Posted on 05/06/2014 7:56:37 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
This week marks the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa.
You may remember the United States was intensely interested in South African affairs during the years the Afrikaners, the country’s European-descended population, ruled under a racist policy called apartheid.
Then, on April 27, 1994, after years of international pressure, South Africa held its first open elections. The black majority population overwhelmingly chose Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist and former political prisoner, as the nation’s first black president.
America soon lost interest. It was as if a war had ended, and we could concern ourselves with other things.
Twenty years later, America is essentially the same. South Africa, on the other hand, transformed from an imperfect-but-stable society into the most dangerous place on the planet.
A few statistics on the “Rainbow Nation”:
• With a high murder rate and widespread HIV/AIDS (one in five are HIV positive), South Africa has the world’s No. 1 death rate at 17.3 per 1,000 people.
• The average life expectancy is 49.4 years – the world’s second-lowest – down from 64 years in 1994.
• It is the rape capital of world, with 132.4 sexual assaults per 100,000 people. Statistically, one in four girls will be raped before age 16. (Many African men believe sex with a virgin cures AIDS.)
• Roughly half its 49 million people live in poverty.
• Its United Nations’ Human Development Index ranking – once higher than all of Africa and most of Asia – is now below average at 121 out of 187 countries.
• The unemployment rate is 25 percent, double from 1994.
(Excerpt) Read more at chronicle.augusta.com ...
“Name me one country in Africa ... just one, that is doing well. I’ll wait.”
Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi.
All former British, or, in the case of Ethiopia never really colonized. All monoethnic, all Christian (except Zanzibar, but it’s an island).
French, Portuguese, or Belgian colony? Multi-tribal? Large Muslim population? Forget about it.
Gee the same thing happen to Rhodesia...
They are falling backward into “Heart Of Darkness” territory
After the colonial powers left, virtually every sub-Saharan African country went to the strong man/dictator/kleptocrat form of government. Virtually every cent sent to Africa in terms of foreign aid is like pouring it down a rathole.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. All impoverished wrecks.
Not heaven on earth but doing well.
Of course, you don't read about it in the news.
What’s your yardstick?
None of them are going to be Denmark. They are African societies, run by Africans. Many adults in those places have IQs of 70.
Of course they are “impoverished” by our standards. How could it be otherwise?
But compared to DRC or Sierra Leone or, God forbid Somalia they are heaven on earth.
Yeah but District 9 was a GREAT movie.
Maybe comparatively, but after checking them out, they’re no places the average tourist wants to vacation. They all have high amounts of illiteracy, poverty, and diseases including the HIV-AIDS virus.
One thing Cline left out was South Africa’s tremendous illegal alien invasion before 1994. They were flooded with people from other African countries trying to get into the white run country and achieve a higher living standard.
If the Afican National Communists can just drive out the white debbils and Asian debbils Mandelaland will be a paradise :(.
As I said, it's freaking AFRICA, for heaven's sake.
It's unfair and unreasonable to condemn Africans for being what they are, and for the way they live in their own place.
And, your initial comment, which was that all the places in Africa are equally miserable, is just wrong.
imperfect-but-stable society...NEVER, NEVER unless you count a day or two. SA was a productive vibrant country until the tribes took over. I HOPE these figures that are cited, exterminate the ruling “ people” so the civilized world can take over. And Kerry says apartheid is a bad thing. Shheeesh.
They might not be equally miserable amongst themselves, but anybody from the outside might be hard pressed to know the difference between those countries.
Apartheid was a brutal regime but they had a first world economy.
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