Imagine how you would react if Gordon Brown opened and closed his election rallies by bursting into a song called Bring Me My Machine Gun, swaying and jigging to the hypnotic chorus of this menacing ditty.
And how would you feel if the Prime Minister were alleged to be taking campaign money from Colonel Gaddafi; faced 783 counts of fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and corruption which somehow never came to court; and had been acquitted of rape while his fearsome supporters mobbed the courthouse?
Then ponder how you would despair if, despite all these things, Mr Brown's party was certain to win the election whatever he did or said.
If you can picture all this happening here, then you have an inkling of the horrible process South Africa is now going through. Except it is much, much worse.
Danse macabre: [Jacob] Zuma loves to dress, and dance, like a Zulu warrior
This fast-approaching catastrophe is a source of shame and apprehension to millions of honest people, white and black, in South Africa itself.
It is also a tragedy for Africa as a whole, a continent hungry for any reason to hope. And it is grave news for the civilised world, which needs no more failed states. (continue reading)
The above excerpt is taken from the article "He has four wives and he faced 783 counts of corruption: PETER HITCHENS on South Africa's next president" at the Daily Mail. I could not help but post the excerpt for several reasons... The article is excellent, has many more fine photos, is factual and thought-provoking, should be a warning for those of us in the West, ... and I look at the shoes he's wearing! That image is priceless!
The Daily Mail article compares Jacob Zuma to Gordon Brown, but we here in America could make the comparison of Zuma to Barack Obama. As the author Mr. Hitchens says about South Africans, they were "hungry for any reason to hope", Americans voted for hope and change in November and by golly that's just what we are getting, much to my dismay.
Today US President Barack Obama announced his demands of American auto companies General Motors and Chrysler. Yesterday Obama took a hard stance with the struggling automakers, giving GM 60 days to come up with a viable, not to mention drastic, restructuring plan, and Chrysler 30 days. Obama could not wait 30 or 60 days, so 24 hours later he issues his demands:
... the Chevy Volt, the electric car being developed by General Motors Corp., would be too expensive to survive in the marketplace. It declared that GM was still relying too much on high-margin trucks and SUVs, and that Chrysler's best hope was to merge with a foreign automaker, Fiat.
The President of the United States, who has never run any kind of company, not even a lemonade stand, is now telling private companies what to produce.
Peter Hitchins is worried about Jacob Zuma's connections to Muammar Gaddafi, and Gordon Brown's connections - what about Barack Obama's connections? He was never fully vetted as a presidential candidate. Those on the Right who tried to point out the shady connections in his past were labeled "racist".
Gaddafi is again saber rattling and Obama's questionable 'friends' are again in the spotlight. William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are both writing, speaking in schools and being investigated.
In the United States guns and ammunition are flying off the shelves, in some stores the shelves are empty. Why the rush? Because the Obama administration has made it clear they would like to ban guns, and are ready to pass legislation that will inhibit Americans from purchasing and owning weapons and ammunition. In South Africa:
Thousands of people swamped Pretoria's police stations in a desperate last-minute attempt to renew their firearms licences.
Since the start of the firearms licence renewal process in 2005, 620 000 applications have been processed across South Africa.
According to police, the number is believed to rise to more than 700
000 as those who left their applications until Tuesday - the cut-off
period - dash to firearm registration centres set up at police stations
across the country. (continue at African Crisis)
In South Africa those who are picked for office have questionable backgrounds and motives. In the United States, Obama continues to search not for qualified individuals, but specifically for Muslims and Arab-Muslim sympathizers, and oh yes -- tax cheats.
President Obama nominated Harold Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. Koh believes: Judges should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq. Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our country in such places as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. (New York Post)
Why would I include a quote from an actress, Angie Harmon? Because the rebuttal from a fellow actress Mandy Moore sums up what Obama's rabid followers believe:
Obama is 'so well versed in something that is so new to him'. Translation: He is well versed at sounding good when he has no experience, training, knowledge about what he's doing -- and he's Black -- and that makes some people in America feel proud.
On the double standards in the media, the New York Times actually admits they nixed stories about ACORN and Obama, because they would have been "game changers" in the election.
How proud will these people be when the government has taken over or inserted itself into more private corporations; when the stock market continues to fall; when corporations move offshore; when healthcare, energy, retirement, employment and everything else are run by government-- and everything begins to crumble??? Will they still get that tingle up their leg???
Jacob Zuma does have corruption charges against him, but apparently has "embarrassing taped recordings of conversations between former NPA heads and former president Thabo Mbeki", so who know what will or won't come from the charges.
There are no charges against Obama and there will not be any. But I do see a slight change in the way some media are covering Obama. Perhaps America's future, her freedom, her safety, her Constitution, her foundations -- will seem more important to the media and Americans than the good feeling they get from having a Black president.
On a side note: African Crisis brings this to my attention, saying "Well, Oprah must be having fun dealing with black people for the first time in her life!": A Second Sex scandal hits Oprah's school - this time involving 7 girls
Johannesburg - In a second sex scandal in less than a year, TV's most powerful woman, Oprah Winfrey, has suspended seven girls from her posh school at Henley-on-Klip near Vereeniging.
They were allegedly involved in sexual activities. The suspended girls apparently tried to have relationships with other girls in the school and touched other girls' private parts.(continue reading)
Hey Oprah, maybe you could help out with the reparations that some in Congress want for American Blacks.
Nothing to do with the story, but that picture is funny. Tennis shoes along with the rest of the outfit.
Posted by: Kris | March 31, 2009 at 03:37 PM
Many in the black community have been getting repartations for years it begin at the end of the civil war with the 40 acres and a mule, they later welfare--true some whites have benefited from the latter. Obama does seem to share some of the characterics of his African cousins as far as socialism goes. His brand of socialism seems even to strong for some European leaders, perhaps his is a form of Kenyan Keynesism.
Posted by: Ron Russell | March 31, 2009 at 03:39 PM
Fantastic article, Debbie. I was so proud of Angie Harmon for speaking out as she did. As I blogged on election day, MLK dreamed of a day when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. All the hoopla in Washington over BO's inauguration notwithstanding, that day has not yet come. He was elected because -- and ONLY because -- he is black. Heaven knows he possesses no other qualifications. Mandy Moore, like the overwhelming majority of Hollyweird types, only reveals her ignorance when she opens her mouth.
Posted by: Jenny | March 31, 2009 at 08:26 PM
Funny how we didn't hear that news about Oprah's school.
Just on Zuma, that fellow has a very loyal following in South Africa, the youth are behind him, it's a sort of blind faith. They don't care what he does, sort of like the global left and Hussein.
Posted by: MK | April 02, 2009 at 05:24 AM
In Africa, corruption is just business as usual. Providing for your family. Obama takes that up as perfectly acceptable.
South Africa also bowed down to affirmative action and race guilt. Thus it has become what it has.
Posted by: Ymarsakar | April 07, 2009 at 11:53 AM