Mark Steyn: The white man’s burden

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 08/02/03 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

[prairiebreeze]

thanks for the ping and bump for later read

Prairie

[aculeus]

He now regrets the whole ear-slicing thing, and the good news is he’s ready to come back and serve his country. So is his fellow warlord Roosevelt Johnson (no relation).

(no relation) chuckle.

[sd-joe]

Mark Steyn sure has an EAR for prose.

He is such a super writer.

[dennisw]

Roosevelt Johnson  ... I thought it was joke ... but he's for real

[FreedomPoster]

The Congressional Black Caucus blames all this on the legacy of colonialism, but it would be more accurate to call it the legacy of post-colonialism or prematurely terminated colonialism. The first generation of the continent’s leaders were those LSE-educated Afro-Marxists who did such a great job at destroying their imperial inheritance. By the time that crowd faded from the scene, the Cold War was over and nobody needed African puppets. So today West Africans find themselves in a land beyond politics. You can’t seriously talk of these factions as being Marxist or Maoist or Blairite. None represents any coherent political platform. The video of Samuel Doe’s sudden loss of hearing predates the equivalent scene in Reservoir Dogs by a couple of years, but that’s the valid comparison: these are criminal operations, not political ones. The only difference is that the ear-slicing of Sam Doe wasn’t accompanied on the soundtrack by ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’. That’ll be left for the US Marines to sing.

The insight, wit, and effective summarization demonstrated in that paragraph is just breathtaking.

[Lysander]

Statehood for Liberia.

[spodefly]

I think Steyn should have his own network, where 24 hours a day he 'decodes' the double-speak of the major news organs and victims groups. Within 6 months, the world would be a completely different place because there is no way the sheeple could avoid the truthfulness and wit Steyn brings. Plus, he is so prolific that he must already be awake 24 hours a day anyway.

[vollmond]

He now regrets the whole ear-slicing thing, and the good news is he’s ready to come back and serve his country.

Serve his country. The things Steyn can slip in ...

OPQ-
There is no cannibalism in the British Navy, absolutely none...
And when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount.
-- Sir John Cunningham

[Gunslingr3]

steyn ping...

"To most people in Britain, colonial Africa isn’t that long ago. It’s only a little over three decades since the Queen was Sierra Leone’s first post-independence head of state. But, in a land where male life-expectancy is 32, who remembers the late Sixties? Who remembers district commissioners and functioning schools and non-psychopathic police forces? These are cultures that, except for a few quaintly revived traditions like genital-eating, exist more and more completely in a present-tense dystopia."

[headsonpikes]

bump.

This African story is just starting to be an American political issue.

Which is the thing to become if one wants attention in this Imperial Age.

;^)

[Tancred]

Ever heard of General Butt-Naked and the Butt-Naked Brigade? (it's no joke)

General Buttnaked

By Daniella Carlsson

The Amazing and unbelievable tale of Joshua Milton Blahyi aka General Buttnaked, a story of macabre horror that would make even the worst feel sick, or maybe laugh..

The real name of this absurd character is Joshua Milton Blahyi known during the vicious civil war in Liberia as General Buttnaked, although his name wasn't so strange compared to other so called generals like General Murder, Rambo, Terminator, Jungle Killer, General War Boss III, General Housebreaker, No-mother-no-father, General F*ck-me-quick, Babykiller and so on. General Butt naked himself says (note: I guess he is mentally ill and therefore some caution is recommended) he began his evil ways when he was just 11 years old when he performed a satanic ritual that demanded that he had to perform human sacrifices. This was the beginning of a macabre episode in the brutal Liberian civil war. He has admitted to killing several children just for the fun of it. His rise to fame came when he as a warlord commanded an brigade that called itself the Buttnaked brigade/battalion (it differs somewhat depending on the source), a group of ragtag drugged and drunken teenage soldiers. They did all dress upp in the most absurd style they could find, some had wedding gowns, dresses, purses and wigs, others where completely naked. General Butt naked himself drove a motorcycle completely naked, except for his sneakers and a blasting rifle. The nudity that became his trademark was said to protect him from bullets and therefore he and the Butt naked brigade was completely fearless, he says it was given to him by Satan. As an independent warlord he and his buttnaked brigade fought for the highest bidder. In the last years of the civil war it was Roosevelt Johnson that was his source of funds. In this war of brutality that shocked Liberia the Butt naked-brigade where the most gruesome, famous for using decapitated heads as soccer balls and sacrificed children before every battle for receiving their magical protection.

General Buttnaked himself meet his fate one day, dressed in full "battle dress", when he claims he saw God that told him that he was a slave to Satan, not the hero he considered himself to be. God commanded him to spread the word of the gospel so he started preaching. To put on some clothes was his own idea. Later on when he was questioned on why he fought for money by an journalist he said: "I agreed, because at that time they offered me a lot of money. Everything I did, I did on a commercial basis." He also admitted that it took some while for him to accept his new calling. He went some year after his calling to Nigeria and studied at a theology school. Now he is an full-blown preacher, preaching the gospel in the Victory Christian church of Monrovia. He seams to repent now and say that he can't be accused of what he was doing during the civil war, he says it was Satan that possessed him. Nowadays he sells recordings of his sermons for $20 a piece that he claims will go to build schools for young ex-fighters like him. He claims: "Even now I'm fighting. I'm fighting a spiritual war."

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Liberia/Asadstateofaffairs.html

[StatesEnemy]

the very prerequisites for a democratic political system do not exist among the people in question

Understatement of the day.

[arasina]

Mark Steyn is brilliant! Such a logical thinker and amazing wit with an abundance of historical knowledge to back up everything he writes. He actually has the guts to call the Liberian government criminal and to point out the hypocrisy of the extreme left. I like this idea:

But if Howard Dean thinks this is a little light six months of ‘peacekeeping’, maybe he should volunteer for the Paul Bremer role.

Indeed! Dean thinks he can be president without attending to global matters because his socialized citizens will be so content with their high taxes and "free" government programs they won't care about foreign policy or any other security except the "social" one. THANKS FOR THE PING!

[dix]

Is all of this really true, or is this post some sort of joke?

[Tax-chick]

The New York Times managed to find at least one Liberian who’s got the message: ‘One young man held up a torn sheet of cardboard, his fury scrawled with a black marker. “G. Bush Killer Liberia,” it said.’ Wow! Forget Doe and Taylor and the various Johnsons: G. Bush Killer Liberia! Before a single warlord’s genital has yet slipped down Dubya’s gullet!

Steyn defies description. Words fail me.

[Ronin]

I pray to dear God that the U.S. stays out of that sewer.

[knews_hound]

Steyn BTTT.

The man continues to amaze me.


Cheers,

knews hound

[joesnuffy]

If the libs are looking for a moral purity war to fight
they should try the Sudan

Ah thats right its another Muslim stronghold

where little Christian boys and girls are kidnapped sold ...held as sex slaves..to muslim slave owners
When their masters tire of them ..they are tortured in order to get them to renounce Christ
and take allah and mohammed as their new gods...

If they refuse (who knows even if they do as they are tortured into) their little arms and legs have been cut off...or they are set onfire..

Hey...What's a muslim to do when there aint no cable?