Back to the dark ages
by Wayne G
2009-11-02 11:15
The Dark Ages is a term of used as a historical reference point to a perceived epoch of cultural decay and societal collapse that occurred in Western Europe between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the eventual recovery of learning many years later. It was a time of disease, poor sanitation, lawlessness, poor education and a general decay in cultural development. Popular culture has gone even further in its explanation describing the dark ages as a time of backwardness, where society seemed to stagnate and regress.
This societal, cultural and economic regression as a current point of reference takes us to South Africa today. We are in the midst of a socio-economic landslide. If the dark ages were shrouded in backwardness and decay of society then we are living in that same shadow today in South Africa. You just need to look around to see it. The ANC nobility are getting fatter off our hard labours while we are getting poorer. If we break SA's current dark ages down into "segments of darkness" we may gain a clearer more concise understanding of our predicament.
The dark ages were only labelled centuries after the fact and people living during this period were largely oblivious, if not ignorant of their unfortunate epoch. This same ignorance is evident in the ANC's leadership and their loyal to the end masses that seem to be totally blind to the current position and just accept the degradation of our society.
Regression of education
SA's level of education and substandard quality is now amongst the poorest in Africa. So in 15 years we have declined rapidly from being the country with the best education standards in Africa to our current status of amongst the worst on the continent. There is even talk now of dropping the distinction levels from 80% to 70% and reducing the number of subjects to decrease work load and associated administration. So education regression mired in mediocrity is the government's solution to improving South Africa's education levels.
The dark ages of South African education are upon us and it is getting darker by the day. The education department's idiotic solutions are no solutions at all, just more of the same thing that got us into this tragic landslide. Education is the only thing that will pull us out of this deep dark hole. Our government needs to buy text books and pay teachers instead of buying luxury German cars for their ministers. What on earth could be more important than educating our children? Dictatorships have been known to deploy such tactics currently used by the ANC to keep the masses uneducated and dependant, unable to freely think their way out of their problems. They are so blind that they can't see the link between the ANC and their suffering.
The South African brain trust is in a worse recession the economy. Most of our brains are now contributing to the progression of countries like America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. They have all left our shores in search of a better life for their families and can you really blame them? This brings us to our nest discussion point.
Violent crime and lawlessness
We are the undisputed world leader in violent crime. We have 50 murders a day and even more rapes and assaults on our women and children. This is unacceptable and another paradigm used to describe the dark ages where these crimes against humanity were common place, probably as regular an occurrence as today in South Africa. Witchcraft and other evil idiosyncrasies are leading people to believe that raping a baby will cure you of HIV and other horrific draconian practices that my mind battles to comprehend.
Thugs move around freely and control us through intimidation and fear. The police are hopeless and are not a force. They are data capturers and for lack of a better term "the mop up squad" they arrive at the scene after the fact, take a few statements and fingerprints and off they ride into the sunset never to be seen or heard from again.
One of the biggest employers and contributors to the SA economy is the private security sector. Their mere presence in such unfathomable numbers is a prime indicator of a country with an impotent police force. Even our police employ private security companies to guard their assets. Have you ever heard of anything more absurd?
Dark Age of Disease
We have the highest HIV infection rate in the world. Diseases that were eradicated in the western world years ago are as prevalent here as the common cold. The residents of Alexander Township are constantly tested for bubonic plague. TB, typhoid, dysentery, cholera are examples of deadly disease that are common place. These are the same diseases that wiped out entire populations in Europe during the dark ages. You need just take a walk through the infectious disease wards in some of our government run hospitals to get a true taste of the dark ages in modern day South Africa.
Poor sanitation and hygiene are major causes of concern with raw sewage running into our rivers and polluting our fragile ecosystem. The lack of access to basic medication is another massive problem indicative of our government's inability and gross incompetence in looking after its people. Denial is the order of the day while the bodies pile up in the government morgues.
The rich getting richer
Only elite few and our materialistic government employees are benefitting from the current age of darkness. They haven't changed their modus operandi to reflect these trying times, they just keep on spending and letting us fit the bill for their gluttonous madness, spending R50m this year alone just on luxury cars. The ANC's arrogance and ignorance in defending their actions is evident in every minister's defence when questioned about their spending habits.
We could go on all day comparing the dark ages in Europe to the dismal current state of governance that is destroying South Africa. Even the die hard ANC supporters need to open their eyes and see that their beloved emancipators have failed them dismally. There is absolutely nothing that has improved here since they took up office in 1994. We have regressed to a point nearing that of no return. All we have is a long list of unmet promises, squandered millions, failing parastatals and corrupt officials.
We used to have the best education, infrastructure, health care and professionals on the continent. Let's get that back. We can have all of that without the old oppressive white minority government or the current greedy, corrupt and incompetent ANC. Surely there is some force out there willing to take us forward into the light and instil some pride and self respect in our floundering communities tortured by drugs, corruption, violence and intimidation.
In conclusion very much like the collapse of the Roman Empire ushered in the dark ages in Europe, so too did the collapse of the prejudicial Nationalist government in South Africa give rise to the dark ages of ANC rule and associated decay. Luckily for Europe the dark ages eventually passed with its fare share of moral and economical decay giving rise to the next era where society began to advance again. We need to pick ourselves up and begin rebuilding our shattered country brick by brick.
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