Southern Cross Africa News

na080224 Southern Cross Africa News
Posted by: "Vellies" velskoen@mweb. co.za velskoen2000
Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:54 pm (PST)
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SATURDAY, 24 February 2008: na080224

Note: Due to lightning striking our modem, and problems getting a new one to
work, we were unable to post news until today.

HEADLINES

A. AFRICAN MIRROR : Mugabe celebrates his 84th birthday.

D. RAINBOW REPORT : Student unrest in Pretoria and Bloemfontein.

E. TERROR TRAIL : Community galvanised over killing?

G. SLEAZE UPDATE : Police 'lose' thousands of weapons.

H. EMPOVERNMENT GAZETTE : Rand down, levies up.

I. VOX POPULI : "I've had enough!"

K. APARTHEID LOG : Serbs angry over Kosovo independence.

L. NWO DIARY : Obama vs Clinton.

M. FROM THE GLORIOUS DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF TRANSFORMANIA: The new
Fuehrer's Pledge...

A. AFRICAN MIRROR

PORT ST LOUIS. ANC President Jacob Zuma went to Mauritius to try to thwart
the state's bid to obtain evidence of corruption against him. Zuma has asked
the Mauritian Supreme Court for the right to stop the National Prosecuting
Authority from obtaining the originals of 13 documents used to convict his
former financial advisor Schabir Shaik of fraud and corruption. Having been
charged and due to appear in court in August, Zuma is expected to fight
tooth and nail in what is generally regarded as ruling State President Thabo
Mbeki's strategy to get rid of him through having him convicted.

BEIT BRIDGE. Hundreds of Zimbabwean exiles who fled to South Africa,
including Roy Bennett, the treasurer of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), have staged a demonstration in this South African
border post to protest against President Robert Mugabe's 84th birthday
celebrations. Mugabe was enjoying an expensive, country-wide birthday party
just a few kilometres away across the Limpopo river. The anti-Mugabe
demonstrators wore T-shirts with the slogan: "The party's over." They also
launched a helium balloon at the border post with the message for President
Mugabe which read: "Bob, you've had your cake, now beat it!"

Roy Bennett, who was prosecuted. jailed and threatened with death in
Zimbabwe, addressed the small crowd. "We are gathered here after many years
of suffering, while across the river, after 28 years, a man who is now 84
years old, is having a birthday party," he said.

D. RAINBOW REPORT

Black students have once again gone on the rampage at a tertiary
institution, destroying university property and threatening white
fellow-students. Ten students from the Tshwane University of Technology were
arrested on Wednesday following a protest which turned violent, and the
campus had to be closed. As usual at the beginning of each year, the blacks
demanded to be exempted from paying the laid-down fees, and protested
against failed students being refused yet another chance at admittance.
Meanwhile, at the University of the Free State (UFS), it was white
students who protested, taking part in what was called by police a
"disruptive march" on Wednesday night. The about 400 students handed over a
memorandum regarding the forced integration at student residences. The
university management, like other managements elsewhere, has been forcing
white students to move in with black students in what used to be
predominantly white residences. While UFS spokesperson Anton Fisher tried to
defuse the situation by saying management 'was committed to engaging with
students on the matter of diversity', he said management was "concerned
about what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to frustrate the
implementation of the new residence policy on diversity." Student leaders
interpreted this as a threat, indicating the university's policy of forced
integration at all costs, regardless of students and their representatives'
opinions.

A family from Meerhof in the Hartbeespoort Dam area were saved from their
burning house by a young man, aided by a servant. Harm Heslinga, his wife
Sanel, and their two sons, 12-year-old Pito and 10-year-old Franko, were
trapped by the flames. The fire had engulfed the house around midnight, when
Ruan Joubert, 22, who had been chatting to a girl friend in his car close
by, came on the scene. "I saw the oom and the tannie lying on top of each
other. He was struggling to breathe. Pito was sitting at the window, trying
to get air.... Someone hosed me down with a hosepipe and I ran into the
house barefoot. I struggled to get the tannie away from the oom... Karabo
(Matlala, the servant) came in and took the tannie out..." Joubert said.
After they got all four people out, a gas bottle exploded.

Local blacks went on the rampage against foreign blacks living in a squatter
camp near Laudium, Pretoria, on Wednesday, chasing and attacking them and
forcing hundreds of them to take refuge at the Laudium police station.
Fearing for their lives, the foreigners could only watch as their shacks and
shops were destroyed and their meagre possessions stolen. Observers have
pointed out that such xenophobic violence is lurking beneath the surface all
over the country, as millions of blacks from formerly white-ruled but now
totally run-down states to the north are streaming into South Africa, where
the white-built infrastructure and economy still offers jobs and survival.

The pledge that the ruling ANC/Communist regime government intends having
all schoolchildren country-wide recite during morning assembly has met with
unexpected resistance from all sectors of South African society, many
comparing it to to similar 'pledges' enforced by the Nazi and Communists.
In the meantime, ANC Education Minister Naledi Pandor has back-tracked
somewhat, asking for inputs from the public. Pandor said it would be open
for public comment "to see if we can live with it", but she added that,
depending on the response, children could be heard reciting it by mid-March.
Many parents have said that they would refuse outright to have their
children recite such a 'pledge'.
The pledge reads: "We, the youth of South Africa, recognising the
injustices of our past, honour those who suffered and sacrificed for justice
and freedom.
We sincerely declare that we shall uphold the rights and values of our
constitution, and promise to act in accordance with the duties and
responsibilities that flow from these rights..." Some commentators have
pointed out that there were many 'injustices' in South Africa's past, like
the killing of Boers on the eastern Cape border, and the death of over
twenty-thousand Boer children and women in British concentration camps, and
that maybe the pledge refers to those.

Forty-seven bags of drugs seized at the Beit Bridge border post on Tuesday
have turned out to be mandrax and not the more rare and expensive narcotic
heroin, police said. "Preliminary tests suggested that the bags contained
heroin, but additional forensic tests showed it was actually mandrax,"
police spokesperson Devon Naicker told reporters, correcting earlier claims
of one of the world's largest heroin busts. The drugs, which originated in
Zambia, had a street value of about R1,5-million, he said. Mandrax is a
synthetic drug, very popular in Africa because of its relative
affordability. Since South Africa was handed over to black rule, drugs and
drug dealers, mainly from Nigeria, have been flooding into the country with
little if no control by a black regime seemingly uncaring of the
consequences.

A veteran Cape Town swimmer, Ram Barkai
, has
completed a 1km swim in a water mass known as Long Lake, just over 70
degrees south, near Maitri, the Indian scientific research station in
Antarctica. Long Lake, which Indian researchers at the station have re-named
"Lake Ram", is believed to be the furthest south unfrozen water mass in
Antarctica. Barkai, the CEO of Cape-based Cadiz Financial Strategy Group,
has completed scores of arduous long distance swims -- including crossing
the Robben Island channel at night; swimming 20km across the Sea of Galilee;
rounding Cape Point and completing most of the length of of the Orange
River. He trekked to the Antarctic with a small support team to find an
unfrozen lake in the most southerly point on the globe ever swum by a human.

Closely watched by international polar explorers and researchers,
Barkai, wearing only a costume, goggles and a swimming cap, took to the
water with a rope attached to his torso to allow his support team to pull
him from the icy water in case of emergency. "After I dived in, my skin went
numb immediately and then came the burning pain and piercing headache," he
said. "Breathing was one of the most difficult tasks. Taking in sub-zero air
under these conditions can cause panic very quickly. I also had to be
careful of shards of ice which can be extremely dangerous if you swim into
them. At the 600m mark I really started to battle. My breathing was out of
synch, my stroke was irregular and I started to take strain. The cold slows
you down and the rope felt as if I was dragging a dingy. But I was
determined to keep going." Barkai pushed on and completed the 1 kilometre
he set out to achieve.

E. TERROR TRAIL

(Please note that official Azanian (New SA) crime statistics and -releases
are censored. Johannesburg police spokeswoman Inspector Amanda Roestoff
admitted, on 20/5/03, that the SAPS 'uses discretion in terms of crimes
committed and media statements issued'. So the terror and crime reported
here is probably only part of what is really happening, as the official
manipulation makes it difficult for an independent news service to ferret
out all the facts.).

What sems to have been a 14-year-old white boy from Randburg has been
attacked, robbed and nearly killed by a black couple as he came home from
school. The boy, called Darren (his parents don't want to reveal his
surname), was on Friday released from hospital with injuries to 60% of his
body. Darren was on his way home when the blacks in the blue Nissan bakkie
started following him. According to his mother Jo-Ann, he initially walked
with another group of pupils, but then continued on alone. "From what I can
gather, the bakkie continued driving behind him and when they were next to
him, the woman started pulling at him from behind." The woman apparently
held Darren with one arm while searching through his schoolbag with the
other, all while the car was still moving. She took money and his cellphone.
Then they just dropped him. "They literally let him fall into the road while
they drove off."

Motorist Mark Berry was driving along, turning into the road where the
incident was taking place and saw how Darren nearly fell underneath the
bakkie. "His feet were literally on and off the ground and at one point his
shoulder was also against the road." Berry said he saw how the boy almost
fell under the car and quickly had to roll out of the way. "Before I
stopped, another car in front of me just drove past. A municipal truck with
about ten (black) workers stood across the road. They saw everything but
nobody did a thing to help...". Whites in black-ruled South Africa are
frequently assaulted and even killed in broad daylight with blacks standing
by and watching.

The killing of the 12-year-old white schoolgirl Emily Williams by black
gunmen has reportedly 'galvanised' the community of northern Johannesburg
into action, and over 1 500 people and children from Trinity House Prep and
Trinity House High schools gathered on Beyers Naude Drive in a silent march
to honour their slain schoolmate and to protest against crime. "It gave us a
practical way to express our anger. The children and the teachers are
grieving and angry," said a spokesman, adding that the march was also a
message to the (ruling ANC/Communist) government. "We, as loving caring
South Africans say to the government that they are not doing enough. We on
the ground know that crime is spiralling out of control."

Magistrate S du Toit Malherbe of the Strand Regional Court will rule on
the bail application of the Ugandan woman, who is accused of killing her
white Danish husband sometime next week. Maria Povlsen and her elder sister
Stella Ssengendo are accused of torturing and murdering Preben Povlsen, 71,
in his home. Their brother, Francis Kimeze, has reportedly completed a
statement confessing to the murder.

Two black teenage daughters have been shot dead at their home in Mandawe,
near Scottburgh, in Kwazulu Natal. Their father, Vukani Nyawose, said it was
likely that Nosipho, 19, and Amanda Hlophe, 14, had been killed because
Nosipho was to have identified in court the men who had robbed her and taken
her cellphone last year.The girls' grandmother, Ngane Hlophe, 70, was at
home with them when two black men, aged about 20, entered wearing balaclavas
and carrying guns. "The children ran into separate rooms ... Nosipho was
shot in her grandmother' s room and Amanda in their room after she was
dragged from underneath the bed where she was hiding."

The naked body of a white matric girl, who had been missing for two days,
has been found with a bullet wound in the head on a Tarlton smallholding
where she was a boarder. Cassandré van Rooyen, 17, a matric pupil at Bekker
High School near Magaliesburg, had been missing since Monday. Two men have
been arrested for the murder, - one of them a member of the white family she
was lodging with. According to the family, police had accused their son, Ken
Maree, 18, of killing Cassandré. This has evoked memories of the Inge Lotz
case in the Cape, which saw her boyfriend being charged for the murder.
After a lengthy court case, however, he was acquitted.

The body of a nine-month-old girl's mother was discovered on a gravel road
near her East Pretoria home about 14:30 on Sunday, after she'd been missing
more than a day. Elize Havenga, 26, was found raped and strangled in bushes
next to the road, a few hundred metres from the Rietfontein smallholding
where she lived. It appeared she had been overpowered and killed while
walking back home to talk to her husband, after they had had an argument
earlier. When her brother, Danie Very, 24, dropped her off at the gravel
road that lead from Garsfontein Road to their smallholding, that was
seemingly the last time she was seen alive. The area of Rietfontein has been
plagued by many robberies and murders since black squatters set themselves
up in the area. Recently, a judge even ordered authorities to allow them
back, after they were evicted.

A suspicious person lurking outside the Israeli embassy in Lynwood, Pretoria
has caused police conducting a search of the area, cornering off surrounding
streets to allow police dogs to scan the area, and going on full alert. The
alert turned out to be a false alarm. But the continuing black terror and
crime in the capital, coupled to the growing radical Muslim influence in
so-called New South Africa, has forced authorities to take such threats
seriously.

A black woman was reportedly shot and killed and another critically injured
by black gunmen in Hillbrow on Thursday. The two victims were female
security guards. One died at the scene and the other was taken to hospital
in a critical condition. "It was clear they (the gunmen) were not there to
rob the business... it was targeted at the victims," police said.

Five people have been arrested after armed black men attacked yet another
elderly farmer, this time in the eastern Orange Free State. The victim,
74-year-old Fly Poso, was overpowered on his farm near the Fouriesburg Port
of Entry into Lesotho. "According to the farmer he was sitting watching
television and was dozing off because of a long day at work, when suddenly
unknown people covered his head with a blanket," police said. "The suspects
requested money from him and got an undisclosed amount of cash." After
assaulting a worker while he was asleep nearby with an iron bar, the black
robbers fled with various goods such as television sets, decoders, clothing
and the farmer's vehicle.

G. SLEAZE UPDATE

The number of firearms 'lost' by Azanian (New SA) police officers has
increased more than five-fold over a three-year period, their Safety and
Security Minister Charles Nqakula has admitted. In a written reply to a
parliamentary question, Nqakula said a total of 3 856 firearms were lost (1
635), stolen (593), or "not classified as lost or stolen" (1 628), - as
opposed to 735 firearms lost (310), stolen (166), or "not classified as lost
or stolen" (259) in 2004/05. Not only are many killings and robberies
carried out with weapons orginiating from police armouries, - but quite a
few black police officers have been seen to actually take part in such
crimes themselves.

An elderly coloured man was seriously injured after he fell into an open
manhole and was stuck there for hours. Isgak Hendricks, 74, from Parkwood
near Grassy Park fell into a manhole last Tuesday evening while he was on
his way to a mosque. He plunged about three metres before his jersey got
hooked to a thick pole in the hole. He hung there for nearly nine hours. His
wife Fatima phoned the police and all the hospitals when she grew concerned.
The police gave up after a few hours, but her sons and sons-in-law continued
searching. "When Rashaad (Hendricks's son) searched near the manhole in
Goolhurst, Grassy Park, his father was saying his last prayer for the day.
Rashaad heard it and followed the sound."

Hendricks is now suing the City of Cape Town for damages. All over
black-ruled South Africa, public property out in the open is being stolen if
it is of value and can be sold. Every month, hundreds of manhole covers
disappear into black townships. The resulting open manholes have caused
children to fall in, and vehicles to crash.

H. EMPOVERNMENT GAZETTE

The Rand has dropped to R7.73 to the Dollar, 11.45 to the Euro, and 15.18 to
the British Pound. The reasons for the decline are not clear yet, but most
link it to the increasing signs of an inevitable break-down of the country's
infrastructure as black empowerment and enrichment takes its toll.

Trevor Manuel, the ANC/Communist Minister of Finance, has revealed his
latest budget. It includes, inter alia, the following:

The introduction of yet another additional tax, an electricity levy to
finance damage control in the power-generating sector. The state-controlled
Escom giant electricity supplier recently left large parts of the country
literally in the dark with its emergency 'load shedding' measures. Later, it
appeared these were due to the failure of black suppliers of coal to deliver
on time. These suppliers had been appointed and paid in terms of the ruling
regime's black empowerment and enrichment policy.

Changed tax packages for small businesses with a turnover of less than
R1m.

Compulsory registration for VAT to kick in at R1m.

And some more or less cosmetic changes to the tax system which are
supposed 'to put money back into the consumers' pocket', - but which, some
analysts say, will not change the fact that the tax-paying South African
public is used by the ruling regime to finance a massive social grants
edifice to pay out millions of black recipients. Among the proposed
spending, welfare takes most of the huge R33.2 billion ear-marked for
education, health care, welfare services and roads, with a further R12.5bn
for social grants (including child support for up to their 15th birthday in
2009) and R9bn 'conditional grants' for school building, HIV and Aids,
hospital revitalisation and school nutrition.

I. VOX POPULI

"I've had enough!" - Byron Gerber, in a letter complaining about the
rampant terror and crime under black rule.

K. APARTHEID LOG

BELGRADE. Russia has spoken up in defence of Serbia, following US and EU
condemnation of the burning down of the American embassy in Belgrade. "What
happened yesterday in Belgrade can only be a cause for regret," Russian
foreign ministry spokesperson Mikhail Kamynin was quoted as saying,
referring to riots in the Serbian capital. "But we would like to point out
that those forces that supported Kosovo's proclamation of independence
should have been aware of the consequences of such a step," he continued.
Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has vehemently
opposed Kosovo's independence declaration, reflecting Moscow's racial and
religious ties with the leadership in Belgrade. Both are predominantly
Slavs, and both are predominantly Orthodox Christians.

Moscow's newly-appointed representative to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, scaled
up the rhetoric further, saying that support for Kosovo from the EU or Nato
would give Russia the right to use "brute force". "If the European Union
works out a common position, or if Nato breaches its mandate in Kosovo,
these organisations will be in conflict with the United Nations," Rogozin
was quoted as saying in a video link-up from Brussels. "We too would then
have to proceed from the view that in order to be respected we must use
brute force, in other words armed force," Rogozin reportedly said.

So far, major western powers have tried to ignore or brush over the
fact that the granting of independence to Kosovo without approval by the
UN-recognised territorial authority, ie Serbia, is indeed an illegal act in
terms of international law as recognised by all major powers after WW2.
Theoretically, this now gives other separatist movements eager to set up
their own free apartheid homeland the right to declare their own
independence, too, - a factor in the refusal by countries like Spain and
Cyprus to recognise Kosovo. They, and others multi-national states like
Russia, have ethnic minorities who have been watching Kosovo's declaration
of independence with open glee. So far, the US and others have refused to
acknowledged setting a precedent, alleging that the granting of recognition
to the Muslim Kosovo homeland was an 'exceptional case'......

Meanwhile it is becoming clear that the Kosovo debacle has drawn Serbians
from across the whole political spectrum together. While only several
hundred protesters attacked and set fire to the US embassy in the Serbian
capital, - which was empty at the time, - at least 150,000 people protested
peacefully outside the main parliament building against Kosovo's declaration
of independence. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica addressed protesters in
the main square, saying Kosovo would always be Serbian. He addressed the
crowds from a large stage, draped in two huge Serbian flags and with a
banner reading "Kosovo is Serbia" at the back. Ultra-nationalist leader
Tomislav Nikolic accused the US and EU of trying to steal Kosovo. Most if
not all Serbs consider Kosovo their religious and cultural heartland.

The US, the UK, Germany and Italy are among those to have recognised
Kosovo. The Serbian government has already withdrawn its ambassador from
Washington and is committed to do the same to all other states which
recognise an independent Kosovo. In return, the European Union has
threatened Serbia with further delays in its application to try and join the
EU. While the final outcome of the dispute remains unclear, most observers
agree that Kosovo has already become the biggest devisive factor in Europe
in the EU's history.

BEIRUT. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has told thousands of supporters
at a rally in Lebanon that 'the presence of Israel is but temporary and
cannot go on in the region." Speaking by video link, he again hinted at
revenge for the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in Syria. Hezbollah
- or the Party of God - is a powerful political and military organisation in
Lebanon made up mainly of Shia Muslims, which dominates the Lebanese south
and acts more like a Shia homeland government than a religious movement.

The rally in a mainly Shia district of southern Beirut was staged to
mourn Imad Mughniyeh and remember other militants killed, including
Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi, who died in an Israeli helicopter
strike in 1992 in southern Lebanon. According to analysts, Hizbollah has
become Israel's most dangerous enemy in the region, having successfully
stood up to a determined onslaught by the whole of Israel's military might
for weeks. Since then its leaders have increased their security precautions,
with Nasrallah himself being more or less permanentnly in hiding.

KIRKUK. Iraq's foreign minister has warned that any escalation of Turkey's
operation against Kurdish rebels inside the Kurdish homeland in northern
Iraq could destabilise the region. Hoshyar Zebari, who is also the Kurdish
regional leader, said the "limited" raid into a remote, uninhabited area
should end "as soon as possible". The Kurds have threatened with "massive
resistance" if civilians were attacked. Both the US and the UN have urged
restraint.

Thousands of Turkish ground forces crossed the border to tackle Kurdish
rebels late on Thursday after an air and artillery bombardment. The Turks
say 79 Kurdish rebels and seven Turkish soldiers have been killed in two
days of fighting. Rebels, on the other hand, say they killed 22 Turkish
soldiers - with "not more than five" PKK soldiers wounded. There is no
confirmation of either claim.

L. NWO DIARY

BAGHDAD. Video provided to the world media has shown an al Qaeda in Iraq
firing squad executing one-time fellow Sunni extremists, who were alleged
to have been not loyal enough to the terror organization. In the video
provided by coalition military officials, armed men wearing masks are shown
standing behind and shooting nine kneeling men, all of whom are wearing
blindfolds or hoods with their hands presumably tied behind their backs. The
video was recovered late last year during a raid on a compound near Samarra
that was being used for killing and torture, a coalition official said. The
ruling Iraqi government is hoping that material such as the video will
further alienate Sunnis from the extremist groups waging their brutal terror
war. The recent drop in the number of terror attacks in Iraq has allegedly
come about because of the recruitment of many Sunnis into paid
pro-government militia, who have wrested control of large urban areas away
from the extremists.

WASHINGTON. Barack Obama, the black aspiring presidential candidate of the
Democratic Party, seems to be pulling ahead of Hilary Clinton. He seems to
have 'escaped' relatively unscathed from a vital debate with Clinton, in
which the latter had tried to nail him down on his plagiarism and vague,
far-left policies. Obama avoided serious gaffes, and side-stepped her
accusations that he had stolen language from Massachusetts governor Deval
Patrick. In the end, Clinton put a brave face on her obvious dilemma of
being shackled by her competitor being black, - 'protected game' in her own,
traditionally leftist and pro-black party. She paid a generous tribute to
the man who is threatening to sink her hopes of becoming the first woman
president: "You know, no matter what happens in this contest, ... I am
honoured to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honoured," she said,
and reached out to shake her rival's hand.

New polls by the Washington Post and ABC News show Clinton and Obama tied
in Texas and her lead down to seven points in Ohio. If Clinton loses again
at this next contest in 12 days time, she will probably have to concede
defeat.

Meanwhile, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain vehemently denied
he had an extra-marital affair with a female lobbyist. The story about
McCain's alleged links to 40-year-old lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, when he last
ran for president eight years ago, landed like a bombshell in the Republican
race. With his wife Cindy standing by him, the 71-year-old Arizona senator
said he was 'very disappointed' in the article, which was run by the New
York Times on the basis of 'unnamed sources'.

M. FROM THE GLORIOUS DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF TRANSFORMANIA

Come Back, Colonialism, All is Forgiven. By ALEX PERRY.

"Le Blanc and I are into our 500th kilometer on the river when he turns my
view of modern African history on its head. "We should just give it all back
to the whites," the riverboat captain says. "Even if you go 1,000 kilometers
down this river, you won't see a single sign of development. When the whites
left, we didn't just stay where we were. We went backwards."

On a slow boat through 'Heart of Darkness' country, a Congolese ship's
captain waxes nostalgic for colonial rule

Le Blanc earns his keep sailing the tributaries of the Congo River. He's 40
years old, and his real name is Malu-Ebonga Charles — he got his nickname,
and his green eyes and dark honey skin, from a German grandfather who
married a Congolese woman in what was then the Belgian Congo. If his
unconventional genealogy gave him a unique view of the Congo's colonial
past, it is his job on the river, piloting three dugouts lashed together
with twine and mounted with outboards, that has informed his opinion of the
Democratic Republic of Congo's present. "The river is the artery of Congo's
economy," he says. "When the Belgians and the Portuguese were here, there
were farms and plantations — cashews, peanuts, rubber, palm oil. There was
industry and factories employing 3,000 people, 5,000 people. But since
independence, no Congolese has succeeded. The plantations are abandoned."
Using a French expression literally translated as "on the ground," he adds:
"Everything is par terre."

It's true that our journey through 643 kilometers of rainforest to where the
Maringa River joins the Congo at Mbandaka, has been an exploration of
decline. An abandoned tug boat here; there, a beached paddle steamer
stripped of its metal sides to a rusted skeleton; several abandoned palm oil
factories, their roofs caved in, their walls disappearing into the engulfing
forest, their giant storage tanks empty and rusted out. The palms now grow
wild and untended on the riverbanks and in the villages we pass, the people
dress in rags, hawk smoked black fish and bushmeat, and besiege us with
requests for salt or soap. There are no schools here, no clinics, no
electricity, no roads. It can take a year for basic necessities ordered from
the capital, Kinshasa, nearly 2,000 kilometers downstream, to make it here —
if they make it at all. At one point we pass a cargo barge that has taken
three months to travel the same distance we will cover in two days. We stop
in the hope of buying some gasoline, but all we get from the vessel are
rats.

Even amid the morbid decay, it comes as a shock to hear Le Blanc mourn
colonialism. The venal, racist scramble by Europeans to possess Africa and
exploit its resources found its fullest expression in the Congo. In the late
19th century, Belgium's King Leopold made a personal fiefdom of the central
African territory as large as all of Western Europe. From it, he extracted a
fortune in ivory, rubber, coffee, cocoa, palm oil and minerals such as gold
and diamonds. Unruly laborers working in conditions of de facto slavery had
their hands chopped off; the cruelty of Belgian rule was premised on the
idea that Congo and its peoples were a resource to be exploited as
efficiently as possible. Leopold's absentee brutality set the tone for those
that followed him in ruling the Congo — successive Belgian governments and
even the independent government of Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled from 1965 to
1997 and who, in a crowded field, still sets the standard for repression and
corruption among African despots.

Le Blanc isn't much concerned with that history; he lives in the present, in
a country where education is a luxury and death is everywhere. Around 45,000
people die each month in the DRC as a result of the social collapse brought
on by civil war, according to a study released in January by the
International Rescue Committee. It estimated the total loss of life between
1998 and April 2007 at 5.4 million. For many Congolese like Le Blanc, the
difficulties of today blot out the cruelties of the past. "On this river,
all that you see — the buildings, the boats — only whites did that. After
the whites left, the Congolese did not work. We did not know how to. For the
past 50 years, we've just declined." He pauses. "They took this country by
force," he says, with more than a touch of admiration. "If they came back,
this time we'd give them the country for free."

------------ --------

And last, but not least, a light-hearted look at the ruling Azanian regime's
latest attempt to try and brainwash the youth with its so-called 'pledge':

I LOVE this new Fuehrer's Pledge. Reminds me SO much of dear o'le Adolf
Hitler. Let's go the whole hog and imitate those loyal young Germans
swearing allegiance to their wonderful Third Reich:

"We, the youth of the 1000-year ANC/Communist Reich, recognising the
injustices of the horrible freedoms of our past, honour all those lovable
comrade terrorists who suffered and sacrificed in countless killings and
bombings for the black empowerment and enrichment we enjoy today.

"We will respect and protect the dignity of each ANC/Communist struggle
book-keeper and veteran, and stand up for justice for all those who are
members of the ruling party.

"We sincerely declare that we shall uphold the rights and values of our
constitution, where these apply to the presently empowered and enriched, and
promise to act in accordance with the duties and responsibilities that flow
from these rights, - as long as this does not clash with above-mentioned
rights and values of the presentlhy empowered and enriched of course.

And, as the absolute highlight of the Pledge:

"I pledge to be forever loyal and obedient to my President and Fuehrer
Comrade Thabo Mbeki, and whichever President and Fuehrer Comrade who may
succeed him.

--- This way, we would be following not only in the rich tradition of good
o'le Adolf and his wonderful achievement of 21 million dead, but also in the
glorious heritage of 62 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, and 49 million knocked off under the one and only
Chairman Mao Tse Tung in the oh-so-democratic Peoples’ Republic of China.
What an absolutely stunning vision!