Of courage and doing your little bit of good

Of courage and doing your little bit of good

My dad and I have long shared the theory that October is the most difficult month of the year. It’s anecdotal, of course – there’s no scientific method of measuring collective irritability.

Certainly, people are tired after 10 months of work stress, traffic manoeuvring, political turmoil, economic uncertainty and unrelenting crime, and they’ve still got another couple of months to go before their holidays.

While we wait as a nation to see the promised justice meted out to those who’ve murdered and stolen, the cynicism in the air is almost palpable. Are the powers that be, which include the Presidency and the National Prosecuting Authority, ever going to deliver on their promises of a new life, a new dawn? Surely the effort being put into justifying expense accounts, low conviction rates and poor performance could be better spent just getting on with the job?

I wish that more of the courage of the average person in the street could find its way to the country’s leaders, and that instead of obfuscating and making excuses, they could deliver on their mandates.

Courage. It’s out there. Take #ImStaying, a Facebook group that’s uniting South Africans. Despite its cynical detractors, it’s doing something good for the country. In its words: “#ImStaying is dedicated to the South African women and men of all races, cultures, religions and creeds that choose to grow and improve South Africa. This group is to honour all those who still believe that we as a nation can turn things around. We focus on the people, beauty and positivity in South Africa and all the good vibes. To all those who choose to work as one, to grow this beautiful country we call home. This group belongs to all willing to make a positive difference!”

Started by one person, a guy called Jarette Petzer, it’s grown in just a few weeks to a following of nearly 700 000 members. And its’s broadened its mandate as suggested by its members to include initiatives aimed at helping stimulate the economy through SME businesses and job creation.

What are its detractors doing to make a difference, I wonder?

Nelson Mandela, in the dedication of his autobiography “A Long Walk to Freedom” spoke of the courage of his fellow South Africans. There are so many definitions of courage out there, but I like the one by Wikipedia most: “Courage, also called bravery or valour, is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation”.

There are so many examples of courage in our society. Courage, for me, is visible in the thousands of people who start each day before dawn, rifling through rubbish bins, lugging heavy loads of carboard and plastic and so-called junk along busy roads for a stipend. Courage can be seen in the faces of those who have lost loved ones to crime and illness and tragedy and buried their children but who still somehow get up and face the day.

Courage is in those who work menial jobs to pay for their children to be educated when they themselves have no hope of a better quality of life. Courage is the small child who goes back to school the next day and the day after despite the bullying. Courage is studying by candlelight, going to bed hungry, waking up before dawn to start the long, dangerous trek to work and school. It’s getting home late and cooking a meal with what’s available in a sparse kitchen.

And it’s doing something that makes a difference. Desmond Tutu said: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

The little boy, on his way to school, who saw a “picker” battling uphill with his heavy load, and who got out of the car and went to help him.

And Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax advisor who was arrested in 2008 and then allegedly murdered in police custody. His death cast a global spotlight on allegations of fraud, theft and human rights violations in Russia. His courage is behind the recent imposition of US sanctions against the Guptas and their corrupt associates. His stand against corruption gave rise to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which then US President Barack Obama signed into law in 2012. It’s this law that’s behind the United State’s anti-Gupta sanctions, an amazing journey from Russia via the USA to South Africa. His friend, American businessman Bill Browder, wrote a book called “Red Notice” about Magnitsky’s fight for justice, becoming in the process an “accidental activist” himself. Book publisher Simon & Schuster says Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world, and also the story of how, without intending to, he found meaning in his life.

Then there are the journalists and the investigators, whose courage in exposing criminality takes a heavy toll, sometimes putting their very lives at risk. The AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism (which takes its name from the isiZulu word for the dung beetles, in case you were wondering), comprises a small, dedicated, courageous group of people who are committed to “digging up the dirt to hold power to account”. With its partners News24 and The Daily Maverick, they won the 2018 Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards story of the year with their expose of the Gupta leaks.

Great or small, every one of us can make a difference.

In the words of Mother Teresa, slightly amended by me:” If you can’t do big things, do small things with great love.”