WEEP FOR THANDI

I recieved from a friend

It is work reading and thinking about.

WEEP FOR THANDI

A few weeks ago, my daughter attended a “team building” exercise at which the members of the team gave a presentation on their lives.  One team member, who grew up on the Cape Flats spoke of her impoverished childhood, describing a small home without electricity or running water. She mentioned that she and her two brothers shared clothes because they didn’t have enough to have a complete set each. She said, “I didn’t know that was WRONG.”  She said that she had only one pair of shoes, and thought that was OK because she didn’t know that it was WRONG to have only one pair.   She concluded by saying that she had thought it was an easy happy existence, and only learned later that she was WRONG because it was a very hard life and she was  unhappy without knowing it. . She apologised, giving the excuse that she DIDN’T KNOW ANY BETTER. 

Thandi, who through grit, intelligence and perseverance in the face of many obstacles was achieving her goals,  abased herself before the more privileged ands less accomplished members of the team because she had been taught that being poor was  WRONG and somehow below standard.

 [“Whose standard?”  I hope you’re asking yourselves. Certainly not God’s or St Francis’.]

There, my friends, we have in a nutshell the pernicious and corrosive effect of the invasion of Western consumerism into the Third World.. .

What could be a greater psychological abuse than teaching someone that they are too ignorant or stupid to know what their real feelings are?  What could be more evil than making happy confident people unhappy and diffident?

Multiply Thandi’s experience by millions - millions of people wounded, scarred, and made to despise themselves – all to feed the greed of Western business. What a crime against humanity!  What a social and environmental catastrophe!

Just consider the psychological and economic consequences of making someone feel inferior because they thought one pair of shoes was enough. Look at the result of lying to people that they have to buy a lot to be worthy people. .  We’re reaping the harvest of that lie now:  envy, crime, violence, hatred, environmental degradation, and the collapse of the social contract and economic morality.

And most of all, we have made it extremely unlikely that any movement to save the environment will succeed. For every person willing to decrease their consumption significantly, and there are very few, thousands are desperately trying to increase their consumption to prove that they are “worthy” people. For every person calling for less consumption and waste, there are thousands asserting their right as “worthy” people to consume and waste more.

Francis would have wept and we should too.  Not only for Thandi, but for ourselves as well.