printTaki is an American-Conservative columnist. In his October 9 offering, Taki emphasized the need to talk with terrorists, Hamas, for one. He then praised the new dispensation in my old home, South Africa, RIP, as “the greatest triumph of chatter over machine-gun clatter”:
“It’s not perfect, and crime is at an all-time high in South-African cities, but at least the massacres are a thing of the past and life goes on much better than before.”
Decades of brutal, Apartheid-generated repression saw no more than a few thousand Africans perish as a direct result of police brutality. A horrible injustice, indubitably, but nothing like the blood that flows freely in city streets and soaks the soil in rural areas nowadays. In the democratic South-Africa, thousands of people perish by violence every few months.
During Apartheid, crime was not a serious issue, because the regime didn’t allow Africans to kill and rape with abandon, as they are now doing. Africans suffered indignities, but not that much violence. Unless one made a point of clashing with the authorities, one’s life was secure. Ask African women and children how they are faring under freedom. In the good old days, they caught and hung men who raped babies as a salve for AIDS. Now the police (mainly African) don’t bother looking for them. Such is the collapse of law and order that the conviction rate is a measly 2.96%.
So violent is the “free” South Africa that the equally free and democratic ANC government issued an official blackout (or shall I say whiteout) of national crime statistics. When these are divulged, officials prefer to use difficult-to-understand ratios. In many instances, data have been doctored.
Government sources claim there were 21,553 murders in 2002 (population 44.6 million). In comparison, the “high crime” United States (population 288.2 million) suffered 16,110 murders in 2002. The Mail & Guardian estimates that between January 2000 and March 2003 there were almost 48,000 murders in South-Africa. The most recent crime report I was able to find is this one, which estimates that between April 2004 and March 2005 there were 18,793 murders and 55,114 rapes (and by rape we don’t mean what American women consider rape: waking up the next morning after a romp between the sheets with a hangover and some regrets).
In the “democratic” South-Africa, you cannot start a business without employing an African, even if you can’t find one fit for the job. You have to hire someone black, and pay him a mandated salary, benefits and all.
The ethnic cleansing of Boer farmers and their families via slaughter and torture continues apace. You can read here how “attackers slashed an elderly farmer’s Achilles tendons, mutilated him, and left him 2km from his farmhouse in the bush to keep him from interfering with their murder rampage. Then, they murdered his wife.”
Or of the murder of “78-year-old Kobus van Tonder on the farm Merino near Vrede,” and “his 68-year-old wife, Charlotte.” They were both stabbed to death in their farm house. For Taki’s edification, there’s a report here of how “four men put an elderly farmer’s wife through four hours of torture, burning her feet with a candle, hitting her with a hammer and stabbing her in the legs.” There’s more, if you can stand it.
It’s not a good time to bring up the South-African success story. My mother recently departed for that cesspool to help my sister and her partner mend their lives after my sister’s partner was attacked by five African thugs. She was leaving her posh office building when the cowards surrounded her. Five men against a waif of a woman. They had jumped the walls—a permanent fixture in liberated SA. The African guard—another useless ubiquity—had barricaded himself in his cubicle and was cowering under the table.
Par for the course in such situations is for the woman to be driven to a remote location, raped and murdered. She is never seen again. The criminals go scot-free. But in this instance, the car, an otherwise-reliable vehicle, failed to start. My sister’s partner managed to escape, but not before she was hit on the head with a firearm, resulting in neurological damage. The lives of good people ruined by rubbish.
Some time ago, my youngest brother and his family (wife and new baby) were attacked in their suburban fortress at 2:00am, also by a gang of Africans. The alarm was bypassed. Luckily they escaped with their lives. In my father’s upmarket neighborhood, another dad was shot point-blank in front of his little girls, as he exited his car to open the garage gates. He begged the savages to take all his possessions and spare his life. Their loot? A cell phone and some cash. Two of my husband’s ex-colleagues are dead, so far; one shot in broad daylight as he left his girlfriend’s apartment. Also for a cell phone.
Ilana,
I agree entirely with your critical remarks, but, truth to tell, I was floored when I read Taki’s recently expressed opinions on South Africa and the Middle East. The views given on South Africa were worthy of Maureen Dowd and those dealing with the Middle East reminded me of the German Pietists at my college. What is especially bothersome about encountering these views is that I almost always agree with Taki on just about every subject, particularly about the unspeakably vile neocons. In fact it is hard for me to figure out how he arrived at these opinions, given his usually contemptuous attitudes toward designated Third World victims. Paul Gottfried
Good response! I used to have some respect for Taki. Not anymore. South Africa is a disaster. In the past month, even Prince Harry’s girlfriend was held up at a Wine Bar! She got lucky and only lost some money and a phone. Everyone in SA is getting robbed or raped and murdered. I always thought growing up in Detroit was bad. Then I met some people from the ‘New South Africa’. Yes, it can always be worse.
It should be wild if they actually have the World Cup in SA. It will be a crime fest. Of course, they have had to bring in Europeans to run the World Cup and build everything! I bet they have to move it.
Wow, that Taki. What an idiot.
Taki should be ashamed to make such statements. He’s either unforgivably ignorant or a complete coward.
[I thought you’d have agreed with him; why was I mistaken?]
Open your minds folks and take a good look at the mess in southern Africa and honestly appraise the racial and social attitudes of our political leaders here in the US and you will see that we could end up in the same position as the white South Africans and Rhodesians.
The Afrikaaners got shafted because they were deserted by the US, the UK and Western Europe because they were not politically correct. To stick it to the “evil” Boers was worth a few thousand votes back home. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to predict the blood bath to come but nobody cared because they were; 1) White 2) a long way off and 3)there weren’t very many of them anyway. The Whites in southern Africa are basically doomed. In the US we could end up in the same mess just because we are too weak to stand up to the PC pressures coming our way. Every time you hear some swine of a Democrat or turn coat Republican blather on about “sensible” gun laws “for the children” (politician speak for confiscation) remember the slaughter of the whites in southern Africa.
Another thing unmentioned by the apologists for the collapse of civilization over there is that there are many, many black deaths caused by this return to the stone age. Collapse of law and order is no respecter of persons regardless of race.
[I thought you’d have agreed with him; why was I mistaken?]
C’mon Ilana, for one thing the statement that “at least the massacres are a thing of the past” is an outright lie given that massacres are still occuring. If one is tallying sheer numbers, it’s also statistically fraudalent to claim that “life goes on much better than before.”
I believe in right and wrong. I can understand the anger and resentment of the black population, but it doesn’t justify slaughter. Regardless of morality, those behaviors only serve to undermine the entire country and its future. Everybody there will suffer more for it. I would wager that the majority of the dead are actually black (?). [Right you are; black women and children.]
I see so much potential being squandered there.
I’m not a relativist if that’s what you’re getting at.
Mr. Huggins, nobody is going to take away your guns, ever. It’s part of American fabric. [2nd Amendment rights have been eroded badly.]
Over the years I have known a few transplanted white South African people. I have also heard that formerly Johannesburg was a lovely, cultured city… no more. I knew a fellow who was the son of a well-known woman artist. Another person was a woman who moved to Jo’burg from So. Cal. because she had fallen in love with a South African man.
I don’t have anything to add to the comments above, except to say that I’m more than sorry to see South Africa (and perhaps much of the rest of the continent) descend back into the Stone Age… and I am sorry for the whites and blacks who are being slaughtered.
Kim Du Toit is another transplanted South African fellow… he has a blog, “The Other Side of Kim,” on which he has an essay entitled “Let Africa Sink.” I found it thought-provoking reading. [Link?]
To SSH, etc..I have been a daily observer and participant in the Second Amendment battles for many years. If not for the struggles of the NRA and a few other organizations we would be disarmed already. Please observe the actions, threats and lies, abetted by the MSM, of the Bloombergs, Dailys, Shumers, Feinsteins and the rest of that odious gang and you will see how real the threat is. This isn’t about duck hunting. It’s about survival in an increasingly hostile world and against an increasingly hostile government (ours) which is the main reason the founding fathers inserted the second amendment in the first place.
The real issue of gun control is “control”. When we are disarmed we will be controlled. The second amendment is the cornerstone that supports the rest of the Bill of Rights. Without the rights given by this amendment we will finally be the servants of our government. If you think it’s bad now, just wait. I hope you are right about the American fabric but I fear fewer and fewer Americans are made of that fabric.
I knew Zimbabwe was a disaster and not a good place to be if you’re of european origin but I didn’t know South Africa was that bad. Is the politically correct media ignoring it? [You bet they are] Civilization is much more fragile than many people think.
Okay! Here is the link to Kim Du Toit’s essay, “Let Africa Sink” (not sure if this will show up as a click-through or not):
http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.php/essays/36/
He basically argues that there is nothing that the West can do, or should do, to attempt to solve Africa’s problems. Not saying that anyone or everyone here will agree with it. [Then you haven’t read the host’s articles on Africa and foreign aid. He is right. Thanks for alerting me to his writings–ILANA]
Ilana, I have read some of your writings but not all; just as I have read some of Mr. Du Toit’s writings but not all. As I get a little more time to do so, I will remedy that.
The Clinton and Bono Collective Unconscience
Bono and his Band of Bandits
Cradle of Corruption
“During Apartheid, crime was not a serious issue, because the regime didn’t allow Africans to kill and rape with abandon, as they are now doing. Africans suffered indignities, but not that much violence. Unless one made a point of clashing with the authorities, one’s life was secure. ”
Don’t expect to be invited to give any commencement addresses.
The “South Africa is Crap” blog provides ongoing coverage of the SA disaster:
http://southafricaiscrap.blogspot.com/
[Thanks]