Saturday, July 11, 2015
A Personal Warning To All South Africans
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Open Letter to ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe
Dear Comrade Gwede,
Well done on giving our courts a swift kick in the nuts. That’ll teach them to have what you call a negative attitude towards the government. It’s almost as if they believe the myth that they are an independent branch. They need to focus more on ‘branch’ and less on ‘independent’. And what do we do when the branch of a tree turns rotten? Yes, we send our least favourite child up the tree with a chainsaw to cut it off. Or, even better, burn the tree down and plant a new one. A tree approved by the ministry of forestry.
As you so rightly pointed out, “There is a drive in sections of the judiciary to create chaos for governance.” At first I was skeptical. After all, judges are overweight, unfit and shortsighted. Quite unsuited to leading baying mobs to the barricades. However, this is probably nothing more than a cunning disguise. Beneath those black robes they are all Batman. The moment they receive the Bat-Signal – transmitted from DA headquarters – they will implement their dastardly plan and, amid the chaos, overthrow the ANC regime.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko is also aware of what’s really going down. When he spoke to police investigators a few weeks ago, he said, “some elements of the judiciary meet with characters to produce certain judgments.” He’s absolutely right. That’s what a Full Bench does. Well, they call it a Full Bench in public but it’s really called the Star Chamber and they have funny handshakes and virgin sacrifices when they meet in underground caves at midnight on every full moon.
The problem seems, as you say, to be limited to the North Gauteng and Western Cape high courts. But for how long? Attack is the best form of defence, comrade. I’m sure you learnt that when you read Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book as a child. Launch a pre-emptive strike. Do it now, before this incendiary talk of “judicial independence” infects other courts in the country.
Obviouslythe Western Cape High Court would turn maverick. It’s embedded in a province controlled by rebel forces. But North Gauteng? That’s ANC country, that is. Even more inexplicable is that two of the three judges who ordered the arrest of the much-loved humanitarian pacifist Omar al-Bashir are not members of the Caucasian race. Why are these brothers not on your payroll?
There is an outside chance, I suppose, that the robed renegades are simply doing what they are paid to do. But even that would be an aberration in the brave new world you are trying to build. Let us, for a moment, hypothesise that these judges are not, as unlikely as it sounds, attempting to bring the government to its knees and are merely applying the law. If that is the case, then it is the law that is at fault.
Guy Fawke’s Day is just over four months away. This gives you enough time to collect the statute books and burn them in a magnificent bonfire on the lawns of the Union Buildings. Invite the peasants. Let them toast marshmallows or Mozambicans. It will be a fresh start and people will laugh and clap and dance.
If that sounds too much like hard work, all you need do is rig the next election so your party wins a four-thirds majority and then change the constitution to exempt all card-carrying members of the ANC from all laws. Or scrap the constitution altogether. I mean, really, what are laws when you think about it? They are just things invented by Romans and Dutchmen to discourage civilisation from descending into savagery. Personally, I am all for a bit of savagery. There are too many people standing politely in queues, driving at the speed limit and apologising for pushing their trolley into your ankles. When I go to the bank, I want to be able to use a machete to get to the front of the queue. Hell, why even bother with queues? If you can afford plastic explosives, blow up the bank and go straight to the vaults. Why even bother with money? Just take what you want. Impunity rocks, man! If Dostoyevsky lived in your beautiful dystopian new, new South Africa, he would rewrite Crime and Punishment and take out all the punishment and just call it Crime and it would be even better than the original.
Like millions of other South Africans who aren’t members of the counterrevolutionary opposition, I embrace your vision. Like you, I, too, watched the brilliant socio-political documentary, Mad Max: Fury Road. Did we see Imperator Furiosa laying charges of assault against Immortan Joe? Or Joe’s hot wives taking him to the maintenance court? Of course not. They had complete freedom to do as they wished. It was almost as if they were members of the ANC’s national executive committee.
By the time you have silenced the courts, those who have fuel, water and guns will be the law. I have petrol at the moment, but I swapped my gun for a bag of weed. Yes, I know. I should have just shot the dealer and taken the weed. And I don’t have much water. The municipality has put me on some kind of trickle system and I am forced to bath in vodka and drink gin to stay alive. No, I’m not complaining. Really. I’m not. I swear. Please don’t send the black helicopters.
Let’s keep things tribal. Your leader and mine, Comrade Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma the First, by the Grace of God
President of the Republic of South Africa, Head of the Household, Defender of the Faith, Pastor of the Flock, Defeater of the Mbeki, Unifier of the Nation, Msholozi of Msholozis, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, Conqueror of the Apartheid Regime and Owner of Property in Nkandla … where was I?
Oh, that’s right. As you know, he has ordered the provinces to divert R100m away from the grasping hands of the ungrateful proletariat and give it to junior traditional leaders. If you move quickly, there should still be enough left over to build a dozen or so rudimentary kraals where pro-law agitators can be fined. Or executed. Depending on the weather.
You do know, don’t you, that it is not just the courts that are jeopardising our chances of achieving full dictatorship. There are also people walking openly in the streets, as we speak, who have negative attitudes towards the government. They need to be rounded up and sent to re-education camps like the ones they had in Vietnam and still have in China and North Korea – countries you surely admire for their robust approach towards anyone foolish enough to disrespect those accorded the divine right to rule.
As for the International Criminal Court, well, you probably can’t shut them down. But you are quite right when you say they are dangerous. They have the power to put people in jail, for god’s sake. You don’t get more dangerous than that. And, yes, we should withdraw from it. While we’re at it, let us withdraw from any organisation that thinks it can tell us what to do. It’s time to take a stand. New visa regulations are stopping anyone from coming in and the falling rand is stopping anyone from leaving. This is good. We’re on the right track. Show the world, comrade, that the ANC can fuck up this country far more than the National Party ever could. That will teach them. Or us. Whatever.
By Ben Trovato
June 28, 2015
Also please see------ http://coginito.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-personal-warning-to-all-south-africans.html
June 28, 2015
Also please see------ http://coginito.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-personal-warning-to-all-south-africans.html
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
The Black Herd
There are many African tribes in this region.
Before colonialism they were very proud to identify themselves and be recognized as separate, distinct, proud groupings of humans.
That has all changed.
Now they have all submerged their individuality to coalesce under a "black" identity, regardless of their actual skin tone.
They are undeterred by the fact that the label "black" was a creation of the racist Deep South in then USA during the "Jim Crowe" era to ensure that all humans with just "one drop" of African blood could be lumped together for the purpose of oppression, even if visually as "white as snow".
The unifying element is a shared culture of grievance. They are all aggrieved at the events of colonialism, even though "invade, conquer and subjugate" was a universal culture at that time that had been in place from the time Cain killed Abel and which African tribes themselves practiced.
So they stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the barbarous mfecane campaigns of King Shaka Zulu and Mzilikazi. The fact that it was Africans that delivered Africans to the slave ships is simply ignored.
The events of the past involving dead people fulfills the needs of the new found dogma and shared identity by way of what is known in jurisprudence as "fictional fulfillment", i.e, the past subjugation/abuse is assumed to be of current validity, even though the participants are all dead.
In this way the new grouping.is held together by a victim complex.
It is rallying point, the glue that holds it together and the flag under which the group always musters. The Greeks are a current example.
The black label serves to keep all the African tribes together to the exclusion of all others.
The victim complex serves to infuse a "black nationalistic" culture in the new found grouping that replaces and/or complements any residual "tribal culture" that existed in the individual tribes before. Black nationalism submerges tribalism.
To the black group, they see themselves as the aggrieved "us". They see the Whites as the privileged "them". Coloureds, Indians, Chinese ... etc ... are seen as "the other", i.e irrelevant for being powerless.
The culture of common humanity has no place here.
GEORGE ORWELL had this to say-
"By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But secondly — and this is much more important — I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests. ....... Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
The syndrome, because that is what it is, is not new. History is replete with examples of humans herding under a leadership that promoted nationalism to keep the herd together. Adolph Hitler and his 3rd Reich are a famous example.
Nationalism inevitably inhibits individuality, limits creativity, stifles the human spirit ... and, in effect, ensures that the grouping acts as a herd that progresses at the pace of its self serving leaders. The problem is compounded by the fact that the herd, being a herd, is very bad at choosing capable leaders.
To my utter astonishment what all this has done has been to also induce a new kind of human thinking. It is called "thinking like a black". Apparently a hitherto unknown cognitive process now reposes in the craniums of African humans.
This new found type of thinking espouses something called "neo-colonialism" that has apparently replaced colonialism. Colonialism was a form of physical domination so it is very easy to understand. Neo-colonialism however appears to be a form of trickery in which asset, resource and trade management is diabolically manipulated under, over and around our beloved leaders to our shared detriment. So the litany of failure in Africa is never due to the ineptitude, incompetence and or, personal and functional corruption of our leaders.
Apparently you need to be a "pan-Africanist" to understand this.
This camp has members of a gang styled as the "African Union" as its heroes. These AU members are paranoid about "regime change" but hold no brief for human rights and human rights does not feature in their Charter. They don't have any discernible achievements apart from holding meetings, summits, symposiums and other frivolous gatherings in which pious statements are then issued.
But you cannot understand that this is not actually a form of buffoonery, unless you "think like a black".
I cannot even try.
South Africa is proving to be quite a spectacular example of all of the above.
No good can come of this.
No good has come of this.
No good will come of this.
To help you understand ... just think of ISIS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
... and now we are seeing the rise of the "alt-Right" ...
Before colonialism they were very proud to identify themselves and be recognized as separate, distinct, proud groupings of humans.
That has all changed.
Now they have all submerged their individuality to coalesce under a "black" identity, regardless of their actual skin tone.
They are undeterred by the fact that the label "black" was a creation of the racist Deep South in then USA during the "Jim Crowe" era to ensure that all humans with just "one drop" of African blood could be lumped together for the purpose of oppression, even if visually as "white as snow".
The unifying element is a shared culture of grievance. They are all aggrieved at the events of colonialism, even though "invade, conquer and subjugate" was a universal culture at that time that had been in place from the time Cain killed Abel and which African tribes themselves practiced.
So they stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the barbarous mfecane campaigns of King Shaka Zulu and Mzilikazi. The fact that it was Africans that delivered Africans to the slave ships is simply ignored.
The events of the past involving dead people fulfills the needs of the new found dogma and shared identity by way of what is known in jurisprudence as "fictional fulfillment", i.e, the past subjugation/abuse is assumed to be of current validity, even though the participants are all dead.
In this way the new grouping.is held together by a victim complex.
It is rallying point, the glue that holds it together and the flag under which the group always musters. The Greeks are a current example.
The black label serves to keep all the African tribes together to the exclusion of all others.
The victim complex serves to infuse a "black nationalistic" culture in the new found grouping that replaces and/or complements any residual "tribal culture" that existed in the individual tribes before. Black nationalism submerges tribalism.
To the black group, they see themselves as the aggrieved "us". They see the Whites as the privileged "them". Coloureds, Indians, Chinese ... etc ... are seen as "the other", i.e irrelevant for being powerless.
The culture of common humanity has no place here.
GEORGE ORWELL had this to say-
"By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But secondly — and this is much more important — I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests. ....... Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
The syndrome, because that is what it is, is not new. History is replete with examples of humans herding under a leadership that promoted nationalism to keep the herd together. Adolph Hitler and his 3rd Reich are a famous example.
Nationalism inevitably inhibits individuality, limits creativity, stifles the human spirit ... and, in effect, ensures that the grouping acts as a herd that progresses at the pace of its self serving leaders. The problem is compounded by the fact that the herd, being a herd, is very bad at choosing capable leaders.
To my utter astonishment what all this has done has been to also induce a new kind of human thinking. It is called "thinking like a black". Apparently a hitherto unknown cognitive process now reposes in the craniums of African humans.
This new found type of thinking espouses something called "neo-colonialism" that has apparently replaced colonialism. Colonialism was a form of physical domination so it is very easy to understand. Neo-colonialism however appears to be a form of trickery in which asset, resource and trade management is diabolically manipulated under, over and around our beloved leaders to our shared detriment. So the litany of failure in Africa is never due to the ineptitude, incompetence and or, personal and functional corruption of our leaders.
Apparently you need to be a "pan-Africanist" to understand this.
This camp has members of a gang styled as the "African Union" as its heroes. These AU members are paranoid about "regime change" but hold no brief for human rights and human rights does not feature in their Charter. They don't have any discernible achievements apart from holding meetings, summits, symposiums and other frivolous gatherings in which pious statements are then issued.
But you cannot understand that this is not actually a form of buffoonery, unless you "think like a black".
I cannot even try.
South Africa is proving to be quite a spectacular example of all of the above.
No good can come of this.
No good has come of this.
No good will come of this.
To help you understand ... just think of ISIS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
... and now we are seeing the rise of the "alt-Right" ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order ---http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/book_page.html
Order ---http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/book_page.html
Saturday, July 4, 2015
A Personal Warning To All South Africans.
The ONLY thing that went wrong was that Robert Mugabe "attacked" the Judiciary for the first time. Nothing else was wrong. He made an observation to the effect that "we should have known, that they could not be trusted" . That was all.
We decided to leave because I concluded that this was a VERY Dangerous sign, and marked the beginning of a process in which humans would end up with little or no rights.
Friends and relatives thought we were mad. I was giving up a High Court Judgeship. Pam was giving up teaching at the best school. We lived in the best suburb. We were giving up a really wonderful life.
We gave it all up and went to "safe" Botswana for 5 years before coming to "Mandela's South Africa" in 1996.
We were fleeing from what we concluded was very, very dangerous ... a mind set that was in the process of rejecting the constraint of constutionalism.
We were to be proved right; quite spectacularly.
Our "premonition" about Zimbabwe, on account of Mugabe's "attack" on the Judiciary was realized. Zimbabwe collapsed as Mugabe then followed through in terms of the mindset that the attack had signified.
The rest is history. Zimbabwe is a failed Sate, with over 3,6 million of its people having deserted and others diving under the SA border fence to get here as I am typing this, and despite xenophobic violence.
Unlike Zimbabwe, just about ALL the fundamentals in this country, such as Health, Education, Energy .. etc .. are a mess ....
... AND we now have ANC leadership brazenly breaching the Constitution, treating Court orders with contempt and attacking the Judiciary.
As regards the Al Bashir matter we see much lamenting about the "unfairness" of the ICC. Everyone forgets that Africa did set up an African Court. It was called the SADC Tribunal. It had its seat in Windhoek. It was staffed by African Judges.
The moment it gave one decision against an African government, i.e, Zimbabwe, the AU and SADC gang scrapped the Tribunal/Court.
So the mindset and culture that African leaders should be above the law and not subject to the constraint of democratic accountability is deeply entrenched at AU leadership level.
As Judge Dennis Davis says .. ."Judge for yourself".
Beware ... Hokoyo ... Passop.
PS: There is much hope for South Africa as, unlike Zimbabwe, there are many voices of protest and reason.
By the time Zimbabweans woke up, it was too late.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
The King
It was late afternoon in the Wankie Game Reserve of then Rhodesia.
As I slowly rounded a sharp bend, in the dirt track of a road, a group of lion cubs came into view, play fighting exuberantly on the road immediately ahead. Their mother stood by in attentive posture that stiffened ever so slightly as she gave me a warning look to stay clear.
As I slowly rounded a sharp bend, in the dirt track of a road, a group of lion cubs came into view, play fighting exuberantly on the road immediately ahead. Their mother stood by in attentive posture that stiffened ever so slightly as she gave me a warning look to stay clear.
I sat in silent witness of nature at its best. The late African sun washed over everything, warm bright and life giving . The cubs had so much life in them as they romped, tussled and somersaulted, kicking up golden dust against the verdant backdrop of grass and bush. The twitter of nearby birds was augmented by the cooing of distant doves.
It felt good to be alive … so very, very good.
It was then that I was slowly but surely overtaken by a feeling of a presence … a close presence … that I was being watched. As I turned to my right a full grown male lion came into view. He appeared to be crouched on a large outcrop no more than five meters away from my wide open car window.
I was a gonna. I was a dead man. About that I was had no doubt whatsoever. I knew that in the flash of an instant he would get me through that window long before I could ever even start winding it up.
So I just froze and looked at him as time seemed to stand still. All my senses became imbued with what was before me … the power … the sheer magnificence … the majesty of Panthera leo, king of all beasts on this planet. A huge mane seemed to enshrine a face of serene calm arrogance in which his eyes had me transfixed in a gaze that was indescribable.
Those eyes had a paleness that gave the impression of endlessness yet a glow that burned right through me. Right there I felt completely insignificant, puny and irrelevant in the scheme of things.
I was in the presence of entity of perfect beauty and power that was looking right through me.
The world was at a standstill. Subconsciously I depressed the clutch of my vehicle, and with my left hand gingerly slipped it into gear. I was taking my only chance as he had not moved a nano inch.
Then I let out the clutch and hit the accelerator. The car leapt forward about ten yards and stalled because of my clumsiness.
Stifling a whimper of sheer terror I turned to face my fate, anticipating the onset of claws and teeth ripping me out and apart.
But there he was on the rock, as still as the Sphinx of Egypt, gazing straight ahead away, completely unconcerned. I was now emitting whimpers and nervous giggles as I battled to wind up the window. I stalled the car two more times as I had all but lost control and coordination of my limbs.
Without moving a hair, without blinking an eyelid, without twitching a muscle, the king had reduced me to the sniveling cowardly creature that so many humans are.
When I finally made off I noted that he had not moved, but remained in serene still posture, surveying the African bush, like a golden brown god.
What got me right was a good swig of Limousine brandy.
On social media I read much lamenting about colonialism. I have always been instinctively wary of this but never sure why. Recalling my encounter with that male lion, in the Wankie Park, that afternoon has settled the issue in my mind.
I realize that the king of beasts was unconcerned with me. He was gazing into the future. In that future his domain and all that he presided over was going to be destroyed.
The animal world over which he presided was going to be no more, and the dominance that animals enjoyed, with him as king, was to be no more, because of a virus.
He treated me with contempt because I was part of that virus … the virus that is man … now overpopulating the planet, ravaging it and driving all other species to extinction.
If colonialism involves a crime, it is the crime of having ensured the dominance of foolish, greedy, self-indulgent man at the expense and cruel demise of all other creatures that once roamed Africa freely and in great abundance.
Colonialism robbed the animals of their freedoms, domain and heritage, transferring this to the very people who now cry daily about it.
It is the animals that have lost everything ... and it is for them that I weep today.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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To get a book that will enthrall, intrigue, entertain and provoke very meaningfully go to -- http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/book_page.html
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Xenophobia in South Africa ... the pernicious cocktail of blackness
Once again South Africa is witnessing the killing, maiming and brutalization of humans who are foreigners. Shock, horror and other forms of much lamentation abound, not only in South Africa but across the planet, particularly the rest of the continent.
President Jacob Gedlehelekisa Zuma has rightly called for sectors of SA society to help formulate a solution. He has kicked this off by rightly identifying a culture of violence. embedded during the apartheid era, as one of the drivers of the phenomenon.
It is to state the obvious that if a solution is to be found, all the fundamental drivers of the problem need to be identified. To date there has been a confused mishmash of theories on this issue ranging from obvious, to naive, to even delusional. So what are they??
What is the fundamental driver of the xenophobia violence???
This can be answered quite emphatically. It is due to a prevailing culture of Exclusion.
Exclusion is an attitude or culture in terms of which another person is not regarded or treated in terms of the same rights and privileges that one accords to oneself. Apartheid was its most evil version. Hitler's 3rd Reich was another most evil version.
Violence by one human on another is always predicated on the notion that the victim is dis-entitled to one or more of the basket of rights that ordinarily accrue. The dis-entitlement may be momentary, as when there is a transient quarrel over some issue or other, or it may be long-standing. Here we are concerned with the latter, i.e, endemic.
So the xenophobic violence proves the existence of the culture of exclusion.
The $64,000 question is why do we have this? Why do so many South Africans have a culture of exclusion towards others??
1. Failure of government ... pandemic poverty ... dehumanization.
The previous apartheid government and the current 21-year-old ANC government share complicity for the pandemic poverty, dispossession and disadvantage that subsists in this country. Symptomatic of this is that millions still live in shacks under cardboard, corrugated iron and plastic "like rats".
To have to be disadvantaged to this extent in an environment of first world opulence and grandeur, that SA exhibits on most fronts, has the effect of dehumanizing people.
It is not rocket science to understand that, in such a situation, people go into the Darwinian mode of "survival of the fittest" in the competition for scarce resources and the most vulnerable become victims. Anybody who has been to boarding school knows this.
Given this dehumanizing environment foreigners became obvious and easy targets.
Psychologically the instinctive answer the xenophobe has is that "charity begins at home".
You can hardly blame them, can you?
2. Culture of violence
President Zuma is 100% right that a culture of violence subsists from apartheid days. No question. As Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela stated so clearly at his Rivonia trial, the apartheid system was inherently violent and forced a violent reaction.
That culture of violence has never left SA. Violence is seen as a solution not only on the part of criminals but also on the part of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
So in contending with their poverty, having been dehumanized, violence is a "go to" mode that has become internalized over time and is now embedded in the psyche.
The Marikana massacre, and that is exactly what it was, is more than symptomatic of how violent this society is, because here we saw the State itself killing its own citizens as a solution to the actual and perceived violence of its own citizens.
3. Anomie
However the culture of violence is not free standing. It locates within a broader culture. Anomie is a Greek word used to describe a condition that attaches to societies, particularly during revolutionary times.
Its main characteristics are a) "social norm confusion" and b) deviance.
Social norm confusion means that the populace, as a whole, does not have shared norms, values and morals. Symptomatic of this was the "Dubula i'bhunu" saga where the different groupings could not agree on whether such a song was tolerable and the Court;s later decision was roundly condemned by many.
The other glaring example was the saga involving "The Spear" painting which induced Counsel to weep in a Superior Court.
Once social norm confusion is endemic it will involve humans, not only on race/ethnic lines, but also across socio-economic lines. Since SA is now a world leader as regards the gap between rich and poor, it comes as no surprise that there is social norm confusion between the poor and the rest.
Deviance is precipitated by the fact that people redefine their goals and redefine the means of achieving those goals. In the process, personal and functional integrity is jettisoned in favour of the often thoroughly reprehensible stratagems and tactics.
So in SA we see deviance right across all sectors, from security guards helping criminals to the "filthy rich" cooking the prices of basic national commodities. Every week the investigative program, Carte Blanche, exposes doctors, lawyers, hospitals, politicians, industry captains ... rich and poor alike ... across all groupings ... for deviant conduct.
SA is probably one of the most anomic countries on this planet.
What ensures that it continues to blossom is that there is a concomitant lack of accountability. There is undoubtedly a widespread perception that deviance and crime does pay.
The President himself should know that there are thousands who believe that he is "getting away" with an illicit advantage involving many millions as regards his Nkandla home upgrades.
As to what should be done about anomie please go here.
4. The SA Reform Model
The problem is that SA adopted what is depicted in Poster :"A" as opposed to what is depicted in Poster "B", as its reform model..
As at 1994, Model "A" seemed obvious and unexceptionable, given the just elapsed viciousness of apartheid. However, as is often the case, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
In effect, SA adopted what was at the very heart of apartheid culture, and imagined that by reversing the colour coding evil could be rendered saintly.
The "race/ethnic-based" approach in Poster "A" is inherently evil. Evil begets more evil.
The "needs-based" approach in Poster "B" is not.
What this racialized approach to social justice has done, and is doing with a vengeance, is to:-
a) keep the apartheid culture of exclusion firmly in place;
b) posit that culture as central to human rights and social justice;
c) posit advantage/disadvantage as "synonymous" with race, ethnicity and skin tone;
d) keep African folk "resident in the past" as opposed to ensuring that the past is only "referenced";
e) ensure the retention of a "victim complex" on the one hand and a "culture of entitlement" on the other hand in the psyche of African folk;
This list is actually almost endless as regards the "negatives" of the current race-based model. Association is the most powerful element in the human cognitive process. Ask any educator.
So to-day the people are infused in their psyche with the notion "Black good; White bad; Coloured/Indian not too good/bad".
In his marvelous "I am an African" speech, delivered during the one magic moment when Nelson Rolihlahla straddled the world as a moral force, Thabo Mbeki makes no reference to "black".
"Black" is not mentioned in the SA Constitution.
Before colonialism Africans never defined themselves as a colour.
However our people imported the label "black" from the USA where it gained credence on account of the Civil Rights struggle there, even though it was a label of oppression invented by the racist Deep South during the Jim Crowe era.
"Black" was the label invented to accrue to any human with just "one drop" of African blood for the purpose of oppression.
But our people adopted it because of naiveté and romantic association with a noble struggle that has long since been won since the USA has now twice voted a man to be their President purely on merit.
Black is a colour. It is not human.
In this way our people have become disassociated from their "humanness" ... from their "Africaness" ... from their "South Africaness" ... because they no longer see themselves as human, African or South African ... but as a "black" category of grievance and entitlement.
In this way a human becomes a victim on a mission.
In this way, by this process, we now have a nation that is absolutely in the grip of a culture of exclusion.
It required but the smallest of steps for that culture to also go "tribal".
The Solution --- in summary
a) Dump the current race/ethnic-based reform model and substitute it with a needs-based model.
b) Devise and prosecute a national program to tackle anomie as set out here.
c) Devise and prosecute a national program to educate the populace about human rights, starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, what it is, how it came about and why it is non-negotiable.d) In that program include Dr Kenneth Kaunda's visionary concept of "humanism" and our own "ubuntu" philosophy.
It is that simple. As Nelson Mandela said -- "it is only hard until you do it"
So just do it.
PS: Jan -Feb 2017 sees another onset of murderous xenophobic attacks on Somali small business traders in particular.
Still my pleas go unheeded.
PPS: In April 2019 President Cyril Rhamaphosa of South Africa indulges in an anti-foreigner rant that leads to mass brutality against African foreigners in South Africa --https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=zeDDe6BzcNc
President Jacob Gedlehelekisa Zuma has rightly called for sectors of SA society to help formulate a solution. He has kicked this off by rightly identifying a culture of violence. embedded during the apartheid era, as one of the drivers of the phenomenon.
It is to state the obvious that if a solution is to be found, all the fundamental drivers of the problem need to be identified. To date there has been a confused mishmash of theories on this issue ranging from obvious, to naive, to even delusional. So what are they??
What is the fundamental driver of the xenophobia violence???
This can be answered quite emphatically. It is due to a prevailing culture of Exclusion.
Exclusion is an attitude or culture in terms of which another person is not regarded or treated in terms of the same rights and privileges that one accords to oneself. Apartheid was its most evil version. Hitler's 3rd Reich was another most evil version.
So the xenophobic violence proves the existence of the culture of exclusion.
The $64,000 question is why do we have this? Why do so many South Africans have a culture of exclusion towards others??
1. Failure of government ... pandemic poverty ... dehumanization.
The previous apartheid government and the current 21-year-old ANC government share complicity for the pandemic poverty, dispossession and disadvantage that subsists in this country. Symptomatic of this is that millions still live in shacks under cardboard, corrugated iron and plastic "like rats".
To have to be disadvantaged to this extent in an environment of first world opulence and grandeur, that SA exhibits on most fronts, has the effect of dehumanizing people.
It is not rocket science to understand that, in such a situation, people go into the Darwinian mode of "survival of the fittest" in the competition for scarce resources and the most vulnerable become victims. Anybody who has been to boarding school knows this.
Given this dehumanizing environment foreigners became obvious and easy targets.
Psychologically the instinctive answer the xenophobe has is that "charity begins at home".
You can hardly blame them, can you?
2. Culture of violence
President Zuma is 100% right that a culture of violence subsists from apartheid days. No question. As Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela stated so clearly at his Rivonia trial, the apartheid system was inherently violent and forced a violent reaction.
That culture of violence has never left SA. Violence is seen as a solution not only on the part of criminals but also on the part of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
So in contending with their poverty, having been dehumanized, violence is a "go to" mode that has become internalized over time and is now embedded in the psyche.
The Marikana massacre, and that is exactly what it was, is more than symptomatic of how violent this society is, because here we saw the State itself killing its own citizens as a solution to the actual and perceived violence of its own citizens.
3. Anomie
However the culture of violence is not free standing. It locates within a broader culture. Anomie is a Greek word used to describe a condition that attaches to societies, particularly during revolutionary times.
Its main characteristics are a) "social norm confusion" and b) deviance.
Social norm confusion means that the populace, as a whole, does not have shared norms, values and morals. Symptomatic of this was the "Dubula i'bhunu" saga where the different groupings could not agree on whether such a song was tolerable and the Court;s later decision was roundly condemned by many.
The other glaring example was the saga involving "The Spear" painting which induced Counsel to weep in a Superior Court.
Once social norm confusion is endemic it will involve humans, not only on race/ethnic lines, but also across socio-economic lines. Since SA is now a world leader as regards the gap between rich and poor, it comes as no surprise that there is social norm confusion between the poor and the rest.
Deviance is precipitated by the fact that people redefine their goals and redefine the means of achieving those goals. In the process, personal and functional integrity is jettisoned in favour of the often thoroughly reprehensible stratagems and tactics.
So in SA we see deviance right across all sectors, from security guards helping criminals to the "filthy rich" cooking the prices of basic national commodities. Every week the investigative program, Carte Blanche, exposes doctors, lawyers, hospitals, politicians, industry captains ... rich and poor alike ... across all groupings ... for deviant conduct.
SA is probably one of the most anomic countries on this planet.
What ensures that it continues to blossom is that there is a concomitant lack of accountability. There is undoubtedly a widespread perception that deviance and crime does pay.
The President himself should know that there are thousands who believe that he is "getting away" with an illicit advantage involving many millions as regards his Nkandla home upgrades.
As to what should be done about anomie please go here.
4. The SA Reform Model
The problem is that SA adopted what is depicted in Poster :"A" as opposed to what is depicted in Poster "B", as its reform model..
In effect, SA adopted what was at the very heart of apartheid culture, and imagined that by reversing the colour coding evil could be rendered saintly.
The "race/ethnic-based" approach in Poster "A" is inherently evil. Evil begets more evil.
The "needs-based" approach in Poster "B" is not.
What this racialized approach to social justice has done, and is doing with a vengeance, is to:-
a) keep the apartheid culture of exclusion firmly in place;
b) posit that culture as central to human rights and social justice;
c) posit advantage/disadvantage as "synonymous" with race, ethnicity and skin tone;
d) keep African folk "resident in the past" as opposed to ensuring that the past is only "referenced";
e) ensure the retention of a "victim complex" on the one hand and a "culture of entitlement" on the other hand in the psyche of African folk;
This list is actually almost endless as regards the "negatives" of the current race-based model. Association is the most powerful element in the human cognitive process. Ask any educator.
So to-day the people are infused in their psyche with the notion "Black good; White bad; Coloured/Indian not too good/bad".
In his marvelous "I am an African" speech, delivered during the one magic moment when Nelson Rolihlahla straddled the world as a moral force, Thabo Mbeki makes no reference to "black".
"Black" is not mentioned in the SA Constitution.
Before colonialism Africans never defined themselves as a colour.
However our people imported the label "black" from the USA where it gained credence on account of the Civil Rights struggle there, even though it was a label of oppression invented by the racist Deep South during the Jim Crowe era.
"Black" was the label invented to accrue to any human with just "one drop" of African blood for the purpose of oppression.
But our people adopted it because of naiveté and romantic association with a noble struggle that has long since been won since the USA has now twice voted a man to be their President purely on merit.
Black is a colour. It is not human.
In this way our people have become disassociated from their "humanness" ... from their "Africaness" ... from their "South Africaness" ... because they no longer see themselves as human, African or South African ... but as a "black" category of grievance and entitlement.
In this way a human becomes a victim on a mission.
In this way, by this process, we now have a nation that is absolutely in the grip of a culture of exclusion.
It required but the smallest of steps for that culture to also go "tribal".
The prejudice against other humans on account of ethnic difference so easily extends to others for being of a different tribe .. Bingo!!! . .you have xenophobia . .. in abundance ... because humanness has been lost in a sea of "blackness".
When humans feel alienated in their own country they will tend to see anybody and everybody as an enemy or as a target to act out their frustrations.
The Solution --- in summary
a) Dump the current race/ethnic-based reform model and substitute it with a needs-based model.
b) Devise and prosecute a national program to tackle anomie as set out here.
c) Devise and prosecute a national program to educate the populace about human rights, starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, what it is, how it came about and why it is non-negotiable.d) In that program include Dr Kenneth Kaunda's visionary concept of "humanism" and our own "ubuntu" philosophy.
It is that simple. As Nelson Mandela said -- "it is only hard until you do it"
So just do it.
PS: Jan -Feb 2017 sees another onset of murderous xenophobic attacks on Somali small business traders in particular.
Still my pleas go unheeded.
PPS: In April 2019 President Cyril Rhamaphosa of South Africa indulges in an anti-foreigner rant that leads to mass brutality against African foreigners in South Africa --https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=zeDDe6BzcNc
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Defeat of Rhodes's Statue
Congratulations!!! Congratulations!!!
We lesser mortals prostrate ourselves in abject admiration and awe for those brave souls that were involved in defeating the statue. The statue is known as Rhodes’s statue; “RS” for short.
Strategy -- in battle is always critical. This involved over 21 years of meticulous planning. Exercising this level of patience ensured that battle plans were sound and that RS was lulled into a false sense of security.
Complacency is always fatal. RS thought he was secure, perched up there all high and mighty, lording it over the Cape Flats like some god for 21 years.
Tactics – using poo and pee in the attack was a breathtakingly masterful tactic unprecedented in history. Phew!!
I am sure D Day survivors of the Normandy beaches have been moved to tears of admiration.
Surely the outcome of many wars would have been different if only the vanquished had thought of this. Had our people known of this incredible weapon at the time of invasion surely the colonialists would have been stopped dead in their tracks.
The victims of Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan … etc … must be turning in their graves wondering why they did not think of such a deadly weapon, readily available in abundance.
Such was the courage, energy, ferocity and unrelenting persistence with which RS was attacked that Rhodes was simply overwhelmed, cowed into submission and preferring to hunker down in his tomb in the Matopos. What a coward!!
The Vice Chancellor of UCT observed that he personally felt "inspired". If, as an educator this was the effect on him, we should be chuffed that our young folk at school will also feel inspired by associating poo and pee with great achievement.
The World’s cameras recorded this incredible victory. Now we need the poets and songsters to come on board with sonnets and songs, as much as they will be really hard pressed to capture the gloriousness of this victory.
Surely Isandlwana now stands eclipsed???
And if these brave warriors are not, at the very least, rewarded with medals then this government must fall!
We lesser mortals prostrate ourselves in abject admiration and awe for those brave souls that were involved in defeating the statue. The statue is known as Rhodes’s statue; “RS” for short.
Strategy -- in battle is always critical. This involved over 21 years of meticulous planning. Exercising this level of patience ensured that battle plans were sound and that RS was lulled into a false sense of security.
Complacency is always fatal. RS thought he was secure, perched up there all high and mighty, lording it over the Cape Flats like some god for 21 years.
Tactics – using poo and pee in the attack was a breathtakingly masterful tactic unprecedented in history. Phew!!
I am sure D Day survivors of the Normandy beaches have been moved to tears of admiration.
Surely the outcome of many wars would have been different if only the vanquished had thought of this. Had our people known of this incredible weapon at the time of invasion surely the colonialists would have been stopped dead in their tracks.
The victims of Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan … etc … must be turning in their graves wondering why they did not think of such a deadly weapon, readily available in abundance.
Such was the courage, energy, ferocity and unrelenting persistence with which RS was attacked that Rhodes was simply overwhelmed, cowed into submission and preferring to hunker down in his tomb in the Matopos. What a coward!!
The Vice Chancellor of UCT observed that he personally felt "inspired". If, as an educator this was the effect on him, we should be chuffed that our young folk at school will also feel inspired by associating poo and pee with great achievement.
The World’s cameras recorded this incredible victory. Now we need the poets and songsters to come on board with sonnets and songs, as much as they will be really hard pressed to capture the gloriousness of this victory.
Surely Isandlwana now stands eclipsed???
And if these brave warriors are not, at the very least, rewarded with medals then this government must fall!
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Order --- theother.orgfree.com.
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