Thursday - April 14, 2011
Well, they did invent the banjo after all
dada deeda deeda deeda dee ...
Consanguinity ("con- (with/together) sanguine (blood) -ity (noun marker)") refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person.
The percentage of consanguinity between any two individuals decreases fourfold as the most recent common ancestor recedes one generation. Consanguinity means the amount of shared (identical) DNA, the genetic material. For example, first cousins have four times the consanguinity of second cousins. First cousins once removed have half the shared DNA as full first cousins. Half-fourth cousins sometimes cannot be detected at the DNA level.[5] Finally, double first cousins share twice the consanguinity as first cousins and are as related as half-siblings.
As a working definition, unions contracted between persons biologically related as second cousins or closer (F ≥ 0.0156) are categorized as consanguineous. This arbitrary limit has been chosen because the genetic influence in marriages between couples related to a lesser degree would usually be expected to differ only slightly from that observed in the general population. Globally, the most common form of consanguineous union contracted is between first cousins, in which the spouses share 1/8 of their genes inherited from a common ancestor, and so their progeny are homozygous (or more correctly autozygous) at 1/16 of all loci. Conventionally this is expressed as the coefficient of inbreeding (F) and for first cousin offspring, F = 0.0625. That is, the progeny are predicted to have inherited identical gene copies from each parent at 6.25% of all gene loci, over and above the baseline level of homozygosity in the general population. In some large human populations genetically closer marriages also are favoured, in particular uncle-niece and double first cousin unions where the level of homozygosity in the progeny is equivalent to 0.125.
Everywhere in the western world, people look at the savage violence that is a daily occurrence in the Muslim world and shake their heads in stunned disbelief. A pastor of a very small Christian flock in Florida burns a Koran. Weeks later at literally the global antipode, Muslim imams drive through neighborhoods in a vehicle with loudspeakers attached, calling the townsfolk to riot. The townsfolk respond, and before it is all over, at least 22 innocent people are dead at the hands of these townsfolk, with at least two of them beheaded. How is this possible? How can this be? How can human behavior and culture be so monstrously different? Is this difference attributable to nothing more than environmental nurture theory?
No. There is something else. There is a catalyst—absent in every other culture on earth—that has poisoned the cultural soil, thus yielding the fruit of bad harvest for nearly 1,400 years. That catalyst is inbreeding. As a direct result, the Muslim population is mentally developmentally disabled on a mass scale.
But there is one culture, one faux “religion,” that expressly condones and encourages consanguineous marriage and breeding. That system is Islam, and the document that explicitly ratifies incest is the Koran, specifically Sura 4 verse 23
...
First cousin marriage for just one generation is extremely risky in and of itself. This is why virtually every other culture on earth prohibits it, and treats it as a cultural taboo. When two people come together who carry so many similar genetic alleles, the chance of an undesirable recessive trait expressing itself in their offspring soars. Now, understanding that single-generational risk, understand that Muslims have been marrying their first cousins over and over again for 1,400 years. Sit in stillness for a moment with the full, terrifying gravity of this.
| Country | Inbreeding |
| Algeria | 34.0 % |
| Bahrain | 45.5 % |
| Northern Egypt | 32.8 % |
| Southern Egypt | 80.4% |
| Iraq | 60 % |
| Jordan | 63.7 % |
| Kuwait | 64.3 % |
| Libya | 48.4 % |
| Palestine | 66.3 % |
| Qatar | 54 % |
| Saudi Arabia | 66.7 % |
Selected countries, rates of maximum consanguinity
Information on the history of the banjo and it’s descent from the plucked lute of dynastic Egypt can be found here. “Modern” versions of the instrument that are still widely played across the Middle East, like the teharden pictured above, can be found here.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/14/2011 at 11:08 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - April 07, 2011
Brits give savage mau-mau boo-boo. mau-mau now want com-pin-say-shun
Yeah. Like those savages didn’t bring it on themselves. They were doing these things to each other long before any Brits dreamed of the place. So now these innocents want to sue.
Mau-mau deserved everything they got. There is not one example where they showed anything but the savage cavemen they were. Piss on em. I hope their lawyer gets hit by a bus. These sub-humans look pretty old. Maybe they’ll croak before any court can screw the country any more then has been done.
Get a load of some of the names. Ndiku Mutwiwa Muta? Wambugu wa Nyingi? Oh yeah ...
Hussein Onyango OBAMA???? Scrambled alphabet names for scrambled sub species. Take a look at some of the pix at the link.
Castration and conspiracy: How British government covered up torture of the Mau Maus for 50 years
By MICHAEL SEAMARK
Last updated at 9:55 AM on 6th April 2011‘Torture victims’ in court for landmark claim against British government
Files exposing abuse were flown out of Kenya on eve of independence
50 year cover up as damning papers languished in Foreign Office
Successful case could open floodgates from claims around world
A Government ‘cover-up’ of one of the darkest episodes in British colonial history emerged yesterday on the eve of a High Court battle by veterans of Kenya’s independence war.Around 300 boxes of documents ‘lost’ for almost half a century have been unearthed as four elderly Kenyans claim compensation for torture carried out against Mau Mau rebels.
The Kenyans say they suffered ‘unspeakable acts of brutality, including castrations and severe sexual assault’ in British-run detention camps during the rebellion against colonial rule between 1952 and 1960.
The 1,500 files – documenting efforts to put down the Mau Mau guerrilla insurgency – were spirited out of Africa on the eve of Kenya’s independence in 1963 and brought to Britain. The missing documents, with material that ‘might embarrass her Majesty’s Government’ removed, were thought to have been lost or destroyed.
But after a High Court judge ordered the Government to produce all relevant evidence, the files – which filled 110ft of shelving – were found in the Foreign Office.
They are expected to play a key role in the court action beginning tomorrow by Kenyan claimants who want a statement of regret from the Government and a welfare fund for victims. With at least 1,400 other former Mau Mau detainees still alive, Britain could face a multi-million-pound compensation bill if the Kenyans win their case.
I don’t suppose their victims can claim any com-pin-say-shun. Course not. Those that aren’t dead are mostly white. No hint of a pay out for them.
Posted by peiper
on 04/07/2011 at 11:52 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - April 03, 2011
Rolling Rolling Rolling
UAE Special Forces stormed a hijacked Dubai-bound ship yesterday, rescuing the crew and arresting all the pirates who had seized it.
Special counter-terrorism units, with support from the Air Force and Air Defence, as well as the US Fifth Fleet, stormed the MV Arrilah-I, a bulk carrier en route from Australia to Jebel Ali, the Armed Forces General Headquarters said in a statement.
The ship was hijacked in the Arabian Sea, east of Oman, early on Friday.
The military said the vessel was now headed towards Emirati shores, guarded by UAE Special Forces. The pirates will be handed over to the Ministry of Interior once they arrive in Dubai.
The Armed Forces said the rescue showed the UAE’s commitment to acting “firmly” in the face of piracy, adding that the country would “not succumb to such threats”.
The 37,000-tonne ship is owned by the Abu Dhabi National Tanker Company and the National Gas Shipping Company, two subsidiaries of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).
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Pirate attacks are estimated to cost between US$7 billion (Dh25.7bn) and $12bn annually in losses to the global economy, according to a December study by the One Earth Future Foundation.
See, even the arabs can take down pirates if they feel like it. And muzzies have no compunction at all about killing fellow muzzies. They simply apply their “religion”, and it’s “Hassan chop!”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the continent, certain people have no compunction at all about killing anyone. As the battle for the presidency rages on in the Ivory Coast, word gets out about a head chopping massacre. At least 1000 dead in the streets, whacked into chunks by barbaric animals for the “crime” of ... of nothing really. Just being in the way I guess. Typical africa.
Machete thugs hack to death 1,000 in just one town as Ivory Coast battle rages
A thousand civilians have been found massacred in a small town in Ivory Coast amid worsening civil conflict in the West African state.
The victims were discovered by aid agency workers in Duekoue. Some had been shot and others hacked to death with machetes.
It was not clear last night who carried out the attacks, but the area is thought to be in the control of supporters of Alassane Ouattara, who won Ivory Coast’s election late last year. President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step down.
Red Cross spokesman Dorothea Krimitsas warned: ‘There is a risk this kind of event can happen again.’
Last night 10,000 refugees crowded into Duekoue’s Catholic church, guarded by 1,000 United Nations peacekeepers.
Yeah, and?? Then what happened? You don’t ever ever hear a story out of Africa that starts “10,000 refugees hid out in a church” without the follow-on “where they were all burned to death by opposition forces while useless blue helmets stood around picking their asses”. So far ... that news hasn’t been reported. Keep your fingers crossed.
Col. Chaib Rais, the U.N. military spokesman, told The Associated Press that nearly 1,000 peacekeepers at Duekoue “are protecting the Catholic Church with more than 10,000 (refugees) inside and we have military camps in the area.”
But he said “I have no special report of (mass killings).”
Rais said there was fighting in and around the town on Sunday and Monday, between forces loyal to the rival leaders.
On Monday, fighters loyal to Ouattara took Duekoue.
ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said “communal violence” erupted there, apparently on Tuesday.
International and Ivorian Red Cross teams visited Duekoue Friday and saw a “huge number of bodies,” estimated at more than 800, she said.
...
Human Rights Watch issued a statement Saturday saying it had documented abuses, with the vast majority perpetrated by forces loyal to Gbagbo against real or perceived Ouattara supporters, as well as against West African immigrants and Muslims.“The documented abuses include targeted killings, enforced disappearances, politically motivated rapes, and unlawful use of lethal force against unarmed demonstrators,” the statement said. “These abuses, committed over a four-month period by security forces under the control of Gbagbo and militias loyal to him, may rise to the level of crimes against humanity.”
Africa ... it’s where you want to take your next vacation. NOT IN TEN MILLION YEARS THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!
Oh - the bit of info that should not be lost in the story of this atrocity? The UN “peacekeepers” already control the town where this atrocity occurred. So, WTF are they good for? Why did this happen? Did they forget that they’re there to protect people, not just treat the local underage girls like whores while stuffing their pockets with whatever they can steal or extort?
JOHANNESBURG - More than 800 people have been massacred in a western Ivory Coast town where hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers are based
, the International Federation of the Red Cross said Saturday, but the U.N. military spokesman said he had no information about mass killings there.
The Roman Catholic charity Caritas put the toll at more than 1,000 dead, an estimate reached by its workers who visited the town of Duekoue on Wednesday.
The REAL title that these new reports should have is UN Cowards Allow Vile Giant Massacre To Happen Under Their Noses, Do Nothing To Prevent It.
Yeah sure, “Colonel” Rais didn’t know nothing ‘bout no killings. Not a thing. Didn’t see or hear anything, even though Duekoue is a tiny town of perhaps 40 streets and covers one square mile. Pull it up on your map software and see.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/03/2011 at 09:18 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 31, 2011
Your Pound Of Beans
Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara have seized the major cocoa port of San Pedro, extending a nationwide offensive that has left incumbent Laurent Gbagbo isolated in the main city, Abidjan.
In a blow to Gbagbo, his army chief of staff, General Phillippe Mangou, sought refuge in the South African ambassador’s residence in Abidjan. A South African spokesman denied rumors that Gbagbo was on the way to South Africa.
Residents and combatants from both sides said the pro-Ouattara forces were in control of western port town of San Pedro, and that it was now largely calm apart from some sporadic shooting.
Reuters witnesses in the main city, Abidjan, Gbagbo’s last remaining stronghold, said the streets were virtually empty and gunfire could be heard overnight and on Thursday morning, but it was not clear who was involved.
Gbagbo has resisted pressure from the African Union and the West to step down since a presidential election last November, which U.N.-certified results showed he lost to Ouattara by an 8-point margin, sparking a deadly power struggle.
But forces loyal to Ouattara launched an offensive this week on three fronts, and towns across the country fell, mostly without resistance, one after another as they swept south.
Cocoa prices have fallen about 9 percent since on the push. The capture of San Pedro, which ships half of the top grower’s beans, could, in theory, mean a resumption in exports.
Diplomats said on Thursday that European Union sanctions, including an embargo on cocoa shipments from San Pedro, would remain in place and if any exemption were discussed it would take four or five days to come into force.
So, who cares? Well, you do, even if you don’t know it. The Ivory Coast provides nearly half the world’s cocoa, and the unrest there has caused the commodity price to skyrocket. Neighboring Ghana and Nigeria Cocoa together produce a bit less than le Côte d’Ivoire; the 3 West African nations account for a touch more than 2/3 of world production. Ghana and Nigeria are having their own political instabilities.
Cocoa bean production is not a huge business; only about 3.4 million metric tons (1000 kilos = 2200lbs) a year of beans are grown worldwide. With more than 6 billion people in the world this amounts to just about 1 pound of cocoa beans per person annually.
Politics in the Ivory Coast are typically African, tribal crossed with religious, and too complicated for outsiders to understand, but when they had a civil war there 8 years ago cocoa prices took a huge jump from which they never fully recovered. Laurent Gbagbo was president before, during, and after the war, so I guess his forces won. A few months ago they held an election and he lost, although his people obviously rigged the numbers and he claimed victory. Since then he has refused to step down, and this has plunged the country right back into civil war. Thanks a lot. At this point in time it looks like rebel leader and election winner Alassane Ouattara and his followers are winning, and with their troops seizing the one decent port in the country international market fears are easing.
This is some interesting economics, considering that there is a worldwide sanction on cocoa from the Ivory Coast right now. In theory they are not part of the current market, so how could the situation there impact global pricing? I guess the answer is that they are still growing the beans, and they have to be piled up in warehouses somewhere. World demand is fairly stable, so with only 1/3 of the product currently available from the other producer nations, this would cause a rather skittish market. But it is more complex than that, because cocoa is not created in a factory. The beans are grown on trees, and the pods ripen whenever they feel like it. This means the main harvest season lasts 7 months, and the minor secondary harvest season lasts another 3 months. Right now we are just into the no harvest at all period.
Cocoa farming is on the decline in several of the other producer nations. The trees take 5 or 6 years to mature and can produce for 50 years or more, but there just isn’t much money in it for the farmers. I find that interesting in itself, because the commodity price is more than half again as high now than it was when the Ivorian civil war started, and that price (around $2200/mt) was nearly 3 times as high as the price was just 2 years earlier in 2000 ($800/mt). Even if you ignore February’s record shattering price of over $3700/mt, a 32 year high and the current drop from there, cocoa beans are selling at more than 4 times the price they were a decade ago. Go figure. You’d think people would be planting left and right. I guess it’s just too much hard work, even though most of it is done by children.
Some analysts say that up to a quarter million of the pod pickers are small children, and there are very strong allegations that many of these children are kept as slaves. But given the typical abhorrent living conditions in Africa and their standard horrific inhumanity and barbarism, how could you tell? But before you feel all guilty and start searching for only Fair Trade chocolate to buy, you should know that the cocoa pods can usually only be harvested by children. The cocoa tree is fragile and the pods grow from the trunk, not from the branches. Adults climbing the trees damage them, and monkeys can’t be used because they don’t differentiate between the ripe pods and the unripe ones. So child labor is it. Don’t forget that the Turd World has a very different view on child labor than the spoiled and decadent west. What we see as child abuse they see as giving children the work opportunity to not starve to death.
Oh, and the root of all the problems in the Ivory Coast? You don’t even have to guess; you know what the answer is. Pisslam. Of course! When the French controlled the Ivory Coast it was a wonderland, with some of the highest per capita income and standard of living on the entire continent. This continued for several decades after independence in 1960, but at some point the Ivorians started importing foreign labor to do the scut work. And guess who showed up?
A former French colony and the world’s top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast was once regarded as a haven of peace and stability, until a 1999 coup that toppled president Henri Konan Bedie. Long considered a peaceful country, that welcomed millions of immigrant workers to sustain a booming economy after its independence from France in 1960, up to 40 percent of the 16 million population is now foreign. The immigrants inflamed political, religious and ethnic frictions between the largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south and west.
Until his death in 1993, these disputes were kept under control by the country’s post-independence president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. But like Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the ancient ethnic and religious animosities were still there, and were exploited by rival politicians after Houphouet-Boigny was gone. Elections were held and Laurent Gbagbo, a southern nationalist, won. He tried to improve his control of the country by forcing northerners out of the security forces, and have millions of them declared foreigners, and ineligible to vote.
This led to the first round of fighting in 2002. The French sent in troops, to at least prevent escalation, and with UN help, a ceasefire was achieved in 2003. But in late 2004, the ceasefire was broken with government air raids on rebel bases in the north.
Until the push south this week, the worst of the violence had centered on Abidjan, where anti-Gbagbo insurgents, who do not necessarily support Ouattara, have seized parts of town.
In a sign violence could spin out of control, the army called on Gbagbo’s often violent youth wing to enlist in the military. They have been fired up with anti-French, anti-foreigner and anti-U.N. propaganda, and on Wednesday the army started openly handing out weapons to them.
Currently there are 11,000 UN Blue Helmets in the Ivory Coast, the vast majority of them being other Africans. So you know what that means ... it’s a mess. A chocolate mess.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/31/2011 at 09:33 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 24, 2011
aid to africa has been money wasted. who’d have guessed that?
This fellow isn’t the most popular man in the UK I confess. Only know what I hear ppl say about him. The wife tells me he is referred to as The Prince of Darkness.
However .... being of the left doesn’t mean he has always been wrong. At least he has this right.
The question is .... why has it taken so long for someone associated with the left, to say what most already know and have known for years and years.
No need to post the entire article. It caught my eye and thought I’d share this huge surprise for all conservatives, who will I know be shocked by the news.
Africa aid has been wasted and created army of beggars, says Mandelson
By GERRI PEEVMost of the aid sent to Africa in the past half century has been wasted and has turned the region’s countries into ‘professional beggars’, according to Peter Mandelson.
The former Cabinet minister gave one of the harshest assessments yet of successive governments’ aid policies, warning that Britain had failed to help African economies grow.
Lord Mandelson, a former business secretary, insisted that the money should have been poured into trade rather than handouts.
The Labour peer told The Times Summit on Africa in London: ‘Most of the aid we have sent to Africa over the last five decades has probably, in the main, been wasted as far as growth is concerned.
‘I’m not anti-aid, but if you ask me where I would put my money, it would go on trade rather than aid as a key to African economic development.’
His extraordinary intervention comes as many on the Tory backbenches are questioning the wisdom of the Coalition’s policy to ringfence overseas aid while making cutbacks elsewhere.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Friday - February 25, 2011
A & R Friday, Part 2
Looks like Peiper had the same idea. Not that there isn’t always room for more.
This is the replacement post. I wasn’t even going to do it. I was going to write about how the Cairo Museum is open again, and how, against all odds, TV personality, martinet, staunch Mubarak supporter, and Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass still has his job. I had neat pictures of tanks in front of the museum, which is right there on the edge of Tahrir Square in Cairo. Pictures of Hawass inside with Egyptian Special Forces guards, rumors of how the museum was used as a police detention and torture center during the protests, links to the ruckus surrounding the looting that went on there and at other archaeological sites around the country, stories about how the people worked with the army and the police to guard as many of these places as they could, quotes from Hawass’ pro-Mubarak speeches. The little glory hound must have unimaginable pull in that country. It’s amazing. Not only did he survive the falling government, but he managed to scrounge up the money to hire 900 new Egyptian archaeology graduates for half a year, followed by 500 more. But the post wouldn’t gel, so finally I just threw it out. I had this one in reserve. Mostly.
Swim for miles in the dark, in a labyrinthine cave underground, and then dive further down a giant shaft to nearly 200 feet below sea level? No thanks. But that’s what it takes to find ancient evidence that people went to Cancun ages before there was anything called Spring Break.
“This is the Holy Grail of underwater cave exploration.”
Explorers have discovered what might be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas. Alex Alvarez, Franco Attolini, and Alberto (Beto) Nava are members of PET (Projecto Espeleológico de Tulum), an organization that specializes in the exploration and survey of underwater caves on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
Alex, Franco and Beto have surveyed tens of thousands of feet of mazelike cave passages in the state of Quintana Roo. The team’s relatively recent explorations of a large pit named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole, in Spanish), deep within a flooded cave, resulted in their breathtaking and once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the remains of an Ice Age mastodon and a human skull at the very bottom of the black abyss.
Hoyo Negro was reached by the PET team after the divers travelled more than 4,000 feet [1,200 meters] through underwater passages using underwater propulsion vehicles, or scooters, which enabled them to cover long distances in the flooded cave system.
Once they reached the pit, they began to survey and document its dimensions. The pit is approximately 200 feet [60 meters] deep and 120 feet [36 meters] in diameter and is located inside the Aktun-Hu cave system in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico.
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“The immense size of Hoyo Negro is difficult to comprehend. Once you enter the pit you cannot see the floor below, and all that can be seen in front of you is a black void—an inviting entrance to the abyss, “ recalls Franco.The team of explorers touched bottom at 197 feet [57 meters], where they made their incredible discovery.
Approximately 12,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, Earth experienced great climatic changes. The melting of the ice caps caused a dramatic rise in global sea levels, which flooded low lying coastal landscapes and cave systems. Many of the subterranean spaces that once provided people and animals with water and shelter became inundated and lost until the advent of cave diving.
“The findings of Hoyo Negro are a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The skull looks pre-Maya, which could make it one of the oldest set of human remains in the area. Gaining an understanding of how this human and these animals entered the site will reveal an immense amount of knowledge from that time.
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The human found with the megafauna remains in Hoyo Negro could represent the oldest evidence of humans yet discovered in the Americas.Archaeological and genetic data have long supported a northeast Asia origin for the populations that first settled North and South America. The so-called “First Americans” or Paleoindian peoples likely entered into these new lands sometime between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.
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“During the Late Pleistocene, these caves were dry. The first people to occupy what is now the Caribbean coast of Mexico wandered into these caves, where some ultimately met their demise.“As the last glacial maximum came to end, the melting of the polar ice caps and continental ice sheets raised sea levels worldwide. The caves of the Yucatan Peninsula filled with water and the First Americans were hidden for millennia—only to be discovered by underwater cave explorers
“It is within these dark reaches that cave explorers are discovering and documenting the oldest human skeletons yet found in the Western Hemisphere,” Rissolo said.
Plenty more info and pics at the Nat Geo source.
And if those eyes looked interesting, the “R” part of this “A & R” post is below the fold:
Posted by Drew458
on 02/25/2011 at 01:46 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - February 24, 2011
Arab turmoil could mean an orgy of bloodletting and rocketing oil prices.
It’s almost 6:30pm here and on the 6 o-clock news there was an interesting theory from the Colonel in Libya. No, I’m not kidding.
Gaddaifi suspects that the ring leader behind all the trouble in Libya is ..........
OSAMA Yeah. That Osama. OBL!
As you’d expect, Libya is almost wall to wall and especially as there are so many Brits trying to get out of there.
Very embarrassing for the govt. here. They got a flight yesterday to go and bring back a bunch of their citizens BUT .... the plane left 10 hours late due to tech problems. Couldn’t get the dam,n thing in the air. Oh boy. What next?
Then there are all the accusations of the former govt. cozying up to Gaddaifi and selling him weapons etc. Which really is hypocritical. I have zero love or tolerance for the govt. I think helped to wreck this country. But come on. It isn’t like the cons here raised any kind fuss and fury over the years I’ve been here. They have known for years. There isn’t any way they could not have known. So to now take the moral high ground is pretty raunchy.
Ppl here have known as we have in the USA, that the colonel is a creepy killer and a terrorist of the first rank. And we came to an accommodation as well.
OK so .... There was an interesting column in The Mail this morning. I won’t post much here, and it’s long. But it is worth the reading and some may not agree. He is one of those who holds the belief that the war against Iraq was wrong. But his column isn’t all about that.
The headline in the paper is different from that of the one on line. Here’s what I saw. It made me read the whole thing which isn’t easy because they cram an awful lot into a page in very small print.
I can’t say I agree with him on all points. That doesn’t make this any less interesting.
I’ve edited for space.
MANY HAIL EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AS A BRIGHT NEW DAWN.
BUT REVOLUTIONS HAVE A NASTY HABIT OF KICKING NAIVE IDEALISTS IN THE TEETH.
By DOMINIC SANDBROOK
Last updated at 8:38 AM on 24th February 2011Even by the repressive standards of Middle Eastern autocrats, Colonel Gaddafi has long cut a brutally capricious figure.
But while nobody who remembers the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher or the appalling slaughter at Lockerbie will mourn Gaddafi’s downfall, this year’s tumultuous events in North Africa could mark a shocking and seismic shift in the balance of power.
We are at a hinge moment in world history. As the Arab revolutions have shown, the old certainties are cracking apart.
And despite the naive predictions of a new liberal order, the future might well prove a very dangerous place indeed — with potentially devastating economic repercussions for millions of British families.
Indeed, in all the excitement at the fall of the Arab autocracies, it is hard to miss the whiff of Western hubris.
Like the arrogant neo-conservatives who thought it would be child’s play to export democracy to Iraq, many of the idealists exulting in the giddy triumphs of street politics believe history is on their side.
Sadly, history has a habit of kicking idealists in the teeth. The revolutions in the Arab world are far from over.
And when events have played themselves out, there is a good chance the results will be very different from the utopian fantasies of the armchair pundits.
But what the idealists often forget is that not all uprisings, like the peaceful transition in the former Czechoslovakia, come cloaked in velvet.
All too often, as in Mexico in 1910 or Russia in 1917, violence begets violence.
And eventually, as the French politician Pierre Vergniaud — who ended up on the guillotine — famously put it, the revolution devours its own children.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Lines in the sand of nomenclature
When Tunisia had it’s turnover some weeks ago, the nation-wide protest movement was quickly relabeled as the “Jasmine Revolution”.
Egyptian protesters managed to oust their leader, force a new cabinet to be installed, and wound up with the army in charge for now but promising all sorts of reforms and elections. Somehow this was never a “revolution” even though it effectively toppled the government.
The situation in Libya looks more and more like an actual civil war every day. It looks like a classic old-school South/Central American revolution, other than the niggling absence of one new tinpot dictator appearing to replace the one about to be pushed out of the catbird seat.
News items:
Libyan Protesters Vow to ‘Liberate’ Tripoli as Army Unleashes Attack
BENGHAZI, Libya—A Libyan army unit loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi attacked anti-government protesters holed up in a mosque in a key city west of the capital Thursday, blasting a minaret with anti-aircraft missiles and automatic weapons, a witness said.
Protesters who had been camped inside and outside the mosque suffered heavy casualties in the attack on Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, the witness said, but he couldn’t provide an exact toll.
Pro-Qaddafi forces have fought back fiercely as the longtime leader has seen his control whittled away, with Zawiya and other major Libyan cities and towns closer to the capital falling to the rebellion against his rule. In the east, now all but broken away, the opposition vowed to “liberate” Tripoli, where the Libyan leader is holed up with a force of militiamen roaming the streets and tanks guarding the outskirts.
Report: Libyan capital deserted; opposition seizes major city
Benghazi, Libya (CNN)—The Libyan capital was a ghost town Thursday morning, witnesses said, as anti-government protesters declared victory elsewhere after reportedly seizing control of the country’s third-largest city.
Misrata—also spelled as Misurata—is now in the hands of the opposition, who have driven out the mercenaries, according to witnesses and multiple media reports. Witnesses and multiple reports also said that the town of Az Zintan was under opposition control. The opposition also controls Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, where crowds cheered as international journalists drove through the city. The only shooting that could be heard was celebratory gunfire.
U.S. Fears Tripoli May Deploy Gas As Chaos Mounts
WASHINGTON—The government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi hasn’t destroyed significant stockpiles of mustard gas and other chemical-weapons agents, raising fears in Washington about what could happen to them—and whether they may be used—as Libya slides further into chaos.
Tripoli also maintains control of aging Scud B missiles, U.S. officials said, as well as 1,000 metric tons of uranium yellowcake and vast amounts of conventional weapons that Col. Gadhafi has channeled in the past to militants operating in countries like Sudan and Chad.
Fleeing Egyptians Tell of Qaddafi’s `Bloodbath’ Across Libya
“It’s a massacre in there,” said Mohamed Yehia after he crossed into Egypt at the northwestern town of Salloum, speaking of the deadly crackdown by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. “He is crazy. The world must know what he’s doing to his people.”
Yehia, 23, is one of thousands of Egyptians working in Libya who gathered their belongings and left the oil-rich country yesterday after Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, this week accused foreigners, including Tunisians and Egyptians, of inciting the ongoing revolt.
...
Many of those arriving said they had seen mercenaries from Africa and elsewhere, some dark-skinned and some fair, some speaking French. They had been deployed to attack anti- government protesters in Libyan cities, including the capital, Tripoli, and Benghazi, which has seen some of the worst violence since the uprising began last week, the eyewitnesses said.
Anti-aircraft missiles? Concerns over WMD? Mercenaries? Tanks? Cities “falling” and being “seized”? Bloodbath? That certainly sounds like a whole lot more than just a protest movement. It sounds like full scale civil war. I think it’s time to change labels and start calling this one a revolution. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck ... and doesn’t have a portable indoor duck bin ...
Maybe the world needs to coin a new phrase that defines a popular uprising with no obvious leaders that is designed to change the existing government by any means possible. Right now the only term we have for something like that is ... Tea Party. [ Drew lets that one sink in for a few moments ]
The Libyan situation is different though. Isn’t it? Their mass protests were met with violence, so they returned violence in spades. So it seems. And the Tea Party people don’t really want to change the system as much as they want to purify it and return it to it’s original more limited form. Aside from removing Gaddafi, I don’t know what the “protest movement” in Libya wants in terms of government. But it certainly seems to be an actual revolution.
And now it looks like Algeria is next on the list. The whole of North Africa is going up in flames. You’d think the West would be cheering them on to throw off their chains of oppression. But we’re not, because we don’t know where they are going. Do the Libyans themselves even know?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/24/2011 at 10:00 AM
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Permalink • Friday - February 11, 2011
Your Foreign Aid Dollars At Work
In an attempt to increase the range of the endangered Masai Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi), wildlife biologists have taken to ferrying young adult males and females about to enter estrus across Lake Tanganyika from Tanzania into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to the massive size of the lake, it would take longer for even these long legged creatures to walk around it than their mating season gives them, so the biologists built them their own ferry.
“Putting a cage on the barge wasn’t hard” states Mbulati Gahlwana, chief biologist for the Giraffe Project, “but rounding up half a dozen giraffes and getting them all aboard without injury was a challenge. They are very energetic creatures, and a kick from even a young one can kill a man in one go.”
The land and climate in most of the DR Congo is not perfect for giraffes, but the area on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika is moist enough to support the kind of vegetation and cover that these giraffes need. The Giraffe Project hopes to be able to move 4 dozen pairs of Masai Giraffes this year, enough to establish a small breeding population.
“We worry about poachers over there” says Gahlwana, “but if they don’t know the giraffes are around they might not go looking for them.”
The Giraffe Project is funded both by US foreign aid to Tanzania and by the World Wildlife Foundation.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/11/2011 at 09:46 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - February 08, 2011
Lines Drawn In The Sand
“We’re leaving and we’re taking all the money with us!”: oil producing Christian black southern Sudan votes to split from piss poor Arab muslim northern Sudan. Years of civil war have destroyed Sudan, and the sub-Saharan southerners have voted to divorce themselves from the pan-Saharan northerners. Borders have to be drawn, and the new country has to pick out a name. But the USA has already agreed to recognize them ($$$$), even if the country won’t even exist until July.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to declare independence in final results of a referendum announced on Monday, opening the door to Africa’s newest state and a fresh period of uncertainty for the fractured region.
Hundreds of south Sudanese danced, screamed and waved flags as the announcement was broadcast on a line of TV sets in a square in the center of the southern capital Juba.
A total of 98.83 percent of voters from Sudan’s oil-producing south chose to secede from the north in last month’s referendum, the chairman of the vote’s organizing commission Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil said.
...
The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace accord that set out to end Africa’s longest civil war and instill democracy in a country that straddles the continent’s Arab-sub Saharan divide.Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir earlier said he accepted the result, allaying fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south’s oil reserves.
“Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people,” he said in an address on state TV.
Southern officials say the question of a name for the new state is unresolved but it could become just “South Sudan.”
...
“Southern Sudanese are a new people now. We have a new identity. We have respect from everyone at last. Our country has come today,” said Rebecca Maluk, a war widow and mother-of-three in the crowd in Juba.
U.S. to recognize south Sudan as a new country
President Obama says the Sudan split will be officially recognized in July. In a Jan. 9 vote, 98% of southern Sudanese voters chose independence. Obama calls for peaceful resolutions to disputes and an end to attacks on civilians in Darfur.
...
The south is principally Christian, and the north Muslim. The separate countries still have to negotiate a range of issues, including citizenship, borders, and oil rights and revenues. In his statement, Obama said the “outstanding disputes must be resolved peacefully. At the same time, there must be an end to attacks on civilians in Darfur and a definitive end to that conflict.”
Funny how the more that things change, the more they stay the same. Way back when, back in the days of Pharaoh, the southern border of upper Egypt was usually considered to be either the First Cataract of the Nile (at modern Aswan), or the Second Cataract of the Nile (currently underneath Lake Nasser by present day Wadi Halfa), depending on how subservient the Nubians were being. 4000 years later, and the modern border between upper Egypt and Sudan is ... in exactly the same place. The ancient land of Damot is pretty much the modern country of Eritrea. Across the Red Sea, the biblical land of Sheba is nowadays called Yemen. These are all natural borders formed by rivers and mountain ranges.
In another Once Upon A Time, somewhere between then and now, the land of Punt ruled both sides of the mouth of the Red Sea down to the Horn of Africa, which is now part of Ethiopia and Somalia. So Punt doesn’t work as a name for the new country. I think it was also more of a confederation of tribes too, since the kingdom went across several natural borders. But Kush historically began at the Sixth Cataract, and the city near there, where the White Nile meets the Blue Nile, is called Khartoum. It makes sense to put the border near there, because the land changes radically at that point, and for all I know the people do as well. I don’t know where the population demarcations are in Sudan, but I’m pretty sure they’re not far from this city. The White Nile comes up out of the fever swamps of tropical Africa, and the Blue Nile comes down from the more temperate highlands of Ethiopia. Neither area is historically Arab. Upper Nubia would be a good name to tie this new country to it’s African roots. Aksum (Axum) would work too, and celebrate the area’s Christianity. It wouldn’t be a perfect geographical fit, but it would be one in a Prestor John kind of way, since the old kingdom of Aksum was the first African nation to go Christian. You can look at a map of Sudan and see how the northern cities have Arabic names, while the southern ones have African names. So it would seem smart to me to draw the borders on as natural a line as possible
So peace may finally be at hand in this troubled corner of the world, and a new Christian nation may be about to rise in Africa. One with an actual revenue stream. Now if they can just negotiate a border so that they wind up with a few miles of water front property on the Red Sea, they’ll be in clover. Well, maybe not clover, but emmer or kef.
UPDATE:
I do not know if the United States has ever before extended diplomatic recognition to a nation that does not yet exist. Is this a first? More importantly, is this recognition some kind of imprimatur, a sign that the nation being born has the support and backing of the USA? A Christian nation on the borders of muzzie-land? That itself would be such a bold move that ... I’m having a Vizzini Moment - “it’s inconceivable!!” - and have it happen under the pro-Arab, anti-Christian, no-push-for-international-freedom Obama regime? A total break with our historic “hands off, mostly” Africa policy? I’m thunderstruck. And if it settles the Darfur genocide without bringing in armies? Holy cow. We’re talking major legacy and another Nobel Peace prize, IF - and it seems to be a doubtful if - IF the USA is the driving force behind this. I do not think they are. I can not let myself believe that our diplomatic corps could pull off such a miracle and NOT have a single word to say about it in the press until after it was a done deal. That could never happen. So my thought is that this is a solution the people in southern Sudan came up with all by themselves. And while the world may be only too happy to recognize their nascent independence, the question remains whether their neighbors - crazy people with lots of guns on all sides - will also do so. Keep your fingers crossed.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/08/2011 at 12:21 PM
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Permalink • Monday - January 17, 2011
Unrest Continues In Tunisia
Tunisia, Northern Africa: Hundreds of people rallied in central Tunis on Monday to demand the abolition of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s ruling RDC party as police fired volleys of tear gas to break up the protest.
“We don’t want anyone from the old party in the new government. That includes the prime minister,” one protester told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi was a close ally of Ben Ali and held talks with opposition parties on Sunday to form a national unity government that is due to be unveiled on Monday.
The opposition said members of the previous government are set to stay on.
Any public gatherings are banned under a state of emergency declared by Ben Ali on Friday just before he resigned and fled to Saudi Arabia.
Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to disperse the rally and prevent protesters from marching on the headquarters of the RDC, the Constitutional Democratic Rally.
“With our blood and our soul we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for the martyrs,” they chanted, referring to the dozens reported killed in a wave of protests that led to Ben Ali’s downfall after 23 years in power.
There was another rally in Sidi Bouzid, a city in central Tunisia that was at the heart of the protests that erupted against Ben Ali’s regime mid-December. Demonstrators there chanted: “Bread and water and no RDC!”
A rally was also held in Regueb, a town near Sidi Bouzid.
Tunisia’s ‘Jasmine Revolution’ is still under way, with fighting in the capital today. The enraged Tunisians who took to the streets in December in revulsion at their corrupt, autocratic regime achieved their primary goal: The removal from power of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. But what sort of new order will emerge in the North African country, or whether it will be much different from the old one, has not yet been determined.
For a look at the power players there, click here.
Go on, take the money and run: Meanwhile, Mrs. Dictator seems to have skedaddled with the loot, big time!
Ben Ali’s wife picked up 1.5 tons of gold before fleeing
The wife of ousted Tunisian president Zine el- Abidine ben Ali collected 1.5 tons of gold from the central bank before fleeing the country, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Monday.
Leila Trabelsi visited the bank in Tunis and is thought to have taken the gold bars worth some 60 million dollars along when departing onboard a plane bound for Dubai, according to the report. The head of the bank had reportedly not wanted to hand over the gold at first, but after the 53-year-old contacted her husband telephonically, she was given the gold bars.
The 74-year-old longtime president had initially also resisted instructing the bank to do so, Le Monde said. Ben Ali’s second wife and her relatives have a reputation for being money and power hungry. The Trabelsi clan is regarded as corrupt and widely believed to be involved in racketeering.
After Ben Ali’s was ousted Friday, angry Tunisians looted the couple’s villa in a posh suburb of the capital Tunis. Imed Trabelsi, a businessman and nephew of the president’s wife who for many was a symbol of corruption, was stabbed to death.
Given today’s gold price of roughly $1360/Toz, and 1.5 Troy tons of gold being 3675 Troys pounds, each made up of 12 Troy ounces ... that’s $59,976,000 in bullion; nearly 59 cubic feet of gold; a block 46.6” inches on a side, nearly 2.2 cubic yards worth that weighs 1371.663 kilograms, about as much mass as a small car. That’s a lot of gold!
It’s always fun playing with Troy and Avoirdupois weights, just to remind myself that a pound of feathers weighs 1240 grains more than a pound of gold. But until today I did not know the common factor of these two measurement systems: one is wheat, the other is water. One cubic foot of pure cold water weighs 62.5 avoirdupois pounds; one cubic foot of wheat weighs 62.5 troy pounds. Which means that 1000 avoirdupois ounces weighs the same as 750 Troy ounces. So there ya go. The French came up with this in the year 732, so they didn’t really factor in the varying moisture level that wheat can have. Half an eon later the English adopted it, so now we’re stuck with it. Don’t go looking at how 8 gallons - 64lb - of sea water can be both a cubic foot and a bushel, since a bushel is about 1.24 cubic feet. But hey, back in 732 a bushel was a round basket a cubit across by a handslength deep. Which is irrational, and thus perfectly fwench.
So here’s Stephanie Abrams from the Weather Channel, looking good in pics and being inadvertently naughty in a short video clip. Hope you were watching this morning; she had that tight red cashmere sweater on again. Yum!
Posted by Drew458
on 01/17/2011 at 09:51 AM
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Permalink • Friday - January 14, 2011
sic semper tyrannis?
A few hours ago:
Tunisian President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali fired his government and called an early parliamentary election on Friday in an increasingly frantic effort to quell the worst unrest in his two decades in power.
Authorities declared a state of emergency and an overnight curfew. Gatherings of more than three people were banned and state television warned that “arms will be used” if the orders of the security forces are not obeyed.
The announcements came as police fired teargas and gunshots rang out to disperse crowds in central Tunis demanding the veteran ruler’s immediate resignation despite his promise on Thursday to step down in 2014.
Medical sources and a witness said 12 more people were killed in overnight clashes in the capital and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel.
Before the latest deaths emerged, the official death toll in almost a month of violence was 23, while the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said it had a list of at least 66 people killed.
The 74-year-old president announced in a television address on Thursday evening that he would not seek a sixth term as expected in 2014, following a month of violent protests against unemployment, repression and corruption.
While Tunisia’s problems are shared by other countries in the region, the latest unrest was sparked when police prevented an unemployed graduate from selling fruit without a license and he set fire to himself, dying shortly afterwards of his burns.
In power since 1987, Ben Ali made sweeping concessions, saying security forces would no longer use live ammunition against protesters and promising freedom of the press and an end to Internet censorship. He also said the prices of sugar, milk and bread would be cut.
On Friday, state television flashed the announcement: “The president has decided to dismiss the government and to hold legislative elections within six months.” It gave no details.
But protests continued in the capital and other cities on Friday. Around 8,000 people rallied outside the interior ministry in central Tunis, chanting “Ben Ali, leave!” and “Ben Ali, assassin!”
After police fired teargas and wielded their truncheons, crowds of youths retreated a little way from the building and started throwing stones at the police, who responded with more tear gas grenades. Reporters also heard gunfire nearby.
Minutes ago:
Tunisian president flees; PM announces he’s taking over
After declaring state of emergency and dismissing entire government, Ben Ali reportedly in France; military closes Tunisian airspace.
Speaking at a press conference Friday, Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi said that the country’s president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, had fled the country, reportedly to France. The prime minister added that he was taking over the government.Following the president’s departure, the Tunisian army seized the airport and closed Tunisian airspace to all traffic.
Tunisia is where Carthage was. It is a small country on the north shore of Africa, west of Libya, east of Algeria, due south of Sardinia, and south west of Sicily. According to Wikipedia:
Today Tunisia has an authoritarian regime. It is an export-oriented country, in the process of liberalizing and privatizing its economy but has rife corruption benefiting the president’s family. The country operates as a nominal republic under the leadership of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who has governed since 1987. The Tunisian economy has averaged 5% GDP growth since the early 1990s. A popular revolution is currently underway.
So let’s see if this revolution gets as far as democracy and capitalism, or if this is another more example of one tinpot dictator replacing another. Tunisia has been an ally in the GWOT so far. No word on whether the insurrection / popular revolution is a call for another islamic republic.
Tunisia is an oil exporting nation, along with fertilizer and some manufacturing. They are one of the most productive nations in Africa, eclipsing Greece, Italy, and Portugal in terms of economic competitiveness, and a 2009 per capita GDP of over $8250.
Liveblog of the situation in Tunisia can be found here, and Al Jazeera is covering this fully. Oh, if only Fox News had an African American subdivision!
Posted by Drew458
on 01/14/2011 at 01:01 PM
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Permalink • Sunday - December 12, 2010
She has been punched in the face and had a gun to her head … white farmer in Zimbabwe.
Read this a few days ago. There’s another problem facing these people. The Mugabe govt. is now selling farms to other whites, which are already owned by families still in residence. Aside from any feeling of group loyalty, I don’t understand how the second group of farmers would so willingly trust that fugitive from a tall tree. He’s wrecked the economy of his country, there are still people starving there, which I care nothing about, and his police continue to ruin what farms are left. Oh well, it must be a black thing whites aren’t expected to understand. Lets see, farms ... food .... burn farms or turn over to landless inexperienced folks who never farmed before ..... hmmm. Hunger. Now how’d that happen boss?
Not to worry ..... we be the white guy’s burden and him bail us outta this here mess. Again. Look you at Haiti man. Make white liberal feel guilty, he send more money. Work evy time. You see.
White couple who fought the mob for their precious land and triumphed ... for a whileBy Sunday Times Zimbabwean
Hope flashed into the weary lives of Heidi and Dirk Visagie only to be cruelly crushed days later. Just an hour’s drive from Harare, the Afrikaners were in the office of the district lands officer in small town Chegutu - it was their last, desperate attempt to save their small farm.
Glowering opposite them was Timothy Mudavanhu, a minor functionary of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, who has been plaguing their lives for nine years.
Most of Zimbabwe’s dispossessed 4000 white farmers have endured these supposed arbitrations to defend their livelihoods. Racist abuse is hurled at them by officials and often they are threatened and spat at. Eventually they leave in humiliation - and defeat.
Frank (not his real name), a lands official at Chegutu, flipped through the Visagies’ sheaf of four high court orders affirming their right to Wantage farm. Once issued by a judge, the injunctions are routinely ignored.
Frank looked up. “The matter is clear, “ he said. “The law must take its course.” The Visagies and Mudavanhu were stunned. In 10 years of free-for-all land grabbing there is no record of a lands officer having acted in favour of a white farmer.
Despite Mudavanhu’s shouting, Frank was resolute. He said the meeting was over. Mudavanhu asked if he was being kicked out like a dog. Frank replied: “No. A dog has four legs.”
The Visagies giggled and went home on a high, but victory lasted only 11 days. Mudavanhu returned to Wantage with his rent-a-mob. After going to Harare to see a lawyer the Visagies returned to find the padlock on their gate broken.
Mudavanhu’s lock was in its place and drunks were on the lawn around a bonfire. All the Visagies had was their car, cellphones and the clothes they stood up in.
A call to Frank established that the lands officer had been wrapped over the knuckles. “I have been transferred,” he told them. “Please do not tell anyone you have spoken to me.”
Eventually, with pressure from the South African Embassy - Dirk Visagie is a South African citizen - Mudavanhu was eased out by the deputy sheriff, still bawling that he would be back for “my farm”.
Heidi says she felt nauseous during the bubble, which lasted 11 days. “It was like the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Now I know where we stand.”
She is 38 and a third-generation Zimbabwean. She and her husband, 42, bought Wantage in 2001.
The government gave them a certificate stating the farm was not needed for resettlement. But three months later, Mudavanhu burnt down their citrus orchard.
She has been punched in the face and had a gun to her head. Crops were flattened, the Visagie house emptied. The mob held the gardener’s head underwater in the swimming pool to get the house keys. Her soft-spoken, gentle appearance is deceptive. Mudavanhu once told Visagie that Cecil Rhodes was her uncle. She exploded: “I am an Afrikaner! We went to war against the British, they put my people in concentration camps. Don’t you call me British!”
When the Visagies are left alone they run a thriving operation on their 86-hectare holding which produces 240 tons of tomatoes a year for a nearby cannery. There are also rows of tuberoses, a fragrant lily.
Dirk is a meticulous farmer, his wife says. But every time Mudavanhu ploughs through their crops, it takes something out of you, she says.
Usually her husband puts on a brave face with each onslaught, but last time he gave up. The couple even lost their sense of humour, until a swarm of bees set on Mudavanhu as he was ranting at them.
Dirk has a heart problem, and the stress gives his wife eczema. Each time Mudavanhu takes occupation she moves their belongings to relatives. When he has been fought off, she returns. The unpacking restores her sanity. She was putting away tea cups when I arrived. But she knows Mudavanhu will be back.
Posted by peiper
on 12/12/2010 at 05:11 PM
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Permalink • Friday - September 17, 2010
denied asylum … one lonely score for our side …. but white farmers still in peril …
Just a quickie I caught only moments ago. A kind of feel good and good for our side if it sticks.
At last, a white judge with guts calls it right and no pc BS. I’m almost certain this cretin will cry foul and advance the ‘R’ word.
Stay Tuned as usual. But hope the bitch is soon gone.
Woman who took part in violent attacks on white farmers in Zimbabwe denied UK asylumBy David Gardner
Last updated at 8:24 AM on 17th September 2010A woman who admitted taking part in savage evictions of white farmers from their homes in Zimbabwe lost her bid for asylum after a High Court judge accused her of ‘crimes against humanity.’
Mr Justice Ouseley threw out the widowed mother-of-two’s appeal to remain in the UK after she confessed to beating up ten people during two land invasions.
The judge said the state-sponsored mob violence, which saw white famers’ land seized and shared out among President Robert Mugabe’s cronies, was akin to genocide.
She admitted to being part of a gang of thugs from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party who invaded two white-owned farms intent on causing maximum terror and driving away black workers.
The woman, referred to only as ‘SK”, agreed she had beaten up to ten people whilst their homes burned, ‘inflicting enough pain to get them to run away.’
She said that on one occasion, she beat a woman so badly she thought she would die.
There’s a lot of stories published in magazines here on weekends, about the plight and flight of many farmers and survivor stories about the mindless brutality of the mobs. These aren’t recent arrivals to that country either. We’re talking about framers and families that have been there for generations. They may speak English but have known no other country as home. They were born there. And the darkies sure don’t have the ability to run farms on the same scale, as they have shown. Of course, with white farms in decline, guess what happens to the food chain? Oh wait. No problem. Some rock/pop star will throw another aid for concert and all will be well. And we’ll be asked to donate yet again (not that I ever do and never have) with photos of starving children.
I am unmoved. I’ve been seeing those pix for 50 years and nothing has changed. Let em eat grass.
Posted by peiper
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THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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