Xenophobia – The latest buzzword IN the SABC’s vocabulary. Defined in the Oxford dictionary as “strong dislike or distrust of foreigners”. In nightly newscasts, presenters report on the ongoing violence between Gauteng township locals and Zimbabwean migrants pouring into our country to escape Mugabe’s terror machine, only to face murder and mayhem at the hands of the locals who rightly assert there aren’t enough jobs to support them, let alone foreigners.
And you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realise this situation was inevitable. Preventable too, if government had seen the writing on the wall, pulled their heads out of the sand and gone to Zim’s rescue a long time ago instead of claiming “the situation is manageable”. I wonder if our esteemed leader is regretting his words?
But there’s another kind of xenophobia looming in 2010, when the world descends on our shores for the World Cup.
Hopefully “strong dislike or distrust of foreigners” will not apply to them. We need them to pay for the vast sums of money being spent on stadiums and infrastructure. Perhaps a ban on Pommie football yobbos will be enough to ensure a peaceful tournament. Don’t they just have a way though of infiltrating every city, whether Manchester or Moscow? stabbing here, a mugging there, it’s all in name of the game – of football, that is!
How come we never see this at a rugby match? “Because it’s a gentleman’s game,” explained neighbour Jan over morning coffee on my stoep, listening to my diatribe on xenophobia. “So it’s okay for ‘gentlemen’ on a rugby field to inflict grievous bodily harm on each other?” asked pointedly. “Or is it a case of spectator bloodlust being satisfied so they don’t have to inflict it on each other after the game?” Jan ignored me and said, “heard the X-word 10 times on TV news last night. What does it mean, Townie?” “Strong dislike or distrust of foreigners,” answered. “You suffer from it too,” he said. “Another phobia to add to your list!” “do you mean?” asked indignantly. “Well, judging from the comments you made about your Dutch visitors recently, I’d say you’re definitely xenophobic.”
“And suppose you’re not, Jan? Who bays for blood when the Aussies or All Blacks are playing our Bokke? Your comments of ‘moer hom!’ are hardly gentlemanly! come to think of it, you called me a ‘buitelander’ when came here six years ago. guess xenophobia wasn’t in your vocabulary then!” – Derek Christopher |fw
