The world is a complicated place

Higher mental functions are, by definition, culturally mediated. They involve not a direct action on the world but an indirect one, one that takes a bit of material matter used previously and incorporates it as an aspect of action. Insofar as that matter itself has been shaped by prior human practice (eg it is an artefact), current action incorporates the mental work that produced the particular form of that matter. (Cole and Wertsch, 1996, p252)

"It's interesting to observe the construction process of the wide community of intellectual publishers: liberal quoting of each other's ideas, combining, arguing, extending and recombining them in order to construct our social and cultural understanding of thought, understanding and ultimately human nature."

That quote's from A Journey into Constructivism by Martin Dougiamas. One of many amazing artefacts (like Deryck Lang's "The Ama-Xhosa") I'm trying to absorb via osmosis - since I have little time to simply /read/.

Then there's Sarah Colvin's masterful, but daunting, thesis (266 pages) on sustainable development... (2004) . . . studying several eco tourism ventures and hotels along the Pondoland Wild Coast.

Perhaps I'm panicking in way too many directions at once. What can I do? I'm simply telling the truth as I see it and doing what my conscience dictates...

In the past year I have seen so much at Hole in the Wall along the lines of what is going on here: S W C but I've been too scared to come right out and say it. It feels like I have little time to integrate the pieces and coherently express my dismay and incredulity at the thin veneer of democracy behind which every outrage is perpetrated.

There has been a succession issue which has been ruthlessly exploited by the local ward councilor to remove opposition to his development plans for the Hole in the Wall. A mob murder as a result - and about 20 of the opposition effectively imprisoned for the past 3 months. Their case should be coming up in September. They've been held without bail since the beginning of June. The thing is - there are aggravated circumstances.

And now the push to economically develop this area in a last ditch effort to meet the ultimatum of Vali Moosa in 2003 when he said that the Wild Coast must demonstrate it's tourism potential within 5 years or other economic recourses would be resorted to (no pun intended).

It's going to take half a generation at least for the people who actually own the land's children to be educated sufficiently to manage their own resources; and there should not be such a rush to exploit the tourism potential immediately - without allowing the local people to have their fair share. Really, fuck jobs for land! and forcing people into economic bondage.

This culture and area has been around for a few thousand years at least. It's not going anywhere. What's the God damned rush?

I've been to a tribal council. I've seen how, like Kutshong (another UDM area) "The government does what the government needs to do." (Who was that hood-lidded gravy party despot, anyway?)