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From: tjj@ssc-vax.UUCP (T J Jardine)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: The students of the country care about the world (South Africa)
Message-ID: <694@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 21:21:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.694
Posted: Tue Apr 30 21:21:07 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 2-May-85 03:15:23 EDT
References: <1102@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
Lines: 72

It is with pleasure that I hear that the students are concerned about what
is going on in South Africa.  I only wish that the students and the other
folks who are currently expressing their concern would have the integrity
and decency to inform themselves and really, really examine the issues
before running off at the mouth.  I have yet to find anyone, save perhaps
a few exhiled "Bantu", who have experienced conditions in South Africa.

I do not in any way favor Apartheid.  I do not condone the actions and
attitudes of the Nationalist government in South Africa.  In fact, my wife
and I spent two years living in South Africa.  The question that everyone
seems either to have missed, or that they simply ignore, is this:

	How does one transition from the condition in which the
	non-white populace currently exists to the condition which
	is to be desired?

The last thing that one would want is to make the condition of the non-white
worse than it is now.  Yet those who suggest that the US companies doing
business in South Africa pull out would do just that.  Perhaps only a small
percent of the non-white population is directly benefited by the policies
of the US companies, but at least that shows what can be done and more than
anything it provides HOPE.  I have personally seen what US companies in
Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban have done to improve wages, working
conditions, and opportunities for non-whites.  Some other facts to consider:

	The non-white population of South Africa is not monolithic.
	In fact the Indians consider themselves apart from the
	Coloured (non-whites of mixed racial heritage), and there
	are fourteen major tribal divisions of the Black African
	(or Bantu - a generic name equivalent to the word 'people').

	While the wages and working conditions in the mines are bad
	compared to US or European standards, it is a significant
	opportunity compared to living conditions outside of South
	Africa.  A Black African can come from his homeland; work on
	the mines; be provided with food, clothing, shelter; learn to
	read and write; and return in 5-10 years with enough saved up
	to live like a king in his own homeland.  This doesn't justify
	the treatment he receives nor the enforced separation from his
	family.  But it ought to give pause to those who believe that
	all non-whites are ground into the dirt.

What I believe the Black African in particular, and the non-white in general,
really need is to be treated with respect and dignity.  Don't enfranchise
them and expect that they will do anything but fall on their face.  Improve
their educational opportunities, remove the fear of the knock on the door
in the middle of the night (it does exist in South Africa), and steadily
improve their opportunities for jobs and housing.  Give them the franchise,
not as if they were little children, but so that they have an opportunity
to learn and assimilate.  Start with voting and participation in government
at the village or town level and work up.  Realize that the traditional
values in Black African society are not the same as ours.  Many of the
Black African friends we left in South Africa would be glad to go to their
grave knowing that their children would have these kind of opportunities.
And most important of all, keep those who would foment rebellion and
turmoil away from southern Africa.  How can one learn to govern oneself
or learn anything else with a lot of racket and noise in one's ear?

Enough!  I think the problem can be solved.  Not overnight.  And especially
not as the demonstrators in the US seem to think -- by estranging the very
people that they profess to help.  I support the right of the demonstrators
to sleep on the steps of their university library, but also ask them not to
be surprised when they wake up with boot prints on their foreheads.
The Afrikaner sincerely believes that he was given dominion over the southern
portion of the African continent by God Himself more than 350 years ago.

TJ (with Amazing Grace) The Piper
...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!ted
-- 
TJ (with Amazing Grace) The Piper
Boeing Artificial Intelligence Center
...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!ted