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Why South Africa is Still the Most Unequal Country on the Planet
IWB ^ | Mark Angelides

Posted on 04/29/2017 8:18:04 AM PDT by davikkm

After the ending of Apartheid, South Africa looked set to become the driving force of the African continent. It had the developed world’s support behind it, popular support from almost everyone, and yet it has sunk to the very bottom of the world’s equality rankings (in terms of economic disparity). And it’s not only economically that South Africa is struggling. Political corruption is rife, violence is high, and the threat of insurrection is never far away.

When the charismatic Mandela came to power as the head of the African National Congress (ANC, the present ruling party), many in the Western governments and media predicted a “great leveling” (Nelson was after all an avowed Communist), they assumed that all people would grow richer and that South Africa’s problems would soon be solved. But this wasn’t to be.

Soweto (now famous as the setting of the movie (District 9), has now become an almost unmanageable sprawl of poor housing spreading into barely stable shacks and lean-tos. Blacks, Whites and Coloured,* who have any money at all, move into gated communities with armed guards, and the incredible rise of gun crime, carjacking and home invasions affects almost every aspect of day to day life.

(Excerpt) Read more at investmentwatchblog.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: africa; southafrica; unequal
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To: RegulatorCountry

I was in Haiti in 1976....corruption at its best...and recently amplified by the Clintoon Foundation.


41 posted on 04/29/2017 9:35:52 AM PDT by davidb56
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To: Pelham

The ultimate failure of Iraq came, not because we tried to fix it (which, in hindsight was maybe a mistake), but because we abandoned the country and left a power vacuum. It takes generations for change to happen.

Of course, we struggle in our own country now with such mundane things as the bill of rights and the constitution, no thanks to our leftard school system.


42 posted on 04/29/2017 9:37:18 AM PDT by meyer (The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn't say what it doesn't say.)
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To: ReleaseTheHounds

They had a choice...leave or be murdered. I wouldn’t call that “running away”. The racist blacks there are getting their due. Who cares?


43 posted on 04/29/2017 9:39:52 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation camp?)
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To: davikkm
My friend (and her husband) from Pretoria are going to be visiting us here in FL in mid-May on their way to their vacation in Jamaica. I'll do another photoshoot with her while she's here most likely... and also get all the latest scoop on how things are over there. They used to try to be pretty neutral on SA politics, but in the last year have gotten pretty vocal about being anti-Zuma.

http://playboy.co.za/playmates/nikki-du-plessis

44 posted on 04/29/2017 9:55:23 AM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: Kickass Conservative

“Wow, I just watched an episode of House Hunters International where a Family was relocating to South Africa...The didn’t mention any of these issues. LOL”

They better also keep their gay lifestyle to themselves there too - it DOES NOT go over well.


45 posted on 04/29/2017 10:13:36 AM PDT by BobL (In Honor of the NeverTrumpers, I declare myself as FR's first 'Imitation NeverTrumper')
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To: BobL

This was actually a Heterosexual Older Couple.

I know, hard to believe.


46 posted on 04/29/2017 10:15:46 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (The way Liberals carry on about Deportation, you would think "Mexico" was Spanish for "Auschwitz".)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

They’re headed for Australia for the most part.


47 posted on 04/29/2017 10:16:30 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: Paladin2

They need a Zima Govenment:

Mmmm, Zima...Zuck Zhit Zhrough a Ztraw


48 posted on 04/29/2017 10:21:30 AM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%fe)
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To: Kickass Conservative

“This was actually a Heterosexual Older Couple. I know, hard to believe.”

Wow, how can they push something like that...did they survive the lawsuit?


49 posted on 04/29/2017 10:29:27 AM PDT by BobL (In Honor of the NeverTrumpers, I declare myself as FR's first 'Imitation NeverTrumper')
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To: Pelham

The problem with Africa (and the Middle East) has always been the same: Tribalism, the worst form of “racism”.


50 posted on 04/29/2017 10:31:29 AM PDT by 45Auto (Big holes are (almost) always better.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I think you’ve hit on something...


51 posted on 04/29/2017 10:32:46 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: aquila48

IQ


52 posted on 04/29/2017 10:48:12 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: meyer

Believing that America could “fix” Iraq was the mistake.

It’s an arrogant stupidity endemic to liberal utopians, of which neoconservatives are a glittering example.

The mistake is a very obvious one to those who don’t willfully ignore the role of culture and religion in shaping what a country will be.

The Bush 43 administration was loaded with people who couldn’t imagine that there are societies where religion will muscle aside democracy and free markets and all of the other western paraphernalia that they thought they could graft at will onto Iraq’s thousand year old tribal culture. Starting with the genius at the top who happily chirped that “Islam is a religion of peace”.


53 posted on 04/29/2017 1:35:14 PM PDT by Pelham (Liberate California. Deport Mexico Now)
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To: 45Auto

Tribalism that is mixed with the always simmering Sunni/Shiite war for dominance.


54 posted on 04/29/2017 1:37:08 PM PDT by Pelham (Liberate California. Deport Mexico Now)
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To: davikkm
...Soweto (now famous as the setting of the movie (District 9), has now become an almost unmanageable sprawl of poor housing spreading into barely stable shacks and lean-tos.

In 1980 we visited with a Black family in Soweto. Their brick home was nicer than the place we rented in Nairobi. The worst housing we saw was on par with the first place we rented in Nairobi. Soweto was clean, neat and orderly. When we visited the city hall, my wife noticed a line of people out back. "What is that queue for?"

"Oh, that is the old folks getting their pension payments."

We were told that 90% of the families had electricity and 90% of those had refrigerators; the rest had "iceboxes". "Where do they get ice?"

"We have an ice plant here in Soweto." Soweto had a VW dealership that was more modern than any in Nairobi. Our hosts told us that the traffic jam heading out of Soweto on workday mornings was a mess.

In downtown Johannesburg, white & blacks worked together, shopped together and dined at restaurants together. It looked like Atlanta... but a bit more modern and at least as clean & neat.

1980

55 posted on 04/29/2017 5:06:18 PM PDT by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
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To: davikkm

“Equality”, in the sense used here, does not exist and cannot exist.


56 posted on 04/29/2017 5:10:41 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Die Gedanken sind Frei)
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To: BwanaNdege

There was a solidly black middle class in SA during apartheid.


57 posted on 04/29/2017 5:10:58 PM PDT by riri
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