The people whose contributions to a public Twitter conversation that I mentioned in my last blog post were offended by my opinion on themes that we touched upon. I’ve apologised over Twitter that my intention was not to be personal, negative nor offensive. I’ve read my blog post again, taken in the feedback over Twitter and from Kevin’s blog. I believe that I could have given better context by acknowledging the value of the code retreat and Kevin’s efforts in the community. Also, I could have expressed my initial tweet differently or at a different time. That it distracted Kevin from his code retreat was insensitive of me.
Events like Kevin’s code retreats, Black Girls Code, and other initiatives are important to improving our community and software development in South Africa, in general. Yet, we are still facing glaring disparities in our sector and in our country that I find difficult to ignore. My fear is if we all take defensive positions, we may never ever discuss such matters openly and respectfully. Like I said in my twitter conversation to Kevin, this is not about him and not about me too. It is about us and our future.
The fight for equality is so much tougher when we have freedom.
f3yourmind 
It’s very true. I’ve been following these posts and from reactions it is clear to see that it too often goes the way of many discussions in our fair country. On the one side you have people who are desperate for economic inclusion. On the other people who are raw from being accused of being psychotic tyrants by the world in general whether they deserve it or not. So between “Please God we need opportunities!” and “Please God make it stop!” the very fact that completely fair inclusion is simply something worth striving towards is often lost… Both sides not putting themselves in the shoes of the other nearly enough. Of course it will not happen overnight. Of course it will require effort from all parties – Hard work and compassion in equally great measure. But it is something worth keeping an eye on. And any progress should be celebrated.
I have no doubt that in the decades to come we will see great change for the better. The world is- and even we here in SA are- inexorably moving forward. Africa in general is set to experience a massive economic renaissance with average income per capita projected to increase several times over.
There is hope. Personally I believe the whole is usually more than the sum of its parts. And that diversity is a very important part of wealth – It’s the very spice of life. And while cultures are still so different from each other we should strive to profit from combining diverse ideas into concepts which would otherwise never have seen the light of day.