Twelve Years Old in Bangkok
Blaquart, Norrie
Norrie Blaquart Twelve Years Old in Bangkok Gag the nightingale Bruise the rose Tear petals away Wherever flowers grow. Last night in a dream I slept with my mother, Then he woke me The...
...We are, however, not surprised...
...Because they are not completely free until we are free...
...I'm not here to play marbles...
...I was the chair when Mandela attended the hearing in Johannesburg...
...ERRARI: Archbishop, apart from reconciliation, black and white, the one province in South Africa whose immediate history challenges the principle of reconciliation is KwaZulu Natal...
...It is an interesting coincidence that the most vehement F Commonweal 1 6 September 12,1997...
...We are required to be even-handed in the sense that we must give everyone the opportunity to state their case...
...So they were surprised when I told President Nelson Mandela you can't have your gravy train...
...We give the perpetrators every chance...
...We want to have their perspective...
...Norrie Blaquart Twelve Years Old in Bangkok Gag the nightingale Bruise the rose Tear petals away Wherever flowers grow...
...So if something is wrong, I don't ask who has committed it, I say it is wrong...
...Reconciliation is costly and it involves confrontation...
...They think that reconciliation is patting each other on the back and saying it's all right...
...We want to hear their story...
...I wonder how can a commission such as yours that is listening to the tales of the victims and holding hearings on the consequences of apartheid be neutral...
...We are independent...
...The Nationalist party gets an equal chance to tell its story-why it wanted to have such a policy, and explain things from their perspective...
...Long ago, I said apartheid was evil in essence...
...FERRARI: Archbishop, following that point, there are some people who say the commission is not neutral...
...If that is how you feel about amnesty, I'll resign from this commission...
...They have a strange notion about what reconciliation is...
...We are distressed since reconciliation is something not just for the TRC but for all South Africans...
...They decided long before the commission started that it was going to be a witch-hunt...
...That would outrage the moral nature of this community, the moral nature of the universe...
...it is freedom especially for white people...
...A number in the white community hold on to the view despite the evidence...
...I want to say again, please show me where the revelations and the work of the commission have led to a resurgence of race hatred, and I'll show you many, many instances of the opposite...
...He arrived at a point when someone was accusing the ANC of atrocities in their camps...
...Any credibility that I might have comes from my fight against apartheid and against oppression...
...And it is freedom not for black people...
...They thought I was driven by political motives, and they believed that once you had this democracy, I would be seen holding down a particular position...
...But we don't say that the victim is on the same moral plane as the perpetrator...
...They never believed me, you see, when I told them this, when I said I am deeply committed to freedom...
...Every political party, whenever some embarrassing revelation was likely to take place before the TRC, has attacked the commission to preempt that embarrassment...
...I told them: "No, I am driven by my faith...
...Articles in the daily press highlight the absence of Chief Buthelezi s Inkatha Freedom Party from participation in the work of the commission...
...So we're not waiting to get evidence that somehow we missed out and now the evidence demonstrates otherwise about the evil thing we fought...
...We are even-handed, but some don't want to believe it...
...How upsetting is it to you and the work of the commission that Inkatha is not involved...
...I don't make any apologies for that...
...But he confronted people and caused division...
...One article implied Inkathas not only reject the commission but also participation in the process curtailing violence within the province...
...I was chosen because I was morally neutral...
...TUTU: The act requires that we be even-handed, but we are not waiting to be persuaded that somehow apartheid wasn't evil...
...He sat through this tirade...
...We are trying to get at the truth for the purpose of healing this land, and to find ways to ensure that the ghastly things that happened do not happen again, because we are passionate in our love for this country and its people, all included...
...He came and achieved for us reconciliation...
...TUTU: Doctor Buthelezi s IFP from the onset has hardly cooperated with the commission, despite many appeals...
...cause it has helped a closure to take place...
...But I haven't said I will resign if you don't come before the commission...
...A slash of the moon Lay between us Like a cool silver river, And soon we were adrift In pools so faraway I saw over his shoulder My mother could no longer Tread the flow...
...Otherwise Jesus Christ would not have died on the cross...
...I said to the ANC, to no other party have I said I will resign if you hold on to a view that undermines our position...
...Last night in a dream I slept with my mother, Then he woke me The stranger My ten-dollar lover...
...Those are not just some slogans I like throwing around...
Vol. 124 • September 1997 • No. 15
