Coke always has really cool adverts.
Some of Pansy's favourite ads are coke ads. The "Wavin' Flag" coke anthem and ad from this year's world cup is one of her all-time favourites. There is something very catchy and uplifting about the song. The other day on the bus home, a bunch of school tots were singing the song all the way home and teaching it to the other children that didn't know the words. It was very cute.
So, it's been just over a month since the last world cup game was played. About two weeks after the end of the world cup, there was an attempt, endorsed by the presidency, to start a national "Fly the Flag Friday" campaign where South Africans were urged to keep up the World Cup spirit (or gees, as it is known in the local lingo). There was a call to fly South African flags on Fridays and wear shirts of local sports teams, in order to maintain the positive vibe that was generated in the build-up to the world cup.
Interestingly, the campaign launch coincided with a mass exodus of foreign nationals who were threatened with xenophobic attacks, the occurrence of sporadic xenophobic attacks in Gauteng and the Western Cape, and the announcement of a nationwide public servants strike.
Pansy was dismayed when she first heard about the Fly the Flag Friday campaign, and deep down she is relieved that it hasn't really taken off. Song, dance and flag waving does not make issues disappear. It has its place, but an initiative like this needs to be coupled with tangible improvements in service delivery.
Further, an unintended consequence of a campaign like this is that it can promote the negative side of patriotism, which is xenophobia. How many non-South Africans living in South Africa feel a part of this campaign? Or does it make them feel marginalised and branded as an outsider? The campaign promotes South Africa and South Africanness, but does nothing to acknowledge non-South Africans that live here and who also make South Africa the country that it is.
Given the recent resurgence of xenophobic violence, promotion of South African nationalism should be done very carefully. It would be wonderful if the campaign could also embrace other nationalities - for example by encouraging foreign nationals who live here to also fly their country's flags. In this way the campaign can positively promote a sense of South Africanness which also embraces other nationalities. This could make the campaign a positive influence on the current shaky xenophobia situation.
Of course, the majority of flags will always be South African, but with the current social climate, it is hard to imagine that Somalis, Zimbabweans and other targeted African nationals (kwerekweres) living here will also be flying their flags on Fridays. Or will they fly a South African flag as a protection measure so that they are not brazenly advertising their non-South Africanness?
Social commentators locally and abroad have written about the outpouring of national pride during the world cup being used by extremist groups to promote their causes. For example, in Germany, some spectators at a fan mile were arrested for flying flags with Nazi symbols. Local commentary has also debated that xenophobia and patriotism are two sides of the same coin. The world cup only lasted for a month, so the extremists world wide will have to now keep a low profile again. But now, could local anti-foreigners have a weekly "safe-place" in which their sentiments can grow?
It is true that South Africa has enough social challenges in uniting its multi-cultural citizens without now having to also accommodate foreigners living here. But at the same time, given the xenophobic climate, and given that as the foreign population grows and as newer generations have one foreign parent, it is also important to promote a sense of peaceful co-existence with foreign nationals.
Pansy would love a situation where foreign nationals in townships (where most xenophobic crime takes place) could feel comfortable flying their country's flags on Fridays alongside South African flags in their neighbourhood. In this way the Fly the Flag Friday campaign could help prevent the patriotism coin from inadvertently flipping to the xenophobic side.
But for now, the campaign seems to have lost its fizz. Fortunately the xenophobic crime seems to have been quelled due to a swift and strong response by government. The public servants' strike continues, and the tots who were singing Coke's "Wavin' Flag" aren't on the bus because school is also affected by the strike.
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