The Week's Shiny Bits

Funny things happen in politics every day. Some things make you feel frustrated, some things laeve you confused, some things make you mad and sometimes, only sometimes things really make you smile. This week has presented the whole spectrum of feelings for me.

Frustrated...with the refusal and silence of Thabo Mbeki over the elections and violence in Zimbabwe. Frustrated also by a pittyful show of gesturing and posturing by world leaders. Everyone seems to be very keen to condemn Mugabe but as usual, nobody seems to be in any rush to actually do anything...Quelle surprise!!!

Confused...by the Nelson Mandella concert in London last night. I think the idea was actually brilliant but I was enraged by the decision by the TV channel that aired it to intersperse the music with inane interviews by inane presenters with inane artistes (some of whom could hardly string a sentence together and I would be very surprised if they were even aware of things like the Sowheto uprisings). I was enraged by the fact that every time someone farts on TV on Saturday night, they bring out the same prepubescent looking slip of a lass (Fearn Cotton) to jump all over the place, ask crap questions and oversell the occurrence almost to the point of orgasm. Surely this style of presentation would be better suited to children’s TV, QVC or ITV’s This Morning. Coincidentally I believe that’s where the other presenter of the evening cut his teeth.

I was also perplexed as to why poor Nelson was sat in what appeared to be a darkened tent on his own except for the company of Gordon Brown!!!???.... possibly one of the most boring men on the planet. What I mean to say is that Nelson, 90 years old and celebrating his birthday at a massive rock concert in possibly one of the most exciting places in the world was sat with possibly one of the most boring people in the world, a failing politician who probably only wanted to be there for his own image or to pester him for some kind of overt sign of public support, affection or endorsement. It would be like popping into Macky Dee’s or Thornton’s with your personal trainer or watching sex on TV with your parents; it just isn’t fun.

Disheartened...by stories from Italy that they re proposing to fingerprint every gypsy in the country so that they can keep control over them in some way. I find it a wholly shameful thing that what the Italians are planning to do is absolutely reminiscent of what the Nazis did to the Gypsies and the Jews before they made them wear badges, put them in ghettos and then liquidated them (ghettos then inhabitants). Where’s the condemnation from the leaders of Europe and the rest of the world on this one? Bloody nowhere!!!

Happy...about the resignation by the crook Wendy Alexander. It is bout time she went for the good of the country. Lets hope that her boss takes a positive lesson from her example and does likewise...sooner rather than later.

The Shame of South Africa

Every time I hear about terrible things that happen in Africa I probably naively think to myself that at least South Africa is sorted out now. At least Apartheid is over and the power has shifted back to the blacks where it belongs without too much bloodshed or economical disruption like in Zimbabwe. In fact things in South Africa have started to look very positive lately. I presume they are dealing with the AIDS epidemic or have managed at least to sweep it under the carpet whilst the world concentrates on other things.

The last time I saw South Africa on the TV was in fact when the South African Airways Open was played at a stunning location on the coast. Fabulous! Then I saw the news yesterday and I started to get angry. I am just old enough to remember the news coverage of riots during apartheid and when apartheid was ended I think I was hoping that I would never see riots in South Africa again. Mandela was released and became the countries leader and it looked like a nation of hope. It was a nation with a future and still is.

The problem with South Africa is that its leaders since Mandela have been conspicuous by their lack of willingness to criticise some of the regimes surrounding them. These regimes have displaced nations which has resulted millions or refugees in the region. South Africa swallowed most of these refugees and has allowed itself over time to develop a massive immigration problem with some estimates of up to 5 million illegal immigrants. Whilst this constant trickle of immigration seems to have suited everyone up until recently, the tides of opinion have changed recently though and as unemployment and rising food prices have hit South Africa as they have the rest of the world, its peoples' frustrations have been turned to severe violence against the immigrants.

It seems that rising food prices are something no government has planned for or taken into consideration in the formation of their general policies, least of all the UK, least of all South Africa. What I find difficult is that South Africa has a recent history of unspeakable violence and hardship. But it was a violence and hardship that it overcame to become what it is today. For the people of South Africa now to be committing violence against the weakest members of its society is an absolutely hypocritical thing for them to be doing. It is not that long ago that they themselves were being tortured and killed just for trying to make a better life for themselves, for trying to free themselves of tyranny and oppression.

These immigrants who are being persecuted are the people of South Africa 20 years ago. They are vulnerable and weak and all they want to do is get on with their lives. South Africa needs to remember where it comes from. It is the same nation that persevered against and eventually broke free from oppression. It is the same nation that flourished when everyone around the world predicted that it would collapse into chaos. Its leaders need find their voices and lead their people and set an example to the rest of Africa as it has done since Apartheid ended. It needs to do it because at the moment it is one of only a handful of countries in Africa which can say that it does represent the potential that the whole continent has to offer.