Cops Nab What Robbers Leave behind

Fake Cops...Robbers dressed as Cops...er...Real Cops that are Robbers...Makes your choice. This is the problem in ZA. The ubiquitous criminal element is embedded so deeply in the fabric of society, it's something everyone has become used to.

I don't know what is worse, the fact that robbers pose as cops, or real cops are hardened criminals? And how exactly do common criminals get hold of multiple police uniforms? How did they get to know the details of this particular crime?

Either way it makes no difference. The SA Police Farce Force is a joke in any case and there is not a single member amongst the whole corrupt horde of the bastards that I would respect (if I still lived there that is) fat, useless, corrupt parasites that they are. Just like their political masters.


Seugnet Esterhuyse, Beeld
Pretoria - A week after being robbed, the Bruwer family of Highveld, Centurion, could only watch as robbers dressed in police uniforms took what valuable items remained.

André Bruwer, 53, suspects the robbers returned to get access to a second safe.

The robbers also wanted to know where the security cameras were. This second safe and the security cameras were mentioned in his conversation with the police who took his statement after the earlier robbery.

A TV, sound system, cellphone, laptop and safe were stolen during that robbery. Bruwer and his wife, Laurenza, 51, had failed to activate the alarm that day.

Statement

Bruwer told on Tuesday how he had made a statement at the Lyttleton police station and told an official there that the robbers had "left various valuable items behind, including another safe".

He also mentioned that they would be installing security cameras.

Mrs Bruwer and her daughter, Luandri, 20, were alone at home on Sunday when two men in police uniforms knocked on the front door. One of them told Mrs Bruwer that they were investigating the robbery and that they had arrested all three suspects.





They wanted more information.


She invited them in. One of them then held a pistol to her head.


Three more armed men, also in police uniforms, entered the house after them.

One of the robbers asked her for the second safe's code. He also asked where the security camera footage was kept.

Looking for specific things

The man said they would rape her and her daughter until she gave the code. She said only her husband had the code.

The robbers tied up her and her daughter's hands and demanded jewellery.

"This time they were looking for specific things. To me it's just too much of a coincidence that things mentioned only to the police were precisely the things they were looking for," she said on Tuesday.

The men fled with the other safe, jewellery and money.

This robbery was also reported to the Lyttleton police (!)

- Beeld

New Age publisher arrested

Excellent! Let them publish this story in their propaganda rag due to launch next week! HA-HA....

H/T - Daschund

Johannesburg – Businessman Atul Gupta, the publisher of the new ANC-linked newspaper The New Age, was arrested at the weekend for refusing to be searched by police, an official said on Monday.

"He was stopped somewhere in Sandton and police wanted to search him and he refused," Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Kweza said.

"He was then taken to the police station and he was released on a warning.

"He is appearing in the Randburg Magistrate's Court today (Monday)."

Kweza said she could not comment on a report in the Sowetan newspaper that Gupta boasted that he knew national police chief Bheki Cele and threatened to get the police officers who arrested him fired.

The New Age is due to launch next month.

Gupta is said to be a close friend of ANC leader President Jacob Zuma and also funds The Thinker magazine, edited by former minister in the presidency, Essop Pahad.

Gupta's brother, Rajesh, and Zuma's son, Duduzane Zuma, are business partners who own shares in steel company ArcelorMittal.

The Sowetan reported that Duduzane Zuma went to the police station after Gupta was arrested.

- SAPA

South Africans Put on Brave Face at Commonwealth Games, Still Cry Racism

The only good news is that India's poor preparation for the Commonwealth Games stands in stark contrast to the excellent show South Africa put on for the far more popular FIFA World Cup this year.

Related: SA Off to the Games

NEW DELHI: South Africa led the charge of the African nations against the shoddy Commonwealth Games preparations on Sunday. As the Delhi government carried out frantic clean-up operations in the Games Village, South Africa set the cat among the pigeons by saying a snake had been found in an athlete's room.

South Africa's high commissioner to India Harris Majeke told reporters a snake had been found in the room of an athlete at the Games Village. "That was really a threat to the lives of our athletes," he said, complaining of filth in the living quarters including basements of the buildings. "When everything is done, then we will ask our teams to come," he added.

The South African criticism is part of a larger grouse of the African nations against organisers of the Commonwealth Games. While the OC has been overly sensitive to the wishes of countries like the UK, Australia and Canada, the African countries found that they had been virtually ignored by the organisers.

The first site visit for the African countries to Games venues was arranged only this week. For months, said sources, African countries have been asking for information from the government, but in vain. Last week was the first time they got any briefing from the ministry of external affairs.

MEA has itself been kept out of the Games preparations, and was brought in virtually at the last minute when the damage control exercise had to be rolled out. Since they are the most familiar point of contact for the African nations, it was particularly frustrating that nobody was telling them anything, least of all the organisers. The first briefing was, sources said, little more than a bare bones briefing, because the MEA itself was not kept on board.

In fact, privately, the word from many African countries is that India was practising the same kind of racism against the African countries that India itself has complained against.

Out of the 53 nations in the Commonwealth, there are 19 from the African continent, all of whom are participating in the Games. This week, India will also play host to the president of Mozambique, a member of the Commonwealth, though it used to be a Portuguese colony and not a British one.

On Saturday, a visibly upset high commissioner of Rwanda -- a former Belgian colony and one of the most recent additions to the Commonwealth -- was seen looking for the Indian quarters in the Games Village. "I want to see their quarters. The place they have given us for our accommodation is not clean and my athletes are arriving here tomorrow," was his explanation.

However, India got a vote of confidence from South Africa's Olympic boss. In a statement, Gideon Sam said he would himself clean toilets to ensure the success of the Games. "Our athletes will have no excuses if they do not perform at the Games," Sam, president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), said ahead of the team's departure on Sunday.

"If they are unhappy with their rooms because they have not been swept, they must take off their jackets and sweep them themselves. We will not complain. South Africans do not do that," Sam added. "And when I get there on Friday, if a toilet is not clean, I will clean it myself."

It only adds to India's shame.

Derby-Lewis Too Ill for Jail

The chapter in the sad life of Clive Derby-Lewis takes another plot twist. A man who should not even be in jail, in the opinion of this author, faces daily neglect and harrassment resulting in the possible amputation of the 74-year-old's leg.

Derby-Lewis is still in jail despite the Truth and Reconciliation Commission having freed some of the worst criminals in South African history. His crime? He 'conspired' to murder Communist Chris Hani in 1993. He didn't even pull the trigger.

A horrendous injustice exacerbated.

---

Clive Derby-Lewis, the man who killed Chris Hani, remains too ill to be transferred back to prison from hospital after an operation to treat gangrene. Photo: Independent Newspapers

Clive Derby-Lewis, the man who killed Chris Hani, remains too ill to be transferred back to prison from hospital after an operation to treat gangrene, his lawyer said on Sunday.

Marius Coertze said Derby-Lewis, 74, was on a second course of antibiotics following an operation on Tuesday to remove dead tissue from his right leg. Doctors may yet have to amputate the limb to stop the infection from spreading.

“If the gangrene does not clear quickly, his lower right leg will have to be amputated to stop the infection spreading to the rest of his body.”

Coertze said Derby-Lewis's blood pressure had stabilised, but was likely to return to life threatening levels if he was transferred from the private hospital, where he is being treated, to prison.

He again accused prison authorities of deliberately neglecting Derby-Lewis's health problems and said prison guards were interfering with his medical treatment in hospital. They were keeping him chained to his bed, despite warnings from doctors that he could develop blood clots.

“Doctors are shocked that prison personnel are openly and shamelessly seeking to damage his health,” Coertze said.

Prison authorities had ignored the fact that Derby-Lewis was suffering from advanced skin cancer on his face, he added.

“Correctional Services was clearly aware of Clive's condition but neglected and concealed it in the hope that he would die of 'natural causes' in jail. It would then have been quite easy to cover up their clandestine and inhumane actions,” he charged.

Derby-Lewis is serving a life term for the murder of SA Communist Party general secretary Hani on April 10, 1993.

He has applied for parole and the application is thought to be before the National Council on Correctional Services, awaiting referral to Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for a decision.

Hani was shot in the head as he climbed out of his car outside his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg, by Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, using a pistol lent to him by Derby-Lewis, a Conservative Party MP.

Six months later, Walus and Derby-Lewis were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and were sentenced to death.

However, this was commuted to life imprisonment in 1995, when capital punishment was abolished. - Sapa

Screenshot released

We have managed to obtain a screenshot of the K-A-W (Transformer Chicken) virus in action.  We recommend shutting down your PC immediately and contacting the experts at I Luv SA when this virus manifests itself.

PC Virus Warning (Again)

**Sigh**

We've issued this warning before and thought we had got rid of it. The previous pernicious virus was the irritating BC (Black Coffee) virus, now it is the K-A-W virus that seems to have infected our space.

It is attempting to erase everything on our blog site and may be aiming to infiltrate your's too. This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM, FBI and even Microsoft states that this is a very dangerous and malicious virus, much worse than the "I Love You," or “Melissa” virus and there is NO remedy for it at this time. The virus has tentatively been termed the K-A-W or TRANSFORMER CHICKEN virus.

Some very sick individual has succeeded in using the reformat function from Google in an attempt to replicate to all file comments on your blog site, and attempt to replace them with an inferior mimic Trojan. It has been designed to work against Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer bloggers. It will even back-chat Macintosh and IBM computer geeks alike.

Nobody, we repeat, NOBODY is safe from the K-A-W virus. Do NOT attempt to engage with, or chat back to the virus. It is a looping replicator virus, and you could spend hours on the internet stuck in a "Whack-a-Mole" loop. There is no escape once you have entered this slippery slope. Sadly, most novice computer users will not realise what is happening until it is far too late.

This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it. You may not be aware of it but your blog may already be infected with the K-A-W virus. Pass this warning along to EVERYONE in your address book and please share it with all your online friends ASAP so that this threat may be stopped. Please practice cautionary measures and tell anyone that may have access to your computer.

Deleting the K-A-W virus is impossible, it will simply re-appear in another guise – ie, it can mutate, and not only that (take it from an expert), the virus has the capacity to auto install itself as almost anything:

"SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It will then proceed to trash the computer it is running on.

Please send this information with the most number of people that you can, in case you receive a file comment from this virus on any subject whatsoever.

The bottom line is: if you receive file comment, do not attempt to delete the file comment. The only sure fire way of avoiding infection is, once file comment has been received from K-A-W CHICKEN TRANSFORMER, simply DO NOT READ IT!

It will eventually feed on itself in an nth-complexity infinite binary loop, and eventually (hopefully) destroy itself.

Zumas Faces Down Malema

Mini-Me Malama has a crack at Zuma (even if it's bang on target) but JZ's not having it.

Zuma gives final warning at NGC

September 24 2010 at 02:53pm

---

Anyone who crosses the line in the ANC will “face the consequences,” ANC president Jacob Zuma said at the closing of the party's national general council in Durban on Friday.

Zuma, who was welcomed with cheers and the singing of “Zuma , my president” from the 2000 delegates, said the party's branches had “spoken eloquently” on the organisation's “renewal” and the restoration of its “integrity”.

“Anyone who crosses the line will face the consequences,” Zuma said to cheers.

“The NGC has agreed that the conduct of any ANC member must never undermine the standing of the ANC in public.”

Zuma said the NGC had instructed the party's leadership to “root out” factional elements in the party, including those in the national executive committee (NEC).

The party, he said, was “stronger, more stable, and more focused” than two years ago.

In his political report at the start of the NGC on Monday, Zuma hit out at the ANC Youth League saying the party's leadership would work with the ANCYL after the NGC to ensure that “regrettable incidents” were “dealt with”.

His remarks came after a barrage of insults from ANCYL president Julius Malema, who said before the NGC that party members should not following the example of leaders who took multiple wives.

Zuma has three wives and is engaged to a fourth. - Sapa

Still an idiot… and race-baiter

Viking’s post on Al Sharpton made me think of something I posted at TRP last year, heard on Al’s show.  If this doesn’t tell you something about the mud hut mentality of some of our “brothers”, nothing will:

Hat tip to Sarah’s Albion Blog and The Radio Equalizer for the following interesting, or should I rather say absurd, bit heard on The Al Sharpton Show. A female caller by the name of Ashley proposed the conspiracy theory that Sarah Palin stepped down from office because she could be responsible for Michael Jackson’s demise.

 

However absurd and delusional this sounds, I am not surprised. I might have been. That is until I heard the name Al Sharpton. The moment that came into the mix, the outcome was always going to be a disaster of monumental proportions. And what could Al’s response possibly be to such utter drivel? “All right, thank you for your call, Ashley. That’s interesting.”

Interesting? That one word gives us enough insight into the jungle bunny mindset, the mud hut mentality and utter ignorance of one Al Sharpton. Which also explains why this African American would be more at home behind a jungle drum on the dark continent than a microphone in the greatest country on earth.

Since the terrible, racist whites enslaved you and your forefathers Mr Sharpton, why don’t you rectify the situation and move back to the dark continent? It is still there. Your brothers and sisters are still there. To this day you still associate your existence with them – you call yourself African American don’t you? So why don’t you move there? Your African heritage seems more important to you than your American one.

Or are the insults thrown at white people only convenient to put idiotic liberals on white-guilt trips and make you more money? It’s not really about your history and heritage, is it? It’s about a comfortable lifestyle which somebody else pays for.

Here is the transcript of the call:

FEMALE CALLER: He (Michael Jackson) is truly the soundtrack of my life. I also have a theory about Sarah Palin as well and I’m going to put it out there on radio, hopefully someone can investigate.

But, I think maybe she did something to Michael Jackson. Maybe there’s a scandal there. Maybe she’s stepping down because something’s about to come out. I don’t know, but I’m gonna just put it out there on your show so we’ll see.

SHARPTON: All right, thank you for your call, Ashley. That’s interesting. I’ll put it out, we’ll see. I don’t know.

Al Sharpton Defends Hate Speech

h/t Tundra Tabloids

Our old friend Louis Theroux interviews professional race-baiter Al Sharpton.



Funny, Harlem wasn't hell when Thomas Sowell was growing up there.

Zuma's Revenge

What's this? Zuma video game!

Note the resemblance?

Decisions, decisions.....

Top Five Conspiracy Theories

An oldie but a goldie...for new readers!



September 11 was orchestrated by the U. S. government

• A number of urban myths, alternative hypotheses and conspiracy theories have been formulated to explain the events of September 11th:
• The U.S., Israel or Iraq government orchestrated the attacks themselves.
• The Twin Towers fell straight down, at close to free-fall speed. This is a similar characteristic of a controlled demolition. The dust cloud and its make up are considered un-characteristic of a gravity-driven collapse.
• It is often pointed out that no steel building before or since the 9-11 attack has collapsed as the result of fire.
• The rubble of the Twin Towers smoldered for weeks after the collapse. This claim is meant to point out that steel could only have smoldered as a result of pre-placed explosives.
• Some consider photographic evidence of the plane lying on the grounds of the Pentagon to be ambiguous and unconvincing, citing a visual lack of burnt metal, human remains, passenger's luggage or seats.
• The Pentagon was struck in a newly renovated, reinforced section. Some speculate this location, the west side of the complex, to be indicative of government involvement, noting it as an attempt to reduce casualties.
• Flight 77 was able to fly in the direction of the DC and Pentagon area for approximately 40 minutes without interception. This is thought to be unusual given the Pentagon's close proximity to Andrews Air Force Base.
• There are claims that anti-missile batteries at the Pentagon should have intercepted Flight 77.
• The FBI confiscated a video, which may have captured the impact, from a nearby gas station attended by Jose Velasquez. This video has not yet been released.


Barcodes are really intended to Control people





Some conspiracy theorists have proposed that barcodes are really intended to serve as means of control by a putative world government, or that they are Satanic in intent.

Mary Stewart Relfe claims in "The New Money System 666" that barcodes secretly encode the number 666 - the Biblical "Number of the Beast".

This theory has been adopted by other fringe figures such as the "oracle" Sollog, who refuses to label any of his books with barcodes on the grounds that "any type of computer numbering systems MANDATED by any government or business is part of the PROPHECY of the BEAST controlling you."


The Truth is out there, on Area 51




• The secretive nature of Area 51 and undoubted connection to classified aircraft research, together with reports of unusual phenomena, have led Area 51 to become a centerpiece of modern UFO and conspiracy theory folklore. Some of the unconventional activities claimed to be underway at Area 51 include:
• The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell), the study of their occupants (living and dead), and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology.
• Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials.
• The development of exotic energy weapons (for SDI applications or otherwise) or means of weather control.
• Activities related to a supposed shadowy world government.



Apollo 11 Moon Landings were faked by NASA





Proponents of the Apollo moon landing hoax accusations allege that the Apollo Moon Landings never took place, and were faked by NASA with possible CIA support. Enthusiasts of this theory claim that:
• The astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation
• The photos were altered: the Crosshairs on some photos appear to be behind objects, rather than in front of them where they should be
• The quality of the photographs is implausibly high.
• There are no stars in any of the photos, and astronauts never report seeing any stars from the capsule windows.
• Identical backgrounds in photos that are listed as taken miles apart.
• The moon's surface during the daytime is so hot that camera film would have melted.
• No blast crater appeared from the landing
• The launch rocket produced no visible flame.
• The flag placed on the surface by the astronauts flapped despite there being no wind on the Moon.



Kentucky Fried Chicken makes black men impotent





It is sometimes claimed that the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise is owned by the Ku Klux Klan, and the chicken is laced with a drug that makes only black men impotent.

Sadly this is the wackiest of them all.

Julius Malema's Top 10 Responses To Tricky Money Questions

Zuma's visit 'an outstanding day' for Orania

This is not a dig at any one group of people or community. I do think it is good news that Zuma has visited Oranje. With only 800 members in the community, I wonder why Zuma is taking them so seriously???

I am quite mortified to hear that there are only 800 members living in Oranje. It should be 80,000 na? Where is the intellectual Big Afrikaans capital to back this up? Oranje has been going for ages, and it is working...Why have the Afrikaners ignored this noble and courageous endeavour?

Perhaps if the stain of "racism" or "laager-ism" could be removed, Oranje could be considered a viable (even progressive) alternative to life in ZA.

Even blacks like Zuma have been welcomed. Perhaps if they learnt to speak Afrikaans properly and bent themselves to a life of discipline and austerity, they would also be welcome to settle there (rest easy Ron, THAT is never gonna happen!!!)


President Jacob Zuma's visit is a "red letter day" for the Afrikaner enclave of Orania, its founder, Professor Carel Boshoff, said on Tuesday.

"We would remember it as an outstanding day."

Zuma earlier arrived in the dusty Northern Cape town in an Oryx helicopter, seemingly to renew old ties with the white-haired Orania founder.

He told a handful of journalists the meeting was a follow-up to various talks he had held with Orania representatives in the past. He referred to Orania as a community of "interesting ideas". Zuma said he was warmly welcomed by local leaders.

"And we talked."

Referring to Boshoff, Zuma said he had never stopped preaching his ideas and views of Orania, which had been his dream. The Afrikaners at Orania were prepared to live in South Africa, but wanted a place to exercise their culture, he said.

Housing problem
In a short memorandum, Boshoff asked Zuma to help with Orania's institutional status, which he said had not been finalised yet.

Orania's single biggest growth and development problem was housing. The inhabitants, about 800 of them, paid taxes. He said it would be welcomed if some of those funds could find their back to the town to address "acute shortages".

Zuma later took a tour of the town in a convey of six black BMWs -- 4x4s and sedans -- about four police cars and three cars carrying journalists. Nobody lined the gravel streets to sing or wave. One man working in his garden showed little interest.

The president visited the Elim project, housing quarters for unmarried men aged between 19 and 55. The project's manager, Willie du Plessis, said unemployed white men usually came to the centre. They were then allocated municipal or farm work to do and underwent training. At any given time there were about 40 of them.

Asked if the local municipal workers also took part in the recent nationwide public-servants' strike, Du Plessis said: "Staking? Ons ken nie daardie woord hier nie (Strike? We don't know the meaning of that word here)." -- Source M&G

My love-hate relationship with SA

Great article by Michael Francis from TL because it reflects my own feelings so well. Unlike Michael, I am forty three, so no chance of going back!

I have returned to South Africa (again). She tends to get under one’s skin in strange ways that make her unforgettable, loveable and detestable in so many contradictory ways. I do have a viscous love-hate relationship with this strange land.

I came back after eight months absence and was feeling all enthralled and loving despite all the media reports of tribunals and other Stalinist controls. And after five days I experience KZN’s finest robbers in the garden. The dogs next door were barking and I was listening to them thinking “oh shut up already” but realised that they were at the back of the house and were not barking at someone on the street.

I had remarked to my partner “do the dogs always bark like that?” and (perhaps stupidly) gone to investigate the bottom of the property to see if I could see what had caused their strife. The property overlooks the neighbour’s and I hoped to be able to see into their garden, but instead found myself face to face with a totsi/crook however you wish to label him.

He was trying to steal a bicycle from next door and their dogs had discovered him so he was stuck between properties trying to pull the bicycle over after him. I froze in panic and yelled hey “WTF” (unabridged of course). He actually apologised and I yelled “go, get the f@$% out of here” and off he ran to my relief.

I was lucky. It was just after sunset, a time one feels safe and secure. We had our door open and were enjoying Durban’s weather. Now that security is ruined once again as it has so many times in the past (I have experienced robberies or people on the property trying to do so about nine times since 2002 when I had first come to Durban).

Crime is so pervasive and intrusive. And the experience of crime belies the crime statistics just released. I have only ever reported one crime to the police and was so bitterly disappointed with the Umbilo police station that I never did it again. Tonight as I write this, four neighbours have also had unknown person/persons in their gardens and none of us phoned the police. We all contacted private security forces to check gardens for more crooks and locked our doors. These incidents are all too common and never reported and therefore do not contribute to the overall crime statistics.

As a social scientist I learned to mistrust statistics as an often flawed and misused methodology and in this case they are misapplied and clearly misrepresentative of the real situation. If house breakings are up in KZN according to the police then how common are they? People in Durban do not even call the police any more when they are robbed unless they are claiming for insurance. The real number of break-ins is much higher.

So I am back for two months and happy to be here for so many reasons but there is that creeping resentment and anger as the bad starts to overwhelm the good in such a short period of time. As a foreign national I have the option to leave but how many people do not? And people should not have to feel unwelcome and fearful in their homes.

I just keep coming back despite sometimes feeling like I am leaving for good, but every chance I get I am back here exploring, working or relaxing. A Bushman friend once told me that once I got African sand in my shoes I would never really leave. He meant the Kalahari, but it seems he got it right for the continent as well. I have been back and forth to that wondrous place (the Kalahari) eight times now and I expect to go each year with few gaps here and there.

To be honest I am filled with nostalgia, a tinge of sadness and some happiness about being here. I worked it out that I have spent 23% of my life in South Africa and 29% of my life studying the history, people and politics of this tragic, wonderful country. I expect to always have a relationship with this land and its people. But my relationship will always be fraught as I will always be a critic of society and always want to see change for the better. I make for a lousy praisesinger.

For me South Africa is such a land of contrasts. Everything here is extreme: the weather, politics and social problems. And as I said I make a lousy praisesinger, so I will continue to study South Africa and will always point out flaws, mistakes and excesses by politicians etc. If we truly care about South Africa we need to be critical and demand change. We cannot accept mediocrity or failure as acceptable.

I sometimes get attacked for being a Canadian commenting on South Africa, which I find infuriating for a variety of reasons. If the world had accepted that logic then apartheid would be alive and well as nobody but South Africans would have been able to comment or act. The rest of the world needs to be allowed and even encouraged to critique and comment on the ills and failures of others. I also think that sometimes an outside perspective is needed and very insightful.

For all the good that keeps me coming back, the bad is downright awful. The violence that infuses South Africa spills over into everything. If this is not sorted out then the future is not that hopeful for far too many people.

Death by Gun Control

Here's a chart I found on some interesting gun control laws around the world. Note how they, er, didn't work.

The Genocide Chart © JPFO.org 2002
Government	Dates	Targets	Civilians Killed	"Gun Control" Laws	Features of Over-all "Gun Control" scheme
Ottoman Turkey	1915-1917	Armenians (mostly Christians)	1-1.5 million	Art. 166, Pen. Code, 1866 & 1911 Proclamation, 1915	• Permits required •Government list of owners •Ban on possession
Soviet Union	1929-1945	Political opponents; farming communities	20 million	Resolutions, 1918 Decree, July 12, 1920 Art. 59 & 182, Pen. code, 1926	•Licensing of owners •Ban on possession •Severe penalties
Nazi Germany & Occupied Europe	1933-1945	Political opponents; Jews; Gypsies; critics; "examples"	20 million	Law on Firearms & Ammun., 1928 Weapon Law, March 18, 1938 Regulations against Jews, 1938	•Registration & Licensing •Stricter handgun laws •Ban on possession
China, Nationalist	1927-1949	Political opponents; army conscripts; others	10 million	Art. 205, Crim. Code, 1914 Art. 186-87, Crim. Code, 1935	•Government permit system •Ban on private ownership
China, Red	1949-1952 1957-1960 1966-1976	Political opponents; Rural populations Enemies of the state	20-35 million	Act of Feb. 20, 1951 Act of Oct. 22, 1957	•Prison or death to "counter-revolutionary criminals" and anyone resisting any government program •Death penalty for supply guns to such "criminals"
Guatemala	1960-1981	Mayans & other Indians; political enemies	100,000- 200,000	Decree 36, Nov 25 •Act of 1932 Decree 386, 1947 Decree 283, 1964	•Register guns & owners •Licensing with high fees •Prohibit carrying guns •Bans on guns, sharp tools •Confiscation powers
Uganda	1971-1979	Christians Political enemies	300,000	Firearms Ordinance, 1955 Firearms Act, 1970	•Register all guns & owners •Licenses for transactions •Warrantless searches •Confiscation powers
Cambodia (Khmer Rouge)	1975-1979	Educated Persons; Political enemies	2 million	Art. 322-328, Penal Code Royal Ordinance 55, 1938	•Licenses for guns, owners, ammunition & transactions •Photo ID with fingerprints •License inspected quarterly
Rwanda	1994	Tutsi people	800,000	Decree-Law No. 12, 1979	•Register guns, owners, ammunition •Owners must justify need •Concealable guns illegal •Confiscating powers

South Africa Loses It's Groove After SWC

JOHANNESBURG—The farewell supper at a church in this city's northern suburbs had just begun when two men burst upon the small gathering of parishioners. They demanded jewelry, cellphones, cash and car keys from the pastor and his dinner guests. After corralling the group into the clergy vestry, the men drove away in a stolen Mercedes Benz.

The Aug. 25 church robbery lasted no more than thirty minutes. It was made public not in newspaper headlines the next day, but in a two-paragraph note at a Sunday church service.

Yet the incident is one of many, small and large, playing out in communities across South Africa, that has re-awakened a sense of national unease following the World Cup.

In the weeks since the soccer tournament ended in mid-July, jubilation has turned to jitters; self-congratulations to self-analysis. Sublime confidence in South Africa's future has, for many here, morphed into blind hope that the country will ride out another turbulent period with minimal damage to the economy and social psyche.

The month-long World Cup brought out the best of South Africa. Heavy police presence on the streets curbed crime. Big unions refrained from debilitating labor strikes. The world heaped praise on South Africans of all stripes for hosting a spirited sporting event.

Consider what's happened since:

Soon after the World Cup ended, the ruling African National Congress touted plans for a media watchdog, empowered to punish transgressing journalists with undefined penalties and overseen by a parliament the party controls. That proposal, along with a controversial "Information Protection bill" before parliament, has ignited an acrimonious national debate and attracted criticism world-wide from free-speech advocates.

The ANC's war of words with the media was still in full swing when public-service workers walked off their jobs. The wage strike emptied teachers from public schools, nurses from state hospitals and workers from government offices. On Tuesday, unions suspended the three-week strike to weigh a government salary increase.

The spotlight has also returned to South Africa's violent streets, now that a well-known white rugby player has been put on trial for killing a black police officer. The rugby player claimed he was a victim of a robbery—by the police. There's an investigation into the alleged use of his credit card at a McDonald's after the incident.

That's not all. The ANC itself appears in disarray as leaders jockey ahead of policy conclave later this month. The party's youth wing has criticized President Jacob Zuma's leadership and promoted its agenda of nationalizing South Africa's mines.

Most South Africans are trying to shrug off the post-Cup gloom and predictions of doom. Many harbor a deep belief that South Africa, like democracies elsewhere, can self-correct, that politicians and unions can be reeled in, that a collective survival instinct will save the nation once again.

"We've walked up to the brink before and looked over," said a Johannesburg-based mining executive. "We always manage to walk back."

That's not an unreasonable assumption, given what South Africa has come through in the past two decades. It's gone from an apartheid state pariah with a broken economy to a well-lauded host of the World's largest sporting event. But if the World cup fueled aspirations of what South Africa can accomplish at its best, the weeks since have shown what can go wrong when it's not.

The shaken churchgoers, robbed during the going-away party of a friend, suggest a sense of perspective will be needed in the days ahead. The church letter expressed gratitude that nobody was hurt; noted the recovery of the abandoned Mercedes; and explained a few new security measures.

"Beyond that," the letter summed up, "we are not going to get paranoid about this."

Wall Street Journal

Obama Wants Blacks "Fired Up"

H/T FE

Oi, whats this then? Ain't it funny that blacks can get away with these kinds of pronouncements? I mean, imagine the previous president saying something similar "I want us to return to our core Anglo/ European values" or maybe something like "Jews need to get fired up"

Asymmetrical race prejudice is what it is. Whites will always be deemed evil and have to pay recompense for what they did to the blacks, but when the playing field is so-called "equal" blacks can still single out themselves as unique and bang their own drum, play the race card and the blame game.

In this interview Obama is really confused. He starts off seeming to accuse all republicans of being white, and then calls for blacks to join the democrats to prevent a resurgence of the republicans, because why? Because they caused the credit crisis!

I don't know about you, but my thoughts on the cause of the credit crisis was due to sub standard housing loans to the very voter base that Obama is addressing his words to...Obama is drawing a line in the sand here: Republican = Whites (bad) and Blacks = Democrats (Good, but whites who voted for them are probably OK as long as they toe the line)

President Obama is calling on black voters to get “fired up” for Democrats in the midterm elections. In an interview with the "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" broadcast Friday, Obama cautioned that a Republican-controlled Congress would be detrimental to the country. “Part of the thing I’ve got to remind people is that the policies that got us into this mess are the same policies that these Republicans are offering right now,” he said.

“And so if African-Americans aren’t fired up right now, you better be fired up, because you could end up in a situation where we could have more of the same from a Republican Congress that’s not willing to move our infrastructure, that’s not committed to investing in people and job training and not committed to investing in our education system. And we could end up slipping back into the same situation that we were in before this recession hit, only worse.” The full transcript is here.

HOW Many???? Corruption beggars belief

I don't know which figure is more outrageous: the fact that there are a million 'public servants' in South Africa, or that 10% of them have defrauded the state.

Why haven't fraudster cops been sacked? - DA

Anchen Dreyer says public officials guilty of defrauding the state are not being dismissed

Public Service Corruption: Minister sends wrong message to South Africans

The Democratic Alliance (DA) shall be calling on the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Richard Baloyi, to appear before Parliament's Portfolio Committee to provide an explanation of why public officials convicted of fraud and corruption have not been dismissed. The ANC government has sent an unequivocal message: it has neither the political will to tackle corruption, nor the capacity to do so, implicitly condoning the looting of the state by cadres.

Reports say that nearly 1000 police officials have been convicted of fraud after investigations by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). It was further revealed that a total of 96 000 public servants have stolen from the state. Since the beginning of the Zuma Administration we have heard of a pledge to root out corruption in the government and the civil service. President Zuma made it one of the priorities of his government in his first State of the Nation address.

However, the Zuma government has declined dismissing those convicted, saying that the consequences would be too severe for the civil service to handle.

It is interesting to unpack the implications.

The message that the National Government is sending is that if corruption happens on a big enough scale, you will not be prosecuted and thus almost gives an open field to civil servants wishing to defraud the public.

That in turn sends a message to the corrupt that they should mobilize in large numbers and discourages transparent and honest people.

The implication is that corruption is apparently so extensive in South Africa that the state cannot act against proven offenders. This raises disturbing questions of the authority of the state and its capacity to enforce the laws which underpin our country.

There is seemingly little political will to root out corruption from the senior leadership of the ANC government. President Zuma has done little but offer empty promises that tackling corruption would be the central focus of his Administration, starting with his first state of the nation address.

Indeed, that political will seems to be subservient to satisfying political interests rather than enforcing the principle of clean government, which should be non-negotiable, as demonstrated by the Administration's disinclination to prosecute those who broke the law in the recent Public Sector Strike.

Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi has promised an ‘Anti-Corruption Task-Team' which, to date, is nothing more than a hypothetical.

Minister Baloyi, like President Zuma, misses the point about corruption. The key to tackling this scourge is not by launching another costly initiative that will be tied down with a weighted bureaucracy and political maneuverings. It is by demonstrating decisive political leadership and will when it is needed, without thinking of the political risks.

In the Western Cape, DA leader and Premier Helen Zille has tackled corruption head-on since taking office and placed the principle of good governance at the very heart of her administration. We have seen results as shown in a full clean sweep of audits for the Provincial Government, a first nationally since at least 2004.

Faced with these two radically different approaches, by the time of the 2011 Local Government elections, voters shall be faced with two alternatives: an ANC that thinks fighting corruption means giving successive empty speeches, or a party of action that delivers what it promises.

Statement issued by Anchen Dreyer, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Public Service and Administration, September 12 2010

More Bad News for South African Mining Industry

Chief Junior Baboon Julius Malema is still playing with his new toy: the nationalisation of South Africa's mining industry, and shows little sign of letting it drop. In fact, the plans have been "refined", says iol.co.za:

(emphasis and comments mine)

It was a watershed week in the debate around the nationalisation of mines that is being driven by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.

The organisation has provided more clarification on the nature of nationalisation, which it has campaigned for since it released its policy paper at the beginning of February for debate at the ANC's national general council in less than two weeks.

In its initial paper, the league just said the state-owned mining company would own 60 percent of the stake in a mining company and the rest would be held by private investors. Going by Malema's speech on Tuesday at the Mining for Change conference in Johannesburg, it is apparent that the youth league has refined its position.

He said that the mechanism for the 60:40 ratio would be used when the mining companies were applying for the renewal of their mining rights.

Malema referred to a Citigroup report of last April that identified South Africa as the biggest repository of mineral reserves in the world.

"This has been confirmed by the imperialists that we are the richest and we have become a target of exploitation by these imperialists. We know that the economy has been growing in the last 16 years but not many jobs have been created," Malema said.

[That's because mining is no longer a labour-intensive industry. It can be, but only by turning back 100 years of technological advancement. However, the jobs are created indirectly.]

"We don't want to continue exporting our raw materials. We want to improve the working conditions of the workers in the mines, their safety and their salaries. We want workers to be the first beneficiaries and the communities where we are mining."

[Right, and all fine and good - but the workers and the State are not the same thing. Julius is pulling the wool over the eyes of 'the people' once again. Introducing a minimum wage for miners would make them beneficiaries, but Julius is not really interested in that. Remember, he just wants power to be in "black" hands - i.e. his own and those of his cronies.]

Malema was quiet on whether the mining companies would be compensated for the 60 percent taken by the state.

This was left to league spokesman Floyd Shivambu to clarify. Contacted the next day, Shivambu said there would be no compensation at all.

"The private sector will bring in its contribution through the shaft and infrastructure, we will bring in our minerals," he said. [huh?]

He said the mining companies would still be required to abide by the 26 percent black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership in their 40 percent stake, and follow other pillars of the mining charter.

Shivambu muddied the waters even further by saying that the 60:40 ratio would equally apply to black-owned or controlled mining companies.

Malema backed his argument by saying the nationalisation of mines was an ANC policy, tracing it back to the Freedom Charter.

Jeremy Cronin, the deputy secretary-general of the SACP, did not share Malema's view.

He said that with the promulgation of the Mineral and Petroleum Development Act, the government appeared to take a major step forward in realising the Freedom Charter's call to restore the wealth of the country to the people as a whole.

But this was trumped by the BEE equity targets in the mining charter and a narrow BEE focus had actually set back the real transformation of the critical mining sector at the expense of job creation, industrialisation through increased beneficiation of natural resources, environmental sustainability and placing the economy onto a new growth path, he said.

Cronin argued that mining houses had exploited post-1994 liberalisation measures and pursued global corporate restructuring trends in a complex process of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, unbundlings and liquidations. As a result, formerly South African mining houses were more integrated into international operations.

A New Beginning With Islam: Obama Vows

So what happened to poor old Terry Jones when he landed in New York hoping to meet the Imam? Nothing...No reception, no backslapping, definitely no red carpet...9/11 (and Jones' opportunity for glory) has passed.

I can see the poor bloke in the middle on New York, eating wild locusts and shouting "Hear ye I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord."

Probably he won't mind too much being cast in the role of John the Baptist. After all, his audience has grown from 30 to 300,000,000 overnight. Not bad huh?

It would have been better if the Highest Court in America had ordered him not to burn the Qumran. At least he would have known where he stood.

What the media and his own president did to him was MUCH worse. Bullied, extorted and mind fucked second to none. That's how it goes...No justice, no freedom of speech, what a pack of lies it all is!

United States President Barack Obama pleaded with Americans at a White House news conference on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary, not to allow themselves to be divided by religion.

This following a backlash sparked by a Florida preacher who had planned a Koran burning ceremony on Saturday, 11 September 2010 to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Obama reminded his people who their “true enemies were, naming Al-Qaeda and terrorists”, in a bid to protect American Muslims.

Pastor Terry Jones from Gainesville in Florida says he wants clarity on whether a planned New York mosque will be moved from near Ground Zero or not, that had been his condition for halting the ceremony but no-one would commit.

His son says Pastor Jones will now not go ahead with the Koran burning event. The pastor flew to New York late on Friday, hoping to discuss the mosque.

"We have to make sure that we don't start turning on each other," Obama said at a White House news conference on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"We are one nation under God and we may call that God different names, but we remain one nation," he said. "Our enemies are Al-Qaeda and their allies who are trying to kill us."

AFP reports that the president again condemned a threat by Jones to burn Korans on Saturday, which is now on hold as "un-American", and warned people should not "play games" with the security of US troops abroad as such actions would place their lives in danger.

Obama also reiterated the constitutional right of American Muslims to build a cultural center that includes a mosque near the "Ground Zero" site in New York.

"If you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on a site."

Obama also pointedly referred to "my Christian faith" as he addressed his people, in an obvious swipe at conservatives who have often claimed he is a closet Muslim.

"We have got millions of Muslim Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country, they're going to school with our kids, they're our neighbors, they're our friends, they're our co-workers."

"When we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?"

He also hailed the bravery of US Muslim soldiers in Afghanistan.

"We don't differentiate between them and us. It's just us."

The president vowed a "new beginning" with Islam.

Urgent Request

If by the slimmest of chances, you haven't heard people talking about the Bees Roux case, or read about it, here's what happened. In the early hours of Friday morning 27.08.2010, Roux was stopped in his car by police officers in Pretoria who suspected he might be a drunk driver. Roux allegedly assaulted one of the officers, Sergeant Ntshimane Johannes Mohale (Pictured above) and by the time paramedics arrived, Mohale had died.

Bees was arrested soon thereafter.

Roux's lawyers have stated that Bees will be pleading "not guilty" to a charge of schedule 6 murder, on the basis that Mohale had in fact attempted to extort funds from Bees. They claim that Mohale demanded payment of a sum of money from Bees, and in return, there would be no arrest or prosecution and Bees could go free. Obviously, something went wrong and Mohale has died as a result.

What has since emerged is that Mohale has been under three separate internal investigations by the police before his death. This form of "blue light mugging" is very common in South Africa.

This raises the possibility that others living in Pretoria may have been victims of this particular version of extortion by Mohale in the past.

If so, this will inform Bees' defense counsel with invaluable evidence for his trial.

It may be that YOU have been a victim of a similar incident in the past. Perhaps you were stopped, accosted by the Metro police and maybe, under threat of arrest and prosecution, you paid a sum of money to the very same man pictured above, in return for your freedom to continue driving.

If so, if you have been a victim of extortion by Mohale, you are requested to please contact the nearest SAPS office to make a statement. If you feel you cannot trust the police, go see a lawyer or contact the Beeld newspaper.

Perhaps you may have been a regular patron of the "Flamingo" nightclub or other clubs in or around Pretoria, and will be ashamed to reveal your identity. It could cost you a great deal to reveal the fact of your own incident, but it will be extremely important to Bees Roux's case if you did so.

Please look carefully at the photo above and do the right thing!

For all readers out there, please be sure to join Bees Roux's support group on Facebook.

9/11 Lyrics a Co-incidence?

As they say if you do not feel paranoid, you do not have all the facts. I thought I would take a dig at the tin foil hat brigade.

1981: A one hit wonder climbed the charts. It was by an Avant Garde performer named Laurie Anderson. The tone is disturbing, the lyrics powerfully symbolic and eerily reminiscent of what was to come twenty years later...

A co-incidence? Or was there something more sinister happening?

Here come the planes....They're American planes, made in America...

Land is next - Malema

h/t Tall Horse

(emphasis mine.)

The ANC Youth League is eyeing changes to the property clause in the Constitution after its ardent push for the nationalisation of mines, the organisation's president Julius Malema said on Thursday.

"The ANCYL's view is that the property clause should be amended and that proper legislation should be passed by Parliament to regulate how the state should expropriate private property in the interests of the people," Malema told reporters at ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, in Johannesburg.

"We no longer want township and rural areas, we want our people to live as equals. Where there is land for settlement, lets get that land for our people to settle.

"It doesn't matter where that land is located. If it is in the beachfront of Cape Town [!!!!!!!], let's use this land for the benefit of our people and let's not sell it to the foreigners."

The government has admitted that the willing buyer, willing seller policy for land expropriation was not working.

Take it, or leave it

"We need a government that will say we're going to take this land then we will determine the price... take it, or leave it," he said.

An "unambiguous policy position" was needed for the state to take whatever land necessary for the people and itself decide on the compensation.

"Now we are in charge, it's no longer negotiated settlements... Through negotiated settlement, we said fine, we give you this and you can give us this. And the Boers agreed," referring to the negotiations during the transition to democracy.

"... why should we continue like we are still in a government of national unity. Its important that people know that the ANC is in power."

The ANCYL would push for a change in the ANC's policy position on land after the ANC national general council (NGC), being held in Durban from 20 to 24 September.

Malema appeared confident that nationalisation of the mines would be adopted as ANC policy, which would eventually inform government policy.

Malema said that 90 percent of those attending the NGC would be ANC delegates, and that the ANCYL would mobilise 70 percent of them to support this position.

The Freedom Charter

He again emphasised the importance of the Freedom Charter, used as a basis for his support of nationalising the mines, in formulating ANC policy.

"This extends to the resolution the NGC should take on banks, monopoly industries, land, housing... and all the Freedom Charter says we should realise."

The ANCYL wants the ANC to take on a much more "radical economic transformation programme".

"We are using the NGC as a launch event for this radical economic transformation," Malema said.

The ANCYL's aim is to take the ANC in an ideological direction to accomplish this.

It would then deal with the question of leadership.

"We are not starting with leaders. We are starting with programmes. We want a leadership that speaks to the programmes we are talking about.

"The leader who emerges... is a leader who will commit to radical economic transformation, transfer of wealth from minority to majority unashamedly.

"We will never embrace a person who still salutes imperialism and colonialism."

'Rest assured'

Malema also moved to allay fears about top ANC leaders being removed at the ruling party's upcoming national general council.

"There's nothing that poses a threat to this leadership, you can be rest assured [sic]," he said.

"If there's anybody we want to remove in the NGC, we will tell you we want to remove this one.... There's no resolution of the youth league to remove anybody."

The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), an ANC ally, earlier this year raised concerns about a plot to remove ANC president Jacob Zuma and secretary general Gwede Mantashe at the NGC.

Media reports have also indicated that Zuma has fallen out of favour with the ANCYL, who helped catapult him to the ANC presidency. The growing dissatisfaction was over, among other things, his comments on the nationalisation of the mines.

Malema blamed the media for "peddling" information about leadership --reports were "thumbsuck[ing]".

"President Zuma remains our president until 2012, as to what will happen in 2012 will be decided by 2012 conference of the ANC.

"President Zuma will be defended by us for as long as he's still president."

Malema said only those who "suffered from lack of self confidence" and were "paranoid" were panicking about the leadership question.

"Some of them call us children, 'these children they are going to remove us'. They forget it's the same children who have put them there.

"When they were going through difficulties both in their political life and personal lives, the youth league defended them.

"Some of them were going through courts... children supported them in Pretoria courts. Today they go to papers and say, 'hey children... you forget, its' nice now. There's no longer Thabo Mbeki who's chasing you, it's nice," he said.

"It was children who made you... it was children who brought you back into the leadership structures of the ANC." [No. Generally, children respect their elders. You are a thug. And you're nearly 30]

The ANC NGC is a mid-term policy review and is the highest decision-making body between national conferences. It will see around 2000 delegates gather, fewer than 100 delegates would be from the ANCYL.

Sure, Julius. And if you happen to be the one that ends up owning most of Camps Bay, at least you've proven that a black man can do it.

Three Cable Thieves Shocked - Critical

"Hau, the 'lectric, sheesa racist!"


Johannesburg - Three men were critically injured while trying to steal electrical cables at an Eskom sub-station in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on Friday, paramedics said.

"When they tried to cut through the live cable it caused a large flash that burned the men," said Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha.

The men sustained more than 90% burns.

Botha said seven men apparently tried to steal cables at the sub-station in St Anthony's Street in Reiger Park around 01:00.

When paramedics arrived at the scene, four men ran away.

Their three accomplices were taken to Natalspruit hospital in critical conditions.

The Cape Dutch of the 19th Cent.

During a previous post I posted a chapter describing the Boers of the 19th cent. I have also long since come across a book called: Cecil Rhodes and the Cape Afrikaners pertaining mainly to the Cape Dutch population of the 19th cent. Comparing the two one will discover rather different outlooks as the Cape Dutch were very pro British & pro Colonial while the Boers on the other hand became anti-British [ stemming mainly from the Slagters Nek Rebellion & into the era of the Great Trek ] as they were very anti-Colonial & quite independence oriented. This is significant as the Cape Dutch population was [ & whose descendants are ] larger than the Boer population group of which both groups were lumped together as part of an "official" coalition under the Afrikaner designation. Therefore when folks assert that "the Afrikaners are from the Boers" they are perpetrating a mathematical impossibility as they are omitting the Cape Dutch population who are in fact the larger progenitors of the Afrikaner macro group.

The following is from Cecil Rhodes and the Cape Afrikaners by Mordechai Tamarkin from page 57.

T D Barry, an English-speaking Bondsman, assured Parliament that he 'had never heard a disloyal word uttered' in the Bond ad that he did not believe there were more than two or three Bondsmen who wished the British flag out of South Africa'. The Bechuanaland crisis, like the Transvaal one before it, rather than triggering disloyalty, was an occasion for Cape Afrikaners to restate their loyalty to Crown and Empire.

The jubilee year of Queen Victoria in 1887 offered Cape Afrikaners an outlet for amazing manifestations of love and loyalty, in town and country, in verse and prose. The Afrikaner Bond congress in its official address to the Queen gave the lead:

We the undersigned, representatives of the Afrikaner Bond of the Colony... wish to approach you with our heartiest and most sincere congratulations on this blessed occasion... We assure you humbly and respectfully [of] our true loyalty to your throne, and we feel proud that in the great British Empire there are not more loyal subjects than those we represent.

It was signed by 'the humblest, loving and most loyal subjects of Your most Blessed Majesty'. In Paarl, the capital of ' Afrikanerdom ', representatives of the Genootschap van Regte Afrikaners and the Afrikaner Bond were present at the local celebration with their flags, while the main speaker expressed his joy at the impressive presence of the burghers which proved Paarl's loyalty to the Queen. The local Dutch newspaper ran a special supplement including a long poem, full of praises for the Queen, by Oom Jan. Such celebrations were not restricted to major urban centers. A correspondent from Van Rhijndorp boasted that 'although our village is small and miserable we have demonstrated our loyalty to our honourable Queen Victoria'. A rural Bond branch in the east held a banquet on a farm. According to the correspondent , 'the house was beautifully decorated and the flag which during thousands of years [sic] withstood the blows of the storm flew merrily high, a striking proof of our Bondsmen loyalty'.

In 1887 Hofmeyr was a member of the Cape delegation to the first Colonial Conference held in London. In a proposal combining a mild preferential treatment for colonial produce with a scheme to finance imperial defense, Hofmeyr made the most important contribution to the idea of strengthening the imperial connection.

Link to book: Cecil Rhodes and the Cape Afrikaners.

The Afrikaners - as a macro group under the mid 20th century definition of the term - are in fact mainly descended from the Cape Dutch while the Boer "segment" was co-opted only after the second Anglo-Boer War.

Men versus Women

Time to stoke the fire.

Affirmative Action Around the World, by Thomas Sowell

And here was me thinking that South Africa was the only country in the world to have Affirmative Action for its majority population.

Professor Sowell's book is a must-read for anyone with strong views on BEE and affirmative action in South Africa. It cuts through the bullshit and presents an empirical study of attemps at AA around the world, from the USA to Sri Lanka to Malaysia, via India and Nigeria (yeh I didn't know they all had it, either) and gives clear reasons why such projects have not only failed miserably, but have incited hatred, violence and economic disaster.

Sowell, himself an African-American and conservative critic of the race-baiting politics that have infested and infected the West, presents startling evidence and clear and concise criticism of AA both as a concept and in practice, and I'll do my best to give a similarly concise summary here.

Did you know that Malaysia has racism built in to its Constitution? neither did I. Not only that, but Malaysia to all intents and purposes practices apartheid, but you don't see "Queers Against Malaysian Apartheid" marching at the Toronto Pride Parade. And on top of that, Malaysia legally favours its Malay population even though no prior discrimination against them has ever taken place nor even been suggested.

In fact, what makes the situation even more insane, is that the British colonial government actualy favoured the Malays too over the hardworking and more successful Indian and Chinese minorities. These minorities even flourished after independence, when the Malays themselves were in charge, so there was never any historical opportunity to discriminate against Malays. And yet, they have been outperformed in every area, from medicine to engineering, by the Chinese and Indian minorities.

This goes to illustrate, Sowell argues, that different ethnicities just perform differently everywhere there are multiethnic societies, and regrets that we have largely come to see these differences in terms of "discrimination" or some imagined past wrongs. Which is not to say those wrongs didn't exist, but that differences between ethnicities would occur even without them.

Professor Sowell notes several important tendencies in relation to Affirmative Action policies for certain groups in his study. One is the tendency for the numbers of perceived victims to expand far beyond the victims of any actual historical harm. So, a Mexican crossing the border into the United States is instantly a "Latino", benefitting from 'recompense' for decades of supposed racism by his group in America. Likewise, Barack Obama receives privilege for his African American status, even thought he is not "African American" in the traditional sense (he is half African and half American), and has never had a slave ancestor.

These examples are mine, but Sowell points out the huge rush to designate oneself a victim in response to special status for special groups, notably American Indians in the USA and so-called "backward classes" in India. No historic sufferings of blacks (in America), he argues, can justify preferential benefits to other non-white groups, or recent arrivals from the West Indies and Africa.

The second trend he observes is for such programmes to last far longer than their originally stated intent. India was meant to have AA for twenty years. That was in 1948 and it's still going strong. It's easy to see the reasons for this. AA programmes never achieve their aims, and so race-baiting politicians are eager to keep them going to win votes and give the appearance of "caring for the poor".

Another reason is because politicians, the architects of AA, claim credit for any successes on the part of the favoured group, perpetuating the myth that the group is entirely helpless without government support (a myth much loved by politicians the world over). As Sowell points out, African Americans largely lifted themselves out of poverty in the 1950s and 60s, but very few point this out. In fact, since AA began in the 1970s, African Americans have stagnated economically (p20).

The third trend he notes is how the benefits of AA accrue disproportionately to the tiniest, wealthiest sectors of the "victim" population, and may even pass by the truly suffering altogether. Not only that, but those who would achieve given a level playing field (i.e. the best and the brightest), but are prevented from doing so, get fed up and leave. A culture of mediocrity invariably ensues.

The fourth trend involves the increased resentment and breakdown of social cohesiveness that follows AA policies, even leading to riots in India and Malaysia. Breaking a country down into ethnic blocks is a trick Western liberals are familiar with, and makes the rabble easier to control. It also increased the power of the State, which can play mommy to an increasing brood of noisy children vying for attention and favours.

*****

South Africa is notably absent from Sowell's study. Possibly because the book was written in 2003 and AA in South Africa had not been around long enough to study, or because it did not exist at all when he began research on the topic - he writes that 30 years of research has gone into his book.

This provides us with an opportunity to examine AA in South Africa in comparison to AA in the other countries in Sowell's study. Doing so at a glance, we can clearly see the similarities. Will we expect similar results?

According to Sowell, there is a strong tendency for both favoured and non-favoured groups to contribute less than their potential. AA, he observes, is not a zero-sum game. Favoured groups work less hard (as can be seen in Malaysia) because they don't need to, and non-favoured groups don't bother trying because they don't see the point. So everybody suffers.

[Why are women, asks Sowell, included in affirmative action programmes? Women, unlike ethnicities, cannot "historically" suffer because they are descended equally from men and women. Surely any historical disadvantage suffered by a female ancestor is balanced by the advantage enjoyed by the male?]

So can we observe these trends in South Africa, sixteen years into full democracy?

Rather than offer an answer to this question, I'll let the reader decide for himself/herself.

Any thoughts, people? I'll try and come up with a "Part 2" to this.

Message from ILSA

Having had a look at the recent stats for ILSA, I am pleased to announce that she's still going strong. With well over 1500 hits a day (yesterday a whisker away from 2000) there's no end in sight. I for one am pleased to be associated with this blog.

Nobody can accuse us of being partial or prejudiced. Indeed, we have even provided an unlimited platform for the likes of Rooster to vent his loony left wing views (and fast expiring breath) - much to his consternation of course (even posting one of his blogs - which he'd probably forgotten all about) - as well as the loony right wing nuts (you know who you are!)

We do have limits though, and much of it concerns anti-semitism, instigation to violence, hot headed racial invectives and whacked out conspiracy theories (crossing my fingers behind my back here)

However, we hope we have served all readers well and will continue to do so into the future. Blogging is about letting off steam, yes definitely. It's about ranting a bit and getting your thoughts out there in the open. But it's also about conveying a message, a point of view. Debating it, comparing, and perhaps arriving at some sort of consensus or, failing that, one's own inner reconciliation to a situation that cannot be changed.

At it's best, blogging can actually be about INFLUENCING public opinion. And that is what ILSA is about. So thank you dear reader for following; keep on, we will try to meet your expectations. We won't hold any punches and we won't cast eyes down in the face of our vociferous opponents, but we ask that you let the facts speak for themselves. I mentioned this in the post below by Kevin Myers. We need to follow examples like his and of more main stream disciplinarians like Doctor Watson....

Restrain yourself, gentle reader.....Let the facts speak for themselves!

I am convinced that this is the best way to attract a willing ear, and perhaps some new adherents, to the "right" faith...