Full Blown and It Could Have Been Avoided

After watching a documentary entitled "The Age of AIDS", I'm left quite depressed but also flabbergasted at the failure of South African goverment since 1994 to tackle the issue of the epidemic.
Nelson Mandela did very little to address it during his presidency owed to the fact that little was still known of the virus at the time. It was still much of a myth that many believed only affected those overseas. Namely white male homosexuals in the USA. Not the migrant mine workers, prostitutes in "mine brothels" and wives and girlfriends of these men. It is believed that this is where the virus boomed.
So while goverment paid more attention to uniting the nation after the end of the apartheid era, this was mainly ignored. With the new administration still under ANC rule, Thabo Mbeki only sought to worsten an already deepening problem by denying that HIV causes AIDS and by stating that the "toxic" aspect of anti retro viral drugs should limit them from being given to patients. The result of this was a boom in mother to child infections. Imagine. All the kids born in that period whose mothers were unfortunate enough to have contracted HIV could have been spared the chance of living with the virus themselves. But the president chose to ignore the crisis at hand. Sad.
Well now for the results...South Africa has the highest infection rate in the world. And the president we have now seems to think that all you have to do to make the virus go away is take a shower! And that it is absolutely fine to have more than one marriage partner (ONLY if you're a MAN) I've heard him sing "Mshini Wami" (translation: bring my machine gun) more times than I've heard him talk about the importance of safe sex. On top of that, there is a violence and crime epidemic. I (very sarcastically) wonder why??

Well it's plain to see now isn't it. The tragedy of this nation lies for the most part in the inability of a post-apartheid government. Only concerned with power.

Zuma: We're Headed toward Catastrophe

So, it seems like it is set in stone. Jacob Zuma shall most likely be the next president of South Africa. This is a truth I have not been so readily willing to acknowledge for very obvious reasons. He even went to the length of making an appearance at Rhema Bible Church last week Sunday to propagate his agenda. As was expected some did obviously walk out on the whole farcical charade. What can I say. The masses are blind as bats. It's too late for Cope to make a difference. The ANC shall win the 2009 General Election and a massive brain drain or middle class exodus shall occur indefinitely.

Zapiro...my man!

Whilst this nation is slowly being sucked into a gravitational vortex of increased inflation, endless power cuts, stadiums that aren't going to be ready in time to host the world's biggest football event, there is even more to be anxious about. If all goes according to plan, this already ailing country is going to be served with a God-only-knows-how-long jail sentence which will be Zuma's term(s) in office. Tragedy! An alleged rapist, a man who advises civilians residing in a country with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate on the planet to take a shower after having sex with a possible carrier in order to avoid personal infection, the bloody arm's deal man! On top of that we have idiot Malema proclaiming that his comrades and him will be more than zealous to kill for Zuma, already bad enough considering the never-ending 'Umshini Wami' chant we're forceably subjected to every night on the news.

Where is this country going? Sometimes it seems the best thing you can do for yourself is switch off to it all and try, I mean just try and act as though really it's all good back at base camp but that's a hard thing to do man because the governance of the nation will affect you in the long run anyway no matter how hard you try to alienate yourself from current affairs.

But all the praise to this iconic cartoonist we have come to know for his shameless way of sucking some humour out of the disturbing and difficult-to-digest truths about our tragic nation. Zapiro is the man (for lack of a better way of expressing the gratitude and admiration tantamount in many of those that get a read of the Sunday Times Canvas every week). This was nothing more than genius at work. Raping the justice system - his corrupt manipulation and disregard for the consitution of a country he wishes to lead in a year's time; then of course we have the commentary on what we saw as a absolute chauvinism in his approach during the rape trial in 2006. Now, chauvinism and patriarchy are undeniable traits of African tradition no doubt about that but what strikes me as even more tragic is the internalized chauvinism prevalent in the mindsets of Africa women. During the rape trial instead of witnessing outrage from the female majority at the fact that such a prominent leader in ANC politics would be involved in such a crude exploitation of women's rights (especially considering that the affected was an African female herself), we saw a support and oh my goodness, even a defense and sympathy for Zuma's judicial plight. Have these men got these women's brains manipulated so bad that they have gotten to the point of viewing the rapist (as many times is the case) as a victim of some woman's cruelty in dismissal. How truly sickening!

Then you have the camp of so-called feminists round here accusing Zapiro of being insensitive towards the many rape victims in the country by portraying a cartoon in which the theme of rape is manifest. This is silly logic and I'll say this with assertion because if anything, the cartoon's central focus was villifying Zuma's credibility as a political leader and not a form of portraying women in a chauvinistic light once more. Zuma is the misogynist not Zapiro. Zzz zzz. Haha. Know what, Zapiro is kind of suffering racism right now. Black people are now looking for a way of averting our scornful attention from the perpetrator of the moment. Let me tell ya, it sure aint Zapiro. If anything this man is doing good deed for us by exposing this sham of a leader we have been forced to embrace as the new ANC president and a very plausible future president for our country.