Category Archives: South-Africa

Readers’ Remarks On ‘Into The Cannibal’s Pot’ & Pence Column

Etiquette, Ilana Mercer, Liberty, Morality, South-Africa

Manners are a species of morals. Other than to hate mail or rude mail, I try and respond to all letters I receive—to each and every one. Many thousands since 1998, which is when I got my first newspaper column. Due to time constraints, my replies are laconic. Sometimes I slip up. But if a reader has bothered to read my work and comment on what I have to say—then it’s only decent to acknowledge the gesture.

Most American opinion-merchants, however, don’t reply to their mail. That smacks of hubris and pride, almost always unwarranted. Since most are so uninspiring and mediocre, one wonders what they’re playing at, and why they’re not more humble.

George Will once wrote that “manners are the practice of a virtue. The virtue is called civility, a word related—as a foundation is related to a house—to the word civilization.”

In this context, a Golda Meir zinger comes to mind: “Don’t be so humble, you’re not that great.” It’s a relic from a time when false humility was at least still practiced.

A riff on the Meir quip might go as follows: “Can’t be bothered to answer your mail? Don’t be so arrogant, you suck.”

Here are some gratifying notes, received in response to “Get Off Your Knees, Gov. Pence! (You’re Not In A Gay Bathhouse),” a hot favorite.

Naturally, I replied to these and to others.

From: W.J.
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 9:17 AM
To: imercer@wnd.com
Subject: “Into the Cannibal’s Pot.”

Ilana,
Just read your advice to Gov. Pence and was reminded that I wanted to complement you for what is without a doubt one of the most important and brilliantly written books I’ve ever read (“Into the Cannibal’s Pot”). Sadly, what passes for “conservatism” in America today can’t seem to grasp that individual discrimination is the essence of freedom. Sanctimonious conservative talking heads, who seem to believe that Indiana is all (only) about freedom of religion and are incapable of registering a connection to “civil rights” legislation of 50 years ago, would do well to read you.
Thank you for being a beautifully intelligent voice in the wilderness of 21st century American political discourse. And thank you for finding your way to America – your arrival in your adopted homeland has come none too soon.
Respectfully,
Bill

From:
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 8:03 AM
To: imercer@wnd.com
Subject: Get Off Your Knees, Gov. Pence (You’re Not In A Gay Bathhouse)

Ilana —

A friend of mine forwarded me your excellent column. You did a terrific job of articulating one the basic aspects of liberty (enshrined in the First Amendment): the freedom of association. I live in Indianapolis (and know Mike Pence slightly). This issue has become so polarizing here, and, as you noted, the law itself is innocuous. …

… At any rate, please keep writing. You have a great gift for expressing important ideas through everyday examples.

Best to you,

DL

South Africa’s ‘Best & Brightest’ Stage A Poo Protest

Education, History, Propaganda, Race, Racism, South-Africa

The once proud University of Cape Town (UCT), my husband’s alma mater, is now home to the sort of students who collect their own bodily waste so as to throw it at a statue of Cecil John Rhodes, the man who donated the land upon which UCT stands. (Rhodes also founded the global mining giant De Beers, an enormous source of racial quota shakedowns for black South Africans, Black Economic Empowerment, or BEE, as affirmative action is known in my old homeland.)

If you wish to understand the fraught history behind the propaganda, helped along by US media, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa” is a must read. The section titled “Tot Siens (Farewell) To The Taal (The Language),” in Chapter 2, explains what’s underway in poo-poo land.

An excerpt:

“He who controls the past controls the future.” So wrote Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The ANC now commands past, present and future. … It may be a trifling issue to deracinated sophisticates, but landmarks in the country’s founding history are slowly being erased, as demonstrated by the ANC’s decision to give an African name to Potchefstroom, a town founded in 1838 by the Voortrekkers. Pretoria is now officially called Tshwane. Nelspruit, founded by the Nel Family (they were not Xhosa), and once the seat of the South African Republic’s government during the Boer War, has been renamed Mbombela. Polokwane was formerly Pietersburg. Durban’s Moore Road (after Sir John Moore, the hero of the Battle of Corunna, fought in 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars) is Che Guevara Road; Kensington Drive, Fidel Castro Drive. Perhaps the ultimate in tastelessly hip nomenclature is Yasser Arafat Highway, down which the motorist can careen on the way to the Durban airport. …

MORE.

Read Mercer Weekly On Leading Afrikaner-Rights Site

IMMIGRATION, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, South-Africa, The State

“The ‘We Need To Have A Conversation’ Malarkey” is the current column, now on Dan Roodt’s PRAAG. An excerpt:

You know just how scholarly a policy paper is when it is studded with a clichéd expression like “we need to have a conversation about …” The pop-phrase is familiar from these farcical usages:

“We need to have a conversation about race”—when, in reality, we do nothing but subject ourselves to a one-way browbeating about imagined slights committed against the pigmentally burdened.

“We need to have a conversation about immigration”—when such a “conversation” is strictly confined to a lecture on how to adapt to the program of Third World mass immigration. This particular “conversation” involves learning to live with a lower quality of life, poorer education, environmental degradation; less safety and security, more taxation and alienation.

In this mold is a policy paper by Jennifer Bradley, formerly of the liberal Brookings Institute. Bradley had a stroke of luck. Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report found fit to link her essay on his eponymous news website site. Titled “The Changing Face of the Heartland: Preparing America’s Diverse Workforce for Tomorrow,” Bradley’s Brookings Essay would have been more honestly titled “Get-With the Program, Middle American. Demography Is Destiny.” …

… The complete column is “The ‘We Need To Have A Conversation’ Malarkey.” Read the rest on PRAAG.

Motherf-cker Mugabe’s Menu

Africa, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Ethics, Race, South-Africa

Question: What do you call a “person” who butchers and barbeques baby elephant?
Answer: A motherf-cker.

Lowbrow Robert Mugabe, as Foreign Policy has reported, “celebrated his 91st birthday followed by a lavish party with an exotic menu, reportedly including barbequed baby elephant. The brazen celebration was yet another reminder of the stark contrast between the increasingly venal lifestyles of the country’s politically-connected nouveau riche and regular Zimbabweans, who are now poorer than they were when Mugabe came to power nearly 35 years ago.”

A much better analysis of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, in general, and the significance of the unqualified support Mandela and his predecessors have lent to Mugabe over the decades, in particular, can be found in “Mandela, Mbeki, And Mugabe Sitting In A Baobab Tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” the title of Chapter 4 in “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa.”

Read “Just A Girl With A Gun; Not A Gratuitous Killer,” for the origins of the quiz in the post’s lead.