On the medical front, progress is slow but steady. I can now walk around the house without support and attend the clinic using a walker rather than a wheelchair.
Why Does the Liberal World So Often Take the Side of Evil?
On Saturday, the 7th of October, while watching TV in my ward, as I was taken off for my second surgery despite my own personal pain, I was shocked by what was unfolding in Israel, as were my two ward mates and the nurses. In fact, I could not quite believe it, and it was only the following day that the real horror of the events that had occurred became clear to me.
For us who have been close to or witnessed the depravity of man in his treatment of fellow man, it is always the shock of the lack of reaction from the 'free world' that lingers in one's mind the most. If nothing else take some time to press the link of the Dean John da Costa. The terrorists did not just shoot down one airliner but two, murdering many of those who survived in the aftermath.
I do not think these atrocities were spontaneous. They were premeditated in planning, indoctrination and execution. When extremist groups under the guise of freedom fighters, liberators or guerillas carry these attacks out, they become terrorists. Mass rape, torture and execution are used to shock the establishment, put fear in and intimidate the civilian population and also importantly, if the perpetrators succeed, a vicious retaliation which, unfortunately, the world press will condemn more than the original dastardly deeds.
We saw it in our war in Rhodesia, specifically in the Mount Darwin area, it was not long before my unit and I were to see it first hand; there for the purpose of intimidating the local population to their cause or at least ensuring their silence in not reporting their presence. Perpetrators often identified from the area, choosing their victims carefully, not randomly. Victims were often just chosen to set an example, often people of standing locally. Teachers were a favourite. Why not cut off a few sets of lips and tongues to ensure silence?
Later in the war, it was to be farmers and missionaries, including babies slaughtered while claiming it was Rhodesians who did it. The one thing it did do was for us to understand surrender in combat would never be an option, nor was leaving a live comrade in the field. It was do or die. I had never heard of one Rhodesian soldier surrendering.
“In saying humans can carry out bestial acts is an insult to the beasts. Humans, with their so-called intelligence, can carry out acts of violence beyond those of any other animal.” - Peter MacSporran
Probably the worst in our war was the downing of two civilian passenger aircraft. Not only did they shoot them down, they slaughtered eighteen survivors on the ground. There was no outrage from the world, no sympathy - just a “deafening silence.” This quote found a place in Rhodesian history after the sermon given by Dean John da Costa at the memorial service. The deafening silence. 8 September 1978
After the end of the independence war, the very worst and largest acts of genocide transpired. It was called the Gukurahundi, which was instigated by the tension between Zimbabwe's liberation movements, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which had combined to form a party of national unity, known as the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front/ZANU-PF). It seems the hand of friendship was one of convenience by Mugabe, leaving the Ndebele feeling marginalised. It culminated in January 1983 when Mugabe released the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade on the Karanga and Ndebele people in the south and west of the country, where they were allowed to kill, rape and torture anyone, man, woman or child from these tribes without fear of punishment. In fact, they were just carrying out their leader's orders, it was not indiscipline. They were like unleashed mad dogs. Some twenty thousand people, all civilians including children, were murdered. Most were dumped down old mine shafts and village wells, mass graves with many left where they died. To this day, nobody has been held accountable, those giving the order or those the killing. Strangely the British Military Advisory Training Team were still training elements of the Zimbabwe army at that time; surely they must have had an inkling of what was going on. Perfidious Albion?
And for me, this is once again the most shocking aspect of recent events. Calls for tolerance for the guilty are louder rather than for punishment. In fact, most liberals, even the BBC, are inclined to blame the victims and those of their race rather than the murderous organisation for the occurrence of the event.
“Is it ignorance or downright complicity in not outright condemning these atrocities? I think while ignorance is a factor, complicity is greater, which shows how brainwashed we have become in this so-called free world.” - Peter MacSporran
Increasingly, the double standards of the world have been niggling me. I sometimes get angry with myself and wonder why, at my age, it worries me. The truth is, it should.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edward Burke
The above quote is very often used, but in fact, what it should be is this, which sadly applies to most of us:
“There is no such thing as good men if they do nothing to fight evil when they are aware of its existence. There are only moral cowards comfortable in their responsibility-free world.” - Peter MacSporran
How many of these potential illegal immigrants entering Europe are, in fact, political activists, even potential terrorists? Who is funding them to make the trip? It is not cheap, and much of Africa still lives on not much more than a $1 a day, so how do they raise the thousands of dollars required? Then these people make use of the goodwill, or should I say the lack of political will by Western leaders to allow them entry rather than taking care of the immediate needs of their own citizen's welfare or consideration of their future security.
“It is not one country's duty to take on the responsibility of another country's citizens due to that country being unable to govern itself. Few of us would be happy to adopt the abused child down the street, then why are we happy to welcome these illegals?” - Peter MacSporran
But not all our threats are external; we seem happy to promote our own destruction by bringing into the world new grey rules based on present-day false assumptions on how we should lead our lives rather than defined evolved standards. Instead of being pragmatic about right or wrong, we are promoting confusion, allowing race, gender and activism to be tools used in mitigation of antisocial if not downright criminal, behaviour. Emotion rather than proper thought process to set our collective conscience standard. I am not religious; religion has, over the centuries, contributed to the most brutal genocides and atrocities; look at the Inquisition or the Crusades, but I do believe over the centuries, we have evolved a set of rules, even norms that have allowed our society to succeed. Now, many seem to think the grey world of this false liberalism, including tolerance or intolerance supported by false truths and downright lies, is a sustainable alternative. They are not.
My Early Days at CFU.
When Anthony and I took over as President and Vice President of the CFU respectively, we sat down with the senior management of the CFU and listed the priority issues at hand. At that time in 1992, we were in the second year of the worst recorded drought in Southern Africa, funnily enough, before climate change was deemed to be responsible for all meteorological disasters. Not only was our focus in surviving the drought but, more importantly, finding the funds to kick start agriculture when the rains returned. So the drought was the first priority, and both of us would jointly attack this.
The Government had gazetted three hundred farms for confiscation outside the willing seller, willing buyer rules that had pertained at that time. This was our second priority, and Anthony would lead this.
Up until our time, the union could raise money through licences and crop sale levies. Licences could continue, but we were aware controlled marketing was about to collapse due to poor management of the commodity marketing boards, therefore removing single-source levy collection. We would fail to collect levies unless we could find an alternative marketing system. We decided, therefore, to look at providing such a service, and I was handed the task of finding an alternative marketing system.
Further, the CFU would need to become a service operation worth belonging to rather than the statutory obligation until now, being that to farm you needed a farmer licence. Once again, it was decided to review our role and structure; this was also given to me.
Meanwhile, Anthony would continue in the forefront of the political arena, as our job was dealing with a government becoming increasingly alienated from the needs of commercial agriculture. Surely the smallholder can grow all our food? They kept saying.
Within weeks of being elected, Anthony sent me off to the Midlands Province to speak to the farmers at several farmers' associations in that region. I quickly ascertained, as I was later to find in Matabeleland, that the farmers felt they had been neglected down there, that area being on the periphery of the Gukurahundi. Long after that event, in the early eighties, white commercial farmers still found themselves targets of the remaining dissidents. One of the venues I had to talk at was at Somabhula Club, where in 1987, at the tail end of the dissident troubles, four farmers, Alan Dicks, Thys Lourens, Glynn Williams and Roy Futter, were murdered while enjoying an evening of darts. So, while the welcome was polite in 1992, being the Vice President of the CFU was not a given to being trusted. After my talk, the floor, as usual, brought up their issues, mainly cattle and some dairy. Many members I knew, such as the Shaws and the Harlpelts from the cattle judging world, but others I did not, and one particular individual, Hennie Leibenberg, let me have it on numerous issues, many that I had no knowledge of, let alone had an answer to. This was such a vociferous attack that it prompted David Hasluck, the director of the CFU, a much cleverer politician and my chaperone on the trip, to come to my rescue. What a baptism of fire. But such a good lesson. I had a lot of learning to do, I needed to know a lot more about those commodities I did not farm, such as dairy, wildlife and later horticulture. I would ensure I read all the branch minutes to be forewarned of any area grievances, real or unreal, to be able to acknowledge and have knowledge of them, if not, having the answer to resolve them. As usual, as with all farmer's meetings, the wives presented a brilliant spread for tea mid-session, and in the evening, after the mandatory beers, we all parted as friends. In my case, not so cocky.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
Comments