Category Archives: Africa

Update II: The ANC "Slipping"? (& On What Raw Democracy Has Wrought)

Africa, Colonialism, Communism, Democracy, South-Africa, The West

The consistently moronic mainstream media’s angle on the forthcoming elections in the One-Party state that is South Africa: The ANC “is finally starting to slip.”

Let’s correct this bit of remedial revisionism. That my homeland is only now collapsing irretrievably into a black hole is a testament to the strength of the institutions and infrastructure—economic and civil society—planted there by the founders of South Africa, Boer and British.

Zimbabwe also took time to crumble; and that was not because Mugabe “started to slip,” although the same morons who castigate him now, cheered him on initially, and looked surprised when another African Big Man shifted into savage mode.

A strong economy and institutions take time to collapse. Zimbabwe was once an oasis in the desert that is Africa because of the phantom Ian Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia, RIP.

The ANC has not “slipped”; they’ve always been a scourge on the face of the earth.

As to what’s afoot, here’s an excerpt from my upcoming book, Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa:

“Having spent most of his adult life abroad in exile, Mbeki’s mannerisms are those of an English gent, not a man of the people. But the baton has been passed from the pukka proper Mbeki to the populist polygamist Jacob Zuma, who dances half naked in tribal dress. In one of his Noble-Savage moments, Zuma promised, disarmingly, after forcing sex on an HIV-positive acquaintance, that he took a shower as a prophylactic against AIDS.”

Our friend, Dr. Dan Roodt, founder of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group (PRAAG), has a different angle. It’s interesting and certainly congruent with his perspective on the destructive role the Anglo axis–American and British—played in his country.

I’m skeptical.

Update I (April 22): Election day has arrived. Or as Dan Roodt calls it, Racial Census Day. The CSM is chirpy:

High turnout could favor the ANC, since the vast majority of South Africa’s population are poor and black, and while voters criticize the ANC for failing to deliver on its election promises, they see the ANC as the strongest voice for their demands.

The higher turnout seems to be driven as much by public enthusiasm for (or revulsion toward) the ANC’s new populist leader, Jacob Zuma, as it is by a palpable desire for dramatic change, a sentiment expressed by all social and economic levels here.

Update II (April 23): What raw democracy has wrought. A one-party state it is with no protection for minorities; this is raw, ripe, rank democracy.

From the SABC:

As general election results keep trickling in, the ANC has passed the two-thirds mark, which, if sustained, will enable it to change the South Africa’s Constitution. However the ruling party has said it has no desire to do so.

With 74% of the voting districts declared, the ANC has captured 66.85% of the vote. The Democratic Alliance is a distant second [at] 16%.

Third-placed Congress of the People has so far managed to get only 7.7% of the vote.

Meanwhile, ANC President Jacob Zuma has thanked party supporters for helping them win the general election by a landslide. He was addressing supporters during a victory celebration outside Luthuli House in Johannesburg. Zuma says credit must go to volunteers and others who ensured the ANC was returned to power.

Updated: Pro-Afrikaans Action Group Praises … Jacob Zuma

Africa, Britain, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Multiculturalism, South-Africa

Our friend Dr. Dan Roodt, founder of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group (PRAAG), is nothing if not original! His rightist organization is applauding Jacob Zuma, a different kind of original, for the overtures Zuma is making toward the much-maligned and disenfranchised Afrikaners.

I like this tack. It’s unexpected. So few are the truly interesting minds around, and Dan certainly is one. Sure, I’m flummox. But I’m also intrigued. Read on:

PRAAG (the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group) joined in the standing ovation that Jacob Zuma received from the assembly of Afrikaner delegates at yesterday’s meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton. For perhaps the first time since the early nineties, Afrikaners had spoken frankly about the many issues bothering them in the new South Africa, such as the domination of English monoculture, violent crime, land reform, the new gun laws, corruption and the dilapidation of state resources such as the SABC, SAA, Eskom and others.

After the gathering, Dr. Dan Roodt, leader of PRAAG, told reporters: “I feel very positive about the outcome of the meeting and have the impression that foreign, especially British, influence on the ANC is diminishing. It is almost as if Zuma has some pangs of nostalgia for the old, Afrikaner-run South Africa, with its discipline, sense of patriotism, successful agriculture, frugal public salaries and respect for law and order.”

Roodt continued: “There was never any reason for conflict between Afrikaners and blacks in the past as we have understood each other and cooperated for almost two centuries. However, outside elements, ranging from Britain and Sweden to the die-hard English communists of South Africa, incited conflict in our country so as to place us on the same path as the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, with its radicalism, ethnic strife and failed states.”

Under Mbeki Afrikaners were vilified as “settlers who failed to depart”. In his speech to the assembly, the leader of PRAAG stated that “after 1994 the ANC had lacked a model to deal with a large indigenous Western minority, speaking its own language and not English, French or Portuguese”.

He went on to say that “Zuma is wise in appreciating that the radical Africanist model is a failure, as seen in Zimbabwe and many other postcolonial African countries. From his statements during the meeting, Zuma is clearly an admirer of the Afrikaner model of development with its emphasis on discipline, education, hard work, caring for the poor and successful agriculture”.

The president of the ANC has accepted an invitation to visit the Voortrekker Monument, as well as a camp of the Voortrekker youth movement. Dr. Dan Roodt said: “I think Zuma’s interest in Afrikaans culture is genuine. He should also visit the Afrikaans Literary Museum in Bloemfontein to discover perhaps the greatest cultural edifice in all of Africa, the prodigious output of Afrikaans works and translations in the twentieth century but which has been sadly neglected and even threatened during the rule of Thabo Mbeki.”

Roodt also responded to a statement by the DA that Zuma had displayed an “ethnically and racially blinkered world view” in calling Afrikaners the only “true white South Africans”.

“The DA is itself blind in its colonial liberalism that denies the multiethnic character of our state.”

No doubt, Bantu and Boer might have been better off without the British. (The same can be said of the Israelis and Palestinians.) Still, Dan knows as well as I do that the proof is in the pudding. Unless Zuma brings back the death penalty, and stops the racially motivated culling of whites in South Africa and the appropriation of commercial farms—it’s all talk.

But Zuma and Dan are shaking things up.

Check out PRAAG (where my column is occasionally featured).

Update (April 12):”Zuma Insulted Afrikaners: Zille.”

Helen Zille, quite an impressive woman, heads the Democratic Alliance: the liberal, minuscule, opposition to the South African One Party State. By her telling, Zuma was “patronisingly trying to ‘curry favour'” with Afrikaners.

If so, it’s long overdue.

The reason for Zuma’s pro-Afrikaner tack, claims Zille, is this: “By seeming to flatter, I can actually fool you all into forgetting about the corruption allegations against me. By pressing the ethnic button, I can also distract your attention from the ANC’s power abuse.”

Moreover, “It is the well-known ‘divide and rule’ tactic, which authoritarian racist governments always use to divide their opponents,” she said in her weekly newsletter on Friday.

All very plausible. However, what Zuma said about Afrikaners being the only true South Africans among whites is indubitably true. And rather perceptive, I might add.

This is what undergirds the BBC’s David Harrison’s fine book, The White Tribe of Africa.

Update VI: Blow Them Out Of The Seas! (& No Somali Nation-Building)

Africa, Bush, Crime, Europe, Founding Fathers, Iran, Justice, Military, Neoconservatism, Terrorism, The West, Trade, UN

Pirates! That in itself is a romantic euphemism. These are terrorists on the high seas. They’ve been operating a criminal enterprise that targets innocents with impunity–and with great success. Yet the West does nothing. China, a country that seems to act in its national interests more so than do we, is, by The Washington Times’ account, “deploying vessels to secure their shipping since they can no longer rely on other powers to keep trade flowing unmolested.”

To recap: North Korea has committed no real aggression against the US with its measly missile. The Iranians shoot their mouths off. Both countries know that if they deign to aggress against the US, why, we’ll obliterate them. Yet, on-and-on the debate goes as to whether America should kill the innocent people of these lands. Conversely, when confronted with evil in action—plunderers thwarting the lifeblood that is trade—nothing much is done.

Or murmurs of negotiations ensue.

“Pirates” operate near “ the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and around the Strait of Malacca near Singapore,” and threaten peaceful commerce with raids on “cargo vessels, tankers, fishing vessels, cruise liners, yachts and the occasional tugboat.”

The first seizure of a U.S. flagged vessel by pirates in recent memory was thwarted yesterday as the crew retook the vessel. The taking and retaking of the Maersk Alabama has grabbed headlines, but it was one of six ships attacked in that area since last weekend. The only reason this ship was saved is that the American crew fought back.

This is an excellent opportunity for private companies to step in to fill the protection gap. But, knowing the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” “any vessels but clearly identified naval or other national forces,” are prohibited from “seizing pirate vessels.” As are “the rules of self-defense at sea somewhat murky.”

If ever there was a time to thumb the proverbial nose at the nosy UN, this is it. I say, “as President Washington said in 1786, lamenting payments being made to the Barbary Pirates, … ‘crush them into nonexistence.'”

Or, blow them out of the seas!

Update I: From the Wall Street Journal: “In the waning days of the Bush administration, the National Security Council issued a detailed yet little-noticed plan for combating piracy off the coast of Somalia.”

Commensurate with Bush’s emphasis on using force, mostly, when it was inappropriate to use it, the previous administration “was nearly silent … on what to do if a ship is taken by pirates and crew members are held captive. And what little guidance it provided was vague. U.S. naval forces were given authority to ‘terminate the act of piracy and any included hostage situation.’ Just how they were to do that was left unsaid.”

I hope he surprises me, but I doubt Barry will deviate from the perplexing policy of aggression against non-aggressors, and non-aggression against aggressors.

Update II (April 10): OBAMA AWOL The silence of this White House, so far, is deafening; the inaction of the best navy seals in the world perplexing. The brave captain of the Maersk Alabama attempted to escape. Stealthy seals were nowhere in sight to help him get away and annihilate his pursuers. He is recaptured.

Knowing that the US media would be covering for Obama, I went straight for the international coverage. The Times Online plasters an appropriate headline on its website: “US Navy misses chance to rescue American captain held hostage by pirates“:

Captain Richard Phillips fled through a back door in the covered lifeboat about midnight on Thursday local time and began swimming away, US officials said.

At least one pirate jumped in after him and brought him back aboard the boat, which is drifting without fuel, before the nearby US destroyer, USS Bainbridge, could intervene. The incident was captured on video by a US drone overhead. “He didn’t get very far,” one official said. …

The Bainbridge, backed by drones and surveillance aircraft, was standing guard a few hundred yards from the lifeboat, which had run out of fuel. The frigate USS Halyburton and the assault ship USS Boxer, armed with about two dozen helicopters and attack planes, sailed to the scene yesterday.

“[a] former US ambassador in Ethiopia and an expert on the Horn of Africa, advocated a tougher policy against pirates, including sinking their ‘mother ships.'”

This is a disgrace! Worse: it’s a disregard for American life.

While Obamby vacillates, President Sarkozy gave French commandos the order to storm a yacht captured by “pirates,” off the coast of Somalia. There is one casualty, but two families are freed. This operation is “the seventh in a year by French forces,” all ordered by the French president.

Hardly a softy is Sarkozy.

According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, “Over the last few days the spike in new pirate attacks has been dramatic. Ten ships, including the MV Hansa Stavager, a German freighter, have been taken. A total of 20 ships remain in the hands of pirates.”

Update III (April 11): SOMALI SHAMANS AND FOOLISH FBI TO THE RESCUE. The US navy’s lackluster efforts to free Capt. Richard Phillips ran aground today… again. Yesterday, a US drone captured, on video, Capt. Phillips making an attempted escape. Had the “vigilant” marines been glued to their monitors, they might have blown the pirates’ dingy out of the sea as soon as the Capt. jumped the craft.

Today, U.S. sailors tried to reach the lifeboat, but the “pirates” did what “pirates” are wont to do: fired on them. The US Navy responded by doing what the Navy, apparently, does when aggressed against: retreat: “The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, back to the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge,” reports CNN.

As if this faux pa were not enough, we learn that the this act of terror on the high seas will be bureaucratized:

“The U.S. Navy — which is in charge of the situation” [– and cannot handle it] has “requested help from the FBI to resolve the standoff.”

The FBI is launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI’s New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Agents from the office were scheduled to leave for Africa sometime this weekend, the officials said.

Yes, I can think of nothing more appropriate in resolving a stand-off with criminals than to launch an “investigation.” Perhaps the FBI can call in their Behavioral “Sciences” pseudo-scientists, who can then draw up a profile of an African pirate. (Daddy had too many wives and didn’t spend quality time with pygmy pirate.)

Wait a sec, I know of an even better course of action for our bureaucrats. The Christian Science Monitor tells that “relatives of the four Somali hijackers, along with a group of Somali elders, are traveling to the coastal area nearby determined to ‘solve the problem peacefully … without any guns or ransom.'”

Now, if you believe that these are relatives of the hijackers rather than some wily old men from the tribe, who want to get their faces on CNN, and con stupid westerners, then, you must have believed, together with Fox and Friends, that WMD were probably moved to Syria, and al-Qaeda and the Ba’athists were an item.

I hope the savvy Somalis show the foolish FBI how to throw some bones and conjure the ancestral spirits. That ought to help free Capt. Phillips.

Update IV (April 12): To some degree, I agree with “Gunjam’s” comment hereunder. This is a top-brass issue. Although, the military is not exactly what it used to be any longer. Desperate people are being signed up these days. Affirmative action abounds in the military too. Read “OSAMA’S SNICKERING AT OUR MILITARY.” Enough of this Fox-News-type adulation of men just because they wear a uniform. This mission is a complete failure so far. Most of it may come from the top, but, it would seem, quite a bit of the blame rests on the men themselves. With the electronics the military has, with a drone straining on the poor captain as he jumped ship—not to have been there to fish him out is preposterous.

I am well aware that there are many forums where military groupies congregate.

(Update V): The details are still sketchy, but Capt. Phillips is free at last. What wonderful news! It is still unclear whether this exceptional mariner attempted, first, to escape again, and the navy picked him up as they picked-off the pirates. Or whether the order was finally given, and naval forces went in and did what needed to be done.

Either way; this is such a good day; such a fine conclusion to an unnecessarily protracted stand-off. The nightmare of a hostage unrescued, documented repeatedly during the unlawful, immoral invasion of Iraq in columns such as “AFTER THEIR HEADS ROLL, AMERICA’S DEAD REMAIN FACELESS,” has been averted.

Reuters: “Joseph Murphy, whose son, Shane, was Phillips’s second in command and took over the Alabama after pirates left with Phillips, said in a statement read by CNN, ‘Our prayers have been answered on this Easter Sunday.'”

Update VI: NO TO NATION BUILDING. Here’s what I’ve gleaned from all the disjointed reports: On Friday (only) the president had issued a standing order sanctioning force if the hostage’s life was in danger. Since the life of the captured master of the Maersk Alabama had always been in danger—is that not the definition of a hostage situation?—this would indicate only that Obama’s preferred option was to end this act of thuggery peacefully.

This, I might add, is in contrast to the French government’s actions.

Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said “the White House had given military operators ‘very clear guidance and authority’ if Phillips’ life was in danger.”

“The on-scene commander took it as the captain was in imminent danger and then made that decision (to shoot), and he had the authorities to make that decision, and he had seconds to make that decision,” he said.

Clearly Obama’s order gave the U.S.S. Bainbridge commander all the latitude he needed. All the while, negotiations had been ongoing, with the outcome that the pirate dingy was now fastened to the U.S.S. Bainbridge, was being towed by it, and was comfortably within sights. Supplies were being provided to the occupants.

A young pirate who’d been stabbed by the brave, unarmed sailors of the Maersk Alabama, was on board the Bainbridge, ostensibly “negotiating.” The mariners of the Maersk, incidentally, had never lost control of their vessel. If these stellar members of the American merchant marine had managed to hold off—and hurt—the pirates without any guns, just image what they’d have pulled off had they been armed!

While the navy had failed to rescue Phillips after he had heroically escaped the lifeboat the first time around, it is not exactly clear whether he had jumped this time too. What is apparent is that, “Capt. Phillips was pulled out of sea and transported to the Bainbridge.”

Sometime on Saturday, I believe, Navy Seals had been parachuted onto a vessel out of the pirates’ earshot. They made their way to the U.S.S. Bainbridge, and positioned themselves. “On the marksmanship of the snipers,” a very impressive Vice Adm. William E. Gortney said succinctly: “We pay a lot for their training and we got a good return on our investment.”

I’d say!

The Somali elders were disappointed that their “help” would no longer be needed, but judging from the prattle coming from neocon nation-builders on the left and right—these corrupt old coots may find themselves on call soon.

From CNN especially comes the notion that piracy is really poverty and powerlessness in disguise. (Donna Lemon, CNN’s cherubic, remarkably bad newsman-cum-woman, forgot to blame the “pale, patriarchal, penis people.”) Nevertheless, the consensus among the neocons, left and right, is that what Somalis really need is American boots on the ground to show them how democracy nullifies the need for piracy (NOT). And aid, lots of it.

Here we go again.