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How does one measure evil?
Is there such a thing as a universal 'index' according to which deeds of
evil can be judged? If we, for example, take the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights as the final arbiter of what is evil and what is not, how could
we then judge Zimbabwe as being more evil than, for example, China and Saudi
Arabia – two countries enjoying marvelous ties with the West despite their
abysmal human rights records. Is this blatant hypocrisy, or just the
obligatory Real Politic of individual nations surviving in a cynical world
where might (financial, military, etc) is right?
Be that as it may; it would be quite an interesting exercise to give Joe and
Jane Average a list of five words to rank according to the evilness 'index'
of the West. For example; take the words Gowon, Mengisthu, Hutu, Kim IL Sung
and Apartheid, and then give them a number, 1 – 5, on a scale of the evil
they signify. Try it.
It would not be surprising if your ranking closely resembles the original
order of the words I listed. The first four words will most probably be
vaguely familiar and have some negative connotations, whereas the last word,
Apartheid, is guaranteed to conjure up images of the most evil kind.
The question now obviously is whether evil is evil most foul simply because
you know about it, especially in view of the fact that the above four words
that you are not really familiar with denote genocides of a million and
more.
Did you know that fewer than 2000
people were deliberately killed by security forces in South
Africa during the
42 years of Apartheid? And did you know that 90%
of all the politically motivated deaths during Apartheid (total 20
000) was due to Black-on-Black (mostly tribal) violence?
20 000 too many of course, but seen against the background of the
never-ending vilification of white South Africans, the four
million-man genocides mentioned above and innumerable unknown other evils
like, for example, Robert Mugabe's Knighthood, awarded by the Queen while
he was massacring 21 000 Ndebeles in 1984, surely must illustrate that
selective (media-borne) knowledge of evil can never be the ultimate criteria
when putting together an 'index' of universal evil.
Lest I stand accused of quantifying evil, let us examine the reason why
Apartheid's 2000 dead in 42 years is judged as being more evil than,
amongst others, Pol Pot's 2 million dead in 4 years and Rwanda's 1 million
dead in 3 months. Apartheid South Africa was ruled by
whites, and whites (the West) demand that their kin, wherever they may find
themselves on this lonely planet, act according to the moral standards they
have set themselves, be it those inherent in human rights, democracy or
capitalism. Whenever a white nation transgresses, it
is punished till it conforms….and rightly so.
Noble and honourable indeed the West's moral hegemony is, especially given
the fact that none of the other races bother to do so at all. Japan can't be
bothered (except financially) by China's human rights abuses, neither can
black South Africa by Mugabe's horror regime, or Saudi Arabia by
the Taliban's madness. Different moral strokes for
different coloured folks, it would seem.
But then, the West has always been on a mission…..to make existence as
livable as possible, for all humanity. A quest not easily
undertaken or brought to fruition, especially when living in the moral
outskirts of progressive human existence. like in Africa.
Did you know that the life expectancy of black South Africans nearly
equalled that of Europeans during the last decade of Apartheid? Did
you know that the black population nearly trebled during Apartheid? Did
you know that black South Africans had the highest per capita income and
education levels in Africa during Apartheid?
No, of course you
didn't….because your view of evil has already been defined.
Imagine being on a mission…to rid your surrounding world of primitive
ignorance, and then you stumble across the last hurdle (the final
acknowledgement of universal human rights, democracy, etc) – not because you
wanted to….but because your fellow runners simply refused to acknowledge its
existence.
Source URL:
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/28357.html
Posted By: Albert Brenner.
He is also a Columnist for:
The
Conservative Voice.
Click here to see Albert's Articles on The
Conservative Voice
Comment by Brian Deller.
Many people who have never really studied the pros and cons should now be
aware that South Africa is, despite all the propaganda from the ruling
ex-terror organisation called the African national Congress or ANC, one
of the most dangerous countries in the world to live in.
Robbery is so rife that even the State President's home was robbed recently
with the theft of aluminium from his luxury home's roof. It is sold
for scrap metal. Some might say "poetic justice" but rape and
murder would fit this description more aptly.
Over 20% of the whites, by far all
skilled or professionals have left South Africa leaving industry in dire
straits due to the desperate need their skills, but crime and
affirmative action where blacks are given preferential treatment by law to
all jobs both commercial and government, regardless of their skills, means
that the future looks grim for them.
A good example is that the South African
Defence Force (Army, Navy & Air Force) is failing and is unable to carry out
its commitments especially with supplying needed UN forces for African
duties (Darfur, etc) and the government is trying to attract the previously
kicked out whites into rejoining. The reported 89% HIV/AIDS rate plus
other serious diseases means that they cannot perform their duties.
There are more references to the terrible general failings in this web-site
and in such sites as
www.africancrisis.co.za
to keep those interested abreast of current events there, but when people
ask me why am I so interested in publicising the events in a country
that we left in 1999, I have to tell them, because it hopefully
educates people into realising how their opinions can be
distorted or controlled with false propaganda.
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