Malema, a Love Letter

A few weeks ago, a story of mine called Homesickness or Headsickness was attacked by a South African expat bitterly living out his very obviously un-sunny days in Iceland. My initial reaction was one of sarcastic defensiveness (you can read the ensuing battle of words if you click on the aforementioned link) which had two disastrous effects:

1. All the hope and passion I'd been pouring into my Soutpiel project, as well as my imminent return home to South Africa was suddenly stained with the ugliness of egos clashing.
2. My response of lashing out at said expat only served to embitter him more, putting him on the defensive and thereby opening myself up to further attacks.

After the third vile comment was left by this clearly pissed-off soul, I found myself teetering precariously on the brink of a very dark and endlessly evil abyss: hate. And the feeling I was constantly fighting an enemy. Our instinctive reaction to being threatened is to fight back - fire with fire, an eye for an eye. But clearly, this 'natural' fight-instinct was doing neither myself, my 'enemy' nor my country any good. Instead, all it did was enrage us all and continue to poison the system that is South Africa's current state.

As in every situation, I had a choice: I could simply (and it is deceptively and beautifully simple) defuse the bomb before it went off. How? By smothering it with kindness and love. Logically, I did not know this person from Adam - so who was I actually raging against? He was a fellow South African and I was damn well going to embrace him - despite our opposing ideas. Putting my silly little ego aside, I chose to:

1. apologise for my sarcastic response, admitting that I was wrong.
2. try and answer his questions from a place of heartfelt and honest humility.
3. invite his comments again in future, even if they would be contrary to my own ideas.

And do you know what? After his barrage of comments on each and every post, I've never heard from him again. And, if I do, I will think before I feel. i.e. I will smile and sort out an ego-free response instead of blindly and childishly lashing out in defense.

The best part? Inasmuch as it is a universal human trait to fight what you feel is an enemy attack, it is also human nature to succumb to forgiveness, humility and lovingkindness as an alternative. Hence why I am proposing this nationwide project as a means to defuse the bomb that we are afraid is Julius Malema. Instead of sitting back, a herd of apathetic 'passivists and pouring all of our negativity (anger, fear, hostility) like so much poison into the closed system of our country, let us instead CHOOSE another way, a better way:

write a letter, personally addressed to Julius Malema, detailing your dreams and hopes for this country we love, showing the recipient why he should trust you. The only condition is this: IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER may you personally attack Julius Malema for anything he has said or done in the past. It is so easy (and short-sighted) to demand the very opposite, but let us try this as a nationwide experiment. Let us show, each and every single one of us, only a tiny mustard seed of faith as we put pen to paper.
Please post your letters to: P.O. Box 3955, North End, 6056

or simply submit them online here: write to Julius Malema

Once I have received all the letters, I shall unite them all into a permanent public sculpture which will be handed over as a gift of hope to Julius Malema and the ANC. (In the interim, I will be publishing the emailed letters online here at Ukukulisa.)

PS. There is no age or literacy limit: letters can be sent as drawn images, poems, collages and photographs.