It's not difficult tying the violence we see in South Africa to the horrific upbringings many poor kids have in South African townships.
But to think that our problems with violence are unique is to ignore the growing trend of mob mad kids in the UK, US, etc. Whether it's the uprisings against Lebanese in Sydney, the anarchy on the streets of Paris, or the kid who makes a UK teacher's work impossible, The kids aren't alright as The Offspring song goes.
Read the horrific article in today's Sunday Times about the chav kid mobs in the UK who are running amok and beating adults to a pulp.
Are we headed for a Lord of the Flies culture? The problem is global. And the solution is not locking up a lost generation as is happening in the US and UK. Certainly many kids are monsters and possibly beyond redemption. They belong in jail.
But ultimately, we have to intervene to ensure no parents are allowed to create psychopathic monsters. How do you do that? Prophylactic injections to stop people convicted of domestic violence from having kids? Reworking social welfare to incentivize fewer and not more kids? Better institutions for orphans?
With an estimated 2 million aids orphans in the care of relative or village elders in South Africa, it is not difficult to see why we are not different, merely worse off.
The Kids Aren't Alright - The Offspring
When we were young the future was so bright (whoa)
The old neighborhood was so alive (whoa)
And every kid on the whole damn street (whoa)
was gonna make it big in every beat.
Now the neighborhood's cracked and torn (whoa)
The kids are grown up but their lives are worn(whoa)
How can one little street
Swallow so many lives?
Chorus:
Chances thrown
Nothing's free
Longing for
What used to be
Still it's hard
Hard to see
Fragile lives
Shattered dreams
Go!
Jamie had a chance, well she really did (whoa)
Instead she dropped out and had a couple of kids (whoa)
Mark still lives at home cause he's got no job (whoa)
Just plays guitar, smokes a lot of pot
Jay commited suicide (whoa)
Brandon OD'd and died (whoa)
What the hell is going on?
Cruelest dream reality
Chances blown, nothing's free
Longing for what used to be
Still, it's hard, hard to see
Fragile lives, shattered dreams
Go!
Chances blown, nothing's free
Longing for what used to be
Still, it's hard, hard to see
Fragile lives, shattered dreams
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Is Zuma our OJ Simpson?
Not for the first time, I was reminded today of the parallels between Zuma in South Africa with OJ Simpson in the States.
I read the rather excellent Guardian piece reprinted in the Mail and Guardian.
The psychology behind popular black support for heroes on trial by what is seen as white establishment is obvious. It is the same warped sense of indentity that causes otherwise reasonable whites to support a white Skierlik murderer or a depraved set of white boys making fun of black workers old enough to be their parents in their Reitz hostel video.
The Guardian article says of the original OJ Simpson Los Angeles trial: "The trial became less about the killings and more about a city's terrible relations with its black population. Occurring not long after the Rodney King riots of 1992, Simpson became a symbol for black power in the face of white authority."
It is not difficult to understand the support for Zuma of those with nothing to lose in South Africa on similar grounds. To them, he represents the black masses marginalised by first the whites and then the connected black elite who appear to have got rich with little regard for those who put them in power. Zuma's guilt of rape or corruption is secondary to the symbolism of taking back power by those in the majority.
This is of course alarming to those who somehow avoid the politics of race and condemn equally the crimes of those who commit them. The reality of a justice blind to race and popularity seems endangered - if it ever existed. The inequality of its application under apartheid would suggest not, and that it is rather an aspiration people hoped for in 1994.
The tale of OJ Simpson offers hope to those. The Gaurdian states: "There has been a fundamental shift in racial attitudes to Simpson. Once, 71% of black Americans believed he was innocent. That's fallen to 40%. It is likely to have collapsed further in the wake of his book. 'A lot of black people have changed their minds. Afterwards he did not try to reach out to them. He just moved to Florida and played golf,' says Manny Otiko, a black cartoonist and comedian."
Already it seems Zuma's support has questioned his willow-bend-in-the-wind poltical posturing.
Perhaps we too are moving towards a day where voters will choose between a woman and a black man based on issues rather than a left / right split.
I read the rather excellent Guardian piece reprinted in the Mail and Guardian.
The psychology behind popular black support for heroes on trial by what is seen as white establishment is obvious. It is the same warped sense of indentity that causes otherwise reasonable whites to support a white Skierlik murderer or a depraved set of white boys making fun of black workers old enough to be their parents in their Reitz hostel video.
The Guardian article says of the original OJ Simpson Los Angeles trial: "The trial became less about the killings and more about a city's terrible relations with its black population. Occurring not long after the Rodney King riots of 1992, Simpson became a symbol for black power in the face of white authority."
It is not difficult to understand the support for Zuma of those with nothing to lose in South Africa on similar grounds. To them, he represents the black masses marginalised by first the whites and then the connected black elite who appear to have got rich with little regard for those who put them in power. Zuma's guilt of rape or corruption is secondary to the symbolism of taking back power by those in the majority.
This is of course alarming to those who somehow avoid the politics of race and condemn equally the crimes of those who commit them. The reality of a justice blind to race and popularity seems endangered - if it ever existed. The inequality of its application under apartheid would suggest not, and that it is rather an aspiration people hoped for in 1994.
The tale of OJ Simpson offers hope to those. The Gaurdian states: "There has been a fundamental shift in racial attitudes to Simpson. Once, 71% of black Americans believed he was innocent. That's fallen to 40%. It is likely to have collapsed further in the wake of his book. 'A lot of black people have changed their minds. Afterwards he did not try to reach out to them. He just moved to Florida and played golf,' says Manny Otiko, a black cartoonist and comedian."
Already it seems Zuma's support has questioned his willow-bend-in-the-wind poltical posturing.
Perhaps we too are moving towards a day where voters will choose between a woman and a black man based on issues rather than a left / right split.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Who will make the South African crime movie?
"The Brave One" is currently showing at cinemas around the world. Somewhat controversial, it tells the story of a vigilante response to a violent assault and murder. It stars Jodie Foster and I looked forward to a relevant thought provoking story about crime and punishment. Sadly I was disappointed.
Two of the best movies I have ever seen, let alone about crime, are "Traffic" starring Micheal Douglas and "Man on Fire" starring Denzel Washington. The latter is, in my opinion, one of the most finely produced movies of our time. Tony Scott combines with Washington, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken, musical maestro Hans Zimmer and the haunting Lisa Gerrard. These movies are violent and Man on Fire is disturbingly so. But the story is so gripping, everything has its place.
"The Brave One" suffers for this reason. I wondered why it was worth making? Was it a story worth telling?
South Africa needs someone to tell its crime story. Just as Man on Fire is not unpatriotic about Mexico, neither would a warts and all story about South Africa's problems and complexities be.
Stories have been told for centuries. Those that are worthwhile have sought to make sense of the nonsensical. In ancient times these stories may have described the mysterious as mythical, the complex as supernatural. Stories gave reason to the unreasonable, basis to that which played at our thoughts.
As we seek the diversion of a rugby world cup win, as we seek an outlet for our pride and love for this country, some people's lives have been ripped to shreds by the scourge that plagues South Africa.
From News24: A security company called Gideon Odendaal of Pretoria at 16:39 on Tuesday afternoon to inform him that there were problems at his home in Lynnwood Manor.
Odendaal, who was in the Western Cape, phoned home but nobody answered. He then tried to call his wife Kathy's cellphone number, but she didn't answer.
The domestic worker eventually answered her cellphone and all she was able to say was "They're busy hurting her."
Soon after that, Kathy Odendaal, 51, was murdered in her house in Farnham Street by armed attackers who had first raped her.
From IoL: Cathy Odendaal was apparently tortured, sexually assaulted and then murdered by the four-man gang who have been terrorising Pretoria.
But in an unusual mobilisation of forces on Tuesday night, members of the community, along with a group of construction workers from Mamelodi, rallied together to hunt down the alleged culprits.
Two men who were found in possession of an unlicensed handgun and jewellery belonging to Odendaal were arrested - one of them, who was wearing a Springbok jersey, was seriously hurt after being subdued by the workers.
Construction worker Vusi Sithole, who was driving with his brother Johannes and neighbour Colbert Novela, said that as they drove towards Mamelodi they spotted a man holding a woman around the throat. He was wearing a Springbok jersey.
Chasing after him, the three escaped with their lives after the man, who had hidden behind a clump of bushes in Cedar Street, leapt at their truck, pushed a gun into the driving compartment and opened fire.
Novela had a spade with him and managed to push the spade against the gun, deflecting the bullet.
The three men pushing the man from the truck and attacked him with the spade and a rock, overpowering him before stopping a passing police patrol.
Sithole burst into tears on hearing of Odendaal's murder.
"If only we could have done something to save her. I wish we could have caught the man before he killed that lady," he said.
From News24: The woman's son arrived on his scooter at his mother's home, at about 20:00 on Tuesday night.
He had not yet been informed of the attack.
"What's going on here? Is everything all right? Is my mom OK? Tell me, tell me?!" he wanted to know.
When a policeman told him that his mother had died, he burst into tears and cried in the policeman's arms.
Beeld heard that the woman's husband was in Cape Town. Her daughter had not yet been informed of her mother's death.
Again from News24: Members of the police forensics unit were fine-combing the Odendaal home on Wednesday morning for leads.
While the police were conducting their search, Marlize Odendaal, the victim's daughter, arrived at the house.
She was in the Kruger National Park when her mother was murdered.
Marlize sat on the pavement outside and just stared at the house.
"It's terrible, what happened to my mother," she said.
A third man has been arrested for the Odendaal murder after assistance by the Mamelodi community. The three suspects have been linked to the shooting of a three year old neighbor to the Odendaals this last weekend in addition to a host of other crimes.
Meanwhile, Ryan Holmes, a 22-year-old Tukkies student who was shot during a hijacking some weeks back remains in a coma.
You can be sure the Odendaal and Holmes families will never recover from these tragedies.
To appreciate some of the agony that victims go through, consider the exceptional case of Seiso Ratsoana. From the Sunday Times:
In August last year, two boys — then aged 12 and 11, I’ve been told — locked themselves in a house in Mabopane, outside Pretoria, with Seiso, who was then a year and 10 months old.
They poured boiling water over Seiso’s head and his groin. They used a knife to peel off parts of his scalp as his skin flaked. They pushed nails through his tongue.
They rubbed chilli into his wounds and into his rectum. They stuffed his mouth with pills to stop him screaming.
When Seiso’s rescuers finally broke into the house, the boys were apparently preparing to pour boiling oil over him and hack off the soles of his feet.
...
Debbie, a young volunteer at the Children of Fire, takes Seiso to Milpark Hospital every day to have the dressings on his groin changed. The risk of infection is considerable; Seiso is not toilet trained, his bandages are often soaked in urine.
...
“Nurse comes in at 10.30. Debbie holds torso down. I hold his legs down. Nurse starts cutting staples. Seiso screams. Writhes in agony. Screams louder. Nurse continues cutting. Seiso screams louder. More cuts. More blood. Another nurse comes in. She takes over from me holding legs down. I go to bathroom. Debbie and I agree afterwards that the doctor should be there next time to see how well the Stopayne f***ing works.”
I cried when I read this story. It is not the only child tortured. In the North West province last year, robbers burnt a child with molten wax in attempts to get his parents to tell them where money and guns were. And of course many other people including the aged have been similarly tortured with boiling water, etc.
But Seiso Ratsoana's story is something else. I try to imagine his pain. No matter what pain I've been through it just cannot compare to a little boy who does not even have muscles in his groin left from the burns administered to him. Imagine a little boy who possibly has no memory of a life without pain. And who knows it was someone else that did this to him.
What creates a 12 year old psychopath? Why do we have people growing up to be monsters? Psychopathy is incurable. Psychologists will tell you they suspect that South Africa produces these monsters at an unmatched rate.
I am currently reading Anthony Altbeker's "A Country At War With Itself." It is interesting, but so far I'm short on answers as to the psychology behind South African violent crime.
It would make a story worth telling. Not as a documentary, but a personal story set in South Africa.
Two of the best movies I have ever seen, let alone about crime, are "Traffic" starring Micheal Douglas and "Man on Fire" starring Denzel Washington. The latter is, in my opinion, one of the most finely produced movies of our time. Tony Scott combines with Washington, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken, musical maestro Hans Zimmer and the haunting Lisa Gerrard. These movies are violent and Man on Fire is disturbingly so. But the story is so gripping, everything has its place.
"The Brave One" suffers for this reason. I wondered why it was worth making? Was it a story worth telling?
South Africa needs someone to tell its crime story. Just as Man on Fire is not unpatriotic about Mexico, neither would a warts and all story about South Africa's problems and complexities be.
Stories have been told for centuries. Those that are worthwhile have sought to make sense of the nonsensical. In ancient times these stories may have described the mysterious as mythical, the complex as supernatural. Stories gave reason to the unreasonable, basis to that which played at our thoughts.
As we seek the diversion of a rugby world cup win, as we seek an outlet for our pride and love for this country, some people's lives have been ripped to shreds by the scourge that plagues South Africa.
From News24: A security company called Gideon Odendaal of Pretoria at 16:39 on Tuesday afternoon to inform him that there were problems at his home in Lynnwood Manor.
Odendaal, who was in the Western Cape, phoned home but nobody answered. He then tried to call his wife Kathy's cellphone number, but she didn't answer.
The domestic worker eventually answered her cellphone and all she was able to say was "They're busy hurting her."
Soon after that, Kathy Odendaal, 51, was murdered in her house in Farnham Street by armed attackers who had first raped her.
From IoL: Cathy Odendaal was apparently tortured, sexually assaulted and then murdered by the four-man gang who have been terrorising Pretoria.
But in an unusual mobilisation of forces on Tuesday night, members of the community, along with a group of construction workers from Mamelodi, rallied together to hunt down the alleged culprits.
Two men who were found in possession of an unlicensed handgun and jewellery belonging to Odendaal were arrested - one of them, who was wearing a Springbok jersey, was seriously hurt after being subdued by the workers.
Construction worker Vusi Sithole, who was driving with his brother Johannes and neighbour Colbert Novela, said that as they drove towards Mamelodi they spotted a man holding a woman around the throat. He was wearing a Springbok jersey.
Chasing after him, the three escaped with their lives after the man, who had hidden behind a clump of bushes in Cedar Street, leapt at their truck, pushed a gun into the driving compartment and opened fire.
Novela had a spade with him and managed to push the spade against the gun, deflecting the bullet.
The three men pushing the man from the truck and attacked him with the spade and a rock, overpowering him before stopping a passing police patrol.
Sithole burst into tears on hearing of Odendaal's murder.
"If only we could have done something to save her. I wish we could have caught the man before he killed that lady," he said.
From News24: The woman's son arrived on his scooter at his mother's home, at about 20:00 on Tuesday night.
He had not yet been informed of the attack.
"What's going on here? Is everything all right? Is my mom OK? Tell me, tell me?!" he wanted to know.
When a policeman told him that his mother had died, he burst into tears and cried in the policeman's arms.
Beeld heard that the woman's husband was in Cape Town. Her daughter had not yet been informed of her mother's death.
Again from News24: Members of the police forensics unit were fine-combing the Odendaal home on Wednesday morning for leads.
While the police were conducting their search, Marlize Odendaal, the victim's daughter, arrived at the house.
She was in the Kruger National Park when her mother was murdered.
Marlize sat on the pavement outside and just stared at the house.
"It's terrible, what happened to my mother," she said.
A third man has been arrested for the Odendaal murder after assistance by the Mamelodi community. The three suspects have been linked to the shooting of a three year old neighbor to the Odendaals this last weekend in addition to a host of other crimes.
Meanwhile, Ryan Holmes, a 22-year-old Tukkies student who was shot during a hijacking some weeks back remains in a coma.
You can be sure the Odendaal and Holmes families will never recover from these tragedies.
To appreciate some of the agony that victims go through, consider the exceptional case of Seiso Ratsoana. From the Sunday Times:
In August last year, two boys — then aged 12 and 11, I’ve been told — locked themselves in a house in Mabopane, outside Pretoria, with Seiso, who was then a year and 10 months old.
They poured boiling water over Seiso’s head and his groin. They used a knife to peel off parts of his scalp as his skin flaked. They pushed nails through his tongue.
They rubbed chilli into his wounds and into his rectum. They stuffed his mouth with pills to stop him screaming.
When Seiso’s rescuers finally broke into the house, the boys were apparently preparing to pour boiling oil over him and hack off the soles of his feet.
...
Debbie, a young volunteer at the Children of Fire, takes Seiso to Milpark Hospital every day to have the dressings on his groin changed. The risk of infection is considerable; Seiso is not toilet trained, his bandages are often soaked in urine.
...
“Nurse comes in at 10.30. Debbie holds torso down. I hold his legs down. Nurse starts cutting staples. Seiso screams. Writhes in agony. Screams louder. Nurse continues cutting. Seiso screams louder. More cuts. More blood. Another nurse comes in. She takes over from me holding legs down. I go to bathroom. Debbie and I agree afterwards that the doctor should be there next time to see how well the Stopayne f***ing works.”
I cried when I read this story. It is not the only child tortured. In the North West province last year, robbers burnt a child with molten wax in attempts to get his parents to tell them where money and guns were. And of course many other people including the aged have been similarly tortured with boiling water, etc.
But Seiso Ratsoana's story is something else. I try to imagine his pain. No matter what pain I've been through it just cannot compare to a little boy who does not even have muscles in his groin left from the burns administered to him. Imagine a little boy who possibly has no memory of a life without pain. And who knows it was someone else that did this to him.
What creates a 12 year old psychopath? Why do we have people growing up to be monsters? Psychopathy is incurable. Psychologists will tell you they suspect that South Africa produces these monsters at an unmatched rate.
I am currently reading Anthony Altbeker's "A Country At War With Itself." It is interesting, but so far I'm short on answers as to the psychology behind South African violent crime.
It would make a story worth telling. Not as a documentary, but a personal story set in South Africa.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
A ray of hope?
Breaking news says that a crime plan presented to President Mbeki has him excited.
A key recommendation in the report is that the police force needs to increase the number of detectives by 30 000. In a country with the most overloaded detectives in the world (most crime dockets do not get investigated due to the workload), this must make sense.
Our courts are partly overloaded due to poor detective work, but catching more crooks will mean more court work. Let's hope the plan addresses that too. Our hopelessly overloaded prisons need expanding too - not early release programmes.
But I'm excited at acknowledgment of the problem and President Mbeki's response. When he was told it could be costly, Mbeki reportedly said: "It is good, let us go and find the money."
A key recommendation in the report is that the police force needs to increase the number of detectives by 30 000. In a country with the most overloaded detectives in the world (most crime dockets do not get investigated due to the workload), this must make sense.
Our courts are partly overloaded due to poor detective work, but catching more crooks will mean more court work. Let's hope the plan addresses that too. Our hopelessly overloaded prisons need expanding too - not early release programmes.
But I'm excited at acknowledgment of the problem and President Mbeki's response. When he was told it could be costly, Mbeki reportedly said: "It is good, let us go and find the money."
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