Today in Politics: Roasting #02

ANC secretary-general [note the fatuous military title] Gwede Mantashe has appealed to followers of his wayward organization to “stop insulting” its leaders. WTF?

Appealing to his own supporters, not detractors? First, let me get this out of the way…

Bwahahahaha!!!

It’s perhaps a good sign, because it’s an indicator that the sheeple are finally cottoning onto the real character of their political leaders, which means there’s hope yet for this country.

If Mantashe doesn’t realise that respect is earned, he should escape very quickly from the 17-year post-apartheid dream-world he’s been living in and start smelling the neglected sewer infrastructure. Politicians will only get respect from their followers and other people when:

1. They abandon the disdain they have for their own people, and become honest and caring
2. Pigs fly.

I suggest Mantashe starts praying very hard for pigs to grow wings.

………………………..

Seems former President Thabo Mbeki is still hung up about the death of his former bossom-buddy, Muammar Gaddafi.

He’s been making dubious claims that “false knowledge” spread through the internet and social media such as Twitter is to blame for the removal and ultimate death of the Libyan despot. He suggests that people believe absolutely everything they read in the various media.

While that may be true of the ignorant berks who continuously vote for the world’s tyrants, there are actually a lot of people who are discerning about the information they consume.

Is Mr. Mbeki seriously suggesting that we believe the shit that emanates from the mouths of politicians? When pigs fly, Mr. Mbeki. When pigs fly…

Get Gaddafi!!!

Either Gaddafi has learnt a few things about survival from the Iraqi and Afghanistan conquests, or the USA is just pussyfooting around in Libya.

This prolonged campaign of bombing and bungling by the United States is not doing anyone any good. Why don’t they just get the job done and get the hell out of Libya? This prevarication is becoming tiresome, and the longer it goes on, the more lives that are lost unnecessarily.

Even South African President Jacob Zuma has failed miserably to convince the tyrant of Libya to vacate office, and they’re supposed to be bosom buddies. This is his second or third attempt, two of which required a personal visit to Libya. I wonder why? Something’s just not kosher with these trips, but I suppose only time will reveal the truth.

Will you guys please get Gaddafi so that the world can focus on that other tyrant, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen…while the infighting erupts in Libya.

Hell no, we don't want Gbagbo

Image via Wikipedia

Just when I thought we had smartly avoided the obligation to provide political asylum to Libya’s disgraced leader, it appears that our government, ever eager to make an impact in the League of Despots, have offered South Africa as a preferred exile destination to Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast.

I think we need to make it very clear that South Africa is a safe haven for criminals only. It is no coincidence that our own politicians are all in the process of transition to eminent villains. We can’t have ordinary tin pot dictators settling here, trying to muscle in on the action. We have standards, for crying out loud!

It would be better for Gbabgo to perish in the bunker that he has ensconced himself in. It would be fantastic for him to be forever remembered with the same veneration as Adolf Hitler.

Assuming he somehow weasels his way out the bunker, would Angola please be so kind…

Being human is so damn hard…

Just when you think you have things all figured out, you soon realize that you don’t. Or worse still – that you probably never will…

We formulate our opinions on life based on the quantity and quality of the information we receive, or allow ourselves to receive in the absence of any inhibiting factors such as censorship. However we may also be prone to wilfully self-censor because of inculcated beliefs, ideologies and even prejudices, which off course leads to the formulation of rubbish opinions.

Let’s assume that in most cases censorship is non-existent or very limited, which would mean that our opinions are limited in their [truth]value only by the paucity of information available and our own inherent limitations in comprehending and reasoning, or by wilful ignorance.

In either case most people who formulate opinions on life should be assumed to have good intentions. Or at least, that’s how I’d like to assess all humans.

So, as of last week I thought I had the Libyan situation all figured out. There was a leader ruthlessly killing his own people, behaving like a madman…or so most of the media reports and opinion pieces published, led you to believe. Having a strong respect for the sanctity of life and an aversion to genocidal tendencies, I supported the UN measures to impose a NO-FLY ZONE in Libya and the subsequent military action that followed. My argument in support was based strongly on Objective Morality.

However, with new information available this week, I realise that maybe the whole decision to intervene militarily in Libya may have been wrong. And while I concede that the intentions of the ring-leaders the USA, Britain and France in formulating that decision, may have been somewhat honourable, is in fact very wrong on many other levels. I now have to concede that the net bad that will result, outweighs any good that can be gleaned from this whole wretched affair.

Off course, I may have gotten it all wrong once again. It’s so tough being human…so much easier being a politician!

Shame on Europe and the USA

While European and Western leaders dither over taking decisive action in Libya, the death toll at the hands of the madman Gaddafi, rises steadily.

Leaders of the revolt against Gaddafi estimate that he could massacre around half a million people within days, if the West and Europe don’t do something soon.

What’s the matter Obama and company, not enough oil in Libya for you disgraceful lot?

Two things…

Spare a thought for the 46 Zimbabweans who were arrested by Robert Mugabe’s Gestapo-like police force recently for attending a lecture discussing the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Some of those arrested were allegedly also tortured.

We all know quite well that Mugabe is hell-bent on retaining power, but resorting to manufacturing absurd charges of treason against this group who have been identified as labour and social activists, confirms that he’s one paranoid son-of-a-bitch as well. Their lawyers are asking quite reasonably, why the rest of the population have not been arrested as well for watching the revolts against the two North African dictators. One can only conclude that Mugabe needs to make an example of this unfortunate bunch, so that nobody else considers rising up against his tyrannical rule.

South Africans need to be aware that if our own government push into legislation their recently proposed draconian censorship laws, this sort of thing might become a reality even here.

∞

I watched a video hosted on AlJazeera’s website of dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s desperate and threatening speech broadcast on Libyan television earlier this week, where he makes reference to the fact that he was not a leader, but a revolutionary.

Interspersed with pleas for cessation of the hostility against his regime and the usual revolutionary rhetoric, he issued threats to maim and burn his own people. This rant sounded quite familiar to me, having come across that same technique on numerous occasions in e-mails, pamphlets, flyers and billboard posts by the lunatics who make up the Christian fundamentalist lobby.

Meanwhile, South Africans need to take note of how a certain obstreperous Youth organization affiliated to the government, conceitedly also refer to themselves as revolutionaries at every occasion. More disconcerting however, is that they style themselves not after honourable revolutionaries such as Benjamin Franklin, but after despots like Gaddafi.

Is it possible that Gaddafi will be the next to fall?

Image by BlatantNews.com via Flickr

These are certainly exciting times in North Africa. With Mubarak and Ben Ali, freshly deposed, the recent unrest in Libya may just be the precursor to the final obliteration of 4 decades of autocratic rule by Muammar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi, Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution who it has been said, had dreams of becoming the ruler of the African Continent, may soon become just another statistic of the recent awakening of the people’s of Africa. Except for the other despotic regimes in Africa, and misguided supporters in the South African ruling elite, I have no doubt that many people across the entire world will be relieved to see the back of Gaddafi…hanging from a noose preferably.

Recent reports by Human Rights Watch that the death toll from the unrest has passed 100, is cause for concern as it points to Gaddafi digging in to hold onto power. One can only hope that there are no further deaths. Unfortunately the reality of these situations indicate that more deaths will follow, before this monster steps down peacefully, or is taken down forcefully.

The ramifications of these revolts are being felt across the world by all politicians who have adopted similar positions of inhumane leadership. While our leaders in South Africa have not plumbed the depths of tyrannical rule yet, the warning signs of them having set foot on that shameful road, are visible to all but those with their heads up their backsides. For now our ANC leaders, even those in the ANC Youth League who are aspirant future despots, have convinced themselves that they are safe.

Already there is discontent and upheaval across the country due to lack of service delivery and transparency on how local leaders are selected by the ruling Party. It’s only a matter of time before their safety bubble is burst…