Green Shoots: Hope is not naivety

There is sadness forming these words today. It may be that thing that happens when you start decompressing from a tough year of work - they say you are more vulnerable when you start letting your guard down, and the hyper-alertness and stress of facing each day of work is put aside. The resistance of your body and your mind gives as you start relaxing, and it opens you to the assault of germs and negative vibes. 

It's also the tragedy that dogs our daily existence. I don’t recall seeing news of so many mass killings in our country before. In Pretoria and Cape Town, brutal acts of violence have brought terror and pain to communities already in the throes of fighting to survive grinding poverty and its attendant evils. The assassination of Warwick Stock, known as DJ Warras, a young man whose family hails from my home town of Vryheid, makes the madness very real. Imagine the pain of the van der Merwe and Deokaran families whose loved ones were killed for speaking out against corruption. They, and others, would not turn away while crooks and thieves looted, and they paid the ultimate price. We watched the incompetence of senior officials during the various public hearings taking place, and bore witness to the craven abdication by so many in political office of their duty to defend and build this country.  

It's all quite depressing. And it doesn’t end at our borders. Bondi Beach in Australia witnessed the most horrendous mass shootings of people gathered to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. The US is itching to go to war with Venezuela in a fit of colonial nostalgia over oil. Russia and Ukraine and Myanmar and Israel/Palestine and Sudan and so many places are testament to human stupidity in designing societies that depend on the suffering and marginalisation of the many to satisfy the greed of the few. And this is at the expense of the only home we have - earth. The climate crisis is not a myth, and the destructiveness of extreme weather patterns globally and in our own back yard should sharpen our minds about how we treat our planet. It’s easy to be depressed about the world we live in. 

But it is an act of resistance to have hope. And hope is not naivety or misguided optimism. It isn’t a refusal to see and name the evil that is happening. Rather, it’s the refusal to give in to it. It’s the marshalling of our strength to oppose it in whichever way we can. I’ve seen this hope in action this year so many times. The courageous testimony of witnesses against corruption has helped our country expose those who would harm us. There’s a group of community organisers I know who will need visas to go on an exchange visit to another country, but it is possible that some of them will not be granted that visa. They’ve decided that if one person cannot go, then none of them will go. Solidarity is possible. Everywhere there are people who simply refuse to accept that the world has to be like this. As I write this, I see a headline that the Nobel Committee is being challenged for their recent awarding of the Peace Prize to someone who actually is not promoting peaceful coexistence in her politics. My nephew organised residents to show solidarity with the staff of their complex by buying extra groceries to share the festive cheer. Our economy is turning upwards, I think (watch me get shot down by the economists), and our constitutional protections, while creaky, remain intact. Bafana might win the Afcon, and they might beat Mexico in the opening game at the World Cup (even without Tshabalala). The Proteas women are showing their mettle, and Bavuma and the boys beat India in a test series – in India! And then of course, Rassie!! 

And I’ve been writing Green Shoots every week for a year now, hopefully contributing to building a different consciousness and fostering hope for a better coexistence. So amidst the sadness, I will approach the Christmas celebration more positively than I started this article. Hopefully, the joy that new birth brings will replenish the energy stores of your bodies and minds too – as it will mine. And we can begin again in the new year to nurture the green shoots of hope that are to be found in places we might not have imagined.