Azkedelia
02-14-2009, 02:33 AM
Jo'burg Murders - May 2008
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Xenophobic attacks that came to the attention of world press during May of 2008, had been taking place for a number of years country wide.
Much of the violence is driven by resentment. An estimated three million Zimbabweans have fled their homeland and entered South Africa in recent years. They, along with other migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Nigeria, are blamed by South Africans for pushing up unemployment rates and for a surge in street crime.
Women were raped, shops and homes looted and dozens of shacks burnt to the ground. Scores have been arrested.
"This is a war," said Lucas Zimila, a 60-year-old Mozambican man who was attacked by a machete-wielding mob while sleeping in his shack in Tembisa, north of Johannesburg, on Sunday night. "They screamed at me to get out, that I didn’t belong here. Then they burned everything in my house," said Zimila, who suffered a five-inch gash in his head. He said five people were killed in the community last weekend.
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki did his expected "HIV doesn't cause AIDS" and "There is no crisis in Zimbabwe" thing. According to Thabo's definition (http://news.iafrica.com/lighterside/185631.htm):
Citing "exhaustive research done on the internet last night", Mbeki explained that the word 'xenophobia' was wildly inaccurate and was leading to a misdiagnosis of the current violence.
"We need to be less eager to believe in this thing called xenophobia," he said. "Arachnophobia, yes. Spiders are horrible. But what is a xeno? There is no such thing."
However he added that the word was most commonly used in an African context. "This makes me wonder whether in fact 'xeno' isn't perhaps some sort of racist codeword for an African," he said. "I ask you. Just because there is an X in front of a word, does that make it automatically African?"
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8725/080519nipjburg212112150ww3.jpg
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7231/saimmigrantattacksp91uq6.jpg
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8388/suedafrikaapgrbm2.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2555/01020118779100zv1gc9.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1808/4mobap592ta9.jpg
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8571/johannesburg28718ans1.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8016/19safricaspan600es8.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2420/y171999823468002dk6cr3.jpg
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1696/townbym8.jpg
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5730/0135146150085ub1.jpg
Xenophobic attacks that came to the attention of world press during May of 2008, had been taking place for a number of years country wide.
Much of the violence is driven by resentment. An estimated three million Zimbabweans have fled their homeland and entered South Africa in recent years. They, along with other migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Nigeria, are blamed by South Africans for pushing up unemployment rates and for a surge in street crime.
Women were raped, shops and homes looted and dozens of shacks burnt to the ground. Scores have been arrested.
"This is a war," said Lucas Zimila, a 60-year-old Mozambican man who was attacked by a machete-wielding mob while sleeping in his shack in Tembisa, north of Johannesburg, on Sunday night. "They screamed at me to get out, that I didn’t belong here. Then they burned everything in my house," said Zimila, who suffered a five-inch gash in his head. He said five people were killed in the community last weekend.
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki did his expected "HIV doesn't cause AIDS" and "There is no crisis in Zimbabwe" thing. According to Thabo's definition (http://news.iafrica.com/lighterside/185631.htm):
Citing "exhaustive research done on the internet last night", Mbeki explained that the word 'xenophobia' was wildly inaccurate and was leading to a misdiagnosis of the current violence.
"We need to be less eager to believe in this thing called xenophobia," he said. "Arachnophobia, yes. Spiders are horrible. But what is a xeno? There is no such thing."
However he added that the word was most commonly used in an African context. "This makes me wonder whether in fact 'xeno' isn't perhaps some sort of racist codeword for an African," he said. "I ask you. Just because there is an X in front of a word, does that make it automatically African?"