Page 168 - The Circle of Life
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by a well-known Afrikaner poet I disliked intensely. I threw it away the next day,
(the only book I have ever thrown away in my life). You would have noted
perhaps that none of the poets above were Afrikaners, though there are
excellent ones. I declined the home leave. It was too late for me since there was
nothing for me at home except loneliness and nightmares. I was already middle-
aged at 22, and had turned into something that would make satan happy. The
end justifies the means, and we will fight fire with fire. What is another life? Kill
them all, and let God sort them out. I did not make the laws and only long
haired liberals think too much!
In the College we had a designated prayer time, and we would all dutifully sit at
our desks reading the Bible before going to bed, or we were supposed to
anyway. The Rooinekke and I played chess, which they usually won by cheating
well within the rules. I would have also had I first thought of having two extra
queens in the set—it took me a while to figure that one out, but as you know I
am not too bright at the best of times. Quite often my exes tell me as much, and
now with all of the criticism of my books so do foreigners. That’s fine. I have
known for a long time that I am not that smart, which makes me smarter than
most others who unfortunately still have that lesson to learn.
Seriously though, the Chaplains did marvellous work and tried their best under
difficult circumstances, since both sides apparently believed in the same God.
Their problem was (my opinion), and I might be wrong since I do not dispute
their good intentions, is that they acted first and foremost as commissioned
officers of the Apartheid State, and secondly as the representatives of God.
*A senior officer told me after reading the Afrikaans version of this book that
they reminded him of the Russian Commissars we despised as a method of
indoctrination back then. One must decide for oneself – I have no comment and
hold no resentment against them either.
We always searched the personal paraphernalia of dead terrorists for intelligence
and would almost always find a Bible amongst their few earthly goods. That
made me wonder how God could know which side was righteous, since both
were requesting His support and promising good behaviour for eternal life. It
troubled me greatly, but when a man decides to take up and AK47 and attack
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