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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Horrific violence now an everyday sight as the Rainbow Nation ends in a pool of blood |
| 2006-10-25 |
| From Fred Bridgeland in Johannesburg THE distinguished anti-apartheid novelist André Brink has shocked many of his politically correct countrymen by warning that football’s World Cup, coming to South Africa in 2010, threatens a “potential massacre which could make the Munich Olympics of a few decades ago look like a picnic outing”. Brink, whose novels were banned by apartheid governments and who has twice been nominated for the Booker Prize and shortlisted several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, is no everyday scaremonger. In one of a number of articles he has written about the crises facing South Africa, he said: “For 12 years after our first democratic elections [held in 1994, resulting in Nelson Mandela becoming president] I went out of my way to assure people inside and outside the country who had doubts about the new South Africa that we were moving in the direction of democracy, truth and justice, and that the darker by-products of the change were temporary and superficial accidents. I can no longer do that.” |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #9 Colonialism is the best thing that ever happened to Africa. Country by country the native Africans have demonstrated they are incapable of governing themselves at a national level. In small groups/enclaves, maybe, but not at the nation/state level. Time for recolonization, or seal the place and let them kill themselves off. When I start feeling sorry for Africa, I just read du Toit's "Let Africa Sink" article, that cures me right up. Either we (the West) retake control of these failed experiments, or we cut all ties and quarantine them. I'm tired of pissing more and more money down a bottomless rat hole called the 3rd World. Let. Them. Die. |
| Posted by: NoBeards 2006-10-25 21:08 |
| #8 I wonder who the engineers will be that will continue to make all the wonderful weapons in SA Shieldwolf. Oh, they will have left. So the scenario you paint does not worry me. But this is an incredible tragedy and another signpost that Africa is closed, unworthy of attention, an unsolvable mess. The two most prosperous countries on the continent are now either in ruin (Zimbabwe) or heading there fast (SA). And at this point it is essentially irredeemable. Think of the lengths you would have to go to restore order. You'd have to have the gallows running night and day for years, and we know the elites of the world would not stand for that. Better to let all the people die a miserable death than exert "control" over local cultures. No no, certainly can't do that. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2006-10-25 19:31 |
| #7 JDB is right. I was there less than two years ago and all I heard about was crime from every non-black person I spoke to. Almost all the white people I spoke to were talking about how dangerous it was to be out at night and their plans for emigrating. It's a real pity to see this happen to what once was a beautiful country. Call me racist and bigoted if you will but I believe apartheid, for both black and white, was better than the Zimbabweism that's coming--and make no mistake, it's coming, and soon. |
| Posted by: mac 2006-10-25 18:12 |
| #6 LoL, American! DoDo, just a case of "They came for the Jews, but, I'm not a Jew; they came for......." |
| Posted by: AlanC 2006-10-25 16:59 |
| #5 What is this World Cup of which you speak? Is it like the Stanley Cup? /snark |
| Posted by: American 2006-10-25 14:14 |
| #4 Heart of Darkness redux...the West looks away to mollify its post-colonial guilt while the barbarians and heathens hold sway... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2006-10-25 13:54 |
| #3 Like many South Africans, Brink is appalled by violent crime levels that are seemingly out of control – he finally felt impelled to speak out when his own daughter, son-in-law and their children were caught in a restaurant hold-up of the sort that has become a near-everyday occurrence. Problems get worse when people only care if it hits their own. The World Cup is going to be a complete mess. I wonder how the MSM will approach reporting on a violent country that has been disintegrating since the end of apartheid. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-10-25 12:45 |
| #2 I'm convinced that it's only a matter of time before SA is forced to admit they can't host the World Cup and the US or the UK will be pressed into service. Colombia did so in '86 thus Mexico hosted. According to SA friends (both black and white), SA is a mess. As the joke goes, "The difference between SA and Zimbabwe is ten years." |
| Posted by: JDB 2006-10-25 09:58 |
| #1 The worst part of this for the rest of the world is that South Africa has one of the best developed and innovative arms industries in the world. Lots of SA designs are now being produced in the West {especially the US} by Western companies that have purchased the rights to the SA technology. The problem for the rest of the world is that the ANC has shown some restraint in arms deals in the past, but there is no guarantee that they will continue to do so in the future, especially if some of the hardcore "comrades" take over. SA could easily become the arms bazaar of choice for every terrorist, drug dealer, and thug in the world, under the rule of the ANC's "comrades". Just as a point of information, the new USMC 6-shot grenade launcher is a SA design, so are most of the better mine-proof APCs, along with a couple of very nice anti-tank missile systems, an excellent sniper rifle, the best towed/self-propeller howitzer in the world, and a whole range of light infantry weapons, including mortars and light machineguns. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-10-25 05:45 |