The people are Revolting

[Trevor]

Some of us achieve our destiny only in death. The image of “The
Burning Man” which has flashed around the world this last week will
haunt our beloved nation for years to come. Such images have changed
the course of history, and may yet change ours.

This week most South Africans are bowed down under the weight of
shame for these horrific events. Everyone has an opinion on who to
blame. Most favour blaming the “government”, some continue to blame
the past, some blame blacks in general. There are a few benighted
commentators who even blame the aliens.

We allocate blame so that we may punish those responsible, and thereby
avoid a repetition of the blameworthy act. Blaming the wrong people is
a serious mistake with serious consequences. The innocent are
punished, and the guilty go free. Better to allocate no blame, than to
allocate it incorrectly.

The “government” is not to blame for this recent violence. To the best
of my knowledge, no one in government instigated these attacks, or
beat or burned or robbed anyone. I am fairly certain that no one in
government profited from these attacks.

For a change, neither apartheid, nor colonialisation, nor
globalisation, nor whites are to blame for these attacks, although,
outrageously, the leader of the PAC said they were. Blaming government
is just as mindless, just as irrational, as blaming apartheid for the
evil that specific men and women do through their own free will and
choice.

The blame for these attacks lies squarely with the stupid, brutal,
immoral people who beat their former neighbours to a pulp, who doused
them with petrol and set fire to them, then stole all their
belongings. It is these people who must be caught and convicted and
punished. No matter how many, no matter how desperate, no matter how
poor, they must be severely punished, or this cycle will continue
indefinitely.

There are reasons aplenty for their ghastly behaviour - we’ve heard
them all. Poverty, joblessness, lack of housing, lack of education,
boredom, frustration, cramped living conditions, influx of foreigners,
bad hair days. But there are no excuses. Many people with every one of
these reasons did not go mashuga in the last 2 weeks, did not enrich
themselves at the cost of the strangers in their midst. These people
did not riot because they were poor, they rioted because they wanted
to be rich, no matter what the cost to anyone else.

There is, however, a branch of government who must take the blame for
not stopping this behaviour quickly, for failing to apprehend the
culprits, for failing to protect the innocent. This is the branch of
government specifically tasked with protecting the life and property
of all the residents of this country, one of only 2 real
responsibilities of government. The police alone have the authority
and resources and funding to guarantee our security, to challenge and
defeat the criminals. Just as they fail miserably every day to stem
the flood of crime in this country, so they failed miserably to
control the riots at the start, to mobilise resources fast enough, to
have effective plans and procedures for this situation. Corrupt from
top to bottom, our police are good at catching housewives doing 65 in
a 60 zone, but have failed South Africa otherwise.

So how did we get from a rainbow nation in 1994 to this black and
white Polaroid just 14 years later in 2008. Mostly through stupidity.
We are one of 5 countries left in the world with a functioning
Communist party directly involved in the leadership of the country.
Does no one here remember the history of the 20th century? Were we all
sleeping in 1989? Do the names Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung fail to
ring any alarm bells? South Africa is overwhelmed with disastrously
bad policies, and most of them came from the Communist handbook. For
this policy catastrophe our ANC government is directly responsible,
and directly to blame.

Hong Kong has lived alongside the world’s biggest communist
dictatorship since the 2nd World War. Throughout this time this tiny
lump of rock has resisted the insanity that is communist ideology, and
has grown to be one of the wealthiest, freest countries on the
planet.
In the 1960’s Singapore flirted with communism, but chose another path
under its benevolent dictator. A mere 20 years later this swampy
peninsula had become the crossroads of Asia, an immensely wealthy
centre of finance and shipping.
In the 1970’s Mauritius too flirted with communism, but also chose a
different path. Now it is one of the wealthiest, stablest countries in
all of the African realm, despite its history of colonisation,
exploitation, lack of resources, land and skills.
With our vast mineral resources, our beautiful land, our intelligent
people, our solid infrastructure, where has the ANC and its communist
allies got us to after close on 15 years? Rioting in the streets due
to lack of jobs, houses, and infrastructure pretty much answers that
question.

How do we get out of this mess? I suspect and fear that the path to
the shining city on the hill passes through the burning swamp of
despair. This is how it has been and will be for most of our
neighbours. This is how it is in Africa. Or so we are told.

If we could develop a culture that placed more emphasis on individuals
than on the groups they supposedly belong to. If we could effectively
protect these individuals through the rule of law. If we could stop
counting noses as a means of selecting leaders, and rather measure
leaders by results. If we could abandon our culture of entitlement. If
we could simply forget our fixation on phony 3rd generation rights
such as a right to a job, and implement our real 1st generation rights
such as protection from the use of force. Then perhaps us South
Africans might stand a chance. But I honestly think we are too stupid
to do that.