The death of Nelson Mandela, 95, recalls the events of 1987-1991, that hinge of history. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 discredited socialism, the South African white leadership, now relieved of worries that the African National Congress would actually implement its traditional Soviet-style economic ideology, quickly moved to make a deal with the black statesman while he was still hale.
The South African Solution was an early exemplification of our post-Communist world. White and black elites came together and agreed that there is plenty of money to be made, at least for white and black elites. South Africa has tremendous resources, so affirmative action for the top layer of blacks would be affordable.
For non-elites, well, the New Model South Africa might not work all that well, but they are by definition non-elites, so where exactly is the problem? If they aren't happy, all they have to do is become elites. If they don't have what it takes to be elites -- such as raped white rural women or gunned down black miners who evidently don't -- then their problems aren't very important, are they? I mean, why are you asking about them? What are you, some kind of Communist?
All in all, the post-Communist world is a better one than the one in which the Soviet Union had 53,000 tanks. Similarly, the South African Solution was a better one than would have been feasible in the pre-November 9, 1989 world.
Still, it's time to start getting used to how the post-Berlin Wall world works because it's likely to be one we are living in for a long time. Many of the ideological and intellectual categories that made sense before are now obsolete, but new realities are harder for us to understand because we lack relevant conceptual vocabularies.
For non-elites, well, the New Model South Africa might not work all that well, but they are by definition non-elites, so where exactly is the problem? If they aren't happy, all they have to do is become elites. If they don't have what it takes to be elites -- such as raped white rural women or gunned down black miners who evidently don't -- then their problems aren't very important, are they? I mean, why are you asking about them? What are you, some kind of Communist?
All in all, the post-Communist world is a better one than the one in which the Soviet Union had 53,000 tanks. Similarly, the South African Solution was a better one than would have been feasible in the pre-November 9, 1989 world.
Still, it's time to start getting used to how the post-Berlin Wall world works because it's likely to be one we are living in for a long time. Many of the ideological and intellectual categories that made sense before are now obsolete, but new realities are harder for us to understand because we lack relevant conceptual vocabularies.
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So, who is the last 'giant' left?
Castro?
The ANC is a Xhosa-supremicist organization. It functions by way of the Xhosa using corrupt contracts to bribe the various smaller tribes into joining with them to oppress the whites, Zulus, and Asians.
Now that Mandela is gone, they'll have a harder time hiding that fact.
Steve, I could easily frame from a "anti-racist" perspective as the non-elites didn't deserve the money anyway. In any case, pragmatically speaking as a white I'd get the hell outta there. I suppose that might be more difficult if I actually loved the country though (or literally couldn't afford to leave).
The tributes begin:
Mandela Day in Japan
I have more of a problem with the fawning media then anything Mandela has done. I mean will any of them actually look at the condition of Black South Africans today compared to the period between Apartheid?
If the media truly wants to honor Mandela it would do its job.
As I recall, Uhuru-Guru, of the long extinct website *South Africa Sucks*, predicted that the death of Mandela would be followed by anti-white mayhem.
I guess we'll see, now.
vinteuil
I know the Sailer home will be not have a dry eye in it this evening.
How long will one have to maintain a media blackout until all the liberal wailing ceases and all the very predictable fawning in the editorials stop ?
The Russian Embassy down the street is gaily bedecked in Christmas lights, much more so than any other structure near it in Northwest DC. There are blue, green and red lights tumbling down several giant fir trees, more colored lights coursing along the Embassy’s iron fence and bright white lights outlining a sleigh and several reindeer.
Born in 1947, I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime.
Hopefully the journos won't hit too hard on the little point of South Africa self-disposing of its thermonuclear weaponry. That would be so off-message this week
Interesting anecdote: a liberal bartender I know went to visit a local friend of his in Johannesburg. Apparently, much of the diamond and financial industry there is now controlled by Jews (surprise, surprise). As the security in the area deteriorated, their communities were increasingly suffering vandalism, burglary and violence. So they hired a bunch of ex-special forces guys from the US and Israel. Those guys came in, killed off the next batch of attempted looters, and the gated communities haven't had much trouble since. One phone call and a couple of jeeps roll up carrying some bros straight out of Zero Dark Thirty.
As can be expected, the Times pulled out all the stops.
As did the Wa.Po.
I Guess the MSM will follow suit.
Decent sobriety was left to Drudge.
I was quite shocked when I read that Paul Walker was killed in that car crash. But the news of Mandela's death leaves me strangely unmoved. I can't quite remember just why we were all supposed to admire him.
He did bring about a regime change in South Africa but I have my doubts about whether the country is better off now than before. I think I will have to read up on Mandela and South Africa. I'd welcome suggestions for books.
Albertosaurus
Decent sobriety was left to Drudge.
Well, that didn't last long.
What I want to see is how The Onion covers it. A ransom-note-of-condolence-signed-by-Winnie gag would be so easy
See, when someone dies, Steve devotes a post to that person. But when Paul Walker died, Steve didn't until he was asked about it several times, and he didn't seem like he wanted to.
A Manufactured, Synthetic Holy Man has been created by the corporate media, at the behest of the corporations, all for the betterment of corporate profits.
My best friend is Canadian and they're getting several new South African families a year moving to their community and joining the synagogue.
She joking asked me how our lefty overlords would want her to explain that to her 7 year old.
" Apparently, much of the diamond and financial industry there is now controlled by Jews (surprise, surprise)."
Now controlled? The diamond industry was founded by Jews. I think the financial industry was founded by British. (Christian British.)
Read The Randlords.
1) Was Paul Walker a charismatic megafauna of geopolitics? 2) Is this a teenybopper blog or Access Hollywood En Español network site? Wow, must have missed the signs all these years... Though I'm sure if the author of the SAT Home Study Guide 19th Edition dies, Steve will turn the whole site to an empty black page of mourning for a month.
On this news, old Koos van der Merwe suggested, "You bring DeBeers and let's have Apartheid!"
But forget that Arafat, the man Mandela regarded as a brother, was killed by poisoning.
I wonder if the MANDELA movie will dwell on Mandela's alliance with PLO and on Apartheid South Africa's alliance with Israel.
Gee, you think so?
Btw, Idris Elba as Mandela is like Sly Stallone as Enrico Fermi.
Fareed Zakaria summed up Mandela's achievements in 140 characters:
"@FareedZakaria: Mandela's greatest acts: No retribution, genuine forgiveness, and leaving office voluntarily. Africa's George Washington."
Hard to argue with that. As for the state of SA today, in comparison with 1st world countries, it looks bad; less so in comparison with the rest of the continent.
Alan Partridge in 'Devious Afrikaners'
I actually saw the first Fast & Furious movie. Garbage. Still couldn't have told you who Paul Walker was.
Anyway, Mandela's actual importance is a mystery to me, but I'm pretty sure he was just a friendly-looking guy the worldwide media made into a gigantic saint and hero. His death is important mainly because we are going to hear about how awful apartheid was, and because his departure may well result in the deaths of 1000s. We'll see, but I doubt many people on the ground give a fuck about some irrelevant geezer in a box.
In my native land we have a cherished tradition of little Paul Walkers come driving down the chimney to clear for the big buff guy delivering the presents (Kris Nitro)
Someone should do a story for Slate on how quickly the various dead-or-alive Internet web databases were updated to reflect the shocking news that a 95 year old man died. They can contrast it with the speed Paul Walker's entry was updated.
"I actually saw the first Fast & Furious movie. Garbage."
Come on, it was great. Even Joe Morgenstern from the WSJ liked it. And some of the sequels were even better. Fast Five opens with a phenomenal stunt sequence with cars being stolen off a moving train, and gets better from there.
"My best friend is Canadian and they're getting several new South African families a year moving to their community and joining the synagogue."
Hillbrow in Johannesburg was the capital of South Africa's Jewish community. Look at it today.
Rather then Apartheid, the Boers should have just carved out a small, sea-based state for themselves and ceded all the rest of South Africa to its interminable African tribes.
Somehow I do think it's fitting if we turn this into a Paul Walker memorial thread.
I think Paul Walker's death is a huge loss to our community because he and his girlfriend would have had several children in the next few years. Nice people = Nice kids.
Did anyone see the Disney movie where Paul Walker was the dogsled guy? If you were to edit out all the scenes with the bitchy asian girlfriend, it's a fantastic movie.
Mandela himself has been effectively out of circulation for a long time; the chief downsides of his actual demise are the opportunities it will provide for a broad swathe of sanctimonious hypocrites and mountebanks to misrepresent the current state of South Africa, and the outside, but non-negligible prospect that militant,disaffected blacks will have a go at vulnerable whites,or black foreigners, and maybe even attack affluent blacks.
Anon.
"I was quite shocked when I read that Paul Walker was killed in that car crash. But the news of Mandela's death leaves me strangely unmoved."
This Paul Walker thing is the most surreal thing to ever happen on iSteve. Apparently, he was a nice guy. He was very nice-looking. And he was in some childish fantasy on a screen. OK. Mandela, in comparison, was 100% real, no fantasy: real terrorist, real community organizer, real prisoner for a very long time and, apparently, a really canning politician. A far as size goes, Walker is not even visible next to Mandela. And yes, one died a reckless stupid death while another had enough self-restrain to live for more than twice longer.
Mandela being the real life terrorist is precisely why we're ignoring him and focusing on a genuine good soul like Walker.
The post-communist world has had a lot of old communists running it.
After Mandela's death was announced I took a nap.
I ended up dreaming about how devastated I would be if I was Paul Walker's girlfriend.
In the dream I realized that it's important to realize that even though he was her first love, he wasn't her soul mate and that her soul mate is still out there and that she shouldn't give up hope and should continue on with her life and she will find love again.
From the "Disgrace" link:
But his daughter rescues her upcoming in-law, and sends her father off, saying:
“I am prepared to do anything, make any sacrifice, for the sake of peace.”
Comment: Isn't this the answer to "what if they had a war and nobody came"?
He's not even an American yet they'll be forcing as many people in this country as they can to genuflect before his shrine. Politicians, schools and other groups will carry on as if an American president had passed away, maybe even more so. The Boers were sold out by the western countries, a moral blot upon them.
This Paul Walker thing is the most surreal thing to ever happen on iSteve
Yes, it's almost as if people on the Internet are misusing its powers for humor
I'm a bit young to know much about early Mandela (I of course had to go to Google and Wiki to read about his violent tendencies and Communist ties), and apparently so has the media. What everyone remembers is his imprisonment and then sainthood post release. What I also remember is seeing him lobby for the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Helping the "deathly ill" Abdelbaset al-Megrahi get freed only to live for almost 3 more years is enough for me to question the hagiographies.
Idiot...the current ANC president is Zulu, Jacob Zuma...many of the founders were Zulu...the party enjoys the largest support from the Zulu region of the country. The old man has been insignificant in national politics since 1999 when he left office...he had little power even before that, as his deputy then, Mbeki, is viewed as having been basically the prime minister of the country. The Zulus are the largest tribe with Xhosa's second...Old Man will be missed but little will change.
So an idiot like u is comparing a less than average actor to a global political icon....really...GTFO
See, when someone dies, Steve devotes a post to that person. But when Paul Walker died, Steve didn't until he was asked about it several times, and he didn't seem like he wanted to.
I cant rightly make out if you are being ironic?
"I was quite shocked when I read that Paul Walker was killed in that car crash. But the news of Mandela's death leaves me strangely unmoved. I can't quite remember just why we were all supposed to admire him."
But you can remember why we are supposed to admire Paul Walker? Maybe you were in love with his TOTALLEE DREEEMEY blue eyes?
"See, when someone dies, Steve devotes a post to that person. But when Paul Walker died, Steve didn't until he was asked about it several times, and he didn't seem like he wanted to."
Eugenics Now!
I mean will any of them actually look at the condition of Black South Africans today compared to the period between Apartheid?
In what way are black South Africans today worse off than under apartheid? Are their incomes down? Heath worse? Assets declining? WHat? Please elucidate with specifics...
How long will one have to maintain a media blackout until all the liberal wailing ceases and all the very predictable fawning in the editorials stop ?
Mandela is nothing special. White liberals are still fawning over JFK..
Those guys came in, killed off the next batch of attempted looters, and the gated communities haven't had much trouble since. One phone call and a couple of jeeps roll up carrying some bros straight out of Zero Dark Thirty.
So these ex-Special forces Americans and Jews will solve the crime problems of South Africa if only the liberals would get out of the way?
A Manufactured, Synthetic Holy Man has been created by the corporate media, at the behest of the corporations, all for the betterment of corporate profits.
In what specific ways was Mandela a representative for "corporate profits?"
I wonder if the MANDELA movie will dwell on Mandela's alliance with PLO and on Apartheid South Africa's alliance with Israel.
In both cases Jews are involved?
Who knows?, Steve.
So many things are up in the air - and as we all know the course of history turns on the most unexpected hinge points.
Saying all that,the only game in town is basically China. With certainty I can state that this century will be owned by China, and by mid century everything *but* Chian will be just an also-ran. Add to this fact that the USA will be majority 'enriched' and that the EU will have declined to economic, political and strategic insignificance.
- And the predominant economic zeitgeist in China has been and will be not Friedmanite neoconnery, but something completely different. Dare I say it, but the phrase 'national socialism' has always seemd apt when describing the non-dogmatic, non-ideological political/economic model predicated on the sole objective of making the typical Chinese *citizen* affluent.
Basically, the non-Chinese developed world has reverted back to the pre 19th century socilaist reformer settlement of squires, peasantry and jealously guarded wealth and assets for the few, whilst the rest are cast to the dogs. The western hard left - through their enthusiasm for uncontrolled immigration, aid and abet this process. The difference was that back in the 19th century thee was the spark, the anger, the consciousness and intelligence amongst the peasantry to change things, most democratically as it happened by such vehicles as the Indepenednt Labour Party.
These days, the peasantry is chock-full of the dumb, the losers, the immigrants, women etc, so there's no hope for change there.
Saying all that, history tells us that the over arrogant and over mighty, do, in fact, head for great falls - coming from the most unexpected quarters and in the most unexpected way. 'Tis the nature of things.
Tentatively, I put my money on a general third-world immigrant descended revolt in the future western world, a revolt which might likely evolve into outright race war.
"All in all, the post-Communist world is a better one than the one in which the Soviet Union had 53,000 tanks."
Probably better for the nations that lived under Soviet domination. But at this point, if I could go back to 1983, I would. Britain was a much freer country then, and barring WW3 it looked like the British people still had a future. Now we're not free and we're being replaced.
Truth asked: But you can remember why we are supposed to admire Paul Walker?
Hunsdon said: Because he was the one white dude who was comfortable in a multiracial gang!
Apartheid was a way for a civilized group of people to live among a sea of primitives. It was a good thing, if you're in favor of civilization. OTOH, regardless of whether or not Mandela was a Communist, it's not unreasonable for him to oppose rule by another race, even a superior race. As for his post-apartheid racial moderation, he simply recognized that his own people were incapable of keeping the lights on and the toilets working.
RIP? Statesman?
Are you daft?
Apartheid was a way for a civilized group of people to live among a sea of primitives. It was a good thing, if you're in favor of civilization.
Nonsense. You can have a meritocracy with equal opportunities for all, of every race, and provided it's a genuine meritocracy, you will still have "civilization." Power and positions will not be evenly distributed between races, of course, because of biological and cultural differences that lead to different abilities and aspirations. But none of apartheid's restrictive laws -- de jure racial separation, racial registration, prohibition of miscegenation, etc. are necessary. Such laws really were unfair.
I notice all the encomiums for St. Nelson also elide the influence and actions of his murderous thug of a wife.
anon:
>>"You can have a meritocracy with equal opportunities for all, of every race, and provided it's a genuine meritocracy, you will still have "civilization."<<
I guess you can have egalitarian _meritocracy_, but only if you don't have _democracy_! Two wolves and a sheep vote on what's for dinner...
"Nonsense. You can have a meritocracy with equal opportunities for all, of every race, and provided it's a genuine meritocracy, you will still have "civilization."" - no, humans are irrational status seekers. It is not possible.
The Boers would have been a million times better off if they had just carved out a small area of South Africa for themselves and left the rest for all the other peoples of South Africa to figure out for themselves. South Africa is over four times the size of Arizona. Detaching an area the tenth of this in size would have given them a country bigger then Virginia. Based upon the sea for defense and trade they would have had a nice little place without the demographic headaches of a black majority to worry about. As it is, I doubt there will be any whites to speak of in South Africa in another thirty years. Demography is destiny. The Boers are the poster child for this saying.
You can have a meritocracy with equal opportunities for all, of every race, and provided it's a genuine meritocracy, you will still have "civilization."
I would refer you to Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, which is set in Natal and Johannesburg in 1946. There was tremendous anxiety about crime in and among South Africa's urban white population at the time. That was only one of the vectors which made Afrikaner particularism what it was, but it did serve to make laws which controlled the movements of the black population attractive to a great many people.
In point of fact, Johannesburg is still horrendously insecure. Baghdad is safer. There are a few Latin American cities in its category, but that's it.
You can have a meritocracy with equal opportunities for all, of every race, and provided it's a genuine meritocracy, you will still have "civilization."
That assumes that the group that finds itself at the bottom--that group that's at the bottom in every multiracial society--will be cool with that: "It's okay we're at the bottom. It's a meritocracy and we just don't measure up."
"The Boers would have been a million times better off if they had just carved out a small area of South Africa for themselves and left the rest for all the other peoples of South Africa to figure out for themselves." - They'd be a lot better off had the british not conquered them after a brutal scorched earth campaign that included the use of concentration camps, and then flooded their country with foreign workers after their victory.
South Africa's fate was not entirely self imposed.
"...recalls the events of 1987-1991, that hinge of history. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 discredited socialism..."
South Africa itself played a not insignificant direct role in the fall of communism. They were the only "Western" power directly fighting Soviet, Cuban, and African troops for a long time. It was really too much for a small country like South Africa (which had been under arms embargo since 1977). But it was also a constant burden on the Soviets, who were also supporting other wars throughout Africa; particularly expensive also were the wars in Ethiopia, such as the Ogaden war.
These battles with Soviets and South Africans wound down in 1988:
"... As in previous campaigns, planning and leadership was taken over by the Soviets and the higher ranks in the units were taken over by Soviet officers. ...
... Soviet command did not include the Cuban forces ... The Soviets dismissed the advice of the Cubans...
...U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs ... said that: ...The 1987 military campaign represented a stunning humiliation for the Soviet Union, its arms and its strategy."
I read a Russian historian of the Cold War who claimed that after the fall of Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union became assured when the Soviets over-extended themselves in Africa, in addition to Afghanistan.
List of operations of the South African Border War
The West probably owes some thanks to the South Africans (likely including a significant number of black South Africans) who fought the Soviets and their allies. And we did learn from them and use all those anti-mine vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq...
South Africa built 6 nuclear weapons.
In addition to anti-apartheid opprobrium, many leftists probably hated the old South Africa for it's active role in the Cold War and fighting and winning battles against Soviet equipped and led armies.
"Hunsdon said: Because he was the one white dude who was comfortable in a multiracial gang!"
Very impressive, let's commission the statue.
No she will shack up with another relatively unknown actor and become another tabloid staple. At least she won't enjoy walker's money.
"Nonsense. You can have a meritocracy with equal opportunities for all, of every race, and provided it's a genuine meritocracy, you will still have "civilization." Power and positions will not be evenly distributed between races, of course, because of biological and cultural differences that lead to different abilities and aspirations. But none of apartheid's restrictive laws -- de jure racial separation, racial registration, prohibition of miscegenation, etc. are necessary. Such laws really were unfair."
Yeah, definitely. The whole world can see it in post apartheid democratic, socially just South Africa
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