The UK’s Home Office is forcing thousands of Zimbabwean asylum seekers home according to this article in the Mail & Guardian.
This stinks of hypocrisy — and doesn’t make sense in the light of the UK’s foreign policy which clearly acknowledges the despotic brutality of the Zanu PF dictatorship. Being prepared to send desperate asylum seekers (many of whom have suffered torture and persecution) to almost certain death is a callous, disgusting, two-faced disgrace. The British government can hardly plead ingorance in this case.
Clearly the sincerity of Britain’s criticism of Mugabe and his thuggish cohorts is in doubt.
First it was a benign grandpa. Then an irritating Meerkat. Now cellphone giant Vodacom is using Robert Mugabe to promote its ubiquitous brand.
Well, not quite! The despot caricatured in their latest commercial is far more corpulent and smiley - more pre-syphilitic Idi Amin than miserable Mad Bob.
My last status update simply said: “Alex says bye”. And then I did it. I deactivated my Facebook account. The decision to leave the ubiquitous social networking site even took me a little by surprise. How on earth was I going to survive without the website I compulsively visited several times a day? The more I thought about it, however, the more of a good idea it seemed.
Admittedly, I’m not even that much of a Web 2.0 junkie. As an inveterate blogger, it’s true I use Technorati, the aggregator, and Del.icio.us, the bookmarking site. But when it comes to social media, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut and Bebo haven’t ensnared me — yet. Even my Facebook usage has been rather tame.
Being of the stiff-upper-lip variety, I have never really taken to the idea of baring all, and thus my personal details remained somewhat sparse. I left people in the dark on my political stance, religion and birth date. And I figured that if my friends really wanted to know whether I preferred The White Stripes to Shostakovich or whether I was a Heroes or Harry Potter fanatic, they could damn well ask me. (For the record, I am neither.)
I always felt status updates were rather self-indulgent in a hey-look-at-me kind of way, so I hardly ever used them. And I didn’t really bother with the myriad applications I was forever being invited to use, either — so there was no pet puppy, no virtual fortune cookie, no bonsai garden or poker-playing.
Yet despite my minimalist approach, Facebook was still a colossal time-waster. I couldn’t help myself — I always seemed to end up on the site whenever I was on the internet. And, as a general rule, most of the time spent “facebooking” was not remotely productive. Rather pointless, in fact.
There was the Mini Feed with its interminable stream of “news” — groundbreaking stuff such as Friend X attending the “Spank a co-worker” event, Friend Y leaving the “Fans of Jacob Zuma” group (I wonder why), Friend C getting married *gasp* to Friend B.
Then there was the flicking through photographs of parties I hadn’t attended — thankfully — as well as the wall posts, the poking and, of course, aimless chat sessions with people I hadn’t seen in ages (and generally for good reason).
Facebook was also a huge distraction, dragging my attention away from studying and work while acting as a substitute for meaningful communication of a more old-fashioned kind.
So, recently I cast my mind to the misty memories of life before Facebook and it suddenly dawned on me that things were just fine back then. I realised that as handy a tool to communicate as the site is, it is by no means essential and — for me, at any rate — its benefits are far outweighed by the pitfalls of hyper-connectivity.
Human rights advocacy group Avaaz.org is petitioning Southern African leaders to call a summit that will broker a solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis that respects the democractic will of the Zimbabwean people. The advert below will be placed by the organisation in major Southern African newspapers. To add your voice to the message, sign the Avaaz petition by clicking here.
MDC presidential contender Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of Friday’s election, citing the wave of violence and intimidation of opposition supporters at the hands of Zanu PF-affiliated thugs. It’s disappointing, in one respect, but wholly understandable - especially considering that Mugabe has made it quite clear that whatever the result of the vote, he will not be relinquishing power.
The big question is what will happen now? At least the international community and media - after what seems like years of virtually ignoring Zimbabwe - are focusing their attentions on the beleaguered nation. Finally the human rights abuses are receiving widespread coverage and condemnation. Zimbabwe can be swept under the carpet no longer, in part due to the courageous role ordinary citizens are playing in recording abuses, and disseminating the information into the blogosphere and mainstream media.
Let’s hope a solution can be found before any more innocent lives are lost.
Recently the Young Communist League national secretary, Buti Manamela, was detained for questioning at Heathrow on his arrival. Sounds like a horrible experience to go through - one which he shares with relish in an interview in lastweek’s Mail & Guardian.
What I found fascinating, though, was Manemela’s admission that he flew to the UK in business class. Clearly the irony is lost on Manamela. I mean HELLO!! Doesn’t business class symbolise the untrammeled, opulent excess of the evil capitalist system? So much for Comrade Manamela representing an organisation that claims to be fighting for the proletariat, the people - and of course a classless society. Ahem, classless.
Ag shame. If the SA Communist Party had even a shred of credibility, they’ve lost it now - though my hunch is that they’ve been without any since their remarkable reluctance to pay their outstanding debt to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University for the use of their facilities for their conference last year, an amount in excess of a million rand. It’s no wonder they’re in favour of debt relief!
This little gravy-plane episode, I suppose, is just another reminder that the SACP has long lost its battle with ideological irrelevancy, being clearly unable to put into practice the archaic “principles” they so vehemently preach.
In true Animal Farm style, this is a case of all being equal - but some being more equal than others. Orwell must be giggling in his grave.
Robert Mugabe is one lucky dictator, being in the enviable position of having outsourced his foreign diplomacy efforts to the South African government. By preventing a discussion in the United Nations Security Council on Zimbabwe’s political situation, South Africa is doing its utmost to ensure that the international community does nothing about the tyrannous regime’s evermore-brutal attempts to cling to power.
This is well documented, and clearly should be dealt with by the Security Council as a matter of urgency. The reason South Africa has blocked discussion about Zimbabwe is ostensibly because it believes that Zimbabwe’s implosion does not pose a threat to international peace and security — the requirement for something to be discussed in the Security Council. But this does not make sense. Firstly what is of greater importance: the lives and rights of millions, or UN protocol? Secondly, one could easily argue that Zimbabwe is indeed posing a threat to international peace and security: The flood of refugees (an estimated three million) into South Africa and the violent xenophobic backlash that has subsequently occurred is proof of this.
Thus the only plausible explanation behind blocking discussion of the crisis is that the South African government continues to be an unquestioning and unwavering supporter of Mugabe’s regime. Running contrary to the values enshrined in our constitution, its shameful behaviour at the UN means that it effectively condones the fascist subjugation of the Zimbabwean people and the assault on their fundamental human rights and democratic will.
In a betrayal of its guiding principles, the ANC has placed not only its commitment to democracy but also its credibility as a liberation movement in jeopardy. Since our ruling party is prepared to turn a blind eye to the flagrant oppression across the border, does this mean that when its political hegemony is effectively challenged, that it will resort to the same vicious measures to stay in power?
I went to the Cape Town Book Fair on Saturday to listen to Max du Preez, the inspiring investigative journalist, columnist and author. Unfortunately he had cancelled his talk, but the the visit to the fair was still worthwhile. It was also interesting to see who had dropped by.
Pallo Jordan, Minister of Arts and Culture, and appropriately one of our most literate politicians, was wandering about. As was Tony Leon, erstwhile head of the DA, with his glamorous wife Michal. A few giggling kugels were sidling up for photos with him. Oh well, it goes with the territory.
A sleepy Kader Amsal was hanging out at the “Who owns whom” stand (perhaps he was standing in for Jacob Zuma?), while watching rugby was the deputy director-general of education, Penny Vinjevold.
Anthony Bulter took time out from writing his white-bashing Business Day column to sign copies of his well-received Cyril Ramaphosa biography.
On the cultural front, Woolies face and Lark frontwoman, Inge Beckmann, was drifting about while sitting huddled in front of the big screen was David Kramer, replete with orange socks and veldskoene, watching the rugby.
According to this BBC report, an angry mob in Atteridgeville, a township near Pretoria, stoned and then set a Mozambican man alight. This comes only a few weeks after pictures of a man burning alive were splashed across the pages of newspapers globally.
Xenophobia lingers on - and until there are active measures in place to deal with the scourge and its causes, it will persist. It is horrifying to think of the depth of hatred and the moral vacuum that must exist to engender such a deliberate and vicious action. There is clearly no regard for the sanctity of human life amongst the perpetrators. No wonder our violent crime statistics rank amongst the highest in the world!
Yippee!! The TAC has won their court battle against the vitamin obsessed Aids-cure conman Matthias Rath. Poor Manto’s going to be heartbroken.
Below is a statement from the TAC providing more details:
Cape High Court interdicts Matthias Rath and orders Government to investigate and stop breaches of the Medicines Act
Today the Cape High Court handed down a landmark judgment in a court action initiated by TAC and the South African Medical Association (SAMA) against Matthias Rath and the Government of South Africa. The case was originally heard before the Court on 12-14 March 2008.
This judgment unequivocally establishes the duty of the state to enforce the scientific governance of medicines as defined in the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965 (hereafter referred to as the ‘Medicines Act’). This case has demonstrated how the Minister of Health has wilfully obstructed the rule of law and promoted pseudoscience, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of many people. We call on the President and the ANC to demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law by immediately relieving the Minister of her duties.
This judgment is effectively a stern warning to all purveyors of untested and unregistered medicines, especially those selling so-called “cures” for HIV/AIDS. Zeblon Gwala, “inventor “ of the quack AIDS-remedy Ubhejane, the makers and financiers of Comforter’s Healing Gift and Secomet products as well as Tine van der Maas should pay particularly close heed to it and cease their unlawful activities.
Political commentary from Alex Matthews. Shortlisted for Best SA Blog about Politics and for Best Original Writing on a South African Blog in the 2008 SA Blog Awards.
