There's a General in our dream.

It's kind of weird when an old Apartheid General out of our grim South African past, appears in our dream. One obviously wonders- where did this come from? Perhaps it shouldn't surprise us when this happens. Afterall, part of our negotiated settlement or better, negotiated 'reconciliation' was the amnesty granted to the perpetrators of the atrocities during the period of Apartheid.This model was critical in breaking the cycle of retribution or worse, revenge. We dreamt of a new South Africa, where we could discover each other and our common future.

The consequence of the settlement was however the reality that these people still lives amongst us. The old and the new living side by side. Most of us would ignore, forget, blur these realities. And then, in a moment of weakness the old order shows its face and we are again taken back to the bad old days and the bad old ways. 

Perhaps this awakening, glimpses of the old order, is helpful. It might help us to shed our illusions and romanticism about today. It might sharpen our resolve to continue to build on a daily basis, the new society that we all dream of. It might help to remind us of who we are not and what we don't want to become. We have a choice to re-affirm our dreams of what and who we can be.

But then, if not, then the ghosts of the past will continue to haunt us and pull us back into kind of living, that we know, has no future. I choose for a kind of living that has a future, and that future is certainly not in the hands of a general.