GA Liebernberg, Gordon’s Bay
“Another side to the story”, Paul Hendler, Stellenbosch, refers to “a considerable body of work and theory about money, etc. existing objectively” (Bolander letters page, July 17). In the same breath he also refers to Mr McFarlane’s views about “our” colonial history.
I cannot question Paul Hendler’s financial acumen but placing his closing statement “Truth-seeking is always a contradictory process until we arrive at a social consensus” in context with our colonial history, I have to objectively ask: “Whose social, and whose consensus”?
The South African “indigenous peoples” have three main spoken languages, more intricately constructed than Latin, but never had a written language (record of history). We all know what happens to stories (historic facts and truths) that are passed on verbally between generations.
Indigenous folklore and customs have many (pre-Van Riebeeck) references to glorious warriors – glorious against whom and why did they wage war? Was it against the other indigenous tribes, the San and the Khoi-San? Was it to gain control and rule over land, livestock, women and slaves? Oh dear, this sounds like indigenous colonisation. The same scenario played off countless times through the ages all over the world (Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, the North and South Americas, North and Central Africa, etc). Apart from the art and traces of habitation left by the original “first people” all over Southern Africa, there is little trace of indigenous settlements except for that found in research done by “colonialists”.
A question that begs your “social consensus truth” Mr Hendler, is why the South African taxpayer supports traditional leaders (read imperialists) in royal style within the South African democracy instead, that their indigenous subjects support these so-called royal families?
I do not agree with all Mr McFarlane’s views, but, following Mr Hendler’s lead, I recommend that the current South African regime and these traditional leaders study the objective body of money/bank theory, read Ellen Brown’s (the Public Banking Institute in America) latest piece, the mandates of the IMF and the World Bank, and study the Chinese/Japanese theories and practices of economic development, to come up with imaginative (and accountable) ways to create “employment for all”, productive outputs and to make democratic South Africa prosperous, successful and a leader in Africa and the world.
