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South Africa - a brief history of naughty bottoms and itchy behinds.*** Warning, graphic content ***Going back to our originsIn order to answer this question, we have to analyze various factors both current and historic in order to attempt to predict what will happen in the future.Let’s first look at the history of the Afrikaner:The Cradle of Humankind near Muldersdrift in South Africa is where the oldest hominid fossil remains have been found, dated at 3.5 million years old.We therefore currently make the assumption that life originated at this location.Interestingly enough, in the current land expropriation without compensation debacle, proponents of this action state that there can be no limit on how far we go back in time in order to determine who has claims on land. So by that rationale, everybody in the world has a claim on South Africa.Around 45 000 years ago the most adventurous lot of the Africans started to get an itch in their behinds and moved up North, eventually settling in Spain. Europe was founded.The Africans Who Discovered Europe - Black (First) Europeans Part IIMany thousands of years later, with the arrival of the Renaissance, a whole bunch of Europeans found that their behinds were itching again and they jumped in their ships in order to go and discover the rest of the earth (the parts that they had forgotten about). War and persecution certainly acted as a strong motivating force as well.One must bear in mind that there are vast differences in climate between Europe and Africa. Africa is a pretty warm place and you can find food all year around. Europe is a different story and if you don’t gather food in the summer, you starve during winter time. This had an incredible effect on the development of technology and innovation or lack thereof, depending on where you lived.When Muslim traders landed on the East coast of Africa during the 6th century and started trading with the tribes there, they introduced the concept of capitalism i.e. you store things and you can use those things for trading purposes later (Miller, 2018. Thulamela - The Lost Gold of the Vha Vhenda: Amazon).The Netherlands was a powerful trading nation and came to South Africa in 1652 in order to establish a half-way station. The VOC was a trading company and wanted to establish a trade route with the East, specifically to trade for spices. Now today it is often cited how brutal these traders where with black slaves and that is not to be denied but the fact of the matter is that they practiced naval discipline. It was not just the slaves who were mistreated, all subordinates were.For example, have a look at the graph below:Ships returning from the East would stop at the Cape for supplies. The prevailing South Easterly wind would be used to navigate to this point. Now anybody that has ever experienced the South Easter would know of its incredible power.It can literally rip trees out of the ground and overthrow trucks:The big issue was that an approaching ship’s navigator might confuse Cape Hangklip (Red dot) for Cape Point (Purple dot) and mistakenly think that False Bay was Table Bay (Green dot and desired destination).The result was that if they turned right too soon they would be stuck in False Bay and not be able to get out until the wind changes direction. This happened so frequently that it gave False Bay its name.The company was not impressed. Too much time was lost and it was dangerous to hang around in False Bay for too long.The rule of lawSo the punishment for any ship’s navigator that made this unfortunate mistake was 400 lashes with a cat’o’nine tails and then keelhauling. Needless to say, few would have survive this punishment.They also had delightful practices on land to punish and extract information.This is an image of “Die Donker Gat” (The Dark Hole) in the Cape Town Castle. Prisoners were left here in complete darkness for days (Note: PRISONERS, not necessarily slaves).This is the torture chamber in The Castle. The hook was for suspending a prisoner from his feet and then dropping him onto his head. In the one corner there is a metal hoop built into the wall where PRISONERS, not necessarily slaves, could be chained to in order to receive their floggings.There are air vents above the door so if the prisoner had an accomplice, he would hear his buddy screaming and know that it would soon be himself screaming.A very good way to end up in this place was to defect from the Cape and find refuge somewhere in the bush and then get yourself caught. A favourite spot for these deserters was the natural caves in the mountains on the Eastern side of False Bay.So, hopefully we can all agree that atrocities were committed, not only against slaves but against anybody who broke the law?Now the common perception is that the colonists were these absolute brutes and that the native Africans were all living peacefully in harmony. So let’s have a look at …Meanwhile in Africa …The Bushmen were hunters that stalked their prey with primitive bows and poisoned arrows. Their skill of the field is legendary even to today. It was no coincidence that they were recruited into the feared 32 Battalion during the Angola war.But I digress …The colonists kept livestock and the Bushmen couldn’t believe their good luck when they found that where it could take days to track down and hunt antelope, suddenly there were hoards of the stuff right at their doorstep, conveniently confined to kraals.They made full use of the opportunity and slaughtered the dumb beasts. The did not realize that they were committing a crime because they had no sense of ownership. The field was merely providing for them in abundance.The colonists were less impressed. They retaliated and shot the bushmen. Not to mention how they feared the bushmen due to their superior skill in the field and their habit of poisoning water points.Its all just a great misunderstanding, if you think clearly over the matter.Further North more trouble was brewingFigure 1. Map of Africa showing the migration of Agro-pastoralist the impact of eastern trade and the arrival of Europeans.With modern dating methods one can follow the trail of the ancestors to the modern Chad region as long as 2400 years ago. With climate change and population expansion these peoples slowly moved towards the east and south. The Great Lakes Region split the general migration into two groups and they reached the borders of Modern South Africa around 1700 years ago. (Red arrows in map of Africa.)Also from the sixth century Muslim traders from the Near East and India started opening up trade with African people living on the coast. These traders seldom ventured into the interior of Africa, as they preferred living away from the dangers of Africa that included animals, fever and war-like people.They traded African products such as skins, timber, minerals, gold, copper and slaves for Eastern products such as ceramics, beads cloth and a variety of trinkets. The best known places where they operated from are Mogadishu, Zanzibar, Kilwa and Sofala (now Beira.) (Blue arrows in map of Africa.)Then at the end of the fifteenth century the Portuguese circumnavigated the tip of Africa and effectively cut of Muslim trade with the African coast, and opened the way for the Dutch colonisation of the Cape of Good Hope. This random movement of peoples from three different continents over many centuries had huge impact on the inhabitants of Africa.(Miller, 2018. Thulamela - The Lost Gold of the Vha Vhenda: Amazon)What is clear is that a certain group of people originating from Chad had itchy behinds just like their brothers and sisters coming from Europe who came from South Africa. The migrating black tribes (I will be soooo politically correct and not call them colonists) started to clash with the indigenous people of South Africa (the guys who stayed behind all the time and never decided to scratch where it wasn’t needed).The Dutch colonists started moving North and East (remember, these people like to do their own thing and resent being governed by restrictive powers that be). The Dutch colonists had become farmers and they were pretty damn good at it.The Afrikaner nation was born and they developed their own new language - Afrikaans.Further up North things were really going pearshaped for a lot of peopleShaka came to power and he was not only a clever military strategist (the much later SADF used his bulls-head with horns tactical formation with great success in the Angola war).Shaka was an outcast in his own tribe as a child and he returned in his early adulthood to wreak revenge on his childhood tormentors.He kinda liked the feeling of power and the result was the Mfecane. A cool two million people killed and the tribes inhabiting the central part of South Africa were either incorporated in the Zulu tribe, killed, or fled to other places. The Zulu kingdom was then, as it is today, in KwaZulu Natal on the North Eastern side of the country.Completely on his own, Shaka also figured out what the original Dutch colonists already knew from their splendid time in Europe and that was that a little bit of pain and death can really motivate people to act according to your will.He especially liked poking sharp things into people (Freud would have had a field day).He developed a new, improved version of the assegaai (spear) called the Ixwa. This name was derived from the sound it made as the assegaai was shoved into an opponent (ix) and the sound it made when it was pulled out (wa).He also liked to poke sharp sticks into the naughty bottoms of his enemies and let them sit there, contemplating their misdeeds, until they perished.Shaka’s own family started fearing him a teensy little bit, they had plotted against him and certainly they were fearing for their own naughty bottoms. So they decided to poke him with sharp things before he could poke them. His brother Dingane then took the reigns after he poked him with a sharp thing in the back.Meanwhile those naughty Brits decided that they kinda liked the Cape so naturally they decided that they would take it for themselves.Now as we have seen time and again, the Afrikaner had it in its genes to be stubborn and pigheaded and when they didn’t like what a government did to them, they threw their toys out of the cot. Their packed their weapons of mass destruction (oxwagons and frontloading muskets) and got the hell out of there.Being as pigheaded as they were (and still are today), they didn’t trek as one cohesive group. They split into smaller groups, each wanting to do his own thing.They couldn’t believe their luck as the land they trekked into was mostly uninhabited. (Their interwebs connections must have sucked or otherwise they would have known of the Mfecane).Eventually they met Dingane and Piet Retief started negotiating a “Traktaat”, a legal contract for purchasing some land from him.Fortunately we do have some records of the negotiations that took place:The original “Traktaat” (contract)The negotiations were a smidgen more successful as the later KODESA negotiations between the National Party and the ANC in the 1990’s.Retief and his men were invited to attend a celebration in Dingane’s kraal. They were ordered not to bring any weapons. During the evening the Zulu dancers shuffled their feet and suddenly they unearthed their spears that they buried beforehand in the sand.Dingane yelled “Bulalani abathagathi!”, Meaning “Kill those who kill with medicine (wizards)!”.The men were take to the execution hill named kwaMatiwane and there they were clubbed and impaled . Retief was spared for last and made to witness all his men, including his son, be killed before they killed him as well.The Reverend Owen at the adjacent mission witnessed and recorded the entire calamity and was allowed to leave Umgungundlovu for Durban after a few days. Dingane had sent warriors that morning to warn him of what was about to happen and to assure him that no harm would befall Owen, his wife or his sister. William Wood witnessed the massacre from the hill above kwaMatiwane and in 1841, wrote a short account of it.Piet Retief's Party is massacred by Zulu king DinganeDingane was by no means finished and he dispatched his entire army to take care of the rest of the unsuspecting Voortrekkers camping and braaing and generally minding their own business.During the night he attacked the Voortrekkers at the Bloukransriver and wiped out more than 500 people, including 56 women and 185 children. The Voortrekkers launched a couple of failed counter attacks but it was at the famous battle of Blood River (the water of the river turned red with Zulu blood) where Dingane’s 10 000 strong army was finally defeated by around 500 Voortrekkers. (Note for those interested in Strategic Management - Proper strategy, in this case a well fortified defensive position, superior technology and proper organization, beats brute force mass attacks).Dingane fled and was eventually killed by the Swazi and his own indunas. The Voortrekkers instated his brother, Mpande, as Zulu king and everybody lived forever happily after.THE END.Uhm … wait … not quite.http://www.voortrekker-history.co.za/blood_river_great_trek.php#.WqQl_mpuaZQ"Give me 20 divisions of American soldiers and I will breach Europe . Give me 15 consisting of Englishmen, and I will advance to the borders of Berlin . Give me two divisions of those marvelous fighting Boers and I will remove Germany from the face of the earth."Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander of the Allied forces during WWII."The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honor and glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight; the Russians have no choice. The Germans for the Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of bitches fight for the hell of it."American General, George "Guts and Glory" PattonLet’s forward a bit in timeThe Afrikaner had established two republics namely the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek and Die Republiek van die Oranje Vrystaat. Things were all hunky dory and people were generally minding their own beeswax. Nobody were scratching where it didn’t itch.Then great tragedy struck. Gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand. Suddenly gold fever struck and people from all over came to get rich quickly. Those naughty Brits couldn’t resist, got off their naughty little behinds and sent their army of 346 693 soldiers to take the goldfields for the glory of the crown. 82 742 Boere resisted them.Things didn’t go quite according to plan and the British general Kitchener realized that that those pesky Boere were better adapted to life in the field and they had the unfortunate advantage of being better shots as well (28,000 British soldiers dead, 4000 Boere soldiers dead).So he made a rather clever plan and burnt down all the Boer farms and took the women and children and provided accommodation for them in five star concentration camps. Despite the luxury of these camps around 20 000 women and children decided it was too much effort to keep on living.Finally the Boere gave over and South Africa magically became a Union under British rule.This music video gives an impression of what times were like then. Interestingly enough, the ANC wanted to ban this song when it came out a few years ago. Remember this when we explore some of the moving songs that they currently still sing.Now under British rule things were not exactly all moonshine and roses. Remember the scene from Gandhi where he was prohibited a seat in the first class section of a train in South Africa? That, my dear friends, happened under British rule, not under Apartheid.The poor man took it so hard that he kicked off his shoes and walked around in a bathrobe for the rest of his life.The ANC is foundedIn 1912 there was again an itch that needed to be scratched.A couple of guys decided it sucked to be treated as second class citizens and they founded the ANC in order to negotiate a better life for black people. Naturally the white people paid little attention to them and went on with their lives as usual. This turned out to be a teensy mistake.The friendly Russians welcomed them with open arms and wheels were set in motion that started almost 100 years of Soviet support in the form of indoctrination … sorry … education, financial support, military training, military arms etc to the ANC and the South African Communist Party that was also formed during that time. The Russians had a lot of scratching that they were willing to do.Gumede, a guest of the All-Union Society of Cultural Ties with Foreign Countries, travelled to various parts of the country, including Georgia, where he was ‘given a good reception and had various conversations with Georgian leaders and peasants’, reported AF Plate, his interpreter, 50 years later. ‘Gumede asked the peasants about their lives in detail. We visited a number of Georgian villages and returning to the hotel every time, Gumede compared the way of life of the Georgian peasant with the modes of life and labour in his motherland.’Plate continues: ‘Gumede considered as one of the greatest achievements of our country [the USSR] that the Socialist Revolution managed to unite people of different nationalities in their struggle for common ideals. He emphasised the significance of this experience for all nationals struggling for their independence and considered that success in this struggle would highly depend on the unity of action of all forces fighting against racism and colonialism.’When Gumede returned to South Africa, he said in a speech: ‘I have seen the world to come, where it has already begun. I have been to the new Jerusalem.’ Marked by his experience, Gumede began to call for a united front uniting communists and non-communists. Later that year he was elected president of the African National Congress(ANC).http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/union-soviet-socialist-republic-ussr-and-anti-apartheid-struggleSide note: Wonder what Gumede would have said if he saw what happened to a country’s economy once the communist honeymoon is over?Albert van Leeuwen's answer to Where has communism worked?And I wonder what he would have said if he knew that the Soviets culled a cool 20 million of their herd during the Bolshevik revolution. People speak of German efficiency … screw that! They ain’t got nuthin’ on those efficient Russians.Apartheid formally beginsFast forward again to the late 40’s and by some means that I still don’t fully understand to today, the British allowed the Afrikaner to take over the country. I know Jan Smuts was involved but what exactly happened behind closed doors is still a mystery to me.Along the way were were also tasked to be the custodian of South West Africa (Namibia).The ANC grew in power and the Afrikaner started seeing them as a threat. And with good reason. The black population grew much faster than the white population and the ANC decided to start a military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe.VerwoerdFormally credited as the architect of Apartheid, the then Prime Minister decided that the informal customs in place has to be formalized. Hence Apartheid got a name and was written into the law books.The idea was to give each tribe their own piece of land in South Africa and everybody must make it work for themselves. He envisioned that Apartheid would run a course of 20 years and then each homeland in South Africa would be fully operational.Now Verwoerd was somewhat pigheaded. When the economist Anton Rupert told him that there is a major flaw in his plan, he conveniently ignored the advice. Rupert told him that there were no infrastructure nor factories i.e. no work in the homelands. The black people would be forced to commute to the cities in order to earn money. He advised him to build this infrastructure or else the whole plan would fail.What Rupert predicted is then what happened indeed. Black fathers where separated from their families and forced to live in hostels for many months at a time before they had enough money to go home to their families.Now research has shown us that one of the primary indicators of crime is a household where there isn’t a father. So if you wonder why South Africa sits with such a massive crime problem today, this is a major part of the answer.The Armed StruggleWith their Soviet military training and under the charismatic leadership of somebody that nobody will have heard of - Nelson Mandela, MK started playing with matches and accidentally blew up lots and lots of military targets in South Africa. Military targets like the Church Street bombing where an explosive devise was placed inside a car that was parked on a busy road in the Pretoria CBD.This presented a sharp pain to the National party in a place where they didn’t want to have a sharp pain.Now people generally don’t just go out and maim, torture and kill other people. They need the proper motivation. Mandela’s wife at the time - Winnie, was a real pro at this.The preferred method was called necklacing and it was dished out almost like how the Romans dished out crucifixions like parking tickets. It involves someone first being whipped over his naked buttocks with a piece of wire until you are satisfied that he bleeds enough. Then you cut the muscles off behind his shoulder blades so that he can no longer lift his arms. Then you take a tyre, doused in gasoline, place it over his neck and then have a jolly good time as you watch him make the most beautiful flames when you set the tyre on fire.Yes, it was certainly jolly times in South Africa.Nelson Mandela was captured and instead of hanging him, the powers that be decided that it would be better to send him to the Robben Island prison. He had a quick sleepover there of 27 years.The NP and the CPThe ruling National Party realized that they were seen as being too far right-wing. So they devised a clever plan (which I am suspecting is what the ANC is currently doing but we will get to that later). Nobody was taking the far-right AWB with their Nazi-like image seriously … no, a more moderate, legitimate right-wing party was needed.They asked one of their high-ranking party members to break away and start his own party. Andries Treurnicht did as he was asked and started the Conservative Party.The NP then positioned themselves between the ANC on the left and the CP on the right. In that way they ensured that they were seen as moderate and a mediator between the left and the right.The Angola warThe National Party was certainly sitting with a dilemma on its hands. Not only was the country being made impossible to rule from the inside, the ANC had military bases in various countries like Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania and in the USSR.With Soviet backing, they presented a massive thread.The USA asked South Africa to stop the coming Soviet forces and the Government backed Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA which engaged with Soviet and Cuban backed SWAPO, MPLA and FNLA forces.Here is some archive video footage from the war:The beginning of the end for ApartheidThe then minister of Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha, developed an itch and decided that the war and Apartheid had to come to an end. International sanctions were crippling the economy and the armed Struggle was destabilizing the country.The Security Police made too many activists disappear, this would surely have a backlash at some point.Of course the general white population had no clue what was really happening. Strong censorship laws existed and we kinda went on with our lives as if nothing was wrong. We were very effectively shielded from the reality of the situation. We felt safe and protected. Pretty much none of the information that I have shared so far was available to the ordinary white South African at the time.Pik Botha then came up with a clever plan. What was needed was a Judas goat.A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared.Judas goat - WikipediaHe found his Judas goat in Captain Wynand du Toit, a soldier belonging to the elite Special Forces called the Recce (short for Reconnaissance). du Toit was sent into Angola and he was set up to be captured there. Remember, South Africa was not officially going across the border into Angola and he realized that a captured South African soldier in Angola would cause an international incident.The plan worked and he was captured. Two of his team mates were shot dead and a heavily wounded du Toit spent a cool 837 days of solitary confinement in an Angolan jail. He was released on 7 September 1987 in exchange for two ANC members and 133 Angolan soldiers.The plan worked. White people in South Africa started talking and realized that they were kept in the dark about what was really happening at the Border. The international incident that Botha hoped for took place and the stage was set for people to start considering to dismantle Apartheid.South Africa and its enemies signed the Brazzaville Resolution which brought and end to the conflict. The interesting part of this agreement was that both sides were allowed to say that they had won the war.Mandela releasedMandela was released in 1990 and not long after that a referendum was held to decide whether there could be an election where all people would be allowed to vote.Bearing in mind that South Africa was in isolation for longer than we could remember, it was no coincidence that we were allowed to participate in the World Series cricket at the same time that the referendum was held. The message was clear - vote “No” and your team has to pack up their stuff and you will not be allowed to continue in the World Series.FW de Klerk assured the white people that they had nothing to fear. He explained that there would be weights and counterweights and that they would be constitutionally protected as a minority.The plan worked and the white people voted overwhelmingly “Yes”.The first open elections were held and the ANC won with a landslide. Mandela became president.Everybody were happy as fat cats drinking cream and we were accepted back into the international community.But the Madiba Magic honeymoon didn’t last.The New RegimeEmployment EquityOne of the most drastic new laws written into the law books was the Employment Equity law. The law basically states that nobody may discriminate against anybody applying for a job. Unless that person is white. Then you have to discriminate against that person.Quotas were brought in everywhere you could see. White people were no longer welcome in many places, especially in government. The so called “brain drain” took place. More than a million white people packed up their bags and emigrated to find a place where they could pursue their destinies.Bearing in mind that it is neither cheap nor easy to emigrate, this brain drain was disastrous to the economy as it was educated, skilled, affluent people that left.Disbanding of security structuresNone of the structures that made white people feel safe in the past was allowed to remain:The South African Defense Force, once credited as the single most effective army in the whole of Africa, was renamed to the South African National Defense Force. MK and APLA took control of the army.Currently there are billions of Rands worth of arms that are unusable because nobody has the required skill to service the equipment. Virtually nothing remains of the once spectacular fighting force.Repairs to South Africa’s doughty home built Samil trucks, still in daily use by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), are at the centre of major fraud allegations which will soon be opened up to public scrutiny in court.In certain cases “repairs” done to the vehicles were literally patch jobs with masking tape used to cover holes in bodywork and then painted over before accounts totalling hundreds of thousands of Rand were sent to the SANDF for the “cosmetic” work, Afrikaans daily Beeld reported.An investigation by the Specialist Commercial Crimes Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was requested about two years ago by SANDF Chief, General Solly Shoke. This was after he apparently became suspicious of the “massive amounts” being paid by the defence force for Samil repairs.Repair work was allegedly costing the military between R500 000 and R1 million per vehicle.A number of repaired vehicles, mostly Samil 50s, including some fitted as food supply and storage vehicles, have been confiscated by military police.The investigation, Beeld said, had now reached the stage where it was almost complete and ready for legal action.According to the paper the investigation centres around two people – Eric Oelofse, a programme manager at Armscor tasked with heavy vehicle repair, and Manuel de Freitas, the owner of Impie Truck Centre and other similar businesses.Beeld reported that initial evidence gathered pointed to work being “channelled” to certain companies through an Armscor project office. The value of the repair work contract is said to be around the R50 million mark a year.One instance uncovered by the investigation was that of a Samil repaired at “an enormous cost”. It was scheduled to be taken to Polokwane but broke down en route and another R30 000 had to be spent before the truck was able to continue to the Limpopo capital.SANDF pays millions for “cosmetic” repairs to Samil trucksThe South African Police Force became the South African Police Service. People started taking measures to protect themselves as it was clear that the Police were no longer capable of doing it. The private security industry boomed.Parliament – Murder is up, especially in Gauteng and the Western Cape.There’s a massive spike in both truck and car hijacking.Bank robberies and cash-in-transit heists continued to drop as gangs move to the easier targets of hijackings, business robberies and home robberies, all of which are up.This is what emerged from the South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics for 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015, which were released on Tuesday.Crime stats: Murder, hijackings up | IOL NewsThe Commando system that was primarily responsible for protecting farms, was disbanded. The video clips below are a documentary on the farm murders that has taken place and is currently still taking place.Firearms Control ActNew legislation was brought in to reduce the number of legal firearms in circulation. People feared that they would no longer be allowed to protect themselves. The Police Commissioner clearly stated that their goal with the law was to reduce the legal number of firearms by 80%The new legislation was impossible to implement and there is currently a court case brought by the Hunters Association testing the constitutionality of the law.CrimeOur murder rate is right up there with Colombia and El Salvador. Nothing more needs to be said.CorruptionCorruption became a national pastime. Previous president Jacob Zuma stated that corruption is a Western concept and he will bring back African Rule. People heard - I will make us like Zimbabwe. Bearing in mind that this is a man with 743 corruption charges against him.EconomyEvery time Zuma opened his mouth in public the Rand tanked against the Dollar.Inflation and tax are bleeding the ordinary consumer dry.White people became steadfastly poorer.The black masses became steadfastly poorer.A small group of elite black people became incredibly rich.We were downgraded to Junk Status last year.Land expropriation without compensationPlease read here what is happening.Albert van Leeuwen's answer to Should the white farmers in South Africa salt their land?So where do we stand regarding the future?Option 1We break the cycle of hate. Like Pumbaa said in The Lion King - “You have to put your behind in the past”.We realize that demonizing white people will not solve anything. Revenge seldom does.This kind of hate speech is banned, as stated by our Constitution and appropriate action is taken against people who still continue to spread their messages of hate:We start making economic decisions that will stimulate wealth creation instead of wealth redistribution. If there is enough wealth to go around for everybody, nothing has to be taken from anybody.“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”― Adrian RogersThe good news is that a large proportion of the population do not share Malema’s views. The black middle class is expanding. I have lectured thousands of black students over the years and I can honestly say that the majority of them just want to learn and make good lives for themselves. They are not revolutionaries and they don’t fall for Malema’s communist BS.People of all races are mingling amicably and and there is very little racial hatred to be observed in the normal everyday life.The racial hatred that we see is where politicians become involved and I believe it is being artificially blown up in order to serve their agendas.And of course from keyboard warriors who spew their hatred from the safety of behind their computer screens.I believe the ANC is doing what the NP did so many years ago. They have created Malema and the EFF as the radical boogeyman so that they can appear to be moderate.I trust our new president, who is a very successful business man, to make the correct economic and political choices to ensure wealth creation strategies that will benefit each and every South African.If he proves that he is willing to do this, I will even vote for him in the next elections.Option 2Populist rhetoric wins. Open season on white people.South Africa goes the route of Zimbabwe.THE ENDEdit: I have never asked for this before, but given the seriousness of the situation I am asking now. Land grabs have started around 2:00 this morning in our suburb. (Note - City, not farming land)Please share the following links with everybody that you know:https://www.quora.com/How-serious-is-the-situation-in-South-Africa-for-whites-now-that-EFF-leader-Julius-Malema-has-announced-We-are-cutting-the-throat-of-whitenesshttps://www.quora.com/Should-the-white-farmers-in-South-Africa-salt-their-land/answer/Albert-van-Leeuwen?__filter__&__nsrc__=2&__snid3__=2097917883Albert van Leeuwen's answer to Where has communism worked?

One of the early versions of Google could process 30-50 pages per second.Now Google can process millions of pages per second.Google was first stored on ten 4 GB hard drives in a Lego casing, now showcased by Stanford University.The Lego design would let the founders expand storage capacity easily.The index now has over 100 million GB of data.Google’s original name was Backrub, based on the system finding and ranking pages based on back links.Since the founders weren’t looking to start their own business, they tried to sell their search engine system.Yahoo originally said no, but in 2002 offered to buy Google for $3 billion.Google said no, and it’s now valued at $400 billion.The name Google was a misspelling.One story says investors misspelled the mathematical term “googol” as “google” on a check, and the spelling stuck.Another story says that a fellow student misspelled “googol” when looking for an available name for the company.Stanford still owns the patent to Google’s algorithm, named PageRank.The company’s unofficial motto is “Don’t be evil.”Google HomepageIn 1998, the Google homepage included a Yahoo-like punctuation mark: the exclamation point!The homepage is notoriously sparse because the founders didn’t know HTML to make it fancy, and they wanted a simple user Welcome to Interface Europe first, you had to press the return key on the keyboard, as they didn’t know how to design a submit button.The first Google Doodle was an out-of-office message in 1998 when Brin and Page were traveling to Nevada to attend the Burning Man festival.The doodle was a man standing behind the second O.They wanted users to know they wouldn’t be available to fix tech issues.The first April Fool’s joke was in 2000 when Google announced it’s mind reading ability for searches called “MentalPlex.”Until March 2001, the Google homepage was aligned on the right side of the page instead of centered.Google added Klingon as a language interface option in 2002.The company’s first tweet was “I’m feeling lucky” in binary code.“I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.”In 2006, the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionaries included the verb “google” in their http://listings.It is a transitive verb, meaning “to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.”The Google Street View has about 28 million miles of photographed roads.Google’s reCAPTCHA feature uses warped words identified by users for the computers to learn what words are in scanned books.Google’s reCAPTCHA helps their computers learn how to read text.The computers are able to identify words scanned from books, even if they are warped.Google rents 200 goats to “mow” the weeds and brush around headquarters.Dogs with strong bladders and friendly dispositions are welcomed in the offices, but cats are discouraged due to the number of dogs present.Known for providing gourmet food and snacks to employees, the first Google snack in 1999 was Swedish Fish, a chewy candy.Headquarters is full of odd decorations, such as a T-Rex nicknamed Stan, a space ship, pink flamingos, a Lego figure, adult-sized ball pits, Android statues and phone boxes painted in Google colors.As employees are called Googlers, new employees are called Nooglers.The Founders and their CompanyLarry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford when Brin was tasked to show Page around the school as a new student.Larry Page’s brother was a co-founder of a eGroups, a dot-com company that Yahoo bought for about $500 million in 2000.Google acquired YouTube via meetings at Denny’s.Google has averaged a new company acquisition each week since 2010.Since the outset, Google has worked hard to be unconventional and innovative. As an archetype for the modern tech company, Google continues to set the bar for the interesting, offbeat, and creative.INTRESTING FACTS1. Go to Google homepage and type the words “I want to commit suicide”. Above all the search results, Google provides the Suicide Helpline number of your country.2. A young girl wrote to Google to give her father a day off as it was his birthday. This is what Google sent back in reply. Now, that is something. (Source -Facebook)3. Go to Google Maps. Click on the satellite view and zoom out as much as possible. You can see an amazing view of earth with real time shadows. You can see real time clouds if you zoom in twice. Pretty amazing, right?4. Google has a pet T-rex, named Stan, which lives at their California headquarters. Founders bought it to remind the employees to not let Google go extinct.5. Search “atari breakout” in Google Images and you can play the game. Try it now.6. Google has been acquiring, on average, more than one company per week since 2010. Source–List of mergers and acquisitions by Google7. Go to Google Mars. You can see a map of Mars. Cool !8. Type any number in the search bar and Google will spell it out for you.9. Google’s home page has 28 validation errors and five warnings. Check it out here: Google Validation10. Should a U.S. Google employee pass away while under the employ of the 14-year old search giant, their surviving spouse or domestic partner will receive a check for 50% of their salary every year for the next decade. Source- http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanc…11. Google HQ rents goats from California Grazing to mow their lawns and fields. The employees think that it’s a lot cuter to watch goats do the mowing than lawn mowers. Mowing with Goats12. Google is a wedding planner. Yes, you heard it right. Plan your special day with Google Wedding.13. Google Sky Maps allows you to view stars, constellations, galaxies and planets. Check out www.google.com/sky.HISTORICAL FACTSLarry Page and Sergey Brin together own 16 percent of its shares, who founded Google while they were Ph.D. Students at Stanford University on September 4, 1998.”BlackRub” is the nick name given by the founders to the search engine, They changed it to Google, originated by misspelling the word “googol”.http://z.stanford.edu and Web Search | University IT are the names with which Google ran at Stanford School of Engineering which is an attempt to analyze and catalog the world wide web.Craig Silverstein currently serves as the director of technology at Google, who is the first employee of Google Inc.’s hired in September 1998.Google made its first Google Doodle in the year 1999.The concept of the doodle was born even before the company was incorporated.There are more than 1000 doodles created by the team called doodlers in Google.They are talented illustrators who work hard to bring smiles on faces of people who visit the homepage.Google translate could translate more than 80 languages.Google’s annual income is greater than 50 billion dollars.MICROSOFT1. "Micro-soft's" First Ever MentionThe first ever mention of "Microsoft" was in a letter from Bill Gates to co-founder Paul Allen in 1975. Gates initially wrote the company name as Micro-soft, which made sense considering it's a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software."Losing the hyphen, "Microsoft" was officially registered as a company in November, 1976 in New Mexico where Gates and Allen were working with their first major customer, MITS. Microsoft didn't move to its current campus in Redmond, Washington until 1986.The Microsoft logo has changed several times over the years, the current "Pac-Man" logo was introduced in 1987, but previous to that was the "blibbet" logo that's pictured above. The "blibbet" refers to the stylized "o" and was apparently once the name of a burger served in the Microsoft company cafeteria.2. Brian Eno Composed "The Microsoft Sound"Brian Eno - Microsoft Windows ThemePioneering musician Brian Eno was the musical brains behind Window 95's start up tune, dubbed "The Microsoft Sound."The influential musician, who has worked with the likes of David Bowie and U2, told the San Francisco Chronicle that making such a short piece of music was "funny" and "amazing." Eno likened the process to "making a tiny little jewel."Other musical trivia from the launch of Windows 95 is, of course, the use of The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" in the ad campaign, while a related Eno fact is that he also composed the music for the computer game Spore.3. Microsoft's Fave Food Is PizzaAlthough not quite at Google's level of snack-tastic, free-for-all wonder, Microsoft does offer free drinks. Over 23 million gratis beverages are downed on the corporate campus each year.Apparently the top two drinks of choice for Microsoft staffers are milk and OJ. There's also free candy on the Microsoft campus shuttle.As far as food goes, Microsoft has around 35 cafeterias (one of which is pictured above) serving around 37,000 people each day. Pizza tops the list of most popular meal.4. Microsoft Uses CodenamesEver since the company's first operating system, Microsoft has worked on its projects under codenames, of which Wikipedia has a long list. Apparently Gates was ready to launch Windows under the name "Interface Manager" before he was persuaded to change it by an employee.Past codenames include "Longhorn," "Lone Star," and "Vienna." While you might be tempted to add "Mojave," to that list, it's actually part of a Microsoft ad campaign. The "Mojave Experiment" was a marketing exercise that battled Vista's poor PR by presenting the software to new users as a fresh product.5. The Average "Softie"The average Microsoft employee, or "Softie" as they call themselves, is a 38-year-old male with the average salary for a developer coming in at $106,000.Microsoft currently employs 88,180 people who work across 32,404,796 square feet of Microsoft's premises, over 50,000 of which are U.S.-based. The male to female ratio is very high among Microsoft's American employees with a staggering 76% male workforce.6. Microsoft Celebrates Anniversaries With M&MsAll companies have their little in-house traditions, and Microsoft is no exception. It seems it's customary for Softies to celebrate their yearly employment anniversaries with candy, and more specifically, M&Ms.Each anniversary, a Microsoft employee is expected to provide one pound of M&Ms for every year they've worked. That means if Bill Gates observed the tradition, he should have turned up with 33 pounds of M&Ms on June 27, 2008.7. Microsoft's Stock Has Split Nine TimesMicrosoft has split its stock nines times since it went public back in March 1986. Put very, very simply, a company will generally split its stock when its share price becomes too high.Since Microsoft has had six 2-for-1 splits and three 3-for-1 splits, one original Microsoft share would now be equal to 288 shares today. Interestingly the price of Microsoft's stock at its initial public offering was $21 a share, at the time of writing a share is now around the $23 mark. One original MSFT share would now be worth over $6,000.8. Microsoft Has a Huge Art CollectionNo, we're not talking about Clip Art. Microsoft is one of the largest corporate collectors of artworks with over 5,000 contemporary pieces including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, ceramics, studio glass, and multimedia works. Microsoft gathers arts from local artists, up-and-coming artists and big names such as Cindy Sherman, Chuck Close and Takashi Murakami.A large proportion of the works are on display at more than 150 of Microsoft's many campuses, as the company subscribes to the belief that art in the workplace reduces stress, increases productivity and encourages discussions and expression of opinions.9. Microsoft Asks Strange Interview QuestionsMicrosoft has a reputation in the industry for asking off-beat, off-the-wall questions during its job interview. The most oft-quoted question is: "Why is a manhole cover round?" Whether this particular example is genuine, or an urban legend, it's certainly true that Microsoft employs a very unusual, and forward-thinking interview process. It's even rumored that companies like Google have since emulated the style.Rather than plain "Where do you see yourself in five years" type questions, Microsoft is more likely to ask you to solve a logic puzzle or think through a problem like "Design a coffee maker that will be used by astronauts." Obviously, Microsoft isn't planning to go into the coffee-in-space industry anytime soon, but the process serves to find candidates that can think creatively.10. Microsoft Holds Over 10,000 PatentsMicrosoft holds over 10,000 patents and files around 3,000 every year, ranking as one of the top five patent owners in the U.S.Although a large majority of the patents relate to obscure elements of software, the 5,000th and 10,000th were consumer-friendly, easily-understandable ideas. The 5,000th was for tech in Xbox 360 games that lets people "watch" a video game remotely, while the 10,000th was for the Microsoft Surface, linking real-life objects with data and images.Microsoft also rewards its staff members for securing a new patent. Besides a $1,500 bonus, they get a wooden plaque and a decorative black "cube" that features their name, as well as the title and date of the patent.

In March of 2017, I did something a little bit crazy, stupid and amazing.I quit my job. I sold my car. I sold a bunch of stock and my stuff, sent my cat to New York City and put all the rest of my stuff in storage. I declined a renewal of my lease, returned my keys and on very early chilly morning towards the end of March, I got on an airplane. A one way trip to Mexico.This was the first time I was leaving the United States. (Aside from a 2 day business trip to Canada).My eventual goal was Patagonia and “Los Torres Del Paine”, the beautiful and wondrous park and national monument in the far south of Chile and Argentina.Along the way, I stopped by major cities. For the first time since graduating college nearly 15 years earlier, I was completely unemployed, unpartnered, untethered to anything. While on the flight to Mexico, I thought about the border of Mexico as being a large spectral gate. Something that represented the unknown. I couldn’t fathom what was going to happen. I had no idea how long I would be down there, I had no deadline, no timeline, a rather full bank account, some credit cards, and for the first time in my life, an embracing of the total unknown, of chaos, of disorder. It was the exact opposite of everything in my life being meticulously planned, a life without risk.After a week in Mexico City, I went to Costa Rica, then Lima, then Cusco and Sacred Valley. I went to Santiago, Valparaiso and Vino del Mar in Chile.I made my way gradually south, heading to Balmaceda and seeing the breathtaking Marble Caves and Blue Cathedral and spent a few days on a boat to see the San Rafael Glacier.Because of my wandering, meandering disorganized approach to this- I had made a critical mistake. South America is actually rather cheap compared to North America and Europe. The cost of living is far less, food and sundries are much less expensive, but flights are actually very expensive and for the most part somewhat frustrating as you almost always have to fly to the countries capital- so if you are in Punta Arenas, Chile and want to go to Cuzco, Peru, you’d need to take a flight to Santiago, fly to Lima, then fly to Cuzco.As such I had pre-purchased my flight months in advance. I needed to leave on Tuesday morning to get to Buenos Aires. A change in airfare would’ve cost at least $1000 and I was arriving in Punta Arenas, the southern most destination in Chile, on a Thursday evening.Torres del Paine was about a 3 hour drive from Punta Arenas, so I figured I could rent a car on Friday morning, head to the park, spend the weekend there and then return the following Monday to catch my flight leading me to Argentina.That’s when I made my second critical mistake. Being that parts of South America don’t have developed roads, as well as a cultural preference, when I went to rent a car the next day, they only had manual cars available. I had never learned to drive one. I grew up on automatics. The woman behind the counter said it was possible that one would be returned on Saturday, but it wasn’t probable.I considered my options, and while initially disappointed, I decided to just spend the weekend in Punta Arenas and hope for an automatic on Saturday. Punta Arenas is an interesting little town. It’s a gateway town, similar to Cusco for Sacred Valley, it was a town that catered to transients, yet had a strange culture all to it’s own. Notably it’s ship graveyards and history with the water. I was close to the Straits of Magellan and a veritable mine of fascinating history.I called on Saturday, and naturally the car was not returned. The cashier explained that they would definitely have one on Monday. My flight left at 8:30 am on Tuesday morning, I would be unable to see Torres del Paine.Strangely enough, that thought didn’t really bother me. I had changed my goals often during this trip and the longer I went without tethers or anchors to anything, the less tied to any particular goal I felt. I took each day as it came and treasured it as a wondrous experience.On Monday at about 10 am, the cashier called me and said the car had just been returned. I could either wait until it was cleaned out and refilled with gas and pick it up at 1pm, or I could come take it as is now and get a 50% discount. I chose the latter, and a half hour later I drove off the small parking lot in a large black SUV.I know I needed to get out of Punta Arenas, but where do I go? I looked at my phone, looking for any spots of interest that I could reach in a reasonably short amount of time. Cape Wind looked promising, until I researched that it would take about 4 hours to get to and that there wasn’t much to do.Then it hit me. Looking at the map, I saw I was I about 80 miles from the southern tip of the continent. I wanted to go there. I wanted to see what the “end of the world” looked like. I wanted to stand on the tip of a landmass and see what it would feel like to know that further south would be nothing but miles of ocean leading to the frozen landmass of Antarctica. I had never been so far away from a major city before. I wanted to go there and stand on the edge. I wanted to see the expanse of forever.This was towards the end of May- so the seasons were reversed from what I was used to it. It was very chilly, late Autumn. Punta Arenas and Southern Chile have a few highlighted tourist peaks, but this was a month or so post-season.I got in the car, I remember it being windy and rainy that day and followed my GPS’ instructions and left town. In total the drive would be an hour and a half. There were a few small stops on the way according to Atlas Obscura for things of note. Puerto Hambre, the macabre town being named after the first group of pilgrims died of starvation, as well as the “Central Monument”, a place to which when standing, you are completely equidistant to the border of Peru, to the tip of Antartica as well as several long abandoned colonial houses.About a half-hour into the drive. I noticed it.I was completely alone.I hadn’t seen a soul the entire time once I left Punta Arenas. There were no other cars on the road.As I continued driving, the ocean came into it’s full glory on my left and a beautiful primeval looking forest on my right. The clouds, post the rain, took an almost surreal and bizarre quality of color and texture. I began to be heavily reminded of the video game “Myst”.While first listening to my Spotify playlist. I eventually felt it was obtrusive and turned off the music. There was total silence, except for the quiet hum of my car’s engine. I rolled down both windows and enjoyed the blast of chilly air. The tangy smell of the sea creating a strange duality with the earthy smell of the forest. I stopped at the Central Monument. I stopped at the opening of the Straits of Magellan. I turned off on the road leading to Puerto Hambre, just to meet with a sign indicating that the road was closed for a week.I continued south, feeling a strange sensation of solitude, yet not feeling loneliness. It felt like I was being given a strange and wonderful gift.It was early afternoon when I had to slow down. I had crossed a small metal bridge and turned onto a narrow road. At times, the road vanished under water and I was grateful for the SUV. As I made my last turn, I saw it and smiled. A sign that while so simple, felt so meaningful. A simple green highway sign, one of the most common and every day sights you would expect to see. Yet to me, it was remarkable in it’s simplicity and it’s depth: “Fin de Camino”. “End of the Road”A simple metal bar blocked the way. This was it. There were no more highways. Nothing man made. Beyond the metal bar was a small pathway and another green sign indicated that there was a small lighthouse that was about a 2 hour hike. I looked at my phone. It was 1:30. I had made several stops on the way south to take pictures and admire the scenery. I could make it there by 3:30, spend a half hour, then hike back and return to the car at 6 as darkness would start to fall.Excited, I started the hike. Within a half hour, I began to doubt my decision. Even in a scarf, boots, vest and jacket, I was freezing. Additionally, due to the tides, parts of the path were completely submerged in freezing water. I do not know how to swim, and romantic and poignant as it would sound to take my last breaths in this stunning location, my own genome coding for survival took over and sure enough, a few moments later I slipped while crossing a log and fell waist deep into a pool of swirling freezing water. Luckily I was holding my phone in my hand and when I slipped i just fell feet first and held my arms high. I looked over the rest of the hiking path and saw it was completely submerged for at least 1500 feet. It wouldn’t be worth the risk. I decided to trudge back to the car but shortly after making my decision, I saw a small rock path leading up to the forest.I climbed up and stopped. I would never be back here again and I should enjoy this experience. I was wet, cold and uncomfortable, but I didn’t feel bad or sick or in danger. I sat down on a moss covered rock in the forest and beheld the strange view of seeing how Autumn looked for a place this far south of the equator. I sat and watched the ocean for hours. Realizing how far south I was. At how infinite it felt. That there was so much empty expanse to the south. I wondered what it would be like to build a boat and let the currents take me. I had no idea what was happening to me, but it felt like it was a deeply personal and spiritual experience. Other then the cashier that morning, I hadn’t seen a single person that entire day. I felt like the only person in the world. Or more so, I felt like I was outside of the world. That the entire world was a play, and I was shown the backdrop. I was behind the scenes. I was in a place where people didn’t run businesses or make or break relationships, or scheme or rob or be jealous or feel guilt. I was separate from all of that. I was outside of all of that. I was just being. I was energy in a physical form. Everything felt so…stupid. The concepts of money. Of trade. Of war. Of heartbreak. Of looking good. Of being the best at something. It all felt so absurdly ridiculous and trite. I was sitting between two natural wonders. Never before had I seen a forest and an ocean right next to each other and I was in the middle of it.I am not a religious person, I am a spiritually minded one, but tend to be logical and more science minded, but something was happening to me and I felt the most inexplicable sense of gratitude, love and pure joy I had ever felt.The sun began to set and I realized it would be best for me to start heading back. I recognized I was a very different person, but I had no idea how to articulate why or how. I was just different. Something in my core had changed. Something was different.I got back to the car and there were still some streaks of light in the sky.When I finally returned to the sand path leading up to the metal bar and where my car stood. I had to do double take. A man was standing in front of my car.In any other place and time. I would’ve felt fear. I would’ve felt an instinctive need to protect myself and would’ve likely assumed the intent was negative until he had proven otherwise. There was nothing in his stature to indicate his intent. He wasn’t smiling, nor was he threatening. He was just standing peacefully, waiting for me. I didn’t feel an ounce of fear or worry. Just surprise.Our eyes locked as I made me way to my car. Neither of us said a word. He was of medium height and weight and had a tangled bush of a beard. He wore a simple blue denim jacket and a brown hat. His clothes weren’t well pressed or cleaned, yet they didn’t strike me as stained or dirty. Just “used”.As someone who has several social anxieties, I found it strange that I had no problem keeping eye contact with him. When I finally got close to the car he stood up straight and offered me his hand. He introduced himself- it was a Spanish name. I immediately forgot it. He asked if I was okay. In rapid Spanish, he said he saw a car parked there and that the hike to the lighthouse was far too dangerous at this time and was worried. I smiled and pointed at my still wet pants and said I had learned the hard way. He turned and rummaged through his bag and pressed a large towel into my hands, I tried to resist and politely thank him, but he insisted, so I quickly used his towel to dry my pants as well as I could. As I turned to give the towel back to him, he pressed several more things into my hand. A granola bar and a small package of dried meat. I again tried to decline but he insisted and said “you are probably starving”. I tried to offer him money at least and he looked at me fiercely and said he wasn’t “selling” the items. I accepted them with a large smile and more gratitude. I asked if he lived close to here, that I didn’t see any small towns this far south and he shrugged.With that he shook my hand again, asked if I needed any help getting back to the road. I shook my head and asked if I could give him a ride and he said “no” and walked off quickly, heading down the path I had just come out of. I looked after him for a second, but he walked so quickly he vanished from my sight in a matter of seconds.I waited there for a few moments more, then got back into the car. Backed up and slowly drove back to the road leading back to Punta Arenas. A few minutes later, I ripped into the granola bar and devoured it within 2 bites, and I made short work of the dried meat immediately after.He was right. I was starving.