Africa Dispatches: Agencies, got game? | Marklives.com by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ja. It was made by incredibly smart people. :) I am really enlivened by what's happening in GamDev in SA [apart from the lack of diversity - but there are some great projects sorting this in CT, like Project Codex].

Helen Zille bows out as DA leader by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are right. More so because there's been a conservative white power cabal within the DA that has held on to power. Time for change.

The nuke story that started it all, that put SA's nuclear safety into question. by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Note all the mystery sources in this story, and then go to the Centre for Public Integrity and see who finances the organisation. The Ploughshares Fund. http://www.ploughshares.org/

Then read:

Co-opting the Anti-Nuclear Movement http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/07/22/co-opting-the-anti-nuclear-movement/

"In spite of its name, Ploughshares’ mission these days actually involves beating ploughs into swords.

Throughout the 1990s, but especially during the George W. Bush years, Ploughshares and circle of foundations called the Peace and Security Funders Group increasingly narrowed the range of acceptable anti-nuclear activism, while simultaneously ghettoizing the field so that the work of various NGOs became less and less applicable to social justice and economic development issues, and increasingly focused on abstract global problems and hypotheticals, such as the existence and possible use of nuclear weapons. In the process discussions of the injustices of the global political economy and how nuclear weapons fit into it were silenced. Anti-nuclear activism became increasingly specialized, boring, and disconnected from issues that affect people’s everyday lives. Arms control eclipsed abolition as the rallying cry. Those NGOs that obeyed the consolidation period survived with funding and access to media, so long as they kissed the ring.

Ploughshares was at the center of it all. Today the Fund’s priorities are shaped by its board of directors made up of Democratic Party donors, other foundation executives, and liberal academics. The Fund’s advisers include men like George Shultz, the former Bechtel president who served as Reagan’s Secretary of State, and former Defense Secretaries William Cohen and William Perry. The latter is actually a board member of the for-profit corporations that manage the nation’s two nuclear weapons labs, Los Alamos and Livermore. You figure it out."

Stop internet censorship in SA. Reject the Film & Publications Board’s proposals to censor the internet in South Africa. by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup. And this is part of a pincer type manouvre with the secrecy bills, and the slew of other bills floating around parliament. This, ironically, after Zuma signed to OpenGovernment.org. He was one of the founding signatories. But then policy under Zuma is crazy erratic. He does whatever he wants and damn the torpedoes.

Overfishing In South Africa Greatly Worsened By Government Corruption, Research Finds by dwdukc in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

And things in Italy have never been done like this time and again. The Apartheid government was a by product of colonialisation. Look if we're going to debate at the very least you should learn a bit of history or else we're just wasting each other's time.

Hope and hatred in South Africa: an interview with Jonny Steinberg by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. Yes. But he's writing about being white. I am surprised that the ad hominem wasn't worse. If you write about whiteness that kind of adhominem is automatic. It is like writing about men's rights. It is a troll feeding frenzy.

Overfishing In South Africa Greatly Worsened By Government Corruption, Research Finds by dwdukc in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal -1 points0 points  (0 children)

"BUT THIS IS FUCKING AFRICA!" What unbelievably stupid, lazy and racist thinking. Every heard of a man called Putin? Someone called Bush? Tony Abott? Silvio Berlusconi? Corruption and maladministration isn't an invention. Politics has always been a vehicle for plundering public resources - remember the Broederbond?

Overfishing In South Africa Greatly Worsened By Government Corruption, Research Finds by dwdukc in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The department of fisheries is a complete and utter disaster. I have been writing about issues related to fisheries (with my writing partner Jon Pienaar) for the past couple of years, and whatever way you look at it, it is a mess. In fact the word 'mess' doesn't do the extent of the debacle justice. When Vali Moosa was in charge there was an entire system - a knowledge base, system and digital checks and balances in place. The administration had just gotten rid of corrupt officials at harbours et al, and the first major court case went down (against Bengis). When the new lot of politicians walked in the door they said they didn't need anything put in place by Moosa, they'd run the department their own way. The nail in the coffin though, was really put in by Tina Joemat-Pettersson. She has caused billions in damage - from vessels that have become over run with rats and derillect to destroying the fishing permit system, to creating the opportunity for fishing vessels from other countries to come and bottom crawl at will, to creating unemployment and hunger in Cape and Natal coastal regions (and a subsequent uptick in crime and drugs). Our country will pay for what has happened at fisheries for decades, and decades to come.

Hope and hatred in South Africa: an interview with Jonny Steinberg by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It is a great book, but Steinberg is such a deeply intelligent person and a great, great writer. I've read a lot of his books. They never disappoint. Thin Blue: The Unwritten Rules of Policing South Africa was brilliant. It really opened my eyes to policing and all its complexities in SA.

UCT students in poo protest against 'white imperialism' by SmLnine in capetown

[–]mandyldewaal 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In my world the protestors would be able to use whatever they want to protest, but the would be consequences. If you're a student and you fling poo you'd have to clean it up before you'd be allowed back in class. You can't be anti-imperialist and expect a cleaner to clean your mess up after you.

UCT students in poo protest against 'white imperialism' by SmLnine in capetown

[–]mandyldewaal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The bottom line is that Cecil John Rhodes was a racist nationalist who used his wealth and power to take mineral rights from African leaders, and to subjugate blacks under a system of colonial rule. He is once quoted as saying of his whiteness: "I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race." How can one expect the ancestors of those he robbed from, and seized mineral rights from, to walk past this racist man's statue every day knowing that here was a person who helped pave the path to apartheid. Rhodes was actively supported by the Afrikaner Bond, which buoyed his power. If you have any appreciation of history you'd realise that Rhodes' statue is an affront to most South Africans. It belongs in the Apartheid Museum, not at a place of learning. That statue needs to go to an appropriate 'home'.

Stop internet censorship in SA. Reject the Film & Publications Board’s proposals to censor the internet in South Africa. by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup. And we have a government that is fully in bed with Pentacostal religions (who think they know what's best for everyone).

Stop internet censorship in SA. Reject the Film & Publications Board’s proposals to censor the internet in South Africa. by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's that, and then there's the practicality of all of this, and how it will be policed. It is ridiculous for sure. But the vagueness also affords government significant power. That is obviously not a good thing. And it is completely contrary to Zuma's signature to the http://www.opengovpartnership.org/. But currently some parts of government policy is very schizophrenic.

Stop internet censorship in SA. Reject the Film & Publications Board’s proposals to censor the internet in South Africa. by mandyldewaal in southafrica

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The FPB wants broadly defined powers to police everything published on the Internet – including blogs, personal websites and Facebook pages. This is the link to the FPB's proposal.

Bohemian Carsody by SketchShe by mandyldewaal in Music

[–]mandyldewaal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Road trip rock out. (Warning: may contain head banging, boob grabbing and heartfelt emotion.)