29/10/2024
I can be a jaded hack. I walked into a packed church in Kloof for a viva Durban gig this morning, wrestling the Grinch into submission. I’d have a fortune if I had a buck for every hopeful gathering like this in our Cinderella province.
But today was different.
Maybe this movement’s time has finally arrived.
Billed as an event to change the city narrative, the lineup included city officials and business reps, including Cindy Norcott, whom I mention specifically because of her bullseye comments about life in the kingdom of kwasilience. We must change the narrative. Some do it with the flag-waving cheer. Others with revivalist zeal. As Cindy says, it can be “ridiculously annoying optimism”. But it’s more than battling on a wing and a prayer. Action is the antidote to despair. Covid, riots, floods, and bad politics have caused much suffering. But where to now?
If you are invested in KZN, double down and “mind your mind” because victimhood robs us of the action we need to change. Before Cindy handed over to city stalwart Russell Curtis and other speakers who offered solid perspectives on KZN’s growth, she quoted Barack Obama and George Bernard Shaw. Both messages were stirring.
Obama said focusing your life solely on making a buck shows poverty of ambition. Everyone, said Cindy, has something in their head, heart or hands to build our home. She cited her cheezy We Dig Hillcrest initiative, which saw 250 people come onto the verges to do a spot of weeding. That, in turn, rallied neighbours to employ two people to do the job full-time.
Galvanising goodwill doesn’t mean the government can relinquish its responsibilities.
On the contrary (says Greg), it makes us more aware of what we must do to fix things and entrench accountability. Says Cindy: You are either part of the problem or the solution.
Now for the quote from George Bernard Shaw: “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy…my life belongs to the whole community. As long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.”
There was a lot more said today than mentioned here. It is part of a broader conversation that needed to get KZN on the right track. It harnessed hope and embodied the spirit of Ukwazi Life. Good to get your thoughts.
