Well, to start with I don't want the Government to support me, I have never accepted welfare in any form and never will..I always got a job, sometimes not a very good one but a job never the less, I have burned pear in 130 degree heat, dug postholes in the same, in my early years while others layed around town and collected unemployment that amounted to more than I was making and it pissed me off...

I cannot tolerate these lazy bastards that live on welfare and IMO steal from those who "truly" need help!!

I dispise the corruption that exists in the United Nations and have doubts as to the need for such a bunch of powerfull people and the thought of them running our country as Kerry would have is appaling to me.....They are as corrupt as the Mafia, in fact more so, at least the Mafia has enough class to know and admit they are a criminal organization...

God bless America...

The funny (and sad) thing is that the general african population continues to blame the colonial powers, and whites in general for all their own present day african fuck-ups...

And then the west is dumb enough to fall for it, and because of misdirected feelings of guilt, throw money down the toilet by trying to "help" them. It's all a huge brainwashing scam which is to a great deal kept going by the UN and the numerous NGOs who are more interested in looking important, than doing any actual good... IMO.

I wish more people in africa than Mbekis brother would admit to it. Then things might eventually change. In a thousand years...

Erik D.

Ditto, witness the re-emergence of Marion Berry in Washington, D.C. as candidate for city council. How anyone in their right mind could actually entertain the idea of voting for that crack-smoking, whore chasing, thief is completely beyond my imagination. However, I live next to Louisiana, and the people there seem to have no problem repeatedly voting in crooks who are mostly white - maybe the swamp gas seeps into their brains.

I'll be dragged out into the street,tarred and feathered, any way, there's not much difference between what is going on in Africa and what goes on in the black controled cities here in the US.
Jim

This is the first coherant sensible thing I've heard coming from the mouth of an African politician. An attitude like this could actually start things in the right direction. But I doubt it'll happen any time soon.

There is a common thread trough all of this. It doesn't matter whether you're a Native American, Native European, Native African, Native Australian, etc. IF YOU DEPEND ON A GOVERNMENT FOR YOUR WELL BEING YOU WILL FAIL! No government has ever done a damn thing for me and never will. The sooner that sinks in the better off everyone will be. The only way for prosperity to exist is for free enterprize (open competition )to be in place. Africa will continue it's slide as long as this so called "ownership by appointment doctrine" applies. That's not the same as equal rights. The other BIG problem is that stupid, corrupt organization called "The United Nations".

Name me a few countries that aren't worse off. Sad to say most countries that gained independence weren't ready for it, farted, and fell over. I have no sympathy for them.

Have to give the guy credit for the nerve to state the obvious.



It must be quite tempting to be a dictator, as all the countries he refers to have or probably will wind up as dictatorships.



Mugagbe does the very thing he refers to, giving the cotton farmer seed and fertilizer, but the farmers are forced to sell it only to Mugagbe at much less than market value. Isn't that the definition of communism?

Couldn't agree more. The historical data is there for all to see. Granted some were worse than others, the Belgians were particularly exploitative and left little in the way of infrastructure and education for the locals. The Brits were the other extreme, in that they left of their own accord (except here in the US, but those are totally different circumstances)leaving sound infrastructure, both political and economic. Further buttressing this argument are the countries of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Theoretically, the locals achieved independence only recently and were left free-standing and sound economic and political bases. Today, Zimbabwe is but a shadow of it's former self and RSA is rapidily headed that way. Unfortunately, these facts will get you labeled as a racist in today's sensitive world. jorge

Africa 'worse off than in colonial times'

By Sipho Khumalo

Africa is worse off now than it was during the era of colonialism because its political elite are plundering its resources and stashing money in Swiss banks instead of investing it in their own countries.

These comments were made on Tuesday by Moeletsi Mbeki, Chairperson of the South African Institute of International Affairs, and brother of the president.

In his address to the Durban branch of SAIIA, on the theme Africa: Quo Vadis?, Mbeki said Africa was experiencing a downward spiral, with its people worse off than they had been during the time of colonialism.

Whereas colonialists had developed the continent, planted crops, built roads and cities, the era of uhuru had been characterised by capital flight as the elite pocketed money and took it outside their countries. Among them were the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. The money Abacha had plundered had been discovered in Switzerland.



'This is one of the depressing features of Africa'
Mbeki said the continent was also facing the problem of being unable to generate savings, with sub-Saharan Africa getting poorer and poorer every year.

"This is one of the depressing features of Africa," he said.

Mbeki said that while China had lifted more than 400�000 people above the poverty line in the past 20 years, Nigeria had pushed more than 90 million people below the poverty line.

"The average African is poorer (now) than during the age of colonialism. In the 1960s African elites/rulers, instead of focusing on development, took surplus for their own enormous entourages of civil servants without ploughing anything back into the country," he said.

He said the continent's cash crops, like cocoa and tobacco, were heavily exploited by the state-run marketing boards with farmers getting little in return.

What should South Africa do about this? "It should revisit issues and stop putting out fires in Darfur until we address this fundamental problem of power relations between producers and controllers of political power," Mbeki said.

On Zimbabwe, he said South Africa should intervene on the side of democracy and not back Zanu-PF.

"Our intervention should be to support democracy and not tolerate use of violence, torture and rigging of elections and, if necessary, we should support the opposition," he said.

This article was originally published on page 2 of The Mercury on September 22, 2004
Published on the Web by IOL on 2004-09-22 06:45:00

Moeletsi Mbeki seems to be more clever than his brother, the South African president!


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