A dangerous future: the yellow monster's demolition of homes

LAWRENCE OOKEDITSE | Friday August 24, 2012 00:00

The fact that the noise dies though should not make us as a nation make the mistake that the dawns are quiet and all is well for eternity. That genius of a thinker, Karl Marx, in the 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon' wrote that 'History repeats ... first as tragedy, then as farce.'

Born on April 28th, 1937 in al-Awja, a suburb of Tikrit, he endured a difficult childhood; often abused by his step father. At age 20, he joined the Baath, not too long after in 1968, he assisted his cousin, General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, in the Baathist takeover of Iraq. By the mid-1970s, he had become Iraq's unofficial leader, eventually taking over after the highly suspicious death of al-Bakr's in 1979. That was Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti's story as told in part by Tom Head in his 'The war crimes of Saddam Hussein.'

In another part of the world on 20 April, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungry he was born, the only one of two survivors into adulthood out of the six children to Alois and Klara. His father was quite violent. In his book, he wrote that, 'he had a terrible childhood.' He was to drop out of school- to spite his father who wanted him to pursue a career; not only that, he also chose to be a painter as a way to revolt. That was Adolf Hitler.

Much closer to home, there was born a boy who grew up ridiculed as a bastard child. Many historians described his childhood as miserable; the stigmatism of being a bastard child made him the butt end of cruel jokes and pranks. His own father disowned him. He enrolled into an army, wherein he found an outlet for his anger, and became a military genius who would conquer a whole region and build an empire. He never hesitated to kill- for what is it to kill a man if you have been so hardened in childhood? That was Shaka Zulu.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the demolition of houses by land boards as it has happened recently in Ramaphate. My answer is this: those children who were thrown out were watching. Some may have been too young to be bothered but some are of school-going age and can certainly see what is happening.

To them, this may be viewed as an unpardonable cruelty by the authorities. The authorities then become 'the man:' the oppressor. Enduring the cold winter without a home, thanks to the authorities, is never a thing people take with grace. 

Now, some guy has started an online campaign to recruit people to petition the Minister of Lands on the farce that it is for graduates to get land in Gaborone. On the housing prices that keep spiraling out of control? The majority of us shirk it; we say the free market must be left alone. The truth staring back at us is that we are presiding over issues that will be disastrous. From peaceful petitions we will end up with hooliganism and nationalistic movements that seek to redistribute land.

This seems farfetched but the truth is that land does not expand. If we do not find meaningful solutions now, we may bear the brunt of angry future generations who will occupy land Zimbabwe war vets' style. It's such a shame is it not? That human beings are arguably at the top of the list of creatures who have mastered self destruction so much so that even when we can see we are headed to disaster we just tread on.

Think of it; a man without a place in this world becomes deadly. He has nothing to lose but a whole country to gain by taking a gamble that could potentially change the way this republic is organized. That military genius, though it ended in failure in the Russian winter, Napoleon Bonaparte is worth listening to. In one of his musings he wrote, 'always alone among men, I come home to dream by myself and to give myself over to all the forces of my melancholy. My thoughts dwell on death. What fury drives me to wish for my own destruction? No doubt because I see no place for myself in this world.'

Napoleon himself endured a rather erratic childhood due to the actions of the sovereigns. Born in 1769 in Corsica three months after the defeat of the island by France, Napoleon grew up hating France. He was to write in his memoirs, 'I was born when [Corsica] was perishing. Thirty thousand Frenchmen spewed on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood... The cries of the dying, the groans of the oppressed and tears of despair surrounded my cradle from the hour of my birth.'  He was to later rule France; raise France into a great conquering army while at the same time growing ever so blood and acre thirsty that his troops were forever marching in conquest leading to a disastrous and humiliating defeat in Russia. The actions of rulers, in this case had touched on a new-born baby from his birth and he would carry the wounds into his adulthood and leadership.

This shows us how we treat our children, the tragedies they witness and the impact they have on them can be profoundly sad. Whether the actions that led to their difficulties were just or not is not the case. They never think that far given that they have a deep seated feeling of having been disenfranchised at birth. It becomes duty for them to reclaim that which they believe they were denied.

The children of Ramaphate were also watching this. While they are mere kids as of now, they will grow into adults.

Some may be scarred by this event to the degree of becoming like the men described in my opening lines. I exaggerate, you say and I am tempted to agree: after all so many others have suffered but did not become a Hitler, right? But again, there is one who became a Hitler and I would rather shut off the chance of producing a Hitler. And fine, many other terrible human beings grew up in stable homes, again I agree but my argument is to limit the chances of such occurring. Bulldozing people's homes under a cloud like it happened at Ramaphate does not help us avoid the apocalypse that could be unleashed by those who grow up in the cold. And do not even for once say we are a democracy because a democracy simply is a system that allows for collective tragedy.

In a democracy, a single crazy man can fool us all into following him: a democracy is not necessarily a country where justice is upheld, it merely is where the will of the majority takes place. The will of the majority may be evil.Even more, one good manipulator can get the majority to endorse his evil scheme. How else do you explain the willful participation of many Germans in effecting the holocaust?

In the FBI Crime Classification Manual of 1992, real-life profilers Robert Ressler and John Douglas of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit along with the professors Ralph D'Agostino and Ann W. Burgess listed general characteristics of serial killers.

Among the top ten characteristics were: They tend to come from markedly unstable families, typically having been abandoned at an early age by their fathers and grow up in broken homes raised by a domineering mother. There is a long list of criminal behaviour, psychiatric problems and alcoholic histories in their families. They suffer significant abuse in their childhood - psychological, physical and sexual. Often the abuse is by a family member, commonly the father.

Because of their resentment towards an absent or abusive father, they have great problems with a male authority figure. Because they were dominated by their mother, they develop a great hostility towards women. Because of extreme social isolation and general hatred of the world they have high rates of suicide attempts. I draw your attention to the last point- social isolation. Children grow up in settings that vary.

A great many of those who are poor and homeless get stigmatized hence live in solitude. With their homes razed, a great many will hate the world they live in. Even more, they are likely to be with abusive parents since their parents must deal with the stress of not being able to provide a proper roof for their kids. They all vent by saying the land board or government led to this. They then develop hatred towards these authorities. You say, 'but they occupied land illegally,' and I agree with you that it is not acceptable.

My last question is: did the land board act properly by letting the squatters stay for decades? In demolishing these people's dwellings, could we not have found a better way to provide for all of them? And in demolishing structures, are we acting consistently or do we demolish only in certain other localities for certain other people?

These all require sober debate; devoid of political party affiliation because when a Napoleon or a Hitler or a Shaka arises, all- regardless of party affiliation- will bear the brunt. Many do not see it yet, the few that do must feel the deep melancholy that engulfs me.