Heritage

What is heritage? Is heritage useless, good for nothing, or is it worth protecting? There are more than one type of heritage, from Geographical Heritage all the way to Industrial Heritage, so which is which and what do they all mean? The core meaning of the word heritage is; something which is inherited from one's ancestors. This can be ones culture, physical features, land, anything really, as long as it has been passed on to you over a generation or two. This means that the teddy bear that my mother gave me could be considered as part of my heritage.

I believe that when the government does things like change the street names from important historical names to some member of parliament’s name that is so hard to remember let alone pronounce, and then all the maps in the country have to be changes and millions of rands are put into this pointless and stupid process they are simply undermining our intelligence and destroying national heritage that has been around for hundreds of years.

I believe that even though apartheid was wrong and that all people are equal it is still a part of our heritage and that trying to eradicate even any history of it is an insult to our heritage.

To me heritage is what is passed on down the winding stairway of life to another human being, shaping, educating him or her. This is exactly why I object to the destruction of heritage, because when heritage is destroyed it impedes the education and shaping of another human being.

There are many different types of heritage and they are; Geographical Heritage- a nation or group's historic monuments, museum collections, etc.

Natural Heritage- a nation's fauna and flora, natural resources, and landscape.

Traditional Heritage- customs and practices inherited from ancestors.

Inheritance of physical goods after the death of an individual.

Biological Heritage- inheritance of physical characteristics.

Birthright- something inherited due to the place, time, or circumstances of someone's birth.

Industrial Heritage- the monuments from the industrial culture.

Here I have listed some of the major forms of heritage, but of course there are many other forms of heritage that I have not listed here.

If you think about it, it is pretty much impossible for there to be no existing heritage even if no one passed on anything and made no mark on this world, because we still had to live on some sort of land and that land would become their children’s heritage.

It seems to me that in many of the first world countries, excuse the stereotyping, heritage is not that important anymore, because they may teach history and they may put monuments of long dead people up, but they still cut down trees and destroy races such as the Native American Indians an alarming rate. I do not understand why so many people cannot see past the noses on their faces and concentrate on what is ahead.

At the end of the day, is heritage worth the effort? Decide for yourself, because what you do now, will change the future.

A cry for heritage

This is my heritage:

My family-

Ripened with age

My country-

Remnants of apartheid

Lingering rage

My teddy bear-

A comfort to my heart

When down my cheek

Crawls a glistening tear