Robin Hood and Rian Malan: You tax us and enslave us but give nothing back

SHOOT: I didn't expect it, but during the Ridley Scott epic, Robin Hood, Robin [Russell Crowe] makes a speech to the lousy philandering and self-obsessed King. The King feels entitled to the loyalty of his subjects but he has squandered any good will and no one wants to fight for him. Robin says that people's property rights should be protected by law. That some of what they have worked for should be theirs, or returned to them, not all taken by the government and squandered.

If the King agrees to a fairer system, Robin proposes, the people will respond not only with their loyalty, but with their love. To murmurs of approval from the crowd. The King, in a moment of alleged sincerity, agrees - saying if they stand with him now he will sign the new laws they've asked for, later. And so the people support him, and ride into a battle that same day, based on this promise of a future commitment.

This parable resonated deeply with me; for I immediately saw the profligacy evident in the current Racist Mongering Avaricious and Hoggish Government of our present South Africa.

clipped from www.news24.com “I’m not disillusioned, I’m fucking furious! All I see is darkness,” said Malan after the discussion where Krog tackled him and other whites in South Africa who sat on the sidelines and “only complain and don’t get involved in solutions.” Malan and writers Imraan Coovadia and Mandla Langa were panel members of the discussion “Writing on the Wall” on Friday. The discussion was about SA’s future after the 2010 World Cup and was led by journalist Christi van der Westhuizen. She admitted on Sunday it was a “heated debate”. Krog was furious after Malan said SA didn’t have the ability to solve its problems. “I said whites had reason to complain. White people feel irrelevant, impotent. We complain, but nobody listens. And if we complain, we are called racists or we have to hear: How dare you! You are white!” Malan said. He said he had to pay tax but got nothing in return. “If Jacob Zuma had only four years of schooling before he went to Robben Island; whose fault is that?”