Having AND eating cakes since 1977
 

War, and all things beautiful - by Simon Reader Apart from the fact that I'm crap at Arabic greetings and the one incident where a Muslim builder gentleman told my friend and I exactly what he was going to do to his wife when he got home, the only insight I've ever had into the complex and delicate world of Islam is through books. There is a massive difference between reading books by American authors published after 9/11 and reading books by Islamic authors published before that cruel day. Thanks to my clever little friend at Exclusive Books, I have found that personal vendettas or emotional attachments often cloud solid, factual and comprehensive research. Authors like Ahmed Rashied and Reza, the photographer who became a close friend of Ahmed Shah Massoud (slain leader of the Northern Alliance), have been crying out to the West for years, having distanced themselves from an evolving culture that has elements intent on war and destruction. Rashied in particular, as he studied the growth of the Taliban and their acquisition of power long before anyone dreamt of flying jumbo jets into buildings. The beauty of being here, at the foot of Africa, is often unsung. I learnt, a long time ago, that when someone says, 'You're either for us or against us' - you have to be against them. The mere fact of them blackmailing you into decision-making is testament to their struggle for power and authority. We already have problems of our own - unemployment, illegal immigration, drugs and HiV / AIDS - I hope that when Thabo Mbeki made the decision to steer clear of violence and involvement with America, he thought about these factors on top of a pathetic arms deal and our geographical positioning. Because we chose to offer due sympathy toward innocent victims of hatred rather than send troops to Afghanistan, our tourism industry boomed and many foreigners invested during last year's season (our currency decline also helped this). That aside, our international stance need not be applicable locally; PAGAD have already shown their violent tendencies here - if caught, hands, chains and sing-along-whilst-we-bash-a-rock. Although we are mainly influenced by the West, our own identity will surface soon, just like it did in previously emerging countries - New Zealand and Australia to name but a few. Whilst we work toward that, America should not go blameless as to what is happening this very day. One can say all they want against Bill Clinton, but the fact remains that he was astute in every sense of the word. His indiscretions, well, at the end of the day, he's only guilty of bad taste as far as we are concerned. Now enter the Texan administration, a group of pistol wielding cowboys who REALLY want to fight and throw their weight around. Take Donald Rumsfeld and Condolezza Rice as examples. Condi is not showing any of the disposition she is famous for; her behavior is that of a woman bent on making a name for herself by being as ineffective as possible. Her job, as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, explains very simply that if someone is to be blamed for not recognizing the threat of international terror until two towers are destroyed - the guilty party is closer to home than Mr. George W. Bush would like it to be. Rumsfeld, within all his military glory, has been referred to as 'a beast of selfishness'. If that is not bad enough, he has labelled Nelson Mandela as a 'terrorist' in the past, showing obvious and blatant discard for our nation's torrid history. Although there had to be action against the sort of education that nurtures suicide bombers, killing an already dead country could never have been the answer. Afghanistan was yet another case of ego extension and conflict - Bush and Rumsfeld, intent on polls and reputation stakes, chasing turbaned lunatics in a mountain kingdom, trampling over rubble left by the Soviets, crippling more orphaned children and discovering one of their own amongst the enemy. Both sides are as guilty as the other of threatening the world and creating a nauseating uneasiness. Islam is governed by faith. Apparently. You dig into the roots of international drug trafficking and you'll see something else. America is governed by freedom. Apparently. Why are the parents of obese children then taking McDonalds and Burger King to court? Sure, having McDonalds as a tuckshop at your junior school is ridiculous - but when it's the parents and the committee bodies who wanted them there in the first place........ Inconsequential? Not really. Because it is in this way that America and Islam are remarkably similar. America is trying desperately hard to maintain it's commitment to freedom - yet it's towns and villages and homes and roads all look identical as if they were out of the communist' s guide to construction and town planning. Islam is convinced that the religion will survive like it has; but as education grows, so will people's dissatisfaction with cruel laws and archaic governance. America blames al-Jazeera television for popularizing Islamic Jihad and for preventing the international course of justice by refusing to reveal sourced terror organizations. What about CNN? There are people in America who believe themselves so powerful that they can just, well, make up the news to a degree. As a result of focus being placed on Islam, customs and traditions within the religion have bred fear and loathing in the West, thanks to the likes of media powerhouses and again, egos. How well this has worked - what exactly do you feel every time you see a Muslim boarding and aircraft? And us, 'fence-sitters' as George W. Bush would have it. Nothing to offer, nothing to gain. We not only remain neutral on the subject of international terror, but also that of Zimbabwe. We have internal issues such as the above I have mentioned and, although I disagree completely with the subject of Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe - we have no mandate to invade that country and overthrow it's leader. We are in the middle, anyway you look at it, whether we like it or not. The British laugh at us (for God knows what reason) and the Americans drive past informal settlements in Johannesburg and ask questions like, 'If you feed them, will they bite?' Scandinavians know very little about us (apart from the obvious), Australians are jealous of the fact we managed to adjust into democracy peacefully without hosting native culling competitions and Russians, well, they just love us. This 'fence-sitting' reflects in relationships more than you'd care to know. How many times have you counseled friends, offered advise and seen yourself as a worthy scholar on that subject, only to find, four months down the line, you're doing exactly what you told your friend/s not to? You draw up worst case scenarios in your mind, decide what you think is right according to your nature, but you veer off the path with exactly the same vigor that you originally disciplined yourself with. How many times have you even tried to apply the logic to yourself? This condition has too many aspects to investigate - we are not all psychologists so leave it at the initial explanation on the surface. There are issues, such as rape, murder, drug-dealing, racism and white collar crime that we see on a daily basis and some that cannot be held in neutral standing. But those, which are out of our power, will work for rather than against us, if we choose to ignore sides. At the moment, I can guess that there are a number of South Africans in both England and America, who, in between complaining about their country to everyone they meet, side with the West in their approach to Islam. Against that, South Africans in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia are probably also caught up in hatred against America and anyone who supports them. Our President, by refusing to join a team captained by George W. Bush has unknowingly allowed his country to view the bad and the dangerous on both sides. I do, in a way, pity America and it's blinding ignorance, but this route cannot be the way. We'll end up spectators if this war progresses into what we could term The Invincible vs. The Invisible. We should not want it any other way. And that is beauty disguised; even if our currency collapses or HIV / Aids kills three-quarters of our work force or illegal immigrants destroy natural resources - we'll remain neutral amongst something we would never have been able to understand - one we didn't want to anyway. We love our own impossibility just as much as we aspire to it.

Simon Reader is a producer and consultant for a South African communications company. He intends to complete his first novel within the next year.The views of the writer are his own and may not be supported by the website- Editor

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