Knowledge may be power but reading is downright dangerous

In the last few weeks I have had the privilege of reading Ben Tourok's "Nothing but the Truth" and I am currently reading "Slave: My True Story" by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis. A few hours ago I chanced upon "This time it's Mrs Clinton's turn" an article by James G Abourezk, published at http://www.counterpunch.org/

It is no small wonder that Hendrik Verwoerd and his cronnies would not let black people read in this country (SA) and why Adolf Hitler and the other similarly inclined fascists burned books. Lately, it is also no wonder there is so much money spent to keep people away from books. There is so much else to do these days that there is hardly ever time to read. There is the TV, which I must confess, I am hooked on, and all manner of other forms of entertainment (read distraction). Is it a coincidence that the most successful purveyors of pop culture is the US of A? Now that is a nation in need of a whole lot of distraction or books, lots of books and even more time reading.

I am not suggesting that the books and articles I referred to in this post will suddenly make a militant freedom fighter out of you. There is however a noticeable energy caused by a realisation or the learning of new facts about matters one has previously glossed over, taken for granted or matters that one was ignorant of. The kind of energy that screams out "how could that be?" Reading, can be as exciting as it can be inciting. I think "pornographic" literature was banned following the same logic not so long ago, but that is a whole different post.

Ben Turok tells the story, with humility, of the early days of the struggle against racial discrimination and apartheid. He tells the story of the early days of the trade union movement and the influence of communism on liberation politics. He tells the story of the rejection of communism by the early leadership of the ANC and the later co-operation between the nationalists and the communists; and the latter blurring of the lines. Through Turok's story, one begins to appreaciate the ongoing stresses and strains between the ANC and its alliance partners. One gets to appreciate the internal intolerance of dissent among the ranks in the ANC. An element that is understandably part of the survival kit of life in exile, especially when there are people who are constantly trying and sometimes succeeding to kill you. It is a facinating story and quite enlightening too. According to Turok, shortly after the victory in the first ever democratic elections, he sought to persuade the ANC economic think tank to seek closer co-operation with other African countries. He was rebuffed in his attempts and told that "Europe is a bigger trading partner and why he wants SA to pay attention to "basket cases", referring to other African countries". This is paraphrased, without changing the meaning. He also tells an equally fascinating story of how the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the fateful RDP was sidelined and ultimately committed to the dustbin.

Mende Nazer, tells me how her own mother and sisters held her down, forced her barely teen legs open while some woman cut off a piece of her privates and then sewed the very privates to make them smaller, in preparation for her wedding night someday. She tells me how one evening some arab raiders attacked her village, burned her home and those of her neighbours, killed her family and other villagers and abducted her and other little girls. She tells me how the raiders raped them along the way and how they were eventually sold to a Khartoum slave trader. All of this, in this century.

James Abourezk writes an inspiring piece on why the middle east will never see peace inspite of or maybe because of secretary Clinton's efforts. The peace-making efforts lack one critical element, truth. One needs to be fair in peace-making, one needs to be consistent, etc. For these to be achieved, one needs to be truthful. For an example, if one encourages Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, then one also needs to put the Israeli nuclear war-heads on the table. One needs to investigate and visit retribution upon perpetrators of war crimes, and so and so forth. Without truth, one cannot end hostilities and make peace.

As one continues to read newspapers and other publications and one comes accross untruths, you can understand how one's blood temperature may be raised. We owe it to ourselves and our children to seek out the facts and be fearless in our exposition of the facts and the truth.

A word of caution though, this reading thing can be dangerous . . .