VN August 2020

Vetnuus | Augustus 2020 48 Life plus 20 without parole Mike Lowry Mike Lowry has been in veterinary practice for "life plus 20" years. In this column, he shares his experiences and opinions . Regulars I Life plus 20 This COVID epidemic has taught all of us a great deal – good or bad. Certainly, we have all learnt to live on a lot less that what we were accustomed to. Chatting to car salesmen will give you a far better appreciation of this statement; the luxury cars available second- hand have never been more! It has also shown us the value of friends andmany people have been thrown into the deepest depression imaginable from loneliness. People are not meant to live alone. The grandparents that cannot give their grandchildren a hug! The virtual media has surely reduced the pain, but perhaps without it the significance of the COVID virus would not have exploded to the extent it has. Thinking about this resulted inme reflecting on the people who had crossed my path over the years and those who had had the greatest impact. Amazingly to me they were not the high fliers or the people who were idolised by a society whose values were questionable – not the soccer stars who were paid millions for kicking a football or the golfers who were made heroes for hitting that little white ball into a hole. No, the majority were just ordinary people who did what they did with amazing ability, commitment, and endurance. And what of the wise people I have been fortunate enough to meet and whose company has helped me? In this category there were four people that I could really look up to and whose thoughts were amazingly clear. And yes, they were all totally uneducated in a European fashion; they were all Africans who had summed up life in a world that possibly most of us would have despised. The person who took fourth place was a fishing ghillie I spent many hours fishing with on the ledges of the Transkei. He was known as Boss; a real rogue by most standards and who had known the inside of a prison for many of his misdemeanours. But he was an extremely likeable character and one who was very aware of his surrounds; he knew the sea like the back of his hand and was an excellent weather forecaster; he knew the best fishing hole for the weather conditions and how to survive in an environment which was not always ideal. He was dead against his children, of which there were many, going to school because he believed that once educated, they expected jobs behind desks and in the rural Transkei these were few and far between. He then said this led them to the cities where, because of their very rural upbringing, they could not compete and were led into a life of crime and prostitution. To him it was far better to enjoy the life he had endured with its ups and downs and knowing that food would always be available if one understood the tides. The last time I saw Boss he was on his way to prison for a charge of rape. His comment to me was “A man needs a spare wheel but be very careful when that wheel goes flat because you then go to jail for rape.”That, in itself, is an extremely profound statement. The next two can perhaps share second place. They were both mature African men who worked on my farm. One, Joseph, was a driver and the other, Mato, was a builder. Both had extensive families of well-disciplined children. These two men looked after me and my family during extremely difficult times on our farm in the Tala. We had regular farm attacks and many farmers had been murdered. I was obliged to leave my farm for work and often was away for weeks at a time. This obviously meant leaving the farm and family; a wife and three daughters. Never once did I need worry. I would get back on a Friday afternoon and a short drive with either of them would result in me having a deep insight into what was happening both on my farm and in the district. On one occasion I got home to find a very agitated Joseph and he demanded to see me privately immediately. The story did not take long to come out. There were armed terrorists in our compound, >>> 49