Some thoughts and impressions of South Africa

Some thoughts and impressions of South Africa:

South Africa is indeed a fascinating place. It is most of all a very modern experiment in reconciliation. For those of us who grew up in India, we know that Mahatma Gandhi's inspiration for Satyagraha was ignited by the racial (actually skin colour) injustices he was subjected to as a young barrister in South Africa. Modern South Africa is resetting centuries of racial injustice and is doing so admirably in my opinion. Vestiges of past feelings do permeate on all sides of this equation: folks who lost their privileged status are resentful, some people are angry at past injustices, but overall the vast majority just want to pick up and move on. They are South Africa's hope and future. It will take a couple of generations to erase the effects of apartheid and so these next 30 years or so are going to be very critical. Skills and proficiencies are in short supply, and the government at all levels need to transform to a meritocracy to ensure competent governance. Activism got South africa out of apartheid, but it will need much more than activism to move South africa to its rightful place in the comity of nations. While these issues are common in all nations that have struggled against the scourge of colonialism, it is more acute in South Africa. From my very limited vantage, I can only hope that this process accelerate considerably. 

Sports

Sports seems to be leveling field. Football (soccer), Rugby and Cricket are team sports that becoming universal symbols of unity. Its been a rather bad season in both Rugby and cricket though, but in the case of their loss against Australia in Rugby, all South Africans were universal in their praise for the team and the game they played, and universally critical of the referee ! As is increasingly common the world over, South African of  Indian origins play a prominent role in the national Cricket team including their captain Hashim Amla. But the South African Cricket team is being pummeled by - well those Aussies again !   As elsewhere, The Premier League  and 20-Twenty are hugely popular and enquiries into allegations of corruption in the SA Cricket Board abound.