Monday, January 7, 2013

PREVIOUSLY DISADVANTAGED

‘PREVIOUSLY DISADVANTAGED’
The author of this article is right on the money. The fact is nobody owes blacks anything.

This is from a comment on a News24 site.

Please explain the term "PREVIOUSLY DISADVANTAGED" - Kindly make special reference to following:

1. Who "disadvantaged" the black people of the interior Southern Africa before the (supposed) ‘belligerent’ white settlers moved inland in the mid-19th century? What the settlers found was not hugely advanced infrastructures ­ deep mines, hospitals, vast libraries of written knowledge, imposing institutions of learning, etc.

No, as little as 170 years ago, they found masses of black people (indigenous to the Southern tip of Africa) living on the fringes of the Stone Age. Primitive beings dressed in skins, wielding sticks, living in primitive dwellings, dragging - and carrying their meagre possessions around, since they had not been introduced to the benefits of the wheel yet!

2. Ethiopia - a country that was NEVER colonised is today one of the most desolate places on the planet! Who "disadvantaged" the people of Ethiopia?

3. Compare Zimbabwe and Germany with each other and please explain the differences. In 1945 Germany was, for all intents and purposes, flattened to the ground and torn in half. Fifteen years later, West Germany was described as an "Economic Wonder."

Around the same time as the end of apartheid, Germany was re-unified. It yanked the now-unified Germany back four centuries in time.

Yet, in about fifteen years (for the second time within a few decades) it built another 'economic wonder.' Today it is fast becoming a global leader in almost every field!

On the flip side – Zimbabwe’s people were handed one of the wealthiest countries in the WORLD (for example: a currency that was stronger than the US Dollar!)

What is the situation today? Competing with Ethiopia as the most desolate hellhole on the planet? Please explain...

I can carry on for days -- but let that be enough for now.

Just one more request: please, pretty please, kindly respect the intellect of our audience and refrain from cheap (ANC-like) red herrings, for example calling people racists.

Just answer the questions above directly and with tangible substance.

In parting, I would suggest the following: The term "Previously Disadvantaged' is as much a fantasy as is the delusional lunacy that threatens voters with the revenge of the ancestors.

The same delusional insanity that claims the words "KILL THE BOER" really only means, "Come over to my homestead / compound / bunker / mansion / palace for tea and cookies."

You cannot take something from somebody WHO NEVER HAD IT in the first place!

In fact, what is it that white people, specifically white men, are supposed to "give back" to black people?

Can someone PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE explain to me what it is that white men took from blacks?

LAND? Blacks NEVER owned any land. Any form of formal ownership is a Western concept. The black tribes of the mid-19th century haphazardly SETTLED in an ad hoc manner - effectively governed by tribal savagery - in other words, the most savage ruled the land (a bit like Hillbrow today).

They simply ran away until they could not run any more - not having ANY grasp of the concept of a horizon or for that matter any measure of finite land mass – for example, the boundaries - that is the fundamental concept of ownership.

MINERALS? More hallucinations aside – for example, ancient gold mines – a little bit like the Zimbabwe Ruins (the Pyramids, etc) - next to the magnificent structure, the indigenous people built stone-age dwellings out of dirt and sticks (at best emulating the birds).

Minerals beneficiation is an entirely Imperialist /Western concept - in fact, in many ways it saw some of the most tangible advances, by WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN MEN - just peruse some of the academic papers at Wits' Engineering Library.

WEALTH? Money, capital and the pivotal mechanisms of the wealth that allows you to breathe, eat, have children, live a rather healthy productive and fulfilling life, but also allowed the cognitive development that leads you to make your daft comments here - it is ALL of Western origins.

In fact, the key advancements in modern finance and economics were made by the DUTCH.

Why do you think New York’s financial centre is called 'Wall Street'? It was initially called 'Waal Straat' when the settlement was under Dutch control - Yes, my dear, the Dutch took their cognitive substance there as well.

The same Dutch that were the most direct descendants of the people who landed at the Cape in 1652.

In fact, the modern 'WEALTH system' was originated by the Dutch and it funded the explorations around the tip of Africa.

Perhaps we robbed the ‘disadvantaged’ blacks of their private jets, 5-star hotels, their Breitling watches, their Italian designer suits, or their German luxury limousines, their Blue Light Brigades or perhaps their space shuttles?

Mmmm... I just hate the implicit assumption that whites stole from blacks.

(DISCLAIMER: The views expressed here are those of the original author and do not necessarily reflect those that I entertain regarding the statements made or alluded to in this article.)