Steenberg's Cove vs Suburbia - A sense of "community."

Steenberg's Cove is a tiny fishing village in St Helena Bay, on the West Coast. It has no more than 2500 to 3000 inhabitants and is probably what Paternoster once was and sadly no longer is.

What is different about living here as opposed to suburbia, where we once tried to "live?"

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY.

What does that mean for us?

• As you walk down the street most people know you;
• As you walk down the street, most people greet you by name;
• When you don't come home, your neighbour will enquire as to your whereabouts;
• Someone is always watching the children as they play in the street or on the beach;
• Someone knows when you are happy or sad;
• Someone cares when you are hungry or ill;
• Someone shows affection and appreciation by dropping off something - freshly fried fish cakes, a kreef stew, a fresh snoek or simply popping in for tea;
• Someone will close your back door if you forgot to do so before you left;
• Someone will care for your dogs while you are away;
• Someone will lend you something you have run out of;
• Someone will ask you for help if he knows you can; 
• You answer each other's questions and discuss problems;
• You immediately recognize a stranger in the area;
• Children play in the street in large happy groups where the older ones look after the younger ones - houses are too small to have children play inside with friends;
• Houses are close together so you chat to your neighbour over the backdoor;
• "Problem" families are assisted by neighbours - without question and free of charge;
• Houses have no burglar bars or alarms, except maybe a dog or two;
• There is virtually no crime. If you leave your shoes or shirt on the beach, it will still be there in the morning;
• People do not "hide" their less fortunate family members from the Joneses or members of a "club;"
• People do not banish their elders to old-aged homes, but respect and care for them;
• People are immaculately clean in their humble homes and on their own persons;
• People's love and caring are not only devoted to those in the immediate family, but to all members of the community.

I feel so fortunate.

JOIN THAT TOLL FEE STRIKE!

From my armchair, I was quite amused to hear a number of people enquire as to whether COSATU is still going to strike about the toll fees in Gauteng.

The enquiries came from people who are highly unlikely to be members of any COSATU affiliated trade union. However, now that their pockets are going to be affected dramatically by the R 550 frequent users will have to pay, it appears to me they want to hide behind mighty mother COSATU'S skirts, hoping that a strike would be called (which they will clearly not join), but which, in their heart of hearts they would actually love to join, if oly to express their profound anger.

My advice, for what it's worth, to COSATU, would be to use this issue as a means of acquiring more members. Appeal to those non-unionists to join a trade union and to join the strike. Point out to them that they can NOT be fired for participating, because COSATU will ensure that the strike (or protest march) will be a legal one. Challenge them to put their money and energy where their mouths are and for once, to show Government that South Africans - across all that which divides them - are united in so far as the scrapping of toll fees are concerned.

To all those loud voices opposing the toll fees - JOIN THE STRIKE ON 7 March or stop complaining.

Township dogs

I came from suburbia and worried how my property- and leash bound dogs would adapt to a different lifestyle. My worry was based on ignorance.

Our house (and most of the homes around us) have no perimeter walls. Homes are at most five to ten meters apart. Each house probably has a dog or two - ours has four.The vast majority of dogs in this area are well cared for. In one or two isolated cases there are dogs kept on long chains, probably because they are vicious or serve to appear vicious.

Every dog has an invisible perimeter around his property and no other dog would ever dare to cross that perimeter. The little Dachsy from next door makes sure he walks all around the edge of that invisible perimeter around our house when he passes on his way to somewhere.

The beach belongs to all the dogs, but few go there without their owners. They largely remain within their (invisible) property boundary.When they do go to the beach (never on a leash) and encounter another dog, they simply sniff each other and go on their way. Not once have our dogs or any of the other local dogs had a fight. They have their own rules of engagement.

On occasion we encounter people who come to our beach with a dog on a leash. That dog then strains to meet our dogs. The owner tenses up in anticipation of a fight and the growling starts. A dog on a leash is a sure recipe for disaster in our area.

I feel so sorry for dogs from suburbia - locked up behind high walls and fences, confined to yards where they encounter the same smells day in and and day out - year in and year out. Of course it is necessary given suburban constraints.

In townships, dogs are not stressed. It is the exception that an incident, such as made headlines last year, happens. I am convinced that something attracted those dogs onto that property. There are very many children in our village who play in the streets and on the beach all day. They aren't afraid of dogs and the dogs never harm them.

You might say that one potential incident would be one too many. I say that I bet there are more dog biting incidents in suburbia with dogs confined to their yards and leashes, than in townships such as ours.

Our border collie trying to herd seals!

The two bouviers enjoying the beach and sea

I accept the generations' old wisdom of our community which dictates that dogs roam free and without constraints. It works here and has done for the two years I have lived here as well as over the hundreds of years our villagers' ancestors have lived here before us.

Second phase of reconciliation needed.

There is in reality probably only a "them" and "us" for very few South African families.

Fact is, that before apartheid and racial classification by law, large numbers of mixed communities and mixed unions existed.

When the classification commenced, many people had to be reclassified and separated from brother and sister. As time passed, family bonds were, in some cases, purposely severed and forgotten. Many of us must therefore have family members that we never knew existed. Many of us might still have an old aunt or uncle, or cousin that we have never met.

It is time that a second phase of reconciliation commences in this country - a phase where we demonstrate that we really have overcome racism instead of simply our mere "say-so."

It should start in our own backyards with research into our roots - roots about which many grandparents and parents were deadly silent during our growing up years. Research can yield surprising results.

Then we should have the moral fibre and the guts to reunite with those deprived of our love and kinship due to the horror of racial classification in the apartheid era.

Helen's Botox!

I need Botox badly! I earn enough to pay the R 2 000 it would cost to fix my frown line between my eyes, but probably not enough to do my whole forehead which costs R 30 000 or thereabouts, I am told. However, I simply would not and could not do it. My conscience would not allow it.

Helen clearly has enough money of her own to afford all the widely publicized beauty treatments she enjoys. I have no problem with someone spending hard earned money however they wish, BUT if you are a public figure who seeks to portray an image of profound caring about child-headed households, the plight of the unemployed and the economically disadvantaged and you ensure that you are seen and photographed in situations reflecting that very deep concern, I fail to see how you can go to sleep having planned to spend however many thousands on a beauty treatment, whilst a few kilometers away someone is starving due to no fault of their own.

It is easy to wake up and run off to the beautician when you don't have to open your curtains and see a starving child trudge off to school. It is easy to spend thousands on luxuries when you don't have a neighbour who can't earn his living for the day because his fingers have been cut to the bone by fishing gut and you were asked to bandage the wounds.

But you'll feel much prettier when you look in the mirror knowing that you spent that R 2000 on your fellow man in need, rather than on ironing out a wrinkle or two.

Many will say that Helen is a public figure and must keep up appearances. She probably does contribute to the plight of many financially - I don't know. But, the price of the Botox session of today could have been better spent than on such a publicized self-indulgent splurge.

I think a wrinkle or two off set by a track record of selfless personal sacrifice will win many more votes.

Helen, I always thought that you put your money where your mouth is - now I know that you do.