Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2015 8:43:50 GMT
Undictated / October 30, 2015
Here’s Andrew Kenny’s “Orania” column The Citizen doesn’t want you to read
Andrew Kenny’s weekly column in The Citizen newspaper has built up a strong following over the years – the engineer being appreciated for his forthright and perceptive insights into the tragedy at the State’s electricity utility Eskom. But Kenny has other arrows in his quiver, including a curiosity that took him to Orania, the Afrikaner-only town in the Northern Cape province between Hopetown and Petrusville. Kenny was impressed with the civility of the people and safety of the environment; and intended telling his readers what he had found. Excepting, the editor decided the 400 words would offend The Citizen’s readers, rather ironic considering the newspaper was created and funded by the Apartheid Government. Here’s the column The Citizen doesn’t want you to read – with Kenny’s explanation of what went down. This piece was first published on Politicsweb. – Alec Hogg
By Andrew Kenny*
On Thursday, 8 October, I visited Orania for the first time. I stayed there for four days, attending a Libertarian Conference. Orania was a revelation to me. I was enormously impressed by its success, decency, safety, modesty, friendliness, cleanliness, by its spirit of goodwill, by its egalitarian attitudes and, above all, by its prevailing philosophy of freedom.
I write a column for The Citizen newspaper, which appears every Tuesday. So on Sunday, 11 Oct, from Orania I wrote my 400 words on Orania, reporting what I had seen and saying how extremely different Orania was from apartheid South Africa. The editor of the Citizen, Steven Mutale, rejected my column.
He would not allow it to be published. Below is my account of this episode and my thoughts on Orania, race and freedom of speech in South Africa. I shall explain why favourable reports on Orania seem forbidden by most of the big media.
My travelling companion and I, setting out from Cape Town, entered Orania on Thursday afternoon at a slow pace in my 1984 Suzuki SJ410 (which is incapable of a fast pace). Orania lies on the south bank of the Orange River between Colesberg and Hopetown on the R369. Since there are no border fences we did not know when we were entering the area of Orania until we came to the town of Orania.
There, turning off the R369, our only reception was a sign saying “Welkom in Orania” and featuring the Orania icon, a little boy rolling up his sleeve, either to engage in muscular Christian good work or to defend the righteous against the school bully.
I am the least perceptive of men but upon entering Orania I was immediately aware of a mood of peace and safety. Driving to our accommodation – the charming “Aan Die Oewer (“On the Banks”) holiday resort – we looked left and right at the houses on our way. Some were Cape Dutch, some were steel frame, some were wooden but there were no mansions and no shacks.
Some houses were sparse and prefab; there were some people living in caravans; there were indications of “poor whites”; but there was no destitution. There was a spirit of simple dignity. The streets were clean, simple and tidy. We noticed immediately that all the menial labour was being done by white men and women: white garden labourers, white waitresses, whites cleaning the streets, white petrol attendants, and whites washing the linen and cleaning the lavatories.
Never before in my life in South Africa have I felt so safe. For the first time ever, when I spoke to Afrikaners in my appalling Afrikaans, they replied in Afrikaans (rather than looking horrified and replying in English). All the street signs, all orange, and all the menus in the restaurants were in Afrikaans only, which as an Engelsman pleased me.
We passed the famous Koeksuster statue and the Betsy Verwoerd museum, whose simplicity matched the mood of the place.
We spent a wonderful four days there. The Libertarian Conference was the usual lively, argumentative and interesting event, which as usual came to no conclusions at all. I think “Libertarian” is a silly word but it has been introduced to distinguish it from the correct word “Liberal”, which has lost its meaning.
I am a classic liberal, believing in liberty, rule of law, small government and equal rights for all. The trouble is that in the USA, and to a lesser extent the UK, “liberal” means “socialist” or “illiberal”. A “liberal” in the USA believes in big government and state control. Naturally there was much discussion about whether Orania fulfilled libertarian ideals.
Orania was established as a place to protect the Afrikaans culture and Christian values. In 1991, the founding fathers bought 500 hectares of parched Karoo scrubland for R1.6 million Rand. Photos of the place then show a desolate, abandoned wasteland whose only redeeming feature was proximity to the Orange River. 24 years later there has been a remarkable transformation – perhaps unrivalled on Earth.
Orania now is over 8,000 hectares (80 square kilometres) and worth over R500 million. Just over 1,000 people live there. Efficient, modern irrigation systems have turned the brown semi-desert green, growing crops of lucerne, maize, almonds, olives and, for some reason I don’t understand, pecan nuts. Orania seems to have developed a niche market in pecan nuts.
It also grows fruit, vegetables and flowers in greenhouses, and has livestock. Its industrial centre provides for all of its water, sewerage and electricity infrastructure. It provides its own services yet pays taxes to South Africa.
It is acutely sensitive of environmental protection, and uses in a sensible way the best benefits of solar power, modern agriculture and waste separation (at our chalet, there were two rubbish bins marked “Herwinbaar” and “Nie Herwinbaar”).
The schools in Orania, using both traditional and informal teaching methods, have got a 100% matric success, sending their pupils to universities all over South Africa. There is essentially no crime. There is no unemployment.
I tried to summarise all of this in 400 words and sent it off to The Citizen. I made a big point of saying that Orania was nothing like apartheid, was in fact the antithesis of apartheid.
On 12 Oct, the Editor of the Citizen, Steven Motale, sent me this email:
Hi Andrew
I’m afraid this piece might be interpreted by many as a tacit glorification of segregation and may be highly offensive to victims of apartheid. I have therefore decided not to publish it.
Regards
Steven Motale
Editor, The Citizen.
On 15 Oct, I replied to him as follows:
Dear Steven,
Thank you for the courtesy of informing me that you had rejected my column on Orania.
You, as the editor, have the right and the duty to accept or reject articles as you see fit. That is paramount.
But I have to say I am puzzled that you think my column “may be highly offensive to victims of apartheid”. In my column I made it clear that Orania could not be more different from “apartheid, an oppressive, racist, socialist system”.
President Mandela, President Zuma and Julius Malema (when he was in the ANC) have all visited Orania, and have all been graciously received and respected. None of the three seemed to have found anything offensive at all in Orania.
Orania has no exploitation, no coercion, and no black “maids” or black “garden boys” working for the white madam or the white baas. The whites do all their own menial labour.
Orania is a complete rejection of all the horrible ways of apartheid. I think it serves as a fine example to all nations in South Africa who might wish to have a traditional community of their own to honour their own language, religion, culture and values.
Please treat this email as public information to show to anyone you please. I shall do the same for your emails.
Best wishes,
Andrew Kenny
When I told a friend about this, she replied, accurately I think, that a white editor would be more likely to reject my column than a black editor. Why does the big media in South Africa regard Orania with such hostility? I believe I know the reason why, and I shall explain it, but first let me set out my thoughts on freedom of speech in South Africa.
...
I write a column for The Citizen newspaper, which appears every Tuesday. So on Sunday, 11 Oct, from Orania I wrote my 400 words on Orania, reporting what I had seen and saying how extremely different Orania was from apartheid South Africa. The editor of the Citizen, Steven Mutale, rejected my column.
He would not allow it to be published. Below is my account of this episode and my thoughts on Orania, race and freedom of speech in South Africa. I shall explain why favourable reports on Orania seem forbidden by most of the big media.
My travelling companion and I, setting out from Cape Town, entered Orania on Thursday afternoon at a slow pace in my 1984 Suzuki SJ410 (which is incapable of a fast pace). Orania lies on the south bank of the Orange River between Colesberg and Hopetown on the R369. Since there are no border fences we did not know when we were entering the area of Orania until we came to the town of Orania.
There, turning off the R369, our only reception was a sign saying “Welkom in Orania” and featuring the Orania icon, a little boy rolling up his sleeve, either to engage in muscular Christian good work or to defend the righteous against the school bully.
I am the least perceptive of men but upon entering Orania I was immediately aware of a mood of peace and safety. Driving to our accommodation – the charming “Aan Die Oewer (“On the Banks”) holiday resort – we looked left and right at the houses on our way. Some were Cape Dutch, some were steel frame, some were wooden but there were no mansions and no shacks.
Some houses were sparse and prefab; there were some people living in caravans; there were indications of “poor whites”; but there was no destitution. There was a spirit of simple dignity. The streets were clean, simple and tidy. We noticed immediately that all the menial labour was being done by white men and women: white garden labourers, white waitresses, whites cleaning the streets, white petrol attendants, and whites washing the linen and cleaning the lavatories.
Never before in my life in South Africa have I felt so safe. For the first time ever, when I spoke to Afrikaners in my appalling Afrikaans, they replied in Afrikaans (rather than looking horrified and replying in English). All the street signs, all orange, and all the menus in the restaurants were in Afrikaans only, which as an Engelsman pleased me.
We passed the famous Koeksuster statue and the Betsy Verwoerd museum, whose simplicity matched the mood of the place.
We spent a wonderful four days there. The Libertarian Conference was the usual lively, argumentative and interesting event, which as usual came to no conclusions at all. I think “Libertarian” is a silly word but it has been introduced to distinguish it from the correct word “Liberal”, which has lost its meaning.
I am a classic liberal, believing in liberty, rule of law, small government and equal rights for all. The trouble is that in the USA, and to a lesser extent the UK, “liberal” means “socialist” or “illiberal”. A “liberal” in the USA believes in big government and state control. Naturally there was much discussion about whether Orania fulfilled libertarian ideals.
Orania was established as a place to protect the Afrikaans culture and Christian values. In 1991, the founding fathers bought 500 hectares of parched Karoo scrubland for R1.6 million Rand. Photos of the place then show a desolate, abandoned wasteland whose only redeeming feature was proximity to the Orange River. 24 years later there has been a remarkable transformation – perhaps unrivalled on Earth.
Orania now is over 8,000 hectares (80 square kilometres) and worth over R500 million. Just over 1,000 people live there. Efficient, modern irrigation systems have turned the brown semi-desert green, growing crops of lucerne, maize, almonds, olives and, for some reason I don’t understand, pecan nuts. Orania seems to have developed a niche market in pecan nuts.
It also grows fruit, vegetables and flowers in greenhouses, and has livestock. Its industrial centre provides for all of its water, sewerage and electricity infrastructure. It provides its own services yet pays taxes to South Africa.
It is acutely sensitive of environmental protection, and uses in a sensible way the best benefits of solar power, modern agriculture and waste separation (at our chalet, there were two rubbish bins marked “Herwinbaar” and “Nie Herwinbaar”).
The schools in Orania, using both traditional and informal teaching methods, have got a 100% matric success, sending their pupils to universities all over South Africa. There is essentially no crime. There is no unemployment.
I tried to summarise all of this in 400 words and sent it off to The Citizen. I made a big point of saying that Orania was nothing like apartheid, was in fact the antithesis of apartheid.
On 12 Oct, the Editor of the Citizen, Steven Motale, sent me this email:
Hi Andrew
I’m afraid this piece might be interpreted by many as a tacit glorification of segregation and may be highly offensive to victims of apartheid. I have therefore decided not to publish it.
Regards
Steven Motale
Editor, The Citizen.
On 15 Oct, I replied to him as follows:
Dear Steven,
Thank you for the courtesy of informing me that you had rejected my column on Orania.
You, as the editor, have the right and the duty to accept or reject articles as you see fit. That is paramount.
But I have to say I am puzzled that you think my column “may be highly offensive to victims of apartheid”. In my column I made it clear that Orania could not be more different from “apartheid, an oppressive, racist, socialist system”.
President Mandela, President Zuma and Julius Malema (when he was in the ANC) have all visited Orania, and have all been graciously received and respected. None of the three seemed to have found anything offensive at all in Orania.
Orania has no exploitation, no coercion, and no black “maids” or black “garden boys” working for the white madam or the white baas. The whites do all their own menial labour.
Orania is a complete rejection of all the horrible ways of apartheid. I think it serves as a fine example to all nations in South Africa who might wish to have a traditional community of their own to honour their own language, religion, culture and values.
Please treat this email as public information to show to anyone you please. I shall do the same for your emails.
Best wishes,
Andrew Kenny
When I told a friend about this, she replied, accurately I think, that a white editor would be more likely to reject my column than a black editor. Why does the big media in South Africa regard Orania with such hostility? I believe I know the reason why, and I shall explain it, but first let me set out my thoughts on freedom of speech in South Africa.
...