The speech I gave in 2001 called “I pledge allegiance” is doing the rounds on email and the internet again. Unfortunately the original version has been hijacked along the way, so I thought I should post the “official” version here:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Many years ago I was an exchange student in the USA, and every morning in my school, as in all schools across America, all classes came to a halt as the Pledge of Allegiance came over the loudspeaker system and every student stood to repeat these words. I was quite amazed by this display of daily brainwashing in the so-called “land of the free”. But in hindsight it isn’t actually that amazing, because we’ve all experienced how Americans are just so proud to be American. No matter how big their problems, and heaven knows they’ve got a lot of them, Americans will still spend hours telling you how fantastic their country is, and in fact how it is better than pretty much anywhere else in the world.What a contrast then, when I later spent a few years in London, and I ended up actively avoiding other South Africans. Why? Because frankly their negativity about our homeland irritated me so much. These people, who will gladly put new South African flags on their cars and support a whole cottage industry importing biltong and NikNaks to munch on as they cheer on the Springboks at Twickenham, will spend hours telling anyone who will listen just how awful it is in South Africa, how lucky they are to be in London, and how they are never going back because it’s in such a mess. At the time I put it down to the fact that they were justifying why they were holed up in their dingy little flats under grey London skies while their friends and family enjoyed the sunshine on Camps Bay beach.
However, when I came home, expecting to be greeted by the smiles of new South Africans everywhere, I was very disappointed to find that exactly the same attitude is pervasive right here. The number of people who asked me why I came back here, and why on earth I had brought my French wife with me, simply amazed me. I would have thought the answer was perfectly obvious. I was later very disturbed, although not surprised, to hear that our president found it necessary to make a point to South African businessmen that they should stop running down their own country on overseas business trips. Can anyone tell me what it is that makes sense about running down your own home to foreign people that you would like to visit here and invest here?
>> Guy Lundy <<
