Is it the return of the unacceptable face?
-Htet Pyo Wai and Shari Ann Pan-oy
“It’s the Marikana incident that bringing back the unpleasant criticism.”
Simon Scott who was appointed as the temporary chief executive of Lonmin Company (former Lonrho) a week after the Marikana incident was welcomed by the violence and tensions that the company is facing. Would he be able to erase the company’s criticism “the unacceptable face”?
“The unpleasant and unacceptable face of the Capitalism” was a criticism by the British Minister Edward Heath to the head of Lonrho Company in the 1970s. Lonrho was founded in 1909 as the London and Rhodesian Land and mining company limited and in 1963 Tiny Rowland was recruited as the chief of the company. He seemed to be visionary and looked only for his profits but under his control, the company expanded within Africa, from a mining company to the multi-million pound international cooperation. His position became a case of the High court to be criticized by the politicians including the Prime Minister but no further actions were taken to Mr. Rowland until he was expelled in 1992. Yet, because of his contributions to South Africa in terms of economics and political sectors, he was highly valued by the African leaders including Nelson Mandela.
The Term Paper on Criticism Philosophy
Not too many people can listen none defensively, or none antagonistically, to criticism. And very few of those who listen admit it when they see that they are wrong. The thing is, we think that admission of guilt, or of being wrong, or that we have made a mistake, is a sign of weakness. Yet true failure is repeatedly refusing to see your faults. Learning to listen to criticism is a life skill that ...
And Rowland’s response to the Prime Minister’s words was “I don’t want to be an ACCEPTABLE FACE of the capitalism”.
The Marikana incident is bringing back the past stories of capitalism in South Africa and showed that the roots of the capitalism are still growing. Although South Africa is under the rule of black majority, the white minority are still in firm control of the ‘economics’ lever. Still, we cannot merely blame the leaderships of the company and their ideology. The government and the unions were also played a vital role in the occurrences of the incident. Despite of these political and ideological factors behind, the main focus is what had brought these mineworkers to the protest.
The continuous complain by the mine workers are their poor condition of livings. There is no doubt of how badly affects their angers. Majority of them are living in the informal settlements that they call shacks or mkhukus and in the winter with some ices on the roof and leak to the rooms. There is no concrete road, no clean water but has a polluted environment due to lack of garbage removal. Since there is no electricity, it is hard for them to put candles on their budget.
At least 34 people killed and 74 wounded in Marikana incident.
(Photo credit from Worldnews.com)
Since there are inequalities in the mining sector of South Africa, the demands of the mineworkers to increase their salaries continued until they get what they want. However, the mining company ignored which made the tensions between the company and mine workers became severe.
Since the company is being criticized once again because of the Marikina incident, will the criticism “unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism” be a way for them, the mine workers to pursue the increase of their salaries?
Sources:
http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1412
http://www.whoswho.co.za/simon-scott
http://amandlapublishers.co.za/special-features/markikana–lonmin-massacre?start=18
http://article.wn.com/view/2012/08/17/Lonmin_faces_perfect_storm/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/south-africa-police_n_1796082.html
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The Term Paper on Poverty In Africa
Poverty in Africa What are the Lives of the People in Mali, Ethiopia, and South Africa like? Introduction- Mali, Ethiopia, and South Africa are three countries on the continent of Africa. Location-wise they are about as far away from each other as they could possibly be and still be in Africa. However, they share many similarities in climate, physical land forms, culture and quality of life of ...
