I love South Africa. What’s there not to love? We have beautiful landscape, our music is of international standard, our sport teams are right up there with the best of them, well, except Bafana Bafana, and we have the most beautiful weather in the world.
But above all these things, I love South Africans.
I love our ability to laugh at ourselves and find humour in any situation. Whether it is a painting of the president with his business out, the general secretary of a trade union caught with his pants down or a world-renowned athlete shooting his girlfriend dead on Valentine’s Day, South Africans manage to see the light side of things. This is probably why our comedians are among the most successful in the world.
Google any famous person who was ever embarassed in public and you are bound to come across jokes and “memes” making fun of them. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It just means we don’t take ourselves too serious, unlike the Americans and the British.
Is it embarrasing to hear jokes about our president’s fire pool? Or that brief meetings are now called Vavis? Yes it is. But I think this beats the alternative.
Sure our people “dance” when they strike, but when you look closely at the reasons for the strikes and look at the other things they are not protesting against, I say make fun of a couple of politicians if it will diffuse situations.
I know that we look like a joke from a global perspective, but this does not take away from the fact that we have progressed as a country since the end of Apartheid. Our politicians and celebrities are not perfect and will continue to make rather questionable decisions, but this is only because they are human after all. And besides, it gives our comedians excellent material don’t you think?
So, next time you read the newspaper and there’s a story about a woman who had relations with a tokoloshe, have a good hearty laugh and appreaciate living in such a colourful country.
