So, who's the squatter and who's the squattee?
At de Lange has, perhaps subconsciously, opened an extremely interesting
vein of dialogue in his interpretation of the current 'squatter' problem
in Southern Africa. The phenomenon he describes precedes, of course, any
modern history of his place of residence--in fact, most anthropological
evidence seems to point to the fact that the squatting 'problem' probably
began in South-eastern Africa several million years ago, when the first
Homo Sapiens ('Lucy,' or one of her predecessors or ancestors) decided to
move northwards from that area to spread his or her genetic material.
'Lucy' and her growing band of fellow squatters eventually populated the
rest of the world, to the continuing disadvantage of other species (the
'squattees' of their time--e.g. Neanderthal Man, the Mastodon, the Dodo,
and Farnsworth's butterfly).
Having so squatted, Lucy's band eventually began to 're-squat.' Norsemen
and women raped and pillaged their way throughout the North Atlantic.
Tribes from Siberia took advantage of a temporary land bridge across the
Bering Sea to populate the American continents. 'Scotti' from Eire
crossed the Irish sea to wrest Scotland from the Picts. Many years later,
the descendants of some of those Scotti recrossed that sea to 'plant'
British culture among the native Irish. Today, the descendants of these
interminglings try to assert their 'identities' through violence and
intimidation. Polynesian seafarers placed their genetic markers across
the Pacific archipelago A Jewish minority arose in Palestine and claimed
it as their kingdom. A sect of that minority (Christians) emerged to
claim Palestine (along with the rest of the temporal world, as their
kingdom). A man (Mohammed) emerged in the 6th century to claim Palestine
(again along with the rest of the world) as his God's kingdom. In 1948,
after centuries of neglect and a decade of the most horrible terror, Jew's
reclaimed Palestine for their own. Today, those they reclaimed it from,
the 'Palestinians', rightfully express their own claim to that land. In
the 'new' world, descendants of the pioneers who crossed the land bridge
of the Bering Strait, wonder why the descendants of Europeans seem to
control all of the land that their ancestors 'owned.' In Southern Africa,
the progeny of that small band of Lucy's descendants who landed from the
Netherlands in 1652 wonder now why they have to share 'their' land with
the 'squatters' who are now coming in to try to participate in the riches
of the land and its society--nascent and historically flawed as that
society might be. And, the other tribes with claims to the place--the
Khoikoi, the San, the English, the Indians--also try to wrestle with the
question--who is the squatter, and who is the squattee?
I am from America and I live in Scotland. America was and is built on the
dreams and the energy of squatters. Scotland (and the rest of Europe, for
that matter) has a polity and culture which is fundamentally based on the
rights and the protection of the squattees. Great creative minds come out
of Scotland, but very few come in. Great creative minds come out of
America, and very many come in--most from areas, like Scotland, which
value the squattees more than the squatters.
I've got a lot more to say and think about on this issue if anyone wants
to continue the thread, publicly or privately.
Awra best fur noo
Richard Goodale
Managing Partner
The Dornoch Partnership
--"Richard GOODALE" <fc45@dial.pipex.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>