Brett Goldin murdered

I'm feeling really low about Brett Goldin's murder. He grew up with my girlfriend S and her brothers. She's gutted. It's just so damned senseless. Five guys have been arrested for the killings (Brett and a buddy of his, Richard Bloom, were both killed).

I dunno. My emotions tell me that this country is really screwed. My head tells me that all countries are pretty much the same.

But I reckon South Africa has a long apartheid-legacy to undo. My understanding is that apartheid was a system that systematised the cheapening of human life. Black South Africans were educated to be underlings. And they were forced to obey the rules. Under apartheid, it was a good thing, the correct-rebellious-thing-to-do was to disobey the law. And when revolution was happening, life was cheap. People were killed.

So now we sit in a society that still remembers lawlessness and death as things that helped liberate.

What are we going to do? How do we shift these things? How do we re-value life in a society gone mad? How do we re-value life in a world gone mad?

Brett was an actor. From what I understand, he was one of South Africa's rising stars. He was making a goddamn difference in the work he was doing.

What work can I do? What work can YOU do? Something has to change. Things can't go on like this.