Brown-nosing Bush

Brown by the nose...

In April, Des Browne told MPs that "the UK has received no request from the US to use RAF Menwith Hill for missile-defence-related activities". That, until last week, was all that parliament knew. Now we discover that the proposition had been made and accepted before MPs had a chance to discuss it. Browne was in the house on Wednesday, when he made some announcements about aircraft carriers and the military budget. These - because they were delivered in person - could be discussed, though (shamefully) neither of them provoked any opposition. But knowing that the Menwith Hill decision would be furiously opposed, Browne released it in the form of a written statement, which cannot be debated.

Like everyone on the left in Britain, I wanted to believe that Gordon Brown's politics would be more progressive than Tony Blair's. But as he grovels before the seat of empire, I realise that those of us who demand even a vaguely sane foreign policy will find ourselves in permanent opposition. With his appointment of Digby Jones as trade minister and his plans for deregulation, Brown demonstrated that the government is still mesmerised by big business. By proposing that suspects be held for up to 56 days without charge, he appears to share Tony Blair's distrust of liberty. Now, in one furtive decision, he reveals both his contempt for parliament and his enthusiasm for the neocon project. What, I wonder, is there left to hope for?

George Monbiot | Brown's contempt for democracy has dragged Britain into a new cold war

Brown, Blair, Brown, Blair, Brown, Blair? Spot the difference? I can't. Call it what you like; it's still Brown-nosing Bush.

The Hard Stuff

Blasted before takeoff...

The panel report says that on two occasions astronauts flew even after doctors and other astronauts warned they were a flight risk because they were drunk.

The report also talks of "heavy use of alcohol" by astronauts within the 12-hour period before launch.

Globe and Mail | NASA's latest blunder? Astronauts driving drunk

Meanwhile, engineers checking the shuttle Endeavour, which is on the launchpad at Florida's Cape Canaveral space centre ahead of its scheduled lift-off to the international space station on August 7, found electrical wires on a computerised monitoring device had been cut.

[...]

The miserable day for Nasa was rounded off last night when a veteran worker at the Kennedy Space Centre pleaded guilty in court to stealing $150,000 (£75,000) of agency money. Elizabeth Osborne, 52, who had worked at Cape Canaveral for more than 30 years, faces up to 10 years in jail.

Guardian | Drunk astronauts go from Right Stuff to the hard stuff

Passing Out...

...with distinction

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll | We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing | As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds | Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

It didn't concern me that he was sleeping under a shop awning — many do up and down Main Road; what bothered me was that he was sleeping under the synoptic chart below. I gave up on lightning shots around midnight — just as the sky cracked in two, light ripped the clouds, and rain came down in sheets. "Ah, fuck it," I thought, put the camera away and went to bed.


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Today, tens of thousands of Capetonians, more susceptible to TB than the residents of any other city, are facing a weekend of abject misery — cold, wet, and homeless. The townships and informal settlements on the Cape Flats are floating atop a frigid lake of freezing, potentially poisonous water.

I'm not kidding when I say "People are dying out there."

567 CapeTalk, at the behest of the City's Disaster Management Committee, is calling for blankets, food, money, or whatever those not drowning can give. If you have something to spare, visit The 567 Cape Talk Blanket Drive and give as generously as you can. We don't have squat for refugees, so we're speaking newborns and geriatrics up to their necks in freezing mud.

I'll now settle down to a nice, warm supper.

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight | Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight | An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night | An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Bob Dylan | Chimes of Freedom

Silent Green

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Few of the rosy futurists foresee anything but ever-greater peaks of affluence among an ever-larger pool of players. I think they have been watching too many installments of "Richistan" on cable TV. My own notion is that capital will dry up quicker than rain on a Scottsdale patio as our energy predicament becomes apparent, since expectations of future growth (of economies and the capital representing them) are keyed to an assumption of unlimited energy resources.

When the truth finally hits — that there are real limits to the things of this world — it will knock the capital markets on their asses. We will see large numbers of men wearing Rolex watches weep into crumpled certificates as the tranches of hallucinated wealth dissolve in the mists of their hopes and dreams. This means, at least, that investment in technology R and D on the grand scale will probably not meet our current expectations.

In any case, it is getting pretty late in the day for us to just kick back and nurture fantasies about the future of technology while the prospect of an oil export shock resolves more vividly before us — the first symptom of an industry that will shortly fly to pieces. Of course the very last thing we should be doing — which everyone from the Nascar morons to the Ivy League "greenies" is doing — is focus all effort on how to keep the American automobile fleet running by some magic means other than gasoline.

I say, just as a mental jump-start, let's put at least some of that effort into getting the choo-choo trains running again — but this is too silly for the boys at MIT or even the Pentagon.

James Kunstler | Peak Tech?


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A couple of weeks ago (?), somebody was probing Telkom or Eskom (our telecoms and electricity supply monopolies) for details of their environmental programme. Nothing was forthcoming and, despite reassuring words from government, it seems nobody with any clout gives a damn about Al Gore's ticket to ride, i.e. global warming.

At work, it seems people think local in the hope that their practices will be adopted globally, much like our suppliers. We have paper, plastic and glass recycling bins throughout the office and our chief paper manufacturer and supplier, Nampak, proclaims loudly on the side of its bins:

The Earth can't keep giving. Put something back.

You can tell where I'm going with this, can't you?


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What a bunch of hosers. What lame-brained losers. What fuckwits. Jesus, their naivety is matched only by Nampak's greed-driven cynicism, demanding that its ever-voracious customers pay for and collect its waste paper for it. (Their customers also pay for their export of pulp, huge shareholder dividends and middle-management luxury German sedans.)

Are these in-house recyclers as naive as they appear at first glance?

Like Kunstler, I consider vehicular traffic. It's the bane of my life. It represents everything that is mediocre about us. Queues, toxic emissions, environmental destruction and degradation, ghastly dealerships and equally noxious salesmen, inflated profits, noise, road rage, and death of the most violent and tragic kind are its stock in trade.

With a cigarette in my mouth, I strolled through a mall some ten years ago. A passing woman made as if to evade me, muttering "Disgusting habit." I spun around. "Go suck your exhaust," I responded. It's one of those times you say what you think when you want to say it.


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Rounding on smokers, increasing numbers of motorists are doing irreparable harm to the environment. So-called utility trucks roar by leaving in their wake gases more deadly than Depleted Uranium. What would it take to stop the insanity? If science is to be believed and a Martian future to be avoided, we need to park our motor vehicles this evening, throw away the keys, and get ready to deal with the ramifications of our past follies, a lifting of global dimming and an inevitable increase in global warming.

We'd buy ourselves some time. But at what cost? Our economies would probably take a day or two to collapse and we'd be wise to use the time stocking up on whatever food, water, and arbiters of safety and security we could. Big guns would be good. Anarchy would break out before the evening news and, over months, who knows how many would die?

We'd be without all that which we now take for granted; we'd have regressed a century or two in a matter of weeks. And few would survive the transition.

But better that than a lunar future, eh?


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I think not.

And, deep down, I think the paper recyclers know it too. Their idiotic tipping of their caps to a sustainable way of life belies their determination to carry on as usual. Kunstler's fools, those who believe tech will deliver the goods, are as smart as my workmates. Tech is most of the problem and none of the solution, but it's something we dare not do without.

They know that and, like George W. Bush, wield their duplicity as a virtue.

And so we indulge the irrational, the psychotic, the lame, and the insane. We pretend to be that which we are not. And most of us are damned good at it. Eventually though, we start believing our own propaganda. Saps. With increasing numbers of role models populating the Earth, stripping it of its resources, we are becoming our irrationalities and psychoses and, given their nature and pathologies, we cannot deal with them.

Put simply, as the planet dies beneath our feet, we'd rather go nuts than do anything meaningful to resuscitate it. As a species, we're remarkably dumb. Sure, we're capable of great things, but so are cockroaches — in their own way. Even our brightest are usually clueless, destined to burn out nameless, faceless and graceless.


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I don't mind. It's not my problem. I can always get out of the city and find a quiet spot to park off. My loathing of litter has less to do with being "Green" than it has to do with detesting mess and being reminded of others' thoughtlessness or indifference.

The militant Greens? I dig 'em. They ensure our hypocrisy is writ large on the walls of our psyches. We eulogise them as we despise them. They remind us that although we could do something about it, we choose to die with our MP3 players clamped to our brains, our eyes glued to our monitors.

There's no blame here, by the way. We are, after all, human and entitled to determine the time and nature of our extinction. So that we may save the whales, or the dolphins, or the bald-headed eagle. Or something.

Naturally.

The tech world's modern, shiny, gleaming carapace relies on the aging infrastructure of the now-aging information era and the rusting and creaking late industrial era below that. We are only a few tremors — or a tsunami or hurricane — away from dropping back into a pre-wired reality.

Stowe Boyd | Power Outage At The Epicenter

Questions

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What good am I then to others and me | If I've had every chance and yet still fail to see | If my hands tied must I not wonder within | Who tied them and why and where must I have been

What good am I if I say foolish things | And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings | And I just turn my back while you silently die, | What good am I?

Bob Dylan | What Good Am I?

I dig monkeys, by the way. This little guy's from the Buffels Bay Chacma baboon troop. I've been chatting to Leslie about them. She's stellar. I'd fight in her army any day — Madame's that is.

Frenchy and The Brain

Click to increase your I.Q.

I could be wrong, but I think that revolution is coming — and it’s coming sooner than you think. The American people have been hoodwinked and intimidated for a long time, but we’re reaching a tipping point where public outrage will overpower fear. And that’s what revolution is — organized rage directed at the government. That’s why they want to keep us apart, and spy on us, and follow our every movement. They want absolute power. It’s their dream. It is the dream of evil men everywhere. But it will fail — because everything they’ve tried so far has failed. And because the culture of freedom is stronger than the cynical schemes of demagogues.

Mike Whitney | "We know things are bad. Worse than bad. They’re crazy"

Whitney, Jamail and Floyd. Three reasonable men trying the impossible. What a blinder. Great writers, they're part of the new breed succeeding the Fisks, Pilgers, Cockburns, Kleins and Chomskys to try ramping up the Fourth Estate to a position of respectability.

They're doomed. Whitney allows that he "could be wrong" and, in the context of his article, is. First, these guys see a bit further down the road than most ordinary folk. I've little time for ordinary folk. They're like the French civil servant with the cranium filled with bottled water. His brain is the size of a bacon rasher and, though he has an IQ of 70 (reports differ), he's not considered remedial or retarded.

With an IQ of 70 or 75 he may make an ideal civil servant but, in my book, he's as dumb as a pike.

I'm intolerant. Bigoted. And I don't give a damn. Too many dumb people have been given too much respect for far too long. Look where it's got us. Mike Whitney predicts revolution in the U.S.A. Ho ho ho. 300 million Twinky-guzzling slugs taking to the streets, manning the barricades, and torching the Capitol? You betcha. The average USian is quite content to let George Inc. feed his or her insatiable appetite for more of the same. Americans (like most of us) follow the piper, no matter his tune.


Click to enlarge your brain...

In one of their leaflets, the members of the White Rose wrote, "We are your bad conscience." They were asking Germans to rise above the old, degenerate concept of patriotism that entailed blindly supporting one’s government in time of war. They were asking German soldiers to rise above the old, degenerate concept of blind obedience to orders. They were asking Germans to confront openly the rumors of what German officials were doing to the Jews in the concentration camps. They were asking German citizens, both civilian and military, to make an independent judgment on both the Hitler regime and the war, to judge both the government and the war as immoral and illegitimate, and to take the necessary steps to put a stop to both.

They were asking Germans to embrace a different and higher concept of patriotism — one that involves a devotion to a set of moral principles and values rather than blind allegiance to one’s government in time of war. It was a type of patriotism that involved opposition to one’s own government, especially in time of war, when government is engaged in conduct that violates moral principles and values.

Jacob G. Hornberger | Why Germans Supported Hitler

Most considered Hans and Sophie Scholl brainless. Hindsight tells us they weren't. While most Germans reasonably took Hitler at face value, members of the White Rose — at odds with their society, pointed out, "Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes ... reach the light of day?" Like our Whitneys and Floyds, they saw down the road a ways. And let's not give mentally challenged people too hard a time. As an astute reader of Wired's take on the French DeadHead pointed out, "Probably make a better president then the one we got."

Tom Feeley's collated these articles over at InformationClearingHouse. Their juxtaposition is remarkable.


Click to take over the world...

George Bush entered office with an approval rating around 50%. It rose a little at first, then slumped moderately as the Cook Report suggested. Everything changed dramatically September 11. Bush's rating skyrocketed instantly hitting a temporary high around 90% and remained above 80% through year end. That momentous day transformed a mediocre president overnight with some observers incredibly comparing him to Lincoln, FDR and Churchill combined.

It was laughable then and ludicrous now for a pathetic caricature of a president and man so hated he's barely able to hang on to avoid what growing vocal numbers in the country demand - his head and removal from office by impeachment along with Vice-President Cheney.

Stephen Lenderman | Saving a President

Now that the troops have been dispatched to fight another war for vested interests, fun, and profit, who can blame the average American for not turning against an administration that has abrogated to its executive absolute power? I don't. But that doesn't let anybody off the hook. Even our French civil servant, no matter how quietly lobotomised, is expected to behave as a normal, functioning human being. He did. And does.

Would he stand for this?

At his July 12 news conference, George Bush raised the specter of Al-Queda's threat to the US citing the above-mentioned intelligence report as supposed evidence. He then resurrected a timeworn long ago discredited golden oldie saying "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September 11. That's why what happens in Iraq matters to security here at home." Unmentioned anywhere in the mainstream, of course, is the long-standing relationship between "Enemy Number One" bin Laden, Al-Queda and US and allied intelligence and how they're used in the fraudulent "war on terrorism" to manipulate and scare the public enough to go along with anything.

These comments, published assessments from The National Intelligence Estimate, inflammatory remarks from officials like Michael Chertoff, and accompanying dominant media hyperventilating effectively stoke public fear and may point to a major terror attack ahead on US soil. It will trigger a Code Red Alert if it happens signaling the highest terrorist threat level followed by the likely suspension of the Constitution, imposition of martial law, and end of the republic. The rule of law will be suspended, dissent no longer will be tolerated (it's already illegal), the military and other security forces will be involved on US soil in strength if needed, and an unmasked full-blown fascist police state will, in fact, henceforth exist.

Stephen Lenderman | Saving a President

I doubt it. The worm will not turn and there will be no revolution. Things will get far worse before they get any better.


Click because George told you to...

The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals ... Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!

Hans and Sophie Scholl | The White Rose

On The Beach...

Muizenberg sunrise...

Girls' faces formed the forward path | From phony jealousy | To memorizing politics | Of ancient history | Flung down by corpse evangelists | Unthought of, though, somehow. | Ah, but I was so much older then, | I'm younger than that now.

I despise the internet. It's irresponsible and, often, a net of hate. And I don't have time for Blogopops. But here's a tale of two gutless newspapers which explains why more and more people are Googling rather than turning pages.

First the Los Angeles Times. Last year, reporter Mark Arax was assigned a routine story on the 1915 genocide of one and a half million Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish authorities. Arax's report focused on divisions within the local Jewish community over whether to call the genocide a genocide.

Robert Fisk | No Wonder the Bloggers are Winning

Dunno what old Fisky would do without the Internet but, given that even the "best and brightest" are known to make mistakes, I suspect he means the Web. And the lowercase 'i' leads me to suspect it to be irony rather than ignorance.

Given most of the shite on the Web, I don't blame Fisk. Given the good stuff, I think he's an asshole for dismissing it (or despising it) so easily and readily. I mean, Chrissakes, he'll find me on facebook.

Never mind. It's the substance of his article — the supine obsequiousness of the mainstream press, that matters. Fisk left The Times because they censored his laboriously researched article on the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers and crew, by the inept, irresponsible, and overly aggressive officer corps of the U.S.S. Vincennes. That he worked for them in the first place is not Fisky's best recommendation, but his move to The Independent commends both the paper and, probably, its most irascible journalist — I imagine him to be a rather "prickly fella".

In his superbly compiled tome, The Great War for Civilisation, Fisk argues as passionately as he is able to for recognition of the 1915 Armenian Holocaust. Understandably, global duplicity and deceit surrounding Holocaust Memorial Day horrifies a person of his standing, profession, and integrity. It should mortify most so-called journalists working the international scene today.

One thing our intrepid Middle-East correspondent seems to incidentally note is the relationship between "hate" and what he calls the "Blogopops". Typically, most successful blogs are one-sided and shallow, spewing a vicious, ill-educated hatred of any view other than that which they espouse. Intolerance has been globalised and nowhere more so than on the Web.

And here, I suppose, I should admit to both a darker side of myself and to being a part of Web duplicity. I profess a loathing of Zionists, the Bush administration and, as far as people are concerned, I have roundly condemned neocon apologist Thomas Barnett. If truth be told, I hold nothing personal against Barnett. Ad hominem attacks are made easy by the Web, but they are as virtual as their target. I don't know the man from a bar of soap in a Grimsby-on-Grime washroom, so cannot pronounce on his character or lack thereof.

However, his views echo those that gave us Iraq, the Occupied Territories, Vietnam, WWII, "The Holocaust", and the Armenian Holocaust. So I do take issue with his propaganda.

Fisk's second example is a piece of reportage in the Toronto Globe and Mail that exposes the hypocrisy of francophone Quebec. It was swiftly wrapped in the editor's weasel words and buried in platitudes by Hydra-headed Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.

So, yeah, Fisky. The blogs might — for the most part — be shite, but they are winning the integrity battle, aren't they?

Now I happen to know a bit about the Globe's "quality control process". Some time ago, I discovered that the paper had reprinted an article of mine from The Independent about the Armenian genocide. But they had tampered with it, altering my word "genocide" to read "tragedy".

The Independent's subscribers promise to make no changes to our reports. But when our syndication folk contacted the Globe, they discovered that the Canadian paper had simply stolen the article. They were made to pay a penalty fee. But as for the censorship of the word "genocide", a female executive explained to The Independent that nothing could be done because the editor responsible had "since left the Globe and Mail".

It's the same old story, isn't it? Censor then whinge, then cut and run. No wonder the bloggers are winning.

Robert Fisk | No Wonder the Bloggers are Winning


The S.S. Thomas T. Tucker...

A self-ordained professor's tongue | Too serious to fool | Spouted out that liberty | Is just equality in school | "Equality," I spoke the word | As if a wedding vow. | Ah, but I was so much older then, | I'm younger than that now.

The American Bureau of Shipping tells us 2,751 Liberty vessels were built during WWII. The Liberty ship was a large, unwieldy, slow and ugly production-line, rapid-build cargo and troop ship. Built in modular, pre-assembled, interchangeable sections, average production time dropped from 108 days in 1942 to 50 days in 1943.

Wikipedia says the 269th Liberty ship, the 7,000-ton SS Thomas T. Tucker was laid down in Houston on June 16, 1942 and launched 76 days later, on August 31, 1942. Eighty-eight days thereafter, on her maiden voyage from New Orleans to Suez and without loss of life, she stove into the forbidding coast at Olifantsbos Point, a couple of miles from Cape Point.

This summer, long after most of the other 2,750 Liberty ships built have disappeared, you'll be able to visit her in the berth she has occupied for 65 years.

Initially christened an 'ugly duckling' by Roosevelt — who later (and publicly) called the ships 'dreadful looking objects', the Liberty fleet's custodian, Rear Admiral Emory S. Land of the U.S. Maritime Commission, bluntly referred to them as 'the expendables'.

About a kilometre away from the Thomas T. Tucker, on the other side of the point, little remains of the Nolloth, a 500-ton Dutch coaster carrying a cargo of liquor and other goods that struck Albatross Rock on April 30, 1965. Her crew lifted ashore by a Westland Wasp, the Nolloth and her cargo were salvaged, the goods and materials being carted to the Cape Town road along a purpose-specific path. Most of the visible wreckage either washed ashore or was left by the salvors.


The Nolloth...

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand | At the mongrel dogs who teach | Fearing not that I'd become my enemy | In the instant that I preach | My pathway led by confusion boats | Mutiny from stern to bow. | Ah, but I was so much older then, | I'm younger than that now.

While some dream dreams, others live them. Perhaps Caspar dreams of a family, children and the settled routine of suburbia. By the time I was 23 I was living that one. I've subsequently learned that it's a dream without end, one from which I'll never awaken. So what? I have other dreams, one of which Caspar is living.

We met at around age six. We were, as I've noted elsewhere, beaten by nuns and grounded in virtue and vice at the kindergarten adjoining the then-imposing Christ the King Catholic Church. It was a harsh start, but we survived and, from what I can gather, both went on to become highly successful reprobates.

I lost touch with Caspar some 40 years ago, but a mutual friend put us back in touch. I remain in Cape Town; he is undergoing his apprenticeship (a la Gordon Sumner and Paul Simon) as a shaman in the Amazonian jungles of Peru.

I have written often of travelling the river, of nubile young women of unquestionable virtue, of savage hordes of Guatemalan pygmies, of surfing the great waterfalls of central Africa, of the spiritual quest we all — in one form or another, undertake. I intend, over the next few days, or weeks...reproducing some of them here, to honour a friend who did not dream the dream. He went out and lived it.

I was thinking of this when Zonker and the Dutch Boy came around Saturday evening. I'd fallen on some rocks while taking some snaps of shipwrecks in desert spaces and so had my left forearm strapped into my skateboard wrist guard. It eased the pain, but I could not go out.

We smoked a couple of spliffs and then, as befits elders who have either reached or will soon reach their fiftieth year, considered the state of the world. We then considered the state of my neighbours, who might or might not be up to the crazed conversations of old men jabbering away at two o' clock in the morning.

"They moved out last month," Wendy reminded me. "Somebody's been cleaning the place this past week. I think it's being let it from the end of this month."

"They'd better not allow a bunch of kids move in," observed Zonker.

He had a point. Quite what it was, I forget.

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats | Too noble to neglect | Deceived me into thinking | I had something to protect | Good and bad, I define these terms | Quite clear, no doubt, somehow. | Ah, but I was so much older then, | I'm younger than that now.

Bob Dylan | My Back Pages

Just Us Served

Refusing to play the Plame game...

"The alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory," Bates wrote. "But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials."

Washington Post | Plame's Suit Against Top Officials Dismissed

If they expose your war crimes, they die.

Cheney, Libby, Rove, and Armitage are, when all is said and done, honorable men. They were just doing the job for which you were elected. 'Sides, what are a few dead spooks between friends when hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead or dying for you to bring democracy to their land?

They need help; not spoilers. You need oil, not peaceniks. Hence your chokehold on Iran. Here's what you need to do.

Send more troops to Iraq. Pump up the al-Qaida myth, put the military into Pakistan now that you've bought India and squeeze the Ayatollah's men from the east. Move the 'best and brightest' into Africa to counter the Chinese economy. Broaden the war in the Middle East to level the playing fields and anything else in sight.

Bomb Beirut and rip the Horn of Africa to shreds. Run false-flag operations everywhere. Set up missile defense shields around the Caspian and demand democracy for Kosovo. Get Ban Ki-moon to sort it out. Make no mention of Pyongyang and swap Taipei for Tokyo.

Tear up some treaties. Protocols. Whatever...

Get Blair, Brown, and every other tinpot dictator and CIA asset on to Abbas and Hamas. Let 'em kill each other. For Arik's sake. Torture people whenever possible and boil 'em alive when necessary. Attend a military funeral or go laugh at the freaks at Walter Reed. Just for fun. Destabilize Lebanon, divide Palestine, demonize Syria and threaten Russia. Send HK and the good ol' boys from Carlyle to whack Putin.

Create 'international incidents' whenever you can; even when laughable. Get Chertoff to come up with some outlandish terror threats and Intelligence Estimates. Send Dostum a gift, send more bombs to Israel, and clear some brush down at Crawford. Fatten Dick's friends with outsized no-bid contracts, strip the domestic economy, screw Medicare, drill Alaska, tear up the EPA, and give the proceeds to the rich.

Sow terror and legislate accordingly.

Repeat 'homeland', 'Al-Kayda', and 'Eye-rak' without cease and, above all, keep those oilfields in mind. Kill Chavez and send his head to Morales. Pump the export of security to keep the economy going.

Ensure Diebold put that Clinton bitch into the White House and, before you go — if you decide to — take Bin Laden out to lunch and nuke Tehran.

After that, deny everything. It works every time.

Who the fuck are these Plame people anyway?

The Romany Line

"Like some raven..."

Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem | Cannot hold you to its heat. | Your temperature's too hot for taming, | Your flaming feet burn up the street. | I am homeless, come and take me | Into reach of your rattling drums. | Let me know, babe, about my fortune | Down along my restless palms.

I'm intrigued by the origin of my name. Cathryn pointed out an interesting link to the Golbys of southern England — apparently the Golbys are a well-known Gypsy family (among 130 or so names).

My grandfather, a midlander, came out to South Africa at age 19 in 1910. I know he had a half-brother named Frank (probably Francis) and his father was Thomas Golby, who, an old newspaper clipping tells me, retired as Chief Constable of Coventry. That's as far as it goes. After that, and besides a link to the Gobles — another Gypsy name providing a link between north and south — through my paternal grandmother, nada-zippo-zilch. I'm keen to find out more.

We're Midlanders, Gypsies, consummate professionals, and bloggers to boot. Perhaps myriad more besides.

Irish for starters and thanks to my maternal grandparents — clerics rather than tinkers. We make for a broad church indeed.

I been wond'rin' all about me | Ever since I seen you there. | On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I'm riding, | I know I'm 'round you but I don't know where. | You have slayed me, you have made me, | I got to laugh halfways off my heels. | I got to know, babe, will I be touching you | So I can tell if I'm really real.

Bob Dylan | Spanish Harlem Incident

The Surge

The Bombing of Baghdad

"Rebellion must have an unassailable base ... in the minds of men converted to its creed. It must have a sophisticated alien enemy, in the form of a disciplined army of occupation too small to fulfil the doctrine of acreage: too few to adjust number to space, in order to dominate the whole area effectively from fortified posts.

"It must have a friendly population, not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements to the enemy. Rebellions can be made by 2 per cent active in a striking force, and 98 per cent passively sympathetic ... Granted mobility, security ... time, and doctrine ... victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and spirit struggle quite in vain."

T.E. Lawrence (1917) quoted by Robert Fisk in TE Lawrence had it right about Iraq.

Sunset on Dissent

Security has not gotten better in the West Bank and Gaza. Not even in Jerusalem. In fact, it's gotten worse because there is a systematic campaign underway to kill Israeli children in schools, worshippers in synagogues and soldiers on patrol. Some say this war is sponsored by Arafat and his murderous minions. Clearly, he's paid only the most transparent lip service to "condemnation" of terror attacks against Israelis. His Fatah organization has sponsored and conducted many of these attacks, including some of the most recent.

Harley Carnes | Mr. President, PLEASE listen to this Democrat!

I now listen to 567 Cape Talk in the morning...on my way to work. It revs me up, makes me see red, and gets me fighting mad. Its an ideal warm-up for the working day. How does morning host Aden Thomas do it?

At 06:50, he crosses to WCBS wing-nut Harley Carnes, who delivers the U.S. Report from New York City.

Last week Carnes described anti-war former soccer mom Cindy Sheehan — who has threatened to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — as "...the darling of the far, far, far left".

Huh?

He then went on to call her views on "the war" so-out-of-the-ballpark that her eminently sensible husband divorced her.

What an asshole.



Thank God I don't get to hear CapeTalk's UK correspondent, Adam Gilchrist, a "British Forces radio journalist" bound to give a well-embedded view on what's happening in Britain and its environs.

Using YouTube, I later watched Michael Moore being interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. I believe Blitzer is well-known in the United States and serves his employer's interests well. Moore ripped into CNN's 'medical expert', Sanjay Gupta, for misrepresenting his latest movie before lambasting Blitzer for his continued support of the illegal Iraqi invasion and occupation.

Blitzer took his pasting well; not answering a damned thing. When Moore faded from the screen, and in a moment not included in the transcript, Blitzer's co-host Lou Dobbs — trying to take the sizzle off a singed steak — turned to Blitzer and congratulated him on surviving a man "more of a left-wing promoter than Hugo Chavez, for crying out loud."

Michael Moore?

You know things are out of control when, on network T.V., the middle-of-the-road likes of Moore and Sheehan are described as demented radicals.

But you really know the end is nigh when you discover that Ward Churchill, a former associate professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, is about to be fired for writing the only sensible, articulate article to come out of the United States in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.



As the dust of the WTC settled, Americans asked "Why?"

The undoubtedly flamboyant Churchill told them why in an article entitled "Some People Push Back:" On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. There's nothing weird or radical about his piece. Written informally, it gives an unvarnished, personal view that concurs with and gives voice to globally favored opinion.

It seems that while I've been sleeping, Churchill has been subjected to one of the most pernicious, poisonous, vengeful, hate-filled witch hunts in academic history.

The messenger is about to lose his head. It's The American Way.

There is something very strange taking place in the United States. Subject to the incessant bombardment of network bullshit, most Americans seem to have disconnected absolutely from reality. I'm not speaking the usual Sean Hannity, Anne Coulter, JesusCamp crap here.

I'm speaking psychosis. To use Tommy Barnett's facile terminology, the Core has become the Gap.

Cindy Sheehan is no "left-wing radical." Nor is Michael Moore.

Trust me.



The twisted disinformation spread by the likes of Carnes, Blitzer and his co-host, and by those who seek Churchill's ouster — notably Bill O'Reilly, is broadcast worldwide. While some swallow it, most find it chilling.

I've a feeling Churchill's dismissal will mark the end of what little dissent remains in the United States. Deviation from the official, impossibly far-fetched line — on any aspect of the Global War of Terror, will count as a treasonable offense, the punishment for which will be appropriately severe.

And people like Churchill are being replaced. Scruggsy introduced me to the ghastly reality of America's academic future. Donald Douglas blogs under the banner Burkean Reflections and is a self-professed "pro-victory associate professor of political science" in Orange County, California.

"I love the United States of America, and I fully support current U.S. military operations around the world," oozes our new, pre-packaged, saccharin-coated conventional wisdom.

It's truly horrendous stuff.



Those who brought about this untenable situation are going to get off scot-free. More, for a short while they will inherit the Earth.

Many "little Eichmanns", however, will end up in the ghettos.

Ward Churchill's "hearing" is on July 24.

I've work to go to in a few hours time. I wonder what Harley Carnes (who, no doubt, considers himself sane) will come up with tomorrow.

Arafat says U.S. aid does not pay for terrorism. No. U.S. aid goes to pay for everything else. That way the Authority can use its own money to buy the bombs.

Harley Carnes | Mr. President, PLEASE listen to this Democrat!

Read my lips, Harley. You're no good at this stuff. You're forever backing the wrong horse.

Note: Jesus, what crap. Harley ruined my morning endorsing the sick sentiments of U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in an NPR interview.

We need to fight this enemy operationally, we need to fight it ideologically, in terms of our values and principles and alternative vision. And that's going to be a long-term challenge, not just for the United States, but really for many nations — friends and allies around the world, who stand for a positive vision rather than a negative vision. And that, I think, is the thing the American people understand.

We have a major challenge that we are in some sense in the opening hours of. And what we need to do as a nation is come together and put in place the tools we need both to wage the operational war and also to wage the war of ideas. This administration has made a start at doing that. We, obviously, need the support of Congress and the American people. But it is also going to be a vocation for the administrations that come after this country [sic]. And I think it is one of the challenges our generation faces. We've started on that effort, and I'm confident the American people, as they have in the past, will rise to the challenge and will do it.

Do I really have to listen to this stuff?

No. I'll stick to the afternoon show.

Sensing the Soul

Photo: Caspar Greeff

"Last night I was one of the participants at the opening ceremony of the Temple of the Way of Light. I met a blind master shaman who sees with crystal clarity, I spoke to a man who intends to change the world, I flirted with a beautiful woman who shoots a .22 Winchester rifle from the hip, I heard the songs that delight the spirits of the rainforest, I smelt the rich arboreal air of the lung of the Earth, I tasted hope, I felt joy... and I was given a new heart.

Ooh, what a night.

But let´s start at the beginning."

You should too. To date, Caspar has delivered thirteen dispatches from the heart of the Amazon. Read 'em.

Wonders never cease...

Small wonder...

Typically, using our media in bent ways to meet twisted ends, we've convinced ourselves we have seven new Wonders of the World. Seven of twenty-one finalists fought, by means fair and foul, their way to the top of around 100 million votes.

"India’s Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil’s statue of Christ Redeemer, Peru’s Machu Picchu, Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid and the Colosseum in Rome have now replaced the original wonders..." reports The Times.

It goes on to tell us, "Among the sites which missed out were Stonehenge, the Acropolis, the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island, the Statue of Liberty and Sydney's Opera House."

Had the above six been accorded the dubious honour bestowed on the final seven, I reckon the contest's credibility would have sunk beneath its present authority rating of zero.

"The original seven wonders of the ancient world were concentrated in the Mediterranean and Middle East, but most have since ceased to exist. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria have all vanished. Only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains and will retain its status as a world wonder."

Unless you want to take a gander at the marvels of choice, let's leave it at that. Everything else is marketing. For what it's worth, and on considering the question of modern wonders, my ad hoc seven would be:

• Spring
• Footprints on the moon
• The motion of the sea
• Human nature
• Global warming
• Entropy
• Quantum mechanics

These things, signifiers all, encompass much and never cease to amaze me. I know nothing of quantum mechanics, but the idea that everything can be reduced to energy operating in fields has always fascinated me.

And those footprints on the moon will be there long after the Great Pyramid at Giza and its new companions have turned to a dust in which all that will evident will be the footprint of our collective passing.

Alternatively, I'd opt for this response to The Times article.

I know two wonders of the world.
1. is the wonder bra.
2. is wonder woman.

those are not wonders, but mere tourist spots.

Jorge

I think Jorge needs help with his grammar. Then again, maybe he doesn't. Either way, he has a greater appreciation of wonder and makes for a more discerning tourist than the 100 million that enhanced the revenue potential of several travel destinations. He's on the right track.

As was Shah Jahan.

Grabouw Cell Deaths Update

Each day, I listen more attentively to 567 Cape Talk on the way to and from work. John Maytham's locum, Mike Wills, today gave further news on the death in police custody of 55-year old builder Peter Wheeler. The station sent reporter Warda Meyer into the field and she followed the story to source. It's good stuff, albeit a bit watered down. Warda told us of the friendly, cooperative police working in the charge office, separated from the depressing, mould-infested cell block some ten meters away.

Apparently the wind howling between the buildings makes it impossible for anybody in the charge office to hear what's going on in the cells.

My natural skepticism and experience of the police is that they have their PR down pat. Their front-of-office facade is obliging and helpful (especially when the night's intake have headed off to court) but, as soon as you leave, your docket heads for File 13. At night, put a few prisoners and bored cops together, throw a bit of alcohol into the mix, and the change in their demeanor borders on the psychotic.

On several occasions, Wills alluded to a 'cover up' and I reckon he has it right. And, bear in mind, this shit goes down at virtually every police station in South Africa.

"Warda (Meyer) has just returned from Grabouw where she spent some time speaking to police officers and members of the community. This follows the murder of Pretoria building contractor Peter Wheeler earlier this week; the death of a farm worker, who sustained injuries while in one of the cells three weeks ago and the death of a man in the same cells in 2005. Warda says it’s a very large police station, situated rather centrally in the town of Grabouw. It is however overcrowded and the structural design and lay-out is in a word, 'strange'. The holding cells are situated completely separately from the police station offices. There doesn’t seem to be space for guards to keep an eye on the cells. Warda believes it would also be rather difficult to hear if anybody was, for example, calling for help from one of the cells on the far side of the premises. The ICD is going to recommend a logistical way to improve the structural design of this police station and others designed in the same way."

From one death to two in three weeks to three deaths in two years. Perhaps more. Referring to Wheeler's death, Independent Online reports "(ICD national spokesperson Dikeledi Phiri) was unable to confirm media reports that three other prisoners had died in the Grabouw police station cells in the past year." Keep digging.

Looking Out To See

Wonderful pieces on photography at Mark Woods's site yesterday. I read the lot.

"By photographs that found themselves do I mean the "lucky or happy accident"? That is one name for it. "Happy accident" is a name that I ought not to mention because many an extraordinary snapshot is passed off lightly with this appellation instead of being explained. I do mention it because it is a term of helplessness in the face of a photograph that is a freak, a sport in a man's work-unexplainable, so unsought for, so unaccountable that it is almost embarrassing. I have heard Edward Weston say that he strove to eliminate all accidents from his work and I copied his striving. I submitted to that discipline by which one earns the elimination of all accidents. I have made enough pictures so that now I see like a lens focused on a piece of film, act like a negative projected on a piece of sensitized paper, talk like a picture on a wall. I have even been so presumptuous as to try to tell others how to see, act, and talk likewise. I know fairly well how to eliminate accidents from my photographing, and, paradoxically, in so doing I have also learned that the happy accident can be cultivated!

"I must admit to many accidents in my own work before I undertook the practice of learning to avoid them — and to many more since. Such accidents when they happen now, however, are not isolated incidents, unexplainable events, as infrequent as stumbling on mountain peaks in a fog. After learning to eliminate accidents I can now sometimes trace the hawser marks between cause and effect — between chance and photograph. Why? Or how? In acquiring a discipline of seeing, and a technique of communication, I put myself into the position of the reckless driver of whom it is said, there goes a maniac in search of an accident."

Minor White | Found Photographs



"And while I put myself in the path of accidents, the term "accident" is a misnomer here. Hence I am pleased at the crash in the kitchen because it was not a crash but an explosion. As one porcelain bowl died a thousand thoughts were born; a score of unexplained photographs were seen to be, not accident, but photographs that found themselves. By my discipline of seeing I put myself where photographs can find themselves.

"The German publication Photomagazin printed a brief and sprightly piece by Roman Frietag in 1955. He said that each camera had a subconscious. He further made the astounding observation that this subconscious is responsible for the extraordinary snapshot — and that it does so while the photographer thinks he is looking. Frietag may have been sprightly instead of serious, because, if serious, no one would have listened to him. So with tongue in cheek (apparently) he traced down the cause of these unexplained photographs to a machine's subconscious. And what a powerful subconscious it is. This personality inadvertently built into cameras at the drafting board can on occasion steer the unsuspecting and probably quite innocent owner. He is not alone in allocating minds to machines; long before our highly touted electronic brains took over, people in many places observed the phenomena. Ships are "she" for instance.

Minor White | Found Photographs

I have a passion for photography (and humour of the type used by White and Thoreau). Intuitively, I knew that, like the monkeys, typewriters, and Shakespeare's sonnets, my chances of putting myself where a photograph might find itself lay in the frequency with which I allowed the camera to do its work. So that's all I've been doing these past eighteen months; careening around waiting for a photograph to come into being.

For me, the above snaps illustrate White's point — as do the plays on words and oceanic metaphors. My daughter was awed by my having caught the above ship passing before the sun as it set off Cape Point. Frankly, so was I. I hadn't seen it. It was part of a sequence of photographs. Before taking that shot, I'd taken this one. It's a different resolution. Through my viewfinder, I had no chance of seeing it in any conventional sense.

The ship had been invisible to me until, when it passed in front of the setting sun, I felt the need to zoom in on the colour lighting the horizon, the sky, and the sea. The 'accident' is partly its timing. I might have zoomed in only when the ship had moved on, as it has done in the second snap (immediately above), and the third and fourth. I would have been out of time and place to allow the occurrence of something with which Mr. Minor White is all too familiar. I see much in the picture. He does, after all, point out that "Ships are 'she'".

And so it goes. There is much more to these articles and Mark's accompanying selection — particularly his inclusion of Thoreau's Walking, the serendipitous timing of which I'm sure Andie and Caspar would appreciate.

By the way, I'm not saying "Things happen for a reason." I'm just noting that "things happen". I've lived through much of that happening and I've slept through much of it. It doesn't matter. I count myself lucky to be in a position where I can at least look out to see.



Reverting to yesterday's news. I picked up on Cape Talk that Peter Wheeler, the 55-year old builder beaten and kicked to death in the Grabouw SAPS holding cells Saturday night, is the second person killed after being arrested by Grabouw police. Wheeler was apparently arrested for public drunkenness after pulling his car over to the side of the road when he felt himself incapable of driving.

According to a caller or field reporter, three weeks ago the police arrested a farm labourer for domestic abuse and threw him in the cells despite his wife's protestations. When the woman went to the station to collect her husband the following morning, he had disappeared. The police told her he had been released some time earlier. She later found he had died in hospital from injuries consistent with those inflicted by a beating.

The Prisoner's Rights Organisation, Saphor, has accused the police of gross negligence. Cape Talk's web site does not cite the earlier incident. Although two of Wheeler's cell mates have appeared briefly in court, the Independent Complaints Directorate (IDC) is investigating Wheeler's (and presumably the farm worker's) murder.

John Maytham's stand-in seemed genuinely surprised at the implications of these two deaths. It seems the police might be involved. Perhaps his surprise was feigned. The South African police regularly beat people to death.

I recall a drunk being beaten to death in the Claremont cells a couple of years ago. The cops do it for fun. Or to relieve stress. Or for whatever other reason they can think of should they ever be called to account for their behaviour.

A Day in the Life

I read the news today oh boy | About a lucky man who made the grade | And though the news was rather sad | Well I just had to laugh | I saw the photograph

I shy away from local media... in fact, I tend to avoid the 'local' in general. It's supposed to be a microcosm of the bigger picture but, more often than not, any reflection of our global situation is lost in the depressing detail of single-issue reporting.

Should such reportage dominate? Probably, and that's what's so depressing.

I checked the news today. Oh boy. The English army had just lost Helmand province. Nah...it was worse. This is what passes for global news in South Africa:

Zimbabwe's Mugabe has arrested 1,300 shopkeepers for failing to reduce prices and is threatening to nationalize business

former 'Southern Rhodesian' Prime Minister Sir Garfield Todd's daughter reveals her rape by a Zimbabwean officer after she questioned the slaughter of 30,000 people in Matabeleland in 1982.

"Zanu-PF is the instrument of evil in Zimbabwe. For the future wellbeing of Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF must be eliminated. We need to be cleansed," says Judith Todd.

Well, there we go. That's the international scene then. Knowing the Sunday Times (which today tells us of a Chinese tourist falling into a DRC volcano) yesterday proclaimed Zimbabwe Collapses, I'm extremely pleased my mother-in-law left the country for good a couple of weeks ago.

Now there's just my sister-in-law and her family to worry about...

I can't find a link to the story on the 'collapse' (how the hell does a country 'collapse'?) at the Times's weird Web site, but I did find a good interview with Paul Wolfowitz, Wolfowitz sounds alarm — World Bank boss points to role of poverty in fostering terrorism...

Here's a wonderful Wolfowitz quote:

"What you see tragically too often is that countries, out of a kind of doctrinal dogmatism, get themselves on a path and they continue on that path even when policies are not working."

Nah...he's not speaking his self-made U.S. foreign policy — he's pointing fingers at the South African economy. Here's another:

"It is certainly possible — and to start with criticism at home the United States certainly did this in the past — to prop up bad governments that are ruining countries."

He's not speaking of the U.S. at all. He's reminding us of Zaire.

He pontificates on corruption as well. Maybe the Sunday Times doesn't know who Wolfowitz was. Or is. Someone shoulda told them. It coulda been an extremely interesting interview.

Anyway, I was looking for local news this morning. I found it. Brace yourself.



He blew his mind out in a car | He didn't notice that the lights had changed | A crowd of people stood and stared | They'd seen his face before | Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords.

Boy found hanging from line
A 10-year-old Pietermaritzburg boy has been found hanging from his neck from a clothesline, police have said.
Girl uses web to make noose
Boy found hanging by shoe laces

Teacher hijacked at school
A Durban teacher has been hijacked and robbed at school premises as she arrived at the building in the morning for work.
Nqakula: We have a problem...
Man claims he was hijacked
Man hijacked by bogus cops

Builder beaten to death in cell
A Pretoria building contractor who was locked up for being drunk in public, has been beaten and kicked to death in a cell in Grabouw, near Cape Town.
Sheldean protesters: Kill him!
Farmer tortured to death

'Party gang' steals five 4x4s
A gang of robbers who hit a luxury resort, partied and drank for hours before fleeing with five 4x4 vehicles, cash and electronic equipment.
Lawyer's 4x4 stolen in gang hit
Clean sweep nets stolen 4x4s
Armed gang hits Kosi Bay lodge

Three die in N12 accident
Three people have died in an accident on the N12 near the Golden Highway bridge in Johannesburg, metro police say.
Biker killed in tree crash
8 die, 15 hurt in N1 pile-up
2 killed, 2 injured in M1 crash

CT airport terminal evacuated
An unattended bag has led to the evacuation of Cape Town International Airport's domestic terminal, the airports company says.
'Airport security under threat'
Bomb scare at CT airport

20 held for drunken driving
Johannesburg metro police have arrested 20 motorists for drunken driving, says spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.
MPL nabbed for drunk driving
'Drunk' taxi driver injures 1
Women drunken drivers on rise?

Rock-climber hurt in fall
A rock-climber has been airlifted to a hospital in Centurion after falling 15m down a gorge at Wilgepoort, near Bronkhorstspruit.
Dutch hiker rescued in KZN
Cop dies after abseiling injury
Monray's life 'hung from tree'

Ambulance rushes dog to vet
Paramedics have rescued a boerbull that was found hanging by its testicles from a palisade fence at a home in Bosmont, Johannesburg.
Criminals injure police dogs

Dbn car blast 'a suicide'
A 44-year-old man has died after he blew up his car with commercial explosives in Durban in an apparent suicide, KwaZulu-Natal police say.
'Bits of my dad were everywhere'

Pedestrian mangled on N1, JHB
A pedestrian has been killed after being struck by a car and then torn to pieces by other vehicles on the N1 in Johannesburg.
Pedestrian killed by truck
'Drunk' taxi driver injures 1

SABC reporter dies in crash
A veteran SABC sports reporter and TV anchor has died in a car crash on the N12, the broadcaster has announced.

'We shouldn't support despots'
The DA has criticised the government's stance that Zimbabwe should be included at the Africa-Europe summit in Lisbon.
Pahad: Africa will back Mugabe
Mugabe won't stop summit
IMF: Zim is Africa's sore thumb

Low turn-out for JHB Live Earth
The Life Earth concert in Johannesburg has attracted an audience of about 6 000, while organisers estimated attendance at 10 000.
Drumbeat for climate change
1000's turn out for Live Earth
Can Live Earth stay green?

Women thrown from car, killed
Two women were killed after being thrown from their vehicle along the M1 highway in Johannesburg, paramedics says.

Fire guts Kruger Park office
A fire has gutted the the aministrative offices at the Pretoriusskop camp in the Kruger National Park. The incident may be linked to the ongoing strike.
Strike not affecting parks

Daughter of SAA CEO drowns
The 15-month-old daughter of SAA chief executive officer Khanya Ngqula has drowned in a Durban North swimming pool, the Sunday Times has reported.
Child drowns in swimming pool
Jhb bid to keep pools covered

Umlazi murder may have taxi link
The murder of a family in Umlazi, south of Durban, may have been linked to taxi violence, KwaZulu Natal police said.
Family killed in Umlazi shooting
'Kidnap' SMS: Woman arrested

2 killed, 2 injured in M1 crash
Two women have died and two men sustained serious injuries in an accident on the M1 freeway in Johannesburg.
Man murdered in 'secure' flat
Car sliced in two

Biker killed in tree crash
A motorcyclist has been killed when he crashed into a tree next to the R21 in Kempton Park, Johannesburg.
8 die, 15 hurt in N1 pile-up
Car crashes into truck in Dbn

Family killed in Umlazi shooting
Five members of a family, including a child, have been shot dead in Umlazi's D-section, south of Durban, SABC news has reported.
Toddler killed in Pta crash
Commuters dodge bullets

'Prove McBride guilty'
The DA's call for police chief Robert McBride's suspension is unfounded, says Ekhurhuleni Metro.
Suspend McBride, says DA
Restraining order for McBride?

2010 reports upset Nqakula
Charles Nqakula's department has said there are "none as deaf as those who wan't to hear", after complaints about a safety strategy for 2010.
2010 soccer cops must be fit
Nqakula: 2010 safe from crime

Toddler drowns in bin
A three-year-old boy has died after falling into a water-filled rubbish bin, Eastern Cape police say.
Toddler drowns in bath
'Quiet' toddler was drowning
Toddler drowns in septic tank

Initiation: Death toll rises
At least 17 initiates have died in four provinces since the "circumcision season" started, health officials say.
More bungled circumcisions
'Septic penises fell off'

Three arrested for kidnapping
Three men have been arrested for alleged kidnapping, robbery and assault, Gauteng police say.
Pta kidnap victim rescued
Man shot, girlfriend gang-raped
Two held in Jhb for abduction

Cuban-trained medics graduate
A fourth batch of South African medical doctors who were trained in Cuba, have graduated at the University of Pretoria.
Manto calls for shorter MB ChB
SA med students back from Cuba

'Kidnap' SMS: Woman arrested
A middle-aged woman has been arrested after claiming in an SMS to her son that she'd been kidnapped, Durban police say.
False kidnap: Woman arrested
Sisters held for fake kidnap

Baby boy 'sold'
A Durban social worker has been arrested for corruption after she allegedly sold a baby in an illegal adoption.
Thousands of SA kids abandoned
Kidnapped baby 'a gift'

Children's Act 'misunderstood'
Giving access to contraceptives to children as young as 12, has been "misinterpreted", officials say.
Child Act 'pushes promiscuity'
Divorce: Kids can choose parent

Man in court for hijack hoax
A man has appeared in Kempton Park Magistrate's Court after he allegedly falsely reported his car stolen, say North Rand police.
Woman in court for hoax hijack
Man held for hijack hoax

Herders scare off kidnappers
Two men are accused of holding a domestic worker hostage for six hours after plundering her employer's house.
Robber breaks blind man's ribs
Three arrested for robberies
Robbers linked to teens' attack

Robber 'can't be re-tried'
A man has been found guilty of holding up a Nelspruit restaurant with a gun and then returning unarmed later that night to steal more money.
'It was like he wanted to die'
Restaurant robbers 'spooked'

Man hits head on roadsign, dies
A man was killed when he hit his head on an overhead roadsign while he stood on the back of a moving bakkie, paramedics say.
'Killer' truck 10cm too high

Anthrax scare in Alberton
Eleven people have been hospitalised after coming in contact with a parcel containing a white powder - possibly anthrax - at a post office in Alberton.
Anthrax scare via 'love letter'
'Letter' sparks anthrax scare
Health24: All about Anthrax

Genital cutter gets 18 years
A former law student who murdered his "friend" by bludgeoning him with a dumbbell and cutting off his genitals has received an 18-year jail sentence.
'Killer acted in self-defence'
'Genital slashing was intended'
Genital-cutter awaits verdict

2010 countdown begins in Dbn
Two "countdown clocks" to the 2010 Fifa World Cup have been switched on at Durban International Airport.
R70bn for public transport
2010 soccer cops must be fit
Nqakula: 2010 safe from crime

Thumbs up for stats release
Releasing the police crime-trends report this week is a step in the right direction, the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association has said.
'Law enforcement not enough'
SA crime rate 'shameful'
'Tourist safety major concern'

Drug plant closure under wraps
The Medicines Control Council says it is not allowed to disclose why Enaleni Pharmaceuticals had to close a plant in Durban recently.
HIV+ kids need more help
New malaria drugs for children

Strike not affecting parks
National parks were not affected by an employees' strike, SA National Parks has said.
Kruger Park beefs up security
The Vodacom strike
Health services 'almost normal'

Family saved from drowning
Four relatives have been rescued after a wave swept them off rocks and into the sea at Herolds Bay in the southern Cape.
Three pupils feared drowned
Search resumes for US swimmer

Police impound 'stolen' cars
Six cars suspected to have been stolen have been impounded in Mabopane north of Pretoria, say police.
13 arrested at roadblocks
Police impound 45 cars in blitz
Scrapyard owner gets hefty fine

Car crashes into truck in Dbn
A man has suffered serious head injuries when his car crashed into a stationary truck on the N3 highway in Westville, Durban.
5 killed as truck hits taxi
Truck crushes car with boy, 2
Truck flattens 3 cars, 3 dead

ATMs bombed in vain
Two automated teller machines has been bombed and a Fidelity Guards van has been held up in Gauteng, but in both cases no money was stolen.
ATM bomber loses arms
8 held for possessing ATM bomb
Cop wounded in ATM shoot-out

Car syndicate cracked
A car-theft syndicate operating in the Durban area has been cracked, police say.
Joburg hijacking syndicate bust
Cops find explosives in raid
Police bust hijack gang

Restraining order for McBride?
Three fearful Ekurhuleni metro policemen want a court order stipulating that the entire metro police and its chief Robert McBride do not come within 100m of them.
McBride cops to be released
Suspended McBride cops arrested
Metro cops to sue McBride

Man charged in Sonja murder
A 43-year-old man has been formally charged with the murder of two-year-old Sonja Brown of Rawsonville, in the Western Cape.
Cops mum on Sonja reports
Child thrown into pipe
Cops probe Sonja Brown 'murder'

8 die, 15 hurt in N1 pile-up
Eight people have been killed and 15 others seriously injured in a multi-vehicle accident on the N1 highway near Laingsburg in the Western Cape.
Bakkie crash kills councillors
Woman dies in Gauteng head-on
Jhb motorist burns to death

'He did it on purpose'
A Cape Flats council member says her grandchild was knocked down purposely in an apparent plot against her.
'Don't avenge councillor'
Councillor killed in riot

Cops say sorry to MEC
Four police officials, who apparently humiliated Eastern Cape safety and security MEC Thobile Mhlahlo by their actions on June 17, have apologised to him.

Baby born with four legs
A child has been born with four legs at the Lebowakgomo hospital outside Polokwane.



I saw a film today oh boy | The English Army had just won the war | A crowd of people turned away | But I just had to look | Having read the book

That's from one page of our premier news site. Now you know why I don't read the local papers. This stuff is produced day in and year out. The volume and staccato nature of it numbs one to accepting a new normalcy beyond that which Conrad's Kurtz could have imagined.

What is it that makes South Africans indulge or act out the darkest possible side of their natures? They seem to revel in or be addicted to violence.

Even without the papers — you can see it and think it and speak it. You can taste it and touch it and feel it. You can...I dunno...and I don't really want to know either.

I'd rather go for a walk.

Fuck 'em all.

Like Kurtz said.

I'd love to turn you on...

Beatles | A Day in the Life