Elections - Pets & The NUMSA Strike

I haven't written something in my journal in such a long time, really feels like ages.
So much has happened in my life in the short time since I journalled the last time..

The national elections.... On the 7th of May was our National Elections, 20 years after the 1994 elections It was our 5th so called democratic election and the 2nd election that I have voted in. Out of the 152 parties that was registered for the 2014 elections I still found it difficult to find one that completely met my needs. I have come to a point in my life where I feel very strongly about everybody being able to be themselves and being able to be open and proud of who they are, where they come from and what their heritage is. Because I am gay, I don't want to be discriminated against based on my sexual orientation. I also don't want to be discriminated against because of the colour of my skin... In South Africa we as white and especially white Afrikaner, Boere people are constantly being discriminated against, old people on farms are being murdered just because they are white and Boere, I could go on with the list, but just take a look at the news in South Africa at the moment and you will see for yourself. There is only one party in South Africa that meets my needs regarding my heritage as a proud Afrikaner, this party is the only one who is against BEE in South Africa, the only party against land reformation, the only party fighting for my home language, which is Afrikaans and for the Afrikaans language to stay in schools. But this party is also one of only a few who votes totally against gay marriage in South Africa they also vote against anything that might benefit the LGBT community in any way.
My second option was a party who supposedly totally embraces the democracy of South Africa, whom the leader of is a white female. This party fulfils my needs as a member of the LGBT community in full but they disregard everything that is important to me and that the first mentioned party puts high on it's priority list.
I was completely torn between my heritage as a proud Afrikaner & the LGBT community which I am also very proud to be apart of.
I believe that in a country as diverse as South Africa, Equality will never be reached, and we will never be able to have one political party who meets every ones needs 100% ... I went with my Gut feeling on that vote, and even now two months later it still feels like I betrayed a part of myself in the casting of my national elections vote.

"Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State."

The Death of our Loving Pet.... Now everyone who knows me well enough will tell you that I've never been much of a cat person. I love dogs but cats generally don't get along with me. My girlfriend on the other hand is totally the opposite, sometimes she reminds me of that typical crazy cat lady. So when we moved in together last year, of course we had to learn to live with and love each others children. She brought 3 cats into the relationship, and I brought a dog, after a few months of living together I brought another dog home. One of my girlfriends cats in particular crawled so deeply into my heart, it's hard to even explain it. He was the sweetest most adorable cat I have ever seen he opened my eyes and my heart to cats forever, I fell so deeply in love with Charlie because he had such a great big personality for such a small cat. A few weeks after the elections, one morning early I got a call from our land lord saying that Charlie had been run over and his lying in the street outside the house. My heart broke instantly, not only because I had to tell my girlfriend that her child had died, but also because I lost a little four legged boy that morning.
We buried him in the back yard and I made a little wooden cross to mark his grave.
R.I.P Charlie we truly miss you.

New Addition to our family... After loads of nagging from my girlfriend I bought her a kitten. The new kitten didn't find any use for his litter box in the beginning, he felt that it would be fine to just "go" on our bed. We couldn't think of a name that suited him so I started calling him Dudley, my explanation for the name was that he was a "dud" because he couldn't figure out how a litter box works. To me it was very funny, but my girlfriend was furious at the fact. She kept calling him Kitty and I called him Dudley. Until about two weeks later while we were watching a movie the name Cody came up, I think she just agreed to the name to get me to stop calling him Dud-ley. So now little Cody-cat is a proud member of our family.

Strikes... Since July 1st the metal industry has been striking for ridiculous wage increase demands that the sector would never be able to afford with the current state of our economy. Most of our workers aren't at work for three reasons, there are those who are actually participation in the strike, there are those who see this as a holiday, and there are those who want to work but is being threatened into staying at home. I know all the employees at the company where I am working is well looked after financially, and they also get treated with respect. My heart broke on the first day of the strike when about 10 black men showed up in front of our gate all dressed in the red NUMSA colours "knopkieries" and sticks in hand dancing and yelling out what sounded like ancient war cries, when they saw us white people inside they started singing "F-off, "Voetsek" you are shit" at us and their bosses. I lost a lot of hope and respect for a nation that day. as the days went on and they kept coming to sing in front of our gates, the numbers of red shirts increasing each day - a hate started forming inside of me that I can't explain. One of my prayers each day is that God will take the feelings of hate away, because it is consuming me. I think for the first time in my life, even though it's wrong, I can comprehend why racism exists.

"Knopkierie: are clubs used mainly in Southern and Eastern Africa. Typically they have a large knob at one end and can be used for throwing at animals in hunting or for clubbing an enemy's head. The knopkierie is carved from a branch thick enough for the knob, with the rest being whittled down to create the shaft."

"Voetsek: Afrikaans for 'Get lost'. (Not a swear word! but rather crude like English 'bog off') Used a lost by Anglo Africans."

For now I think I have caught up on my Journal and need to get back to work.