I felt that the debate inspired by my earlier appearance on 2OceansVibe was very helpful. It encouraged discussion and it supported some of the points I was trying to make. There is clearly a lot of emotion with the issue and I think this may have clouded people’s judgment. I am loath to explain myself as it seems as if I am caving in, but I feel some clarification would be helpful. I condemn littering in the strongest possible sense. But I do not agree with the method employed by Rocking the Daisies and their litter police. I can see that many arguments are headed in the way of saying that we were deserving of our treatment. It is telling that Rocking the Daisies has not denied threatening us, but is focusing on besmirching me and ‘my’ campsite. As I have said, when humans are allowed to do what they want in the name of a certain ideal we go down a dark and dangerous road. I arrived at the festival at 9am on Saturday and had not even unpacked when a pack of screaming litter police arrived and threatened our group. I do not litter, and as I had promised, in the early hours of Sunday morning I picked up cans and disgusting wet wipes and general filth. If there is any evidence of me as an individual littering other than anecdotal tales of how messy ‘my’ campsite, which housed about 100 people was, please share them. I will gladly take the admonishment. I left early Sunday morning and feel that our site was clean, but if there was a mess after I apologise. Also, without wanting to shirk responsibility, it was hard to be responsible for a massive group of people, many of whom I did not know. I was hesitant to make a status about the litter police because I knew that it was most likely that I would be labeled a litterer myself. But I did it because that was what I felt and I will not be bullied. Discussions on matters such as these are difficult because it is so easy to discredit complainants and people become scared to voice their opinions. I know that a lot of people were pissed off with the way they were spoken to. I am used to being attacked personally for my views, so the comments against me concern me in no way, but I am surprised that a brand such as Rocking the Daisies would so aggressively attack and ‘shame’ me on their social media when I was trying to give feedback, especially when the festival does pose some serious problems. Here are some points which I think are worth considering: 1. The ecological damage of having 20 000 people and their cars on a farm in a rural area is devastating. I find it inconsistent that people who purport to care so much for the environment that they would threaten festival-goers would be able to overlook this, and it leads me to believe that the whole litter thing was just a PR exercise and a way for a few to feel a sense of power. 2. Littering is reprehensible, but one has to take a realistic view and realise that there will be litter after a festival. To make it clear, I condemn littering, but looking at the mess as I left it was clear that people still do it. It is strange that Rocking the Daisies does not employ members of the community to clean up, thus enriching the areas around the festival. When I asked the group why cleaners were not employed the response was that ‘THEY steal everything.’ So thus we have 20 000 people, predominantly white, spending more money in two days than most South African households earn in a month, and nobody except for the promoters and few vendors and artists profit. In a country with one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world an act like this is an absolute slap in the face to the millions of our compatriots living in squalor. Every other festival in South Africa at least tries to give back to their community and provide work. It is easy to tune people for their plastic bottles because it is fashionable and gets you likes but it’s not so lekker to dwell on how major an issue inequality in South Africa is and how little the wealthy elite do to engage with the poor. 3. I saw complaints on the RTD Facebook and many of them were responded to in a very caustic manner. However, when complaints were made about the security guards the response was ‘let us get on this immediately.’ But God forbid we pose a complaint against the organisers or the wealthy litter police. All in all, the feedback on Facebook has shown very little thought and displays the glee with which people use social media to morally undermine others and derive a false sense of piety which is inconsistent with many of the decisions they make in their day-to-day lives. And even if people did litter, I will never condone threats, especially in a country so riddled with anger and violence as ours. A constant theme of my posts has entailed engagement and discussion with people who aggrieve you rather than emotional madness. Rocking the Daisies has failed to do this, both when their police shouted at us and today through their social media. You can attack me as a person all you want but my points will stand. I’m going to the gym now and will not be responding to comments. x
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:21:13 +0000
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