tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post5835775723597503517..comments2024-03-29T05:33:43.878-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: The missing three millionOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-74807313231042176702011-06-10T02:58:38.115-04:002011-06-10T02:58:38.115-04:00I just saw the film Invictus, with Morgan Freeman ...I just saw the film Invictus, with Morgan Freeman incredibly playing Nelson Mandela. What a movie! It made me realize many of the enormous problems faced by the ANC government, which Mandela strategized about, and was brilliant at figuring out.<br /><br />But it really hit me that the former apartheid police and military forces were still entrenched, and the wealthy whites had the wealth of the country. Mandela was probably afraid of a civil war, led by the ultra-right, and he had to worry about how to develop the economy to benefit the majority of the people, who were and still are poor.<br /><br />It seems that many of the problems there today are deeply systemic and embedded, i.e., the economy. Millions need jobs and services of all kinds, the many who were denied these for years or paid pennies for working very hard. So funds must be prioritized.<br /><br />The ANC and their supporters made an earthshaking change in ridding the system of the neo-Nazis who ran it -- one of the most oppressive and racist governments to ever exist. In that, they succeeded in a great victory. But it didn't solve the economic inequality that still exist. It'll take a lot more changing to do that.<br /><br />But the people of South Africa deserve it, after all they had to endure. They deserve jobs, services, including health care, housing, water, and everything else, and an end to economic disparities.<br /><br />And, not surprisingly, within the U.S., jobs are still the big issue, and is not solved. Official unemployment went up to 9.1% last week. Wages are low for many, more part-time and temporary work that people can't survive on.kathy d.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-11097767070488385672011-06-02T17:17:15.818-04:002011-06-02T17:17:15.818-04:00Hi Beth,
One of the things about Mandela is that ...Hi Beth,<br /><br />One of the things about Mandela is that after his term as president he stepped back and let the party (ANC) decide who should succeed him. In the 1999 election Thabo Mbeki led the party to victory. An educated thinker, his ascension was received enthusiastically but he had blind spots which led to awful mistakes. His AIDS denialism led to thousands of deaths. And he could never step back from his days in exile when Mugabe supported him. That personal debt led to tacit support for one of Africa’s most repressive regimes.<br /><br />Throughout his life - from a young activist to a ninety year old – Nelson Mandela has stuck to his principles whatever the personal cost. And that cost has been high indeed. This is remarkable for any person and extraordinary for a modern day leader. I can think of no other...<br /><br />Michael.Michael Sears (of Michael Stanley)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09886295534214542834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-67741476592290675932011-06-02T11:03:42.415-04:002011-06-02T11:03:42.415-04:00Michael, could some of the problem be avoided if M...Michael, could some of the problem be avoided if Mandela acknowledged an heir-apparent, someone who would adopt his view? Mandela is deified in the west, his only misstep being Winnie. I imagine the country will have some bad days when he is no longer there. Will the ANC survive or will there be a new, forward looking country led by those who will finally vote for a leader outside the ANC?<br /><br />The picture of the people in line to vote is stunning. How does the commitment to democracy change so quickly? The numbers who vote in presidential elections in the US is so low it is an embarrassment. (As an aside, in the 2008 election students who lived off campus registered to vote in the districts in which they were living at the time of the vote. The Republicans maintain that the students should be required to vote in the districts that are their permanent addresses, especially if they are being supported by their parents. Perhaps not incorrectly, the Republicans believe that the students would not go to the trouble and inconvenience of getting ballots sent to them by their local voting commissions. There is no question that the majority of people under thirty who did vote, cast their ballots for Obama. The Republicans suggest that if students don't want to get an absentee ballot, they should go home to vote thereby disenfranchising a sizeable population between the ages of 18 and 22). <br /><br />There is heated rhetoric on the right and people on that side believe without question the information they get from Fox News. Even when it is proven that something is a lie. If Fox claims that red is purple, and says that this can be seen by any loyal and patriotic American, the lie lives on. Sean Hannity, briefly, was running his mouth off that Obama promised the leaders of Ireland that the US would take responsibility for the debt the Irish government has incurred. It wasn't picked up by the twenty-first century No-Nothing party because the Irish-American voting block to too small to swing a national election. Hannity must have known that but the Fox writers were having a bad night coming up with material for their in-house comedians.<br /><br />Obama finally waived his right to privacy by allowing the state of Hawaii to release the long form of his birth certificate. The right still insists that it has been doctored and they question why no one has seen pictures of Obama when he was in an Hawaiian kindergarten.<br />Nothing will convince these people that Obama is a born-in-the-USA American because he can't change his skin color. Racists never die; they just vote the hate party-line.<br /><br />Oh, and Sarah is back with her bus tour to sites important to real Americans.<br /><br />BethAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com