Die vinger en die boesem.

In die onderstaande artikel, wat Joekie my stuur, en wat gaan oor die rooftogte van mense in Engeland vroeër die week, wys Peter Orborne van die Daily Telegraph op 'n ander, kant van die rooftogte in Engeland wat tot soveel skade en selfs lewensverlies gelei het. 

Hy dink die Parlementslede wat in die spesiale Parlementsitting van Donderdag die diewe en stropers van die onluste in Engeland as moreel bankrot uitgetrap het, moenie te maklik vinger wys nie.  Hy noem 'n lang lys van voorbeelde wat toon hoe Parlementslede en die bevoorregte groepe van Engeland op 'n ander vlak met goeie reg as rowers en diewe beskryf sou kon word. 

Hier onder is die artikel. Dit lees vloeiend, duidelik en wys tereg op die gierigheid en kriminaliteit in die Wes-Europese eerste wêreld.

Dit is, trouens, dalk 'n goeie tyd vir introspeksie. Ook by ons tuis is daar dieselfde kwessies. Die media is vol berigte van feitlik onstuitbare korrupsie, wetteloosheid en ongebreidelde self-verryking. Ons praat dikwels van "hulle" - die korruptes in regeringsdepartemente wat miljarde rande se bedrog pleeg in samewerking met korrupte samesweerders in die sake-sektor.

Maar ook oor ons situasie moet ons nie te vinnig vinger wys nie.

Goeie Afrikaanse besigheidsmense bedrieg pensioenarisse uit hul swaar verdiende aftreegeld. Afrikaanse veeartse kry miljoene rande om renosterhorings te stroop. Afrikaanse mense verskyn voor die howe as aanstigters van grootskaalse perlemoenstropery. Afrikaanse parlementslede eis derduisende rande vir binnelandse reise op 'n onverantwoordelike manier en kom skotvry daarvan af. 

Dit is die groot kriminele wat miljarde rande se bedrog pleeg.

In die Bergrede is 'n goue reël van Spiritualiteit weergegee: ook die klein dade, die begeerlike blik, die enkele skelwoord en die daad van vergelding kan vernietigend wees. In die profetiese rede van Christus waarin mense opgeroep word om hul lewens te ondersoek, word gewaarsku dat die mens wat die eenvoudige dinge nalaat - soos om 'n kombers aan die armes te gee, 'n ete vir die hongeriges te voorsien en 'n bemoedigende besoek aan hulle wat oortree het, te bring - ook 'n vernietigende lewe lei en daaroor in veroordeling staan. 

Dit is waaroor die geestelike lewe gaan: getrouheid tot op die jota en titel van die wet, van geregtigheid.

'n Mens kan 'n magdom van voorbeeld opnoem van die gees van wetteloosheid wat los is onder goeie, ordentlike mense in Afrikaanse gemeenskappe: 

Ek loop gereeld deur ons dorp se strate waarin blink motors van goeie, welaf Afrikaner-mense op rooi strepe stil hou en parkeer sonder om vir 'n oomblik daaraan te dink dat hulle, net omdat hulle te lui is om 'n entjie te stap, ander mense se lewens in gevaar stel nie. 

Ek hoor van 'n boetebessie onlangs dat 'n kerk die verkeersdepartement onder druk plaas om nie verkeerskaartjies uit te skryf vir mense wat by hulle gebou onwettig op lewensgevaarlike plekke parkeer nie. Onskuldig redeneer hulle: Waar moet ons mense dan nou vir daardie uurtjie met kerkdienste parkeer? En dit terwyl daar 'n blok weg 'n reuse openbare parkeerterrein is. In die  plek waar mense geestelike verantwoordelikheidsin moet aanleer, word die waardes van 'n samelewing ondermyn.

Ek sien hoe op die oog af respektabele mense uit ons eie gemeenskap hulle motors bestuur terwyl hulle op hul selfoon praat al is dit onwettig. 'n Mens merk hoe hulle voetganger-oorgange ignoreer, nie geld in parkeermeters ingooi nie en roekeloos oor dubbelstrepe in die pad ry. 

In ons straat, vertel 'n inwoner, 'n trotse kerkganger, my, het hy skelm die water van sy woonplek by die munisipale meter omgelei en betaal hy niks vir watergebruik nie.  

Oor die televisie sien 'n mens hoe kinders met onwettige stimulante, dikwels deur hul ouers betaal, gevoer word sodat hulle op sportgebied kan presteer. 

Studente vertel my hoe goed is hulle om al die nuutste flieks skelm van die internet aflaai sonder om 'n sent te betaal.

In die koerante sien 'n mens hoe Afrikaanse kunstenaars vergeefs vir goeie, ordentlike lesers van hul boeke en luisteraars na hul musiek vra om nie onwettig kopieë van hul werk te maak nie en om te help keer dat die vermaaklikheidswêreld nie groot verliese ly nie. 

Op die internet en in kerklike tydskrifte kry 'n mens kommentaar, in goeie Afrikaans, op berigte van goeie Afrikaanse mense wat jou verbysterd laat oor die nydigheid daarvan.

So, ontdek ons, lyk ons samelewing en die kerk wanneer ons vir 'n slag deeglik die hand in eie boesem steek. 

Nie net in Engeland nie, maar in vele ander plekke word daar lustig gestroop. 

Tydens een van die onderhoude met die seuns wat goed in London gesteel het, het hy, in straat-Engels, vertel hoe skelm die rykes is. En as hulle daarmee kan wegkom, waarom sou hy dan nie ook sy deel vir hom toeëien nie, vra hy.

Daar is nie net "arm" mense wat steel omdat hulle ook graag luukses wil besit nie. Daar is bloot net mense wat in 'n vervalle samelewing om elke hoek en draai elke moontlike gebod ignoreer en oortree. Soos 'n kommentator opmerk: die jong dief wat 'n televisie van R7000 wegdra het nie juis 'n goeie voorbeeld gehad in die ryk belegger wat R7 miljard verduister het nie. Trouens, 'n mens kan allerhande vrae begin vra oor wie die egte gevaarlike diewe is. 

Dit was van alle tye so. 

Vandaar die tien gebooie en die Bergrede, gegee, glo ons, as God se wil vir mense.  En wie aan God behoort, doen graag God se wil.

In hierdie tye pas dit 'n mens in ons land en gemeenskap om maar die hand in eie boesem in te steek.  Dit is tollenaarstyd.  Tyd om te vra hoe 'n mens die smal en reguit pad kan stap, 'n rolmodel kan wees, hoe 'n men ons samelewing kan lei met 'n regte lewe.

Dit is tyd vir geestelike leiers om oor 'n lewe waardig aan ons geloof, te preek.

Nou kan iemand maklik sê dat 'n mens ook tog nie alles moet moraliseer nie. En moet tog nie van 'n mier 'n olifant maak nie. 

Maar as 'n mens wil sien hoe miere olifante word, moet 'n mens gaan kyk wat gebeur in sulke Bybelboeke soos Titus, 1 en 2 Timoteus. Dit is boeke waarin van gelowiges in Kreta en Efese gevra word om op 'n baie eenvoudige en klein vlak hul lewens in orde te kry. 

Dit is hierdie boeke wat ons 'n slag beter moet lees - en meer moet preek. Trouens, as 'n mens voorbeelde van geleefde geloof, van spiritualiteit wil sien, is hierdie drie boeke uitstekend. 

Dit is een van die kenmerke van die mistiek dat 'n mens se geloof onkreukbaar moet wees. As God 'n mens se lewe in liefde aangeraak het, is 'n mens tot in die kleinste detail van jou lewe getrou aan wat God van 'n mens vra. 


Hier volg die berig uit die Daily Telegraph:

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came together yesterday to denounce the rioters. They were of course right to say that the actions of these looters, arsonists and muggers were abhorrent and criminal, and that the police should be given more support.


But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week’s dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.


I cannot accept that this is the case. Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed has grown up.


It is not just the feral youth of Tottenham who have forgotten they have duties as well as rights. So have the feral rich of Chelsea and Kensington. A few years ago, my wife and I went to a dinner party in a large house in west London. A security guard prowled along the street outside, and there was much talk of the “north-south divide”, which I took literally for a while until I realised that my hosts were facetiously referring to the difference between those who lived north and south of Kensington High Street.


Most of the people in this very expensive street were every bit as deracinated and cut off from the rest of Britain as the young, unemployed men and women who have caused such terrible damage over the last few days. For them, the repellent Financial Times magazine How to Spend It is a bible. I’d guess that few of them bother to pay British tax if they can avoid it, and that fewer still feel the sense of obligation to society that only a few decades ago came naturally to the wealthy and better off.


Yet we celebrate people who live empty lives like this. A few weeks ago, I noticed an item in a newspaper saying that the business tycoon Sir Richard Branson was thinking of moving his headquarters to Switzerland. This move was represented as a potential blow to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, because it meant less tax revenue.


I couldn’t help thinking that in a sane and decent world such a move would be a blow to Sir Richard, not the Chancellor. People would note that a prominent and wealthy businessman was avoiding British tax and think less of him. Instead, he has a knighthood and is widely feted. The same is true of the brilliant retailer Sir Philip Green. Sir Philip’s businesses could never survive but for Britain’s famous social and political stability, our transport system to shift his goods and our schools to educate his workers.


Yet Sir Philip, who a few years ago sent an extraordinary £1 billion dividend offshore, seems to have little intention of paying for much of this. Why does nobody get angry or hold him culpable? I know that he employs expensive tax lawyers and that everything he does is legal, but he surely faces ethical and moral questions just as much as does a young thug who breaks into one of Sir Philip’s shops and steals from it?


Our politicians – standing sanctimoniously on their hind legs in the Commons yesterday – are just as bad. They have shown themselves prepared to ignore common decency and, in some cases, to break the law. David Cameron is happy to have some of the worst offenders in his Cabinet. Take the example of Francis Maude, who is charged with tackling public sector waste – which trade unions say is a euphemism for waging war on low‑paid workers. Yet Mr Maude made tens of thousands of pounds by breaching the spirit, though not the law, surrounding MPs’ allowances.


A great deal has been made over the past few days of the greed of the rioters for consumer goods, not least by Rotherham MP Denis MacShane who accurately remarked, “What the looters wanted was for a few minutes to enter the world of Sloane Street consumption.” This from a man who notoriously claimed £5,900 for eight laptops. Of course, as an MP he obtained these laptops legally through his expenses.


Yesterday, the veteran Labour MP Gerald Kaufman asked the Prime Minister to consider how these rioters can be “reclaimed” by society. Yes, this is indeed the same Gerald Kaufman who submitted a claim for three months’ expenses totalling £14,301.60, which included £8,865 for a Bang & Olufsen television.


Or take the Salford MP Hazel Blears, who has been loudly calling for draconian action against the looters. I find it very hard to make any kind of ethical distinction between Blears’s expense cheating and tax avoidance, and the straight robbery carried out by the looters.


The Prime Minister showed no sign that he understood that something stank about yesterday’s Commons debate. He spoke of morality, but only as something which applies to the very poor: “We will restore a stronger sense of morality and responsibility – in every town, in every street and in every estate.” He appeared not to grasp that this should apply to the rich and powerful as well.


The tragic truth is that Mr Cameron is himself guilty of failing this test. It is scarcely six weeks since he jauntily turned up at the News International summer party, even though the media group was at the time subject to not one but two police investigations. Even more notoriously, he awarded a senior Downing Street job to the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, even though he knew at the time that Coulson had resigned after criminal acts were committed under his editorship. The Prime Minister excused his wretched judgment by proclaiming that “everybody deserves a second chance”. It was very telling yesterday that he did not talk of second chances as he pledged exemplary punishment for the rioters and looters.


These double standards from Downing Street are symptomatic of widespread double standards at the very top of our society. It should be stressed that most people (including, I know, Telegraph readers) continue to believe in honesty, decency, hard work, and putting back into society at least as much as they take out.


But there are those who do not. Certainly, the so-called feral youth seem oblivious to decency and morality. But so are the venal rich and powerful – too many of our bankers, footballers, wealthy businessmen and politicians.


Of course, most of them are smart and wealthy enough to make sure that they obey the law. That cannot be said of the sad young men and women, without hope or aspiration, who have caused such mayhem and chaos over the past few days. But the rioters have this defence: they are just following the example set by senior and respected figures in society. Let’s bear in mind that many of the youths in our inner cities have never been trained in decent values. All they have ever known is barbarism. Our politicians and bankers, in sharp contrast, tend to have been to good schools and universities and to have been given every opportunity in life.


Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.


The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation.