While the most powerful person in the country seeks protection — protection of his dignity that he believes has been violated by a painting — the most vulnerable of our land remain exposed to just about every form of violation one can think of.
When violation is multiplied by violation it is not long before it manifests itself in violence. The first victims of this violence are those who are equally vulnerable, and so the cycle of violation among the vulnerable spirals into self-sustaining self-destruction.
It is this violation/violence cycle that really threatens the dignity of this nation and exposes the nakedness of our President. The fact that it fails to secure the immediate attention and urgent action of us all is even more worrisome.
This has been highlighted by the knowledge that in the last two months eight people have been ‘necklaced’ to death in Khayelitsha. That is one person per week!
Stoned — crushed — burnt and all this while bystanders as young as 14 years old dance and celebrate. We are killing ourselves, I say “we”, because we cannot divorce ourselves from the vicious cycle of violation and violence. We perpetuate it through “ignorance, through weakness and through our own deliberate fault.”
I encourage you to FAST for a day this week to mourn and grieve for our nation’s real violations of dignity.
Lord have mercy,
Alan
Sunday 27 May 2012