Making A Better World - Milton Louw

on Namibia's 21st birthday, 21 March 2011 This morning once more my country awakes This day is no normal day though, No, today my country has come of age, It is no longer a child, But an adult member of the world. I remember its birth many sunrises ago When I was chosen to raise our new flag, Looking out from that first maternity ward Over the rolling hills of our capital Windhoek The skyline created by the colonialists. Today, my country receives its key, The key to unlock things before hidden, Things that were forbidden to do, Now maturity must lend a hand And help in the choices it makes. During its teenage years, I became worried as it flirted, Its political alliances changing shape Hard words being exchanged during puberty Crying tears of unanswered love. As my country becomes more self-assured Exerting its own will and wants It is time to step quietly aside, Assuring it of my undying, continued love While letting it achieve its own greatness. S...

I quote from a paper by R van der Ross at the Symposium on Slavery 2008 – “The question of identity is one which elicits wide, wordy and largely useless response. In this country there is continuous debate about the matter, and mostly about and from the Coloured people. Who are we? Why? Where from? Where to? Some even ask: Are we? Are there Coloured people? The ridiculousness of these questions is compounded by the attempts at answers: “We are not; we are not Coloured; we are simply human; we are, but we refuse to be called Coloured,” and so into various degrees of assininity. If the matter of mixed descent is raised, it will most likely be met with the response that all the peoples of the earth are mixed. Of course there is some truth in this, but it evades the other truth namely that which the philosophers call “immediate perception.” We are Coloured because people look at us and regard us as Coloured. Finish en klaar.” http://alturl.com/f4k9w