Not everything is a process towards getting things better, building on
the best of the past, etc. In this society apartheid wasn't a
transitional stage from which we learnt something better. The
learning took place in the clear-headed recognition that it was an
appalling "mistake", a total dead-end, and that many people were
trapped in it and needed to get free from it, not develop from it. The
energy that is currently becoming available in the society arises from
a full rejection of the previous system; it is trapped where there is an
attempt, usually unconsciously, to hold onto some of the old ways of
thinking and acting.
On this issue we are talking not about development (which should
mean something quite different), but about sharp, disruptive and
unmistakable change.
***********************************************
Crispin Hemson
Centre for Adult Education, University of Natal,
King George V Ave, Durban, 4001 South Africa
Phone: (31) 260-2010 Fax: (31) 260-1168
e-mail: hemson@mtb.und.ac.za
***********************************************