[DEBATE] : The middle classes are not xenophobes (it's the people in the townships only). Yeh.

[Sean Jacobs]

This is published on the M&G's "blog" home.  Who edits that?  Bigotry  
and hate passes as freedom of speech.  (read the comments section also)

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/burningpaper/2008/05/21/a-time-for-less-compassion/

Jarred Cinman
Burning Paper
Opinions that cause trouble

Like everyone else, I am horrified and sickened by the images of  
people being burned alive, chased from their homes, and other  
unspeakable acts of violence occurring on our doorsteps. However, I am  
not filled with a sense of charity in the light of these acts. My  
overwhelming response is: foreigners, go home.

Everyone can agree this should never have reached this point. By all  
indication, these feelings have been brewing for a long time, with  
many analysts surprised its taken this long to reach a point of  
explosion. It’s also debatable (as per Ndumiso’s excellent piece on  
this issue the other day) what the causes are. I tend to think that  
you have to follow the money and the booze. Looting and chaos like  
this is often not about any clear political issue, and is simply about  
people’s unchecked emotions bubbling over and creating a tolerant  
space for criminals and maniacs.

Still, there is one underlying issue with which its easy to  
sympathise. A Zimabwean man was interviewed by the BBC the other day.  
He is working in South Africa illegally as a driver. When asked  
whether he could understand why young South Africans could be angry  
with him he seemed baffled. “We are also just trying to make money”,  
he said, “Things are bad back home.”

Again, easy to feel gooey eyed at this. But let’s pause for a moment  
and understand this. This guy has crossed the border illegally and is  
now being given work illegally by a South African citizen with no work  
permit. He is, quite specifically, taking a job away from another  
South African. That pisses me off, actually.

South Africa doesn’t have the luxury of being generous with our jobs  
and our money to foreigners. We have a desperate unemployment problem  
here, coupled with Aids and a bewildering array of other causes for  
great poverty and misery. We need to focus our resources internally,  
uplifting our own population. Foreigners, I’m afraid, most especially  
illegal immigrants, need to go home.

I am startled by this incredible outpouring of love and support toward  
foreigners, expressed by bloggers, radio talkshow callers and the  
media. Again, some part of me understands this as I hear and see the  
suffering these people are experiencing. And don’t get me wrong, the  
violence is to be condemned in no uncertain terms. At the very least,  
as Thabo Mbeki said, these are humans just like us.

But where is the similar outpouring of understanding toward our own  
population, the frustration and misery of which has (at least in part)  
led to this situation in the first place? It’s a time for less  
compassion for foreigners, and more compassion toward our own  
starving, struggling, desperate fellow citizens.

We have failed to keep these foreigners out of our borders, that blame  
can be laid with the state. But we employ these people — how many  
people do you know who have illegal Malawian gardeners or builders or  
other labourers? We have created this problem, we have set the ball in  
motion leading to this point.

A peaceful resolution is desperately needed. The legal immigrants need  
to be differentiated from the illegal ones, but the government needs  
as a matter of urgency to send those who have no right to be here,  
back home. And the chain emails and Facebook groups trying to raise  
money to help these people out need to have a good rethink about  
focusing on helping our own people out.

To the foreigners, we need to send a clear message: go home and fix up  
your own countries. Even if we’re generous in favour of the MDC,  
something like 30-40% of Zimabweans voted for Robert Mugabe again in  
the last election, despite everything. That’s no-one’s fault. You  
don’t like your dictator, get rid of him, one way or the other. But  
don’t have 4 out of 10 of your buddies vote the guy back in, and then  
run over the border and make your problems ours.

Or, rather, you are welcome to do that, when we have 95% employment  
and are in a position to help. But we’re stretched too thin already.  
Sorry for your troubles, but South Africa is not in a position to  
assist right now.


------------------------------------------------------
Sean Jacobs
tintinyana at gmail.com

“Only intellectuals love poverty. Poor people love luxury” (from a  
Brazilian samba).

http://theleoafricanus.com/