An outside eye

I've been on the otherside of the Atlantic this last week, and it's been deep.

*

"How long was the Apartheid?"
I froze, momentarily, and then high school history kicked in. 1948, and the National Party comes to power. But before that was the Union of South Africa, before that was the 1820 settlers, before that was Jan van Riebeeck and 1652. I shuffled through the various roots of Apartheid trying to come up with a coherent answer, all the while wondering: but how could you not know? It's Apartheid.

*

AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, HIV, AIDS. AIDS denialism, Thabo Mbeki. We're a country of pathology, if the outside eye is to be believed. We're all dying, we're all weak. I hate that this is what defines us. Conversely, I remember how pissed I was a few years back when a foreign friend called AIDS "unfortunate". "Unfortunate?" I exploded in response, "UNFORTUNATE?" It's unfortunate when you can't join me for dinner. It's unfortunate when you forget your jacket in a bar. It's not unfortunate when you witness the emaciated personhood of your fellow citizens have the shreds of their dignity torn away by a state and a nation that does not know quite how to deal with the pockmarked pain of their being. Does that feel unfortunate?

*

"Uhmmm," I couldn't quite reply.
"Well, the Nats came to power in 1948," the South African sitting next to me started to explain, and I phased out of the conversation.
"Was it as bad as what it was here?" she asked. "With the slavery and the civil rights movement?"
It amazes me how eager the comparisons are between the historic US and the more recent SA. What about comparisons between current US and current SA? We have a legacy of Apartheid, and America has freedom and equality and a black president. But, hi, so do we. And that certainly is no indication of racial equality in our country.

*

Infection and death. Strangely enough, no one mentions diarrhoea. No one talks about the thousands upon thousands of babies and children who die from the condition of their life, not the condition of their body. Those little souls get nothing, not a whisper. In discourse as in death, they receive less than they deserve.

*

They say that changing perspective can teach you things about yourself and your environment that you wouldn't have seen otherwise. I reckon that looking at yourself and your environment through the eyes of an outsider can also teach you things about them.