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Monday, 26 October 2009

This blog has moved

In future, please read new posts by this author here:

http://antonbarnard.praag.co.za

Friday, 14 August 2009

The South African professional services provider: an endangered species

If you are a resident of South Africa, in the IT, auditing or legal industry and you're not experiencing the beginnings of panic at present, you're clearly not reading the news. Professionals who provide services on a time and materials basis' livelihoods are being threatened.

The true power behind the ANC regime, the odious and unholy alliance of the communists and trades union, have succeeded in convincing the government to ban labour brokers. Although one wouldn't say so, judging by its extremely arrogant and militant rhetoric, Cosatu is actually an organization in decline. Its membership is falling. Of course Cosatu does not like labour brokers, because they prevent labourers becoming unionised and therefore contribute to its incipient decline.

The banning of labour brokers will have a profound effect on the IT industry in South Africa. Many organizations cannot afford to keep expensive IT personnel on their payroll, especially if they require ad-hoc and relatively short-term IT projects. They would typically then approach an outsourcing company such as Dimension Data or Business Connection (BCX) to provide them with contract IT skills. This will however become illegal in terms of the proposed new legislation.

The impact on the IT industry will be severe. Companies like Paracon and Business Connection will have to either scale down radically or shut up shop altogether. They will no longer be able to provide contract IT workers to for example the Receiver of Revenue like Paracon does at present. In all probability, departments and organizations requiring IT skills will need to look offshore, for example at Indian companies. The Receiver of Revenue will have to farm out its IT requirements to for example Indian companies like Tata or Wipro.

Although Wipro and Tata will be happy to take on South African IT business, the picture is much less rosy for tens of thousands of South African IT workers presently working for companies like Paracon, who will necessarily have to find other employment. It is a safe bet that many of these would emigrate. IT professionals are mobile individuals, who will find work overseas, thereby exacerbating the brain drain. Not only the employees of the likes of Paracon but also others, to whom permanent employment with one employer seems like an unchallenging option, will look for greener pastures.

Not only would this exacerbate the brain drain, but it would also lose the tax revenue these individuals generate. How many recipients of child grants and other social benefits are being funded by each IT professional's personal income, fuel and sales taxes? If their work was done in Calcutta or Mumbai, this tax income would be lost and the profits would revert to India.

In so doing, Cosatu is causing immense harm to not only South Africa's skills pool, but also to the poor in South Africa. This argument is however unlikely to make any impact whatsoever on the greedy and malicious trades union, whose primary mission is to enrich themselves.

We are witnessing yet another example of the continuing destruction of the South African economy by the Cosatu parasites.

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Some more information on "Saint Mandela"

If you don't want your day spoiled by right-wing lies and propaganda, for heaven's sake and your own safety don't read this article that clasts the saint and icon Mandela.

Rather read St Mandela's wonderfully uplifting tract "How to be a good communist" here. (Please just ignore the introductory section in which a horrible racist dares to question The Great Man's friendship with the likes of other fine examples of democrats like Fidel Castro.)



The whole trial and jail sentence was also just so, you know, UNFAIR. Below is the list of unreasonable charges laid against St Mandela and his good-natured and harmless friends during the Rivonia Treason Trial by the previous racist regime. As you can see, they were clearly only gathering supplies for a children's party - the 210,000 hand grenades were surely only intended as a fireworks show. Nobody except a real racist would think otherwise.

• One count under the South African Suppression of Communism Act No. 44 of 1950, charging that the accused committed acts calculated to further the achievement of the objective of communism;
• One count of contravening the South African Criminal Law Act (1953), which prohibits any person from soliciting or receiving any money or articles for the purpose of achieving organized defiance of laws and
country; and
• Two counts of sabotage, committing or aiding or procuring the commission of the following acts:

1) The further recruitment of persons for instruction and training, both within and outside the Republic of South Africa, in:
(a) the preparation, manufacture and use of explosives—for the purpose of committing acts of violence and destruction in the aforesaid Republic, (the preparation and manufacture of explo- sives, according to evidence submitted, included 210,000 hand grenades, 48,000 anti-personnel mines, 1,500 time devices, 144 tons of ammonium nitrate, 21.6 tons of aluminum powder and a ton of black powder);
(b) the art of warfare, including guerrilla warfare, and military training generally for the purpose in the aforesaid Republic;
(ii) Further acts of violence and destruction, (this includes 193 counts of terrorism committed between 1961 and 1963);
(iii) Acts of guerrilla warfare in the aforesaid Republic;
(iv) Acts of assistance to military units of foreign countries when involving the aforesaid Republic;
(v) Acts of participation in a violent revolution in the aforesaid Republic, whereby the accused, injured, damaged, destroyed, rendered useless or unserviceable, put out of action, obstructed, with or endangered:
• (a) the health or safety of the public;
• (b) the maintenance of law and order;
• (c) the supply and distribution of light, power or fuel;
• (d) postal, telephone or telegraph installations;
• (e) the free movement of traffic on land; and
• (f) the property, movable or immovable, of other persons or of the state.

Friday, 17 July 2009

The real St. Mandela

Many newspapers are carrying front-page articles about St. Mandela's 91st birthday tomorrow. Instead of the fawning hagiographies, let's rather consider the real "achievements" of St. Mandela.

1. Mandela was so "oppressed" that he went to university became a lawyer. He was allowed to practice law with his partner, Oliver Tambo. This strangely happened in apartheid South Africa in 1953, in which it is routinely alleged blacks were denied proper education.

2. During the Rivonia trial Mandela was convicted of plotting to overthrow the previous government by means of military action. Had the plan succeeded, thousands of "freedom fighters" would have sown terror and mayhem in South Africa. Mandela was therefore far from an innocent pacifist and his jail sentence was nothing if not fully justified. It remains a mystery why Percy Yutar, the prosecutor, did not call for the death sentence, which would also have been justified given Mandela's treasonous intentions.

3. In 1961 he was one of the founders of Mkhonto we Sizwe - the "pricks (sorry "spears") of the nation", a murderous bunch of cowardly terrorist thugs, known mainly for their prowess at mowing down innocent civilians. As a military force, Mkhonto was however a complete joke, in spite of the so-called "Freedom Park's" memorial to them. Mkhonto failed to "liberate" one square centimeter of South African territory. Instead, nests of this infestation were routinely exterminated by the former SA Defence Force.

4. Mandela admits in his book The Long Walk To Freedom that he personally approved the Church Street bombing, in which 11 people died and more than 200 were injured. Most of them were innocent civilians.

5. He remained in jail because he refused to renounce violence. The previous government did offer to release him provided he renounced violence. Hardly Mother Theresa stuff.

6. After he came to power, his regime wasted no time in befriending rogue states like Libya and Cuba and imposing the state racism aimed at whites known as affirmative action and black economic empowerment.

Like Mohammad Atta and Carlos the Jackal, this person is no hero, no saint and definitely not worthy of our admiration.

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

The strange cult of the anti-hero

There have been many heroes throughout history; those whose unselfish and noble deeds have been an inspiration to others.

One example of a true hero was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a Roman policitian. Cincinnatus was called upon to act as dictator in order to defeat an enemy, the Aequians. As soon as he succeeded in doing so, he resigned his from a position of absolute authority and returned to a simple life as a farmer.

It's hard to imagine any modern day politician doing likewise.

Many of the so-called heroes of the present day are clearly not in the same mould as Cincinnatus. We are rather faced with the cult of the worship of the anti-hero. The most recent example of the worship of an anti-hero was the unfounded hysteria accompanying the death of the suspected paedophile Michael Jackson.

Let's take another example of a so-called American hero, one who even has a public holiday in his honour. This so-called hero was not only someone who plagiarised his academic work, but also an adulterer and a womaniser. The FBI recorded him shouting: "I'm fucking for God!" while philandering. The night before he died, he cheated on his wife with not one but two different women.

Hardly the stuff heroes are made of, wouldn't you say, especially considering he was supposedly a man of God? The anti-hero I'm referring to above is Martin Luther King, somebody who is routinely exalted as some kind of role model. We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel if Dr King is seen as a hero to some.

South Africa has its own crop of anti-heroes. Many of them are so-called Struggle heroes or associated with the ANC. The sickening spectacle of the anti-hero and fraudster Tony Yengeni being escorted to prison to serve time for corruption will forever be a mark of shame on the odious ANC regime.

Other ANC anti-heroes abound. Winnie Mandela, a child murderer and convicted fraudster, is known as the "Mother of the Nation." Aboobaker Ismael, the cowardly murderer who planned the Church Street bombing that killed innocent civilians, was rewarded for his "heroism" with a senior position at the Reserve Bank.

Perhaps the most laughable example of the cult of the anti-hero is however the so-called "Chief Tshwane." Chief Tshwane (sic) was ostensibly a tribal chief in the area that is now called the city of Pretoria. According to the ANC city council, Tshwane (sic) "established" the "City of Tshwane" (sic.)

There is one slight problem with this fairy tale. There is no evidence that "Chief Tshwane" (sic) ever existed. There is speculation that the name is really derived from the local vernacular term for monkey – "tshwene." The river that flows through Pretoria is known as the Apies river (Afrikaans for "monkey") due to the large number of simians that populated its banks.

Furthermore, the modern-day city of Pretoria was in reality founded by the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius. There was certainly no bustling metropolis when Pretorius arrived on the site that is now Pretoria.



One of these actually existed and founded Pretoria. The other is a hero to the ANC regime.


The ANC regime, however, in its desperation to find somebody, anybody, to worship as a hero, did not let the facts (or lack thereof) stand in their way. It went to the ridiculous extreme of inventing a fictitious character and even built a statue to honour "Chief Tshwane" (sic), the so-called founder of Pretoria.

This sounds like Monty Python, but it's regrettably true. Can you imagine how bare your cupboard must be of real heroes that you have to go to the extreme of inventing one?

Perhaps we shouldn't sneer at those who view Martin Luther King, Michael Jackson, Winnie Mandela and even "Chief Tshwane" (sic) as heroes. It must be very depressing not having any real heroes to call your own.

Tuesday, 07 July 2009

You will be known by your friends, even in death

"White folks was [sic] in caves while we was building empires." (Racism and poor grammar.)

"We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it." (Homophobia.)

"...diamond merchants...pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." (Anti-Semitism.)

The funeral of the so-called icon and full-time pedophile, Michael Jackson, is being led by the so-called reverend Al Sharpton, the source of the quotations above.


Isn't it ironic how the anti-hero Sharpton is leading the anti-hero Jackson's funeral service? But, then, everything is fine, seeing that both are / were of the correct skin colour (the deceased was born with the correct skin colour and spent his entire life trying to bleach it) and therefore by definition not capable of doing any wrong.

Kind of reminds one of the anti-hero Jeremiah Wright, somebody also associated with another famous personality.

Monday, 06 July 2009

What is the point of South Africa's Defence Force?

Most if not all countries have a defence force. Some, like the current United States armed forces, see action on a daily basis. Others, like the Swiss guards in the world's smallest country, the Vatican, have largely ceremonial duties.

South Africa had a very professional defence force prior to 1994. In spite of sanctions aimed at the previous government, it was the most formidable fighting force on the African continent that successfully fought the Cubans in Angola, in spite of the ANC regime's laughable propaganda to the contrary.

It was especially effective in terms of pest control, eradicating infestations of so-called ANC  "freedom fighters" (in reality a criminal rabble whose military prowess was limited to killing innocent civilians in cowardly bomb attacks) in neighbouring countries.

That was then, before the ANC regime "transformed" the armed forces.

Transformation in South African terms has a very clear and distinct meaning. In practice, it means exorcising any competent white individuals on an Afro-racist basis and replacing them with useless political cronies. One cannot however take the criminal rabble that constituted the so-called "liberation movement's army"  (sic) and expect these individuals to miraculously transform themselves into a professional defence force capable of managing and effectively using the billions of rands' worth of equipment procured during the utterly corrupt arms deal.

The result was both predictable and sad. South Africa's forces, the SANDF, are staffed by ageing soldiers. The younger members of the forces are riddled with HIV and often in no condition to fight. The older members should not be front line soldiers. As the opposition Democratic Alliance's shadow minister of defence puts it: "We have soldiers in barracks, not in the field; we have ships alongside, not at sea; and we have aircraft in hangers, not in the air. We have an army that is overstretched; a navy which is under stretched; and an air force with nothing to stretch."

The obvious question is not why the SANDF is in the state it is in – we all know that the twin evils transformation and the utter incompetence of the ANC regime are at fault. The question is rather: why do we have a defence force at all? Against whom do they "defend" us (sic)?

One of the main tasks of a defence force is to defend the sovereignty of a nation. In other words, the SANDF is there to keep South Africa safe from foreign threats. South Africa is however no longer sovereign. It has in reality been invaded by millions of illegal aliens, overrun by a veritable army of foreigners.

So much so that, as a proportion of its population, South Africa is a world leader in terms of its percentage of illegal aliens. Out of the 50-60 million people within the non-existent borders of the country, there are at least 10-15 million illegals. Between one in five and one in four people walking the streets of South Africa are part of the army of invaders that has already overrun South Africa.

The army is neither capable of nor interested in any semblance of border control. Enforcing South Africa's territorial integrity would, in any event, contradict the ANC regime's apparent policy of radical pan-Africanism, which gives free passage to any illegal alien wishing to enter South Africa. Witness the scrapping of visa requirements for Zimbabweans.

Seeing that South Africa has effectively already been invaded by a horde of foreigners, what about fighting a rearguard action within the borders of the country? After all, South Africa is the world champion not only at rugby football but also at violent crimes such as rape and murder. These illegals are often implicated in the illegal activities.

This also too much to expect from the transformed SANDF however. There are a few soldiers thousands of kilometres away in Burundi but none protecting the South African populace against the millions of invaders on own soil.

I ask again: what is the point of spending billions of rands on an utterly useless defence force, when the foreign invaders have already won the war against South Africa?

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

South Africa's own SAT

Our dear (in the sense that Kim Jong-Il is North Korea’s Dear Leader) minister of education, comrade Blade Nzimande, wants to institute a university entrance exam for those who fail to get university exemption in matric.


According to comrade Nzimande, it is unacceptable that “only” 18% of all matriculants gain exemption. According to him, 18% is “too low.” Excuse me comrade, but of these 18% that do reach university, why do almost half still fail their first year? This was also the case with my all-white classmates when I was at university during the apartheid years. Actually, comrade, the opposite is true: matric is and has always been too easy. Too many people that should not be there, still go to university and waste their time and their parents' money in the process.

However, in principle, something like the American Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is not a bad idea. The SAT is an entrance exam to get into college or university. If people do indeed have the potential to excel at university but are being constrained by a poor school environment, such a test would introduce a measure of fairness into the system. What it would also do, is to lay to rest the myth that apartheid / Bantu education / poor schools etc are to blame for poor educational outcomes.


Except.

We all know what the outcome will be. Let me give you a clue: no matter whether it’s matric or an SAT, some groups of people will still do better than others in any academic and aptitude test. In the USA, the people who do best at SAT's happen to be of East Asian origin.


So, as soon as comrade Blade introduces South Africa’s version of the SAT, guess what will happen? Right. A South African SAT still won’t solve comrade Blade’s problem and address his real reasons for wanting to offer another route to university. He will still have to institute quotas, like the extreme forms of racism perpetrated by the UCT's Faculty of Medicine against whites.

To understand this, just look at the USA: the Americans already have an SAT but now they have to institute quotas to keep the East Asians from filling too many places in science and engineering at MIT and Harvard. They're simply much better at maths and science than us Caucasians are.

The above obviously constitutes a very relevant philosophical question: what is the point of administering tests? Obviously it's to distinguish between competent and incompetent candidates. If you fail your bar exam, you can't become a lawyer. However, in the age of insane political correctness, things are not as simple as they seem. People can write tests and pass but if the politicians don't like the outcome, for example because only white people passed, tests are disregarded.

If you're going to disregard the outcome of a test and regardless of his passing or failing make somebody a neurosurgeon or give him a promotion, just because he happens not to be a Caucasian, what is the point of having a test at all? Does the test then just become some kind of charade that attempts to fool some people into believing that their abilities, as opposed to their skin colour, matter at all?

However, I believe I can help our dear comrade. Here’s my suggestion for a South African SAT, a test that will remove the need for any quotas and will allow comrade Blade to truly transform all universities.


1. You have 6 girlfriends and you’ve all been sexually active since age 8. You have also raped a number of women since age 14. What are the odds of all of you being HIV+? a) 100% b) 100% c) 100% (5 points)


2. You and your mates decide to rob a cash-in-transit van. What is the best artillery to take along? a) 9mm b) AK-47 c) RPG-7 d) M-16 e) all of the above (5 points)


3. The best way to get rich quickly in Mzansi is: a) Robbing a bank, b) working as a corrupt civil servant for Home Affairs, c) having a BEE deal awarded to you because you’re related to a minister, d) being friends with JZ. (5 points)


4. Driving on the wrong side of the road while pissed is acceptable if a) you’re a AA-appointed judge, b) you drive a black Jaguar, c) you really have to d) all of the above (5 points)
5. Your population group is: a) black (+10000000000000000 points) b) coloured (5 points) c) Indian -10 points d)other / currently disadvantaged / Caucasian (-1000000000000 points)

Monday, 22 June 2009

Funny how some Muslims behave in non-Muslim countries...

The Egyptian soccer team that is currently participating in the Confederations Cup soccer tournament in South Africa has complained that they've been robbed. "Typical of South Africa, one the most crime-ridden societies on earth" cynics would say, shaking their heads.
 
Things are not quite what they seem, however. Rumour has it that the players were robbed by hookers they were entertaining in their plush hotel rooms in the 5-star Michelangelo hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg. Prostitution is illegal in South Africa. If these rumours are true, the Egyptian "victims" were themselves committing a crime. Funny thing is they come from a Muslim country, where many women are forced to wear head-to-toe veils and where there are medieval laws against indecency, if not women in general.
 
In 1998 two touring Pakistani cricket players were mugged in South Africa. The team threatened to call off the remainder of the tour. Pakistan is also a fundamentalist Muslim country. It turned out that the players who were "mugged" were really beaten up after they had touched strippers in a sleazy Sandton joint called Club 69. Once again it appears that once the strictures of fundamentalist laws have been removed, these guys have no compunction in availing themselves of the pleasures of the flesh.
 
Rumours also circulated that the leader of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta, had a predilection for strippers, cocaine and alcohol. I'm sure Allah will forgive him, however, and that the offer of 70 virgins in heaven still stands provided you're willing to martyr yourself.
 
What is interesting is how some Muslims behave when they are no longer subject to religious laws. Perhaps it's not only the West that's so decadent...

Tuesday, 09 June 2009

The chardonnay socialists get a whipping at the polls

Many observers are somewhat perplexed by the extremely poor showing of the Left in the recent European Parliament elections, especially given the current economic crisis. One would have thought that parties with left-wing, socialist inclinations, those that promise more state aid to voters, would have done better among voters who are concerned about their long-term financial security.

The exact opposite happened, however. The Left was murdered in Europe’s elections. The real winners were right-wing parties.

The apparent mystification shown by the liberal press, such as The Economist, just once again goes to show how out of touch the Left and the liberals are with the concerns of the proverbial man in the street. This especially applies to well-off left-wingers.

The sardonic term “chardonnay socialist” is the often applied to those upper-class individuals who tend towards left-wing political views. These are people living in the better suburbs of London, the northern suburbs of Johannesburg or those on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. From the comfort of their penthouse apartments or mansions, they often want to lecture others on the “benefits” of multiculturalism.

What they will never do, however, is to experience those “benefits” for themselves. They will not, for example, go and live in suburbs like Harlem or cities like Bradford, where the “joys” of multiculturalism can be experienced first-hand. You will not catch a British chardonnay socialist living in a suburb with more mosques than churches, or an American one living in the inner-city area of Philadelphia. In South Africa they will live in their secure complexes in lily-white suburbs, hidden as far away as possible from the unwashed masses in Soweto.

While the white South African chardonnay socialists pay lip service to diversity, they strangely almost always marry white partners. One wonders what the statistical chances are of a truly colour-blind chardonnay socialist marrying a white partner, seeing that 9 out of 10 people in South Africa are not white... Chardonnay socialists in South Africa especially are however by no means all white. They are often nouveau-riche black plutocrats, the politically connected who became exceedingly rich without adding one iota of economic value. Like Julius Malema with his Mercedes and Sandton dwelling, they too will waste no time in escaping the unwashed masses for the leafy northern suburbs of Johannesburg, while still at the same time maintaining their left-wing rhetoric.

The ordinary voters in Europe, the working men and women, often do not have the luxury of living in Kensington or Highgate. They are forced by economic circumstances to live on streets where all the shops sell Halaal foodstuffs, where the hair salons specialize in ethnic hair. They have to compete with immigrants, often illegal immigrants, for welfare and jobs. They are the ones who experience the “joys” of diversity and multiculturalism first-hand.

Is it any wonder, then, that anti-immigrant parties like the Dutch PVV and the British BNP have shown remarkable gains in recent times?

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