South Africa on a Slippery Hlophe
John 'Slippery' Hlophe
Today will mark a dark day in South Africa’s future history: it is the day the judiciary was emasculated. Judge John Hlophe has been cleared by the Judicial Services Council of gross misconduct in attempting to influence two Constitutional Court judges. In doing so, the majority of the disciplinary committee of the JSC twisted and turned in a grotesque dance to find a justification for clearing this fatally flawed man.
I expected it. I even predicted it. But there was some part of me that hoped that sanity would prevail and that sacrificing the independence of the judiciary for a single man could simply not happen. And not just any man: a racist liar who is completely unsuited to be a judge. But then again, the same people who championed Hlophe were also prepared to sacrifice the independence of the prosecuting authority – and much more – for a single man, Jacob Zuma.
The only question is: what is the deal? Hlophe clearly knew that he would get a far more friendly hearing from a reconstituted JSC under Zuma, so he used every trick in the book, including feigning illness to delay his hearing until that day arrived. Now he’s free to be selected to serve on the Constitutional Court. Could this really be? One part of me is hoping…
The JSC itself also comes out of this saga with its credibility in tatters. It drew a distinction where none existed to avoid a full hearing that could have exposed the lies of a sitting judge and could have gotten rid of one or more bad apples on the bench. The fact that the JSC does not seem concerned about the fact that their decision condones scurrilous lies, suggest it has no ethical compass of its own.
Heavenly vuvuzela
My favourite engineer recently returned from her triumphant conquering of Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. At 5,895m (19,340 ft), the air is rarefied and breathing is difficult. I would imagine that the lack of oxygen might cause one to imagine hearing the heavenly voices of angels, in songs of praise for the intrepid mountaineer.
So it came as a bit of a surprise when her party reached Uhuru Peak to the squawks of a very un-angelic vuvuzela, aka the Devil’s Horn.
The Devil's Horn being played on Uhuru Peak, Kilimanjaro
Perhaps the god-brigade should re-assess where heaven and hell are located.
Race obsession leading South Africa to ruin
Jimmy Manyi
I almost expressed my expresso this morning when I read that Jimmy Manyi is tipped to become director-general of South Africa’s department of labour. Manyi chairs the Employment Equity Commission and presides over the Black Management Forum, a talk-shop and pressure group to force racial quotas on firms. Manyi is totally obsessed with race and perceived racism, and I fear he will use this new post (if he gets it) to dictate to private companies exactly who and who not to employ.
I attended a talk given by Manyi some months ago and left feeling revolted by the extreme racial profiling he and his organisation promote. His ideas sound as if they come from some crazy nineteenth-century racial theorist. Employment equity is apparently not about trying to find a reasonable balance of affirmative action and scarce skills. It is about strict racial quotas, with females and disabled people also get a look-in. And it’s not only about blacks and whites either. No, every shade of skin has to be classified and have a quota.
Only race matters to Manyi. Not the content of people’s characters. Not their intelligence, or general knowledge. Nor their education or experience. Not their work ethic, presentation skills, management ability, inter-personal skills, vision, insight, creativity, diligence, energy, temperament, leadership qualities, technical skills or loyalty. No – just race. And certainly not competence. In fact competence is seen as a negative, because it reflects badly on the great majority of people who are not competent to do a specific job.
The architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, would have been proud of him.
So what if you can’t find enough suitably qualified people to fill certain jobs – simply change the definition of “skilled”. To Manyi, a skill is something you can learn on the job just so long as you show some potential. An example he gave was that of Hamilton Naki, Chris Barnard’s so-called “assistant”. This primary school-educated vivisection lab cleaner and janitor, Manyi asserts, would have been a heart surgeon the equal of Barnard but for being Black. To be sure, Naki’s story is an inspiring one – but working around a heart surgeon does not qualify you to become a learn-on-the-job surgeon – no matter what colour you are. Would you allow yourself be operated on by such a surgeon? Would you drive over a bridge designed by a kerbside welder who “learnt” engineering on the job?
Manyi’s tinkering with the definition of “skill” leads him to say that the skills shortage is “a myth”. And this is leading South African down a very dangerous path. We’ve already seen how the deployment of these types of “skills” to run government departments and state-owned enterprises has lead to full-scale failure and dysfunction of most of these institutions. It justifies the minister of labour to furiously threaten private companies with a “revolution”. It shields incompetence and inefficiency behind a protective wall of racial guilt.
It also costs a great deal of money as poor management simply squanders the nation’s wealth. Eskom has just posted a R9.7 billion loss, after making R33.5 billion in profit the five years previously. And it’s put down to sheer bad management. It is a management that is totally out of its depth and yet rewards itself with grotesquely large bonuses. And yes, rewards itself for replacing highly skilled and experienced white engineers and managers with young inexperienced poorly trained blacks. It is Manyi’s redefinition of “skill” that allows this sort of thing to happen.
But worst of all, the idea that there is no skills shortage, just racism, removes any incentive to correct the imbalances of the past by the one means that would actually work: education. Education in South Africa is in a dismal state, and getting worse. And it’s not for lack of money: South Africa spends more per capita than countries of comparable economic development. Could it because schools are run and staffed by people who don’t have the skills to do so? Mr Manyi would probably argue that’s it’s all a racist plot since there is no skill shortage.
The hard fact is that whites are generally reasonably educated and by and large have the necessary skills for the jobs they are employed to do. Generally blacks do not have those skills for both historical and cultural reasons. The way to fix this is not to deny this, but to do something about it. Like educating the kids properly. Like removing the ridiculous handbrake on the economy that is Telkom and getting inexpensive broadband into every home. And like providing incentives to companies to provide mentoring to young black people in the workplace.
These things can be done without damaging the economy and will ensure a prosperous future for all. Or we can let Jimmy Manyi and his race obsessed comrades lead us to ruin.
Update: Yes, the government confirmed that Jimmy Manyi is the new director-general of the labour department. Business: watch out for the racial jackboot.
WHO slaps homoeopathy
South Africa has emerged out of a particularly shameful period of AIDS denialism. This was led by denialist-in-chief, ex-president Thabo Mbeki and his demented sycophant, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, minister of health (and kleptomaniac alcoholic). This evil duo caused at least 300,000 deaths through the implementation of their criminal pseudo-science.
The anti-science atmosphere created by these monsters opened the door to a panoply of quacks and pedlars of death. The most famous of these was Matthias Rath. This vitamin salesman persuaded Manto to promote his brand of quackery while he attacked ARVs. Read Ben Goldacre’s account of Rath, even if it’s just to see how dangerous pseudo-science is.
This fertile ground was eyed by those water salesmen, homoeopaths. The charge to exploit Africa’s extremely vulnerable AIDS sufferers was led by one Jeremy Sherr. He is apparently well-known among homoeopaths in Britain. As Orac so amusingly notes, “Of course, to me being ‘famous’ in homeopathy circles is much the same as being famous in the con artist circles…”. He claimed to have set up a research programme in South Africa (debunked by South African Skeptics) with homoeopathic “medicine” alone as one of the arms of the trial – knowing full well that using a placebo in an AIDS trial is highly unethical.
As the homoeopaths moved in – such as the Maun Homeopathy Project in Botswana – an alarmed group of early career medics and researchers wrote an open letter to the the World Health Organisation calling for the body to issue a clear international communication about the inappropriate use of homoeopathy for five serious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. As Juliet Stevens, Medical Student, University of Oxford (on placement at Somerset State Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa) said in the letter:
“Despite awareness in Britain of the medical burden in South Africa, little can prepare you for seeing this first hand. On the Paediatric wards infants are diagnosed with stage 3 HIV/AIDS on a daily basis, and TB meningitis is rife. The minimal cost of state healthcare is prohibitive for some, and denial regarding HIV diagnoses is still common, making the population here a vulnerable target for unproven therapies.”
Now the tide is turning. To its credit the new Zuma administration in South Africa has reversed Mbeki’s disastrous policies and ARVs are being vigorously distributed. And the WHO has positively responded to the open letter:
The WHO has responded to the open letter and said that it DOES NOT recommend the use of homeopathy for treating HIV, TB, malaria, influenza and infant diarrhoea. The Director General’s office has confirmed that the responses from WHO departments (below) “clearly express the WHO’s position”. Today the Voice of Young Science network, has written to the health ministers of all countries to publicise the WHO’s position, asking them to combat the promotion of homeopathy for these dangerous diseases.
The message should come out loudly and strongly from Africa: Homoeopaths, take your worthless bottles of water and sugar pills – along with your groundless promises to the desperate and poor – and GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!
Tuesday’s Tune: Into My Arms
Not many songs open with a line like, “I don’t believe in an interventionist god”. But then not too many artists could carry it off as deliciously as does Nick Cave. Into My Arms is one of the great love songs. It is a simple and stark arrangement with a powerful melody exactly complementing the paean to love he borrowed from a rejected religion. A true masterpiece of song writing.
Into My Arms originally appeared on Cave’s 1997 The Boatman’s Call (with The Bad Seeds). It is probably his finest album and simply must be part of every music lover’s collection.
Caster vanquishes racist hordes
Caster Semenya has arrived back in South Africa to a heroes welcome. A hero of what, I’m not sure. Amidst the “Viva!” and “you strike a woman and you strike a rock!” cries, one could believe she had bravely escaped the pits of racism of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, where evil Aryans with their cold devil blue eyes and Teutonic blond hair were intently plotting to keep athletics pure and white. Hitler had slipped up and let a black man – a BLACK man! – show up the pride of his super-race by beating them at this very stadium. This outrage would not be tolerated! No black person would ever be allowed to besmirch the Fatherland again, particularly not in the Fuhrer’s citadel where the pride of the white race was once again on display for the IAAF world athletics championships. But clearly, our new heroine has single handedly vanquished the racist hordes and has left them feeling as deflated and furious as Hitler did in his cold bunker. The ultimate insult was inflicted by the villainous Semenya in snatching the 800m gold medal from the soft hands of a beautiful young white flower.
Or so it would seem.
Caster Semenya with bronze medallist Jenny Meadows. Controversially, no calls have been made for the gender testing of Meadows
The outrage is palpable at the press conference. How dare they question the sex of this beautiful African girl? It’s clearly racism. As that student of Aristotelian reason, ANC MP Butana Komphela said:
“There are many female white athletes taking part in the competition who look like men but there is no upheaval, they were never subjected to such a condition.”
And it’s just vicious racism to question her deep baritone voice – after all that’s how black women sound: just listen to Aretha Franklin.
Leonard Chuene, Athletics SA boss, is of course entirely reasonable, detached and scientific when he pontificates:
“It is an insult to our country. Are we going to allow other people to set the agenda for us as African people just because we’re in Europe? I say no. There will be no more tests on this child. No one will touch this child until she comes home. There will be no more press releases.
So no tests. Take our word for it. Absolutely no tests.
“She was conceived by a woman and a man. No one on earth can dispute this. I want to see the scientists that can prove that she is not a girl.
“Children are not taken to laboratories to see what their gender is. We look at one place and we know, why must she be subjected to this? How you look and behave is a God-given thing. You do not have a say in that.”
Yup. Sounds about right to me. The Telegraph is reporting that tests have already shown that Caster has three times the normal testosterone levels for a woman. And also that Dr Ekkart Arbeit, the former East German coach who turned Heidi Krieger into Andreas Krieger was the head coach. Racist white neo-colonialist press. Down with racism, down!
Julius Malema, the saw and chisel wizard, has suggested that the reason Caster is being picked on is that she hails from a small village. And probably also because she is African. Which makes sense: no African from a small village has ever before won an athletics event. And of course the purely white, racial-purity protectors that run world athletics would never allow it.
No, we must tell the racists to go to hell. As Julius says:
Malema said they would not allow Europeans to continue treating black people as if they were monkeys.
“She must just give back their medal if they continue calling for her to be tested. We will give her a proper gold here in South Africa,” he said.
Malema said there were many athletes who looked like men who had never been harassed as Semenya had been.
“There are so many athletes who are ugly and some look like men but no one has said anything. That girl (Semenya) is nice and we support her,” said Malema.
Tuesday’s Tune: Star Spangled Banner
Exactly 40 years ago today, the Woodstock Festival belatedly drew to a close with one of the greatest rock sets ever performed. It was an overcast Monday morning when Jimi Hendrix and his Band of Gypsies took to the stage for a blistering two-hour set – the longest of his career. As one of the headline acts of the festival – and its highest paid artist – he was set to close off the festival with a bang on Sunday night. But a combination of bad weather and chaotic scheduling saw him taking to the stage at daybreak in front of 180,000 die-hard fans.
The Woodstock movie and the official Woodstock album included only a small part of the closing part of the set. But what a part! When I first heard those raw screaming notes of Star Spangled Banner a chill went down my spine and I was rooted to the spot in awe. It still has that effect on me after all these years. Not being an American, I wasn’t particularly familiar with the anthem and it was only years later that I truly got to appreciate the shocking and thrilling effect it must have had on American kids at the time. The hand-on-your-heart patriotism is replaced by the screaming, growling sounds of a nation in trouble – in an epic moral battle with itself.
To fully appreciate this work, you need to hear it in its context of a seamless medley where Star Spangled Banner is just the climax. It kicks off with a breathtaking 13+ minute rendition of Voodoo Child, through Star Spangled Banner and Purple Haze and playing out with Woodstock Improvisation and Villanova Junction. The set is rounded off with the classic Hey Joe. The entire set (barring some small edits), is available on the two-disc set, Jimi Hendrix : Live at Woodstock.
An excellent 40th anniversary collectors edition DVD, Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut has been released which brings those dull-toned 1969 images to life and has a startling clear and powerful digitised soundtrack.
Is Zuma an evil genius or a genial idiot?
The fading arc of dye at the end of my left thumb nail is a reminder that it’s about 100 days ago that Zuma became president of South Africa, the customary evaluation time. Like the faint mark, most South Africans have probably a less black-and-white view of the man now than they did 100 days ago. Yet I’m not convinced that we fully understand his strange presidency.
Let’s roll back and consider how the Big Man got into power in the first place. Certainly, he didn’t campaign on his clean record of public service and exceptional leadership qualities. Was it perhaps identification with an uneducated, polygamous and deeply conservative tribalist that got him elected? No, I think rather it was the sleazy outcome of a deal between a highly compromised man facing a life of jail and ignominy, and a power-hungry left-wing rabble of communists and trade-unionists. It is difficult to find any other motive for this other than the creation of a puppet for the real rulers, who are perhaps unpalatable to the average voter.
In the process, this rabble threatened and pressurised the judiciary, viciously threatened their enemies real or imaginary and engineered the collapse of prosecutorial independence. Zuma was willing to see the Constitution – the crowning achievement of decades of bitter struggle – threatened and weakened just so that he, as an individual, could escape the very serious charges against him. The way was then opened for him to be pushed into office.
We are seeing the ramifications on this assault on the Constitution. The judiciary is feeling extremely vulnerable and is involved in a public squabble. The prosecuting authorities have lost all credence. Whether these will have long-term ramifications is yet to be seen. Needless to say, the supremacy of the Constitution is in peril.
So the deal is: the left-wing cabal guarantee that Zuma is protected and is given the leeway to use State resources to form a ring of steel around him – an immunity zone. In return, he will be a compliant figurehead, a stooge for the real rulers who have been slavering away for power but could never achieve it in their own right.
Let’s have a look at the evidence for this deal.
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Tuesday’s Tune: All You Need Is Love
Heinz Edelmann, the artist behind the 1968 animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine, has died at the age of 75. His psychedelic images had a huge influence on 1960’s culture. Edelmann’s work “had its own whimsical aesthetic”,
The bulbous Blue Meanies, which personify an evil mood as actual villains, pursue the innocent, well-coifed cartoon Beatles across an ever-shifting milieu of mysterious seas and holes that can be magically picked up and moved. The yellow submarine itself stops in an ocean of pulsating watches, representing time, to light a cigar for a friendly sea monster.Notably, the designs prefigured contemporary music videos, especially in their use of dancing typography. Letters spelling out the lyrics “Love is all you need” morph into a strobing neon wallpaper pattern.
Here is All You Need Is Love, from Yellow Submarine.
(Thanks Bruce)
A total failure!
I watched this video from Edward Current fully expecting to spend a few minutes smirking at a religious fundie, and then move on to something useful. But this is really funny!
It’s so ridiculous I thought it must be a parody. But like the infamous Bananas are Proof God Exists – by that cretin Ray Comfort and his idiot simpering sidekick, Kirk Cameron – it starts dawning on you that they’re actually serious. Which makes it really funny. The ultimate Poe.
With a round zero, it looks like I will burn in Hell along with its evil denizens George Harrison, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, …. Hmmmm… maybe not such a bad idea after all.
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