Is fear taking hold of SA?

Is fear taking hold of SA?

Today whilst watching a certain TV show/documentary that takes a look at the icons of ou times I was given something to think about. The person whose life they were looking at was that of Author and poet Dr Maya Angelou. A young comedian was asking her how it is that she was not angry. He was asking this because Maya Angelou was in the generation that fought for equal rights for the African Ameicans and in this fight she had lost friends (among them Martin Luther King who was assassinated). She replied by saying that anger is within us all but you dance that anger, you write it, you dance it, protest it...

Well looking at the person she is and her contribution to her country and the rest of the world she trully shows that anger can and should be channelled into something worthwhile.

Our generation, I think, is not angry but angry and fearful. And I say this is how WE feel because this is how I feel. I am because we are, we are because I am.

Anger and fear are my haeviest burdens. I am angry at HIV and it's effects - it has no compassion. It leaves children orphaned, it leaves behind widows and widowers, many parents have had to suffer the pain of burying a child. I am angry at HIV because of it I now fear taking a chance on love. I am angered by the high rate of unemployment which has given birth to poverty and inequality. It has intimidated me so much so that I have lost the will to pursue the dreams and aspirations I had in my youth. If I can barely afford to make rent, what makes me think that someday I will become a successful author and public speaker? The statistics tell me to face the reality that I won't one of the lucky who realise their dreams. I am angry about the high incidents of crime, especially rape, I now fear bringing children into this world.

I am not going to sit and surrender to these fears and issues that anger me. I will write and protest them and hopefully like the generation of Maya Angelou my efforts will bring about some change to the world I live in.

I won't fool myself and say it (fear and anger) has disappeared but I will point at it - a blog, a voice for a just cause or time spent working in the community. Incase you didn't know, anger vented and fear conquered can take a beautiful form. Come on SA dance it away, sing it away, protest it away, speak it away - it's possible.