Trump's Bully Tweets

Putting a Stop To an Iniquity

According to the Daily Mail, the South African government has reversed its policy of compulsory acquisition of white owned farmland.  This has come as a complete surprise--out of the blue.  It is good news for South African farmers who were about to embark on a mass migration to other countries.  It is also good news for South Africa.  It may avoid falling into the economically collapsed dustbowl, Zimbabwe which has already expropriated farmland with reckless abandon.

What caused the u-turn?

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the bill passed by parliament in 2016 enabling the state to make compulsory purchases of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership needed further consideration.  It comes after Trump criticised the country's land reform plans in a tweet that touched on the overwhelmingly white ownership of farmland in South Africa - one of the most sensitive issues in the country's post-apartheid history.  [Emphasis, ours]

Trump's tweets are the electronic version of what used to be called the "Bully Pulpit".  Fox News had highlighted the immoral and unethical land theft, which can only be seen as a modern version of Jezebel's murderous expropriation of Naboth's vineyard.  Trump reacted:

Unseemly Faux Outrage

Australia to Assist White Minority South African Farmers

Trendy Lefties Go Berserk

Simon Kent
Breitbart News

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has dismissed claims of racism over his plan to resettle South African white minority farmers in Australia, saying he ignores the confected outrage “from some of the crazy lefties at the Guardian and Huffington Post.”

Mr. Dutton faced a backlash after he first announced the farmers needed “special attention” because of the epidemic of violence engulfing them.  As Breitbart News reported, Mr. Dutton noted Australia has refugee, humanitarian and other visa programs which have the “potential to help some of these people”. He said he had asked his department to look at the options “because from what I have seen they do do need help from a civilised country like ours”.

Mr. Dutton denies the offer is racist.

Letter From the UK (About Australia)

Australia Examining Fast-Track Visas for Threatened South African Farmers

Simon Kent
Breitbart London

Australia is ready to consider issuing special visas to mainly white, Afrikaans-speaking South African farmers due to the “horrific circumstances” of land seizures, violence and murder they face.
Peter Dutton, Australia’s home affairs minister, told the Sydney Daily Telegraph on Wednesday his department was examining a range of methods to smooth their path to Australia on humanitarian or other visa programs.

As Breitbart News has reported, South Africans are increasingly worried that the government’s plans to expropriate land from white farmers without compensation could destroy the economy and the country’s fragile democracy.  South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to pursue the same course as Zimbabwe’s former leader Robert Mugabe in expropriating farmland from white farmers without compensation.

South Africa Slips Further Into the Void

Hiding From the Real Problems

It looks like South Africa has decided to become a republic of the banana variety.  It's Parliament has voted to steal land from white farmers without compensation.  This represents the worst kind of xenophobic racism.  

South Africa's parliament has voted in favour of a motion that will begin the process of amending the country's Constitution to allow for the confiscation of white-owned land without compensation.

The motion was brought by Julius Malema, leader of the radical Marxist opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters, and passed overwhelmingly by 241 votes to 83 against. The only parties who did not support the motion were the Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, Cope and the African Christian Democratic Party.

It was amended but supported by the ruling African National Congress and new president Cyril Ramaphosa, who made land expropriation a key pillar of his policy platform after taking over from ousted PM Jacob Zuma earlier this month.  "The time for reconciliation is over. Now is the time for justice," Malema was quoted by News24 as telling parliament. "We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land."

According to Bloomberg, a 2017 government audit found white people owned 72 per cent of farmland in South Africa.  ANC deputy chief whip Dorries Eunice Dlakude said the party "recognises that the current policy instruments, including the willing-buyer willing-seller policy and other provisions of Section 25 of the Constitution may be hindering effective land reform".  ANC rural affairs minister Gugile Nkwinti added: "The ANC unequivocally supports the principle of land expropriation without compensation. There is no doubt about it, land shall be expropriated without compensation."

Thandeka Mbabama from the Democatic Alliance party, which opposed the motion, said there was a need to right the wrongs of the past but expropriation "cannot be part of the solution".  "By arguing for expropriation without compensation, the ANC has been gifted the perfect scapegoat to explain away its own failure," she said in a statement.  "Making this argument lets the ANC off the hook on the real impediments — corruption, bad policy and chronic underfunding. Expropriation without compensation would severely undermine the national economy, only hurting poor black people even further."  [NZ Herald]

There have been plenty of instances where governments have destroyed agricultural industries.  Former "break-basket" nations have ended up with famines.  Zimbabwe is a classic of the genre.

Ante-Diluvians All

Blast From the Past

John Minto is a serial, professional protester.  We have often wondered whether there is any consistent ideology at work when John shows up to protest his current cause d'jour.  He has had no real job, no career, nor profession.  He would probably describe himself as a "voluntary worker", since he apparently has lived off the tax payer's dime for much of his life--either directly or indirectly. 

But when the causes you espouse are BIG and really, really important all that counts for nothing.  The cause justifies the narcissistic indolence.  But we would be amiss to think that Minto has no ideology at all.  Some would mistakenly think him to be a committed anti-racist, having been at the forefront of protests against apartheid.  In other words, they see Minto as a human rights ideologue, committed to fundamental human civil rights, regardless of ethnicity or colour.  Maybe.  But Minto has not been well known for positive affirmation. 

One would have thought that, after protesting and campaigning against apartheid in South Africa, there would have been a note of triumphalistic celebration in his later career.  Not so.  It appears that he was deeply disappointed in Mandela and the subsequent course of non-racist South Africa.

Pseudo-Hagiography

Already Playing Tricks Upon the Dead

Over recent days the world's Commentariat has been agog over the passing of Nelson Mandela.  We are witnessing hagiography in the making before our very eyes.  We wonder whether he will be proclaimed Messiah in the next week or so. 

There are many things to admire in Mendela's life and career.  There are other things to reject and despise.  Fairness and balance requires that we keep both in perspective.  The adulatory ululations have covered over the bad, making him already a quasi-mythical figure.  We find ourselves reflecting on the contrast when Scripture celebrates great men.  Always, in the case of  Scripture, it is a matter of warts and all.  Their sins, failings, mistakes are up front and centre, along with how they repented of evil, turned to the Light, and became faithful to the Lord.  Think David, Moses, Saul/Paul.  This, we suggest, is the model of honest, real hagiography.  The sad thing, in Mandela's case, is that all the evidence suggests that Mandela was repentant over his youthful wrongs, but those have been studiously ignored in the Commentariat's ululating.  By ignoring the obvious--being too polite and politically correct to talk about it--Mandela's actual remarkable achievements are undermined, being disembodied from humanity and history. 

Mandela's struggle against apartheid led him to advocate violent overthrow of the government and the system.