We never learn, do we?

No, it seems we never, ever, learn.

No matter how hard the lesson has been. No matter how much we have suffered, no matter how others need our support and empathy, we never fucking learn.

I wish I could express my outrage concerning the South African policy to Zimbabwe. The SA government does not only support Mugabe's atrocities, but also they allow to go through their territory new arms for Mugabe's government, even when they know the episodes of political violence and the tyranny of the current government of Zimbabwe.

It seems that Thabo Mbeki and his allies have forgotten how the UN enforced an arms embargo against the Apartheid supporting regime of their nation. It seems they have forgotten what happened in Rwanda not long ago, when we chose to look elsewhere. It seems they lack not only memory, but also compassion and common sense.

And now, in this age of political correctness, we must be cheerful, nod and say yes, the Emperor's new clothes are beautiful. We must be soft, we cannot say "You are awful", we must not offend and agree politely that genocide and oppression are cultural peculiarities. The age of irony, sarcasm and dissent seems gone.

I dream of those times, when you could tell truths without being accused of bigotry.

We need to be blunt and shocking, we need to change.

Here, a memory of a past long gone, when calling an asshole an asshole was not frowned at:



Disclaimer:

I KNOW that all white South Africans were not racists. I know that there was a lot of pain and struggle before black people were granted equality, it did not happen out of the blue. I know that much of the arms embargo was nothing but lip service. I know the fact that the UN decided to not support the apartheid government was not magical. But even knowing all this I just cannot avoid to think that the acts of the South African govt. are not very different from supporting the old apartheid system.

Fortunately there are people who stand up and refuse to go on the macabre parade of indifference. According to the BBC, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said it would be grossly irresponsible to transport the lethal cargo and the high court in Durban ruled the transport inland as illegal. It is Mbeki and his ministers the ones that refuse to do the right thing, on the excuse of sovereignty. But, we have known for long time that Mbeki has impaired judgment, after all, what can we expect of a guy who kept an AIDS denier as minister of health?