Human Chains, Burning Boats, No racists?

Sometimes God answers prayers in extravagant ways. Our country has been hit by severe drought and we have all been on water rations as a result as dams have been at an all time low. So, of course, there have been millions of people praying fervently for rain. As the dry winter months have left us behind and the wet and windy spring arrived, everyone worried whether the spring months would bring sufficient rain to fill up the dams before the hot South African summer months arrived. Well the final month of spring has seen flash floods, major thunderstorms (far more than normal) and huge hail storms that made the ground look like it was covered in snow. And the dams have slowly been filling up. On wednesday afternoon they experienced flash floods in the late afternoon as the traffic was peaking. Out of nowhere roads turned into rivers with cars been submerged in water and people trapped. Out of all this chaos, in one of the worst hit areas, men of all races climbed out of their respective vehicles - cars, taxis, trucks and formed a human chain to help the people stuck in the middle of the raging water,and get across to dry land. There was no racism, no fighting between motorist and taxi driver, just concerned citizens helping each other in a time of crisis. This is what makes us proud to be South African. This is what we love about this country and the people of this country. A few days back there was a terrible boating accident on the Hartbeespoort Dam when a fire broke out on a pleasure boat carrying a party of about 200 people. Tragically four people lost their lives in this accident but if they had remained on the boat instead of panicking then they may still be alive today. However, the reason that I am telling this story is that the partygoers on the boat were primarily people of one race group. On the dam at the same time were members of the public in their own boats enjoying the afternoon, doing whatever it is that people with boats do. Many of them never hesitated and rushed to the burning pleasure boat and started helping people, who had jumped overboard, onto their private vessels and taking them safely to shore. The people with the boats were primarily members of another race group, one that is supposedly racist and filled with hatred for the other group and yet nothing is being said about this amazing act of kindness and bravery to rescue the people that they are supposed to "hate". When things like this happen I feel certain that,if the citizens of this country were not subjected to the selfish

agenda's of the politicians, we would all just get on with life and not worry about all the so called racism that people like Julius Malema keep stirring up and throwing in our faces. The majority of the people in this country are Christian or have some belief in God, and most South Africans feel that we are all the same because God created Man in His image and, based on that, we can continue with our process of healing and reconciliation from the effects of apartheid which, the man in the street is, on the whole, doing very well thank you.

While the American's Voted

All across the United States, the people of the most powerful country in the Western World, are streaming to the election polls to go and choose their next President. They are in a bit of a sticky situation as neither of their main candidates are particularly appealing. However, they still get to go and vote. Obama's term is over - eight years completed and that's it, time to move on to the next President. Democracy in action as it should be The right to choose who governs your country and, should that person not do the job properly, the right to vote them out of power after 4 years. While the circus of the run-up to the elections has been headline news all over the world, and consumed facebook pages and twitter, we, in our little corner of the globe, have been dealing with a man who makes Clinton and Trump combined look like squeaky clean angels. Our own Jacob Zuma who has seven hundred and eighty three corruption charges outstanding against him,who raped his own daughter's best friend, has more wives than he has brain cells, who has been found guilty of using tax payers money to build his own estate, and the list goes on and on. If Jacob Zuma's lips are moving, then you know that he is lying. He has practically sold our country to the Gupta family in order to increase his own wealth, and we are probably going to take at least a decade to recover from all the misuse of state funds and other illegal transactions. People are getting poorer, unemployment is sitting at over 40% and due to the drought, the cost of food is astronomical. Crime is getting more and more violent and a simple hijacking is now often followed by a senseless shooting of the victim. Drug taking is spiralling amongst the unemployed youth and the future for the teenagers is not looking very positive. Students are currently destroying the universities because they want to attend them for free. By the time they have finished destroying everything they will be able to sit and study for free - under the nearest tree! Julius Malema is screaming out to "Kill the Whites" even though there are not very many of us left, and take away any land that we own and our right to own any land. So what do we, the average citizen, have to say about all of this chaos in our beloved country as it not only cries but screams in agony? Well, for the most part, we seem to have become kinder to each other. People of all races are doing little acts of kindness to help another person, irrespective of their race or age or even religion. I, for example, was helped out by a lovely young black lady the other day when I was at the supermarket. All she did was pass me some of the items in my trolley that I was battling to reach (I am of rather limited height) and chatted to me as she did so. It was nothing extreme, just a simple act of kindness. Every day I read of other small acts of generosity and kindness, for example the black gentleman who stopped when he saw that a young white woman was broken down on the side of the road. Understanding that she was afraid when he approached her, he spoke to her kindly and told her that he would just wait until her help arrived because it was not safe for her to be sitting alone where she was an easy target for criminals. Once her help arrived and she realised that she was safe and that he had no intentions of hurting her, she thanked him with tears in her eyes and yet another brick in the wall of apartheid was torn down. You see, the laws of the country may have changed in 1994 and a new government put in power to bring about the necessary changes, but, as beloved as Nelson "Madiba" Mandela was by all the people of South Africa, and as much as he united us, and our sportsmen and women united us, it is only really now, as we truly struggle, as we deal with a man who has lied and cheated and laughed in the face of the very people who trusted him, that we are slowly coming together. We can joke about this abominable man and his minions in the government as their gravy train is about to be derailed, we smile at each other and shake our mutual heads at the latest scandal to rock the nation and we finally realise that we are all in this together and that we can only rely on each other. For many of us, who have full trust in God, we know that He is at work and that His hand is moving through our land and drawing lost people to Himself.'