Did we put a tyrant in power?

- Lord Carrington The Times April 5, 2008

The former Foreign Secretary remembers how Mugabe became president of Zimbabwe

Peter Carrington:

If you want to understand this week's events in Zimbabwe, a little history might be helpful. For it demonstrates how the responsibility for what has happened in that country over the past two decades lies firmly with Robert Mugabe and the decisions he has made.

The past terrible few years raise questions about how President Mugabe came to power.

Was the Lancaster House agreement - which brought an end to the civil war in Zimbabwe and allowed for the victory of Mugabe - a mistake?

I am convinced that it was not. When I became Margaret Thatcher's Foreign Secretary in 1979 the Rhodesia/Zimbabwe problem was near the top of my in-tray. It had bedevilled successive governments ever since Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence in 1965 and set up a white-minority government. It had soured Commonwealth relations and damaged our relationship with some of our closest allies. The election of 1979, under a constitution that gave disproportionate power to the whites, which brought Bishop Abel Muzorewa to power was not recognised as legitimate by any other country, except South Africa, because Joshua Nkomo and Mugabe, the main rebel opposition leaders, were not allowed to take part. Towards the end of 1979, however, the situation had changed. Nkomo felt that time was not on his side. He wanted a settlement as soon as possible. The Muzorewa Government and the whites in Rhodesia were fighting a war against the rebels that was draining the economy and which could not be sustained for much longer. The South Africans, who were supporting the Muzorewa Government, were finding the burden too great.

The frontline states surrounding Zimbabwe all had reasons for wanting a solution; Zambia was the host to Nkomo's army, an imposition which they wished to end. However, there was one person who did not feel it necessary to press for a settlement - Robert Mugabe.

He felt that his Zanu guerrilla group was winning the war and that he would become Zimbabwe's leader. Despite this, it seemed that it was worthwhile to have at least one more try to settle the problems at a conference to be held in London. I did not think it likely at the time that the Lancaster House conference would succeed.

There were a number of difficulties to be solved.

There was the constitution, the elections and perhaps the most difficult of all, the land question. There was no way in which the whites in Zimbabwe would be prepared to accept the compulsory purchase of their farms. What was agreed to in the end by all parties was that willing sellers should be paid a fair price for their land and that the British and Americans would be prepared to finance this. As the conference was reaching its end, it became clear that, albeit reluctantly, Nkomo and the Muzorewa/Smith Government would be prepared to accept the agreement on the table.

Zanu, the Mugabe party, was not prepared to do so. He thought that, since they were bound to win power, election or no, success would be theirs without an agreement. Presidents Nyerere of Tanzania and Machel of Mozambique pressurised Mugabe to accept. Privately, President Nyerere made it plain to me that he would not accept the result of any post-settlement election unless Mugabe won it. In the event, as was wholly predictable, Mugabe won the 1980 election easily. The prospect of a Mugabe Government was worrying, since he was known to be a Marxist and had made incendiary remarks about what would happen if he gained power.

The quietly spoken Mugabe worried me: he was secretive, seemed not to need friends, mistrusted everyone. Devious and clever, he was an archetypal cold fish. Christopher Soames, a man of great good sense and the Governor of Southern Rhodesia, developed a close working relationship with Mugabe. A big and friendly man, Soames was able to persuade Mugabe that an orderly transfer of power and a tolerant attitude towards those who had been his enemies would be the right way forward. Mugabe's Government started tolerably well. Having seen food shortages while in exile in Tanzania and Mozambique, he knew it would be counterproductive to seize the well-managed farms of the whites. Nonetheless, we were never certain which way Mugabe would jump; I just had a dreadful feeling that he would leap in the wrong direction. In the end, Mugabe has proven to be a textbook example of Acton's dictum about how power corrupts. If there had been no agreement in 1979 the war would have continued, many more people would have been killed, and Mugabe would, in the end, have won both the war and the presidency. Economic devastation would have come much earlier. There can be no doubt that the election of Mugabe in 1980 reflected the majority opinion in Zimbabwe.

For all that has followed we did the right thing, the only thing that could be done back then. So much for history.

Now the future beckons.

It will take a long time to restore the prosperity which that beautiful country once enjoyed. Yet the people of Zimbabwe are resilient. It says a great deal for them that, despite threats and intimidation, the recent election seems to have overthrown the Zanu-PF majority in Parliament. Strictly speaking, this is now no longer our business, but a great many of us will feel that we still owe the people of Zimbabwe, who have been through such desperate times, all the help we can give them.

Although Mugabe tries to paint Britain as a colonial foe, we should feel no embarrassment for our role in Zimbabwe's recent past nor about doing all we can to assist its people today.

And those of us who remember the country as it once was can only condemn the selfishness and folly of the man who has brought this about.

Lord Carrington was Foreign Secretary, 1979-82,

and chaired the Lancaster House conference

Peter Godwin on Zimbabwe Elections

“The chances of a free election are minimal.”

One of the flood of Zimbabweans to have fled the chaos of his homeland, author Peter Godwin tries to find some hope in the wreckage. Original article here.
So, I’m on the train from Perth to Fremantle, trying to stay awake after a 30-hour flight from New York, where I now live, via Stockholm and Kuala Lumpur, when I hear the two young black guys in the seat behind me speaking in Shona, one of Zimbabwe’s home tongues. I greet them in my rusty Shona, and soon we are chatting about home and how bad things have become there. And then the train pulls in at a suburban station and a middle-aged black lady in a nurse’s uniform gets on and sits down next to me. As soon as she picks up that we are Zimbabweans, she joins in - she’s from Harare, it turns out.
“Did you know that Zimbabweans have the highest IQ in the world?” she says. Hmm, that seems a little over-patriotic. “Yes,” she continues, “I queue for sugar, I queue for salt, I queue for fuel, I queue for cooking oil.” And she bursts into peals of laughter at her joke.
A friend of hers, she continues, saw a queue and joined it, as one does in Zimbabwe, even without knowing what it’s for, as it’s bound to be for something in short supply. Usually queues are remarkably good-natured affairs, with people chatting and bonding in the shared absurdity of their misfortune, but this one seemed a little subdued. When he gets to the head of the line, he realises why. There on a table is a coffin with a corpse laid out in it. He had inadvertently been queuing for a body viewing, and these were mourners. She hoots again, and gets off at the next station.
Back in Perth, I am interviewed by the enormously capable artistic director of the Perth International Arts Festival, Shelagh Magadza, who is, you guessed it, yet another Zimbabwean.
Welcome to the Zimbabwean diaspora: energetic, educated, talented and absent.
This is what we’ve come to - a nation wandering the Earth, exchanging mordant jokes on Australian trains, ruing our fate at literary festivals. It’s estimated that nearly 75 per cent of Zimbabweans between the ages of 18 and 65 have now left the country. That’s getting up to Irish Potato Famine ratios. It’s a veritable exodus. Imagine any city - imagine Adelaide - suddenly losing that proportion of its population. That’s how bad things have become in my homeland.
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, my family memoir set in the collapsing Zimbabwe, ends in about 2004, when my father died. At the time, I remember thinking “the country couldn’t get much worse”.
Boy, was I wrong.
Then, inflation was a few thousand per cent, now it’s up to about 120,000 per cent - way higher than in the Weimar Republic, when Germans loaded up wheelbarrows with money to go grocery shopping. How can one even imagine what 120,000 per cent inflation means? Here’s one flippant example of the effect of the economic calumny that has beggared Africa’s most promising nation: Players teeing off at the Harare golf course usually order a round of drinks before the game so that the barman can line up their frosties on the counter as they come down the final fairway. Members used to pay after they’d finished their beers. Now they pay when they order them. Because, by the time they play a round of golf, the price of the beers has gone up.
There is a harvest of superlatives provided by Zimbabwe’s spin down the vortex of failed statehood. It is the world’s fastest shrinking (peacetime) economy, halving in size since 2000. It has one of the lowest life expectancies - about 35; more orphans per capita than anywhere on the planet; and half its population is malnourished.
Meanwhile, Robert Mugabe, who just celebrated his 84th birthday, recently moved into a $26 million palace, with 25 bedroom suites. And the question, “Why do Zimbabweans stand for it?” has already been answered: they don’t, they leave.
With snap elections due on March 29, there is a new flurry of hope that those who remain will eject him after 28 years in power. Mugabophobes now have two alternative presidential candidates, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and now the newly declared Simba Makoni, one-time finance minister and technocrat, recently expelled from the ruling ZANU PF party for daring to challenge the Sun King. He is supposed to have the backing of various other ZANU PF heavyweights (and the smaller of the two MDC factions).
But don’t get your hopes up. The chances of a free election are minimal. Quite apart from the fact that the last three have been blatantly rigged, and that the opposition finds it hard to campaign, gets little access to the state-controlled media, and has its canvassers harassed and arrested, the electoral commission that handles the nuts and bolts of the poll says it cannot possibly conduct elections so soon. They don’t have enough ballot boxes, election officers, transport, fuel, money, they say. The basic logistics are impossible.
“What should we do?” I hear you ask. The more we hector and berate Mugabe, the more it enables him to pose as an anti-colonial hero. South African president Thabo Mbeki hasn’t been much help. On the very day that the South African-brokered negotiations broke down, he declared them a success!
In so far as African politics, in particular, is about patronage, I think we need to dial reality past Mugabe, to signal that he is fast becoming an irrelevance, and that the world will turn and he will soon be gone, one way or another. (As someone said on hearing that Mugabe had been ill, “nothing minor I hope”.) The most effective way to do this, I think, would be to pull together a multi-lateral donor conference, in which not just countries, but institutions like the World Bank, IMF and major private philanthropists, pledge amounts that they will start spending, the day after democratic normalisation.
This is a way to unlock our imagination on how reconstruction could start. The amounts pledged would help harness greed to good effect, signalling to the local Zimbabwean elite (who are wondering when to dismount the current horse) how well everyone can do under a new dispensation.
Such a conference, with its resultant document, can also begin the debate on how to fund specific reconstruction areas: agriculture (and different models of resuscitating commercial agriculture), education, health, currency stabilisation, energy, infrastructure, and so on. It also gets us away from a hectoring, negative binary on Zimbabwe to one where we lay out upon a heaving table the glittering goodies that will be available as soon as the venal autocrat is gone.
I think that this would help establish a profound paradigm shift, and change our attitude from one that is purely reactive to Mugabe’s latest felonies, to one that sees beyond him, by writing the tyrant out of the script for Zimbabwe’s future.
Peter Godwin’s latest book is “When the Crocodile Meets the Sun” (Picador, $24.95).

An Apology to Africa

Bishop Catherine Roskam delivered this apology to Africa during a Service of Liberation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Sunday January 13th 2008:

http://www.dioceseny.org/index.cfm?Action=AboutUs.TheRtRevCatherineSRoskam

I am sorry, Africa.
Of all the places we have exploited-and we have exploited many-it is only from you that we have also stolen the people.
I am sorry that we took your people and held them in bondage for centuries, a holocaust of perhaps twenty million souls.
Africa, we transported your children in conditions unfit for any living creature. When they became sick or died, we threw them overboard, like so much unwanted ballast. Those that completed the excruciating journey, we sold like cattle, auctioning them off to the highest bidder.
This past summer after going to Tanzania on pilgrimage with Carpenter’s Kids, my husband and I spent two days in Zanzibar. We visited the Anglican Cathedral there, built over the site of the old slave market. We saw the tiny airless chamber below, the only one preserved to show how inhumanely the slaves were kept while waiting to be sold. We saw also the inlaid marble circle in front of the altar marking the place of the whipping post where slaves were tied one after another and whipped to see if they would cry. If they did, they brought in a lower price.
What allows such brutality to rest in the hearts of those purporting to be Christian? Where was compassion?
I am sorry, Africa. I benefit still from that brutality. The whole U.S. economy is based on stolen goods. It was built on the backs of slave labor, on the trafficking of human beings and on the precious gems and metals ripped out of the bowels of Africa over the years. The first stock sold on the stock market were African people. I am sorry.
Africa, we deprived your people of language and culture, forcing upon them new names, new language, new identities. We heinously stole their stories from them. We continued to abuse them physically, using the whip and working them to early death. We split up families, selling off children, separating husbands and wives. And to our deepest shame, we raped your women and your girl children, using some as sex slaves. And we blasphemed against the Bible by using it as an instrument of oppression instead of liberation.
Our evil did not stop with slavery, Africa. Even after abolition we continued to abuse your children. Every time black folk started to climb up the ladder of success behind us, we put a foot in their face and kicked them down. When they began to get just a taste of equality under the law, we changed the laws, or ignored them. We ambushed, beat and lynched in the name of Christ, burning crosses as warnings, turning our symbol of love and redemption into one of hatred and damnation. We would not let your people get ahead.
Bp. Sisk and I returned yesterday from a Province Two Bishop’s meeting in Haiti. Haiti was the first independent free black nation in the world. We did everything we could do to undermine its founding, for fear our slaves might get the “wrong idea” about running away to Haiti to get their freedom. Much more recently, we kept in power modern day slave drivers, the Duvaliers, who beat, tortured and killed Haitians at will.
Africa, you had a wonderful son (among many wonderful children I could name). His name was Martin. And for a brief blessed moment we had a glimpse of the Kingdom, of black and white and brown working together for justice and freedom. But we killed him too, and the legacy has been hard to hold onto. The progress we made is slipping away. Our schools are as segregated now as they were at the time of Brown vs. the Board of Education. Only the worst states are no longer Mississippi and Alabama, but New York and California, Illinois and Michigan. We white folks in the north congratulate ourselves on not being racist but we don’t send our children to school with black children. Our prisons are filled with young black men who should be in college, not jail. And for sure not all black votes are counted even today-especially today.
In 1923 white people massacred the people of Rosewood, a prosperous, self sufficient and peaceful black town in Florida. We cluck our tongues and shake our heads at this old brutality. Surely this could not happen today. But there is no outrage as the black people of New Orleans are dispersed, disenfranchised, and unable to return to their homes. Katrina ruined some of the housing, but white people just recently voted to tear down some of what was left standing, even though it was sound and of some architectural value. The foot dragging around rebuilding black neighborhoods is a scandal and a sin.
Throughout history, our church has worked both sides of this particular street, participating in oppression and also liberation. Most recently I give God thanks for Bishop Charles Jenkins and the people of the Diocese of Louisiana who have named the racism and continue to work for relief and development in the black community in New Orleans, rebuilding homes as part of a project call Jericho Road. But as you can imagine, it is an uphill battle.
And we and other developed nations still hold your continent in bondage through global economics.
So then, what of reparations, Africa? I can’t wait for something official to happen. I am too old and these things grind exceedingly slow. So I offer you this-the education of your children in Africa and here. I offer you Carpenter’s Kids and All Our Children. I offer you awareness from which I pledge not to retreat. I offer my voice to speak up for justice and I offer my ears to hear your cry and your call, lest I presume too much.
For as you know, I too am a racist, dear Africa, but I hope I am in recovery a day at a time. My eyes have been opened to so much by my black friends both here and in Africa, who by the grace of God have risked telling me the truth. Then I was able to see Martin’s truth more clearly, and Malcolm’s also.
I have been called to repentance and I do repent and I pledge amendment of life, so help me God.
The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. RoskamBishop Suffragan of theEpiscopal Diocese of New York

About Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam:

The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam, Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, has oversight of the 66 congregations of Region II, the area encompassing Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties, where she continues her work in congregational development, clergy care, and leadership training. Her vision for mission includes a deep commitment to youth and young adults and to cultural and racial inclusiveness.
Bishop Roskam served on the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church as Chair of the International Concerns Committee and is a representative from the Episcopal Church to the Anglican Consultative Council. She was instrumental in founding the Global Womens Fund of the Diocese of New York, which is devoted to empowering women in the developing world, as well as The Carpenters Kids, a program developed in relationship with the Diocese of Central Tanganyika in support of AIDS orphans in Tanzania through parish to parish linkage.
Prior to her call to the episcopacy, Bishop Roskam served as Missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of California and in various parishes both in California and New York, including Holy Apostles, Manhattan, where she did extensive AIDS work and also developed the counseling and referral service for Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen.
Bishop Roskam has consulted on the national level in church growth, managing congregational change, and cultural sensitivity training. She is a graduate of General Seminary and an Associate of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. She has been married for 40 years to Philip K. Roskam, a Psychologist. They have a daughter Gemma living in Los Angeles

.

Interview with Dr. Joe Capista upon his new book launch...

Dr. Joe Capitsa

"What Can A Dentist Teach You About Business"

Vist the launch of Dr. Joe Capitsa’s book between 3rd to 5th March at Amazon.com and purchase his book
“What can a dentist teach you about business, life and success?”
http://www.joecapista.com/amazon.htm
making you eligible to receive over $2,551 worth of bonus gifts from experts around the globe.

Interview

Dr. Joe Capista
Speaker, Author, Dentist
Media, Pennsylvania
What can a dentist teach you about business, life and success?
· ISBN-10: 0965815951

Where you are from and where are you now?

I reside in Media, Pennsylvania with my wife of 34 years. I have a dental practice in Broomall. I have lived in this area all my life. My roots are here, my family is here, and my community is here. I’m a Pennsylvanian through and through.

How did you get started writing?
Not counting all the goals I have written over the years and the business plans, I officially began writing with my newly released book called What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success? Discover Secrets to Achieving Total Success!

I have owned and operated my dental practice for over 30 years. I grew my practice from a 1-chair struggling practice to a multi-million dollar business with nearly 50 team members.

For years I have mentored business professionals and done training courses on how to build a business. I found I had a knack and passion for sharing my information. Initially, my work was with other dentists, but it grew into working with a variety of business types.

Over the last few years I have also done presentations to business groups. My writing was a natural evolution from my business success and working with others. The more I worked with others and did presentations the question came up frequently as to when I was going to write a book.

I had entertained the thought for some time, but about a year ago I decided that I would write a book. The book is a culmination of my business philosophy as well as overall success in all areas of one’s life.

What people will read in the book is not your typical business book. I combine a very pragmatic and spiritual approach to what I call Total Success.

What do you do when you are not writing?
When not writing I can be found doing a number of different things. One being, I still practice dentistry. I love dentistry. Always have and probably always will. I can also be found giving speeches, running, spending time with my family, traveling and overall, enjoying life.

What would readers like to know about you?
I think readers would like to know that I am very passionate about what I do in all areas of my life. I believe we create our own happiness by our thoughts, beliefs and actions.

Although I am blessed with an extremely successful life, it wasn’t always like that. I grew up in an average blue-collar neighborhood and struggled in school as a kid. And yet, from as far back as I can remember I wanted to be a dentist. I can remember digging in the dirt and filling up the holes pretending I was filling a cavity. That was at the age of 10.

Early on I didn’t get a lot of support for my dream. My high school guidance counselor, Father Melton told me I should pick a different goal rather than trying to become a dentist.

It was at that point I formed the belief that we can either believe what another person thinks is best for our life or follow our own dream. I will forever be grateful I followed my dream. Because of it I have had an incredible life.

I think what your readers would also be interested in know is that along with my dream came a lot of hard work. It didn’t just happen. I had to work for what I wanted.

What inspired your first book?
The desire to document the very systems that have allowed me to create the life I have. These systems don’t just apply to building a successful dental practice. They can apply to virtually any type of business.

How many books have you written?
This is my first. I do have plans for more books though.

What are the titles of your books and what genres are they?
What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success? Discover Secrets to Creating Total Success!

How do you decide on that topic or genre?
I follow my instinct. That is how I have done many things in my life.

How do you manage to keep yourself focused and on track?
Actually, there is a whole chapter in my book about how to stay focused and on track. I am very clear on the fact that having a laser beam approach to what I want to accomplish makes all the difference as to whether I achieve something or not.

Do you write to make money or for the love of writing?
For the love of writing and yet, because I do know how to make money from various ventures I have been involved in, it is very likely I will make great money from my writing. I think an advantage I have in writing about business is the opportunities that have opened up with my speaking and mentoring. The book was released in late December and already I have had some incredible things happen as a result. One is, with one speaking engagement I did, a gentleman who heard me nominated me for the Small Business Owner of the Year Award for a very large Chamber of Commerce in my area.

The recognition this will give me, my book and my business may not be able to be measure in exact return and yet I do know it will open up other opportunities.

Something I believe in is that nothing is an end in and of itself. Everything we do either moves us closer to our goals or further away. When I wrote the book I didn’t write it to make money. And yet, because of the marketing we are doing with the book, money will be a natural outcome of my writing.

What are some traditional methods of marketing you have used?
I have a marketing firm on the West Coast who is handling a lot of my marketing. I know that we have had a lot of media releases sent to the press that have given the book visibility. I have done dozens of presentations to local associations that has also gained some nice visibility. I have a very nice media kit with a beautiful sell sheet. One thing we have made sure of is to create an identity for the book.

What are some unique methods of marketing you have used?
We have been using the Internet a great deal. Lots of blogging about the book as well as an Amazon.com campaign where dozens of Joint Venture Partners are helping to get the word out about my book. I have done lots of web radio interviews as well as article writing and distribution online. I am launching a series of teleseminars that will all be in some way connected to an aspect of the book.

Do you sell through a website? If so, what’s the address? If not, why not?
Most definitely. http://www.joecapista.com/amazon.htm

Where can people order your books?
They can order it directly from my site and they can order from http://www.joecapista.com/amazon.htm

What format are your books – e-book, print, audio etc?
At this point the book is only available as hardcopy. I do have an eBook available on my site on how to build a multi-million dollar business.

Will you write more books?
Most definitely.

What do you have in the works now?
Right now I am continuing to build my speaking business. I am in conversations with some business associates about starting a full-fledged training company. That is another area I will be putting some time and energy into.

What does the future hold for you and your books?
Lots of fun. I just love what writing a book has done for me. It’s incredible. Although I would like to think I could have done this sooner, I think the timing in my life has been perfect.

What was the most successful thing you did to promote your books?
We are doing it right now. An Amazon.com campaign along with a blog tour. The visibility is incredible.

What was the least successful thing you did to promote your books?
That’s a difficult question to answer because so far everything has been working.

This book is a great resource for anyone looking for both a pragmatic and spiritual approach to building a life of Total Success. Order you own copy of What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success? within the next 24 hours and receive over $2,551 in bonus gifts from experts around the globe.

Go to: http://www.joecapista.com/amazon.htm

YouTube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvqiYWp4CFY

Michael Richards makes his point...

This came in to me as an Email forward...
Please see below for Michael Richards apologies via satellite.


Michael Richards better known as Kramer from TV’s Seinfeld, does make a good point. This was his defense speech in court after making racial comments in his comedy act. He makes some very interesting points.



“Proud To Be White”
Someone finally said it…
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans,
Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans,
Arab Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans...
You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You Call me...
'White boy,'
'Cracker,'
'Honkey,'
'Whitey,'
'Caveman' ...
and that's OK...
But when I call you...
Nigger,
Kike,
Towel head,
Sand-nigger,
Camel Jockey,
Beaner,
Gook,
or Chink ...
You call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you...
so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have Yom Hashoah.
You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP.
You have BET.
If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we'd be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.
If we had White History Month, we'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR lives we'd be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
A Black Chamberof Commerce,
and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?
A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant,
but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships you know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US.
Yet if there were 'White colleges'
THAT would be a racist college
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it.
But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.
You rob us,
carjack us,
and shoot at us.
But when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him racist...
I am proud.
But you call me a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230727,00.html
'Seinfeld' Star Michael Richards Apologizes on 'Letterman' for Racial Slurs
Tuesday , November 21, 2006

LOS ANGELES — "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards made a satellite appearance on the "Late Show With David Letterman" Monday in which he offered a brief explanation and an apology for the racial epithet-laced tirade he unleashed during a stand-up comedy routine.
"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," said Richards, 57, who played Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit 1989-98 sitcom. "I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," he added, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself.
Richards described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood.
Click Here to Watch Video of Richards' Tirade. Warning: Contains profane language and racial epithets.
Click Here to Watch Video of Richards' Interview and Apology on "Letterman."
At one point, however, Richards grew flustered and expressed second thoughts about appearing on the program when his use of the term "Afro-American" caused some audience members to laugh.
"I'm hearing your audience laugh and I'm not even sure that this is where I should be addressing the situation," he said.
The interview with the actor aired on the CBS show Monday night along with an appearance by Richards' former co-star Jerry Seinfeld.
Seinfeld, who had issued a statement saying he was "sick over this horrible, horrible mistake" and calling it offensive, was scheduled as a Letterman guest Monday. He encouraged Richards to make a satellite appearance to talk about the incident, a CBS publicist said.
Richards deserved the chance to apologize, Seinfeld said on "Late Show."
"He's someone that I love and I know how shattered he is about" what happened, Seinfeld said.
Richards' Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--."
He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.
"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother------. Throw his a-- out. He's a n-----!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.
Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience, "It shocks you, it shocks you" and refers to "what lays buried."
While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping "Oh my God" and people respond with "ooh" after Richards uses the n-word.
Eventually someone calls out: "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. 'Seinfeld,' that's it."
Richards' explanation was reminiscent of Mel Gibson's assertion that he wasn't anti-Semitic after he let off a barrage of Jewish slurs during a traffic stop last summer: despite what came out of his mouth, that's not what is inside him.
Industry colleagues were in no hurry to accept Richards' apology.
Veteran publicist Michael Levine, whose clients have included comedians George Carlin, Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield, called Richards' remarks inexcusable. Comics often face hecklers without losing their cool, he said.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Levine said Monday. "I think it's a career ruiner for him. ... It's going to be a long road back for him, if at all."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jahme Art Gallery

Some Updates From The Jahme Art Gallery, L'Agulhas

Jahme Art Newsletter. January, 2008

Art Gallery & Studio
Tel: +27-28-4357743 – P.O. Box 58 – L’Agulhas – 7287 – Western Cape – Republic of South Africa


First of all we wish you the very best for 2008.

Renovations of our place here at the southern most tip of Africa are almost complete. We moved into the new gallery wing early in December last year & are happy to say that our paintings are on full display to the public. Sales have been great and we have made good friends with people from all over the world who have purchased our work.

Our personal website should be up and running in the near future, but until then, if you want to look at what Graham has been up to lately, go to his site at Artists for Conservation: http://www.natureartists.com/graham_jahme.asp

I am busy originating illustrations for my latest children's book about elephants & having great fun painting bright, bold abstracts. You can purchase & see previews of my book of poetry "African Dust on the Soles of My Feet" and my children's illustrated book "Africa's Amazing ABC" at: http://www.lulu.com/susancookjahme

Here are images of a few paintings we have in our Studio Gallery:

Lion Study - Graham Jahme

Sunshine Girl - Sukie, (Susan Cook-Jahme)

Figs for Dinner - Sukie, (Susan Cook-Jahme)

In Full Flight - Graham Jahme

Below two out of fifteen of our paintings purchased this month:

Chipmbere & Calf - Graham Jahme

Isaak at Sunset - Sukie, (Susan Cook-Jahme)

If you have an artwork from either of us, we trust you are getting as much pleasure out of it as we did creating it. There are days we wake up and feel like pinching ourselves to see if it’s true…you see, we live our dream as full time artists, - and meeting people like you who share our lives by having a part of our essence in your painting or photograph purchased from us means a great deal to us.

Until next time,
Hamba Kahli – go in peace -

Graham & Susan

Anyone wishing to subscribe to our latest art newsletter, Jahme Art Newsletter: Subscription Email: 74824-subscribe@zinester.com
Anyone wishing to subscrible to my writing newsletter, Happy Scribbler's Newsletter: Subscription Email: 79469-subscribe@zinester.com

Darkest South Africa