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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ubetcha who wrote (16365)	12/3/2002 5:10:22 AM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81914

Terry, than you very much for that piece by Tim Wood which I think is excellent. Perhaps now, you, and others on the thread, will better understand my approach particularly towards governments, generally, and the ensuing conflict with Islam. Let me highlight some specifics. >the inability of the African National Congress to demonstrate why it should be trusted to be a good steward. There is no question that the ANC needs to get its act together, principally by getting over its love affair with Marxism-Leninism. >The ANC is simply the obverse of the National Party, but with a skin pigment reflecting a majority rather than a minority. The ANC, especially under Thabo Mbeki, has been a big disappointment. Indeed, many of the unacceptable policies of the Nats, especially in commerce, have be introduced with the whites now being the target of the racism. This has prompted much white disillusionment and consequent emigration. >a cursory study of SA’s history shows that the state and its ruling party are mostly irrelevant to its real achievements and real progress. SA can be summed up as the heroic struggle of private individuals to overcome successive parasitic governments. Whereas American exceptionalism translated into a government supportive of individual liberty and achievement, SA has, for many reasons, so far failed to find a political recipe that will see collectivism substituted by individualism. I couldn't have said it better, myself. >there is a sense of the “end of history” in that there is now a reasonable expectation of a gradual dissolution of the politics of ethnic socialism, to be challenged by a conservative tradition that the country has so far lacked. I don't see it or believe it. It's just that the whites who have remained have learned to live with it and make the best of it. >The real wildcard though, one utterly ignored by the world, is SA’s deference to the Islamic bloc. One only need read the press releases of the Department of Foreign Affairs to realise that this is not an idle assertion. The reason for this orientation is worrying – SA’s first all race election was funded largely by foreign interests. In the case of the ANC, its money came from key Islamic countries in the Middle East and Asia, and there is some payback underway. >More importantly, it remains to be seen what the Islamic “agenda” is for SA. Enormous sums have been mobilised, principally from Saudi Arabia, to propagate the faith there which is increasingly of the militant, intolerant sort. Witness the paramilitary activities of Qibla and Pagad that clearly draw on Al-Qaeda. This is of great concern to me because, clearly, the East-West "rift" runs through SA and, for this reason, SA is in the front-line of any East-West (Judeo-Christian / Islamic) war. >how much damage will be done in the interim. That is unanswerable, but the sentiment is clearly negative. Most of the professional investors at this conference have warned that they believe SA is getting inexorably worse and that the country’s securities must be traded “catastrophe by catastrophe” – buy on the deratings and sell when times are good. I am also not particularly optimistic while Mbeki is in power. >We would disagree that hell-in-a-handbasket is the only scenario. Those with deep SA experience know that things are improving; instinctually and tangibly. In some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. >Trade it, but don’t bet against it and its people, just the bloodsucking governments. Such a fine notion --- I feel touched by the optimism and the sentiment. I certainly agree about the governments.