Zimbabwe.....

[georg ruf jr.]

Is this a reason to be happy?
Don't know the guy. Don't trust anybody. Who knows how the rest will react.

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

    He has to be better than Bob.

[georg ruf jr.]

Why call him Bob. Sonds like he's your pal? Or is it an insult??

[Michael Alexander]

Morgan is a corrupt politician..... I know... trust me I know.......

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

I call him Bob because I can.
I don't doubt that Michael will be interesting to see what transpires.

[SandyB]

@ Jnr ...  his  name  in  the  newspapers  is  Mad  Bob ..  so  yes  we  can  call  him  Bob ...  but he aint no  Pal  of  ours ...

I  still liked  the   fictitious   nickname  give  to  Thabo  Mbeki  when  his  inaction  on  mad  Bob  was  questioned .. he  was  then  called  Thabob Mugabeki   . interesting  put  together hey  ??

[SandyB]

Yes  Mike  all  or  most  politicians  are  corrupt  ...   but  poor  old  Zim  needed  some  or  other  form  of  change  ..  now  we  just  hold  our  breath  , wait  and  see ..........

[Cherry (Alcock)]

Just finished reading an interesting travelogue by a guy called Sihle Khumalo (Dark Continent - My Black Arse) who travelled from Cape to Cairo by public transport - says ...

I could not help but to struggle to understand how so-called liberators had turned to dictators, ended up as being president for life, became heads of one party states, allowed countries entrusted to them deteriorate so much; neglect their people and ignore their plight so completely.  Makes you think. 

He also said that although the Boers had treated black people like dogs, they built an infrastructure and economy in such a way that there is nothing else in Africa to compare with SA.  He goes on to say that although he is sad to admit it, if it were not for the Boers, SA would not have it's strong economy and world-class infrasructure (excluding Eskom - my comment) much as they used Black labour to do it.

[Michael Alexander]

OK...Politics now.... many will not like this..... so you can all take your turn to shout at me... APARTHEID was wrong...but it was neccessary!

How can you say that?  Well my own opinion is.... I never liked apartheid, however if it had not been put there...South Africa would not be there today...Azania would be there...and we would be as chaotic as an African cocktail with the Combo of Nigeria and Algeria....... and my fellow white Africans , still living here, would have been born in the UK...

just my 2 cents....

[SandyB]

And as  Ms De Lille  was  politely  told   by  a  fellow politician  of  lighter  shade .. , if  it  was  not for  our  presence  here  you would   have  been  picking   picking  mussels  off  the  rocks  at low  tide   for  breakfast  this  morning ..
UPSIDE
The  spinoffs  from  the old regime  as  it is  so  fondly  called  are yes  a wonderful  infrastructure  etc  etc   even  privelege  ..that I  am  proud  to  say  a  lot  did  their  utmost  to make  the  most of .. working  hard   contributing  making  it  grow ..    a  prosperous    country ..

DOWNSIDE
The  repression  of apartheid  was  wrong .. it   embraced  the  concept  that  one  people  were  more  superior  to  the  other , almost  relegating  the one  grouping  to  sub-human , and  it  was  entrenched in  law  ..
There  is  so  called  reverse  racism and  apartheid  under  new  guises  now  and  it is  affecting  lighter  skinned  peoples lives  now ... 
I   can  say I  object  strenously  to   past  and present  concept ..   WRONG  WRONG  WRONG ..

[georg ruf jr.]

Apardheid is as far as I remember the Afrikaans word for segregation. What happened/happens in SA is not segregation, it's (past and present) people believing themselves the better race. I'm sure everybody knows what killing and devestation went on in the 60s till 80s. Black people were systematically held down to make sure the never have a chance of being on the same height eye in eye with whites.
I think it's compareble with the way women were dependent on men in centuries before. Men believe it was right, because the believed women were not capeble of being in charge or voting ect.
It's a matter of conciousness and awereness whether things are possible or not.
No where in history has segregation ever  been dokumented as a solution for society. It causes stagnation, hate, fear ect.
And yet. As I've said before. The only constant is change. It's being on our way somewhere and learning/developping things with each other. Dialectic?? hope it's spellt right.
What his happening in Africa is a kind of a boomerang effect. The mix of old culture, old wounds (apartheit, coloniesum ect) greed ect. It's what we all expected after apartheit.
This doesn't meen you have to except things. One should see oneself as part of the dialectic and take a role in being actice in the changes.
I know it's easy for me from Europe. I know to, that this is theory. I know it's your reality that scares the sh*t out of your lives.
Sandy i tried. Hope you guys got what I meant.

[Richard Opperman]

History is there to be learnt from - the good and especially the bad!!

Mankind has still not learnt from history and always put their own class and egos above his fellow man.

In our country the English after the 2nd Boer War took all the top positions (a few splatters of Afrikaans) in Government till 1948.

Nats did not learn from the English mistakes and repeated (all their Afrikaans boeties got top positions) and introduced even worse policies and plenty brain washing of its folk - something like Adolf and the boys in World War 2 - if you were against them you were branded a commie - who can forget al the "swart gevaar bullshit" and Nazis riding around intimidating the people at the election posts on election day (police doing nothing) and at 1994 elections Nats at one election post not wanting to count extra new ballot papers (another story)-they only changed because the writing was on the wall and the world was turning against them.

ANC also repeating the bad part of history by appointing their boeties to top positions and when questioned about being corrupt - throw the racist card. Be accountable and learn by history - do not repeat the bad!!

When will mankind ever learn - quote - "Love your brother as yourself and do unto others as you would them do unto you!! - unquote.

[georg ruf jr.]

Thanks Richard.
There's just this one thing I'll never understand about the boers. They call themselves Christians and hold the bible high. When it comes to Christ word "Love your brother..." they believe they're a higher race. We had all that bullshit in Europe which lead to Nazi-Deutschland ending in WW2 and causing the death of probably about 100.000.000 people.

[SandyB]

Well put  Richard ..  we  see too much of history repeating itself , we must  learn by past mistakes , imprint it in our minds and in the minds of the  youth as well ... I also get angry ,, the thought goes through my mind  that at times  that  Africa is ripe for recolonisation just to get a sense of  order  again , this timeround however  it must be done differently , but  then who are we to dictate to people who  seem hellbent on  destroying what is built up each time ?? I can relate to Mikes feelings but will not  let them poison me .. its so damn difficult  at times to keep a balanced view ,, for me the saving grace is  the little voice  that saysto me all the time " do no harm "  which comes to the  starting point of " think no harm "  cos  thats  where it  all starts ...

[Michael Alexander]

Well Put Richard...     But how can so few change the ways of so many?