Wednesday, November 19, 2008

DA: No Place for Black(s)?

I personally don't want to be caught up in silly digs at others, but I must say I was a little humoured when seeing the new DA logo. I applaud the party for wanting to freshen up their image and I thought they had a reasonably good new website - at least it looks fresh and in-your-face.

Here's the deal: the new logo makes a deliberate point of including several colours and even looks like it resembles the SA flag in the streams. So I was looking at it and suddenly realised there was no black! This is an incredibly irony, since the DA's primary problem has been to shake off its image as the white party. I don't mean to disparage the non-whites who have joined the DA, but it's no secret that the DA are not demographically reflective of the South African population.

Personally I think the previous logo was miles better, more distinctive in its colouring and design, and easy to recognise. The current logo is incredibly generic. It seems there was a deliberate attempt to mimic the Obama logo, which is reasonable, but the Obama logo also stood out far more. If the Obama logo's red, white and blue was a match on the US flag, why is the DA logo not a match on the SA flag?

Talking about parties and demographics, can you name a party in South Africa that has a better race mix than the ACDP? While parties like the ANC, IFP, DA, MF and VF seem closely matched to some kind of ethnicity, the ACDP draws its principles from the Bible, a foundation recognised by all race groups. While my allegiance to a party like the IFP is more likely to rest on my esteem of the Zulu culture, my support for the ACDP is based on Christian principle, hence the ACDP's non-racial appeal, and why it is so well positioned to become South Africa's party of choice for all race groups ... well except for racists.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You state up front that you personally do not want to become to become involved in getting in digs at other parties. All well and good, but politics (and your blog is nothing other than a political blog) is all about influencing the public, so I don’t think you can avoid doing exactly that.

I agree wholeheartedly with you that the new logo is inferior to the old. The DA is trying to get a message across that they are distancing themselves from their previous leader, Tony Leon, and this new logo is just one way of doing that.

I have not seen or been on the old DA website so cannot compare it with the present one, which I find to be typical DA. Let me explain what I mean by that: When I search the site for answers to particular queries I have about policy issues I find very vague answers, if indeed they have any answers at all. One search on same-sex marriages lead me to a comment section where one question on this issue from a homosexual man was studiously ignored. Of course I know the DA does not want to become involved in certain issues such as this, it would far rather stand on the sidelines and hope the whole matter would go away but unfortunately for them the vast majority of people I talk to consider it to be extremely important, together with others such as the death penalty and abortion. I rather hope the DA will continue their present approach; it certainly is making it much easier for the ACDP to get its message across as it has gone to great lengths to state up front in a clear and unambiguous manner just what its policies are and these include every single issue affecting South Africa. For those who doubt this, I suggest they go onto the website, click on the required links and the answers will be there.

This comment is mainly about the DA but other parties, the ID and the UDM, must be mentioned as well, for the simple reason that they all claim to be Social Democrats, a euphemism for left wing socialism. The three are strongly supportive of the Constitution, for all three it is some sort of infallible document that has all the answers we need, never mind that it is a man made document full of flaws that can be changed piecemeal or totally at the will or whim of political parties.

As your post states the ACDP and its policies are Christian and Biblically based, akin to the old idea of Christian Democracy. Some of course might say the Bible is open to interpretation, to which I reply—Just how can statements such as “ do unto others as you wish them to do unto you” or “do not murder or steal” , the list is almost endless, be misinterpreted?

DISCLAIMER: This blog serves as a commentary and the views presented are not necessary the official views of the ACDP. For official statements and contact details, visit: www.acdp.org.za
 
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