Legging It From Justice.

The decision to grant Oscar Pistorius bail os strange. The argument his defence and the judge have made is that because he is so famous he could not possibly skip bail.

Surely the internationally famous find it easier to escape a jurisdiction than mere plebs. Someone like Roman Polanski was extremely well known when he escaped a rape charge. Being famous makes someone more recognisable but it also opens up a far greater array of destinations to escape to than would otherwise be available- Julian Assange wouldn't have been granted asylum by Ecuador if he were just an everyday rapist for instance.

Basil D'Olivera

The cricketer Basil D'Oliveira, whose inclusion in the England team ultimately led to the sporting boycott of Apartheid South Africa, has died aged 80.

I don't follow cricket but the behaviour of the South Africans at the time does demonstrate why that country was boycotted when other regimes that were even nastier have not been.


When D'Oliveira was added to the England team due to tour South Africa the host nation cancelled the tour. In other words they would only participate in sporting contests if their opponents agreed to implement apartheid on themselves. Unlike the USSR, Nazi Germany & China in the Olympic Games (or Zimbabwe and Pakistan in cricket) for example, they forced opposing teams to collaborate with their ideology.

Heroes

There can be few people more deserving of the title "hero" than this anonymous Wikipedia vandal, although landmine disposal experts are a close second:

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was left embarrassed after receiving an award from the South African government with an unwanted nickname, seemingly taken from his altered Wikipedia entry.

Blatter, 74, was announced on the South African presidency's website as "Joseph Sepp Bellend Blatter" after picking up the Order of The Companions of O R Tambo award for his contribution towards the 2010 World Cup.

A saboteur is believed to have altered his profile on Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia

Ironically this means that the Wikipedia entry was more accurate than the official record.

Profile In Courage- Hain On Hain

Peter Hain pays a heartfelt, generous and emotional tribute to the courage of Peter Hain, here. It's hard to suppress a tear:

Even worse, the leader of the demonstrations was "one of their own", the son of white South African parents who had been jailed, banned then forced into exile, a teenage activist named Hain.

Vuvuzelas- The Downfall

Best Twitter Account Ever

The Vuvuzela Horn Twitter page. Sample post:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Get Your Own Machine Gun.

I don't know what's worse about Jacob Zuma's campaign song "Bring Me My Machine Gun", the implied violence or the sheer laziness of not being able to go and get his own sodding gun.

I've said before that a lot of the negativity about South Africa is undue, the crime rate is very high, but the murder rate has been falling staedily for over a decade and is now about half of what it once was. The economy isn't a basket case like it was towards the end of the Apartheid era and there is a growing black middle class.

Yet electing someone like Zuma puts all that at risk.

Making Guests Feel At Home.

South Africans it seems like to make their visitors feel at home, which isn't so good when their home is Zimbabwe:

The violence in Alexandra started on Sunday evening when an enraged mob marched to a hostel in London Road, targeting foreigners mainly from Zimbabwe whom they accuse of stealing precious jobs and contributing to worsening crime rates.

The crowd beat the immigrants, forced others from their rooms and shot dead two men – one a South African who refused to take part in the attack.

I've heard about the supposed hostility between black South Africans and Zimbabweans before but had thought that it was to do with the South African sympathy for Robert Mugabe. Given South Africa's responsibility for sustaining Mugabe in power, and thus fueling the Zimbabwe exodus, the attention of the rioters should really be directed against themselves. Whilst recent actions such as the refusal by Durban dockers to unload Zanu weapons is welcome, it hardly makes up for the behaviour of the Rainbow Nation's political elite, who memorably gave Robert Mugabe a standing ovation at the infamous 2001 anti racism conference.

{Link via UK Commentators}