I don't like jazz... i hate it!

David — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:36:46 GMT

As an ardent supporter of local culture and the right of music to exist in public spaces I found myself both angered and confused by certain happenings in JHB this weekend.

It’s the annual Jazz on the Lake event, and by now you’d think I had gotten used to it. But you know, once again, it’s the SAPS and music in a combination that really, really pisses me off.

No, it was nowhere near this empty on Sunday!

OK, so some access to Zoo Lake has to be blocked to accommodate parking and to make it safe for pedestrians. But blocking access to Oxford road from the top all the way down to Glenhove???? Blocking Highway off ramps?

So I am trying to get to my house on Sunday morning, and I can’t. It lies within the cordon of blocked off roads. No worries I think, and work our way up to the access road closest to my house and stop at the barrier of Metro Cops to ask to be let through.
“Where’s your residents permit?” he asks.
I look at him blankly. “What permit?”
“You are supposed to have a permit.” He repeats
“And where was I supposed to get one?” I ask “Was it dropped in my letterbox?”
“No,” he replies, “There was a notice in the newspaper, you should have taken your utilities bill to the police station and applied for one.”

Before I continue to freak out, I might just add here that I don’t blame the poor cops for this one (for a change) Obviously they were given a job and were just trying to do it. In fact this lot were pretty restrained and polite. Once of them even noticed the license disc on my girlfriends car had expired and they didn’t fine us! I dunno, maybe they felt bad too, who knows?

Applied for one? What the fuck is this? It’s a jazz concert and I have to prove to the police where I live so I can enjoy the right of getting in and out of my own home?? Fuck them and fuck that!

Peaceful? I think not!

Even the stupid 94.7 cycle race, which I also hate, goes to the effort of signposting streets so that residents know well in advance that the road is going to be closed. Does the Jazz on the Lake do this? No. Instead, they arrogantly assume that all residents read the newspaper they have chosen to run their ad in and make no effort to accommodate you. All the effort is placed as a burden on the shoulders of you, the inconvenienced. Its the kind of authoritarian rule from above and rely on apapthy that we shoudl all be fighting the most strongly against. The organisers make no effort to make life easy for the residents and they don't care, and it is defintely wrong. It's pure fascism. The police have no right to limit my movement like that. There is no national emergency. It’s just a fucking concert!

The fact that I am supposed to read a newspaper article and then take a bill to a police station to humbly request permission to move out of my residence is appalling. It shows that Arts Alive is out of touch with reality, it shows that the metro Cops are just as bad, seeing as they agree to it, and it dumb founds me that they get away with it! Fuck them I say! I am definitely going to draft a serious letter of complaint about this to the Arts Alive guys and the DAC. I would love to hear from any of you who were similarly inconvenienced!

The Chiz : jazz

I don't like jazz... i hate it!