Monday, April 27, 2009

Orania witch-hunt

As the first results of South Africa's general election start coming in, the residents of Orania are in shock after it emerged that three people in the town voted for the ANC.
Meanwhile staff on Robben Island are celebrating a Democratic Alliance win there, as they hope they will now be provided with a working ferry to get back to Cape Town to buy groceries.

From Hayibo.com

Sunday, April 26, 2009

My Post to a discussion on Thabo Mbeki on anothe forum

To quote Machiavelli “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”

The deception that we have experienced has disappointed many of us. What is even scarier is the hatred that they feel for the man Thabo Mbeki. Why would they hate him so much? And why would they say all these false things about him?

I guess the Zuma ANC is doing what Machiavelli once said “If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared”

They are trying to ensure that Thabo does not have a chance to avenge the way they have treated him. They have tried discredit anyone who writes positive things about him.

But as Machiavelli once said “Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”

All these things that have been happening since 2005 have proven what Ben Okri says “The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.”

Vavi, Nzimande,Ramaphosa, Phosa etc have really drawn our minds away from the power games they have been playing all this time. And in Polokwane they reached the pinnacle of those games.And after Polokwane they have showed us the real Machiavellis the media has been saying Thabo is them and the shady business men behind them.

But luckily for them “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”
And “The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”

And those columnist or analyst have forgotten these words “To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself. Beware of the storytellers who are not fully conscious of the importance of their gifts, and who are irresponsible in the application of their art” They have poisoned our stories to a point that we no longer feel hope for the future! But then from the lessons learned from Mandela,Dr King, Chief Luthuli, Thabo Mbeki and currently Obama, We will rise and lead South Africa to greater heights!

Thabo Mbeki once said "Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now!
Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!
However improbable it may sound to the skeptics, Africa will prosper!"

We will continue the revolution to get South Africa and Africa to the top of the world, as envisioned by Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance!

leaders who overcome political attacks!

"The ambitious citizens of a republic seek in the first instance (as we have said above) to make themselves sure against the attacks, not only of individuals, but even of the magistrates. To enable them to do this, they seek to gain friends, either by apparently honest ways, or by assisting men with money, or by defending them against the powerful; and as this seems virtuous, almost everybody is readily deceived by it, and therefore no one opposes it, until the ambitious individual has, without hindrance, grown so powerful that private citizens fear him and the magistrates treat him with consideration." excerpt from Machiavelli's Discourses

The question I have is to what extent is Jacob Zuma going to protect himself from future persecution? He states that he is standing just for one term. Why? Is this a ploy so that later he can say the people want me back? Or has he been pushed so that those who want the power would emerge later? And to what extent is he sure that what they have done to Thabo Mbeki would not be done to him?

Questions questions! Only time will tell!
To quote Henry Brooks Adams
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. So how true is this going to be for our New President And Crew


Quotes about elections

It is not the job of the candidate to win. His job is to BE the best candidate. Electing the best candidate is the job of the people. We have to let the people do their job, and if they fail to do it well, we will all pay the price together.
— Jon Roland, to a discouraged campaign worker, after losing his campaign for Congress, 1974

Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.
— Attributed to Josef Stalin

Friday, April 24, 2009

Mental Fight by Ben Okri

You can’t remake the world
Without remaking yourself
We could use the new era
to clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past.

We are better than that.
We are greater than our despair.
The negative aspects of humanity
Are not the most real and authentic;
The most authentic thing about us
Is our capacity to create, to overcome,
To endure, to transform, to love,
And to be greater than our suffering.
We are best defined by the mystery
That we are still here, and can still rise
Upwards, still create better civilisations,
That we can face our raw realities,
And that we will survive
The greater despair
That the greater future might bring.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Just over 10 million votes counted!

I feel sorry for the small parties like ID and UDM. They seem to be the ones who lost out most. But at the same time I am more hopeful, cause this means we will have fewer parties and a more cohesive political landscape. Times they are changing and with that we as the people have to adapt!

Our political landscape will never be the same. We need to strengthen our resolve to help the elected leaders make South Africa great! This we can do by supporting our leaders carry out their duties, and also voicing our discontent when stray from their mandate.

We need to use our voices to help shape a better future for our children.

We have voted, it is the long wait!

The DA is quite surprisingly doing better than expected, but the ANC is holding on to it's massive lead! So the opposition still has a long way to go before it could be a formidable force!