UPDATED - "This is Africa!" - Air Zimbabwe down to one plane

Half a century ago, when new "nations" were being created out of European colonies in Asia and Africa -- "Ready or not, here they come!" -- one of the hallmarks of newfound independence was considered to be a national airline. Even the tiniest shithole had to have a national carrier, usually included in the post-independence deal with the mother country.

So it was with Zimbabwe, when the former Rhodesia was handed over by the perfidious British to the black terrorists led by Robert Mugabe in 1980. The slight difference was that Rhodesia already had a small but functional airline, Air Rhodesia, which had a fleet of about a dozen aircraft including a couple of Viscounts -- lovely old prop jobs -- and even a B707. Like most things run by the "white settler regime", it worked. And it was given, in working order, to Comrade Bob's Marxist government, who painted the planes with red, yellow, green and black stripes and dubbed the "new" airline Air Zimbabwe.

Thanks to the ignorance, incompetence and corruption which bedevil most state-owned enterprises in most African countries, the planes inherited from Air Rhodesia were allowed to fall apart long ago. They were replaced by a succession of other types: B737s, a BAe-146, three Chinese MA-40s, a couple of little Fokkers, and two B767s which, in Walt's daze in Zimbabwe, were the pride of the fleet. One was at the beck and call of Uncle Bob, so effectively out of service, but the rest of us were allowed to fly in the other one, occasionally. Here's a pic I took in 1993 at what used to be called Jan Smuts International Airport, in Johannesburg.

Today, that B767-200ER is the only plane Air Zimbabwe has left, and may be grounded tomorrow or the next day. NewsDay reports that one of its two engines caught fire during a flight from O.R. Tambo International Airport (the new name for "Janny Smuts") to Ha-ha-harare (the fun capital of Zimbabwe) on Sunday evening after developing a fault. According to a state released yesterday, "Air Zimbabwe wishes to inform the public that their Boeing 767-200ER servicing flight UM462 experienced a malfunction in one of its engines, which caused a 'brief' tailpipe fire."

The carrier said the malfunction did not threaten the continuation of the flight or the safety of the crew and passengers on board, and that the aircraft landed safely in Harare at 2035. Air Zimbabwe confirmed that their engineers have started investigations into the incident, but continued, "We regret to inform our valued passengers that this incident may result in a disruption of our normal schedule."

This came barely a day after the same plane was involved in a bird strike incident after take-off at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo. The plane, however, landed safely at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in the capital. In March, the struggling national airline said it was using the aircraft, the only one in service, for all its routes. Such is the reality of Zimbabwe today. Mother Africa Wins Again.

UPDATED ADDED 1/5/19 [MAYDAY! MAYDAY! LOL Ed.] - NewsDay reports today that "Beleaguered Air Zimbabwe has bought a new plane, an Embraer ERJ-145, bringing the number of planes owned by the company to two. Air Zimbabwe was put under construction [??? Ed.] in 2018 after it was diagnosed to be a failing parastatal. The new plane is branded Zimbabwe Airways which is the name of a failed airline that was fronted by former President Robert Mugabe's son-in-law, Simba Chikore." Right there, in the last two sentences, is everything you need to know about Zimbabwe and about how things work (or not) in Africa.

VIDEO LINK ADDED 19/6/19: "Air Zimbabwe - The World's Most Dangerous Airline?", the experience of a veteran traveller. Pretty much the way Walt remembers it, having flown in these same planes over 20 years ago.

Spain's right-wing Vox party makes major gains, enters Congress

In "Right-wing populism on the march: today Estonia, tomorrow ???" (WWW 3/3/19) Walt rejoiced at the rise in support for right-wing, populist parties throughout the length and breadth of Europe, not to mention the Excited States of America and even (gasp!) Canada. Where next, I asked?

The answer -- may I have the envelope please? -- is Spain! Yes, where parties of the right were thought to be discredited and defunct since the fall of Francisco Franco's Falange. Well, the Falange may have been pronounced dead, but its philosophy and policies -- against separatism and for a strong, unified country; opposition to immigration; limits on wimmin's right and "inclusion" -- continue to speak to the long-held and deep-seated wants and needs of increasing numbers of Spaniards.

Those are some of the principles which animate Spain's new(ish) Vox party, which some lefties denounce as "Falange 2.0". And the Spanish people are responding favourably. In "Populism marches on! Today, Spain! Where next?" (WWW 21/1/19), Walt applauded the success of Vox in elections to the Cortes (= parliament) of the province of Andalusia. And I quoted political scientist Eduard Güell who predicted that Vox would make similar gains at the national level. "All signs indicate that Vox has come to stay," he said. And he was right!

In a time when Spain is increasingly polarized -- it's not only the USA! -- its Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election, held yesterday, to determine the future direction of the country. The lamestream press is crowing that the Socialists won, but downplaying the fact that they were reduced to a minority in the Congress of Deputies -- 123 of 350 seats. At a victory rally last night, Sr Sánchez said, "The Socialist Party won, and we are now going to build the Spain (((George Soros))) wants." [Ed., please check that quote. My Spanish isn't very good. Walt]

Down "below the fold", the WaPo gets around to mentioning that some voters chose "Vox, a far-right faction founded on anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and anti-Catalan sentiment." In fact, WaPo acknowledges grudgingly, Vox won 24 seats to become the first far-right party to enter the Spanish parliament since the country's transition to democracy in the late 1970s!

In an op-ed piece for Deutsche Welle, Bernd Riegert calls the rise of Vox the real story of yesterday's election. He writes:

Voters longed for the return of the good old, supposedly stable and safe times. Supporters of Vox truly feel that the dictator Francisco Franco and the unscrupulous conquerors of Latin America were the ones who made Spain "great." Vox only won 10% of the vote in this election, but as has happened in other European countries such as Poland, Hungary, Italy and Austria, the right-wing swamp has the potential to grow and eventually become the nation's main political movement. This trend is nothing new, and Sunday's election served as proof that it has now caught on in Spain.

Herr Riegert's bias is showing! "Right-wing swamp" is rather Nazi, even for a German liberal believer in Merkelism. But his observation and conclusion is spot on! Which is what Walt told you in March. Today Spain, tomorrow??? Stay tuned!

Footnote: The liberals, including the government of Germany, which owns Deutsche Welle, are afraid -- very afraid -- of the resurrection of Franco's Falange, with its "illiberal" ideas. Ed. hasn't been able to get a link to the video embedded in the DW article, but I suggest you check it out -- a great example of the paranoia of the ruling elites.

VIDEO: South Africa's loss is Canada's gain - Susanna Heystek

Among the South African farmers who saw the handwriting on the wall back in the 1990s (see my earlier post, today) was the family of Susanna Heystek (great name for farmers!), who joined the "white flees" leaving for the Old Dominions, in this case Canada, where the challenges to farming are of a different nature (read: colour) than they are in Suid Afrika.

The Heysteks settled in Alberta (Canada's answer to Texas!), and Susanna began playing the violin at age five in her hometown of Rocky Mountain House. She went on to study violin in Red Deer and joined the Red Deer Youth and Community Orchestra, of which she was concert master. After graduating high school, she went on to study at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and joined the Artemis Trio. The trio competed at the provincial level in British Columbia and won first place in the Senior Chamber category. Last year, Susanna had the honour of being accepted into the National Art Centre Orchestra's apprenticeship program.

Susanna has developed into a fine classical violinist, and also plays the viola, but hasn't forgotten her country roots. Here she plays "Bowing the Strings", written by Canadian fiddler/composer, Ned Landry. This was recorded in Airdrie AB on 9 May 2015. Intercut are some nice pictures of the wildlife of the homeland of her Afrikaner ancestors, plus picture proof that this talented young lady can still handle the ropin' and ridin'.



Further reading and viewing: Click here to visit Susanna Heystek's website, where you'll find her bio, plus links to other music videos and lots of other good stuff. On the landing page is the link to my favourite of all the classical pieces Susanna has recorded, "The Last Rose of Summer".

South Africa "Freedom Day" -- not much to celebrate

Yesterday, black South Africans celebrated the 25th anniversary of "Freedom Day", the day in 1994 when they were allowed to cast ballots in the country's first "one person one vote" election. President Cyril Ramaphosa said, "On this day 25 years ago, we founded a new country defined by the principles of equality, unity, non-racialism and non-sexism. Despite the passage of time, we remember vividly...the exhilaration of seeing nearly 20 million South Africans of all races waiting patiently at polling stations around the country to cast their ballots."

Walt was there at the time -- based in Ha-ha-harare, the fun capital of Zimbabwe -- and remembers opening a book (read: started taking bets) on how long it would take for the most prosperous nation in Africa to regress to levels of poverty and inequality like those of Zimbabwe, the Congo, Sudan and other shithole states of the Dark Continent.

It didn't take that long. Today, widespread poverty and corruption mean that, 25 years after the end of apartheid, many South Africans are still not free. In yesterday's speech, President Ramaphosa praised the work of South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, but said that the country could not be free "when so many live without enough food, without proper shelter, without access to quality health care, without a means to earn a living."

South Africa's black majority were promised that once they were "empowered", they would have white cars, white houses and white women. Pictured above is what they got.

Yesterday, President Ramaphosa (who replaced Jacob Zuma, President No. 3, who was forced out over a string of corruption scandals and a penchant for polygamy) said, "As we celebrate 25 years of democracy, we need to focus all our attention and efforts on ensuring that all South Africans can equally experience the economic and social benefits of freedom."

The reality of post-apartheid South Africa is that any progress made to fulfill the promises made to the country's blacks has been undone in just five short years. Today, South Africa is one of the most consistently unequal countries in the world. More than half the population lives in poverty, while a staggering 27% of people are unemployed. And that's according to the government's statistics, which are believed to be wildly over-optimistic.

Since 2011, three million more South Africans have been pushed below the poverty line, according to a study by the national data agency, Statistics South Africa, released this week. More than 30.4 million South Africans (55.5% of the population) live on less than 992 rand (about $75) per person per month.

Those figures, collected in 2015, are actually more optimistic than numbers from 2006, when two-thirds of South Africans were living in poverty. But it captures the painful one-step-forward, two-steps-backwards dance the country has been engaged in over the last decade trying to improve the lives of its population. In 2006, 28.4% of the country was found to be living in extreme poverty. That number had only inched downwards to 25.2% by 2015.

Those numbers aren't likely to improve. In the last year alone, South Africa has entered recession and seen its sovereign debt rating adjusted to junk status, making life harder for everyone, especially the poor. The national power supplier, Eskom, is effectively bankrupt. With massive power outages threatened, those who can afford to are rushing to buy generators and storage batteries. The "povo" (= truly poor) are buying or making candles.

Because of the seizure of productive white farms (and the murder of the white farmers, detailed previously on WWW), millions of South Africans are now facing "food insecurity" -- shortages of food, hunger, even the prospect of starvation -- the crisis which now besets Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and other black-run states to the north. This in a country which was once a net exporter of foodstuffs.

The reality of post-apartheid South Africa is that the majority of its citizens live in grinding poverty. The full effect of the 2008 global financial crisis, initially hidden by the euphoria and capital injection of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, is now being felt. The country has also fallen victim to the sluggish growth seen by other commodities-driven economies, unable to improve on 3.3% growth in 2011, the highest GDP has peaked since the financial crisis.

The real problem, though, is South Africa’s inability to implement its own policies. In other words, the black government is incapable of managing the economy or the country. In 2012, the country launched a "National Development Plan" with much pomp and an explanatory animated video showing how much better life would be once they got organized. (18 years after the end of apartheid, they couldn't blame the whities any more.) But a lack of political will and simple competence have left the plan adrift. By almost all measures, South Africa is going to miss the goals -- reduction of poverty from 39% in 2009 to 0%, and the complete eliminate of hunger, by 2030 -- it set for itself in the plan.

Even the commission tasked with seeing the plan through is frustrated by the lack of government support to do so, despite having an office a few doors down from the president. The group's deputy commissioner told the meeja recently, "We have a plan, we like it very much, we take it to parliament, the whole world praises it... And we are the ones that don't implement it." Nothing more need be said. Mother Africa Wins Again.

NEW TUBA SKINNY VIDEO: "Won't You Be Kind to Me?"

Ed. again. While we wait for Walt's blood pressure to get somewhere near normal, it falls to me to find other stuff for this space. "Other stuff" includes topics other than politics, religion and -- sorry, Len --hockey. From time to time we like to share a bit of music, guaranteed to brighten you day. In January we introduced Tuba Skinny, a New Orleans traditional jazz band formed in 2009. The ensemble includes tuba, trombone, cornet, tenor banjo, guitar, vocals, washboard, and clarinet, and is inspired by the jazz and blues music of the 1920s and 1930s.

The band has performed on streets and stages around the world, including music festivals in Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain. They're all great musicians, but my favourite, the erstwhile leader of the band, is Shaye Cohen. The granddaughter of noted jazz musician Al Cohn, she plays (in addition to cornet) the fiddle, piano, accordion, banjo and spoons! The only thing I've never heard her do is sing.

Listen for Shaye's stage direction before and during this performance of "Won't You Be Kind to Me?", a Memphis Jug Band/Hattie Hart song from 1929. This video was recorded on April 14th at The French Quarter Festival, Jackson Square Stage. Thanks to James Sterling for putting it up on YouTube.

VIDEO: Reid Henrichs likens his dead rooster to socialists

Ed. here. A couple of Walt's agents (PBUT) have noticed that Walt has been MIA since the atrocious Islamic terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. He is not ill, just having difficulty finding words that won't get him arrested for "hate crime", Islamophobia, racism or all of the above. While he's recovering his faculties, I'll repost some interesting articles or videos, so faithful readers will have something new(ish) to read and watch.

We begin with "What My Dead Rooster and Socialists Have in Common", a Valor Ridge video featuring Reid Henrichs.

In this educational allegory, Mr Henrichs describes how an entitled, aggressive, and ungrateful rooster met his end. There are also many similar traits between farm life and real world socialists. The utopia they plan to bring about is far worse than the reality of luxury they live in. Socialism is the most corrupt, oppressive, and deadly ideology this planet has ever seen. The information in this video is for educational purposes, and serves to illustrate the wisdom of nature over the mischief of progressive do-gooders who actually do evil.



Out of the mouths of farmers and other "plain folks" oft comes wisdom.

ISIS claims responsibility for Sri Lanka massacre of over 300 Christians

Further to yesterday's "Suspicions confirmed" post... it will be recalled that following the Christchurch, New Zealand shoot-up of a couple of mosques, perpetrated by a "white nationalist", "racist" etc etc, there was a tsunami of white Christian guilt. World leaders condemned unequivocally the terrible act of Islamophobia, called for confiscation of the guns of everyone except "the authorities, etc etc. Mounds of flowers and teddy bears piled up in front of mosques around the world, and vigils were held everywhere. The Pope prayed for the victims. The prime minister of New Zealand and other worthies donned Islamic headscarves to show solidarity with the poor oppressed Muslims.

Sunday saw a much more horrific attack on Christian churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. The death toll has now reached 321 -- six times that of the New Zealand massacre. The response of world leaders was muted, by comparison, perhaps even "guarded", because, errr, there was the possibility that the killers of over 300 Christians -- not Muslims but Christians -- might turn out to be, errr, Muslims, hell-bent on revenge for the New Zealand atrocity. For that to be the case would be embarrassing for the liberal politicians and lamestream media who only see non-white followers of the Prophet as victims of white racism, Islamophobia, etc etc.

Unfortunately for those who insist that Islam is "The Religion of Peace", it has now been revealed, by no less a personage than the Sri Lankan Minister of Defence that the Easter attack on churches, hotels and other sites in the South Asian nation was "carried out in retaliation" for the shooting massacre at two New Zealand mosques. The minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, told Parliament the government possessed information that the series of bombings in and outside of Colombo that killed more than 300 people was carried out "by an Islamic fundamentalist group" in response to the Christchurch attacks. Which is pretty much what Walt said yesterday. Perhaps Mr Wijewardene is a reader of WWW.

Mr Wijewardene did not name the "Islamic fundamentalist group". If he doesn't read (or believe) Walt, he should at least check reports in The Guardian and other lamestream media that ISIS has claimed, through its AMAQ news agency, that the atrocities were the work of "fighters of the Islamic State". To wit:

Pictures are also circulating on the Internet -- notably on siteintelgroup.com -- purportedly showing the suspected suicide bombers, including purported National Thowfeek Jama'ath leader Moulvi Zahran Hashim pledging allegiance to ISIS.

These photos have not been published by AMAQ. Rather, it seems, they are being circulated by ISIS fanatics to encourage others.

Some of the lamestream media, and many apologists for Islamic extremism, persist in the fiction that "the motive for the bombings remains" unclear. The Sri Lankan government at least got that part right. The attacks, said Mr Wijewardene, were in retaliation for the killing of 50 Muslims last month at mosques in New Zealand. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" is something you might find in Judeo-Christian Scripture, but not, apparently, in the Holy Qu'ran.

I'm waiting for Theresa May, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Hellery Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Fauxcahontas -- hell, any of them -- to condemn the Islamic extremism which is the source of 99% of the world's troubles. But I'm not holding my breath. Are followers of the Prophet not told, "Kill the infidels wherever they may be found!" Just because you're Islamophobic doesn't mean the Muslims aren't out to get ya!