tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post2187960316371066119..comments2024-03-09T10:58:56.668+02:00Comments on constitutionally speaking: Mbeki: Sad prisoner of Western culture and valuesPierre de Voshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17861888910368295788noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post-23527305840758015762007-08-21T16:43:00.000+02:002007-08-21T16:43:00.000+02:00Michael, I could not agree more. As my teacher at ...Michael, I could not agree more. As my teacher at school used to say in a different context: "Julle raak wit, ne."Pierre de Voshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17861888910368295788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post-5282973956366353362007-08-18T15:02:00.000+02:002007-08-18T15:02:00.000+02:00Madladla-Routledge appeared to be doing a good job...Madladla-Routledge appeared to be doing a good job.<BR/><BR/>Manto is well known for her incompetence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post-9260169558206193692007-08-18T13:56:00.000+02:002007-08-18T13:56:00.000+02:00Competence? A good number of government department...Competence? A good number of government departments are a wreck!<BR/><BR/>Arrogance. The ANC does not represent the entire African race and neither does Dr Demanto.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post-2622187554874676012007-08-18T09:21:00.000+02:002007-08-18T09:21:00.000+02:00Well said, Pierre. It is a pity that Suresh Robert...Well said, Pierre. It is a pity that Suresh Roberts did not, in his otherwise quite insightful work, do more to explore Mbeki's relationship with BC. (Suresh should have said a little less about Fanon, and a little more about Sobukwe and Biko.)<BR/><BR/>For my own part, I must acknowledge that the only irony more pungent than the “non-racial” Mbeki’s allowing himself to be defined by racism is the irony of a hyper-privileged white man presuming to lecture Mbeki on the lessons of Sobukwe and Biko. Self-reflexivity with a vengeance!Michael Osbornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04075293159079052802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post-66270342690283981962007-08-18T08:18:00.000+02:002007-08-18T08:18:00.000+02:00Micheal, I have written previously that the traged...Micheal, I have written previously that the tragedy of Mbeki is partly that he has not internalised the ideas of Steve Biko. If I want to be provocative, I would argue he would also do well to read some queer theory. Queer theorists would reject the notion that homosexuals should find freedom and emancipation in attempts to be just like heterosexuals. What is required is to challenge and even ridicule the assumptions underlying the heteronormative world view. If some people say you are a pervert and a sissy, you say yes, and I like wearing dresses and I am more free than you, so shame on you. True emancipation can never lie in wanting to show the master that you are good enough - you must challenge the master's basic assumptions about what is good and bad.Pierre de Voshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17861888910368295788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36284819.post-72819662381954823862007-08-17T16:29:00.000+02:002007-08-17T16:29:00.000+02:00Pierre, your short essay in response to the ANC TO...Pierre, your short essay in response to the ANC TODAY piece by the President brilliantly captures the paradox that, if you view every criticism as a manifestaion of your mortal enemy’s machinations, you end up buying into his frame of reference. You hand him the victory before the battle is joined. <BR/><BR/>For Mbeki, Africans will always defined, existentially, and to their core, by the very racism to which they have historically been subjected. Mbeki is crippled by never having learned what Sobukwe and Biko could have taught him: That the first step in liberation is adamantly to reject the definitions imposed by your oppressor. Only then can you face the master on your own terms -- and understand that the white man’s racism is not the principle condition of your existence. <BR/><BR/>The ultimate irony is that Mbeki’s “non-racial” ANC tradition, in contradistinction to BC, dooms him to remain a cowering, embittered prisoner of a “European” discourse imposed upon him by colonialism. He hates being defined as the “other.” But, having never developed a vocabulary of his own, he also despises himself. In his own masochistic manner, Mbeki loves his enemy, even as he lashes him.Michael Osbornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04075293159079052802noreply@blogger.com