CRY, THE BATTERED COUNTRY
DOWNTOWN JOHANNESBURG. A GROUP of three young men grab the white railing of a Cell C shop. They tug at it, throttling it forward and backwards. It jolts. As it slowly unhinges, more young men lurch forward, all tugging and pulling until it collapses. Within seconds, the glass window is smashed and people are climbing in to steal cell phones.
I was in high school towards the end of South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime. Alan Paton’s novel, Cry the Beloved Country, that years earlier had been banned by the government was now prescribed reading. A story of forgiveness, hope and learning, it held an undercurrent of resignation to the sad reality created by racial divisions. South Africa recently saw that reality erupt into the worst violence it has witnessed in decades.
2013 saw the release of a film titled in which lawlessness is completely legal for a 24-hour period. Looting, theft, violence, and even murder are sanctioned as authorities in the motion picture are forced to stand aside and watch the chaos occur. The disturbing images may have been curated for a Hollywood blockbuster set in
