Apartheid Is Still There: Post-apartheid South Africa Is World’s Most Unequal Country

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

2 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Yet some ships are so deteriorated that they do not even make it to the breakers in Alang, so they get dumped along the coast of Mauritania and sunk.   Others are deliberately sunk in the Gulf of Nigeria, in very deep water there, for the insurance money. 

If you look at the map of Mauritania you will see this spit of sand on which the town of Nouadhibou sits.  Pay a small bribe to the mayor there and you, too, can go sink your old heap of a trawler. 

There are hundreds of these wrecks right outside the city, some on the beach, as above, many more sunk in the shallow waters of the inland bay.  They come from Europe, where ship dismantling is very expensive and controlled as to environmental residues.  In Mauritania, not so much (obviously).   

Want an abandoned boat?   Lots to choose from.  The shipowners just raft them up to whatever boat is anchored and not yet sunk, pay the bribe, and disappear. 

It is the largest ship graveyard in the world, by number of ships:

Even larger cargo ships get dumped:

These are only the ones on the surface.  On a clear day and aloft, you can see the silhouettes of hundreds more, sunk in shallow waters.  Some are so brazen they are sunk right smack in the inner harbor.  And Europeans call themselves civilized. 

What a bunch of rotten animals!!!

I guess the cost to decontaminate is too much for these scum bags .. to have them cleaned up and then sink them for making artificial reefs atleast.

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

5 minutes ago, ceo_energemsier said:

1

I guess the cost to decontaminate is too much for these scum bags

Sadly the scumbags are Canada, USA, Europe, Asia, everyone...  Global embarrassment.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

3 minutes ago, Enthalpic said:

Sadly the scumbags are Canada, USA, Europe, Asia, everyone...  Global embarrassment.

It seems that they are pretty much European in origin.  Mauritania is conveniently close to Southern Europe, and those ships are in the main from Spain, Portugal, and Greece.  Owners there are the "last buyers" of old metal, used ships with low capital costs that can be run on a shoestring for another year or so, then dumped.  Larger ships tend to be sold to the scrappers; a decent-size bulker could bring over a million dollars US to the seller, and bring yet another profit of a million US dollars to the scrapper, dependent on the then-current price of scrap steel.  You would be surprised how much money can be made in breaking up large merchant ships. 

Note that large naval ships never make any money, due to all the asbestos and the requirement to break under government controls.  The only place I know of where money is made is in the small-scale salvage of the old German WWI fleet that was interned in Scapa Flow and then scuttled there by her crews.  With the old heavy cruisers having armor plate as much as 12 inches thick, cutting those up brings in some nice income for small local salvors.  They are still at it a hundred years later. 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

23 hours ago, ceo_energemsier said:

What we have seen on our news about the Hollywood and elite folks paying off for their kids entrance to colleges, is an everyday thing in India.

About 20-25 years ago, it used to be 150k-250k Indian Rupees to be paid to colleges and universities to get kids into engineering and medical school , it used to be called "donation"

"Donations" in exchange for acceptance of the children of alumni is technically fine in the US. 

The new thing is the super rich have been paying to cheat test scores - which I find much more reprehensible.

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

20 hours ago, Enthalpic said:

"Donations" in exchange for acceptance of the children of alumni is technically fine in the US. 

The new thing is the super rich have been paying to cheat test scores - which I find much more reprehensible.

I was referring to the acceptable "norm" in the Indian SubCon., that paying a fee or a donation to get your kid into engineering or law school or other professional degree programs. It was rampant and probably is worse now, and probably the asking prices are higher than the 250K rupees it used to be in the 80s and 90s. And from my understanding and the knowledge provided to me by numerous people I came across in the region, it was also acceptable to pay to have the grades changed and entrance exam grades changed and exam papers redone.

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

6 hours ago, ceo_energemsier said:

I was referring to the acceptable "norm" in the Indian SubCon., that paying a fee or a donation to get your kid into engineering or law school or other professional degree programs. It was rampant and probably is worse now, and probably the asking prices are higher than the 250K rupees it used to be in the 80s and 90s. And from my understanding and the knowledge provided to me by numerous people I came across in the region, it was also acceptable to pay to have the grades changed and entrance exam grades changed and exam papers redone.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-medicine-education-specialrepor/special-report-why-indias-medical-schools-are-plagued-with-fraud-idUSKBN0OW1NM20150617

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Two comments:

First, some other commenters felt that some segments of this discussion smacked of racism, and I can see where that came from. On the other hand you cannot dismiss the comments presented concerning the results of African mismanagement when having a rational conversation about this issue.

I was having lunch during a survival course North of Luanda years ago when I was joined by an elderly Angolan. During the ensuing conversation he made the comment, 'How can Angola be so poor? We have oil, diamonds, timber and three growing seasons each year.' He had a point.

Secondly, although I have never been to the shipbreaking yards in India, I used to helicopter over the breaking yards near Chittagong, Bangladesh regularly. Photos and film cannot begin to describe the conditions in these yards! That said, it is amazing to watch a ship being whittled down by hand. These workers are absolutely amazing and ingenious. They'd be an asset in any other industry which is labor intensive.

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

On 5/24/2019 at 6:58 PM, Enthalpic said:

I didn't actually call you a racist; but it certainly reads racist.

No, it does not - and I don't appreciate the insinuation.  Keep your comments factual. 

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

On 5/24/2019 at 9:17 PM, Jan van Eck said:

In the worst-case scenario of a descent into chaos and mass violence, yes agriculture would collapse except in the Transvaal, which I predict would become an isolated, yet self-contained, enclave of whites only.  The blacks would likely proceed to migrate to the countries of the north, just pushing over the borders in a mass wave similar to the Middle Easterners pushing into Europe. 

The White and Indian populations would retake the country.  That would not be "slowly;" it would be quite rapid. When you are busy starving, you really don't have the energy to contemplate politics of the ANC.  (It is also possible that India would do a boat-lift of Indians back to India.  Hard to quantify, depends a lot on the pull of Mother India for that population of Africans.)

I dont know if the Indian origin South Africans that are established in South Africa with their businesses and lives , would want to go back to India, from the many I hear from , the pull of Mother India isnt enough to uproot their established lives and go back. Just like in the UK and US, the majority do not want to go back and live there, they may go and visit  but not to resettle. The White and Indian ethnic population in South Africa are very well positioned to take over and fill the void and more than likely they will be very successful in bringing about positive changes atleast in the economy.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 5/10/2019 at 7:56 AM, BenFranklin'sSpectacles said:

When it breaks up, I'm assuming it will break on ethnic lines: one white country, and one black.  Is that correct? 

If there's a civil war, what would prevent the black majority from genociding the white minority? 

Rifles and pistols owned by Whites. 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

2 hours ago, ronwagn said:

Rifles and pistols owned by Whites. 

Possibly true, but more likely due to affluence, and that black people might respect the law.

Re-segregation is rampant in the US right now.  Gentrified (white neighborhoods) are breaking off from their host cities so they don't have to pay into the regular education fund and can instead use their tax dollars to pay for fancy, essentially white only, schools. 

Sounds great if you are a white jerk.  The poor neighborhoods that were benefiting from an averaging of property tax across the city now have no money.  White schools get better, black schools get worse, and then ten years later we wonder why blacks commits more crime...

Same garbage different place.

Edited May 29, 2019 by Enthalpic

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

12 hours ago, Enthalpic said:

Possibly true, but more likely due to affluence, and that black people might respect the law.

Re-segregation is rampant in the US right now.  Gentrified (white neighborhoods) are breaking off from their host cities so they don't have to pay into the regular education fund and can instead use their tax dollars to pay for fancy, essentially white only, schools. 

Sounds great if you are a white jerk.  The poor neighborhoods that were benefiting from an averaging of property tax across the city now have no money.  White schools get better, black schools get worse, and then ten years later we wonder why blacks commits more crime...

Same garbage different place.

Last I checked, there was nothing preventing minorities from working hard and obtaining the same lucrative jobs white people use to pay for those nice neighborhoods.  In fact, I regularly see government programs throwing money at minorities and forcing schools/companies to hire them.  Why, then, are minorities unable to support schools in their neighborhoods? 

On the note of re-segregation, the latest trend in universities is for minorities to complain about having to interact with white people.  I find this truly perplexing: first, they insisted on being integrated.  Once integrated, they complain about not having a segregated place of their own.  It seems they'll only be satisfied when they're left to their segregated safe spaces with an endless supply of Other People's Money.  How is that reasonable? 

[SimonS + 17]

China's role in Africa is vast. They have been spending a huge amount of money in Africa over the past decade in particular. However, this investment is normally in less developed nations that have had less access to the international market place. China comes and builds railroads and bridges so that inland mines can be connected to the coast...China then buys these mined materials. 

China burdens these economically less developed Nations with huge debt that they cannot pay off. Then China tells these nations that the infrastructure China has built belongs to China and the debt is written off. So China is basically building ports in foreign nations; strategically.

 

As for a civil war in SA. The black population will plummet in a civil war if dams are bombed and farms are burnt. South Africa has a 45 million population because of the white man's technology...take that away and millions will die in 6 months without a shot being fired.