Category Archives: Africa

Zimbabwe And the Errant West

Here we go again: Zim’s failure is being reduced by the chattering class to the shenanigans of one man. As I have written, “The peanut gallery’s messiah du jour is Morgan Tsvangirai of the Zimbabwean Opposition Party. They delude themselves that if not for the megalomania of one man—Mugabe—freedom would have flourished in Zimbabwe, as it has in the rest of Africa.”

What bunk!

What western know-nothings never contemplate is “who was the Prince among Men responsible for the good times [in Zimbabwe]? The phantom was Ian Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia, RIP. Smith was ostracized by the international community which refused to recognize his minority rule, and treated him like it treated Saddam Hussein, with boycotts and sanctions.”

“The British would not rest until Smith ceded power. When Mugabe was elected Leader for Life in 1980, he celebrated the West’s stupidity by committing his first major massacre in 1983. While Dr. Robert Mugabe was eliminating 20,000 innocent Ndebele in Matabeleland, his pals in the US were busy bestowing on him honorary doctorates. By the time the Queen of England knighted Sir Robert Mugabe in 1994, he had already done his ‘best’ work.” (Excerpted from “Mugabe, Mbeki, Maliki: They’re Our Boys“)

Thus will South Africa be eulogized with reference to what Mbeki or Zuma did wrong, rather than with reference to the West—it would not relent until that country passed into the hands of a ruthless, voracious majority. No federalism was allowed. No rights for the Afrikaner and English minorities were ever considered. In fact, the US opposed those trifles and agitated for raw democracy.

Now what we have in my former homeland is African democracy as raw and as ripe as sewerage.

Liar, Liar, Obama On Fire

Africa, Barack Obama, Elections 2008, Media, Race

If the media cared to cover the two Democratic candidates fairly, you’d hear more about Obama’s lies. But it so happens that the mindless ones don’t even bother with the appearance of an even reportorial hand with respect to the two.

Hillary’s “A Thousand Arabian Nights” about Serbia have been cast as the tall tales of a pathological liar. Barack’s beefing up his community activist’s résumé—he was never a professor—that’s merely a white lie. (I myself have referred to him by his undeserving honorific, professor.)

Barrack’s false claims-making concerning his “Camelot connection,” and the way in which his parents met—these episodes of amnesia have been framed as an “overstatement” by the Washington Post.

The less than truthful speech Obama gave at Selma is worth attention, replete as it is with his stock-in-trade strident race rhetoric. With respect to this particular biographical tidbit, slavery, colonialism, white hypocrisy, and black victimization (the stuff of Afrocentrism) are front-and-center in his address. Less so the benevolence that brought the elder Obama and other African students to the US.

Looking for Love in the All the Wrong Places

Africa, Bush, Constitution, Foreign Aid, Terrorism

As if you needed more proof of Bush’s worth:

Africans love him—and not only because he is a Strongman, a real tribal chief—but because he has been more generous with his tribe’s money that his predecessors.

The idea that Bush has saved African lives is idiotic—any government-to-government transfer, which is all foreign aid is—goes to maintaining the mandarins that man the aid bureaucracies in the US, and straight into the Swiss bank accounts of the recipient African heads of country. The latter don’t even conceal their cupidity.

American individuals, estates, foundations, and corporations gave $241 billion to charity in 2003. Foreign aid through the state amounts to only $15 billion per year, most of which is squandered.

If we are to help Mr. Shabalala, who has practically screwed himself to death (and infected his wife with HIV, private, voluntary charity is the mightiest, most moral, and most efficient way to do so.

Bush’s legacy on this front is to have gone from preaching “trade not aid,” to instituting trade tariffs, and increasing U.S. foreign aid during his unfortunate tenure many times over. Where Bush has certainly innovated is by tying new spending to his terrorism-fighting strategy, thus ending for good the debate on the corrupting effects of foreign welfare, since anything that ostensibly fights terrorism is sacrosanct.

Darkness Descends on South Africa, Literally

Africa, Economy, South-Africa

My father called today to confirm this report by the Mail & Guardian, a leading South African daily:
“South Africa was set on Monday to ration electricity in a bid to stem a spiralling crisis… After mounting anger over daily power cuts that have cost business hundreds of millions of rands, the government said it was drawing up plans that could see consumers fined if they exceed set quotas.
Nelisiwe Makubane, Deputy Director General of the Department of Minerals and Energy, said the regulations being worked on with the state power utility Eskom could be implemented within three months. … Meanwhile, Eskom has requested that business cut its energy usage by 10% to 15%, the energy supplier said on Monday.”
Of special interest is the reference, in the article, to a “skills shortage”:
“’While everybody is well aware there is a generation capacity problem at Eskom, [its] ability to fully utilise what … capacity is available is being severely undermined as a result of staff capacity problems,’ DA public enterprises spokesperson Manie van Dyk said in a statement.”
Even if South Africa imports foreigners to design more power stations, local personnel capable of supporting imported technology are in short supply; over the years, the ANC has mandated the appointment of empty suits filled with affirmative-action appointees.
Did I mention that in all my years in the Old South Africa, we never experienced anything remotely like this? But since majority rule came into effect, the electrical grid has been degraded at every level: generation, transmission, and distribution. Pylons and poles are routinely flattened, stolen, and then smelted. “Up to 100 miles of cables may be going missing every year, destined for markets such as China and India where booming economies have created insatiable demand for copper and aluminum,” reports the Telegraph. “The result has been entire suburbs plunged into darkness, thousands of train passengers stranded, and frequent chaos on the roads as traffic lights fail.”
Our Africa Archive.