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Photo of the week 67 Minutes This Friday, we celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest sons of South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013). Across the nation, people from all walks of life will give 67 minutes of their day to charity in honour of the 67 years Mandela spent in prison. No doubt many of you, dear readers, will also be giving your time to Mandela Day. It is important to remember, however, the principles Madiba held to in his life. And with that in mind, here are some quotes from the great man. “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” — This is from his autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom. Nelson Mandela believed firmly that love is the natural state of mankind. If you look at little children, ones who are too young yet to have absorbed the lessons of hatred and racism that the world teaches, you will see them happily playing together regardless of race or gender. It is only later, when they have had more time to see how the world compartmentalizes and defines human beings, that they split up along the age-old divides of black and white, male and female. We should strive to be more like small children, who love one another regardless of race or gender, and accept each other unconditionally. This is actually also said in the Bible, in Mathew 19:14: “Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”” “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” Many things in Madiba’s life did not go according to plan. If he had had his way, there would have been a peaceful revolution. He certainly would never have gone to jail. The great strength of his character is that he never gave up. He fell, but he got up, shouldered his burden and went on. That is the measure of true greatness. Nobody ever did anything right the first time. Thomas Edison, famous for the invention of the light bulb (which he did not actually do, but that’s a story for another time) once said: “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have found 700 ways that do not work. When I have eliminated all the ways that do not work, I will have found the one that does.” Samuel Becked said: If you’ve never failed, you’ve never tried. It doesn’t matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” We are not living up to Madiba’s hopes for us. We are a nation divided, squabbling among ourselves. That doesn’t matter. We’re trying. Next time, we’ll fail better.
BEAT
18 July, 2014
Page 5
Letter to the editor Moral Regeneration as a requirement to human existence Klaas Nono Mabunda
Last Friday’s sub-zero temperatures created a marvellous winter wonderland at the entrance to Klein-Kariba. Photo: Herman Steyn
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Regenerating morality demands a tireless understanding and interpretation of the society we live in, although this is determined by conducting a study of both living areas, being rural and urban areas respectively, as debatably the conduct of mankind differs not only by nature but by location and the type of leadership found in such residence. Moral putrefaction takes stock not only in the young generation, but happens with significance given to generational copying, such meaning that the younger generation emulates the behaviour of the older and thus conclude that it is a good practice for such behaviours, whether it is truly fitting or not. Joshua N Kudadjie in his writing; “Towards Change and Modernization” about the Ga and Dangme people in Ghana, said: “Change is inevitable, it is natural, normal and perpetual. Yet the phenomenon of inertia is no less real, there is thus a paradox in the attitudes of various people towards change, the use of new technology and tools as well as the adoption of new values, practices and institutions are all aspects of change and modernization” The arguments of traditionalist and that of academics are centralized around adaptation to modernization as western and also gaining momentum at urban areas more easily, due to assortment of beliefs and incursion upon entrenched, long-standing standards, while it cultivates principles and practices that lean to provoke turmoil and asymmetry in the society. There should be a consistent embarking on indigenous sporting codes, necessary for the communities. The engagement in these types of sports will determine the discipline of such communities, as equally when such games are taking place, the lecture on their origin should be provided. Mass literacy seminars should be conducted, which will among other things bring forward motion towards the importance of multi-cultural engagement and how it should bring pride in being what we are. The importance of waging a meaningful engagement of moral regeneration is by starting to invent different approaches other than workshops and boardroom dialogue, the society is decaying whilst the committees are functioning in silos with problems that brews these comfort to insanity and adjusting to conducts unnecessarily. The role of youth formations and all the structures or organizations found in our society is to understand that if their founding statements does not speak of the implementation patterns of reclaiming the sense of our society, then there is absolutely no need to have such existing in the community, thus high ranking offices in the society should pump in more resources on campaigns and programs on moral regeneration, because the simplest reasoning is that the community is suffering and dying, and without which there is nothing left to be led.