It’s all About the Money...

Prior to a recent visit to China, the USA’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying that she would press China on human rights but that those issues would not keep the USA and China from working together to address the global financial crisis.

In a world where we often hear politicians talk about moral leadership, human rights and democracy it’s interesting to hear someone’s true motives coming to the fore albeit unintentionally. As always we find a politician making a grand claim or promise with no real intention on following through on the words of the promise because their priority is actually revealed in the afterthought. What do I mean by this?

Clinton said that she was going to press China on human rights – something that we have heard about from time to time. China’s involvement in various alleged human rights infringements have been in the news over recent months and years – whether it’s the treatment of pro-democracy voices inside their own country, the treatment of Tibet or their connection to the events in the Darfur region. While this sounds encouraging what follows the but reveals their true priorities. Economics. More specifically their priority is the mess caused by US banks and multinationals. Sure it’s going to be sold as something that is in the best interests of the global economy but realistically the bottom line is seen as more of a priority than lives and rights of unknown non-Westerners.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. It’s just refreshing to see true motives being revealed, even if it was unintentional.

Coloureds, Culture & Coconuts….

Originally written on Saturday, 28 February 2009…

In a previous entry on this blog (http://nomadiclessons.blogspot.com/2008/09/thoughts-on-rainbow-nation.html) as well as in another blog I write I briefly touched on my cultural/ethnic heritage and some of my thoughts on being a coloured South African (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloured).

But sometimes I have to ask the question, what is a coloured South African? And, I have to believe that I’m not the only one asking this question. The reality is that this cultural/ethnic label is a product of the apartheid and there is such diversity within this artificially constructed social group. When I lived in South America I was occasionally asked about my ethnic/racial heritage. I developed an answer that consisted of my saying that I was the ‘rainbow nation’ in one person. I am the descendant of slaves and slave owners, foreigners and natives. I know that at some point in my genealogical story I have native ancestry, as well as European ancestry. While that is true this is not the culture embraced by people with a similar story. What is our culture? Who are the people who arrived here as slaves from various places around the Indian Ocean? In broad terms we know who they were but we have lost contact with that culture, with that language. The late Taliep Peterson musically explored a similar question just before his death through his play Ghoema. But looking at Peterson’s rendering the reality is that while many accept this as a part of the general history there still exists a lack of comfort with elements of the story, nor is there a central unifying culture. This is hardly surprising considering the fact that in a sense this ‘cultural group’ is in reality an amalgamation of those who didn’t fit the black, white and Indian labels in the old regime. This is not a value judgement, after all if I were making a judgement it would be aimed at the person I see the mirror every morning too. So what is ‘coloured culture’? I’d suggest that nobody really knows, but rather that a collaged sense of culture and identity has been developed. So where does this leave us?

Because of my life experiences, as well as the fact that I almost entirely speak English, I’ve occasionally been referred to as a coconut – brown on the outside but white on the inside. This is an interesting concept though, especially since the ‘brown’ on the outside is at best not clearly defined and at worst unknown. So what does it mean to be coloured? I sometimes wonder what makes up our identity beyond homo sapien and South African. This is a complicated issue though and one for which there are no quick and easy resolutions. Some will undoubtedly suggest that I’m one of the few who is confused, but so be it… I welcome comments, criticisms and thoughts…