South Africans Killing Each Other
It's quite confusing and I don't exactly know who's killing whom. Deadly violence, illegal strikes and union infighting have plagued South Africa's platinum belt since last year's deadly strikes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/shooting-at-south-african-lonmin-mine-kills-1-shop-steward-in-union-rivalry/2013/06/03/2e191b3c-cc51-11e2-8573-3baeea6a2647_story.html
At least 2 people have been shot, 1 fatally, in an ongoing union rivalry at South Africa's troubled Lonmin platinum mine. Workers at Lonmin's Marikana mine--the site of last year's violent strike in which police killed 34 protesters--staged a two-day wildcat strike in mid-May to demand that NUM vacate the office where Monday's shooting took place.
Meanwhile, mining giant Glencore Xstrata said Monday that it had dismissed around 1,000 workers who went on a strike last week.
Things are getting hairy. Apparently, all of this is caused by slow economic growth and high unemployment. The workers feel like they are being abused, and they want justice.
Do you guys think South Africans have a right to be angry, or should they go back to work and stop complaining?
5 Comments • Newest first
[quote=DarkTention]As horrid as this sounds, I didn't watch the whole video. Although I did make it half way through and found it quite interesting. I never really thought about white slums in SA, but I suppose as anywhere else in the world, really there's going to be people of different races in poverty. Impoverished citizens are only impoverished based on how low their income is to the higher incomes available to the larger percent of the population, I'd say. (Or at least it made sense in my head.) But I guess what I was getting at with that was poverty is all comparatively speaking, which I find to be interesting. So in other words it can look different in each situation. Of course in this situation the slums are simply that, slums. But as I previously said, if you do find their history or culture particularly interesting, this young man's journey is quite the story. As I'm sure you read it's an auto-biography and that makes the scenes in it just as real as can be. The events that took place were horrifying and just an interesting idea all around. It gives you insight as to how well certain groups of people have it, or at least it put some things in perspective for me.
All in all it's a great read, as I also believe I've said. Again I do want to warn you (I don't know how old you are or how accustomed to graphic description you are) that the material is pretty rough at times. I was a little less bothered by the graphic descriptions, but my whole graduating class was assigned to it going into Sophomore year for summer reading. So I heard mixed reviews on that. I'd say you'd probably be fine though considering you're old enough to be interested in foreign affairs.[/quote]
The more realistic it is the better! I appreciate people who write autobiographies to try to help me feel the way they felt. The more intense, the better.
And yes, things have changed since 1986 Modern South Africa is a bit different, but I imagine that they are still touched by the past.
Anyways, thanks again for the book recommendation! Don't forget to be awesome.
[quote=DarkTention]I don't really know what it is with the South African government. It seems if it gets better it's only mildly better. Of course progress is progress, but it's a shame that things play out the way they do.
If you're interested in South African life or culture I would recommend a book about a man's childhood and his departure from country during Apartheid. It's called Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane. It's a great read. A little rough, as a warning, though.[/quote]
Thank you! I Googled and read a summary of the book, and it sounds fascinating. I'll definitely check it out.
As of right now, everything I know about South Africa comes from the news in mainstream media. And as you probably already know, there's rarely any good news in the news.
Here's a sample of what little I know about South Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUJ1AnMEwKg
@MasterKEVQN: <3
Wow i can already tell there is gonna be some pretty racist comments on this thread
They have it easy compared to Turkey right now