We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Culture of Concealment: Corruption South Africa Style

Click here to access article by Danny Schechter from Global Research.

This is an important read for people who need to understand how capitalist elites strategize to control opposition to their rule. According to the narrative put out by Western media and educational institutions, the overthrow of the apartheid system in South Africa was a "successful struggle for freedom and democracy...one of the most dramatic stories of our time." (Ref. link

In actuality, it became too expensive for the capitalist class to maintain this racial system of exploitation, and so they decided merely to co-opt black power activists into a more typical system of capitalism which is based on class exploitation--and it worked! Schlechter gives us the details.
I never imagined that the “new” South Africa, a country that I, and so many millions around the world fought for, would succumb so quickly to deep and blatant corruption. Much of it had its origins in the private sector’s “helping”/bribing willing politicians.

Its painful for me to write about this because I have been a believer in South Africa’s potential as a “Rainbow Nation” that has a lot to teach the world.