Emigrating From South Africa

At the outset let me say that I am not the person to write this. Although I have both emigrated to and from South Africa, this piece needs to be part of a neverending series dedicated to spreading as much information as possible about the processes involved for those who have just had enough of their 16 years of ANC rule and have decided to leave.

There is so much in the way of information you will need, here is a quick summary of just some of the good and bad news involved.

On the bad side, much of the world doesn't want you unless you are a doctor or an engineer. This is mostly an economic thing and may not last forever.

Because you are now "an African" you are lumped in a category that includes a lot of people most countries do not want more of, and PC-dogma means you will not be given the benefit of the doubt for being Westernised. Many foreign visas are becoming more and more difficult to come by, while even for professionals, the interferering social-engineers of the ANC are busily telling the rest of the world not to poach SA's valuable professionals. That's valuable, by the way, not valued.

Many professional qualifications obtained in South Africa's increasingly dumbed-down universities are looked on with suspicion by foreign employers, while fees for visa applications, qualifications assessments and medical examinations have been ratcheted up to obscene levels.
While Mrs.Viking and I handed over wads of cash in Cape Town for our medical exams, the receptionist cheerily noted how, in comparison, the Somali "refugees" -resident in South Africa - were having all theirs paid for in full by the Canadian government, along with their air fares.

Dealing with foreign embassies is also no picnic. Most of them seem to be as inefficient as much of the public sector in SA, and many of them are hard to get information out of. It is better to be aware of this than not, as it can come as an unpleasant surprise.

It's not all doom and gloom, however, as there are other options available, and it would be foolish to suggest otherwise as there are now a massive number of South Africans living permanently or semi-permanently overseas. As a result, everyone knows someone who lives in another country, and so there are support systems in place for any would-be migrants. There are also large social networks that can ease the transition to a new country.

Dealing with foreign Immigration Departments is the biggest barrier, and this can be incredibly frustrating. Waiting lists are long, but it should be possible for South Africans to bypass large numbers of other applicants. If you speak English well, you have a huge advantage. The Australian and UK English language proficiency exams are not difficult, for example, and will pose no problems.

South Africa has a decent education system in place, and you must consider getting yourself some sort of qualification if you do not have one. Anything from plumbing to cabinet-making, to cheffing and boiler-servicing can be a special need in your desired country; Canada in particular has a long list of labour requirements. Australia requires anyone skilled in the trades.

European countries often have ancestry visas, and South Africans, being a multicultural bunch, can often fit in this category. Although, at this stage we can assume that anyone qualified has already looked at this option. Some countries are more lax than others - one friend of mine got an Irish passport from a grandparent quicker than a British one through her parent.

These are just some broad guidelines, but we all know from experience that things are not as clear cut as many of us were led to believe. Immigration applications are handled by people, who are often immigrants themselves, and are prone to losing documents, giving out wrong information, and being downright petty and stupid when it comes to dealing with applicants. Worse too is the power they have been given over the livelihoods of others.

We would like to keep a file of information for possible emigrants, as well as stories from those who have already made the leap. Any contributions on the subject are welcome.

ANCYL moots radical plans

The ANC Youth League has urged government to consider the expropriation of mines "with or without compensation". The youth league also wants its mother body to ensure that the mineral wealth is controlled ''by the people".

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CHARTING THE WAY FORWARD: ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC Youth League president Julius Malema at the NEC lekgotla this weekend Picture: SIMPHIWE NKWALI

In its radical discussion document on the nationalisation of mines, the league argues that ''all South Africans should share in the country's wealth and mines, monopoly industries and banks should be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole".[Then they can buy shares, they are ENTIRELY FREE to do so]

The document was tabled yesterday at the league's national executive lekgotla at Misty Hills Country Hotel, Muldersdrift, on the West Rand. It says nationalisation should be accompanied by a "thorough transformation" of parastatals and should assist the government to "build strategic capacity" to unlock resources for development and a growth path that is more inclusive and equitable.[Julius did NOT write that sentence-two many polysyllabic words]

On the models of parastatals, the league proposes that government should consider expropriation, with or without compensation. "The manner in which nationalisation will be approached will neither be generalised compensation nor generalised expropriation without compensation. Expropriation without compensation should apply for mines that are not profitable, laying off huge numbers of workers and in financial crises," the document says.

The document argues that nationalising mines would enable SA to "attract industrial investors" who would contribute to the growth of the economy, and the transfer of skills, education and expertise to South Africans.[huh??]

The ANC NEC has previously requested the league to put together a discussion paper on nationalisation after its president, Julius Malema, repeatedly called for the state to take control of mines.

ANC still owes R17.5m for election campaign

Ad agency says it does not trust ruling party's promises

Jan 30, 2010 8:22 PM | By Kim Hawkey
The ANC has another delivery problem - this time for failing to cough up millions of rands for an election campaign bill.


'It is extremely disappointing that we cannot rely on the ANC's promise to pay'

Advertising agency Ogilvy was granted a default judgment against the ANC to the tune of R17.5-million by the High Court in Johannesburg earlier this month for the balance of a R56-million invoice for the ruling party's 2009 campaign.

The bill was for developing a media strategy and "look" for the ANC's campaign and covers print, radio, television and billboard advertising costs.

The ruling party pulled out all the stops in the run-up to last year's general election, brandishing cars and motorcycles in ANC colours. It also held numerous colourful rallies and glamourous parties with champagne, gourmet food and live entertainment, and took full advantage of the Independent Communications Authority's decision to allow political parties to advertise on television.

The campaign also went online as the party launched an interactive website and used social networks and blogs to garner support.

But by the end of May, after being back in office for over a month, the ANC had still failed to settle an outstanding balance of R21.5-million.

When the party commissioned Ogilvy in August 2008, the original estimate for the work was R42-million, but the total spend in the end was R56-million.

This included almost R7.9-million to pay models and actors who featured in adverts, together with other production costs and a R3.3-million fee for Ogilvy.

Despite Ogilvy pleading for the money, the court papers detail how it was met with "sorrys", broken promises and delaying tactics. Eventually phone-call messages and e-mails to party representatives were ignored.

Ogilvy's chief financial officer, Dave Livie, describes in the papers how the company was fobbed off by former ANC spokesmen Steyn Speed and Jessie Duarte to party chief financial officer Bongani Mahlalela and treasurer Mathews Phosa.

In a letter to Duarte in May, Livie pointed out that the late payments had left Ogilvy with "a serious cash-flow shortage".

"We cannot continue with this situation and it is extremely disappointing that we simply cannot rely on the ANC's promise of payments," he wrote.

Two urgent requests for a meeting were ignored.

Livie then wrote to Phosa in June, complaining how the company had been "forced" to foot suppliers' accounts, yet the ANC had not bothered to respond to his urgent requests for payment.

"It is extremely unfair that we now find ourselves in this position with little or no feedback from the ANC," the letter reads.

The requests became ever more urgent as Ogilvy's financial year end approached in December with mounting pressure to clear the huge debt before then.

When the money was still not forthcoming, Ogilvy filed court papers in November asking for the R20.5-million it was still owed.

The ANC did not oppose the matter and Ogilvy was granted a default judgment for R17.5-million, plus interest and legal costs, after taking into account a R3-million payment by the ANC in December.

ANC spokesman Brian Sokutu said the debt had not yet been paid because of "budgetary constraints".

"The matter of Ogilvy is receiving the attention of the ANC treasury and will soon be resolved. Due to budgetary constraints following the 2009 elections we regret the delay."

Ogilvy's attorney David Oshry said his client had "no comment to make".

Zuma fathers baby with Irvin Khoza's daughter

Iron Duke said to be betrayed by his daughter's relationship with president

Jan 31, 2010 12:42 AM | By Prega Govender

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President Jacob Zuma has fathered a child with the daughter of powerful soccer administrator and long-time friend, Irvin Khoza.

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MOTHER: Sonono Khoza, who has a child by Jacob Zuma

Speculation is rife that the president plans to take another wife

Sonono Khoza, a 39-year-old divorcée, was pregnant when her father, Orlando Pirates boss and chairman of the soccer World Cup local organising committee, was invited to share the stage with the newly elected president during a post-election bash at Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, in June last year.

It is unclear whether the "Iron Duke", as he is known, knew then who was the father of his unborn grandchild.

The Sunday Times can today reveal that Sonono gave birth to a girl on October 8 last year, barely three months before the country's most famous polygamist tied the knot for the fifth time.

Baby Thandekile Matina Zuma, now nearly four months old, has been registered in her father's name, and brings to 20 the number of children known to have been fathered by him - along with the 19 Zuma is officially said to have had, with his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his late wife, Kate Zuma, and his current wives and girlfriends.

Sonono, who has two other children from a previous marriage, is an events manager in the marketing division at the Johannesburg headquarters of one of the major banks.

A close family friend has told the Sunday Times that a delegation from KwaZulu-Natal, acting on Zuma's behalf, visited the Khoza family in December last year to discuss the Zulu customary damages, inhlawulo, that are due when a child is born out of wedlock.

On the morning of Sunday, January 17, the arrival of Zuma's motorcade at the Khoza family's Diepkloof Extension , Soweto, mansion, piqued the interest of neighbours and set tongues wagging.

Zuma, who was in Johannesburg for the ANC's national executive committee lekgotla held between January 15 and 18, spent almost an hour with Sonono and her mother, Matina.

When the Sunday Times contacted Sonono for comment on Friday night, she said: "I don't know what you are talking about. I definitely don't know what you are talking," before terminating the call. She did not respond to an SMS asking for comment.

Asked how she felt about her new grandchild and the fact that Zuma was the father, Matina responded: "No, we are not excited."

Pressed to elaborate, she said: "I can't talk about (that). Bye."

Khoza, whose youngest daughter, Zodwa, died of Aids-related complications in 2006, was not home for either of the two meetings held to discuss the arrangements following the birth of the baby.

Several family friends told the Sunday Times that Khoza felt betrayed and humiliated by the president's relationship with his daughter, particularly as he considered Zuma - who is six years older than him - a friend.

Khoza was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the University of Zululand for his role in the development of sport while Zuma was chancellor of the institution in 2004.

Repeated attempts to speak to Khoza about the matter were unsuccessful.

The president, who left Switzerland yesterday and is now in Ethiopia for an African Union summit, being held in Addis Ababa until February 2.

Zuma's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, refused to comment yesterday.

Zuma's younger brother Michael Zuma said he was unaware of the child or the relationship.

The addition to Zuma's brood shows that the president has again had unprotected sex with a woman who is not his wife - something for which he apologised three and a half years ago.

In May 2006, following his acquittal on a charge of rape, Zuma made a speech in which he said: "As I testified in court, under oath, I am HIV-negative, having undergone an HIV test in March this year. I wish to state categorically and place on record that I erred in having unprotected sex.

"I should have known better and I should have acted with greater caution and responsibility."

In clearing Zuma of rape, the court found that he had had consensual sex - with the daughter of another friend. "Kwezi", as the woman was identified during the trial, was the daughter of one of Zuma's closest friends and comrades in exile and referred to him as malume (uncle).

Zuma's polygamy, which is a source of much public debate, was again thrust into the spotlight this week at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Asked by Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria, who was moderating a panel on South Africa, about his "many wives" and whether he loved all of them equally, Zuma responded, "Absolutely," drawing howls of laughter from the crowd.

The birth of the latest baby has triggered speculation that Zuma may be planning to take another wife, which could land up costing taxpayers. According to the ministerial handbook for members of the executive and presiding officers, spouses legally married to the member in a polygamous marriage are entitled to a variety of benefits.

Zuma's wives are each entitled to a personal assistant, a post worth R145920 per year. Air travel, medical expenses and security costs for the spouses are also borne by the state.

His first wife is Sizakele Khumalo, who he married in 1973 and who lives at his homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. He has no children with her. As well as his late wife, Kate, and his ex-wife, Dlamini-Zuma, in 2008 Zuma married Nompumelelo Ntuli with whom he has two children. Earlier this month he tied the knot with Tobeka Madiba-Zuma, with whom he has three children.

He is engaged to 45-year-old Gloria Bongekile Ngema, with whom he has one child, and has an adult son with Minah Shongwe. - Additional reporting by Shanaaz Eggington

French president calls for preferential treatment for non-whites.

Says the French have a duty to “metissage” (miscegenate).

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, announced plans to aggressively force white ethnic French to integrate with Arab and African immigrants. Sarkozy, who ran on a conservative platform, is France’s first non-Frenchman to serve as President. He is Hungarian and
Jewish.

Sarkozy won the presidency by campaigning as a right-winger and promising to crack down on immigrant crime. Now he is advocating policies that mimic Vladimir “Lenin” Ulyanov, the first dictator of the Soviet Union.

From Brussels Journal

Recently Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to pursue a vigorous policy of diversity and métissage. Concretely, this means giving preference to minorities in job hiring and prosecuting those who do not comply. In other words, affirmative action as a government policy from which none are exempt.

In his message Sarkozy insisted that the French people must change, that there will be dire consequences if they don’t, and that not to intermarry racially is bad for the survival of the country. Thus he amalgamated the concepts of preference for minorities in job hiring with that of the need for the French to intermarry racially.

These are two separate things. But in the mind of Sarkozy they go together. Last December he chose a highly successful Algerian-born businessman, known as an impassioned advocate of diversity, Yazid Sabeg, to be his “high commissioner on diversity and equal opportunity”, and to implement these government orders.

Read Article.

District of Corruption: Bete Noir

About a year ago I did a post on the wrestling match between Morgan Tsv and Bob Mugabe. This was just after Mugabe lost the Zim elections (but resorted to brutal and manipulative tactics to remain in power) Morgans's subsequent capitulation and the West's inevitable acceptance of the resultant status quo, for obvious reasons (enough of our own problems/ white guilt/ no oil in Zim etc)

Morgan was then sent around the globe as Mugabe's de facto stooge and money raiser, and it seems to have borne some fruit. But there has been a price to pay for this Faustian arrangement. The price is, of course the same today as it always was, and forever will be.

Read on as Takimag elaborates:

District of Corruption: Bete Noire

The dead and displaced now run into the millions, lawless ruination continues unabated in Zimbabwe. But, Morgan Tsvangirai, the president (sic), and the man Zimbabweans looked to for salvation, looks surprisingly pleased with himself.

He is not easily embarrassed. Caught on film recently, looking rather smug beneath a portrait of his bête noire, Robert Mugabe, Mugabe’s face seems to say it all: real power remains with me, and the one in the chair is a political dummy deployed to deflect world anger. Tsvangirai’s recent behavior might be without precedent: where in history do we find a politician who clearly won a murderously skewed election, who then tosses a political lifeline to the killers, reinstates them, and effectively surrenders all real power to the losers?

Maybe we should not be surprised. For years, Tsvangirai groveled at South African President Thabo Mbeki’s feet, rising only to sing his tormentor’s praises while Mbeki connived with Mugabe to destroy him and his party. Still, it was an understandably furious and combative Morgan Tsvangirai we bore sympathetic witness to following the stolen election of 2008. He assured us repeatedly there would be no compromise with the electoral villainy of Robert Mugabe and his gang. Those of us who sought vindication of the democratic will, cheered.

But then, the rhetoric suddenly softened. Interestingly, this followed the precipitous transfer of R300,000,000 (US$40,000,000) from the South African Government to Zimbabwe, ostensibly for agriculture. Just where this money went remains as clear as mud. But soon thereafter convoys of new Mercedes Benzes rolled in to town, and Morgan and his merry men changed their tune entirely. No sooner had their bottoms hit the soft German leather than they bolted to the signing table to sell the peoples’ mandate for real change and started clucking loudly in praise of their assailants. (A chuckling ZANU PF Minister Francis Nhema is reported to have said that his associates had no idea it was going to be so easy to ‘buy off’ their MDC opponents.)



Clearly, treachery was afoot when Roy Bennett, a dispossessed white farmer and senior opposition figure who some say is the most popular politician in the land was thrown into jail and charged with treason—despite assurances from the new prime minister, and the South African president, that he would be safe from arrest. As the prosecution process unfolded, Tsvangirai maintained a thunderous silence. Obviously, a political stitch-up, Bennett still sits in the dock with a rope around his neck while the MDC mutters its disapproval.

“Some paid for their commitment to him and his party with their lives—the rest with their homes, land, and livelihoods. All this while the nation starves, food aid pours in, and the populace flees the country in waves overwhelming the country’s neighbors.

Despite a commitment in the newly signed, so called (Global Political Agreement) GPA to “… a nation where all citizens respect and therefore enjoy equal protection of the law and have equal opportunity to compete and prosper in all spheres of life,” his party’s supporters have been jailed, tortured, and murdered, and the few white farmers left on the land are being mercilessly evicted. Tsvangirai has trivialized these outrages as “isolated incidents” while talking up his relationship with Mugabe and calling for world support for him and his quislings.

Conveniently forgotten by Tsvangirai and his cohorts is the fact that it was the commercial farmers and their labor who provided the vital impetus that made him and the MDC a serious political force. Some paid for their commitment to him and his party with their lives—the rest with their homes, land, and livelihoods. All this while the nation starves, food aid pours in, and the populace flees the country in waves overwhelming the country’s neighbors.



Tragically, it appears Tsvangirai, along with his MDC colleagues, has betrayed the people who died for the cause of freedom. And yet the opposition hierarchy have their heads firmly stuck in the national feeding trough. The miserable farce seems set to play on! All politics in Africa is business, as the cynics say, and the MDC proves that right.

Against this back-drop came recent news that Giles Mutsekwa from the MDC has joined Kemba Mohadi, his partner in crime at Home Affairs, and overseen the arrest, torture, and death of political activists. But this should come as no surprise. Just in case investors thought it was safe to go back in the water, he also co-signed a Stalinist ‘specification’ order aimed at plundering the Meikles Group, one of the country’s largest business conglomerates. Critics are now calling for Mutsekwa and other MDC ministers (recently accused of corruption) to be put on the sanctions list with their ZANU PF cronies.

Frustrated though he may be, a beleaguered Roy Bennett may one day be appreciative of Mugabe’s obstinacy. Mugabe has denied him his place at the cabinet table because he is a ‘white settler’. History will be harsh on the gluttons who now gorge on the carcass of the country they were elected to preserve while their people starve.

Michael Moore got Government Subsidy for Anti-Capitalist Movie

Leftwing scumbag Moore shown up for the hypocrite he is. Thanks to Libertarian Republican.

New from the Michigan Macinac Center

The Michigan Film Industry tax break allows for film makers who produce movies in Michigan to receive more funds back from the State than they actually pay in. Moore, a Board Member of the MI Film Industry Commission, took full advantage of the Tax Refundable program for his movie "Capitalism: A Love Story."

Ironically, Moore, as a Council Member, originally opposed the program:

"Multi-national corporations, ViaCom, GE, Rupert Murdoch, all these studios. Why do they need our money from Michigan, from our taxpayers? We're already broke here..."

Patrick says Obama has a problem!

Crisis of the Government Party
By Patrick J. Buchanan
January 30, 2010

President Obama is in a dilemma from which there appears to be no easy or early escape.

Democrats are the Party of Government. They feed it, and it feeds them. The larger government grows, the more agencies that are created, the more bureaucrats who are hired, the more people who become beneficiaries, the more deeply entrenched in power the Party of Government becomes.

At the local, state and federal level, there are 19 million to 20 million government employees. And if one takes only Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and earned income tax credits, we are talking of scores of millions who depend on government checks for the necessities of their daily life.

These vast armies of voters -- these tens of millions of government employees and scores of millions of government beneficiaries -- are the big battalions of the Party of Government. They provide implacable resistance to any party that pledges to cut or curtail government. For they are fighting for their livelihood. And here is where Obama's dilemma arises.

The progressives thought that with the takeover of both houses of Congress by veto-proof Democratic majorities, and the election of the most progressive of the candidates in the Democratic primaries save Dennis Kucinich, a new Progressive Era was at hand.

Another New Deal, another Great Society. And early passage of a stimulus package of $787 billion, nearly 6 percent of the entire economy packed into a single bill, seemed to confirm that happy days were here again.

But, at the same time, the federal takeover of AIG, General Motors and Chrysler and the bailouts of Fannie, Freddie and the Wall Street banks were igniting a Perot-style prairie fire that manifested itself in Tea Party rallies in the spring and town-hall protests in August.

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi denounced these folks as "evil-mongers" engaged in the "un-American" activity of shouting down Democrats -- though, when college radicals do it to conservatives, it is called "heckling" and the conservatives are instructed that they "just do not understand the First Amendment."

Came November, Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey showed that the grass-roots rebellion was real and broad-based. This was confirmed by Scott Brown's astonishing upset in Massachusetts, where a state Obama won by 26 points went Republican by 6 points, with Brown capturing a Senate seat held by the Kennedy brothers since 1952. Talk about a fire bell in the night.

Obama's dilemma, evident in his State of the Union, is that the progressives, who were indispensable to his victories over Hillary, now feel betrayed, especially with apparent abandonment of health insurance reform, while conservative Democrats and independents, who were indispensable in giving Obama his November victory, are angry and alienated and disposed to vote Republican to stop what they see as America's plunge into socialism.

The non-negotiable demands of these two essential elements of Obama's coalition are in irreconcilable conflict. Obama tried to mollify both in his address to Congress by emphasizing aspects of his agenda that appeal to each. Thus the progressives were promised an end to the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, while Tea Party and town-hall activists got a partial freeze on federal spending and promises of nuclear power, clean coal and offshore drilling.

Obama's problem: He can end up satisfying no one and angering everyone. John McCain has already denounced Obama's call for open homosexuality in the military, a position that will resonate with Middle America, while House Democrats are appalled the Pentagon will be exempt from budget caps imposed on social programs.

Arthur Laffer has pointed up the burgeoning crisis Obama and the progressives confront. Today, state, local and federal government spending consumes 38 percent of the gross domestic product. Federal spending alone is 27 percent.

"If you total what the government takes in the income tax, corporate tax, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes," says Laffer, "all of that adds up to $2.2 trillion in tax receipts, and they spent $3.5 trillion."

In 2009, we had a deficit of $1.4 trillion, 10 percent of GDP. The most conservative estimate for this year is a deficit of $1.35 trillion, more than 9 percent of GDP.

Two questions.

With the public debt surging as a share of GDP, and talk of a debt default by the United States, how can Obama create or expand the social programs as progressives demand? And with the deficit running above 9 percent of GDP, how -- even if the economy starts to grow -- can you close this without raising taxes from 18 percent of GDP to 22 percent or 23 percent? That would be an added tax hike of $560 billion to $700 billion -- a year.

That kind of hit on the private sector could kill a recovery, just as Herbert Hoover and FDR did in the early 1930s.

Obama has a problem -- and so do we.

Norway Pays Bitter Price for Mass Third World Immigration

No matter where you look, or what stone you overturn, the statistics are always the same. But no, the libbies will always ascribe savage behaviour to something else, and proclaim that we whites must work harder.

All 21 reported cases of rape with aggravated assault — the highest number since records were started — in the Norwegian capital of Oslo last year were committed by “non-Western immigrants” and 90 percent of all rape victims were Norwegian women, police have announced.

Oslo police spokesman Hanne Kristine Rohde defied the strictures of political correctness to release the figures in an interview on the national Norwegian broadcaster, NRK. She said she was aware that the “statistics are controversial.”

When she was asked by NRK if the police were not “stigmatising an entire community” by releasing the statistics, Ms Rohde said she “wants to contribute to a better and safe world. That’s why the truth needs to be told. I hope the debate will focus on that,” she told NRK.

According to the police figures, the number of rapes with violent assault committed in Oslo also doubled compared to 2008. According to the police statement, “in each and every case, not only in 2008 and 2009 but also in 2007, the offender was a non-Western immigrant. At the same time, in 9 out of 10 cases, the victim was Norwegian, not just by nationality, but also by ethnicity.”

The NRK report concluded that “not a single one of the offenders had a Western background. Four people have been arrested. In all other cases, the victims reported that the offenders either looked like non-Western immigrants, or they spoke a non-Western language. Not a single case has been connected to a Western man.”

According to official figures released in 2008, Third World immigration accounted for 25 percent of Oslo’s population. Data from the city and state statistics bureau shows that of Oslo’s 560,484 residents, 137,878 were immigrants.

The largest single immigrant group continues to be from Pakistan. Next in line is Somalia. Other countries with relatively large immigrant groups in Oslo include Sri Lanka, Iraq, Turkey, Vietnam and Iran.

In addition, an ever growing group of Third World immigrants is dependent on welfare. A study by Tyra Ekhaugen of the Frisch Centre for Economic Research and the University of Oslo concluded that immigration has increased the pressure on the welfare state, because many immigrants do not join the tax-paying part of the population.

Third World immigrants are, the study showed, recipients of social security benefits at a rate ten times that of native Norwegians — destroying the liberal argument used by pro-immigration politicians in Norway that immigration was necessary to maintain the social welfare state.

More than half of all social security benefits in the city of Oslo are spent on non-Western immigrants. Immigrants from Africa have the highest unemployment rate, with official figures in 2005 showing a black unemployment rate of 17.5 percent.

Immigrants from Asia had an unemployment rate of 12.3 percent, while those from South and Central America had an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent. The average unemployment rate amongst native Norwegians was 2.4 percent.

Source: BNP

South Africa Cricket Plunges Into Crisis

From indiaserver.com

South African cricket has plunged into crisis after Cricket South Africa (CSA) dismissed the entire selection committee. The move came after quitting of coach Mickey Arthur. The board has appointed an interim panel ahead of the Indian tour.

Mike Procter, convenor of the selectors, said "a meeting held last week with CSA bosses did not go well."

"Whatever transpired at that meeting led them to get rid of Mickey and also the selectors," Procter said on Wednesday.

Procter said CSA chief executive Gerald Majola told him that the selection panel was dysfunctional."It was a huge shock to us all."

"He said this selection panel would not be required in future. I think we had too short a time in the business: as selectors we always gave our own thoughts, we never ended up voting on issues. I think we were doing pretty well and in the short time we did introduce some new players."

Majola said Arthur's resignation came through the normal stock-taking process which followed the England home series and against the backdrop of the disappointing results of 2009.

Majola on Wednesday said,”A this process unfolded and remedies were sought, Mickey expressed the very honest and humble view that he did not believe that at this stage he could continue as coach of the Proteas."

"In the circumstances, he tendered his resignation and it is with much regret that the CSA Board accepted it. We have accepted Mickey's view that a change at the coaching helm is needed.”

Majola said CSA's high performance coach Corrie van Zyl will take over the coaching reins on a caretaker basis.The interim selection committee, which will replace the one led by Procter, comprises Majola, van Zyl and former captain Kepler Wessels.

The turmoil in South African cricket comes four days before the Proteas travel to India for a series which includes two Tests that will decide the top Test slot.

Van Zyl will now be in charge of the team in India."It's not the ideal situation to take over now, but I have worked with Mickey before," Van Zyl said.

"I had been focusing on the high performance centre till Monday, but I will meet with the captain in Cape Town tomorrow to prepare for India," Van Zyl added.

Arthur said he resigned because his vision for the national team differed with that of the board.

"I am disappointed, because when I started there I said I wanted to get South Africa to No. 1 in both forms of the game, I wanted to be the first South African coach to win in England, and the first to win in Australia. The only thing I didn't achieve was an ICC trophy," Arthur said.

Captain Graeme Smith was upset with the turn of events. He said, “Yesterday was a tough day for me," said Smith, who sat next to Arthur at a news conference.

"Mickey brought a lot of stability and calmness to the team and, having worked so closely together, it was disappointing, it hurt me, to hear the media telling everybody our relationship had broken down. I can tell you we spoke a few times on the telephone yesterday, so much for our relationship being irreparably damaged, we had a very healthy relationship and I gave him my full support."

USA versus Europe: The Differences Are Slight Don't You Think?

Extremists hack into SA sites

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Two Johannesburg-based websites were simultaneously defaced by hackers who daubed Muslim-extremist slogans on them.

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Photograph by: Bruce Gorton

The websites of the Gauteng department of local government and of fashion magazine Marie Claire were hacked into on Tuesday night and yesterday morning.

The department's website, which has now been shut, was hacked into by a group calling itself the CeCeN Hack Team.

Across the web page appeared the slogan Allahu Ekber (Turkish for "Allah is greatest"), followed by: "Denmark Israel asshole Americas. 45 thousand people will give account. Hooray Chechnya".

This is believed to be a reference to a Danish newspapers' publication of cartoon's showing and "insulting" the Muslim prophet, Mohammed.

A picture of a boy with both legs amputated, sitting on a chair with his prosthetic legs on the floor, appeared on the website's front page.

It was accompanied by an image of Shamil Basayev, a Chechen militant Islamist leader and a former leader of the Chechen separatist movement, believed to have been responsible for the 2004 attack on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in which 385 people, mostly children, were killed.

Marie Claire's website, which was launched on Monday, had "Hacked by Trex" written across it with a hand print underneath. Trex identify themselves as a "Turkish and Muslim hacking group".

Moulana Ebrahim Bham, of the Council of Muslim Theologians, said the council "condemns something like this, that apparently seems to be in the name of a Muslim cause".

"There is no reason for someone to do this, or to use a Muslim cause as a reason for hacking," Bham said.

Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff magazine, said that hackers do what they do "to show that they can".

Though Shapshak said the specific incidents appear to have a "political agenda", most of the time hackers are trying to show off their ability to hack into websites.

Shapshak warned that companies "need to put in place security measures and must ensure that they update them".

Both the department of local government and Marie Claire have called on information technology experts to investigate how their security was breached.

The Gauteng department of local government and housing spokesman, Fred Mokoko, said: "We have shut the website down and have referred the matter for investigation."

Marie Claire editor Aspasia Karras said: "The hackers took away a lot of the content. IT investigators are looking into it and we are checking on our security measures."

NAACP sues California Police Department over Hispanic on Black violence.

The NAACP, a group that makes a living defending and aiding black criminals, has sued a California police department. They say the police have not done enough to protect blacks from racially motivated violence committed by Hispanics. (By the way, 50% of all violent crimes committed by blacks are against white people.)

From ABC News

The NAACP joined several families in filing lawsuits Monday against Union City Police and school officials claiming they do not do enough to protect African American teens from gang violence.

Part of the suit stems from the December 2007 shooting death of 14-year-old Vernon Eddins outside of Barnard-White Middle School.

Nobody has been arrested for that crime.

The lawsuit claims a Hispanic gang called the “Decotos” has targeted black youths for several years.

Eddins’ mother, Alvette Fobbs, is one of the people suing Union City police and the New Haven Unified School District.

“Our kids are living a horror movie. They’ve had to live this life for three years. An innocent life has been taken, attempts on others, and still nothing is being done,” says Fobbs.

“The Union City Police Department and the City of Union City have a long-standing record of being responsive to the supporting and defending the rights of all members of our diverse community,” says police department Capt. Kevin Finnerty.

The plaintiffs also insist someone opened fire on a group of teens at Hayward’s Southland Mall this past Saturday because they wore shirts honoring Eddins.

Bill Gates: White kids not eligible for my scholarships.

Bill Gates has made his scholarship fund off limits to white teenagers. The Gates Millennium Scholarship fund is financed by a $1 Billion endowment Bill Gates made in 1999. The fund explicitly denies eligibility to white students.

“Students are eligible to be considered for a GMS scholarship if they: Are African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian and Pacific Islander American, or Hispanic American;”

Brilliant Plan to Give a Billion Dollars to Taliban

Why the Democrats and the Labour Party should never be allowed in the same room. Ever.

hat tip: Ghost of a flea

Report: Plan being considered to buy off Taliban for $1B or so

By Bridget Johnson - 01/27/10 05:18 PM ET

The United States and Britain are mulling a plan to buy off Taliban fighters in Afghanistan with as much as $1 billion over five years, according to a report Wednesday from Al-Jazeera.

Coalition partners plan to meet Thursday in London to discuss the stragety of the U.S.-led NATO effort in Afghanistan, where a roused insurgency has complicated efforts to forge a lasting peace.

According to Al-Jazeera, which reported that the U.S. and Britain were leading the charge for the buyoff plan, "the scheme would offer cash, jobs and other incentives to the Taliban and fighters in other armed groups," including community development projects in the fighters' villages, and could cost from $500 million to $1 billion over five years.

The goal would be to woo the less-radicalized of the Taliban back to the good side by offering to help alleviate their poverty, thus chipping away at the insurgency's ranks.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is skipping tonight's State of the Union address in Washington, is in London for the talks.

De Kock-Up, Woodworking, top list of 2010 buzzwords

Hayibo.com - South Africa's top catchphrases for 2010 - or "Kickball Year" as it is currently known to avoid infringing FIFA copyright - have been announced. The list includes such favourites as "SARS-chasm" and "nontroversy" (also known as "joosterday's news"), however Eugene de Kock and Julius 'The Carpenter' Malema came in top.

According to Professor Verbiage Mahlangu of the Department of Words at the Thabo Mbeki Memorial Techno-University in Polokwane, the list was a key indicator of what was on the minds of South Africans in 2010.

"These are words we think are going to define the year ahead," she said. "I would tell you the name of the year, but I'd get sued by Sepp Blatter."

She said favourite words included "SARS-chasm" - the gap between where tax revenue should be going and where it actually is going - and "outcomes-based retardation", also known as the South African schooling system.

The Top Five Buzzwords for Kickball Year are as follows:

DeKock up - To convince someone to choose a terrible option they would never take under normal circumstances by presenting an even worse one. E.g.: "In a dramatic DeKock up, Salty Dog opted to walk the plank after Captain Fang insisted that he spend a night of passion with Horrible Hetty the Pirate Slag."

Woodworking - To create a media frenzy and a storm of publicity by making wild accusations, violent threats or self-aggrandising band-standing on a key issue. (See also: "To Winnie").

Appled - Originating in Apple CEO Steve Jobs' ability to steal the thunder of any innovation by upping the ante, appled can be applied to any public undermining, technology-based or not. E.g: "Despite its total lack of plot, substance or character, Avatar appled District 9 at the box office and in the awards."

Card-guard - Defending half-baked accusations or arguments by pulling the race card. E.g. "Damn!" cried Helen Zille as she watched Julius Malema giggle. "Card-guarded again!"

Haiti Effect - The effect of a tragedy to transform apathy, contempt or even hatred into an outpouring of compassion and love. E.g.: "In a strong display of the Haiti Effect today, millions of South Africans described the late Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as 'not all bad', and swore that they had always loved Michael Jackson despite not having listened to any of his music since Thriller."

For more satirical news visit www.hayibo.com

More from Hayibo.com

Feminists Are At It Again: Look, But Don't Look

Apparently we men sexually objectify women, and it is wrong. Well, at least the feminists tell us it is, despite women financially objectifying men. Also, hello, what about the obvious? We are biologically hard-wired to want to procreate. Nothing like sharing our selfish genes with a nice piece of ass, as long as we can pay the bills. No, seriously, read the following article.

Are women objectified? We hear it everyday. We hear it so much that for some, the statement simply goes in one ear and out the other. It has become common knowledge that women are being objectified in commercials, billboards, movies, and everywhere else an attractive woman just happens to be standing and men just happen to be looking.

Why is this common knowledge? Well, if there was anything anyone could possibly claim feminism is solely responsible for, this is it. There is little need to revisit the past to examine the cause and effect of this issue as there is plenty of evidence right now of the inherent bigotry against men and women feminists are still spreading through endless propaganda.

Basically, if an attractive woman, and only an attractive woman, one with the figure of say, a swimsuit model is posing for a picture in any kind of provocative clothing then she is being objectified. Forget the fact that this woman chose to do this knowing that her looks would sell whatever product she was posing for, forget the fact that this woman more than likely takes care of her body by working out and eating right keeping herself fit and healthy, forget everything that makes sense, forget logic, and forget reason. Now that every rational explanation as to why women are not objectified in the media has been set aside, let’s look at the feminist reasoning as to why every woman that is attractive is being objectified. Those reasons being; because men are in charge of the photo shoot, commercial, or movie where the woman has to parade herself around in front of the camera and patriarchy, their fall back reason on any issue for blaming men.

Read more »

Caption Competition

OK peeps, time to get your thinking caps on and dazzle us with your wit and intelligence. I'm looking for a caption to the above pic. Let your imagination roam a bit and let us know what you think 1) the dog is thinking 2) the cop is thinking 3) The "suspect/s" is/are thinking or any combination of the above. Whatever. The best submission will receive a POB award (Pat On the Back) and no doubt our admiration.

Drug Trafficking To Supplement ANC Income: Allegedly

There is a heap of stinking turd forming here. Let me give you the run down. The wife of State Security Minister, Siyabonga Cwele, has been arrested on drug trafficking charges. Minister Siyabonga Cwele happens to be Mo Shaik's, head of National Intelligence, boss. Cwele's wife, Sheryl Cwele, happens to be the Director of Health and Community Services in the Hibiscus Coast Municipality.

Naturally, Siyabonga, who happens to be privy to the most sensitive information, didn't know what wifey was up to.

The Cwele's happened to be neighbours with Tessa Beetge, the drug mule that was arrested with 9kg of cocaine in her possession, whilst returning from Brazil. She is currently in a Sau Paulo prison.

Beetge was linked to Frank Nabolisa, a well known drug dealer. Beetge claimed in 2008, that Cwele had initiated the contact been Nabolisa and herself, and that the ill-fated Brazilian trip had been planned by Cwele. Of course Cwele denied the allegations from this "crazy white bitch."

Apparently there were known links connecting Beetge and Nabolisa to Cwele, via emails, text messages and prison letters. Finally, the Hawks acted. So much for the Intelligence apparatus being all knowing.

Sheryl Cwele, the wife of the State Security Minister, was arrested at her South Coast home early this morning and was due to appear in court today, the NPA confirmed this morning.

The swoop by The Hawks was timed for the day after she returned to her job as the director of health and community services in the Hibiscus Coast Municipality.

The Mercury reported in its exclusive front page interview with Cwele today that there would be a major development in the high-profile drug case, in which there have already been two other arrests.

It included South African Tessa Beetge who was arrested in Brazil in 2008 and later convicted on drug-related charges and sentenced to eight years in a Sao Paolo jail.

Interviewed by The Mercury yesterday, Cwele spoke about the cloud hanging over her head and the toll it had taken on her family.

She proclaimed her innocence and referred to her faith as a Christain and belief that "the only person who will solve the problem is God". (This sounds ominously familiar, and suggests a sense of impunity)

Her husband, Minister Siyabonga Cwele, was tightlipped last night.

"I don't know anything about what you're talking about and nobody has been charged," he said at the time.

Source: Mercury

Nationalise ANC Investment Company

Yebo gogo, I really like this one. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, fight fire with fire. Two can play this game and what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Something like that. OK, it's a big pose on the part of the DA youth wing, but I like the challenge to the ANC, who have proved themselves to be nothing more than bourgeois capitalists, eminently corruptible and hypocritical to the core. I wonder how "Stinkbomb" Malema will respond to this?

The Democratic Alliance's youth wing called for the nationalisation of the ANC's investment company, Chancellor House.

"Reading through the resolutions put before Cosatu's 10th national congress it becomes clear that there is an appetite for nationalisation," party MP Khume Ramulifho said.

"In the spirit of nationalisation then, the DA Youth has a proposal to make - Chancellor House, the ANC's funding front house, should be nationalised."

Ramulifho was responding to calls by the ANC Youth League and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and its affiliates to nationalise mining houses, the SA Reserve Bank and Sasol, among others.

"If Tokyo Sexwale should be nationalised, why not Chancellor House," Ramulifho asked, referring to calls for Sexwale's wealth to be redistributed.

"We look forward to the staunch support of Cosatu and its affiliates, as well as the ANC Youth League, on this issue.

"We have full confidence that they understand that Chancellor House relies heavily on money taken from the public, and that, as such the public should own it."

Yes, you are....

The Cost of Asylum Seekers in the UK

Just subtract it from the Aid budget ......

 

ASYLUM seekers now cost the taxpayer nearly £5million a week to house.

And the cost of putting them up has almost doubled in two years.

New figures released to MPs, show that in the last financial year the Government forked out £230m to house immigrant families seeking asylum.

That has nearly doubled since 2006/7, when it cost £132m to shelter those who claim they cannot return home.

According to Immigration Minister Phil Woolas 20 companies or local councils house asylum seekers.

Last year Cardiff City Council pocketed £4.8m to house 560 households. In addition, Liverpool City Council received £6.1m to put up 290 families and Nottingham £5.7m for 580.

Private companies received up to £37.6m each to care for the refugees. The number of households being supported has also leapt, with 24,890 dealt with in the last financial year compared to 16,550 two years before. The statistics have been met with fury by critics.

Tory MP Stewart Jackson, who questioned Mr Woolas on the matter in Parliament, said: “This Government has completely lost control of the system.

“Meanwhile. the poor old UK taxpayer is having to pick up the tab.”

But Matthew Coats, Head of Immigration at the UK Border Agency, said: “Overall asylum support costs have halved since 2003/04. We have secured robust, flexible contracts with the commercial suppliers providing value for money accommodation to eligible asylum seekers.”

Susie Squire, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “The most troubling thing we have seen is ineffective and expensive housing for those seeking asylum. We need to look at why these figures are climbing because the taxpayer cannot be expected to foot a bill this large.”

And Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch, added: “These figures are astonishing. The cost of accommodation for asylum seekers has almost doubled in two years and now approaches £5m a week.

“The Government must explain how this has happened.”

Matthew Coats, Head of Immigration at the UK Border Agency, said: “Overall asylum support costs have halved since 2003/04.

“We have secured robust and flexible contracts with commercial suppliers to provide value for money accommodation to eligible asylum seekers.”

In December it was revealed that a Somali family of ex-asylum seekers were living in a £1,600-a-week £1.8m five-storey house in central London - funded by the taxpayer.

US 82nd Airborne shocked by ingratitude of Haitians. Forced to use free food as an incentive for the Haitians to behave.

From the Irish Times.

Fear of riots as tonnes of food lie awaiting distribution

Women pray at Mass in the Alta Grace Church in the Delmas area
a man looting from the Caribbean shopping centre
• Louissant Banningchton at his makeshift home in the Pétionville camp. Photographs: Brenda Fitzsimons
• Members of the US 82nd Airborne man the barriers that separate the Pétionville Country Club from the refugee camp

LARA MARLOWE at the Pétionville Club, Port-au-Prince

There are heartbreaking scenes amid the picnic tables and golf tees of a former haven for elites.

US ARMY specialist Juan Valencia stood on the hillside above the Haitian capital, watching the teeming camp below with binoculars. “I’m just making sure they don’t have any weapons. They’re allowed to have weapons, but not within range of our guys,” said the spotter for the 82nd Airborne Division.

If one could for a moment forget the earthquake of January 12th, the 200,000 dead people and millions of Haitians in distress, the Pétionville golf club would be a beautiful place, with immaculate landscaping and vistas over the Caribbean. In the wake of the catastrophe, an estimated 60,000 Haitians rushed to its slopes, where they languish in tents fashioned from tree branches, bedsheets and rope.

Some 300 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division occupy the heights above the displaced Haitians, bivouacked in the clubhouse and tennis courts. The American actor Sean Penn, who with a former Bosnian refugee-turned-millionairess founded an instant NGO, is camping on one of the tennis courts. There are army lorries, Humvees painted desert tan from Iraq, and tonnes of food and water, waiting for distribution. [Lucky Sean Penn is there, although unless he can handle an M16 he won't be much use other than as a publicity whore]

But crowd control remains an almost insurmountable problem. Word has gone out that the impoverished masses at the Pétionville Club will receive food and water, and the camp grows daily, with some aid workers saying it now numbers 100,000. Oxfam has done a heroic job of installing giant water bladders with taps, but this is insufficient.

The US Catholic Relief Service (CRS) was able to distribute 1,300 food kits late last week, but full-scale distribution has repeatedly been delayed for fear of food riots, while CRS divides the camp into A, B, C and D blocks and distributes a voucher to the mother of each family, in the hope of organising an orderly distribution. If all goes well, CRS will begin its distribution today. “If it takes an extra day to do it right, it’s worth it,” says Donal Reilly, the Dubliner in charge of food distribution for CRS.

The camp, one of the largest of some 500 in Port-au-Prince, is becoming infamous as a place where the displaced can find water and a modicum of security, provided by the US military, but no food. It’s not entirely true; the 82nd Airborne gave away 10,000 meals each day until Saturday, making this camp the US military’s largest distribution point in Port-au-Prince. But the Americans decided the food attracted too many people to a volatile site, and temporarily stopped it.

“The crowd has calmed down,” Lt Brad Kerfoot said as he surveyed the tent city below us. Fights broke out the previous day when CRS tried to distribute vouchers – not even food, just vouchers. “We told them we wouldn’t give any food away today, because of the way they behaved yesterday,” says Kerfoot.

The military and CRS officials say there are no signs of starvation in the camp. Some of its inhabitants have enough money to buy food in the local market. And the soldiers say they see ration boxes hoarded in what they call “the village”.

“Yesterday, they threw water bottles back at us and said, ‘We don’t want your water’,” Lt Kerfoot says. “When we gave out high energy biscuits, they threw them on the ground and stomped on them when they saw they were cookies. My soldiers and I think they’re ungrateful.”

The displaced Haitians want food, not water, a Haitian woman explained to me. And in their culture, biscuits are not real food, but something given to children. [which is what they have shown themselves to be]

During the day, Lt Kerfoot positions two riflemen armed with M4s above the camp. After nightfall, there’s an entire squadron. “There’s people in the camp with guns,” explains Donal Reilly of CRS. “There’ve been knife fights. The Americans told me last night the Haitians were selling drugs. It’s turning into a typical Port-au-Prince slum, and there’s not one policeman down there.”

Nor is there a single toilet or shower, for 60,000 people. Piles of rubbish smoulder between the tents. Women fry fritters and fish on charcoal stoves beside their shelters. Reilly worries about sanitation and the fire hazard. There are no fire breaks, and the bedsheet tents are highly flammable.

Amid the picnic tables and golf tees in this refuge of Haiti’s pre-quake elite, there are heart-breaking scenes. In dozens of tents, people told me they were hungry, thirsty and had nowhere to go. Several said they expected to die in the Pétionville Club.

But even in the worst deprivation, Haitians have maintained a sense of humour. One bedsheet tent bore a cardboard sign declaring it to be “Tikay O Beach”.

Louissant Banningchton (26), a painter who wears his dreadlocks in a knitted snood, constructed a “Presidential Palace” of cardboard boxes stamped “Humanitarian daily rations. Food gift from the people of the United States of America”. “Thank you Jesus,” “Haiti 4 America” and “God Bless America” are slogans Banningchton painted on the “palace” before declaring himself president.

A few miles away, at Turgeau, the Irish aid group Goal was carrying out its second distribution of basic food supplies. By last night Goal was to have given a 15-day food supply to 9,000 peoples. Goal’s emergency co-ordinator, Brian Casey, had carefully assessed the neighbourhood’s needs, and co-ordinated the distribution with local leaders. The hand-out nonetheless started tensely, with Haitians from other neighbourhoods clamouring for food being held back by Sri Lankan UN troops.

For John O’Shea, the head of Goal who visited Port-au-Prince at the weekend, the Haitian relief effort is still too little, too slowly. “Up to 1.5 million people need all of their basic requirements seen to,” O’Shea said. “There isn’t an entity on the planet that can satisfy the needs of 1.5 million people. We don’t have it because the international community hasn’t established an international fire brigade.” [huh?]

O’Shea believes Ireland is the nation best qualified to established such an organisation. [hahahahahah, what? with what money? idiot]

In the meantime, he wants President Barack Obama, who has sent $100 million in aid and 12,000 military personnel, to be given overall authority – not the UN. “The one phrase I heard most here was: ‘Who in God’s name is in charge?’ ” says O’Shea.

SA in 'Haiti-like' situation

This is interesting. SA has not, of course, just had a massive earthquake, but the ANC is destructive in its own special way..

It's also complete bullshit. This is the government that encouraged it's poorest citizens to leave their homes and head to formerly "white" areas to outbreed and outvote the minority, without any thought of what they would do when they got there.

It's a result too of the government being to useless to develop areas where people actually are and finding a way to make them want to stay there.

****

Cape Town - South Africa is dealing with a "Haiti like situation" every day with squatters around the country enduring floods, fires and disease, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday.

"We are dealing every day with a manmade disaster," Sexwale said during a briefing to Parliament's human settlements committee.

"It is Haiti every day. The earth broke there. Here the earth is not broken, but consequences are the same. It is a disaster."

Sexwale said that in 1994 there were around 300 informal settlements in South Africa, while today there were more than 2 600.

'Not government's fault'

The growth of informal settlements was not the fault of the government, he said.

"People have run away from many push factors."

"These are refugees in our own country. It is a disaster. This is disaster management, but with a view of creating assets, with a view of giving those people a better quality of life."

People were also being pulled towards built-up areas to find work, to reconnect with families broken up by single cell hostel systems created by mining houses and to be closer to amenities.

"They are like all of us. They want schools, cinemas. They want shopping malls. So when they park next to a highway don't blame them. They go [to] the highway because it brings them closer to getting bread."

Sexwale said in one informal settlement he come across children blowing up used condoms as though they were balloons.

"They pick up anything that shines," he said.

- SAPA

Abortion and Asylum in Ireland

Of course it's from Human Rights Watch, who else?

(N.B. Abortion is illegal in Ireland, thousands of women travel to England every year.)

This report is probably the reason I'm in such a foul mood today.

First off, it really needs to be pointed out in no uncertain terms that, under EU law, an asylum seeker can ONLY claim asylum in the FIRST EU country they pitch up in, they cannot move on to another country and claim asylum there. Ireland has NO direct flights to many of these shitty countries that spit out "refugees" on a regular basis, and certainly not to Nigeria or any West African country. It is very important to digest that point fully, and the next two as well.

So, not only are these people illegal, they only come to Ireland, via England or the Netherlands, because of Ireland's insanely generous welfare provisions.

Thirdly, asylum seeker is the status of someone who is trying to become a refugee, and there's an important legal distinction. 93% -yes that's not far off 100%- of asylum seekers are not accepted as refugees in Ireland, which means they are lying liars who are facing no danger in their own country and are just trying to go somewhere to get free stuff.

From the report:

For women who are in the asylum seeking process in Ireland, money is even more difficult to borrow, earn or find.[103] The majority of such women are housed in special reception centers operated by the Reception and Integration Agency, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. They receive an allowance of just €19.10 per week, and an additional €6.90 per child per week.[104] They do not have the right to work under Irish law to earn further income. The costs of traveling to obtain an abortion are plainly out of reach for them, unless they are willing to take drastic action.

Asylum seekers are in a particularly vulnerable position. Often isolated, without family and other social support, they fear the consequences of seeking permission to leave the country to have an abortion. They also face additional costs as they have no travel documents, and must therefore apply and pay for emergency temporary travel documents, which are issued by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. They will also have to apply and pay for visas to enter the UK, or Schengen visas to enter into a European Union (EU) country. Currently the cost of a UK visa is £65 (€72).[105] Application fees for a Schengen visa to the Netherlands cost £60 (€67).[106]

A service provider, who spoke to Human Rights Watch on condition of anonymity, described the situation of a young female asylum seeker she had worked with:

She could not legally leave the country. Her difficulties were that she didn’t know where to go ... money and her legal status. We made the call to Holland ... she needed to get a re-entry visa to return and to apply for a Schengen visa.... She needed a temporary travel document from the Department of Justice—we had a contact there—not sure how someone without a contact would do this.... It took a whole month to organize this. She was just over 12 weeks pregnant when she went to Holland. There were fees attached to the issuing of all the documents and there was no funding available for this.[107]

Mary E, a young woman from an African country, had already applied for asylum when she became pregnant and decided to terminate her pregnancy. For her, “money was a big concern.”[108] She was aware of the costs and difficulties associated with applying for permission to travel, having “known other women in the same process for whom the help came too late.”[109] Struggling to raise the costs of travel and the abortion, “it took six weeks to get the money together,” Mary couldn’t afford a further delay or any additional costs. She decided to “borrow” the passport of a friend, fully aware that if she was caught she would face immediate deportation.

Now just wait a damn second.

These are people who managed to sneak into Ireland - an island in the Atlantic - from countries that have no direct travel links to Ireland, and somehow they can't manage to get a back alley abortion? Nor can they muster the wiliness to sneak back across to England for a cheapie (yet safe) abortion there, it seems, despite having trafficked themselves into the country in the first place?

Nor, despite their precarious legal status, can they manage to keep their legs together for the duration of the uncertainty. I love the South African expression - and you guys have no idea how hilarious it is, by the way - to "fall pregnant". She "fell pregnant" whilst just minding her own business when suddenly - BAM! - she slipped on a mushroom and fell horribly pregnant.

Anyway.

I really don't think free abortions for asylum seekers is a major economic issue right now.

"You MUST Respect My Culture, Despite It Being Backward"

Related Article:
Big Bollocks Zuma Plans To Wed Again and Again and ...

I will add my commentary at the end, in italics.

[Source - BBC News] South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has defended polygamy during a question and answer session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mr Zuma, who married his third wife earlier this month, said it was part of his Zulu culture and did not detract from his belief in women's equality.

Asked if he loved all his wives equally, he replied: "Absolutely".

Correspondents say Mr Zuma's belief in the traditional practice of polygamy has divided South Africans.

Some support him but many younger people believe it should have no place in a modern society.

Newsweek International's editor Fareed Zakaria was chairing the session on South Africa with Mr Zuma at Davos.

"There are many people who say that symbolically this is a great step backward for the leader of South Africa to be embracing a practice that they say is inherently unfair to women," he said.

But Mr Zuma dismissed the criticism.

"That's my culture. It does not take anything from me, from my political beliefs, including the belief in the equality of women," AFP news agency quoted the president as saying.

"Some think that their culture is superior to others, that's a problem we have in the world."

His answer on equality drew laughter from the audience, AP news agency reported.

"There are many people in this audience who find it a challenge to be married to one person," Mr Zakaria quipped.

This journalist could have done a lot better. This isn't just about the equality of women. Zuma happens to be the leader of a country racked by HIV and AIDS. What kind of signal is being broadcast, when you not only insist on being polygamous, but you enjoy extra-marital affairs at the same time, without protection nogal? As for equality, don't joke, your track record speaks for itself.

But Zuma's utterance, that the sense of cultural superiority by some, is the problem. Really? So, in a nutshell, I MUST accept the practices of any culture, no matter how retarded or barbaric. That's a laugh; I suppose we can then see a return of cannibalism, burning of witches, sharia law and polygamy.

You see, what he means is that the white world deems itself to be superior, and is therefore racist, given that the sense of superiority is a fundamental part of racism. But is it a sense of superiority, or is it simply a matter of knowing better? Being in a more informed position, does not make you superior, but certainly more enlightened. Of course, the retarded cultures of the world wouldn't want to frame it like that, because it would highlight the REAL problem in the world; STUPIDITY.