South Africa Violence Aganist Foreigners

WITNESS-Photographing evil in S.Africa's townships | World | Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - I only realized how serious the attacks were when I saw a photograph of a man being burnt alive in a township east of Johannesburg.

South Africa Violence Displaces 25,000 Immigrant

Having worked as a photographer in South Africa for more than 10 years, I was no stranger to violence: I had seen angry people chanting slogans, blocking roads and destroying property.

But burning a man alive was evil and barbaric, a flashback to the worst violence under apartheid when opponents of the white minority government were shot and tortured by police and informers were "necklaced" with burning tires. By Siphine Sibeko.

There are believed to be between three and five million foreigners living in South Africa, most of them Zimbabweans fleeing poverty and violence at home.This violence against foreigners started on the night of May 11th and South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki doesn't approve the deployment of the army until May 21st. This is 10 days later.

Question: Are politicians exploiting the situation in Durban? Even though President Mbeki urged South Africans to welcome foreigners his action of waiting 10 days to use the army to stop this says other wise. And where is the United Nations? What are they doing to help the situation? It seems when it is black on black violence in Africa, the United Nations is no where to be found.

Why is this happening? in the words of CBC's Bruce Edwards, who is in Johannesburg, said it's the worst violence in the country since the end of apartheid.

"Millions of immigrants, most from poor neighbouring countries, come here seeking a better life," Edwards said, "but with half of the country's own population still living in abject poverty, and the resources scarce, many fear this … may still get worse."

When there is no economic growth, the populace will revolt.
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Bloody Weekend: 32 shot, 2 Stabbed, 6 Dead, Streets of Bagdad? No Chicago.

cbs2chicago.com - Bloody Weekend: 32 Shot, 2 Stabbed, 6 Dead

A violent and deadly weekend continues in Chicago. At least 12 people have been shot, two of them killed, since Saturday morning. Two others were stabbed in a home invasion. This comes after at least 20 people were shot, four of them killed, from Friday night through early Saturday.

A 28 year old man was shot and killed at an auto body repair shop on the Southwest Side Saturday morning. Raul Lemus was shot in the stomach and died several hours later at Stroger Hospital, making him the sixth person killed in Chicago since Friday night. Police said the shooting appeared to be gang related. Also Saturday morning, Michael Giles, 26, was shot and killed inside his home...Also, Friday night two teens were gunned down in front of a church in the 7500 block of South Phillips.

This was from Friday night to Saturday morning, a 17 hour period. We can say half a weekend. On Monday night the Associated Press had the finial report for the whole weekend. 36 shootings and nine deaths over the weekend. Fact: More of our young people died in the streets of Chicago than in the the streets of Bagdad this weekend. How can we solve this problem and stop our young people from killing each other? We just can't bring them home. Their being killed in their homes.

Governor Rod Blagojevich says this weekend's violence in Chicago is yet another reason for state lawmakers to enact new gun controls. But trying to keep gun out of gang member hands with a law is like trying to keep drugs out of their hands with a law, it does not work. They will get the drugs and the guns no matter how many laws the Governor passes. Passing laws will not solve this problem.

The organization Cease Fire, says there probably would have been far fewer shootings this weekend had the group had more of its outreach and violence interrupters on the street. DR. Gary Slukin says about 40 outreach and violence interrupter workers on the street are "not even enough to make a dent." Can you imagine if this group went and tried to talk to the mob gangs of the 20's and 30's? How effective would they have been? The same as today. Not even a dent.

Police Superintendent Jody Weis said Saturday "Too many guns, too many gangs." The Illinois Governor said we need tighter gun control but there is 102 counties in the state of Illinois, all have guns, not all have gangs. The killings are not happening where the guns are but where the gangs are. So we don't need to solve the gun problem, we need to solve the gang problem.

But that will not happen. That is one of the reasons the Governor talked about the guns and not the gangs. You see, if most of the killings in Chicago is like New Orleans, it is black on black crimes. In order to break up the gangs the police, white and black, will have to stop black youth on the streets of Chicago, find out what they are doing and what is going down. They will have to bring some to central lockup just to question them and constantly follow the gang leaders around.

When this happens the leaders in the black community will shout racial profiling. The ACLU will sue the city of Chicago for their actions and policies. And the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton will lead the city marches.

In order to stop gang violence in Chicago, and other major U.S. cities, is to deal with the gangs as the FBI did with the mob gangs of the 20's and 30's.
It is sad, this will never happen and more of our black youth will die in the streets of Chicago.



Technorati Tags: Violence