Equality – what’s it to you? (Join the cause!)

(Not sure what Facebook is? WOW! You’re part of the 0.01% left in
the world. Head over to www.facebook.com and join the social networking
revolution that’s taking the world by storm)

Possibly the best feature of Facebook (in my book at
least) is that it allows you to very easily create and join groups and causes.
While groups are normally frivolous, often criminally inane things, like the
group “For people that use their cellphone in the dark” or the group “That wants
to prevent the shutting down of Facebook!” or the group “That loves rock music”
or the group called “Buy it naked”, groups pop up with alarming regularity as
more and more people come to grips with what this awesome social networking
application called Facebook allows them to do.

“Causes” (as can be found on Facebook.com) on the other hand are slightly more
serious kinds of groups. As their name implies, they’re aimed at rallying people
around a particular cause/aim. Because of the ease with which people are able to
start these electronic causes and the even greater ease with which people are
able to join them, causes have exploded on Facebook. There are causes to prevent
child abuse, causes to stop world hunger, causes to free Palestine and causes
aimed at stopping global warming. All are noble and worthwhile causes
indeed…some of which I have joined to show my numeric support for these
initiatives. So what if nothing comes of it? At the very least, my name will go
down in electronic cyber-history as one of the armchair revolutionaries that
gave a d@mn…enough to click a few buttons and lend my electronic support to
these initiatives.

A few months ago, Bruinou.com convened a series of
public meetings at which we decided to engage with our members and the public on
matters of critical importance to our communities and how we can put in place
measures to improve our lot. The outcome of these meetings is that a group of
highly committed individuals have banded together to tackle some very noble and
lofty targets of leveling the social playing field and creating the conditions
necessary for our communities to increase their success ratio. High up on the
agenda was the issue of media and the Coloured communities lack of adequate
access to media….

Bruinou.com has since started a “Cause” on Facebook
and we implore all of you who feel strongly about the issues raised here to
please join this cause and encourage your friends to do the same. It costs you
nothing, but it will send out a clear signal that this generation of Bruinous
DEMANDS equality and is prepared to do something about it!!

Let me start
off by saying that this cause is not a “sexy” cause. There is no iconic picture
of an emaciated child or of brutal oppression or of Hector Pietersen being
carried away from the 1976 battle fields of Soweto. In most cases, the people
most affected by this cause are hidden from public view, in large swathes of
tightly packed, squalid urban wastelands from Wentworth, to Westbury, to
Eldorado Park, to Manenberg, Mitchell’s Plain and Lavendar Hill. They cannot
tell you their story because our government has denied them access to a media
channel that is sensitive to their plight, aimed at servicing their media needs
and which speaks directly to them and their unique social needs. Welcome to the
era of media apartheid!

This cause is aimed at changing this status quo
and to bring some much needed relief through the provisioning of media to South
Africa’s forgotten and often written-off, Coloured people.

Of the South
African minorities, Coloureds comprise 8.9% of the South African
population.
Whites comprise 9.2% of the South African population.
Indians
comprise 2.5% of the South African population.

South Africa allegedly has
the most liberal constitution in the world. Be that as it may, we still have a
case of blatant discrimination against the entire Coloured community of South
Africa by the national broadcaster as the SABC to date does not have any
strategy or content aimed specifically at Coloured people and their unique
social/communal needs.
Why does every group in South Africa (except Coloured
people of course) have access to their own state funded national radio
station?

Blacks (there is a SABC radio station for every tribe and every
vernacular and language, MetroFM, Ukhozi FM, etc…)
Whites (RSG,
5FM)
Indians (Lotus FM)
Coloureds (????)

(All of these radio stations are funded using the SABC’s tax payer
money…which you and I

• By not providing Coloured South Africans with their own media channels, is
  the SABC implying that Coloured people are NOT South African enough?
• Are we to infer that Coloured people are not “worthy” or simply
  “undeserving” of their own national radio station as is so graciously doled out
  to every other social group in South Africa?
• Are we meant to deduce that Coloured South Africans are not afforded their
  own national SABC funded media because they/we are somehow not sufficiently
  socially distinct or discernible in the South African space?
• Is the SABC insinuating that the Coloured group of South Africa is
  culturally and socially deficient, hence no attempt is made to provide us with
  equal access to our own state funded media structures?
• What is the basis for this continual, brazen discrimination that keeps
  Coloured South Africans so excluded and shut-off from the mainstream, at the
  whims and mercies of insensitive media structures that do not understand our
  plight?
• Has the SABC, at it own behest, decided that Coloured South Africans simply
  do not need community specific national media?

I know that in this day and age, it is almost inconceivable to imagine that
the national broadcaster could be guilty of the most brazen and shameful
discrimination of the highest order. That 8.9% of the South African taxpaying
population is denied access to the most basic constitutional right, the right to
equality, is almost unheard of.

It’s true…for as long as the SABC
continues to deny the Coloured community of South Africa with access to its own,
audience specific, state-funded media channels, then we are all party to the
insanity. Then by our silence and our inaction, we are all guilty of depriving
our youth of a viable channel of expression that is rightfully theirs. We are
all guilty of stifling the ability of our youth to dream big dreams by failing
to provide them with a platform through which a culture of aspiration and
self-expression can be fostered and developed. In essence, we are sending the
message that in South Africa, it is STILL okay for “some groups to be more equal
than others!”

Is it any wonder that in South Africa today, the Coloured
community is the group that is the most violent, the most incarcerated and the
most vulnerable to epidemic type drug addiction?

Bruinou.com, the online
community that has taken it upon itself to get the Coloured community of South
Africa talking, interacting and out of the shadows would like to lead the charge
with any individuals/groups who feel as strongly as we do about the matters at
hand. We feel there is a prima-facie case against the SABC for constitutional
violations of the Coloured community’s rights to equality, hence we would like
to take the SABC to the Constitutional Court over this matter and demand that
the SABC, a tax funded entity, create a national radio station which targets
Coloured people.

• With our own state funded media, we would for the first time be able to
  discuss issues of importance to us on a national basis.
• We would be able to promote our own musicians, artists and performers who
  are not afforded sufficient media access on other media channels.
• We would be able to create a culture of aspiration and inclusion to turn the
  tide of Coloured apathy and non-participation…and that’s just the
  start!!!

Can we rely on you for support? Will you join us in this glorious struggle
for equality?

Click here
to join this cause on Facebook and show your support! Invite your friends to
join as well and let’s start taking charge of our collective
destinies!

Also, visit www.Bruinou.com and
register so you too can become a part of the much needed change that needs
to sweep through our communities.

Charles Ash

Bruinou.com

www.Bruinou.com

charles@Bruinou.com