Public holidays lack clout for change

IT IS so sad to continue celebrating once great events like Freedom Day, Women’s Day, the Rivonia Trial, etc.

All of these have become wishywashy events and are totally out of sync with present realities. Martyrs of yesterday have become jokes of today. Remembrance of, for instance, the dark days of Nelson Mandela and hundreds of other freedom fighters languishing far from friends and family on distant isolated islands hardly helps a youth today to obtain simple employment.

Meditating about the horrors of the frightening Rivonia Trial does not assist in obtaining a roof over one’s head or an education.

Women associations can organise parties until the wee hours on Women’s Day, but wake up the next morning to the gruesome reality of continued abuse, discrimination and being sidelined in the workplace. This “celebration” concept also fails at other places on the globe. There is Martin Luther King Jr Day, Independence Day and Memorial Day in the US.

All have become meaningless in light of continual racial discrimination, the lack of freedom of movement, the ongoing warmongering and unemployment. Independence Day and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, as important days on the sub-continent’s calendar, have also been dragged into the mud as the caste system reigns supreme and gross discrimination and persecution of minority groups gain greater momentum.

Yes, that word “celebration” needs to be recalibrated!