About

'I am a teller of stories and therefore an optimist, a believer in the ethical bend of the human heart, a believer in the mind’s disgust with fraud and its appetite for truth, a believer in the ferocity of beauty.' - Toni Morrison

For a while now, I have wanted to do something about the inept violence that is gripping our country and targets women in particular in horrifying ways. The rape and murder of Anene Booysen especially spurred me on in this desire.

We can't go on like this. That was my instant reaction. I must do something. We must all do something. This death felt like a breaking point of some kind. And it cut especially close because I have dear nieces who are near Anene's age at the time of her death. They are entering into a world from which I cannot comprehensively protective them.

I had to attempt though. Or their blood or those of others would be on my hands. But what could I do? With no experience in activism, what could I do to stem the vicious tide?

I finally concluded that I could comfortably and effectively only do the one thing I know how. That is tell stories. Journalists, I've sometimes felt, are perhaps the most ineffective communicators. For all our output on violence, corruption, injustice, I've often felt that nobody is listening.

We seem to be writing for ourselves -- perhaps that partly explains the decline of our industry. After all, the most our work seems to accomplish is the issuing of public statements of sympathy and sometimes outrage from politicians. That's if we're lucky. Commissions of inquiry are appointed, promises are made.But how much truly changes?

And where is the public outrage about the broad decay that has seeped into our samelewing, to use the very descriptive Afrikaans word. When there is a public response, it usually dies out quickly. Or it doesn't move beyond the noisy chatter on letters pages, comment boards and, latterly, social media.

Is my suspicion correct -- are we merely writing for ourselves?

Nevertheless, I had to make an attempt. And do so in the only way I know how... telling stories.

This is what I had in mind. I want to talk about the lives we have lost. Not just about the violent headline that is so often forgotten once the horror fades and we get on with paying the bills and feeding the kids and nine-to-five and rushing to the next tweet or Facebook update.

I wanted to go beyond the dramatic sensation of the news headline. I wanted to remind people of the great loss we all suffer with each life. Maybe that would make a difference?

But I suppose that's not too different from what activists and NGOs who are far more adept and experienced in this field have done for decades -- to no or little avail. As has so often happened, my appeals for help in creating a data base of these stories fell on deaf ears.

My message is not original, but I think it's worth repeating: We all need to do something. It cannot be business as usual. Each child lost is our one of our own. We die a little with each death, especially if it goes unnoticed, unacknowledged.

As I have written before, 'Let's not orphan them, not even in death.'

It does indeed take a village.

Thankfully, others with more resources and reach have taken up the cause.

The City Press and Sunday Times have featured articles that go some way in meeting my goals -- the former newspaper in particular.

On August 11 this year City Press ran a story headlined RAPE NATION. I'm not sure if the idea is linked to Women's Month, as the Sunday Times indicated in a similar feature. I hope not.

The City Press article, encouragingly, followed a series called 'Rape in the news this week.' 'Today, we go beyond the headlines,' the blurb reads.

Here are two of the stories.

http://www.citypress.co.za/news/rape-nation-behind-the-headlines/

http://www.citypress.co.za/multimedia/graphic-rape-in-the-news-this-week/