there are many other countries who do not like international courts and are happily going down the Zimbabwe route

this article was very interesting and rather sad, the power of states needs to be managed and controlled.

This article discusses three credible attempts by African governments to restrict the jurisdiction of three similarly situated sub-regional courts in response to politically controversial rulings. In West Africa, when the Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) upheld allegations of torture by opposition journalists in Gambia, that country’s political leaders sought to restrict the Court’s power to review human rights complaints. The other member states ultimately defeated Gambia’s proposal. In East Africa, Kenya failed in its efforts to eliminate the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and to remove some of its judges after a decision challenging an election to a sub-regional legislature. However, the member states agreed to restructure the EACJ in ways that have significantly affected the Court’s subsequent trajectory. In Southern Africa, after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ruled in favour of white farmers in disputes over land seizures, Zimbabwe prevailed upon SADC member states to suspend the Tribunal and strip its power to review complaints from private litigants. Variations in the mobilization efforts of community secretariats, civil society groups and sub-regional parliaments explain why efforts to eliminate the three courts or narrow their jurisdiction were defeated in ECOWAS, scaled back in the EACJ and largely succeeded in the SADC.

 It is indeed sad that states do not uphold the law, politicians need to be controlled tightly otherwise they will busy go about buggering up countries.

A House Divided

Kannu

Discrimination based upon skin colour is rampant in the world and is very difficult to remove. Very. It's like it's in our genes if you excuse the pun. The main reason is that we are tribal people. At heart. Biologically speaking. We are predisposed to form groups. These groups are defined by as much as what they are as they aren't. In other words, people define themselves as something that they are and what they aren't with reference with others. This is very very common. I find myself doing this all the time. Casual racism and discrimination is rife son. The only two ways to sort this is by economics (money makes these differences disappear, somewhat) and intermarriage. This is true for non racial discrimination like religious, caste or jati, linguistic, national etc. 

but good intentions usually don't work out as this story tells. 

Love

Baba 

(Saving...) A House Divided | Moment Magazine
http://www.momentmag.com/a-house-divided/

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A Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative Story

At apartheid’s end, the dorms of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein were integrated.
At first it went well, then the students chose to resegregate. A story of the continuing battle against racism in South Africa.

Billyboy Ramahlele heard the riot before he saw it. It was a February evening in 1996, autumn in South Africa, when cooling breezes from the Cape of Good Hope push north and turn the hot days of the country’s agricultural heartland into sweet nights, when the city of Bloemfontein’s moonlit trees and cornfields rustle sultrily beneath a vast sky glittering with stars. The 32-year-old dormitory manager at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein was relaxing in front of a wildlife program on the TV with his door open.

Suddenly, he became aware of a new noise. Could it be the trees, rustling in a gust? No, it was heavier, more like trampling. Could it be his TV? He switched it off. The noise grew louder.

Watching the Murder of an Innocent Man

Couple of things here son. First is joburg. I've been there several times and its always been a scary place for me. One of the most scary places. In broad daylight, in downtown joburg. In front of the headquarters of the largest saffa bank, one is nervous. 

Second is this idea of a mob. I've been attacked in the middle of one in Harare and been part of many in bhopal and Indore. It's a mindless animal son. Something happens when a group of men and women are brought together, a demagogue whips up emotions and then it just snowballs out of control. The London riots, football riots in the uk etc are all examples of what mobs can do. 

Very dangerous son because reason doesn't work, intelligence is useless, personal character is squelched, civilisation vanishes and all you are left with is a mass of ugly ass violent people who can as easily turn into itself as that on an external object like police, trees and and and. 

Best option, walk away quietly, stay away from crowds. You cannot manage these risks. But if you are caught up in one, slowly very slowly move out from the centre towards the back of the mob. Pose as if you are going to be sick and pretend to vomit. And people will automatically squirm away from you and give you space. And then again slowly try to slip away. If the police come, don't fight, don't explain nothing. Simply do what they tell you and they will protect you. And call me :) we will sort you out. 

Love

Baba

Watching the Murder of an Innocent Man
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/magazine/watching-the-murder-of-an-innocent-man.html?_r=1

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Pieter Hugo for The New York Times

Killing Field The open space between two squatter camps where Farai Kujirichita was beaten to death by vigilantes.

The mob, desperate for vengeance, had found an unlikely guide to lead them into their dark work. Fifteen-year-old Siphiwe, short, round-faced and reliably smiling, declared, “I know where these criminals live.”

He was a wayward teenager, a bad boy wanting to become a worse boy, and this gave him credibility in the matter of where vicious criminals might be found. A few men lifted him onto their shoulders so that the crowd, already in the hundreds, could see him better. Then an older man, wiser about these things, said to put the boy down. More than likely, they were about to kill someone. No one in the mob ought to be too conspicuous.

Diepsloot, in the northern reaches of Johannesburg, is a settlement of 150,000 people, the majority of them destitute. Crime oversteps even poverty as the most bedeviling affliction, and the night before, a gang of thugs marauded through one of the huge squatter camps in a subdivision called Extension 1. They were a methodical bunch, taking their time, shrewd about where to find stashes of cash amid the pittances, aware also of the police’s reluctance to enter the weave of shacks — the mokhukhus — where the narrow, unlighted pathways can be a fearsome labyrinth. The criminals killed two people, though the churning rumor mill put the number as high as 11.

Another bookstore bites the dust–this time in SAfrica

Thanks to John for this link. What a sad state of affairs.

South Africa may have produced two Nobel laureates in literature but a famous bookshop in Johannesburg is nevertheless about to close, a victim of the country's poor reading culture.

The Boekehuis, whose Afrikaans name means "book house", is in an old four-bedroom house a stone's throw from the city's two main universities.

Its waxed parquet floors, moulded ceilings, garden and coffee shop became the book-lover's refuge. The shop's literary events where readers could interact with writers were especially popular.

"This is like a house, not only a bookshop. People come here to buy books, but not only. They come for the ambiance, to have a nice time. And especially for the talks," says shop manager Corina van der Spoel.

Boekehuis which opened in 2000 has been widely portrayed as independent, but it is in fact owned by Media24, the country's largest media company.

The giant multimedia group, which owns most of the country's magazines and major newspaper titles, announced in December that the Boekehuis would be closing its doors at the end of January.

Leading figures such as award-winning author Andre Brink, photographer David Goldblatt and internationally acclaimed painter William Kentridge were among those who signed a petition to try to get Media24 to change its mind.

But their arguments have failed to sway the executives at Media24: the store has recorded annual losses of around a million rand ($120,000).

"Various possible solutions, such as finding a buyer for it, were pursued without success," the company explained in a statement.

"No interested buyers could be found."

National figures on readership — and literacy — help explain the problem.

"Only about one percent of the population buy books," says Elitha van der Sandt, head of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC).

And although the country can boast Nobel prize-winning authors such as Nadine Gordimer (1991) and J.M. Coetzee (2003), their works are mostly read abroad.

Professionals and researchers give several reasons for the nation's lack of a reading culture: one problem is the price of books.

The cheapest start at 120 rands ($14, 11 euros) — a high price in a country where most of the 50 million people earn around 2,000 to 3,000 rands a month.

"While a few books sell very well, most books will sell only a thousand or so copies," says Beth le Roux of the University of Pretoria, a specialist in the publishing industry.

"This means that publishers have small print runs, which also keeps the costs (and the prices) high." A sales tax rate of 14 percent and transport costs for imported books only add to the problem, she adds.

"To make it onto the bestseller list, you only need to sell a few thousand copies of a book here."

Le Roux estimates the book industry's turnover at 3.5 billion rands ($420 million, 320 million euro): but two thirds of that are made up of school and university textbooks.

Another 20 percent comes from religious books, which does not leave much of a niche for general literature.

A more fundamental problem however, is illiteracy.

In South Africa 18 percent of adults over the age of 15 are unable to read, and many of those who can read still struggle.

These depressing statistics are a legacy of the apartheid system, which gave lower quality schooling to the non-white population.

But even among white South Africans, the reading culture is limited.

Many of them are descendants of Protestants who have no tradition of diverse reading beyond the Bible.

Or as one bookseller quipped: "It wasn't just the intellectuals who left Europe!"

Stationery shops in the countryside sell a few romance novels, biographies of European royalty, thrillers and sports books. And there is no shortage of religious bookshops.

South Africa's main cities offer a few bookshops selling a broader range of literature: mostly branches of Exclusive Books, the largest chain in South Africa.

Increasingly however, many book enthusiasts are turning to the Internet to get what they need, even if for years, the Boekehuis was seen as an exception to that trend, partly because of the literary events it hosted.

Just a few kilometers down the road meanwhile, the local branch of Exclusive Books is also struggling. The chain, which belongs to a rival media group, just reduced the floor space of its biggest shop.

A tax on white people

Now here’s an idea.

A ‘white tax’ has been proposed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu during a recent book launch in Cape Town.
Acccording to The Cape Argus, a call for a wealth tax on whites came up during the Truth and Reconciliation Process. “It could be quite piffling maybe one per cent of their stock exchange holdings. It’s nothing,” he claimed. “Our white fellow citizens have to accept the obvious: You all benefited from apartheid.”
I realise that for many in the Anglican Communion, Desmond Tutu is regarded as virtually a saint, and that his words carry an almost infallible persuasion. Yet despite his vaunted status, and his undoubted courage, humour and singlemindedness in the face of the evils of apartheid, the same rules apply to him as they do to other prelates. The main rule is this: don’t imagine for a moment that any number of theology degrees and/or pastoral experience gives you the credibility to comment on specific tax proposals. You have as much authority as the man in the pub when you depart from your brief in this way.
However noble your aims, you don’t fight racism with racism. A tax on whites alone will hardly help the cause of reconciliation (one in which Archbishop Tutu has been such a great leader).

I am reminded about this when I read about Diane Abbott’s comments about white people. It is good that we have started understanding that its not just white people who can be racist, but everybody, of every race can be really racist. My mother who is darker was told in her face by relatives when she got married that she was too dark. India is basically racial through and through. The advertisements for skin lightening creams is another example. Arabs are seriously racist. Its everywhere. We have to fight it everywhere….See more posts here.

Slaughter a bull at the Party Conferences UK/USA #ukpolitics

I think this should be a great way to start the UK Political Party Conferences. Sacrifice an animal. First the story.

The ANC centenary celebrations formally commenced on Saturday with a traditional cleansing ceremony in Waaihoek.
Taking place on the grounds where the church in which the ruling party was founded in 1912 lies, several animals were ceremonially slaughtered.
Traditional and religious leaders opened the cleansing ceremony outside the church on Friday evening with an inter-faith service that turned into an overnight vigil running until the sacrificial ceremony took place.
The animals' blood was spilled inside a kraal to the beat of drums and ululation.
Renowned poet and ANC member Walley Serote told reporters the sacrifice is part of "remembering African traditions" in the hopes of invoking the spirits of the ancestors to offer guidance.
"We spill the blood of these animals in the hopes that our ancestors will help us prevent spilling human blood in the future," he said.
Also in attendance was ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, party chairperson Baleka Mbete, Traditional Affairs minister Richard Baloyi and African-American civil right activist Reverend Jessie Jackson.
President Jacob Zuma brought the cleansing ceremony to a close by sacrificing a black bull. He carried out the symbolic slaughter with a spear presented to him by a former Umkhonto we Sizwe member.
Only a select few were privy to Zuma ending the cleansing ceremony as police kept the media and the majority of those attending away.

The stabbing was left to the "young" who could perform it practically, said Zuma.
"Some of the important remarks I made before the ritual was [about] the importance of the spear. The spear was one of the powerful weapons we used in the wars of resistance," Zuma said.
"This is very symbolic because of the struggle. The apartheid government responded with violence, with burning people and arresting people and finally banning organisations, especially the ANC and PAC."
Zuma then recounted how former ANC leader Albert Luthuli along with the national executive committee at the time created the ANC's military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) in order to defend itself.
"Luthuli said that as an African man, if you are faced with a powerful enemy ... you retreat to [your] own home where there is a spear, which is your last weapon. And once he follows you to your home, you are left with no alternative but to pick up your spear and stab him.
"We have spoken to the ancestors, it is done. The spear once used to fight apartheid is now used to protect our nation. Let us go out and enjoy the centenary celebrations," Zuma told the crowd afterwards.
The Mangaung Outdoor Sports Complex will play host to a series of inter-cultural performances from 10am onwards.

So lets see what will be the equivalent in the UK.

Conservatives have to go for the Pig or Cats given their associations with Hogging Pigs or Fat Cats

Labour has to go for the cow because of the Mad Cow disease and the beef they have with agriculture

Liberal Democrats would, I guess, prefer to sacrifice a turkey because, well, what else can you associate with that party?

Socialists have to sacrifice a bull because that’s what they peddle

Greens have to sacrifice a head of lettuce?

SNP perhaps has to go for sacrificing a deer? a barking deer perhaps?

BNP has to sacrifice a chicken. Because that’s what they are

I cant remember any other political names…

No questions about the USA, they have their donkeys and elephants already. But what about Libertarians? What should they sacrifice? I guess any civil servant will do?

Religious Restrictions in the 25 Most Populous Countries

Bloody shameful, if you ask me. What on earth are these countries doing? Think about India, not only does it have high government restrictions but the people themselves are actively hostile to other religions. Disgusting.

For that matter, the UK correspondingly has room for improvement as well. It has to reduce the amount of government restrictions and also further educate its population on being more liberal to other religions. Not good.

Get holidays and degrees for old religions

Heh, you couldn't make this up even if you wanted it. In the UK, you get holidays if you are a pagan. I quote:

POLICE who worship heathen gods will get eight days off a year to celebrate pagan festivals. They are also in line for thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in recognition of their status as a “community” of pagans.

Home Office chiefs this week gave their backing to the Pagan Police Association which will be entitled to public funding, along the lines of that given to other rank-and-file organisations like the National Black Police ­Association. Last year the Home Office introduced a pagan oath which can be used in the courts and yesterday officials said self-styled witches, Druids and heathens were welcome in the police. But last night there was growing anger that public money should be spent supporting the policemen’s “religion”.

Why stop at policemen? We now have traditional medicine.

THE desire of many of South Africa’s 180,000 traditional healers to be absorbed into the mainstream health system was given a boost yesterday when Wits University launched a degree for sangomas. A bachelors or masters degree in indigenous knowledge systems is on offer at the university’s school of medicine. Once qualified, traditional healers will be able to diagnose diseases such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and diabetes, and refer patients to state hospitals. They will also be taught how to sell their medicines and open their own surgeries. Yesterday, about 1400 traditional healers from across South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho met to urge the government to formalise their status.

We are in cloud cuckoo land moving into loony street soon. Very soon, we will get good remedies such as Rhino juice for AIDS.

One of them is a potion called Ubhejani, the Zulu word for rhino, and in the city of Durban 500 bottles of it are being sold every week as a treatment for AIDS. He said he was not taking the anti-retro viral drugs which his doctors had recommended - because he believed they would harm him. The recipe for Ubhejani is a secret closely guarded by its creator, Zeblon Gwala.He says the combination of 89 African herbs came to him in a dream. Mr Gwala is a former truck driver with no medical training. And yet he has no qualms about encouraging his patients to stop taking orthodox AIDS drugs and consume his potion instead. In his time in office Thabo Mbeki has questioned the existence of AIDS and accused the big drugs companies of preying on Africa. He has refused to dismiss his Health Minister, who has been nicknamed "Dr Beetroot" by the local media for trumpeting the benefits of African medicine and vitamin supplements for HIV-positive people.

What on earth is the world coming to?

Boycotts do not work, Ms. Klein

Typically, Ms. Naomi Klein, has proposed to go after Israel to boycott, divest and sanction, and the 4 points that she mentions are so blindingly stupid that one regrets reading it. But then, she has never been one to be intellectually incoherent and prefers to be the shout out and drown out school of political activism.

For example, would she agree to do punitive measures against the USA for doing the same thing with other countries? Would she agree for the same measures against USA for the still continued prevalence of racism? How about using this BDS tactic against USA? and how will you communicate without Israeli inventions? And to think that even sober people have brought into this idea that sanctions work. But then, there is no dearth in people following stupid crazy ideas. The idea that boycotts work is endlessly recycled. I mean, Israel has been boycotted for decades and frankly nothing much work. But then, we need useful idiots to back economic illiterate and politically stupid arguments.

If you go for the reductio ad absurdum principle, then you think that USA is supporting Israel, so it should be boycotted and since she is an American, presumably she is asking for a boycott of herself? Here's my previous full length essay refuting main argument.

Technorati Tags: boycotts,Israel,South Africa

Indian Schools in South Africa - Racism still persists

Unfortunately schools are always the target for social policy. One of the places, where this was observable in horrible detail, was in apartheid South Africa. One had white only schools, coloured only schools, black only schools and Indian origin schools.

It's this last one which caused me to take a deeper look at a paper which crossed my in box. The paper is by Anthony Lemon, and is titled "Indian identities in the 'rainbow nation': Responses to transformation in South African schools".

But how did these Indian schools fare after apartheid ended?
I am not sure if there are any definite conclusions, but I am just going to comment on certain noteworthy observations that the author made.

• During apartheid, despite being segregated and having lower amounts of comparative funding, Indian schools did equal to the white schools, both in terms of enrolment as well as educational attainment. Now that I found to be quite interesting and the author points to the unholy drive that Indian parents have towards educating their children as the reason behind this performance.
• But post apartheid, when just looking at 5 schools in a tiny corner of South Africa, some very interesting aspects come up. The first is that while the teachers, staff and governing bodies want to open up their schools to more black students, the parents usually are not that interested. Apparently the prevailing view is, once you let lots of blacks into a school, Indians are less keen to go to that school. Seems like the governing body, teachers and staff are more liberal and inclusive compared to the normal parents.
• Second, while almost no white students would go to an Indian school, some Indian students will go to a white school. But this is either statistically insignificant or because the parents live next to a white school and not because of an explicit desire. Also, most Indian schools are equal if not better than white schools.
• On the other hand, black students will commute very long distances to get to Indian schools which are considered to be much better than black schools. In many cases, the travel costs are greater than the school fees, which is very thought-provoking indeed.
• In many schools with an Indian majority before but now having an African majority, the teachers and staff are still predominantly Indian, mainly because African teachers are very difficult to get, recruit and retain. But this is not as simple as it seems, as staff and teachers seem to be associated with their apartheid era racial attributes. So white teachers go to white schools, Indian teachers go to Indian schools, and so on and so forth.
• But curiously, a pattern which seems to emerge is that Black teachers do not like to go the extra mile which Indian staff and teachers are famous for. For example, in a school, the principal is in school every day of the year, including weekends. Apparently this over the top dedication to teaching is not seen in Black teachers and thus they do not seem to last long in Indian schools.
• Curiously, while Indian parents would be very heavily involved in the schools and with their children's education, that pattern does not seem to show up in black parents, because of poverty, long commute distance or other reasons.
• But given that a huge amount of school funding comes from the parents, a paradoxical downside of opening up the Indian schools to Black students means a very big drop of school income. Given the current economic climate, this is hurting the Indian schools badly in terms of infrastructure development.
• The United Kingdom seems to be siphoning out good teachers relating to physical sciences, biology, maths, speech and drama, languages and life orientation. They seem to be heading off for a better life and salaries.

Now this is what I found interesting and I quote the last line "Desegregation of former Indian schools, if sensitively managed, can make a significant contribution to that identity (Indian Identity within a rainbow nation) by gradually increasing understanding and acceptance of Indians by the black African majority".

So if I read this right, Indians are not accepted or understood well by black Africans and the feeling seems to be reciprocated solidly as shown by the school choices (albeit in a small sample). Racism seems to still be alive and kicking in a very saddening level in South Africa. But would it mean a race to the bottom in terms of inclusiveness or a race to the top in terms of merit? My sad prediction is the former, the balance of probability, looking at how public policy has been executed usually in that neck of the woods, usually means that when it comes to merit versus skin colour, the latter wins.

Technorati Tags: Schooling,Education,South Africa,affirmative Action,racism

Yellow is now black

I was falling about laughing when I read this. When you replace one racist scheme for another, do not be surprised when other races play up. I see that all the time and have talked about it left right and centre. Race based economic policies are always destined to collapse under the weight of their own inconsistencies. We have seen riots and deaths in India, USA and across vast swathes of Africa over this issue.

In the USA, blacks are given affirmative action, but then when yellows from China and Japan, and browns from Asia and Latin America over take them and pick up all the pieces, then it is no longer racism but, erm, what is it?

Here are some examples of how racism is perpetuated by the same people who suffered under it.

The Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws use the same racial classifications of the apartheid era, giving advantage to those who were designated as black, Indian or coloured during the years of white rule.

So, the blacks are continuing on doing the same racist stuff.. And because of that, this happens:

The Chinese were considered "coloured" during the apartheid years and suffered discrimination, but from 1994 they were considered "white".

Hmm, so a yellow was first coloured, then became white and now they are black. From a basic economics, political, and frankly common sense perspective, this policy sounds stupid. Why not simply open it up to anybody who is poor and needs help? But no, moronic leaders (that Thabo Mbeki is a prime example, I feel hatred towards him, frigging idiot), will keep on going because that's how low brow they are. Makes more sense to be a racist than to be smart and help all South Africans.

A very interesting twist on immigration

Ok, so this is the model. You are, say an insurgent group, like Al Queda or something committed to overthrow the Saudi Royal Family. Al Queda currently takes help from various places such as Pakistan, UAE, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan etc. Say it did manage to overthrow the Al Saud's. Then Al Queda is now running Saudi Arabia.

But the Saudi's are upset that in the name of the Ummah, all these indigent and poor immigrants from Yemen, Sudan and Pakistan are taking away all the jobs and creating crime and mess and and and. So the Saudi's kick or try to kick all the immigrant population out.

But then Pakistan, UAE, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan etc. remind Saudi Arabia and Al Queda about the help they provided in overthrowing the Al Saud's and say, why are you mistreating our citizens in this manner? Far fetched? no its, not because the identical thing happened in South Africa. Here's the story. I quote snippets:

a spate of violence against immigrants, including Nigerians, reflected historical amnesia. Mr Yar’Adua has faced strong popular pressure to deliver a tough message to the South African government.........Images of foreigners burnt alive and beaten by lynch mobs have been circulating on the internet, fuelling outrage in countries that once welcomed South African fugitives from racial persecution and lent support to the African National Congress (ANC) in its days as a liberation movement.

Racial and ethnic violence against immigrants has a long history which I have intermittently explored here. And in the fullness of time, all are exposed to it, Whites in Zimbabwe, Blacks in South Africa, Jews and Muslims in Europe, and so on so forth.

But again, notice that Nigeria did not talk about the elephant in the room. Why the richest country in Africa has so many emigrants? Why have people emigrated from Mozambique? What made people leave in their millions from Zimbabwe? THAT is the bigger issue, those corrupt, thieving, cheating, robbing leaders. Dragging history into it is just hiding the issue.

Technorati Tags: Africa,Corruption,Nigeria,Mozambique,South Africa,immigration

World Aids Day - some discrepancies

I am watching that admirable man, Nelson Mandela on TV, with his AIDS charity 46664 holding a concert on the occasion of World Aids Day. Quite an interesting global effort to drive solutions on this disease, but again, I am a bit curious about  which diseases get global attention and which do not. For example, see here. The graph of projected global deaths from various selected diseases on page 12 shows that cancers, heart diseases and strokes deaths are higher than AIDS. Another interesting factoid:

The total number of tobacco attributable deaths is projected to rise from 5.4 million in 2005 to 6.4 million in 2015 and to 8.3 million in
2030. Tobacco is projected to kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS and to be responsible for 10% of all deaths.

So you don't really get the same kind of attention to tobacco deaths across the world as you get for AIDS, do you? I suppose this is what is called as the diseases of affluence syndrome. Or is this because AIDS is more "sexy" than say "dysentery"? which kills more? See this (Annex Table 3). This shows how the deaths pan out in various regions by cause. Then map how many "World ???? Days" do you see against that mortality list. Curious, no?

Another couple of points for which I do not have any facts or figures but just struck me. Why there is more western media attention paid to AIDS in Africa compared to AIDS in say India?.

And another discrepancy, at the concert in Johannesburg, most of the attendees seemed to be white in colour. I am not sure why that was the case. Bit puzzling that.

All this is nothing to take away from the fact that AIDS needs to be fought, but wearing my economist hat, I am curious why resources are being invested in diseases which, prima facie, show lesser returns). I wonder if there is any kind of resource modelling aspect around? Then again, World AIDS Day is more "sexy" than World Dysentery Day??

Technorati Tags: South Africa,Healthcare,AIDS

Thabo Mbeki is a dangerous moron

I keep on saying this, but here the NY Times saying the same. I quote:

Crackpot and dangerous theories on AIDS. Extreme and widening levels of income inequality. Enabling Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and only belatedly trying to halt mob atrocities against desperate Zimbabwean and other African immigrants. This is the legacy of South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, who has one more year in his second term.

If it remembers Mr. Mbeki at all, it will be for appointing a health minister who favored garlic and beet root as treatment for South Africa’s more than five million citizens infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and for his stubborn refusal to use South Africa’s economic and political clout to stop Zimbabwe’s horrors.

Root beer? what a moron.

Technorati Tags: South Africa

Water Wars

Well, the South African Constitution says this.

Section 27(1) of the constitution says: “Everyone has the right to have access to ... sufficient food and water.”

Section 27(2) says the state must “take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights”.

Ok, so everybody has a right to food and water. Now, does that mean free water? As I have said so many times before, there is nothing free in the world. Somebody has to pay. So the South African High Court has ruled that the state has to pay for a basic provision of water to everybody. See here for more details.

Now, where do we get the money from? General taxation? so why would the poor pay for the rich? Remember that payments for services out of general taxation are disproportionately and comparatively bad on poor people. It is like the child benefit that is given to every child in the UK. Its about 20 pounds of so. So think about it, this money is taken from the general taxation pot. So even I, who is a higher rate taxpayer, gets this 20 pounds for my children. Now I can afford to pay for my children myself. But because it comes out of general taxation, the vast majority of the poor end up paying in general taxation and then getting a wee bit in return. So paying for core services from general taxation is not that hyper efficient... Here are some good options on it.

Check out what happened here. This is indeed quite a curious decision and goes to show that when politicians say things like "right to jobs, or water, or or or", well, when rights are given, then ability to protect and provide those rights should also follow. Otherwise, its just words...

Now Mbeki tries to redefend his moronic stance on Zim

Now Mbeki tries to defend his "there is no issue in Zim" thesis. I quote:

He defended those remarks in New York, saying dialogue was essential to
bring about a resolution to the situation in Zimbabwe, where 18 days after
presidential elections, electoral officials have yet to announce a result.
"The solution to the problem of Zimbabwe lies in the hands of the people of
Zimbabwe," he said.
"In our engagement with the situation, we needed to talk
continuously at all times with both the ruling party and the opposition."

what a git, 3-4 million of Zimbabweans are in your country, you idiot, talk to them. What a morally and intellectually corrupt man.


All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Mbeki's own party calls him a twerp

How amazing, the ANC actually telling that thief Robert Mugabe to step down, in opposition to that moron "there is no crisis" Mbeki's view.

The more I read about Mbeki, the more bewildered I become, how on earth can a nominally intelligent man frankly be so spectacularly stupid. No, not stupid, but actually idiotic and a figure of fun. Does he not realise that he comes across as a moron when he speaks like this? Or perhaps he is so far gone that he doesnt realise this at all?

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

South Africa's Conditional Universal Jurisdiction -- and Its Potential Effect on Zimbabwe

Now this is an interesting take on the ICC protocols, I always thought that the ICC is restricted to national boundaries and only to nationals of their own. But apparently, if you are present in any other country, including UK and South Africa, if you are a suspect in genocide or bad crimes, then you could well be arrested.

Very curious and very interesting indeed. I presume if this works, then Donald Rumsfeld will stop travelling to the UK? :) (Like what happened with the British police and the Israeli Army General, see here for more details)

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

A South African take on the Ant and the Grasshopper!

Remember this post? Now read this. I Quote:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

The Media show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The world is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? The ANC stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing "We shall overcome" and "mshimi wami" . The ANC then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

The liberals proclaim that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."

Finally, the ANC drafts the "Black Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act" retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs -- and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes -- his home is confiscated by the government.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in (which just happens to be the ant's old house) crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

World Aids Day - some discrepancies

I am watching that admirable man, Nelson Mandela on TV, with his AIDS charity 46664 holding a concert on the occasion of World Aids Day. Quite an interesting global effort to drive solutions on this disease, but again, I am a bit curious about  which diseases get global attention and which do not. For example, see here. The graph of projected global deaths from various selected diseases on page 12 shows that cancers, heart diseases and strokes deaths are higher than AIDS. Another interesting factoid:

The total number of tobacco attributable deaths is projected to rise from 5.4 million in 2005 to 6.4 million in 2015 and to 8.3 million in
2030. Tobacco is projected to kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS and to be responsible for 10% of all deaths.

So you don't really get the same kind of attention to tobacco deaths across the world as you get for AIDS, do you? I suppose this is what is called as the diseases of affluence syndrome. Or is this because AIDS is more "sexy" than say "dysentery"? which kills more? See this (Annex Table 3). This shows how the deaths pan out in various regions by cause. Then map how many "World ???? Days" do you see against that mortality list. Curious, no?

Another couple of points for which I do not have any facts or figures but just struck me. Why there is more western media attention paid to AIDS in Africa compared to AIDS in say India?.

And another discrepancy, at the concert in Johannesburg, most of the attendees seemed to be white in colour. I am not sure why that was the case. Bit puzzling that.

All this is nothing to take away from the fact that AIDS needs to be fought, but wearing my economist hat, I am curious why resources are being invested in diseases which, prima facie, show lesser returns). I wonder if there is any kind of resource modelling aspect around? Then again, World AIDS Day is more "sexy" than World Dysentery Day??

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