Through My Eyes

What an exciting time to be alive!

While the doom and gloom still hangs over our head and many people losing hope in our rainbow nation's ability to bring happiness back to life, I simply do not care anymore. That's it, no more F@cks are being given at this point in time.

The Ballito Confess Instagram Page seems to be gaining in notoriety as the day progresses. Parents desperately trying to shut the page down, while the privileged few who managed to get on the site before it turned 'private' get to enjoy some seriously intimate and horrifying confessions.

While the only confessions I know would be to my priest (if I had any), this is something completely different, this is some of the sick, sad and warped mental health problems, being exposed and laid bare, what makes it dangerous is that people and locations are being named, and this is what makes people angry.

To be honest, having an anonymous outlet to convey our deepest darkest secrets is great, but I have lived long enough to know that secrets never remain secret and sooner or later the anonymity will be eroded. If there is a will there is a way of finding out who is creating this turmoil and why.

Having lived in Ballito for thirty years (maybe a little bit more), I have seen the transformation of a little coastal sleeping village to the behemoth it is today. When I moved here all that time ago, this place was small and cosy but even then it had some dark skeletons in its closets.

People moved here to escape from the urban haste and landed in a place of questionable morality. I guess I can say I have heard it all and seen it all, while I do not understand it, I tend to just let it be. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

The stories of swinger clubs, teenage orgies and cougar hunts are legendary but are we different from other small towns? I can't say as I have never lived anywhere else long enough to make that assumption. However, when speaking to locals, my hypothesis seems to be confirmed.

I am no prude, my attitude has always been, live and let live but when you start naming people and accusing them of hideous acts, that's not cool! In fact, that is considered a criminal act and could (and should) land the author in jail.

And while I am all for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, the entire 'Hoe' culture is totally ridiculous and should not exist in our quaint little suburban bubble. And although I understand why a group like this is needed in our community, I also understand that the identity of everyone should be protected.

We have all experienced terrifying feelings of isolation during the lockdown days of the pandemic, especially our school-going children who instead of attending lectures, doing homework, socialising with schoolmates and attending sports days, turned into keyboard warriors.

Can we blame them for turning to the internet to find a willing and non-judgemental ear? Our youngsters are acting up because they have very few outlets to rant their frustration, sadly neither the clergy nor their school peers are willing to support a generation that was cheated out of so much that they need help. Sadly, personally, I am not convinced that Ballito Confess will solve that dilemma.