[CTRL] Fwd: life in democratic south africa

Tue, 20 Jul 2004 15:07:11 -0700

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-Caveat Lector-
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa hates Whites and will not allow them to defend themselves... against the State!
Self-defense: A universal right

By Ilana Mercer  From: hengist

My mother in-law, a fierce and fiery South African, has a gun and
keeps it loaded and close to hand. This is the only sensible course
in a country considered one of the most dangerous outside a war
zone. But in the "new" South Africa, self-defense has become a
crime against the state.

President Thabo Mbeki has no patience with Western notions of
"individualism." This Marxist has explicitly rejected what he calls
the ideas of the Right: the paramountcy of private property and
public order, and the remedial value of punitive justice. He has
sworn renewed fealty to the paramount idea of the Left: the
elevation of the state above the individual.

Mbeki speaks of the Left's vaunted tolerance and respect for
minorities, but one South African minority has been excluded:
the nearly extinct white farmer. Well over 1,200 Boer Afrikaners
have been butchered in more than 6,000 attacks since Mbeki's
democratically elected African National Congress (ANC) took
power in 1994. Despite the threat of systematic extermination,
farmers are forbidden automatic weapons. So they must battle
their ubiquitous assailants with only a shotgun, a handgun and
a limited number of rounds at their disposal.

In "free" South Africa there is an official blackout (or shall I say
whiteout) of national crime statistics. When they are divulged,
officials prefer to use difficult-to-understand ratios. In many
instances, data have been doctored. Government sources claim
there were 21,553 murders in 2002. The Mail & Guardian estimates
that between January 2000 and March 2003 there were almost
48,000 murders in South Africa (population 44.6 million).
In comparison, the "high crime" United States (population 288.2
million) suffered 16,110 murders in 2002.

I used to rest easier knowing that if a thug entered the Western
Cape home of my relatives (where the murder rate is a staggering
84 per 100,000, compared to 5.6 per 100,000 in the U.S.) my
elderly mother in-law could easily dispatch him with her six-round
.32 Special. It was comforting to know that in the unlikely event
she required further firepower, my father-in-law could weigh in
with his .38 Special. But that was the old South Africa. The ANC,
like all leftist governments, is determined to disarm law-abiding
individuals and criminalize their naturally just actions.

As first reported in the Cape Times, the grotesquely mistitled Safety
and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has unveiled "an arsenal of
stricter gun-control laws." "Gun-toting cowboys" will no longer be
tolerated and thus "non-threatening" home invaders will no longer
face on-the-spot justice. In "liberated" South Africa, being a robber
and being "non-threatening" are no longer mutually exclusive
existential conditions.

Should my in-laws awake to find a malefactor beating down the door,
short of conversing in Xhosa to put him at ease, they shall have to
hold their fire and attempt to ascertain his manifestly acquisitive
- and almost certainly murderous - motives. "Molo Butte (Good
morning, brother), your plans don't happen to include slitting my
throat, do they?" The same rule now applies to "visitors" already
in the house. If they greet your polite inquiries with gun or knife,
well, perhaps you can say a prayer to Nelson Mandela.

Safety and security in South Africa now means that self-defense
may be defined as assault or murder. If the victim of a break-in
shoots to kill, the intruder can kill him and claim justification.
As Barry Ronge of the Sunday Times points out, this "effect[s]
a switch that makes the victim of the crime the felon and turns
the felon into the victim."

In a country where, as Ronge notes, husbands and children are
routinely forced to watch while mothers are raped, victims must
now "calibrate the extent of the menace" before defending loved
ones. Even for giving chase, victims may now be prosecuted as a
ggressors.

And in a wicked sleight of hand, applicants for firearm licenses
must now prove their need. "Being resident in South Africa," a
spokesman for the opposition New National Party retorted, "is
just the reason why any law-abiding citizen would require a gun."
South Africa is, after all, a country where almost everyone knows
someone who has been raped, robbed, hijacked, murdered or all
of the above.

It remains to be seen whether existing gun owners such as my
in-laws will be exempted from reapplying every few years for
a new license, which would require an "assessment" by the
incompetent - often criminal - gangs that pose as policemen,
or whether they will be forced to undergo "competency training."

Of one thing we are certain. The right to defend one's life (even
Hobbes was for it) and property are worthless in post-apartheid
South Africa.

Of course, a person's right to own a firearm is not contingent on
whether he lives in a "safe" community. The right to self-defense,
implicit in the right to life, belongs to every non-aggressor, imperiled
or not. Natural rights are not subject to the vagaries of crime rates.
Or, for that matter, to the whims of the state (or Rosie O'Donnell).
Natural rights are not for governments to grant but to uphold.

Despite being safely ensconced in a very low-crime American
neighborhood, and after maneuvering through the labyrinthine
bureaucracy, I shall soon be sleeping with a silver-plated, five-
round .357 Magnum revolver by my side. I am grateful I no
longer live in South Africa.
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:

http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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