A great day for Test cricket

Captain courageous: Graeme Smith braved permanent injury to try and save the 3rd Test

The sight of South African captain Graeme Smith receiving a standing ovation as he came out to bat at the Sydney Cricket Ground, with a fractured hand and  injured elbow on the opposing arm, was one of the most stirring things I’ve seen in cricket.

There’s no other sporting contests in the world where the prospect of a draw can be so exciting even after five days of play. In the end Australia prevailed, and the good sportsmanship at the end was a far cry from the unpleasant aftermath of Australia’s controversial win over India at the same ground last year.

The relationship between the Australian and South African cricket teams has always been strained - mainly because the South Africans thought the only way to match Australia on the field was to play it tough off it. Yet, with their first series win against Australia under their belts, the Proteas have been gracious winners, and the Australians, not used to losing on home soil, have been equally gracious in defeat.

I reckon this quote from Graeme Smith, who could have been forgiven for talking about his own exploits all day, sums up the spirit of what I reckon is on of the greatest Test series of all time:

“He (Mitchell Johnson) probably would have got me if I had both arms available. It cut back off the crack there. Mitchell has bowled superbly throughout the series.”

One a side note, if I needed further proof that this was an incredible day for Test cricket it’s the following SMS exchange I had during the final hour:

Friend:I can’t believe how intense the cricket is. Come on Hauritz

Me: It gets you slowly doesn’t it

Friend: Well it’s kinds a cool. But don’t look at it as a permanent thing.

Me: It gets you slowly … shit the ginga (Andrew McDonald) dropped the catch

Friend: Yay Fantapants (McDonald) did it! Now Smithy is coming out.

Me: Smith is a legend

Friend: OMG he (Matt Hayden) dropped it!

Friend: Yay Johnson!

Me:  That was fantastic stuff. See how nothing happens but a lot happens?

Friend: English please. But a real good game.

My “friend” was my 12 year old daughter, who until today has never expressed an interest in cricket. Who needs Twenty20 to get kids into the game? All we need is Test cricket to be a good, hard, even contest played in a sporting manner. And we have just been served that up in spades.

That old “Mandela was a terrorist” chestnut rears it’s ugly head again

A disappointingly simplistic opinion piece was published in The Australian today by author Alan Gold who is described as an “a delegate to the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa” to give him some sort of credibility over a subject he seems to know sod all about.

Gold writes of his bemusement that the world would celebrate the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela and how world leaders and the rich and famous all make a bee-line to be seen anywhere near him.

He writes, “what the congregation rocking in Hyde Park probably didn’t know was that long before most of them were born, Mandela was one of the leaders of the African National Congress, who created an armed wing called the Umkhonto we Sizwe or Spear of the Nation, which was dedicated to bombing civilian, industrial, military and government targets.

“South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has accused it of torture and executions without due process.”

Gold seems to have attended the Andrew Bolt school of opinion writing where you present so-called facts by hiding the whole truth. What he doesn’t say is that Mandela and his fellow ANC founders and lawyers such as Oliver Tambo worked as hard as they could to use the South African legal system to fight Apartheid, only for blacks to lose all their rights to due legal process.

It was only as a last resort, when all the hurdles meant that even to speak out meant jail, did the ANC embark on a campaign of civil disobedience, with option that would resort to terrorism against structural targets – and not specifically aimed at killing people.

Gold also fails to mention that the torture and executions associated with the ANC mostly happened many years after Mandela was incarcerated.

He also says this: “But before Mandela is accorded the same Mahatma status as Gandhi, who peacefully reclaimed India from the British and a man whom Mandela says was his guiding light and inspiration, it’s important to examine his record as a freedom fighter. What it shows is that like so many black Africans fighting the evil of apartheid or colonialism, he has a record of advocating and condoning violence.”

Again, Mandela only ever condoned violence as a last resort, and only after the white government denied the ANC of all possible political and legal avenues, people were jailed without trial and teenagers were being shot in the back for protesting.

Gold continues: “During his presidency of South Africa, he deliberately courted leaders of nations who abuse the human rights of their citizens.”

Shit, and no Australian or Westen government has ever done this? 

And more bullshit from Gold: “It’s by examining his often overlooked past that Mandela is revealed as anything but a saint. And it’s all too tempting to forgive him and his colleagues their excesses because they were fighting a brutal and oppressive white racist regime that treated blacks as subhuman.”

Yes, which is why when he did came to power the first thing Mandela did was create “the rainbow nation” and embraced the white South Africans, knowing that turning the tables of them would have resulted in South Africa becoming a bigger basket case than Zimbabwe is today.

Gold concludes, “It’s a pity that so few people looked beyond the iconic image when he emerged from incarceration and questioned Mandela’s actions and principles. If they had they done so, it’s likely that his 90th birthday flock would have been much smaller.”

What Gold fails to realise is the reason that Mandela is so revered is for his capacity for forgiveness, and his ability to look forward in the interests of peace rather than look back through vengeance. But then when you’re willing to look back and bend the truth this is probably a very difficult concept to understand.

Canada goes beyond Sorry for past wrongs

Australia has its Stolen Generations; Canada has Where are the Children?

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children in Canada were required to attend state-funded church schools in a painful attempt to rid them of their native cultures and integrate them into Canadian society.

The Canadian Government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages, and they lost touch with their parents and customs. Contemporary accounts suggest up to half the children in some institutions died of tuberculosis.

The Age reports that a truth and reconciliation commission examining what native Indian leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada’s history will begin its work today.

The truth and reconciliation process proved successful in South Africa in addressing the past wrongs by whites and black activists during the darkest days of Apartheid, and should have been an option in Australia for going further to heal the wounds caused by the Stolen Generations and other racial injustices towards Australia’s indigenous people. 

It’s worth noting that while our own former Liberal government couldn’t even bring itself to say Sorry, Canada’s conservative prime minster Stephen Harper will start the process with a public apology in parliament.

I’m sure Prime Minister Harper will be confident the apology will receive the same mostly positive response in Canada as it did here in Australia – it’s with noting this paragraph in the article: “Our residential schools system was probably more systemic and more generational than even in Australia.”

http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/

 

 

 

MK shows what a stupid racist prick he is

MK, the fucktard’s fucktard over at A Western Heart has done one of those (to quote TISM) “I might be a cunt but I’m not a fucking cunt” posts which has a go at the horrific treatment of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa.

MK writes how mobs of black South Africans, murdered, beat and looted from migrants, who they blamed for unemployment and rising food prices.

Fair enough, it’s a horrible state of affairs, not that MK feels sorry for the Zimbabweans, who are black after all.

The point of the post is simply to say “See lefties, that’s what you call real xenophobia, we supposed xenophobes here in the west have nothing on these bloody savages.”

So his brand of xenophobia (which includes referring to black people as savages – I bet he never used that language after the Cronulla riots) is OK because it doesn’t resort to violence. What he doesn’t understand that the fetid, racial hatred he espouses is one step away from the sort of bloodshed witnessed here.

While I don’t condone the violence in Johannesburg, it’s fair to say it was driven by desperation and the migrant workers became easy targets. While abhorrent, it’s a lot easier to explain than the rantings of some shithead blogger whose only reason for being a xenophobic racist cunt is the fact he doesn’t like the colour of certain people’s skin.

Note: I would have happily posted my opinion of MK and his post at A Western Heart, but I am banned from commenting. I welcome any comments from him or anyone who agrees with his views.

Everywhere is feeling the pinch

Here is an edited excerpt from a newspaper article about rising petrol prices and household expenses. It says nothing new but is interesting for reasons outlined below.

Tough times ahead
The increase in the retail price of petrol will result in a “period of anguish” for households, an economist said on Wednesday.
Absa economist Chris Hart said the increase would cause food prices to rise and lead to fuel inflation. Hart said the country was expecting a hike in electricity prices as well as an increase in the rate of taxes in the coming months.
“We will see a period of anguish. A significant number of households will lose their houses and cars because of the pressure of the high prices,” Hart said.
Household income would not keep up with the pricing pressure.
The Chemical, Pulp and Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) said the effect of the petrol increase on food prices was enormous.
“Although the department of minerals and energy say they do not have control of petrol prices, we are not happy with this increase and would like to discuss the repercussions with them and other government departments,” spokesperson Keith Jacobs.
Economist Mike Schussler said there was a possibility of a high interest rate hike next month.
He said the petrol increase could lead to the Reserve Bank Governor calling for an emergency monetary policy committee meeting.
A Reserve Bank spokesperson declined to comment.
“We do not comment on petrol prices,” she said.
She would not be drawn to comment on the effect it would have on interest rates.

While it’s a familiar story, what’s interesting about is it’s from the South African Star newspaper which shows that fuel price increases, high inflation, rising interest rates are not specific to Australia – the only difference with this story as opposed to one that would appear in an Australian newspaper is the ommission of the words “working families”.

What this shows is that pinning hopes on the Rudd Government’s first Budget to contain things is naive to say the least. Regardless of what we were told during the election campaign it’s global forces that influence our economy not the government fiscal policy. All the government can do is avoid the moving obstacles rather than steer us through them.

P.S. It’s worth noting that in South Africa, inflation is running at higher than 10 per cent. In Australia it is 4.1 per cent.