Trickle-down economics and scoring political own goals

The established Chinese writer Yu Hua gained acclaim with his 2011 book China in Ten Words. His 10 words translate as People, Leader, Reading, Writing, (Lu) Xun, Revolution, Disparity, Grassroots, Copycat and Bamboozle.

Each word serves as the title for a chapter in which Hua teases out the realities, harshness and subtleties of life in China. He explains that “it is when the suffering of others becomes part of my experience that I truly know what it is to live and what it is to write”.

So here’s a thought. What 10 words best describe our South Africa? I have come up with various lists.

For fun, I asked my dinnertime family and friends to do the same. The results are varied, show some overlaps, and all are strongly conditioned by mood.

I shall not make false claims to shared pain, but shall do my best to connect the dots.

In no special order, my words are Korruptsiya, Sport, Power, Trickle-down, Security, Literacy, Voice, Mandela, Creativity and People. My task is now to write 10 Opinionistas, each under one of these headings.

The Budget’s in the air, so trickle-down is as good a place to start as any. The finance minister’s speech was delivered in the Cape Town City Hall. Who can forget that it was from the Cape Town City Hall balcony that Nelson Mandela addressed the nation upon his release from prison?

Then, in January 1992, Mandela attended the World Economic Forum where he met Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping, who reputedly advised him to work with, not against, South Africa’s private sector.

Mandela subsequently toned down talk of the nationalisation of banks, mines and major companies.

Neoliberalism was a fact on the ground that continued under the Government of National Unity, and then the ANC regime through the Mbeki years and into the present.

Its clearest statement was the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy. And the economy grew, and it was seen to be good, as the rising tide of the commodities supercycle raised all ships.

But the spoils became unevenly distributed, the Tripartite Alliance began to fray and philosopher-king Mbeki lost the plot, figuratively and literally, and was evicted.

The first democratic elections replaced colonialism of a special type (government/labour = apartheid) with State Capture of a special type (government/labour = corporatism).

Sweat trickles down the backs of blue-collar workers, and those working in the fields of agribusiness, on smallholdings or in gardens scattered across the peripheries of tribal lands.

Electricity blackouts occur because of the trickle-out of skills and the trickle-up of procurement costs. Polluted water occurs through the trickle-in of raw sewage that results from the trickle of inadequate maintenance.

Trickle-down ensures that substandard education persists in the lower grades. Tears of frustration trickle down in abundance. Gravy trickles down for others.

Strange word this, trickle. Bafana Bafana trickled many a ball past the opposing goalkeepers during the Afcon tournament. What an achievement. A capable team at work. We, on the other hand, have scored numerous political own goals.

Now to trickle forward to the capable state.