the planet project

Why South Africa is under the weather

South Africa’s recent renown as a soccer venue has raised the profile of the most developed country in Africa. Most people remember fondly the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and the triumph of democracy over apartheid. The ‘Rainbow Nation’ was touted as a successful black state and a blueprint for the peaceful implementation of democracy in Africa. But democracy in Africa has a notoriously unsuccessful history and South Africa’s new leader may prove to be no exception to the dictatorial stereotype that plagues the continent’s leaders.

Ubuntu: A Blessing or a Curse?

South African culture is based on Ubuntu – the noble system which gives each person a role in society and lays out a purpose and guidelines for their lives. This is a system which encourages neighbours to share crops and take care of each other. Their pain is your pain; their victories are your victories. Each person is a witness to your life as you are to theirs. Ubuntu is both the tie that binds and the tie that restrains. This loyalty to kin requires people to act in ways that are not necessarily in their own best interest, to vote according to tribal affiliations rather than for the political party which most closely meets their needs. Leaders who are in power are not accountable; power is their right –not a privilege.

Dictator Rising

 Enter Julius Malema, president of the ANC Youth League, and unabashed demagogue. In March 2010, Malema was found guilty of hate speech after repeatedly singing the controversial “Shoot the Boer (white farmer)” song at political rallies. In April, he visited Zimbabwe on an ‘indigenization’ tour where he praised Robert Mugabe and suggested that the land seizures which have brought that country to its knees, be implemented in South Africa. He fatuously criticized Morgan Tsvangeri – Zimbabwe’s democratic opposition leader – and accused him of being in league with imperialists. Accusing one of imperialism is somewhat outdated in these parts, especially a man of Tsvangeri’s ilk.

The Malema madness continued. He criticized the Movement for Democratic Change for having their offices in Sandton – a rich suburb of Johannesburg. When a BBC journalist pointed out that that Malema also lived in Sandton, Malema let fly with a string of insults – accusing the journalist (among other things) of having ‘rubbish in his trousers’.

Zuma’s Response

This attack on the foreign press finally prompted a response. The unfailing support and devotion that SA President Zuma and Malema had displayed towards each other gave way as Zuma publicly chided Malema for his behaviour. Malema responded in style, accusing the president of being like Thabo Mbeki – the man he ousted from power to claim the presidency. The animosity peaked and soon charges against Malema were dropped, he was given a slap on the wrist and sent to an anger management class.

He continued to praise Mugabe in public and sniff out one controversy after another – displaying a knack for falling on the wrong side of every moral issue. He had also come under attack for awarding government contracts in the hundreds of millions to companies he had created. He dismissed these claims as ‘racist’ saying whites did not want to see black businessmen succeed. All the claims had been made by black South Africans. He released personal details of black journalists who had been critical of his business dealings including the identity numbers, addresses, bank details and car registrations of their wives and children. He led a youth league foray to Venezuela to study the politics of socialism and has begun to arm and train his cadres at both military and naval bases. Many people have called for his immediate dismissal (there is even a Facebook site to this end) but I think Julius Malema is the bitter tonic to South Africa’s afflictions.

 Cruel to be Kind

Malema madness is so extreme, so obviously malignant that it may just be the jolt that South Africans need to wake them from their malaise. Malema’s outrageous statements have garnered criticism from all quarters. He defiles the names of the true heroes of the struggle which he speaks of as though he was there. He was 13 when South Africa had its first democratic election. He is the parasite on the flanks of the ANC which will weaken the party and allow true democratic opposition in a government gone rogue.

Yes, indeed! South Africa needs Malema as he so egregiously bumbles through ‘How to be an African Dictator’ as though his role has been scripted. His rank outspoken racism offends even the staunchest ANC supporters and encourages opposition. So far removed are we from the solidarity that Mandela conjured that I scarcely recognize the country of my birth. Let us dream again of Mandela’s Africa – such sweet reveries.

Science and religion have always been at loggerheads. Their disagreements have been many, varied and colourful, but centre around their opposing ontological approaches i.e. religion sees nature as spiritual and science sees nature as material. Mysticism goes beyond religion and science to combine both points of view.

Mysticism demands that its followers verify and question beliefs until they discover the truths themselves. Followers are called verifiers or seekers and should not accept doctrine, but question it; “In mysticism, then, we find a type of spirituality which has close epistemological parallels to science – a spirituality that begins with faith but ends in a certainty which each of us can and must discover in our own practice.” Joel Morwood.

The certainty of science has been damaged by quantum theory. The experimental approach is debunked as ‘facts’ recorded by empirical observations are flawed by the subjectivity of the senses. Time and space are no longer thought of as constant or linear; sub-atomic phenomena behave differently in the presence of observers and are now thought of in terms of both waves and particles. This idea demands a ‘complementarity’ or the necessity to hold two seemingly opposing ideas in the mind at the same time – something mystics are usually ridiculed for.” Quantum theory has led the physicists far away from the simple materialistic views that prevailed in the natural science of the nineteenth century.” Werner Heisenberg. This seems to suggest that the fundamental realities of mysticism and science are moving closer together.

Many scientists have published books that show the similarities between the beliefs of mysticism and science. Even Stephen Hawkings can ‘…see God in my equations.” People who believe they are ‘serious’ scientists say this is all stuff and nonsense. They claim that this is pop science and does nothing but get book deals and lucrative grants.

Still, the mystics smile knowingly and beckon us to the ‘dark side’, to enlightenment.

They claim that, in order to understand nature, we must abandon empiricism, materialism and knowledge itself in order to ‘know’. The truths of science are not the same as the mystical truths, although there was a time when we thought they were. Mystical truths are absolute; beyond concepts, subjectivity, culture and world views.

Whether you are on the side of science or religion, there is undeniable evidence of phenomena which cannot be explained solely by one side or the other. If we thought of both science and mysticism in terms of energy, we seem to be talking the same language.

In China, the essence of everything is believed to be ‘chi’ – a kind of divine energy which polarizes into yin and yang (positive and negative). In India, Brahman is the creative power flanked by Vishnu and Shiva. Matter is condensed energy; “By energising of consciousness, Brahman is massed; from that, matter is born and from matter, life and mind and the worlds… “Mundaja Upanishad. Tibetan philosophy also sees the essence of everything as a pulsing, dynamic energy or vibration. According to these approaches, ‘consciousness’ is simply an awareness of this energy. Mysticism is a way to lock into this energy – to channel, change, read and direct it. Practitioners initially learn from it, but with time and practice are able to use it to heal or change the environment around them. In a controlled lab experiment, Beverly Rubick (a biophysicist at San Francisco State University) tested the effects of psychic healers: “I knew when… I intoxicated my bacteria with a dose of a certain chemical agent, that indeed they would not swim. And what we found with some of the psychic healers … is that they were able to revive a certain percentage of them. We found about seven percent motility in that experiment, as I recall.”

In the wonderfully entertaining “What the Bleep Do We Know” – an insightful documentary explaining the ideas of energy and mysticism – Dr. Masaru Emoto conducts an experiment where droplets of water are frozen under controlled lab conditions. Before each droplet is frozen, the good doctor projected an emotion and phrase like “You make me sick” or “Love and gratitude”. The resulting ice formations leave us with much food for thought. "Half of the earth is water; our body is three-quarters water. Many studies have shown subtle effects of healers upon hydrogen bonding and infrared absorption of water. None of these scientific studies can compare with the beauty and clear messages shown by Dr. Emoto's elegant work. The impact of thought and beauty has never before been demonstrated so well."

You make me sick                                              Love and Gratitude

Heavy Metal Music                                    Mozart

It seems then that perhaps one may not have to entirely abandon spirituality in order to be scientific. In fact, our scientific endeavours are pointing to the fact that a more holistic, balanced way of thinking needs to be adopted if we are going to make any headway in the fields of science or spirituality.

References:

Dr. Emoto’s website: http://www.masaru-emoto.net/

Joel Morwood: http://www.centerforsacredsciences.org/teachings/science.html