Normalising a horrific situation

PETA KROST MAUNDER

And every time they came up with laws that demeaned Jews further, many Jews were first shocked and horrified, but then they did their best to find a way to normalise this in their heads. How else could they find a way to live with it? It is human nature, I guess, and is called cognitive dissonance.

In Germany, those Jews who could not find a way out of the country, kept doing this until they simply couldn’t any more.

In ancient Egypt, I am sure the Jews underwent the same stages of trying to find a way to make peace with what was happening to them until they became slaves.

Over the last few years, we have all watched President Jacob Zuma do the most outrageous things.

These include: being bribed by Schabir Shaik and Shaik went to jail and Zuma became president. Zuma was charged with rape and was acquitted. He was charged with corruption for accepting bribes from a French arms company. Charges were dismissed. He uses R248 million of taxpayers’ money to upgrade his Nkandla homestead. And so it goes on…

He is the ultimate Teflon King, nothing sticks on him.

And every time he does this, he takes us further down the road of our country’s destruction.

And last week, he fired Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas, who were clearly doing their best to steer this country’s economy under tough circumstances.

However, because of this, South Africa’s credit rating was downgraded to junk status by S&P Global and other ratings agencies are believed to be hot on their heels.

Black Monday was declared this week so that people could physically show their disapproval.

 I couldn’t help but notice that very few people chose to wear black, dismissing it as silly, and what’s more, many chose rather to heavily criticise the idea.

A number of protest marches are planned for the end of this week and many are planning to take to the streets. But while there is some fervour about the marches, there is as much criticism.

I have that real sense that we are already experiencing cognitive dissidence. I fear that people are not going to stand up and be counted. I fear that we will just continue to let this man get away with what he is doing to our precious country.

We all – white, black, Indian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, men and women – have to stand up and be counted.  

I keep hearing that, as Jews or even white people, we don’t have a voice or our voice doesn’t count. That is not true! It counts if we make it count.

We may be a small minority, but we can be very persuasive.

Perhaps wearing black or marching is not going to get Zuma out of government, but it will have an impact. What else can we do that will have more clout?

How about joining forces with non-governmental organisations that educate rural people about what the president and his cronies are actually doing and why rural people should use their votes to stop it?

That is just one idea. We are an innovative, smart, influential community and we do a great deal of good. We need to find ways to use our smarts to preserve our beautiful country.

I for one am going to start by marching in Pretoria on Friday to show how I feel. Please join me!  

Chag Sameach!