Protea Gardens (PG)
Howick (uMngeni)
PG Blog
A Damascus Road Experience
27 February 2023
Best viewed using a PC/Laptop
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Rob Dempster
Protea Gardens (PG) Howick (uMngeni) PG Blog A Damascus Road Experience 27 February 2023 Best viewed using a PC/Laptop |
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On Saturday, 25 February 2023. Edith and I were due to set off at 6:45 AM on our eBikes. We were hoping to ride the Karkloof Roar Tar with the Howick Senior Cyclists group. It was extremely misty at 6:00 AM and the Senior Cyclists' WhatsApp Groupstarted to buzz. The field was gradually depleted, and finally the ride was called off. So it became breakfast, dish washer and vacuuming in that order. By the time that was done, the mist had started to lift, and so I set off on my own on my eBike to ride up the Currys Post Road, along the Zip Line, and then back home along the Karkloof Road Tar.
Riding alone is generally not a good idea. However it can be, and always has been for me, very therapeutic. Being alone one inevitable starts to think, often in a philosophical sense. One contemplates what has come to pass, and what may lie ahead. Also what has to be done, and you could have been doing right now. As I rode I was once more afforded the opportunity to marvel at the sight that unfolds as one approaches the Karkloof Valley. It is always a stunning sight as perceived by me, something like what Alan Paton saw before he wrote,
"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke; and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa?".
It was then that I suddenly realised that The African National Congress (ANC) could never have liberated the black population of South Africa from the yoke on their necks that Apartheid was. Sure they played a part, but it would have had to have been the West, Russians, Chinese, etc., and some of the Nationalists coming to their senses. Since then as the ANC Government of South Africa has ruined Eskom, Transnet, South African Airways, South African Post Office, to name a few. The severely pot-holed road network speaks for itself. They have also failed to grow the economy and create the jobs and opportunities that the liberated people not only deserved, and were also promised.
Finally there is, "Law and Order". Currently thirty people are shot and killed in South Africa every day.
Until the people, the significant majority that has voted one ANC Government into power after another, realises that they themselves have to bring about the change we need, it is probably going to get worse.
It is now also the time that everyone realises that there has never been such a thing as, "A free lunch", and there never will be!
If you have any comments, corrections, suggestions or plain criticism
I would appreciate it if you would communicate the same to me.
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| [email protected] | www.robdempster.com | |
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