Anti-xenophobic vigil in Cape Town

Quote of the week

[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.

Hannah Arendt
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil

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22 May 2008

I don’t really place adverts on this Blog but this strikes me as very important and encouraging. There will be a protest vigil (organised by pro-poor organisations) against xenophobic violence outside Parliament, Plein Street corner of Roeland Street on Friday 23 May 2008 from 5pm to 6pm. An email states:

We need to make the biggest statement that we can. We need to get the message out that we are against xenophobic violence. Please bring your partner, child, work-mate, friend, whomever you can think of bringing along. We need to lift the atmosphere of fear! We need to persuade ourselves that poor turning against poor is not the answer. The poor need to be united to collectively solve their problems.

Please print out this e-mail and make posters to place up where you work, learn or live for the benefit of those without e-mail. Place this advert on or in any forums you are aware of.

AbaForeigners AbaRefugees Sawubona iSouth Africa ! Foreigners and Refugees are Welcome in South Africa!

Called by Cape Town Action Forum Affiliates: – COSATU, SA Municipal Workers Union, National Mineworkers SA, Walmer Estate Civic, Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign, Right to Food Campaign, Keep Left, APDUSA and others

If I was not traveling outside South Africa (where I will be enjoying the hospitality of foreign governments and their people), I would have attended.

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