SA: A State of Trauma

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kilo39

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SA in a state of trauma
Hanti Otto
May 18 2007

South Africans are extremely traumatised as a society. Apartheid has deeply damaged black and white alike.

This is according to US psychiatrist Dr Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma specialist.

And he should know - he served as psychiatric adviser at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Speaking at the eighth annual conference of the SA Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, he said: "Every culture in your country feels like victims. And hurt and traumatised people get angry easily.
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The new South Africa started of well, Van der Kolk said, but something had been destroyed in the past 13 years.

The challenge was to give people back their sense of order and dignity.

Van der Kolk said it was necessary to re-establish people's physical sense of safety.

If one's emotional brain still experienced fear, although the conscious brain said the danger was gone, the body and emotions would continue to think one was in trouble. The emotions experienced during a traumatic situation recurred.
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"South Africa's transition was miraculously peaceful. I believe it is because people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela acted as fantastic male role models. They allowed people to feel the healing rhythm of dancing and singing, making them feel safe to talk about their trauma," Van der Kolk said.

He said the concept of ubuntu was the core of trauma healing.

"Do like they did - dance, it will calm the body and mind," he suggested.
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The new South Africa started of well, Van der Kolk said, but something had been destroyed in the past 13 years.

I suggest AA/BEE destroyed 'anything good.' I suggest AA/BEE destroyed any sense of 'reconciliation,' when those are the very policies we sought to destroy.

I suggest Mbeki and his useless leadership is the problem: no balls, no brain, and no reconciliation. No direction, no clear mandate when he excuses obviously skewed, violent elections in countries beyond our borders.

I suggest Mbeki is the most useless president we have ever had: he is never at home.

I suggest this government and their theory of Ubuntu is at fault: no ubuntu is communism and yields no accountability, no honesty and a horrendous crime rate.

I suggest we get some leadership from the top as it is the only thing we can look to.

Yes I kneel at the feet of Mandela and Tutu and all the others that wanted good for this country. Mbeki and his government are a scourge on the land and perpetuating of racist policies is not what we signed up for!
 
kilo39 said:
The new South Africa started of well, Van der Kolk said, but something had been destroyed in the past 13 years.

I suggest AA/BEE destroyed 'anything good.' I suggest AA/BEE destroyed any sense of 'reconciliation,' when those are the very policies we sought to destroy.

I suggest Mbeki and his useless leadership is the problem: no balls, no brain, and no reconciliation. No direction, no clear mandate when he excuses obviously skewed, violent elections in countries beyond our borders.

I suggest Mbeki is the most useless president we have ever had: he is never at home.

I suggest this government and their theory of Ubuntu is at fault: no ubuntu is communism and yields no accountability, no honesty and a horrendous crime rate.

I suggest we get some leadership from the top as it is the only thing we can look to.

Yes I kneel at the feet of Mandela and Tutu and all the others that wanted good for this country. Mbeki and his government are a scourge on the land and perpetuating of racist policies is not what we signed up for!
Click to expand...

I agree
 
In the spirit of reconciliation, I propose we have massive party (tab, to picked up by Goverment) and dance our @sses off, just like the good doctor ordered:D
 
kilo39 said:
Yes I kneel at the feet of Mandela and Tutu and all the others that wanted good for this country. Mbeki and his government are a scourge on the land and perpetuating of racist policies is not what we signed up for!
Click to expand...

Do you believe that everything just turned pear shaped after Madiba left office?
 
sox63 said:
In the spirit of reconciliation, I propose we have massive party (tab, to picked up by Goverment) and dance our @sses off, just like the good doctor ordered:D
Click to expand...
Though the truth is that such a party will technically be paid for by the tax payer ;)
 
alanf85 said:
Do you believe that everything just turned pear shaped after Madiba left office?
Click to expand...
Yes I partly suggest that. I suggest that AA/BEE is partly the problem (and yes, AA/BEE was conceived and introduced by Mbeki.) And yes I suggest that non-accountability, rampant corruption, the slap on the wrist is the problem (perpertuated by lack of judgement by Mbeki.) Yes I suggest crime and a long list of other things are the problem. Problems we would have solved far easier under a leader like Mandela than the exclusionary policies of Mbeki.

And yes Alanf: I am still waiting for any view from you on a white dominated SA (as you seem to envisage.) So now is your chance: please post your view here!
 
kilo: the ANC discussed AA before T-Bone came into power.
 
sox63 said:
In the spirit of reconciliation, I propose we have massive party (tab, to picked up by Goverment) and dance our @sses off, just like the good doctor ordered:D
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan :D
 
BobbyMac said:
kilo: the ANC discussed AA before T-Bone came into power.
Click to expand...
All problems (if any) can be firmly laid on the desk of Mbeki. AA is one of them. He signed off on it and it is under him it has come to fruition. (Yes, I have seen some history on the beginnings of AA.) Is it something we voted for? No. Therefore Mbeki and his government are at fault, it is he signing off on it and it is he perpetuating it (all the way to the world cup.)
 
I've never been a fan of Mbeki either. He doesn't take well to criticism and is an avoider. He does this by obsessively trying to solve Africa's problems with snake-oil cures and turns a blind eye to everything "in" and around South Africa. He blatantly misuses racism as a political tool to win populist support. Remember the whole Virodene drug story that was supposed to be a miracle AIDS cure which scientifically turned out to do nothing! :eek:


The Economist April 28th:
"Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is a wart on the face of southern africa - and deters many who might invest in the surrounding region.

An abiding failure of Africa is the reluctance of relatively decent leaders to club together to shame the really bad ones out of office. Zimbabwe's case is the most egregious, disgracing the countries nearby, especially South Africa, whose leaders hide behind a misguided sense of past comradeship and racial
solidarity."
 
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