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Cape Town - Carnivore commercialism has taken over Heritage Day and dumbed it down to be little more than pap, wors, chops and mielies on the braai, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.
And it is a pity, he said, that chisa nyama has superseded what should be perhaps the most important secular holiday in the South African calendar.
He points out that heritage is everything that we have inherited from the past: our languages, food, built and natural environment and the various things that go to make up what we refer to as culture.
It is our present, and this we should know in detail in order to plan, in any serious way, for the future. But we can only do this if we understand the past and the fact that nothing is static, that everything is always undergoing a process of change.
And for the sellers of labour, Bell said, heritage means primarily the social, economic and work environment in which we exist. And this is an environment of gross inequality.
So instead of celebrating unity in diversity, he suggests that we should, perhaps, be questioning why our diverse communities are so grossly unequal.
Watch:
*Terry Bell is a political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
What is your take? Add your voice to the debate or take part in our Q&A with Terry Bell.
