Comfort-able Lies

It’s just a pity I cannot reblog this post about Ray Comfort from Skepticblog. Instead I’ve lifted the hilarious image above, and you can read the rest here.

For those who don’t know, Ray Comfort is a preacher of sorts who hails from Down Under, and now plying his trade in the USA, which is perhaps one of the most gullible countries in the world. Comfort trades in lies, by the way.

Like Ken Ham (who coincidently also hails from down under), Ray Comfort perverts the basics of science any way he can, to spread pathetic lies about Evolution, while promoting the absurdity known as Creationism. When his total and utter lack of understanding of the basics of biology and science is pointed out to him, he ducks for cover behind willful ignorance.

After reading the article, one has to wonder whether Ray is indeed a total idiot, or a very clever money-grubbing scumbag.

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.

All hail al-Bashir…or not

Fresh from his gigantic failure to mediate in the Ivory Coast Presidential crisis, former South African President and notorious AIDS-denialist Thabo Mbeki, today hailed the apparent statesmanship of International Criminal Court fugitive and notorius alleged humans-rights abuser, al-Bashir, President of Sudan.

Now isn’t that wonderful? One fucked-up, has-been politician paying tribute to another, who admittedly isn’t quite finished yet with fucking things up. The stuff of dreams…

And then there’s US Senator John Kerry who also joined the tribute chorus. Politicians! Can’t resist climbing on that old bandwagon, can they? Off course we all know that the Senator is probably licking his lips at the thought of all that oil in South Sudan that may become available to the good old US of A.

And what about our human rights basher (al-Bashir – his name’s kind of apt, don’t you think)? It’s only a matter of time before he starts persecuting any Christians still left behind in predominantly Islamic North Sudan after a potentially successful secession vote. He’s just licking his lips too…

Whatever happened to government of the people, for the people…

For most ordinary people, democracy has come to mean government of the people, by the people, for the people. Those iconic words by Abraham Lincoln, contained in the Gettysburg Address of 1863, remains a source of inspiration not only for Americans, but many other nations around the world, and has even been incorporated word for word into the French constitution.

Most modern governments however, pay scant respect to the vision those words are meant to portray. I watched a YouTube video yesterday, titled Sai Baba Exposed – Part 1-4 (also available here as a Google video in one complete segment), and was completely astounded at the self-important retort made by a former Indian Cabinet Minister to a British journalist, interviewing him about sordid allegations concerning Sai Baba, a cult leader who thinks he is some sort of god. The Minister’s openly intimidatory remark toward the journalist which sounded like “do you know my status,” made me wince, not because it came from a member of the world’s largest democracy, but because it sounded so familiar. I could have sworn I was hearing it from one of our very own Government Ministers, right here in South Africa, or our President himself. You see, it’s become common-place in South Africa, for elected public officials, Executive,  Senior and Junior, down to the lowest clerk to show utter disdain and contempt for the ordinary people who are responsible for them holding those positions.

The culture of entitlement has permeated every sphere of public office. Even organizations such as the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), which are aligned with the ruling political party, and CEO’s of state-owned Utilities such as Eskom, the power supplier, have become accustomed to displaying a total lack of respect and contempt for the ordinary citizen, while openly enjoying the patronage and protection of the parent body, the ANC. And just as Sai Baba evidently enjoys both Police and Government protection in India, the ANC’s minions, who are regularly accused of fraud and corruption, do so here in South Africa as well.

But, this self-serving culture by public officials is not limited to India and South Africa. Until only recently, the great United States of America, that bastion of freedom and justice, the apparent model of democracy, had a President who could fit the mould of a common dictator quite easily. And just a few hours ago, I read an article Jamaican Bureaucrats Do Not Serve the People, by a retired cardiologist, Basil Waine Kong, returning from the USA to his home country, about his displeasure and disappointment at what he found there. It was chilling, because he might as well have been writing about South Africa.

Even though this is a world-wide phenomenon, I am concerned more with South Africa and our immediate problem. The great Nelson Mandela must surely be highly aggrieved at what has happened to his beloved ANC. This organization is a ghost of its former illustrious self. The ANC of today is a rotting carcase, populated by slimy maggots who pose as leaders of the people. For years they have fed off the largesse of the people who put them into power, but now that the rotting carcase that was once the great ANC no longer gives them the cover of virtue and honour, they are openly feeding on each other too. In-fighting is tearing apart the ass-end of this carcase from the head-end, but you would be hard-pressed to know which maggots are inhabiting what end at any one time.

What recourse does the ordinary person have to fight this scourge of governmental disparagement? I turned to the only true god of enlightenment, Google, for answers and asked the question What can people do if government does not serve the people? And guess what? I could not find any reasonable answers. In fact Answers.com has this to say: This question has not been answered yet. Does this mean we are doomed to suffer government tyranny for ever? Does someone have an answer, which does not involve revolution again?

“Shoot to kill” fiasco just gets worse

About two weeks ago I posted a blog, deploring the South African President’s support for amendments to the law which would give police officers the right to shoot to kill. In that time, an innocent young women has become the unfortunate victim of this insane policy proposal, while two other innocent citizens were injured in the same incident.

Earlier this week, police officers shot at a vehicle suspected of being hijacked, killing the young women and injuring two others who were all passengers in the car. And just to highlight the incompetence of the seven police officers involved, the driver of the car, an Air Force pilot who was the only one to exit when it stopped, was also the only one who was not shot. He later claimed that the police opened fire indiscriminately and without provocation.

Considering the unbelievably stupid shoot-to-kill remarks made by senior police chiefs, politicians and even the President, to (poorly trained) police officers, only two weeks earlier, this incident was bound to happen. Earlier this year, the Deputy Safety and Security Minister, Susan Shabangu was reported as saying: “You must kill the bastards if they threaten you or the community. You must not worry about the regulations. That is my responsibility. Your responsibility is to serve and protect.” If the Deputy Minister does not understand the concept of serving and protecting, what hope is there for ordinary police officers, weaned on serving the former apartheid state against the majority of citizens.

The police officers who were involved in the shooting can claim that it was as a result of the mixed messages that they received from their bosses, but unfortunately (and rightly so) will have to face the full brunt of the law for their actions. As usual, the politicians will literally get away with murder.

But wait; it gets worse. Yesterday the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa not only claimed that the shoot-t0-kill stance was a fabrication by the press, he proclaimed that laws concerning the  police’s right to enter  private premises would be changed, to apparently, wait for it…. save lives. The Minister was quoted as saying:

There is a lot of woman and children abuse and we can’t seek permission from abusers to enter their houses.

If the police cannot competently identify a model of car (as in the shooting incident described earlier), how can we trust them to identify an abuser, and not barge into the wrong house shooting wildly at innocent people?

Are politicians that thick that they do not learn from the mistakes of their idiot peers? The draconian measures instituted by George Bush against the citizens of the USA to curb their constitutional freedoms, in response to the 9/11 disaster is still very much in the periphery of political and social discourse. Can our public representatives not see the danger of a repeat here, or are their objectives more sinister? Are South Africans, with a history of abuse of rights and freedoms, prepared to allow our politicians to drag us back into the past?

Personally, I need the assurance that my home will remain inviolate; free from the clutches of grubby politicians and the threat of invasion by incompetent police officers. Any attempts to diminish our freedoms must be resisted.

FIFA Confederations Cup 2009: South Africa vs Spain

The final match day at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg is now at an end. The match between South Africa and Spain for third place was evenly contested, but Spain eventually triumphed 3 – 2.

It would have been a serious embarrassment for the number-one ranked team in the world, had they lost to the steadily improving South Africans, but Spain held out to score the winner in the second half of extra time. There’s no doubt that the Spaniards were given a real scare during this Confederations Cup, first by the USA during the semi-finals and now by the South Africans.

The South Africans showed great promise in the many build-ups to scoring, but need to work on their finishing ability in front of goal. The skill and talent is undoubtedly there; perhaps they will give a better account of themselves next year in the FIFA World Cup Finals.

However, the Spanish side has enough class and I am predicting that they will win the FIFA World Cup Finals to be held in South Africa during June and July next year.

This is your wannabe reporter, Lenny, signing off from the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, until next year; probably from a different stadium.

It’s full-time at the FIFA Confederations Cup: USA vs Egypt

Some journalist I’m turning out to be. While posting my half-time report (which lasted well into the second half of the game), I missed two additional goals scored by the USA. So much for predicting that Egypt would equalize.

The final score here at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, USA vs Egypt is three goals to nil. While I was typing the previous line, I’ve just been handed two Game Statistics printouts by one of the many Volunteers who man the Media Centre; one for this match and one for the other match that was played concurrently at the Loftus Stadium in Pretoria between Italy and Brazil, which Brazil also won by three goals to nothing.

These statistics printouts contain a dizzying array of information on various aspects of the matches played. There are statistics on everything from Shots on Goal to Ball Possession to the Fouls Committed by each player to Match Time each player spent on the pitch. I’m not sure who would want such information, but a big up to FIFA for collating and making such information available to journalists. This certainly makes their jobs that much easier.

I could quote a whole string of statistics on the match from these reports, but I’m not going to bore you any further. There was a clear winner, and for that team’s fans, that’s all that matters.

It’s half-time at the FIFA Confederations Cup: USA vs Egypt

Okay, this is probably sneaky. I’m not one of the accredited journalists here at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg where the USA is playing Egypt in the final group stage match, but I’ve just come in from the stadium grandstand, and am now sitting in the Media Centre with a fairly large contingent of journalists, and thought I’d play at being one too.

So while the real journalists are busy posting their half-time stories to countries all over the world, yours truly is posting to his blog.

The USA is leading by one goal to nil, but Egypt look likely to equalize. The atmosphere is amazing as always, in and around the stadium.. The vuvuzelas are in full cry, and I’ve even seen a guy with some sort of snare drum which echoes in the stadium corridors. Most of the local support appears to be directed towards Egypt, perhaps as a show of solidarity for another team from the African continent.

It’s pretty cold out tonight, so I’m going to stay in the warm Media Centre for the rest of the game, and watch it on one of several large-screen TV’s located at various journalist’s tables.

Until next time, this is your wanna-be reporter, Lenny, signing out.

To the Victor, Go the Spoiled

I got up at five this morning and logged on, looking for the latest US Presidential Election results. The first thought that crossed my mind when it became clear that Obama was streets ahead of McCain was that the soil on quite a few graves across the USA, must be looking disturbed, as though…

Anyway, this is not about the dead; this is about the living, learning, citizens of the United States of America that have put personal fears and doubts aside, to elect their first Black American President. Historians could not be denied their chance to write a bold new page in the history books. People of America, take a bow, you have made the world proud. The undoing of the great harm perpetrated on your country by the Bush administration, can now begin in earnest. I am sure the world waits eagerly to walk with you on the tough road that lies ahead.

And so to President Obama I say, savour your victory for now; a great nation spoiled by the excesses of the previous administration awaits your urgent attention. I wish you well on the hard work that lies ahead, to return your country to its former glory.

Who Will It Be, Obama or McCain?

The culmination of a long, and what is arguably the most interesting Presidential election campaign in recent times, is at hand. On 4th November, 2008, Americans go to the polls and the world waits with baited breath…

Will Americans write a bold new chapter in the history of the United States of America by returning Obama to the White House, or will narrow-minded conservatism triumph once again? Come November, 04, will America have its first non-white President or will the White House remain aptly named?

We, the people of the world wait to celebrate with you, America. Please do not disappoint us.