Oscar Mpetha 53


I spent the first two years of my FCO career trying to push the FCO to pressure South Africa to release Oscar Mpetha. I don’t recall Afrikaaner amputee sympathy then.

The school named after Oscar is criminally under-resourced, but then it’s only for black kids. I bet no-one from the Oscar Mpetha school ever got, or will get, bail.


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53 thoughts on “Oscar Mpetha

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  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    “And that is thrice…”

    Courtenay; Is the Circle Unbroken? I feel like I’m on a carousel.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Declare victory in a discussion, then exit the field at half-time. Is that your intent, courtenay?

    I don’t see you proffering any counterpoint, save snark.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ Ben,

    I really was checking out and you came back before I pressed the button.

    You are simply not answering what you profess you know and posted and profess to stan by.

    Why don’t you simply answer:-

    ” SA has made significant gains the last twenty-or-so years.”

    Tell us what you know….”

    Over, and over and over again you have been asked. State your points, facts and figures.

    Is that a hard task – or – you just gamiming with your posts?

    Honestly, I don’t know. But, I will sign off now and see what you have to say tomorrow.

    Kind regards to you and all.

  • Mary

    The other Apartheid state.

    How the US covered up the truth on the killing of the young American citizen on the Mavi Marmara by the Israelis who put five bullets in him all from the back.

    Documents reveal how US let Israel off the hook over ‘execution’ of American Furkan Dogan
    by Alex Kane on February 22, 2013
    http://mondoweiss.net/2013/02/documents-execution-american.html

    “In total Furkan received five bullet wounds, to the face, head, back thorax, left leg and foot. All of the entry wounds were on the back of his body, except for the face wound which entered to the right of his nose. According to forensic analysis, tattooing around the wound in his face indicates that the shot was delivered at point blank range”

    ~~~

    I visited relatives in SA a few times in Apartheid days. I felt ashamed to be white. It was vile. It was disgusting and I have never understood why a blood bath did not take place before the whites gave up their control of political power. They still have the economic power of course.

    The worst aspect were the maids who lived in the equivalent space of coal holes at the back of the gated houses. They had children and families of their own who lived miles and miles away in some terrible shanty yet they had enough love in them to treat the white babies and children of their masters and mistresses with smiles and tender care.

    What was the name of that horrible racist who mouthed obscenities and who went around on horseback?

  • Mary

    Still on topic! Ex Medialens.

    Exploitation this time by the royal hangers on of impoverished people in another land, ie slavery.

    ‘Mother and daughter are making pinatas — those colourful cardboard figures filled with sweets which cascade out when their cardboard casing is broken with a stick. They have become a popular source of amusement at middle-class birthday parties, weddings and other celebratory events in Britain.

    Among the companies that sell them in sizeable quantities is Party Pieces, the Berkshire-based business run by the Duchess of Cambridge’s family, which offers more than 40 types on its website, in all manner of designs, from lions and castles to Minnie Mouse.

    Since Carole and Michael Middleton have never been slow to cash in on their royal connection (last year they launched a range of regally-themed trinkets to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee), they now include giant pinatas in party packs called Little Prince and Little Princess: blue for a boy, pink for a girl.

    Such matters are of small concern to 38-year-old Monica Villegas and her daughter. Each week, she must make a set number of pinatas, which varies according to how big they are and how intricate the design.

    They are among the many thousands shipped to Britain via a chain of distributors and sold to retailers including Party Pieces.
    To meet her target, Monica invariably works ten hours a day, seven days a week — and even then she needs the help of her 18-year-old son, Jonathan, and little Stephanie, who assists her after nursery school by sticking on the bar-codes and labels.
    While the Middletons sell their pinatas for £12.99 each, Monica sometimes earns as little as 10p an hour.’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283104/Kate-Middletons-family-business-The-ghetto-families-10p-hour-making-party-gifts-Carole-Middletons-30m-business-empire-Party-Pieces.html#ixzz2LhuhwZMP

    Those Mail readers who are royalists must choke on their cornflakes when they see this stuff.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    The name of the (not very good) horseman was Eugene Terreblanche. Now deceased – he got hacked to death by a couple of blacks.

  • Mary

    Radio 4 Today this morning. Two items of interest. Ah diddums to Wallis btw.

    0751 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qsph3/live

    Civil Rights lawyer Chase Madar and former spokesman for the State Department PJ Crowley debate whether Bradley Manning, the man who passed secret documents to Wikileaks, is a whistleblower. This comes on the day of Manning’s 1000th day in detention for his actions.

    HEAR the discussion:
    Manning spends 1000th day in detention
    Bradley Manning, the American soldier who passed over 200,000 secret documents to Wikileaks, will spend his 1000th day in detention today…

    audioboo.fm/BBCR4Today

    ~~~

    and Neil Wallis

    0833
    It was announced yesterday that former executive editor of The News of the World, Neil Wallis, will not face charges for phone hacking. He talks about his experience.

    HEAR the interview here:
    Neil Wallis: Arrest was ‘terrible ordeal’
    Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis will not face charges over phone hacking

    http://www.bbc.co.uk
    Pat. Pending @Cupid5tunts tweeted: “More journalists under arrest in UK than Iran”, says free man @neilwallis1 #r4today #incredible
    23 Feb 2013 08:46 on Twitter

    So Neil Wallis still doesn’t accept or understand the damage his colleagues and other journalists did to peoples lives, then? He was just describing exactly what many other people experience when they’re under suspicion. A shame that he’s not more contrite about the behaviour of his part of Fleet Street and was perfectly happy to see them attend dawn raids on “ordinary” people. [signed] M
    ~~~

    PS I am not on Twitter and I am not the ‘M’ above

  • Mary

    Oh yes it was Terre’blanche, that kindly man who ‘spent three years in prison for assaulting a black petrol station worker and for the attempted murder of a black security guard in 1996. On 3 April 2010, he was hacked and beaten to death on his farm by a black farm labourer, allegedly over a wage dispute.’

    The hate within him showed in his face and in the way he spat out his slime.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Terre'Blanche

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    ‘Blood comes cheap, and with budgets tight at home, western leaders are happy with the current arrangement. Rebel terrorist fighters are being paid between $500 and $2000 per month, and arms are free of charge through various NATO proxies and Gulf States.

    Their job assignment is a blunt one – to intimidate loyal pro-Syrian citizens, and to butcher thousands of innocent civilians – all in all, inflicting a reign of terror much like that one engineered by Washington in Nicaragua during the 1980′s. This is who Washington, London and Paris are backing in their quest to finally bring Syria under their globalist umbrella.’-UKColumn

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i-QQsFyCEAw

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Oh, I see. You’re a facts and figures kind of bloke, Courtenay. Here’s a fact; SA elected Mandela in 1994 ( a Bantu, no less). It took the US a century and a half to elect a black Chief Exec. Progress (need I explain the concept?—data to support?) is slow with mankind. The question is; what happens to SA when he dies? Sorry, no prescient ownership of facts related to that event.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ Ben,

    Very well then.

    The demographics of the US is that the whites were and still are a majority and the blacks a minority; the reverse was the case in South Africa. Your point is taken nevertheless – there was racism in both countries which operated as a block against electing an African or person of African descent.

    I really wanted to hear you on points such as:-

    – Income distribution on a comparative ethnic based assessment.
    – The socio-economic conditions by reference to pre and post Apartheid.

    Even without facts and figures, someone who has visited or lived in South Africa will have formed an impression about those issues.

    Kind regards.

  • Indigo

    @ Courtenay Barnett, you ask,

    What is the cure for prejudice and bigotry?

    We are what we learn, Courtenay.

    Unlearning and re-learning are complex and infinitely long processes …

    We start with ourselves.

  • Mary

    Israeli Apartheid Week 2013

    The lessons of apartheid and the Palestinian popular struggle

    MEMO, PSC and JfJfP invite you to a public seminar during Israeli Apartheid week 2013 on ‘The lessons of apartheid and the Palestinian popular struggle’.

    Venue: Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
    Date: Monday 25th February 2013 @ 7pm-9pm

    Organised by Middle East Monitor, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Justice for Palestinians

    Speakers:

    Sami Abu Shehadeh

    Sami is a long term Palestinian activist and is currently a PhD student at Tel Aviv university focussing on Jaffa as an Arab Cultural centre during Mandate Palestine 1920-1948. Sami is a leading activist in the Balad Party and a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality council representing Jaffa.

    Mahmoud Zwahre

    Member of the Al Ma’sara Popular Resistance Committee in the West Bank

    Chaired by:

    Victoria Brittain

    FREE EVENT BUT LIMITED SPACE – RESERVE YOUR PLACE ONLINE TODAY

    http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/palestine-events/5178-the-lessons-of-apartheid-and-the-palestinian-popular-struggle

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ Indigo,

    Or – as has been said by a wise man:-

    “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”

    Lao Tzu – Chinese philosopher

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ Indigo,

    You are right, and consider this:-

    ” For Kids, Mom and Dad’s Attitudes on Prejudice Rule
    Adult words have more value than positive experiences for young: study By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

    Posted Mar 21, 2012 11:20 AM CDT
    STORY COMMENTS (12)
    (Newser) – Where do kids get prejudiced ideas from? Adults—at least when the children are young. A new study found that when first-graders were told by an adult that another group of children was “mean,” those first-graders in turn evaluated the other group as “mean”—even if they had a positive experience with the group. By third grade, adults’ words had about the same weight as the kids’ own experiences, and by fifth grade the two had completely flipped: Children at that point evaluated a group positively if they had a good experience with that group, even if an adult had spoken negatively of the group beforehand.

    “Our work suggests that older children are going to be more influenced by their own experiences, so it’s not enough for us to lecture to them about equality and diversity-related issues,” a study researcher says in a statement. “We need to help create situations and environments that foster positive experiences among children from all backgrounds…”

  • Mary

    Now the Pistorius brother is on a charge of causing the death of a woman by dangerous driving in 2010. It is now 2013? Why the delay?

    ‘The charges against Carl Pistorius over an accident involving his car in which a woman on a motorcycle died date back to 2010 but have only just emerged, local media reports say.

    They were confirmed to the BBC by Pistorius family lawyer Kenneth Oldwage.’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21563911

    The wheels of justice in SA do grind exceedingly slow and strange.

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