THE CHIEL

Too many memorials?

ARE you happy about all the crosses, wreaths, flowers and similar being put up along roads in the city - also on the sides of rural roads? I have mixed feelings.

There was a good letter on the subject in yesterday's newspaper. The Chiel received another from Barbra Thompson a couple of months ago which I've been waiting to use. Now seems an opportune moment.

Barbra said: "I wondered what you and other readers think of all these roadside memorials. I personally think they are an eyesore. What if every person lost to an accident had a cross or wreath erected? Some have become permanent fixtures even on national roads. Does that mean the family stop on a freeway to weed and tend to their empty graves?"

It's a sensitive subject, isn't it. One does not want to be too strict on the bereaved mourning a loved one, and my feeling is that it is okay for a period of time. How long is debatable. For some it might be only a few months before they get over the trauma and anguish. Others might like to go on longer, say a year or two.

Certainly I do not think the "memorial" should become a permanent fixture, something of a shrine to the dead.

There is no doubt that time heals wounds, more so than anything else. Life must go on. Yet the loss of a loved one, to me, is a very personal thing and there is a time and place to be reminded and to mourn. A picture in the home; a grave or memorial stone in a cemetery for me is the way I would do it. Not a very public place beside a road.

As for the plaque glued to a rock at Nahoon Beach - please, no. Do we need to be reminded of someone's death who apparently had no particular claim to that spot?

If people want to do that the most tasteful way is to erect a bench or drinking fountain (with permission from the relative authority of course) at a place where the deceased may have enjoyed walking, or the view, and which can be shared by others. Then place on it a small plaque: In memory of Fred Bloggs - 1935-2006 ... or something similar.

Somewhere along the new Nahoon boardwalk comes to mind. Even a short section of boardwalk paid for or "sold" to a family in memory of a loved one with a small and tasteful plaque attached would be a very worthy and civic-minded memory.

Ashes are sometimes scattered at places where the deceased loved to go ... a surfer's at Nahoon Reef, a fisherman's perhaps in a river mouth on an outgoing tide ... but please no plaques on the cliff face or attached to rocks and trees. That's not on.

Another thought on roadside crosses and wreaths: they do remind us of our fallibility and the very real danger on the road.

It jolts as you pass a cross or wreath which is serving a useful purpose to encourage road safety. It also marks danger spots.

In the end perhaps we should accept discreet, short-term memorials; certainly not large plaques scattered here, there and everywhere. That's my feeling. What's yours?

Chiel: 043 702 2242 or chiel@dispatch.co.za

Tailpiece

A TRAFFIC cop stops a blonde for speeding and asks her nicely if he can see her driver's licence.

"I wish you guys would get your act together," she replies in a huff. "It was only yesterday that you took away my licence and now you expect me to show it to you!"

FROM OUR FILES

APRIL 6, 1956: Manilal Mohandas Gandhi, 64, second son of Mahatma Gandhi, died at Phoenix, Natal, yesterday after a prolonged illness. He was editor of the newspaper, Indian Opinion, which was established in Natal by his father. Manilal followed his father's policy of fasts, prayer and other forms of passive resistance. In 1951 he carried out a 14-day fast in protest against the Group Areas Act "and other discriminatory laws". Another - three-week - fast followed, to "purify his soul and pray for wise guidance before deciding what part he should play in an African National Congress campaign of protest against racial legislation". In 1953 he refused to pay a £50 fine and spent 38 days in jail for participating in a defiance incident at Germiston location together with Patrick Duncan and 50 other Europeans and non-Europeans.

APRIL 6, 1976: Lesotho is to produce colour television sets, mainly for the South African market, from April 25.

"They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong"
- Ronald Reagan

TIMELINE

Today is Thursday, April 6, the 96th day of 2006. There are 269 days left in the year.

Birthdays: Gustave Moreau, French artist (1826-1898); Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft designer (1890-1939); Oscar Strauss, Austrian composer (1870-1954); Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born professional magician (1874-1936); Gregory Peck, US actor (1916-2003).

This day in SA history:

1652 - Jan van Riebeeck arrives at Table Bay aboard the Dromedaris and at the head of some 90 men, women and children, to establish a victualling station for the Dutch East India Company. The other vessels in his fleet are the Goede Hoop and the Reijger.

1814 - Lord Charles Somerset becomes governor of the Cape.

1856 - The town of Boshof is established in the Free State.

1926 - AJ Werth, former editor of Die Volksblad, Bloemfontein, is appointed administrator of South West Africa (Namibia).

1941 - The SA Brigade enters Addis Ababa during World War 2.

1991 - The African National Congress is to triple the size of its national executive committee to 105 members to broaden decision making.

1992 - European Community foreign ministers agree to scrap the EC oil embargo on South Africa and formally lift sanctions on sporting and cultural contacts.

1995 - The first genocide trials begin in Kigali, Rwanda, against some of the 30000 majority Hutus accused of killing Tutsis.

Sunrise: 06:24 Sunset: 17:58