Dear reader,
The office was empty.
I peered over my computer screen, scanning the office.
No one.
The rest of the journalists had gone out to cover all of the Mandela Day festivities, and I had been left to guard the phone.
Not that I minded – it was a welcome reprieve from the Mandela Day celebrations I’d have to cover the very following day (and the day after that, and the day after that) – as it seems as though ‘Mandela Day’ has become Mandela-week for the sake of commercial convenience.
Periodically I’d refresh my emails, watching the mines’ Corporate Social Responsibility slowly choke to life as the emails containing press releases started dripping in.
Every business had their own plan – their own way in which they’d save eMalahleni, and impress the deceased Nelson Mandela.
Driving to work I drove past three young women, hunched over on a traffic island, slowly scooping up miscellaneous trash.
Our streets are usually filthy, so you’d expect me to be grateful.
But I’m not.
Even though CSR and corporate sponsors have turned Mandela Day into a seven-day affair, I can’t help but feel it’s not enough.
On July 18 of every year, we feed the orphans, paint the primary schools, clothe the poor, warm the homeless and care for the sick – and the other 364 days of the year, we try to avoid eye contact with the beggar at the robot, we drive away before the parking attendant comes pleadingly to our window (hoping for a R2 after standing in the African sun for 12 hours), we drive past the malnourished dog trotting along the highway, we turn our gaze away from the crying child on the hip of a woman asking for food.
I don’t have any solutions; no way to make it better.
Every religious doctrine ever written expects human beings to treat each other with kindness.
The Mahabharata (a Hindu religious text) says, “This is the sum of duty: Do nothing to others that would cause you pain if done to you.”
An Islamic text, the An-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith, states, “None of you believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
The Jewish Shabbat tells us, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.”
The Buddhist Udanavarga explains, “Do not hurt others in ways you yourself would find hurtful.”
The Christian bible reiterates all of the above, and says, “Do to others what you want them to do to you.”
And somehow, despite almost all of the religious texts telling us otherwise, it seems that we only feel responsible for the well-being of our community on July 18.
What about the remaining 364 days?
Anxiously yours,
Aimee
