But for the Grace of God
19February 13, 2022 by petrujviljoen
Opening the group chat to a crime scene. A robbery in progress. One perp is caught, brought down by a dog. Chase is being given to two others. A community effort. I look poverty in the face. Grimy sweat pants, torn t-shirt. He’s on the ground, hands tied behind his back with cable ties, his arms around his empty, gaping rucksack. Symbolic of his life. A teenager.
a person – hungered –
limited and lost and now barred
from any future
A variety of community joins the cars already congregated. One has a child on the hip, another child hangs out a car window.
poverty
a common spectator sport
among the commoners
« Decay
petrujviljoen 
I like the mix of haiku and journalism. Letting the subject decide the object—form following function, substance over style—but first, as you did, choose a meaningful subject.
Comments like these that inspire and aid growth. Thank you Howard.
We can really Do Better…
It’s so much easier to get self-righteous about the small fry. The big fish get away with any crime you care to mention.
How they cheat each other is vey nearly funny.
I don’t want to laugh at them though. I’d like to see a lot of them behind bars with their property confiscated to pay back what they stole.
We here in SA have a land reform scheme. It’s slow going but some communities have either been paid out or their land returned to them. Some of these Boers don’t like the idea at all. It’s volatile.
It’s probably as hard for the Boers to forget they used to have the upper hand, as it is for the black Africans to forget they were the oppressed. As I remember the story, the Boers who fought the English were almost all very poor. Knowing that there were people with even fewer rights that them, that they were allowed to kick around must have made them feel better. The people at the bottom of the heap seem to find it easier to side-snipe than to join forces.
The whole pattern of the oppressed becoming the oppressor. SA has a slightly different pattern though. It’s simply the (black) poor who remains oppressed! Whites moan and groan but there’s hardly a ripple in the lives of the middle- and upper classes. Whites being such a minority helps in that. What transpired recently is the collusion of mainly white-owned or -managed corporates colluding with corrupt elements in government in emptying the State coffers. There’s major sabotage of infrastructure.
I imagine the original settlement with Leclerc and Mandela didn’t exactly overturn the system.
Got that right!
These great moments of history…fluffed.
… and the poor bears the brunt, as usual.
Poverty/wealth is the most powerful common ground we share. The rich close ranks around their own whatever their skin colour, religion or gender identity.
Yip!
😦
And the ones that rob us every day through institutions never suffer any punishment at all. (K)
Quite. Indeed. Alas.
So sad. And so true.