She Stole My Heart -- Part II

Second question: Detail three comparisons between the US and SA

1) US civil rights movement and SA anti-Apartheid movement: both of these movements occurred around the same time.  The US civil rights movement was a movement led by black Americans fighting for civil liberties and equality under the law and fighting against the segregation regulations across the country.  In SA the anti-Apartheid movement was similar in that black and colored South Africans were fighting for their civil rights, freedoms and equality under the law.  These two movements are different in that the civil rights movement was based on non-violent principles and the anti-Apartheid movements principles turned violent after having no success with non-violent tactics.

2) Colonialism: both the US and SA have experienced colonial rule.  In SA the British colonized the Cape after the Dutch arrived.  The Dutch never officially colonized the Cape.  The British enslaved Africans and brought slaves from Indonesia, India and Malaysia.  The British invaded the inland, taking land away from the indigenous people of South Africa.  In the US, the British, as well, colonized the East Coast, bring slaves over from Africa.  The colonizers also invaded and took the land away from the indigenous people, namely Native Americans.  The settlers eventually fought for their independence from the UK and in a way, black South Africans fought for their independence from the colonizers, only many many years later.

3) Democratic systems: I won't go into the political science analysis of the two countries.  Instead, just an observation.  The US has been a democracy since the constitution, over 200 years.  South Africa has been a democracy for sixteen years.  So the US knows democracy like the back of its hand and South Africa is a transitioning democracy, so it has a lot to learn.  The US is considered a developed country and South Africa is considered a developing country, which I will agree with.  At the same time though, I wonder sometimes is there such a thing as being too developed, and have pockets of low development? Or is the unofficial definition of developed country still having those pockets of underdevelopment, because when is a country ever fully developed? What is interesting is that the US still has problems with poverty, just like South Africa.  Another interesting point is that South Africa has been able to progress quicker with the topic of race and discrimination in its sixteen years as a democracy than the US has been able to do in its lifetime as a democracy.  I feel like there is something wrong with that picture, not to say that South Africa should slow down, though.  They're moving at a pretty good pace.  South Africa still has a long way to go in terms of democratic values, such as equality.  The US as well needs to take a look at its own principles and should maybe take some advice from South Africa and start working through the issues instead of shoving them under the rug.