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DRIFTING from one campaign to another aimed at reducing the damage you cause as an earthling can leave you lightheaded if you don’t keep your feet on the ground.
This week, as a country we saved 629 MW by turning off non-essential lights across the nation. Spending an Earth Hour in the dark while our national soccer team showed a surprising surge took courage, and some may have regretted missing out on the action.
I know as little about the impact and size of that saving as I do about the Central African Republic's (CAR's) capital, Bangui, which is 4 252 kilometers from my daily existence.
Yet in both cases, my attention is required for the consequences they may hold if I don’t measure my participation in understanding it.
Just when we thought the biggest surprise was our victory over their football team, we learned that the war we face with the CAR lies beyond the goal posts of Cape Town Stadium.
Still recovering from the victory hangover, we dealt with the double blow that South Africa in fact has an active defence force deployed and that, sadly, it was facing the angry rebels supposedly fuelled by the nation that gave history Napoleon.
How did we get to this point? Or let me reconsider that question, how did my radar slip up on the not-so-tiny detail of a brewing war being paid for by my tax money?
Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle are falling together around oil, state assets and upholding democracy, yet the bigger picture is not immediately clear. How did we get involved in it?
Have we run out of column space in newspapers, clickable areas on the web and dinnertime with friends to cover all the hot topics that require our attention?
This may well be the awakening to our role on a continent some of us think we steer. In fact, as we bounce brightly in our young democracy shoes at the bottom of the continent, our older cousins are giving us a few punches to test our tummy for the toughness Africa needs.
As if directed by an art movie producer, the plot thickened this week with the arrival in Durban of the shoulders we intend rubbing with while laying Brics for the emerging world.
It is perhaps during the tea breaks, or in the team building sessions between these nations, that we may benefit from a few tips on how to sail carefully through the possibilities of a military offensive.
Beyond the chambers of these discussions, we will now do what we do best. As a nation, we will talk in the circles we move, consume the media to understand our own role in all of this and comment and ponder as we move along.
And for the first time, many of us will use words like Seleka (the name of the rebel group), Bozize (the name of the CAR president who fled to Cameroon) and peace (the ultimate goal that must be reached between the two sides).
While the conversations shift slowly from the national agenda to the dinner table, there will be lessons in geography alongside new-found experts in war strategy and economic indicators on what it means for our bank balances.
Let the conversations start, and may it lead us closer to the solutions we need to find for the conflicts within.
- Fin24
To avoid conflict, Adriaan often hides his opinion on Twitter. Find him there @aiBester. Views expressed are his own.
This week, as a country we saved 629 MW by turning off non-essential lights across the nation. Spending an Earth Hour in the dark while our national soccer team showed a surprising surge took courage, and some may have regretted missing out on the action.
I know as little about the impact and size of that saving as I do about the Central African Republic's (CAR's) capital, Bangui, which is 4 252 kilometers from my daily existence.
Yet in both cases, my attention is required for the consequences they may hold if I don’t measure my participation in understanding it.
Just when we thought the biggest surprise was our victory over their football team, we learned that the war we face with the CAR lies beyond the goal posts of Cape Town Stadium.
Still recovering from the victory hangover, we dealt with the double blow that South Africa in fact has an active defence force deployed and that, sadly, it was facing the angry rebels supposedly fuelled by the nation that gave history Napoleon.
How did we get to this point? Or let me reconsider that question, how did my radar slip up on the not-so-tiny detail of a brewing war being paid for by my tax money?
Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle are falling together around oil, state assets and upholding democracy, yet the bigger picture is not immediately clear. How did we get involved in it?
Have we run out of column space in newspapers, clickable areas on the web and dinnertime with friends to cover all the hot topics that require our attention?
This may well be the awakening to our role on a continent some of us think we steer. In fact, as we bounce brightly in our young democracy shoes at the bottom of the continent, our older cousins are giving us a few punches to test our tummy for the toughness Africa needs.
As if directed by an art movie producer, the plot thickened this week with the arrival in Durban of the shoulders we intend rubbing with while laying Brics for the emerging world.
It is perhaps during the tea breaks, or in the team building sessions between these nations, that we may benefit from a few tips on how to sail carefully through the possibilities of a military offensive.
Beyond the chambers of these discussions, we will now do what we do best. As a nation, we will talk in the circles we move, consume the media to understand our own role in all of this and comment and ponder as we move along.
And for the first time, many of us will use words like Seleka (the name of the rebel group), Bozize (the name of the CAR president who fled to Cameroon) and peace (the ultimate goal that must be reached between the two sides).
While the conversations shift slowly from the national agenda to the dinner table, there will be lessons in geography alongside new-found experts in war strategy and economic indicators on what it means for our bank balances.
Let the conversations start, and may it lead us closer to the solutions we need to find for the conflicts within.
- Fin24
To avoid conflict, Adriaan often hides his opinion on Twitter. Find him there @aiBester. Views expressed are his own.
