A short Story about Respect
It is important
A few years ago, I had the great pleasure of being a key note speaker at an Africa Day forum at the Stellenbosch Business School.
I arrived, as I always do, 15 minutes early and found a comfortable seat next to a an elderly gentleman. I greeted as I sat down, but received no acknowledgement of existing or at best, being a human.
As I was too familiar with such behaviour, I merely brushed it off and waited for the auditorium to fill up.
In the spirit of true South Africanism, we only got started 10 minutes later than was scheduled, so in essence I sat in silence next to my compatriot for up to 25 minutes. For the uninitiated, that is as long as an episode of Friends — I know this interesting tidbit of information on the basis that my wife is currently watching the series once again, every day. . . But I digress. . .
Finally, the facilitator gets the mic and invites all the speakers for the day to join him on the stage. I get up and I walk over.
We all get introduced and the conversation gets started. After about 1 hour we concluding and off to our seats to be ale to enjoy some of the entertainment (hint, African folk dance — cause its. . . Africa Day)
I retuned to my seat, and to my surprise, the elderly gentleman greets and introduces himself to me. He goes on to discuss the evening and the talk. . . Me, gobsmacked just nodding and grimacing — how the living H* did we get here.
I would lie if I said this was the last of such experiences, but it seems to always happen. We as people tend to undermine each other, when we do not know who we are. Respect is not something we give on the basis of that philosophical ideal, you are human, but on what you do and how prestigious it is that that you do.
In 2021 we need to normalise giving respect to people, before you know who they are, what they are and where they are from. It is the most decent thing to do.
