One town, 500 residents and 12 church denominations and 84 political parties..............

As parents we like to have the best for our children, even if this means that we have to sacrifice certain things in our lives.
Well it happened a few weeks ago!
Having planned my Saturday to a T, which involved watching 4 Super Rugby matches, preparing for a wonderful evening with friends, and doing no physical activity what-so-ever, my plans were shattered by netball trials, that I knew nothing about!, and to say the least, I'm a very involved parent.
So I was informed that the trials will start at 14:00 and that it is held at a local high school and that it is part of a so-called "Bokkie week", loving Google, I wanted to do some immediate research, but alas "no time dad" came the response from the car!

I must admit, that it was nice to take Christy to the trials, and I felt good, as she was complemented about her abilities by various coaches from other schools.

The Game

 The said school is situated in a very different area of the city, it immediately became apparent that, to fit in I have to swop my Tucson for a Ford, my rum for brandy, and my K-Way hiking shorts for a rugby short (and preferably old at that), but not being a snob, I looked passed all this and asked if we were at the correct place, just to be informed "yes en jy is die regte kleur" (yes and you are the correct colour). This should have been a warning, but as I stated in a previous blog "If you don't like someone" I tried to look past this sultry remark and thought, "maybe I just don't know you well enough". As the trials went on, and I must admit that my daughter played very well in all three games, it became very apparent that these guys have ulterior motives and I became very uneasy.
So as soon as Christy played her final game, we packed it in and headed home.

Arriving home I immediately did some research and was shocked at what I found.

These guys of the AVS (Afrikaans Volkseie Sport) basically has segregated sport in a country that tries its best to be unified. According to their constitution its all about providing a fair and unbiased platform for children to compete against each other, as long as they are white! What hogwash!
Their main point of view is that white children doesn't get a fair chance in sport, thus their own competition, its like being in pre-primary school all over again, playing cowboys and crooks and hearing "Bang-bang you're dead! Fall or I'm not playing anymore!" or "I'm gonna take my ball and leave".

The Conundrum 

We are getting older, we are set in our ways and for most of us our career paths have been set out already, but our children are still young, impressionable, and they have to create a future in an uncertain society (globally). How do we  teach them about unity, about right and wrong, about staying loyal to your culture, to your religion and all this without harboring any biases towards others
Do we as parents condone this type of behaviour (from right-wing elements), or do we see this as just sport and innocent fun for the kids, I'm sure that someone once said "oh please leave that Hitler chap alone it is just the innocent ramblings of a mad man".

Well till next time.