Posted on 09/05/2008 1:23:37 PM PDT by reaganaut1
LUDZIDZINI, Swaziland — Once upon a time, a young and handsome king ruled over a land of mountainous splendor near the southern tip of Africa. He liked to get married, and as the years passed he took 13 wives, each of them a great beauty.
His countrymen wanted His Majesty to be happy, but some also thought so many spouses were an extravagance for a poor, tiny nation. After all, the king, Mswati III, often provided these wives a retinue, a palace and a new BMW.
A great event was soon forthcoming — on Saturday, in fact. To prepare for the day — the 40-40 Celebration, so-named to honor the king’s 40th birthday and the nation’s 40th year of independence — a new 15,000-seat stadium was built and a fleet of top-of-the-line BMW sedans was ordered for the comfort of visiting dignitaries.
Once again, some people wondered how the kingdom, Swaziland, could afford the expense. Some 1,500 of them grumpily marched in protest through the capital after news reports said that several of the queens and their entourages had gone on an overseas shopping trip aboard a chartered plane.
Indeed, as the big day neared, other protests drew thousands more into the streets of the country’s two biggest cities. “The king spends our money and is not answerable to anyone!” complained Mario Masuku, the head of an outlawed political party and a familiar figure of Swazi discontent.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Obama wants to double foreign aid from $25 billion to $50 billion annually http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/042407dnnatobama.31a0740.html so foreign leaders can buy more BMWs.
It seems from the tone of the article that the NYT thinks that the dire "income inequality" and poverty in an African country resulting from raw political power is amusing. The much lower "inequality" in this country that results from the workings of the free market is regarded as outrageous.
I am Jefe Jofur the King of Zamunda.
By Barry Bearak
***Is this some kind of satire? I didn’t click on the link because I don’t feel like toing to NY Times.
We need to send more aid because King Mswati III’s 14th wife needs a new palace.
“This kind of leadership helps explain why Africa stays poor.”
“Leaders” are why people stay poor. The term connotes ‘wiser than, better than’. My personal bias is that the only system that truly works is one in which heads of state are servants of the people, given revocable power by the people for a finite period of time.
As we can see from our current predicament, that doesn’t really work either as a) it just replaces the old crooks with new crooks, or b) the people keep voting for the old crooks anyway.
The cops in front were riding along .... and waving their arms. I couldn't figure out what they were doing. My companion in the car, a croupier at the Spa, told me with urgency in her voice to, "PULL OVER! NOW!"
Scared the shite out of me. I slammed on my brakes and pulled over and the King's motorcade blew by us.
The gesticulating is to show everyone to get off the road. This is a required show of respect.
Oh ... and what happens if you don't get off the road? You are pulled over, arrested, thrown in the clink until you've learned to show respect to the King, fined and released.
Just like the Middle East today.
Sounds like a typical democrat or RINO here in the states.
The secret is having term limits so that the crooks don’t have time to enrich themselves and game the system. Maybe a limit of two terms or at most 12 years for any branch of federal government.
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