Dear Organlearners,
Leslie Lax" <leslax@cnx.net> writes:
> My contribution to this conversation is a small one, but I think important
> in adding richness to the picture of the Rest of the World's contribution
> to change in apartheid South Africa which you so eloquently paint.
Dear Les,
I agree fully.
First of all, I believe that there is much we can learn from the
transformation of South Africa out of its apartheid era.
Secondly, we should try to draw "rich pictures" on other topics of
this list also, not only "hurting" or "apartheid". Why?
Why? Many months ago I decribed the Picture-Pixel Model of entropy to
Winfried Dressler to help him freeing him from the mindset that
entropy has only to do with chaos. The richer a picture is in
structure, the more entropy it has and thus the more entropy which
can be produced when we let go of that structure. This entropy
production is needed to drive us to new emergences. In other words,
we cannot think innovative without rich pictures.
> I would not like to forget that much of the action taken by TROW was
> inspired by Liberation movements and their struggle for a free South
> Africa.
I agree. The motivation and commitment of these Liberation
Movements (LM) were a problem which the apartheid goverment could not
solve.
> I would also like to remember the courage of many people inside South
> Africa who recognised the contribution of international pressure while at
> the same time understanding the hurt it would bring to their daily lives.
> Perhaps they could not foresee the extent of the hurt, but given
> conditions of the day, the deprivation was just one more step towards
> liberation. Internal (inside South Africa)support for liberation movement
> policy was indeed very broad and much deeper than originally given credit
> for.
Again I agree. But let us make the "picture richer". Perhaps the far
majority could not foresee the extent of the hurt. Thus they believed
naively that hurting would bring healing to the hurt. This hurting
did help to destroy apartheid, but it did not brought healing, as we
all know now.
I feel very sad that the LMs in the ROTW and in SA did not make more
use of plain and simple DIALOGUE in order to help people to transform
their minds by painting "rich pictures". I still remember how the
supporters of apartheid during 1965 to 1975 feared this word
"dialogue" more than counter attacks (physical violence and even
debates in parliament).
Let us contemplate some time in future the following two statements:
* We cannot think innovative without rich pictures
* A dialogue with the purpose of painting a "rich picture" cannot be
hurting.
> What would help enormously is direct foreign investment in South
> Africa, but then we must also be mindful of profit repatriation,
> technology and wage and environmental policies.
That is true. But again, let me paint a "richer picture". The ROTW
believed that apartheid had to be destroyed. Compare this immense
faith with their present little faith in the future of South Africa.
Because of their little faith, little direct foreign investment of
capital will happen.
> Having said all this, I still agree with you that the cycle of hurt has
> grown extremely vicious, and must be changed. I left South Africa again
> recently after a short (2 year) return, precisely because of the "hurting
> society" and the threat it posed to my family. With caring, thinking
> individuals like yourself still "at home", I believe the country has a
> chance of truly liberating itself.
The main task of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission (TRC) has
been to break the cycle of hurt in order to bring healing to South
Africa. Unfortunately, the TRC fell into the trap of establishing the
truth, using hurt, rather than painting the "rich picture". Sadly, I
suspect that the TRC will become an expensive failure.
Truth can never serve itself. This is another way in which I can
formulate Kurt Goedle's famous incompleteness theorem of logic.
Truth can only become truthful when it serves a higher ordered
quality such as love.
Les, let me give you one example of the last sentence. I will not use
names to avoid politics since the person and party involved still
live. You know of a certain fringe party in SA which exists since
1969, but which could never gain political muscle. Its leader for
almost 20 years is a polite person with a formidable capacity for
logic. He can cut to truths like a hot knive through butter. He can
compound truths into complex political structures. He has stayed so
close to the truth that even the TRC could not summon him on the
tiniest of incidents. He has had no equal in logical powers on the
political scene during all of his political career. But he has never
learnt that truth cannot serve itself.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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