O Tempora, O Mores! (October, 1998)
American Renaissance, October 1998
Back when it was called Rhodesia and was run by whites, Zimbabwe had one of the best medical systems in Africa. Now, tuberculosis, hepatitis, malaria, measles, and cholera — all preventable — are back on the rise. In 1989, 100 Zimbabweans died of malaria; last year the figure was 2,800. In 1986, the country had 5,000 cases of tuberculosis; last year it had 35,000. Zimbabwe also happens to have the highest HIV infection rate in the world: one quarter of adults are carriers.
In 1993, life expectancy in the country was 61. In two years it is likely to be 49, and if current trends continue it will drop to 40 in ten years. This was the figure when whites began to settle the country 100 years ago.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been 10 million AIDS deaths in Africa — 90 percent of the world total. Dr. Bonaparte Nkomo is in charge of treating sexually transmitted diseases in the Zimbabwean town of Bulawayo. He is dismayed that Zimbabweans take so few precautions against AIDS. “Sometimes I ask myself if we are all just going to disappear,” he says. (Michael Specter, Doctors Powerless as AIDS Rakes Africa, New York Times, August 6, 1998, p.1.)
Black women are eight times more likely to get AIDS than white women and three times more likely than Hispanic women. Half of all American women infected with the virus are black. Why are rates for black women so high? It has long been theorized that black men who get AIDS through homosexual intercourse and from sharing dirty needles pass the disease along to women. There are said to be strong stigmas against homosexuality among blacks, so the men lie about their behavior.
There is now increasing concern that many otherwise heterosexual blacks have sex with men while they are in prison and get the virus that way. According to William K. Hunt at U.C.L.A., American prison populations have the highest concentrations of HIV carriers in the world, so homosexual rape or faute-de-mieux dalliance can easily spread the disease. Blacks, who are vastly over-represented in the prison population, then infect women when they get out. For the time being, this is speculation because there is so little research about transmission of AIDS in prison. However, one thing is certain: There is no safe sex in prison because there are no condoms because sex is forbidden.
Dr. Wilbert Jordon, who works in an AIDS program in Los Angeles, thinks ex-cons are a big problem: “[Y]ou wouldn’t believe how many ex-inmates tell me that they are having sex, and they never tell these women about what they did in prison.” Part of the problem is that blacks are unwilling to use condoms even if they are available. According to Chandelor Daniel, a black doctor, “white people are more likely to want to use a condom. It’s not explainable. Maybe there’s a black myth. It’s the same with the black middle-class.”
Many black women refuse to believe their husbands or boyfriends go in for buggery behind bars, but Lynn Chamberlain, a black AIDS activist, says it is time to wake up: “[T]hey say their man wouldn’t do that to them . . . Well, if it were not a possibility, you would not have so many African American women becoming infected. We’ve been in denial for too long.”
Some social workers see the same trends among Hispanics, who are also a large part of the prison population and who are reluctant to use condoms. (Darryl Fears, AIDS Among Black Women Seen as a Growing Problem, Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1998, p. A1.)
Help Fight Immigration
There is an easy, free and effective way to use the Internet to fight immigration. Roy Beck of Numbers USA has a web page, www.numbersusa.com, which is dedicated to lobbying Congress. You can use the page to send faxes free of charge to your Congressmen, Senators, various conference chairmen, and even to the whole Congress. All you need is a password and a user name, which you can get on-line.
You can pick the faxes you want to send. They focus on such things as overpopulation, American workers’ rights, citizenship, crime, and environmental damage. According to Mr. Beck his effort is having an effect. The faxes helped scuttle key aspects of another amnesty for illegal aliens, and could help defeat Senator Spencer Abraham’s efforts to increase legal immigration. He says the faxes have also helped persuade Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey to back off on legislation favoring more immigrants.
Costa Rica Fights Invasion
Costa Rica is the whitest and most prosperous nation in Central America. It is also facing an invasion of non-whites, mostly from neighboring Nicaragua. After Bolivia, Nicaragua is the poorest country in the Americas, and has an unemployment rate of 50 percent. Laborers sneak into Costa Rica to find work on farms or construction sites. Some 500,000 to 700,000 Nicaraguan migrants now make up 15 percent of Costa Rica’s population and the country has had enough. “Costa Rica is not prepared to deal with this massive immigration,” says immigration director Eduardo Vilchez Hurtado. “It is interfering with our system of social services and job availability,” he says, adding, “we can’t carry Nicaragua’s problems on our backs.” (Juanita Darling, An Immigration Dispute Far South of the U.S. Border, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1998.)
Mexican Gratitude
Richard Katz was a longtime “progressive” Democratic member of the Los Angeles City Council. He thought he had won the approval of Hispanics by opposing propositions 209 and 187, which banned affirmative action and welfare for illegal immigrants. This summer, he ran against a Hispanic Democrat named Richard Alarcon and lost. Mr. Alarcon’s slim, 29-vote victory is thought to have been due to a last-minute direct mail piece sent out by Mr. Alarcon, suggesting that Mr. Katz is an anti-Hispanic “racist.” The money for the mailing came from California Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco, who is also Hispanic. Mr. Polanco is increasingly seen as a power broker in California state politics, and routinely supports other Hispanics.
Mr. Katz, the “progressive” ex-councilman, has filed a lawsuit charging Mr. Alarcon with election irregularities and defamation. He claims he has a tape recording on which Mr. Polanco says, “I’ll spend whatever it takes to beat that Jew.” Roughly a week and a half after this alleged remark, Mr. Polanco gave Mr. Alarcon’s campaign $186,000 — which paid for the “racism” mailing. (Karen Ocamb, Latinos, Jews & Gays, Frontiers Newsmagazine (Hollywood), August 21, 1998.)
The city council of Lynwood, California recently changed from majority black to majority Hispanic. The change has brought predictable results. The new Hispanic-dominated council terminated city contracts with three longtime black contractors for printing, job-training and tree trimming.
In response, the contractors have filed an $800 million civil rights lawsuit against the city and three Hispanic council members. The suit claims that the new city council gave no reason for terminating the contractors, and that Hispanics have tried to fire, demote, and transfer black employees in city management. A lawyer for the plaintiffs says, “If you start putting together all the pieces of the puzzle, you’ll see there is one pattern running through it. Who gets the ax every time? Black people.”
The suit also accuses Mayor Armando Rea of calling black council member Louis Byrd, “a little animal” and of referring to blacks as “spades.” Mr. Rea says his remarks were taken out of context. What was the context? According to press reports, Mr. Rea told Mr. Byrd that, unlike him, he behaved calmly during the period when blacks dominated the city council. “It’s amazing how you get up and just jump up and down. You jump up and down like a little animal here. It’s true, it’s true. I say it like it is. I call a spade a spade.” (Jack Leonard, $800-Million Civil Rights Suit Filed Against City of Lynwood, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1998.)
Black Magic
Foutanga Babani Sissoko, a “tycoon” from West Africa, was something of a celebrity in Miami. He gave $300,000 to a local high school marching band, and $1.2 million to a homeless shelter. When asked about his wealth he told a Horatio Alger story of a poor boy made good through hard work.
Lawyers from the Dubai Islamic Bank tell a different story. They say Mr. Sissoko embezzled $240 million from their bank, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. He apparently convinced a mid-level bank employee, Mohammed Ayyoub Mohammed, that he knew black magic. Mr. Ayyoub says Mr. Sissoko hung a glass ball from his bedroom ceiling and claimed he could look into it and see what Mr. Ayyoub was doing. Thereafter, Mr. Ayyoub did what he was told, and transferred millions to Mr. Sissoko’s accounts in the U.S. and Europe. The Dubai bank managed to freeze his accounts but most of the $240 million is gone. Mr. Sissoko and his entourage ran up $10 million in credit card debts, including $6 million for luxury goods.
This is not the first time Mr. Sissoko has had trouble with the law. In 1996 he tried to bribe a U.S. Customs official to approve shipment of two military helicopters from Florida to Africa. He got a $250,000 fine and a jail sentence, but a judge let him finish his sentence under house arrest in West Africa after he made the $1.2 million donation to the homeless shelter. The Black Congressional Caucus and several West African ambassadors to the U.N. also lobbied for clemency.
Mr. Sissoko now appears to be lying low in Africa. His telephone is disconnected and he has not contacted his lawyer for three weeks. (David Lyons, Tycoon From West Africa Accused of Embezzling, Miami Herald, August 2, 1998, p. 1B.)
Welfare Turns Darker
Ever since changes in welfare rules began to take effect, more whites than non-whites have been leaving the rolls. By early 1997, whites accounted for only 35 percent of the welfare population, while blacks were 37 percent and Hispanics were 22 percent. Given the disproportions in population, this means that the average black is six times more likely than the average white to be on welfare, and the average Hispanic is four times more likely.
There are considerable disparities from region to region. In Wisconsin, which has seen the most dramatic fall in recipient numbers, 96 percent of whites have left welfare while 74 percent of blacks and 78 percent of Hispanics have done so. In New York City, only five percent of current recipients are white; 33 percent are black and 59 percent are Hispanic.
Uplift specialists worry that as the rolls darken there will be more resistance to keeping the programs going at all. (Jason DeParle, Welfare Rolls Show Growing Racial and Urban Imbalance, New York Times, July 27, 1998, p. A1.)
No Hatred Here
Last month, Richard Skelton of Wood River, Illinois went looking for his missing television set. He thought someone had taken it to nearby Alton and traded it for drugs. He took his brother, son, and daughter to help him get it back. He got into an argument — and then a fistfight — with a group of blacks. Some 25 other blacks joined the fight and began kicking and beating Mr. Skelton. He was unconscious when police arrived and died at a nearby hospital. His relatives were also injured but managed to escape.
Donald McGarvey, a white man who lives in the mixed-race neighborhood says he thinks racial hatred was behind the killing. “Two things killed that man: his ignorance and their hate. He was ignorant for coming here to begin with . . .” Mr. McGarvey, who was recently injured trying to keep a stranger out of his house, has had enough: “I’m moving out,” he says. “I gave the landlord notice.”
Twelve blacks have been arrested and charged with first degree murder but State’s Attorney William Haine will not seek a hate crime charge. “A hate crime charge isn’t needed. I’m sure Skelton had contempt for the people on the front porch because they were black, and many, if not all, in the mob had contempt for Skelton because he was white.”
Rev. Johnny Scott of the local NAACP says he is “appalled” at what happened but is worried about justice for the black killers. He has contacted the FBI “to assure the people that the investigation is not slanted in a racial way.” He wants to know if Mr. Skelton, “came with the wrong attitude and using the wrong words.” (Charles Bosworth, Neighbors Try to Cope After Alton Beating, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 16, 1998, p. C1.)
Assimilating Badly
The nation has just seen what may be its worst-ever case of filicide, or murder of children by a parent. Khoula Her, a 24-year-old Hmong living in St. Paul, Minnesota, strangled all six of her children and left their bodies strewn through her three-bedroom apartment.
Mrs. Her was married at age 13 in a Thailand refugee camp and had her first child that year. She then moved to St. Paul, where she had frequent fights with her husband. In one 18-month period, police visited the family nearly a dozen times. The precise motive for the killing is not known but like many Hmong, Mrs. Her has not been able to adjust to life in the United States. (Jon Jeter, In Disintegration of a Marriage, Six Children are Strangled, Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1998, p. A2.)
Mastering Diversity
Cleveland State has become the first university to offer a master’s degree in “diversity.” The degree program is described as “an intensive, graduate level study of diversity theory, research and practice rooted in the science of psychology.” It hopes to attract personnel managers, consultants, community activists, and police officers. (Cleveland State to Offer Nation’s First Master’s Degree in Diversity, Columbus Dispatch, July 5, 1998.)
No Divisiveness, Please
Legislators in Ohio want to grade the performance of every one of the state’s public schools, and have devised a “report card” for that purpose. Originally, the state Board of Education planned to include information on state average academic performance by race so that parents could compare a school’s performance with other schools that have similar student bodies. When legislators saw the racial disparities, they got cold feet. “I frankly think that kind of information is controversial and divisive,” says House Majority Leader Randall Gardner. The “report cards” will now go out without the racial comparisons. (Test Scores Won’t List Race, Gender, Cincinnati Enquirer, June 2, 1998.)
No Foreign Drunks
The INS has started a new plan to rid the country of legal but undesirable foreigners: Anyone who gets a third drunk driving conviction gets the boot. Operation Last Call was started in Dallas, Texas, where 150 legal aliens are now being held for deportation. “Our posture is, living in this country — if you’re not a citizen — is a privilege, not a right,” explained Lynn Ligon of the Dallas INS. Immigration activists complain that deportations will break up families. “[F]amilies get split up when people get killed in a DWI accident,” replies Mr. Ligon. (AP, INS Rounds Up Legal Immigrants Over DWI Conviction, Sept. 3, 1998.)
Leaders of Africa
In July, South African President Nelson Mandela married Graca Machel, the widow of Mozambican president, Samora Machel. Some aspects of the union were entirely traditional: Mr. Mandela handed over 60 cows in exchange for Miss Machel, after the Mandela and Machel families haggled for two months over the bride price. The king of the Tembu tribe, of which Mr. Mandela is a member, defended the bargain: “Even if Rolihlahla [Mandela] had paid a million cows for Graca, she is worth every bristle of hair and hoof.” (Reuters, S. Africa’s Mandela Paid 60 Cows for Graca: Paper, July 25, 1998.)
Meanwhile, winner of the Nobel peace price, Desmond Tutu, says South African whites should be grateful not to have been butchered wholesale since the end of apartheid. “It’s an incredible thing that has happened, that [blacks] who still live in shacks, squalor and poverty come to work in your beautiful homes, and they don’t say, ‘We’re going to murder all of you in your beds,’” the archbishop explained. He added that whites are pouting over lost privileges and need to do more to bridge the racial gap. (Tutu Says Whites Should be Grateful, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 19, 1998.)
No Nonsense
The small town of Azuma, 75 miles north of Tokyo, had a problem at its public swimming pool. Foreigners — most probably Iranians or Iraqis — were paying unwanted attention to young Japanese girls. The mayor banned all non-Japanese from the pool. In reply to critics who said that this was a violation of foreigners’ rights, he explained that protecting the rights of Japanese comes first. (AP, Foreigners Barred from Swimming Pool in Northern Japan, Aug. 14, 1998.)
Down Mexico Way
There has been so much violent crime in Mexico that the U.S. State Department warns travelers about it and some foreign businesses are leaving Mexico City. In August, the police finally had a big success: They arrested “The Lopper.”
This is the nickname of Daniel Arizmendi, a former police officer who ran a gang that has committed more than 200 kidnappings. He earned his sobriquet by cutting off the ears of victims and sending them to families to encourage payment. His wife, a former nurse, supervised the removal of ears. In one notorious case, he shot to death the owner of a chain of gasoline stations but demanded a $15 million ransom anyway. The Lopper had $1 million in cash with him when he was arrested. Mr. Arizmendi’s gang operated in four Mexican states and was composed largely of former and current police officers. (AP, Police Capture Mexico’s Most Infamous Kidnapper, Aug. 18, 1998.)
South Africa Sinks Further
The South African lower house of parliament has passed a law that requires companies with more than 50 employees to submit affirmative action plans. The plans must explain how the companies will make their work forces reflect the racial proportions of the country. If a company does not submit a plan, or if the Labor Department doesn’t like the plan, the company will be fined.
The law does not use the word “quota,” but white legislators know where this is headed. Pieter Groenewald, a member of the Freedom Front, called the black labor minister a “racist” for supporting the bill. When Mr. Groenewald refused to take back the word “racist,” he was ejected from the chamber, to the cheers of members from the African National Congress. Constand Viljoen, leader of the Freedom Front, then walked out with all of his fellow party members.
A black government spokesman explained that the bill was necessary because of “the accumulation of wealth by the minority community based on the exploitation of cheap black labor.” Nelson Mandela says new regulations will “help eliminate decades, even centuries, of racism.” (Andrew Selsky, Law Shapes S. Africa Workforce Mix, AP, Aug. 21, 1998.)
Under Several Gods
Third-World immigration is making America less Christian. At more than five million there are now twice as many Muslims as Episcopalians, and they outnumber the estimated 3.3 million Jews who go to synagogue. About 40 percent of the Muslims are American-born blacks, while the rest are recent immigrants. One fourth are from India or Pakistan, and about 12 percent are from Arab countries. In the last 20 years the number of Buddhists has shot up from 75,000 to 910,000. Most are Asians, but Buddhism is also the most popular non-Christian religion for white converts.
Roman Catholics are, by far, the largest single church, with 60 million members, but 35 percent are Hispanics. The largest Protestant denomination is the Southern Baptist Convention with 15.6 million members. It is still growing, mainly because of Asian immigrant converts; 20 percent of Southern Baptists are now non-white. Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians are declining in numbers.
Princeton University professor Robert Wurthnow notes that the numbers have a political edge: “These changes make it less appropriate to impose one tradition on another in a public space. Debates about school prayer or the posting of the Ten Commandments have to take into account diversity.”
Most Americans still say they are religious. Sixty percent say religion is very important to them, and 27 percent say it is fairly important. (Rhonda Gibson, Growth, Diversity Alter Face of Religion in U.S., Salt Lake Tribune, July 5, 1998, p. A1.)
