GPSA Weekly Views

So, New Zealand won the 2011 Rugby World Cup bid. Good for them.

Note that the F1 Masters photos, held at Kyalami racetrack is available from the Gallery menu.

Instead my normal writing, I found an article that's right at home on these pages :

The following from David Frum also appeared in National Review Online today:

JUN. 13, 2005: SAVING AFRICA...IN ADVANCE

Friday I promised more on this problem of aiding Africa. The way Westerners respond to Africa is almost a cartoon of liberal piety at its most oozing. Generous souls like the people organizing the Live 8 concerts are eager to cudgel Western governments and corporations for not "doing more"--but only after catastrophe has struck. In advance of the catastrophe--when there is real action that might be taken and not just compassionate attitudes to be struck--those general souls are far less energetic, for the powerful reason that action then would require more truth than they are comfortable hearing.

Right now, and right before our eyes, the next African catastrophe is
gathering in South Africa. South Africa is so advanced and rich that its
ruin will take some time, but the direction on which the country is moving
is obvious and ominous. Brave individual reporters like Andrew Kenny who
contributes often to the UK Spectator have tried to sound the alarm in
articles like this and this. But for the most part, discussion is silenced
either by the hand of the South African government or by the heavier hand of political correctness and self-censorship.

For three decades, liberal opinion talked of South Africa as perhaps the
single most important issue on planet earth. When I attended college in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were gigantic rallies every spring,
cheered not just by the usual motley campus radicals but by just about
everyone, student and teacher, with a prudent regard for conventional opinion.

And then Nelson Mandela came to power and the issue just ... faded away. It didn't vanish quite: From time to time, Mandela would tour Europe or the US, and the world press would hail him as a combination of George Washington and St. Francis of Assisi. But the hard questions that might normally be asked about a new constitutional regime--who has gained power? how are they using it? for whose benefit? with what likely consequences?--these went unasked. And when answers emerged anyway, they were not just ignored, but suppressed.

The debate over African aid has been influenced enough by the experience of the past half century that aid proponents feel they must make at least some nods toward issues of accountability and governance. But they say they can't do more than nod because impoverished countries like Benin or Niger can hardly be expected to generate capable public sectors and independent civic institutions overnight. Fair enough, maybe. But South Africa has--or has had--a capable public sector and independent civic institutions. The problem there is that the political authorities are at work traducing and destroying those assets for their own selfish advantage.

If the new South African regime censors the press, if it rigs elections, if it steals, if it stunts economic growth, if it disdains its own
constitution, if it misappropriates private property, if it winks at
criminality and shrugs off epidemic AIDS--does not all this cast a rather
doubtful retrospective light on the gallant anti-apartheid crusade of the
1980s? And do not those one-time concerned enemies of apartheid bear some
enduring responsibility for the new regime they demanded? And if we are now all to donate hundreds of billions to try to haul Africa out of the ruin into which it has plunged, wouldn't it be wise politics and wiser economics to begin applying diplomatic pressure now, when pressure can still make a difference, to halt the present leaders of South Africa before they lead their country over the same precipice?

The South African Exiles web-site can be accessed at :-
http://www.springbokclub.co.uk

Weekly View
	17 November 2005
So, New Zealand won the 2011 Rugby World Cup bid. Good for them. Note that the F1 Masters photos, held at Kyalami racetrack is available from the Gallery menu. Instead my normal writing, I found an article that's right at home on these pages : The following from David Frum also appeared in National Review Online today: JUN. 13, 2005: SAVING AFRICA...IN ADVANCE Friday I promised more on this problem of aiding Africa. The way Westerners respond to Africa is almost a cartoon of liberal piety at its most oozing. Generous souls like the people organizing the Live 8 concerts are eager to cudgel Western governments and corporations for not "doing more"--but only after catastrophe has struck. In advance of the catastrophe--when there is real action that might be taken and not just compassionate attitudes to be struck--those general souls are far less energetic, for the powerful reason that action then would require more truth than they are comfortable hearing. Right now, and right before our eyes, the next African catastrophe is gathering in South Africa. South Africa is so advanced and rich that its ruin will take some time, but the direction on which the country is moving is obvious and ominous. Brave individual reporters like Andrew Kenny who contributes often to the UK Spectator have tried to sound the alarm in articles like this and this. But for the most part, discussion is silenced either by the hand of the South African government or by the heavier hand of political correctness and self-censorship. For three decades, liberal opinion talked of South Africa as perhaps the single most important issue on planet earth. When I attended college in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were gigantic rallies every spring, cheered not just by the usual motley campus radicals but by just about everyone, student and teacher, with a prudent regard for conventional opinion. And then Nelson Mandela came to power and the issue just ... faded away. It didn't vanish quite: From time to time, Mandela would tour Europe or the US, and the world press would hail him as a combination of George Washington and St. Francis of Assisi. But the hard questions that might normally be asked about a new constitutional regime--who has gained power? how are they using it? for whose benefit? with what likely consequences?--these went unasked. And when answers emerged anyway, they were not just ignored, but suppressed. The debate over African aid has been influenced enough by the experience of the past half century that aid proponents feel they must make at least some nods toward issues of accountability and governance. But they say they can't do more than nod because impoverished countries like Benin or Niger can hardly be expected to generate capable public sectors and independent civic institutions overnight. Fair enough, maybe. But South Africa has--or has had--a capable public sector and independent civic institutions. The problem there is that the political authorities are at work traducing and destroying those assets for their own selfish advantage. If the new South African regime censors the press, if it rigs elections, if it steals, if it stunts economic growth, if it disdains its own constitution, if it misappropriates private property, if it winks at criminality and shrugs off epidemic AIDS--does not all this cast a rather doubtful retrospective light on the gallant anti-apartheid crusade of the 1980s? And do not those one-time concerned enemies of apartheid bear some enduring responsibility for the new regime they demanded? And if we are now all to donate hundreds of billions to try to haul Africa out of the ruin into which it has plunged, wouldn't it be wise politics and wiser economics to begin applying diplomatic pressure now, when pressure can still make a difference, to halt the present leaders of South Africa before they lead their country over the same precipice? The South African Exiles web-site can be accessed at :- http://www.springbokclub.co.uk	Past Views Current Joke Past jokes Gallery Links Current Exchange Rate Daily News Headlines Articles
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