South Africa

It's time for a change. We have moved to a new domain at someamongus.com. Please update your links, feeds and bookmarks.

Just completed an incredible month long trip to Asia - what a place! The sheer scale and scope of what is happening on that side of the globe is truly awe-inspiring. People, places, machinery, technology, focus, ambition, education, all very fitting adjectives for describing what I saw and literally felt while I made my way from meeting to meeting. Although I have made numerous trips there before, this time made a much greater impression on me for some reason. I guess when you are in SA there is a tendency to get a bit sucked in by what is happening around you and lose a bit of perspective of the bigger picture.

I see the usual suspects are still very much in play – the ANCYL calling people Lucifer (are we in the 16th Century?), Jay-Z was found not guilty and sung his Machine Gun song (the man is obsessed with phallic symbols) and of course the Prez. meditated over it all with his “Native Club” (sign me up!).

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t join the Native Club”

PS : the "Proudly South African" post was a work in progress from awhile back that slipped through the publishing software, will rework it and get it back up soon.

It was one of those weeks –

Mrs Fantastic in Seoul (Aka. Mrs Lee) : Good morning Someamongus and I’m sure it’s a fine day your side.

Someamongus : Umm yeah I guess its okay…

Mrs Fantastic : We have great news for you (I’m thinking, good for you or me – cynical bastard). We have decided to expand our operation and that means more business for your business.

Someamongus : (the alarm bells are of course ringing by now, but I play it cool – Clarke Gable style) Why that’s great news! Could you please give me a bit more details?

Mrs Fantastic : (sound of laughter at the other end of the line) Why Someamongus, you are always so enthusiastic aren’t you? Don’t worry I will send you all the details by email.

                                                 - click –

So begins the ride. I have in short been slapped with a project that will take at least six months to complete (a very busy six months) along with accompanying fun and games. So will this cut into blogging time – yes. Will that mean a repeat of the past weeks pathetic blogging progress – gawd I hope not!

Thanks for all the emails wondering where I’d disappeared to. Let the blogging continue~~~

I'm all blogged out so I thought I'd dust-off a previous entry that I really enjoyed writing - so without further ado I give you "Hunting" Moe and Fikile-

This post is dedicated to Hunter over at Daily Kos who is a personal inspiration. Paraphrasing heavily from his latest post "The Criminalisation of Politics" I'll remix the article for an angle on our Jay-Z saga :  

Icon over country. You can hear it in the exhortations of Zuma apologists; you can read it in articles by the likes of Fikile Majola and Moe Shaik; you could see two weeks ago all around the Durban Magistrates Court. There's something beyond mere politics in all of this. Politics, one would hope is not sufficient reason to damage the country. This is different. This is the cult of power and of corruption that is not just defended but celebrated by pundits and politicians alike. The Zuma spin machinists wail and wag their fingers and are shocked by the investigations, depositions and prosecutions and call them the "criminalization of friendship".

Most of the rest of us call it crime, disguised as friendship. Crime, disguised as friendship and defended by crooks, cowards and blowhards.

In The M&G Moe Shaik provided the following :

The Bill of Rights and our constitutional democracy also provide a useful frame of reference when looking at the past week’s Mail & Guardian editorial headed by another awful line: “Be afraid -- be very afraid”.

This headline reminds one of the racist and backward propaganda that we were subjected to in “an earlier and darker age” of our history, which warned of the dangers of majority and democratic rule in our country. It is also not dissimilar to that used today by the neo-conservative administration of the United States (“Axis of Evil”) to wage war and to impose regime change on those whom it perceives to be against it. Needless to say, this kind of sensationalist propaganda is designed to -“pander to the basest instincts of ordinary people”, and mainly to the human instinct of fear of the other and the fear of the unknown. But what is the basis of this irresponsible sensationalism? Why should South Africans be afraid of an African National Congress-led government under the leadership of Jacob Zuma? We are told that we must fear this because, among other things, he was escorted to and from court protected by the South African Police Service’s VIP protection unit, disrespectfully described by the editorial as “bald-headed toughs”.

While Fikile Majola offered this :

Behind factions and personalities there are always class politics. And Hartley has brought them to the fore. He and others in the media, right-wing politicians and big business fear that a mass-backed Zuma election victory could shake the foundations of the neo-liberal, capitalist system. The kind of people that Hartley mixes with - big business and, to an extent, the middle class - were happy to live with an ANC government which brought political stability and put an end to the civil and industrial strife of the apartheid years. They were grateful for the pro-market policies which provided business with the opportunity to amass bigger and bigger profits.

 

That is why they warn that the country will face ruin if Zuma gains power. But the workers and the poor will not respond to his clarion call to stand up and be counted because "your country is facing ruin". The reason is that, economically, workers and the poor face ruin now. Our wages have stagnated, more of us are being casualised and 40% are unemployed. The share of wages in the national income has fallen to 45% from around 57% in 1991. In Hartley's world, the wages of the top echelons are on the rise, profits are rising, confidence is at a historic high and inequalities are rising faster than ever. For the millions of poor, however, any prospect of a change to address their economic marginalisation is welcome.

 

From a typical liberal standpoint, Hartley dismisses Zuma as "a populist figure", claims that he "poses a grave risk to this country" and says the campaign in his support "ought to frighten those who cherish... democracy".

Oh, boo-friggin-hoo. I've watched Moe Shaik and the hangers-on at COSATU (Fikile is General Secretary of Nehawu and a member of the Friend's of Jacob Zuma Trust) do their wide eyed oh-my-goodness brand of commentary on the Zuma saga for some time. Shaik long ago got his card stamped for membership of that class of people who think that standard operating procedures of the Press and Scorpions are outrageous!, simply outrageous! but are quite content to smear people like Bulelani Nguka by accusing them of being apartheid spies when it suits them. 

What's particularly galling is that Shaik and Majola bemoan the breaches of the Bill of Rights or the "persecution" of a "working class hero". However, in Jay-Z we find the antithesis of a working class man who respects due process and the rule of law. Witness his attacks on the judiciary and hints of a vast conspiracy against him after his recent appearance in court in Durban. Do his expensive palaces, top of the range cars, spend-money-like-a-drunken-pirate shopping habits really square with his "working class" connections? Or does "working class" these days simply mean whatever principles COSATU deems convenient during their latest recruitment and publicity drive, to be revised as needed by the latest Zuma spin-doctored talking points?

These Zuma Acolytes, who have their talking points set over their cups of coffee in accordance with whatever the Zuma-focused needs of the day prove to be. Give him his day in court, don't give him his day in court. The rule of law is important, except when it's no big deal. Always put the poor first, but never mind. Our constitution is important, except when applied to "Our Boy". Mbeki is the greatest president ever, but that bastard stabbed us in the back! The media can be used to spin our stories, but not their's!

Blah, blah, blah. Cult of the personality and ass-kissing with the predictable pattern and spray of automatic lawn sprinklers. If the Arms Deal turned into the much-predicted fiasco most observers expected it would, it's because the media didn't trust enough. If Tony Yengeni was found guilty, it's the fault of the damn South African white opposition which is still dominated by racists!  And if a member of the chosen clique commits a crime, it's Big Business's fault for suckering him into it.

No. No dice, pundit and acolyte class. Don't give us vapid, amoral, blastfaxed crap about how horrible it is that everyone-on-the-planet-but-the-involved-Zuma-and Shaik-brothers are responsible for a certain collection of corrupt practices in the Arms Deal. Is this the best face that the "Friends of Jay-Z" can put on? Is this the best defense against scandal after scandal - to ignore the sentenced, defend the indicted, blame the investigators, and howl at the injustice of it all?

Honestly, what farce.

Politics in SA whatever it may be is hopefully not this. I may not like everything Tony Leon or Cyril Ramaphosa says, but nor do I fear for the nation if they come to lead the Country. Men of integrity can disagree on the principles of government; men whose sole moral compass is directed by what they can technically get away with, however, aren't political men. They're just crooks.

But for every politician of questionable honesty, for every underling there's a hundred desperate Moe Shaiks and Fikile Majola's willing to prostrate themselves and their own morality in exchange for another perceived half an inch towards their own movement's elusive prize: some nebulous faux-worker utopia that always turns to a deficit-riddled, pork-choked, crony-laden hell within the first years their chosen leaders try to implement it. And then, the political cycle repeats.

No, Movement "Zumists" are people who not only are willing to overlook advantageous crimes, but celebrate them, if done in service to the of the clique. Successful cheerleaders include Chippy Shaik and Tony Yengeni - people who, in any movement with the integrity of week-old tuna, would have been drummed out not hired on as posterboys for the movement. Only a jackass could write an entire column in response to the scandal after scandal after scandal dogging every single person close to the Shaik brothers, and come to the conclusion that the Press was being too reactionery and biased or that the Bill of Rights was being "trampled" on. 

So, to Fikile Majola and with an honorary mention to Moe Shaik :

Go to hell.

Man, this is gonna to be a great year and I'm not just talking about the usual "oh the economy's so great and I'll soon be taking poppie to Margate" rubbish! No, I'm talking about two, yes that's two court appearances by the Sultan of Swing, the Z in Zulu, our very own Jayyyyy-Z. Yes, our man's heading for a double header with the rape trial soon to be followed by the corruption trial brought on by Shabby Shaik. Let the games begin!

Of course there's also the "please god make the stupid people stop" local government elections ahead, where we will see SA's finest opportunists politicians in action. It will be interesting to see how many times the ANC can call the DA "anti-revolutionery" or how often we will hear the word "delivery" or "roll-out" (as a side note if you're ever bored in the mid-afternoon with a few friends, switch on "Parliament Live" this makes for a great drinking game, watch out if Manto's speaking though, you'll be wasted in about 5 minutes.)

So I say roll-on 2006! We here at someamongus promise to roll-out some snark, deliver a bit of interesting SA news and shamelessly promote ourselves as much as Jay-Z at an ANC Youth rally.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it! 

If you scroll down slightly you will see in the left-hand column the new Someamoungus South African blogroll! These are blogs I read pretty regularly and are definitely worth a look.  

Whenever I even suspect I might be getting a big head over this tiny piece of the blogoshere I head over to Daily Kos and watch how the big kids play. At Kos it doesn't come any bigger than Hunter -- an inspiration in so many way, checkout this post (blew my mind away!)   

Just read an excellent post on a newly discovered local blog "The Hope Flower".  The title of this particular post is Excellence, Elitism and Economic Empowerment and the author lays out a very convincing argument reminiscent of Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness movement.

Definitely worth a read!

Someamoungus and friends take a break after a hard days blogging...zzzz

For too long the South African blogosphere has been dominated by the enemies of the revolution! The time has come to put an end to these fascists, who will be overawed by the outstanding prose of the Peoples New Poet!

Thats right folks there's a new kid on the block and he's packin'. Having overthrown the racist and anti-revolutionary Wits University administration, our fearless hero has moved into new territory to right wrongs and issue judgement on all who dare oppose him! To be sure this is not his first brush with the blogosphere, having twice before graced the pages of Someamoungus here and here. So without further ado, here's Floyd in his own words:    

Presently young, and politically active and thereof a young activist or perhaps a student activist. Lots of hope for the future and believe that distribution of resources should be responsive of sociatal needs not intended on profiteering. I know that in South Africa, the exploitative relationship between labour and capital will soon be abolished. Hence the utmost belief in establishing a strong revolutionary intelligentsia for gains ahead. On a Lighter note, I believe Mzansi has lots of young people (mostly female) worth looking at, yet we all need to play it safe. A Beer ot two isn't bad, and shouldn't defocus us from strategic visions and objectives. A picnic, soccer match, a jol, clubbing, and boozing.... it's all part of being young... Major aim is to help our broader community and society.

 

Welcome Floyd and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of you on someamoungus!