In the movie The Godfather III, at the meeting of the bosses, Michael Corleone, head of the Mafia commission distributes cheques as “returns” from business operations. All the bosses are mightily pleased with the generous size of the profits as whistles are heard when they open their envelops and then Michael Corleone tells everyone that this concludes their business relations all together. But one of the bosses turns around and says something ‘wow Michael this is very generous indeed but what about the politicians and judges you pay off, we want access to them as well”. Obviously the boss of bosses refuses this request. I suspect this is at the bottom of all this negative news and the threat of a credit rating downgrade. I contend that if Mr. Zuma is as corrupt as he is alleged to be, then he and his alleged corruptors, the Guptas are like small pick pocket tsotsis on the street corner in most townships. Focusing on them is useful so that you do not see the real Mafia that wears expensive suits, chauffeur driven and speaks sophisticated elitist language.
I believe that the economy of the Republic is under attack, mainly from the International Banking Cartel, hence the constant threat of credit rating agencies and we are falling for it like other countries like Jamaica. In fact the similarities between what is happening to the Republic and what happened in Jamaica are so similar one cannot help but be alarmed if not downright scared.
I was having a conversation with one of my pastor friends recently and talking about general things and he mentioned a term I find interesting, you know that verse that says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you…” Hosea 4:6. What I find was funny for me was him calling this lack of knowledge ‘dedicated ignorance’. I have seen people literally fight you just to stay ignorant. While researching for this blog I came across this gem of a statement
“THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES …”
We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.” Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.” We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes &Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all. EDOFOLKS.Com
I think that to subscribe this to Africans is grossly inaccurate let alone racist, because it is my observation that even other racial groups are not very good at this, my proof are the sound bite news mainstream media pushes out to the public every single day. I think the general public is deliberately made to be ignorant. Who has the time to read the truth if the news headline is about corrupt politicians and then we quickly move to the latest celebrity bedroom scandal and or the latest sports news. Ilia Xypolia, writing in the London Progressive Journal states in “More than just a game, football as the modern opium of the masses” (no doubt paraphrasing Karl Marx’s religion is the opium of the masses quote, Karl Marx famously argued that religion plays the role of the opium of the masses. It makes them forget the inequality between classes. It acts as a major distraction to their suffering.) articulates this view point very well. We spend more time discussing the latest games of our soccer teams then who and why our government is corrupt beyond the sound bites. We become oblivious to the death of nation states, when I go to a Bafana Bafana game with a South African flag, in full squad regalia and singing the national anthem, I feel I belong to something unique that actually exist. But does it really? The real power lies in brands, more specifically huge corporation who bear no allegiance to no nation and respect no one but capital accumulation by any means necessary.
So while we are focused on small time tsotsis the Mafia guys are ‘eating the real cheese’, thanks to their chief priests, the economists scaring with doom and gloom. This is not just a South African phenomenon nor is it new. Interesting articles that Tony Leon penned out today on Business Day, I suspect he knows more than he lets on, in his opinion piece, titled Gordhan has his work cut out saving SA from the credit junkyard, (by Tony Leon, 01 March 2016, 05:47), he writes “It was both striking and apt that Business Day reserved initial comments on Gordhan’s effort for neither an economist, nor a politician. Instead, the top of the fold honour was given to a rating agency executive, Moody’s senior vice-president Kristen Lindow.” James Carville, political strategist to former US president Bill Clinton, offered an acute observation on the limits of even the most powerful political office relative to the might of outside forces. ” he further states, “When I come back, I want to come back as the bond market because then you can intimidate everyone,” the unorthodox Carville observed in 1993.” The question is, who is the bond market, well let me tell, it’s the name most economist brand about every single day “the international investor” that boogie man we must be all petrified of, reminds of the “swart gevaar”, remember that? These people are so powerful it is laughable to think our government can do much about them, read what else Mr Leon say about the credit rating agencies:
“Twenty years later, in September 2013, economics writer John Kay explored this phenomenon anew in the Financial Times. Writing of past electoral contests in Britain and France, he found the terror of sovereign credit ratings to be as alive then in London and Paris as it had once been in Washington, DC. “There is little doubt,” he wrote, “of the reality of such intimidation.”
The British Conservative Party, in its 2010 election manifesto, listed a series of “economic benchmarks” for the country. Top of the list was its “guarantee to safeguard” the country’s credit rating. In 2011, Kay reported, across in France, the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, told his aides “If France loses its triple A rating, I’m dead”. A few days later, France lost that coveted status, and true to his prediction, a few months later, Sarkozy lost the presidency.”
So if they can force a French president, Nicolas Sarkozy out, how about a so called “third world” president. Mr. Leon knows who the real enemy of the republic is, but like most, he can’t help himself, he ends by putting the blame of economic woes on the restless native none the less.
“If children’s stories like that of Goldilocks hold little appeal to our local power elite, they might prefer to dip into the Bible and reread Matthew 12:25. Its ancient wisdom reminds us anew that “the house divided against itself shall not stand”. I am not by any means absolving them of any responsibility, but am I am saying, if not these ones in government then they will find someone else.
You might think this is a joke, read our former President Mr. Thabo Mbeki’s latest letter and you find a clue as to what could happen if anyone refuses to play ball, even he does not say it directly he writes “Hammarskjold died in a plane crash which has still not been explained. Boutros-Ghali is the only UN Secretary General who served only one term, having been pushed out by the US Government.”
Why? “Thus, according to Dr Kissinger, the issue of “human rights” was used by the Reagan Administration not because these rights were important in themselves but because their projection was “a tool for overthrowing communism…(and) undermin(ing) the Soviet system”.”
You know I envy our kids these days, you know you can’t lie to them anymore, with the advent of smartphone, my 14 year old daughter when I say something to her she does not get, she will be like “dad wait, let me google it” so M’ Southern, do yourself a favour and google the “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins, 2005 and tell me how much choice does our government or any government for that matter has, but to be corrupt.
So the issue is not whether our government or our president is corrupt, the issue is who is doing the corrupting, a foot note on the budget speech “suspension of possible Nuclear deal with Russia”.
This in no way refutes the pervasive corruption in our country, and yet the tsotsi guys with three star okapps are dangerous, but the real thugs wage wars, ask the Syrians and Afghanistanies, (a topic for another time.) So my issue is this, our country is being forced to become what Donald J. Harris, says is debt propelled economy like Jamaica. “ Jamaica’s Debt-Propelled Economy: A Failed Economic Strategy and Its Aftermath.” (Donald J. Harris; Professor Emeritus of Economics’ Stanford University)
We are being systematically made debt slaves, personally I know how this feels like, once you are one, it becomes virtually impossible to get out without a considerable fight. Consider this “About 60 chief executive officers representing industries ranging from banking to mining met with Gordhan for two-and-a-half hours at Nedbank’s offices in Johannesburg” (SA economy: Gordhan holds talks with CEOs business/news / 02 February 2016 at 04:30am), now maybe this is just me being a Zulu man (under Udakwa’kusutha regiment), a State Minister of a Sovereign Republic is called to the offices of a private company “mameshane” really, wait for it, what is agreed “Business has said some tax increases would be palatable, while the government has agreed to look into the sale of state assets as part of an eight-point plan aimed at holding off a rating downgrade in the short term and resuscitating the economy in the long term.”; Gordhan and CEOs talk about economy; by Phakamisa Ndzamela, 16 February 2016, 05:55.
One is left with no doubt who is calling the shorts now. “bye bye democracy, welcome perpetual debt.”
M’Southern, credit rating downgrade crises or not, we are resilient people, we will find a way forward, we don’t need to sell our state assets and our souls in order to line the pockets of international “mashonisas” (loan sharks) in fancy suits and leave debts for our children. The so called international investor will invest in any country even it is run but a cat, as long as they maximize profits or what they fondly call shareholder value. We are smart people we outclassed, outwitted and outplayed the National Party, we can acquire knowledge, we can create our own export led economy.
Themba Wuwe M’Southern
Good$tarter1 