Discriminating Judgment

One of the more offensive offerings, on the situation in South Africa, was from NZ journalist, Florence Kerr and her overheated piece ‘South African expats revive ‘racist’ Afrikaans national day in NZ’ (Stuff NZ, 20th December, 2017).

According to Kerr, South Africans ‘‘have revived an Afrikaaans national day abolished years ago as a racist relic in their homeland.” Talk about blaming the victim.

Perhaps Kerr should argue that Anzac Day be removed because it might offend the sensibilities of Muslims living in Australia and New Zealand. Yet she considers that the ANC’s Orwellian re-naming of the Day of the Vow to Reconciliation Day is perfectly alright.

That line shows just how obsessed liberals and Marxists are when discussing South Africa, equating everything with the Apartheid era of 1948-94. The last 23 years of ANC rule and policies have clearly shown that there is no desire for reconciliation, only revenge

The historical fact is that on the 16 December 1838 a seminal battle took place in the hinterland of South Africa that saw 460 Voortrekkers  stave off a Zulu Army of at least 10,000 warriors ( Kerr says 20,000), of whom 3000 perished while the trekkers had three wounded.

That established a presence in the wilderness of Boers (Afrikaners) who traced their ancestry back to April 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck established a refreshment station at the Cape for the Dutch East Indies company-136 years before white settlement in Australia.

The infusion of persecuted French Protestants, Huguenots, added to the hardy people living at the Cape and after the British took over, permanently from 1806, some of these hardy souls pushed out into the hinterland.

Modern day South Africa, before the current corrupt Zuma regime, owes much to the resourcefulness of the Afrikaner.

The Church of the Vow, and the Day of the Vow, represented the promise made to God, before the Blood River battle, and those promises were eventually fulfilled and became part of the national calendar of events.

There was no compulsion for any to follow suit, in the same way as Aboriginals, or anyone else, in Australia are not compelled to honour Australia Day (26 January).

So the Day of the Vow is where the Afrikaner people pay their respect to God-the one the Mad Left deride at every opportunity- but of course, Kerr breathlessly reminds us that the ‘Day of the Vow features on the website of the American Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke in glowing terms’………a classic case of guilt by association.

The fact that Rudi du Plooy, an expat, at Hamilton NZ, argues for the keeping of the name, particularly with the ‘slaughter of innocent farmers,’ continually going on does not make him a racist despite over heated claims of racism, by Professor Albert Grundlingh, in South Africa , and Hamilton expat Methodist minister, Ann Preston, who seems to think that recognising the Day of the Vow means that people are ‘unable to move past that kind of hatred and….that kind of animosity.’

Well, even Kerr admits that a lone council representative from Hamilton, James Casson, said that du Plooy’s talk “didn’t come across as anti- anything.” Further that councillor shouldn’t feel compelled to reconsider just because Kerr finds a couple of people who want to use emotive language, in rebuttal. And just why she felt compelled to ask Race Relations Conciliator, Dame Susan Devoy, for a comment beggars belief. She was clearly sent packing as should anyone who seeks to close down freedom of expression.

What should be of concern to media hacks, like Kerr, is not the opinion of a man talking to a group of 20 people about, a day important to him, but the blatant racist attitude of the corrupt Zuma regime, in South Africa, and the attacks on the white minority that has been going on since 1994.

Rudi du Plooy is right to be concerned about the horrendous death toll towards white South African farmers and he does not need to be denigrated because of his concern, or seeing parallels with the deadly threat that the trekkers faced at the Ncome (Blood) River in December 1838.

Instead Kerr should be looking and the incitement of Government leaders to perpetrate racist attacks on Afrikaners. Having the state president dancing and singing about killing the Boer is surely worthy of note for those concerned about racism, as is his comments that freehold landowners have stolen land and that appropriation, without compensation, may have to take place. That is state theft but then Zuma would know all about that. This semi-literate thug, according to the High Court, should be facing 783 charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering.

 Perhaps Kerr could tear herself away from concerns over du Plooy’s comments and examine the antics of the ANC, towards the whites, and their public call to ‘bury them alive,’ an obnoxious comment from an ANC parliamentarian, when Dr Pieter Groenewald MP was detailing the plight of white farmers, in the Parliament (March 2017). This is par for the course by the ANC. In 2010 the ANC threatened an Afrikaner civil rights organisation that wanted to present the ANC headquarters (Luthuli House, formerly Shell House) with a list of names of farm murder victims. They were warned that they would meet the same fate as IFP protesters in 1994, namely being gunned down. No wonder IFP leader, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, warned protesters, earlier in 2017, to go nowhere near the ANC headquarters.

The blatant discrimination in employment against whites is also a feature of selection in sporting teams, the composition of which is defined by quotas not ability. Whatever happened to selection on merit? Why should the generation of white South Africans today be made to carry the burdens of real and imagined injustices of the past?

As for history and cultural relics the ANC have allowed monuments of important whites such as Paul Kruger and Cecil Rhodes to be vandalised; the removal of Jan van Riebeeck from the Cape; the removal of a statue of CR Swart, a former (ceremonial) state president of South Africa in favour of ex-Cuban communist dictator, Fidel Castro; the renaming of a road using the name of a murderer  (Zondo) who blew up Christmas shoppers ( women and children) in a shopping mall in that very street, two days before Christmas 1985.

Indeed, the ANC is good at promoting bomber- murderers. Robert McBride, some seven months later, was another coward who killed innocent female civilians at restaurants and bars. He became a police chief under the ANC due to his dutiful service in MK –the armed wing of the ANC.

The cultural attack is on-going and pervasive. Standerton, a seat that the South African statesman Jan Smuts held for 24 years is a place of historical significance. In the First Anglo-Boer War (1880- 81) a British unit held out against the Boers for the duration. It was also the home of a monument commemorating the Great Trek.

Yet in 2007-08 the destruction of an important Voortrekker monument took place. The Lekwa mayor, Queen Radebe-Khumalo, ordered the monument to be demolished.”That piece of thing means nothing to us. It is just a piece of cement with tracks. I do not even know where it comes from,” Radebe-Khumalo declared.(What was that bit about reconciliation, again?) 

Fortunately, the Pretoria High Court ordered compensation for this piece of cultural vandalism and contempt and prohibited further attempts to remove another statue, erected in memory of Anglo-Boer War concentration camp victims.

Yet the vandalism and destruction of monuments goes on with important historical figures such as Paul Kruger and Cecil Rhodes included as targets.

The attempt to destroy Afrikaans has been a feature of the ANC, a language spoken by more non-whites than whites.

Ironically, Nelson Mandela, and his immediate successor, Thabo Mbeki, both argued that there should be at least one or two Afrikaans speaking universities yet there has been a manic push by the current cultural savages to eliminate this authentic African language from SA campuses.

None of this matters to a media who consider that to beat-up against one lone, law abiding, South African ex-pat, wanting  to honour the national day of his volk, is somehow of paramount concern.

There are multitudes of other examples, past and present, that could be deemed worthy of attention yet the continued deafening silence towards the failed ANC regime demonstrates the ultimate expression of western liberal paternalism and double standards.

But then again white South African lives have never mattered to the PC chattering classes.

We must, of course, not discriminate!

Racing

SAVING IGLOO

The film, Saving Private Ryan, is a dramatic World War 2 drama about the attempt, by a small group, to withdraw a last surviving son, of four, from the battlefield before he too perished like his brothers.

Less dramatic was the saving of Igloo but it is still of interest to racing aficionados and had its own pressures for retired Perth man, Lionel Dowler, then an experienced loss adjuster (assessor) in the insurance industry.

Foaled in 1967, Igloo, a handsome chestnut, by Arctic Explorer out of Silver Rod went on to win 16 of his 48 races.

He showed promise early running third at his first start before putting together a hat-trick of wins as a two year old. Resuming as a three year old he had four wins and in his following year won the Turnbull Stakes and Coongy Handicap at the start of his four year old campaign. Igloo then followed with three frustrating seconds, in the epic races, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup (1971) before finishing his four year old season with a win in the Christmas Cup.

The 1972 Perth Cup, then richer than the Melbourne Cup, (for that one year), was a drawcard and Igloo was highly fancied to atone in that race.

But only days before, the then 3200m feature WA race, he broke down in training, severely damaging both forelegs.

The much travelled South African born, Lionel Dowler, who came to Perth in 1971 after working in his homeland, then Canada and the UK, remembers Igloo well.

“When I arrived I did not know anything about the Melbourne Cup, or its importance in Australia’s life. My secretary said everyone had a bet so I randomly chose Igloo, each-way, and because he came second I had some small winnings on him. When he came to Perth, shortly after, he became odds-on to win the Perth Cup until his unfortunate break down. That was when I received a call from the insurance broker of the horse’s owner (Mrs Tippett), who had been authorised by Lloyds Underwriters to appoint me to deal with the matter.”

Dowler was advised that three veterinary surgeons had advised that the horse be put down and that the owner, somewhat hysterically, was demanding that this be done immediately.

The broker advised that all the Perth assessor had to do was see the horse, read the vet report, sign the death warrant and the claim would be paid!

But Lionel Dowler baulked.”The insurance policy covered only death or humane destruction and I determined that if the latter course was going to be carried out it had to be on the advice of a vet appointed by the underwriters. At that stage I discovered that only one vet had seen the horse and he had not taken any X-rays but had merely felt the horse’s legs, noted he was in pain and consulted, by phone, with two colleagues in Melbourne.”

It was again his secretary that gave him advice. “She contacted racing friends who knew of a highly respected horse vet, James Forbes, so I contacted him and apprised him of the urgency of the situation. He met me immediately at Bob Burn’s stable where Igloo was based.”

Forbes bought with him a portable X-ray machine and had them developed at a nearby clinic. The X-rays showed no sign of bone fractures and the injuries were confined to ligamentous and soft tissue damage. “In other words the horse could be cured and the pain controlled while healing was taking place,” Dowler recalled.

“Whether he could race again was unknown at that stage but he would live and operate comfortably and so humane destruction was not an option and I was determined, on Forbes’ advice, not to be a party to that.”

Although not a racing man  Dowler had ridden in hunts and was at one stage getting ready to do some show jumping, in South Africa, on a friend’s horse, called Boswell, when the jumper died a couple of weeks before they were going to compete.

A self described animal lover it was no cynical attempt to save money on a claim.

In fact, the attempt to give Igloo a chance made things difficult for Lionel because there was no industry resistance to paying out the $50,000 to the wealthy owner, Mrs Tippett.

“I don’t think it was the money that annoyed her it was just that she had been denied by some upstart loss adjuster getting in the way. I certainly received abusive phone calls from people purporting to be in the racing industry after the media kept banging on about Igloo’s excruciating pain. A complaint was lodged with the RSPCA but they found that the horse was being properly and humanely cared for. In fact Bob Burn’s and his staff were doing an admirable job and there was improvement in Igloo’s condition in those early days.”

Lionel said to Mrs Tippett, that as the owner, she had the right to have the horse put down but because he did not think that such action was warranted he would not be recommending the underwriters pay out.

 Dowler, did not know it then but he was about to be spectacularly vindicated in the future.

However, given the claim situation, as a compromise, the brokers and underwriters considered that Forbes-Dowler decision should be checked by the redoubtable Percy Sykes, the foremost equine doctor in Australia, someone who had professional dealings with Tommy Smith, the trainer of Igloo.

Sykes had checked Igloo out before Mrs Tippett purchased him and was certainly accepted by all parties.

“I was charged with finding the holidaying vet and I tracked him down to Noumea. For a healthy fee Sykes said he would exam the horse and also stipulated he be found a hotel “far enough away from the Tippett woman.”

“He duly arrived and we spirited him away from the media whisking him off to Bob Burn’s stables. After he examined the horse the great man said, “what is all the fuss about, he is going to be fine?”

Indeed, Igloo was fine, not only to keep on living but eventually fit enough to return to racing, as a six year old, after being left to mend at Len Pike’s Baldivis property following the Sykes pronouncement. Igloo’s stay with Pike was arranged by Marjorie Charleson, the public relations of the WA Turf Club. There he walked to the beach, swam and recovered under that fresh air, salt water regime.

In 1974 Igloo returned to the track and recorded victories in the following quality races: Castlereagh Handicap, Chipping Norton Stakes, Autumn Stakes, Brisbane Cup and Caulfield Stakes. He was third or fourth in another five races in his final season.

So the fate of a horse hinged on the fact that because an ex- South African  globe trotter, born in  October1931, moved to Perth in 1971, through his employment, and thought the attempted rush to judgment  was too hasty.

“Essentially I bought Igloo time and James Forbes and Percy Sykes did the rest,” Lionel said

“In the process I had annoyed the biggest broking house in the world and I had spent a great deal of time on a matter that was not covered by any great fee. I wondered at the time whether doing the right thing and sticking to principles was worth the effort. I hoped Igloo enjoyed the rest of his life.”

It was worthwhile and Igloo did go on to enjoy a productive life.

(This story will appear in Sunspeed  magazine, Summer 2018)

ROMNEY SET TO RETURN: CHARACTER COUNTS

Expect former Presidential challenger, Mitt Romney to announce at the end of the year that he will run for the US Senate in Utah, in 2018.

Long serving Republican senator, Orrin Hatch (83) will step down if Romney decides the Senate run is for him.

Prior to winning Massachusetts governor’s race Romney ran for the Senate, unsuccessfully, in that liberal Democratic state, against Teddy Kennedy.

Put simply if Hatch retires in the Republican stronghold of Utah, Romney, a favourite son, will romp in at next year’s election.  

Romney’s strength of character can in fact be deduced, and contrasted, by some of his critics in the ‘lamestream’ media.

Amy Davidson, writing in the New Yorker, (‘Mitt’s Binders and the Missing Women, 17/10/12) was typical of that pack.

She sneeringly dismissed Romney’s statements about having ‘binders full’ of qualified women who would be able to serve in a Romney Administration, and then moved to abortion, the idee fixe of feminists.

Davidson thundered that if it hadn’t been for Roe v Wade then may women would have wandered the streets and some of them would have died.

Her piece de resistance came at the close; ‘Would Romney have led a search party for them?’

This was a cheap shot at  Romney who remarkably went searching for the kidnapped 14 year old daughter of one of his business partner’s, in a superb display of compassion and determination.

The distraught father, Robert Gay, has no idea where she was after her disappearance from a rave party, three days earlier, in New York City, in July 1996.

Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to NYC to help find Gay’s daughter.

The employees scoured NY talking to prostitutes, drug addicts, indeed anyone they thought might have information.

A phone lead, traced by police, led to her discovery in a New Jersey basement, suffering from withdrawal symptoms. She probably would not have survived another day.

Nor was this a one-off act of concern.

Two years earlier when Romney was campaigning (unsuccessfully) against Senator Ted Kennedy, he discovered that a Veterans hospital badly needed milk.

Being a bit gauche, politically, Romney suggested that learn to milk a cow!

Having checked out the Veterans hospital Romney apologised for the flippant remark and then did something else, covertly arranging milk supplies for the next two years.

The hospital tried to find out who their benefactor was but it was only when the milkman retired some years later that he spilled the beans…or perhaps the milk, in this case, as to who epitomised the milk of human kindness.

Romney has a long list of such acts.

In 1979, as  14 year old David Oparowski  lay dying, Mitt and one of his sons, Tagg, were frequent visitors to the hospital. Indeed, Romney helped the young boy draft a will so he could leave his cherished possessions to members of his family.

Ted Oparowski, father of David, commented on the Romney solicitude thus: “You cannot measure a man’s character based on words he utters before adoring crowds at happier times. The true measure of a man is revealed in times of trouble, the quiet hospital room of a dying boy with no cameras and no reporters-that is the time to make an assessment.”

That powerful statement by a father contrasts with the mean mindedness of Romney’s critics with arguably the worst effort coming from an Australian hack.

Canberra journalist Robert Macklin’s effort, in the 2012 US presidential race, would certainly be a worthy winner of the War of Jenkins Year award.

According to Macklin, Romney, a Mormon, once drove to Canada on a family holiday with his dog strapped on the roof of a car.

Golly, gosh what a revelation and only-28 years after it happened!

Actually, what Romney did was to build a rooftop carrier, complete with shield, to make the journey of the much loved family canine more comfortable.

Macklin’s ‘scoop,’ apart from qualifying to be in Evelyn’s Waugh’s manic novel of the same name, in fact belongs in the communication era of colonial America.

American history aficionados may recall the length of time taken between incident and response time in the War of Jenkins Ear.

In April 1731 a Spanish coast guard sloop intercepted a British merchant ship and the Spaniards boarded that ship. Heated words ensued between the two captains resulting in the Spaniard, Juan de Leon Fandino slicing off one of Robert Jenkins ear.

Seven years later, March 1738, Captain Jenkins reported this incident to a committee of the House of Commons and the British saw that as a reason to declare war –in October 1739.

That cynical delay in an era of slow communications was one thing; Macklin’s 28 year wait to pontificate that Romney was unsuitable to be the US president in 2012, based on false claims, was simply in a class of its own!

Maybe the Canberra hack has lived in the Australian ‘bush ‘capital for too long and has forgotten that many dogs in both Australia and the US  ride on the back of truck and utes all the time-without seat belts too! (Hold the front page).

This pathetic media behaviour was similiar to the flak Romney, gained at home, for using his business acumen to save the Utah Winter Olympics (2002).

A group called PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) protested about Romney arguing for a rodeo at the Games and also that he had gone quail hunting. (The latter referred to the succulent bird, not former VP Dan Quayle-only another former VP, Dick Cheney, is allowed to hunt humans!)

Romney is also a long term giver, his contributions, to charity, exceeding his hefty taxation payments. In the past two years he has paid almost five million dollars in tax and seven million dollars to charity.

Romney’s innate decency was also reflected in the last days of the 2012 Presidential campaign.

 Obama thundered at the people not to boo Romney but rather take their revenge at the polls.

 Romney simply replied it was incumbent for people to vote for love of country, not out of revenge.

Romney was defeated in that election but the real loser was America.

Utah won’t make the same mistake.