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r & d
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Strange Days Indeed
Nobody told me there would be days like these - strange days indeed
John Lennon
Those Garden of Eden days when we basked in the light of the rainbow nation are turning into a sunless, grey wilderness where the weeds of racism, corruption and hate-fuelled crime flourish.
Across the colour lines, intellectually impoverished politicians, inebriated judges, ineffectual leaders, venal cops & businesspeople play their colour cards.
I talk to an old friend at dinner who suddenly launches a racist rant, jabbing his finger at my colleague (who is black) saying you people this…you people that. The same friend who a little over a decade ago took me into battle-scarred townships to meet new community leaders risking their lives to heal those scars.
What has happened to you? Why have you given up? Can you not see the ugliness that infects you?
A day earlier I am with a group of journalists who debate whether they advance the cause of racism by publicising those who flourish the race card. Their editor silences the debate with: You know, we are all racists, now.
I e-mail a friend in government, known for his forthright views, with a quote I remember from Alan Paton: My greatest fear is that when whites have finally turned to love, blacks will have turned to hate. He replies that the second half should have read... blacks will have turned to self-hate.
I read with gloomy fascination South African online comments to news articles that twist every item into a black & white war. Journalist are abused and threatened by radical & reactionary elements hogging airtime.
Is the racist reflex embedded in all of us? Are we all victims & perpetrators, too far down the slippery path? Or is this another barrier to overcome, in our long, stumbling walk to true freedom?
Best laid plans...
The South African Government has devised a thoughtful and fair Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) policy that unfortunately the South African government ignores - basing empowerment points on ownership - creating the tenderpreneurs heaven.
We'll join your Government tender I learn, for 30% of the total fee.
What will you do for the fee? I asked.
Laughter. That's our commission. If you want us to do anything, that's 50% plus.
Costs are inflated, tax-payers pay, the poor are short-changed, corners are cut, bridges and roads collapse.
White-owned business, dances around then dives in with hobnail boots.
We need the right optics I am informed so we'll look for a black female to do our CSI.
Any chance she can be disabled, too? I respond: That ticks all the boxes. It doesn't go down well.
Then there is the cost of compliance. BEE advisory services cannot certify and vice versa, so to prove you are doing the right thing can be more expensive than doing it - and far less valuable. It's another entrepreneur barrier the rest of the world does not have.
Meanwhile white youth need to score a minimum of 10% better than black youth to gain university entrance & maybe that's fair if the former went to a private school - but if it is the other way around?
And do we choose a cricket team based on talent or colour?
In business, education, politics & sport race defines us - race divides us. In the colonial beginning there was white, English-speaking entitlement, then for fifty years Afrikaaner entitlement, now black entitlement - how do we redress the past & address the future?
Leaders & Followers
A captain of business who has run auto plants in Germany, England, South Africa & India tells me that South Africa is different from the rest.
Here the Trade Unions constantly test you he says. If you don't listen, you have a strike on your hands & a disaffected work force. If you listen & agree, you are seen as a weak leader & not respected. Productivity falls.
You need to listen, appreciate the point of view, then forcefully re-iterate your position. Today & tomorrow.
Business leaders around the world need vision & strategic sense to convince shareholders and analysts of their worth; in South Africa you also need tough love to maintain loyal followers. Then you will still be tested - you need resilience, too.
What works in the workplace will work in the country. We need leaders who hear the pain, anger, injustices real & imagined, can empathise, whilst being clear that the nation's priority is racial harmony. By working together we achieve more than being apart.
In the Tao-te Ching, Lao Tzu says a leader must display the qualities of compassion & detachment & this ancient wisdom from the East resonates through the South today, in business & politics.
A part of Freedthinkers work is aligning individuals within organisations and by far our most effective tool is the organisation's values (if they do not exist, or mouldy with age & disuse, we facilitate values that are meaningful). There is talk about shared values for the country -the first should be racial, gender & religious harmony. The second must focus on equal opportunity; the third on delivery.
These values cannot erase all injustices, yet - if taken seriously - they are the foundations of a more caring, more effective, more prosperous society.
We need courageous leaders who condemn the purveyors of hate - who know the majority of South Africans want harmony & peace, yet a radical minority with their own agenda can push us all over the precipice.
Whether it is Germany, Cambodia, the Balkans, Rwanda or Sudan, we have seen extremists drag the majority into insanity - we see the extremists here in our country wanting to inflame us all. This is our next great test - through a shared vision of what we can become together, through the glue of unifying values, we need to cast out those who seek to tear us apart.
We must make these strange days of struggle, days to remember & celebrate. We need new songs to sing.
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Freedthinkers collaborative Turbine Process, in a unique inner-city setting, is used by clients that include ABSA, BBC, Discovery, MTN, Nestle, Sunday Times, Virgin & the South African Government.
Find out more from: juliet@freedthinkers.com
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until next time, go well
Mike Freedman
ps many thanks to Striata for distribution
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