Dale > Sadly that is very, very true.
And then comes this, the height of hypocrisy, to add insult to injury.
allafrica.com
>>Mbeki Admitted Into Knighthood of Ancient Order in Service of the Poor
President Thabo Mbeki Thursday became a knight of the Order of St. John at a colourful ceremony held at St. George's Cathedral.
At the ceremony, the Duke of Gloucester invested him to the ancient order of chivalry that has its roots in a Jerusalem hospital created over 900 years ago.
As part of the investiture into this "great and inestimable family of humanists" that has provided services to the poor around the world over the centuries, President Mbeki received a Cross whose four arms symbolise the values of prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude.
Each of the four arms of the Cross have two points, which jointly represent the eight virtues of humility, sorrow for sin, meekness, thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity, peace, and suffering under persecution.
The longstanding values symbolised by the Cross, the president said at a banquet held later to mark the investiture, "should not be allowed to choke in the arid culture of individualism, selfishness and greed that blights the soul of modern living".
Today, the Order of St John continues to run the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem, while in some 40 countries worldwide including South Africa, it provides health care services as part of the St John Ambulance, which is well-known in this country.
At the banquet held at Cape Town's four-hundred-year-old Castle, Mr Mbeki described his investiture as "a rare honour that I will value throughout my life".
Guests at the banquet included the Duke of Gloucester, who is the Grand Prior of the Order, the premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool, the mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, as well as the British High Commissioner, Paul Boateng and his wife.
At the banquet, President Mbeki reminded guests of the commitment he had made: "I shall from today onwards always recall the commitment we made in the presence of the Grand Prior and all who were assembled at St George's Cathedral, 'to devote myself, so far as I am able, to the objects and purposes of the Order, more especially the care of the sick and the injured, to conduct myself as a true Knight and a person of honour'."
Referring to the ancient roots of the Order, Mr Mbeki added that "many of us would agree that modernity, despite its unprecedented advances ... is in many respects wanting in the essential acts of benevolence, chivalry and honour, values which guided past societies across the world and enabled generations to inherit the present in all its beauty".
"As human beings," the president added, "we should strive collectively to rescue from extinction the noble acts of selflessness, volunteerism, sacrifice and sharing, exalted human qualities that have been treasured throughout the collective past of all humanity."
It is these values, which, in the context of South Africa, "inspired our vision of moral regeneration", he said.<< |
