Jordan's Reflections the Social Justice Coalition (SJC)

Today the SJC, the Social Justice Coalition held a mass meeting in Tiebault Square in downtown Cape Town. As our group is liable to do, we of course attended to show our support for civil society here in South Africa.

The SJC was formed less than a year ago, in June of 2008, and at least for as long as we have been here they have been one of the most active groups in getting people out and active in politics. Originally the SJC was formed to help counteract the xenophobic violence that was ravaging the country, but since then they have branched out quite a bit. They were responsible for the other main rally that people went to, the Arms Deal one a few months ago. Today's rally though was for something else though... as the t-shirt says..."We the people DEMAND, open and accountable governance"

One of the main focuses of the speakers today was on the issue of the Dalai Lama being refused a visa to visit South Africa. Dalai Lama requested a visa in order to visit in 2010 for a peace conference connected to the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

There has been a veritable outrage across the country over his being refused to participate in a peace conference. Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk have already pulled out of another conference in Joburg in protest of his not being allowed to attend.

This whole event is just one more thing in the category of embarrassments for South Africa internationally, the other main one being SA's blocking of the UN security council's efforts to put pressure on the governments of Burma and Zimbabwe to stop their human rights violations.

The problem basically, is that the government is succumbing to pressure from the Chinese government, and if they will do this... how far can things go. The Chinese government obviously has their own plethora of reasons why they want the Dalai Lama to not speak anywhere, but there is no reason why SA should be involved in their politics.

Except of course, that China has become one of South Africa's largest trading partners. (A note about trade with China, they also recently refused to resign a treaty that would require at least minimum labor standards on imported goods to SA)

The reasoning from the SA government though, did not include any of that. According to Thabo Masebe, the spokesman for the president, Kgalema Motlanthe; "We in the South African government have not invited the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa, because it would not be in the interests of South Africa," he said. "The attention of the world is on South Africa because of it being the host country for the 2010 World Cup, and we wouldn't want anything to distract from that."

This answer has not proved sufficient to the SJC or many other civil society groups, and so today, we joined several hundred South Africans in demanding the government that was promised to them less than 15 years ago that they still have yet to see.

Days like today really put the politics and issues that we deal with in the states in perspective, it would be a wonder to see what the American people could do if they were fighting for things that meant anything. I have a friend, who tonight, is attending a rally in the states for NORML, whose main goals are marijuana law reform.

Not that there is anything terribly wrong with marijuana law reform, but seriously, who could bother to think about such things when people are hungry and don't have the basic things promised to them by the government like basic sanitation and clean water. Like I said, it just gives a little bit of perspective.