This is more a question for me than you. You probably don’t care why I don’t write on Thought Leader anymore. But if you do, or you’re bored, here is why.

I am looking at an open word doc. Blank. Over the last few months I have done this many times. Always with the intention of writing a piece for Thought Leader. Most times I close the document. Almost tired. Weary of South African news. Weary of the hamster-wheel that we run on. Blame Malema. Blame the whites. Shame on Zuma. Shame on Zille. It is apartheid. And around we go.

Whatever the subject, it always comes back to that. We like to whinge at each other. (Irony warning! That’s what I’m doing right now). But we whinge without effect. We whinge with no “go-forward” mechanism.

I used to try con myself that I was busy — work, a new baby, the wrong time zone. But there is always time. The reality is I am just bored of the mental grind of being South African. Bored of discussing issues that I have no sway over, that none of us seem to have any sway over.

I am gatvol of trying to sound like a conscientious South African, a positive South African, a South African who gives a shit. So I have decided to become a conscientious objector to the moral, social and political issues of our country.

This doesn’t mean I won’t ever live in SA again (I am still trying to convince my Aussie wife to move). I will never give up my claim to South African-ness. I will always defend my country like a bulldog when people question it. I will always tell people to visit it. And I will always want SA to do well in everything. Sport, music, film, tiddlywinks, whatever.

But like the ostrich I am going to stick my head in the sand. From now on, I will only write of other things. What those things are I have no idea, but when I see them I will tell you. (probably worms, since my head is in the sand).

Author

  • David Smith is a world famous artist and a British Olympic hammer thrower. He is a curler for Scotland and Manitoba. A pro wrestler fondly known as the British Bulldog. A Canadian economist and a Mormon missionary they call the Sweet Singer of Israel. He is a British historian and a bishop. David Smith is the biographer of HG Wells, a professor of physics, a composer and a music teacher at Yale. He played rugby for Samoa, England and New Zealand. He created the Melissa worm, a deadly computer virus. He is the Guardian's man in Africa, he starred in a reality TV show and shot his way to silver in the 600m military rifle prone position at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. But this isn't that David Smith. This is the blog of the other David Smith. David J Smith. The one from Durban by the Sea. The one who lives in Amsterdam. Yes, him. The David Smith who likes to write about himself in the third person. To learn about all the other David Smiths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Smith To contact this David Smith: [email protected]

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David J Smith

David Smith is a world famous artist and a British Olympic hammer thrower. He is a curler for Scotland and Manitoba. A pro wrestler fondly known as the British Bulldog. A Canadian economist and a Mormon...

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