Public hearing into the closure of Arlington..

hehehe. Good one Rob !!

@wonbyamile

I lived in england from 1999-2003,the average wage @ the time was £21000 which equates to roughly £1800 per month(this is office workers clerks etc)

What's the salary gap between a office worker in sa and a groom?Do you honestly think a man can live and support his family on maybe R30k a year?????,its a disgrace and an insult when you ask a man to look after a horse with his life but the care and support that goes into that horse is worth probably 10x his annual salary

Racing needs the COE to right these wrongs

@umlilo can the public make submissions to this COE,I will gladly put a word in

Guys help yourself. I do not think the true facts are on the table and for one will not let politics or agendas influence my thinking.

@SOODUM:

'@umlilo can the public make submissions to this COE,I will gladly put a word in '

Quite definitely! I am certain that the terms of reference will allow for every individual / organisation / stakeholder to make submissions.

I am also certain that this is not going to be sop to calm the riotous!

@homer:

Yes, the facts are definitely not on the table and this should nothing to do with politics.

Where shall we start my dear Dr Watson?

The criminals or the politicians?

Or, shall we just retire to Church... and read our prayers?

()

With respect to the views of Umlilo and others. Sometimes we may be guilty of looking at life in SA and saying that racing is a microcosm of the realities in SA. Truth is our politicians play a similar game and most are in denial of the reality.

Soodum you can't compare the European and American situation with SA, whether in currency or any other way. Our society is far too complex to do so.

I wonder how many people noticed Umlilo's point on whites proper joining blacks in the grooms ranks. He never said that white's proper should replace black grooms, he suggested (in my mind) that we should think how we would treat these white's proper in that situation. Well how would we treat them? The same way as I feel about the horses going to slaughter, we are talking about lives forget the complexion of those lives!

Racing is for the elite as it always has been. I think that it is unrealistic to think that we can change this. We succeed in life and move on to buy horses to race against our wealthy friends. This is unlikely to change.

The fact is the definition of white is not white as most of us understand it. White in my mind represents a very select few in this country and in fact, I would go on to say that there are plenty black "whites" and they are growing in number. The term "white" is a shocker based on our South African history. We white proper's fall in a heap and scream "RACISTS" every time. By this definition I am not white, I don't live in the top few percent of the countries wealthy neither do many on this forum. The top few percent are white the black ones too.

The fact is "Whites" will grow in numbers but we will not recognise these "whites" when we see them on TV. There complexions will confuse us. It may just be confusing those who are trying to pull these "white" investors into racing.

We should never deny our past but we should also not be in denial about the present and future. The race war is dying, the class war has just begun. The terminology has not changed though and the racist terminology is being used to disguise this class war!

What does this have to do with the closure of Arlington; squat! It has everything to do with how we look at each other and name call.

Yes I am white proper! I am not defined by a homogeneous group. I am defined by the life I live!

@ alcaponee

Yes we can never compare the eu and american conditions to ours for the simple reason that in SA grooms are treated as 2nd class

Unlike you I grew up under the constraints of apartheid,I've felt my fathers pain when we were asked to vacate a beach cos it was whites only ,a strong man made to look like a boy by a kid in uniform,u cnt tell me that a few ppl are white by definition when infact the pale skins of sa have reaped the rewards ,a prime example is gary player a who when beaten by papwa made him stand in the rain outside the clubhouse to receive his trophy while he basked in glory of being 2nd

Racing needs to transform,and it will

Not wanting to compare stories but you seem to read selectively and totally miss the point. I'v'e read somewhere that you are 35. I am 37 so we are talking from the same age grouping.

I grew up under the constraints of alcoholism and a fair level of poverty as a result. I remember the look on my fathers face when he got his ass fired for the umpteenth time and the person he was working for (10 years his junior) tossed our family out the house we were leasing from him and then turned around and offered us a condemned house to live in, which we had no choice but to do so.

You see we all have a story. The difference is mine does not have a race tag hanging off of it.

Your Gary Player comment speaks exactly to the point I was trying to make - Class war! Dont deny that there are not black Gary Players in the making right now. I say this from a wealth and political point of view not a sporting one.

I am still waiting to find the ill gotten rewards that were left to me. Alas my rewards will have to be earned and that's the way I like it.

The above comments have no bearing on whether or not the industry needs to be transformed. It is highlighting a point which you choose to ignore. Fuelling racial fires is a far easier game to play than thinking past the skins of homogeneous groupings. If you are happy to walk around with skin colour being the single thing that defines you as a person then that's fine. I choose not to let this define me.

Point taken alcaponee

@Soodum & Alcaponee:

Both you gentlemen have touched on this very raw nerve of our country's sensitivities!

People did suffer on all sides and, as fellow humans, we need to empathise with that. However, that angle does not feature so much as what I note below.

There were whites who also underwent the brutalities of 'apartheid'; yet, none of them claim that the struggle was their sole preserve!

Parallel is this institutionalised racism of the 'apartheid' era that added to de-humanising ordinary people with many whites either blind to it (unwittingly, as Alacaponee states they had to tend to their own miseries with an alcholic family head), or, part of the mechanism, willing or not.

The result is: today, whenever the question of levelling the playing fields arises, whites gang up (maybe because of inherent fear or that recall to 'We are the baas!' mentality), and decry any efforts towards meaningful reconciliation .... sic transformation.

Sadly, there is a huge chasm of ignornce about one another and this reinforces set patterns of thinking and reaction.

The numerous attacks on me for raising the 'race card' is testimoney to that.

As I repeat, our country needs more people like Alcaponee and Soodum to engage, explore, understand and respect as fellow not only human beings.... but South Africans!

Let the sun shine on everyone.... and the inner warmth glow!


-D

@wonbyamile[ PM ]
Re: Public hearing into the closure of Arlington..
December 01, 2011 10:21AM
Registered: 1 year ago
Posts: 3,473


'is there a GROOMS UNION?????'

Apologies for having overlooked your question!

Yes, there is a Grooms' Union wherein they are (or, would be) members of SACCAWU.

This union (from my own experiences) is about the Commercial/Catering/Retail sectors; they know zilch about horseracing and its need....fact! From the numbers in membership, also the least of their priorities.

As such, they only protect (or should) grooms from unfair dismissal or similar in which field they are au fait; totally ignorant of grooms' actual needs and situation.

Therefore, any incident can be exploited as sensational, linked with 'racism' and receive unjustified attention!

Unfortunately, our unions will remain politicised for a considerable time. Therefore, we have to adapt our thinking in how to deal with the situation for mutual benefit.

Tough call!

@ Umlilo
The fact of the matter remains that John Freeman singled out two people who had a lot of untruths to say about Racing and he took offence to this. He took offence to and wrote about what they had said, about the issues and events. He never even mentioned their colour or race. But, YOU DID. You turned this whole thing, this whole thread into a racist issue.

When John Freeman had a go at SFRW on another site, some months ago, it was OK for you. It's ALL OK , just as long as we criticise anyone who isnt black.

Therefore, Umlilo, in my books, that makes YOU the racist here !

louisg Wrote:

---

> @ Umlilo
> The fact of the matter remains that John Freeman
> singled out two people who had a lot of untruths
> to say about Racing and he took offence to this.
> He took offence to and wrote about what they had
> said, about the issues and events. He never even
> mentioned their colour or race. But, YOU DID. You
> turned this whole thing, this whole thread into a
> racist issue.
>
> When John Freeman had a go at SFRW on another
> site, some months ago, it was OK for you. It's ALL
> OK , just as long as we criticise anyone who isnt
> black.
>
> Therefore, Umlilo, in my books, that makes YOU the
> racist here !


hi louis..... can you tell me if there is AN OFFICIAL GROOMS UNION?????.... the SP article was spot on by john freeman!!!!