Egoli actor was apparently attacked by the jealous boyfriend of a girl who came to introduce herself to him. Two other Afrikaans singers were dragged into the whole unpleasant event and got their share of what was then a brawl outside Bourbon Street.

The same night a newspaper photographer went home with two blue eyes after five "rugby players" attacked him. He said they didn't like his 'Son' shirt.

Later in the week a 21-year old guy was assaulted so badly in a public area that people thought he was about to die. There was blood all over and what probably saved him was the fact that a man started taking pictures and caused the aggressors to flee.

This is our nation we are talking about. People who are privileged enough to go to Aardklop for a week. To have fun, appreciate amazing art and theatre productions?

Lila,
Aardklop fan

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And here I thought arts festivals are all about booze, drugs and subtly belittling Afrikaner culture in their own idiom... Must confess I've never been to one due to this prejudice of mine. Should I go?

This just shows that there are bad and good people of all races.Unfortunately in SA there is this believe that only black people are violent.The reason why it seems as if black people are more violent is purely demographic, that there are more blacks than whites and therefore it is a question of arithmetic. Otherwise we've got bad and good in all races.

Dear lila. This is the biggest load of rubbish i have ever read. Why are you trying to smeer the Afrikaans people's name thru the mud here? I was in a English school the people there had fights like cats and dogs. When i go to a club there is mostly English people there and there they fight at the rand easter show the people fight. Dont try to make a false impression that this things only happen at AFR places oh and one last point Afrikaners is F****n plesierig!

It's a South African thing.Matter of fact , universities should introduce a degree in Violence...that way almost every South African will be awarded a degree without studying for it...since Violence is a natural thing in this place

And I suppose they were all AFRIKAANS hey? Stop generalising and open your eyes and get to realise that its not always the AFRIKAANS people who misbehave, there were also English speaking and other people there as well. This labelling of Afrikaners is rediculous and unfounded. Not all violence is committed by Afrikaners, get a life!

Dear Lila, It's indeed regrettable that you had to experience the underbelly of our nation first-hand. Please accept my apologies for "spazman's" rant. Apart from his name being rather descriptive, his poor command over his (and your) language reveals the rest. Fooitog. To Hexen: Not ALL of us, mind you:-) To play Devil's advocate for a moment. After having our towns renamed, our monuments removed, and our attitudes reviled, I'm not surprised at all that many people give vent to their anger.

... at the KKNK last year. She's English-speaking & young. Went to the KKNK with some friends, & they were sitting in an outside venue, having a chat, enjoying the music, & smoking. An Afrikaans man told them that they must stop smoking as it's not allowed. She asked the bouncers, they told her it was fine. This man then attacked her, physically & verbally, the bouncers joined in, & took his side. She thinks its because they were all Afrikaans, & she & her friends were English. Nice one.

This just goes to prove yet again that we cannot take criticism very well. I am sure that Lila is not attacking the Afrikaners but merely pointing out that Potch (being the mainly Afrikaans community it is) opened her eyes to the fact that violence is not in one race only. That goes for the English just as much as the Afrikaner. If you people cannot accept someone's point of view as positive comment then you have no place in our society. Well commented Lila and good for you!

Dear Idiot (Spazman) Did they teach you what "smeer" was in your so called English school?? Its people like you that start fights and obviously do not have a clue. I work at ALL the Afrikaans festivals in South Africa from Aardklop to Inni-bos the list goes on, and not once have I not seen a so called "plesierige" Afrikaans person try to cause trouble for the decent festival attendees.(Any language)I agree with Lila.For the record, Afrikaans people "smeer" their own names "tru" the mud...

Oh, heavens! Spaz, she limits her observation in the title! And it wasn't a kickboxing festival, it's an ART festival. Y'know, expression, tolerance, arty, performance stuff! AND, it's true, the afrikaans kids always moered us souties. It's the manly way. And they are men!

The violent behaviour we see is not a race thing. The lack of respect and discipline that a large portion that the youth of today display is the root cause. Perhaps vilence will have to be tamed with violence - public whippings could be the answer.

As much as it saddens me, I have to admit that on cultural events like aardklop the pointing finger will be directed at the culture and not the culprit. Why drag my culture into this in stead of labeling the incidents as isolated (which they were)? I resent how you belittle me and fellow Afrikaans speaking people by association. Your apparent subjectivity is scary considering you claim to be an "aardklop fan" and more worrying as you are very likely afrikaans yourself. Et tu Brute?

I come from a very afrikaans town and I've seem first hand how agressive afrikaners can be, especially when drunk, or jealous. Yes this is a generalisation and there are english speaking people and black and coloured people that act in the same way and i also know many afrikaners that are plesierig but Lila makes a very valid point. Learn to take some criticism.

Spazman, you say Afrikaners is F***** plesierig. Don?t you think it's that exact attitude that Lila is trying to highlight. As proud Afrikaners, surely you should rather ensure that you show people how it?s done in future. The violence was there for all to see. Your response is a typically violent South African response to a simple piece of criticism. It?s got nothing to do with Afrikaans, English or Zulu.

Firstly, spazman and Sun what a display of verbal violence. What a way to answer an article about violence. Secondly Sun, it happened at Aardklop in Potch which is mostly Afrikaans. Lila didn't once mention race in the article, except for 'Afrikaans singer'. Go read it again. She is commenting on our excessively violent country...which is a very real problem. Go look at our violent crimes stats, it is steadily rising. Stop turning everything into a race, culture issue.

I used to go out as a young person in Potch very often (about 10 years ago) and there witnessed the worst kind of fights. Many of my friends had been attacked often times. Don't know what it is, such a beautiful place, but there is a very definite violent streak and there was a bunch of them that used to go out and "donner" the daylights out of people. Places would clear out if a bunch of them arrived.

I would just like to say that as a Potchefstroomer myself and having the pleasure of attending every festival so far, Aardklop is a great event and has truly done significant things for our town in many ways. Bad things do happen but focusing on them mainly is surely not the point of such a festival. I wish to challenge anyone who is a Aardklop critic to come join us next year. Hopefully you will see that it is truly a memorable event that everyone can enjoy for what it is. - Alex G.

Although it did happen during AK, it's important to note that all of the abovementioned altercations took place on the fringe or away from the festival area. In other words, none of the perpetrators were real festival goers. Thousands of people went and enjoyed themselves and the programme. As I understood, the fighters were all locals. Maybe the local community should wake up?

The English soccer fans are notorius around the world for booze and violence after their national team's games, wherever they go around the world. In Japan and China, violence even happens inside their parliaments, the prime ministers physically manhandle one another in suits. Here in black shebeens and clubs, guys moer one another in groups for simple things like parking space and girlfriends, or even for nothing at all. In Afrikaans clubs, drunk males just moer people, everyone does it.

Let's put it simple. Every single society has violence, it's not about race or ethnicity, it's actually about gender. We men (of all races) are born with violence in ouor genes. Look at the culprits in road rage incidents, club fights, street fights and all sorts of fights, and tell me how many women start this violence!

I agree with you spazman, but I also have to agree with Lila. People of all races like to donder each other but often us Afrikaners can like to moer each other for plesierigheid. Unfortunately many SA males plus beer equals all sorts of k@k. In general, our society is getting more violent as it becomes more difficult to live in SA. I know it's a cliche, but we have to become the difference we want to see in our society, which means not sommer moering the oke just because he's got a moermy gesig.

Some of the above comments are sooo defensive. Unless we keep our cool, LISTEN, have honest discussions without resorting to petty insults & admit it when we're wrong, then how can we demand that politicians do the same? We're hypocrites. I think Lila was pointing out that a) festivals are supposed to be for enjoyment & b) no race is less or more violent than another, as some may like to think. If we don't calm down & mature, things won't change. Perhaps our politicians are a reflection of us

I've been to oppikoppi twice, it's mostly attended by younger afrikaans people, though there's quite a few english speaking people as well. Never once did I see or heard of any fist fights or any sort of scuffle or any tension between english and afrikaans people. The oppikoppi type festival attendees are more laidback and open-minded, I guess it goes hand in hand with the type of music you get. Aardklop and similar festivals usually attracts the more insular type with short tempers. Julle weet, daai tipe wat jou sommer bliksem as jy hom net een skewe kyk gee. But please don?t generalize and make all Afrikaans people out to be this way. There?s the handful yes, but you get them across the colour and language spectrum.

Can you imagine how all off you people here would be handling this if you had been placed in the same room :) ?Just looking at the "verbally violent" responses , one can see that some people here would be have been beaten to death by now.So , just like in my original post ,I'll again say Violence is a South African thing

Growing up in SA and noticing these 'fights/assualts' first hand and I was made to believe that this is someting that happens from time to time... However since relocating to North America I've never encountered such behaviour when going to any social event... made think that it must be a SA thing (Afrikaner or not)

My friend and I, & between us,9 teenagers,was at Aardklop from the Thursday to Sunday. Our experience was one of fun and entertainment. It was safe for the young ones, the girls did not feel threatened at all. The shows were of outstanding quality and all genres were well catered for.The food & wine is unique (snoek, patats en brood en konfyt, liver etc).I am upset that a very small percentage of visitors misbehaved themselves thereby creating a misconstrued version of a very well planned event

Anyone ever been to a soccer match in England or Europe? I think most english people should not be commenting about yobbo behaviour here too quickly, that moral high ground can be a conspicuous place.

I absolutely love this whole debate on who is or who is not violent, I can almost guarantee that as some readers commented they got red in the face either from a memory of violence or just because of the article, it's quite sad that the one thing all South Africans have in common is violence, to ourselves or others, even just responding to an artcile has caused some violent remarks! Seems the saying should be violence is golden, so shut the f### up or I'll moer you.....

What role is there in today's SA for a defensive social identity? We have provided the world with a blueprint for successful, peaceful revolution. None of us pretend that we are without problems, but we have created a consitutional democracy without revolt(due in no short measure to the patience of one miraculous man). How can we accept that there are people who are more proud of being Afrikaans than they are of being South African? The comments above trouble me more than the article itself.

John,I disagree with you regarding the fact that you say its purely due to demographics that blacks seem to be more violent.In the early part of my school career I attended school that was only white we had fist fights and there were black eyes, fat lips etc..as soon as ppl of colour came in whenever there was a fight someone would get stabbed,either with a knife,scissors anything sharp.I'm not saying a white wont do such things,but as seen recently the KES and ForestHigh stabbings were all black

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Afrikaners aren't all 'plesierig'

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