At our leaders' behest, we are beginning to accept the normality of the abnormal and the morality of the immoral.
Shortly after Julius Malema was elected president of the ANC Youth League last year, I asked a senior member of the organisation how a movement with so noble a history could choose a hooligan to be its leader.
Malema was a guy who had no ounce of rational leadership in him and probably couldn't tell the difference between the sun and the moon unless he stared at them with his naked eye. He would be better suited to lead an English football mob during a clash with Serbia.
The answer I received was nothing I could have expected. You see, the leader educated me, the youth league is about militancy. He explained that each generation of youth league leadership had to be more militant than the previous one.
He said that after Peter Mokaba stepped down as president of the league in the late '90s, the organisation had erred by electing Lulu Johnson as its president and later putting Malusi Gigaba in charge. These two reversed Mokaba's militancy and committed a historical sin, he argued.
The election of Fikile Mbalula had corrected this and re-injected militancy into the youth league's blood.
"After Mbalula we could not go backwards. We had to get a leader who was more militant than him," he said forcefully.
And after Malema? I inquired.
"We cannot go backwards," he insisted. "We will need somebody more militant."
At this point I tried to engage him as to when exactly the youth league's militancy would reach maximum volume. Surely the rules of political science limit how far militancy can go?
We deadlocked. Anyway, Malema is now in our lives. He graces our newspapers and our screens and his gruff voice jolts our radios in the morning. In the eight months that he has been president of the league, he has lurched from controversy to controversy. He has horrified us with his war talk and amused us with his imbecility.
Malema announced his arrival on the big scene in spectacular fashion, pronouncing that he and his followers were prepared to commit murder on behalf of ANC president Jacob Zuma. "Let us make it clear now: we are prepared to die for Zuma. Not only that, we are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma," Malema told a Youth Day rally last year.
From then on it was downhill, with the woodwork genius spouting inanities week in, week out. His party has generally tolerated his barbarism, at worst giving him a pinch on the thigh if they felt he was embarrassing them. Now Malema has become both a national ogre and a national joke. Social gatherings are never complete without some kind of Julius joke, and seminars are incomplete without reference to the phenomenon of Julius.
But in laughing at Malema, we mask the peril that he is to our society. Not to accord the young too much stature here, but he is an embodiment of some of the bad turns our society has taken in the recent past.
We are at a point where, at the behest of our leaders, we are beginning to accept the normality of the abnormal and the morality of the immoral. Malema's rise to power was the triumph of this acceptance of bad. Here was a youth leader who embodied everything that young people should spurn: ill-discipline, lack of respect for elders, hatred of education, being prone to mob violence, an uncontrollable mouth and a general uncouthness of being.
In putting him forward as an exemplar for South African youth, the ruling party was telling us what were the acceptable standards of leadership and what level of aspiration young people should have.
It is the same with the story that has dominated headlines this week. Carl Niehaus, a struggle veteran who went rotten, was propelled to a position of prominence even though ruling party leaders knew he was a con man. In putting him forward as its face and voice, the ANC was saying to the public that it trusted him and so should we.
As with Malema, the ANC was telling the South African public that the standard of rectitude that Niehaus represented was okay. He was on radio, television and in newspapers every day, preaching the good gospel according to the ruling party. And all the while the people who had employed him knew that their truth-teller was a liar and a fraudulent individual. I will not even begin to talk about the other highly deficient individual that the party wants to have lead this republic, except to say that he, too, is the standard of probity and intellect that the people of the republic are expected to aspire to.
This is an ugly moment in South Africa, a moment to press pause and wonder out loud how we had got to a point where bad is okay, when the nation's leadership has decided that the "Forwards ever! Backwards never!" slogan should be flipped around. At this point I would like to mangle a wisdom propounded by the great African writer Ben Okri, who said: "To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself."
My mangling: "To poison a nation, corrupt its leaders."
I think we are at the point where our leadership has been poisoned.
Barack Obama has been embroiled in a cronyism row after reports that he intends to make Louis Susman, one of his biggest fundraisers, the new US ambassador in London.
That's generally how you pay off your biggest fundraiser, London or Paris, whatever the donor's preference ...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It's not like its the most important assignments in the personnel list anymore. Now who they send to Beijing to sell those T-Bonds (and sell out the Tibetans), that's important.
Sen. Susan Collins, whose support for a scaled-back stimulus bill broke a Republican filibuster and handed President Obama and the Democrats a political victory, isn't the most popular person in her chamber's GOP caucus right now.
Her support for the bill, she acknowledges, has come at a cost that has chilled relationships with some of her GOP colleagues, but that it was the right thing to do. "I believe this is truly a dire crisis," the Maine lawmaker told the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel. "When we lose 600,000 jobs in one month and when unemployment in Maine is at a 16-year record high at 7 percent, and when each day brings reports of another loss of jobs in Maine and across the country, I don't believe a responsible reaction is to just say no."
She also touts the bipartisan efforts that went into the stimulus bill, citing six Republicans and 14 centrist Democrats who worked to scale back the bill after it left the House. "We were able to weed out of this bill $100 billion of spending, some of which may be worthwhile, but was not stimulative," she said.
Mrs. Collins, along with fellow senators Olympia Snowe, also from Maine, and Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, provided the three critical votes that saved Mr. Obama from a setback on the central economic plank in his agenda.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2009 00:00 ||
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"when unemployment in Maine is at a 16-year record high at 7 percent"
Up from its norm of 6.8%?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/22/2009 8:18 Comments ||
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#2
Thank you, but I'll be passing on the Maine Lobster Thermador special. It looks a bit too RED! I'll have that lovely 14 oz Texas Black Angus Porterhouse smothered in Vidalia onions, arugula, and parmesan instead. Medium well please.
#4
Medium Well STEAK?! What happened to the Carnivore in you? Leave it Rare and eat in front of a local PETA HQ. In fact, throw a BBW in across from one!
Posted by: Charles ||
02/22/2009 10:38 Comments ||
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They can give this dumb cow the cold shoulder, but it does little good. Maine voters are apparently very liberal and continue to support this whiner. Only voters in Maine can correct this big error. They won't. Look at the voting characteristics of all the Northeast. I'd like to know how this has happened ?
The pressure may be mounting on U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign, but Mayor Richard Daley wasn't going to be one to add to it today. "Let's put everything in perspective and give him an opportunity to explain himself," Daley said today when asked if Burris should step down. "Automatically, every time something happens people want everybody to resign. Is it becoming very common now to tell people to resign after he was appointed?"
Just the crooks, which just might mean everybody ...
Daley gave Burris credit for voting for the federal economic stimulus package which the mayor said "never would have passed" without Burris' vote.
And that's the reason why Harry Reid, et al, went along with Blago's stunt. Thanks for confirming that for us, Mayor Short Shanks ...
Burris, appointed by Rod Blagojevich after his Dec. 9 arrest but before the Illinois Senate removed from the governor's office, faces two inquiries about his appointment and his evolving versions of how it came to pass. One is a perjury investigation in Springfield and the other is preliminary inquiry by the Senate Ethics Committee.
Asked if he thought voters who wanted more transparency in government were disappointed in Burris, Daley said he thought people would eventually "move on with their lives."
"Three people got killed [last night]. Do you think the people who killed them care who is their U.S. senator?" Daley said. "Life goes on." Daley was referencing a triple shooting of teens on the South Side.
That's extraordinarily tacky even for Richie ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Yup, youse peasants need to spruce up your colorful native costumes and clog dance for your betters...
#2
"Three people got killed" last night in Chicago.
Quagmire!
U.S. out of Chicago! (And D.C. And New Orleans. And Detroit. And etc.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/22/2009 1:02 Comments ||
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#3
Do you think the people who killed them care who is their U.S. senator?" Daley said.
Quite frankly, I very much suspect they do indeed care. For as long as the democratic machine is in power, and ward bosses rule, the carnage and mayhem will continue.
Here's the NYT laying the groundwork for this week's disaster.
After a string of costly bailout and stimulus measures, President Obama will set a goal this week to cut the annual deficit at least in half by the end of his term, administration officials said. Oooh, that felt good. Now pull my other leg.
The reduction would come in large part through Iraq troop withdrawals and higher taxes on the wealthy. Or maybe he's going to withdraw the wealthy from Iraq and tax the troops. I get confused.
The president inherited a deficit for 2009 of about $1.2 trillion, which will rise to more than $1.5 trillion, given initial spending from his recently enacted stimulus package. So the $800 billion porkulus only increases the deficit by $300 billion. As a liberal arts major, I can see that.
His budget blueprint for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, will include a 10-year projection showing the annual deficit declining to $533 billion in the 2013 fiscal year, the last year of his term, officials said. And I'm sure that projection is going to have a probability associated with it, especially for years 5-10.
While that suggests a two-thirds reduction, exceeding Mr. ObamaÂ’s goal of at least half, advisers note that the current deficit as a starting point is inflated by one-time expenses to stimulate the economy. So the Democratic Congress is going to refuse to extend all those goodies. Right. Crack is only mildly addictive compared to this stuff.
Measured against the size of the economy, the projected $533 billion shortfall for 2013 would mean a reduction from a deficit equal to more than 10 percent of the gross domestic product — larger than any deficit since World War II — to 3 percent, which is the level that economists generally consider sustainable. Mr. Obama will project deficits at about that level through 2019, aides said. I'm just glad all these smart people in Washington are taking care of my money for me. Check, please.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/22/2009 00:43 ||
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Yep, gut defense. Redux 1976, 1992. The scorpion can't help itself, it acts according to its nature.
#2
Well, yeah.....if you just do that magic "make the zeros at the end disappear" accounting trick that some third world dictators have perfected, it could happen.
#3
Well, he already projected what would happen to the economy by the end of his term, slashing budget deficits to half of what he say inherited deficit. Just hope his calculation were right.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/22/2009 8:20 Comments ||
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So let me get this straight. On Wednesday he doubles the deficit. On Saturday he announces he's going to cut the deficit in half (bring it back to status quo) over the next few years.
#10
Tax the troops, they already got free health care and many freebie meals.
They've started that. Prior to the 90s, troops, their families, and those who weathered through to retirement did get free medical care. Then TRICARE was initiated and the troops pay for their families and the retiree pay as well. The government has been itching to increase the rate for years, still below commercial levels but we talking 1k+ per annum. Retiree care is quickly becoming an unfinanced commitment as its been eating into operational funds for the active with projections to be over 50% of all medical costs in a few years. A lot of that retiree expense comes with the older retirees who never received much of the volunteer Army pay rates when serving and were promised compensation in medical care if and when they reached retirement eligibility. Also until recently, officers received Basic Subsistence Allowance [another mechanism to avoid putting the funds against Basic Pay for later computation of retirement pay] and had to pay for their meals [plus a surcharge] when said meal was provided by the government in cantonment or in the field [they debt their pay]. So, that would be an 'increase' in government charges [ie tax] on the troops, not something new.
#11
Obama can cut the deficit by 2013. He is smart and determined. He is trying very hard, so give him some credit instead of criticizing him all the time.
#17
#12 Obama can cut the deficits by half by 2013. He is smart and determined, and he is trying very hard. So give him a break, and stop criticizing him.
Here Here! He's already flushed out 4 or 5 wealthy, administration appointee Democratic NON-Tax Payers and maid them pay up. I'll give him credit for that.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/22/2009 14:02 Comments ||
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I just saw that he is going to raise business taxes and increase the rate on the top rate on those making more than $275K per year by 40%. Both should do wonders for the economy. We are going to lose at least a decade to this foolishness.
#25
You really can fool most of the people most of the time. Even without the just passed greatest transfer of wealth in this nation's history, the first wave of baby boomers reach 65 in 2011. Tell me what that does to entitlement programs, tax collection and equity markets.
Posted by: ed ||
02/22/2009 14:18 Comments ||
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Obama plans to tax the hell out of the businesses and the investor class. Fits well with his philosophy of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".
The top 50% pay 97% of the taxes
The top 25% pay 86% of the taxes
The top 1% pay 39% of the taxes.
Thats right, the bottom 50% pay 3% of all taxes while the top 1% pay 39%.
Has this stupid shit never heard of the Laffer effect? IS he so fucking idiotic that he doesn't realize where the capital to form businesses comes from? Is he so blind as to demolish those who create jobs?
He and Congress are going to come down with lead poisoning if they keep this up.
#28
Ya gotta love the way they play with the semantics to try and make it sound good.
"the projected $533 billion shortfall for 2013 "
That $533B is the LOWEST ANNUAL INCREASE in the etire term. That means that Obamanation's first term project deficit MINIMUM is greater than $2.13TRILLION and probably closer to $4 trillion as all of the long term surprises in that porkulus bill start kicking in to both kill the economy and gush cash.
#29
"Has this stupid shit never heard of the Laffer effect? IS he so fucking idiotic that he doesn't realize where the capital to form businesses comes from? Is he so blind as to demolish those who create jobs?"
No, yes, and he doesn't care, OS. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/22/2009 15:01 Comments ||
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My f'ing congressman was in town late last week touting what the stimulus bill is going to bring to the community. F'ing local paper ate it up. Didn't mention the much larger number that it is going to suck out of the community.
#31
The fact is that Obama and the left know all this - they are counting on it. Nobody gets to the position they are in by being stupid or foolish.
The fact is that - their alligience is not to the United States or the freedom [for which it stands] but to the 'world order' - the United Nations, Multi-Culturism, and European style Socialism. In order to promote them the United States has to be brought low. They lost in Iraq - they hope to win on the economic battlefield.
What do you think is going to happen when the latest 'stimulus' bill runs out - and you now have millions of jobs dependent on bloated spending? Why the only possible answer is yet-another stimulus bill - and another and another. The bill will _never_ be paid.
Their goal is to Swell the dependent class - the 'moochers' who's alligence is to whoever is providing the food and circuses whatever their crimes. You can't have that with a vibrant productive class providing jobs and pride in oneself.
They know exactly what they are doing - which makes their crimes even worse.
#32
"Has this stupid shit never heard of the Laffer effect? IS he so fucking idiotic that he doesn't realize where the capital to form businesses comes from? Is he so blind as to demolish those who create jobs?"
He's heard of the Laffer Effect alright, he just believes that being on the other side of the curve will accomplish both his economic and his political goals in one shot.
#33
It will be interesting to see what happens when the economy remains in the crapper for his entire term. The populace is not going to be happy. They are not going to buy into his "lets go farther into debt and tax the rich more" approach. If the economy does not come out of this, and I think it won't, then he is screwed. It will be up to very blatant corruption for him to retain the presidency.
#34
"Their goal is to Swell the dependent class - the 'moochers' who's alligence is to whoever is providing the food and circuses whatever their crimes. You can't have that with a vibrant productive class providing jobs and pride in oneself."
Give a cigar to the crazy man.
The Dems are completely uninterested in having this crisis end. Their goal is to make as many people as possible as dependent as possible on government, in effect making them perpetual Democrats.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/22/2009 16:11 Comments ||
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"Their goal is to make as many people as possible as dependent as possible on government, in effect making them perpetual Democrats."
or sometimes we come to hate the thing we depend on? and maybe rebel? i feel like why else would the secret service have that new gatling gun except for crowd control against citizens? i have seen the future, and it sucks, and a lot of us might be become bewee bewee angwee.
Anyway, to pick up on what you're saying....I was wondering why all of these gun-ownership restriction bills have been accelerating lately. I suspect there are some very nervous heads underneath the "crowns".
#38
If we had 10% inflation for a few years, the national debt would decline as a percentage of GDP.
Only if interest rates were held below the rate of inflation for years. In which case the USD would tank - parity with the Yen anyone - and inflation explode.
Tanking the USD is actually not a bad strategy because it causes far more pain for Europe and China than it does for the USA. And it definitely solves the debt problem.
Mind you Obama will be loathed by the rest of the world, and GW Bush the great champion of free trade will be elevated to near sainthood.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The pressure may be mounting on U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign, but Mayor Richard Daley wasn't going to be one to add to it today. "Let's put everything in perspective and give him an opportunity to explain himself," Daley said today when asked if Burris should step down. "Automatically, every time something happens people want everybody to resign. Is it becoming very common now to tell people to resign after he was appointed?"
