Dispatches From the Bloody South-African Front

Race, South-Africa

Barely a Blog will continue to keep the scandal of violence in South Africa front and center, as I’ve done in “The Ugly truth About Democratic South Africa,” indirectly, in “Oprah’s Excellent Elitism,” and in “Self-defense: A Universal Right.”

The following is from a Captain in the South African Police. We shall not disclose his identity for obvious reasons:

Dear Ilana,

Being a white policeman in the “New South Africa,” I cannot agree more with the article I read, “The Ugly Truth about Democratic South Africa.” One feels quite helpless in this country. We are scared to criticize because we are accused of racism if we do. Violence is so much part of our lives now, that when you hear of the next incident you are not shocked, but accept it with a shrug of the shoulders, glad that it is not yet your turn.
We are not safe, our lives are miserable. It is hard to stay positive. The government imposed harsh gun laws that mainly hit law-abiding citizens and inevitably disarmed a lot of them. Nothing is being done about crime. I suspect that the “struggle” that the government always raves about is actually continuing in the shape of crime. [“The struggle” refers to the fight against white dominance and oppression; we in the US hear allusions to it too.] With crime they make life intolerable for white people leaving us two alternatives: to leave South Africa or wait your turn to become a victim.

This country is not my country anymore; I have no rights as an Afrikaans male. I fear for the safety of my loved ones. I am horrified by the backwardness that is becoming more evident day by day. To top it all, we have turned into a filthy country; our streets are littered with rubbish. I just cannot accept this.

I am looking with some trepidation at what the future holds.

Kind regards
—Captain F.

Hi Ilana

I recently found your article “The Ugly Truth About Democratic South Africa.” It saddens me to say I agree with you. I read the article hoping to find something in it that was not true or that I could not relate to.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, I am making a trip back to SA in March for my brother’s wedding. My wife and I and emigrated to Australia 6 years ago, for the very reasons per your article. We too were spared the ever increasing probability of a random, senseless act of violence. I had and have many friends, all of whom encountered some form of the “New South Africa” violence.

An interesting fact is that 90% of my std. 8 class has all emigrated. I literally don’t have any friends left in SA.

I have a good friend based here in Melbourne, who is in charge of Jewish Security, the CSO. The crime figures are that unreliable in SA right now that the SA based CSO has set up its own crime-reporting department and is capturing statistics for small areas concentrated around the Jewish suburbs. He tells me that sometimes their own figures top the local stats for far wider geographical areas.

I have two boys aged 4 and 1, both born here, and I guess the hardest thing to deal with re immigration is the fact that my kids will grow up without grandparents or cousins. Yet when pressurized to ship the entire family back for two weeks to a crime-ridden city, with no law and no regard for life, my parents simply can’t–and I suppose are not able to–understand why I refuse to take back the whole family.

There are always mixed emotions when going back. On the one hand it is great to see family; on the other you are constantly on guard.

I guess the big test for SA will be the 2010 soccer games; I have my doubts as to whether they can pull it off. Time will tell.

Keep writing and I will keep reading–thank you. If only more people would write with such brutal honesty perhaps more people would wake up from their “almost comatose state, which they have no choice but to live in.”

All the best

Regards
—Gary R.

[I’m in the same predicament. My family, however, does somewhat understand why I will not go back. Where I live in the US, the last murder was almost two decades ago. It was a domestic dispute. Visitors to SA are far more likely to be victimized by killers than the locals, who are, instinctively, more vigilant. What is also very likely to happen is this: all our families have reliable, wonderful “help.” By this I mean a black lady who works as a domestic helper, usually supporting an extended family on her wages. The women of Africa are admirable. Say I brought her a gift (which I would). The poor woman might show it to a neighbor, back in the township. Or to a young relative. The next thing, word about the “rich” American (or Australian or Canadian) visitor has spread all over, and the home in which you are residing is attacked. Since conviction rates hover at 2.96 percent, the incentive to murder is very high. It’s fun and free, you see. And that’s what the thugs will do. The ANC government is also in the process of disarming the helpless white population. The savages know it’s a free for all.—ILANA]

Global-Warming Update

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Pseudoscience

For the second time in fewer than four weeks, the Pacific Northwest has experienced a severe storm, with temperatures plummeting well below the freezing point. This time, the region was buried beneath 13 inches of snow, in some places. It even snowed on the Oregon coast —a first, if I am to believe the reports.

As for the rest of the country, MSNBC’s headline blared: “Freezing weather grips nation’s midsection â€¦ The storm was expected to continue through the weekend, laying down a coat of ice and snow from Texas to Illinois, where an ice storm warning was in effect through Monday morning.”

CNN reports that “frigid arctic air reached as far south as southern and central California.” And, “More rain, freezing rain and snow was expected from northwest Oklahoma all the way to Wisconsin on Sunday.”

So far, we’ve not experienced power outages, the kind that enveloped Oregon and Washington States in December 2006. Those plunged us into primitive conditions never before experienced by this writer, who’s lived in Israel, South-Africa, and Europe. (However, I am told that since democracy arrived in SA, and jobs were taken from some —the qualified —and given to others —the politically qualified —14-hour rolling blackouts are a permanent feature of beautiful Cape-Town.)

The power companies now confirm what I had theorized well before the audit was in: 90% of the damage to power lines and grid was caused by trees. This is a tree hugging region. People won’t hear of cutting them away from the source of electricity. Not even if a few lives are sacrificed. We have to keep the Goddess Gaia happy, you know!

During the outage last month, I listened with disbelief as radio hosts fielded calls from women who told of leaving their unheated homes to go to local shelters to get warm. Is that reason enough to go lounge about with strangers and use public showers and toilets? Shelters are for those at risk, the homeless come to mind, not those who couldn’t be bothered to pull on a pullover. What’s wrong with a few layers of clothing? We managed okay in temperatures of 45 degrees in the house, although I’m happy to report that I now own a generator. Self-sufficiency cannot be overemphasized since civilization’s enemies, the Reds, seized control.

Other idiotic calls treated with great sympathy by radio hosts were requests from dog owners for “generous” strangers to “rescue” their mutts from dark, cold homes (the owners had already fled to the shelters). “My dog is going to freeze in the house,” one moron moaned. If a dog freezes indoors he should be put down. But let me steer clear from further comment about this dog-deranged society. Some people even kiss the creatures on their filthy traps.

Given the Big Freeze enveloping the country, comments about global warming are nowhere to be found. But, as I keep repeating, the “watermelons” —green on the outside, red on the inside —will invariably tell you that “every permutation in weather patterns —warm or cold —is a consequence of that warming or proof of it.”

And those of you who read this space will reply a la Mercer (channeling Karl Popper): “Yours is a theory not refutable by any conceivable event, which is why global warming is junk science.”

'Oprah's Excellent Elitism'

South-Africa, The Zeitgeist

“Oprah can protest all she wants, but, like Jefferson, her actions bespeak a belief in ‘a natural aristocracy among men,’ which Jefferson considered ‘the most precious gift of nature.’ In an 1813 letter to John Adams, he described this natural aristocracy as distinguished by ‘virtue and talents,’ and disavowed ‘an artificial aristocracy â€¦ without either virtue or talents.’ Jefferson would have thus approved of the way Oprah separated the wheat from the chaff for her school, selecting each girl for her grades and grit. The 152 girls were chosen for qualities rare everywhere (and certainly among American school kids).”

The excerpt is from “Oprah’s Excellent Elitism,” my new WND column, which also leads the Commentary Page today.

Some bonus material that didn’t make its way into the column:

Rapper Jay-Z, who recently acquainted himself with conditions in Africa, said he would no longer be referring to the relatively poor neighborhood in which he grew up as the “hood.” “Struck by the sight of children playing near open sewers in an African slum,” he said, “this is the hood.”

In other words, Jay-Z thinks African-Americans have no idea what the “hood” really is.