[I received some information yesterday from the organisers of the Boer Women’s march that a certain group of Afrikaners had actively tried to sabotage it by preventing people from taking part. I will post this later, and I will post an official statement by the organisers of the Boer Women’s march. I hope that those who tried to sabotage it will also drop me a message to post on my site.

There is however an important lesson for Afrikaners from SW Radio Africa which is broadcasting into Zimbabwe to give it some sort of free speech and hope.

I appeared on a program on SW Radio Africa called “A Different Point of View”. The program is hosted by Pastor Duane. The interview should be up some time today.

But the lesson is this: Different points of view are not bad, and believe it or not, we can have unity even with different points of view.

What SW Radio is trying to do, on that show is to find all the different website owners and bloggers and podcasters who are of their own accord putting out a message to the world about Zimbabwe. And they are giving them some air time and exposure for their efforts. They are deliberately seeking out, and giving air time to “different points of view”. And I think it is a great exercise in: Free Speech, Free Thought and Freedom of Expression.

So let us turn back to the Boer Women’s march and the talk of the attempted sabotage of it.

Afrikaners do have a problem when it comes to unity. But I do not see this as an insurmountable problem at all. I will post more thoughts on this later to explain the proper context within which I see this.

But let’s start with some basic assertions.

1. Everybody has a right to Freedom of Speech.
2. Everybody has a right to Freedom of Expression (as long as it is legal).

What those organisers of the Boer Women’s march did is fully compliant with the above statements. Those people are fully in their right to express their views EVEN IF YOU AND I DO NOT AGREE WITH THEIR VIEWS.

Did I approve of what they did or how they did it? Do you know what? The answer to that is: It is absolutely none of my business. They had every right to do that.

What I will do, for example, is write to them and make some suggestions to them on possible ways of doing it even better the next time they have it. And I hope they will do even more events in the future.

I know there are strong feelings in the Afrikaner camp. Again, that is good. I am happy that there are people with strong emotive feelings because that is the way we should all be. If we don’t have strong feelings, then we will never act.

But I think there comes a time when we have to curb our feelings, and that is when it comes to trying to NEGATIVELY IMPACT the activities of others within our group. I think that is a no no – and to be severely frowned upon.

Why?

Well, as I said above, people have the right to Free Speech, Free Expression and Freedom of Association. They can join any group they want and express their views in any legal manner.

At this stage, there is NOBODY among us Whites who is the ELECTED LEADER whom everybody looks up to for direction. Nobody, at this stage, has the authority to tell anyone NOT to do a certain thing.

We are in a formative stage – we are still mulling around in little groups. And these groups espouse competing and different ideas. And what we should do, is to leave this NATURAL PROCESS to continue on. If you have a different idea: Form your group and DO YOUR THING (but NEVER stop anyone else from doing their thing either).

In the fullness of time, most of these groups will die. But the most successfull ones will survive. In the end, this weeding out process will allow EVERYONE WHO WANTS… to get a chance to hone their leadership/political/activist skills. Some will fail, and a few will ultimately succeed. And this is natural.

The few who succeed, will ultimately become the new leaders who will lead us forward.

We need to therefore be tolerant of all different points of view. If we have an idea, we must promote it and play FAIR within the rules of the game. We must NOT threaten people, or sabotage other groups. We must operate within a spirit of tolerance and fair competition. (Let us not begin to emulate the ANC now hey!?)

This is one area where I really think we should look HARD at how the Americans do it, because the one thing that has impressed me the MOST about Americans and America is their concept of Freedom of Speech. Really, I take my hat off to all of them.

Many Americans will tell you: “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will fight to the death for YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.”

I, personally, have experienced first hand, what it is like to have the media shut their door in firmly your face. I have experienced it here in S.Africa FIRMLY. I have experienced it as I have struggled to get my own message out. But there is one place on this Earth, where I must tell you, anyone can have his say, and that is in a country called: The United States of America. Indeed, they are so tolerant that anyone, can have his say no matter how lame or stupid it may be. But he has it.

It is thanks to people in America, that I have had any chance at all to say my piece. And for that, I will be eternally grateful.

And I think, it is a good thing. I think it is a very important thing.

Returning to us Whites in Africa, I really think the first step towards true unity, is to accept our inner diversity. We must accept and be tolerant of differences of opinion.

The reason we have differences of opinion is because we are not brain dead. So the good news is… there is life!!! And this is a natural expression of it. So get used to it! Don’t stifle it!

Finally, I have given much thought on my own “policy” towards the concept of Action versus Inaction. Should I encourage people to act, or not. And I feel that we must be encouraging people TO ACT and to be ACTIVE in as many ways as they can be. The cardinal sin, I think, for White people currently, is to be INACTIVE. People should be encouraged to form groups, or take part in groups or belong to more than one group. People must be awakened to the need to get politically active so that they can make a difference.

So those who tried to prevent the Boer Women’s march, and who tried to see to it that it is a failure, I think they transgressed that concept of action versus inaction as well.

I say, that for us whites it is better to do something – ANYTHING – than to be quiet and to do nothing. Do you agree?

We must learn to accept different points of view among ourselves even if we hate it. But we must accept it – and we should actually try to make that our Golden rule – to be tolerant of one another.

Where the crux comes, is when it comes to actual support. Let people mull around among the many different competing political and cultural groups and let them CHOOSE, by themselves, who they will support.

Please folks, let’s operate this on a “Free Market Principle”. Do you believe in the Free Market? I do. If you have a political viewpoint – then express it and let potential supporters wander around this “Free Market” of ideas and let them choose the which one they prefer. Let us not start out as dictatorial. Everyone, no matter how clever or how dumb, should have his chance to say what he wants. In time, the wheat will be sorted from the chaff. But why not let us do it in a nice way.

In the fullness of time, when our options become clearer, and when our groups are more mature, we will form a consensus of opinion, and we will unite naturally. Let’s not mess with the process. This is how we will be saved. Jan]