The Road To Mecca

The Road To Mecca is a two act play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, published in 1984 but set in 1974 in a small village in the Karoo, New Bethesda.There are three characters: Helen, a widowed artist who's lived in the village all her life; Elsa, her young friend from Cape Town; and Marius, the dominee (preacher). Fugard wrote the characters well - I can tell this, because Elsa irritated me to no end.

Helen is an older, apparently childless woman. After the death of her husband, she realises she never loved him. She feels as though she wasted her life, trapped with a man she didn't love, and after dreaming of a magical trip to a beautiful Mecca, she stops going to church and begins building statues of owls and Buddhas and other assortments, and she lines the walls of a room in her house with mirrors and glitter to capture all the light from her candles. She's also suicidal.

Elsa is a white, English schoolteacher in a Coloured school. She likes to teach her schoolchildren to be rebellious, a paladin for their rights. Her love of all mankind doesn't extend to Afrikaners, who she hates and stereotypes as much as any white ever did any other race. She never mentions her own people, either positively or negatively. But she did have an affair with a married man, and after he dumps her, in her alpha widowhood she aborts the baby he never knew of. This aligns well with the freedom she constantly preaches to her friend Helen, as she frees herself of her responsibilities: "I put an abrupt and violent end to the first real consequence my life has ever had." In her grief, which she covers with anger, she vacillates between kindness and cruelty to a young, widowed, Coloured hitchhiker she meets on the 12 hour drive from Cape Town to New Bethesda.

Marius is also widowed and childless, but has not lost his faith. He mourns for Helen's loss of faith as only a beta orbiter could. When the village children began stoning Helen's idolatrous statues, this preacher conspired with the school principal to lecture them and get them to stop. His love for a woman who rejects him and his faith leads him to kindness to her, without once in twenty years - not until the events of the play - calling out her apostasy. And even then it is only a half-hearted resignation to the fact that she is lost, not a denunciation of her ways.

It is a sad story. Two female friends, both lying to each other and concealing the truth, even as they proclaim their love for and trust of each other. One, a woman who dreams of freedom from Christianity and marriage by idolising an evil, patriarchal religious site, never having known the worth and value of motherhood. Another who outright rejects motherhood, threatens another marriage rather than settle for a beta, and continually browbeats her friend even while saying she's only sticking up for her. And a poor chump, who missed out on fatherhood, lost his wife, and now can't win Helen's love or her soul. Sounds like the 80's to me...

Affirmative Action makes you racist and sexist

In South Africa, Employment Equity and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment are legal methods of discrimination based on gender and race. By law, preferential treatment is given to some.

What this inevitably means is that it is harder for one group - those discriminated against - to get a job, and easier for another group - those discriminated in favour of - to get a job. For ease, I will call these groups White Men and Black Lesbians, respectively. And if White Men find it harder to get a job, then those White Men who do get a job will have to be of a higher quality than their colleagues. And if Black Lesbians find it easier to get a job, then some at least of those Black Lesbians will be of a lower quality than their colleagues.

This is a hate fact. A truthful statement which supports a prejudice. And observing this truth, that White Men are more competent than Black Lesbians, is bound to make more people racist and sexist than were before. This is because the red pill of truth will be taken, as a bitter pill or a suppository, any time you are surrounded by facts you can't ignore. It makes "pretty lies perish".

This came to mind because of a news article from South Africa. You see, it is legal to discriminate. But if you suggest that one of the Black Lesbians benefited from the law, it is illegal. In fact, it is "damning" to do so. Despite its obvious truth. Doubleplus ungood. Please do not commit thought crime any more.

So here's a bonus hate fact for you: Eyewitness News loves Big Brother.

He is risen!

Today is Easter. Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, after He gave His life to atone for our sins. Today He arose from the dead to minister to us for 40 more days, before ascending to Heaven, where He resides while we wait for His second coming.

Praise the Lord. Our sins can be forgiven, if we but ask. We should be grateful every day for this gift, but this weekend most of all, as we remember the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.