Heading South... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 3 Jan 2014 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

Whether or not Nelson Mandela was emblematic of the new South Africa, his memorial service certainly was. Thamsanqa Jantjie, the lovable laugh-a-minute sign-language fraud who stood alongside President Obama gesticulating meaninglessly to the delight of all, was exposed in the days that followed as a far darker character. A violent schizophrenic charged over the years with burglary, rape, kidnapping, and murder, he was also a member of a "necklacing" gang — necklacing being the practice of placing a gasoline-filled tire over the head of the victim and setting it alight.

...

Before Mandela's, the last South African funeral to have commanded international attention was that of Field Marshal Smuts, the greatest South African of the pre-apartheid era and the only man to sign the treaties ending both the First and Second World Wars. He is a forgotten figure now, but he was the only South African with a statue in Parliament Square at Westminster until Mandela's was put up, and his funeral in 1950 attracted numbers comparable to and perhaps even surpassing those in Soweto. Smuts would have been astonished by the chaos and ill discipline of Mandela's farewell six decades later. He took it for granted that South Africa was a First World nation, on a par with her sister dominions in Canada and Australia. The line between these two funerals is one of racial progress, and precipitous decline by every other measure.

[Rummyfan]

Didn't see this otherwise posted....

[Rummyfan]

Jan Smuts and Nelson Mandela met just the once, when the general came to Mandela's college to talk up Britain's cause in the war against Germany. It would amaze Smuts, who had fought in the Boer War against Britain and whose comrades had clung fiercely to their identity during the enforced Britishization that followed, to see how swiftly even the most tenacious culture can be swept away. Yet Mandela's benign rule in the 1990s was likewise only an interlude. South Africa is disintegrating, and what's left is headed nowhere good.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Brilliant, as usual.

I wish I could go to see Steyn on his Florida tour, but alas, I am chained to a cubicle somewhere in the chilly Northeast.

[YankeeReb]

In a way, the following statement can be rewritten about the US:

Yet Mandela's Reagan's benign rule in the 1990s 1980s was likewise only an interlude. South Africa The United States is disintegrating, and what's left is headed nowhere good.

[Tupelo]

“South Africa is disintegrating, and what's left is headed nowhere good”, followed closely by the United States after 150 years of the Progressive Theology that is now dominating the government at all levels.

[deoetdoctrinae]

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE HELP FILLING THE TANK?


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[maica]

Yes, Your adaptation is accurate!! Sadly!

[Bigg Red]

mark

[Viennacon]

I wish Steyn would challenge Jeanne Shaheen for the senate. If Land is up by anywhere close to 8 points in Michigan, Steyn would be a shoe-in in NH.

[wardaddy]

The line between these two funerals is one of racial progress, and precipitous decline by every other measure

so is it worth it?

[Mrs. Don-o]

bttt