Manto's Dead Babies

The "Spook House"

"It is rotten from the top to the bottom and those who go against the minister get suspended," East London Hospital superintendent Dr Nokuzola Ntshona told The Times yesterday. She was suspended for "leaking information" to the media about conditions at the embattled Frere and Cecilia Makiwani hospitals. Ntshona’s statement is set against the backdrop of the impending visit to the Eastern Cape by embattled Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

Sunday Times | The doctor who won’t shut up

Forget Madelaine Albright. Our disgraced Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, looks set to profit from dead babies at two of her woefully understaffed and underfunded Eastern Cape hospitals.

Ignoring East London Hospital superintendent Dr Nokuzola Ntshona's suspension for highlighting the plight of infants and sweeping aside former Deputy Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge being fired for describing the state of Eastern Cape hospitals as a "national emergency", Manto will blow into a Potemkin village full of piss and wind with a bottle or two of the hard stuff under her not insubstantial belt.

To the Sunday Times's credit, they're chasing this story all the way despite the negative, threatening, and generally dumb comments of party apparatchiks following editor Mondli Makhanya's interview with Fred Khumalo [mp3 podcast 6MB].

Makhanya cut his journalistic teeth as one of Anton Harber's straight-shooting journalists at the Weekly Mail. He's unlikely to be intimidated by goons.

Government will look poorly on Makhanya's paper for years to come and it will win few friends among our rich and famous, most of whom made their money through decidedly dubious means. Nobody would want so much vitriolic ink lavished on them but, in the long run, our Minister of Overindulgence is worth hounding to her end.


Zapiro

A drunken criminal, she epitomises government ineptitude, bad attitude, and moral turpitude. Look at it this way, Manto. Many are called, but few are chosen. You have been summoned and your selection is certain.

Alternatively, Thabo could keep her. Why not? Along the corridors of unfettered power, those of venal character wallow in grease and gravy and are not troubled by the occasional bad press. Unless, of course, it threatens their further self-enrichment and faith-based livelihoods. For this reason alone, Manto's relegation to the airbrush artist's easel is assured.

In "...an answering affidavit filed at the Johannesburg High Court [pdf 4.2MB] against the minister’s urgent application for an interdict against the paper," the Sunday Times says:

• the minister was seen drinking on several occasions, one of them being during a commercial airline flight
• her drinking prior to her operation "rendered her ineligible for a transplant"
• there were potential recipients whose lifestyles did not disqualify them for a transplant

The document reveals The Full Manto. In all her inebriated, vindictive glory, one would be hard-pressed to believe she'd not stumble towards an opportunity to shield herself from the media's intrusive glare behind a mounting pile of dead babies who had no chance at all [pdf 6.3MB].

Both the above pdfs are ugly documents, full of hard truths, but they are well worth reading and explain, in large part, the anger of South Africans betrayed by a lacklustre president and his ghoulish sycophants.

I have nothing against alcohol or those who drink it. Alcoholism however, is an altogether different matter. I drank myself to an alcoholic stupor by the time I was 26 and, to this day, some of those closest to me persist in practising the noble art of alcoholism. It is a tragic disease depriving so many of so much we cannot begin to go into it here.

A once-assiduous student, I do not believe anybody has practised it sufficiently to master it. It fucks you up every time. And, one way or another, it will swallow Manto whole.

Better sooner than later.

Hundreds of newborns are dying every year at Frere Hospital’s overburdened maternity section – and the institution’s own records reveal the scale of negligence behind many of the deaths. ... The Dispatch team spent nearly two months walking the maternity wards with hidden cameras, attending the mass burial of dead babies and interviewing medical staff and heartbroken mothers...

The pattern of death is illustrated at the Haven Hills Cemetery where batches of up to 45 babies in tiny white coffins are buried in mass pauper funerals every month. Two weeks ago, 43 babies were buried. The burial included two tots who died in October 2004 and another in December 2005. Their bodies had remained in maternity’s cold storage for years.

Daily Dispatch | Exhausted staff, lack of equipment — most deaths were avoidable

No Lie...

Mars... Saturday 18 August 2007

Mother doesnt go out any more | Just sits at home and rolls her spastic eyes | But every weekend through the door | Come words of wisdom from the world outside

Several MPs have laid complaints with the police against Juan Uys, the man accused of authoring a blog that named people who had allegedly paid him for gay sex.

This twist in the crimen injuria case against Uys, 39, emerged during a hearing in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court yesterday when Uys’s lawyer asked for the provisional withdrawal of the charges due to lack of evidence.

Prosecutor Titi Mthimunye said the case was being referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision on how to proceed because of its high profile.

The Times | New twist in gay male prostitute blog case

If you want to know about the gay politician | If you want to know how to drive your car | If you want to know about the new sex position | You can read it in the sunday papers, read it in the sunday papers

Ho ho ho... let the good times roll — sa male prostitute rides again. Reminding me of how apartheid's Calvinistic Immorality Act regularly served up the local dominee and 'his maid', this has all the makings of a quintessentially South African story.

Who, I ask our fourth estate, are these politicians? Besides Manto, that is. What are their complaints? The press knows but it ain't telling and, by its silence, highlights the essential difference between blogging and mainstream media. Driven by advertising revenue and fear of litigation, the newspaper industry censors itself out of circulation and meaningful reportage.

With notable exceptions...

Bloggers, who serve either as information cascades depriving the mainstream media of income (time was that you'd discuss the contents of the daily paper only with family, colleagues and friends), derive much of their source material from newspapers. Denied access to information that would increase newspaper circulation, bloggers are prone to speculation, insinuation, and rumour mongering.

But so what? A consummate professional and prodigious blogger, I have many friends in low places and I always check my facts.

I called the Director of Public Prosecutions.

"Hey Vusi. So what's this about Uys and the politicians? The press has it that Titi's referring the case to you?"

"Mike? Hey, long time no hear. How's it going?"

"Good. Legacy 'flu and too much work, but otherwise okay. You?"

"Politics. Internal shit. Jesus, it's difficult to find good hired help these days."

"Tell me about it. But that's partly why I'm calling. Those fuckers over at The Times aren't disclosing a thing. Grindrod's now the perennial Western Cape politician but, as far as this new batch is concerned; nada."

Vusi chuckled.

"Hey, Mike, what can I say? You certainly ain't gonna get anything from me."

"Yeah, I guess. It's all Manto this, Manto that, and Manto the next thing. Never mind...I just thought I'd look you up. You've been somewhat scarce this past year or so..."

"Heh!" he snorted. "You know how it goes. S'far as I'm concerned it's better to keep a low profile..."

"Yeah..."

"Yeah. But I'll let you know as soon as anything crops up."

"Thanks Vusi. You're a pal."

"No problem, Mike. Any time."

I headed on over to the Independent Group, always a source of up-to-the-minute news.

Nothing doing. In fact, Magistrate Phindi Norman seems to have taken the prosecution's referral of the matter to Vusi as a sign the state might not have a case.

Bloody papers. You can't believe a damned thing you read these days. I'm sticking to the radio.

Sunday papers don't ask no questions | Sunday papers don't get no lies | Sunday papers don't raise objection | Sunday papers don't got no eyes

Joe Jackson | Sunday Papers

Manto Sinks Thabo

"What rough beast...

The Democratic Alliance today asked Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana to investigate whether Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang benefited from the inappropriate influence of President Thabo Mbeki. It has been alleged that in March this year, Mbeki called up surgeons at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre to insist that they approve a liver transplant for Tshabalala-Msimang, DA leader Helen Zille said in a statement.

"If this is true, it would be a disgraceful abuse of his public position."

Therefore, DA spokesman Mike Waters had written to Mushwana to ask him to investigate the allegations about the President’s call. In the letter, Waters said it was also alleged that doctors were instructed to describe Tshabalala-Msimang’s condition as being the result of auto-immune hepatitis rather than its true cause, alcoholism.

"If it is true that such a call was made, then there are several concerns relating to the rights of the public in general and other patients with end-stage liver disease in particular," he wrote.

Firstly, Mbeki would have misused his public position to oblige doctors to make a decision that was not necessarily medically appropriate. Secondly, if other patients on the waiting list at the time were in greater need of an urgent transplant, the President’s intervention might have obliged doctors to prioritise political factors over medical factors, and it was possible a more deserving patient might have lost his or her life as a result.

The Times | Public Protector ‘must probe Mbeki’

I have no faith in the Public Protector's office and nothing obvious will flow of this attempt to tie Thabo ever faster to Manto's fast-fraying apron strings. In 2000, a charge of common assault was laid against our previous Public Protector, Advocate Selby Baqwa, by a woman he 'entertained' late one night in his Durban Hotel Room during the 13th International Ombudsman Conference.

Amid allegations of coercion, the charges were dropped.

Lawrence Mushwana is not Selby Baqwa, but human beings are strange and irrational beings and tend to confuse the office for the office holder even unto succeeding generations.

Depending on your point of view, this need not be a bad thing; post-modernism and relativism have entrenched themselves as the Twenty-first Century way. All the Presidency needs do is dispatch a mealy-mouthed lickspittle to issue a couple of lies, several fatuous statements on the powers of the president, and one or two veiled threats hinting at the possible consequences of impugning the good name of President Thabo Mbeki.

It is common practice and presidential spokespersons are practiced at it. The press will go away and even the indomitable Ms. Zille will retire to her corner. But that will not be the end of it. We live in increasingly twisted times and I have a nose for stories that outlive their supposedly short-lived lifespans.

This one will go down to the wire and decide our future. Things do not look good.


On the rocks...

Coincidentally, good old Neil Watson (aka sa male prostitute) appeared in court late last month to face charges of crimen injuria and theft under his legal name, Juan Uys. I called the lowlife scum out as Watson of crimexposouthafrica and when blogging incognito, warning him that nobody remains anonymous on the Web.

Having linked to most of his posts despite the supposedly sound advice of timid local bloggers wary of hounding queers, I have yet to find myself tarred, feathered, drawn, quartered and run out of town on a donkey. The fact was that I had bigger fish to fry and one of them was Uys.

He gave blogging a bad name.

But back to Thabo being responsible for the death of the patient that did not get Manto's newly pickled liver. Anything is possible in this craven world of ours but only one thing is certain. Mbeki's blind loyalty to the ANC Treasurer's wife will undermine his legacy and scar his presidency as deeply as the Iraqi Holocaust will George W. Bush's tenure at the House of the Great Satan.

Joe Slovo was awarded his leopard skin and Chris Hani his state funeral. They were, as Madiba said of Michael Jackson, Great Sons of Africa. Thabo, however, has cooked his goose and, drunk and belligerent — with other people's possessions spilling from her pockets, she is not a pretty sight.

History will remember Mbeki as a foolish man; short-sighted, insecure, intolerant, self-opinionated, and vain. He will not be remembered as 'a team player' and, today, even fellow occultist and dreamer William Butler Yeats would not return his calls.

Whether or not he is investigated, South Africans of conscience will be haunted by the memory of a possible late-night presidential phone call to Johannesburg's Donald Gordon Medical Centre — a phone call that saved the life of an ungrateful Manto Tshabalala-Msimang but might have cost the life of an unknown South African.

And, in this way, Thabo will be remembered as having denied all of us a shot at the better life we saw in '94.

As has been said elsewhere, the furore surrounding Madlala-Routledge and Tshabala-Msimang says less of our non-existent health care system than it does of our executive president. That many see this debacle as defining Mbeki's long presidency speaks volumes.

Thabo, long criticised for his secrecy, careful politicking and extended trips abroad, has self-destructed. A somewhat diffident, retiring personality predisposed to hiding behind his beloved 'collective', he has divorced himself from South Africa's people to indulge his propensity for paranoia and penny philosophising. His Machiavellian streak has seen many relegated to the frozen wastes of obscurity and his inflexibility now opens him to derision and scorn.

Long tired of men in suits running the country (the experience of centuries has worn us thin), we need a breath of fresh air, a populist in the Madiba, Chavez, Putin or Ahmadinejad mould.

Mandela was perhaps more authoritarian than Mbeki, but he had the common touch and used it to good effect. Antithetically, Mbeki epitomises the modern leader, isolated and insecure, out of touch and frequently incommunicado. His aloofness, expressed through his dapper dress and fondness for the Lake poets, is perhaps unsuited to uniting the roiling, emotive masses of South Africa.

The president, wielding enormous executive power, is also one of our primary symbols and it is as an icon, a representative of all that we might become, that Mbeki has bombed. The alleged phone call, if it was made, will end whatever respect or patience informed South Africans might have held for him. Like Tony Blair, the ultimate Tailor's Dummy, he will shed his presidential apparel to wander off to a hollow and empty retirement, uncertain of his contribution to building a new South Africa — even as it crumbles about him.

Empire Grotesque

Gifkommetjie

No doubt, Canada's entry into US Northern Command will be presented to public opinion as part of Canada-US "cooperation", as something which is "in the national interest", which "will create jobs for Canadians", and "will make Canada more secure".

Ultimately what is at stake is that beneath the rhetoric, Canada will cease to function as a Nation:

• Its borders will be controlled by US officials and confidential information on Canadians will be shared with Homeland Security.

• US troops and Special Forces will be able to enter Canada as a result of a binational arrangement.

• Canadian citizens can be arrested by US officials, acting on behalf of their Canadian counterparts and vice versa.

Michel Chossudovsky | Canada's Sovereignty in Jeopardy: the Militarization of North America


WTF?

Following U.S. Principal Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Ryan Henry's April visits to Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Senegal — as well as meetings with the African Union, one wonders for how long AFRICOM will allow African countries to retain their sovereignty.

If 'discussions' followed the Canadian (and presumably, the Mexican) model, we are already junior partners in Empire. Recently, Thabo, following Stephen Harper's lead, has begun to exhibit behavioural disorders similar to Dubya's, i.e. paranoia, megalomania, wild and erratic mood swings, irrational thought, hallucinations, and dementia.

Much like Dick Cheney, Comrade Undertaker's trusted deputy and Minister of Health, Manto Tshabala Msimang, now steers the ship of state and 'politics' as we know it have gone to hell in a handbasket. The markets are muttering of a 'contagion' and the USMC lands at noon. I trust these are rumours, but I fear them to be true.

Dam full?

Cape Point... second from right

Rumour, the Cape Argus (the idiotic online policy of which is to deny non-subscribers access to the story of eight muggings on Lion's Head yesterday) and Cape Talk's John Maytham would also have us believe Cape Town's dams are 101.1 percent full. Enjoying a Mediterranean climate, we receive our rain in winter and, after a cycle of drought, we're starting to feel waterlogged again.

Maytham's a damned fine radio presenter with a broad general knowledge intelligently applied, so I've been a bit hacked off with his celebration of satiety (.xls). He knows better than to trust the City of Cape Town's figures and knows where to find more detailed, and reliable, statistics.

Because most rivers and dams feed each other and all feed our surrounding food producers, it's foolish to look at Cape Town as being divorced from the Western Cape province's various catchment areas. Looking at the bigger picture, we can see that the levels of our second-largest dam, Brandvlei — and another high-capacity dam, Kwaggaskloof, are sitting at around 75 and 72 percent respectively.


Enough for now...

And now that the newly opened Berg River Dam — another relatively high-capacity dam, is included in the official figures, its 29 percent pulls our provincial water level down to 83 percent of capacity. But so what? We're eight percent up on last year and look set to challenge 90 percent by spring.

That said, we account for only six percent of our national storage capacity.

Worryingly, the Western Cape is one of nine provinces and, on the whole, our water situation is not good at all. Nationally, our national figures show a downward trend and, where our dams were 90 percent full last year, they're only 73 percent full this year — a startling drop to say the least. Fully half our water flows from the Lesotho highlands and, should the Mountain Kingdom catch a fever, we feel the heat. Most of the rest flows through the heart of the country.

So, yeah, where was I? Things aren't going as swimmingly as we might like but, hey... who cares? We live in a beautiful, albeit bloody violent, land. Like most.

Note: And while I twitter on about a bit of rain, let's — like Jeneane, spare a thought for those who've lost everything to Hurricane Dean and Typhoon Sepat. Among others...

Manto: A Drunk and A Thief

"Ninety miles an hour..."

Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had alcoholic liver disease caused by years of excessive drinking when she had a transplant this year. Today the Sunday Times exposes a cover-up around the transplant by medical staff to hide her true condition — alcoholic liver cirrhosis — a disease synonymous with chronic alcoholism.

The minister, despite getting the gift of life donated to her by a teenage suicide victim, is still drinking — damaging her new liver.

And, in another explosive revelation, the paper can reveal that Tshabalala-Msimang was convicted of theft when she was a medical superintendent at the Athlone Hospital in Botswana in the mid 1970s. Hospital staff became suspicious as for months watches, jewellery, hats, handbags and even shoes were being stolen from patients.

She was found guilty in the Lobatse Magistrate’s Court of stealing a patient’s watch, hospital blankets, linen, and heaters, and was declared a "prohibited immigrant".

Sunday Times | Manto: A Drunk and A Thief

"The Presidency would like to reassure all South Africans of the integrity of the public health system as led by Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the Cabinet collective."

Thabo Mbeki | Who are our heroes and heroines?

We might hope the President, rather than indulge his propensity to sling mud at former Deputy Minister of Health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, will now renounce his Mugabe-style fantasies and blind "loyalty" to all thugs and criminals littering the Cabinet, the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), Houses of Parliament and... umm... most places where fat cheques, fast lifestyles, and criminal practices are the norm. We might further hope that the President will get off his fucking backside and do something positive, thereby restoring some lustre to the reputation of a country fast becoming a global joke. Fire the bitch, you asshole. It won't change much, but it'd be a start.

President Thabo Mbeki will require evidence before considering media reports that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was an alcoholic and had been convicted of theft, his office said on Sunday.

Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said the president responded to an article in the Sunday Times that reported Tshabalala-Msimang being "a drunk and a thief" by reiterating a statement he issued on August 13.

"Anyone who may have evidence which demonstrates that any minister or deputy minister has acted in dereliction of duty is welcome to forward such evidence to the Presidency," the statement read.

Mail & Guardian | Mbeki: No evidence, no action on Manto

You're kidding, right?

Water Money

Fairy Lights

Defaults on US home loans have caused a credit crunch which is reverberating around the world as billions of dollars in liabilities flow through the global financial system. Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic swung wildly from hour to hour.

In London, after dropping by 100 points at one stage, the FTSE 100 index closed down 34 at 6,109. In New York, a late plunge sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 167 points to 12,861, below 13,000 for the first time since April.

Guardian | Property crisis in US deepens

And let's not forget the glow on the faces of money grubbers worldwide when the Dow topped 14,000 on July 17.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Europe's financial regulator called for a probe into Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and other ratings firms criticized for underestimating the risk of subprime debt.

The New York companies face scrutiny after failing to cut their ratings on bonds backed by subprime mortgages until July, when some of the securities had already lost more than 50 cents on the dollar. U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd this month said regulators may need to ensure the rating services aren't biased in their assessments of bonds because of fees they earn.

Bloomberg | Moody's, S&P Face EU Probe on Credit Crisis Response

Housing starts fell another 6 percent in June to the lowest level in a decade, as credit-rattled stock markets continued falling in the United States and around the world.

As companies tied to the U.S. mortgage industry reported more bad news, the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 100 points in its opening minutes. The index has shed roughly 8 percent of its value since briefly breaking the 14,000 level last month.

Two high-ranking U.S. officials, meanwhile, voiced confidence in the overall health of the economy and seemed to discount the possibility of a reduction in interest rates by the Federal Reserve anytime soon — a dose of cold water for analysts and investors expecting the Fed to help ease a global credit crunch by reducing the cost of borrowing.

Washington Post | Rattled Stock Markets Continue Fall

Oil dipped in early trade as a further slide in stock prices overnight pushed investors into liquidating their holdings in oil futures, and as fears eased that a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic could hit the Gulf of Mexico.

Wall Street posted further losses at the close yesterday, pressuring Asian stock markets lower overnight and sparking a softer opening on the major European bourses.

'Oil is coming off, almost entirely reflecting weakness on the stock markets,' said Christopher Bellew, a trader at Bache Financial.

The slide in stock prices is fuelling risk aversion among investors, who are pulling money out of assets such as commodities in favour of 'safer' bonds and currencies. Some are also liquidating their holdings in oil futures to cover losses in other markets.

Forbes | Oil dips as stock slide fuels risk aversion, hurricane fears ease

"What we are witnessing is a rapid unwinding of risk on a global scale," said Martin Slaney, head of spread betting at GFT Global Markets.

"Even traditional safe havens such as gold are deemed too risky in this climate," he added.

"In these extremely nervous market conditions, economic fundamentals have gone out of the window, and panic selling has set in."

He warned: "The days of easy credit are almost certainly over and the implications of this for everyone from hedge funds to homeowners are only now being realised."

Today's fall in London follows an overnight battering for Asian stocks, as the far east markets took their cue from Wall Street's heavy losses yesterday.

Guardian | Markets fall sharply

The appearance of the word "bankrupt" in an analyst report on Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, suggests the fear surrounding the home-loan industry has become too extreme.

Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Kenneth Bruce, who reduced the stock's rating to "sell" from "buy" yesterday, raised the possibility in explaining his move. The analyst, based in San Francisco, wrote that Countrywide might have to resort to loan sales in the absence of funding from banks and bond investors.

"If liquidations occur in a weak market, then it is possible for CFC to go bankrupt," he wrote, using the stock symbol for the Calabasas, California-based company.

Bloomberg | Countrywide's Fate, Cerberus's Hell, Iceland: Timshel


"Sell!"

And the last article quoted above goes on to show how the subprime lending bomb is helping strip global money markets of respectability, peeling away paper-thin veneers of economic sophistication to reveal nebulous entities built on Enron-esque distortion and manipulation. It was always a scam, a ponzi scheme, a con, and everybody knew it. It gave the boys in the blue-cotton shirts something to do, but now the chickens have come home to roost in the vaulted carapaces of the NYSE, the FTSE, and the JSE, and those below will soon be covered in shit.

With the U.S. Federal Reserve and treasuries worldwide, contrary to any notion of market self-correction, pouring hundreds of billions into black-hole deceptions, the slow-motion train wreck now unfolding could swiftly race to a free fall not unlike that seen during the Crash of '29.

Unforeseen? Unexpected? Couldn't be predicted?

Bullshit. A while back, writers including Mike Whitney, James Kunstler, the appropriately named Stephen Lendman, Chris Floyd, and Paul Craig Roberts started expending much of their not-inconsiderable energies warning of imminent doom. Perhaps some credit should be given where it's due. Better suited to hard news and opinion pieces, these writers have already written the story only now forcing its way into a propagandist mainstream media in denial.

They've done more. The scope of their writings over the years encompasses and lends credence to the office of one of the few remaining USian social instruments retaining any vestige of credibility, the Comptroller General. Following his release of an August 7 presentation, David Walker, Head of the General Accountability Office (GAO), told the Financial Times Tuesday: "I’m trying to sound an alarm and issue a wake-up call," he said. "As comptroller general I’ve got an ability to look longer-range and take on issues that others may be hesitant, and in many cases may not be in a position, to take on.

"One of the concerns is obviously we are a great country but we face major sustainability challenges that we are not taking seriously enough." ... "Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernise everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems. The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a sobering wake-up call."

This is the same guy who, in his 2005 report to Congress said, "Absent significant changes on the spending and/or revenue sides of the federal budget, long term deficits will encumber a growing share of federal resources and test the capacity of current and future generations to afford both today's and tomorrow's commitments. Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living and ultimately our national security."

Did it listen?

Don't answer. The question's rhetorical. Walker's "fiscal Wake-Up tour" has since taken him to 25 cities in 21 states, singing the same song. As he tells the FT, he is now trying to "turn up the volume". And to do that, he is taking a view of the U.S. as comprehensive and overarching as our best Web-based journalists. More, in Transforming Government to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century, it is he who describes the long-range outlook as "chilling".

America is a great nation, probably the greatest in history. But if we want to keep America great, we have to recognize reality and make needed changes. As I mentioned earlier, there are striking similarities between America’s current situation and that of another great power from the past: Rome. The Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, but only about half that time as a republic. The Roman Republic fell for many reasons, but three reasons are worth remembering: declining moral values and political civility at home, an overconfident and overextended military in foreign lands, and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. Sound familiar? In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.

David Walker, Comptroller General GAO | Transforming Government to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century

From Greenback to Redback

Early this morning...

Early this morning China let the idiots in Washington, and on Wall Street, know that it has them by the short hairs. Two senior spokesmen for the Chinese government observed that China’s considerable holdings of US dollars and Treasury bonds "contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency."

Should the US proceed with sanctions intended to cause the Chinese currency to appreciate, "the Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar."

If Western financial markets are sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the message, US interest rates will rise regardless of any further action by China. At this point, China does not need to sell a single bond. In an instant, China has made it clear that US interest rates depend on China, not on the Federal Reserve.

Paul Craig Roberts | Uncle Sam, Your Banker Will See You Now


China has made it clear...

The notion that China cannot exercise its power without losing its US markets is wrong. American consumers are as dependent on imports of manufactured goods from China as they are on imported oil. In addition, the profits of US brand name companies are dependent on the sale to Americans of the products that they make in China. The US cannot, in retaliation, block the import of goods and services from China without delivering a knock-out punch to US companies and US consumers. China has many markets and can afford to lose the US market easier than the US can afford to lose the American brand names on Wal-Mart’s shelves that are made in China. Indeed, the US is even dependent on China for advanced technology products. If truth be known, so much US production has been moved to China that many items on which consumers depend are no longer produced in America.

Paul Craig Roberts | China’s "Nuclear Option" Is Real

Third Use

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, Cape Town

That fateful summer, 8:15 a.m. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast—silence—hell on Earth.

The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. Their hair stood on end. Their clothes were ripped to shreds. People trapped in houses toppled by the blast were burned alive. Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies—Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.

Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.

But there was more. Sneered at for their keloid scars, discriminated against in employment and marriage, unable to find understanding for their profound emotional wounds, survivors suffered and struggled day after day, questioning the meaning of life.

And yet, the message born of that agony is a beam of light now shining the way for the human family. To ensure that "no one else ever suffers as we did," the hibakusha [atomic-bombing survivors] have continuously spoken of experiences they would rather forget, and we must never forget their accomplishments in preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.

Daily Yomiuri | Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba 7 August 2007

Robert Scheer | The Terror America Wrought
Editor & Publisher | HBO Airs A-Bomb Footage Kept from Media for Decades

1,000,985

"...a threat to the civilized world"

1991
The U.S. estimated more than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers died in the 1991 Gulf War, but human rights groups claimed much higher numbers.

CNN | Coalition deaths fewer than in 1991 June 25, 2003

While the above quotation is important to this entry, the accompanying text is delightful, utterly CNN, and exactly what we've come to expect from "The Most Trusted Name in News".

1996
Stahl: "We have heard that a half a million children have died [because of sanctions against Iraq]. I mean that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And — you know, is the price worth it?"

Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it."

Madelaine Albright | "We Think the Price Is Worth It"

As though sanctions between the 1991 and 2003 invasions had nothing to do with it — and ignoring the low mortality rates of preceding years, a wonderful piece of Nazi propaganda in the now defunct Irvine Review, Albright's Blunder, apportions the blame for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children to Saddam Hussein. It's neocon casuistry at its best.

2007
The Lancet study already demonstrated that, as of July 2006, the deaths caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq rivaled the death toll of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Our update suggests that it has now surpassed even high estimates of deaths in Rwanda. (Note that this does not even include Iraqi deaths attributable to the 1991 Gulf War or the sanctions imposed on the population between the two wars.)

Just Foreign Policy | The Significance of the Iraqi Death Estimate

"Iraq is a very important part of securing the homeland, and it's a very important part of helping change the Middle East into a part of the world that will not serve as a threat to the civilized world, to people like — or to the developed world, to people like — in the United States."

George W. Bush Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

The Armenian Holocaust, The Jewish Holocaust, The Palestinian Holocaust, The Rwandan Holocaust, The Iraqi Holocaust and all those carried out before and between...

All perpetrated in the name of "securing the homeland" and all, save the Jewish Holocaust and — in other instances the odd scapegoat, denied their perpetrators.

Yawn...

WMD

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It took the GAO report, Stabilizing Iraq — DOD Cannot Ensure that U.S.-Funded Equipment Has Reached Iraqi Security Forces, to find Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction and, as suspected, they originated in the U.S. rather than Iran. If your economy dictates a need to create enemies you'd better be ready to arm them too.


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And although American discrimination, racism and bigotry are acceptable in Iraq, they're not permissible in the USian press (quote me as an unconfirmed well-placed official source).

Pigs with Guns

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Coalition troops killed the al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the February 2006 attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque and set off continuing violence and reprisal killings between Sunnis and Shiites, the U.S. military said Sunday.

Haitham Sabah al-Badri, the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra, was killed by an airstrike Thursday east of Samarra, said Rear Adm. Mark Fox during a news conference.

CNN | Mastermind of Samarra mosque bombing killed

U.S. and Iraqi government forces in Iraq claimed a series of victories on Sunday against al Qaeda militants in a central province that has been one of the heartlands of the Sunni militant insurgency.

U.S. forces said they had killed Salahuddin province's top al Qaeda leader, blamed for a pivotal 2006 attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra that was a turning point in the conflict, and also said Iraqis had captured 80 militant suspects in the town.

The Star | U.S. claims victories against Qaeda in Iraq

And so it goes. The propaganda, that is. Absolutely fucking atrocious. Some might call it losing track... I don't. There's a big budget for this bullshit.


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How about this nightmarish report of horror akin to the daily reality of Iraq? Though I know my reaction to be an equal measure of barbarism, I can't help but feel Hayes and Komisarjevsky deserve the chair. A report of a similarly brutal multiple murder in New Jersey, and the appended comments, had me scouring local statistics.

Bizarre, execution-style killings are becoming increasingly popular; as are grotesque child murders.

The Newark murders take the city's toll so far this year to 60, in seven months. Newark is home to some 30,000 people. Locally, Nyanga has around 120,000. It seems, according to SAPS crime stats, that Newark would rank with some of Cape Town's most violent areas. Or is my arithmetic completely out?

The Mail & Guardian quotes Nyanga's official population as 400,000 and the local cops say it's closer to a million. If the police rather than the 2001 census are to be believed, we must have several million people living illegally in Cape Town. Or Nyanga now houses half the city's population.

It must have something going for it.

Alternatively, are crime statistics farcical? I reckon so. Looking at my area, I see Claremont recorded three murders and 12 rapes during 2006 with Wynberg recording six murders and 18 rapes. Nationally, murders were down to 18,545 for the year.

Not bad in a country of 40—45 million people.

But it's bullshit.

55,000 rapes nationally? That's laughable. With one rape in 20 being reported, the figures are a poor reflection of reality.

Here's a lovely picture of reality. It's called Zuid-Afrika and it's by Ed van der Elsken.

He'd be pleased to know we're still crazy, after all these years.


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Police are investigating allegations "of an extremely serious nature" by the SPCA that a mob stormed an overturned stock truck and stole, stabbed and gutted live pigs while officers stood around and watched.

Later some officers, who "reeked of alcohol", allegedly joined in the frenzied free-for-all, and piled pigs into their police vans and made off with them...

Independent | Police Stole Pigs

The linked picture; not the pigs...though it's difficult...forget it.