The below blog came out on the Legacy Conversations webpage. That is the webpage of the YouTube Channel where you can actually listen to former South African Special Forces members, army, navy, air force, and police, talking about their experiences. Those that read the GMJ Books will be pleasantly surprised how the books are vindicated, especially by Special Forces men (who have no idea what was written in the GMJ Books). In fact, you might even recognise a few incidents.
So let me quote the blog here, with permission. Thank you to all of you:
... Last week the decision was made to enable Patreon on Legacy Conversations. This means you can pay $5 per month to become a patron of our work to record and keep the memories of South African Security Forces Members of all ranks, units and races alive.
It is also so that many veterans never had the chance to speak about their experiences. Many, myself included, never wore my medals in public. Few if any ever said thank you. In fact, we are the local "Vietnam" Generation. Most books written are about the major battles, the elite regiments, and not those who also served in other capacities. Therefore, Legacy has an educational function besides keeping memories alive or helping those in need to make peace with their past.
In two years, more than 500 videos were recorded and made public by myself and my team of volunteers (God bless them). We are close to 2 million views with an average of 100,000 viewers/visitors per month. Impressive as this is, we also have on average 20,000 hours of views every month. It can be safely said that if not suppressed by YouTube, we can double the above. Sadly, like our main sponsor's books, George M James, suppression seems to be the weapon of choice by the cowards unwilling to take the warnings inside those books seriously.
Sadly, the GMJ Books, is coming true. Below is a December 2020 BBC article to be found at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55147863. "According to the Global Terrorism Index published on 25 November, the “centre of gravity” for the Islamic State group IS has moved away from the Middle East to Africa and to some extent South Asia, with total deaths by IS in sub-Saharan Africa up by 67% over last year. “The expansion of ISIS affiliates into sub-Saharan Africa led to a surge in terrorism in many countries in the region,” reports the Global Terrorism Index. “Seven of the 10 countries with the largest increase in terrorism were in sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Mozambique, DRC, Mali, Niger, Cameroon and Ethiopia.” We saw how Mozambique, Palma, exploded in April 2021 with people beheaded, extreme war crimes committed, and more. As GMJ wryly commented, "I wonder when people will start listening to me." As I said many times, supporting GMJ is supporting Legacy Conversations.
At least, a lot of people are listening to Legacy Conversations. I made lifetime friendships with many and consider most guests my friends. However, it costs time and equipment to bring the videos to you. It is a burden that Rebecca and I cannot carry anymore. To date, we lost two computers to Legacy video rendering (extremely intensive computing). Simply put, you cannot edit videos with low-end computers, you need high-end. Also, the software, Zoom costs, travelling, meeting, etc. is not free. My last excursion to South Africa cost us more than R60,000 including the aircraft tickets, vehicle renting, staying and living there, as well as the new camera we had to buy (R9,000 alone). Yes, this burden is not possible anymore and frankly unfair to Rebecca who carried most of the costs alone. She is not a South African veteran or even a citizen. This is not her burden to carry.
We need your assistance to carry on recording our veterans - something that we love to do. If you so wish, consider becoming a Patron for $5 per month which will give you access to exclusive content as well as the opportunity to meet some of the guests (their decision) in person or online. The link is https://patreon.com/LegacyConversationsPatreon and I understand you can leave whenever you wish. We are aiming at 100 (out of the nearly 8,000 subscribers) to become Patrons. Should there be more, we will be most happy.
Another way of helping, and note the money is not for us to retire on but to cover costs, is to donate via PayPal link - PayPal.Me/LegacyConversations. That too will assist greatly.
Frankly, if we cannot get 100 Patrons we will have two choices: First is to abandon the project and remove all videos (legal reasons for that). Or, the second option, allow silly and intrusive ads on all the videos (a big no-no for me). There you are, my friends. Decision time. Thank you to those already on the Patron list. To the rest, we will try to carry on but changes are coming whether I like it or not.
God bless,
Koos