Interesting story from News24

Just for today

Aug 01 2008 08:42:14:340AM

Just for today, could we talk about our problems without playing the
race card, asks News24 User Lucas Ntyintyane.

Lucas Ntyintyane, News24 User

Just for today, let's leave the race issue out of South Africa's
problems. Let's talk about incompetence and corruption without hiding
or blaming race. Do we have to include race in every conversation?
Must race define our perspective of corruption? Race this, race that,
it's too nauseating. If an elected official is failing to deliver, it
has nothing to do with race.

Just this once, we must talk about our problems without playing the
race card. We the new generation must do better. We should be
different from our mothers and fathers, who were the hostages of race.
We must reward the excellent and shun mediocre. Just this once, let's
discusses ideas rather than skin pigmentation.

Just this once, lets elect leaders based on character and skills
instead of political affiliation. I accept that most of our leaders
will come from the ANC as the ruling party. I just hope the ANC will
have courage to deploy its best brains; people who will put South
Africa's interest ahead of their own. Leaders who are prepared to
accept responsibility of their actions. How I wish, our leaders can
follow Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's footsteps, who resigned to
save his country from further embarrassment. Leaders who will
voluntarily step down when they failed to deliver. Just for today,
South Africa more than ever deserves ethical leaders of high moral
standard.

Just for today, please understand my criticism is not driven by hate
but by love for this country. South Africa can only prosper if we
offer constructive criticism and give credit where it's due.
Unfortunately, people tend to view criticism as an attack on their
party or leaders. Why this sensitivity? The majority of South
Africans, who are not ANC members, voted for the party based on its
perceived values. It would therefore be wrong to assume, that the same
people hate it now.

Participatory democracy demands that we should speak out against any
injustices. It is our ways of making South Africa succeed. Just for
today, we must be willing to engage one another for the benefit of
this country. Politics of exclusion and victimisation, will take us
backward.

Just for today, let's focus on our challenges instead of power
politics. We must ask what is holding the country backward. What can
be done to take South Africa forward? It is unacceptable, that some
people still go to bed on an empty stomach. Others continue to stand
on long unemployment queues. It is more so for our youth, who face a
bleak future. Lack of housing is another headache. Shacks are not fit
for humans. South Africans of all shapes and sizes are not immune from
the complications of high food prices and petrol. Poverty has no
colour. It then requires all of us to find solutions to these
challenges. It is not just the leaders who must come up with ideas but
each one of us. Just for today, let problems unite rather than divide
us.

Just for today, we must make South Africa an attractive place for
investors. We can do so by fighting intolerance, crime and illiteracy.
Just for today, let's be thankful of our blessings like the good
weather, the vibrant media, the independent judiciary and the
opportunity to host the 2010 soccer world cup. Just for today, let's
judge one another not on race, but on character. Just for today, let's
make South Africa, an asset to the world. This country has good
potential to be a world leader. We have within ourselves to live this
dream. Just for today!

Read the story online:
http://www.news24.com/News24/MyNews24/Your_story/0,,2-2127-2128_2368152,00.html