South Africa's National Past Time... be proud of it

Every country has a national past time. An activity that symbolises the country when you look at it.

The USA pioneered the thought of a national past time with the establishment of Baseball. It is said that there is a game of baseball played somewhere in the USA every day of the year. And it considered UN-AMERICAN to not like the sport.

Even though the USA isn’t the current baseball world champions, a title belonging to Japan, everyone automatically associates the sport with the USA.

In the Far East its martial arts. And each country has a specific martial art that is indicative of the country. In China the national past time is Kung Fu, pioneered by the great Bruce Lee, in Korea it is Taekwondo, and in Japan its Aikido, Judo, Sumo, and Kendo. Children as young as four years old are enrolled in martial arts schools as the martial arts is seen as an extension of a deep religious and family value system.

So just a word of advise……. Don’t go the Far East to start some shit. You’ll get beat the hell up by some wiry Oriental that has the capacity to kill you with an index finger. In the Far East the saying: ‘ its not the size of the dog in the fight, rather the size of the fight in the dog that counts’ rings true.

What would South Africa’s national past time be?

There are a few candidates for the position. The obvious three are soccer, rugby, and swearing at taxi drivers on the road.

But none of these come close to striking, or as my African brothers put it: TOI TOI’ing.

TOI TOI’ing started in the apartheid years when the laws of the country forbid more then five persons of colour to congregate in the same place at any one time. Towards the end of the era, when the walls of the apartheid government were really falling down, scenes of mass protest were organised just to piss off the government.

You’d think that 15 years into democracy things would change. LIKE HELL IT WOULD CHANGE. The old adage that ‘a leopard never changes its spots’ is an old adage for a reason.

In the past two years there has been TOI TOI’ing once a month. And the TOI TOI’ers will TOI TOI for anything.

Lets take this year as an example. In May, Metro Bus workers were pissed off about the salary structure for senior drivers in the organisation….. they TOI TOI’ed for 5 weeks. Just after the Metro bus workers went back to work, in June, … the taxi drivers were not going to be outdone by their ‘comrades’ so they TOI TOI’ed about the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit system being implemented by government. Just after the taxi drivers went back to work. Later in June, teachers in Soweto were pissed off about some shit and they TOI TOI’ed, a week after that, actors, producers, and screen writers TOI TOI’ed outside the SABC calling for the sacking of the entire board. Even Riaan Cruywagen was seen shouting insults at the company he has worked for since Moses parted the Red Sea. At the end of June, doctors in KwaZulu-Natal were not happy about their wage structure so they TOI TOI’ed leaving patients in the hospitals stranded and in the shit. This was quite a big one as doctors around the country went on strike in solidarity with the KZN doctors.

It is now July, the doctors have just returned to work, and the national union of metal workers are planning to down tools at all 2010 World Cup Stadiums to TOI TOI at SAFA’s offices at Soccer City.

Now you would think…. Come on are we not blowing this whole TOI TOI thing out of proportion? Bare in mind….. The strike action by the Taxi Drivers over the BRT system has been going on and off for over a year….the strike action by the doctors over wages has been going on and off for a year.

And then there is WITS. During the apartheid regime the University of the Witwatersrand was a cesspool of student dissension towards the apartheid government. Every year GUARENTREED there was TOI TOI’ing at Wits. As with the rest of the country, because the crowd is fickle, nothing has changed in 15 years. You can bet your mortgage on the fact that at least once a year, every year, there will be some shit at Wits.

And South Africa must be the only place in the world where there are professional strikers. People who will go to a strike, jump up and down, shout protest slogans, do a bit of a dance, and not know what the hell he/she is doing there.

Just as it is UN-AMERICAN to not like baseball, or UN-ASIAN to not participate in some form of martial art. It is surely UN-SOUTH AFRICAN to not TOI TOI.