tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post317285331884544794..comments2024-03-28T16:47:51.948-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: Day of Reckoning?Ovidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-44506948267671208722012-10-28T01:18:33.907-04:002012-10-28T01:18:33.907-04:00I appreciate what is said here, but something dras...I appreciate what is said here, but something drastic has to be done. South Africa's miners must be treated better and not have to tolerate such bad living conditions and racist treatment, too. They're human beings and deserve respect and basic civil and human rights.<br /><br />The miners who went on strike at Lonmin did win good raises, but they had to take drastic action to get them. The same thing is happening in other economic sectors there, too, where work stoppages are ending up with successful results.<br /><br />The gross economic inequality is endemic to the whole situation there. Workers can't just be viewed as a means to megaprofits. They deserve a great deal more.<br /><br />Their grievances must be understood and answered. Even in economic terms, the worker will keep protesting and the mines shut down, so it seems to me the logical solution is to pay them decently in the first place and give them humane working conditions.<br /><br />The struggle to overturn apartheid was just too monumental to end up like this. The people of South Africa deserve so much more.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-55701920746741580402012-10-27T07:28:47.999-04:002012-10-27T07:28:47.999-04:00Leftist that I am, and winning as Kathy's plea...Leftist that I am, and winning as Kathy's pleas seem to me, I can see, Michael, what a minefield South Africa must walk through to reach a solution. Thank you for this cogent, balanced, and beautifully written summary of a situation that has troubled me, but that I have had difficulty grasping until now. Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-85475388413833576552012-10-27T05:58:33.820-04:002012-10-27T05:58:33.820-04:00Dear Kathy,
Thanks for your input. Yes, certainly...Dear Kathy,<br />Thanks for your input. Yes, certainly much must be uncovered about August 16th and hopefully the current commission will do that. And certainly the relationship between mines and miners needs to change for the better. There is a danger, though, that the result may be better paid and more skilled jobs - work with dignity - but far less of them. That in itself would be a problem for South Africa which needs more jobs rather than less...<br />Anglo Platinum just announced its latest figures - $54 million loss for the first half of the year.Michael Sears (of Michael Stanley)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09886295534214542834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-31841488683899232072012-10-25T19:57:51.362-04:002012-10-25T19:57:51.362-04:00The workers do have a case. South Africa has a gi...The workers do have a case. South Africa has a gigantic percentage of the world's platinum. The corporations that mine the mineral there make enormous profits. Three Lonmin executives earn the same as 3,600 rock-drill operators, who have arguably the most difficult and dangerous mine jobs. They work while wet and bent over, never standing up while drilling.<br /><br />Although apartheid does not exist as a legal system, there is still economic apartheid. The wealth has mostly not been shared with the people who do the work. There is huge unemployment. Many workers, including miners, still live in shacks. Many cannot afford to send their children to school.<br /><br />Mine executives and their staff reportedly have yelled racist slurs at miners. Many are treated like "chattel," only existing to earn money for the mine owners, not treated with respect as human beings.<br /><br />The responses, which go outside the legal channels, by miners comes from their life conditions, their desperation, frustration, poverty. They feel no one is representing and fighting for their needs and for them.<br /><br />My reading about the Aug. 16 killing of miners by police is that many were shot in the back, while trying to leave, and the autopsies show that. In prison, where many were taken, many were beaten by police.<br /><br />So many South Africans died, were beaten, jailed and more to free their people, not to be so underpaid and live in desperate conditions and then be jailed, beaten and shot.<br /><br />There has to be much more wealth shared with working people, more jobs, more housing, schools and other social programs. The government, which has provided housing, electricity and more to some has to expand these essentials to the population that needs them.<br /><br />And the companies that reap huge profits there must compensate the workers fairly and try to alleviate the terrible conditions in the mines and elsewhere, and do much more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-46635484978458396262012-10-25T13:28:40.118-04:002012-10-25T13:28:40.118-04:00A horrible tragedy likely brought on by frightened...A horrible tragedy likely brought on by frightened cops, a lack of training, superiors pressured to get results, and arrogant bad judgment.<br /><br />If you accept the premise that man is basically good [questioned by at least a one-half contributor to this site:)], the only explanation I see for the universal sad state of our planet is that whether we're talking government, labor, or private industry, Lord Acton was right: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." <br /><br />His not as often quoted tag line to that observation is, "Great men are almost always bad men."<br /><br />God help us all.Jeffrey Sigerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00718317707555064653noreply@blogger.com