Under the baobab: We’re stronger together, locally and globally

The Penn State Board of Trustees voted 25 to 8 to close seven commonwealth campuses, all of which have had declining enrollments over the last 10 years. Their decision will have an adverse effect on many communities. Some of our sisters and brothers will be hurting.

We need to support them through this time of troubled transitions. We are stronger together.

Congratulations to the Penn State men’s lacrosse team, who came from a five-goal deficit to defeat Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. And the PSU baseball team is off to the B1G semifinals.

John Simpkins directed four alumni from the School of Theatre in “New Night on Broadway.” Rachel Fairbanks, Amina Faye, Dan Teixeira and Aidan Wharton all recently appeared on Broadway or touring company shows.

The Climate Solutions Symposium attracted 450 people to discuss imagining, innovating and implementing together at Innovation Park. Meanwhile, Ray Bilger, a retired senior national security officer, gave the final ACLU lecture on civil liberties and democracy.

Around the globe

Several dozen white Afrikaners immigrated to the United States to ask for political asylum because of “white genocide” in South Africa. This is a sham at best and a fraud at its worst. White farmers are not being systematically killed in South Africa. The government is not executing a policy of genocide against white people.

There is a crime epidemic in South Africa, which most authorities agree results from income inequality rooted in years of apartheid and racial discrimination. There are far more Black farmers being killed than white. Another legacy of apartheid is that more fertile land is owned by whites, who are a minority, than by the majority Blacks. There is no forced taking of anybody’s land. The government has been trying to eradicate crime in general and murder in particular among all peoples.

I first visited South Africa in 1978 as an observer. Afrikaner-controlled apartheid was the law of the land. There was an antiapartheid struggle led by the ANC. I interviewed hundreds of people on both sides. People seemed convinced that apartheid would only end through armed struggle. People’s opinions differed as to who would win, but all were convinced there was going to be a war.

Then there was a miracle. South Africans, white and Black, ANC and Afrikaners, worked out a path to a peaceful transition. Nelson Mandela was released from prison. In 1994 he became the first democratically elected president of South Africa. A multiracial and politically broad-based government came to power, which included former enemies working together under a progressive and inclusive constitution.

In 2002 I returned to South Africa as a Fulbright Fellow at Stellenbosch University in Western Cape Province. In 2011 I returned again to teach for three years at the University of the Free State (UFS) under Prof Jonathan Jansen, one of the more enlightened educators on the continent. Stellenbosch and UFS had been the two leading Afrikaner universities in the country. The majority of students and faculty at both universities were white Afrikaners. There was tension but the overwhelming majority of all the people worked hard to work together.

Last week President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa came to the White House to discuss business relations between our two countries. Instead he was ambushed at a meeting with President Trump, who surprised him with a video, which he claimed proved that white genocide was taking place.

It didn’t. It was based on propaganda speeches stitched together by radical opposition opponents. Ramaphosa’s negotiating team reflected the rainbow nature of present South African society, Blacks, whites, men and women. The SA Minister of Agriculture John Henry Steenhuisen, a white Afrikaner, challenged the false media presentations. Trump’s team also reflected the present reality of his political cohort, all white men.

We are stronger together.