Travel. See The World. Come To London. It's A Riot!

For 4 days of August, London was at war.
A war nobody could have predicted, with an outcome nobody could ever imagine.
London was at war with itself, and I have read at least 5 different reasons on each of these four days. As the smoke subsides and the tensions settle, I doubt anybody is any closer to an answer as to why.

At first there were wild guesses that this was planned by organized gangs. The next day there were links to a young man named Mark Duggan, shot by police while unarmed. The uprising was blamed on the youth showing their frustration at the way police have been handling a few cases of late.
On the third day I saw an interview by the BBC of a West Indian man now residing in London. The video on YouTube was never again played by the BBC, and upon watching it is clear to see why.
A young and angry unemployed lower and middle class, venting their frustrations at the system. It made sense. It was a credible reason for a popular uprising.

Then came the arrests, court cases and convictions.
Suddenly the face of the perpetrator had changed from a young, angry, unemployed youth to that of a middle-class, employed and reasonably stable young man or woman. One offender was even studying for a law degree, and didn't want his criminal record to affect his future!

After 4 days of SkyNews and BBC, I couldn't help but ask myself where Emma Hurd was in all of this ruckus?
Remember her?
This is one of her more famous YouTube video's as seen on SkyNews, questioning whether South Africa was really ready to host such an important event as the FIFA Soccer World Cup. Of course she went on during the run-up to the eventually successful event drumming up support for her view that we were not ready. At least not by her standards.
London will be hosting the Olympics very soon. I can't help but wonder what Emma Hurd's opinion is regarding London being ready to host the Olympics, in light of these recent riots.

Do I believe London is ready? Absolutely.
But that doesn't stop me from pointing out the obvious to the vast number of naysayers who were so quick to point out our shortcomings. 

As for the political ramifications, I must admit I had more than just a little giggle at Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinajad's advice to Downing Street when he advised that they exercise restraint in dealing with the rioters. This was clearly a man who wouldn't miss an opportunity for a dig at the West. Remember it was David Cameron who had previously advised Iran to exercise restraint in dealing with unrest.
Next came 'Mad Bob' Robert Mugabe's quip when he said "London, sort out your mess before you come to Africa to try and sort ours out."
It seems in this crazy day and age, even crackpot dictators have a sense of humor.

 

There was talk of calling in the British Army to help the police fight the battles on the street.

Interesting that, since the British Army is currently pillaging in Iraq, Afghanistan and anywhere else oil can be stolen. Had these riots continued for longer than a week, one wonder's whether NATO would have been called in to bomb London in order to save the civilians. We all know what a great job of it they're currently doing in Syria.

I guess if these riots have proved anything, it's that the champions of freedom and bastions of democracy have more problems in their own backyards than the countries they're currently trying to liberate through bombardment.
Britain is burning while trying to tell the rest of the world how to live by it's 'high moral standards'.
America is bankrupt and continues to crumble while trying to teach the world about 'democracy'.
All the while, the world continues to spin on it's axis and goodness prevails in ever diminishing pockets of society.

Aluta continua.

In The Name Of Religion

It was a fairly chilly Wednesday on that fateful day in April back in 1995. The date was the 19th. I remember this because it was the same year I began keeping a diary. Many interesting things take place when you're 21 years of age, and some require their own space in history.

Between random entries titled "She'll call, I know she will" and ""Hot Dang It's On Like Donkey Kong" was one which stood out in bold capital letters:

"Fuck Me! What Have They Done Now?!"

A bomb had gone off in America, and since this was pre-24hour CNN in South Africa, it was pretty much on all the radio stations and on the breaking news on crappy government TV. All the fingers were being pointed in the direction of Muslim terrorists, and this annoyed me for no reason other than the fact that I had just started dating a Christian girl. Neither my hormones nor my testosterone would condone this bombing, and the first telephone call I had with Amy was rather terse. I found myself suddenly anti-muslim in the hope that this would win favor with her.
It didn't.
She agreed with her dad that my religion was one of violence and intolerance.
In light of what had just transpired in America, how could I argue with either of them?

While the dust was settling and the investigations were beginning, I found an interesting awakening taking place within myself and those of the Muslim faith around me. There was a level of introspection taking place which I had never witnessed before. Questions were being asked amongst us all. A microscope had just been focused on every single one of us, and what we were seeing left much to be desired.
There was almost this sense of blindness to what was happening in the rest of the world.
A sense that we were living in a cocoon, totally unaware to how the religion we loved was being tarnished by extremists, and the media was only too happy to oblige and play conductor to the orchestra of terror being played out in the name of Islam.

                                   
Timothy McVeigh was finally convicted and given the death sentence for the Oklahoma Bombing which killed 168 men, women and children. Then and now, very little mention was ever made of his faith. His biography on Wikipedia makes no mention of his Christian beliefs. Ironically it does mention the initial suspects being Islamic Terrorists.

So you can imagine my surprise when I called upon Amy at her home a few weeks later, feeling absolved of any sense of responsibility for the atrocious bombing that had gripped the world.... absolved because it was clear that this madman was not a member of my clan, but rather hers... a skip in my step because I would now be able to tell her dad "Ha! He's one of yours!" ... as I said, imagine my surprise when she responded with "No but he's not a Christian, we don't do stuff like that!"

So it was OK to assume that this was done by an Islamic Terrorist...
and then assume that all muslims are terrorists, hence I too must be one...
But when it transpires that he is in fact not a Muslim but rather a Christian, we shall declare him persona non grata and wash our hands of laying blame on religion?

It was this single response that made me become so much more aware of social and religious injustices which I was completely naive and blind to previously.This was my true awakening.

Fast-forward 16 years and we find ourselves in a similar position.
Norway, Oslo. 94 Men, women and children killed.

Fox News and other media outlets had us believe this was an act of terror carried out by an Islamic organization. They had a vile bucketful of 'experts' spewing their opinion, and one group kept coming up as the most likely suspects : Islamic Terrorists.
When a blue-eyed blonde Christian was eventually arrested, suddenly his religious beliefs were no longer worth a mention.
For more on how the media contorted the facts, read this.

Now I had this discussion with a friend of mine, and him and I regularly debate matters of race, religion and politics. He happened to mention an oft-repeated lie which the western media first propagated. This being that Islam is the most violent religion in the world, and has killed more people than any other religion or country.
Hhmm... really?
Let's have a look at the breakdown of wars in the last 150 years, shall we.

First, the worlds religions as per 2005.

Wars in last 150 years

1860-65: American civil war (360,000)

1886-1908: Belgium-Congo Free State (3 million)

1899-02: British-Boer war (100,000)

1904: Germany Vs Namibia (65,000)

1904-05: Japan Vs Russia (150,000)

1910-20: Mexican revolution (250,000)

1911: Chinese Revolution (2.4 million)

1911-12: Italian-Ottoman war (20,000)

1912-13: Balkan wars (150,000)

1915: the Ottoman empire slaughters Armenians (1.2 million)

1914-18: World War I (8 million)

1917-21: Soviet revolution (5 million)

1928-37: Chinese civil war (2 million)

1931: Japanese Manchurian War (1.1 million)

1934: Mao's Long March (170,000)

1936: Italy's invasion of Ethiopia (200,000)

1936-37: Stalin's purges (13 million)

1936-39: Spanish civil war (600,000)

1939-45: World War II (55 million) including holocaust and Chinese revolution

1946-49: Chinese civil war (1.2 million)

1946-49: Greek civil war (50,000)

1947: Partition of India and Pakistan (1 million)

1948-1973: Arab-Israeli wars (70,000)

1948-: Kashmir's civil war (40,000)

1949-: Indian Muslims Vs Hindus (20,000)

1950-53: Korean war (4 million)

1954-62: French-Algerian war (1 million)

1958-61: Mao's "Great Leap Forward" (30 million)

1960-90: South Africa Vs Africa National Congress (?)

1961-2003: Kurds Vs Iraq (180,000)

1962-75: Mozambique Frelimo Vs Portugal (?)

1964-73: USA-Vietnam war (3 million)

1965: second India-Pakistan war over Kashmir

1965-66: Indonesian civil war (200,000)

1966-69: Mao's "Cultural Revolution" (11 million)

1966-: Colombia's civil war (31,000)

1967-70: Nigeria-Biafra civil war (800,000)

1968-80: Rhodesia's civil war (?)

1969-79: Idi Amin, Uganda (300,000)

1969-02: IRA - Northern Ireland's civil war (2,000)

1969-79: Francisco Macias Nguema, Equatorial Guinea (50,000)

1971: Pakistan-Bangladesh civil war (500,000)

1972-: Philippines Vs Muslim separatists (120,000)

1972: Burundi's civil war (300,000)

1972-79: Rhodesia/Zimbabwe's civil war (30,000)

1974-91: Ethiopian civil war (1,000,000)

1975-78: Menghitsu, Ethiopia (1.5 million)

1975-79: Khmer Rouge, Cambodia (1.7 million)

1975-89: Boat people, Vietnam (250,000)

1975-90: civil war in Lebanon (40,000)

1975-87: Laos' civil war (184,000)

1975-2002: Angolan civil war (500,000)

1976-83: Argentina's military regime (20,000

1976-93: Mozambique's civil war (900,000)

1976-98: Indonesia-East Timor civil war (600,000)

1976-: Indonesia-Aceh (GAM) civil war (12,000)

1979: Vietnam-China war (30,000)

1979-88: the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan (1.3 million)

1980-88: Iraq-Iran war (1 million)

1980-92: Sendero Luminoso - Peru's civil war (69,000)

1980-92: El Salvador's civil war (100,000)

1980-99: Kurds Vs Turkey (35,000)

1982-90: Hussein Habre, Chad (40,000)

1983-2002: Sri Lanka's civil war (64,000)

1983-2002: Sudanese civil war (2 million)

1987-: Palestinian Intifada (4,500)

1988-2001: Afghanistan civil war (400,000)

1988-2004: Somalia's civil war (550,000)

1989-: Liberian civil war (220,000)

1989-: Uganda Vs Lord's Resistance Army (30,000)

1991: Gulf War - large coalition against Iraq to liberate Kuwait (85,000)

1991-97: Congo's civil war (800,000)

1991-2000: Sierra Leone's civil war (200,000)

1991-: Russia-Chechnya civil war (200,000)

1991-94: Armenia-Azerbaijan war (35,000)

1992-96: Tajikstan's civil war war (50,000)

1992-96: Yugoslavia's civil war (200,000)

1992-99: Algerian civil war (150,000)

1993-97: Congo Brazzaville's civil war (100,000)

1993-: Burundi's civil war (200,000)

1994: Rwanda's civil war (900,000)

1995-: Pakistani Sunnis Vs Shiites (1,300)

1995-: Maoist rebellion in Nepal (10,000)

1998-: Congo/Zaire's war - Rwanda and Uganda Vs Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia (3.8 million)

1998-2000: Ethiopia-Eritrea war (75,000)

1999: Kosovo's liberation war - NATO Vs Serbia (2,000)

2001: Afghanistan's liberation war - USA & UK Vs Taliban (25,000)

2002-: Cote d'Ivoire's civil war (1,000)

2003: Iraq's liberation war - USA, UK and Australia Vs Saddam Hussein (14,000)

2003-: Sudan Vs Darfur (70,000)

2003-: Iraq's civil war (100,000)

Notice anything interesting?

Out of the total number of around 160 million dead, more than 135 million have been killed in or by countries that are now the five big powers of the world, namely China, the US, the UK, France and Russia. The killings by or in Muslim countries form a very small percentage of the total killings, despite the fact that Muslims form about one fifth of the world population.

For more on the stats listed above, read this interesting blog.

If these facts and figures prove anything, it proves that religion can be used as a vehicle to carry out evil just as easily as it can be used to carry out good.
If we removed religion from our interaction with each other, I'm of the belief that this world would be a better and safer place. I'm not saying religion has no place in our daily lives. What I am saying is that it need not be an aspect of our lives which we need to force-feed on those who believe differently.

Every religion has it's fair share of extremists. Every religion.
What we need to do is accept that those extremists are not spokespeople for nor an indication of the rest of those who believe in peace, love and tolerance for all.

That's why I like what this guy says in his letter to the editor of an online newspaper. It's plain, it's simple, and it's honest.

Afro-Centric Sweets

Expect more of this if China takes over the world, and don't fool yourself into thinking that this will never happen. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog post, possibly the one about my visit to Maropeng and the Sterkfontein Caves, but I'm too lazy to check right now. Here's an interesting stat:

Population of the world : 6.6 Billion
Population of China : 1.6 Billion
Population of India : 1.4 Billion

At this rate, in 20 years time the world as we know it will consist of only Chinese and Indians. If you're neither of those right now, well, might I suggest you start eating rice and samoosas with chopsticks and learning to speak either Mandarin or Hindi.

I was watching Zeitgeist the other day , you know the conspiracy movie that debunks religion and pokes holes in America and it's foreign policy and a whole lot of other pokeable issues. Anyways, somewhere in the movie was this piece about how this secret society in America who are part of the Freemasons believe that the worlds population should not be more than 1 Billion people. All these wars and famines and diseases are apparently man-made to control world population.

Sounds far-fetched, I admit, but what's more scary is that it's a very real possibility. A group of crazy men out there want complete control of our planet and they will stop at nothing to get it. Now I generally wouldn't have a problem with their plan for world domination as I assume I'll be amongst the 1 Billion intelligent folk worth having around, but I'm pretty sure that the 5 Billion who must perish will include MacDonalds employees.
If this 'world population control' plan starts messing with my Happy Meal, I'm not going to be so happy anymore.

I'm just saying.

Fundamentalists vs Fun-Da-Mental-Lists

For those of you who haven't seen the video causing all the ruckus, here it is in all it's 3-minutes of glory. Who knew that a comedy-skit poking fun at Osama Bin laden would get all these religious zealots and fundamentalists so hot and bothered, they would border on declaring a fatwa against a comedian?

I admire Late Nite News and especially Riaad Moosa for pushing the boundaries on this one.
I had a Twitter debate with the Cape Town branch of one of the groups leading the charge against Riaad Moosa. There were a few issues I took up with them, and I concluded that there seemed to be a greater understanding of the need for open dialogue with the Cape Town branch than there was for the Jozi branch. I found the response's to Riaad's open letter to their accusations loaded with the kind of diatribe reserved for the arrogant and pompous.

Here are a few excerpts of their blog post, to which I have aired my opinion.

Muslimah : So it really does come as a surprise when Muslims are being rather lenient with ‘comedian’ Riaad Moosa whose latest antics have landed him in hot water with the Muslim ‘extremist’ public.Really Muslimah? You're surprised that the rest of the educated Muslim public is not as narrow-minded and obtuse as you are? You seriously cannot grasp why Muslims are being 'lenient' with Riaad Moosa? What would you prefer them do? Join your extremist ranks and declare a fatwa? Is the world as we know it not dangerous enough with fanatics and zealots already?
 

Muslimah : Secondly, the beard may be seen by many to be a representative quality of Al Qaeda. Whether this is true or not, the beard is a salient feature of Islam. Parodying a person wearing the beard is to parody the Sunnah.I've watched the video numerous times, and at no point did I hear Riaad Moosa mention 'Islam' , 'Sunnah' , or the 'Prophet'. I'm curious to know how you drew this link. Was it a backdoor incitement to rile the Muslim public, since these words justifiably incited anger in Muslims worldwide against the Danish cartoon issue? To draw parallels between the two, as you have done further in your blog, was an error in judgement and a rather dubious if not dangerous claim. The beard is a salient feature of Islam just as it is of Judaism and amongst the Afrikaners. Arabic is the salient language of Middle-Eastern terrorists. Does this mean anyone speaking Arabic is by default a terrorist?


Muslimah :Making people laugh is your own business and you may do it in whatever way you please except when making them laugh involves even a single aspect related to Islam.So in effect what you are saying is that Islam is a religion void of people with a sense of humour? My question to you then is, when did the Muslim public decree you as the bastion of all that is moral and just in this beautiful religion we call Islam? When was the edict passed that made Muslimah the gatekeepers to Islamic virtue? I don't ever recall having asked your group of extremists to safeguard a religion lived and enjoyed by millions against question and debate? Maybe if you took a long and serious look at your mandate and what it is you hope to achieve by your actions, you will realize that you are a lone force with minimal support fighting an extremist cause with no justification.


Muslimah : We await your response video with great anticipation. Due to the fact that you have taken it upon yourself to step into the domain of Islamic academic discussion by making a direct reference to the Sunnah and Shar’i principles in what can only be deemed a parody of worthless taste surpassed only by ignorance of the subject matter, we request the following:

1. Valid, authentic, authoritative, academic Shar’i proof that your actions on the Late Night News show are perfectly okay in light of the Shari’ah.

2. Clear, simple academic proof that a parody involving the shaving of the beard carried out by a Muslim is permissible in Islam.

3. Valid, academic proof that mockery of the burka falls within the confines of ‘fun’ in Islam.

A simple response to the above three questions would be highly appreciated. A request to readers: We have very little time for sad and emotional rants, ‘freedom of speech’ issues, ‘light-hearted’ banter and fun, open-minded entertainment etc. If you cannot provide us with valid, academic proof justifying the actions we have mentioned, do not even bother contacting us or commenting.Is it just me or does this response by Muslimah reek of arrogance and pompousness? Before they attacked Riaad Moosa for his video, I don't recall them having contacted Riaad first to discuss the issue. I don't recall them attempting some form of dialogue to fully understand his intentions. I don't recall them portraying the part of 'Bastions of Morals' by showing some humility and understanding in an effort to educate. All I saw and read was a bully towering above a single individual and screaming down at him "We are right, you're wrong, and that's that!" Interesting to note that Muslimah finds issues like 'Freedom of Speech' an emotional rant. I wonder where they were when the struggle heroes of this country were fighting for the very freedoms they now enjoy; freedoms which allow them a platform to hurl insults at an individual who in my opinion, has done more to engage the youth in dialogue to better understand issues which affect them.

I'd like to ask Muslimah how much they have done outside of their small demographic of extremists to promote dialogue and debate on matters of religion, politics and society in general. I'd hazard a guess and say that their response would probably be "Anything outside of religion does not concern us." Really? If the youth and your demographic in particular suddenly finds themselves in a state which does not allow freedom of religion and freedom of speech, would they still maintain that issues outside of religion are of no interest to them?

The same 'freedom of speech' they balk at today is the very 'freedom of speech' they are exercising themselves. Hypocrisy?


I could mention numerous other points which are at best laughable in their article, but I guess it's up to the reader ultimately to decide if the video Riaad Moosa posted was one deserving of such harsh criticism from a religious minority group.

In my opinion, part of the problem regarding religion today is that each religion believes themselves to be absolutely correct and anyone not subscribing to their beliefs is doomed to hell.

Religions all have one common goal: To promote peace, love and understanding amongst it's following. Do good and be good, so that good may come to you. It's when people start twisting and turning the religious code to fit their own agendas that all the good goes out the window.

In conclusion I would like to add that I am no religious scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but what I lack in religious academic study I more than make up for in common sense... and that's what extremist groups are afraid of, that people will start applying common sense to their beliefs.

"Shoot The Boer" : A Little History Lesson

For those reader's of my blog who are unaware, the ruling party in South Africa (the ANC) have recently instituted court proceedings to defend itself against accusations of inciting violence and hate-speech by singing a song titled "Shoot the boer, shoot the farmer."
The word 'boer' is an afrikaans word meaning 'farmer'.
With the recent rise in killings of farmers, this has caused concern among farmers throughout the country. The fact that our nations ruling party, the ANC, finds it justifiable and within it's rights to sing a song condoning the killing of farmers is shocking to say the least. Their argument that it is a historical song sung during the years of the struggle and liberation of South Africa from the clutches of Apartheid was meant to pacify those who didn't know the truth about our countries history.
Below is an excerpt from a response written by a News24 reader, paulf, who clearly outlines the origin and history of the now infamous song.


Who really is attempting to rewrite history?
Is the controversial song urging the killing of “Boers” truly part of the ANC’s liberation struggle heritage, or are such claims simply an ingenuous, or perhaps sinister, attempt by the ANC leadership to defend its Youth League leader Julius Malema by distorting the historical truth? Or is the ANC itself trying to rewrite history after it accused the courts of doing so when two successive court rulings found the song to incite racial hatred – findings in line with one already made by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) as long ago as 2003?
These are questions that come to the fore from an investigation into the origins of the controversial song, "Dubula iBhunu".
The truth seems to be that words to the same effect first were chanted in Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) circles in the early 1990s along with their infamous slogan of “one settler, one bullet”. Shortly thereafter, the late ANC youth leader Peter Mokaba borrowed the slogan and began chanting his “kill the Boer, kill the farmer” version in 1993 after the murder of ANC and Communist Party leader, Chris Hani.
In none of the sources on the origins of the song which could be identified, could any indication be found that the song has ever been part of the ANC repertoire of songs during the struggle days.
Although the controversial song sung by Malema is claimed now to be a historical liberation struggle song, it was not included in a 2-CD history and recording of 25 freedom songs released in 2002. Senior ANC and former Umkhonto we Sizwe leaders, including Ronnie Kasrils, Baleka Mbete and Pallo Jordan among others, had collaborated in the production of the collection.
At the time of its release, the CD set was described as a collection of field recordings of songs and chants used in the liberation struggle, complemented by a radio documentary providing an overview of the songs, their history and context in the struggle. These songs were sung in ANC camps, at meetings, mass rallies, demonstrations and other gatherings.
The set, it was said, was designed as an archival and historical document. Nowhere did it mention “kill the Boer, kill the farmer” or “shoot the Boer”.
All indications are that the slogan or chant and the song, or even songs that developed from it, originated with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
In August 1999, Thomas Ramaila told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he had been a PAC operative and had been influenced by what he called a PAC slogan, namely “kill the farmer, kill the Boer” to kill a farmer, Neville Rudman. Most of Ramaila’s testimony and his amnesty application were rejected, but his reference to the slogan was not.
The slogan/song in any version was used first in circles associated with the PAC in the early 1990s, although the PAC never officially took ownership of it and, after the first democratic elections of 1994, distanced itself from it. At almost the same time, the ANC’s Mokaba began using the slogan in 1993 when the armed struggle for all intents and purposes was a thing of the past.
In that same year, a large crowd of PAC supporters marched through Cape Town’s Kenilworth and Claremont suburbs, demanding the release of PAC members who had been arrested in connection with the massacre of 11 churchgoers at the St. James Church and chanted “kill the Boer, kill the farmer”, “one settler, one bullet” and “one church, one bomb”.
Also in 1993, at a rally in Tembisa near Johannesburg, both Mokaba and a PAC representative used these or similar words in speeches to the large crowd. Mokaba reportedly also urged the crowd to direct their “bullets” at then president FW de Klerk, declaring that he hated De Klerk. To which the PAC representative added, “war against the enemy... kill them”.
In March this year, a former participant in an August 1993 march (called “Operation Barcelona”) against increased exam fees in Cape Town, wrote in a comment to an article on the Internet, that he was among PASO (PAC student wing) students in the march who chanted “kill the Boer, kill the farmer” immediately before American student Amy Biehl was killed by members of that mob.
In 2002, then president Thabo Mbeki, as president of the ANC, and in 2003 then ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe - who is now ANC deputy president - firmly and unambiguously distanced the ANC from any such song or slogan, saying it had never been, and would never be, a part of the ANC. No claim was made then that it – in any form - ever had been an ANC liberation struggle song.
That is until now, when, in March this year, Malema began singing a generic version of Mokaba’s chant. Suddenly senior ANC leaders, among them secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, are claiming this to be an old ANC liberation struggle song that apparently never was sung to incite violence against white farmers or whites in general, but was aimed against the apartheid regime.
Mcebisi Ndletyana, senior researcher at the Human Science Research Council - in another defence of the song and attack on the judges who ruled against its use in an article in "The Sunday Independent" - claims the song embodies black hatred of “whiteness”, but not of people of European descent... with a very wooly explaination of what the difference is intended to be.
No documentary or other evidence could be found that the chant or related songs were indeed ANC liberation songs before 1993, when the liberation struggle was practically over and constitutional negotiations in full swing.
The Mokaba chant of “kill the farmer, kill the Boer” was next heard in June 2002 at an ANC Youth League meeting in Kimberley, and at Mokaba’s funeral in Limpopo. The funeral was attended by prominent ANC leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Mbeki, and the chanting was stopped immediately.
The Freedom Front lodged a complaint of hate speech with the HRC, which subsequently rejected it. However Mbeki, as president of the ANC and the country at the time, on 19 June of that year told Parliament: “Nobody in our country has a right to call for the killing of any South African, whatever the colour, race, ethnic origin, gender or health condition of the intended victim. Those farmers and boers are as much South African and African as I am...”
In June 2003, the HRC, chaired by Professor Karthy Govender, assisted by Professor Henk Botha and Mr Khashane Manamela, heard an appeal by the Freedom Front against the earlier HRC ruling. In their decision, delivered on 15 July, they overturned the earlier HRC ruling and found that the slogan "Kill the farmer, kill the boer" as chanted at the ANC youth rally in Kimberley and at the funeral of Mokaba constituted hate speech as defined in section 16(2)(c) of the Constitution.
What is even more interesting is that part of the record of submissions made to the HRC at the time contains a letter from Motlanthe, then ANC secretary-general, stating that the ‘’utterance has never been, cannot and will never be a slogan of the ANC, not used by the ANC at all.’’ The logical assumption then is that, according to Motlanthe, it was not part of the ANC’s liberation struggle heritage.

The Ground Zero Mosque

Ok I'll admit it's not every day that I watch Keith Olbermann's show, and it's an even more rare occasion when I recommend you watch it too.
This is certainly one that had me sitting up straight and paying attention.

I'm not sure what the state of New York decided to do about the "Ground Zero Mosque" issue, but I do recall seeing the map of it's location and for the life of me couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

Maybe after watching this 12 minute clip, you can tell me what I'm missing. Or maybe not.

Silence A Nation

Once every so often, I get an email or an sms or a bbm with a message so profound, so eye-opening and so powerful that it stops me doing whatever I'm doing at the time and has me just sit down going 'Wow! The world needs to see this.'

Here's the irony though. Some of the most powerful video's I've ever seen were actually about things I already knew about. I guess it's just when it's presented to you in a short concise way, the impact really hits home.

This is precisely one of those videos.
All I want is for you to watch these 7 minutes for what they are worth, with an open mind, and imagine yourself in that situation. Show some empathy and allow the message to get through.

What you do with it after that is entirely up to you.
I have a 4 year old daughter. The decision for me as to what to do was pretty easy.

This could be the most important and powerful link you've ever clicked.

Silence A Nation

911 Loose Change (full-length)

Makes you wonder about America and her agenda.

Am I The Last Blogger To Write About Egypt?

I could very well be. Not because I haven't had an opinion on what's going on in Egypt... goodness knows my Twitter fan base have heard or read every opinion I've had and then some over the past two weeks.
I guess I hadn't blogged about it yet because I was secretly hoping that the revolution would last a few short days, be over with and Mubarak would step down.
Swift and calculated like a Jean Claude Van Damme fight scene. A lethal kick to the nut-sack followed by a roundhouse kick to the head, and the villain is dead, never to be seen again.
Alas it turned out more like a Hugh Grant and Colin Firth fight scene from Bridget Jones Diary. Void of any swiftness or calculating roundhouse kicks.
We're two weeks into the revolution and Mubarak still sits at the Kings throne, the Lords still reign supreme in their respective ministerial positions, while the commoners continue to throw rocks while begging for bread. After it emerged this week that Hosni Mubarak is quite possibly wealthier than Bill Gates, I'm surprised that the poor didn't go totally ape-shit and bay for his blood! I know I would have.

I'm blessed to have lived in an age which saw the demise of Apartheid and the results of a planned revolution; an age which saw the heights of success man can achieve when he fights the good fight and has belief and faith that he can overcome, and also an age which saw the depths to which a single person can take an entire nation when he leads through lies and deceit.
I really do wish that the Egyptian people overcome and that Mubarak and his henchmen realize that men mightier than themselves have fallen before them, and Egypt will survive and prosper without them.

It's inevitable that the west will begin the groundwork for their version of democracy by trying to pave the way for a Presidential candidate hand-reared by themselves. I won't be surprised if such candidate has already been primed and marinated and is ready to ascend to the highest office in the land courtesy of America and her bitch Britain. We've seen it happen across the globe on numerous occasions, and each time their candidate gets drunk on power, he turns against his people and becomes a psychotic despot who is suddenly disowned and brandished dangerous by the very people who put him in power. America and Britain then lick their lips at the sound of the chops sizzling on the barbecue, knowing full well that war is around the corner, and with war comes the billions of arms dollars and lucrative side-deals, and so begins the feeding-frenzy.
It's an ingenious plan, and it's served them well for centuries, except that this time the people are aware and alert.
This time America and her scraggly bitch Britain will need to offer more than smoke and mirrors. The people have seen the other hand, and they don't like what it holds.
"There are revolutionaries, and there are counter-revolutionaries. One fights for justice and a better life, the other just fights for more counters in his shop."

Just when I thought the week would fizzle out into obscurity, our very own President the questionably Honorable Jacob Zuma declared the ANC as having sole access to the trappings of Heaven. Yes Comrades, access to heaven is strictly restricted to card-carrying members of the African National Congress.
Certainly not good news for the likes of Mother Teressa or Mahatma Ghandi or even Martin Luther King!
If the ANC-led provinces are anything to go by, I'm choosing Cape Town led by the DA as my little piece of hell, thank you very much.
Needless to say the religious bodies were all up in arms over Zuma's statement. This is what he said for those who missed it, or if you were travelling outside of the galaxy these past few days:

"When you vote for the ANC, you are also choosing to go to heaven," President Zuma yesterday told South African voters. "When you don't vote for the ANC you should know that you are choosing that man who carries a fork ... who cooks people."

The President went on: "When you are carrying an ANC membership card, you are blessed. When you get up there, there are different cards used but when you have an ANC card, you will be let through to go to heaven […] When [Jesus] fetches us we will find [them] wearing black, green and gold, the holy ones belong to the ANC."

So Jesus will be looking for people wearing black, green and gold?
The Rastafarians must have been thrilled to hear that! The Irish too!
As for the rest of us, well I guess we're pretty much fucked and will have to put up with fairly decent service delivery, a well-run city council, lower levels of corruption and a city which actually works. Yup, it's going to be hell with all it's nasties people. Brace yourselves!

Disclaimer : I'm neither a fan of the ANC nor the DA. My political view quite honestly is that the ANC have made promises which they have failed to keep, while the DA is more reactive than pro-active.I wish there was a stronger third candidate, but unfortunately there isn't. Yes I do take many digs at the ANC, but that's because they're the ruling party. If the DA were ever to become the ruling party (as unlikely as that seems) you can bet your black, green & gold boxer shorts that I'd be taking digs at them too!

Viva Revolutionaries Viva!

(follow me on Twitter @kaloo5 )

Wikileaks vs The American House Of Cards

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell


I was watching Carte Blanche earlier this evening and they aired an interview from the BBC with Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks who undoubtedly needs no introduction. If you're a regular visitor to the blog you will already be aware of my intense distrust and loathing of the American government and all that it signifies.

As the self-proclaimed gatekeeper of morals and diplomacy, and defender of democracies worldwide, the American government has the dubious distinction of being at the pinnacle of all that is evil and dishonest.

They had an amazing opportunity of galvanizing the entire world during the September 11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks and harvesting that immense support into something positive. They had the opportunity of converting the pain and suffering of a nation into a united force against terrorism and barbaric acts of cowardice. They would have had the unequivocal support of every nation on earth if they simply went about their response in a just and honest manner.

Instead they fucked it up and turned it into a roadshow for state-sanctioned killings and torture. They took what the terrorists had done, cloaked it in the robe of nationalism and patriotism, and went about on a killing spree of their own.
They convinced their troops and allies that they were fighting some kind of holy war in the name of democracy, ridding the world of evil.
"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."

When their atrocities were exposed to the world for what they truly were, suddenly people were being labelled as being unpatriotic to America.
Suddenly it was like being back in the earlier part of the century where you were marked for ridicule or death if you carried the Jewish label, or Black label, and later on even the Gay label. Being unpatriotic was another label the American people became afraid of, so afraid in fact that speaking up against injustice and blatant lies was tantamount to being labelled a traitor. Silence against the atrocities of Americas leaders seemed like a better option.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Martin Luther King jnr


When Wikileaks first released some of the classified documents which rocked the political world, I hoped that it would be an eye-opener for citizens of every country to realise that their governments are not always as they seem.
It should have been the very moment when those amongst us who do not care about the politics of our nations, started caring about their futures and those of their children in the years ahead Instead we've seen the American spin-doctors try to discredit Wikileaks for being a whistleblowing website with no concern for the safety of the troops fighting wars just and unjust across the border's of Lady Liberty's shores. Ironic that more people have been killed in the name of America's  war on terrorism and promotion of democracy than 100 Wikileaks or Julian Assange's ever could.

Why is it that whenever we hear the word "Terrorist" we immediately think of evil dictators and their henchmen willing to kill innocent people at all costs, but never stop to think who arms these madmen, or who trains them or who finances them?
In the court of justice, I am as guilty of murder for supplying the gun and bullets to kill someone as the killer who pulled the trigger is. The same rules obviously don't apply to America and her allies.
I wrote in a previous post about hackers worldwide turning on corporate America and supporters of her bullshit version of democracy, and unleashing their venom as a sign of protest against the censoring of Wikileaks. No sooner had I posted the piece on my blog and the news was abuzz with attacks on Mastercard, Paypal, Amazon and others.
To those hackers, I salute you.

For too long we have been led to believe that America's version of righteous and evil and good and bad was all that really mattered. Everything contrary to this fell into the category of "Unpatriotic".

To America I say "Fuck you and your partriotism."
The reason open-minded and educated people hate you is because that rancid stench which emanates from your White House is akin to a leaking sewer at your Superbowl; the truth stinks, and the truth about your deceit and heinous acts of rubber-stamped terrorism committed under your banner of progress will not go away.
The world watches while your nation decays, morally and completely in all respects.

Someone once asked me if I ever considered the fact that I may never be allowed into the United States due to all the rants I've made against America.
My response was "They can take that visa and shove it up their arses if they think I'd ever want to spend my money in that shit hole."

I've met some really great American people in my travels, and this post is in no way intended to be a generalisation, but until their leaders and politicians of that once great nation begin the journey of truth and integrity, myself and millions like me will never trust anything America stands for.



Excerpt from Three Kings, the movie
Archie Gates: What's the most important thing in life? 
Troy Barlow: Respect. 
Archie Gates: Too dependent on other people. 
Conrad Vig: What, love? 
Archie Gates: A little Disneyland, isn't it? 
Chief Elgin: God's will. 
Archie Gates: Close. 
Troy Barlow: What is it then? 
Archie Gates: Necessity. 
Troy Barlow: As in? 
Archie Gates: As in people do what is most necessary to them at any given moment

The people of the United States believe that it is necessary to accept the lies their government feeds them, because the alternative is too scary an option.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

Galileo Galilei quotes

A Generation Of Morons & Thieves

Your bellies empty
And the hungers so real
You're too proud to beg
And too dumb to steal

I guess Sting in his wisdom never had our beautiful country in mind when he wrote these lyrics.
We have a generation so dumb, all they will ever be able to do is steal! Gone are the days of bank robberies and armed hold-ups... today we have government tenders and cushy jobs in parliament. It's taken your stock-standard hoodlum and dressed him in a suit. His crime is still the same. He just undertakes it with a new level  professionalism.

I read a blog earlier today which pissed me off to no end.
Our geniuses in government have spent around R3 Billion (Yes, thats Billion with a B) on a project called Gauteng Online which was supposed to empower students in all schools across the country by installing computer centres with internet access in every school.
The tender was awarded to some unknown sleazeball who has a company website totalling 1 page. No further information is available on this guy. Somehow, the powers that be figured he was the perfect candidate to handle R3 Billion.
This was between 2002 and 2007. It's now the end of 2010.
Has anyone ever heard or seen any progress on this genius project?
I read The Article and literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor by the time I got to the end.

I guess it's not so much that some connected BEE tenderpreneur was bum-chumming a member of parliament or someone high up in government, and between them decided the taxpayer didn't really need this R3 Billion. I guess it's not even the fact that the guy has never been brought to book on the matter, 9 years after the fact.
The thing that really riles me up is when I read that SADTU (South African Democratic Teachers Union) are now asking for a biased and lenient approach to marking black matriculants papers.
Really SADTU? Thats your solution?
How does This Solution turn us into a nation of winners and achievers?
Here's the thing: I totally get that some students have been disadvantaged by the previous government. I totally get that there was a ton of catching up to do. Okay so sixteen years later and we're still blaming the past? Sure it's a stretch, but let's assume we take a big fat gulp of water and swallow that pill too.
What I would really like someone to explain to me is why the present government is taking every hard-earned penny from every taxpayer in the country, amounting to billions of Rands each year, then squandering it on instant-millionaire gifts to their friends and comrades under the guise of BEE tenders.... and when the chickens come home to roost because the standard of education in our schools is lower than the morals amongst our politicians, the first solution they can think of is to lower standards even further.
Shall we just keep turning a blind eye to the root of the problem, while lowering education standards for our learners to the point where they're "too proud to bed, and too dumb to steal"?

Remember when our freedom fighters and stalwarts in the struggle against the apartheid regime were comfortably able to enter top international universities like Harvard and Princeton?
I'd like to see our current crop of geniuses even make the janitors job credentials.

That's the very reason Private Schools in this country have become a million Rand industry.
The cost of sending my daughter to a good private school today equates to my dad's entire salary when I was younger. It's not getting any cheaper, which means parents these days have to work harder and live longer so that their kids can get into the best schools and universities.

You know what we need?
We need Pink Floyd all over again.
We need a whole new revolution, except this time we should purge the state of all the flotsam and jetsom and bring in some serious leaders with serious solutions.

I don't know who they are and I don't know what their solutions could be... but by God I hope they're out there somewhere!

Hello America. This Is Why The World Doesn't Trust You

What an eventful day it's been. All this talk of espionage and terrorism and counter-terrorism and diplomacy.

One of my favourite websites after Counterpunch has just released sensitive documents relating to America's dubious foreign policy and a host of other nasties committed by that bastion of righteousness and democracy. The site which you most certainly must have either heard about, read about, or at the least visited, is WikiLeaks.

I watched with interest as they rounded up their heavyweight spin-doctors and mouthpieces, led by none other than Hillary Clinton, and tried valiantly to limit the damage caused by the leaking of these documents to the world at large.
For those that haven't seen the news or read about it, the documents contained correspondence between America, her allies, and high ranking members of state. It clearly shows the clandestine back-room politics taking place between the puppets and the puppet-master. Exposed and caught with her pants down, America resorts to the only response it knows best : Threatening the website with legal ramifications and accusing it of having the blood of the troops on it's hands.
How rich is that!?
The same America that sent it's young men and women to fight a war that the world now collectively regards as unwarranted and unjust, having watched as those same troops came back in body-bags by the thousands, now has the gall and nerve to accuse a whistle-blower of being unpatriotic? If this irony doesn't slap you in the face like a basketball hitting Obama, then I probably don't fully understand irony at all.

I had so much faith in Obama. He was like an American version of Nelson Mandela when he first came on to the scene. Leader of the free world, saviour of the planet as we know it.
At the tail-end of his term in office and suddenly we realize that he was no better than his predecessors. Full of promises, very short on delivery.
Remember his promise to shut down Guantanamo Bay if he were elected? Not happening.
Remember his promise to run a transparent administration? Think Espionage Act.
Now that his administration has been exposed for all it's devious intentions and plotting, the politically correct response would be to acknowledge the shortcomings and promise to do better going forward... Not so our leader of the most powerful nation in the world. He decides to attack the free press along with his henchmen.

Here's an extract from the Associated Press regarding WikiLeaks document release:

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday called the WikiLeaks release of a flood of diplomatic memos an "attack on the international community" and vowed to prevent future leaks.

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community," Clinton told reporters after meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"I want you to know that we are taking aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information," she added.

"I have directed that specific actions be taken at the state department in addition to new security safeguards at the department of defence and elsewhere... so that this kind of breach cannot and does not ever happen again."

I wonder what those aggressive steps could be?
Will we see more stifling of freedom of speech and restrictions on the media, to prevent the government looking like corrupt bastards and deceitful leaders?
Does this sound remotely familiar in the South African context?

If these WikiLeaks have done anything, I think they have forever changed the playing field between governments and media. The worldwide press would be fully charged and determined to root out the inherent evils lurking in the corridors of power in governments across the world, and those governments in turn would be doing all they possibly can in their powers (and sometimes skirting the law in these efforts too) in order to silence and gag the access to information.

We live in interesting times, but through it all, the truth shall prevail.

Alutta continua.

Politics For Dummies

Mid-term elections 2010 are taking place in the U.S. tomorrow, Tuesday November 2, and the outcome will decide who will take control of Congress for the next two years, the Democrats or the Republicans.

Although it’s common for the current party of control to lose some seats in the mid-terms, the economic crisis has been severely damaging for President Obama and the Democratic Party and it looks quite possible at the moment that the Democrats could lose their command of the House of Representatives leading to a divided government.

Stranger things have happened before though, so it's quite possible that Social Media networks will once again trump Corporate Media, and the people's voices will be heard louder on Twitter & Facebook than corporates & big-business's voices on CNN & Fox News.

We live in truly exciting times, and I think tomorrow's elections in America may prove definitively the power shift from newspapers and television to social media networks.

With 225 million registered voters eligible to vote, it's certainly going to be interesting.

Quite frankly I don't know who the better of the two evils are, the Democrats or the Republicans, as I'm not informed enough to make a judgement. What I do know however is that the Republicans are knobs.

Ok so here's a small lesson in politics courtesy of myself.
Remember that my area's of expertise does include politics, but not the kind of politics which involve governments and politicians. Now that I've cleared that up, let's move on.

Some common phrases you may hear during the course of these elections, and possibly future elections in other countries as well:

Registered Voter : These are usually the guys you want on your side, unless you are George Bush's cousin and you live in Florida; in which case you'll probably want to sieve through these registered voters very carefully and remove Mexicans, Chinese and all prisoners.

Bipartisan : This can best be described as two parties being undecided about what to do with a drunken hooker they found upstairs during a house-party, and end up shagging her and agreeing not to tell anybody. Or in political terms, it's when two parties share a common goal. eg: Democrats and Republicans are hoping for a Bipartisan foreign policy.

Foreign Policy : A common word sprinkled about like tenders at an ANC conference, all politicians want to sound intelligent by talking about Foreign Policy. Locally, the term refers to the origin of a politicians suit or shoes. eg : Julius Malema has a very strong Italian Foreign Policy.
In American terms, Foreign Policy refers largely to which countries will be attacked/ colonized for the illegal acquisition of their natural resources, and also to which countries America will hop into bed with and turn a blind eye to regarding their Human Rights violations; with a view to strengthening trade agreements. In common terms, these would be countries America has a very flexible and relaxed Foreign Policy accord with, so relaxed in fact that the policy documents are in fact written by the bed-partner instead of America! eg: America's foreign policy with dictatorships and occupying nations may best be described as a case of "You sleep with my sister, & I'll sleep with yours. Heck I'll even sleep with mine. But if anyone asks, we're just friends, ok." Foreign Policy, like a loaf of bread, can be bought at a price.

Foreign Affairs : Not to be confused with Foreign Policy. Bill Clinton had no Foreign Policy on Monica Lewinsky, but he definitely did have a Foreign Affair with her. In a nutshell, this encompasses all affairs not conducted at home. Any affair which falls under the category of "Mistress", and not condoned by the wife, is deemed to be a Foreign Affair. In local politics, our ingenious leader Jacob Zuma chose to convert his Foreign Affairs departments into Home Affairs. Not a common solution, as too many Home Affairs taking place under one roof could ultimately lead to a Bipartisan Foreign Policy. (See above)

Trade Agreements : Usually one would need a very clear understanding of Capitalism in order to fully grasp the depth of this term. Basically, a Trade Agreement takes the place of either a unilateral or a bilateral format. Iraq for example would have a Unilateral Trade Agreement with America which in essence translates to "We shall steal your oil and sell it to our friends and cohorts, and you shall say Thank You." China on the other hand, having a permanent seat on the UN Security Council coupled with sufficient military clout and a dash of unstable madness, is in a Bilateral Trade Agreement with America. The crux of this agreement is simply "Dear America. We will sell you our products and materials since we already make everything sold in the world, and once every ten years we will buy MacDonalds burgers from you. Furthermore, you shall not question our Human Rights track record or policy, or else we will stop selling you the paper to make the boxes to put your MacDonalds burgers in. Let's not go into the issue of threatening us, because we will kick your arse. Ni Hao and Zai Jian."

Left Wing : Also referred to as the Leftists, this group supports social change and their goal is to create an egalitarian society.(Wikipedia: adj. asserting, resulting from or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, esp. in political, economic or social life)Think Greenpeace, Tree-Huggers and pretty much anyone who boycotted BP during the recent oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico. If you're not sure which oil spill I'm referring to, close this page and click on Hannah Montana's Homepage. In local politics, your Leftists would be the Labour Unions headed by Zwelinzima Vavi and his sidekicks. Anyone wearing an ANC badge or who lives within 3 blocks of Julius Malema, Tokyo Sexwale or Cyril Ramaphosa would be the extreme opposite of a Leftist, and stands the risk of being mistaken for an investigative reporter and consequently shot.

Right Wing : Also referred to as Rightists, this group supports a free market system and worships Capitalism in all its forms. Synonymous with monarchs, aristocrats, nationalization and wanton greed. If the collective taxes of the people and corporations were put into a huge pile and converted into a mountain of food, these guys would be head of the Pig Trough gouging themselves until their gluttonous feasting resulted in "Fat Pig" syndrome. Then they would wake up and ask where the beer and alcohol was. In the meanwhile, the Leftists would be at the back of the queue trying to organize the line into women and children, then the poor and destitute, and finally the men. Remember the movie Titanic? The Rightist were trying to buy their way onto the lifeboats, while the Leftists were trapped in the lower decks fighting for survival, or staying on board and playing the violin. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Capitalism. I love money more than most guys I know, and I love making money more than I love making love. (Ask my wife, she'll tell you!) It's your social responsibility and conscience that ultimately defines your position in front of the Pig Trough.
In it's most extreme form, the Right Wing consider themselves elitists and above all other classes and creeds. Think German skinheads and Russian Moscovite gangs, and of course the most Right Wing of all Right Wing groups, the Nazis.

West Wing : A television series not to be taken seriously, especially since it stars Rob Lowe.

That's todays episode of "Politics For Dummies."
Watch this space for updates and more educational posts on the subject.

Public Servants Strike...

And The Empire Strikes Back!

I've been following the Public Servants strike on the news and in the papers over the past two weeks, and by "following" I mean I skipped through the news pages on my way to the comic section, or caught it on the telly as I was flipping channels in search of "Girls Of The Playboy Mansion."

So here's the thing I don't get.
The Public Servants are demanding more money or else they won't go back to school and teach the learners.
The Government is refusing to give them their 8.6% salary increase demand, saying there simply isn't sufficient funds to cover these extra costs.
Learner's are edging closer to matric exams and there's a very high possibility that we may see the year end with thousands of kids without a qualification worthy enough of getting them jobs to clean the very toilets at the schools that have abandoned them.
Through all of this, MP's, politicians and other corrupt bottom-feeders in society continue to scramble over themselves like gluttonous vultures at a Mad-Cow Diseased culling site for tenders and bribes.

The dodgy deals continue unabated; the arms deal has been swept under the carpet; we never heard anymore of the missing millions from the SABC, Eskom and other parastatals.
The fat-cats just get fatter while the country gets over-run with rats.

Quite simply, the chickens have come home to roost... and this once proud land of milk and honey that the ANC inherited with more than it's fair share of problems, and promised to turn into the Utopia we so believed they would, has not materialised.
Sixteen years into our democracy and we still have townships without clean running water or proper sanitation.
The gap between the Upper Class and Lower Class is now so wide, the working Middle Class is simply lost in translation. We might as well just be regarded as being Lower Class too.

It's almost as though a culture of greed and corruption has seeped so deeply into the very fabric of our once proud freedom fighters and social activists, that the cleansing process would require a complete purge of all that we once had faith in, or believed in.
I once was a believer in the ANC.
Then Madiba retired.
Now his legacy has been taken over by henchmen only interested in power and money.

Among my labourers the general consensus is that they the ANC, as fraught as they are with corruption, are still better than the DA.
Rather the devil you know.
There's no trust in the DA, simply because their upper echelons are not truly representative of the nations make up.
Their words. Not mine.
Is there any truth in this?
Possibly. Joe Seremane is the longest serving politician in parliament and a member of the DA.
How many have heard of him, until he was paraded by the DA to score brownie points from non-white voters?
Joe Seremane has since retired.
I'm guessing he finally grew too tired of waiting for Uhuru from his party.

The ID, now in an ANC (Ante-Nuptual Contract) marriage with the DA, would have been a contender for my vote had they not been so focussed on the Cape only, and possibly also if they were a tad less unstable.
Too much firecracker, and not enough pyrotechnics.
Maybe that's just me.
It's great that they're so vocal and always barking in the corridors at the Union Building, but unless that barking is stopping the thieves and waking the owners, i'm afraid all it will ever be is simply noise.
I'm seriously hoping that their merge with the DA will be positive.

I'm excited about the future of my country.
I love the fact that we have this many problems, because it means that we will need to dedicate ourselves to that many solutions.
Only the strong will survive.
I'm also excited about the open debate that people are willing to have about issues such as these that affect them.

And that right there is why the Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT) should not be supported.
In my humble opinion, the ruling party is trying to get the media to clean their stories of damaging reporting on the MAT and only publish that which won't tarnish the image of the corrupt.
Government will have the right to decide what we the public can have access to; what information regarding their dodgy deals and dodgier tender awards we can read about. It's the perfect carpet to hide all their dirty under-handed dealings under.
That's just my opinion.

Wait... how did I end up discussing politics?

And You Ask Why The World Doesn't Trust America?

3 Reasons the “Ground Zero Mosque” Debate Makes No Sense

• By: Gladstone
• August 20th, 2010
• 374,443 views

1,605diggsdigg

Share

I don’t usually write about politics. It’s important, but something I want no part of – kind of like a raw sewage treatment facility. But frankly, I haven’t been this upset in a long time. And it’s due to the logic-hating, herd-mentality rhetoric that some have been flinging in opposition to the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” For the uninitiated, there are plans to construct an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. And, of course, lower Manhattan is where the World Trade Center stood before terrorists destroyed it, thereby murdering 3,000 Americans. I was working in New York City at the time. As was my father. As was my pregnant wife. I remember the day well. And the days that followed. I think most of all, I remember standing on the Staten Island Ferry, coming home with 200 other silent, reverent New Yorkers of every age, race, and religion, as we watched our city still smoldering a full week later. And it is with this backdrop that I can say to every politician spouting off and opposing the construction of this Islamic community center: “Shut up. Go away. You hate America.”

I’m talking about people like professional political tumor, Newt Gingrich, and future worst President ever, Sarah Palin, who have both slammed supporters of the Islamic community center with rhetoric so flawed, I’m afraid even linking to it might impair your computer’s higher functioning circuits. But it’s not just them. Due to the wave of misinformation being spread, apparently 68% of Americans also oppose the mosque.

How did this happen? Well, basically a complacent or a complicit media helped perpetuate three ideas that are either outright lies or intellectually dishonest arguments designed to bring out the very worst in all of us. And as you continue to hear them–and you will–take out this column which you will have already printed and laminated, and recite thusly:

1. It’s Not at Ground Zero

The proposed structure is not on the hallowed ground of the former World Trade Center. It’s at an abandoned and private building blocks away that used to be the Burlington Coat Factory. That means that if every one of the “g’s” that Sarah Palin drops when she’s talkin’ folksy were 10 by10 feet large, you could still stack over 120 of them from Ground Zero to this community center. Easy.

That sort of makes all the difference, doesn’t it? I know, when I first heard they were building a mosque at Ground Zero, I literally said, “What the fuck.” Like out loud and everything. I didn’t even pull a “WTF” despite years of writing for the Internet. That’s because for the last nine years, we New Yorkers have listened to countless proposals and plans and ideas of how to best rebuild the area while honoring the memories of those who died. And suddenly it seemed we were being told, “Yep, it’s all decided. Mosque. We want a mosque here. Just feels right.”

So yeah, of course, no one was on board. That just made no sense. What happened to that proposed waterfall and wall of names? Nothing happened. Because no one was ever building a mosque on that site. It’s just a lie that was told to you by people who wanted you to be afraid, upset, and hurt. People who wanted to manipulate your tender emotions to inspire contempt for the government. It’s about as intellectually dishonest as manipulating debate footage to make it appear that “Drill, baby, drill” is Sarah Palin’s stance on partial birth abortions. It’s just wrong.

And to those who say that any location in lower Manhattan is too close for a Muslim structure, let me remind you that right now, in the shadow of what would be the former World Trade Center, there’s a Halal Meat Hot Truck with a multi-denominational line that wraps around my building every day at lunch time. And I’m positive that’s owned by a Muslim. And I’ve even suffered at his hands. (Spoiler alert: avoid the goat rhoti). Should he move a few more blocks away too? Of course, not. That would just be silly, right? Is it different? Why? Because mosques are religious and the 911 terrorists perverted Islam into something violent and hateful? Guess what? Those knights did the same thing to Christianity for the 300 years of the Crusades, and no one’s saying that churches shouldn’t be built anywhere in … Europe.

2. It’s Not Strictly A Mosque

A mosque by definition is a purely religious structure. This is a large proposed community center, open to the public and set to house, among other things, a basketball court. Yes there will be a prayer space inside it as well, but you don’t call St. Mary’s Hospital a church because it happens to have a chapel inside it, do you? Well, maybe you do. You read about politics on the Internet from a guy who claims not to write about politics, so maybe you’re functionally illiterate. But the point is, you shouldn’t.

But “Islamic Community Center open to the public” doesn’t have the same ability to scare people the way “mosque” does. I mean, you hear “mosque” you think mosquito, you think STING! You hear “mosque” you think “mask,” you think DECEPTION! You hear “community center” you think “OK. One more place I’ll never go.” So, yeah, clearly the decision was made by those who hate you to call this the “Ground Zero Mosque” even though it’s not at Ground Zero and not technically a mosque. Why are we still discussing this? Why haven’t you already asked Sarah Palin if she’s the devil on her Twitter account? Oh, that’s right. Because the devil is supposed to be good at lying.

3. You Can’t Simultaneously Acknowledge A Right And Insist That Your Government Suppress It

But the real reason I’m writing is not just because of people like Sarah Palin, but because of shameful, spineless panderers like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Here’s a statement from each of them designed to give the appearance of being tolerant while adhering to good old-fashioned common sense values:

From Sarah Palin’s Twitter Feed:

“We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they?”

And from Harry Reid’s spokesperson:

While respecting that Muslims have a First Amendment right to religious freedom, Reid “thinks this mosque should be built some place else,” his spokesman Jim Manley said Monday.

Let me make something clear. In order to make these statements you must hate two things: logic and America. There is NO way to say that an individual has a protected right to do something and simultaneously criticize your government for not suppressing the execution of that right. There is no way for President Obama or any other president to put a stumbling block in the way of the free exercise of religion without violating the sanctity of that freedom. Should I say it more simply? OK.

You can’t legally stop people from obeying the law.

The Burlington Coat factory is private property. Those who want to build on it are private citizens. They are violating no law in wanting to build a community center. Under what authority do you propose we stop them? There is no “unless you’re a Muslim within X yards of a national tragedy exception” to the free exercise of religion. Do the Gingrichs and Palins and Reids want to start a precedent where you can compel people not to exercise the freedoms guaranteed under our Constitution provided enough people don’t like you?

And what are we saying to Muslims? That if they were good Americans they would willingly give up their rights? I can’t think of anything less American than that? This is America. We do what we want. And all you have to do to have that right is be a citizen here. And if you’re a traitor, well then we will prosecute you for treason and penalize you for taking up arms against the greatest country in the world, but we will NOT start curtailing your freedoms based on mere speculation fueled by lies about what you’re building and where you’re building it.

In the days following 911 it was very popular to say that we couldn’t do anything differently in America or “the terrorists would win.” We can’t stop driving gas guzzling cars. We can’t stop supporting dictators in other parts of the world for financial or political gain. We can’t vote for a Democrat. Most of that was rhetoric. Some of it was probably true. But one thing is definitely true: if we ask our leaders to start dishonoring the freedoms that make this country great, the terrorists surely will have won. And I don’t want to see that. Because unlike those with power and influence who would lie to you, I love America.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/3-reasons-the-ground-zero-mosque-debate-makes-no-sense/#ixzz0xND4KgiK