Funny business this – this time called Life!
author: Leon Botha
Funny business this – this time called Life!
Will we ever really understand?
Have you ever stopped, I mean really stopped, to think carefully about certain things?
I suppose in the case of a number of people the question should be – do you ever think?
Be that as it may, the accepted norm in life is simply to protect what is yours, pretend to worry about others but actually not give a damn if you are not personally affected or involved.
The other night during a program on chimpanzee the researcher said that the chimp is almost as social as the human and has the same ‘closely knit’ social habits. He obviously made a study of chimps but sure as hell missed out on getting to know the human being!
Maybe I should say “the researcher of a program on chimpanzee should stop and re-think what he sees as human!”
We managed to make whatever we do and the way we live so complex that we do find it hard to understand, let alone live the life we created.
Due to the lack of development of our grey matter, plus the fact that we were playing golf instead of concentrating on keeping the shit out of the drinking water – we are busy making life dangerous and almost intolerable, which in turn means that nature will without doubt have to interfere and try to normalise things again.
Will it be bird flu? Aids – the latter seems to be winning the battle here and there, but we are getting used to it and one of these days it will become a “chances of getting Aids have been proven to be xyz% - and some scientists believe that you will not get it if you wear garlic around your vital organs…..etc.”
Just think about the balance in general -
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You are supposed to go to the police for protection. Do you trust the police?
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You pay taxes for the government to at least keep your basic needs in tact. Will you walk up to a garden tap and enjoy the water when you are thirsty?
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Do (can) you stop at robots without looking around – ready to pull away and skip the red robot the minute you see movement next to or near your car?
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Will you simply open your front door when someone knocks?
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Do you allow customers into your office complex without scanning their family history and getting their ID, car registration, picture, testing their DNA, their hair and moustaches to see if it is genuine?
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Will you employ a person who stands at your Fort Knox type gate begging for a Saturday job?
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Will you actually stop and assist people in need of help next to the road?
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Will you pick up a hitchhiker in the middle of the Karoo with steam coming from his head because someone who did actually stop stole his backpack, shoes, and hat?
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Can you actually go window-shopping (let us forget that 75% of windows have bullet proof roll up doors in front of them)?
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Can you afford to go out for a walk or a jog?
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Do you respect those who are supposed to run things?
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Do you actually care about other people anymore, and do you believe that they care about you?
I can continue in this manner for ages and pages, but I am sure that you get the picture – we have been robbed of the right to do normally acceptable social things, and also of our (constitutional) rights to live life!
The things that can be forced down on us by those who are not in control, but in charge, are easy – we get sued, threatened even arrested for things like minor traffic violations that were followed by a summons not necessarily served on us, or that we don’t even know of. We are forced to pay levies, taxes and fines left right and centre, but we never get what we are supposed to get for paying the monies so effectively plucked from our pockets.
They grab money from taxes on fuel and cars all the time, yet nothing is really done to improve roads and the scary part is that it is clear that we will not be able to make use of the roads for long anymore.
Squatters can according to law occupy your property and life there without paying, while you can only get them to go after you either pay them, or arrange alternative accommodation – an obvious transgression, like so many others of your supposed constitutional rights.
Reverse racism is impossible, because you need to be white to be a racist, everything negative is blamed on the previous regime or apartheid, while the fact that we are more than a decade down the line (and the national team can still not play soccer), means nothing.
We read about judges calling lawyers names, telling them to go back to Netherland – goodness knows why, because the poor man probably is from African origin – at least according to scientists we are all from Saartjie Baardwomen’s family. That is probably why a few carried on as if they knew the woman first hand when the French decided to send her back!
Many uninformed actually had some presents ready and wanted to ask her what her life was like overseas, and whether it felt good for a comrade to be back after the struggle in private schools and Havard.
When last did you look for a common factor, something that will bind you with your fellow human being – I am not talking about the bonding at funerals, where we all express the sad state of affairs by saying: “Shame man, we also see the family only on funerals – we must really make a plan to get together!”
We sat in a restaurant – I suppose I can give my friend Claude a bit of publicity by saying we sat in the Boer’gousies restaurant in Hilda Street Hatfield, enjoying yet another excellent meal, when the lights suddenly went out, and only the candles remained burning on all the tables. No music, just the sound of knives and forks, and a glass here and there mixed with the sound of rain on the outside.
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Give me back the days when a flame was meant to give light.
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I am sure a number of the older readers can recall many years back living on a farm – when you could still sleep with your doors open, let alone unlocked – when you started eating dinner at about seven and afterwards the family read from the bible and a favourite psalm resounded through the quiet house before you sat around the table discussing the day and also listened to “Die du Plooys van Soetmelkvlei, or Die Geheim van Nantes” while the only power came from the small battery operated radio and the rest from God. The only sound was the sjooooooooosssshhhhh of the Coleman lamp, and many crickets and other animals did their normal thing where today you find only Golf Estates designed by well known golfers who are apparently not satisfied with the millions they make from playing the game better than the average bank manager.
Give me back the days when someone who asked how I was, actually listened to the reply.
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