Hope and Glory

I was watching Invictus this weekend, on Freedom day, for the first time. The movie was mediocre with bad American actors pretending to speak with a South African acsent. The thing that really got my "sad gland" going, was the memories of that 1995 rugby world cup. The way the entire nation felt and reacted. We had just had a very peaceful transitional election and had a man in power that the white minority was not sure about weather he would jail us all, or simply just justify killing any and all white people. Then the rugby World Cup came along, and Mandela showed us and the world that his one and only goal was to build a united, strong, competing South Africa. His goal filtered through to all of us. I remember how full of hope we all were. How positive we were. How we felt like we were standing on the brink of something amazing and we were about to jump into it head first. The game of rugby, and Nelson brought us as a nation together in a single goal of restoring South Africa to a world powerhouse. It was an amazing time in our country. When we won, people went out into the streets dancing, singing and embrasing everything and everybody they saw. For the first time ever we felt like a proper nation. For weeks after the world cup win we were still drunk on the feeling of unity and comradery. The movie made me sad because I remembered these feelings, and compared them to my feelings and our country today. Today we have a country where people are fighting each other more than ever before, where a government is hated by more people than ever before, and where the feeling of imortality has been replaced by a feeling of distrust, disdane and hoping for a drastic fall of government. We do not feel like we can achieve anything anymore. We do not feel like we are champions. We do not feel like the same nation who won the world cup as one nation. Our government has left us a jaded, devided, helpless nation who feel powerless to do anything. We need another Madiba.