The 'Real' Unity Lessons

"One minute we were looking up at them, then they disappeared"
November 28, 2000
By Meri Ranut

I listened to the experiences of a $70 patron of the Real Unity Concert, and the truth was in the symbols of what unfolded.

As the $70-$80 patrons at the Machel Montano Concert danced with their feet close to the ground, they hardly knew what had happened. From any position on the ground level, they could have seen the $600, $240 stands towering in front of them. However, the minute Machel began his performance, the stands disappeared.

The ordinary people, being so far away from the stage, never really saw the extent of the damage. Once they got the assurance that the injured people were getting attention, the 20,000 persons who remained in the venue wanted the party to go on, and on it did.

From the inception, how could barriers be erected, pedestals built, and colour "bands" (bans) be used to divide people in a show promoting "Unity"?

The promoters to the Real Unity show sought to sell tickets to those who do not consider themselves part of the regular crowd; to those who wanted to flaunt to the masses that they had the ability to pay and party apart from the "grassroots" crowd. These people bought the $600 tickets. I guess, booking Machel for the Country Club is a no-no.

Those who would have liked to be in the $600 area, but did not have the means to fork out $600 opted for the $240 seating area. They were the 'Middle priced' ticket holders. Then there were those who tried to be close to any of the two previous types of ticket holders and they purchased the $120 tickets. These people just wanted to be close to the perceived upper and middle seating areas; their attitude is one of "at least we are not $70 ticket holders".

These $600 ticket holders were on stands that the organizers erected to keep the true spirit of disunity. They never tested these "upper class" structures to see if they were solid; but they placed these ticket holders on pedestals and forced the $70 dollar ticket holders to look up to them.

According to how much people paid, they were given a 'colour band' to identify them. If they did not have the right colour, they were not permitted into the 'reserved' areas.
And they say colour does not matter.
So there we had it the perfect symbols of disunity: barriers, colors and pedestals. Such a structure could not have stood up to the rigors of what was to come.

"One minute we were looking up at them, then they disappeared"

"The Millennium coming", was the cry of Machel as he started his first song.

True to form, the start of the Millennium will bring with it new structures, and the destruction of the old.

Machel was just five minutes into his song when the structure that was holding up the 'upper priced' ticket patrons, crashed onto the middle priced area.

The crash brought a sudden halt to the show.

For the entire night the promoters including Machel were pleading with the $600-dollar-crowd that the structure was not designed for dancing. It was designed for them to sit and 'enjoy' the show; but I guess that they knew, to truly enjoy themselves they had to 'get on bad', which they usually do in their closed circles.

Pleas also went out to the $240 and $120 ticket holders informing them that they were not allowed to intrude onto the $600 stand given that it was not built to withstand that amount of people.

Mind you, the $70 ticket holders did not infiltrate the stands. They new if they wanted to dance they had to have their feet close to the ground, so for them to leave the vast area on the ground and be restricted to a very limited space did not make sense. Further more the 'colour bans' were in effect and even if they wanted to most of them could not. They had the wrong 'colour'.

When the stands crashed even if the ordinary folks wanted to help they could not, the barriers were still up so they had little choice but to wait and hear Machel's assessment of the situation.

When they heard that there were no deaths, just some injuries, they wanted the show to go on.

They spent their hard earned $70 and why should 20,000 of them be denied because a few people with the 'right colour' had 'minor' injuries?

Of course they were sorry for those who were injured, but the show had to go on.

There was anger from those who had the right 'colour'; they thought that the show should been have stopped.

Better safe than sorry By: Terry Joseph Nov 29, 2000

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