O Tempora, O Mores! (January, 2000)

‘African Century’ A-Coming

Thabo Mbeki, the new president of South Africa, says he wants the new year to usher in an “African century,” during which it will leave its tortured past behind. “Africa must flower once again as a continent of learning, of art and thriving cultural activities,” he told a joint session of the two houses of parliament. But Mr. Mbeki thinks he has spotted something that might hamper the flowering. “Racism,” he says, is stunting the development of a black business class, which must be created “to eradicate racism in our country.” Nothing circular here.

The Employment Equity Act, passed last year, is expected to be a big help in ushering in the African century. All companies with 50 or more employees, or with sales above a certain figure, or that want to do business with the government will have to make plans to hire more blacks. They must draw up a racial profile of their workforces and follow an “employment equity plan” to correct imbalances. There will be heavy fines for laggards.

At the same time, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has released a report accusing the country’s media of “racism.” SAHRC head Barney Pityana says racism had become more explicit since the 1994 election that ended white rule. The leader of a team that spent six weeks monitoring the media reported on abuses: “We found a lot of racial stereotyping which was negative such as blacks being criminals and affirmative action being reverse racism.” The Black Lawyers Association and the Association of Black Accountants joined in the criticism, saying opinion and free expression are stifled by the fact that South Africa’s media are still mainly owned by whites. SAHRC has asked newspapers and broadcasters to explain their behavior and will then issue a final report in March. (Jeremy Lovell, S. Africa’s Mbeki Says 21st to be Africa’s Century, Reuters, Nov. 19, 1999. Andrew Selsky, Racism Remains in South Africa, AP, Nov. 20, 1999. Emma Thomasson, S. Africa Compels Firms to Promote Blacks, Women, Reuters, Nov. 23, 1999. Steven Swindells, South African Media Face Charges of Racism, Reuters, Nov. 22, 1999.)

It is not likely to be pleasant to be a white South African when the “African century” fails to flower.

The Candidates on Immigration

Gary Bauer: Has no position on immigration levels. Wants English proficiency for immigrants.

William Bradley: Voted in favor of public assistance for legal immigrants and against public assistance for illegal aliens. Co-sponsored legislation to toughen enforcement of immigration laws.

Patrick Buchanan: Cut legal immigration by more than half to 250,000 to 300,000 a year. Put immigrants through a “national campaign of assimilation” that includes English proficiency. Deny government benefits to illegal immigrants and build barriers along Mexican border.

George W. Bush: Rejects English-only laws. Supports more visas for skilled workers. Has supported expansion of program letting temporary workers in to fill demand for farm and service jobs.

Steven Forbes: Says ‘controlled, orderly, legal immigration is good for America.’

Albert Gore: Says each wave of immigrants has enriched the nation, favors bilingual education and letting legal immigrants qualify for benefits.

Orrin Hatch: Voted to bar some public assistance to illegal immigrants and restrict some services to legal immigrants.

Alan Keyes: Favors maintaining or expanding legal immigration.

John McCain: Opposes English-only laws and withholding social services from illegals, is in favor of increasing eligibility of legal immigrants for certain benefits. (Calvin Woodward, Where the Presidential Candidates Stand on Some Key Issues, AP, Nov. 22, 1999.)

The Dream Lives On

The family of Martin Luther King, Jr. wants to sell his papers to the Library of Congress for $20 million but Republican legislators are balking at the cost. The usual practice is to give private papers to the library at no charge. The King family also wants to retain copyright on the papers so it can charge a fee whenever anyone quotes from them. In other words, it would be selling only the physical presence of the papers and not relinquishing ownership. The Library of Congress has never paid that much money for anything. The most it has ever spent on a collection was $1.5 million ($14.6 million in today’s dollars) in the early 1930s for about 3,000 books from the 15th century, including one of only three perfect copies of the Gutenberg Bible. (David Pace, Congress Delays King Papers Action, AP, Nov. 11, 1999.)

The Biter Bit

In November, the state legislature in Albany, New York, went into a frenzy when anti-black notes were discovered in front of the doors of the offices of two black legislators. “Kill all niggers because they don’t belong here,” the notes said, and were signed “Yours truly KKK.” Darryl Gray, a 35-year-old black janitor has now confessed to typing and distributing the notes. Police are reportedly unable to think of a motive. Mr. Gray has been charged with aggravated harassment and could be sentenced to up to two years in prison. (Black Janitor Accused of Hate Notes, New York Times, Nov. 9, 1999.)

Fired Up For Jesus

In 1996, the media were taken in for months by a phony black-church-arson scare whipped up by the Kansas City “anti-racist” group, Center for Democratic Renewal. In at least one case, church officials were so caught up in the excitement they apparently torched their own church. In November, police charged a minister in Wichita Falls, Texas, of burning down the Full Gospel Power House Church of God in Christ in order to collect $270,000 in fire insurance. Rev. Theophilus Thompson was free after posting bond, but three other church officials implicated in the fire are languishing in the Wichita County jail. (AP, Preacher, Three Others Arrested in Church Blaze, Nov. 8, 1999.)

Boys from Brazile

Donna Brazile is the new director of Vice President Albert Gore’s presidential campaign. There has been much satisfaction expressed over the unprecedented appointment of a 39-year-old black woman to such an important role in a national major-party campaign. She is a dedicated black activist who has worked with the Rainbow Coalition, registered black voters, and campaigned for Jesse Jackson and Washington, DC, delegate Eleanor Norton. In a November 16 interview with the Washington Post Miss Brazile unbosomed her social philosophy, saying she was determined not to let the “white boys” win. According to her, “white boy” is not about “gender or race, it’s an attitude. A white-boy attitude is “I must exclude, denigrate and leave behind.’” She says it is an attitude of utter entitlement, which must be fought at all costs. (Robin Givhan, Clearing the Decks at Gore Headquarters, Washington Post, Nov. 16, 1999, p. C1.)

One wonders what her boss Mr. Gore thinks of this. Harvard graduate and son of a U.S. Senator, he has no doubt completely stifled any sense of “white boy” entitlement.

In Washington’s Footsteps

In 1957, soldiers escorted nine black students now known as the “Little Rock Nine” past jeering white crowds to integrate Central High School. In a White House ceremony in November, William Clinton presented the nine — now adults — with the Congressional Gold Medal. “What they endured was a volcano of hatred,” said the Commander-in-Chief, as he extolled their bravery. “They walked out without being burned, but they have their scars.” (AP, Little Rock Nine Receive Congressional Gold Medals, Nov. 10, 1999.) The Gold Medal is the highest honor Congress can bestow. It was first presented to George Washington by a grateful nation for his leadership during the struggle for independence. Nelson Mandela is also a recipient.

Ah Behta Owme Fi Yuh Fambily

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is eager to tell everyone living in government housing projects about their rights and responsibilities. Many of these guests of the American people do not speak English, so over the summer HUD translated a pamphlet into nine languages and Braille. One of the languages was supposed to be Haitian Creole, which is an adulterated version of French, but the translation agency HUD hired got it wrong. What came back instead was a phonetic imitation of Jamaican English, with lines like “Yuh as a rezedent, ave di rights ahn di rispansabilities to elp mek yuh HUD-asisted owzing ah behta owme fi yuh ahn yuh fambily.” We learn, for example, that “HUD prowtekss di rights ahf di tenants, ahn tenants gauwd dem own right tru rispansible be’aviah.” The pamphlet is signed by HUD’s very own “Sekretary Andrew M. Cuomo fella.”

When the draft came back, HUD employee Silvia A. Miller passed it along to the Government Printing Office with a note: “To the best of my knowledge this appears to be a Haiti-type Creole. OK to print.” Five thousand copies then leapt from the presses, only to meet with laughter and derision when they were actually distributed. HUD has since withdrawn the pamphlet. Whether Ms. Miller is still in circulation is not known. Leonie Hermantin, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation in Miami, generously said she was happy the government was even thinking about Haitians. (Mildrade Cherfils, “Printers, not Linguists’ HUD Pamphlet a Phonetic Fumble, Boston Globe, Nov. 19, 1999.)

Blood-sucking Whites

An Ethiopian immigrant went on a rampage at work and shot two white co-workers, killing one of them, before turning the gun on himself. Negusse Zeleke was a shuttle-bus driver at the Kansas City airport, and had bounced from one job to another. In a three-page letter dated Nov. 5 he blamed his troubles on “black blood sucker supreme white people.” He wrote that problems for Africans “were created not by us, but they have created by previous colonies or today’s white supremacists evil act.” (Mo. Killer Complained of Racism, AP, Nov. 22, 1999.)

This is an unusual attitude for African immigrants. Most are disgusted by the excuse-making mentality of American blacks.

Friction in the Ranks

In 1997, the Armed Forces carried out a congressionally-mandated race relations survey of more than 40,000 service members. While 68 percent of whites said race relations were good to a “large/very large extent,” only 39 percent of blacks felt the same way. The results for other groups were Hispanics, 53 percent; Asians, 56 percent and American Indians, 54 percent. The numbers of soldiers who said relations were “not at all” good or good only to a “small/moderate extent:” 25 percent of whites, 51 percent of blacks, 37 percent of Hispanics, 35 percent of Asians, and 36 percent of American Indians.

The survey also asked about racially offensive behavior, threats or harm from other military personnel. A striking two-thirds said they had suffered anything from “insensitive language” to physical threats or violence: 63 percent of whites, 76 percent of blacks, 79 percent of Hispanics, 70 percent of Asians and 76 percent of Indians. When asked if opportunities for their race have gotten better or worse over the last five years, only 16 percent of whites thought things had improved. This compares with 39 percent of blacks, 47 percent of Hispanics, 50 percent of Asians and 41 percent of American Indians.

Results of this kind call into question the military’s reputation as the “model” for American race relations. In fact, the Pentagon held the data since February 1997, because it was embarrassed by the results. The report can be downloaded free of charge from www.defense link.mil. (Jacquelyn Scarville, Et. Al., Armed Forces Equal Opportunity Survey, Defense Manpower Data Center, 1999. Robert Suro and Michael A. Fletcher, 75 Percent of Military’s Minorities See Racism, Washington Post, November 23, 1999, p. A1.)

Liquid Assets

In Australia it is common to pay royalties to Aborigines for the use of tribal land. Over the past 20 years the Gagudju Association, which represents about 300 Aborigines in the Kakadu region, has taken in A$50 million (one Australian dollar equals 63 American cents) from uranium mining and hotels but the tribe has little to show for it . It remains one of the poorest in the country, living in tin shacks without hot water, and digging holes in the ground for toilets.

Where did the money go? The Gagud-ju Association still has A$4 million in the bank, but the rest has been frittered away, much of it on alcohol. Men in Kakadu drink an average of 284 gallons of beer a year, the equivalent 58 12-oz. cans every week, or more than a six-pack a day. This is ten times the national average.

These revelations have come at a time when mining interests are considering developing a second mine on Aboriginal land nearby, close to the present Ranger mine. Aboriginal advocates say a second mine should not be started because it would put millions of dollars into the hands of Aborigines. Jacqui Katona who speaks for the Mirrar people says the current mining royalties have done nothing but “impoverish a culturally rich Aboriginal society.” She says things would get only worse if yet another mine started paying royalties. “A steady process of cultural, social and economic reconstruction is the only way our community will recover from wounds inflicted by [the] Ranger [mining operation].” (Agence France-Presse, Millions in Mining Royalties Blown on Booze by Aboriginal Organisation, November 9, 1999.)

TB Comes to Dakota

From 1992 to 1997 the town of Lakota, North Dakota, and the surrounding two-county area had only two cases of tuberculosis. That changed in 1998 after a family in the area brought over a nine-year-old boy from the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, where TB is common. Now 56 people in the town of 900 have been infected. They represent no fewer than one-fifth of all the people the boy had contact with in his rural community. They include 16 of his 24 classmates, 10 of the 32 children who rode his school bus, and nine of 61 children and adults at his day-care center. The case highlights the importance of medical screening for children adopted abroad. Since 1986, Americans have adopted more than 125,000 children from other countries. (Janet Mc-Con-naughey, Immigrant Child Takes Tuberculosis To Country Town, San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 1999, p. A16. Child From Marshall Islands Passes TB to 56 North Dakotans, St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 11, 1999.)

‘Homeboy Gun Control’

A California shooting sports organization has proposed that a recent state law banning military-style weapons be renamed the Homeboy Gun Control Act of ’99 “to properly credit and recognize all the Hispanic and Black gangbangers (dead, alive, and imprisoned) who made the passage of this legislation possible.” It pointed out that in the four years, 1994 to 1997, non-whites committed no fewer than 86 percent of all handgun homicides, and that blacks and Hispanics were hugely overrepresented. The California Rifle and Pistol Association points out that “law-abiding Anglo gun owners” are paying the price for the criminal mayhem of others. (Craig Edwards, SB23 to be Renamed — AKA: “The Homeboy Gun Control Act of “99,” The Firing Line, Nov. 1999, p. 15.)

‘Beat Up Whites’

Black members of Zimbabwe’s parliament have called for therapeutic public beatings of whites as a cure for “racism.” Moses Mvenge, a former guerrilla and the ruling ZANU-PF’s chief whip in parliament, said “Time has come when instant justice must be meted out. I am not calling for the beating up of all whites but only those guilty of such (racist) acts.” “After all we are in the majority,” he added. “It must be an eye for an eye because as long as we don’t do this, they won’t stop. They must be beaten up on the spot.” Michael Mataure, another MP, told his applauding colleagues, “I think what our Rhodesians want is force. A racist must taste his or her own medicine.” “Rhodesian” is the derogatory term black Zimbabweans use for “racist” unreconstructed whites.

Seventy thousand whites account for fewer than two percent of the country’s population, and are now being blamed for the worst conditions to assail the country since white rule ended in 1980. Inflation is running at about 70 percent a year, government services are in shambles, and thousands of Zimbabweans die of AIDS every month. Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since 1980, is leading the anti-white crusade, threatening to confiscate white-owned farms without compensation if Britain — the former colonial power — does not hand over money for that purpose. (Cris Chinaka, Zimbabwe MPs Urge Blacks to Hit “Racist’ Whites, Reuters, Nov. 26, 1999. Anton La Guardia, Beat Whites, Zimbabwe Blacks Urged, Telegraph (London), Nov. 27, 1999.)

Anti-Gypsy Wall Comes Down

In last month’s “O Tempora” section we reported that the Czech town of Usti nad Labem had braved international criticism to build a wall separating Gypsy welfare housing from the private homes of nearby Czechs, who complained of noise, garbage, and general disorder. Now, under tremendous pressure from the national government and from international “human rights” organizations, Usti nad Labem has pulled the wall down. The European Union, which had cited discrimination against Gypsies as a serious obstacle to Czech admission, applauded removal of the block-long wall, but the one-worlders are not yet satisfied. They note that the town has set aside the equivalent of $100,000 to buy up the houses of Czechs who had complained the most about living close to Gypsies. (Petr Josek, Czech City Destroys Wall Separating Gypsies, Reuters, Nov. 24, 1999.)

Armenian Crooks

Armenian con-men in Los Angeles may have bilked the California Medicare system out of as much as $1 billion. Charges have been filed against 64 businesses, and 35 have already pleaded guilty. Nearly everyone charged is an Armenian immigrant. Quick learners, Armenians now say the investigation is a racist “witch hunt” and an example of “state terrorism.”

Lax rules made it easy for crooks to set up medical supply stores and then bill the state for prescriptions, crutches, wheelchairs, and adult diapers that never changed hands. Armenians who perfected the fraud taught relatives and friends, and phony medical supply stores began cropping up all over the city. Some operators were reportedly raking in as much as $500,000 a month. (Virginia Ellis & Joe Mozingo, Medi-Cal Fraud Probe Could Reach $1 Billion, LA Times, Nov. 29, 1999, p. A1.)