Opinion

'One' Good Plan?

Are wristbands, G-8, and Live-8 enough to 'Make Poverty History'?

By Itrath Syed and Derrick O'Keefe, 30 Jun 2005, TheTyee.ca

Whiteband

Text size:

Rate this:

Login/Register

The Make Poverty History Campaign, together with the Live-8 concerts around the world, is once again focusing the world's attention on Africa at this week's G-8 gathering in Scotland. Twenty years after the famous Live-Aid concerts for famine relief, Africa remains impoverished and the spotlighted remedies are still full of shortcomings.

In fact, the whole spectacle of the G-8 nations' concern for the plight of Africa is mired in hypocrisy, beyond the fact that the trendy white wristbands were apparently being manufactured by sweatshop labour in China

The stark ads with celebrities snapping their fingers to indicate the monotony of continuous child deaths from hunger are indeed compelling and powerful. It is, further, very positive that the star-studded anti-poverty campaign highlights the critical issues of debt and unfair trade, while also spotlighting child poverty here in Canada.

Credible dishonesty?

But the larger discussion surrounding Africa - especially the sound bites coming from the likes of Bush, Blair and Martin - is too often patronizing, incomplete and even dishonest.

The whole official discussion around the plight of Africa is rooted firmly in the discourse of charity. And like Naomi Klein and others have so eloquently pointed out, the Global South does not need charity. It needs liberation from the neo-liberal economic regime, and from the neo-colonial military and political regimes that are systematically stealing its wealth and starving its people.

Contrary to the widespread notion of an infantilized Africa needing only "more attention" from the West, the continent has a rich history of struggle against the Western powers for independence and economic justice. South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, which gained worldwide solidarity in the 1980s, is best known, but hardly alone in terms of strivings for genuine independence.

Poor people, rich land

The history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - known as Zaire during thirty-some years of dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seku - points to a more realistic diagnosis for Africa's poverty than simple neglect: the people are so poor, because the land is so rich, to paraphrase Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano's take on the resource rich corners of Latin America.

Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's only democratically-elected prime minister, was murdered with the support of Belgian and U.S. operatives, for daring to envision an independent country that kept some, if not all, of the proceeds of its resource wealth for its own people.

Lumumba - like Ken Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Ogoni struggle against Shell Oil - was killed for daring to assert economic independence from the West. Death is the punishment that has met so many who have dared to upset the imbalance of the world's resource allocation upon which modern neo-colonialism rests.

Maintain 'disparity'

Back in 1948, famous Cold War American diplomat George Kennan bluntly explained the real U.S. objectives in world affairs:

"We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population ...our real task in the coming period is to...maintain this position of disparity. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratization."

Peace and social justice activists have been busy these past few years protesting the naked imperialism in the Middle East, from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, to the Wall that is concretizing apartheid in Palestine. We might do well, though, to pay some more attention to Africa, where the U.S. military is busy manoeuvring to monopolize - you guessed it - oil and natural gas reserves.

'Rotting footprint'

In fact, the U.S. already imports 15 percent of its oil from West Africa, and that figure is expected to rise. The U.S. Navy is considering setting up a base on the tiny island of Sao Tome, for instance, to help secure newly discovered oil fields in the Gulf of Guinea.

The citizens of the G-8 countries are consuming more than our fair share and leaving an oversized, rotting footprint on the earth. And there is a very real and very explicit economic system that is structured in such a way as to maintain and entrench this disparity.

The fashionable discourse of charity and "saving Africa," then, only confirms all of the feelings of largesse and superiority that some in the North need to feel, without mentioning the darkness that's still very much there at the heart of modern-day imperialism.

Charity plus

It would be far more substantial than charitable concerts and sentiments -- and far more unsettling to the most privileged - if a movement were to be constructed around the idea of northern responsibility and complicity in the starvation of the children of the South.

So yes, give the aid: 0.7% percent of GDP, sure. But, beyond that, remove the strings of neo-liberal restructuring that the aid is so often linked to, and cancel the foreign debts of Africa and the rest of the so-called Third World. And not just a portion of it either, but the whole usurious and asphyxiating debt.

Once that monumental boot on the neck is lifted off, the world can begin a discussion about reparations for all that was stolen, confiscated and destroyed during the various colonial occupations and decades of unfair trade.

Paying the ecological, financial and moral debt that the western world owes Africa could really make poverty history, but it first requires an honest look at the history, and moving beyond the impoverished rhetoric of noblesse oblige and charity.

Itrath Syed is a graduate student in Women's Studies at the University of British Columbia and long-time social justice activist. Derrick O'Keefe is an editor of the weekly on-line journal Seven Oaks Magazine. [Tyee]

18 Comments:

Login or register to post comments

  • Camgra

    6 years ago

    Comments on "'One' Good Plan?"

    Last Sunday I watched an interview with Bono of U2 on Meet The Press. He was very clear that corruption is a major issue that seriously complicates aid delivery but that NGOs are on the ground that can get work done with properly targetted aid. His main point though, was that charity is an individual matter but African aid is about justice and human rights. And that we can solve the problem.
    Personally, I'm nervous about the word reparations. Who, exactly, pays? Who, exactly, receives the blood money? Is cancelling debt considered a reparation? Is re-writing trade law a proper repayment? Is getting the right anti-viral drug to the right person affordably a reparation? Would the majority of the people who live in G-7 countries prefer to make a social investment for the future in Africa or wind up in court sorting out who did what to who? We can have a Truth and Reconciliation hearing later but right now there is an emergency.

  • lynn

    6 years ago

    It's the conditions attached to the alleged debt relief that are a big part of the problem... as the West slyly entrenches itself and privatization into Africa. Another great article worth reading, besides this one, is at:

    vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20050624095334717

  • G West

    6 years ago

    Kennan was not talking about Africa when he wrote the statement quoted above. Not that that excuses his attitude; the context, however, was Asia and not Africa. In the same text, he went on to say, in the spirit of realpolitik, the following:

    Quote:
    In the face of this situation we would be better off to dispense now with a number of the concepts which have underlined our thinking with regard to the Far East. We should dispense with the aspiration to "be liked" or to be regarded as the repository of a high-minded international altruism. We should stop putting ourselves in the position of being our brothers' keeper and
    refrain from offering moral and ideological advice. We should cease to talk about vague and--for the Far East--unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.

    In the light of the kinds of slogans being utilized by both the Bush administration and the organizers and spiritual guides of Live 8, it is hard not to wonder if there is any awareness of the internal contradictions between what we in the West say and what we continue to do with respect to the third world.

  • Backpacker2

    6 years ago

    Oh, God! Yet another concert for something or other to do with Africa. Fine, do whatever you want with Africa - I'm sick of hearing about it.

  • tommymoore

    6 years ago

    Bono et al are idiots. The problem on our planet today is NOT poverty. The problem is AFFLUENCE.

  • Truman Green

    6 years ago

    Itrath Syed and Derrick O'Keefe, thank you for writing this rare glimpse of truth regarding poverty in Africa. I've been ranting and raving all of this stuff for years. Your mention of the Belgian Congo and Patrice Lumumba were right on. Even today I cannot read Lumumba's naive speeches without getting quite choked up. My sister, an American citizen worked for the so-called "Peace Corp" in Zaire, (now laughably the Democratic Republic of Congo) during the early nineties and I received numerous letters from her about the wonderful time she was having working for the American govenment at a time when it was keeping Mobutu in power. Here's a pre-CanWest article from the Vancouver Sun, entitled, "Mobutu grabbed $4b": "LONDON--Decades of embezzling by Zaire's ruling elite allowed President Mobutu Sese Seko to accumulate a personal fortune that peaked at $4 billion US in the mid-l980s, the Financial times newspaper said yesterday. The newspaper said the estimates of his fortune were made by officials from the U.S. treasury and International Monetary Fund. It said WESTERN GOVERNMENTS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS PROVIDED AID TO MOBUTU DESPITE CLEAR EVIDENCE THAT THE COUNTRY'S WEALTH WAS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY STOLEN." The evil perpetrated upon Africa by Western Europe and North America since the days of slavery and up through Leopold II's private ownership of the Congo to the Cold War is so disgusting that it is only partially processable by the human brain, and if there was actual justice in the world we'd have to pay a price equally unfathomable. Incidentally, there has been absolutely NO net foreign aid to Africa in the last 50 years. Western Nations have stolen far more in resources than they have contributed in foreign aid. Why this isn't common knowledge proves to me that we're not only a criminal species but a very stupid one also.

  • Yammer

    6 years ago

    "Paying the ecological, financial and moral debt that the western world owes Africa could really make poverty history, but it first requires an honest look at the history, and moving beyond the impoverished rhetoric of noblesse oblige and charity."

    First, I don't think, as a nation, Canadians are even UP TO the rhetoric of charity abroad. Some of us are; but I doubt that a majority wants it. If it was a popular issue, in this day and age of pollsters and spin doctors, you would think that all parties would campaign on it.

    Second, honest looks at the ignominious history of colonialism abound. If we did not have these self-chiding tendencies, the history and political science factories of every western university would collapse from the sudden vacuum.

    A far more meaningful honest look is at the present, which, unfortunately, would require us to see African leaders decimating African people.

    You can certainly attach blame to the colonial mindset, which destroyed moderate opposition, leaving only the unreasonable to pick up the pieces.

    And you should attach blame to amoral capitalists who collaborate with some frankly evil regimes. I believe that Canada is among the top exporters of small arms and ammunition.

    Nonetheless, the pressing issues are that the rule of law does not prevail, which allows the rich to beggar the poor and tribal animosities to break into genocides.

    Where is the responsibility to fix it? Normally, you would say, with each national government. Not aid organizations or foreigners. After all, we thought it was a violation of sovereignty to depose poor old Saddam Hussein.

    And if the rule of law is to prevail, we cannot simply forgive debt without attaching conditions. It sets a bad precedent.

    The humane options, as I see them, are two:

    1. Pax Americana, hoping that Caesar Bush is righteous.

    2. Debt relief and investment reform, but only when linked to tangible improvements in the human rights of nations who apply for such succor. (These are universal rights and would therefore trump superstition, such as tribal law and shari'a, whenever they come into conflict.) Foment revolution in nations which do not readily agree to these terms.

  • ouhite

    6 years ago

    Yammer

    you say:
    "First, I don't think, as a nation, Canadians are even UP TO the rhetoric of charity abroad"

    Canada does not and has not participated in nearly as much corruption as the US has - corruptions causing problems which later on needs money thrown at it as relief, so I don't see why you would judge Canada in the same way as the US.

    Canada also did not kill off its native population the way the US did, so it is actually already doing reparations here at home.

    As to Iraq... Americans would not engage in this war if they knew that the international community would force them to its to completion with the help of 22000 dead American bodies, something which would actually be quite humiliating if you think about it, so think again about why the world hates the US and its "Pax Americana". 22000 is the number of dead Iraqi civilians.

  • Fiat lux

    6 years ago

    A waste of time and effort. No matter what those politicians will promise, they're lying their eyes out. While they may be promising the world, their own officials are engaged in the GATS negotiations at the WTO in Geneva, which, when signed, will hand the whole world, including the G8 countries, over to corporate dictatorship. These demonstrations are at the wrong place and the wrong time. To begin with they should be demonstrating at universities where the fraudulent theory of neoclassical market economics are being taught. Which means every university and college around the globe.

    Until the power of the crime wave of market economy is broken, there's no hope. Ed Deak, Big Lake,

  • merlin

    6 years ago

    Why I don't like Mondays...
    Some of those white writsbands might be made in sweatshops but not the ones being sold in Canada...check out makepovertyhistory.ca where it explicitly says they are 'union made in Canada.'
    I really like the Tyee but I consider this poor journalism.
    Moreover, I am so tired of hearing people diss Bob Geldof. Hey, none of you has anything close to the hit his Boomtown Rats had and at least he is out there taking action unlike so many of us sitting around saying Canada can't afford to do something about this. We can't afford not to.

  • seanorr

    6 years ago

    There are larger problems, namely the system of accounting we use; the GDP. As long as its profitable to deregulate environmental laws, labour laws, and access to resources, this will always be a problem between the neo-colonial G8 and the poor 180. http://www.truecosteconomics.org

    Replace the GDP with the GPI.

  • beyond dualism

    6 years ago

    ten thousand villages stores in canada are carrying the white bands, which ARE union-made by local 175 of the ufcw. the money goes to the make poverty history campaign, which is a very broad-based coalition of all kinds of folks who just want to try to address the very real and devastating effects of poverty in this, our world.

    i'm also a cynic, believe me, but we all have to TRY things. if we don't TRY to make a stink, get media attention, get people talking about issues, we have no right to be cynical or complain (or make fun of others who are TRYING to do something for others). the concerts were very mainstream, very corporate (in terms of media deals with aol, ctv, et al. but also in terms of the musicians... not indies but big name, corporate label musicians).

    but they are celebrities and the media only pays attention to them, so we have to leech on to them if we want to reach millions (if not billions), for starters. so, we TRY that.

    i don't expect the g8 leaders to do anything. anything they do offer will certainly be wrapped in deals that filter all the aid back to their respective countries somehow or force a neoliberal agenda upon the governments in africa. i don't even think the g8 leaders could, in theory, do anything good for suffering people, given the fact that they are all responsible to transnational corporations and their lazy, greedy stockholders, NOT to the people in the countries they represent.

    but the concerts reached people and people might now think more about issues.

    grassroots initiatives - building democratic movements from the ground up, involving real (including especially the poor) people - are the only way to bring about effective changes. so why don't we all (those of us who work for change) take this opportunity to look around for grassroots campaigns and organisations to work with - and by 'WORK', i DO mean get out and DO things, rather than just talking/writing/blogging about issues.

    some ideas:
    -buy Fair Trade products (but look out for people talking about their products being 'fairly traded' because they can be exploiting the good name that Fair Trade organisations have carefully built... there are accountable organisations that guarantee that all producers have been paid LIVING wages for their work. one suggestion (as mentioned already) would be TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES (tenthousandvillages.ca).
    -work with development groups that undermine the 'progress' of the economic model known as 'globalization' and seek to directly work with real people in all countries to help them create meaningful work for one another that can sustain us all (and yes, it is possible to spread wealth around without global capitalism... actually, it can only happen if we ditch the free trade scam)
    -work with anti-war groups, anti-poverty groups, social justice groups in general. show you care by being one more person DOING something rather than talking all the time or, even worse, being ignorant of all the real issues.
    -DON'T get your information from corporate media - that means all of the mainstream sources (sorry, but it's the reality, absurd as it seems; because, after all, we do have a right to information that doesn't serve a greedy agenda)

    maybe some others can continue what i'm doing here and offer suggestions???

    if you care, people, then take action, get involved, build community. it's not just for 'hippies' or 'granola' folks (i don't subscribe to the use of those concepts myself). we are all losing these days (excluding the few wealthy members of our societies). let's TRY to win, together.

  • Truman Green

    6 years ago

    Since I first read this article last week I've heard three well-known characters talk on this subject, Romeo Dallaire, Stephen Lewis (Lewis has a shiny new Stephen Lewis Foundation for personal self-aggrandizement) and Lloyd Axworthy. With the exception of Dallaire, who made a slight reference to the West's setting up and supporting of dictators during the cold war, not one of these people approached the question of HOW Africa got into its present condition, as though it happened without cause. It's like talking about the Bernardo-Homolka victims without mentioning Bernardo and Homolka. Axworthy actually referred to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative without mentioning that it was inspired by the fact that within a three year period $5 Billion US paid to the Angolan government by oil companies completely disappeared into the pockets of Angolan "politicians", that is, gangsters. The commentors here are obviously better educated than most about what has caused the poverty in Africa, and several offer constructive ideas, but I think what we need is for the International Criminal Court to lay charges against the states who destroyed the place, including the extractive industries, and to thereby set reparations according to the criminal responsibility. Okay, I admit it, I'm just dreaming. The ICC has no such mandate. Nothing will happen to improve the conditions in Africa until the world faces the truth about what has happened in Africa, but thanks again to the writers for this primer. And especially thanks for that paragraph about the murder of Patrice Lumumba (my personal hero), as far as I can tell one of the only two honest and sincerely dedicated politicians of the twentieth century--the other one our own Tommy Douglas. Mandela is disqualified by his 20 million dollar personal fortune and his welcoming of the Mobutu crowd into South Africa after they stole the entire wealth of the Congo.

  • jarofclay

    6 years ago

    ----------
    From: David Buckna
    Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 13:48:58 -0700
    To:
    Cc:
    Subject: British Columbia: A Province of ONE?

    Mr. Campbell

    Would you be willing to sign this proclamation, or something similar?

    Let's make our province the first in Canada to be a province of ONE.

    Regards,
    David Buckna
    Kelowna
    ---
    WHEREAS,Â*Â*healthy people and healthy communities are the centrepiece of any strong and vibrant society; and

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*Canadians from the Province of British Columbia are amongst the most generous people in the world; and

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*ONE billion people live on less than $1 a day; and

    WHEREAS, ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, is a new effort by Canadians to rally Canadians – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty; and

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*a pact directing support for basic needs - education, health, clean water, food and care for orphans - would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries; and WHEREAS,Â*Â*ONE is an unprecedented bipartisan political movement in Canadian history and part of a fast growing global movement to make poverty history in 2005;

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gordon Campbell, Premier of the Province of British Columbia, do hereby proclaim our community to be A PROVINCE OF ONE in British Columbia, and I encourage everyone to recognize the devastating impact poverty and AIDS have around the world and take action to bring about change.
    ---
    http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca
    ===
    http://politicaltechnology.com/one/blogs/one_blog/archive/2005/06/28/98.aspx

    posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 5:44 PM by Tayloe
    Iowa Becomes ONE!

    Today Governor Vilsack of Iowa signed a proclamation making Iowa the first State of ONE. States and cities signing these proclamations put positive pressure on world leaders as they prepare to meet at the G8, showing them that folks in the Heartland want to end global AIDS and poverty. Â*Susan Guy, our Heartland ONE Field Organizer, joined Iowa ONE volunteers in announcing the proclamation.Â* Iowa will be sending delegates to the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, and then on to the G8 summit in Scotland.

    Here’s what the Governor of Iowa had to say:

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*healthy people and healthy communities are the centerpiece of any strong and vibrant society; and

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*Americans from the State of Iowa are amongst the most generous people in the world; and

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*ONE billion people live on less than $1 a day; and

    WHEREAS, ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty; and

    WHEREAS,Â*Â*a pact directing support for basic needs - education, health, clean water, food and care for orphans - would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries; and WHEREAS,Â*Â*ONE is an unprecedented bipartisan political movement in American history and part of a fast growing global movement to make povertyhistory in 2005;

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, Tom Vilsack, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim our community to be A STATE OF ONE in Iowa, and I encourage everyone to recognize the devastating impact poverty and AIDS have around the world and take action to bring about change.

    [snip]
    ---
    http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050701/ENT/507010337/1046/ENT

    Published July 1, 2005

    Live 8 concert comes to Iowa

    By KYLE MUNSON
    REGISTER MUSIC CRITIC

    By now you must have heard about Live 8: 10 charity concerts featuring 100 artists, a million spectators and 2 billion viewers around the globe, all staged on Saturday.
    Or maybe you've glimpsed rock star Bono on TV, chatting about the One Campaign, a fresh effort to rally Americans "to fight global AIDS and poverty."
    The local face of all this humanitarian hoopla is Susan Guy, 38, who as heartland field organizer for Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa (DATA) is entrusted with making sure that Bono's speechifying translates into grassroots action.

    Guy works out of her Des Moines home and oversees a seven-state region with about 200 volunteer leaders (50 of them in Iowa). About 900,000 citizens nationwide have joined One, she said.
    The concerts, the campaign, the star power - all this is an effort to influence eight of the world's most powerful leaders (including President Bush) at the G8 Africa Summit next Wednesday through Friday in Gleneagles, Scotland.
    "We're wanting the United States government to commit more funding for anti-poverty measures around the world," Guy explained. Specifically, One is pushing for an additional 1 percent of the U.S. budget to be devoted to the cause.

    The G8 deadline has kept Guy on the move. Earlier this week she staged a press conference to announce Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack's support of One. Tonight she'll distribute information at the Particle concert at Simon Estes Amphitheater. Saturday brings the simulcast in West Des Moines of the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, featuring Will Smith, the Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Keith Urban, P. Diddy and more.
    Guy's husband, Eric, is an ordained United Methodist minister and director of youth and young adult ministries for the church in Iowa. He's on a work trip in Nigeria, so Guy will bypass the Philly concert to stay home with their sons Thaddius (Tad), 9, and Jonah, 7.

    Q. How did you land your job?
    A. I had a friend that sent me the job posting and it sat on my desk for about a month. I finally decided to apply for it. (She started in April 2004.)
    Q. No face-to-face interview with Bono, then?
    A. All this publicity with Brad Pitt and Bono and George Clooney, and I haven't met anyone. Maybe one of these days. . . . (Bono) sits on the board of DATA. He's aware of everything we're doing as an organization across the country. It's kind of neat to think that Bono knows who I am even if I haven't met him.

    Q. Let me sound completely like a high school journalist and ask what your typical day is like.
    A. This week, for example, we started working on collecting letters to President Bush for the G8 Summit. Our region is responsible for collecting 3,000 letters . . . to be delivered to the White House. (About 12,000 had been collected as of this week.) I'll go to Ames for the United Methodist Conference, to set up a booth there. To a Nadas concert. . . . Responding to the 300 e-mails that I got. Regional plans for the Live 8 concert. All of those things at one time, which is insanity.

    Q. Yikes - I'll keep this short.
    A. We work on a campaign mentality, which is "everything had to be done yesterday."
    Q. So what's your background if not politics?
    A. Ordained clergy. I've worked in nonprofit for several years. I worked in local congregations, serving as associate pastor of a local congregation in Des Moines (Highland Park Christian Church). This is the kind of work that my heart has always been in, the social justice kind of issues. It's one of those things you just can't say no to.

    Q. So is Bono a saint, or what?
    A. He's a good spokesperson. He's well-versed in the issues. Aside from the band, this is his life. He definitely brings that ability to get his message out there because the media loves him, so that doesn't hurt us at all. But it's really not about the celebrities. The celebrities . . . bring name recognition to what we're doing, generate a lot of Web hits. But the interesting thing to me is to see the number of people who have e-mailed me who said, 'I saw the commercial on MTV and I went to the Web site to check it out and I'm really interested in these issues and what you're doing.'

    http://www.data.org/heartland/

  • ouhite

    6 years ago

    Quote:
    "Mandela is disqualified by his 20 million dollar personal fortune and his welcoming of the Mobutu crowd into South Africa after they stole the entire wealth of the Congo."

    Why did he?... And how did he get so rich? (Or is it just the money he's always had?..)

  • Truman Green

    6 years ago

    outhite, I'm going to get the references for this information re. Mandela and get back to you here. It might be a few days because I have to use the internet at the library.

  • Truman Green

    6 years ago

    I'm baaaack, ouhite. So anyway...I looked through my newspaper article cutouts going back to the eighties and I couldn't find anything regarding Mandela's wealth and Mandela welcoming the Mobutu crowd into South Africa. These were guys who stole billions, eh, so it might not be far-fetched to speculate a connection. These stories were reported in the traditional dailies and are probably pretty well known by journalists. Maybe ask around. You might want to google and study the name Wouter Bassoon while you're looking--for a primer on South Africa's emergence from apartheid without a blood bath, and the role that Mandela, the "rainy day" hero played for the white population of South Africa.

  • ouhite

    6 years ago

    Truman, thanks for researching and responding to my question, I'll look at Wouter Bassoon. Btw, since the London Bombings it's interesting that I've read a few articles talking about the roots of terrorism and actually trying to address the problem on the part of the west. (though I guess those were online articles)

    • No best comments selected by an editor for this story yet. To see all comments, click the All Comments tab, above.
    • The discussion for this story is closed. No more comments can be added.