RIP V.S. Naipaul: he said what white men couldn't

So, farewell then, V.S. Naipaul -- racist, misanthropist and Nobel Prize winner. Another Trinidadian writer, C.L.R. James, said that his views on the world -- "The world is what it is" -- and its human inhabitants simply reflected "what the whites want to say but dare not." That explains why I, being Whiteman by name and white man in fact, have underlined so many passages in his books, of which I've read (and recommend) almost all.

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born five days shy of 86 years ago in Trinidad, a descendant of impoverished Indians shipped to the West Indies as coolies -- bonded labourers. "I was born there, yes," he told an interviewer in 1983. "I thought it was a great mistake." In 1950, Mr Naipaul was awarded a scarce government scholarship to study in Britain, and left his family to study English literature at University College, Oxford. He never really returned.

Mr Naipaul saw himself as a lone, stateless observer, free of ideology, politics and illusion. From his base in England, he travelled for extensive periods to pen journalistic essays and travel books. He flew three times to India, the land of his ancestors, to write about its culture and politics, which he disliked intensely. He spent time in Buenos Aires to write about Eva Peron, the former First Lady of Argentina. And he went to Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia to research and write books about Islam, which he condemned.

That Sir Vidia Naipaul (knighted in 1990) was a great writer -- a master stylist and story-teller with a cold, clear eye for the ironies, tragedies and sufferings of mankind -- is beyond doubt. But he is one of those authors who one either loves or hates. To his detractors, he was essentially political, bearing witness against the post-colonial world with great writing but shielded from criticism by virtue of being "one of them". His many critics called him "troubling", even "bigoted". They saw him as a "hater", a purveyor of stereotypes, wallowing in loathing of the world from which he came.

His supporters, however, found in his fiction merciless comic clarity, and in his travel writing a terrifying honesty. He refused to glamorise or idealise the developing world, but delivered original, scorching critiques, devoid of political correctness. He was fearless and unbiased in his criticism, attacking the cruelty of Islam, the corruption of Africa and the self-inflicted misery he witnessed in the poorest parts of the globe. The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk said that Mr Naipaul represented third-world people "not with sugary magic realism but with their demons, their misdeeds and horrors -- which made them less victims and more human."

"There probably has been no imperialism like that of Islam and the Arabs", he once declared. He was scornful of the Caribbean, predicted that Africa would revert to bush (as indeed it has, IMHO) and often veered towards unapologetic misogyny. Indian women, he once wrote, wear a coloured dot on their foreheads to say "My head is empty."

V.S. Naipaul had little time for idealistic westerners who romanticised India and looked to it for a spiritual awakening. In the land of his ancestors, he saw only ugliness and a smug refusal to recognise the horror of the "narrow, broken lanes with green slime in the gutters, the chocked back-to-back houses, the jumble of filth and food and animals and people, the baby in the dust, swollen-bellied, black with flies, but wearing its good-luck amulet."

He was even more contemptuous of Islamic fundamentalism, which he decried long before 9/11 in The Believers (1981). One New York Times writer observed that it bore an antipathy to Islam so naked "that a book taking a comparable view of Christianity or Judaism would have been hard put to find a publisher" in America. An academic, Edward Said, said he found it hard to believe any rational person would attack entire cultures on such a scale.

Sir Vidia Naipaul will be remembered as a magical craftsman of English prose. He leaves behind a complex, challenging library of work which captures the complexities of the modern world in a unique blend of imagination, travel writing and autobiography. RIP.

Pile of garbage collapses, kills 17 in shithole country

Nowadays Walt lives a lot further away from southern Africa than was once the case, and a good thing too. However, I do try to keep up with the news from the shithole countries of that region, for which I unaccountably retain a certain affection. Africa gets in your blood, I guess... and I don't mean that literally, thank God!

I've just received from Maputo, the capital of Moçambique, news of a disaster which befell certain residents around the middle of February. At least 17 people died and several others were injured in the improverished neighbourhood of Hulene, about six miles from the centre of othe capital. Hulene is -- not to put too fine a point on it -- a dump. Literally.

A garbage dump Hulene may be, but it's home to 100s of squatters who have built shanties there in defiance of local authorities. Like those who live in the Tondo district of Manila, residents of Hulene choose to do so because (if you'll excuse the expressin) the pickings are good there. The downside is the ever-present risk of disease and disaster, the latter including having the garbage slide down on you. Which is exactly what happened on February 18th when heavy rains caused a 48-foot-high heap of garbage to collapse, burying seven shacks along with their occupants.

A councillor for the municipal district told the meeja, "Up to now 17 dead bodies were recovered. We fear more might be unaccounted for. So we will keep searching for bodies buried underneath the garbage pile." As we used to say in Zimbabwe, "Shame!"

Walt tells this tragic tale not to make fun of these poor people but to point out to all the European and American do-gooders and SJWs the hopelessness of the Third World. Maputo is not the only city in Africa or Asia where land pressure leads some people to squat on land they do not own as they seek a better life in overcrowded urban centres. You can't convince them that they'd be better off at home in the rural areas, nor can anything be done to provide even a basic standard of living for everyone.

This is not the fault of the colonial powers nor of the white folks who now have a huge guilt trip laid on them by Western liberals and those in the foreign aid industry who do well by doing good. Helping the hundreds of millions of wretched people of the Third World shitholes is a worthy endeavour, but ultimately futile, and that's just a stone truth.

POTUS: Why should USA accept immigrants from "shithole" countries?

Cazart! The (((controlled media))) have their hair all on fire because President Trump asked the question that millions of Americans are asking, in exactly the words millions of Americans use every day. In rejecting a bipartisan deal on immigration earlier today, POTUS questioned why the US of A would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway.

His pointed question startled the PC lawmakers in the meeting, and immediately revived charges that President Trump is a racist. The White House didn't deny his remark but issued a statement saying Mr Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society."

Walt congratulates POTUS on having the stones to use the word "shithole" to describe the country/continent in question. I've been there -- to Africa that is, not Haiti -- and can confirm that the description is accurate. Haiti, by all accounts, is even worse. Those who emigrate from such places to Europe and North America do so in search of better lives for themselves. They don't come here to make our lives better. So all the President is doing is telling it like it is... at last!!!

Note from Ed.: This is a developing story. Walt may have more to say tomorrow. Right now he's making popcorn to munch while enjoying the evening news.

UPDATE added 12/1/18: The latest Tweet from President Trump says "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used." I leave it to you, dear reader, to figure out what that means, since POTUS didn't say the word he didn't say! If he didn't use the specific word "shithole", that's too bad. I thought "shithole" was just the right word to describe places like Haiti, Somalia, Nigeria... the list goes on. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself.

Zimbabwean dictator appointed to, then removed from WHO post

The Western world is having a good laugh today (but also breathing a sigh of relief) at the appointment and speedy unappointment [disappointment? Ed.] of Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe, as a "goodwill ambassador" for the World Health Organization (WHO). "Uncle Bob", however, is reportedly not amused.

The farce began on Wednesday in Uruguay, at a high-level WHO meeting to discuss non-communicable diseases. Comrade Bob had commandeered Air Zimbabwe's sole airworthy B-767 to attend, causing his countrymen to scratch their heads in wonderment, even though they have gotten used to their Dear Leader's peripatetic lifestyle, which has bankrupted the national airline and put a huge strain on the Zim treasury, which is now printing "bond notes" to cover its lack of real money.

Turns out the reason for the trip to a place few Africans have even heard of was that an "arrangement" had been made with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian recently appointed to the position, to appoint Mr Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, out of respect for his government's devotion to providing free healthcare for all. Mr Ghebreyesus said he thought Mr Mugabe would be the ideal person to "to influence his peers in his region."

Many observers outside the Dark Continent (including yr obdt servant, who lived in Zimbabwe in the 1990s) thought the appointment must be a huge joke, given that Mr Mugabe is "peerless", in the sense that he has no equal for corruption, despotism and (alas!) longevity. He has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, when the cowardly Brits sold out the "white settler régime" of Ian Smith and gave the former Rhodesia "majority rule" under the one-man-one-vote system.

The one man who has the one vote is Comrade Bob, who is 93 years old, but intends to stand for re-election next year, even if his lovely and fragrant wife Grace has to push him to the polls in his wheelchair. "Hendiende" is chiShona (the main local language) for "I won't go!"

The USA, Canada and a host of other countries, including Not-so-great Britain, were quick to criticize the WHO appointment. Canuck Prime Minister Justin "Junior" Trudeau called it a belated April Fool's joke. Donors and human rights groups expressed outrage. Comrade Bob, they noted, has for years been going overseas for medical treatment as Zimbabwe's once-prosperous economy (in the bad old colonial days) falls apart. He is not alone. Just last month, Vice-President Emerson Mnangagwa thought he'd been poisoned by eating bad ice cream from the Mugabe family's Gushongo Dairy, and hied himself off to South Africa to have his stomach pumped.

No Zimbabwean with any money trusts the country's decrepit healthcare system. As long ago as 2008, the charity Physicians for Human Rights released a report documenting failures in the system, saying that Mr Mugabe's policies had led to a man-made crisis. "The government of Robert Mugabe presided over the dramatic reversal of its population's access to food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care," the group found, adding that its policies led directly to "the shuttering of hospitals and clinics, the closing of its medical school and the beatings of health workers."

Today the WHO Director-General said in a statement, posted on his Twitter account @DrTedros, that he had listened to those expressing concerns. "Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment of H.E. President Robert Mugabe as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for NCDs in Africa. As a result I have decided to rescind the appointment."

Walt's comment: The appointment of the Zimbabwean dictator reflects everything that's wrong not just with Zimbabwe, not just with Africa, but with the World Health Organization and its mother "organization", the United Nations. The UN is nothing more than a powerless, self-serving talking shop, dominated by the beggars of the Third World, whose "diplomats" line their pockets and enjoy the luxurious, jet-setting lifestyle while their countrymen starve in squalor. The AABC countries (America, Australia, Britain and Canada) would do well to withdraw their financial support and leave the whole stinking mess to rot.

Somali tribesmen of MN (!) fall for anti-vaxxers' BS, get sick and die

Among the barbaric cultural practices that refugees, asylum-seekers and other immigrants from Third World shitholes bring with them is a belief that modern Western medicines are designed to kill them, or at least keep them from reproducing like brown rabbits.

Let Walt remediate the inspecificity. The Western medicine we're talking about is the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine given to over 90% of North American kids in early childhood. And the community of ignorant immigrants in question is the tribe of Somali "refugees" imported by the Obama administration from one of the world's worst failed states.

In a story headlines "Measles outbreak sickens dozens of Minnesota Somalis who avoid vaccine", the Chicago Tribune reports on a serious outbreak of measles in Minnesota, where 34 cases have been confirmed in the last two weeks alone. Why? Because the Muslim invaders -- 99% of Somalis are Muslims -- are refusing the MMR vaccine because, in their ignorance, they believe the canard being circulated by the crazy anti-vaxxers that the vaccine causes autism.

The story quotes the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to the effect that measles, which was declared eliminated in the USA in 2000, has now gained a foothold in the larger community because of the intransigence of the clannish immigrants. Nearly everyone infected is unvaccinated, and all but a few are of Somali descent. So far, 11 children have been hospitalized. A spokesthingy for the Department of Health says the source of the outbreak is unknown, but that such outbreaks in the US are typically caused when international travellers are infected overseas and bring the virus home.

According to the Health Department, 42% of Minnesota-born Somali toddlers had received the MMR vaccine as of 2017. But the take-up rate hasn't always been that low. In 2004, 92% of Somali kids had thir shots. But the community's immunization rate fell to 70% in 2008 amid a perception that autism was becoming more common among Somali children. A 2014 study by the American Board of Family Medicine found 35% of Somali parents surveyed believed the measles vaccine causes autism, something believed by only 8% of non-Somalis.

Other communities with low vaccination rates have also been affected by measles in recent years. Nearly 20 people in the Orthodox Jewish community in Los Angeles were sickened by measles in December. 58 came down with the disease in 2013 when measles swept through Orthodox Jewish communities in New York.

Muslim "refugees" living on Paris streets sent packing

The first foreign city I ever lived in for any length of time was Paris. I was a young lad then [before the earth's crust cooled. Ed.] and the City of Light had yet to be invaded by the hordes of "refugees", asylum-seekers and other Third World trash who are polluting the city by their very presence. The streets of Paris, in those days, didn't look like this.

Disgusted at having the streets and sidewalks turned into squatter camps -- you can imagine the squalor -- officials today gave gendarmes the order to evacuate more than 1600 "migrants" -- 99.99% of them followers of the Prophet -- who have drifted into the city from Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and other shithols who have been living on the streets of northern Paris for weeks.

Ethnic cleansing operations -- let's speak frankly here -- were carried out this morning on a stretch of pavement underneath an elevated metro line not far from Sacré Coeur in the once-picturesque Montmartre neighbourhood. So as not to offend Muslim sensibilities, one task force focused on about 80 women and children, while the other focused on the men. By mid-morning, about 1000 "refugees" had been transported to temporary shelters, leaving some 600 to 800 still squatting in the streets.

The foreigners are being bused to 74 sites around the Paris region, where they will be given food and medical treatment, courtesy of French taxpayers. Not unsurprisingly, a number of the migrants refused to get on the buses, because they would prefer to be taken to Britain, where the freebies are better.

Further reading: "Brits to build wall to keep Muslim invaders out", WWW 7/9/16.

Book review: A journey through Vietnam and a refugee's psyche

A month ago, in "What they eat in Vietnam", I introduced you to Catfish and Mandala, a book I bought expecting a travelogue of a journey through that little-known country. Although Andrew X. Pham's 1999 book contains plenty of fascinating travel tidbits -- like the descriptions of the strange Vietnamese cuisine -- it should really be described as more memoir or autobiography than travel book.

Mr. Pham describes himself now as a Viet kieu -- an overseas Vietnamese. He is one of the 1000s of "boat people" who fled Vietnam in the aftermath of the war. With his family, he was "adopted" by a Baptist congregation in Shreveport LA. After a short time the refugee family moved to California, to be in poorer circumstances but at least in a community of Vietnamese and other immigrants.

A disturbing theme of the book is the effect that life in America had on the family. By the time Pham decides to leave home and return to Vietnam in search of his roots, two of his brothers have decided to be gay, and his elder sister, a transvestite turned transexual, has committed suicide. Whether these problems of sexual identity are due to culture shock or a dysfunctional family life is a matter for speculation. The author talks freely about his own identity problems and those of his siblings, but reaches no conclusions.

As for the travel part, Pham, after experiencing a bit of an epiphany while bicycling in Baja California, throws in his job as an aerospace engineer and sets off to bicycle counterclockwise around the Pacific rim to the land of his birth. He gets a decidedly cool welcome from the Vietnamese who have been left behind. Even folks in his old neighbourhood seem to be asking, "What did you come back for?"

That part of the book, then, is yet another statement of Hardy's dictum -- you can't go home again. The resentment of those who left by those who were left behind is particularly acute in Vietnam, but still the same sentiment one finds in China, Zimbabwe or just about any other third world country.

The more interesting part of the book is the painful personal history of Mr. Pham and his family. There are hints of dark doings while the family is still in Vietnam, and at the end the source of the family's (comparative) wealth is revealed. Pham writes about his family compassionately, not critically, implicitly putting at least some of their troubles down to the trauma of adjusting from a traditional Asian culture to that of modern America.

He is understanding, too, of the grasping rudeness he meets in Vietnam. What the reader sees in Andrew Pham is the emerging of the "global soul", so well described by Pico Iyer in his book of the same name. (The Global Soul, Knopf, 2000)

Catfish and Mandala is extremely well written, a pleasure to read. For his work, Pham won the 1999 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. I expected to be entertained, and was not disappointed. I did not expect to learn as much as I did about the life and emotions of "displaced persons". Highly recommended.

Have you given yet to help Somalia? Don't!

Have you been moved by the pictures of the starving children in famine-stricken Somalia? Have you sent your widow's mite to World Vision or Oxfam? Do you think your contribution is going to improve the lives of those poor (but somehow attractive) kids you see on TV? Before you reach for your credit card, think again.

Back in November 2009, in "Foreign aid: hurts us, hurts them", Walt talked about the bureaucratic mess that is USAID and its Canadian counterpart, CIDA. I've forgotten which impoverished hellhole was the "victim of the month" at that time. That was before Haiti, wasn't it? So perhaps it was Rwanda or Somalia, or some other African hellhole.

The same countries keep appearing in the Top Ten Aid Recipients. The droughts and famines recur again and again. And guilt-ridden white westerners -- the Volvo liberals, I call them -- keep raising money to throw at the problems of the Third World, money which is for the most part wasted, misappropriated or stolen by the corrupt and venal dictators and warlords who rule the world's poorest places.

Today's case in point is Somalia, where famine is officially widespread. The United Nations implores the rich countries to forget about their own problems and send billions of dollars to feed the hungry in the Horn of Africa. Just as we did about 20 years ago, the last time Somalia was the biggest basket case.

Michael Maren writes of his experiences in Somalia (and other sandpits) in The Road to Hell (The Free Press, 1997). The subtitle says it all: The ravaging effects of foreign aid and international charity. Here are a couple of pertinent paragraphs.

Aid distribution is just another big, private business that relies on government contracts. [Aid organizations] are paid by the U.S. government to give away surprlus food produced by subsidized U.S. farmers. The more food [they] give away, the more money they receive from the government to administer the handouts.

Food aid attracts people to refugee camps, where they die from dysentery or measles or other diseases they wouldn't have contracted in the bush. Is there really a food shortage when anyone with money can find all the food he wants, when the aid workers themselves enjoy meals that the locals could never get even in the best of times? And why does it always seem that a group of local elites finds a way to get rich from the disaster? Are we contributing to the problem by dealing with the businessmen-politicians who lease Land Cruisers and homes to the aid agencies and who provide trucks to transport food?

Maren goes on to make the connection between famine and dictatorship.

No country was ever transformed from being famine-prone to food self-sufficiency by international charity. As Harvard economist Amartya Sen has shown, famines always occur in authoritarian states, when the government mismanages the economy. Famines disappear when those countries become market-sufficient. India, for example -- the epitome of the famine-afflicted land when I was a child -- no longer suffers famines despite its huge populations.

And some targets of charity get worse. Today, after huge infusions of international aid, Somalia and all its formerly self-sufficient neighbors are chronically hungry and dependent on foreign food. It becomes increasingly difficult for aid workers to ignore the compelling correlation between massive international food aid and increasing vulnerability to famine. "Our charity does not overcome famine, and may help to prolong it", someone will always lament. Those who spend the time to study the local economies see that the people have now geared their own activities not to returning to their old lives but to getting their hands on aid.

The emphasis above is mine. Please keep in mind, dear reader, that Maren wrote those words in the mid-90s. Has anything changed in Somalia as the result of the billions of dollars of our money -- yours and mine -- poured down that rathole in the 15-20 years since the last "crisis"? Evidently not.