What the liberal media likes to ignore: South Africa today

There's more wrong in Africa than AIDS, although you'd never know it from the headlines.

All the focus seems to be on that totally preventable killer disease because of the price tag and the massive lobbying behind it.

The Senate last week passed HIV-AIDS bill which is close to identical to the one approved by the House earlier this month.

It's big money: $15 billion over 5 years for 12 countries in Africa plus Haiti and Guyana. We already spend $1.2 billion a year on AIDS. This will more than double that.

It's said that the hope is our "contribution" will encourage other nations to be more generous.

But while AIDS is an emotional, hot-button issue with enormous activism behind it (read: politicians are worried about votes), the reality of Africa is more than that. Unfortunately, the pols and the media are focusing their attention on the Middle East, ignoring the simmering broth of problems on that vast continent.

I've written before about the horror of Zimbabwe with the political corruption, the ominous cooperation with Libya, the intentional destruction of the economy, the deliberate starvation of the people, the genocide and thievery practiced against the white population, the wanton devastation of wildlife to say nothing of the enormity of the damage to the environment. It only gets worse.

The reaction of most of the world is to ignore it. When was the last time you saw any major media coverage of these horrors?

The poster child of Western media, of course, is South Africa and the patron saint is Nelson Mandela. It's great PR, but the image is far from the truth.

I was in South Africa recently and was able to see it through the eyes of a newcomer, but a view enhanced by the people who live there. I stayed with family and friends, associated with residents and talked to business people and journalists. The picture of the real South Africa left me with mixed feelings and most uneasy about the future.

On the surface, you might not know anything was amiss. In fact, if you were there solely as a visitor on "tour," you would not get the real picture. And that is unfortunate.

I arrived there without a preconceived notion of what to expect. Quite frankly, just the logistics of doing the trip took all my attention, so, when I arrived, it was, in a way, like being there with a clean slate. I had no expectations and so the impact on me was strange.

Without doubt, South Africa is an exquisitely beautiful country. The coastline from Durban to Capetown takes your breath away at every turn of the road.

Johannesburg is a sprawling city with a built-up downtown that once was thriving and now has become more unused and shabby at the edges. The outskirts are filled with the millions of poor blacks with no jobs and no futures. Whites and blacks with any level of money, live in fortified homes. Crime is rampant.

But the major coastal cities of Durban, Port Elizabeth and Capetown are different. At first glance, they look like suburban U.S. cities. They have malls and parks and housing and schools and businesses. There are well-paved streets and highways.

Of course, when you see monkeys in the trees and baboons on the roadside, you know it's not "home"!

In areas inland, small towns seem to be thriving. The wine country of South Africa looks just like Napa and Sonoma in California and their products are sensational.

While the image of the country portrayed in Western media is of whites exploiting blacks, that's not universally true. There are many examples of white owners opening opportunities for their employees. One case in point is the Paul Cluver Winery. Dr. Cluver and his family provide housing and schools for employees, train managers in the wine business, provide travel and education for them in the United States and Europe, and give land to these black employees to develop their own wines under their own label.

They have created entrepreneurs and new opportunities for blacks who, before that, had no viable economic future. And, by the way, the wines are absolutely superb.

Away from the coast, some of the small towns are so insulated from the realities of the country as a whole, that people feel safe enough not to lock their doors. But those are rare and, in fact, that sense of security may not last long.

South Africa is like the mysterious veiled face of a woman – alluring and tempting. Even removing of a veil or two, that impression doesn't change. But when the final veil is removed, the face is one of pain and fear and the voice is a stifled cry of pain.

Politicians do their best to keep the veils in place and the world media dance to their tune. The result is the impression that the country that defeated apartheid is now thriving and progressing under black rule.

You have to be there to see it but you have to look beneath the surface. What you see is a country attempting "normalcy" but which really exists on a daily basis, cloaked in fear. South Africa is in the grips of terrorism, perpetrated by its own people.

How many news stories have you read about the crime rate? The number of rapes? The child rapes? Black-on-black crime?

How about the beating and killing of white farmers and the theft of their land? Did you know that more white farmers have been murdered in South Africa than in Zimbabwe? Probably not. Our media ignore negative news about South Africa.

The first paper I read in Johannesburg, reported that a white-owned farm was invaded, family members, including children, were injured and killed and the home and property looted. The story was buried in the back of the paper. No one was arrested.

While I was in Capetown, a man's car was hijacked at 11 a.m., two blocks from a police station. His possessions were stolen and he was thrown off a cliff.

I visited an animal reserve patronized by many locals. Meals were family style and guests were friendly. I later realized that every person there had a family member or friend who'd been attacked, terrorized or killed by black thugs. In one case, a young man was carjacked and killed. His vehicle was used for a joyride – his body was in the trunk. In none of the cases, was anyone arrested.

Looking at beautiful residential streets, you are struck by the security. Homes are surrounded by high walls topped with concertina wire. There are dogs and guards and alarm-company signs everywhere.

A relative's home had a safe room, expansion bars on doors and windows, an alarm system connected to a guard company, motion detectors inside and out, a trained attack dog, high walls with barbed wire, locked gates and multiple locks on exterior doors.

Survival rules are blunt. Lock car doors. Avoid driving at night – if you do, don't stop at red lights. Don't stop for an accident, go to a police station or maybe, just go. Don't go into black areas. Stay away from groups of blacks. Don't go out alone, day or night. Don't give to beggars. Avoid eye contact.

When you park your car in public lots or on the street, it's customary to give the black man who approaches you, a coin or two to watch your car.

In Durban, a beautiful beach hotel faced a park filled with street vendors. I was told that tourists should never go outside the building. If they did, they'd get mugged or worse.

Back in San Francisco, I met a young South African woman. She asked my impression of her country. I raved about the natural beauty but that the dangers were shocking.

Then I heard her horror story about her younger sister and a friend working at the family bed-and-breakfast business. They were invaded by a gang of black thugs, tied up, beaten, robbed and threatened with guns and death. They only survived because the woman managed to chew through the tape binding them and both escaped through a window. The attackers trashed and looted the place.

Another horror story from a woman engineer at my radio station, who told me of her younger sister who'd been driving to Capetown with friends. There was an accident – the sister and two others were killed, two others survived. Local blacks stole valuables from the living – and the dead – and left. They lay for hours before anyone helped them.

South Africa left me uneasy – feeling that what I saw will happen here. Perhaps it's because the cities and towns look like ours – except, they're different. The divisions between black and white, Muslim and Christian, rich and poor are deep and dangerous. I can't shake the feeling that we are heading in that direction. We already have some of the symptoms and the media are in full "ignore" mode.

The woman on the plane next to me was the epitome of elegance. You would have pegged her as a country-club suburban American housewife with not a care in the world. You'd have no way of knowing that she came to this country with nothing more than the clothes on her back and memories of her life in South Africa.

She introduced herself as my seatmate on the flight to New York City from Johannesburg, and I could tell from her accent she wasn't a native New Yorker. I hoped her friendliness would mean I might ask some of the questions that had nagged at me during my travels in her native country.

I was lucky; not only was she friendly, she was as receptive to my questions as I was to hers. I told her of my trip and what I'd seen and she was anxious to know what I thought of South Africa. In fact, this curiosity about what we think of them is pervasive in that troubled land.

Virtually everyone I conversed with asked the same question. It's as though they're hoping someone will provide a different answer to support their desire to have "things work out," meaning that the abominable politics, devastating poverty, growth of communism as well as militant Islam, imminent terrorism and out-of-control crime will somehow end and things will be all right again.

For Americans steeped in anti-apartheid rhetoric, agitation and propaganda, for anyone to desire a return to what was in South Africa will smack of racism. But it's not. That's the problem. It's always easy to judge through rose-colored, Western glasses. It's easy for us to say that the best way is the way it is now – with blacks in charge, because, after all, they were there first. No. It's not quite that simple. It never is.

My seatmate was born in Cape Town, living there till she married and moved to Johannesburg for her husband's business. Before apartheid, she said things were fine. Whites, coloreds and blacks worked together and got along. She said her neighborhood had people of all colors living there with no problems.

With apartheid, they were separated with the blacks moved to the townships. But, she said, the worst happened next. The black-led ANC party was Communist-dominated and used coercion and force to get blacks to follow the party line against whites.

Essentially, it was black-on-black violence to force anti-white activities. Show up for rallies, go on strike – whatever – under threat of your house being burned or your family killed. Nelson Mandela was part of it. He was jailed as a terrorist, but his directives continued to be followed.

Perhaps the worst damage to the country is a story Western media totally ignore. You'll only hear it from courageous South Africans: The white government built schools in the townships for black children – new buildings, new books. Mandela, from prison, ordered that the blacks NOT go to school. They didn't. Instead, they destroyed the schools and burned the books

Now the country is filled with millions of uneducated, unemployable blacks who turn to drugs and violence and buy into the ongoing socialist, racist regime. Add to this the basic tribal rivalry that still exists and condones black against black violence, and you have a tinderbox waiting for the spark.

My seatmate and her husband saw the handwriting on the wall and finally emigrated to the U.S. They were not allowed to take any money out of the country. They came here with their children, clothes and memories, starting from scratch in freedom.

I've heard from South Africans from around the world about their experiences with the violence they endured from blacks in their homeland, simply because they were white. Their stories are filled with sadness and despair but with thanks for the freedom they've found elsewhere.

Idealism dies hard as reality hits home in that beautiful country. Idealism isn't the only thing dying. People are too, along with hopes and dreams.

Many choose to get out before the worst happens; they believe it's just a matter of time. Those who stay deride them as being part of the chicken run. But the insult doesn't stop them.

In the words of one of the e-mails I received from a native South African woman who left to become an American and start over in safety: "It's better to be a live chicken than a dead duck."

The UN is nothing more than a political machine run by a bunch of thugs and I am affraid the USA sanctions it.
They reacted swiftly to Milosevic but have allowed Mugabe to murder at will as they turn a blind eye.
This country has been brainwashed!

I wouldn't be surprised if colonialism made a comeback. Perhaps Europe will volunteer to bring Civilization to the Dark Continent.

It's not America's job.

I think SA will go the way of Zimbawe. Reason is the political culture of the country. This generation of black leaders will dominate the political system until they are old, thus the younger ones must wait. The only way a young and ambitious black politician can break this logjam is to bring up the issues of race/class envy to mobilize the more ignorant poor masses. The other problem is if the economy tanks, the current leaders can use race/class envy as a distraction for their failures (like Zimbawe). Either scenerio does not bode well for SA whites. If they are smart, move all their family and assets to the US and have a bag packed with passport by the door if he or she decides to take a chance and stay in the country.

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I have a friend from South Africa. They were quite wealthy and lived a life of ease in South Africa. But, this couple saw the handwriting on the wall, and when the wife was pregnant with the couples first child, managed to emigrate. They wanted their child born in the USA. My friend says (as does this article)_ that a bloodbath has started in South Africa. The "Black" leaders do not police the black on white violence. These leaders envision "land programs" such as the one found in Zimbabwe. Take the land from the whites and give it to the blacks. All, of Africa will starve. These governments are full of hate and have no idea how to govern. Of course, these countries will demand money from the West. When I think of repartations for American Blacks, I think maybe they should pay us for getting them out of that hell hole-Africa.

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