The Times they aren’t a-changin’

The pisspoor Times newspaper today shouts from the rooftops (or at least the streetlight poles) that an SA woman has “pulled a Huntley”, suggesting that she – like much-documented all-round nice guy and alleged racially-motivated crime victim, Brandon Huntley – has garnered refugee status in a foreign land claiming that the black people in South Africa are picking on her because she is white.

A South African woman has been granted a five-year residency permit in Ireland after testifying she feared “criminal racial discrimination” if she returned.

Which all sounds horribly familiar after the Huntley case – until one actually reads the story.

Dianne Jefferson is 22 and left SA when she was 14 years old. She has no family in SA, her father is married to an Irish citizen and she has a half-sister who is Irish.
Oh – and she is married to an Irishman.

So exactly like Huntley in every regard except her age, sex, her family situation, her marriage and er… all the other circumstances mentioned, then.

The Huntley saga prompted huge debate across all forms of media and amongst the citizens of South Africa and those abroad. It divided the country into those who believe that his claims were valid and those who knew they were bullshit. Everyone was desperate to keep abreast of the story and, as is to be expected, the media spun it out as long as possible in an effort to encourage more readers.
This appears to just be another attempt to piggy-back a few more sales onto that old story.

But yes, there are those three words: “criminal racial discrimination” which are mentioned as part of her submission to the court and which really have no basis or reason for being there, but then as her lawyer explains:

Dianne reads papers and is aware of the violent crime and rapes in the country and with no support structure she feels she is at a greater risk.

All of which serves as a perfect example of how the papers can blow things out of all proportion in order to sell their product as long as there are people willing to buy it (the story and the paper). 

I would really love someone to explain to me why this is a story – especially one warranting front-page attention.

EDIT: Dianne Jefferson comments on this story:

I believe the media spun my case out of control. I did not even want it in the papers in the first place. I have very fond memories of growing up in South africa. Iam married to an Irish citizen and I was trying to get a 5 year visa, which I now have. If I was to be deported, which I have not been. It would have been very hard for me to survive on my own in a country I left at a very young age.

Interesting, hey?

EDIT 2: The Times editor Ray Hartley tweets a thank you.

They (we) hate us (them) for what we (they) did to them (us)

Following allegations from his wife that he only married her to stay in Canada, the Brandon Huntley saga rumbles on, with new allegations surfacing today that the “white” man that “blacks” love to hate may not actually be “white” at all. Which make his ongoing allegations that black people attack him simply because he is white seem even funnier.

A new study has revealed that Brandon Huntley, who has been granted asylum in Canada after claiming to have been attacked by blacks several times, is the new black. Or more precisely, the former Capetonian is the descendant of one Francina van der Kaap, a woman “of colour”, and more than half of his relatives are similarly coloured – in the verbal sense.

I don’t want to turn this into a racial thing – and I’d be far too late anyway, because Huntley turned it into a racial thing with his ridiculous claims in the first place – and the boundaries and definitions of race in South Africa are complex, clumsy and overused.

However, there is some good news for Huntley; now that it appears to have been shown that his roots are not as pale as previously thought, Julius Malema will surely be at OR Tambo International to welcome him “home” when he is finally deported.

Quick but important…

Having just arrived home after a hellish day, I find that I have a hellish evening in front of me.

Although I wanted to blog about Justice Malala’s column in The Times this morning, I have to empty the old study completely this evening so that it can be converted into a playroom for the kids – tomorrow – even though my new study (or my new playroom, depending on how you look at it) is yet to be completed. Thus, I am going to be struggling for space and connectivity for a week or so and I have absolutely no time spare for blogging this evening. Joy.

Anyway – that column had some iffy writing at the start (in my humble opinion), made some rather unfounded claims in the middle and ended with a weak, watery and emotional conclusion, but did hit a few nails on a few heads in between.

The real problem with the Huntley decision is its unbelievable ignorance. Those from the middle classes, such as myself, suffer from crime daily. The majority of this class is white. This class happens to have a voice, reach and power. The stories of middle-class and primarily white suffering from crime make the news headlines every day.

This is not to say these stories are not true, or that the murder of a white woman in Parkview, Johannesburg, is less painful or tragic than that of a black woman in Soweto. However, the story of the woman in Parkview is more likely to make the news headlines than that of a woman in Phiri, Soweto.

Democratic South Africa is 15 years old. Before that we had 46 years of apartheid racism characterised by ruthless enforcement of policies aimed at keeping blacks down and pushing whites up. The division and racism that characterised apartheid South Africa can still be seen in many parts of our country: in business hierarchies, in school pass rates, in academia.

The number of blacks who have broken out of the poverty imposed by the apartheid reality remains minuscule. We can have debates about how one resolves this, but the reality exists — and persists. And therein lies the rub. Are whites targeted by criminals? The Canadian panel seems to have swallowed this story. In its own perverse way, the panel’s decision reflects the hugely skewed manner in which many in our own country and others in the outside world view South Africa.

For this grouping, white supremacy has been replaced by black supremacy. White terror on blacks has been replaced by black terror against whites. That view is as wrong as it is dangerous. The reality of a unique democracy in Africa, with the complexities of race and poverty and division thrown in, is too hard to engage with.

Which is basically what I have been saying all along. It’s not that Huntley’s stories were untrue – it’s just that they were unrepresentative. That’s why there’s been all the fuss about the whole affair and that’s why – apparently – he’s about to be kicked out of Canada.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to get kicked out of my study.

Ruth Archibald: A brave, brave woman

In a country in which white people “stick out like sore thumbs” and “are persecuted by black people”; a country in which “there is a hatred of what we did to them” and “it’s all about the colour of your skin”, I give you The Canadian High Commissioner, Her Excellency Ruth Archibald. (She’s the one on the left).

Ruth

Quite how the Canadian Government could put a white person in such danger by posting her to South Africa, I don’t know. In doing so, I feel it demonstrates “clear and convincing proof of that state’s inability or unwillingness to protect her”.

Please someone – anyone – send the helicopters and SWAT teams to get her safely back to Ottawa.

More serious note: Image from SA Army site, detailing a ceremony honouring two SANDF members who had saved the lives of Canadian soldiers serving in Sudan. Worth a read.

Huntley never laid charges with cops

Oh dear. The Brandon Huntley case just gets worse and worse and worse for him, for Canada and for the hundreds of paranoid expats who have jumped on the negativity bandwagon, as the Mail & Guardian reports:

Brandon Huntley, the South African who was granted refugee status by Canada, never laid any charges with the police to back up his claims that he was attacked seven times in his home country.
He told immigration officials in Canada that black people had attacked him on seven different occasions and that white people were not safe in South Africa.

More evidence that this whole issue is a complete farce. 

“I’ve opened people’s eyes,” Huntley told the Star.

You certainly have, Brandon. To the fact that you are a ill-educated, unemployable, desperate, lying, racist cock.