Pretoria, South Africa Goodwill, nerd, withdrawing. As such Terence Beney to remember the young Elon Muskin.
-Really good type, Beney describes at home in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital.
This thing tells what kind of president Donald Trump Musk, who climbed inside, was young. Musk and Beney grew in the Apartheid time in South Africa. What does Beney think that this would have affected what Musk is like today?
The school, both of which were completed in 1988, is a couple of kilometers away.
Beney met Musk after school years in the 1990s. At that time, Musk made a good impression. Not so much lately.
Musk has brutally bent in the US administration. He has also commented strictly in South Africa’s politics.
Teenage years at Pretoria Boys High School
Beney and Musk took the same annual course at Pretoria Boys High School. The school rate corresponds to the Finnish upper secondary school and high school.
The school is a privileged environment, Beney describes. He emphasizes that he didn’t know the muscle well. Musk was not very sociable.
“If someone claims to be at his friend’s school, it is exaggerated,” says Beney.
In South Africa, the 1980s was still a time of Apartheid, or breeding. However, the system’s criticism increased and society began to change. For example, the black stay in urban areas was allowed. Some of the restaurants and hotels opened their doors for everyone.
At that time, public schools were not allowed to be “diverse,” says Beney. Their school stretched the rules, and Beney remembers that there were a few black students there. For example, they were children of diplomats.
According to Beney, some of the school students were very liberal, while others were ultra -conservative.
-We grew up in the 1980s and everyone talked about Apartheid. It was not hidden. We knew about it well and it was talked about at school, Beney describes.
Beney said in a newspaper interview A couple of years ago, however, the white children were isolated from the reality of racial separation. The government also distributed propaganda against black.
The decade was a sparkling, violent time in South Africa. Walter Isaacson says in his biography that Musk, his brother Kimbal And their cousins proved violence as they went to gigs, for example. Musk was the fearless of the boys.
– It was a big deal for him that his decision would never be based on fear. It was already visible when he was a child, says the cousin Peter Rive in the book.
The fate of the USAid to take on
A couple of people refused and a few did not answer when we were looking for interviewees for this thing.
Beney thinks this may be that Musk has at least been a kind of hero, a young South African who moved abroad and succeeded. He himself admired Musk for years.
At some point, “Billionaire Bashing” began, questioning megaric. It created a reluctance to speak, Beney ponders.
In addition, he may be “a little paranoia” in the air; People are worried about what rich and influential people can do.
Beney decided to speak because he has already become quite serious.
-There is a strong, conservative group in South Africa. They like Trump and what life is doing. There is a lot of approval in the air – they are good types. Well not. It has to be questioned, Beney says,
Beney also has a special need for questioning, as she has worked a lot for the US Development Cooperation Agency for USAid, whose pushing Musk has been pushed into a twig.
“I’ve been very proud of the work we did in the US,” he says.
Beney is more concerned about South Africa about what happens in other countries due to Trump’s auxiliary cuts. According to Beney, US help has made the HIV epidemic tip fold in many countries. Now there is a risk that the direction of development will turn.
In the village in Silicon Valley
Musk moved to Canada shortly after graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. In the meantime, he studied physics and technology at the university for a few months, says Ashlee Vance Biography made by.
He left the country in 1989, only at the age of 17. Canada was a milestone for Musk on its way to the United States.
According to Vance’s book, Musk has stated as one of the reasons for his departure that he wanted to avoid the army. It would have meant participation in the Apartheid administration, which fell in 1994.
Beney met Musk in 1996. Her brother was a friend of Musk’s brother Kimbal.
Beney traveled to Silicon Valley and lived with the Musk brothers for a week.
On the way, Beney noticed how Musk trusted and held. And the side of her mother when she had a bump with the landlord. It made the impression of Beneyh.
“For this reason, this is so surprising to me,” Beney says, referring to Musk’s recent action.
– It feels like he has become a bully. A guy who defended people who were bullied.
Hidden Muscles, says Beney
Beney thinks that Musk has surprised me to the right. For him, modern Musk is the yield of the US and Silicon Valley, not South Africa. If something influenced Musk in South Africa, it was his family, neither school nor friends, Beney says.
He feels that many others have changed in Silicon Valley in a “strange way”. How so many liberal students have become a trumpist, he wonders.
Beney comes up with one thing in his growth environment, which can explain a bit of muscle.
-We grew up in South Africa as white young people who opposed the administration, apartheid and how society was built. One of the tools was then absolute freedom of expression, Beney says.
However, one should ensure that freedom of expression does not become hate speech, he adds.