june 16th turns 30

listenin to:5fm online

we have just reached the end of a gloriously long weekend. i am a bit sad that the mundaness of routine and work starts again tomorrow but so be it. what will be will be. friday was youth day and the 30th anniversary of the day when the youth of this country decided to protest against afrikaans as the medium of instruction. it is clear that today's youth no longer have a struggle as visibly evident as the youth of all our yesterdays. however apathy and in particular student apathy is still unacceptable. the face of the struggle has changed and largely because those born after 1994 are born into a democracy. but this still does not mean we are "struggle less". after all, thirty years is not that long ago.

i have been thinking about that hector peterson image and how it has become a symbol for what happened that day. the other side that i have seen is how it has become glamourised. and i'm not too comfortable with that. it has almost become a cool and kitch thing to wear a t-shirt with that image printed on it. not so cool that the boy who carried hector that day, left the country and disappeared. and not so cool that the photographer was admonished for "misrepresenting" the image of south africa to the rest of the world.

today i like: the news of may from the weekend and long chats with levs
today i dislike: soon work will be here again