Racism and other fluff obscure real issues

By Roger Diamond

I find it fascinating that people are attracted to the bump and grind made about relatively inconsequential matters, while the real driving forces in our lives are largely ignored. The headlines are filled with nonsense about what some official in some arbitrary government post has to say about his own opinions. What some geyser has to spout about the piffle in his head really does not make the world go round.

To prove my point, lest you think such fluff does actually change our world, a quick look at the real world before and after such admittedly vile statements will show that food consumption, water usage, petrol purchases and other real things that actually affect us, have not changed one spot.

The good thing about this is that it means we can all actually relax a bit more, enjoy a gin and tonic like Edith, and not get too uptight about the insulting verbiage that gets chucked around about skin colour, sexual orientation and all those other things that get under our skin so easily and make us itch. Not to say that these issues are totally unimportant. In fact some of them are really very important, specifically for the people they affect, which directly may be only some of us, but indirectly we all feel the pain if one sector of our society is being mistreated.

However, as much as I would love to see gay marriage equality or the abandonment of race classification in this country, not only so discrimination against me (as a gay white male) would cease, but also as a sign that affirmative action is no longer necessary, I would rather the government spent its time and money building renewable energy infrastructure for South Africa. No matter how much we quibble about whether pink people or purple people should be allowed to eat sushi and sashimi and exactly what serving platter is acceptable, when the power goes out because there is not enough coal or water to feed Eskom’s dinosaurs, you won’t care whether it was crab maki or salmon nigiri.

Why spend time and money trying to perfect the BEE-bop-baloola process when we should just be getting on with maintaining and upgrading the landfills and wastewater treatment works around the country. This will create plenty of jobs and help ensure more water and better water for all, including the trashed natural environment upon which our whole tottering civilisation depends.

So go on, enjoy the verbal thrashings and epileptic angst over statements by blokes whose surnames begin with M, but don’t blame me when Eskom goes down, the gennie runs dry and you trip over the powerless cord and land face first in the wasabi.