From Empangeni 1986

From Empangeni

1986

Dear Pam,

                Somebody once asked a Pope how long he needed to stay in the Vatican City in order to find out how it functions. He said “two days is best, two months okay and two years is not long enough” which probably means you can learn more in a few days than in a lifetime looking at trees.

                Most people I see who come here learn nothing about RSA but a lot about Australia. They leave Australia suddenly and for the first time certain things are not automatic or normal or perhaps necessary.

                What people have to adjust to here which they don’t have in Australian cities is the uncivilized person.  What does a person do when he meets a tribal African or a Pacific islander who by most standards is not as sophisticated or worldly?

1                   Ignorance Irrelevant Disengaged

2                   Guilt

3                   Redress. Try and justify /reason

4                   Exploitation Paternalism

5                   Moralistic Religion

6                   Frustration/ Anger directed at the problem

7                   Masochism Waiting for punishment/ revolution

8                   Dignity of all life Symbiosis non-exploitation Beauty of all life/people Transitoriness of societies / nations.

The above list is plagiarized and I don’t really care how you arrive at the end but I feel that in the end you should arrive at a place where you can respect the uniqueness of each person you meet and the common humanity of all. Along with this should go a feeling that societies rise and fall and but by the grace of god I could have been born an Eskimo or Chinese or Afrikaans. So you see I don’t really care for Advance Australia Fare. Nationalism and the flag is bunk.

But I still can’t believe Footscray was in the finals and if we win the premiership I don’t know what I’ll do.

I’ve seen plenty of Australians spend all their time overseas trying to be Australasians. This means drinking lots of beer or telling everybody that you are drinking lots of beer and you do that because you are Australian. Such people are very common but they can’t keep it up.

One of the saddest things you can see is expatriates living in a foreign country cocooned and completely isolated from the people around them. They have nothing in common with the land or people. They can’t identify with anything and there only reason for working is money. These people are still in stage 1 of the previous list. The British are famous for this.

On the other hand if you identified completely with the local people it would not work. You could never become a Tongan because of your background. Though I suppose you could become an Australian Tongan where you are treated in a special unique way. It’s hard to imagine what the immigrants to Australia go through but to travel half way around the world into the unknown.

It’s very hot at the moment. I don’t know how you handle the heat but I hate it. It drains your energy, all the food rots and insects especially mosquitoes flourish. Such is life and I’m sure it’s hotter where you are

                                                                Regards Alan