Infidels 2:5
Everyone in the Middle East rewrites history, but never before have we had a US administration so wilfully, dishonestly and ruthlessly reinterpreting tragedy as success, defeat as victory, death as life — helped, I have to add, by the compliant American press.
I'm reminded not so much of Vietnam as of the British and French commanders of the First World War who repeatedly lied about military victory over the Kaiser as they pushed hundreds of thousands of their men through the butchers' shops of the Somme, Verdun and Gallipoli. The only difference now is that we are pushing hundreds of thousands of Arabs through the butchers' shops — and don't even care.
Robert Fisk | Defeat is Victory, Death is Life
It must be added that Mr. De Klerk himself is a man of integrity who is acutely aware of the dangers of a public figure not honouring his undertakings.
Nelson Mandela
A student of Wealth Bondage, I noted—with concern—columnist Joseph McPatriot's latest diatribe against Archbishop Desmond Tutu, now campaigning to house the Happy Tutor in circumstances more salubrious than the dumpster outside the Kum and Go store of convenience.
Showing political nous, McPatriot shouts Desmond Tutu Denounces Wealth Bondage before embarking on a scurrilous attempt to discredit the Archbishop's's worthy initiative. Reading the short but informative report, I put a call through to Bishopscourt.
"Yup?"
"Hi. Is Arch there?"
"Nope. He moved."
"Damn, you don't say. Who's speaking?"
"Njongonkulu Ndungane. The archbishop."
"Oh. When'd you move in?"
"1996."
"Bugger it. Sorry, I didn't notice."
"Don't worry, nobody did. They always ask for Arch."
"Maybe you should have done that thing where you knock on the door with your stick and demand to be let in. Arch did that, the SABC covered it, and it was all over the TV. Sort of like the first shuttle launch and Joe Slovo's funeral."
"They covered it because he was the first black archbishop. They thought it would make them look good. They expected a Muzorewa in a frock."
"Umm, yeah, I guess you're right. And they got a shit-stirrer of the First Order wearing a Springbok rugby jersey. Christ, how quickly we forget these things."
"Don't tell me, my Son."
"I won't. I trust you're in The Know, as it were?"
"Yeah?"
"So you've got Arch's number?"
"Yeah."
He gave me Tutu's mobile number and I called him. He was, needless to say, busy. Blessing an election rally in Bonteheuwel.
"So what's it with all these rallies?" I asked.
"We need to ensure people vote with open hearts. Without bitterness."
"Ah, you mean the power cuts? They're going to cost the ANC the Western Cape."
"It was sabotage."
"I know. But millions don't. They'll look at turnover and blame government. It's what they do."
"Yeah. But really, Mike, this has nothing to do with that. These people live in desperate circumstances and we're able to do some good out here."
"I know, I know. But why don't you bless a DA rally?"
The archbishop chuckled. "Heh, for those people, I pray."
He's a wily old bird. Anyway, the upshot was that he had his hands full and asked me to deal with McPatriot. So here I am, but who am I to argue with the cognoscenti of the neocon elite?
Nobody. But I will say this much. Get tagged, Joseph. It suits you and your overlords and will do you good to remember that a little implant from some south-east Asian sweatshop will, in all likelihood, outlast you.
Okay, unpleasantries aside (we are—after all and when all is said and done—consummate professionals), let's get down to business. We South Africans had apartheid imposed on us for long enough to understand and respect people of your ilk. We suffered Verwoerd, Vorster, Botha (talk about security of tenure—these guys put the stereotypical 'African dictator' to shame) and De Klerk and plead guilty to Burke's charge that we suffer a "deep inclination ... to favor an indirect and conspiratorial understanding and framing of political causality and political speech."
So what? Like Horowtiz, we learned some 350 years ago that—at certain times—politics is war, its objective being to destroy your enemy. Which, in the 1990s, we did. Screw Burke's manipulative apologia and Nunes's mix of Occam's Razor and...well, nonsense. It might come as something of a surprise to you and your fellow Republicans, Joseph, but it's not only Arab fundamentalists that despise Republican reptiles (see David Icke). Most of us do, but you'd have to blow the planet to rid yourself of us.
Good grief man, simple math renders 150m rednecks somewhat insignificant in the face of 5bn detractors. As ordinary people we base our policy and strategy on the harsh reality we are faced with. And this reality is that we are still suffering under American foreign policy.
Speaking of Horowitz, by the way, couldn't he do better than to advertise his book, destructive generation, on FrontPageMag.com as being "...Updated, Expanded...and Discounted!"? I mean, we discounted it on publication but, really, should its author do so?
Of course, my anger at your shabby treatment and complete misunderstanding of the Archbishop's statement does not detract from my respect for the Republicans creating, perpetuating, and exporting Wealth Bondage while Democrats, locked in its embrace, discuss and profit from its detail.
Take, for example, this snippet from a Mike Whitney article citing many analysts I enjoy reading: "Nimmo is not alone in his judgment. Other prominent analysts including, Pepe Escobar, Ghali Hassan, AK Gupta, Dahr Jamail, and Christian Parenti all agree that the Bush administration appears to be inciting civil war as part of an exit strategy."
Fools. You and I both know the Bush administration to be inciting civil war as its primary tool of occupation. I said as much back in 2003. 'Fragmentation' is the name of the game. But they will learn. 'Divide and Rule' dictates power being usurped by the divisive third party.
In South Africa's case—though never on the scale of Iraq, black ops by the SAP, CCB and the Vlakplaas guys set the ANC and IFP at each others throats, their death squads roaming the countryside, massacring hundreds.
It's a short to medium-term political strategy, with long-term social consequences. "Rubbish," said the whites and their press at the time. The guilty later paraded before the Archbishop's TRC, detailing the extent and savagery of their crimes.
"She just wants money for booze," sneered my overly wealthy and under informed Zimbabwean-farming sister-in-law, exiting the mall, her car packed with goods, dismissing an impoverished beggar at the streetlights. WB sets the haves against the have-nots, and both are its victims. In Zimbabwe, Mugabe smiles. While he's empowered by a few hundred white farmers, his people starve.
We who now fight WB from South Africa used many of its tactics in the run up to the '94 democratic elections. For example, once we'd cleared the way to democracy, we promised our people free housing. As we both know, there is no such thing in WB. In the loo leading off the Hani Memorial Hall, I have a poster promising our youth a free, quality education. That all we managed was a quality-free education decided the poster's position some ten years later.
It is true that you can find a free lunch in Africa, but you are always it.
Otherwise, we are pretty much the same as you Americans. The Tutor understands this and does not seek physical relocation from his dumpster. From a shack in Khayalisha on the sandy wastes of the Cape Flats, you can see Table Mountain far better than you can from the green-leaf suburbs sheltering beneath its bulk. Similarly, Tutor evinces great understanding of the American body politic.
Unlike those feeding and patting the Republican elephant, mistaking its parts for an illusory whole, the Tutor's view from the dumpster ensures he sees it as it is.
The trouble with you people, Joseph, is that you're both smart and dumb. You build the elephant and then you bow before it, expecting others to do the same. The Tutor will not. Like Chris Locke, Brother Marek, other EGR Irregulars and countless virgins residing sumptuously at The Jesus Bunker, the Tutor's free house lies not in Wealth Bondage, but in one of our Father's Many Mansions.
Were you, Joseph, able to rediscover your faith in human nature and Other Things (the Presidential Prayer Team and Landover Baptist come well recommended), I'm sure you would forgive your Father His Heavy Hand, lower your trousers, and proffer the other cheek.
It will not release you from Wealth Bondage but, with the Purple People Eater ready to liberate worthy souls from its vile clutches (like our week-long series of blackouts, WB cuts both ways), it might make it far easier for you to bear.
"I am going to stay on top of this little development. And if cancer wins in this world, I am going to move on to the next world. Either way I have an important role to play."
Nelson Mandela
Note: Over at Global Research, Michael Keefer sketches the economic rationale for McPatriot using dumpster-busters to pre-emptively dislodge the Tutor from his abode, while Michel Chossudovsky plays devil's advocate in two parts, suggesting the use of people-friendly coercion might reflect poorly on Wealth Bondage. Wimps.
