[KP95DAO]

This story is like a man, who is up to his ass in alligators, worrying about a few water moccasins. I had to laugh.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=79&art_id=ct20030103220548944T614760&set_id=1

[Deadman]

Why would the S.African government worry about terrorists when they themsleves were terrorists once. :p

[westex]

Some of my friends over there tell me they are not worried about terrorists at all because the terrorists are too afraid of the local criminal element to even enter the country.

[Blackhawk]

Some of my friends over there tell me they are not worried about terrorists at all because the terrorists are too afraid of the local criminal element to even enter the country. Ironic, isn't it? Much stranger situations occur all the time. :D

[Gordon]

Well Preacherman any thoughts on the current conditions in South Africa ? Scary thing to me is they have real modern miltary manufacturering and have the A-bomb ! Why does S.A. have the A-bomb Preacherman ? Will Mandela not sell it ?:confused:

[TheeBadOne]

Doesn't sound like a very nice place to live/vist/die...

[Preacherman]

Gordon, in the early 1990's then-President de Klerk announced that under his predecessor, P. W. Botha, South Africa had produced six nuclear weapons. He ordered their dismantling, and since that time no nuclear weapons have been in South Africa's possession - IIRC, the African National Congress government signed the NPT as well. However, the highly-enriched uranium from the dismantled weapons was stored, for future reprocessing into medical isotopes, etc. I don't know what happened to it from there.

As for the present government in South Africa being terrorists - well, yes, I guess many of them were involved in that line of things during the struggle to end apartheid. The government they opposed was even worse - kidnapping, torturing and killing literally thousands of their own citizens without warrant, without trial, and in most cases, without reason. Both sides - the apartheid government and the terrorists - were as bad as one another. I agree that the present government in South Africa is incompetent, corrupt, and irresponsible: but at least it's a genuinely democratically-elected government, not a Fascist dictatorship. I worked in South Africa's townships right through the worst years of our civil war, and buried 27 friends during that time. I remember how it was, and I'm profoundly grateful that the apartheid system is now consigned to the junkyard of history. It was as bad, in its way, as Nazi Germany. (For those who doubt this, see the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission here (http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/index.html) - sure, the complaints about the Commission focusing on the misdeeds of the apartheid government and ignoring those of the opposition are true, but that doesn't mean that the well-documented incidents they describe did not happen, or are not true! It was very, very bad indeed...)

Gordon, most of the commentary you read about South Africa comes from a highly-biased source: either supporters of apartheid who wish it had never ended, or those who fought against it, using morally catastrophic tactics and making themselves as guilty of atrocities as their opponents. There are very few who can genuinely see both sides, and give an unbiased accounting.

[Gordon]

Thank you, Father.

[matis]

Preacherman,

For some of us (namely ME) your fair, fact-based and even-handed eloquence is very much appreciated

Matis

[Jaco]

Liewe magtag priester!

To compare Apartheid SA in any way with Nazi Germany, there’s not much of a way. And yes, with such a high crime rate who gives a damn about if a criminal or a terrorist kills you?

After people have tried to kill this beautiful strapping lad, I don’t care what newspapers say about all the killing going on in this country. A friend of mine’s son was killed a few weeks ago, a 17 year old boy, killed executioner style in his sister’s apartment in a “security complex” (do you have those in the states?), and the executioner’s pistol (there was four attackers, and they left this guy behind to get the job done) failed when he tried to execute the sister. And all they took was one cellphone. If these people land in court it will be blamed on apartheid, they are angry with the Afrikaner minority, they don’t have jobs because of it; they fought hard against the previous government, etc ad nauseum.

So are they freedom fighters, terrorists or criminals? Who cares? My friend certainly doesn’t care with only one child alive. My family and me have to stay alive, and I refuse to leave my mistress, Ms. PPK in .32ACP, for one moment. And that is the bottom line of life. Not the civil liberties, political systems, inflation, etc etc. Firstly you have to STAY ALIVE.