Xenophobia - images of shocking hatred

For a news24.com photo presentation on the xenophobic violence raging in Gauteng at present, click on the image below.

I wish against all odds that the xenophobic madness currently under way in South Africa will abate overnight and that we can simply forget about it. But this will off-course not happen by some miracle. It will need commitment, firstly acknowledgement, and strong determined action from Government and all kinds of civic and political leaders.

The current orgy of hate and lawlessness cannot be ignored or dealt with by run of the mill press statements. Blaming it on 'criminal elements' is also ludicrous as it is as clear as daylight that these acts are being perpetrated by large sections of the particular communities - not just a few individuals. President Mbeki needs to address the nation via national TV and radio and make clear that the Government will not tolerate the evil of Xenophobia. He can gather the new ANC leadership (including Jacob Zuma) and other prominent leaders around him when making such a statement. Obviously this needs to be backed up by action. We don't have the convenience of avoiding the embarrassment of deploying the SANDF in our streets to restore order, it should have been done already. Civil society should also mobilise and reach out a hand to the foreigners at the receiving end of the violence.

Addressing the many failings that contributed to the current situation must receive urgent attention once the violence has been stemmed. But for now talk of poverty, crime, corruption and the like will not end the violence. What is needed is unqualified condemnation of this scourge at the highest level and forceful action.


Video

BBC online video on the violence here (external link)

News

• news24.com - Mobs armed with petrol run amok
• news24.com - SA shocked by violence
• M&G online - Parties slam govt over xenophobic attacks
• allAfrica.com - President Mbeki condemns Xenophobic attacks
• CNN - 'Anti-foreigner' violence kills 22 in South Africa
• The Times online edition (UK) - Thabo Mbeki's critics demand action not words
• BBC online - Thousands flee S Africa attacks
• New York Times - Anti-Immigrant Violence in S Africa
  

Opinion

• Haigh & Hussein on iol.co.za - What fuels the hatred?
• Peter Fabricius on iol.co.za - Alex mayhem aggravated by shortcoming
  
• Soweto - Readers' comment on the xenophobic violence
• BBC online - S African violence: Your stories (reports from 'foreigners' on the receiving end of the current xenophobic attacks)
• BBC online - Foreign attacks concern SA press (excerpts from mostly editorials)
  

Blogs

• Mhambi - Time to call in the army?
• Constitutionally Speaking - Xenophobia excused or explained?
• thinking aloud - Xenophobia: It is us South Africans who should carry the blame
• Somewhere in Africa - South Africa's foreigner problem
• Comment is free - South Africa's hard truths
  

Thabo Mbeki - what could have been

Pierre de Vos once again got me thinking on his blog Constitutionally Speaking today. In a post titled 'Those were the days...' he nostalgically thinks back to a time when Thabo Mbeki demanded respect with his intellectual discourse (see video clip lower down). A time when, at least for some of us, he made you sit back and take note. He could make you think again about, rethink, set ideas. But alas, HIV, Zimbabwe, Selebi and many other areas of denialism corrupted his legacy and did immense damage to South Africa. I need not elaborate on his short comings. It is painfully apparent in current public discourse - as it should be. Gains in housing and other areas such as water access fade into the background.

It reminded me about a post I wrote when PW Botha, Die Groot Krokodil, passed away (PW Botha 'defiant to the end') in 2006. I know it's a bit cruel to compare Mbeki to Botha, they presided over markedly different forms of government. In one human rights was severely curtailed and in another it is highly valued, at least in name. However, what a bitter irony that so much I wrote about Botha could also be applied to Mbeki. For the full context on what I said about Botha, follow the above link, but note how the excerpts below also applies to Mbeki:

...will mostly remembered for 'what could have been'. He is famous for an important speech he made, dubbed 'The Rubicon Speech' (((Mbeki - "I am an African")))...

...Sadly, he didn't follow through on the foundation that was laid... ...The challenge was huge though... ...South Africa ... its white population felt threatened from within and without... ...The rest of the world was viewed as simply being ignorant, as not grasping the complexities that was South Africa...

...However, all the potential was there for change...

...What was desperately needed was strong, visionary, leadership. ...was definitely a strong leader, as bold as they came... ...He showed promise of vision, but alas did not follow through on this...

I have no doubt that amidst all the damage, Mbeki also leaves a positive legacy - even if it is overshadowed by all the ills mentioned higher up. Below, with thanks to Pierre de Vos, follows a YouTube clip on Mbeki's famous speech as the then Vice President of South Africa in 1996 (not the full speech). For the full text of the speech go here. The clip was produced for South African Tourism and used in marketing South Africa. The campaign's punch line, still used today, is "South Africa - It's imPossible". The 'im' should be 'strike-through', i.e. a line should be drawn through it, but I haven't yet figured out how to do that in Blogger...

...if you're reading this post outside of my blog the YouTube video above may not be displayed - to remedy this visit my blog...

Finding (good & bad) memories online

Former State President (of South Africa), PW Botha,
shakes hands with a Soweto youth - Aug 31, 1979.
(As displayed by Daylife and credited to "Beeld AP").

It's amazing what you can find on the internet, and mostly with very little effort. I followed a tag related to this blog as I was curious to see what I have posted about the particular subject ('Christian Faith'). It turned out that PW Botha's death in late 2006 was the unlikely topic of the post. In the posting titled PW Botha 'defiant to the end' I mentioned a signature photograph of Botha's historic visit to Soweto in 1979. I was nine years old at the time...

I went to Google Image Search and searched for "Soweto" and "PW Botha". The above picture was the second picture on the first page of results. Now if you were sitting in a newsroom in 1990, before the internet became what it is today, and had to find this picture you'd have your work cut out for you. I love the NET!

Constitutionally Speaking - Mbeki & Mugabe

Pierre de Vos, the guy behind the blog Constitutionally Speaking, once again produced a very well thought through and articulated article - this time on Thabo Mbeki's much talked about political strategy of 'quiet diplomacy' towards Robert Mugabe's ongoing abuses in Zimbabwe.

The article, 'Zimbabwe: Why Mbeki is all carrot and not stick', lead to a rather long debate in the comments following below the article. It makes for interesting reading (in this case the comments) and is a good reflection on some of the different views present in South Africa on this issue. Once again many of the arguments is directly or indirectly race based - something that will sadly be with us for a long time to come...

Snippets from the article:

...Of course we have to remember that the two previous elections were declared credible and mostly free by South African observers (following the Mbeki line), despite the fact that these were conducted in an atmosphere of fear and violence and according to electoral rules that clearly allowed for the massaging of the results in favour of Mugabe. This suggests that the Mbeki ANC would have done and said almost anything to ensure that Mugabe was not humiliated or criticised in any way...

...There are at least two problems with these arguments.

First, South Africa is supposed to be a constitutional state based on the Rule of Law and a respect for human rights and the government police (sic) is supposedly to promote respect for human rights across Africa and to foster good governance in Africa through Nepad and the African Peer Review mechanism.

The failure of the government to forcefully criticise even the most flagrant human rights abuses and the stealing of two previous elections by Mugabe, suggests that South Africa is a silent or not so silent supporter of a tyrant and thus makes a mockery of the supposed leadership of our President and our country on human rights issues. This undermines our standing in the world and among right thinking people all across Africa. It is a matter of credibility: if one mollycoddles a tyrant it is hard to be taken seriously when making lofty statements about good governance and respect for human rights in other parts of Africa or the rest of the world (like in the USA or Iraq).

Our President has lost all credibility by holding hands with a person who has lost an election and now refuses to accept this reality and is using his military to terrorise the population who had the audacity to vote for the opposition.

Second, (and much worse) the South African governments’ silence (sold as quiet diplomacy) has actually helped to prop up Mugabe and thus helps him to stay in power... South Africa could place serious diplomatic and economic pressure on Mugabe to change but has failed to do so. This makes our government complicit in the murder and torture of thousands of Zimbawean citizens and the ruining of the economy in that country.

Thus South Africa’s actions have helped to support a tyrant in power and have made it potentially more (not less) difficult to get rid of him...

To read the full article & the interesting debate in the comments section go here.

I also touched on the subject in March of 2007 when I put the question - 'Robert Mugabe - credible partner for quiet diplomacy?'. That was after the leader of the opposition was detained and ended up in hospital.

Burt Glinn Retrospective (photographer & photojournalist)

The New York Times' online edition ran a multimedia retrospective on Burt Glinn today. It includes twelve impressive black and white photo's covering a range of subjects. He died Wednesday in New York.

"Members of the Seattle Tubing Society in full float." - Burt Glinn / Magnum

Magnum Photo's - "Revolution". A fascinating multimedia slide show of great b&w photo's with commentary by the late Burt Glinn in which he tells the story of how he left overnight for Cuba to document Fidel Castro's victory march to Havana. He tells of how he first had to locate the revolution, how he tracked down Castro and how events unfolded thereafter.

Magnum Photos. Links to 25 major features by Burt Glinn.