Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
This Is What Democracy Looks Like
The wolves have voted: The sheep are to become dinner. There’s a joke that goes “What’s the difference between South Africa and Zimbabwe? About 10 years.” Turns out, it wasn’t a joke.
South Africa’s parliament on Tuesday passed a motion brought by the radical left party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), to carry out land expropriation without compensation, a key pillar of the ruling ANC government and new President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The motion, which would include a review of the constitution, was brought by leader of the EFF Julius Malema and was passed by an overwhelming majority of 241 votes in favour versus 83 votes against the proposal.
The justification for the law is, of course, peace, justice, and equality.
Published in Politics“For a lasting peace‚ security and justice‚ land must be expropriated without compensation for equal redistribution. “
Thomas Sowell commented on this. “I’m so old I remember when most racists were white.”
I heard about this from a co-worker this morning and didn’t believe it. Not even the radicals running South Africa these days would want to turn their country into Zimbabwe…right? This is just depressing, if I were a white man living there I’d get my family out asap, no matter what level of fortune is lost, get your family out. It’s not hard to predict the racial violence (already bad) will only escalate at this point, the racists have now been given a green light by the government.
Can they not see what the end result will be here? It’s just terrible that racial politics has been taken to this extreme.
Not quite. What the liberal overlords don’t get is that while they will come for them last, they will come.
Make politicized central planning legal for peace and prosperity!
The document is obviously crazy talk, if you have common sense and a normal sense of justice and fairness.
Of course we have been doing this incrementally since Woodrow Wilson.
Game over man! Game over!
For an amazingly bogus “fact check“ of the Ginsburg quote, see:
http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2012/feb/28/rick-santorum/santorum-supreme-court-justice-prefers-south-afric/
The only thing that surprises me about South Africa is that it’s taking longer to go down the tubes than I expected. Possibly it’s because Nelson Mandela had come to understand that South African whites represent irreplaceable human capital, and shouldn’t be driven away.
Decades ago, I speculated that as long as the ANC had a monopoly on power, it would be able to pursue Mandela’s sensible course. But once South African politics became competitive, then we would see black politicians competing as to who will loot the whites more. Which is exactly what is happening here.
From here on, the ride is all downhill.
Ray’s accordion teacher and her husband are immigrants from South Africa. They are now US citizens, and are thrilled to be so.
@ Aaron Miller
I think there is a variation here. I was on the facuty at a “minority” university (of course legally integrated at this point in history but which still attracted the same pattern of students due to loyalty developed over the years by parents, other relatives, teachers, etc. who graduated from it). Anyway the agriculture department had to “jazz up” its offerings and do active recruiting to stay viable, as high schoolers that would be freshmen had an aversion to the subject. There was a deep association with a part of American history combined with a prevalence for postwar urban living that had taken precedence over working on or even OVER the land. Also much that had been owned at one time had long been sold off (although sometimes there were grannies in small towns).
What is on most young minds is not to correct a disparity in holding land but to secure lucrative jobs showcased by modern media and with which to buy condos, cars, etc. in the urban world. So it may have to do with whether agriculture itself has become advanced enough to feed a majority with a few highly technological and educated people equipped with machines, which frees up everybody else (both the “privileged” and the “oppressed”) to pursue other things, that hasn’t happened in Africa. In developed countries, a differently focused envy is still latent for political massaging. We can see in street / drug gangs what level of respect exists for abstract private property rights.
Thx for the link. Terrific article from Dalrymple.
Thanks for the link, prints out to 12 pages, all text, excellent! Will dig into it later.
This is a scary development. There is already a tremendous amount of under-reported racial violence there, it will only get worse with this. I am afraid that we will see massacres and outright genocide soon.
My friends have said that Sydney’s a lot like Cape Town or Durban in terms of lifestyle and climate, except for the beach being on the wrong side. :)
@henrycastaigne — yes, it’s much easier for South Africans to move to other countries within the commonwealth than move to, say, the US or the EU. Australia is popular because of it’s relative proximity and similar culture. White South Africans have been moving to Australia in fairly large numbers since the 1990s. I have several South African friends & acquaintances; it seems everyone you meet down there has an uncle or parent or cousin living in Sydney.
@dnewlander — I haven’t been to Durban, but yes, Sydney and Cape Town are very similar. If I were to rate them solely by culture, lifestyle, cost of living, sheer physical beauty… I think I prefer Cape Town. But once I add things like personal safety and political stability to the mix, well… Sydney wins, hands down:-)
It’s interesting to imagine who the refugees and huddled masses of the next few decades are going to be. At the moment, I’d be inclined to picture gays and lesbians from the Middle East (other than Israel), Jews, LGBTQ and women from Europe, plus people from South Africa who are either white and frightened, or black/brown and disinterested in living in a violent, racist, impoverished society.
Won’t it be strange if Europe goes Muslim, but America gets “whiter” rather than “browner” and more rather than less Western-Culture-ish?
I have an internet friend in South Africa who is not concerned as she says her land was in her family for 350 years, and before the Bantus came. I wish I was as confident.