Hi Trevor,
no, I am not coming from the position of, hey, he is just another drug
dealer. In fact I know nothing about the man at all, except that he was a
bona fide immigrant who had his legal papers on him on the time. I do not
know what he did for a living or why he was arguing with a 17yr old. He
could have been suggesting that he go home and behave himself. I do not
know where Mr Aminiel lived or whether he has friends or family here. Did
you know him personally? I thank you for trying to put a human touch to
this horrible incident. I am so sad that he died alone but surrounded by a
crowd. I am sensitive to the casual use of first names because of
apartheid legacy where black people were never called Mr, Mrs, Ms, Sir or
Madam. (I know that you were not being racist at all - I am simply
explaining my reservation).
I do think Obs is going to get better and be amazing. I do however, think
that we need to have a capacity for self-criticism and to be aware when
things are not going well. It is not fair that you see those of us who are
critical as simply armchair critics with a bad attitude. You know that I
have a keen interest in Observatory and have been involved in much of the
stuff done to improve the place. It is high-handed of you to suggest
otherwise. It is only when those of us who are prepared to get our hands
dirty show a bit more respect for each others reservations, opinions and
ideas that we will really get the show on the road. The case of Chakan
proves my point.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Trevor Hughes" <[email protected]>
To: "Julia Teale" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 5:49 PM
Subject: Re: [obsnw] Re: OBS FEST PRESS RELEASE
On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 2:05 PM, Julia Teale <[email protected]> wrote:
Trevor,
I am shocked that you mention that you witnessed Mr Andrew Aminiel 'bleed
out' and saw a woman try to help him, but too late. How did this woman get
past the police if no body else could? Did every one else just stand there
watching when they saw that the police were not coping? I also think it is
disrespectful to talk of Mr Aminiel as Andrew unless he was a personal
friend of yours.
Julia
The women got there because the police did not have a grip on what was
going on - there were other people milling around and I think some
people walked passed Aminiel completely unaware of what was going on.
I used a euphemism involving chickens on the public email and I am
toning it down here as well!. The police were absolutely useless and
obviously couldn't have cared less whether the guy lived or died.
Whats shocking is that none of them did a thing. Whats shocking is
that Malila has the gall to say they could not assist as they had not
training. Surely applying pressure to stop bleeding requires no
training but just a little bit of common sense?
What were people supposed to do with police that could not cope? They
seemed to be able to cope with a few people trying to take pictures. I
saw no attempt to collect witnesses statements - it was really quite
pathetic.
I am not sure where you are coming from with your disrespect line
about me calling him Andrew. For goodness sake I watched the guy die
while the police fiddled and you are worried about me calling him
Andrew - it was intentional to humanise the story and to get away from
the fact that a lot of people were gloating about this death
Another drug dealer bites the dust some are saying with grinning
mouths. There's disrespect for you.
Anyway I doubt much will change - the police will go on being useless
and ineffectual and the clubs will go on causing a nuisance and the
dealers will go on selling drugs and 17 year old thugs will go on
stabbing people who sell them drugs...........
And most of Obs will go on bitching how dangerous/crap/terrible the place
is.
Or will there be a change?
Trev
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