10:20:42 pm, Categories: Current Events and News, 1956 wordsI sat and thought for a long time about writing this post. I mostly did not want to write it because of the little bit of patriotic pride I still have for my country South Africa. However, lately things are getting way out of hand and I no longer see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Every day over 50 people are murdered (1) (this does not include the hundreds of daily rapes, armed robberies and attempted murders) in South Africa. Corruption is more rampant now then it has ever been (even worse then under the Apartheid government), and crime is an every day part of the average South Africans life. Police are letting the drug lords and syndicates here in South Africa go uncontested, and are so criminally corrupt that normal South Africans know they can no longer rely on the SAPS (2) Any attempt to get crime statistics out of the police are next to impossible. The ones the SAPS do publicly release (and expect the rest of you to believe) are an EXTREME misrepresentation as to what is actually happening on the ground and are purely for political purposes, so that you will think everything is okay in South Africa.(1)
The ruling African National Congress is abusing its status as the leading political party and enriching a few of its senior members at the exploitation of the rest of South Africa. Recent reports by our national newspapers show the ANC getting into bed with Viktor Vekselberg from Russia, who is currently under investigation for racketeering and asset theft (3).
The ANC gets most of its money from big business trying to exploit our fledgling democracy, as a majority of its supporter base is to poor to be able to fund its political agenda. The large corporation donations into the ANC`s coffers has enabled it to fund its own cartels (now you see why the ANC and Russian representatives get along so well)(4)
An excellent example of a corporation out of control thanks to a few well oiled palms is the company Telkom (PTY) LTD. Up until very recently it was the only company allowed to lay land lines anywhere in South Africa, and this led South Africa to have the highest call rates in the world (5). South Africa the "power house" of Africa now even lags behind both Ethiopia and Rwanda in providing telecommunications to its citizens(6). Tariffs are targeted to be the most expensive for the poor, and the main cellular providers in South Africa work together as a cartel to make sure they go unopposed.
One would think our Minister of Communications, Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri (a school teacher) would get axed and fired for such a poor performance. She instead got a raise. It makes a lot more sense when you realise that the South African government is the majority shareholder of Telkom, and that ANC officials hold most of the rest of the majority of the shares. The ANC seems to have little interest in really empowering and helping the poverty struck members of South Africa.
Our ANC Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Essop Pahad is allowed to let his religious views cloud his judgement and is trying his hardest to break ties with Israel. Yet Essop Pahad to this date, has not mentioned one single thing about the gross lack of human rights in both Iran or Syria. His judgements appear to be completely religiously motivated (7). South Africa has a very small Islamic population, so his views do not represent 90% of the average South African's views on the situation.
Racism and backwards policies are once again the order of the day here in South Africa, however, this time its not the white population who are at fault, and a very scary future is expected for South Africa if the comments from the ANC Youth League's leader Fikile Mbalula (who is 40+... Must have failed a lot at school to still be in the Youth League at his age) are anything to go on. At a recent rally Fikile Mbalula said he loves President Robert Mugabe for a job well done (8).
Jacob Zuma who is a strong runner for the next race for president. He is under investigation for strong criminal links, fraud, corruption and rape (9). During the trial he informed the court that he did not rape the victim, but KNOWINGLY had unprotected sex with her even though he knew she was HIV positive. He informed the court that he took "a shower" to avoid AIDS (10). In case you are wondering what happened to him? Well so far (through political manipulation) Jacob Zuma has managed to avoid jail. However, his accomplice Shabir Shaik was found guilty and sent to jail (11)
The ANCYL still strongly supports Jacob Zuma and his drive to be president, and to give you an idea of the mind set of the people who support Zuma, I will quote the following from an article published in a national newspaper in Botswana the Sunday Standard in Gaborone titled "President Zuma will sort out White People"
"He berated white people for complaining about their loss of privilege, affirmative action and crime and said "they should count themselves lucky they were not shot on the day of liberation. Perhaps it's not too late to hang a few whites... just to remind them who is in charge".
The newspaper in Botswana also went on to say,
"He dismissed the corruption charges against Zuma as the result of "some jealous blacks and their white friends".
"The people love Jacob Zuma... but, as part of sorting out ungrateful white people, I want him to embark on a redistribution exercise. I want him to distribute white women among the long-suffering black chaps"(12)
What I do not understand is how come the International press have not picked up on all this information, and how they can allow the above to be said without any type of response. They were darn quick to condemn white South Africa and its pathetic policies during Apartheid, but seem to be completely blind to the daily slaughter of South Africans today. I guess the race card makes better reading.
If tourists come here to South Africa for FIFA 2010, they can expect extremely bad public medical service. People are dying and left to rot in public hospitals, and have few competent able staff. If you ignore everything else and still come to South Africa for the soccer world cup, I beg of you this. DO NOT use our public health system if you wish to be treated successfully. Rather use one of our over priced private hospitals that all our top ANC officials use (13).
You also do not want to use a facility run by our ANC Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang who completely embarrassed South Africa at the World AIDS Conference, by suggesting garlic and beetroot over antiretrovirals to combat HIV/AIDS (She also did not get fired for her lunatic remarks or poor service delivery) (14).
Do you seriously want this woman in charge of your health in the likely case you become another South African crime statistic?
I would also recommend to the reader of this article who is considering to come to South Africa for the soccer world cup in 2010 NOT to use any type of public transport system. The most common form of public transport in South Africa is the mini bus taxi. Its basically a completely unregulated system that has caused major bloodshed here in South Africa (15), with full on "taxi wars". Most of the vehicles are not roadworthy and I can almost guarantee you that the driver of the taxi does not have a valid drivers licence (16)(17).
Taxi drivers have also said that "blood will flow in the streets" at the FIFA soccer world cup if their demands are not met (18).
Another form of public transportation is the Metrorail. The killing on these trains is increasing every year, and violent crime is to be expected (19). The most recent case that I have read lately is one whereby the South African public had to take Metrorail all the way to the Constitutional Court to get some type of protection while using their services (19).
So lets have a quick look over at the reasons why you should not come to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup 2010 Soccer World Cup.
- Crime (Its completely out of control in South Africa, and you are a soft target)
- Corruption (This is only useful if you decide to bribe a police officer)
- Transport (You really do not want to use any of our public transport systems)
- Health (If you get sick/stabbed/raped in South Africa and can not afford the private system... well it was nice knowing you)
A couple of other things you might want to know. South Africa has some of the highest rape statistics in the world. Add to this some of the highest HIV/AIDS infection statistics in the world and you will soon realise how dangerous its going to be here for you. Been male or a young baby does not protect you from rape. Some of you might remember the poor 9 month old baby that was gang raped by 6 men (20).
Some of you reading this might think I am blowing things out of proportion. Perhaps I am. However what is going on in South Africa I personally have been a victim of. I have been hijacked, victim of an armed robbery and had someone shot next to me. I have seen people beaten to death and watched people die at the end of a gun.
I have had an elderly family member have her head smashed in with a brick so the person could rob her for under $5. If you are thinking that my case is an extreme case you are wrong. I am simply a normal South African who has to deal with all the above on a daily basis.
I have excluded most of the corruption and crime stories in South Africa, and just focused on the few details I could recall offhand while writing this. There's a hellavu lot more crime and corruption happening here, and its a lot more brutal than you think.
If you decide to come to South Africa for the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2010 I wish you the best of luck, and I will remind you that you enter at your own risk.
1) http://www.suntimes.co.za/TheVault/Documents/ambassador.pdf
2) http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061110131028919C166827
3) http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=289526&area=/insight/insight__national/
4) http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=289527&area=/insight/insight__national/
5) http://www.antitrust.co.za/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=5
6) http://www.antitrust.co.za/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5
7) http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_News&set_id=1&click_id=&art_id=vn20060715082212623C376133
8) http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061030103932651C839948
9) http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=2996
10) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4879822.stm
11) http://www.suntimes.co.za/TheVault/Article.aspx?id=312428
12) http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061110064436354C453879
13) http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/1976.htm
14) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5262496.stm
15) http://www.eldis.org/static/DOC16714.htm
16) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1403883/posts
17) http://allafrica.com/stories/200610190168.html
18) http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20061101014642755C793223
19) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrorail_(South_Africa)
20) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1703595.stm
Leetest form of linux there is. The primary OS I now use. Kubuntu, Dapper Drake, 6.06 LTS. I really think people should use this as their default OS
For those of you who dont know, I run Kubuntu OS as my desktop OS. With all the queerness of Microsofts Anti Piracy campaign, I have decided to completely leave the MicroSoft world. Sure, I loose windows media player and some gaming choices. However, you do get awsome games like warsow that are completely open source, and LOADS of fun to play. If you are in South Africa, there is a South African warsow server gracefully hosted by Web Africa. When in the game just type "connect warsow.webfafrica.co.za" And you will connect to the server to be able to jam with the rest of us.
I consider this a book that every South African should read to get perspective in their lives. Its honesty is most refreshing and Al Lovejoy`s ability to capture in words the essence of a culture and history of a generation of south Africans is amazing. Al Lovejoy has earned a lot of respect from a generation of youth who appretiate the truth. Thank you Al.
Other reviews:
‘Acid Alex is quite simply one of the most shocking autobiographies I have ever read. It is also well-written, addictive, excellent.’
– Sue Blaine, Business Day
‘Heartbreaking! Entertaining! Intelligent!’
– Erns Grundling, SL magazine
‘Nothing I have read has sketched the scorched social landscape of South Africa’s last half-century with such intensity and honesty. Read it.’
– Charles Thesen, Marie Claire
‘There are elements of Hunter S Thompson, Herman Charles Bosman, William Burroughs and William Wharton. But in the end it is an amazing story told in a unique voice. A voice moulded by pain, a voice honed by a government reformatory..., whetted by the SADF, and sharpened by Pretoria Central.
It is the story of a man who went to hell and came back, a morality tale, a Bildungsroman, the narrative of a f*ckup who found redemption, and the anthem of a lost generation.’– Caspar Greeff, Sunday Times
‘Truly, as Koos Kombuis says, this is “an astonishingly breathless story” … Besides being a great read, Acid Alex is an invaluable record of a type of mania that gripped a certain type of South African in the last quarter of the 20th century. It’s a book that’s going to appeal to many young South Africans who currently have to turn to the United States for their myths of pointless excess, and it’s going to inspire them. Not necessarily in a particularly savoury way.’
– Chris Roper, Mail & Guardian
This book is more than just a suggested read.
In what has to be a remarkable show of insight into the power of social networking, a British Indie band is offering their album free to download off their website. This is one band, that seems to have googled it. It looks like the older corporate models are failing and hopefully the world will not have to tolerate the insanity that is RIAA much longer.
I love artists with scope.
South Africa needs science and South Africa needs prominent scientific voices. Unfortunately, like the media in much of the rest of the world, South Africa's media is not nearly welcoming enough to the skeptical and scientific views of the world. Luckily, we have great examples from the United States and elsewhere of how self-publication through blogs can affect public discourse, promoting science and acting as a counterweight to indifference, ignorance, and gullibility. However, unlike our comrades elsewhere, South African science bloggers are unconnected and not organized. I propose to change that...Read More
Really funny flash video depicting the end of the world as the result of a nucleur fall out.
For those of you who dont know, I am South African. Im a born and bred white native african, and damb proud of it. However, I will often use words that you may not understand, local slag u wont pick up on. Click on this link to learn a little more about South African slang, aka, Safrikan!
The entire catalogue of information from 1,800 courses at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be available free online by the end of the year. Once uploaded, it will represent one of the internet’s most important resources.
MsDewey.com
I never have never used a search engine this cheeky before :) Its great fun for about 10 minutes.
Seaward.co.za for South Africa`s best coastal real estate.
In what has to be classed as bizare, a clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.
I came across this site by Anup Shah that has a detailed look into the causes of poverty. I found some of the statistics he shows to be very embarrassing and a shameful reflection on humanity today.
* Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
* The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
* Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
* Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
* 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
Anup Shah shows us the institutions, policies and people behind many of today's causes of poverty.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp
Haha, these poor lil bunnies. A bunch of pictures of bunnies trying to come up with imaginitive ways to kill themselves.
The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. A most excellent link for those of you wanting access to some amazing science.
A really nice Travian signature generator
Ever wondered how many babies are being pushed out every day, or how many people are dying every minute? Well this is the place for you then! This meter currently records those tpes of things, and with a population of 6.5 billion, there are lots of interesting stats for you to check out.
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