2- SATURDAY;-DECEMBER 28T2UT3 - THE CAROLINA TIME^
commentary
Walking in
Mandela’s
Footsteps
By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
PRETORIA, South Africa - It's not easy walking in the footsteps
of Nelson Mandela, the nation’s first democratically elected presi
dent. No one knows that better than the two men who succeeded him
as president of South Africa.
A larger-than-life figure. Mandela was elected president of the
formerly White minority-ruled country in 1994. an accomplishment
made even more remarkable by his having served 27 years in prison
for his struggle to win equal rights for the violently oppressed Black
majority. After serving one term and still at the apex of his popularity,
the former lawyer decided to forgo a second 5-year term, clearing the
way for his chief deputy and African National Congress (ANC) col
league Thabo Mbeki to assume the top office in 1999.
But after serving eight y ears in office. Mbeki was recalled by the
ANC in 2007 after losing an elective conference to Jacob Zuma at a
party gathering in Polokwane. Limpopo, just north of Johannesburg.
He resigned in September 2008. Zuma succeeded Mbeki and there
appears to be growing disenchantment with the country ’s third Black
president’s performance.
Zuma’s presidency lias been tarnished by repeated reports of
scandals, including charges that he used state funds on his private
residence in Nkandla, a rural town in KwaZulu-Natal province. Im
provements include the addition of a swimming pool, visitors’ center
and amphitheater. The Zuma administration said the expenses, esti
mated at approximately $2 million (U.S.), are for security reasons.
Photographs of the spraw ling home have reminded South Afri
cans of the contrast between the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by the elites
and the millions of residents mired in poverty. I he allegations of cor
ruption are taking a political toll on Zuma, who is in his second term.
According to the Sunday l imes. Mbeki told a UK television net
work that Zuma should resign if recalled by the ANC.
"So when they look at some of the things that are happening when
they see this corruption in the country, which seems to be increasing
at all levels of government, the people are aggrieved. I hey are say ing
that this is not what freedom was for.”
With nearly 100 international leaders in South Africa to memori
alize the beloved Nelson Mandela. Zuma was loudly booed by some
participants at the main memorial service. At a send-off from Pretoria
the day before Mandela’s funeral. Zuma seemed to be answ ering his
critics when he said. "I'll be very happy if. as we mourn and cel
ebrate Madiba. we do not abuse his name. Mandela never abused his
membership and his leadership in the ANC. We should not think that
Madiba's passing on is a time for us to indirectly settle scores."
Mbeki is not the only Mandela loy alist to believe that Zuma is not
the leader the nation needs at this time.
In an interview earlier this y ear with the Mail & Guardian. Arch
bishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said: "I have over the y ears voted for
the ANC. but 1 w ould very sadly not be able to vote for them after the
way things have gone.” Tutu explained. "We really need a change.
Ilie ANC was very good at leading us in the struggle to be free from
oppression. They were a good freedom-fighting unit. But it doesn’t
seem to me now that a freedom-fighting unit can easily make the
transition to becoming a political party.”
Last week, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa,
the country’s largest trade union and a traditional ally of the ANC.
called for Zuma to resign and announced that it w ill not support the
tiling ANC in next year’s election.
The pressure for Zuma's resignation continues to build.
According to a poll released Dec. 15 by the Sunday I imes. slight
ly more than half (51 percent) of registered ANC members believe
Zuma should resign from office as a result of a scandal involving his
home in Nkandla.
Zuma's critics acknow ledge that the dissatisfaction w ith the presi
dent has as much to do w ith disappointment at the slow rate of prog
ress over nearly 20 y ears of freedom., including the Mandela y ears,
than Zuma individually.
A report last y ear by Statistics South Africa showed that over the
past decade, annual earnings of Black households increased by 169
percent to 60.613 rand (approximately U.S. $6,644) while White
household earnings over that same period rose by 88 percent to
365.134 rand (about U.S. $40,927).
Official unemploy ment is nearly 25 percent. If y ou add discour
aged workers no longer actively seeking work, the figure is 33 per
cent.
The Economist noted, "the gap between rich and poor is now w id-
er than under apartheid."
South Africa is learning the lesson that other countries around the
world, including the U.S., are being forced to accept. It’s one thing
to criticize government as an outsider. It’s quite another to assume
power and make fundamental changes.
George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, is
editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association
News Service (NNPA. I He is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media
coach. Curry can he reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.
com. You can also follow him al www.twiner.com currygeorge and
George E. Curry Pan Page on Facebook.
Register
What Color Is
Your Santa Claus? .
By Lee A. Daniels .
NNPA Columnist
In case sou haven’t noticed, "tis the season - to have another controversx illuminatine America’s race-driven fault lines.
Ihis time we can thank f ox News’ talk-show host Megyn Kelly for responding to a December 12 essay by writer Aisha Harris on Slate. .
com that criticized w hat I larris said w as the outdated notion of Santa Claus as a white man.
I larris wrote ol the "two different Santa Clauses” of her childhood - the w hite Santa of the larger American culture, and the one who r
existed w ithin her family: her father, whose "skin was as dark as mine."
Noting that "I ike the holiday itself.” Santa Claus today is far removed from his religious origins and the real-life historical 4 A th -century
Christian bishop. St. Nicholas. I larris asserted the ecumenical spirit of Santa Claus w as its most important feature. She recommended that i
because telex isfon programs and films haxe made children so used to seeing animals w ith human characteristics and convey ing human mean- ■
ing. Santa Claus should be a penguin.
Kelly a few day s later declared on her program she w as hax ing none of it: "l or all y on kids w atching at home. Santa just is white.” And I’
for good measure she added that Jesus w as "w hhe." too.
Naturally, the blogosphere and the tw itterxerse had a held day. w ith many agreeing with Harris that today 's Santa Claus isn't a person but I
a sy mbol of kindness, compassion, and putting the happiness of others abox e one's ow n.
I hat spirit w as beautifully described in w riter Soray a Chemaly’s poignant remembrance in Salon.com of her Christmas' "grow ing up in i
a British colony as it went through independence.” w here almost jexery Santa I remember seeing - w as a black man."
"W hen it conies to Santa." she wrote, "the most real’ thing about him is millions of parents, often but not always mothers, who quietly
work away into the wee hours, tiptoeing in darkened rooms so Santa can get every thing done before day break. - Il wasn't until I had my
own small children that I fully realized how much time, effort and thoughtfulness my mother put into making sure that Santa Claus was so >
amazing and that Christmas was fantastical."
She concluded w ith this: "Guxen the way childcare is still distributed, most of the time, w omen and mothers are doing the invisible work .
that Santa relics on to gel through his busy night. If there is one thing for sure. Santa will not be a small, brown woman for some time to come. .
Ihis sell-erasure is poignant, and not an entirely positive lesson. Gixen the history of the United States in particular, the darker a parent, the :
more poignant the erasure. However, it is a testament of the purest kind of love. The rank parsimony of insisting on Santa's w hiteness w ith 1
such x ehemence is an ironic w ay to defend the idea of sellless gix ing."
Confronted w ith an onslaught of facts about the origins of both Santa Claus and Jesus. Kelly tw o day s later declared she had "learned” | it t
is) lar from settled - whether the color of Jesus’ skin was or was not w bite. (Actually, it is settled that the color of his skin was not white: the :
question is w hat shade of brow n w as Jesus.)
Kelly characterized her earlier statement about Santa as a
"tongue-in-cheek." humorous response to Aisha Harris’s essay. She then added that those criticizing her represented "the knee-jerk in- -
stinct by so many to race-bait and to assume the worst in people, especially people employed by the very powerful Fox News Channel."
I hose transparent claims aside, this season's "Santa controversy ” underscores the broader tension that has gripped American society since :
the civil rights x ictories of the 1960s erased the color line’s hard, legalized barriers.
It rexolves around the same fundamental question that has alway s defined black-white relations in America: Where’s the "tipping point?"
- that point along the spectrum from intolerance to tolerance w here the dominant group's resistance to those w ho are different flares.
Soray a Chemaly made just this point about Megy n Kelly s attempt to place a w hites-only sign on tw o of the world's revered icons.
"What some people are unwilling to digest." she said, "is that while they can see themselves, or specific prioritized aspects of themselves. .
exery w here in culture, they obstinately deny others the exact same right.... they cannot even imagine what it is like to admire and love people :
who don't look like them. People of other colors. People of other genders. People of other sexes.”
fee . I. Daniels is a longtime journalist based in Veir York (iiy. Ills latest hook is fast (. 'hance: The Political Threat to Black America.
Child Hatch
A Christmas Prayer:
O God of All Children
By Marian Wright Edelman
NNPA Columnist
As millions of Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas and their belief that God entered human history as a poor tiny
baby, let us remember all the poor babies and children who struggle to live and realize their God-given potential in our own rich land and all
around the w orld today . Let's commit to act to assure hope and justice for them all.
To
Vote
O God of the children of Somalia. Sudan, and Sy ria. of South Africa and South Carolina. Of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and of India. Iraq.
Iran, and Israel Of the Congo and Chicago, of Darfur and Detroit Of Myanmar and Mississippi and Louisiana and Yemen "Help us to love
and respect and protect them all.”
O God of Black and Brown and While and Albino children and those all mixed together. Of children who are rich and poor and in between.
Of children who speak English and Russian and Hmong and Spanish and languages our ears cannot discern. "Help us to love and respect and
protect them all."
O God of the child prodigy and the child prostitute, of the child of rapture and the child of rape. Of runaway or thrown aw ay children who
struggle every day w ithout parent or place or friend or future.
"Help us to love and respect and protect them all."
O God of children who can walk and talk and hear and see and sing and dance and jump and play and of children who wish they could but
can't Of children who are loved and unloxed. wanted and unwanted. "Help us to love and respect and protect them all."
O God of beggar, beaten, abused, neglected, homeless. AIDS, drug, violence, and hunger-ravaged children. Of children who are emotion
ally and phy sically and mentally fragile, and of children w ho rebel and ridicule, torment and taunt. "Help us to love and respect and protect
them all."
O God of children of destiny and of despair, of w ar and of peace. Of disfigured, diseased, and dy ing children. Of children without hope
and of children with hope to spare and to share. "Help us to love and respect and act to protect them all.”
('o/wright - 2013 by Marian Wright Edelman. .I larian Wright Edelman is president of the C 'hi/dren s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child
Behind mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a \ loral Start in life and successful pas
sage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communilies. For more information go lo www.childrensdefense.org.