Astronomy the answer to Eskom and our injured national pride

No one thought any worse of Californians when that US state plunged into a power crisis a few years back. Yet we South Africans are upset about both our current (or lack thereof!) situation and its effect on our image.

The sentiment is that we’ve now been shown up as no different to the “rest of Africa”; that we’re shedding our international image faster than Eskom seeks to shed its umzima.

Likewise, our 2010 victory now portends further embarrassment. What alternative after-hours recreation can we offer the soccer tourists — perhaps lure them into a bit of star-gazing at the Karoo’s Sutherland?

Reinforcing Eskom’s jolt to our national joy and dignity is the Selebi saga.

We originally celebrated a compatriot who could ride on our national reputation to secure the collective prestige of heading up Interpol. Now he’s accused of disgracing us — and compounding it even more, our president allowed him to linger in office despite all the concerns.

Also depressing is the signal emitted by an ANC president facing fraud charges, and one-third of the ANC’s new executive members reported with ethical or legal lapses to their names.

Another setback for our morale is Kenya, when we’ve only just survived “contamination” from Zimbabwe. That East African country is being read as an adverse symbol for the continent more broadly.

The Financial Times newspaper earlier this month wrote of the Kenyan crisis: “Africans still tend to vote for who they are rather than what they believe in.” The journalist penning this grossly sweeping statement also hearkened back to Rwanda, and warned of the dangers of “politics that draw on identity rather than ideology”.

Our national malaise is because of these kinds of generalisations that imply that Africans are backward and incapable of rationality. We’re unhappy to see so much potential ammunition being given to people who want “proof” of their prejudice.

For the record, and contra the FT, despite the real ethnic tensions in post-election Kenya, much of the initial voting was along class rather than tribal lines. In South Africa, the ANC internal elections weren’t ethnic.

On the other hand, many of the First World’s own backyards have more than enough identity politics, which is why Obama won in South Carolina, and why the European Union still hasn’t been able push ahead with constitutional amendments.

Also, many places besides South Africa show poor judgement about balancing markets with state control. California messed up its electricity supply by insufficient regulation of companies; Thabo misguidedly put his faith in a monopoly state enterprise (part of the “development state”?).

Even regarding the home-loan credit crisis abroad, bad governance decisions can be blamed. But lucky for Americans and Brits, we don’t generalise about them as a people.

Nevertheless, to a favourite term from Nelson Mandela, our recent events are affecting our global image, like it or not. So there’s good reason to feel less than electrified about our reputation.

You can recognise that negative images about us are coloured by hypocritical and racist outlooks. But unless you’re blind, you can also recognise that this observation does not change the influence and effect of those images.

Just one thing will change the power of such perceptions. That’s when the people here and on this continent harness our own power — both the electrical and the political … and the connections between; when we can properly synchronise our votes and our volts.

Meanwhile, next time the electricity is off, experience a positive African night-time image. That swathe of stars called the Milky Way by English-speaking Westerners has a different indigenous resonance. It’s said to be the effect of sunlight shining through the blackness. The pricks of light only penetrate because God’s cattle have worn holes in the sky as they daily trudge the same path to his heavenly kraal.

Despite Eskom and all the egregious politics, if the beauty of that image doesn’t make you feel proud to be an African, go get yourself a generator.