The Week That Was

by the Editors

South Africa’s poor are getting poorer and their numbers are growing. Across the board, jobs are being lost while the government ploughs billions into loss making parastatals and loses billions more to corruption and mismanagement. Recovery is not possible without skilled professionals many of whom come out of the universities which are being burned to the ground by mobs clamouring for free tertiary education. Just how they think destroying what they claim to crave is a complete mystery to any thinking person and one is left wondering if education or anarchy is what motivates these people. Hungry people would surely not burn down the bakeries.

While the mayhem continues and a supine government dithers, it is worth noting that in Australia education is the fourth largest contributor to the country’s GDP. People from across the globe come to study in the country generating close to 10% of the country’s employment and contributing almost A$20 billion to the fiscus annually making the country one of the world’s ‘richest’.

South Africa has the history, personnel, facilities and acumen to do just the same at school and tertiary level and provide the country with an exciting commercial option but this possibility is violently spurned by a miserable, mindless mob of morons determined to destroy these priceless assets. These universities were built up over a very long time by thoughtful, committed and diligent people who cared and wanted to bring progress to their country through education. This was not something Vice-Chancellor Max Price dared to mention when he supervised the start of this destructive process.

Most of these nation builders were of European descent. They transported the scholarship and culture of learning from their homelands for the benefit of all and they also built universities like Fort Hare in a bid to enlighten and educate their African compatriots. Fort Hare provided the platform to power for Mandela, Mugabe, Nyerere, Kaunda, Tambo, Buthlezi, Sobukwe, Seretse Khama, Govan Mbeki and Chris Hani to name but just a few.

In rare cases like the above when Europeans might have done something right their contribution is ignored but no opportunity is ever missed to point a finger of guilt no matter how mangled the facts become. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a black man is shot dead by a black cop and black rioters burn the city while the black police chief vacillates but white people are attacked physically and verbally because they are somehow to blame. The brother of the victim was on camera saying. “I just know that all white people are fucking devils. All white cops are fucking devils.” If someone with a paler skin uttered these words he would be jailed but this man is above the law.

While Donald Trump did himself no favours in the televised debate with Mrs. Clinton we did note the tough questions were aimed at him and now we gather someone messed with his microphone to complicate matters a little more. The press is back on the attack but we remain confused as to what Trump has said or done that has triggered this anger.

All along he has said his country is being ripped off through unfair trade and commercial agreements and he wants to change them. Political commentator Patrick Buchanan pointed out in a recent article that EU countries pumped $22 billion in illegal subsidies into Airbus which cost Boeing sales to the tune of 375 commercial jets. All this while the Americans pay for Europe’s defence. Trump says this is unacceptable and we cannot understand why anyone, apart from the overpaid, bumptious, Brussels bureaucrats, would disagree.

If the Americans needed reminding how people ‘across the pond’ feel about them despite their benevolence, Masters Champion Danny Willett’s brother Peter, has done a masterful job of reminding them. In an open letter he writes;

“For the Americans to stand a chance of winning, they need their baying mob of imbeciles to caress their egos every step of the way. Like one of those brainless bastards from your childhood, the one that pulled down your shorts during the school’s Christmas assembly (f**k you, Paul Jennings), they only have the courage to keg you if they’re backed up by a giggling group of reprobates. Team Europe needs to shut those groupies up.

“They need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red. They need to stun the angry, unwashed, ‘Make America Great Again’ swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection inducing ‘mashed potato,’ hoping to impress their cousin. They need to smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives, and resentful children. Squeezed into their cargo shorts and boating shoes, they’ll bellow ‘get in the hole’ whilst high-fiving all the other members of the Dentists’ Big Game Hunt Society.”

Colourful prose from a real bigot. His gifted but rather charmless brother got a solid beating from Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka in his maiden appearance at this great tournament and one wonders how many Americans, on reading this tirade, will begin to understand that Trump may have a point.