Nelson Mandela’s successors have other fish to fry abroad
Oct 14th 2010 | Johannesburg
Jacob Zuma eyes China.THE first time it served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, in 2007-08, South Africa did much to squander its reputation as a beacon of human rights. It repeatedly sided with Russia and China, both former backers of the now ruling African National Congress (ANC) in its struggle against apartheid, to block Western-backed resolutions condemning miscreants such as Myanmar, Iran and Zimbabwe. After its election this week to a second two-year term on the Security Council, South Africa has a chance, under a new president, to do better. But will it?
When Jacob Zuma came to power 17 months ago, he was widely expected to concentrate more on domestic matters than his philosophising, globe-trotting predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. Foreign policy barely featured in Mr Zuma’s election campaign. Yet if anything Mr Zuma has been even more active than Mr Mbeki on the foreign front, chalking up two dozen trips abroad in the past 12 months, including visits to all the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the giants of the emerging world, as well as to Britain, France, the United States and a slew of African countries.
Mr Zuma says his foreign-policy priorities are the same as those of previous ANC governments: to boost African solidarity and unity; to strengthen ties between countries in the southern hemisphere; to keep good relations with strategic trading partners in the West; to reform the UN and Bretton Woods institutions to give the poor world a stronger voice; and to promote democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Mr Zuma sounds a bit less ideological and a bit keener to boost South Africa’s trade and commerce. He invariably has an entourage of businessmen; 370 went on his trip in August to China, South Africa’s biggest trading partner.
But has Mr Zuma honoured Nelson Mandela’s pledge that “human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs”, any more than Mr Mbeki did? Civil-liberties groups such as the New York-based Human Rights Watch were encouraged at first by Mr Zuma’s apparently tougher stance on Zimbabwe. He protested against Myanmar’s detention last year of the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. He condemned the Sri Lankan government’s treatment of the Tamil Tiger rebels. He criticised Israel’s attack on a Turkish ship bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. And he warned Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted for war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Court (ICC), that South Africa, as a member of the court, would arrest him if he set foot on South African soil.
Even so, a deeper change of heart has yet to be seen. On Zimbabwe, Mr Zuma has been barely more robust than Mr Mbeki. Almost a year ago the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a 15-member regional club, appointed Mr Zuma to replace Mr Mbeki as official “facilitator” in power-sharing between Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, and its prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads the former opposition; and he was supposed to have persuaded the pair to settle their differences by December 2009. Since then, deadlines have come and gone amid little progress. Mr Tsvangirai’s people continue to be beaten up and jailed, white-owned farms seized, journalists arrested and senior officials unilaterally appointed by Mr Mugabe in violation of the constitution, with neither Mr Zuma nor the SADC uttering a word. Western diplomats say that he is beavering away behind the scenes, but the results have been thin.
On Sudan, Mr Zuma’s refusal to receive Mr Bashir may at first blush seem a laudable move to bolster international justice. But Mr Zuma has made clear that he roundly disapproves of the ICC’s prosecution of Sudan’s president—or any other African leader suspected of atrocities. The imperative of peace should precede notions of justice, he argues. On the Security Council, South Africa is likely to pursue the African Union’s avowed aim to get the UN to suspend Mr Bashir’s indictment.
Indeed, Mr Zuma seems as happy to hobnob with dictators as Mr Mbeki was. Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Swaziland’s King Mswati III and Mr Mugabe all merrily attended his inauguration. On his trips abroad Mr Zuma has never brought up human rights, at least not in public. He has been characteristically silent over the Nobel peace prize just awarded to a Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo.
At home and abroad Mr Zuma is a supreme pragmatist, anxious to please everyone and offend no one. Though less viscerally anti-Western than Mr Mbeki, he sees power flowing to the east and south and hopes to catch the wave. Hence his wooing of the BRICs. Mr Zuma wants that elite club to include his own country, as Africa’s indisputable heavyweight, despite its smaller population and land mass and its slower-growing economy. Back from China, both sides aglow with friendship, he said he expected the group to reach a “favourable decision” soon. As a new member of the Security Council, where all four BRICs will now have a seat, South Africa will bend over backwards to please its potential new partners.
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Reproduced from www.economist.com
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Darkening Rainbow
The Times: 20 August 2010
There are bleak historical resonances in South Africa’s assault on Press freedoms
In staging the World Cup, South Africa sought the world’s attention and admiration. It achieved both of these ambitions: the smoothly administrated tournament was a triumph for South Africa’ standing in the world and for its self-confidence at home.
But having asked for the world’s scrutiny, South Africa should not be allowed to hide from it now. The ANC government is planning to restrict the freedom of the Press and enhance its ability to intimidate the media. South Africa hoped that the World Cup would represent a coming of age. Just six weeks later, the optimistic mood has been overshadowed by fears that the country is regressing to the abuses of a darker era.
Raymond Louw, who once edited the country’s leading anti-apartheid newspaper, has argued that the assault on Press freedom is ‘worse than anything under apartheid. There are two main strands. The ‘Information Bill’ proposal would permit any head of a state body to declare anything of their choosing to be a government secret. Even possession of such information, let alone reporting it, could carry a punishment of up to 25 years. In addition, the Government plans a new media tribunal with powers to imprison journalists and impose crippling fines.
The motivation of this illiberal tranche of policies reveals a great deal about the ANC. It was the rivalry between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma that encouraged the Press to abandon its reverential reporting of the ANC. But having delighted in the Press’s criticism of Mr Mbeki, Mr Zuma --- whose polygamous and adulterous lifestyle is an easy target --- has quickly tired of it in office. The South African Broadcasting Corporation has been told to carry no more interviews with Mr Mbeki as they undermine the Zuma Government.
It is true that the South African Press has not been blameless. They have made some serious factual mistakes. But the ANC is attacking is attacking the media for what it is doing right, not what it is doing wrong. Reports consistently demonstrate that corruption, even at ministerial level, is now almost an open arrangement, with state contracts often allocated to favoured bidders who then pay back-handers. This month a journalist at South Africa’s Sunday Times was arrested after he wrote an article critical of the national police chief.
The ANC is beginning to fear that the Press now threatens its prospects in municipal elections. The Government’s corruption and the five-star lifestyle of its ministers is so endemic that it is curbing the Government’s ability to provide the basic infrastructure and social services that it promises at every election. Attacking the media also provides a rare unifying thread for the ANC. Its disparate groups of communists, nationalists and unionists can agree on little else apart from that the media is the common enemy.
The ANC’s war with the media has already prompted international opprobrium. This week the US Ambassador expressed his dismay at the proposed laws. But the most damning indictment resides at home, where even formerly optimistic voices admit that they are even more depressed than ever before.
If South Africa abandons its protection of essential constitutional liberties, it is gambling with its democratic future and undermining the principles that sustained its historic fight against apartheid.
There are bleak historical resonances in South Africa’s assault on Press freedoms
In staging the World Cup, South Africa sought the world’s attention and admiration. It achieved both of these ambitions: the smoothly administrated tournament was a triumph for South Africa’ standing in the world and for its self-confidence at home.
But having asked for the world’s scrutiny, South Africa should not be allowed to hide from it now. The ANC government is planning to restrict the freedom of the Press and enhance its ability to intimidate the media. South Africa hoped that the World Cup would represent a coming of age. Just six weeks later, the optimistic mood has been overshadowed by fears that the country is regressing to the abuses of a darker era.
Raymond Louw, who once edited the country’s leading anti-apartheid newspaper, has argued that the assault on Press freedom is ‘worse than anything under apartheid. There are two main strands. The ‘Information Bill’ proposal would permit any head of a state body to declare anything of their choosing to be a government secret. Even possession of such information, let alone reporting it, could carry a punishment of up to 25 years. In addition, the Government plans a new media tribunal with powers to imprison journalists and impose crippling fines.
The motivation of this illiberal tranche of policies reveals a great deal about the ANC. It was the rivalry between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma that encouraged the Press to abandon its reverential reporting of the ANC. But having delighted in the Press’s criticism of Mr Mbeki, Mr Zuma --- whose polygamous and adulterous lifestyle is an easy target --- has quickly tired of it in office. The South African Broadcasting Corporation has been told to carry no more interviews with Mr Mbeki as they undermine the Zuma Government.
It is true that the South African Press has not been blameless. They have made some serious factual mistakes. But the ANC is attacking is attacking the media for what it is doing right, not what it is doing wrong. Reports consistently demonstrate that corruption, even at ministerial level, is now almost an open arrangement, with state contracts often allocated to favoured bidders who then pay back-handers. This month a journalist at South Africa’s Sunday Times was arrested after he wrote an article critical of the national police chief.
The ANC is beginning to fear that the Press now threatens its prospects in municipal elections. The Government’s corruption and the five-star lifestyle of its ministers is so endemic that it is curbing the Government’s ability to provide the basic infrastructure and social services that it promises at every election. Attacking the media also provides a rare unifying thread for the ANC. Its disparate groups of communists, nationalists and unionists can agree on little else apart from that the media is the common enemy.
The ANC’s war with the media has already prompted international opprobrium. This week the US Ambassador expressed his dismay at the proposed laws. But the most damning indictment resides at home, where even formerly optimistic voices admit that they are even more depressed than ever before.
If South Africa abandons its protection of essential constitutional liberties, it is gambling with its democratic future and undermining the principles that sustained its historic fight against apartheid.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
After the final whistle
By Steuart Pennington of www.sagoodnews.co.za
We have been asked by a range of organisations, think-tanks and academic institutions to comment on what we should do as a country to sustain the momentum of our FIFA 2010 remarkable success "after the final whistle has blown". In this newsletter, CEO of SA - The Good News, Steuart Pennington, shares his thoughts.
Words of Caution
We must retain the perspective that FIFA 2010 is an "event" in which we, as a country, have excelled. But since 1994 we have staged more than 147 international sporting events with similar success, just not on the same scale. We have done this before.
We must recognise that this particular success has resulted in a sense of national unity and pride that is unprecedented. In addition the global community, probably for the first time, has both an experiential and an informed view of our country.
The global media have had to eat their words. If anything they will respond by seeking out opportunities to vindicate their prophecies of doom and gloom. They are unlikely to lavish us with ongoing praise.
That we have learnt a number of invaluable lessons is indisputable, but it would be unwise to think that as a result of our FIFA 2010 success we have discovered new truths about our country which will enable us to deal with many of our underlying structural challenges such as education and health in a new way. If anything, our considerable success has reinforced existing positive truths that the doubters have been nay-saying for the past 14 years. But these doubting Thomases, here and abroad, remain ignorant and cynical of the wider truths of our country. We would go as far as to say that they still don’t understand or comprehend them.
It is upon this challenge which we must build. Ensuring that the truth of our country is understood here and abroad.
Therefore, we must NOT:
Use this success to have a go at politicians; the "Danny Jordaan for President" syndrome;
Use this "event" success to think that we can adopt a similar approach to some of our structural challenges, health, education etc. expecting similar results;
Try to maintain the existing social momentum. "Events" result in euphoria and disappointment – one-off highs and lows. Trends, if positive, produce long term confidence and if, negative deep seated anxieties;
Think that we must move onto the next "big thing". Life will, and needs to, get back to normal;
Shoot from the hip by becoming baffled by our own euphoria and thinking that we are now in a position to change South Africa and the world;
What we must do:
• Compile accurate statistics on all the issues that have surrounded this event, such as attendance at games, number of tourism visits, the tourism spend, the tourism accommodation profile, the success of the special courts, the security incidents, the transport issues and the like. There will be much that we can learn for the future;
• Measure the impact of this event on our global brand equity. Answering the question "Has South Africa and Africa’s branding improved, and what are the lessons learned?";
• Measure the impact of this event on Africa, particularly in respect of relations between South Africa and the rest of Africa;
• Understand the legacy expectations and our ability to deliver on them in respect of Africa;
• Examine the lessons learned, and build on them
• Hold FIFA and the teams that visited to their legacy project undertakings;
We should recognise that:
The conventional wisdoms, the generalisations and the cynicism in this country in respect of our future will not disappear with this success (just listen to the current talk shows – the cynicism is back!). Only 6 months ago a survey revealed that 80% of our youth were planning to leave South Africa because of a lack of confidence in its future; lack of job opportunities, education, BEE, security, xenophobia and Affirmative Action were given as the reasons. These perceptions will not suddenly disappear;
That many of our developmental challenges continue to require long term structural changes which are now not "suddenly" possible because of our success in organising the FIFA World Cup;
That we have been distracted from many of our underlying challenges; unemployment, poverty, health, education, racial issues and crime by this event;
That much of the truth of SA still evades the media, our newly found global fans and the reading public.
Therefore, our recommendations in terms of what we should be doing to maintain the momentum are as follows:
Focus on a campaign of teaching our citizenry and the global community the truth about South Africa with a specific intention of instilling confidence in its future;
Develop a specific campaign around mobilising civil society towards building a safer South Africa;
Focus on youth development and opportunity;
Implement a schools campaign to build an understanding of our truths for both teachers and learners so that they develop an informed perspective of our future
Focus on good citizenship, www.forgood.co.za is an example of this;
Our challenge is to translate the success of this event into long term sustainable initiatives that build the same kind of confidence that we have right now.
Our challenge remains real confidence in the future of South Africa.
We have been asked by a range of organisations, think-tanks and academic institutions to comment on what we should do as a country to sustain the momentum of our FIFA 2010 remarkable success "after the final whistle has blown". In this newsletter, CEO of SA - The Good News, Steuart Pennington, shares his thoughts.
Words of Caution
We must retain the perspective that FIFA 2010 is an "event" in which we, as a country, have excelled. But since 1994 we have staged more than 147 international sporting events with similar success, just not on the same scale. We have done this before.
We must recognise that this particular success has resulted in a sense of national unity and pride that is unprecedented. In addition the global community, probably for the first time, has both an experiential and an informed view of our country.
The global media have had to eat their words. If anything they will respond by seeking out opportunities to vindicate their prophecies of doom and gloom. They are unlikely to lavish us with ongoing praise.
That we have learnt a number of invaluable lessons is indisputable, but it would be unwise to think that as a result of our FIFA 2010 success we have discovered new truths about our country which will enable us to deal with many of our underlying structural challenges such as education and health in a new way. If anything, our considerable success has reinforced existing positive truths that the doubters have been nay-saying for the past 14 years. But these doubting Thomases, here and abroad, remain ignorant and cynical of the wider truths of our country. We would go as far as to say that they still don’t understand or comprehend them.
It is upon this challenge which we must build. Ensuring that the truth of our country is understood here and abroad.
Therefore, we must NOT:
Use this success to have a go at politicians; the "Danny Jordaan for President" syndrome;
Use this "event" success to think that we can adopt a similar approach to some of our structural challenges, health, education etc. expecting similar results;
Try to maintain the existing social momentum. "Events" result in euphoria and disappointment – one-off highs and lows. Trends, if positive, produce long term confidence and if, negative deep seated anxieties;
Think that we must move onto the next "big thing". Life will, and needs to, get back to normal;
Shoot from the hip by becoming baffled by our own euphoria and thinking that we are now in a position to change South Africa and the world;
What we must do:
• Compile accurate statistics on all the issues that have surrounded this event, such as attendance at games, number of tourism visits, the tourism spend, the tourism accommodation profile, the success of the special courts, the security incidents, the transport issues and the like. There will be much that we can learn for the future;
• Measure the impact of this event on our global brand equity. Answering the question "Has South Africa and Africa’s branding improved, and what are the lessons learned?";
• Measure the impact of this event on Africa, particularly in respect of relations between South Africa and the rest of Africa;
• Understand the legacy expectations and our ability to deliver on them in respect of Africa;
• Examine the lessons learned, and build on them
• Hold FIFA and the teams that visited to their legacy project undertakings;
We should recognise that:
The conventional wisdoms, the generalisations and the cynicism in this country in respect of our future will not disappear with this success (just listen to the current talk shows – the cynicism is back!). Only 6 months ago a survey revealed that 80% of our youth were planning to leave South Africa because of a lack of confidence in its future; lack of job opportunities, education, BEE, security, xenophobia and Affirmative Action were given as the reasons. These perceptions will not suddenly disappear;
That many of our developmental challenges continue to require long term structural changes which are now not "suddenly" possible because of our success in organising the FIFA World Cup;
That we have been distracted from many of our underlying challenges; unemployment, poverty, health, education, racial issues and crime by this event;
That much of the truth of SA still evades the media, our newly found global fans and the reading public.
Therefore, our recommendations in terms of what we should be doing to maintain the momentum are as follows:
Focus on a campaign of teaching our citizenry and the global community the truth about South Africa with a specific intention of instilling confidence in its future;
Develop a specific campaign around mobilising civil society towards building a safer South Africa;
Focus on youth development and opportunity;
Implement a schools campaign to build an understanding of our truths for both teachers and learners so that they develop an informed perspective of our future
Focus on good citizenship, www.forgood.co.za is an example of this;
Our challenge is to translate the success of this event into long term sustainable initiatives that build the same kind of confidence that we have right now.
Our challenge remains real confidence in the future of South Africa.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
New email addresses
Please up date your records with my new email address details:
Primary: owen@owenleed.com
Secondary: owen@leed-family.com
All A1 related email addresses for me are now redundant.
Primary: owen@owenleed.com
Secondary: owen@leed-family.com
All A1 related email addresses for me are now redundant.
Friday, April 30, 2010
There are no miracles in Africa - A self destructing continent
James Jackson was educated at Cheam School, Wellington College, Bristol University, King’s College London, the London College of Law, and the Inns of Court School of Law. He was "Called to the Bar" and is still a Member of the Inner Temple.
He is the bestselling author of historical thrillers including Blood Rock and Pilgrim. As a postgraduate he specialised in analysing future trends in international terrorism, was Called to the Bar, and worked for many years as a political-risk consultant. His non-fiction publications include The Counter-terrorist Handbook. He is based in London.
There are no miracles in Africa - A self destructing continent
White Zimbabweans [previously Rhodesians] used to tell a joke — what is the difference between a tourist and a racist? The answer — about a week.
Few seem to joke any more. Indeed, the last time anyone laughed out there was over the memorable head-line “BANANA CHARGED WITH SODOMY”(relating to the Reverend Canaan Banana and his alleged proclivities).
Zimbabwe was just the latest African state to squander its potential, to swap civil society for civil strife and pile high its corpses. Then the wrecking virus moves on and a fresh spasm of violence erupts elsewhere.
The Congo, Ivory Coast , Sudan , Rwanda , Sierra Leone , even Kenya .. Take your pick, for it is the essence of Africa , the recurring A-Z of horror. Therefore, as surely as Nelson Mandela took those steps from captivity to freedom, his own country will doubtless shuffle into chaos and ruin.
Mark my words. One day it will be the turn of South Africa to revert to type, its farms will lie wasted and its towns will be battle zones, its dreams and expectations will be rotting on the veldt. That is the way of things. Africa rarely surprises, it simply continues to appall.
When interviewed on BBC Radio, the legendary South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela spoke of the 350-year struggle for freedom by blacks in South Africa. The man might play his trumpet like a dream, but he talks arrant nonsense. What he has bought into is a false narrative that rewrites history and plays upon post-colonial liberal angst. The construct is as follows: white, inglorious and bad; black, noble and good; empire, bad; independence, good; the west, bad; the African, good. Forgotten in all this is that while Europeans were settling and spreading from the Cape, the psychopathic Shaka Zulu was employing his Impi to crush everyone —including the Xhosa - in his path, and the Xhosa were themselves busy slaughtering Bushmen and Hottentots. Yet it is the whites who take the rap, for it was they who won the skirmishes along the Fish and Blood Rivers and who eventually gained the prize.
What suffers is the truth, and — of course — Africa. We are so cowed by the moist-eyed mantras of the left and the oath-laden platitudes of Bono and Geldof, we are forced to accept collective responsibility for the bloody mess that is now Africa. It paralyses us while excusing the black continent and its rulers.
Whenever I hear people agitate for the freezing of Third World debt, I want to shout aloud for the freezing of those myriad overseas bank accounts held by black African leaders (President Mobutu of Zaire alone is believed to have squirreled away well over $10 billion).
Whenever apartheid is held up as a blueprint for evil, I want to mention Bokassa snacking on human remains, Amin clogging a hydro-electric dam with floating corpses, the President of Equatorial Guinea crucifying victims along the roadway from his airport.
Whenever slavery is dredged up, I want to remind everyone the Arabs were there before us, the native Ashanti and others were no slouches at the game, and it remains in places like the Ivory Coast.
Whenever I hear the Aids pandemic somehow blamed on western indifference, I want to point to the African native practice of dry sex, the hobby-like prevalence of rape and the clumps of despotic black leaders who deny a link between the disease and HIV and who block the provision of anti-retrovirals. And whenever Africans bleat of imperialism and colonialism, I want to campaign for the demolition of every road, college, and hospital we ever built to let them start again. It is time they governed themselves. Yet few play the victim card quite so expertly as black Africans; few are quite so gullible as the white liberal-left.
On the eve of this millennium, Nelson Mandela and friends lit candles mapping the shape of their continent and declared the Twenty-first Century would belong to Africa. It’s a pity that for every Mandela, there are over a hundred Robert Mugabes.
So Britain had an empire and Britain did slavery. Boo hoo. Deal with it. Move on. Slavery ended here over two hundred years ago. More recently, there were tens of millions of innocents enslaved or killed in Europe by the twin industrialised evils of Nazism and Stalinism. My own first cousins—twin brothers aged sixteen—died down a Soviet salt mine. I need no lecture on shackles and neck-irons. Most of us are descendents of both oppressors and oppressed; most of us get over it.
Mind you, I am tempted by thoughts of compensation from Scandinavia for the wickedness of its Viking raids and its slaving-hub on the Liffe. And as for the 1066 invasion of England by William the Bastard…
The white man’s burden is guilt over Africa (the black man’s is sentimentality), and we are blind for it. We have tipped hundreds of billions of aid-dollars into Africa without first ensuring proper governance. We encourage NGOs and food-parcels and have built a culture of dependency. We shy away from making criticism, tiptoe around the crassness of the African Union and flinch at every anti-western jibe.
The result is a free-for-all for every syphilitic black despot and his coterie of family functionaries.
Africa casts a long and toxic shadow across our consciousness. It is patronised and allowed to underperform, so too its distant black diaspora. A black London pupil is excluded from his school, not because he is lazy, stupid or disruptive, but because that school is apparently racist; a black youth is pulled over by the police, not because black males commit over eighty percent of street crime, but because the authorities are somehow corrupted by prejudice. Thus the tale continues.
Excuse is everywhere and a sense of responsibility nowhere. You will rarely find either a black national leader in Africa or a black community leader in the west prepared to put up his hands and say it is our problem, our fault. Those who look to Africa for their roots, role-models and inspiration are worshipping false gods. And like all false gods, the feet are of clay, the snouts long and designed for the trough, and the torture-cells generally well-equipped.
I once met the son of a Liberian government minister and asked if he had seen video-footage of his former president Samuel Doe being tortured to death. ‘Of course’, he replied with a smile. ‘Everyone has’. They cut off the ears of Doe and force-fed them to him. His successor, the warlord Charles Taylor, was elected in a landslide result using the campaign slogan “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him”. Nice people. Liberia was founded and colonised by black Americans to demonstrate what slave stock could achieve. They certainly showed us. Forgive my heretical belief that had a black instead of a white tribe earlier come to dominate South Africa, its opponents would not have been banished to Robben island. They would have been butchered and buried there.
When asked about the problem of Africa, Harold Macmillan suggested building a high wall around the continent and every century or so removing a brick to check on progress. I suspect that over entire millennia, the view would prove bleak and unvarying.
Visiting a state in West Africa a few years ago, I wandered onto a beach and marveled at the golden sands and at the sunlight catching on the Atlantic surf. It allowed me to forget for a moment the local news that day of soldiers seizing a schoolboy and pitching him head-first into an operating cement-machine. Almost forget. Then I spotted a group of villagers beating a stray dog to death for their sport. A metaphor of sorts for all that is wrong, another link in a word-association chain that goes something like Famine… Drought… Overpopulation… Deforestation… Conflict… Barbarism… Cruelty… Machetes… Child Soldiers… Massacres… Diamonds… Warlords…Tyranny… Corruption… Despair… Disease… Aids… Africa.
He is the bestselling author of historical thrillers including Blood Rock and Pilgrim. As a postgraduate he specialised in analysing future trends in international terrorism, was Called to the Bar, and worked for many years as a political-risk consultant. His non-fiction publications include The Counter-terrorist Handbook. He is based in London.
There are no miracles in Africa - A self destructing continent
White Zimbabweans [previously Rhodesians] used to tell a joke — what is the difference between a tourist and a racist? The answer — about a week.
Few seem to joke any more. Indeed, the last time anyone laughed out there was over the memorable head-line “BANANA CHARGED WITH SODOMY”(relating to the Reverend Canaan Banana and his alleged proclivities).
Zimbabwe was just the latest African state to squander its potential, to swap civil society for civil strife and pile high its corpses. Then the wrecking virus moves on and a fresh spasm of violence erupts elsewhere.
The Congo, Ivory Coast , Sudan , Rwanda , Sierra Leone , even Kenya .. Take your pick, for it is the essence of Africa , the recurring A-Z of horror. Therefore, as surely as Nelson Mandela took those steps from captivity to freedom, his own country will doubtless shuffle into chaos and ruin.
Mark my words. One day it will be the turn of South Africa to revert to type, its farms will lie wasted and its towns will be battle zones, its dreams and expectations will be rotting on the veldt. That is the way of things. Africa rarely surprises, it simply continues to appall.
When interviewed on BBC Radio, the legendary South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela spoke of the 350-year struggle for freedom by blacks in South Africa. The man might play his trumpet like a dream, but he talks arrant nonsense. What he has bought into is a false narrative that rewrites history and plays upon post-colonial liberal angst. The construct is as follows: white, inglorious and bad; black, noble and good; empire, bad; independence, good; the west, bad; the African, good. Forgotten in all this is that while Europeans were settling and spreading from the Cape, the psychopathic Shaka Zulu was employing his Impi to crush everyone —including the Xhosa - in his path, and the Xhosa were themselves busy slaughtering Bushmen and Hottentots. Yet it is the whites who take the rap, for it was they who won the skirmishes along the Fish and Blood Rivers and who eventually gained the prize.
What suffers is the truth, and — of course — Africa. We are so cowed by the moist-eyed mantras of the left and the oath-laden platitudes of Bono and Geldof, we are forced to accept collective responsibility for the bloody mess that is now Africa. It paralyses us while excusing the black continent and its rulers.
Whenever I hear people agitate for the freezing of Third World debt, I want to shout aloud for the freezing of those myriad overseas bank accounts held by black African leaders (President Mobutu of Zaire alone is believed to have squirreled away well over $10 billion).
Whenever apartheid is held up as a blueprint for evil, I want to mention Bokassa snacking on human remains, Amin clogging a hydro-electric dam with floating corpses, the President of Equatorial Guinea crucifying victims along the roadway from his airport.
Whenever slavery is dredged up, I want to remind everyone the Arabs were there before us, the native Ashanti and others were no slouches at the game, and it remains in places like the Ivory Coast.
Whenever I hear the Aids pandemic somehow blamed on western indifference, I want to point to the African native practice of dry sex, the hobby-like prevalence of rape and the clumps of despotic black leaders who deny a link between the disease and HIV and who block the provision of anti-retrovirals. And whenever Africans bleat of imperialism and colonialism, I want to campaign for the demolition of every road, college, and hospital we ever built to let them start again. It is time they governed themselves. Yet few play the victim card quite so expertly as black Africans; few are quite so gullible as the white liberal-left.
On the eve of this millennium, Nelson Mandela and friends lit candles mapping the shape of their continent and declared the Twenty-first Century would belong to Africa. It’s a pity that for every Mandela, there are over a hundred Robert Mugabes.
So Britain had an empire and Britain did slavery. Boo hoo. Deal with it. Move on. Slavery ended here over two hundred years ago. More recently, there were tens of millions of innocents enslaved or killed in Europe by the twin industrialised evils of Nazism and Stalinism. My own first cousins—twin brothers aged sixteen—died down a Soviet salt mine. I need no lecture on shackles and neck-irons. Most of us are descendents of both oppressors and oppressed; most of us get over it.
Mind you, I am tempted by thoughts of compensation from Scandinavia for the wickedness of its Viking raids and its slaving-hub on the Liffe. And as for the 1066 invasion of England by William the Bastard…
The white man’s burden is guilt over Africa (the black man’s is sentimentality), and we are blind for it. We have tipped hundreds of billions of aid-dollars into Africa without first ensuring proper governance. We encourage NGOs and food-parcels and have built a culture of dependency. We shy away from making criticism, tiptoe around the crassness of the African Union and flinch at every anti-western jibe.
The result is a free-for-all for every syphilitic black despot and his coterie of family functionaries.
Africa casts a long and toxic shadow across our consciousness. It is patronised and allowed to underperform, so too its distant black diaspora. A black London pupil is excluded from his school, not because he is lazy, stupid or disruptive, but because that school is apparently racist; a black youth is pulled over by the police, not because black males commit over eighty percent of street crime, but because the authorities are somehow corrupted by prejudice. Thus the tale continues.
Excuse is everywhere and a sense of responsibility nowhere. You will rarely find either a black national leader in Africa or a black community leader in the west prepared to put up his hands and say it is our problem, our fault. Those who look to Africa for their roots, role-models and inspiration are worshipping false gods. And like all false gods, the feet are of clay, the snouts long and designed for the trough, and the torture-cells generally well-equipped.
I once met the son of a Liberian government minister and asked if he had seen video-footage of his former president Samuel Doe being tortured to death. ‘Of course’, he replied with a smile. ‘Everyone has’. They cut off the ears of Doe and force-fed them to him. His successor, the warlord Charles Taylor, was elected in a landslide result using the campaign slogan “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him”. Nice people. Liberia was founded and colonised by black Americans to demonstrate what slave stock could achieve. They certainly showed us. Forgive my heretical belief that had a black instead of a white tribe earlier come to dominate South Africa, its opponents would not have been banished to Robben island. They would have been butchered and buried there.
When asked about the problem of Africa, Harold Macmillan suggested building a high wall around the continent and every century or so removing a brick to check on progress. I suspect that over entire millennia, the view would prove bleak and unvarying.
Visiting a state in West Africa a few years ago, I wandered onto a beach and marveled at the golden sands and at the sunlight catching on the Atlantic surf. It allowed me to forget for a moment the local news that day of soldiers seizing a schoolboy and pitching him head-first into an operating cement-machine. Almost forget. Then I spotted a group of villagers beating a stray dog to death for their sport. A metaphor of sorts for all that is wrong, another link in a word-association chain that goes something like Famine… Drought… Overpopulation… Deforestation… Conflict… Barbarism… Cruelty… Machetes… Child Soldiers… Massacres… Diamonds… Warlords…Tyranny… Corruption… Despair… Disease… Aids… Africa.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
South Africa needs Malema
Written by Wayne G
2010-03-24
Since the first time I heard Julius Malema preach hate I have harboured a deep seeded resentment toward him and his alienation tactics, hate speech, mindless babble and other forms of bigotry only fit for the 12th century. For the first time in 14 years I became a vocal critic of the ANC and what it has become.
I always gave them the benefit of the doubt until this little egotistical megalomaniac came along. Like many peace loving South Africans I was gobsmacked by the cheek of this man parading as the self proclaimed future leader of the ANC and the country with all the answers.
The sudden realisation that we actually need Malema ironically dawned on me on Human Rights Day. Malema is exactly what this country needs. He is the catalyst to the systematic implosion of the ANC. He will systematically weather down the little goodness the ANC has left. He is like a time bomb planted in the middle of Luthuli House.
Malema through all his juvenile ranting and sociopathic public tantrums, personal attacks and publicly played out vendettas is destroying the reputation of the ANC quicker than any opposition party could ever dream of doing. He is systematically diluting the credibility of the ANC with every silly word carved out of his "struggling" mind. He is making a mockery of all the ANC's hard fought freedoms, their laws, constitution, leaders, elders, alliance partners and all Mandela wanted for South Africa . Zuma eventually publically denounced rogue members attacking other politicians in the media and the very next day Malema verbally attacked the PAC and the Boer. This shows how much he cares about what our president says.
Malema is a rogue pathogen and the unfortunate host in this case is the ANC. By definition pathogens harm their hosts by producing toxins that promote infection and illness. Malema and his self serving prophecy are toxic to the ANC and making it sicker and weaker by the day.
The government seems unwilling or unable to stop him and with each passing day he sucks more blood out of the ANC and spits it at the feet of the true heroes of the struggle and its alliance partners. A struggle he speaks of like he was there. He was 13 in 1994. What could he possibly know about the struggle?
Isn't it ironic that at the peak of Malema 's hate speech and pointless rhetoric the opposition parties are talking aim and forming an alliance? It's as if they sense the rumblings of weakness and vulnerability in the ruling party. Never before has the ANC been dogged with so many controversies, from a presidential love child to vast corruption and illegal tenders.
As a tax payer I am disgusted at the opulent behaviour of the ANC and its members at the expense of the people of this country. The hypocrisy is preposterous and unbecoming of any government, let alone that of a poor third world country with huge socio-economic inequalities, spiralling crime levels, highest HIV infection rates on earth and mass corruption.
The hypocrisy of Malema also shows the depth of his understanding of the term Boer. The very same "Boers" that he wants to shoot are the farmers that farm the chickens that make the Nandos that he feeds on daily.
I hope others incensed by Malema can share in this sentiment. It took a lot of soul searching for me to unearth this understanding and with it peace of mind. So don't pack for Australia just yet, stick around a little longer and watch this beast go down in a blaze of glory. Malema has a job to do and we need to let him do it. In a couple of years he will be history. His thoughtless words and provocations will bring the ANC down, just like the struggle songs spurred the demise of white oppressive rule.
History is what it is. The future is now. Yes, we do need to remember the fundamental principles that liberated South Africa , but not so we hate and resent our oppressors but so we can learn and design our future through compassion, tolerance and positive community input and political leadership.
Malema is a racist, his words and actions make it so. We all know where racism got us in the first place. Songs about death, or killing members of our diverse society where everyone is offered the same protection by the constitution is wrong and unconstitutional.
So instead of trying to shut him up and fearing him, rather encourage him. Your emotions just like mine are wasted on "Mal Malema". The quicker he can destroy the ANC and its alliances the quicker a new government can fix this mess that is South Africa 2010. The word is out that South Africa 's first real all inclusive opposition party is in the wings. Good things await us, we all deserve it.
2010-03-24
Since the first time I heard Julius Malema preach hate I have harboured a deep seeded resentment toward him and his alienation tactics, hate speech, mindless babble and other forms of bigotry only fit for the 12th century. For the first time in 14 years I became a vocal critic of the ANC and what it has become.
I always gave them the benefit of the doubt until this little egotistical megalomaniac came along. Like many peace loving South Africans I was gobsmacked by the cheek of this man parading as the self proclaimed future leader of the ANC and the country with all the answers.
The sudden realisation that we actually need Malema ironically dawned on me on Human Rights Day. Malema is exactly what this country needs. He is the catalyst to the systematic implosion of the ANC. He will systematically weather down the little goodness the ANC has left. He is like a time bomb planted in the middle of Luthuli House.
Malema through all his juvenile ranting and sociopathic public tantrums, personal attacks and publicly played out vendettas is destroying the reputation of the ANC quicker than any opposition party could ever dream of doing. He is systematically diluting the credibility of the ANC with every silly word carved out of his "struggling" mind. He is making a mockery of all the ANC's hard fought freedoms, their laws, constitution, leaders, elders, alliance partners and all Mandela wanted for South Africa . Zuma eventually publically denounced rogue members attacking other politicians in the media and the very next day Malema verbally attacked the PAC and the Boer. This shows how much he cares about what our president says.
Malema is a rogue pathogen and the unfortunate host in this case is the ANC. By definition pathogens harm their hosts by producing toxins that promote infection and illness. Malema and his self serving prophecy are toxic to the ANC and making it sicker and weaker by the day.
The government seems unwilling or unable to stop him and with each passing day he sucks more blood out of the ANC and spits it at the feet of the true heroes of the struggle and its alliance partners. A struggle he speaks of like he was there. He was 13 in 1994. What could he possibly know about the struggle?
Isn't it ironic that at the peak of Malema 's hate speech and pointless rhetoric the opposition parties are talking aim and forming an alliance? It's as if they sense the rumblings of weakness and vulnerability in the ruling party. Never before has the ANC been dogged with so many controversies, from a presidential love child to vast corruption and illegal tenders.
As a tax payer I am disgusted at the opulent behaviour of the ANC and its members at the expense of the people of this country. The hypocrisy is preposterous and unbecoming of any government, let alone that of a poor third world country with huge socio-economic inequalities, spiralling crime levels, highest HIV infection rates on earth and mass corruption.
The hypocrisy of Malema also shows the depth of his understanding of the term Boer. The very same "Boers" that he wants to shoot are the farmers that farm the chickens that make the Nandos that he feeds on daily.
I hope others incensed by Malema can share in this sentiment. It took a lot of soul searching for me to unearth this understanding and with it peace of mind. So don't pack for Australia just yet, stick around a little longer and watch this beast go down in a blaze of glory. Malema has a job to do and we need to let him do it. In a couple of years he will be history. His thoughtless words and provocations will bring the ANC down, just like the struggle songs spurred the demise of white oppressive rule.
History is what it is. The future is now. Yes, we do need to remember the fundamental principles that liberated South Africa , but not so we hate and resent our oppressors but so we can learn and design our future through compassion, tolerance and positive community input and political leadership.
Malema is a racist, his words and actions make it so. We all know where racism got us in the first place. Songs about death, or killing members of our diverse society where everyone is offered the same protection by the constitution is wrong and unconstitutional.
So instead of trying to shut him up and fearing him, rather encourage him. Your emotions just like mine are wasted on "Mal Malema". The quicker he can destroy the ANC and its alliances the quicker a new government can fix this mess that is South Africa 2010. The word is out that South Africa 's first real all inclusive opposition party is in the wings. Good things await us, we all deserve it.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Children
It seems some time since I last made a posting which suggests that I have not had much on my mind.
Quite the contrary. There has been a lot going on, some good, some bad, some deeply disturbing, all of which I will talk of here in the fullness of time. There will be some who do not like what have to say or what I have felt. More of this later.
Today's thought struck me as I watched a toddler being handed from Mum to Dad and back again..... Will I ever be able to watch a family and not think about my children and all that I have missed in the last years of them growing up on a different continent to me?
Traci has often said that they need me and I know that they do. I can assure you that I need them too. I miss my children every day and ache for the times that I am able to spend with them. I will be with them again in less than a month and that always fuels me to be a better person. I cannot wait to see them.
Megan - I love you
Jesse - I love you
Jake - I love you
Wendy - I love you
My thoughts are with you always despite the distance, the time apart and the difficulties of managing around global time differences and so on.
I hope that in the years to come we will be able to spend more and more time together and that you will be able to get to know me better and vice versa.
I love you.
I am nothing without you.
Daddy
xxxx
Quite the contrary. There has been a lot going on, some good, some bad, some deeply disturbing, all of which I will talk of here in the fullness of time. There will be some who do not like what have to say or what I have felt. More of this later.
Today's thought struck me as I watched a toddler being handed from Mum to Dad and back again..... Will I ever be able to watch a family and not think about my children and all that I have missed in the last years of them growing up on a different continent to me?
Traci has often said that they need me and I know that they do. I can assure you that I need them too. I miss my children every day and ache for the times that I am able to spend with them. I will be with them again in less than a month and that always fuels me to be a better person. I cannot wait to see them.
Megan - I love you
Jesse - I love you
Jake - I love you
Wendy - I love you
My thoughts are with you always despite the distance, the time apart and the difficulties of managing around global time differences and so on.
I hope that in the years to come we will be able to spend more and more time together and that you will be able to get to know me better and vice versa.
I love you.
I am nothing without you.
Daddy
xxxx
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